The Christmas Gospel

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information in our church, please visit grandparkway.org.

Amen.

If you've got a Bible, I'm going to invite you to take it and open it up to Luke chapter two.

Luke chapter two.

And I want to talk to you this morning about the Christmas gospel.

And I want to I'm tempted to say I want to talk to you briefly.

Like many of you, we got up at our house this morning at 512.

Not that we're counting or anything, not that we're bitter or anything.

If I don't get a nap, some people are gonna No, it wasn't that early.

But we got up and we kind of opened up our presence.

And I love kids because last night, if you were here last night, I just love that.

They're just kids, we set kids on fire and send them into the audience.

I love that.

Somebody said, Did you plan those many kids?

Absolutely not.

I had eight kids picked out and I made announcement because my little candle starters come up, and people are like, I want to set stuff on fire.

But I love that.

But I love this one we opened presents and we were kind of done.

One of my kids looked around and said, Is that it?

And just out of a out of an innocent place, but when it comes to the gospel, I think that we look around and we kind of go, is that it?

And I just want to say, no, it's not.

And so some of you are here today and you may have had a bad experience, and you may have you say, Well, you know, the church is full of hypocrites and our religion, I don't like organized religion, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I just want to say, you're drinking too far downstream.

You got to go upstream to the source and taste and see.

And so that's what I want us to do today, is I talk to you about the Christmas gospel.

Let me read from Luke chapter 2, verse 1.

Luke 2:1

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 the 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, because he was of the house and the lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

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 fear.

And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a 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.

This will be a sign for you.

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

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.

And I just want to just unpack, just uh in an intentional manner, uh, just what I would call just the Christmas gospel.

And the first thing that the Christmas gospel tells us, and really I want to focus on verse 10 and 11, the first thing that the Christmas gospel tells us is that there is something to see.

There is something to see.

Look at verse 10 again, because I love the way the Bible says things.

He says in verse 10, and the angels said to them, Fear not, for behold, for behold, there's a phrase that that you didn't use this week, and it made me think of my friend Bob Hamilton, who has since gone on to be with the Lord.

He died earlier this year.

Uh, but Bob was from the East Coast, and Bob would be talking to you, and the more excited Bob would get, and if you knew Bob, Bob was always excited.

And so Bob would be talking, and in the middle of it, he'd reach over and grab your arm and go, check it out, check it out.

You're like, I'm checking it out, okay?

You're spitting on me right now.

Just keep talking.

But he couldn't control himself.

He would say five more sentences and he'd go, check it out, check it out.

I hadn't stopped checking it out, Bob.

I had a Bob Hamilton flashback.

And you see, here's the great thing.

Let me just acknowledge this.

I don't want to preach this, but one of the things about the gospel, about the incarnation that Jesus, that God sent his son into the world, is that death doesn't have the sting that it used to have.

Now I went to Bob Hamilton's Celebration of Life Service, and so for some people in our church, this is the first Christmas without somebody in their family.

And that and that and that that hurts and it's painful and it's a reminder, and you're like, oh man.

But because God sent his son into the world, death is not the end.

Don't miss that today.

Lay down today and be sad and grieve.

And I had a little bit of a man, I'm never gonna hear Bob Hamilton say, check it out, check it out.

But I thought, I'll see Bob again.

Because what I'm telling you today is true.

He says, For behold, I wrote about my crazy friend Linda this week, who said to me one time, and I quote for those of you who didn't read it, because we were talking about a church thing, and she said we need to have centerpieces.

Like, we don't use centerpieces, are they edible?

Are we gonna eat them?

No, but you eat first with your eyes.

At that point in my life, I thought that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.

And she said it again, you eat first.

She even tore a page out of a magazine and stuck it in my mailbox in here where somebody in the magazine says, You eat first with your eyes.

Women may do that, but men don't do that.

You put out like red meat, and men are thinking, how many people do I have to cut in front of to get to that before it's all gone?

But when the angel says, For behold, basically he's saying, You got to see this.

See, before the gospel is something to be heard or believed, it's something you have to see.

He says, For behold, there's something to be seen here that displaces the fear.

The Bible talks about this in other places.

Don't turn there, it'll come up on the screen.

But let me just read to you, Ephesians chapter 1, uh starting in verse 15.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Paul says, For the re for this reason, because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

And catch this next phrase.

Having the eyes of your heart enlightened.

We'll just stop right there.

