The Advent of Joy

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Let's pray together.

Lord, we we've come to say yes to everything you say yes to, and no to everything you say no to.

We've come to get our heads around what we mean when we talk about the joy of Advent and the Advent of Joy.

And so, Holy Spirit, uh, say something today that has our name on it.

Uh, engage our affections and our attention, we ask, as you always do.

And so, Lord, we uh we're humbled uh by the incarnation today uh because it is uh indicting and inviting all at the same time.

And so, Holy Spirit, just speak loudly during this time and and and plainly, uh, even so.

Uh, this is our prayer, God.

We ask it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And uh my voice is a little thin today.

It sounds worse than it is.

Uh a guy came up to me after the last service and said, I got something in my truck that'll cut all that out.

And I was like, I don't want to know.

But but see me after the third service and I'll take you up on it.

Anyway, uh Luke chapter 2 today is the theme of our third Sunday of Advent.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

The theme is joy, and usually we talk about the joy of Advent, but I want to flip that and talk to you this morning about the Advent of Joy.

Advent means coming.

And so when I talk about the Advent of Joy, what I'm saying to you is that the incarnation, God take it on flesh, and being born in the womb of a virgin and baby Jesus coming into the world, it's very inviting, and it's very inviting because joy, a standard, a way of being, of thinking and relating to God, has been established unlike anything the world has ever known.

I don't know when joy first dawned on you.

Uh like think back when you were a kid.

Do you remember the first time you really got joyful about something?

You were kind of like, man, this is happening, and I'm glad this is happening.

I cannot wait.

Uh, I didn't grow up in a very joyful home, so joy was not something we talked about a lot, but I do remember in about March of 1978, I'm sitting in the middle school cafeteria, and my friend David Hawkins is across the table, and he says, Did you hear about the the the roller coaster they're building at Six Flags in Arlington?

And I was like, You might as well talk about Timbuktu.

I was like, What?

Where's Arlington?

And he's like, Oh, there's a place called Six Flags.

It's an amusement park, and they're building a ride called the Shockwave.

And I was like, I got nothing.

He kept talking, and he took out a pencil and he drew two loops on a piece of paper, and he says, it's a double loop roller coaster where you go up and over, upside down, and then you do another one.

And I was like, shut up.

I mean, this was like heaven wrapped in bacon.

And I was like, he says, tell me about it.

And I'm just kind of like, I got it kind of excited, but I didn't get joyful.

You get excited about things, like, oh yeah, yay for that.

And then he said, and that thing opens on April the 22nd, 1978, like next month.

And I was like, okay.

And then he said, and my church is going there this summer.

And I was like, oh no, you didn't.

No, you didn't.

And he was like, Would you like to come with me?

Shut up.

This is how long ago this was.

My dad gave me$11 to go spend the whole day at Six Flags.

Thought I was rich.

I was rolling into Six Flags.

By the way, you get there, we were there, we rode on an un-air-conditioned church bus.

These punk kids nowadays they roll out of here on a charter bus.

Tinted windows, air conditioned movies.

We were like the clampets.

When this down, hey! Going to the big city.

We get there, we're 30 minutes before it opens, we're against the chain at Six Flags.

We're like this throbbing mass of humanity yearning to breathe free.

That guy dropped that chain and we took off slow motion.

We had mapped out on the bus.

Here's how you get there.

Where's that guy with that bottle under a seat?

We kind of figured out.

And so we were cutting and jumping and diving, but we got there.

There was already people there.

Oh, the injustice.

The wait for the shockwave was two and a half hours.

And we were like, Yeah, oh, when you're in the eighth grade, you're like, what?

And so we left one of our friends and said, Hold our place in line.

And then we went, wrote other stuff.

There was no cell phones back then either.

I was like, what?

Would you live in some parallel universe?

And so we come back and check about every 30, 40 minutes, come back, go ride a log ride, come back, go ride the uh uh the Spanish whatever hat, the thing that tipped and turned.

We ride all this stuff, do all these things, come back, go to the spinnaker, come back.

Finally, he goes, We're about 30 minutes out.

And so we're like, all right, we're getting in line.

People are like, no, cutting, we're not cutting.

This is our friend.

He was saving our place.

Get up there.

And the ride operator says, This here's the deal.

