Fake Always Fails | Finding Real Peace in a World that Feels Fake (A Charlie Brown Christmas)

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[indiscernible voices]

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- You guys are Charlie Browning, aren't you?

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You're doing the wah-wah thing.

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Hey, we got we got to take it all again.

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All again from the top.

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- Hey, I'm Jen, thanks for joining us.

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- And I'm Andy. So glad you're here.

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Hey, we are serious about

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not taking ourselves too seriously around here,

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and that's coming out loud and strong through

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this whole series called Christmas at the Movies.

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We're looking at some of our favorite Christmas movies,

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like some of the ones that are already on your list

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to watch with your friends or your family,

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and how just below the surface there's some fun stuff

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and some deep spiritual truths.

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- Yeah, we're in week two of Christmas at the Movies,

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and our Lead Pastor Kyle Ranson is going to be

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sharing with us A Charlie Brown Christmas.

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- That's right.

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- So I don't know you personally, but whether

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you are looking for direction or hope or purpose,

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we've got it for you today.

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- I mean, I think after it snows

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I can say Merry Christmas now, right? Merry Christmas.

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If you're in the room, are you are you done with snow already?

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Okay, okay. Deal. Deal.

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If you're online, maybe not for you.

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Maybe you're in Florida and maybe you're not. Okay. Deal.

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Every time we sing together, we try our best

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to remind ourselves that so many of these songs

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come directly out of Scripture.

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And so, so many times when we sing together,

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we might throw a scripture on screen,

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or maybe one of us reads a scripture to anchor us

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that these truths we're singing are not new,

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they're ancient and they're true, they're deeply true.

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And I don't think there's any better way to anchor us

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in Scripture than one of the most iconic Christmas clips

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of all time from A Charlie Brown Christmas.

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So I want you to stay standing,

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and we're going to watch our first movie clip.

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- I guess Linus was right,

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I shouldn't have bought this little tree.

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Everything I do turns into a disaster.

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I don't even know what Christmas is about.

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Doesn't anybody know what Christmas is really all about?

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- Sure, Charlie Brown,

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I can tell you what Christmas is all about.

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Lights, please.

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And there were in the same country

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shepherds abiding in the field,

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keeping watch over their flock by night.

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And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,

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and they were sore afraid.

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The glory of the Lord shone round about them.

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And the angel said, "Fear not, for behold,

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I bring you tidings of great joy,

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which shall be to all people.

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For unto you is born this day in the city of David

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a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

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And this shall be a sign unto you,

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ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,

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lying in a manger."

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And there was with the angel a great multitude

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of the heavenly host and God, saying,

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"Glory to God in the highest,

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and on earth goodwill toward men."

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That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

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End scene. There we go.

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That was, uh --

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Guys, we worked so hard on that.

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It took, I mean, gosh, I don't know,

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30-40 seconds of practice to get to that level.

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I promise that's the last live active scene

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we're going to see today, by the way.

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So please don't leave. That's -- oh, don't aww at me.

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I'm not doing more of that. No way.

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Hey, if you're new today, welcome. My name is Kyle.

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I'm a Lead Pastor here at Crossroads.

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Glad that you are with us.

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We've been singing these songs

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and they're about the real Christmas story.

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And that's what we're going to get into today

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as we talk about Charlie Brown Christmas.

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It's a story about searching for what's real

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in a world that increasingly just seems fake.

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The Christmas story, as odd as it might be,

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as unexpected, as imperfect even,

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the one thing it is, is real.

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We're going to keep singing together

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about a piece of that story that says that

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Jesus was born in a manger and eH is the King.

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Let's keep singing together.

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- Come on, sing it again. Glory!

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- Father, you seem to be --

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You seem to be a God of collisions

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that You would take a humble manger

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where animals would feed out of

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and You would bring a throne room into that scene.

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A beautiful collision that we could do ridiculous things,

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like act out Charlie Brown Christmas

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and then have a holy, sacred moment 60 seconds later.

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You're a god of beautiful collisions.

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You've proven it time and time again in my life and my heart.

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And so we need one in this moment.

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Would You do it again for us today

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with each one that can hear my voice?

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Would You collide in like no one else can?

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Would You bring all that comes with Your throne room

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into our mess and be the God who You've always been?

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I trust You. I have found You to be good.

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And I praise You because You're my Savior.

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I pray all this because of you, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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Yeah. I am so glad no one asked me to be Charlie Brown.

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That's what I'm glad about, you know?

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Hey, why don't you turn to somebody around you

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in the room, say, "Hey, Merry Christmas."

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Glad to be here with you.

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If you're online with us, so glad you're on with us, too.

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- Oh, my God.

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- Remember when you were a kid and you got

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that one gift that just sent you shouting for joy?

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What if you could get that feeling back this year?

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You're invited to an experience for the whole family,

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with cookies and snow and candlelight

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and the gift that can still change your life.

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Join us for Christmas Eve with Crossroads.

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Get service times and locations at Crossroads.net.

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- Hey, this song is that we just heard

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are just a glimpse of what Christmas Eve at Crossroads

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is gonna be like, it's going to be amazing.

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So no matter if you can attend in person

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or watch with us online, hey,

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it is one of the best things

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you're going to do the entire Christmas.

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And honestly, one of the best things you could invite

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a friend or a family member or a neighbor or coworker to.

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Maybe somebody who

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wouldn't normally say yes to a church thing.

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It's going to be beautiful, meaningful, and kid friendly.

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We're going to be live streaming the whole thing

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starting at 7 p.m. on December 23rd.

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You can head to crossroads.net

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to find all the in-person service times as well.

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- And the worship is going to be incredible.

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If you want to be a part of making it happen,

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we would really love that because we have thousands

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and thousands of new people coming to our sites.

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So if you live near a site, we need volunteers

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from parking people in the cold

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to handing out hot chocolate with a smile on your face,

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pointing people to where the bathrooms are.

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We're all about wanting to make this place feel welcoming

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and that new people belong here.

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So again, crossroads.net to sign up to volunteer.

