The Holy Night That Splits a Life in Two

[Music] well Merry Christmas once again it is good to be in the house of the Lord this is a House of Miracles we believe that God is alive and nothing is impossible with Jesus fact Jesus changes everything Marty good to see you at church after he had back surgery everybody so come on I don't know whatever stopped you from being a church but Marty we want to say thanks for being in the house of God today A House of Miracles we're believing for quick healing we're believing God's best you know God meets us right where we are God's come on your God's bigger and he's my God as well what a great place to be today man to be in the house of the Lord you know we sing this song Silent Night it's an old song It Was Written more than 200 years ago in Germany here this German writes this poetic song about this silent night

and this holy night it's an interesting line that for so many of us it's nostalgic it brings back memories we we know it by heart I'm I'm wondering in can we just sing the traditional verse in in English we're not going to tap into our German Roots here but I want us to sing Silent Night Together can we do that Paxton just give us the key of G for chord I don't know what I'm saying but I'm hoping since we don't have this amazing band up here y'all are going to help me can you do that let's sing Silent Night together here we go ready s oh you sound good [Music] all is calm all

is brown y ver mother and child ohy inant so tender and and all right here we go sleep in Heavenly [Music] peace sleep in heaven oh you all sound so good can you give yourselves a hand come on I'm just going to ask you a favor

could you just stay for the next three services because you sounded so good I don't know if I could do it without you we do have an amazing team here don't we could you give them a hand for their hard work you think about that line silent night holy night was it a silent night that day that Jesus was born probably not was it a Holy Night the day Jesus was born absolutely what's interesting about that line silent night holy night is that original author Joseph Moore when he put those words to pen as he as he writes these words he captured the moment from habach the prophet in habach chapter 2

verse 20 it says but the Lord is in his holy Temple let all the Earth keep silence before him the prophet is simply saying God who is Holy Holy holy which means set apart God who is completely perfect in every way perfect in power perfect in knowledge God who is eternal if God would dwell in a temple if you were to stand before this holy great glorious God you would stand in silence there would be a reverence to see God for who he actually is and so as the writer Joseph more pins those words silent night holy night to imagine that

God Almighty would become a man the one that created man would wrap himself in flesh and stand Among Us the holy of holies decided to pitch his tent as one of us that ought to create some awe some wonder some silence in our own Hearts I can imagine that day that Jesus was born some were stunned in silence seeing the holy of Hol come as a child see Jesus changes everything the day he was born he split history the day Jesus was born he split Humanity for those who believe in him who he actually is and those who do not and today I want to challenge you I want to propose a question in your heart do you have a day that you can look back and say my life was before

Christ and my life is after Christ because Jesus ought to change who you are just like he he changed history the world is no longer the same because of Jesus he's not just a good guy nor is he just a good teacher Jesus did not come to start a new religion Jesus came to change the world including you there are four books in the Bible that we call gospels you know what gospel means if so Shout It Out gospel is a good news now these four gospels are the story of Jesus life he is the good news you have Matthew Mark Luke and John all four tell about the life of Jesus in that fourth gospel the Gospel of John John was a disciple of Jesus a student who walked

with Jesus he talked with Jesus in fact I imagine there were moments where Jesus was silent and they stood there in awkwardness but John was right there in the middle of the action he witnessed the Miracles firsthand he was there at the powerful preaching of Jesus and so he writes about the account and the life of Jesus this Gospel of Jesus Through John and as he comes to the conclusion of this book after the the the crucifixion after the burial of Jesus in the Tomb after he rose from the grave on the third day John tells us he revealed himself to many he talks about this how Jesus can meet you right in the middle of your fear your anxiety the uncertainties of life and then he makes this statement near the end of chapter 20 he says in verse 30 now Jesus did

many other signs that word signs simply means a miracle something so great God has given you a sign to show you who he is now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book he would go on to say in the next chapter that if he was to record all that Jesus did the world could not hold all the books about Jesus I just I want you to use your imagination for a moment because John put this in here for a reason if you would read through the Book of John you'll see that Jesus is incredible he did so many signs and wonders and miracles I mean just think about this if Jesus turned water into wine what else could Jesus

do I mean think about this if Jesus could turn Five Loaves in two fish and and multiply that to feed the 5,000 what else could Jesus do if Jesus could touch the leper who sin was falling apart and make it new what else could Jesus do if Jesus could spit in the dirt and take the very DNA of God and mix it with the very dust that he made man out of and wipe it on the eyes of a blind man and make him wash it off and see what else could he do I mean if Jesus if he could walk on water what else could he do your mind can't can't imagine what Jesus is able to do and John said I didn't record them all even though he

