Have you ever mixed up something that you thought you knew? Maybe it was a song lyric that you've been belting out in the car for years come to find out what the actual lyrics are. See some of you nudging others that you have a particular song in mind, but. You know, sometimes we think we know things. But it's actually something deeper. Now, there's a cute story of uh a little group of six year olds, uh, singing at the Christmas concert. Not about you, but if I'm in attendance of a children's Christmas pageant or concert. If it's my child, I want, you want, I, I want them to do well, right? If it's not my child. I'm really hoping for something to go down, you know, you know what I'm saying? Like if you've been practicing and it's your kid, you want them to belt it out correctly, uh, if it's not your kid, you're hoping you get one of these, right, or the kid lays down on the ground or turned around or belts the wrong word, uh, because it's memorable, right? We're all about making memories. Well, there's this cute group of six year olds singing Hark the Herald Angels sing. And there's a little boy who was on stage and he was getting more confident, getting ready for his line. Now the line, the actual line, Is God and sinners reconciled. Now, what six year old's really gonna know what reconciliation is all about? Let's be real. What adults are gonna know what reconciliation is all about, OK? So his line was coming up. He was growing in confidence and it came for his time to step up, and he belted God and sinners dressed in style. I mean, if you're gonna sin, might as well have some nice drip, you know what I'm saying? And while it's cute when kiddos say the wrong words, the reality is adults were not that much better. I mean, I know growing up, uh, even the song itself, Hark the Herald Angels sing for the longest time, I thought Hark the Herald was like the lead angel, you know, he was like the Justin Timberlake in the group of angels. It was a Hark the Herald and angels sing, you know what I mean? I thought he was the front man, but in reality, Hark the Herald means listen to the messenger. And some of you were today years old when you learned that and I want to you know that's OK. Listen to the messenger. And here's the thing, if we're being honest with ourselves that sometimes we even know what the right words are, but we don't really understand what they mean. Right, we're gonna end tonight singing Silent Night. And the beautiful line of sleep and heavenly peace. Meanwhile, y'all were crazy up to about 30 minutes ago, right? In the scramble to get ready for Christmas or the stress or the work or the fighting or the sickness or whatever it is that you just kinda, oh, I'm doing great, Merry Christmas. God bless, bless your heart, you know. Oh, am I being too real? Is that, am I not allowed to be real at the 4:30 service? Some of y'all, let's be real here, you were coming for the 3 and weren't gonna make it. So now we're going 4:30. What does that actually mean? For the next few minutes, I wanna share with you a message entitled More Than you expected. Because my prayer and hope for you is that you would experience Christmas in a new way. That more than just the Christmas decorations and the ornaments on the tree and the gifts under it or or the meal with friends and family and don't get me wrong, I love me, all of that, especially that food. But what if Christmas was more than we expected? What would it take for this to truly be the best Christmas ever? What does, what does heavenly peace even look like? So simply put, Christmas is about love. More specifically, Christmas is about God's love. And we see this in the Christmas story. Because what we find when we read the Christmas story and go a little bit deeper than the service. What we find is that the love of Christ leads to victory in life. That the love of Christ leads to victory in life, that there is a deeper meaning and purpose, that this truly could be the most important and best Christmas of your life if you would simply receive the love of God this Christmas. Now all month long as a church, we've been studying the name of Jesus at Christmas, Emmanuel, which means God with us. Originally stems from the prophet Isaiah. With this prediction, this prophecy given 700 years before Jesus would enter the scene. Now Jesus always was and always will be. But from heaven to earth comes down. But 700 years before this happens in Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14, we read, Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name, Emmanuel. You see, the arrival of Christmas is the arrival of love. Tis the season for Amazon Prime packages coming at your doorstep. But this particular package came all the way from heaven to earth. And with the arrival of Jesus is the arrival of love. But don't just take my word for it. You see John 3:16, the most famous verse in the Bible tells us that for God so loved the world. That he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Paul is writing, the apostle is writing the church in Rome, and he writes these words in Romans chapter 6 verse 23. He says, for the wages of sin is death. You realize that's what we bring to the table? We bring the sin, we bring the wages there like some of you are going to like a family meal after this and someone's bringing the fruit cake or the dish that nobody wants like, look, we're bringing as humanity, we're bringing the wages of the sin of death to the party. Now that that's what we bring to the table, OK? But. