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Christmas, The Culmination of History's Love Story || SLP388 · The Speak Life Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Speak Life Podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Happy New Year.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh Thomas again, and I'm joined by Paul Feesey.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, happy new year to everybody.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: Hope you're all having a a good good new year and have had a good Christmas.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what was your favourite festive snack?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh, favourite festive snack.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: I am very partial to um I'm partial to a pig in a blanket quite once.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um so you know, I like the big roast with all the trimmings.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's gotta have stuffing.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't have stuffing.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: You're stuffed.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe the problem is you're not stuffed.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's what not enough stuffing, so.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: What about you?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: You have a festive snack?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I I love it all, really.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Christmas pudding.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Christmas cake, you know, it's just it's just nice, isn't it?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: And and it's it's it's in it's quantity and quality that I find at Christmas.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: This episode, actually, of the podcast is uh is a sermon that glended on Boxing Day in Belfast, I believe.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um was it Belfast?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was definitely in Northern Ireland.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um so on Galatians 4, 4 to 6, and it's called Christmas, the culmination of history's love story.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: So uh enjoy.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: We'll catch you in the middle of the show.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us as we dive down into God's Word.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let me pray.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Father, speak to us, would you please?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to us in the depths of our being, show us Jesus, so that in his face we might see what we are truly like, and in his face we may see what you are truly like.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: When the fullness of time, it's language of pregnancy.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's the sort of thing you would say when you see somebody, and usually it's it's very impolitic to guess this wrong, isn't it?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you probably wait until the woman is absolutely bursting before you ask when is she due, right?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: But at some stage you might ask, when is the baby Jew?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because you see, the fullness of time has come.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is it possible that history has been pregnant?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is it possible that the world has been waiting for a singular birth?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's the claim of the Bible.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: But also, in the years BC, there were many peoples who were waiting for a singular birth.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: C.S.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis, around this time of year, used to read some of the poetry of Virgil.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Virgil, the great Roman poet, would talk in his fourth eclogue about the golden child who would be born and bring in a golden age.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: We know at Christmas time that the wise men, the magi, were looking up into the heavens to figure out this golden child, this singular birth.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: History is pregnant, and there's about to be a birth.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, the Old Testament scriptures are constantly telling about the seed.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Way back in Genesis 3, right when everything was unraveling, there was a promise of a seed, an offspring, who would put right what Adam and Eve had done wrong.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: All of history, the whole world is on tentar hooks, straining ahead on tiptoe for the birth.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And as it turns out, this birth really has turned history.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: It is the year of our Lord, 2021.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: You think 2021 years since what?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Since Hem.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: There truly has been a singular birth that has changed the world forever.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not bad for a kid born in a shed, is it?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: This Lord Jesus has been born and turned the world right side up.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what our passage is about.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 4.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: When the fullness of time had come.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Although what's what's the verse on the screen?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because it might not be the exact same translation.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: When the time had fully come, or here are the top search results.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Google is helping as well with this sermon, apparently.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: When the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is the singular birth, because this is where the great love story meets our story.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells of a great love story.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sorin Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher in the 19th century.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote a little parable to explain what Christmas is all about and why it is that we love Christmas so very much.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: He said this: Imagine that there was a king who loved a humble maiden.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: She had no royal pedigree, no education, no standing in the royal court, she dressed in rags, she lived in a hovel, she lived the ragged life of a peasant.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: But for reasons no one could quite figure out, the king fell in love with this girl in the way that kings sometimes do.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why should he love her was beyond explaining, but love her he did, and he could not stop loving her.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: One day there awoke in the heart of the king an anxious thought.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: How in the world is he going to reveal his love to this girl?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: How could he bridge the chasm that separated the two of them?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: His advisers, of course, told him that all he had to do was command her to become his queen, and it would be done.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: For he was a man of immense power, every statesman feared his wrath, every foreign power trembled before him, and every courtier groveled in the dust at the king's voice.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: This poor peasant girl would have no power to resist.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: She would have to become the queen.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: But power, even unlimited power, cannot command love.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: The king could force her, he could force her body to be present in the palace, but he could not force love to be present in her heart.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: He might be able to gain her obedience this way, but coerced submission is not what he wanted.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: He longed for intimacy of heart and oneness of spirit, and all the power in the world cannot unlock the human heart.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: It must be opened from within.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So he met with his advisors once again, and they suggested he try to bridge the chasm by elevating her to his position.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: He could shower her with gifts, dress her in purple and silk, and have her crowned the queen.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if he brought her to his palace, if he radiated the sun on his of the sun of his magnificence over her, if she saw all the wealth, pomp, and power of his greatness, then she would be overwhelmed.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: How would he ever know if she loved him for himself or for all that he had given to her?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And how could she know, how could she know that he loved her and would love her still if she had remained only a peasant?