He Is Here: The Greatest Gift of Christmas
From the moment we’re born, we’re all asking the same question: Am I alone?
Think about it. A newborn enters the world and everything they’ve ever known changes in an instant. The heartbeat they felt since existence began is gone. The warm, safe place is replaced by cold exposure. They cry because they feel alone for the first time.
Daron shares the story of his son Cole’s birth 19 years ago. When Cole came out screaming and crying, Daron walked over to the warming bed. He didn’t know what to do. He just laid his hand on Cole’s chest and said, “Hey, Coley. This is dad, I’m here.” Cole stopped crying. He knew someone was with him.
We’re all hardwired with this need for “withness” – the need to be close to or connected with someone. It’s in our DNA as humans created in God’s image. We need to be seen. We need to be known. We need to be affirmed. We need to be blessed. That’s what makes us human.
When shame keeps us hiding
Here’s the problem. Life is hard. You rack up shame. The things you’ve done or thought about doing. The words you’ve said or wanted to say. The mistakes you wish you could erase.
Shame tells you you’re not worthy of connection. So you hide. You create a persona. You construct your whole life so no one really knows you.
The story of the Samaritan woman at the well captures this perfectly. She came to draw water at noon in the scorching heat. Why? Because she didn’t want to be seen. All the other women came together before sunrise. But she came alone when no one else would be there.
Jesus had to go through Samaria. Not because it was the quickest route. Jews took miles of detours to avoid Samaritans. Jesus went because there was a woman there who needed to be seen. And when she arrived at the well, he was waiting. “Will you give me a drink?”
Her defenses shot up immediately. A Jewish man talking to a Samaritan woman? Breaking all the rules. And then Jesus did what terrified her most. He knew her. Five husbands. Living with a man who wasn’t her husband. Everything she tried to hide, he saw.
She looked at Jesus with tears streaming down her face and said, “You picked the wrong person.” And Jesus looked back with love and said, “I know you’re rejected by others, but not by me.”
The invitation that changes everything
Jesus told her she was the first person on earth he revealed himself to as the Messiah. Not kings. Not religious leaders. Not people with perfect lives. A woman with a complicated past who felt unworthy of connection.
She ran back to her village with the most surprising message: “I met a man who told me everything I ever did. Come and see.”
That’s the real message of Christmas. Emmanuel. God with us. Not baby Jesus in a manger who stays safe and small. Grown-up Jesus who sees you, knows you, and loves you anyway. Who came all the way from heaven to earth because he had to see you.
He’s here. Every day since that first Christmas morning, he’s been here. The question isn’t whether he’s here. The question is: Is he here in your life?
You don’t have to have it all together. You don’t have to stop doing all the bad stuff first. You don’t have to fix yourself before you come. It’s a free gift called grace. Jesus paid it all.
He wants to live inside you so you never live another day without his withness. So you’re never alone again. So shame doesn’t win. So you can be fully seen, fully known, and unconditionally loved.
That’s Christmas. He is here.
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Episode Summary:
What if the God who created the universe knows everything about you and still chooses to show up? Daron Earlewine launches the Season of Sermons with a powerful Christmas message about Emmanuel, God with us. This is the first episode in a special holiday series featuring powerful sermons Daron has preached over the past couple of years. These messages are designed to encourage you, awaken you, and equip you to become who you were born to be this Christmas season and beyond.
Key Takeaways:
- The deeper meaning of Christmas beyond baby Jesus
- Why Jesus intentionally went through Samaria to see one woman
- The four foundational needs every human has
- How shame keeps us from experiencing true connection
- Why the Samaritan woman’s story changes everything
- What withness really means and why we all need it
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Links to the Daron Earlewine Podcast
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Daron: What’s up podcast community, Darren Earlewine here with you and we have got a treat for you. It is the holiday season of sermons coming your way. We’ve put together a group of sermons I’ve given over the past couple of years and chopped them up, got them all produced, looking pretty, sounding great, ready for you to enjoy them and hopefully it stokes some Christmas cheer for you.
