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Life Community Church
Life Community Church
Christmas Eve At Life Community: Found, Not Seeking
What if the best news of Christmas isn’t that you finally got it together, but that Jesus came for you before you could? We set aside the noise to read John 1 and talk honestly about the gap between our holiday expectations and the reality of frozen cinnamon rolls, missing batteries, and complicated feelings—and why that gap is exactly where grace shines.
We walk through the first Christmas as it actually happened: a birth in a stable, an announcement to night-shift shepherds, and a God who moved toward ordinary people in ordinary places. From there we press on a liberating shift—Scripture doesn’t call us seekers; it calls us lost. Lost people don’t need tips. They need to be found. That’s the difference between religion and Jesus: one demands cleanup before you belong; the other changes you from the inside out. We explore belief versus acceptance with a simple chair metaphor, showing how trust moves from opinion to surrender, and how sons and daughters live from identity, not for it.
You’ll hear about faith that holds when we don’t, a Savior who doesn’t shout directions from heaven but steps in, and a quiet, powerful moment where the room fills with candlelight. Darkness doesn’t leave first; light is shared. That’s how hope spreads. If you’re tired of pretending, curious about what it means to be found, or ready to trade performance for grace, this conversation will meet you where you are and invite you to take a real step toward Jesus.
If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help more people find the message. Where do you need light to break in today?
I think that video got longer and longer with every service to the point where backstage me and Natalie are like, How long is this video? It is so you you saw it for the first time, we saw it for the 10th time, and good lord, we do not know how to sing or no Christmas songs, apparently. Right? Well, welcome guys. Thanks for being here. Um, here's how we view Christmas Eve at Life Community Church. Like, we believe this is a pause. I don't know what happened to you in 2025, I don't know what that year was like for you, but Christmas Eve to us is a pause where we just get to pause as we look into 2026. And I know, man, there's a wide variety of stories in this room. And uh we want to look to scripture today. It's the shortest message of the year. Can I get an amen? Okay, all right. You guys don't have any time restrictions. You're like last night. You're not like noon and 1:30, so here we go. If you the more you laugh, the more you interject, the shorter I am. The more quieter you are, we're not going anywhere for a while. I got no plans. Oh, look at you guys laughing all of a sudden. There's a lot of scriptures that I think we could use. I chose John 1, so I want to read this, it's up on the screen, and we'll talk through this passage. John one. In the beginning, the word already existed. The word was with God, and the word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light, he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. To but to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn, not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. So the word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son. Let's pray. Jesus, today, God, we give you this moment. And God, I know every single person in this room has come and we got a lot of emotions, a lot of feelings, a lot of experiences from 2025. What we've brought today, maybe it's excitement, maybe it's joy, maybe it's heartache, maybe it's grief, uh, maybe it's a difficult time, maybe it's a beautiful time. God, wherever we are, God, thank you that you meet us where we are. Thank you that you love us here. You love us in this moment. God, we don't have to clean up for you. We don't have to perfect ourselves for you. You meet us right here. And this is the story of Christmas. This is what is so magical because this is what you've done. I pray these next couple moments, God, we would know that. We would experience that in Jesus' name. Amen. Here's why we believe Christmas is magical. We believe it's magical because we have come to celebrate Jesus. We don't deny incredible trees and lights and the beauty of all the things that come with culture and the things that happen to Christmas. We understand it, we embrace it, but we also understand the reason we gather is because we celebrate Jesus' birth. That's what we're doing. And so we understand that it's magical, but we also understand sometimes expectations don't meet reality. We recognize that. We recognize that sometimes whatever your expectation was, whether it is a everybody in the perfect pajamas with the perfect picture, with the best cinnamon rolls, smelling of cinnamon, smelling of pine, kids sleeping somewhat early, you getting the perfect gifts, whatever your