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Would she be able to summon confidence enough, never to remember what the king only wished to forget, that he was the king and she had been a humble maiden.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Every alternative he came up with came to nothing.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: There was only one way.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So one day the king arose, took off his crown, relinquished his scepter, laid aside his royal robes, and he took upon himself the life of a peasant.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: He dressed in rags, scratched out a living in the dirt, groveled for food, and dwelt in a hovel.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: He did not just take on the outward appearance of a servant, he became a servant.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was his actual life, his actual nature, his actual burden.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: He became as ragged as the one he loved, so that she could be his forever.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was the only way.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: His raggedness became the very signature of his presence.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's the great love story.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: The prince becomes the pauper in order to win not only her hand in marriage, but to win her heart.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Christmas is all about.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: The king of heaven, in order to bridge the immeasurable gulf between heaven and earth, what does he do?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: There is only one thing he can do if he wants to win our hearts.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: He will stoop.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: He will serve.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: He will suffer.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: He will even bleed and die on that cross.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: He becomes what we are, so that we might become what he is.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's the way that theologians have been explaining Christmas for 2,000 years.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: He, the Prince of Heaven, became what we are, so that we, children of dust, might become what he is.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: He, the Son of the Father, filled with the Holy Spirit, becomes a child of Adam, so that we, the children of Adam, might be children of the living God, filled with that same spirit.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas is a love story, did you know?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's the greatest love story.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: You could not have a more exultant love story.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: You could not have a higher figure descend to a deeper depth in order to have a more enduring effect.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody could tell a story greater than the Christmas story.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a love story through and through.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a love story that begins with the God who is love.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Did you notice in verse 6?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's have a look at verse 6 on the screen.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: The love that God is.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what the verse says.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out Abba Father.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's one person here who at the beginning of the verse is called God.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the verse, he's called Abba Father.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Abba, the most intimate Aramaic term that a child will use for their father.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And yet it's a term that a child would use for their father long into adulthood.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Abba Father.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Deep intimacy, deep respect.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: So there's one person in this verse called God, or you could call him Abba or Father.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then there is the Spirit of his Son.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And notice what the Son is crying out.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Son is constantly crying out, Abba Father, Abba Father by the Spirit.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do you notice in this verse the three persons of the Trinity?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: You notice their relationship, you notice their love.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: There has been for all eternity a beloved son crying out, Abba, Father, Daddy, to the Father.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the Father pouring out his Spirit into the heart of the Son.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: That the Son might know the love of the Father, and the Son might know the love of the Son.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Here is the God who is love.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Here is the God who begins the love story.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is the God who looks down upon us in all our squalor, in all our pauperness.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And what is the gospel?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel is that we have turned away from this God of light and life and love.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when we turn from light, where else do we go but darkness?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: When we turn from life, where else do we go but death?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: When we turn from love, where else do we go but disconnection?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: We live in a world of darkness and death and disconnection.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is our natural habitat.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: But then what does the God of love do when God sees his beloved in trouble?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God says, your trouble will be my trouble.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your pain will be my pain.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Your darkness will be my darkness.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And your death will be my death on the cross.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: What does the God of heaven do?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: God moves heaven to earth to be with his beloved.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so back to verse 4.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: When the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under law.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Paul writes that in, born of a woman, because he wants us to know that Jesus really became our brother.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: God the Son became God your brother.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Truly your brother.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yesterday on Christmas Day, JJ, our four-year-old, said, and I think quite a few people heard it in the church, he said, Did Jesus become a baby?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Anna said, Yes, JJ, he became a baby.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then JJ said, like me?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And his mother said, Yes, like you.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just like you, JJ.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And just like you.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Just like all of us.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Made like all of us, except without sin.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: At four weeks, he was just the size of a watermelon pip.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Inside Mary's womb, at six weeks, he was just the size of a baked bean.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: At twelve weeks, the size of a large strawberry.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: At twenty weeks, the size of an orange.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it always food?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: They always do it with food, don't they?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just to make us even more queasy.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: At twenty weeks, the size of an orange.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: At 32 weeks, the size of a cabbage.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then at full time, when the time had fully come for Mary, out he comes.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Born of a woman.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Your brother.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the prince of heaven has eye colour and hair colour.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's got hair on his arms.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: It is a human hand that will receive you into heaven.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that wonderful about Christmas?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: The lover of your soul, he's like you.