And I had a big day today. Want to share this with you. Has nothing to do with this intro that’s supposed to be short and to the point. But I was at this holiday show at the fairgrounds here in Indianapolis. And my favorite Christmas movie of all time is It’s a Wonderful Life. And there’s so many reasons for that. I’ll defend it to the day I die. It’s one of the greatest holiday movies ever, Christmas movies. Anyway, Zuzu from the movie, the little kid, right, that was sick and then her petals of her plant fell off her flower, then George Bailey had to keep petals in his pocket. And he’s like, Zuzu’s petals. You know that part of the movie. Anyway, I got to meet Zuzu.
She was selling these bells that say, every time a bell rings, an angel gets her wings, bought a bell. She autographed it personally to me. And so I met Zuzu today. How about that for a holiday season of Christmas joy? So there’s a cool story to start off this podcast episode. I hope you enjoy these sermons. I hope they encourage you. I hope they awaken you. I hope they equip you to become who you were born to be. And so this season and every holiday season after that, I hope that all the content we put out here on the Daring Earlewine Podcast continues to inspire you and awaken you to become who God’s created you to be. And remember that you were created on purpose, for a purpose. You have a God who is so near you’re not far, and He’s for you, not against you. So hope you enjoy these holiday season of sermons and appreciate you downloading this episode of the Daring Earlewine Podcast. Created on purpose and for purpose.
So we waited for like almost a year with a lot of expectation, a lot of nerves. Waiting a year for something is kind of a lot and I had never been on this journey ever before. So there’s a lot of that kind of first time nerves and all the thoughts and what’s gonna happen, what’s gonna change. Like when they arrive, like will life ever be the same and will I ever want it to be the same? And then the day shows up. And it’s like a regular day, but then you realize like today is like arrival day, like they’re showing up, like, and you’re not ready for that.
This is 19 years ago, the day that my oldest son Cole arrived on earth. And if you’ve had a kid before, well, you were born, but you don’t remember it. But it was crazy. And we were in the hospital, right? And like, it’s like, they’re like, hey, this is gonna happen. And we’re there and the whole thing. And Julie’s doing all the stuff you’re supposed to do when you’re having a baby. And it was one of those moments, just speaking to the men for a moment ladies, guys, just you and me. I know we want to feel like we’re important and we wanna feel like we’re helpful, like we make a difference. And then there’s that moment where your wife is having your child and you realize I could not be any more useless than I am in this moment, right? You’re trying to be empathetic, say things, not say the wrong things. You’re not sure where to look, what to do. You’re just like, I don’t know what’s happening, right?
And so we were there and it was kind of freaky because Cole’s heart started decelerating and then Julie’s heart is accelerating and they put like oxygen mask on her. She didn’t know how to talk with the oxygen mask on or off. So it was this whole thing. She’d be like, hey ho, hey ho, ho. It was freaky, it was crazy and then all of sudden he shows up.
And I’m gonna admit something to you and I tell you these things, I feel like we could trust each other, I feel like we’re on that level, okay? And I feel like I need to tell you certain things just so you can know that you can relate to a person who maybe after I tell you this, you’re gonna say, I was kind of suspect that he was a bad person, now I know, okay? So that’s why I say these things so that if you feel like a bad person, you know we’re on the same page. So Cole comes out and his ear, it was like weird. It was like smashed down weird. It kind of looked like sloth from Goonies. You guys remember sloth? Hey you guys, right? And at this moment I had to pray because I was like, Lord Jesus, as I said, my firstborn son, he’s gonna go through his life looking like sloth, Lord. So we were just gonna have to, if you could pray and heal that ear, because I don’t know how he’s gonna get a girlfriend with this thing happening ever, Lord. And so, good thing it popped back out. It was just messed up there for a minute and it was fine. He has regular ears.
