Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / December 11, 2016 | Adore - Hark The Herald Angels Sing

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December 11, 2016 | Adore - Hark The Herald Angels Sing · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Good morning Topeka Bible Church.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: Hark the herald angels sing.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Glory to the newborn king.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: It's exciting, isn't it?
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Peace on earth and mercy mild.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: God and sinners.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: What's the word?
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Reconciled.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: Reconciliation means that something was wrong.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: Reconciliation means that there was a problem.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: We love Christmas because Christmas is a season of giving.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: And Christmas is a season of joy.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: And Christmas is a season of family.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: But also Christmas is a season of messes.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes Christmas is a season of big messes.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons that we experience mess at Christmas actually has nothing to do with Christmas, it has to do with us.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: It's the other 11 and a half months of the year, and things don't change at Christmas time.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: Life is messy.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Sin is messy.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: Humanity is messy.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: In fact, one of the reasons that we love Christmas, one of the reasons that we embrace Christmas so much is because for just maybe a few hours, maybe a few days, maybe a couple weeks, we get to minimize the messiness.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that at Christmas time people are nicer?
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that at Christmas time we get along with each other better?
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I think we are our best at Christmas, right?
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I think if we acted the rest of the year, the way that we act at Christmas, maybe we wouldn't have quite the mess that we have.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: But we do have a mess.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: If you're anything like me, you've tried to clean up the mess, but you don't always know where to start.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you do okay.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you make it worse.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you just make a lot of noise.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: But one of the things I've learned about myself, and one of the conclusions that I've come to about humanity, including you, is that we're not good at cleaning up messes.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: On our own, we're not good at cleaning up messes.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we listen to the Spirit of God and we listen to the truth of God and we follow his leading and we obey him, we can do something about it.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: But on our own, it's not happening.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: We're not smart enough or slick enough.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: Messes can come from a lot of places.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: We can get messes from our own choices.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to ask for a show of hands.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: How many of us have experienced a mess in our life because of a choice that we made?
3:24
SPEAKER_00: We see this in a culture where mess is just rampant.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: Mess has become normal.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: Sin has become normal.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: And so in our sexual freedom and our lack of sexual purity, we have sown some really hurtful and damaging ways that we're now reaping as a society.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: And some of us could tell personal stories about that.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: And it's just a mess.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have sown some different kinds of messes into our lives.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Our behaviors are more about, let's be honest, a lack of discipline.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: For some of us, this lack of discipline has changed our lives, it's changed our marriage.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, we don't have enough discipline, and we just really don't want to be told what to do.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: And that can manifest itself in a lot of places, including our careers.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have career problems not because we have a lack of discipline, but because we have a lack of honesty.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: Some of us, this is really unpopular.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are just greedy.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to talk about it.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Because we think in order to be greedy, you have to be rich, and we're not rich, so that can't be the problem, right?
4:55
SPEAKER_00: But you and I both know that there are plenty of greedy people who have all different income levels.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not about the stuff that you own, it's about the stuff that owns you.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are just obsessed with a lifestyle or a house or a car or a whatever.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: And it's taken us down.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: And we have a mess because of it.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: Some of us aren't honoring our spouses the way that we promised God that we would.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: Because I wasn't at your wedding, but let me tell you what I know about it.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: It's very likely that you stood before somebody and you thought it was just a guy, but it actually represented God.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: And you made a vow.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: VOW.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: May have been the only time in your life that you made a vow, but you made one.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if the word honor was used, but I'd bet that if we add up all the words that were used, cherish and comfort and all those things, it probably adds up to the word honor.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: We made a vow to honor our spouses, and then it turned out we had to live with them.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: Right?
6:11
SPEAKER_00: And it's not always easy to honor the person when you're picking up their dirty underwear, right?
6:19
SPEAKER_00: And yet, that's what we promised we would do.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: And we experience some messes because of this.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just from our own choices.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 16, 4 says, the Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: Some of us, because of sowing, wicked or rebellious or selfish thoughts and actions, we're experiencing trouble.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: We are fulfilling that verse.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: In fact, maybe a lot of us on some level are fulfilling that verse.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: But you don't just get a mess because you're selfish or sinful.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: You do for that reason, but you can also get a mess from doing the right thing.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are in messes and we got there by standing for the truth.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 34, 19 says, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a great verse?
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a great verse?
