WEBVTT 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:06.959 Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:08.160 My name is Clayton. 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:10.240 I'm the pastor here at MetaChurch. 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:18.000 And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you. 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:20.559 I hope that you enjoy today's message. 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:43.520 The stars are brightly shining. 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:50.719 It is the night of our dear Savior. 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:03.439 And in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:07.920 This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:11.680 So everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:22.079 Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David. 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:27.599 He was to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:32.159 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:43.599 And then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them. 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:46.879 Oh holy night. 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:55.359 The night that changed everything, the night that heaven came to earth, that creator came down to creation. 00:01:56.799 --> 00:01:57.920 I love Christmas. 00:01:58.079 --> 00:01:59.280 I love everything about it. 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:01.760 I love the lights, the food, the time with family. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:04.079 I obviously love the meaning. 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:10.560 But when it comes to Christmas music, to be completely honest, I'm known as a bit of a Grinch. 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:15.039 I don't like that we start playing Christmas music in July now. 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.240 I don't like that it's all you can find on the radio. 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:24.000 I don't like that we get into church services and it takes the place of all my favorite worship songs. 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:25.840 I know, I'm like a bad person. 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:28.080 I don't love Christmas music. 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:30.319 But there are a few exceptions. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:35.840 And at the top of that list has always been Oh Holy Night. 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:43.680 The song is so pure, it's so rich, there's so much truth in every single line. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:52.639 You may not know this, but the song is a paraphrase and a translation from an old French poem called Midnight Christians. 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:54.879 And here's what I want to do today. 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:56.960 I want to slow down. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:00.240 I want to let every line speak for itself. 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:08.080 I want to dissect the truth and see what this song has to teach us on a Christmas like none other. 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:10.960 On Christmas 2020. 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:24.879 Long lay the world in sin, in error. 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:31.360 And then there's this very interesting word in sin and error pining. 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:33.279 This is like an old school word. 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:35.839 We don't really use this anymore. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:38.800 But it's a deep word. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:45.120 It's the word that a heartbroken lover would have used maybe 40 or 50 years ago. 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:50.160 It's a word that entails deep longing and desperation. 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:56.399 The world, all of creation, is pining. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:59.759 It's longing, begging to be made new. 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.480 It goes all the way back to the beginning. 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:13.759 In Genesis chapter 3, the first time that man separated themselves from God through sin, it says, The ground is cursed because of you. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:18.319 You'll eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:23.360 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you'll eat the plants of the field. 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:28.480 You'll eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:34.319 For you are dust, and you will return to dust. 00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:41.279 Even in the Christian scriptures, we see how this curse of sin has gripped the world. 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:48.000 Paul says that we know the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:52.399 The whole of creation is pining, it's desperate. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:56.399 And then he says, two miraculous words. 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:01.519 Until now, long lay the world. 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:17.839 From the very beginning of humanity, long lay the world in sin and in error, groaning desperate, until now, until he appeared, and the soul felt its worth. 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:36.639 Of course, it's been such an odd year, and we've gone through so many things, but perhaps the oddest conversation for me in 2020 has been turning on the news and listening to people actually ask, what is a life worth? 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:40.240 How much does a soul cost? 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:43.600 There are some who have answers. 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:45.680 This is what an actuary does. 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:47.439 They put a price to your life. 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:57.120 Your insurance companies are going to assess your rate based on how they value you and how you're living, your health and your potential. 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:04.240 This year during the pandemic, maybe you've wondered what is my life worth? 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:07.519 How much does my soul cost? 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:16.720 And for so many of us, we equate it to the things we can see, we equate it to our relationship, we equate it to our status, to our influence. 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:22.720 You think that you are worth as much money as you happen to have in the bank at any given time. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:31.839 Maybe so many people have spoken negativity into your life that you're not sure if your soul is worth much. 00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:39.680 See, Christmas, we think about Jesus coming, but he didn't come to live, he came to die. 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:44.879 John 3 16 says, God loved the world in this way. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:58.959 Jesus came to show you exactly how much you are worth. 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:00.800 You are worth his life. 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:11.600 You are worth perfection stepping down into brokenness to live in perfection, but take your brokenness and nail it to a cross. 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:18.879 It is only in Jesus that the soul fully finds and feels its worth. 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:25.360 On that holy night, you found out just how much your life costs. 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:00.480 Oh night. 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:16.559 I love the turn that the song takes. 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:21.679 The verse, it set the stage for what happened on that holy night. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:28.639 The savior was born, the world stuck in sin and darkness now had a savior. 