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The love of Christ leads to victory in life. There's this apostle, his name is John. His previous nickname was the son of Thunder. That towards the end of his life, he gets described as the apostle of love. And in one of his final letters, he writes this in 1 John chapter 4 verse 10. He says, Anyone who does not love does not know God. Why? Because God is love. And see what you'll find in the Christmas story is that Christmas actually shows us the depth, the reach, and the strength of Christ's love. Those three characteristics from the Christmas story can transform our hearts and change our lives if we would receive it and believe it to be true. So let's take a few minutes and walk through these 3 truths together. The depth, the reach, and the strength of God's love. First, let's take a look at the depth of God's love. There in the Christmas story found in the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, we're starting here in verse 4. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her first born son and wrapped him in swallowing cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn. You see, the Christmas story shows the depth of God's love because you can't go further down than from heaven to earth. And when he came down, he didn't come, like, you've heard the phrase like it's so and so's world, we're just living in it. It's literally God's world and we're just living in it. And he could enter the scene in any way, shape, or form, and yet he does so in the most meek, mild, and humble way possible. Mary Joseph. Bethlehem, the rural town, not even in the end, but in a stable. If you've heard the phrase, the devil's in the details. I think actually the reverse is true. That God's in the details, because see, every single detail of the Christmas story points to God's divinity. That this was by design. Let me share one little minor detail that you might have never thought of before. And that was the fact that when Jesus came, was born, who was wrapped. And swaddling cloths and laid it in a manger. Did you know that the fact that he was wrapped in swaddling cloth actually points to the Easter story and connects Christmas with Easter. I was talking to my friend Stan Meyer, uh, who was a part of Mission Grove, but he was also working and serving in a ministry called Jews for Jesus. And, and he shared with me and he was leading, uh, teaching us through the Passover Seder, and he said, oh. You won't believe how many symbols are in the Passover that point to Jesus. I said, really? He said, yeah, let me tell you, have you heard of the Offi Coleman? I said, God bless you. What were you saying? He said, no, have you heard of the Offi Coma? No, God bless you, but what do you need to tell me? He's like, no, no, that's the name of this bread. So there's 3 pieces of matzo bread, unleavened bread. And check this out, that the 2nd was stan, he doesn't use the word check this out. I say that, but um you get the point here, he says, you know, the 2nd piece. Is wrapped in cloth is broken, it's hidden away and then at the end of the meal someone goes and finds it it's kind of part of this ritual and they bring it back also wrapped for the purpose and reminder of God's redemption. Now originally Passover was celebrated and still is within Jewish culture to remember God's deliverance of the people of Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians. But think about this for just a moment and think about Jesus, how he came into the Christmas story and connecting it with the Passover meal. Jesus, the 2nd person of the Trinity, came wrapped in clothing. was broken in the sense that he was nailed to the cross. died as payment for your sins and for mine, was hidden away, was buried. What happened when he was buried? What happened? He was wrapped. And then when he rose again, defeating death itself, conquering sin as we know it, when he Rose from the grave and Mary and others went to the grave. What did they find? Folded cloth. Swaddle as a baby. Death on a cross, wrapped again, but the linens left behind. See, the Christmas story points to the Easter story, because the baby in the manger is the savior on the cross, was also the king reigning for every amen. That's how deep the love of God goes. But second, let's take a look at the reach of God's love in the Christmas story. Let's continue reading verse 8. In the same region, there were shepherds out of the field, keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. Hm. The depth of God's love shows because he comes from heaven down to earth, in the most meek, mild, and humble way possible. The reach of God's love is this. What was the message of the angels to the shepherds? Fear not, for I bring you good news of great joy for whom? All people. And here's the thing. That message could have gone to