7:26
SPEAKER_00: So comforting, so encouraging to know that the Lord delivers us out of our afflictions, out of our trouble, out of our messes.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: And yet, you can't get to the second half of the verse without driving right by the first half of the verse, which is that the afflictions of the righteous sometimes are many.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: No doubt you've already noticed that our culture has become increasingly, increasingly hostile to the values that many of us hold.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: To Christian values.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would dare use the word prejudice.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: And if you think it's not here, just hang on because it's gonna get worse.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: You get trouble from doing the right thing, you get trouble from being selfish.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: You also get trouble because you're alive.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Trouble is a part of life.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: Moses said this in Psalm 90.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: The years of our life are 70, or even by reason of strength, 80, and yet their span, all of them, are but what?
8:36
SPEAKER_00: Toil and trouble.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: Just because we're alive and we're human and we're sinners.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: We can't always point to the exact decision.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: We can't always point to the exact situation.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: We don't know exactly what happened.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: We just know that something's not right.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: I have a friend who is on staff at a fairly large church here in the country, and uh you would recognize the church if I told you what the church was.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: And great guy, godly guy, has lived a great life.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: He and his wife raised three kids.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: They finished well, their kids are all grown now.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget sitting and talking with him and just, you know, knowing the story that he had that their oldest two kids uh are involved in ministry and faithfully attending church and living for God.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: And that third one, something happened.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: And he is the definition of the word prodigal.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: I remember my friend talking to me, telling me the story of how, because of drug use and dishonesty and stealing, they finally had to kick their grown son out of their house and, in essence, make him homeless.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't know where he was.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't know if he was alive.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: And his heart was breaking.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And I just thought to myself, this is a mess.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not sure I know exactly how he got there.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: He's a great guy.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes messes just happen.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: I have another friend who told me a few years ago, called me up three weeks before Christmas.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: He had been laid off.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Three weeks before Christmas.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: He had worked for Coke and was a good worker and was advancing and was doing well.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: They liked him.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't performance-based.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: I would say that Coke was struggling, but it's Coke, right?
10:47
SPEAKER_00: They're not struggling.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: They just laid him off.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: They laid off a bunch of people three weeks before Christmas.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: What made it worse was that that was the third December in a row that he had been laid off.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: We know these stories, don't we?
11:08
SPEAKER_00: You could tell me some stories.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: You could point to some of the same messes.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: And we try to clean it up ourselves, or we try to hide it.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: God has a different solution.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: I want you to turn with me to the book of Matthew, chapter one.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Feel free to use the table of contents if you can't find it quickly, or if you just want to.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter one, so the first few verses in the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Matthew was a disciple.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: He followed Jesus, followed his ministry.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: The disciples were a mess.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how much you know about them.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: They were a mess.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: They were messy because they were human.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: They were messy because they were real.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Matthew may have been, at least starting out, he may have been the biggest mess of all.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: See, he had made his living by cheating people.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: And the more he cheated people, the better he got at it.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: And the more he was rewarded.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: He was a tax collector, which was really organized and sanctioned extortion.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: Matthew wrote his gospel for Jews, and this is why when you start reading the beginning of Matthew, chapter 1, verse 1, you find a long genealogy.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: Matthew very carefully traces the lineage of Jesus.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 18, he kind of turns this corner, which is where we're going to step into and start reading.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 1.18, he starts telling us this amazing story.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Now, for just a second, I want you to pretend with me that we've never heard the story of Christmas.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: If you're anything like me, you've heard the story of Christmas a lot.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: This is my 42nd Christmas.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: I know the story.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: I've heard it all.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: I've sat through the sermon series.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: I've preached some of the sermon series.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: I've heard it.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: And yet, if we're not careful, the most dangerous thing that we can do is treat the extraordinary like it's ordinary.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: So for just a few minutes, let's come at it with fresh eyes and a fresh heart.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 1.18 says this.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: What does it say?
13:26
SPEAKER_00: From the Holy Spirit.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's a huge miracle.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: And inevitably at Christmas time in church, you're gonna have people who show up who aren't sure about God and they're not sure about Jesus, and they're not sure they believe everything that those of us who are here every week believe.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: But no matter what you believe, that's a pretty big miracle.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: The Virgin conceived.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I would say to you about that, especially if you're a skeptic about the story of Jesus, and maybe you're not sure you believe all of it.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: This is what I would ask you.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: In light of what you know about the story of Jesus, not what you believe, but what you know, what you've heard, the stories that you've been told about who Jesus was, what he taught, and what he did, the miracles that he performed, the way that he died, the things that happened after his death, his appearance, there were all these, I mean, hundreds of people who claim to believe that they see they saw him alive again, based on what you've heard about Jesus.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: If it's true, isn't this the most likely explanation?