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- That's right.

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And finally, as we step into the holiday season

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and Christmas and the end of the year,

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like all non-profits, December giving is crucial

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for our church, for Crossroads' financial health.

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We intentionally run on really thin financial margins

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around here, because we believe that

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every dollar that comes in

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should go right back out into helping people.

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- Just last month, we spent an extra $100,000

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to support families who had lost their SNAP benefits.

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That's who we are.

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- Yeah. And that's just one example.

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That's the most recent example.

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But even when there's a natural disaster,

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like there was recently with the fires in California,

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our church turns on a dime and spends money

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that it didn't plan for, that it didn't budget

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because it knows there's a need.

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And that's just who we're going to be.

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That's not to pat ourselves on the back.

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That's just to say, hey, we intentionally

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run on thin margins because we're never going to

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sit on money when it could go to good use

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serving somebody in the community.

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- Yeah. Because of the generosity

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of people in our community.

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Yeah, because Jesus wants us to bring hope

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to the world and not just sit still.

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- Yeah. So consider giving this season at Crossroads.net/give.

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And maybe you've made a 10X commitment.

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Hey, this is a great time to make progress towards that.

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God's got big things planned for us in 2026

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and our generosity helps fuel it.

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- Speaking of light and dark places,

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today's movie, A Charlie Brown Christmas

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pulls on those same threads. Here's Kyle Ranson.

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- You mean Linus.

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- Here's Linus.

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Back to Linus for week two of Christmas at the Movies.

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- Christmas at the Movies is perfect with some coffee.

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Don't need that ring-a-ding ding-a-dong,

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ding-a-ding talking.

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So if we see the glow of a cellular telephone

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we'll take 'em and we'll break 'em,

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and we won't say we were mistaken.

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You've been warned. Merry Christmas.

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- My name is Kyle. I'm the lead pastor here at Crossroads.

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Today, week two of Christmas at the Movies.

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Hopefully you got your popcorn because we got a good one today.

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Charlie Brown Christmas first debuted December 9th, 1965

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and has played every single year since.

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In fact, this year is the 60th anniversary of the film.

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So chances are you've seen the movie,

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but you might not remember all of the details.

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When I chose it to preach on this weekend,

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I actually hadn't watched it in years.

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I didn't choose it for the story.

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I kind of remember it being like this nice Christmas story

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with like Linus reading the Bible in it or whatever,

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but I chose it because I love the music.

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Oh, yeah. Vince Guaraldi. Can I get an amen?

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Nothing says Christmas like this album.

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I play this thing nonstop,

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literally every single day, all holiday season.

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It's just something about the music.

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It just sounds real.

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Vince Guaraldi, who plays it all, wrote the music,

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he actually told the sound engineers

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to leave in the room noise.

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And so when you listen to it, you can hear,

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like, the musicians shifting in their seats.

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You can hear the little imperfections,

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their fingers scratching string.

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It's just real and I love it.

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Now the holiday music that I least love

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is the exact opposite: Pentatonix. [music playing]

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- [mock vomits] Oh, I hate it. I don't understand it.

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If you like Pentatonix, God bless you.

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My whole family likes Pentatonix.

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I don't get it.

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I don't understand a cappella music, period.

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People are always like, "Well, Kyle, it's so cool.

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I mean, all of those things that sound like instruments,

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it's actually just people's voices."

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"Oh, really?

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Do you know what's more impressive

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than people pretending to play mouth drums?

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People who can play actual drums, that's what.

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More impressive."

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If you like Pentatonix,

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just be a consistent person in your life.

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You should get into hobby horsing.

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People, like, ride those fake little horses.

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Just this year, when the Kentucky Derby comes on,

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don't watch it because you like things that are fake

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more than things that are real. That's my point.

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That's my point. Now everyone hates me. Awesome. Okay.

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The point is, I picked it because I love the music.

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The music is just real.

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But when I watched the movie, it was not what I remembered.

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If you haven't watched the movie in a little bit,

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I'll kind of jog your memory here,

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some basic beats of the movie.

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Charlie Brown is our main character.

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He is perpetually discontent, borderline depressed

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which makes sense because all the other kids in town

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just basically bully him all day long, nonstop.

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The culmination of the whole story happens

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at the Christmas play.

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All the other kids, they send Charlie Brown out

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on an important mission, it's to buy a fake

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but perfect tree for their Christmas play.

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But instead, Charlie Brown chooses a real but flawed tree.

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And when he returns, the kids aren't very happy.

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This is what happens.

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- We're back.

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- Boy, are you stupid, Charlie Brown.

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- What kind of a tree is that?

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- You were supposed to get a good tree.

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Can't you even tell a good tree from a poor tree?

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- I told you he'd goof it up.

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He's not the kind you can depend on to do anything right.

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- You're hopeless, Charlie Brown. Completely hopeless.

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- Rats.

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- You've been dumb before, Charlie Brown,

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but this time you really did it. [laughing]

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- What a tree. [all laughing]

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- I mean, what? That is cold.

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They would not let you put that on TV for kids right now.

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That'd be like a rated R film the way they just --

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His own dog just laughs and runs off.

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Now, if you don't remember what happens next.

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Next is where Charlie Brown goes to Linus

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and he's like, "I don't know, Christmas is all about.

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Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?"

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And Linus walks out. He's like, "I can tell you

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what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

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And then Linus recites Luke 2

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word for word, straight from the Bible.

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And I don't know if you remember what happens afterwards,

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but Charlie Brown has a spiritual breakthrough.

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He understands Jesus for the first time,

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gives his life to Christ,

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gets baptized in the skating pond. It is --

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Sorry, that's not what happened. That would make sense.

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That would actually make sense.

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Here's the actual ending.

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- First prize?

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Oh well, this commercial dog is not going to ruin my Christmas.

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I've killed it.

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Oh, everything I touch gets ruined.

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- I never thought it was such a bad little tree.

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It's not bad at all, really.

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Maybe it just needs a little love.

