Cornerstone Christian Center

Gift of Love | Advent 2025

• Jason Brown

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The search for the “perfect gift” can be frantic and funny—we even share a Turbo Man moment—but beneath the wrapping is a longing for something that doesn’t break or get boxed up. We journey from a packed day of service to a manger where love takes human form and resets what matters most.

We trace the nativity like a tapestry: Mary’s costly yes, Joseph’s steady protection, shepherds welcomed from the margins, and magi crossing borders under a guiding star. Along the way we unpack the meaning behind gold, frankincense, and myrrh: a king worth honoring, a priest who bridges the gap, and a Savior whose love will pay the price. Even the practical side matters—provision for a family fleeing Herod’s violence—showing that real love is both tender and tough. If presents delight for a moment, presence transforms a life.

From there we get practical. We talk about pre-deciding to walk with Jesus in the new year, joining community, and blessing our households in prayer. We name three anchors to carry forward: the King has come, the High Priest forgives, and the Messiah makes a way. If you’ve been measuring the season by lists and sales, consider a different measure: the courage to forgive, the humility to ask for help, the joy of serving together, and the steady practice of love at home. Join us for a warm, story-rich hour that blends Scripture, humor, and hope—and leave with clear next steps for your faith and family.

If this encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs some Christmas hope, and leave a quick review so more people can find it. Merry Christmas, and may love lead your way this week.

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Jason Brown:

Merry Christmas. Today we're talking about this idea and continuing in that theme of the gift of love with this idea of the best gift ever. And when I say that, most of us can think of something that's first to mind as the best gift you've ever received. And maybe it's something that was the most expensive or most grand thing that you ever just received. Or maybe it wasn't that at all. It was more sentimental, or maybe it was the person that gave it to you that meant it was so special. Or maybe it was something that you didn't expect and it became a surprise, and that's why it was the best gift. But I would say in all those things that we could give or even receive, that either's something even better, and that's the person of Jesus Christ. And for us at Christmas, that's been the focus for us as we look at that manger scene and we see each one of them illuminated as they make their mark on that tapestry of the story being woven together of what it means to be those who are coming and seeking out Jesus. Now, yesterday we got to put our actions uh into effect, and that was in serving at the Mercy House. And I want to say thank you to every single one of our team that served at the Mercy House. We have to give them a hand of appreciation. All of those that came and served, all those that went ahead at time and gave toys and those that that came and set up and did tables and chairs and all the different pieces. We had neighborhood community members and people that help us from the Legion Riders to the car clubs. We had people like the Mavericks Foundation and the Rotary Clubs. They all came together, Littleton Elementary in the city of Avondale and different ones, each representative coming and being a part of helping. And I think the number was over 400 kids that got a present at Christmas because of you. So thank you so much for giving to the Lord. Thank you for your generosity. And thank you for being selfless so that other kids can have an amazing Christmas. I'll tell you it made a big difference because, as we talked about before, over 200 families also got groceries and necessities that they needed at that time. And that's another thing to say thank you for all your generosity and what God has done in and through your life. I put this on my story. My friend Dave responded. He was saying it's all worth this smile that you see on this kid's face when he got a skateboard for the first time. And it's so awesome. And as we start to think about Christmas, so many times, especially as parents, we get wrapped up in the idea of gift because we have to get the right gift or trying to find a gift that someone would like for our kids. And it reminded me of this movie that came out a few years ago called Jingle All the Way. And in this movie, um, our good friend Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was going and searching for this present for his son. And his son wanted this specific doll. At that day, it was super popular and no one could get one. So everybody was scrambling for it. And the story kind of takes place between him and a character played by Sinbad, who's also been working all these different hours to the very end. And they have this one last moment to try and fight and get a Turbo Man. I could tell you, friends, I have a Turbo Man. I defeated Sinbad. I have one. Um, and I'll tell you, it's pretty special. I mean, whenever you look, look at this. Look at the glory. It's amazing. You could see Turbo Man, you could see how he would fly and fight the bad guys. He also speaks Spanish, so huge win, gigantic win. And in truth, this is what everybody wants to put their hands on is the amazing gift that they could give to someone at Christmas and be like, this is the one you wanted. And everybody's like, yes, let's go, Turbo Man. We had lots of these donated, and all the kids bypassed right past these things because they don't know the story. But you know who was pumped about it? Every single dad that was there. We are now a turbo man gang, and we are representing all the west side, which is pretty awesome. And I'll tell you the reason that all the dads loved it because they've seen the story, and as a dad, you want to get the best gift for your kid. And so they're fighting and fighting, fighting to try to get a turboman. And I can tell you that once you had your hands on it, it didn't even matter if you had a place in your house for it or not, or on a shelf or not, you're not taking away my turboman. You guys get it? And in truth, the turboman is good, but it's not about presents at Christmas. And we know this because how many times, especially when our kids were little, did our kids play more with the bag that it came in or the box it came in than the actual presents that we bought them? And so we started to realize this some years ago, and we started to change how we did what we were doing and being people that were focused more on what the season was about, not the materialistic side, but very much on the other side of the focus of it being on Jesus. And because of that, we're motivated to give gifts and to do things together, but it's not about the material things. It's not about checking off some list somewhere. Instead, it's about living the character of God to each other. It's so that we can belong together. It's all those things we've been talking about, the hope of God, the peace of God, the joy of the Lord. And how today we talk about the gift of love that He is to us. First Corinthians talks about love in a different way. And though all those things we've been focused on, it gives us a little bit of a heightened sense. It says, now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love. See, friends, when we talk about the greatest of these is love, it's a focus for our hearts. Understanding that we're called to be the love of God. We're called to be those that live the love of God out to other people. And because they can encounter us and we are the love of God, it's that very best gift ever that is Jesus. He is the gift of love. And as we embrace him, it will change everything for us because we get to be a part of the story of Christmas. Hey, we're glad that we have a chance to be a part of this Christmas season together. Merry Christmas. My name is Jay. We haven't had a chance to meet. And Celeste and I, we get to lead here at Cornerstone an amazing team of people that are loving God and what it means to follow after him. We use this imagery of walking with Jesus because it's how we see ourselves, is that we have not arrived in any way, and very much we are on a journey following where Christ is leading us to go. It's our ambition that we would be more like Jesus. And so that's what we do is that in and out, week to week. We meet throughout the week, throughout the city and life groups, and we have a new semester of that happening in January. And so we want to encourage you to get it to pre-decide to be a part of what God wants to do in your life, to be those that connect and grow and serve the Lord. Together, we love God, we make disciples, and we reach the world. And in doing so, we get to be an extension of his love to the world and live that here in our own sphere of influence in the region beyond us and even worldwide, person to person, as they get to encounter the living God. And that's the very story we've been focused on is this nativity story with each one of these people. As we start to look at them and unveils the story beyond us, we're centered on who Christ is, is the baby that came to us in a way we can understand. At the same time, taking into account each and every one of those stories that are tied together and focusing on this theme of the gift of love, something comes alive in our hearts because we realize that it is the ultimate gift for us all. It's to truly feel loved by our Creator. And that is the story of Christmas coming to its