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:38.000 The world, weary and battered down by our own selfish ways, now has a reason to truly rejoice. 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:40.240 A new day is dawning. 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:48.639 BC in that moment is turning to A D when the child who came split all of history into two. 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:51.840 And then the turn. 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:19.600 Scripture records one of the earliest Christian hymns. 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:31.679 It was written to the Philippians, it says that at the name of Jesus, every knee, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:40.399 And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:45.600 Fall on your knees, hear the angels' voices. 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:49.279 I wonder if you could put yourself there. 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:53.440 I wonder if you could just attempt to be in this moment. 00:11:53.919 --> 00:12:00.320 Attempt to try to understand the gravity of it, to understand exactly what was happening. 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:11.200 This was the night that our God, once and for all, differentiated himself from all of the impostors, all of the false gods who say, You work your way to me. 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:20.879 No, on this holy night, our God came down to us the night that Christ was born. 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:28.720 And as we move into the next verse of O Holy Night, a verse not a lot of people are familiar with. 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:32.879 It meets us exactly where we are in 2020. 00:12:45.519 --> 00:13:03.840 Truly he taught us to love one another, his lost love, and his gospel is peace. 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:14.000 Has our world ever felt more divided than it does right now? 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:23.840 Christmas 2020, can you remember a time in your life that things have felt so full of tension and animosity? 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:31.919 Christ showed up in a world that divided everyone along every line, race, class, gender. 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:36.399 If there was a way to segment and separate you, it was done. 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:42.639 There was no justice, there was no love for someone who is different than you. 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:52.480 And Jesus steps onto the pages of history and teaches something that is foreign to anything the world has ever heard. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:14:04.080 In Mark's gospel, it says one of the scribes approached, and when he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, Which command is the most important of all? 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:11.759 And Jesus answered, The most important is listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:18.960 Here it is, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:23.519 And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:28.399 There is no command greater than these. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.159 Truly, he taught us to love one another. 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:37.519 What Jesus did in this moment was blasphemy. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:45.440 He equated loving God with loving people, he set them at the same level of expectation. 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:53.440 The Jewish audience he was talking to knew that nothing comes anywhere in the same universe as the importance of loving God. 00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:57.279 But Jesus teaches a new way. 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:09.360 His law is love, that we love God and we love people, and more specifically, we love God by how we love the people around us, all people. 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:24.320 This is the starting place for eroding and erasing all of the divisions that have held humanity back from embracing and loving each other, living in equality and justice. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:26.960 This is what Jesus did. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:35.759 He loved, and he showed his love to the Heavenly Father by coming down and loving all of us broken children. 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:42.159 The night before Jesus died, he said to his disciples, I give you a new command. 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:44.559 Love one another. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:48.960 Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. 00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:54.000 And it is by this that everyone will know that you are my disciples. 00:15:54.320 --> 00:16:00.000 If you love one another, the new law of love. 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:12.879 People will not know you belong to Jesus by your church attendance, by how loud you sing the songs, how many scripture verses you memorize, by how pious you are, by how nice your suit is pressed. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:26.320 People will see something uniquely different in you by the way you love God and show that love by radically, unapologetically, unconditionally loving the people around us. 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:43.519 We think about Christmas as the sweet little baby in the manger, but what he came to show us is that love is close, love is messy, love is real life, love shows up, and no matter how divided the world is, love conquers all. 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:52.320 And it's this new law of love that has had the most stunning results across the span of history. 00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:42.000 Shall he break for the slave is brother, and in his name all a prison shall see. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:58.240 As I mentioned briefly, this song was originally written based off of a French poem. 00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:07.519 What this great French author did is he allowed the Gospel of Luke to guide his telling of the Christmas story. 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:12.000 In the original poem, you would literally translate these lines. 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:16.160 He sees a brother where there was only a slave. 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:20.640 Love unites those that iron had chain. 00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:30.319 We sing, chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease. 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:37.440 Same idea, but it got a little more specific when it was translated and paraphrased into English. 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:40.480 John Sullivan did this in the 1800s. 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:45.279 And John Sullivan was a staunch abolitionist. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:57.519 He spent his life pursuing God, loving God by loving people, specifically the slaves who were being held right here in the United States. 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:05.759 This song rose to fame not only as a Christmas song, but also as an abolitionist hymn. 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:11.119 A song with a specific purpose for a specific time in the world. 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:19.680 The song ultimately grew to its height of fame and popularity during the Civil War. 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:31.440 As an entire half of our population fought to free those who they saw not as slaves, but as brothers. 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:34.799 Chains shall he break. 00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:57.920 The hope of justice, the hope of equality, the hope for the world that we desire to exist in is ultimately only found in the one who came, who instituted a new law of love, who saw all as worthy, so worthy that he was willing to give his life for them. 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:00.559 The slave is our brother. 