Turning on the Lights! – Thursday, December 5, 2024. CHRISTMAS FOCUS!
Maybe it is Facebook that is getting me all fired up, or maybe it is the fact that the Satan is coming after faithful followers hard this time of year – but I am fired up today!
Let’s take a look at exactly what we are hoping for through Jesus the Christ and pry for the day when we will be truly hopeless.
Christmas can be hard on so many levels. Let’s face it all TOGETHER as His CHURCH!
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God abound in your lives.
We will see you in church!
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Thursday, December 5, 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Thursday, December 5, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Thursday, December 5, 2024
Okay, here we are again. We were just talking about this on the Church Town Prayer Group. Good morning, good morning, my brothers and my sisters. We are late to the party this morning because this live stream seems to be something that is affecting the kingdom of God, I guess. But we get it up and running. You see the opposer of God’s will, that’s what we were talking about this morning. And we’re going to open up with prayer because the need is great. But the opposer of God’s will doesn’t want honest, genuine expressions of Christmas faith. The opposer of God’s will does not want honest, genuine expressions of faith in the incarnation of the Christ. He wants us to make food and give presents and do holiday shopping seasons and gloss right over Jesus the Christ. Good morning, everyone. He wants us distracted. He does not want us focused. He wants us not fully understanding what that incarnation means. He wants us just celebrating Christmas. Trees and Christmas presents and all of that stuff, that’s what he wants. He knows it’s going to happen. And so over the years, he has diluted it to the point. And now Christians come back and you always get these inane arguments. Christmas is not a pagan holiday, this and they bring in all these traditions, whatever. None of that matters to me. None of it. Good morning. The only reason we go through Advent and celebrate Christmas is because God Himself became incarnate. I’m not interested in inane arguments about whether it’s secular or sacred or the date is right or wrong or I’m not interested in any of that. I’m not interested in any of the junk that all of the different cultures and traditions have poured into this holiday. I’m not interested in any of that. I’m interested in celebrating God with us. Period. If that doesn’t happen, then we are not saved. And everything we’re talking about here, even today, is just junk. And so we come to the Christmas season and Christians who are celebrating that incarnation, because they know in a few months, even though it was 30 plus years, we will be celebrating the resurrection. We will be celebrating that willing sacrifice. Are being bombarded by the enemy with everything from physical ailments, psychological, spiritual warfare, bombardment, pressure from the world, pressure from family, pressure, anything now. So if you are a devoted Christian and you’re celebrating the incarnation and Satan, the Satan, the opposer, can’t get you distracted from that, then he’s going to go a little bit more personal, a little deeper, afflict you with your passions, your desires, your temptations, your weaknesses, whether they be physical, emotional, spiritual. This is where, right, for years and years and years, the church drifts away from our core beliefs. And we must understand that the time is long past, but we shall say the time is now for the Christian church to be the Christian church, the remnant. I’m just reading in 2 Corinthians today about false teachers, all those super apostles that proclaim the name of God for their own benefit, for their own benefit, nothing has changed. If you hear a preacher saying that you can possess the power of God and you can manipulate the power of God for your benefit, run away from that person because the power of God within you is meant to serve God alone, his will. So even through the church, like my new glasses? I should have gotten the anti-glare, look at that. Oh, well, I’m cheap when it comes to glasses. So let’s pray, “Father, your church is under attack from all directions.” We know that. “But we also know that your church is on the move. The kingdom of God is prevailing because we know that the gates of hell will not prevail against the power of God through the kingdom of God. The gates of hell will not prevail.” That means that we are moving forward into the darkness, bringing light. And we proclaim the name of Jesus Christ as our savior and we submit ourselves to you to do your will, Lord. We rebuke any and all lies of the enemy against we as individuals, we as a church, against the kingdom of God, against you. We cling to your word through our faith made possible by your grace. Thank you, Jesus, for what you did so long ago. Thank you for what you do every single day of our lives, Lord. Keep us focused on you marching forward in Jesus’ name, amen. You understand what I’m saying? Because you can feel, you know, like even the little things, I’ll give you a little behind the veil here. Even the little things as a pastor. Getting better, by the way. Not there, but I’m getting better. You can tell my energy level is like, “Come on. I want to bring those gates of hell. I’m ready.” But even as a pastor the Christmas season, you need to stay focused and you want to do special things. You want it to be a wonderful experience for everybody involved. There’s a lot of moving parts. There’s a lot of people who willingly want to give of their talents and their gifts and their time. And so you begin to coordinate all of that and then guess what happens? Little tweak here, a little thing there, a person drops out here and guess what? I’m all frustrated. Now Christmas that I’m so focused on, now I’m all frustrated about this and that and the other thing. Stop it, Brian. Stop it. Even if it’s the Advent season and you want everybody to have an incredible experience and be focused, even if it’s all of that, even if you have all of these individuals who want to participate, all of these groups, all of this beautiful music and song and reading and power and prayer, you know what? If we show up on Sunday and we got a Bible and we open it, we’re good. We know enough hymns in our head that we can sing out loud. People are always looking for a word from the Lord, a word from the Lord, a word from the Lord. How about you take this thing off the shelf and get a word from the Lord? I know I’m preaching to the choir. I’m not yelling at you guys, but I hope that somebody who comes across this today is like, “The Lord is silent. The Lord is silent. I’m in a time of the desert wilderness.” Okay. Open your Bible and read it. Guess what? He’s not silent anymore. We all want personal special revelation. Stop it. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith, we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that cannot be seen. The New International Version says it a little bit better. Every day we need to hear it, Sue. It says right there in scripture that they came together every time to share the gospel message. Why? Well, did you all read the Old Testament? It’s because the Lord would perform signs and wonders. The Lord would move entire empires for or against the Israelites. And the people would be in awe of the Lord for about 10 minutes. And then they would go back, worshiping Baal, worshiping whatever. So the New Testament says, “Come together every time we come together in congregation by the power.” And now we are joined by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. We share the good news with each other that Christ lived, Christ died, Christ rose again. And if we profess with our mouth, we believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord, we will be saved. We will be indwelled, baptized by his Holy Spirit and joined together as brothers and sisters so that anyone around the world who is a follower, a disciple of the Christ, a disciple of Jesus, the Christ, anyone around the world, I call them sister. I call them brother. We have a common language and we move forward. I’m telling you right now, this Christmas season, as we prepare as the Orthodox Church as the true disciples of Christ, prepare to celebrate the incarnation. You’re going to hear it from all sides. Do you know what keeps people from church most on Christmas and Easter? How about this for behind the veil? You know the number one reason why people don’t go to church on Christmas and Easter? Family. They have family coming in and that family doesn’t go to church. Oh, okay. So why don’t we even set a worse example for that family? Why don’t we just cower or break down the pillars of our own faith and say, “You know what? I’m not going to upset you by going to church. I’m not going to ask you to come to church.” The number one reason that regular churchgoers don’t go to church, even on regular Sundays, let alone holidays, is family. That’s exactly wrong. One hundred and eighty degrees wrong, yet we don’t see it right in front of our faces. I’ve got family and I can’t come to church. So you hate your family so much you don’t want them to be saved. If you hate them that much, why are they here? Tell them to stay away. Didn’t expect this this morning, did you? I’m fired up. I’m fired up because my people are under attack. Up there on the pulpit is both a dove and a sheepdog. Satan’s coming after my people? Send him back to hell where he belongs. So let’s stay strong. Let’s stay focused. Let’s not be distracted with all of the pageantry and all of the garbaggio. It’s Italian. Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. The assurance of what we hope for. This is hope week. What are we hoping for? What do we hope for? Well, all throughout the New Testament we understand what we are hoping for. We are hoping for this and everything that comes with it. “And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look, God’s dwelling place is now among the people and He will dwell with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.'” Barb knew where I was going with that before I went there. That’s what we’re hoping for. And everything that comes with that when Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 15 about the new bodies, glorified bodies, these old vessels, they’re gone. New glorified bodies. We’re going to have perfect in the physical and we’re going to have divine in the spiritual and we will be able at that time to dwell with God as it was in the garden. That’s what we’re hoping for. Our hope is in the Lord that all who He needs to be saved, wants to be saved, whatever His will may be, will be saved. He will return and heaven will be established on earth. And we will dwell with the Lord in the house of the Lord forever, just as scripture teaches. And this is the house of the Lord, His creation, which is we fully 100% redeemed and evil will be vanquished. And we will dwell with the creator of the universe as His special creation. So yes, if you read the first title, “I long for the day when I am hopeless.” I long for the day when I no longer have to hope for that. I long for the day when we are together, united as brother and sister. Will we be brother and sister? We know they’re not given in marriage, but when we are united, shall we say as His family, you and I are united as His family with Him. We will no longer have to hope for we will know what life truly is. That’s what I’m talking about, man. I long for the day that I am hopeless. I long for the day when I am faithless, for I will be dwelling in the house of the Lord with Him. I will no longer need to rely on this thing that I’m trapped in, this thing that’s in here. All will be redeemed unto the Lord. So that’s where I am today. Church, stay faithful. Brothers and sisters, stay faithful. Do your Christmas thing, but only you know when you look in the mirror how distracted you might be from the focus of Christmas. Only you do. I’m here to remind you, and I will. You come to my Christmas sermons, you’re not going to be hearing about Christmas movies or other cultural celebrations. We have our fun. We love our, the church is beautifully decorated, the Christmas hymns and the Christmas carols. We enjoy all of that, but every time we get together, we will be reminded of the good news that God became incarnate. Emmanuel, God with us. This is our focus. When we finally light that Christ candle, we’re lighting it to indicate the incarnation, which actually began at conception, but we’re lighting it to celebrate the incarnation, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that your church will cast your eyes upward beyond the culture, beyond the noise, beyond the lights. Cast your eyes upward and remain pure at heart as we celebrate you and what you did. Lord, we stay focused by the power of your Holy Spirit. We pray for every physical ailment to be healed. We pray for every spiritual condition to be healed. We pray for every emotional trauma to be healed, Lord, in your name, that your children may stay focused on you and serving you. Your will be done, Lord, on earth as it is in heaven in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. God bless you. Even if you have family coming this weekend, why don’t you set a good example and go to church? [clicks tongue]
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