expectations were, and then you get a reality. Step on a Lego about 6 a.m. The center of the cinnamon rolls is frozen. The turkey doesn't look like Pinterest. It doesn't look like the box, someone's crying. You don't know if it's an adult or a child. Nobody bought batteries for the toys that someone that grandma brought, right? Nobody bought batteries for this thing that now I got to go home with. I am so grateful that I get to be now be the guy that sends home the toys. Like, listen, I'm getting the she's playing drums at nine months. You better believe it because that's it. That's it. And just so we understand and we're clear, the gap between expectation and reality didn't start with us. This is not unnew to God. This is not an unknown thing. This is how the first Christmas went too. Jesus wasn't born in the perfect HGTV house. That's not where he was born. He wasn't born even in a hospital. He was born in mess. He was born in a stable, he was born where it's smelly. And who the angels showed up to weren't even kings and high high-level officials. It was shepherds, guys who were working out in the night field, smelling like sheep because they hung out with sheep. This is the invite. This is how it is. Humanity was distracted, humanity was exhausted, humanity was busy, and God showed up. This is the best news of all. So you don't have to come in and pretend it's perfect. You don't have to come in and pretend everything is great when it's not great. The prerequisite for God to show up is that you are living in chaos. This is the pass. The past is that you don't have to show up thinking you have it all together because we know this reality. Nobody in this room has it all together. Isaiah said this. I said, Here I am, here I am to a nation that did not call on my name. The story of Jesus is not that I found God. The story of Jesus is that He found you. He found me. That's the story of Jesus. And let's be honest, a lot of us in this room, we can tell by our conversations, we can tell how we slant the story. We like to be the hero in the story. We like to be the hero of the conversation. We like to be the hero of how things happen. We slant it in that way. And we say things like, I found God, or I discovered faith, or I figured this out. And that sounds impressive. You're impressing a lot of people with it. But that is the opposite of what the Bible says. Because God, when he found you, you weren't praying, you weren't fasting, you weren't journaling, you weren't listening to worship music. When he found you, some of you were in the middle of your pain, death, job loss, divorce, addiction. You weren't sober, you weren't strong, you wouldn't have your stuff together, you were exhausted, you were ashamed, you were pretending to be good and something that you're not. And some of you, we didn't even know we were lost. We had no clue. And God looks just like he did to the shepherd, and he says, Yep, you, I'll take you. Because he loves to help lost people. The Bible doesn't even call us seekers. You're not a seeker in this room. You know who we are in this room? We're lost. We are lost. The Bible doesn't call us seekers, it calls us lost. And lost people don't need directions, they don't need a new podcast, they don't, they don't need advice, they don't need encouragement. You know what lost people need? To be found. That's what lost people need. Because of salvation dependent on us finding God. Half of us in this room can't even find our car after we leave the mall. And we're expected to find God in the middle of all the things that we're going through. We put that pressure on ourselves. And if you don't believe it, watch a teenage girl when she loses her phone. What's that like? It's chaos. Thank you. I agree. It's chaos. You know why? Because here's what they don't calmly say. It's okay. It'll find me. You know why they don't say that? They don't say that. They're checking couches, they're checking jackets, they're checking freezers. That makes zero sense. You know what happens for me? This is humbling. Here's what I do after I've looked and frantically done it. And then your phone tells you, two feet away. That's fun. That's humbling, isn't it? This is us spiritually. Jesus is right here. He's not left. He is the one who comes looking. Jesus doesn't sit in heaven and say, you know what, if they really want me, they'll figure it out. He doesn't say that. He steps into humanity. Jesus didn't shout directions from heaven. He didn't drop a rule book and say, good luck. You know what he did? He showed up. He showed up. That's why when the angel came, it didn't say, unto you is born a suggestion. He said, No, unto you is born a savior, because you don't need a suggestion when you're drowning. You need someone to jump in. And that's what Jesus did. He jumps in. He found you at your worst. This is where religion gets exposed. Religion gets exposed because religion says clean up and then come to God. This is a