Yet in the Dark Street Shineth

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see Thee. Above Thy destiny, the silent stars go by. Yet in Thy dark streets shine. The hopes and fears of all. It's fair to say that the world's a little darker than it probably was a few years ago.

In fact, if we want to be honest, it's probably getting a little darker every year. Nobody's saying, hey, the world's getting better. I don't hear that too much. And it's as if we're walking through dark streets. I'm sure the writer of that song was thinking about, in his time, the dark streets, how troubles come and calamity comes, and in the dark street shineth.

Christmas carols are intended to bring us joy. When we sing a Christmas carol, it should make us happy. But for many, I think a Christmas carol is hard to sing in this season, especially a season where dark streets seem to be happening, where we're walking down dark streets, where we're disoriented. And my goal in this series, we've been doing a series called A Christmas Carol, and we're ending it today with Christmas Eve. And my goal is to perhaps help us to sing a Christmas carol once again.

A Christmas carol once again. And if we look at the Christmas story, we can quickly figure out that it wasn't such... You know, there wasn't a lot of joy. There wasn't lights and life and anything. In fact, we were coming out of 400 years of God being silent.

God was silent. We call it the intertestamental period, where Malachi speaks, and he writes his... We have his book there, and God speaks through him. And then God is silent for 400 years. Where is God?

And then a light comes into the picture. A small light. God begins to speak again. But it didn't happen in the best of circumstances. In fact, it was terrible circumstances.

I mean, there were taxes and donkeys and no place to sleep. And on top of that, there was this king, this evil king named Herod, who had put out a commission for all children in that region that were male and under the age of two to be killed. And there was a lot of sadness. A lot of deep sorrow. In fact...

In fact, it stays with Troenkov Seth in the native agora. In fact, not in fact... The prophet Jeremiah would say this, A voice is heard in Ramah weeping in great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children. And refusing to be comforted because they are no more.

Sadness. And this is Christmas. This is Christmas. This is what we see when we look to the Bible. But yet, in the dark street shines a light.

It's amazing what a little light can do. If you know, when you were little, or my kids, they always like a little light in the room at night because light can be scary. It can be uncomfortable, right? I mean, it's just, and we're going to do candlelight in a little bit. We're going to lower the light and we're going to shine our candles and do all that wonderful stuff, you know, just to show.

But there's something about a little light in a room that just makes you feel better, makes you feel comfortable. I know it does for me sometimes, too, when I'm in a dark place, right? I have a little light in my room because, not because I'm scared, because I have to get up and go to the bathroom, you know, because I'm getting older and I can't sleep through the entire night. Let's just be honest. But the major theme of the Bible is darkness and light, light and darkness.

In fact, there's this thing called the law of first mention. Anything that is mentioned first in the Bible, in biblical studies we learned this, when I went to seminary we learned this, when we were studying scripture. Anything that's mentioned for the first time is the purest form of what that is. It gets down to the root of what it means. And if we go back to the very beginning of the Bible, we see light and darkness.

The first time it's mentioned is in Genesis 1. And if you're following along, it says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep. And then it goes on to say, And the Spirit of the Lord was hovering over the waters.

And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And then John 12, it connects to this. It says, I have come as a light to shine in the dark world, so that all who put their trust, their trust in me, will no longer remain in darkness. See, the Bible is all about light and darkness.

God coming into the darkness. That's what Christmas is about. It's about darkness and God coming into the darkness and bringing light. That's why we have Christmas on the 25th. If you're not aware, the winter solstice is the 22nd, and on the Roman calendar is actually the 25th where we get Christmas.

It's not mistaking, and it was on purpose, that it was the darkest time of the year. We just experienced the darkest day of the year. The shortest day of the year. And that's emblematic of Christmas, of God coming in to dark places. And what's interesting, if we go back and look at the Gospels, we have four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Matthew and Luke talk about the Christmas story, and then Mark starts with the ministry of Jesus. But John does something different. John actually talks about the Christmas story, but in another way. He goes back in the beginning. He says this, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning, and through Him all things were made. With Him nothing was made that has been made. Meaning, everything comes from Jesus. He was there in the beginning, the creation of the earth. And then it goes on to say, And in Him was life.

And that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome it. The darkness did not overcome it. Well, Pastor, that doesn't sound like the Christmas story at all.

Of course it's the Christmas story. See, you don't get the actual things that happen, but John gives the significance of why he came. Christmas came because we needed light. We needed life in dark streets. God came so that our lives could be lit up.