If everybody in your car, in your little train, can keep their hands up during the entire ride, I'll let you ride it again.

You don't have to get out and go back in line.

By then, that line was about a little over three hours.

And we were like, oh, we got this.

And so he said, centrifugal force dictates that you cannot keep your hands up.

And so, but if you do, and we'll be watching, we'll all be voting.

This means you did it, this means you didn't, you got to get out and go back in line to ride again.

I was coaching them up, I was explaining the second law of thermodynamics and everything.

And we get up there and I'm like, hands up, hands up.

You may find this hard to believe, but I was the cheerleader for our whole train.

I got the lap bar and I'm squeezing out my hand and put your hands up, push them against your head, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And just as soon as the thing took off, I heard some like 16-year-old guy whimper this two cars back, mama.

I started losing my peripheral vision.

I was like, and he had turned.

He's 16.

I'm not picking on the little kid.

He's 16.

He turns and grabs his mom.

And I look up and the ride operator goes, and I'm like, we are throwing you off of this thing in the middle of the loop.

So we're riding the whole way.

Two loop hands all the way up, turn the turn, and we come all the way around.

And then you come around back into the station, and the computer program picks it up and it goes, shh.

And you just kind of coast in about a mile an hour.

And everyone's like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

And then two cars back, guess who throws their hands up?

Woo! Woo! Oh, I snapped an artery and bled out right there.

I'm like trying to get back there, trying to put your hands down, put your hands down.

You're the reason we gotta go get back in line.

So I got out.

Like when I drive and you go too slow in the fast lane, and I get up beside you and I just stare at you.

I just stood there by my car, just staring at him.

And his mom was like, Oh, you did good.

No, you didn't do good.

Let's go on.

Once you go to Kenyland, it's over that way.

Now, if you're visiting today, you think I'm picking on that kid.

Nah, nah.

I'm gonna pick at you.

Why do I tell you that?

Here's why I tell you that.

Because here's my concern that most of us are gonna live in fear our whole our whole life, clutching our 401k.

Oh, oh, oh, mama, mama, boss, company, kids, grandkids, oh, oh, and then at the very end, when you've made it, you realize I got enough money.

I'm good.

Then you're gonna, when the machine's got you.

When you're you're hooked up to the machine in the hospital and it's breathing for you, shh, you're gonna try to convince everybody, I really did to live a joyful life.

And I'm just gonna suggest to you you at that point, you will not have made it, you will have missed it.

Because the time to make it is now, the time to understand the advent of joy is today.

Because we live in a very joyless culture where everyone looks around and says, Man, could it get much worse?

And I'm like, Don't ask that, don't ask that.

This is the advent of joy.

Luke chapter 2, verse 8.

Luke 2:8

And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be a sign for you.

You will find the baby wrapped in swallowing claws and lying in a manger, and suddenly there was a with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

The advent of joy, that joy, this this reality, not a feeling or an emotion, but this reality we were created to demonstrate, to unleash in a world around us.

Not this, hey, this lonely alienation and isolation born of social media.

I don't, I don't, I, I, I, I don't, I don't like myself as much as strangers do.

Joy is what you're missing.

Because you're you're you're being ruled by your fear.

And then when it's too late, you're the person.

Woo! But I just want to say, joy has already come.

Don't waste your life being ruled by your fears.

After, I just kind of meditated in this passage this week in preparation for today.

And a thing that struck me that I've never seen before, I've read this and preached this so many times, I've never seen this.

After he drops this 19-word ego-destroying ontological epiphany on these people about onto you this day in the city of David, a savior is born.

Then he says this, and this will be a sign to you.

Are you kidding me?

I mean, these guys, shepherds in a field, the angel of God appears and says this, and then hear this.

If you're a skeptic or a cynic, or you're jaded, or you're here because your parents, when you ask your parents, what do you want for Christmas?

They said, I want you to come to my church with me one Sunday.

And today you're like, checking the box.

Hear this.

Why would God appear in supernatural visitation by angels and then say to them after that, and this will be a sign to you.

As if this isn't enough, get a load of this, my man.

This will be a sign to you.

Here's why.

Because God is accommodating.

He's not mean, he's not mad, he's just right.

God accommodates, but he doesn't compromise.

What does that mean?