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: He is one with you.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: The one who is united to the Father in heaven is also united to you.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he will always be united to you.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Christ remains a man.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, here we are, we're back.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: We told you we'd catch you in the middle, and this is us catching you in the middle.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, the awkward middle bit that people are are either grateful of our interruption or they're just like, uh, can we just get back to the main show, please?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: But however you feel about this, we like you.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, if it yeah, and if you if you enjoy it, here we are.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't enjoy it, tough.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: We're here anyway.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: So you wouldn't normally get this in the middle of a sermon, would you?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: No, I guess not.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: So this feels a little bit yeah, it feels like we're outstaying our welcome a little bit, doesn't it?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're very grateful for all the support from everyone who listens to our content.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, even listening to this show is a is a great support to us.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um you can get in touch, I think it's info at speaklife.org.org.uk for any questions, comments, if you have any ideas for topics that we could explore.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're kind of rethinking the speakeasy a bit, aren't we?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it might take a bit of a different format soon.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: Who knows?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Who knows?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: But uh yes, no, we do thank you for your support um all through 2021 and but also here into the new world.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, um and of course we do rely on you uh mostly for um prayer and for our finances as well.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: So if you can support us at all, um whether it's in prayer or whether you you do have something you might be able to give us financially, um in that case head to speaklife.org.uk forward slash give.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: There are various ways to give there, and there is kind of little little bonuses as well for those who give, um, such as access to the Discord server, um, and we'd like to see you over there.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um but uh so yes, we thank you for that in advance.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but otherwise we'll hand you back over to Glenn.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the law, as Jesus summarized us, is the law of love.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever he was asked to summarize what the 613 commandments of the Old Testament were all about, he says, Well, you love God and you love neighbor.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is a love story.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: The God who is love has proclaimed the good life to us.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: What does the good life look like?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like a life of love towards God and love towards others.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, that's not really our life, is it?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: God's life is a life of extension, of uncurling our arms, offering love to God, offering love to the world.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Our life is kind of the opposite.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Our life is incurled and incurved, isn't it?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I just want me and what's mine.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: But here comes Jesus.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if you read through the Gospels, you'll see the life of love.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see the good life, life lived under the Lord.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is the way humanity is meant to be.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Walks around planet Earth with such poise, with such charisma, with such peace, and with such love.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: He is just love covered over in flesh.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And why does he do it all?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: He does it to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption to sonship.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, he doesn't just die your death on the cross.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know this?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus also lives your life.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he lives it right.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: When I first met uh Emma.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why Emma said this to her father, who's an exceptional golfer, but uh she said, Yeah, yeah, Glenn's a golfer too.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: He plays off a handicap of seven.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what she said to my father-in-law.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I might have played seven rounds of golf in my life, but I don't think I have a handicap of seven.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, I get to play with the prospective father-in-law, and out I go onto the golf course.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, airshot, airshot, hack into the rough.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh pretty soon, I think uh my father-in-law figured me out, right?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, at some point, we put away the scorecard.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because at some point, the scorecard was irrelevant to the game of golf that we were playing, right?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And at some point in our lives, we tend to kind of put the scorecard away, don't we?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: We we tend to try and forget about the airshot.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: We tend to kind of forget about the anger and the greed and the hate and the lust and the pride, and we sort of put the scorecard away.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what Jesus does: He He doesn't just get the scorecard out and show us all our triple bogeys.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what Jesus does.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: He plays that form of golf where you have a partner.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: You've ever played a form of golf where you have a partner, you hack off into the rough, and then an absolute pro comes along.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he plays it from where it lies, and in it goes straight into the hole.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of everything, he gives you his scorecard.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't worry about your scorecard.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here's mine.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's perfect.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus does.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: He lives the life of love that you and I could never live.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: He lives it perfectly in our name and on our behalf.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: He lives under the law to redeem those who are under law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: He enters into our life so that we might enter into his life.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: And what is his life?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: His life is the life of sonship.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And now everyone, male and female, as Galatians 3 has just told us, male and female baptized into Christ.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now we all stand in the Son, and now we can all pray the perfect prayer of God the Son.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now we are wrapped in the perfect love of God the Father.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's what verse 6 is all about.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 6, let's have a look.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit who calls out Abba Father.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: He lived our life, and on the cross died our death, taking the penalty for our sins.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he rises up again and he says, I've taken your death.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Here, have my life.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your darkness.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Here, have my light.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've taken your disconnection.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Here, have my love.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do you notice this beautiful thing?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit of the Son, the Spirit who has constantly been calling out Abba Father, the Spirit of the Father comes into us, and now we carry on the perfect life of praise and worship in Christ.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Who is praying in verse 6?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's astonishing.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not even us who are praying.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit now places the perfect prayer of the Son into our hearts so that now our spiritual heartbeat is Abba Father, Abba Father, Abba Father, Abba Father.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: He became what you are, so that you might become what he is.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: A beloved child of God.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: You ever heard a better love story?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can't have.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Technically, it is impossible to improve on this story.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: And even better, it's true.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: The God of heaven really is love.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: He really has loved you.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he really has invited you into that love.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what the test is?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: What is the test that you get it?
