Amen. We'll do have a seat. I hope you've enjoyed this morning so far. My name is Graham.
I've got the delight of being the minister here at Brunsfield, and it's a true joy. It's always a joy to see the nativity.
I'll be honest and say I thought this morning has been really quiet. I don't know about you, it's been really quiet.
So what I thought we'd do to get the room a bit energized is just to turn to your neighbor, and here's what I want you to discuss.
But what is your favorite Christmas film? Okay, 30 seconds, make a lot of noise.
What is your favorite Christmas film? I must say as well, if you have a creche kids or anybody under preschool,
we've got creche and different activities next door if you want to make use of that.
So that's through the doors behind me. Favorite Christmas film, 30 seconds.
Favorite Christmas film. It's a big question, isn't it? There's a lot to choose from,
but maybe shout out if yours comes up on the screen. We've got the, this is why I like to categorize them, okay?
We've got the ones in the classic Christmas category. So we've got the snowman.
Very little love for the snowman, I'm hearing. We have the Muppets Christmas Carol.
Anyone like that one? That's a classic, yeah? We have, and this was voted number one actually,
favorite ever Christmas film, It's a Wonderful Life. Never seen it.
Fourth one, Miracle on 34th Street. That's a classic, isn't it? Okay, so then we've got the
modern day Christmas classics. Now, this is maybe where I start to kick in. Okay, this for me was
Christmas for years. Was it Home Alone? It's a good one. We have the holiday. Yeah, oh wow.
One very keen holiday fan. Okay, definitely this one. Love Actually.
Hugh Grant, doing his best Hugh Grant thing. We love Hugh Grant. I mean, here's the last one. I love this one.
Polar Express. It's a good one, is it? Boys and girls, we've even got the ones that are in there,
and this is what I like to call the ones that the adults pretend not to like, but actually love category, okay?
So, is it just me? Right? We pretend not to love that one, and we definitely, adults, we definitely pretend
not to like this one. Okay? This is my life at the minute, is this film. Incredible. But I wonder,
here we go, we're thinking about Christmas films. I wonder if you've ever thought about the fact that
all these films that we love have essentially got the same storyline. Essentially got the same storyline,
okay? So, they start out happy. Life is good. People are friends. Things are going well. But then
for one reason or another, the happiness, it turns to heartache. And smiles turn to frowns.
And laughter turns to sadness. And joy turns to pain. So, what do we need in our heartache? Well,
we need a hero. We need an unexpected hero. We need a brave hero. We need a selfless hero who will
sacrifice themselves for the good of the ones that they love. And then because of the hero,
what do we end up with? We end up with harmony. When we're enemies, they become friends. Wrongs are put
to right. Fighting turns to hugging. It is happy, heartache, hero, harmony. Essentially, it's the script.
It's the plot. It's the storyline to every good Christmas film. And it's the storyline that
captures our hearts at this time of year like no other, isn't it? Happy, heartache, hero, harmony.
Here's what I wanted to suggest to you this morning, very quickly, very simply, is that there's a reason
that that captures our hearts like no other at this time of year. And the reason is that the story that
we love to see acted out in our Christmas films is this true story that we see lived out in the pages
of the Bible. So, like our beloved Christmas films, the Bible tells us that in the beginning, things were
happy. So, because, you see, right at the heart of the Bible is a beautifully loving God. And he created
the universe. He created the stars. He created the seas. He gave life to every single living being.
And God looked on everything that he had made, and he declared that it was good. It was good.
On the pinnacle of his creation, he created man. He created male and female, rather. He created mankind.
Every single human being loved and known and valued and stamped with his image, made beautifully in the
image of this beautiful God. And God looked on everything that he had made with this addition
of man and woman. He declared that it was very good. You see, here at the beginning of the Bible story
is the creator living in delightful unity with his creation. The Bible's opening scene is a joyously
happy one. But that happiness, it soon gives way to heartache. Adam and Eve, we read God's first
human beings, they turn away from God. They believe Satan's lie, that God isn't all that he's cracked up
to be, and they rebel against him by rejecting his words. And Houston, we have a problem, because sin
sin has stained the set. Sin has separated us from our creator, God. And sin's effects run deep into the
fabric of every single one of us. Now, when I was young, my brothers and I, we used to love playing
this game that we called football in the hall. And we called it football in the hall because the game
that we used to play was called football, and the arena that we used to choose to play this game
was the hall. So don't ever let anyone tell you that Scots aren't a creative bunch, okay? So this
was football in the hall, the game that we loved to play. But we didn't just restrict this game to
our hall. We used to go on tour, and we used to take it to other people's halls to play this game.
Remember this one time we went to my cousin's hall, and there we are, we're playing football in the hall.