He makes allowance, he's patient, he's long-suffering, but he does not become what you prefer him to be.

He will be as he always has been.

Because God's nature is determined by God, not by the winds of culture or change or popularity or the recent poll on CNN or Fox News, whoever.

They're all wrong when it comes to God.

God is the only one who's consistently right when it comes to God, which is why we need to open up the Bible and let the Bible tell us who God is and how God is.

Once you recover from that, like, hey, I mean, we just appeared, and this is a sign in case you're still in case you're still wondering, holding out.

Then he says this, you recover from that, and he says, uh, and you'll find this.

Here's the sign.

You'll find a baby wrapped in swallowing cloth and lying in a manger.

Can I just ask this question?

Who does that?

It would be like, because we kind of, I mean, nowadays the manger's awash like a Thomas Kincaid painting in light and it's warm, ambient glow, and it was a feed trough, people.

It would be like someone having a baby right down here at Memorial Herman, and you go in to visit your friend, and you walk in, and her and her husband are sitting there eating, watching Die Hard.

This is our favorite Christmas movie.

And you're kind of looking around after about five minutes and you're like, Um, did you have the baby?

You're like, Yeah, yeah, we had the baby.

That thing wouldn't stop crying, so we put it out back by that dumpster.

You would be like, excuse me.

If you're a woman, automatically your tears fill up, your eyes filled with tears.

And you're like, and the lady's just looking eating popcorn and said, hang on a second, hang on a second, my favorite part right here.

Yeah, and they just kept crying, crying, crying, crying all night.

So I was just like, hey, can you take this thing out there and put it out there?

Manger's not so sexy now, is it?

I've ruined the manger for some of you.

You're gonna go home and get your nativity scene to go, we're doing away with that.

Here's the thing.

Stay with me.

God says this will be a sign to you.

God says that, hey, they're gonna make the I'm not making fun of Mary and Joseph.

God says, I know they're gonna they're gonna make the most out of what they don't have.

God says, I know they're gonna go to the to the end.

There's gonna be no room at the end, they're gonna have to go out in the cattle barn, and they're gonna make the most of it.

And God is saying to some of you today, I know you're making the most of it.

I know you're hanging in there, I know you're trying to figure out a way to get that game or that toy or that gift for your kids that you can't afford, but you are conniving, trying to come up with a way to buy what your kids what they want.

God says, I know what that's like.

I know what that's like.

Don't worry about it, I know what it's like.

That's the God who says this.

And I just want to take it phrase by phrase.

Probably one of the most often quoted sentences this time of year and least understood.

Luke chapter 2, verse 11.

Luke 2:11

Just phrase by phrase, for unto you.

For unto you.

When I go visit people in our church and in the house when they've had a baby, no one holds out the baby and says, for unto you.

Because I'm like, we are so past that stage.

Somebody asked me the other day, you and Marcy are great parents.

You ever thought about adopting?

It's never crossed my mind.

And I love Jesus.

And my oldest is home from college, and I'm kind of like, good to see you.

When you going back?

Because I'm old and I'm setting my ways.

Okay.

She knocks on the bedroom door at 1140.

Hey, you want to get some coffee?

And I think, you want to get knocked out?

We're sleeping in here.

Just but for unto you.

When it says for unto you, the Bible's kind of winking at us and it's telling us something.

It's as if the Bible knows something that wants us to know.

Not just uh, not just you, but all of us, which makes the birth of Jesus the most applicable reality known to man.

Here's why the birth of Jesus means something for all of us, so we need to understand it.

That's why the Bible uses these simple, innocuous words, for unto you.

And you're like, oh, isn't that cute?

No, that's indicting.

Because the Bible says unto you and I, everyone who's ever been born, this means something and ever will be born.

The birth of this baby means something to you.

So therefore, it's very important that you understand it for unto you.

Secondly, is born.

Is born.

What do you mean?

You're smart people.

Think about this for a moment.

Jesus was preexistent, which means he's always existed.

Okay, Jesus didn't just happen in the manger, he didn't start in the New Testament.

If you go in Genesis, you'll see God speaking and say, Come, let us make man in our image.

That's the Trinity, the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, the God and the Holy Spirit.

They are together.

The Bible says that Jesus was the agent of creation.