Not gonna go read the rest of it.

You see, there's something to be seen.

Having the eyes of your heart enlightened.

We used to sing a song that said, Open the eyes of my heart.

That word enlightened is a Greek word for teeth photidzo.

Photizzo, and it means this to bring the light, to render evident, to illuminate.

It's where we get our English word, photograph.

And what Paul is saying is that I pray that God puts a picture in your heart that you never, ever, ever get over and get away from.

So when the angel appears and says, Hey, fear not, for behold, says a picture I'm gonna put inside of you, and it's gonna displace fear.

And anytime fear presses in on you, there's something that's burned on the retina of your heart that you will never, ever, ever get over and get away from.

And all that is summed up in two words, for behold.

And to see the ramifications, look down in Luke 2, if you would, at verse 17.

He says that when they saw it, see, seeing is essential to all of this.

They made known the saying that had been told them concerning the child, and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

Verse 19 says, But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart, and the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told to them.

See, the gospel is hearing, but it's also seeing.

And some of you, the reason you're jaded and cynical, and you're like, How long is this gonna take?

And do my parents appreciate what a big deal it is for me here, listen to this guy, give me a lecture on the Sky Ferry.

Are you kidding me?

You've probably never seen it.

You've only heard it.

And your prayer might just need to be, you know, God, this is all real.

Let me see it.

Let me let me see it.

Secondly, the Christmas gospel is that not only is it is there something to see, but secondly, that it's news.

I'm back in verse 10.

He says, And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news.

It it it's news.

We orient our lives around news, by the way.

Some of you have like smartphones and you have an iPhone, you have this, that, and the other, and you can have the news sent to your phone.

And every day, I remember as a kid, this fascinated me.

But every day things would stop in our house, and all the adults would turn on the TV at 5.30 because at 5:30, what came on?

It still comes on today.

By the way, at 5:30, and some of you old people in here like me, I have it set on my DVR to record.

We orient our life around news because we will sit down and let somebody tell us how jacked up the world is, how corrupt politicians are, how somebody killed somebody in some bizarre way and went through all this stuff, and we just sat there and we're just kind of hoping that maybe at the end they'll have a little human interest story, and sometimes they do, and you're like, oh, that's awesome.

Like I saw on the news this past week.

I just meditated on the news this week.

What is all the news I heard?

That some man took$15,000 and went to Walmart and just started paying off people's layaway.

Can you imagine?

That was on the news.

I was so glad I watched the news that day.

But in the same 30-minute section of the news, they talked about a person that's missing, that's been missing for six days and no one's seen.

It's just news.

And so, well, see, before the news became what it is today, the news was what it was back then.

He says, What do you mean?

He says, For behold, I bring you good news.

One of the things that strikes me is that we're willing to kind of orient our life around news, and you've got the greatest news that anybody could ever hear.

And what do you do with that?

This is news.

And most of us get reports and they're not good.

People say, I I got I I mean, how often do people say, Hey, hey, Bill, I got some good news.

Sit down.

Just be awake, be burned and jolted by that.

It was Ben Patterson who said, be careful you don't hear holy things and handle holy things so much that you're no longer burned and jolted by what you hear.

You should sit down with somebody.

See, practice the gospel this year.

Make it your New Year's resolution.

I'm gonna just open my mouth and let the good news come out to at least one person in 2012.

I'm just gonna say, you know what?

I got some news that you need to hear.

Because, see, that's the other thing about news that it's all around us.

But when you get news, when you know something that nobody else knows, you can't wait to tell somebody.

You're like, what do you mean?

I mean, can you just imagine when you get that thing, when you kind of find out and figure out, and someone says, hey, don't tell anybody, but did you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?

You heard blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You didn't hear, don't tell anybody.

That just meant don't let me know you told somebody.

Because immediately when you hear it, here's what you start thinking about.

Who can I tell?

Who can I tell?

But yeah, we got this news, and rarely does it dawn on us, who can I tell?

Who needs to hear this news?

And the Bible seems to suggest that it's everyone.

Thirdly, he says there's also joy.

I gotta confess, I think I've misunderstood this for I'm 47 now.

I know some kid told me last night I was 15.

Of course, I asked her how old she said she was seven.

I said, How old am I?

She said, 15.

I was like, I love that.

No, I'm 47.

Some of you are like, You look like a 29.

No, I'm 47.

I don't take steroids, this is all natural.