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- Charlie Brown is a blockhead,

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but he did get a nice tree.

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[humming: Hark! [The Herald Angels Sing]

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- What's going on here?

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- Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

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[Singing: Hark! [The herald angels sing]

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- So that's how it ends.

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Just to recap what we just watched,

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in case you were paying attention.

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Charlie Brown has one more depressed moment.

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He thinks he killed his tree.

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All the mean kids come.

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They magically take all the fake commercialization

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of Christmas stuff, transform the tree.

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Lucy gets in one last insult:

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Charlie Brown is a blockhead,

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but he did get a nice tree.

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No he didn't. What are you talking about?

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Then the kids don't say sorry

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for the relentlessly bullying of Charlie Brown.

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They just shout Merry Christmas

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and everyone sings Hark! the Herald Angels sing,

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roll credits.

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I just want to make one observation about that,

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just one simple observation, which is:

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That doesn't make any sense.

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That makes no sense at all.

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But despite that, this movie has endured for 60 straight years.

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Why? What is it about the story?

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Well, I would say despite its flawed ending,

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Charlie Brown taps into something deep.

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In fact, if you found yourself at this church,

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I'm going to guess that Charlie Brown's story

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actually mirrors your story.

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Because, see, the story of Charlie Brown

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is the story of a kid who desperately wants

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to find real happiness and real peace

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in a world that just increasingly seems fake.

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If Charlie Brown has a flaw, it's that

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he can't settle for fake. He just can't. He can't stomach it.

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In fact, he wants the real thing so much

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that he'll choose it, even if it's flawed.

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And it turns out God will too.

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Let's pray before we go any further.

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God, thank You so much for stories that

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we can sink our teeth into that we can see Your truth through.

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I'm asking that through all the clips

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and all the shenanigans today,

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the thing that would be the brightest

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and the clearest is Your gospel for us. Amen.

00:31:16

The real Christmas story and the real story

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of the making of Charlie Brown have one thing in common,

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which is if you were to script them,

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you would never write them the way that they actually happened.

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The story behind the making of A Charlie Brown Christmas

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is not that the Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz,

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had this candy cane and sugar drop

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just like magical dream of writing

00:31:38

this beautiful kid's Christmas story, though he wrote it.

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It's not that there was this prayerful, strategic decision

00:31:48

to try to get the Bible read in front of

00:31:50

one of the largest single audiences in human history,

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though that's exactly what happened

00:31:55

the night that it aired.

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It's not that at all.

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The real story behind the making

00:31:59

of Charlie Brown Christmas is that it was

00:32:02

a marketing scheme cooked up by the ad agency

00:32:06

behind one of the largest corporate conglomerates

00:32:09

on the planet, Coca-Cola.

00:32:12

It was literally a ploy to commercialize Christmas

00:32:16

and make more cash.

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Some of you were like, you just ruined Christmas.

00:32:20

Why did you tell me that?

00:32:22

Sorry to pee in your eggnog.

00:32:23

That's the real story. That's it.

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Now, the ad agency, they didn't go to Schultz.

00:32:28

They knew that he wouldn't, he wouldn't take the idea.

00:32:30

Instead they went to his producer, Lee Mendelson.

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There was a New York Times feature about this

00:32:35

that says this: The show originally sprang

00:32:39

from a failed documentary Mendelson

00:32:41

had tried to make about Schultz.

00:32:42

No networks wanted it.

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But after Charlie Brown and the gang were featured

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on the cover of time magazine, Coca-Cola's ad agency,

00:32:49

McCann Erickson, got the idea for a holiday special

00:32:52

and approached Mendelson.

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Desperate after his documentary imploded,

00:32:56

he lied -- Say that again, he lied

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and told the agent that, in fact, he and Schultz

00:33:03

had discussed such a project.

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He called Schultz and told him they'd sold

00:33:07

a Charlie Brown Christmas.

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Schultz said, "What's that?" Mendelson recalls.

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"And I said, 'It's something

00:33:14

you're going to write tomorrow.'"

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That's the real story, a lie,

00:33:22

that based on an attempt to make more cash at Christmas.

00:33:25

It's about the commercialization of Christmas

00:33:27

to sell more Coca-Cola, which kind of puts

00:33:29

all the scenes in the movie that sound like this

00:33:32

in a different light.

00:33:44

- What's going on here?

00:33:47

What's this?

00:33:48

Find the true meaning of Christmas.

00:33:51

Win money, money, money.

00:33:53

Spectacular, super colossal neighborhood

00:33:56

Christmas lights and display contest.

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Lights and display contest? Oh, no!

00:34:04

My own dog gone commercial. I can't stand it. Oh.

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- Well, apparently you can stand it, Charles,

00:34:11

because you sold him out, that's what you did

00:34:13

for a giant pile of money. Yeah.

00:34:15

Now, what's crazy is

00:34:16

that's not even the craziest part of the story.

00:34:18

See, the entire time that people were working

00:34:20

on the movie, everyone involved thought it was terrible.

00:34:25

Absolutely awful.

00:34:27

The pacing was slow, the story was confusing.

00:34:30

The main character was depressive, the music was weird.

00:34:34

Who puts jazz into a kid's musical? That's weird.

00:34:38

In fact, halfway through production,

00:34:40

one of the executives from McCann Erickson

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flew out to check on the progress,

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and after he watched it, he told Mendelsohn and Schultz,

00:34:46

"If I go back and I tell people what I really think

00:34:50

this project is dead, we will kill it."

00:34:53

And so apparently they convinced him to fake it,

00:34:55

not tell the real truth, and go back

00:34:57

and tell everybody that everything was fine.

00:34:59

By the way, that guy was Ronald Reagan's brother, Neil.

00:35:03

Can't make this up.

00:35:05

By the time that CBS, the network who was airing it,

00:35:07

finally watched it, it was just before it was set to air,

00:35:10

and they saw it and their response was, "We are doomed.

00:35:13

This is -- this is so bad."

00:35:16

But they had to air it because,

00:35:18

one, Coke had already paid for it,

00:35:20

and two, it was printed in the TV guide,

00:35:23

which is not like the internet.