The darkness in our lives could come to life. And no matter who you are, or where you've been, we all have darkness in our life. We've all had a little darkness in our life. We all have been there. It might be with your marriage.

It might be with your kids. It might be with your job, your emotions. Maybe you're experiencing some sadness in this season. Whatever it might be, we all kind of have some darkness. But the worst kind of darkness that we can have is spiritual darkness.

Spiritual darkness. And what does that mean, spiritual darkness? It's that we all have sinned. We all have sin on our lives. We all have to carry things that it's just too heavy for us to carry.

And God never meant for us to carry those things, but we carry them. And you're not meant to carry all. It's too hard to carry those things. We call this sin. But the thing is, maybe, you know, the difference between maybe those who know the Lord and those who don't know the Lord is that it's been dealt with for those who are believers.

Our yoke is easy and our burden is light because God came into the picture. He brought life into our darkness. Light into our lives. And honestly, you can't carry it. You can't carry it by yourself.

And God wants to carry it for you. Let me take you to the story of the woman. Many of you probably know this story found in the Gospel of John. The woman who committed a cult in the act of adultery, and they were putting her to death. Jesus walks into the picture, and the people were like, Oh, we're going to get Jesus.

Because we're going to ask him what would he do in this situation. Because the law of Moses says to stone her to death. But then you've got to be gracious and this and that. Let's see what Jesus does. And Jesus comes into the picture, and these people are gathered around.

They all have stones in their hands. They're getting ready to cast these stones. And Jesus looks at them and says, He who has no sin casts the first stone. And one by one each of those people dropped their stones and walked away because they could not say that they were without sin. No matter how good they thought they were, they could not say that they were without sin.

And Jesus turns to her, looks at her with love in his eyes, and says, Where are your accusers? Where are your accusers? And then he says this, Neither do I accuse you. Now go and sin no more. But I've never really thought about it, you know, studying the scripture, until a few years ago that we talk about that story a lot, but we never see the back half of that story where he turns back to the people and he tells them this.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have a light of life. You could have life. He says, What I did for her, I can do for you. If you just believe in me and receive me, it's that easy.

Well, is it that easy, Pastor? Well, yeah, it is, sort of, sort of. But for many of us, we might be resistant. We might be resistant to that. I know for me, wanting to, you know, I came in and out of churches my entire life, and before I knew the Lord.

I would walk into a church, and I'd hear a message, and I had this conviction in my heart, and I knew that the Lord, and when that time came to give my life to Jesus, I had a hard heart. I'd walk out. I was resistant to the gospel. I'd walk in, and I'd just walk out. I knew that there was something there that needed to happen, but I would walk in, and I'd walk out, service after service after service.

And maybe some of you are there, are there where you're in a place where, you know, I'm just resistant. But here's the deal. Here's how, what has to happen. You have to want it. You have to want Jesus.

You've got to, you don't want it. And that's why it says, let there be light. The idea of let is, you've got to let it happen. You've got to let it happen. I looked it up in the Webster's Dictionary.

Let means to permit to enter. To permit. Permit to enter. You've got to allow Him to enter your life because there's light available for you. Let me speak to those here today that may not know the Lord or may not have committed their life to the Lord.

There is light for your darkness. God wants to fix the darkness in your life. You just have to permit Him to come in. He is available for you. Light of life is available for you through Jesus Christ who gave His life.

You don't have to have a sad Christmas. You don't have to go through life over and over again trying to figure... You can have Christmas every day in your heart. You can have life in your heart day in and day out. And in a minute, we're going to do candlelight.

But I wanted to give you a little bit of an example of what I'm talking about today. You don't have to pull out your candles right away. We're going to do communion first. But I've got a little candle here. And what we're going to do in a minute, we're going to lower the lights and we're just going to do candlelight together and enjoy candlelight together.

But there's something about a little light. A little light in the darkness. And when I light up a candle, it starts there. And then a candle lights another candle. And another candle lights another candle.

And that keeps going and going. And another candle lights another candle. And there's light. There's life and there's light. But you've got to make that choice.

You've got to make the choice to pick up the candle, to pick up the lighter, and to let your light shine. Allow God to come into your life. Allow God to come into your heart. Allow God to be a part of your life. Permit Him to come in.

Permit Him to come in. Are you ready for God to take the darkness out of your life? This is what Christmas is about. This is why He came. So that you could have life.