Matthew 23 approach to the religious leader, to the Pharisee, to the Sadducee in the Bibles. These were the people on the outsides, they look like their stuff was together. On the outside, everyone look, look how impressive that guy is. Look how everything is, every T is crossed, every I is dotted, his life is perfect on the outside. And Jesus confronts him. Jesus says, Listen, you've taken this approach and it's an outside-in approach. You think if your outside's okay, the inside's good. And Jesus says, I think it's the other way. If your inside's okay, eventually your outside's gonna catch up. And that's what Jesus is consumed with. That's why Jesus says, this is not about cleaning up and coming to God. This is about you coming to me and I'll clean you up. I'm the one that cleans you up. And I know a lot of us we go, is this how life is supposed to feel? Is this what it's supposed to be like? Is this where I thought I would be at 49? Is this where I thought I would be at 25? 30? 80? And we live life with so much regrets. And Jesus says, No, this is not where I want you to be. There's more that I want you to experience. I have more for you. This is not the end. This is not all there is. And that's the hope of Christmas. If you've ever, like, no hands on this one, but have you ever lost a kid in the store? Seriously, no hands. I can honestly say I've not lost my kid. But before we had kids, we watched a kid that I say we lost. Like I would say, we are gonna do projects at our house. I know what that means. It means I'm gonna do projects at a house. When I say we lost the kid, it was Kelly. She lost the kid. And I I say that to you for one reason. If you ever want us to watch your kids, remember that story. Okay, I don't wanna, I don't wanna do that. We have enough of our own. But if you've ever lost a kid, okay, that kid is not thinking, I should apply the principles my parents taught me. You know what they're doing? They're freaking out. They're panicking, they're grabbing the leg of a stranger. And here's here's exactly what we're not saying. You know, this is a good growth opportunity for our kids to grow up. This is a good teaching moment for them. We're not saying that. Here's why. We would drop everything because that's your kid, that's your baby. Even if they look like your spouse, you're that's still your baby, right? Even if they act like your spouse, that's still your baby. You would drop everything, and that's what God does with you. You weren't rejected, you were recognized. God recognizes you. God sees you. And if you're in the room and you go, listen, he doesn't see me because of my chaos, I would say this boldly. He draws nearer, nearer, the more broken we are. And that doesn't mean I'm I'm hoping you get in a tough spot so you see Jesus, but I do know Jesus will go to great lengths to get your attention. And that's what his aim is to get your attention. If you're a stubborn person in this room, this is frustrating. It's frustrating because we got to be told things more than once, twice, maybe ten times. Right? This is what he's trying to do. And this changes how we live. Because when you realize that Jesus found you, you don't have to pretend, you don't have to perform, you you don't have to be perfect. Found people, find people. Forgiven people, forgive people. Love people, we gotta, we don't have to stop trying to earn love. This is following Jesus. It's not try harder, it's trust deeper. Some of you go, I don't even know why I'm here this afternoon. I don't even know why I'm here. I can just tell you you didn't wander in here by accident. You're not here because someone guilt texted you. You're not here because you randomly just tuned in or showed up. You're here because Jesus has been chasing you longer than you've been running. That's why you're here. You may be in an identity crisis. You may be wondering what life is all about, but hear me. Last night, when I'm putting my seven-year-olds to bed, I asked them as they sat in service last night, and then the first service today, I asked them last night, What did you hear? What did you see? Maya said, Well, my hand burnt from the candle. I'm like, okay. I didn't know you played drums. I'm like, that's questionable. What else? And then this is what this is what Maya said. Maya goes, I remember this, but I don't know why I remember this. Jesus found me. I said to Kelly later, I said, amongst the coloring, amongst the we don't think they're paying attention, the line that stood out her to her the most was Jesus found me. And to me, that's what it's about. If you don't remember one thing, I don't care if you remember the drums, I don't care if you remember the lights, I don't care if you remember stupid people, or not stupid people, but stupid songs. Oh you can tell this is the fourth time, can't you? Sorry, kids, I said the S word. Don't say stupid. Remember this, if nothing else. Jesus is looking and he wants to find you. That's what