All things were made by him, and through him all things were made, and without him, nothing was made that was made.

And so he doesn't show up here.

He manifests here in the form of a baby, but he has always existed.

Which begs this question if you've always existed, why would you choose to be born?

Have you ever seen anybody be born?

It's not a pretty experience.

And they're not pretty when they come out.

Unless it's a Cesarean, it's a different thing.

But when that kid is giving his birth through natural birth, their head's misshapen.

It's kind of like, did we get an alien?

What happened here?

And as a man, they wrap it up and put a cap on it, hand it to you, and you're kind of like so our first daughter was born, and my friend Billy came to the hospital, and it was a hard birth, and so her head was very misshapen.

Billy was single.

He didn't he didn't know all the rules.

He went, What's wrong with her head?

She's right there in front of God and everybody.

I mean, look at her head.

What's wrong with her head?

Is she gonna be okay?

And the nurses were like, uh my wife just rolled her eyes.

She goes, Here's my friend Billy.

Absolutely.

Again, who watches that and says, I want to do that?

Why was he?

If he existed from all time, why would he come into the impregnated virgin and be and be born into this world?

For one simple reason.

So you're not going to be born again.

So I don't know what you mean.

Here's what I mean.

Because the Bible says, teaches that you and I were born into an impossible scenario.

Now you're smart people.

Think with me just for a minute.

The Bible says we were born into an impossible scenario.

What do you mean?

Galatians chapter 4 talks about it.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

Hear this, it'll come up on the screen.

In the same way, we also, when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles, principles of this world.

But when the fullness of time had come, hear that.

Now I have time to go into this today, but when the Bible talks about when the fullness of time, look at me.

For God, time fills up.

For us, time runs out.

It's like some of you are scrambling right now because you're like, ah, I still got some Christmas shopping to do.

Good luck.

In the fullness of time, God's not panicked, He's not scrambling around.

He knows time's just filling up.

And He's just waiting for things to come to fruition.

So in the fullness of time, the Bible says had come.

God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.

Now mark that in your Bible if you're if you're prone to writing in your Bible, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you're sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father.

So you're no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir through God.

And I said earlier, I said the reason Jesus, who always existed, chose to be born, is so you're not going to be born again, because we were born into an impossible scenario.

And here's the impossible scenario.

You and I, in order to get to heaven, apart from Jesus, you have to keep the law.

You have to do everything the Bible says.

You said, What does it mean to be under the law?

Remember, I said, mark that?

He was born under the law to redeem those who were born under the law?

That's you and me.

What does it mean to be under the law?

First of all, the law consists of the do's and don'ts.

The moral and civil behavior is revealed in the first five books of the Old Testament.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus.

You ever read Leviticus?

Whew.

About three pages of that.

And I'm like, I'm good, stop.

Numbers, Deuteronomy.

And what look at me?

It's not to confuse you.

It's to convince you.

Let me say this again.

Look at me.

It's not to confuse you.

Say, God, God, the Bible doesn't make no sense.

No, it's to convince you that on your best day, you and I don't stand a chance.

We cannot fulfill the law.

Matter of fact, I brought you a quote by a guy, an Old Testament scholar, writing about the law.

He said this to be under the law means that the law has jurisdiction and authority over a person to judge and condemn.

If such a person breaks the law, sins, and there is a net, then there's a necessary judgment and condemnation based on the law.

All law breaking brings separation between God and the sinner and results in death.

So to be under the law means that the person is obligated to keep that law in all of its aspects.

And if he does, and if he does not, the law condemns him.

Now here's the problem.

The problem is we're not able to keep the law.

Any infraction results in two things necessary judgment and necessary condemnation.

Let me say that bad news again because I got some good news to come with it.

Any infraction of any law means necessary judgment and necessary condemnation.

Look at me.

This is why Jesus chose to be born.

He was born under the law.

And look at me.

Jesus is talking to these people and he says, Hey, I didn't come to abolish the law, I came to what?

Fulfill the law.

And this is why you should consider the claims of Christ in Christianity because Jesus Christ is the only person who ever lived who fulfilled all the demands of the law.

So that when he dies on the cross, in your place, and for our Sins, he can say, the law no longer has power over you.

This is why it's a big deal that the Bible says, for unto you is born, is born.

