Cornerstone Christian Center
Cornerstone Christian Center
Discover the Miracle | Christmas at Cornerstone 2024
Have you ever paused amidst the holiday rush to contemplate what Christmas truly means? Join us as we journey back to the simplicity and wonder of the nativity, inviting you to rediscover the profound arrival of Christ amidst the seasonal hustle. We share our personal experiences of embracing the warmth and spirit of Christmas, urging everyone to refocus on the essence of this cherished holiday. No matter where you find yourself—amidst snowflakes or palm trees—let's reconnect with the heart of this season and its deeper significance.
Reflecting on the journey of Joseph and Mary, we find ourselves drawing parallels to modern-day adventures. Through these reflections, we explore the responsibilities and imperfections that come with faith, encouraging you to lean into your own relationship with God. The narrative invites us to embrace our roles within our faith communities, such as Cornerstone, discovering the plans God has for each of us.
Lastly, we turn our attention to the shepherds—the often-overlooked figures in the Christmas story. As the first to hear the news of the Savior's birth, they remind us of God's ability to work through anyone, regardless of background. By drawing parallels between the shepherds and the good shepherd, Jesus, we highlight themes of guidance, protection, and divine purpose. The episode concludes with a call to embrace the miracle of Christmas and an invitation to the Mercy House Christmas event, encouraging everyone to reflect on their personal decision to follow Jesus and the significance of the cross as a symbol of forgiveness.
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Merry Christmas. You know, it's our heart that you would discover the real message, the real meaning, the real miracle of Christmas, and today we're focusing on that miracle that's come down to us. You know, as we look at the nativity, we do so with intentionality of heart. We know that for us, as Christ followers, that's the focus during the Christmas season. There's so much that can clamor for our attention, that could try to fight for all of our focus, and so often we have to be very intentional to refocus our hearts and minds towards what God has for us in this nativity scene, and each one of them having attributes that weave this narrative together, that tell the story of Christ's arrival. And so in doing so, our intentionality starts to birth something in our heart, because that message starts to shine through, and the message that we're taking is not just for us but is reflected to others around us. I know for me, man, we can get wrapped up in all the busyness of the season. If we're not careful, then we start living for those things instead of the real meaning of why we're celebrating Christmas. To start with, how about you? And I'll say this you know, one of the fun things is all the different celebratory pieces and you know, for us in North America, the northern parts of the world, you know Christmas is supposed to be like snowy and warm and snuggly, but for half of the planet it's in the middle of summer. You guys realize that. So we're in good connection with them. Those of us who are celebrating not a white Christmas, but we're celebrating something with palm trees. You know what I'm talking about and it's weird because for those, we have a lot of friends from up north where this is their reality, like they live this snow life and it's beautiful. If you've ever seen the snowfall, you guys probably have never seen it, being from Phoenix, but it's white, it comes from the sky, it's beautiful. You've seen it on video, right, it's nice. But it's beautiful as it's falling and everyone's like, oh, it's so nice. And then someone's like get outside and shovel and you're like no, no, you know the person that's singing I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, like I'm dreaming of a white. You're like get out of here with that. I want palm trees, I want balmy weather, I want to be able to take off this sweater that's too hot for and play basketball with my cousins. You guys know what I'm talking about. That's what we're doing for Christmas. So it's it's. I'm a different, I'm on the, I'm the electric warm side of Christmas. That's where I'm at, you guys with me Electric warm side of Christmas, but it's a good thing. Like you know, we can so often get wrapped up in these things and the, in the trying, the festivity side. It's a challenge for us, for you and I, that we would refocus our heart not even on these good things, like celebrating in this way with lights and festivities and warmth, but that we too would focus our hearts back to the real reason, which is to that manger scene where Christ's arrival becomes the focus of Christmas for us. Amen, if we haven't met, my name is Jay. We're so glad that you're with us today at Cornerstone. God bless you and welcome home. 