culmination. We talked about a few weeks ago about that very story about each and every person and how they're woven together into this narrative. And in doing so, we looked at Mary and Joseph, each one of them encountering the messenger angel, challenging Mary to be the very vessel of God, to be the mother of the Christ child, the mother of the Messiah. And that complicated her whole life as she was about to get married to Joseph and she was found not with child. It looked like she had cheated on him, of course. And so Joseph looked to put her away. And in doing so, he encountered the messenger who said, No, this thing that Mary has encountered is from the Lord, and she has been faithful to you. No one has known her sexually. She is someone who is there for you. And so they came together and he was able to go and be the protector, the provider for Jesus and for Mary. That meant they had to go and get counted back at where his family comes from in the lineage of David, that was Bethlehem, the house of bread. And Jesus would become the bread of life for all people. There, they didn't find room in any of the guest rooms and ended up in what they said was a stable for animals, most likely a hollowed-out cave adjacent to where they were living. And so, there, amongst all of the smells of the barnyard animals, there they laid Jesus in a feeding trough, that he would be that very sustenance of the bread of life for all people. And as she looked upon the face of Jesus, just like we heard last week from Barry sharing such a wonderful uh music number with us, she looked upon the very face of God. And there was something powerful about that moment that they realized that there's this amazing narrative that they get to be a part of. In the same way, they got to hear that these angels they came, they came and started rejoicing and declaring that Christ had been born. And they did that to shepherds who would otherwise be marginalized and outside of the community. But there, now they are the first ones to hear about it. And so they come and they worship the Christ child. And the indicator that started guiding everyone there was this star in the sky, a light directing the way, very much leading towards Jesus. This is the light that came alive in this night sky that these wise men or magi started to follow. They started to research and see what it was about and understand that this was the Messiah's star. So they took everything they had as being of the ruling class and those who were who had great study and great wisdom. They took all they had and they started coming towards him in this huge entourage and train, as you can imagine, from a far-off distant country. And in doing so, they came with presents to give to this Christ child to worship him. And all of these different narratives, all of these stories are woven together. And we can understand and we can connect to each of them and how our story might mirror theirs, how we might be connected into those very understandings that they lived, that we also can connect our hearts and say, Lord, I can see how you did that through their life. I can see how you can do it in mine. Today we look again at this gift of love and see what God says to us. Now, looking to the Nativity story, we started to see how these characters, they were so important. And part of that was those magi we talked about. The magi were someone who it doesn't give us a totally clear picture, though there are some pieces of tradition that illuminate it for us, but it picks up in our Bible, our tablet, our phone today in Matthew 2. So if you have it, I'd encourage you to move there and highlight this so you can read it with your family later this week. It says, Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. This is an amazing thing because now King Herod, who was put in power by the Romans, he's the one who's ruling over Jerusalem. So they don't go directly to Bethlehem, which is just a little town outside of nowhere. They go to the city of power. They go to Jerusalem where the king is set up and they come expecting the king to have a new son. After all, he would be the king of the Jews, the one who take over for Herod, who would be his father. So whenever they show up and this entourage of these wise men and everything they have shows up and come into his court, Herod is beside himself in fear because he doesn't have a son to offer them. In fact, he's a little shocked that these guys have shown up. And so he starts to understand like, in order to keep my power, I have to do away with this promised child. It's Herod who puts out a decree to go and to wipe out every child under two. And he does so to sustain his own power. It's the reason why later Jesus and their family would flee to Egypt for safety, is because they needed to flee what was happening at that time with Herod. But the wise men didn't know that, and so they direct on to go find the Christ child. And in doing so, it says that they followed the star, and the star led them directly towards where he was. In Matthew 2, 10, it says, They saw the star, they rejoice exceedingly with great joy. We just talked about that last week, about how the joy of the Lord is our strength, and how they were now motivated to go on this last bit, having traveled from afar to find the Christ child. It picks up in verse 11, it says, And going to the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. We could see how each one of these were such a valuable present to be given to the Christ. And so now that story of just where it was just Mary and Jesus and Joseph, now the shepherds are there and they connected to that story. And now we see how the magi come into the picture. And looking at the nativity again, you see how it starts to get filled out with those who are on the low and the outcast, those who are on the very top and the highest education. All of them, every person from every single story, come together to worship Jesus. He is and has become the gift of love for all of us, for all people, for all time. You can imagine as they give those gifts that they're kneeling down to give them to baby Jesus, and in doing so, they're giving something of value. The first gift they give is gold. Gold signifies a gift for a king. It's what we would give to a king if you came into his court. You would want to give something that was of the status of a king. So they gave gold to the king. And Jesus is very much that the king of kings, the lord of lords, the one who paves the streets of heaven with gold. So he's above all these things. They give this gold. Little did they know they would need this gold to go and escape and head to Egypt and to set up life there. Frankinces is given as a second gift, and it's done. It's a it's something that would be used by the priest, something for anointing, something to set them apart, as we saw back in Exodus and back in Genesis with Aaron and those who were set apart as unto God. And being those who would be those who are a mouthpiece for God is making worship and making penance for the people and making them in right standing, being those who actually sacrificed the animals that would take the place of the sin of people. And so this frankincense, it's actually a gift for Jesus as his priestly role. The third is myrrh, and myrrh is given as a marker for the messiah. Myrrh was used in many different ways, but one of the things primarily was for burial. And it's something to give good sent, and it was worth a lot of money dictating and talking about how he would be the Messiah for all people. He would be the one to give up his life for mankind. And so as they looked upon him and as they gathered around this Christ child, each one of them giving a gift, you could imagine what it would have looked like with these three wise men giving their gifts and worshiping him, each one of them giving the gift and saying, Jesus, I