did more but I did record just enough he says in verse 31 but these what I did write these are written that you just point to a stranger and say you come on you that you that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name the Bible was never written to be an academic book it's filled with 66 books to tell us the story of God that when you read this book you would not want to just understand God academically

but you would believe in Jesus the one whom God sent one God and three persons the the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit that by believing in Jesus your life is no longer the same oh you can study about Jesus you can know about Jesus you could read the Bible 12 hours a day you could have all the academic credentials behind your name that say you understand theology but you may know about Jesus but not be changed by Jesus it's not enough to know about Jesus even the devil does that you must believe in Jesus and what he's done for you Jesus was born not so that we would celebrate a holiday but that we would understand this was a holy day that God stepped into our story that by believing in him you are set free

from your sins he gives you Liberty he changes who you are but unless you immerse yourself in the story of God and understand who he is and what he's done for you it won't have a great meaning when you start to read this story and believe in who Jesus is you understand that from the beginning to end God had a plan Isaiah the prophet said 740 years before the birth of Jesus that God would send one we call that the Christ that means the anointed one of God the chosen one and he says of the chosen one the Christ he says surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we EST streamed him smitten uh stricken Smitten by God and afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities and upon him

was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed all we Isaiah says are like sheep that have gone astray we've turned everyone to his own way but the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all oh listen to the words of this prophet he says the one God would choose would not be recognized the light would step into the darkness yet the darkness would not worship the one that created the very beings right in front of him instead they would beat him instead they would crucify him oh Isaiah the prophet says that he was pierced he was hung on a

cross so that we would be healed by his wounds you better understand what the prophet is saying you do not need to Bear the birth burden of your sin any longer he would lay on him the iniquity of us all that word iniquity means your bad behavior anything you've ever done wrong if you were to enter into God's presence he's a holy God he cannot tolerate sin but because of his grace and his goodness he would send one his only son to take our sin the prophet speaks about this earlier in chapter 9 verse 6 when he says for to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called we just

sang these words say it with me wonderful counselor Mighty God Everlasting father and Prince of Peace that's who Jesus is now Luke tells us when the angel came to announce his birth in Chapter 2 ver 11 speaking to the Shepherds the social outcast isn't it good that God will reach all people the there really is hope for everyone the angel proclaimed For unto you was born this day in the city of David that's Bethlehem a savior who is Christ the lord Jesus did not come so that you would know who he is he came to be your savior the savior of your sins that's what Christmas is about we celebrate his birth but not that he's just a baby that he came he grew in wisdom and in stature

and favor with God and and man and it's in this place by believing in him he will save you from your sins Jesus changes everything that's why John says I wrote this book John 20:31 look at this again these things in this book are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name there is life in the name of Jesus Christ all of us have areas of our life that we need Jesus to resurrect we need Jesus to bring life it might be your emotions today it might be your heartache from the loss of a loved one it might be your health uncertainty it might be your

finances it might be a relationship all of us have areas of Our Lives that are simply dead that need some life Jesus did not come to leave you the same he will meet you right in the a area that you need him most and he wants to give you life today I want to look at one of those stories that was written that John put in this book so that you would believe in him it may be an unorthodox Christmas Eve story but I believe that John included this story so that you would believe in Jesus Matthew did not include this story nor did Mark or Luke but John did for a reason so that I believe every one of us would find ourselves in this story if you separate yourself from this story story you will miss the emotion of who Jesus is and

what he's done for you Jesus has given you everything you need that you would have the hope of eternal life that you would never live the same and that very thing that you think is going to ruin your life might be the very thing that Jesus will use to redeem your life the very thing that you think will bring upon shame in your life is the very opportunity for Jesus to give you his grace you think the very thing that the world would judge you if they just knew about this thing is the very thing that God will use so that you can relate to other people you know there are some broken Sinners right around you John writes a story and I want to read to you the whole story so that we would see ourselves in this story John chapter 8 now I want to start with verse two let's

go to verse two of John chapter 8 I would like to read all the way through verse 11 work with me here early in the morning he that's Jesus came again to the temple all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him teacher this woman has been caught in the act of adultery now in the law Moses commanded us to Stone such a woman so what do you say this they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him Jesus bent down and wrote with his

finger on the ground and as they continued to ask him he stood up and said to them let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her and once more he bent down and wrote on the ground but when they heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him Jesus stood up and said to Heroman where are they has no one condemned you she said no one Lord and Jesus said to her neither do I condemn

you go and from now on sin no more more we have here a story of Jesus just going about his business he's doing what he does best he reflects the father there's a great story in the Book of Luke Chapter 2 where Jesus at the age of 12 was traveling with his family they were on holiday if you will celebrating one of these Jewish festivals and as the family left they walked on for some two days not realizing they left 12-year-old Jesus behind when they went to find him they found 12-year-old Jesus in the temple his mother questioned him what are you