This is why he was born under the law to do for us what we can never do for ourselves.

And the third phrase is this this day, for unto you is born.

This day, no other day changed history like this day because God comes crashing into the cosmos and he forever changes the way we think about everything from as simple as time to the calendar.

We talk about dates and we say this is BC.

This was 458 BC.

That means before Christ.

AD means after the birth of Christ.

The birth of Jesus is like the continental divide.

It's kind of this fixed reality that separates.

If you're like me, you're kind of a nerd, you watch nerdy things on TV.

I watch the documentary on the Continental Divide.

Would you like some fun facts on the Continental Divide?

It starts at the Bering Strait, way up in northern Alaska.

It goes all the way down to like the Strait of Magellan, way down in South America.

And it just keeps going on down there, but as far as you the United States.

And it's what determines where rainfall goes in America.

If it rains, the continental divide sends it to the west and it goes to the Pacific.

It sends it to the east and it goes to the Atlantic.

It's this fixed reality.

And everything, hear this.

It's this fixed reality, and everything that lands on it goes one way or the other.

I'm here to tell you that that's Jesus.

He's this fixed reality.

And everybody that lands on him goes one way or the other.

This day.

Here's the fourth phrase in the city of David.

A specific place.

Why is that important?

Because the Bible told us all along that this is where the Messiah is going to be born.

720 years earlier, in the Old Testament book of Micah, uh, it said, Hey, this is where it's going to happen with these words.

He says, But you, this is Micah chapter 5, verse 2.

Micah 5:2

But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrata, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

Now, why is that a big deal?

Here's why it's a big deal.

Because God goes on record 720 years earlier.

And if God, if this doesn't happen, then you have a Bible that doesn't have to be believed and a God who can't be trusted.

Let me say that again.

God goes on record.

And if it doesn't happen as God says it's going to happen, then you have a Bible that can't be uh trusted and a God who cannot be believed.

But it does happen, just like God said it would.

And because of that, you do have a Bible that can be trusted, and you do have a God that can be believed.

And here's a word I want you to take away from this morning is orchestration.

God is kind of moving in history, he's acting in the geopolitical subculture of the day, and he's bringing about all the promises of God to fruition.

So when the Bible says in verse 1 of chapter 2, in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria and all went to be registered, each to his own town.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.

Caesar Augustus just didn't get an idea.

God uses people in politics to accomplish his ends.

He's a God of orchestration.

Now, ask yourself this would you be willing to believe today that God is willing to work in your life and my life to orchestrate things as well?

That means that you're not alone.

You don't have to be.

You don't have to figure it out by yourself.

You don't have to come up with the idea.

You don't have to go to bed at night and kind of think, man, what do I do tomorrow to not go to bed with this feeling?

Your life can be connected to a real God in a real way who guides his people.

You have a sense of, hey, you know what?

It's going to be okay.

God's in charge, and so I don't have to act like I am.

The fifth phrase is just two little words.

A savior.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David, the specific place, just like God said, what's born?

A savior.

Not a therapist, not a life coach, not a self-help preacher, not pop psychology, psychology, a savior.

Why?

A, because the Bible said this is what he who he would be.

Matthew chapter 1, verse 21, of Mary.

Matthew 1:21

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Why is that a big deal?

It's a huge deal.

What does this mean for us?

I'll tell you what it means for you.

Three things, and we'll be done this morning.

You still with me?

It means three things.

Number one, it means that now this first one, it'll come up.

Don't try to write it down.

You can just take a picture.

It's kind of wordy.

I'll explain to you.

It means I can no longer find my identity in my sin because there's no identity in that which Jesus came to eradicate.

Otherwise, there would be no basis for knowing who I am, and the incarnation would be nullified.

Now, if you just look at that, you're like, well, I thought I was stupid before I came to church, and now you've confirmed it.

It's not what church is about.

Look at me.

We live in what I call a day and age of identity politics.

People identify themselves based on their preferred sin.

They say, I'm this, I'm homo this, I'm trans this, I'm universal, this, whatever.

And the government and everybody says, well, we should just acknowledge that new reality.

That's their identity.

You're not loving those people, you're hating those people.

And here's why.

Look again, look at the statement.