00:35:25

You can't just change it, it's on paper.

00:35:28

And so it aired December 9th, 1965.

00:35:31

Half of the entire American television audience

00:35:35

tuned in live, 30 some million people.

00:35:39

And their response was consistent and overwhelming,

00:35:44

people absolutely loved it, loved it.

00:35:50

It won an Emmy. It won a Peabody.

00:35:53

McCann Erickson gave Schultz and Mendelson

00:35:55

a four movie deal in response.

00:35:57

"Make more of this because we're selling so much Coca-Cola."

00:36:00

That's why we have Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

00:36:02

and the Great Pumpkin and all those weird stories.

00:36:04

That's why. It was crazy, crazy.

00:36:09

Why? That's my question. Why?

00:36:12

How does a movie with so many flaws

00:36:15

have a 60 year cultural impact run?

00:36:19

Well, it's because I think, despite its flaws,

00:36:22

Charlie Brown taps into something deep inside of us,

00:36:25

the desire for something real in a world that feels fake,

00:36:30

and this feeling that we all have,

00:36:33

that we haven't quite found it yet.

00:36:35

And that is where the powerful story really begins.

00:36:53

- [music] Christmas time is here

00:36:58

Happiness and cheer

00:37:03

Fun for all that children call

00:37:07

Their favorite time of year

00:37:13

Snowflakes in the air

00:37:17

Carols everywhere

00:37:22

Olden times and ancient rhymes

00:37:27

Of love and dreams to share

00:37:36

- I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus.

00:37:39

Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy.

00:37:41

I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel.

00:37:47

I just don't understand Christmas, I guess.

00:37:50

I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards

00:37:53

and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy.

00:37:57

I always end up feeling depressed.

00:37:59

- Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know

00:38:02

who can take a wonderful season like Christmas

00:38:05

and turn it into a problem.

00:38:07

Maybe Lucy's right,

00:38:08

of all the Charlie Browns in the world,

00:38:10

you're the Charlie Brownest.

00:38:13

- You're the Charlie Brownest, says Linus,

00:38:16

his supposed friend. What the heck, Linus? Come on.

00:38:19

What Charlie Brown expresses there is really important.

00:38:21

Oh, and by the way, that that whole, like,

00:38:23

long walking scene, I made them keep that in

00:38:25

so you could feel the movie because,

00:38:27

like, half of it is just that.

00:38:29

It's just in case you're going to go back

00:38:30

and watch it after this weekend, just be prepared.

00:38:33

It's like 20 straight minutes of people just walking places.

00:38:35

That's half of it. Anyway.

00:38:37

Charlie Brown says something really important there.

00:38:40

He says, "Linus, I don't feel the way

00:38:43

that I'm supposed to feel."

00:38:45

Charlie Brown expresses his complaint

00:38:48

and his trouble to his friend.

00:38:50

Well, do you know that God says that's actually

00:38:53

a critical, important thing that you and I have to do?

00:38:57

God actually invites us to complain to Him.

00:39:01

There's verses like this all over the Bible,

00:39:02

but I'll read you just one of them, Psalm 142:2 says,

00:39:05

I pour out my complaint before Him;

00:39:08

I tell my trouble before Him.

00:39:12

Do you know that God wants to you to complain to Him?

00:39:14

God wants to hear your trouble.

00:39:16

That's not the impression that I had of God growing up.

00:39:18

I thought that church was the let's all get together

00:39:22

and fake it club.

00:39:23

Let's all get together and let's fake that everything's perfect.

00:39:25

Let's fake that we're fine.

00:39:27

Let's fake that everything's going good. You know?

00:39:29

You walk into church and people are like, "How you doing?"

00:39:31

You go, "Good."

00:39:33

"Oh, yeah? How are the kids?" "Good, good."

00:39:35

"How's the wife? How's the marriage?" "Good. Real good."

00:39:38

That's what I thought, but that's not it at all.

00:39:41

I don't know if church has ever felt that way to you,

00:39:44

like the let's all fake it club.

00:39:45

Or maybe not even church,

00:39:46

maybe just other social circles that you're in.

00:39:48

We're allowed to tell each other that we're busy,

00:39:51

you know, "How's how's life?"

00:39:52

"Oh, it's really busy. I'm really busy."

00:39:54

"How's everything else?"

00:39:55

"Oh, good good good, real good, real good."

00:39:58

That's what life can feel like.

00:39:59

That's not what church was meant to be.

00:40:01

It is, however, what Schultz found church to be like.

00:40:05

You might have heard that he put Luke two into the movie

00:40:08

because he was a Sunday school teacher,

00:40:10

there is some truth behind that.

00:40:12

Schultz did stand his ground and demand that Luke 2

00:40:15

be read word for word on national television,

00:40:18

and he was a Sunday school teacher,

00:40:20

but that was in his 20s.

00:40:22

When he wrote the movie he was in his 40s.

00:40:24

And in between, in his 30s, he walked away from church

00:40:28

because he found it to be hollow and fake and plastic,

00:40:32

just like the commercialized world that he railed against.

00:40:36

Later in his life he said this:

00:40:39

I do not go to church anymore,

00:40:41

but I still read the Bible every day.

00:40:45

You could say that Schultz had given up on church,

00:40:50

but not on God.

00:40:52

That might be your story. It was definitely my story.

00:40:54

I think for many of us, we reach this point

00:40:56

where we're just disillusioned with the thing.

00:40:58

It just feels fake.

00:41:00

But we can't walk away from this idea that

00:41:02

there is something real, there is a real God

00:41:05

who has real happiness and real peace

00:41:06

if we could just somehow find Him.

00:41:10

We actually started Crossroads to be a place

00:41:13

for people who've given up on church, but not on God.

00:41:15

30 years ago, when we started Crossroads,

00:41:18

we were putting mailers out there

00:41:19

and a group of really smart people they decided to test

00:41:22

what would be the most meaningful way

00:41:24

to talk about Crossroads in a genuine way.