14:39
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like knowing what you and I know and being able to fast forward to the end three decades later and seeing the way the story of Jesus played out.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this almost how the story had to start?
14:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this was a world-changing life.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: So verse 19 says, Her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: He decided that he was going to do what he thought was the right thing to do.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: He resolved to divorce her quietly.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, for years I've thought, because I was taught, that Joseph didn't really believe that Mary, that this was God and the Holy Spirit being involved, and that Joseph didn't believe.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's the case or not.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: I read two commentaries in preparation for this uh sermon that I found fascinating, and both of them put forth the idea that Joseph totally believed that Mary was with child from the Holy Spirit, and because she had been so touched and anointed by God, he was afraid to marry her.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: This is a pretty special girl.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure that I should be her husband.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the backstory is, but I know what it says.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: He resolved to put her, to, to divorce her quietly.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20 says, But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Don't you wish that every time you were on your way to make a mess, God would just send a 20-foot angel with a sword in a dream?
16:17
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that be awesome if you were just able to say, ah, right.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for getting me back on the right path.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: That's not a story you and I always tell, though.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Joseph was a great guy, but great men and women still make messes.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad he wasn't successful in his plan?
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're anything like me, you probably believe, I believe.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: God would have never allowed that to happen.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: God steps in.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: He performs his will, sometimes in spite of us.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: But man, oh man, how easy is it to make a mess?
17:06
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21, she will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: Why?
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Because he will save his people from their sins.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Jesus means God saves.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: And that was his identity, but it was also a prophecy about his future.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: God saves.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: So suddenly, and we're gonna read what the prophet said, suddenly Matthew rewinds 740 years to Isaiah 7.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: And he's gonna quote us a verse from Isaiah 7.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Because God's intention was for Israel to be majestic, but instead Israel was just a mess.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: To fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Say it with me, and they will call him.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: Say it again.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Emmanuel.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: Emmanuel.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: This is the incarnation.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: From the Latin, incarnate, literally means in the flesh.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: The belief that Jesus Christ was, lean into this.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: God in the flesh.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Not ho-hum.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Not yeah, let's move on to something deeper.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: This is monumental.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: God became flesh and dwelt among us.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Daniel Webster, when he was asked about his view of Jesus and how well he could understand Jesus, this was his response.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: He said, if I must comprehend Christ, I could not believe on him.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: He would be no greater than myself.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: This is so good.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Such is my consciousness of sin and my inability.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: My sin and my inability.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: In other words, my masks.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: Such is my consciousness of sin and inability that I must have a superhuman savior.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: A regular human isn't going to pull this off.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: We didn't just need a man, we needed the God man.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: This is the miracle.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: The story of the cross started here.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' sacrifice for your sin, for your mess, Jesus' sacrifice was effectual.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Because he was the God man.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: Because of the incarnation.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: This is what sets all the wheels turning.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: This is the biggest miracle in the story of Christmas.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: That God became flesh and dwelt among us.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Which means God's with you, friend.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: God's with you.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: God is with us.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: God says the mess isn't going to go away and you aren't going to know what to do with it.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: And it might even get worse.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: But in the middle of it all, I am coming for a visit.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: And my first thought is, God, why would you send your son into a mess?
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't you clean up the mess first?
20:36
SPEAKER_00: And God's response is, because my son came to clean up the mess.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: There was no cleaning up the mess without Jesus.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been trying to clean up some trouble and difficulty in your life, and you've been trying to do it without Jesus, and it is not successful.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to tell you how that story ends.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: Why would God step into a mess that he didn't cause?
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Three reasons.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Number one, to perfectly balance grace and truth.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: John 1.14 is the incarnation verse for most of us.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: This is the verse that we think of.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of what?
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Grace and truth.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: We're really good at either showing all grace or delivering all truth.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: All grace means there's nothing wrong, everything's good.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: We'll just forget about it.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're all forgiven.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: No need to worry about how we act or what we do or what kind of decisions that we make.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: It's just all grace, grace, grace, grace, grace.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: Grace is beautiful until it's abused.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Paul said, May it never be that we act that way, that we use grace as a license to sin.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: On the other side is all truth and no grace.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: This is religion.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: This is rules.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: This is performance.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: And none of us measure up, and most of us give up pretty quickly because we know we don't measure up.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: So where do we land in this spectrum?
22:20
SPEAKER_00: If we can't have all grace and we with and no truth, and we can't have all truth and no grace, where do we land on the spectrum?