Because if you can find your identity, if your real true identity is in any behavior that the Bible calls sinful, and the Bible also says, we'll talk about next week, that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil, wants to take away sin.

If you walk by my office, there's a wreath.

In the middle of the reef, there's an oval plaque someone painted for me, and it's got a manger with a little fist coming up out of it.

Because I said to this person, I said, if you understand the incarnation, Jesus came to destroy sin.

So sin doesn't rule over us.

So you cannot find your identity in any sinful behavior.

It's like the homosexual can't say, Well, this is just who I am, and the glutton can't say, This is who I am.

The Bible doesn't single out individual sins and say, You're worse.

Gluttony is as heinous, pride is as heinous as any sexual immorality.

It means if your children are sexually active, they're just as sinful as the person you hate the most.

Why do I tell you that?

Because none of us were created to define ourselves and find our identity in what the Bible describes as sin.

Why?

Because Jesus came to eradicate that.

And so if that's eradicated, taken away, then you have no basis for your identity.

And how much would God have to hate you to create you to live in a world where you just kind of drift along, working this job for 18 months, that job for two years, this job for three years, just waiting till you die, till you come around the last turn of the roller coaster, and the computer picks you up, and you're just easing into the depot.

I submit to you today that the God of the universe advents joy.

He sends joy into the world to infuse your life and my life, not just with forgiveness, but purpose and meaning.

Here's the second reason, this implication of this is that I can no longer pay back my enemies for their sins against me.

I no longer find my identity in my sin.

But secondly, I no longer pay back my enemies for their sins against me.

Here's why.

It is the height of hypocrisy for me to say, God has forgiven me, and then me not turn around and forgive those who sin against me.

Let me say that again.

It is the height of hypocrisy.

I'm the biggest hypocrite you know.

If I stand up here, and by the way, the third implication of this is simply this that God has done something about my sin.

I cannot say that in the incarnation a savior was sitting in the world to save me from my sins, but I'm gonna punish people for theirs.

That's not the gospel.

Which is why, as Christians, we can be around people that live other lifestyles, believe other things, find their identity in radically sinful, clear, sinful things, and be a non-anxious presence.

And say things like, I love you and I accept you as a person.

I fundamentally disagree with your lifestyle because Jesus came into the world to save you and I from sin.

And I'm not gonna sit here and watch you destroy yourself and call myself your friend if I don't speak out in a very loving way over a meal that I pay for with money that my church pays me.

And the guy looked at me one time and he said, So your church is paying for this?

Yeah.

What kind of church pays for the meal of somebody who radically disagrees with everything you stand for?

I just said one that believes the gospel.

Because I believe a God left heaven to come to earth.

I mean, who does Jesus identify with on the earth?

He's perfect.

Well, I wasn't expecting this.

What do you want me to do?

Pick at you?

I just ask you this question.

If you're so happy, why are you so sad?

It is sad.

I've often thought many a times about just ending it.

And I said, Promise me you'll never do that.

Why do you care?

Because I think you matter.

I like you as a person.

You see, what allows me to do that is that I realize that my sin is sin, it's destructive in nature, just like his sin.

Here's the last phrase Who's Christ the Lord?

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

What does that mean?

Jesus didn't grow into anything.

When he arrived, he already is Christ the Lord.

Before anyone has laid eyes on him, except Mary and Joseph, he is.

You don't add anything to Jesus by agreeing with him.

He doesn't become more God because you say, I believe that.

He is Christ the Messiah, the fulfillment of every promise God ever made.

And here's the part we just push against the Lord.

The Lord.

That means the reigning, ruling, king of everything.

That means the boss.

The Lord.

That's why I say the incarnation.

God taking on flesh and tumbling wet and wobbly into a manger and wrapped in swaddling cloths, just so these people could be without a doubt that this is God doing this.

And here's the sign.

This is what you're going to see when you're going to get there.

So remember that I said this, God says.

And they get there and they're like, oh my gosh.

It's exactly the way he said.

I mean, who would lay their kid in a feed trough?

God would.

Because he knew that he was by nature indestructible.

Nothing could destroy him.

And he is a God on a mission.

And here's the two questions I want to end, and I want us to spend just a moment or two just kind of lingering and thinking about it.

Number one, if this is true, and it is, then why can you not believe this God?

Why can you not trust what he says?