And not only life, you could have life. So I want for a minute just to pray over this place. But wherever you are, wherever you are with God, I pray, if we bow our heads and close our eyes, I pray, Lord, in the name of Jesus, that you would touch people even as they sit there in their seats right now under the sound of my voice, that you would begin to penetrate the darkness. It's those people that are dealing with finances, those people that are dealing with their marriage, those who are dealing with really dark places in their life. They don't have answers.

Maybe they're going through a hard time with their kids. Maybe they just... Maybe they just... I just don't know what to do next, Lord, because it seems to be a dark world. But God, would you light them up?

Would you put the light of life in them? Would you give them hope? Would you give them peace? Would you give them love? Would you show them the joy of Christmas once again so that they can sing a Christmas carol once again?

Would you do that for them today, Jesus? With all heads bowed and all eyes closed, maybe there's somebody here today that's never given their life to Jesus for the first time. Would you permit Him to come into your life today? Would you permit Him to come in? Can He come in and make home in your life, in your heart?

Would you surrender to Him? Would you give Him your life? And would you give Him your year? As you start off this year, that you would make a confession of faith today? You can do that by praying this and believing this in your heart.

If you would pray with me, Father, I believe that you are the light of life. That you came on this world, in this world, on Christmas. That you lived, that you taught us, and you showed us, and you shared with us, and you gave us the way, Lord. And that you died, and that you rose again. And not only that, God, you're coming again.

We believe that you're coming again. Amen? You're coming again. Lord, I surrender my life to you today. Would you come into my heart?

Would you change me from the inside out? Would you make me a new person? Would you make me a new creation today? I walk with you from this day forward. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Can y'all give God some praise? Our band's getting ready. We're gonna... Can I ask y'all to stand for a minute?

We're gonna begin to sing Let There Be Light. Let There Be Light. We're gonna sing this worship song, and just sing it from your heart, okay? Just let that be your Christmas carol, okay? Just let it be your Christmas carol today.

Let there be light. Let there be light. Open our eyes To your heart Just to shine Let there be light. Let there be light. Open our eyes I'm grateful that we get to do this on Christmas, as we think about Jesus entering in this world.

In 1 Corinthians, it says, and Paul says this, For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that on the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread. Isn't that true? Isn't that interesting that it was it was a dark street for him that he was on he was in a place where he was betrayed and he would be betrayed not too long after that and then he would be put on a cross and he would face death but he gave thanks that's why we do this we're giving thanks give thanks this Christmas for all that God has done no matter what you're going through can you thank God this morning can you thank God this morning and then it says and when he had given thanks he broke that bread and he said this is my body which I have broken for you take eat and do this in remembrance of me would you break the bread together which represents him making you whole healing you of your sin healing you spiritually he would take it and then it says in the same way also he took the cup after supper and said this is my cup this is the new covenant of my blood do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me see this this this this cup is salvation we're drinking of the cup of salvation and if you still have not given your heart and if you still have not given your heart and if you still have not given your heart to Jesus today make this an opportunity for you to make that decision for Jesus to partake of the cup of salvation there's nothing magical in the elements it's the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is why we partake of the cup take partake of the cup with me today I'm going to bet somebody opened this for me anybody else have a problem yeah wow that was a sticky one thank you God for your spirit thank you spirit thank you spirit of the living God we thank you for your blood we thank you for your body now we're going to go into a time of candlelight if you could lower the lights as much as possible going back to that thought of let there be light one little light my sister when she was a little girl I will never forget it in church she had this little quote our family remembers it we hold it we hold it dearly it says let there be light it's it's I'm one little candle one little light one little light I love baby Jesus with all my might. So we're going to sing together. We're going to sing Silent Night together.

And I want us to just think about that as your lights shine in this room. Oh, everybody's got their candles on already. Y'all are ready to go. All right. All right.

Praise God. So we're going to sing Silent Night together. And let this be a significant moment in which we worship Him. Imagine if we had real candles today. How we could take this one candle in the whole room of life.

Would you be a light to the world? Would you be a light of life? Would you let God use you as a light of the whole world? Let's sing together. Let's sing together.

Jesus, Father, we thank you for Christmas. We thank you that you gave your life for us, that you came to this earth, that you gave up the throne. Lord, as we leave here today, let us hold on and cherish your spirit of who you are this Christmas season. We ask this in your name. Merry Christmas, everybody.

I hope you have a beautiful holiday. Again, we will be online next week. You can leave your candles right there in your seats. We'll pick those up later on and enjoy your family.