it comes down to. Because the greatest miracle isn't that you found God, it's that God never stopped looking for you. He never stopped looking for you. And Jesus didn't wait for us to get better. He came because we couldn't. We couldn't get better. Tonight I want to be clear following Jesus is not joining life community church or any church. Following Jesus is not becoming religious. Following Jesus is not even promising to do better. Following Jesus is letting Jesus find you, discovering who he is and the purpose that he has for your life. Jesus already did the hard part. He came, he died, he rose again, and all he is asking from us is to respond. Ephesians 2 says, God saved you by his grace when you believed, and you can't take credit for this, it's a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things that we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Do you hear what Paul is saying? Paul is going, guys, listen, if you make, if if we're left to figure things out on our own, we make it about us. We make it about how well we did, how hard we worked. And Paul is saying, guys, this is a gift. And you might see these later today. Am I early, early people that open up your present? Like you're the one that's like, Mom, please, just one. And then mom gives you the one that are underwear, which is like, why do I get underwear? Like that that should be a necessity, not a gift, mom. Like, you should want me to wear underwear, right? You're gonna get a lot of these. It would be ridiculous if I said, hey, who on December 26th still hasn't unwrapped their presence? You'd be like, Well, that's ridiculous. I was given a gift. That's what Ephesians is talking about. You've been given a gift. I can accept it, I can reject it, but I cannot remain neutral about it. When I was a junior in high school, I was at a FCA meeting, and there was a missionary kid there. She lived overseas her whole life and she just moved back to the States, and we're having a question on faith, and I was wondering. And she said this statement to me, it's forever lived in my brain, etched in my brain, it's forever been part of my story. It's something that I walked away and pondered, and she said to me, Jamie, if I'm wrong about following Jesus, what did I lose? But if I'm right about following Jesus, what did you lose? And I walked away that night. There's no angels that showed up, there's no moment where I knelt and prayed, but I walked away understanding that I could no longer be neutral with Jesus. I either had to go all in or all out. There was no neutral. What Paul is saying in this moment is believing is acknowledging the facts of Jesus. It's a great starting point. You can believe that Jesus existed, you can believe that He He did powerful things, you can even believe He died on the cross, you can even believe He rose from the dead, you can believe all those things. Belief happens here. Scripture even says this kind of belief alone isn't enough. James says, You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you. Good for you. Even the demons believe this and are live in fear or tremble in terror. He's saying that means belief can exist without trust, without surrender, without relationships. Belief is saying, I think this is true. Accepting involves admitting your need for grace, trusting Jesus to forgive not someone else's sins, your sins. Surrendering control of your life to him, entering a relationship with him, not just holding an opinion. This happens in the heart. This is the reason John 1 12 says, but to all who believed and accepted. Belief wasn't enough. Accepted what? Accepted him. Believed in him. Yes, accepted him. You now have the right to be called sons and daughters, children of the Most High. Why is this important? It's important to understand our role and how Jesus sees us. Sons and daughters. If I had a chair right here, believing is like a chair is right here, and I'm believing that it can hold you. Accepting is actually sitting in the chair. I can sit here and go, I believe it could hold me. I think it could hold me. Accepting is going, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna give it a shot. And I'm gonna sit here. I'm gonna walk deeper. Believing recognizes who Jesus is. Accepting relies on what Jesus has done. And this is the grace of God that Paul talks about to Timothy. He says, if we are unfaithful, he remains faithful. You know why? He remains faithful? Because he cannot deny who he is. You know what that means, you guys? That means that no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, no matter how many times you've been unfaithful, he's never been unfaithful to you. He remains faithful to you because that is who he is. That's his character. You don't have to understand everything, you don't have to fix everything, you don't have to promise perfection. You do have to, however, stop running. You gotta stop running. And if you're in this room tonight and you