He starts screaming and crying. They take him, they put him over in the little warming bed thing, right? And he’s really mad. And I know why. It’s like you think about it. It’s like everything he had ever known since the moment he came into existence had just changed. Right, like this heartbeat that he had heard and felt with him from the moment of his existence was gone. And he was out of this nice, warm, safe place and just exposed to the world. And probably for the first time, he didn’t know how to say it because he was a second old, but he had to feel kind of alone.
So I go over to the little warming thing and I don’t know what to do. This is rookie year for me. I just had this sense that maybe he just needs to know like, hey, I’m here, right? Like I’m with you. And so I remember I went over and I just laid my hand on his little chest. And I said, hey, hey, Colie. This is dad, I’m here. And he stopped crying. It was this amazing moment. The first time that I was like, just like he knew I was with him.
And I think for all of us, really from that moment on, from our first day to every day we’ve been alive, I think we’re asking the same question. I think we’re looking for that same need to be met. We need to know that we’re not alone. That someone is with us. And I’ve come to find out personally that that’s the greatest thing about Christmas. This message that He is here, every day. He is Emmanuel, God with us.
I was talking to Ken this week and talking about this sermon and he was trying to get creative and he’s Canadian so it was tough but he pushed through. He tried to come up with some kind of hockey illustration. I was like, Ken, we don’t do hockey, it’s America. And so I’m just kidding, Ken’s super creative but he is Canadian. Anyway, he says, hey, Darren, I came up with a word this week. I was like, I bet you didn’t. He said, no, I did. I came up with a word. It’s gonna be perfect for this Sunday for the sermon. He says, the word is withness. No one’s ever heard of it before. It’s hot, the fresh, I just made it up, withness. So we open the dictionary and see if Ken, you know, broke new ground, come up with a word, didn’t, it’s in the dictionary already, all right? Buzzkill, it’s in there. It’s still a great word, withness. It’s a noun, the fact of being close to or connected with something or someone.
Hardwired within your soul, within the DNA of what it means for you to be human is the need for withness, to be connected with something or someone. The interesting thing is I believe that you were created in the image of God and here’s a mind blowing reality. God within himself is a relationship. You can think about that one all the way through 2024. It’ll work out for you. Right? Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three in one, the Trinity. It’s a mystery, but it’s hardwired into who we are. We are created in His image as a relationship. So from our fabric of our bones, from who we are as humans is we need to feel this withness.
That’s what Christmas does. That’s what we’re gonna talk about this morning. So glad you guys are here. My name’s Darren Earlewine. I get to be one of the teaching pastors here at Mercy Road Northeast. And man, we’re so, so glad that you’ve joined us. It means a lot to us. And we say this a lot and we mean it. We know coming into a church, it’s not just like an easy thing and trying to, you know, maybe go on like a spiritual journey of your life. It can be freaky, it can be nerving, it’s not easy. And so the fact that you’re here means a lot to us. We’ve been praying for you. Maybe you didn’t know it. We’re praying for you to be here today. And for us here at Mercy Road, the fact that you’re sitting in the chair that you are right now for us is, it’s not an accident. We’re not trying to freak you out, but we actually think that the God who created and sustains the whole universe and makes it all work, we believe that he’s actually been at work in your life, having you have conversations with people. Maybe you’ve heard songs, maybe you’ve watched movies, maybe you’ve just had a sense that actually brought you to be in this seat right now today. And I actually believe you’re here because there’s a God that loves you, that sees you, that knows you, that affirms of you, that wants to bless you, and he brought you here today to tell you that.
Jesus, thank you so much for Christmas. Thank you for everything that’s wrapped up in it and the truth that it is. And God, we are a people who need to know that you’re here. And so I ask that you would make that clear today as we dig into the word and talk together. We love you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Matthew chapter one, verses 18 through 23. This is how the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.