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: What's the test that you get at Christmas?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think verse six gives us the test.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: The test is, what do you call God?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: What do you call him?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Is he just the man upstairs?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Is he just the big man?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is he just master?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or is he Abba Father?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know God like that?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Abba Father.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not descend all the way to our depths just to raise us up to some kind of servitude, to be employees of the heavenly bureaucracy.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: He raised us up to be children of our Abba Father.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know God like that?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know God as Abba Father?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: I love the apocryphal tale of the shepherd who came to the nativity scene late.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Have you heard this one?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's not in the Bible, it's just a fanciful story, but I love it anyway.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: The shepherd arrives late and he is empty-handed.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he soon realizes his error.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because all the other shepherds are kind of ribbing him in that sort of pious way.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I will drink a lamb.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, okay, well, alright, fine.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: But this shepherd has nothing.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: He has come to Christmas totally empty-handed.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he's just about to leave when he realizes there's a bit of a hubbub at the center of this nativity tableau, because the wise men have come and they're putting everybody to shame.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's gold and there's frankincense.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's Mary holding the baby Jesus.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And there's Joseph, and he's, oh, he's receiving the gold.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Receiving the frankincense, thank you very much.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or his hands are full.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or Mary needs to receive the myrrh.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: But her hands are full too.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: She needs to offload the baby Jesus.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: So who is she going to hand the baby Jesus to?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: She hands him to the one person who can receive Jesus.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: The empty-handed shepherd, who brings absolutely nothing to the equation.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And yet his emptiness is his qualification.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you come to Jesus, you come bringing nothing.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing except the sins that required him to come and live and die.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: You are empty-handed, and you are so welcome.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because when the time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem you who are under the law and failing.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: That you might receive the full rights of sonship, that you might call out, Abba Father, Christ is really given to you this morning.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Do you get it?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do you get Him?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: When you do, it transforms everything.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: You see that God is love.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: You see that history is a love story, and you see that I am loved with an eternal love and destined.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: To be included in that love forevermore.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And all it requires is for me to simply receive Jesus.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Say, thank you, Father.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Should we pray that way now?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Should we pray that each of us might know Jesus in our lives, that each of us might receive him empty-handed, failures though we are, receive him into our lives and say, thank you, Father.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we recognize ourselves in the pauper, in the one who is full of failure, in the one who is empty-handed, who has nothing to bring.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, Father, you bring everything.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because you have given us your son.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: You have so loved the world that you have given us your one and only Son.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: We receive him this morning with gratitude, with humility.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Fill us with the Spirit of your Son.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that our heartbeat today will be Abba Father.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that our heartbeat forever will be Abba Father.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know why it's called Boxing Day?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: I had a bit of a Google.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Ah, no.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: Now, tell me this.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it I think I did read about this.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Was it something to do with rich people boxing up things on Boxing Day to give to the poor?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: You're absolutely right, yeah.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Pickfords have a field day on unboxing all those cardboard boxes knocking around.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, so we hope that you thought that uh Glenn's sermon at this podcast episode was was like a box that was given to you.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh a box of leftovers.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: A box of Christmas premium content.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Premium content in a box, that was.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: We hope it made you think outside the oh dear box.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: That was pre-meditation.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, well, this is the first one back after Christmas, you know.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: We're not firing on all cylinders yet.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're warming up.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I was gonna say, like, with all these terrible puns at the end, we probably should start thinking about wrapping things up.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: But that's what the Christmas mode there still.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: We can only go up from here.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: Whirlpool, it's been a pleasure, as always.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: Whirlpool.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like a swirling whirlpool, I think.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: We digress.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for listening.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, God bless you, and uh we'll see you next week, I guess.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: Take care until then.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Goodbye.