About your sexuality, heterosexual.

Why can't you trust what he says?

About your kids, your grandkids, your appetites, your desires, your fears.

Second question I want us to ponder today is simply this.

Where do you need to start trusting him?

What area of your life do you just think, you know what?

This is so out of control.

I just try to hide this from God.

I just try to cover this up every time I get, I think about God because I'm so embarrassed.

Just ask yourself this morning, what would it look like for you just to trust him with that?

Just to say, hey, this is a hot mess.

Can you do something with this?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

You say, how do you know that?

Because you will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

And Jesus Christ came into the world so that you could live at the mercy of a good and faithful God.

Not at the mercy of anybody or anything else.

Let's pray together.

Take a moment.

If you're our guest, we like to teach the Bible, then we'd like to give you some space to think about it.

And so Clyde's just gonna play for a minute.

I'd like you to just think about those two questions.

If this is really who God is like and it's why he came into the world, could could can I trust him?

And if I could trust him, then why am I not trusting him?

Let me voice a prayer, and then we're just gonna we're gonna do something we don't do very often in the church.

We're gonna do nothing.

Just be still.

Think about your life.

Slow down.

God, we understand what you're saying in the Bible.

It's loud and clear, it's not hard.

Give us ears to hear today.

Lord, increase our capacity to trust you.

We just want to linger in your presence for just a few moments before we're dismissed.

And so, Lord, just brood over us.

Speak to us, remind us, woo and win us.

We ask all of this.

In Jesus' name.

We just want to wait with you.

Father, our confession this morning is that it's difficult to do nothing.

But when we take time to do nothing, we're reminded that you're God who's always doing something.

Let us see today what you're doing in our lives and what you're calling us to join you in doing.

Well, today's not just about the joy of Advent, it's about the Advent of Joy.

That God kind of stabbed this fiery torch into the world years ago and said, get a load of this.

This is good news of great joy that will be for all people.

So I pray for all people today, regardless of who they are, how they are, they would realize that there's a God that came into this world to be their Savior, to rescue them from their sins.

Lord, let's never get beyond that, I pray.

And let's never get over that.

Get us deeper into that with a fuller understanding of that.

This is what we're asking for today, and we're asking it for it in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

Thanks for your presence.

If you're our guests, hopefully you've had an opportunity to uh for that one of those guest cards that are in the little uh on the seat pocket in your in your row.

As you leave this morning, all we ask of you, if you're our guests, if you just drop those in the wooden boxes by the doors on the way out.

Uh today's our hilarious Sunday offering.

Uh, for those of you who refer to this as your church, uh, so if you're going to be a part of that, just make sure you mark that.

Otherwise, it'll go to the general offering, okay?

Stand to your feet.

Now, do me a favor.

Everybody in here, look at all the people in this section over here.

Just look at them.

You're like a guy over there with a Santa Claus beard.

A guy over there in a suit.

That must be a visitor.

It's my friend Nick.

He's not a visitor.

Look at those people.

Don't look at me, look over there.

Some of y'all sit over here, you never meet those people over there.

They might as well be in Des Moines, Iowa, right now.

Here's why.

Because when as soon as I dismiss you, you're gonna run out that door and get in your buy.

Now look at all the people right here.

Look at them.

Y'all keep looking at me.

I'm not them.

Now look at all these people right here.

There's a lady in the section right here that Friday morning, my wife and I went to visit her.

Her husband's been in hospice.

She was just sitting there with her hand on his chest.

We were in the room when he breathed his last.

She's just sitting there with her hand on his chest.

There's beautiful stories all around you.

Now look at all these people over here.

Stare at them.

It's uncomfortable to be looked at, isn't it?

Some of you got your hands in your pocket, like, you can be done now.

Look at me.

What you just looked at is the church.

Okay?

Whatever we build in the future, not the church.

That's a building to house the church, to equip the church.

This is the church.

These are the things and people we care about most.

And so don't lose sight of that.

And so when I dismiss you here in a few minutes, early, miracles never cease.

Just meet some people you don't know.

Stop, look at me.

Stop being so efficient and be available.

I'm like James Brown.

I feel it coming on.

Hold your hands out.

May the God of all hope grant you all joy in believing.

In such a measure that you overflow with peace.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.