22:27
SPEAKER_00: We land where Jesus landed.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: This is not a problem to be solved, it's attention to be managed.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to constantly be pulled back and forth between these two things.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: And with the Spirit of God's help empowering us to understand and apply the word of God, we land in the middle of this spectrum.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Grace and truth.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: The second reason that God stepped into the mess, he did it to make us righteous.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8, 3 and 4 say this: by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Listen, that's scandalous.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm messy and I've seen your life and you're not much better.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Don't take it personally.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: We are a messy group of people.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: And the fact that God Himself came to make sinners righteous is mind-blowing.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: To make it possible that when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, He not only puts Jesus inside of us, he puts us inside of Jesus and inside of his righteousness.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: And when God looks at us from that point forward, he sees the righteousness of Christ.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, friend.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christ follower, if you're a Christian, when God looks at you, he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
24:17
SPEAKER_00: That's the miracle of Christmas.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Christmas was set, the incarnation was setting the stage for that to be possible.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: The third reason God stepped into the mess was to make us his children.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 4, 4, and 5 say this.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: I love the foreshadowing here.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive what?
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Adoption as sons.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: When the fullness of the time had come, when history was perfectly ripe for his son to show up, when the Roman Empire was far and wide, and they had a system of roads, they had peace, the Pax Romana, so that for the most part you could travel, and there were these roads so that you could get from city to city, and there was a common language so that the gospel was ready to be spread, when everything was perfectly aligned, when God, when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: It's huge.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: So what's the takeaway?
25:28
SPEAKER_00: What's the takeaway?
25:29
SPEAKER_00: As we walk out of here, if all of this is true, so what?
25:33
SPEAKER_00: What do we do about it?
25:36
SPEAKER_00: A couple things.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: First of all, this Christmas, don't deny the mess that you're in.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if Christmas means that for a few hours or a few days or a few weeks you get the chance to breathe and relax a little bit and minimize it, then embrace that and enjoy it.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: But don't ever start believing that you're not a mess without Jesus.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: This is the message of Christmas.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: Because if you and I can convince others, or more specifically, if we can convince ourselves that our mess isn't really that bad, then we didn't really need the incarnation to happen.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: And we're fooling ourselves.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: Don't deny the mess that we're in.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Here's one way that I deny it.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: I've got some friends and some family, especially before we moved here to Kansas, we would see all these people at Christmas time.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: And I had some that I really wanted to have a few words with.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: God, listen, you've watched them live like the devil for the last 11 and a half months.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: And I've got a list.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: Here's all the things that they should have done differently, and here's all the mistakes that they made.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: And God, when we get together for Christmas Eve dinner, if you'll just open the door, just give me a chance, I'll pull out my spiritual bazooka and I will blow them against the wall.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Let me just tell you what's wrong with your life.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: And you know what God does to me?
27:10
SPEAKER_00: He very gently nudges me and he whispers let's not talk about their mess, let's talk about yours.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to address.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Ouch.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: I read a quote this week that said, It's better to need a savior than to try to be your own.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: You're in better shape if you can just go ahead and admit that you need a savior than try to clean up the mess by yourself.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: By the way, religion is when you start believing that you're not messy anymore.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: You got it all together.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: So don't deny the mess that you're in.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: Then the second thing is just embrace the way that God addresses the mess.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you right now, sometimes it's painful as he deals with this stuff.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: And it's no fun.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: And I was born stubborn.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm the only person in the room that's like that.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: But I was born stubborn, and sometimes I just don't like to be told what to do.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: But I have to remind myself that I can't do this by myself.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the gospel is about submission and saying, God, you're smarter than me.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: I got in this mess because I'm not very smart sometimes.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Show me the way out.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: Show me the way through.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: I have this quote from David Mathis I want to share with you as we wrap up.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of long, but stick with me.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: He says, Beyond just gazing at the spectacular person of Jesus, there is also the amazing gospel-laced revelation that the reason Jesus became the God man was for us.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: His fully human nature, joined in personal union to his eternally divine nature, is permanent proof that Jesus, in perfect harmony with his father, is undeterrably for us.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: He has demonstrated his love for us and that while we were still sinners, he took our nature to his one person and died for us.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: In 1739, Charles Wesley wrote, Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: And he intended for it to be sung very slowly and very somberly.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: This was a reflective song.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Later, George Whitfield got a hold of it and changed the words and mated it to the music that you and I are familiar with.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: And so now we sing joyfully.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: Hark the herald angels sing.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: Angels had to show up to make this announcement.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: That's how big it was.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Glory to the newborn king.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: He didn't become a king when he was born.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: He was a king before he was born.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Wrap your mind around that.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: Peace on earth and mercy mild.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: God and sinners reconcile.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: Joyful all ye nations rise.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: Join the triumph of the skies.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: With the angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: Let the gospel story commence.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: Because the Christ child has been born.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: And then the second verse, I love this.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: Late in time, behold him come, offspring of a virgin's womb.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: Listen to these two lines.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: This is phenomenal.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: Hail the incarnate deity.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: The baby was God.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: Pleased with us in flesh to dwell.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: Say it with me.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, our Emmanuel.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: And what does Emmanuel mean?
31:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what your mess looks like.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: But I know that God came to be in the middle of it with you and to do something about it.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: A few weeks ago, my friend Jeremy Wynne texted me and said, hey, let's go to coffee.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: Jeremy's on staff at uh Fellowship Bible and uh has been a friend for a while now since we moved here.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: And uh texted me and want to go to coffee.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: So I went to coffee with him.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey, um, I just wanted to talk through some things because they've asked me to speak at Fellowship Church on December 11th.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: I said, That's awesome.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking at TBC on December 11th.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: I said, What are you talking about?
31:55
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm talking about the incarnation.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: I said, Right on.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: We'll team teach it.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: From different sides of town, we'll just team teach it together.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: So we're talking about the different ways that you can approach the incarnation, the different nuances of it, the different applications of it.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: And he went in a totally different direction.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: He's telling this story this morning over there, by the way.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: So in the middle of our conversation, he's telling me about his mom, Cindy, who many of you know you prayed for her years ago.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: She was diagnosed with cancer, and it was a horrible thing, and they were scared to death, and it didn't look good, and prognosis was not good.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: And she went to the Mayo Clinic and they ran some tests, and they found out that there was no cancer in her body.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: And if you think that's a cool story, you should listen to him tell it.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: That's his mom.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: It's a phenomenal story.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: So, in the midst of telling that story, it hits him and he asks me about my mom.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: Because on August the 24th, my dad called me to tell me, out of the blue, I had no idea that they had taken my mom to the hospital and that it didn't look good.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: I said, What do you mean it doesn't look good?
33:17
SPEAKER_00: He said, They're saying she's not gonna make it.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: I said, We just talked to her.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: He said, I know.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: She's probably not gonna make it.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was a bad dream until two hours later when he called me to tell me that they had unplugged the machines and she didn't even last 15 minutes.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: And it hit Jeremy as he's telling me this story about his mom's healing.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: How these two things, it hit both of us, how these two things intersect.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know, you get to tell a different story about your mom than the one I got.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: My mom wasn't healed, and yours was.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
34:04
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: Because God's still with us.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: I know that I know that I know.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: Over the last two months, God's been with us.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: The mess didn't end the way I wanted it to.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: I didn't get to tell the story that I would have loved to have been able to tell.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
34:24
SPEAKER_00: God's still with us.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: And it may look differently from story to story.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: Because God never promised that we weren't gonna die.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: And he had never promised that everybody gets healed all the time, no matter what you've heard from TV preachers.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he promised.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: You follow what I'm saying?
34:45
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes there's pain, sometimes there's difficulty.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he delivers you from it, sometimes he carries you through it.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: But all the time, all the time, all the time, God is with us.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: That's the message of the incarnation.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how your story's gonna end, but I know that you have the incredible opportunity this Christmas to celebrate and personalize God with us.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: So don't take it for granted.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: Don't take it for granted that Jesus showed up.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: The word became flesh.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: And it dwelt among us.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: And we didn't deserve it.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: But oh how we needed it.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: God.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: Even now, as we think about what it meant for you to become man, send your son for us, and we didn't deserve it, and we hadn't asked for it, and we were rebelling against you, and yet you made the incarnation our reality.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: For those of us who are Christian, who have submitted our lives and we've put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, I pray that this Christmas would be special for us.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: It would be a reminder of how powerful the incarnation is.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that it would be powerful and mighty in our day-to-day lives, in our day-to-day existence.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: I pray that we wouldn't get over it.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: And I pray for anyone in the sound of my voice, whether they're in the room, whether they're in the College Avenue building, listening online, there's anyone who hasn't yet put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Give us the courage to do that this Christmas.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: Lift the scales from our eyes.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: Help us to see the incarnation for what it really is.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: That it's you pronouncing for all eternity that you are for us and that you're with us if we'll respond in faith.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: For the Christmas story and for everything that came after it.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name that we pray.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
37:22
SPEAKER_01: Please stand as we sing, Hark the Herald Angels singles.