doing where have you been and Jesus simply said I'm In My Father's House Jesus knew what the temple was all about this place is all about him the holy of holies this is the place to meet with God this is the place to know that God will make it right with you because of his grace and because of his Mercy this is the place of sacrifice this is the place to get right with God and now Jesus in John chapter 8 is just going about his father's business you want to get to know God get to know Jesus here he is in this place and all of a sudden the the the religious storm in the scribes and the Pharisees they came in not to worship Jesus they came in not to sing about Jesus they came in with an

agenda they wanted the whole world to see someone that has done wrong they came not here to do what was righteous they came here to point out what was wrong in someone else oh it's so interesting when you're just going about your business and the Devil comes in to trap you to test you and don't you know he will use other people your battle is not against flesh and blood but when you think things are going okay when you think things are going well when you come to the place of worship I want to warn you that there might be a test there might be a trap the devil wants to deceive you the devil wants to detour you in fact Jesus warns

the devil wants to destroy your life and is here in the temple the place where you ought to meet with God that these religious okay I'm going to get relentlessly real at Journey Church These pretentious these Pretenders they come in to Jesus and they throw a woman before him who was caught in the act of adultery she was caught now here's the reality we've all been caught none of us have lived a perfect life you've been caught you've been caught speeding how many you've been caught speeding come on let's show some a lot of sinners in the house of God

today some of you have been caught cheating at school some of you have been caught lying to your loved ones oh some of you you've been caught sampling candy at the candy store that's not Costco we don't want your grimy hands on the candy we're going to buy there's no judgment in this house because we've all been caught nothing's worse than being caught your heart races your stomach is sick and all of a sudden you have a prayer life God if you get me out of this I'll never do it again now we don't know the prayer life of this woman that was caught in

adultery but we've all been there before we've all been in the place that we don't want to be this woman is exposed osed she's vulnerable the whole world knows exactly what's happened with this woman this woman is a picture of each and every one of us now here's what's interesting about this story to be caught in the act of adultery it takes two to tango but there's only one brought before Jesus oh we could read between the lines with this trap this was a test more than likely it was one of these religious men that abused their powers this woman woman went from kissing someone to potentially being killed this woman went from being in an intimate moment to be

being exploited by the very religious that should be protecting her now you have these religious that have picked up their rocks to put her to death and they proposed before Jesus the law says that we should put such a person to death what do you say if Jesus puts this woman to death then he is a harsh man but if he does not do it he's a weak man so whatever position that Jesus finds himself in it's a test it's a trap but I want to warn you you shouldn't test almighty God Jesus does the most unorthodox thing that one could imagine in fact you've got to know this about Jesus he is unpredictable he will show his mercy and a Grace that in a time that's least

expected he gets down in the dirt he gets down to her level he he meets her eye to eye I can imagine in that moment she could see compassion in his eyes she could see that he could see in her something she can't even see in herself and something reminiscent of what we read in Genesis chapter 1 God who created All Things by speaking them into existence decides to do something different with mankind he creat create all the creatures by just speaking it because he is Creator Elohim the god that can do absolutely anything but when it came to

man he made him from the dust Jesus the Creator gets back down into the very dust that he created man and he begins to write with this finger reminiscent of a story found in the Book of Daniel where God decides to make a message with just his finger on the wall that's what God's able to do we know not what he writes in the dirt but certainly our imaginations go there we can imagine that he's riding down the sins of every single person holding a rock starting with the eldest oh and the frustration of those religious there that day get up and grab your rock but Jesus did not come so he could pick up stones to put us to death for Jesus is

the savior of the world world oh the scriptures tell us there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ and as they try to force an answer from Jesus he makes this statement that so many times has been used and abused in our world he says let him who is without sin throw the first stone and then he does not engage in any type of arguments he goes back down into the dirt this time my imagination thinks he he goes to the young ones and he begins to write their sins maybe he was writing the very law that God gave not to hold us back not so that we would be a slave to the law but to set us free maybe he spoke forth the very laws that they've

broken we don't know but we do know there were thuds of rocks starting with the eldest going all the way back down to the youngest those who were willing to throw rocks left that day now I want to propose to you that for many of us every day we wake up with stones in our hands ready to throw we can say we've come such a long ways in 2,000 years we don't do such Antiquated things like put people to death for acts like this today oh we don't have you been to Twitter recently now called X you can watch politicians professors preachers take their stones in only 280 characters

and lob them at one another oh we try to say sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me there could not be anything more false because words will replay in your mind over and over what your father said to you what that bully said to you and so we have today maybe not the stones in the hand in in our modern civiliz ation but we certainly can make a real a short a Tik Tock video to tell the world how right we are and how wrong they are in their judgment and so we see in Scripture that whether we are the woman that is naked and vulnerable because we've been caught in the very act that we ought not be participating in or if we think we're better than other people because they're