Christmas is the message of God becoming Emmanuel, God with us, that the word became flesh and came and dwelt among us. And that’s good news, but here’s one thing that I think is a challenge sometimes. The challenge sometimes is I feel like that we’re really comfortable with like baby Jesus. Am I right? Like, I mean, we all love Christmas. In fact, this week in New York City, right? I think like every day, we found this out. My wife and I went to New York a couple weeks ago. We found out like every night at around midnight, all of the jumbotrons in Times Square are all synchronized and they do this like art exhibit thing. So if you’re ever in New York, go to Times Square at like 11:58, you’ll see this. This week, one of the days was the actual Christmas story of baby Jesus coming down, joy to the world, the whole thing. It’s never been in Times Square before it was this week. So even in Times Square, we’re pretty comfortable with baby Jesus.
Like, I talk to a lot of people that have lot of opinions about God, but you bring up baby Jesus, no one’s like, can’t stand him, right? Everybody’s like, it’s pretty cool, it’s Christmas, no big deal. Problem is, life is hard. Your life is difficult. There’s a lot of stuff you’re going through. And you may be asking yourself, what the heck does baby Jesus, how is that gonna help my mass at all? Right? When’s the last time someone gave you a baby and it made your life better? Okay? Like you were really stressed out and they’re like, when I watch my baby for the day, you’d be like, thank you for making things unbelievably worse in my life.
So like we have this idea like I’m pretty cool if Jesus is a baby, but I don’t know if I’m okay with Jesus being like an adult, a full grown, like adult God. I think there’s no more of a moment that makes this true, you know, in American cinematic world than the poignant and life transforming scene in Talladega Nights, which maybe probably a very lewd, maybe irreverent movie, but this scene I think nails it right on the head where they’re sitting down for dinner and Ricky Bobby starts saying, dear tiny infant Jesus. And his wife stops and she says, sweetie, you know Jesus grew up, right? You don’t always have to call him baby, right? It’s a bit odd and off putting to pray to a baby. Ricky says, hey, well look, I like Christmas Jesus best when I’m saying grace. Right, when you say grace, you can say it after growing up Jesus, teenage Jesus, bearded Jesus, whoever you want.
And then the grandpa pops up, right? He says, he was a man. He had a beard. Undeterred, Ricky goes right on back in. Dear tiny Jesus and your golden fleece diapers and your tiny little fat balled up fists. Somebody else says something, Ricky pipes back up. Look, I like baby Jesus best, okay, do you hear me? I win the races, I make the money. I’ll say grace how I want to. Then he ends it. Dear eight pounds, six ounce newborn infant Jesus. Don’t even know a word yet, just a little infant, so cuddly but still unimpotent. Thank you for all of your power and your grace, dear baby God, amen.
We like baby Jesus. I don’t know how I feel about teenage Jesus and grown up Jesus, Jesus with a beard. Because baby Jesus is sweet and cuddly, but grown up Jesus might have something to say with how I’m living my life. And more than that, here’s one of my concerns, and I think this is hardwired into all of us as human beings. I think all of this actually comes down to four foundational questions as human beings. Four foundational needs that we all have, and it’s this. We need to be seen, we need to be known, we need to be affirmed, and we need to be blessed.
And you may not be able to put it into those terms, but I think our issue when we’re dealing with grown up Jesus is this. What would happen in my life if grown up Jesus is actually God and he saw me? And does he see me? What would happen in my life if grown up son of God Jesus, what if he really knew me? Like really knew me, like if he knew all the things I’ve done or thought about doing, all the things I’ve said or thought about saying, if he knew everything about me, that triggers the next question, would he actually love me? And not just love me, but would growing up Jesus actually like me? And if he liked me, would he give to me? Would he bless me?
And the great thing about the Bible is this, we don’t have to guess about this, because Jesus really did grow up. He became a man with a beard and he taught, and they took great records of his life and they gathered it all together in this thing we call the Bible. And in the New Testament, we have this story that I think brings us face to face of what it might be like if we were to meet grown up Jesus face to face. Because actually, here’s the really, really cool thing. You actually have the opportunity, because as we’ve talked about and sang about this morning, he’s here. Like he’s here.