say, listen, our culture, you guys, it's so loud. It is so fake. Man, it is so fake. If you're in this room and you're like, I am so tired of fake things, I just want authentic, I want authenticity, I want real forgiveness, I want real hope. I want a fresh start. I want Jesus. Like to me, this is what this is what it's all about. Understanding that Jesus is not just looking, man, he wants to find you. He wants to find you. I am gonna ask you not to stand. I'm not gonna ask you to come forward, but I am gonna ask you to respond. And here's how I'm gonna ask you to respond. And maybe this is different for you. Because I firmly believe this is between you and the Lord. I don't believe this is you and anybody else. I believe there's other people in this room that have prayed for you. I believe there's people in this room that might have been against you. I think there's people in this room that are rooting for you. I also think there might be people in this room that hope you lose. That's why I say this isn't a moment of you and them. This is a moment of you and the Lord. That's it. So I'm gonna ask you to do something as I pray. I'm gonna just ask you to raise your hands if something I say resonates with you. If you go, wow, that resonates with me. And here's why I would have you raise your hands. Because it's easy for you to walk away from here and go, okay, I believe some of that stuff. But when you do this, you're acknowledging, okay, God, I want it, I want more. I want a little bit more. I want more than what I came out in with. I want to be different when I leave this place. You're acknowledging I'm done with the pretending. You're acknowledging I'm done with the running. You're acknowledging I want to start something new because here's the reality. Jesus didn't come to clean you up, he came to change you. Not a better version of you, transform you into a new creation. That means the not only is the old pass away, behold, all things are new. Nobody else can offer what Jesus offers. And here's the other thing I'm gonna say. Last thing. Test him in this. Not me. Not your mom who's been praying for you, your dad, not your grandma. Test him in this. Go all in and watch what the Lord will do. Watch what he'll do. And so when you raise your hand, again, maybe someone next to you sees it, maybe they don't. It's not up to them. It's not for them, it's for him, it's for you to acknowledge I need this. You came in thinking, I'm gonna I'm gonna give this gift to mom, I'm gonna show up to church. I'm gonna give this gift to dad, I'm gonna show up to church. That's great, that's amazing. I'm glad you're here. But that's not what God had planned. God wanted this holy moment where you stopped and you allow him to find you. That's what he wanted. Let's pray. Jesus, I don't come to you because I'm good. I come to you today because you are. And God, I admit I've sinned. I admit that I've run from you. And I admit right now, God, I acknowledge right now I need you. God, first and foremost, I thank you for finding me. When I couldn't find you, you found me. I believe that you died for my sin. I believe you rose again to give me new life. I believe your words, when you say the old is gone, behold, all things are new, and you want to radically change my life. And I surrender my past, I surrender my shame, I surrender my future, and I surrender control. From this moment on, I call you Savior, I call you Lord, and I declare today I belong to you. I am forgiven, I am free, I am found in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Can we celebrate with the men and women who did that today? Listen, I don't I don't want to be. I don't this isn't I'm not trying to be arrogant. I'm not trying to, I'm not hear me right now. Listen, hundreds of people raised their hands over the last four services. You know what that tells me right off the bat? People are done. They are done with what culture gives them. They are done following their flesh. They just want Jesus, they just want change. Amen. Today I don't want to end with applause though. I don't want to end with loud, I want to end with light. So you guys start lighting your candles. Use these candles up front if you want. Guys, I recognize, listen, I recognize that some of you are walking into Christmas with joy. I recognize some of you are dealing with grief. I recognize some of you are dealing with anxiety, regret. But here's the promise of Christmas. The light of Christ does not wait for the darkness to leave before it shines. Pretty soon this whole room is gonna be glowing, not because the darkness disappeared, but because the light was shared. Guys, this is how Jesus came. This is how hope spreads. This is how your story changes people. So as you hold this candle, remember this. You're not alone, you're not forgotten, and no matter how dark the night feels, the light has come, the light is here, the light is for you. The light is Jesus. Will you stand with me right now?