're so glad that you're with us today at Cornerstone. God bless you and welcome home. We're glad that you're worshiping with us and it's a blessing to be able to come together as a community of faith and to be a part of what God is doing. We see ourselves very much as people who are imperfect. We are in need of a savior. None of us has arrived anywhere. All of us are still focused on following after Jesus, and that's why we use this imagery of Christ walking with his disciples because that's how we see ourselves is that we're walking where he's leading us to go, and until we see him face to face, then we need to be about his business. That means walking and following after him. It's our ambition to be more like Jesus. We want to love God and make disciples and reach the world, and we want to do so with intentionality. So that means that we need to be those that connect and grow and serve, and I want to challenge you that in this season, that you too would do those things, that when you lean in to your relationship with God, you would discover what God has for you. You would discover what God has for you. Now I'll tell you, as someone who irrationally moved countries with a pregnant wife twice, I have a heart for some of the characters inside the nativity. So, as you might imagine, paris is a beautiful place and we were there, moving to Paris, and Celeste was very pregnant with Shiloh. She was six months pregnant and we had a two-year-old little toddler who was running around, two-and-a-half-year-old little toddler, javin, who was full. He was very demure, he was very quiet, he was very no, no, he was trying to conquer everyone. He would stand on top of things like, ah, I'm here, we're like. You know, I think about him and trying to deal with a pregnant Mary and having to go somewhere. My heart goes out to him. You know what I'm talking about? Back to Paris, okay, so we're back into Paris and you think about Paris and you think about all the beauty of this. I had none of that in my mind, because all I thought about was get the pregnant wife safely to the other country, get the child not to conquer the country when we get there right, it's his namesake, it's Noah's grandson went to Europe. He's like I'm back to my country. Here we are. I'm like no, no, no, no, no. So we keep him wrestled, we keep the pregnant wife, still with child and not having a baby yet, on a plane and I have to wrestle the 20 boxes of our stuff that we're moving across to another continent and I'm like God in heaven, why are we doing this? And I think that's where Joseph picked up was that he had all of these things upon his heart and you know, once he has this dream, he kind of gets shoved out of the way a little bit in this story. But you know Joseph man, he had an important job. He's the step dad to the living God. He is the one who has to protect and guide and provide for Jesus and Mary and then, in the future, a family, and so all these things are his responsibility. It's his lineage that has to force them to go back to Bethlehem. And you know they're coming from a bustling city and they have to go back to his hometown. And it's not like he can just speed off and go there because he's got a pregnant wife and that takes time. How many people know what I'm talking about? And it's like well, do you have the thing? Okay, I'll go back in the house and get the thing. Do you have the other thing? Okay, I'll get the other thing. You get what I'm saying. And so by the time he got her on the donkey and the donkey started getting down the road, everybody was passing them by and getting on their way to Bethlehem. I can only imagine Joseph as he's leading the donkey slowly and people are just rolling by in carts. Grandmas with walkers are going faster. You guys know what I'm talking about. I'm like he's got to be like oh, dude, what I have to get there, I have to get there. And so he finally gets there, and it's not like he cannot go. I mean the Romans would be like, did you go? Oh, go. I mean the Romans would be like, did you go? Oh, then, chop off your head, you know like, so he had to go, he had to take Mary, they had to get there. And so, you know, she, man, he's got all this pressure, he's trying to make a way. And you can imagine, as he gets there and he's, he's, he's leading her to get there, all of his heart is like oh, man, I, I hope she doesn't have this baby while we're here. Meanwhile, dun, dun, dun, she has the baby while they're on the trip. You guys know what I mean. And so he's got to find a place for her and he's got to make a way. He is responsible and your heart goes out to him. You know, your heart goes out to him because, man, you can think about the pressure that he would feel and needing to be the one that provides all the perfect place. And, man, even as they get there, you can think about that situation. And it talks about how Mary, in her own right, she had been charged by the angel that she is going to be the one who births the Christ child. She is very much the mother that needs to look after Jesus, and what a weight for her to hold. And so she's pregnant with the son of God. She's holding onto her tummy anticipation of his arrival, all the while pondering these things. And so that's where we pick up in scripture. I'm gonna challenge you to open your Bible, your tablet, your phone, and we're gonna look together here in Luke 2. It says and Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. Continuing in verse six, it says and while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them. In the end, and we look at this picture of the nativity you know so often, it's glorified and beautiful. I'll tell you this, friends, that where Jesus was born had no stained glass window. Can we agree on that? In fact, you know it's unlikely. You know we see often our nativity. It's nice, it's very nice, and you know about how it's like kind of a kind of a little structure and that could be true, but it's more likely it was probably a nearby cave or something adjacent like that, and you know it wasn't the nicest place. We forget, because we don't have smell-o-vision what it would smell like where all the animals are and there was probably lots of bonus animals there, right, because everybody's traveling into town and so you can think about all that, an overpacked place. And you could imagine, as he's going into town and Joseph is trying to find a place, realizing that everybody who was from the lineage of David, probably some of them with some deeper pockets, got there. They probably got the nice room and he's trying to find a place and he's trying to go anywhere. He goes to the places that he's asking. He's asking and there's nobody. You