anybody. If you're trying to get the word out, you would think you would go to royalty or the priests or the wealthy. But the angels delivered this message to the shepherds, the lowly. The smelly The workers in the middle of the night, in the middle of the field, and then said, this good news of great joy is for all people. Why? Because they're all people. And guess what? We're all people. Did you realize that you're in the nativity story? That phrase that for all people, that means that you and I are in the Christmas story. Was anyone in a nativity growing up? If you were, go ahead and to your neighbor, go ahead and say what character you were. I can tell what characters they were, you know why? Because the people who are like Marry or the wise men, like they immediately like, yeah, I was Mary. The people who were like sheep put their heads down. They're like, I was a sheep. Here's the thing, you're in the nativity. Good news, great joy for all people. But the nativity is not a nativity without Jesus. Few years ago we put out a nativity scene. I've shared this with some of you, uh, because you laughed with me when it happened, but, uh, and after a few days, it felt like my nativity was missing something. And upon closer review, uh, I noticed that there's no Jesus. Turns out my golden retriever dog, Sophie ate baby Jesus. Or one of my children. I don't quite know if it was a child or the dog. I'm pretty sure it was a dog. As crazy as that sounds, how many of us Have a nativity at home without Jesus. We're trying to go through this Christmas season without the whole reason for the season, Jesus Christ himself. See, the reach of God's love is that is, is good news of great joy for all people, meaning it included the shepherds and it includes you and me today. But here's the deal. You have to respond to that message. See, the shepherds heard that message. And they didn't just stay in the field. When they heard the message of Jesus, what did they do? They went to Jesus. You have to respond to the message. Sadly, this last week, um. The baseball great Ricky Henderson. Uh, passed away. He played for about 23 seasons in the major leagues, all-time leader in steals, I believe like 1400 and like 6 steals. There was a season in the 80s there where he had 130 stolen bases in one year, and he was a character, man. Have you ever seen any old interviews of Ricky Henderson, he would like refer to himself as in third person, and he would speak and just a bigger, larger than life kind of guy. Well, there's this crazy story that came out that uh that was confirmed by him. On several places is that early in the 80s when he was starting to get big, they got to the end of the year and the Oakland A's accounting department realized that they were off by a million dollars. I'm not like super familiar with accounting as a job, but if you're off by a million, that's not good, right? If you're off by 2. You work for the government. Just kidding, it's too low. Um. But here's the thing, they were off by a million because they had it still in their account, like it should have gone out. And so one of the workers, they tracked it down, they realized it was connected to Ricky Henderson, and they, they said, hey, this is a weird question, uh, but Did you ever deposit the million dollar check we gave you? He thought about it. He said, uh, no. I was so excited, made it to the major leagues. This is a symbol that I made it. My dreams came true. I was so excited that I framed the check and put in put it in my kitchen. He had a framed million dollar check on his wall. Now he would go on to deposit it, right, it's a million dollars. But as crazy as that sounds. OK, how many of us? Have the story of Christmas and what it represents an eternal, priceless value of our souls. And we've heard the story, we've read the stories and what have we done? We went home and we stuck it on our wall. We hung it on our tree. And we never deposited the message of Christmas in our heart and in our soul and let it transform our lives. When it comes to faith, at some point you got cash the check. You gotta cash the check. You may have been coming to church for years or maybe just like once a year for years, and look, I'm just so glad you're here. But I wanna tell you that until you take the Christmas off the wall and deposit it in your heart. You really haven't experienced the true meaning of Christmas. The depth of God's love is seen that God came from heaven to earth. The reach of God's love is seen that in the angel's message to the shepherds was that it's good news of great joy for all people that now this message is for us to respond to. But lastly, what we're gonna see here is the strength of God's love in the Christmas story. I'm gonna share with you a verse that's not typically used with Christmas. But I think it's connected because see, as you, as a pastor, you're trying to prep a Christmas message. The reality is, you feel like you're given the same book report every year, you know what I mean? And so as we're studying the love of Christ, I started looking through scripture and and seeing that theme throughout Scripture, and I came across this passage in Romans 8 and I was like, wow. And, and sorry if I nerd out, Bible nerd out for a second, but this is so good, so good. The apostle Paul is writing to the church in Rome, and they're experiencing major persecution. People being in prison and killed and beaten up and struggling and anything possible bad happening you they're having it happen. And he writes this letter to encourage them and he gets to the end of chapter 8, and I wanna read these verses starting in verse 35 of Romans chapter 8. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? It's gonna list 7 things here. Child tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long, and we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Merry Christmas. That seems kind of dark, right? I was like, I'm gonna leave it there. Um, I get there's kids in the room, so we're not gonna go deep dive into that one. Here's the premise though, OK? Every possible hardship that was happening this church was experiencing. And Paul encourages them by quoting Psalm 44, and saying, look, the followers of God have experienced hardship from the very beginning. But let me tell you something. Verse 37. No, in all things, we are more than conquerors. Whoa, more than conquerors is one word. Hang on, that's where we're gonna land. But we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of Christmas, because of the arrival of love. And what Jesus would do then on the cross on your behalf and mine. The savior That comes We can have victory. That word more than conqueror, OK? It's this really cool Greek word. It's the only place that's used in the New Testament. It it's pronounced Hoer night cow or something similar. I can't pronounce words. But it's one word that literally means hyper conqueror. Or super victorious. Isn't that cool? Anyone want to be super victorious? I don't want to just be victorious. I wanna be super victorious, you know. And there's two meetings and they're both awesome. You ready for it? I'm a coach right now in basketball. It's basketball season, right? If you win the game, that's fun, right? But if you win by a lot, it, it's like more than a victory, right? I was curious, so I looked it up. Uh, one of the most lopsided scores recently was in women's basketball. There was a high school, a girls basketball team in Montana named Freud Medicine Lake High, little unique name by the way. They were playing the uh Brockton High. Uh, and you want, you wanna know what the final score of the basketball game was? 102 to 0. Mm That's more than a victory. And our empathetic people in the room go, oh, that poor team. Right, you feel sad for them. Why? Cause that is a beat that like that is bad, right? Here's the thing. We sometimes approach the Christian life like it's this back and forth between Satan and Jesus, right? It's a back and forth battle and we get to the 4th quarter and then Jesus like little crossover step back, whoo, we won. Look, it's not even close. The best thing Satan can try to do is kill Jesus, and 3 days later, he rises again. So he defeats death itself. There is nothing. This thing can touch you with. He can tempt you, he can distract you, but he cannot touch your identity in Christ because of his love for you. Yeah. What can separate you from God's love? Paul says, no one and nothing. In this life or the next, because you are super victorious. When you get to the end of Scripture, there's all this struggle and strife and issues. You get to the very end, I mean like the very end, not like revelation, there's craziness in there, but you get the very end. Armageddon, right? Oh, it's a big battle, right? Oh, Jesus goes and done. You think 102 to 0 is bad. How about all of eternity? There is no match for the love of God, for those that receive Him. That you can be more than conquerors, you can be super victorious, but that's one meaning. Can I share the second meeting with you? And it's also awesome. See, if you are a conqueror, If you're a conqueror. There's a battle, there's a fight, and then there's a victor. See, in the middle of that word whooper Nikau. It's actually get your word Nike, familiar with anybody? OK. Nike, the brand named after the Greek goddess of victory. That's why they named, that's where the name comes from. Here's what's awesome, OK. If you're a conqueror, the victory comes after the battle. If you are more than a conqueror, that means that you can experience the victory even while you're still in battle. Did you catch it? If you're more than a conqueror, even surrounded by darkness and brokenness and persecution and sin and betrayal and issues, even in the middle of all of that, you can still experience victory. Why? Because nothing will separate you from the love of God. Amen. As Christians, we struggle, we battle, and I don't know what battle you brought in today, but what I know is that we have a victory someday, right? For those that trust in Jesus, there will be a day where there's no more mourning, no more cancer, no more sickness, no more betrayal, no more brokenness, no more addiction. So we are, we are excited and hopeful for that someday. But the fact and the truth remains that in the middle of everything, in the middle of anything that can possibly