00:41:26

If you're in marketing, you know you've got like

00:41:27

seven words or less to capture somebody's attention.

00:41:30

That's it. So they better be good words.

00:41:32

And what they found was this one phrase

00:41:35

was really, really appealing.

00:41:37

This is actually the first mailer that went out

00:41:39

from Crossroads and you can see right there

00:41:41

it says: a real place for real people.

00:41:44

And despite the terrible color choices there

00:41:46

of teal and purple, people came.

00:41:51

When I was 19, 20 years old, I started coming around Crossroads

00:41:53

and one of my first services Brian was talking

00:41:56

about this concept of being a real place for real people.

00:41:59

And he walked up on stage and he cracked open a beer,

00:42:02

and he started drinking it as part of the message.

00:42:04

And when he did that, I was like, "What?

00:42:05

What are you doing?

00:42:06

Oh, you can't. Yu can't do that in church."

00:42:09

And then he read my mind

00:42:10

and everybody else in the audience, and he said,

00:42:12

"This is what you're thinking.

00:42:13

'You can't do that in church.' And that's your problem.

00:42:17

That's the problem between you and God.

00:42:20

You think that when you approach God,

00:42:23

you have to put on the good smile, "Good,

00:42:26

I'm good, God, everything good, really good.

00:42:28

I'm really grateful. Everything's good."

00:42:29

No, no, that doesn't honor God.

00:42:32

That's not what God's after.

00:42:33

What God wants is the real me,

00:42:37

whether it's neat, whether it's perfect,

00:42:41

or whether it's flawed, whether it's angry,

00:42:42

whether I have complaints, trouble.

00:42:44

That's what God wants.

00:42:47

He said, "I think God wants me to be the same person,

00:42:49

the real person I am everywhere I go,

00:42:51

from my back deck to the stage, exactly the same."

00:42:55

We just launched our newest sites

00:42:58

and a permanent location anyway,

00:42:59

Crossroads Dayton back in the spring.

00:43:01

And before we launched, we did more testing

00:43:04

because again, you get seven words or less

00:43:06

to capture attention and to get your message in front of people.

00:43:08

And so we did some testing

00:43:09

of a bunch of different phrases, and wouldn't you know it,

00:43:12

the one that won that's still the most appealing is:

00:43:17

a real place for real people. Still there. Why?

00:43:21

Because for all of humanity, throughout all time

00:43:25

and all history, all of us, all of us, all of us

00:43:28

have this deep desire for something real.

00:43:31

We'll have moments in our life where we settle for fake,

00:43:34

but it's never satisfying.

00:43:36

And so at the end of the day, we can't shake

00:43:37

the feeling there's something real

00:43:39

and if it's out there I want to find it.

00:43:42

I think we want this now more than ever.

00:43:44

In a world that's increasingly fake,

00:43:48

in a world that's increasingly hard to tell

00:43:50

what's real and what's not real,

00:43:52

what we want at the end of the day is real. Real.

00:43:56

See, we don't want perfect, but fake.

00:43:59

We want real, even if flawed.

00:44:03

I think that's the reason why 60 years later

00:44:05

Charlie Brown Christmas still has such a huge impact.

00:44:08

It's not perfect.

00:44:09

It doesn't fit the mold, but it's real,

00:44:12

which makes it exactly the same

00:44:14

as the Christmas story, by the way.

00:44:15

That section of scripture that Linus reads

00:44:18

is actually the second paragraph in Luke chapter two.

00:44:21

The first paragraph in the Christmas story begins this way.

00:44:25

In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus

00:44:28

that all the world should be registered.

00:44:31

This was the first registration

00:44:32

when Quinarius was governor of Syria.

00:44:34

And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

00:44:37

And Joseph also went up from Galilee,

00:44:40

from the town of Nazareth to Judea,

00:44:42

to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem,

00:44:44

because he was of the house and lineage of David,

00:44:47

to be registered with Mary, his betrothed,

00:44:49

who was with child.

00:44:51

And while they were there,

00:44:53

the time came for her to give birth.

00:44:56

And she gave birth to her firstborn son

00:44:59

and wrapped him in swaddling clothes

00:45:01

and laid him in a manger,

00:45:03

because there was no room for them in the inn.

00:45:08

Now, maybe you've heard that story a thousand times

00:45:10

and those details, they don't really mean a lot to you.

00:45:13

There's not a flavor in them.

00:45:15

But just so we're clear, every detail in that story

00:45:19

is off script, every detail does not fit the mold

00:45:22

of a perfect story.

00:45:23

Mary's 13, 14 years old. She's not married.

00:45:27

A foreign dictator, Caesar Augustus,

00:45:29

forces her to travel in her third trimester.

00:45:32

That's not ideal.

00:45:33

When she gets to her fiancé, Joseph's, home,

00:45:36

she shows up and they say you can't stay here.

00:45:38

That phrase, there's no room for them in the inn,

00:45:40

we think that that means they walked up to

00:45:42

the Holiday Inn or the Motel 6

00:45:44

and there was a No Vacancy sign.

00:45:45

Sorry, we're out of room. Oh!

00:45:47

That's not what happened. Not what happened.

00:45:49

The word translated "inn" actually means guest room.

00:45:53

Something that would have been in the family home.

00:45:56

Luke, who wrote these words, uses the same exact word

00:46:00

in Luke 22 to describe the room that Jesus rented

00:46:03

to have the Last Supper with His disciples.

00:46:05

Luke 22:11: And tell the master of the house,

00:46:08

"The teacher says to you, Where is the guest room?"

00:46:12

Same word. "Where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"

00:46:15

This means in the house there was a guest room.

00:46:18

There was a place for them, but when they showed up,

00:46:20

the family said we don't want you and sent them packing.

00:46:24

It's a painful detail that only Luke records in the story.

00:46:29

In fact, did you know that Luke is the only one

00:46:33

who records any details about

00:46:36

the actual day of Jesus's actual birth?

00:46:40

How is that possible?