And I had chocolate-covered pecans and a pecan tart for breakfast this morning.

Because my wife was playing with a new vacuum cleaner I got her for Christmas.

Stayed up all last night putting that bad boy together.

I expect my house to be cleaner now.

I see all y'all looking over there like, is he telling the truth?

I'll let you figure it out.

What do you mean there's joy?

See, for 47 years I live with this false assumption.

See, look at verse 10, because you've read it and thought the same thing.

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

Good news of a great joy.

Actually, the way it's structured in the Greek is this of a this great joy stands alone.

And for the longest time I thought, hey, we need to be inviting people into this great joy.

But the reality is, is I understand it as I stand here on Christmas Day 2011, six days from the end of the year, is that the joy is not ours, the joy is God's.

Here's how you get the second date, men, single men.

Here's how you get the second date with the hot girl you finally worked up the courage to kind of go out with.

Let me talk to my two wiffle ball players here, Austin and Elijah.

When you get older, like 39, and you want to go out with a girl, and you finally ask her out.

Most girls, like in college, they're all starving.

They'll go out at least once because it's a free meal.

I saw this on the news the other day, too.

You might have seen this.

Some woman in New York figured out how she could go online and go on a bunch of dates and live cheaper.

So in a month, she went on 28 dates.

Are you kidding me?

And then they listed, oh, see, this is why you should watch the news.

It gives you new people to be mad at.

I was incredulous.

I was like, what?

And she said, Oh yeah, and I got to go here, and I got to go there, and I got to go there, and started dating off all these great restaurants.

And she said, Oh, just like one day, but you know, I figured up I could save$1,500 a month by not eating.

Oh, I never wished I had a 3D TV more in my life.

But here's how you get the second day.

You don't go out with girls like that, Austin.

You just tell them, go back and eat ramen noodles, whatever.

But if you go out with somebody and she's really nice and she's a great conversationalist, marry a woman you can talk to, Austin, okay?

It's awesome because you're just kind of like if you just marry someone that's pretty, you're gonna sit there and watch a pretty woman chew food, and you're gonna be like, but at the end of the first date, here's how you get the second date.

Works every time.

You walk to the door and you say, Hey, thank you so much.

And she says, Oh, man, thank you.

I had such a nice time.

Then you say back, oh, the pleasure was all mine.

In order for you to get any pleasure out of this, we would have to do it again.

And then you walk away, ta-dao! Just leave her hanging, just walk off.

Kind of like, uh-huh, that's right.

I just dropped that on you, and now I'm smooth rolling to my Range Rover.

With its heated air-conditioned seats.

And what you've done is you've left her with the taste in her mouth of, if I want any pleasure out of this, we'll have to do it again.

I'm just gonna go out with him again just to see what's next.

And God's that way.

What does he say?

He says, Oh, look at verse 10.

We've read it so much, we've just grown dull to it.

He says in verse 10, the angel said, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all people.

This joy is gonna be for all people, but but you gotta think about the gospel right.

We think about the gospel backwards, we think about the gospel in terms of us and in light of us.

But to think about the gospel in the biblical way, you think about it in terms of God and what it means for oh my so, so if God is saying, Hey, this joy is mine, then what is he saying?

Here's what he's saying that sending my son from the safe, secure confines of heaven into this world, into this earth, into this big spinning, hurling ball of broken and fallen humanity to the womb of a virgin, and he's gonna live a sinless life.

I mean, some of us eleven thirty-four.

You've already sinned today, haven't you?

I covered it this morning.

I looked around and was like, my kids got a candle fire.

And I bought it for her! How jacked up is that you're like, I reached out and got my present.

A bag of beef jerky.

I had a little twinge of envy.

The Bible says, Do not envy your neighbor's kindle fire.

It's in there.

Actually, it says, Don't envy your neighbor's donkey.

It's actually not the way it's written, but that's the way we say it, right?

So, see, this morning, it's now 1136, and I've already sinned.

He sent his son.

Here's and here's why, Austin and Elijah, it's how you get the second day, but it's also how your life gets wrecked for the rest of your life.

You think about the gospel in terms of God, and what kind of God gets joy out of sending his son to the womb of a virgin, little 13, 14-year-old girl born in a manger.

He lives a sinless life, and then he dies at the hands of these religious retards who he could have slaughtered at a moment's notice.

Could have stopped it at any point.

And he didn't.

And he's there hanging between two morons on who are both on crosses, and one of them is railing on him, kind of like, hey, can't you do something?