The story actually comes from John, chapter four. Amazing story, you may be familiar with it. If you’re brand new to church, brand new to the Bible, you don’t have to like read a bunch of it to catch up with the story. You’ll jump right in, you’ll get it. In fact, my hope and my prayer is that as we walk through this story today, if you’ve never read the Bible before, maybe for the first time in your life, you’ll find yourself in this story from the Bible. Because I’ve heard people say before, like the Bible’s so old, like what is it gonna teach us about how to live and whatever? It’s just like old stuff. My prayer, my hope today is that you’ll see that this old, old story over 2,000 years old is actually brand new today in your life and you could see yourself in it.
It goes like this in John chapter four. So he, Jesus, left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. You look at that, right? That’s why it’s underlined, okay? We’re gonna come back to that. He had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar. Near the plot of ground, Jacob had given to his son, Joseph. Jacob’s well was there and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink?
Now, back to the first statement. Jesus had to go through Samaria. No, he didn’t. Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria. In fact, all Jews of that time did everything in their power to never have to go through Samaria. There was a bunch of racial tension, a bunch of stuff that we don’t have time to get back into today, but basically the Jews hated the Samaritans and felt like they were less than human. They didn’t want to see them, they didn’t want to know them, they didn’t want to speak to them, and they could never touch them or they would become ceremonially unclean in their culture. And so there were probably other trips where Jesus did what all the Jews did. They would take miles and miles and miles of a detour all the way around Samaria. The quickest way would be to go through, but they didn’t because they did not want to see the Samaritans.
But see, Jesus is different. Jesus had to go through Samaria. You wanna know why? Because there was a woman there that needed to be seen. There was a woman there that needed to be seen. And the good news about Christmas this morning is that it’s not like there’s just this little thing of Samaria to kind of figure out. The good news about Christmas is that God came all the way from heaven to earth because he had to, because there’s a person with your name. In fact, it’s you that he knew he had to see.
What’s interesting about this woman is another point there. It says that they got there at about noon. Why is that important? Well, culturally, all the women of the village would have gone out to get water at the beginning of the day, probably before sunrise, before it got hot. They would go get the water for the day. Usually all of the women together would go together to get the water before it got hot. This woman was by herself at noon in the heat of the day. Why was she there by herself in the heat of the day? Because she didn’t want to be seen.
We’re gonna hear the details why, here’s what I’ve noticed in my own life. And maybe you can find yourself in it too. In 45 years of life, I turn 46 next week and I am registered at Bed Bath & Beyond and Target. If you guys would just go get the registry, pick up some things, it’s fine. You don’t have to wrap them, just drop them off on the porch. I’m just kidding, don’t give me any birthday presents. I do turn 46 next week and in 46 years of life, you know what I’ve racked up quite a bit of? Shame.
You know, shame. The stuff that I’ve done or thought about doing, the stuff I’ve said or thought about saying, the stuff that I didn’t do that I wish I would have, things that I’ve done or not done in my life that make me feel so shameful about myself that I don’t want you to know it, I don’t want to be seen in it because the power of shame is this, shame tells you you’re not worthy of connection. And if you’re like all the other human beings I’ve ever met in my life, you’ve got quite a bit of shame too. And what happens in our shame is we do things so that we are not seen.
What’s interesting about this story and this woman is that she’s hiding behind her shame. She’s got a great strategy for it. I know what I’ll do. I’ll go by myself. I’ll go at noon. I won’t see anybody. And she shows up at the well and he is there. Hey, can you give me a drink? Right away, she’d have been like, this is inappropriate, Jew talking to a Samaritan, man talking to a woman. This guy is breaking all the rules and he sees me. Immediately, the defenses go up because you know what the next great fear would be at this moment? What if this man knows me?
Jesus answered, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself also, and as did also his sons in his livestock?