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:08.000 In 2020, we are wrestling through some serious tension around race, class, gender. 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:10.640 We're desperate for equality. 00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:12.880 Here's what it comes down to. 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:20.319 Our world is desperate to experience what the kingdom of God will someday be like. 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:24.240 And while we want the kingdom, we've rejected the king. 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:31.519 We want healing for our creation, but as a nation, we have rejected the creator. 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:41.440 The worldview that tells us that we are actually equal, that our soul is worth the same. 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:45.200 It is all worth the life of our Savior. 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:48.880 These ideas start with Scripture. 00:20:52.319 --> 00:21:02.640 One of my favorite verses says, There is now no Jew or Greek, no slave or free, male and female, since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:05.359 Chains shall he break. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:14.400 And on Christmas, we lift our voices as one to celebrate the one who breaks every chain. 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:57.519 For the slave is in his name all apprentice of joy in great for God's race we let all. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:40.000 In us, praise his holy name, Christ is the Lord or praise his name formore proclaim. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:52.079 Christ is the Lord. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:23:04.319 One of the greatest moments in scripture happens when Jesus looks at the disciples who've been following him for three years and says, Do you guys even know who I am? 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:09.200 And Matthew 16, Jesus said to them, Who do you say that I am? 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:19.279 And Simon Peter, of all people, the guy who gets everything wrong, he stands up and he says, You are the Christ. 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:25.680 You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. 00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:31.759 Maybe you haven't made up your mind yet on who Jesus is. 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:34.240 Maybe you're still wrestling with it. 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:37.119 Perhaps you are a bit skeptical. 00:23:38.400 --> 00:23:39.359 Don't feel bad. 00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:46.640 If you're at Christmas 2020 and you don't yet know the answer who Jesus is to you, don't feel bad. 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:51.359 The disciples were actually with the man for three years. 00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:54.000 They saw firsthand his miracles. 00:23:54.160 --> 00:23:56.400 They heard firsthand his teaching. 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:04.480 And many of them did not believe until after he had died and risen again. 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:12.799 However, the answer to this question, who is Jesus? 00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:20.960 This is the most important question that you have to answer during your time on earth. 00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:25.839 This is a question that you get this temporary life to wrestle through. 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:30.400 And where you land has eternal consequence. 00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:46.960 This Christmas, as you're wrapping gifts or attending family dinners, every time you pass a nativity or you hear an a holy night, wrestle, wrestle with it, wrestle this question to the ground. 00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:49.759 Who is Jesus? 00:24:50.960 --> 00:25:03.599 Christ the Lord, the one who came to give us worth, the one who came to bring healing to a broken world, the one who sees us as equal and breaks every chain. 00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:07.039 Christ is the Lord. 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:26.559 If it's just a fairy tale, if he's just a great teacher, then I promise 2021 is just as hopeless as 2020 has already felt. 00:25:56.319 --> 00:26:12.799 Truly He taught us to love one another, his law, his love, and his gospel is peace. 00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:51.599 For the slave is our and in his name all apprentice and shall peace count joy in praying for course raised me let all with us praises all the name. 00:28:56.240 --> 00:29:17.039 And we thank you for one holy, divine night, for a night where heaven came and touched this earth, where a savior came to reverse the curse that our sin has plagued this world with. 00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:32.000 We thank you that through your power you break the chains. 00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:38.720 God, the physical chains of slavery, the spiritual chains of sin. 00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:41.839 We thank you. 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:53.200 I pray that we would take time this Christmas to fall on our knees, to stand in awe and wonder of what you did. 00:29:54.240 --> 00:30:00.799 On one night, so divine, the night that Christ was born. 00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:04.319 We love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name. 00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:05.279 Amen. 00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:16.720 We want to thank those of you who have joined us for this service today. 00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:27.519 We're so proud of you guys continuing to stream with us, to find ways to serve, to serve your families, to serve your God, to serve the city. 00:30:27.839 --> 00:30:30.799 We hope that you have such an incredible Christmas. 00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:43.119 If this message is something that you feel like could touch the heart of someone you know, someone you love, someone you dislike, someone that you work with, we ask that you hit that share button, maybe even tag their name on there. 00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:46.799 Let's spread some hope, spread some truth this Christmas. 00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:50.240 As always, we ask you to follow us online on social media. 00:30:50.480 --> 00:30:55.839 And we also only have a couple weeks left to get whatever contributions you're gonna make to this movement in. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:58.559 We ask you every week to help fund what God is doing here. 00:30:58.720 --> 00:30:59.920 I've tried to make it really easy. 00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:05.680 You can give online at metachurch.tv or you can give by downloading the MetaCurch app. 00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:10.640 We are a nonprofit, and so anything you give is tax deductible. 00:31:10.720 --> 00:31:15.359 I promise you want to give it here more than you want to give it to the government. 00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:19.279 Let's help end 2020 strong at MetaCurch. 00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:21.039 Everyone doing their part. 00:31:21.279 --> 00:31:25.359 We love you guys so much, and we hope that you have a very Merry Christmas. 00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:32.079 Thank you so much for listening to the message today. 00:31:32.400 --> 00:31:37.440 If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast. 00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:40.559 You can rate and review or share it with your friends. 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:47.599 If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv. 00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:50.000 There you can learn how to take next steps. 00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:53.759 You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit. 00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:57.920 And you can also give financially to help push this movement forward. 00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:01.279 And I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.