can imagine even the innkeeper on their side. They are excited, baby. Finally the Romans did something for me. You know what I mean. They made everybody come back. We are full cha-ching, you know. And here he is, he books all the rooms, he's excited, and here comes a guy with a pregnant wife and he's like, oh really, come on, man, I don't have any room for you. And you could imagine his heart and like Joseph's like, hey, man, something, you got something. And he's trying to figure it out, maybe even compassionate to the situation. Maybe he's like, well, I mean, I got a place, but it's not what you wanna be in. Joseph's probably like whatever you got, I'll take it. At this point. You know my wife, man, she's about to pop and I need to figure this out. Right now we can't be out here on the street. And so they go and they clear out a spot in the midst of all these smelly animals and they lay down some hay and try to get her comfortable as she's about to birth the king of the world. And you can imagine the pressure and all that that would entail. And that you know it was those first situations. Nothing's perfect about it, except everything is perfect about it Because, see, they didn't realize that, you know, wasn't? Jesus wasn't supposed to be born in a palace, he wasn't supposed to arrive by chariot, he wasn't supposed to be led by centurion of guards, by the Romans, he wasn't supposed to have all this pomp and circumstance. He came in a humble way that we could understand. He fulfilled all of scripture, all of the foretelling of the prophets, all of the lineage, all of the things lined up for his perfect arrival to that very place. That's where he was supposed to be born, and not just that, but then, as a symbol of it to all of us, he's not born and laid into some kind of, you know, gilded place. No, he's laid into a feeding trough, a manger. He very much becomes the bread of life, the very thing that makes a way for all of us, the thing that, as he says later, he said, they said where did you find food? He says I have food you know not of. I have that which is of my father, that you would have no more hunger and no more thirst. That forever, friends, we will be connected with him for eternity. No more suffering, no more hurt, no more pain, no more brokenness, and in all these things he brings us all together. He becomes the fulfillment for all people, for all time, all the way down, in a way that we can receive it Later, even taking those sacraments that we see from the Passover and reordaining them to something different. This is my body, this is my blood which was shared for you. Take and remember, draw close to the sacrifice that I have for you. I came because I loved you this much. That's why I came. That you can receive it, that, friends, you can't do anything to earn it, but you can accept it. And as you accept Jesus and all that he came to do, as he's laid there before us, he becomes the miracle culminated of the world. The very thing that we could not earn was given to us so that we could be reconnected to a holy God. We can't earn our way in, we can't do enough good works, we can't give our way into it. No, instead, god himself makes a way for us. He runs to us through eternity and comes in the personhood of Jesus Christ, and Jesus himself comes in a way that's humble, laid before us all so that we can receive it. Friends, I'll tell you this my challenge to you is that you too would receive the miracle of God in this Christmas season. That you no longer would look for the next thing that would fulfill your heart and make it flutter. That you don't have to make the more money or you don't have to have the new sexcapades adventure. You don't have to have this other thing or that other substance or to get higher in this thing, but instead you find the living God which is the answer to all things for you. The miracle of God is available to you, as he is to all of us. You can imagine as Mary and Joseph they look upon the face of Jesus in his arrival and they're just marveling at what he would do for all of us, that he would be the answer for all mankind. So whenever we have the same intentionality and we come to Jesus in this way, with a humbleness, saying Jesus, I believe you are who you say you are. Lord, I ask you to forgive me of my sin. Lord, I want to commit my life to you. We start that relationship with him, we draw near to him, we connect to him and he becomes a sustaining factor in our lives through all things, good and bad, that we can navigate all these things, because he does not leave us. He's the bread of life, he's the light of the world, he is the Messiah, he is God with us. When we look at that nativity, we look intentionally not at just some characters and what a nice setting, but we look again and see that just some characters and what a nice setting. But we look again and see that God brought a miracle to us in a way that we could embrace it. Friends, my challenge to you is that you would embrace him and not let this moment pass you by. The story continues and it picks up here in scripture. It starts to talk about others that got to be a part of it. In Luke 2.8, it says in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. It's shepherds. That's who they go and announce to. They don't announce to the other people that are there in the city. They don't announce to the capital. They don't announce these things. No, they go to shepherds in a field Very much. Shepherds were kind of outcasts, right, they're kind of on the fringe of things. They're the ones taking care of the sheep. They're not doing the hustle and bustle in the trade in the city. They're not the important ones. They're the ones that you know they're out there. That's the very ones that God picks to be able to be the first ones to come and to worship the Christ child. It's