00:46:41

Well, that's because Luke wasn't writing his story

00:46:44

and stuff that he saw.

00:46:45

He was writing someone else's account.

00:46:48

Luke was not one of the 12 disciples.

00:46:51

Luke didn't even see, eyewitness the ministry of Jesus.

00:46:56

Instead, the best we can tell,

00:46:58

is that Luke is from the town of Antioch in Syria.

00:47:01

He's not Jewish, and we know from the other book

00:47:04

that Luke wrote in the Bible, Acts.

00:47:06

Acts 11 says that in Antioch is the first place

00:47:10

where followers of Jesus were called Christians.

00:47:13

And so, in all likelihood, Luke was one of those Christians.

00:47:17

He was a physician, very analytical, very literal.

00:47:21

He was very black and white, cut and dried.

00:47:23

If you read the Gospel of Luke, it's like to the point.

00:47:25

He was a doctor.

00:47:27

I'm just saying his bedside manner, probably not awesome.

00:47:30

He's just like, bam! This is how it is. An

00:47:33

d what he says in Luke 1 is that he set out

00:47:35

to write an orderly account, and to do that,

00:47:37

he interviewed eyewitnesses.

00:47:40

And so how does Luke alone record the details,

00:47:44

the intimate details of the day of Jesus's birth?

00:47:48

Who did he talk to?

00:47:51

Well, in all likelihood, the person he talked to

00:47:54

was the one person who knew exactly how imperfect,

00:47:57

exactly how off script the entire thing was: Mary.

00:48:02

That's who he talked to.

00:48:04

See, only Luke records Mary's private conversation

00:48:07

with the angel Gabriel.

00:48:09

Only Luke records the song she burst forth and sang

00:48:12

in the presence,

00:48:14

private presence of her cousin Elizabeth.

00:48:16

Only Luke records details about Jesus's childhood.

00:48:19

And only Luke actually records her inner thoughts

00:48:23

that she never said out loud.

00:48:25

Luke 2:19: But Mary treasured up all these things,

00:48:30

pondering them in her heart.

00:48:33

How do you find out what Mary was pondering in her heart?

00:48:37

You talk to Mary. That's how.

00:48:41

See, when we read this story,

00:48:43

you're not reading Luke's words.

00:48:45

You're reading Mary's words.

00:48:48

And when she's recounting these details,

00:48:51

she is ripping off Band-Aids and exposing scars in her life,

00:48:55

painful imperfections in her story.

00:48:58

When she says she wrapped the baby in swaddling clothes

00:49:01

and laid him in a manger, she says I had to

00:49:03

use shop towels and put him in a feeding trough

00:49:05

because there was no room in the guest room,

00:49:07

because they didn't want us staying with them,

00:49:09

because they were embarrassed about us.

00:49:11

See, when she's talking to Luke,

00:49:13

when she's telling him this stuff,

00:49:14

she's giving him the real accounts.

00:49:19

If you and I want to find real peace,

00:49:21

if you want to find real, real hope, real happiness,

00:49:24

real freedom, we have to do what Mary did.

00:49:27

We have to be honest with somebody.

00:49:30

And God says, "You can start with Me.

00:49:32

You can tell Me your real stuff."

00:49:34

See, as long as we're part of the fake it club,

00:49:37

we will never, never find real happiness. Never.

00:49:41

Because you can fake it till you make it for a minute.

00:49:45

But the problem with fake is that fake always fails. Always.

00:49:51

In that story we heard about Caesar Augustus.

00:49:54

Caesar Augustus was the Roman emperor,

00:49:57

and he was the one who decided to make up this lie

00:50:02

that the Roman emperors were actually divine.

00:50:05

He said, "You know, my stepdad, Julius Caesar,

00:50:08

he was actually God.

00:50:09

And what that makes me is the Son of God."

00:50:13

And all over the world, all over the Roman Empire

00:50:16

when he was alive, he would inscribe his name

00:50:19

over everything to make it permanent,

00:50:21

to try to make the fake thing real.

00:50:24

Etched in stone.

00:50:26

I was actually just in his corner of the world

00:50:28

filming for a series we're going to do

00:50:30

after Super Bowl of Preaching,

00:50:31

very, very excited about it.

00:50:32

I was in the ancient town of Ephesus,

00:50:35

the unearthed ruins of it.

00:50:36

And I walked underneath this gate.

00:50:39

And at the top of this gate, I looked up

00:50:41

and I saw an inscription right here to Caesar Augustus.

00:50:47

All over the place he put his name.

00:50:49

And I was standing there in the midst of

00:50:52

these crumbled ruins which had sat under the dirt

00:50:55

for centuries, centuries upon centuries, forgotten,

00:51:00

just struck with this moment of fake always fails.

00:51:05

See, 2000 years after he put his name on the stone,

00:51:09

the empire of Caesar Augustus is utterly irrelevant.

00:51:14

Utterly irrelevant.

00:51:15

Meanwhile, the humble kingdom of Jesus

00:51:20

that began when His mom

00:51:22

painfully wrapped Him in shop towels

00:51:25

and put them in a feeding trough

00:51:27

because she wasn't allowed in the house.

00:51:29

That guy's kingdom is growing and changing and permanent.

00:51:35

That's how you know it's real.

00:51:38

That's how you know it's real.

00:51:40

That's the power that you see.

00:51:42

Now, Luke actually recorded an interesting story

00:51:45

in his book, Acts, that points to this exact truth.

00:51:49

You can read it in Acts chapter five.

00:51:51

He records this event where the disciples

00:51:54

were being very, very effective.

00:51:55

They're preaching in Jerusalem.

00:51:57

They're healing like everybody.

00:51:59

And so the whole city is coming to believe in Jesus.

00:52:01

And the religious leaders don't like that at all.

00:52:03

So they round up all the disciples.

00:52:05

They put them in a courtroom and they want to kill them.

00:52:08

And then one Pharisee, one wise Rabbi, Gamaliel,

00:52:12

stands up and he says, "Hey, everybody.