I gave you attitude there in the reading, because she was trying to give attitude to Jesus in the real interaction. Why? Because her defenses went through the roof because she was terrified that this man might come to know her. Here’s what I found in most of our lives as well. What I found in most of our lives is when we fear being seen and known, we create our persona. I would say that for most of us, from the way that we walk, the way that we talk, the way that we style our hair, the car we drive, the neighborhood we live in, almost everything in our life is constructed to create a persona that we can hide behind so no one really knows us.
Why? Because the greatest desire of the human heart is to be fully seen and fully known and unconditionally loved. When we experience that, we experience heaven on earth. But to be fully seen and fully known and rejected or condemned is hell on earth. And I don’t know anybody that’s looking to experience hell on earth, so we hide behind our shame and our fear so that we’re not seen or known. Jesus knows that there’s freedom on the other side of that because he knows what to do with shame and fear. So he goes in pretty hard with the lady.
So she gets defensive, she says that, and Jesus says to her in verse 16, go call your husband and come back and I’ll tell you about it. I don’t have a husband, she says. You’re right. When you say you have no husband, the fact is you’ve had five husbands and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is quite true.
Imagine this moment, standing face to face with God himself and he knows everything about you.
I like the movie, not the movie, the TV show, Chosen. I like it brings a lot of biblical stories down and makes them very digestible and understandable. And I remember when it first came out, watching the first season and seeing this scene depicted. And as I watched it, I remember just weeping. So Ken and I were talking about the sermon that came up in our thoughts and I said, I gotta go back and watch that. And I watched it the first time again and I wept and I watched it the second time and I wept and I watched it the third time and wept because what they did is took the scene and they took a few extra biblical realities to give you what this moment could have been like and I wanna take you to the scene.
Because what happens as she gets defensive and Jesus says, I know you, here’s what your life has been. She begins to argue about, you Jews say we should worship here and this and that. And she’s trying to get defensive and hide behind it and distract Jesus. And then she gets ready to leave. And in the scene from The Chosen, she gets up to walk away. And as she’s walking away, Jesus stands and he says, the first one was named Rameen. You are a woman of purity who was excited to be married, but he wasn’t a good man. He hurt you, and it made you question marriage and even the practice of your faith.
She looks at Jesus, she begins to weep and she says, stop. The second one was Farzad. On your wedding night, his skin smelled like oranges, and to this day, every time you pass by the oranges in the market, you feel guilty for leaving him because he was the only truly godly man you had been with, but you felt unworthy.
And now the tears are streaming from her face and she looks to Jesus and she says, why are you doing this? And with compassion and love in his eyes, he looks back and he says, to this moment, I have not revealed myself to anyone on earth that I am the Messiah, that I am God Himself. You are the first.
She looks back with tears rolling from her eyes and says, you picked the wrong person.
And some of you have been in this story before. Some of you are uncomfortably in this story right now, where God is in the room and he’s saying, I see you. And I know you and I love you. In fact, I came here today just to see you. And it seems too unbelievable. It seems too good to be true. And so you say back to God, you say, you picked the wrong person.
The woman goes on and she says, I am rejected by others. And Jesus says, I know, but not by me. He sees her, He knows her, and He loves and affirms her.
You know the crazy thing about this story is that she was the first person on earth that Jesus told that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. He could have chosen anyone. He could have chosen kings and officials and teachers of the law and people that had lived perfect lives. And what he would have told the whole world forever is Jesus only works with and loves and sees and knows people who have their lives together but God knew what he was doing because he knew the rest of us would live real lives and so the first person he sends to represent him is this woman and you know what the message she goes back to her village and says she leaves because she turns around and she sees Jesus face and she sees the love and she realized that God is seeing her and knowing her and loving her in the midst of it all and she runs back to her village and the message she brings to the villages I’ve met a man that told me everything I ever did come and see which seems like terrible PR to me.
Can you imagine that in your life if you were to come to somebody and be like, listen, we’re hanging out Friday night, just met this guy, hey, Zeus, he’s great, told me everything I ever did? You’d be like, I’m not coming, right? Because I’m not getting in line, right? So you’re saying he’s God and he’s going to go ahead and give me the whole rap sheet? No, I’m trying to forget the whole rap sheet. That’s why I drink too much.