doing something that I've never done before Jesus says can we just stop this right now in Matthew 56 and 7 Jesus just wants to warm warn of the Paradigm of his kingdom oh you've heard it said do not commit adultery you've heard it said do not murder but Jesus goes so far as to say God knows you if you've slept with someone that's not your spouse in your mind you've committed the act of adultery because God not doesn't just look at the outward appearance God looks straight at the heart you've hated someone you've wished they were dead in your mind Jesus says you too have murdered so we stand before Jesus every single one of us guilty and Jesus asked this woman a simple

question who's here to condemn you where are they and in verse 11 she said no one's here Lord the very person that could condemn her because he is the only one that has ever lived a life without sin says to her neither do I condemn you go the verb here is as you're going as you're living your life you can live differently now from now on sin No More Jesus did not come so that we would be religious Jesus came to give us the truth and if you have the truth Jesus said you are set free you are liberated from from what others say about you you are liberated from how other people look

at you you are liberated from the the things that were done to you or the things that you've done you are now set on the trajectory of the hope of Heaven because you believe in Jesus oh Jesus changes you doesn't matter if you're a drug dealer a drug addict it doesn't matter if you're the greatest gossip in this house you might just be a slanderer where it just sounds like you're religious but you talk bad about people behind their backs it does no matter who you are today Jesus wants to give you the greatest gift of all you see the Bible says in Romans 6:23 for the wages of sin is death without the Forgiveness of our sins we're separated from the lifegiver God himself but the free gift of God oh please note this today you don't have to

buy it you don't have to be good enough you don't have to be born in the right family the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord Hallelujah Ephesians 2:8 and9 says for by Grace you've been saved through faith oh oh this is not of your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast the greatest gift you can receive today is Jesus Christ not just to be the Lord of your life but your savior so that you would stand before him and you would recognize that before God I have no condemnation now if you really receive that gift of Grace you cannot you do not want to sin any longer sin will always stop you from life yet somehow some keep coming back

to it today I want to offer you Liberation Deliverance salvation that's found in Jesus and here's the great news of God you're never too young to follow Jesus and you're never too old there's no sin that he was not crucified for Jesus came to bear your sins on the cross he is the Christ so when we say Christmas we are proclaiming that Christ is alive we are celebrating it in our hearts that wherever whever I go Christ is with me for He Is Alive by believing in Jesus you receive the very person of God the Holy Spirit if you want this today I want to make sure that you receive the greatest gift of all that's found in Jesus it's yours the Bible does not say go get your life right first then believe in Jesus no the Bible says today is the day of salvation and I want

to give you that opportunity to be saved right now I want to invite the band up here as we get ready to to sing one last song but before before we do this is going to be a sacred moment just like that day that Jesus was born it was a silent night because it was a holy night I want to just take a moment and I want this to be a holy moment could you just in the seriousness of your heart could you close your eyes we do this at times to close our eyes just to focus on God Almighty I want you to focus on the greatness of who he is God knows everything about you God knows everything about every one of of us I want you in your heart right now to think about this God knows you he loves you and he wants to set you free from

your sin so in this moment just with eyes closed I'm going to ask that you would make a shift in your life that God would split your life from this day forward that you would be liberated and have life in Jesus and the only way to do that is to believe in him not be more religious but believe in him and when you believe in him you want to grow closer to him I'm going to ask you if that's you today would you raise your hand nice and high with all the eyes closed this is between you and God I want to see who it is praise God keep your hand up keep your hand up praise God praise God praise God praise God anyone else praise God praise God keep your hands up keep your hand up keep your hand up praise God praise God praise God praise God he knows everything about you and he still loves

you he wants to heal your heart he wants you to have hope today anyone else keep your hands up anyone else all over the place this is the greatest decision you will ever make it's greater than any gift you'll ever receive on Earth because this is an eternal gift it's a gift of eternal life praise God you can put your hands down keep your eyes closed we're going to pray together and as as we prepare to pray I want to tell you what prayer is it's it's communion with God it's talking to God it's getting honest with God but it's also listening to God you can pray anytime anywhere eyes open eyes closed you could Raise Your Voice you can sit in silence the Bible says God knows everything about you he he'll even

pray for you it's in this place I'm just going to pray a simple prayer and anyone that's ever given the life to Jesus let's do it with those doing it for the first time because this is a great decision would you just pray out loud these words Lord Jesus I believe in you I receive your life forgive me of my my sins today I follow you thank you for this gift in Jesus name amen amen amen can we celebrate what God has done today