00:52:14

Hey, before you do that, let me just tell you

00:52:16

something about fake versus real."

00:52:20

These are his words in Acts 5:38. He says

00:52:23

if this plan, this thing of Jesus,

00:52:26

or this undertaking is of man.

00:52:28

In other words, if it's fake, it will fail.

00:52:32

But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.

00:52:38

See if it's fake, it'll fail.

00:52:39

But if it's real, you won't be able to stop it.

00:52:42

Real always wins, no matter how imperfect it looks.

00:52:45

No matter how strange, no matter how off putting,

00:52:48

real always, always wins.

00:52:50

No matter how uncomfortable it is to say out loud,

00:52:53

real always wins.

00:52:55

I think that's the most remarkable thing

00:52:58

about the character of Charlie Brown

00:53:01

is that he was able to recognize the value of what's real

00:53:06

when everyone else rejected it because it didn't fit the mold.

00:53:13

- What's the matter, Charlie Brown?

00:53:15

Don't you think it's great.

00:53:17

- It's all wrong.

00:53:19

- Look, Charlie, let's face it.

00:53:21

We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket.

00:53:24

It's run by a big eastern syndicate, you know.

00:53:26

- Well, this is one play that's not gonna be commercial.

00:53:29

- Look, Charlie Brown, what do you want?

00:53:31

- The proper mood. We need a Christmas tree.

00:53:34

- Hey, perhaps a tree.

00:53:36

A great big, shiny aluminum Christmas tree.

00:53:39

That's it, Charlie Brown.

00:53:40

You get the tree. I'll handle this crowd.

00:53:44

- Okay. I'll take Linus with me.

00:53:46

The rest of you, practice your lines.

00:53:48

- Get the biggest aluminum tree you can find,

00:53:51

Charlie Brown, maybe painted pink.

00:53:53

- Yeah. Do something right for a change, Charlie Brown.

00:53:57

- I don't know, Linus. I just don't know.

00:54:03

Well, I guess we better concentrate

00:54:05

on finding a nice Christmas tree.

00:54:08

- I suggest we try those searchlights, Charlie Brown.

00:54:19

- This really brings Christmas close to a person.

00:54:23

- Fantastic.

00:54:35

- Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?

00:54:39

- This little green one here seems to need a home.

00:54:42

- I don't know, Charlie Brown.

00:54:44

Remember what Lucy said?

00:54:45

This doesn't seem to fit the modern spirit.

00:54:48

- I don't care. I'll decorate it,

00:54:50

and it'll be just right for our play.

00:54:52

Besides, I think it needs me.

00:54:59

- Charlie Brown looks through the whole lot,

00:55:02

goes past all these fake but perfect trees

00:55:05

until he finds the real but wildly imperfect one.

00:55:09

And he picks it.

00:55:12

I think in our wildest dreams and wildest hopes

00:55:14

and wildest imaginations, we wish that

00:55:16

that's what God was like,

00:55:17

that He would pick the imperfect.

00:55:19

But I don't think that's what we really think He's like.

00:55:22

I think we think he's really like

00:55:25

the girl in the orange dress. Remember her?

00:55:27

We just saw her. Here she is.

00:55:31

- Get the biggest aluminum tree you can find,

00:55:33

Charlie Brown, maybe painted pink.

00:55:35

- Yeah, do something right for a change, Charlie Brown.

00:55:39

- That's what we think.

00:55:40

We think this is God's attitude:

00:55:42

Do something right for a change.

00:55:44

Looks at our life and what we do,

00:55:46

"Do something right for a change."

00:55:48

We think that when God looks at us,

00:55:49

He doesn't call us chosen, like Charlie Brown and the tree,

00:55:52

He calls us garbage. "Garbage. I don't want you."

00:55:56

Just to be clear, in case we need to say it out loud,

00:55:58

God doesn't call anyone garbage

00:56:00

and neither do followers of His.

00:56:01

They don't plod along.

00:56:03

That's not the story of the gospel.

00:56:05

See, the story of the gospel is that

00:56:08

God doesn't want perfect, He wants you. He wants you.

00:56:14

Do you know that God had perfect. He had it.

00:56:20

Do you know all He had to do to keep perfect was nothing.

00:56:26

Nothing. But instead, the story of Christmas

00:56:30

is that Jesus left perfect because He wants you more.

00:56:36

That's the story of Christmas.

00:56:38

That's the power of it.

00:56:40

That to you, a child has been born.

00:56:43

Not abstractly, not to the universe, to you.

00:56:47

The child has been born, the gift has been given.

00:56:51

And I think that's the loud and clear gospel message

00:56:55

that runs through Charlie Brown,

00:56:57

whether Schulz realized it was in there,

00:56:59

whether the people watching it realized

00:57:01

that's what they're responding to,

00:57:02

for 60 years that's the power that has moved people.

00:57:07

This dream, this vision that maybe, just maybe

00:57:11

God would be like Charlie Brown and He would pick me.

00:57:16

Now, do you know, in the Bible

00:57:17

there's actually imagery that God uses,

00:57:19

there's a story that He tells that says that

00:57:21

He does pick people exclusively, by the way,

00:57:24

exclusively people who are like this tree.

00:57:27

Now, it's not a tree metaphor. It's a stone metaphor.

00:57:31

And the reason for that is because

00:57:32

if you go to the Middle East where the Bible took place,

00:57:35

you won't find many trees.

00:57:36

Not even small, crappy ones like that.

00:57:39

But you will find lots of rocks.

00:57:42

In fact, you maybe heard that Joseph, Jesus's stepdad,

00:57:45

was a carpenter, and you think of someone who works with wood.

00:57:48

No, that's a mistranslation.

00:57:50

The Greek word is tekton. It means builder.

00:57:53

And what we know from the clear archeological record,

00:57:55

from the clear materials available,

00:57:56

is that everything, everything, everything

00:57:58

was built of stone.

00:58:00

Harbors and houses and amphitheaters and roads,

00:58:03

everything was stone.