have bringing you gold, Jesus, I have bringing you frankincense, I have bringing you myrrh, and in bringing these different gifts, they did so from their heart because what they were giving was so much less than what they were receiving. What they were receiving was the answer for all of us for all time. They were receiving the gift of love. One last takeaway as we come into uh come into this altar time today. Three takeaways from the idea of the gift of love. The first is this that the king has come. That's the first takeaway for us today is that the king has come. Jesus is here. He's very much, he's someone who can you can have a relationship with. It's the reason he came to earth, is that he would become this sacrifice and that he is arrived. And so he is someone that you can have a personal relationship with today. Let me encourage you that you would make that decision to invite him into your heart and life. The second takeaway for us today is the idea that the gift of love is that Jesus is the high priest that forgives us. He's the only one that can because he is God. And because he is, he can forgive us of our sins. Friends, it's not something that we can earn our way out of. We can't buy our way out of it. There's nothing that we can do that will leverage or twist God's arm to give us what we ask for, which is freedom and forgiveness. Instead, he comes all the way to us, and it's by his grace that we get to receive the gift of love that he gives to us. He operates as the high priest, making sacrifice for all people that they would know the love of the Father. The third takeaway today is that the gift of love is that the Messiah makes a way. But he didn't leave us alone, but he sent Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us. That we would be those that live in the way of the Messiah, live in the way of the Christ with the character of Jesus, making decisions as he leads us where to go. The Messiah makes a way. And so we should be those that are called as we look at this nativity, we are called to be those that take the gift of love and we share it with those around us. That we explain the story that Jesus allows us to be a part of. That narrative of all those woven together, we get to be a part of that story too. And we can take the love of God to those around us. That our message would be something of life change as we tell someone, Merry Merry Christmas. Today we have this opportunity to respond to his love, and in doing so, each one of us has to answer that question of have you embraced Jesus? For us, the symbol of the cross is one of freedom and forgiveness, as we talked about. Jesus came as a baby, but he lived a sinless life and walked and taught and did all these things on our behalf. And at the end of his time, he actually takes our place for the sin that we've committed. For my mistakes, for my sin, for yours, for your brokenness that you would be made whole. And he he gave his life upon the cross, and it was a brutal thing that we remember the great cost of it for us. And it's because of his sacrifice for us that we're made in right standing, he became the holy gift of God, the only one who could take on the weight and the sin of the world. The apostle Paul, he writes to the church at Rome and says 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. But with the heart one believes and is justified, with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Friends, today is your day. It's your opportunity to invite Christ into your heart and life. We've already had people today make that decision to make Jesus their Lord. I would encourage you to do the same. To your feet and bow your head right where you're at as Christians are praying. Friends online, wherever you are, take a moment and stop for what God wants to do in and through your life. In just a few moments, we're gonna have an opportunity to come to the altar and to pray with our families. But first, we want to give this opportunity for those that want to make a commitment to Jesus today. You got to hear the story. The story of the lamb who thought that they were down and out, but they had a real purpose and a plan in their story. You got to hear the redemption that we shared about Jesus coming to earth and about the gifts that were given today. Friend, the best gift that you could ever receive is the love of Christ that you invite him into your heart and life. As heads are bowed and Christians are praying, if that's you and you'd be here in the room and say, Pastor, that's me. I want to give my life to Christ today. Maybe for the very first time, or maybe you have made that decision in the past, but you need to recommit your life to Christ and to live for him. That's you, if you'd raise your hand right where you're at today and just indicate that that's you. You want to make a decision to follow Jesus today. Thank you, Jesus. See the hands that are here and others that are there. Thank you, Lord, as people are raising their hand, making a commitment to God. We see your hands that are raised. Praise the Lord. Others, friends, wherever you are, as you're making a commitment to God, we're praying with you today. I'm gonna ask if everyone would pray this prayer out loud after me. 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, make a decision to follow Jesus today. Those that raise their hand, others online, we rejoice with you. Hey, take a moment, take a snapshot of the QR code that's available to you. We want to put resources into your hand that you can live for Jesus. Today, as we come to this altar, we're gonna be singing the song The Blessing. And so my challenge to every single family is that you would come up as a family and you would pray a blessing prayer upon your family as you worship the Lord. That in this season, it wouldn't be just for this Christmas season, but even as we head into 2026 and this next year, that you would open up your hearts to what God has for you and for your family. If you're here and you don't have a family with you, you can join together with others and be a part of what God wants to do. And I would encourage even those in the balcony to come down and be a part of what God wants to do here at this altar. And we'll open this altar that everyone would come and pray that prayer blessing. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word today. Thank you, Lord, for every element. Lord, from the readings that we heard, from the story that we heard, from your scripture which comes alive. Lord, we're so thankful for that. Lord, as we come to this altar, we do so with an intentionality that our families would live for you. Lord, that we would know your presence. And Lord, we would know the blessing of God being poured out upon us. We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Celeste Brown:

So we are going to end our family service today by giving you sugar. So as you head out, we have hot chocolate, we have cookies. We want you to enjoy the week and just have a lot of fun and Merry Christmas.

Jason Brown:

That's our Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve Eve. So the 23rd and 24th from 6 to 7. It's the exact same service. So you can bring friends to them and make it fit into your schedule where you can come and for that one hour be a part of community, be a part of uh communion time together, be a part of a candlelighting service. It's going to be a blessing. Add it to your your uh your opportunities for this Christmas season and bring some friends with you. Before we go, I want to praise blessing over us. The Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Or lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord, I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. Lord, you would empower us by your Spirit to live your love out to those around us. Pray all 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.