interesting because that's the same story. It's the same idea that Jesus brings to us. He himself describes himself as the good shepherd, the one who does not run away but instead protects the sheep, the one who is not doing anything underhanded but instead stands and protects the sheep at his own cost. He's the one who is the door, who is the gate for us. He's the one who looks after us and protects us. He guides us, he directs us. It says he'll leave the 99 to go after you. Friends, it's the same one that we heard about all these weeks ago. With King David, as he was anointed by God, it started in his heart first that he already had a heart after God when he was looking at the stars and he was protecting the sheep and he was fighting the lion, he was fighting the bear. He had courage in his heart because God had set it there and he had aligned his heart with God even on a mountainside before he was. You could imagine all of these shepherds. It's another day and they had their eyes open. They're paying attention because this is whenever the predators would try to come and get the sheep, and they're looking out at the stars and they're shining and it's beautiful and they're taking it in and all of a sudden, this angelic being appears in the sky and you can imagine their shock and awe. And it picks up here in Scripture. It starts to describe it. It says in Luke 2, 9, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shound around them and they were filled with great fear. We talked about Gabriel as the announcer, as the one who is the head of these things. It's an important message. It's brought by the very important angel to be the message and it's brought to these shepherds and you can imagine that light that would emanate from the clouds as they're starting to share with them the reflection of the glory of God. And suddenly it says that all of these angels started to fill the sky. It wasn't just one, but it was that all of these angels started to fill the sky. It wasn't just one, but it was a host of angels, a whole host of angels that are declaring the wonders of God. It picks up and it says the angel said to them fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people, for unto you, born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ, the Lord, it says. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased. Wow, what a moment you could imagine being there with the shepherds and seeing and taking this all in. And you know one moment, they're there just protecting the sheep and suddenly the whole sky is alight with angels who are declaring the wonders of God, it says. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. They go to lowly Bethlehem. It's interesting because in scripture, even later, as Jesus is calling disciples to himself, they're like wait, what wait? What Bethlehem? Can anything come from Nazareth? What's Bethlehem? None of these things make any sense. It's not important. You ever felt like you weren't important. You ever felt like you weren't the important one. That maybe somebody else, maybe something else, maybe somebody that's important. They should be the one with the arrival. Maybe God wants to do something great out of someone else, but maybe not me. What if God wants to use you, no matter what your background is? What if God wants to use you and do something glorified in your life, so that other people would come and see what he's done inside your life, so that you could give glory back to him. You know, there's a reason we sang Bethlehem over and over and over today because it's a word, because it's a place, because God did something in its midst. What if that could be said about your life? What if they're talking about your story, about God wants to do in your life and you're like, you know them, man. What about a story that God has done in their life? And it's not for you and for your own glory, it's a reflection of his, so that when other people hear the story, when the shepherds get told, they come and they find out what's happening and they get to experience the love of God too, because they get to come and partake in the miracle. Friends that you and I, that both of us, even though we are lowly, even though we are lowly, even though we are humble, even though we don't matter in the scheme of things, guess what? Yes, you do to God because he knows your story, he knows exactly who you are, he's not shocked by your circumstances. He knows you intimately from before you were born and values you, and I'll tell you this that as we reflect the miracle of God, as we are the ones that embrace the miracle of God, as that we embrace Jesus and we can reflect what he's done in our life to other people, and they too can find the miracle that they've been looking for. Friends, my challenge to you is you discover what God wants to do in your life. My challenge to you is that you discover the miracle of Christmas. Each one of us, we have to make a decision to follow Jesus. None of us, none of us, can rely on someone else. Each one of us has to make that decision to come before God. And I'll tell you today that challenge is yours. I've been praying for you that you would make a decision to follow Jesus. Today, you know, for us, we each have to answer that question have you embraced Jesus? And for us, as Christ followers, we have done that very thing. We've asked Christ to come into our heart, into our lives, and that's why the symbol of the cross is so powerful, because the symbol of the cross is one of forgiveness. It's one where Jesus took all of my sin. He took all of my mistakes, he took all of my brokenness and he paid for it upon the cross. And the amazing thing is that he did it not just for me. He did it for you too. He did it for all of us. It's something we could not earn. We can't earn the grace of God. We can't