00:58:05

And so if you were a tekton, a builder back then

00:58:08

you were a stonemason.

00:58:11

What I find fascinating is that Jesus,

00:58:15

the stepson of the stonemason,

00:58:18

did not build Himself fortresses,

00:58:22

did not build palaces like Caesar Augustus,

00:58:25

didn't carve his name in stone over archways.

00:58:28

But the boy born in a barn,

00:58:33

because there was no room in the house,

00:58:35

is building Himself a home and he's doing it out of stone.

00:58:41

Not just any stone, a particular type.

00:58:43

1 Peter 2:4 says: As you come to Him,

00:58:47

a living stone rejected by men

00:58:51

but in the sight of God chosen and precious,

00:58:56

you yourselves are living stones

00:58:58

being built up as a spiritual house.

00:59:03

God says you're chosen

00:59:04

and you're precious as a living stone.

00:59:07

Well, what's a living stone?

00:59:09

It's not a stone that gets up and walks and talks.

00:59:11

It's not that kind of a life.

00:59:13

What it means is a stone that's

00:59:15

exactly the way you dug it out of the dirt.

00:59:18

Got all its imperfections, all its oddities.

00:59:20

It doesn't fit the mold at all.

00:59:21

There's nothing perfect about it.

00:59:23

That's a living stone.

00:59:25

See, when you build something with stone as a stonemason,

00:59:28

you can use living stone, unhewn stone,

00:59:31

or you can chop everything into perfect blocks.

00:59:35

You can wait to use it until it's exactly right,

00:59:38

until it's perfectly coplanar, top and bottom,

00:59:40

side to side, 90 degree angles,

00:59:42

exactly the same size as all the other stones.

00:59:44

You can wait till you use it to then,

00:59:45

or you can build out of living stone.

00:59:48

And what Jesus says is the house I'm making,

00:59:51

the people I want to dwell with are the ones

00:59:54

who are living, who arenimperfect,

00:59:57

who don't fit the mold.

01:00:00

In fact, this is how God's always said that He is.

01:00:03

It's how He always said that He picks.

01:00:05

He doesn't ever pick the perfect stone, ever.

01:00:08

You can go all the way back to the Old Testament,

01:00:10

the book of Exodus, God gives instructions

01:00:12

for building an altar to Him,

01:00:14

an altar that's acceptable to Him.

01:00:16

And guess what kind of stone He says to use?

01:00:18

Exodus 21:25, God says: If you make me an altar of stone,

01:00:23

you shall not build it of hewn stone;

01:00:27

for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.

01:00:31

You profaned it.

01:00:33

God says, don't try to polish yourself up to perfection.

01:00:37

Don't come into church or My presence

01:00:39

and do the "good" smile. He says, no.

01:00:42

Come to Me as a living stone, rejected by men,

01:00:46

but chosen and precious in My sight.

01:00:51

See the good news of the gospel,

01:00:54

the good news of Charlie Brown Christmas,

01:00:56

the good news of the true Christmas story

01:00:58

is that God doesn't want perfect, He wants you.

01:01:01

And you might not fit the mold,

01:01:03

but you fit His plan perfectly.

01:01:06

For to you a child has been born.

01:01:10

See, it turns out that Linus did know

01:01:13

the true meaning of Christmas. Lights, please.

01:01:20

And there were in the same country

01:01:22

shepherds abiding in the field,

01:01:24

keeping watch over their flock by night.

01:01:26

And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,

01:01:29

and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.

01:01:32

And they were sore afraid.

01:01:33

And the angel said unto them, "Fear not.

01:01:36

For behold, I bring you tidings of great joy,

01:01:39

which shall be to all people.

01:01:41

For unto you is born this day in the city of David

01:01:45

a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

01:01:48

And this shall be a sign unto you.

01:01:50

Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,

01:01:53

lying in a manger."

01:01:55

And suddenly there was with the angel

01:01:57

a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God

01:02:00

and saying, "Glory to God in the highest

01:02:03

and on earth peace, goodwill toward men."

01:02:16

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

01:02:20

- That's it. Let me pray for you.

01:02:22

God, thank You so much for Your story,

01:02:25

the story that is better than perfect because it's real.

01:02:29

The story that includes room for people like me,

01:02:32

people who aren't perfect, people with problems.

01:02:35

God, this Christmas, may we experience Your real hope

01:02:40

and Your real peace because

01:02:42

we really believe Your real story. Amen.

01:02:48

- Thanks for watching with us.

01:02:49

When Kyle mentioned showing up to church

01:02:51

and feeling like you have to have it all together

01:02:53

or look like you have it all together,

01:02:55

the person behind me said that was the church I grew up in.

01:02:59

I love that we are a church that is a real place for real people.

01:03:02

- Yeah, because so many of us have experienced,

01:03:04

I've experienced it.

01:03:05

I've been that guy who felt like he had to show up

01:03:07

a certain way, or pretend to be a certain way.

01:03:10

Man, I hope what you heard loud and clear from Kyle

01:03:12

is that that's not what God expects from you.

01:03:15

God wants you to bring your fullest, realest self to Him,

01:03:18

and that's the only way that we can move forward

01:03:21

authentically in our faith and in our lives,

01:03:23

being who He created us to be.

01:03:24

So that's a whole reason our church exists.

01:03:26

If we can help encourage you, nudge you,

01:03:29

push you towards that, we want to do it.

01:03:31

A couple simple ways that can happen is

01:03:32

you can just reach out to us.

01:03:34

You can email us at anywhere@crossroads.net.

01:03:36

Or if you're on the website, you can just hit the chat button

01:03:38

and somebody on our team would love to connect with you.

01:03:40

One of us.

01:03:41

- Yes, real people will connect with you.

01:03:43

- Not a chatbot.

01:03:44

It's one of us or somebody on our team

01:03:46

would love to connect with you,

01:03:47

because that's why our church exists to help us

01:03:49

each take our next step towards God and faithfulness.

01:03:52

- Yeah, we hope to see you next week

01:03:54

for week three of Christmas at the Movies.

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