But she came with this message that let me tell you some really good news. There’s a God who is here and he knows everything you ever have done and not only does he love you, but he actually is going to invite you into joining him to be the source of love and forgiveness and peace and joy to the world.
Merry Christmas. So good.
So here’s the question I gotta ask us as we close. Band’s gonna come up and we’re gonna end our Christmas Eve together. The fact is this, he is here. Christmas morning he was here and he has been here every day since. The question that I have to ask you today and that you need to answer is this. Is He here? Is he here? Is he in your life?
I know what you’re thinking and feeling. Why he doesn’t see people like, you don’t understand what I’ve gone through. You’re right, I don’t. I don’t know your story. I don’t know what you’ve gone through. But I can tell you who does. Jesus. The God that created and sustained the whole universe knows you, he sees you, he came here today to see you. He brought you here today so you guys could meet. And what he wants to do is love you, affirm you, and bless your life.
Jesus said further on in John four that, everyone who drinks the water from that well will be thirsty again, but everyone who drinks the water that he gives them will never thirst. In fact, it will become in them a spring of water, welling up into eternal life.
He says when we actually accept Him, He would ask the Father and the Father will give us an advocate to help us, to be with us forever, the Spirit of truth. But the world can’t accept Him because it neither sees or knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives within you and will be in you. He wants to live inside of you so that you will never live another day without his withness.
So I’m gonna give you an opportunity to invite him into your life. What do I gotta do, Darren, I gotta stop doing all the bad stuff? No, that’s impossible. Probably gotta keep doing that. Gotta come to church every week. It could help. It’s not a requirement. Gotta go serve the poor or something, and like go over to some country and give all my money away. I don’t know. Gotta drop your guitar. Probably shouldn’t, it’s expensive.
To start the process is really, there’s nothing you can actually do other than receive it, because it’s a free gift. It’s called grace, right? Jesus paid it all. Now after you welcome him into your life, there gonna be some changes he’s gonna make? Yeah, there are. Because you know what he wants for you? Your best life. He wants to lead you to a life of joy. He wants to lead you to a life without shame He wants to lead you to a life full of hope and joy and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and self-control And I don’t know what he’s gonna ask of you But what I know is he’s going to be with you on that adventure every step of the day But it starts with at first at least asking him to be here.
Bow your heads and close your eyes. Jesus, I just thank you today that you’re here. And God, I know there’s some people here today that they didn’t even know it. They don’t really believe in you yet, God, but if they’re honest, they miss you. The idea that there could be a God that he could really love like this, it’s been in them and they miss the idea. But God, I just pray that today they would realize they don’t need to miss it anymore. They can actually receive it.
And so if that’s you, as your heads are batted, your eyes closed, you say, Darren, I want to be able to say he is here. All you have to do is just pray to receive it. And I’d love to pray with you, but I’d love you to raise your hand so I would know. I’m gonna count to three. On the count of three, I’d love you to be humble, I’d love you to be courageous and say, I need Jesus in my life. I want to be seen, I want to be known, I want to be loved. And so on the count of three, just throw your hands up. It’s between you and me and I can pray for you. One, two, three. Just throw that hand up in the air. Yeah, yeah. All over the room. Yeah.
God, I just pray for everyone that’s raised their hand right now. Said, listen, God, this is your next stop. I want to know that you are here. Maybe you could pray something like this. Say Jesus, thank you for seeing me. I need to be seen. I feel so invisible, God, I feel so alone. I don’t want to feel like that anymore. God, thank you for knowing me. I know it may seem like a lot, God, but thank you for not rejecting me, loving me with all the knowledge of who I am. And God, would you please come into my life? Teach me to live, teach me to love, teach me to follow you. Jesus, I give you my life.
God, we thank you for these moments. We thank you that you are here. We thank you for Christmas. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, amen.