earn the forgiveness of God. It's given to us that we would embrace it and say Jesus, I believe you are who you say you are Lord. I praise my faith and my trust in you. I ask you to forgive me. Come into my heart and life. I want you to be the Lord of my life. The Apostle Paul. He writes to the church at Rome. He says it like this Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified. With the mouth, one confesses and is saved. Friends, today is your day of salvation. Today is your day to respond to Jesus. I'm gonna ask everyone in the room if you're here, if you just stand right to your feet, if you bow your head, if you're online, you prepare your heart for what God wants to do. There are many of you that are here that are hearing about this message of God's love for them for the very first time. There are others that they've heard this message before, even embraced it, but they've walked away from living for God. Today's an opportunity to recommit your heart and life back to him as heads are bowed here in the room. If that's you and you wanna make a commitment to follow Jesus today, ask him into your heart and life, maybe for the very first time, maybe recommitting your heart to God as heads are bowed. If you just raise your hand right where you're at and say, pastor, that's me, include me in that prayer today, that I would be included in making a decision to follow God. See hands that are raised. Others making a commitment. Thank you God. Thank you Lord. See you God. Thank you Lord. See those hands. See those hands. Other friends online making a decision to follow Jesus. Today I'm going to ask everyone to repeat this prayer after me out loud Lord, thank you for loving me, thank you for sending Jesus. I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe he rose again. Forgive me of my sins. I surrender my life to you. In Christ's name, I pray Amen, amen. Friends, we rejoice in you making a decision to follow Jesus today, those that raised your hand today, friends online. We encourage you in this, as several raised their hands today that you would go and you would connect with us. Go back to our prayer banners and next steps and let us put something into your hands so that you could be successful in living for Jesus. And you can do that here at the cafe or friends. If you're online, message us so that we can connect with you. We do want we do not want you to live this life alone. We are called to be a community of faith. Today, as Christ followers, we have that same challenge, that charge to embrace the miracle of Jesus, to not be caught up by all of the other things, but to refocus our heart after him, as we do, so that we would be a reflection of the glory of God and that other people will. But to refocus our heart after him and as we do so, that we would be a reflection of the glory of God and that other people will get to hear about his message of redemption and salvation for them as well. Lord, we thank you so much, lord. We pray over your word today, lord, thanking you, lord, for the example that you gave to us. Lord, we thank you for Joseph and for Mary and their hearts of obedience. Lord, we thank you, lord, that they were willing to take on such a difficult challenge, lord, so that you could come to this earth in a way that we can receive. Lord, in a way that we can understand. And, lord, you have such meaning to it, lord, that you would be the bread of life for all people, that you would be the salvation Lord, that you would be the new wine Lord for us, the new revelation Lord, that it's in you that we find our truth and our hope and it's in you that we find salvation alone. Lord, we come to you with hearts today, lord, and we come to your altar today, lord, asking for your empowerment. Holy Spirit, we ask you to empower us, lord, as we seek you and seek your face. Lord, we ask for your hands, we ask for direction, we ask for our families and we ask for healing. In the name of Jesus Christ, lord, we come to this altar, lord, asking for more of you, lord, that we would encounter you and we would reflect the glory of God. We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. God bless you today.
Speaker 2:We are so grateful that you joined us. I want to let you know that this coming saturday, it is the mercy house christmas event. You are not going to want to miss it. Um, if you'd like to participate, we need the help. So if you go on the app, if you go on the website or call the office, we'll give you information. You can sign up. You're going to want to be there. It is one of the most amazing days that we have in the year is just to pour into the community and to give back and to just see a kid get a gift is just so precious. So if you would like to be a part, we can definitely use you. It'll be early in the morning, it'll go till about noon and I'd love to see you there.
Speaker 1:Also just have some upcoming things, including next Sunday at 9 and 11 for our family service. Our kids will be in with us, lots of family parts of our service. It'll be a great time. And then we have two Christmassy service. We have one on the 23rd and one on the 24th. It's the same service. You could pick either one from six to seven. We're going to be doing communion and candlelight. Let me encourage you to bring your family with you. Celebrate the Lord at that time. Celebrate the Lord at that time, amen. Let's pray this blessing over us before we go. The Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Lord, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord, I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. Would you empower us by your spirit to live your love out to those around us. We pray this in the powerful name that is Jesus Christ. Amen, amen. Know this. We love you very much here at Cornerstone. God bless you and Merry Christmas.