go wrong, you are more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ who loves you because nothing and no one can separate you from his love, that even in the middle of your battle right now in this moment, you can experience victory. Amen. Yeah, we can cut out for that. There's a lady by the name of Corey Tenboom. Who uh was born in Harlem, Netherlands, and her family owned a watch shop. And when they were occupied by Nazi Germany, uh, their family who were believers started hiding and saving people in their attic. Incredible story until one day they were taken. Now I get that there's kiddos in the room, so I'm not gonna go down this path, but just know right they were taken. By the bad guys there, put in a concentration camp, I think, I think theirs was like Ravenbrook or something like that. Experienced the worst things imaginable. And the loss of friends and family and everything possible. You want to talk about that list in Romans 8, they, they had it. OK. She gets released, kind of a miracle. So what does he spend the rest of her life doing? Telling people about the love and forgiveness found in God. How is that possible? She writes this book called The Hidden Place in 1971 that becomes an international bestseller and a movie gets made from her story. How is that possible? It's possible because even in the worst of circumstances, she had victory because she was more than a conqueror in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm going to end today with these two quotes. Corey Tinboone says this, she says. Look at the world and you'll be distressed. Look within and you'll be depressed. Look at God and you'll be at rest. In a different setting, she would say these words about Christmas. She would say, who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that He gave His only Son. The only requirement is to believe in Him. The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life. The love of Christ. Leads to victory in life. My prayer for you this Christmas is that it would be more than you expected. This could be the best Christmas ever that you would experience the transforming love of Jesus, but putting your faith in him. In a moment I'm gonna pray. And would you hand me one of those cards for? And look, there's no magic in the words of the prayer. What it what it does is it represents your belief and the confession in your heart. OK. And after you pray, or even before that, if, if, if you want to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, look, again, this, it's not about checking a box. There's just a practical thing here of there's a lot of people. And there's not sure if we're gonna have to connect with the time and stuff. I get it, busy schedules. But if you're serious about this, see, I wanna put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I want you to let me know that. But the person you came with know that. So the marking of the box is not about marking a box, it's about so that we can follow up, check in with you, you can begin this spiritual journey. We wanna walk with you. And look, if you've already called yourself a Christian, but you know what, I, I need that super victorious kind of love. I need the more than conqueror kind of love. I need to recommit my life, realign my life with what matters. Let us know, let us know that you're recommitting your life to Jesus. I feel like, man, This guy's excited. I didn't know what I was walking into. I want some hot chocolate. Look, if you got questions, look, wherever you are on that journey, we wanna chat with you. Let us know that too, OK? Look, the top part of the Choose your charity, regardless of what happens, I understand this, that we're gonna fulfill that, right? It's to be a blessing in the community. The top part of that card is for the community, whatever is marked or not marked. The bottom part of this card is for you. With the idea being that it's time to deposit the check. It's time to believe it in your heart, and confess with your mouth the mouth that Jesus is Lord. So how can you respond? Well, first you got to receive God's love, and I'm gonna pray with you in just a moment. Encourage you to do that with me to let me know on that card. And second, if you have received it, look, this is too good not to share. It's too good not to share. The depth, the reach, the strength of God's love. Would you share that with somebody this Christmas? Will you pray with me? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner. And I want to turn from my sin and repent before you go. I can't make it to heaven on my own. But God, you came down, heaven to earth, here at Christmas. Jesus, you are God and you are savior. That when you died on the cross and rose again. You defeated death and you made salvation possible. God forgive my sins, come into my life. Change me. Give me a love That can make me super victorious. In the future and right now in this moment, even in the middle of my battles. Thank you for saving me. God, I commit my life to you. I'm putting my faith and trust in you as Lord and Savior day. Help me to share this message and this love with others. Thank you, God, it's in your son's name we pray. Amen.