My cousin, keen to impress, he swipes with his right, takes a kick, and he gloriously sends the ball
into the net, so it's just the wall. Hits the ball into the wall. But what he doesn't realize is he
gloriously hits the ball into the wall. He actually knocks down my auntie's pristine, expensive, top of
the range, loved plate, china plate, smash on the floor. Now, what do we do? We look at him, he looks at
us. There we are. We're desperately trying to piece it back together. We're desperately trying to
pretend, cover it up like nothing's happened. We're desperately trying to get on with things
and pretend that everything is cool. Trying to convince ourselves that everything will be okay.
But we forget that my aunt is savvy, and she walks in, she takes one look at the plate that we've tried
to put back together, and she knows the plate, and she loves the plate, and she sees straight to the truth.
You see, this is what I love about the Bible, is that it tells me the truth about my world that I live in.
It tells me the truth about me. It tells me that I am beautiful, and it tells me that I am broken.
It tells me, actually, that I am just like that plate. And it tells you that you are just like that plate.
And it tells us that our world is just like that plate. No matter how we try and fix ourselves, no matter
what we try and tell ourselves, no matter what we try and fill ourselves with, we are beautiful, yet we are
broken. We are just like that plate. And that brokenness that we all experience is something that we simply
cannot shake. What do we need? We need a hero. We need a hero. In fact, we don't just need a hero, we need a
savior who's going to save us from our sin and our brokenness. Now, where is this hero going to come from?
Well, he's not going to come from within. Remember, there was a song when I was growing up by this group
called M People that was Search for the Hero Inside Yourself. Well, I had to look inside myself, and there is no
hero in there. The answer, the hero through our story is not going to be found within. The hero in our story needs to
come from above. And the wonderful truth that we see in the Bible is that even in the aftermath of sin, even in the
aftermath of the consequences, God promised to heal the heartache. He promised to heal the heartache. God promised to
send a savior who would be the light who would dispel the darkness. God promised to send a king who would
come and tackle our sin problem head on. And we started thinking last week as a church that God
described this hero that he would send. Described him as the wonderful counselor. And he described him as the
mighty God. In other words, you don't just need a king who's going to be able to offer you wise words of
counsel. He's not going to be able to just lead you with his words. Actually, he's going to be God in the
flesh who's going to be able to do something, who has the authority and the power to do something to lift
you out of your heartache. So what do we celebrate at Christmas time? Having heard the promise of the
hero that God would send, we look in the manger and we see the hero's grand unveiling. You see, Jesus is the
hero who has stepped down into our heartache. And what did this hero do? Well, this God-man lived a
totally obedient life. The one who is worthy of all praise would live a wholly selfless life. And the life
that would start in the crib would end in the cross. As God's perfect son takes the hit that you and I
deserve for the Lord deserve for our sin upon himself. And why? Well, this hero came to make a way for our
heartache to be turned into harmony. You see, God's hero came to make a way for you and I to be forgiven
of our sin and to be made right with our Creator. God's hero came to make a way for you and I to be
to be begun, to be put back together. God's hero came to change us. God's hero came to lift us out of
our darkness. And God's hero came to make a way for you and I to be tapped back into the very reason
that you and I were created in the first place. And that's to worship our God, to glorify him, and to
enjoy him forever. Friends, if you ask me, the reason that we love our Christmas films
is that deep down they tap into something that we long for would be true. And so as we look at the
baby in the manger, as we look at the truth of the child Jesus in the crib, as we think about the
wonder of the wonder of the man Jesus on the cross, friends, the story is true. The story is true.
The question is, will you make God's story your story? One of the films that I always love to watch
at Christmas time, and it's always on, isn't it, is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
C.S. Lewis, the man who wrote these books, essentially, he wrote them with the same plot
line as every other Christmas film, didn't he? Happy, heartache, hero, harmony. But here's the
thing, as Lewis was telling his stories, he realized he was telling not just a story that
he liked, he was telling a story that he himself was in. There are many great lines in those films,
many great lines in the films, but here's my favorite from Mr. Beaver, great character. Mr.
Beaver, he's speaking about Aslan, this character that Lewis has created to give us a picture of
Jesus. Mr. Beaver, anticipating the day when Aslan returns, says this, there's an old rhyme in these
parts, that wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight. At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no
more. When he bears his teeth, winter meets its death. And when he shakes his mane, we shall have
spring again. See, at Christmas we celebrate the arrival of heaven's hero. And we think about and
we see a God with open arms who is beckoning us as his creatures to come home to him and to have life
through his son. We finish with this. This is John chapter 1.
Yet to all who did receive him, that is Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right
to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or husband's will,
but born of God. Friends, think about your story this morning. Think about the Christmas stories that we love
to see. We love to see played out in front of us. Here's my question as we end this morning. Will you make your
story God's story? Maybe just as we close, why don't we just take a minute and let's just reflect on that
together. And then I'll lead us and close us in prayer. Dear God, we thank you so much for Christmas.
And Father, we ask that in amongst all the fun and all the festivities and all the presents,
that you would help us not to miss the greatest gift of all. Help us to not just see Jesus,
but to accept Jesus as our King and as our Saviour and as our Hero. Father, thank you so much for
this morning. Thank you that you're a great God. And we praise you now in Jesus' name. Amen.