I thought you had game.

You ain't got no game.

Get us off of here.

And then at his feet are these people.

You see, you say, Well, it's Christmas, dude.

Come on, lighten up, get us something kind of sentimental.

First John tells us that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.

And so this was on his mind when baby Jesus, wet, wobbly, and wiggly, came out and was wrapped in swaddling clothes.

There was like an alarm went off in the spiritual realm.

You should hear LL Kul J, destruction tarah, and mayhem.

Pass me a sissy so sucker, I slay him, farmer.

What?

Farmer, what?

That's what's going on in the spiritual realm.

Yeah, that's right.

I said that on Christmas Day.

And not to be funny, or so you go home and go, well, that's kind of different.

I thought I was gonna light some candles and go home early.

It's because we've fallen asleep to the gospel.

When I walk by a manger, I really could destruction terror and me.

Read Revelation 19.

Same thing.

It says that he's riding a white horse and he's got a sharp sword coming out of his mouth.

We wish to strike down the nations.

He treads the wine press of the wrath and the fury of God Almighty, and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and the armies of heaven were dressed in white, riding behind him.

You get a front row seat to God bringing destruction, to God doing what he said he came to do when he came as a baby.

See, because if this isn't true, that can't be true.

And so your pastor with a bent mind stood in a store the other day.

They had a little nativity, a little precious moments, nativity scene.

I kind of wanted to throw up, it was so sappy.

I felt myself getting in cavities.

And the lady said, We've only got a few more of those.

Would you like me to get you one?

No, I want to stand here and sing to it.

And she said, Excuse me?

And I said, What do you see when you look at that?

Well, I just see baby Jesus with an ambient glow.

And the more she talked, the more I was just like, and I think it's so sweet how they're all kind of knelt down.

Look, even the animals are kneeling down before baby Jesus.

Please stop.

I'm gonna throw up in my mouth.

And then she said, because I wasn't trying to be rude, I was just baiting her so she would please pretty place with heaven on top, ask me what I see.

And she did.

Christmas came early.

I even act like I was holding the mic.

Like way up on the top, not down at the bottom, like your kids sing.

Do you see what I see?

I had it at the top like a rapper.

I said, You know what I see?

Destruction terror.

And mayhem.

Pass me a sissiosaka, I slay him.

And everybody at Family Christian bookstore.

And there was a little girl in line who had, I'm not making this up, who had the glitter Bible.

Because somebody glued rhinestones all to the front of it, and she said.

And I said, You want that?

Absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And the lady in line said, We don't have money for that.

I do.

Because I'm loaded.

I got gold records.

I rap so hard.

And I got up there, and here's the best part.

I reached in my little credit card holder and pulled out my 20% off Pastor's Perks discount card.

And the lady behind the counter who saw me bring the thunder and the pain.

She looked at that and looked at me and said, You're kidding me, right?

Oh no.

Oh no.

Throw your hands in the air and wave them like you just don't care.

Say, hoo, hoo.

And Bernadette, the manager, not happy.

Not happy at all.

And I just looked at her.

And I said, I want this.

And I said to the lady, little girl, you want some$5 stuff?

Yeah.

Get it.

Then I walked out, I said, I'm not making fun of your nativity.

Try to explain to one of the sales associates.

Because though we were wrapped around the building in the store, like a coiled up python, the line of customers, we can only open two registers.

The third register just sat there dormant.

And I said, You think maybe?

I said, We're not buying any more stuff the longer you make a standing line.

So I thought maybe I was a little over the top.

I didn't think so, but I try to be accommodating.

And I said, I wasn't trying to be funny back there, make fun of your precious moments and ativity scene.

But he came to destroy.

She goes, Yeah, I uh destruction, terror.

I said, No, don't say it like that.

That's the way preachers say it.

Destruction and terror.

It's like, remember when Pat Boone sang iron heavy metal songs like classical music?

You remember that?

He did that.

It was on the news.

You should watch the news.

Pat Boone sang Inner Sandman.

And I wanted to rip my ears off.

Rock to never, never land.

No, you sing that like James Hetfield, who used to stand at the edge of the stage and spread his legs and act like he was just sawing them in half.

It's like you can't do Metallica like that.

Don't miss the point.

The point is that Austin Elijah, there's a joy that God gets from this.

That for you to get anything out of it, you have to experience it yourself.

He didn't come to be appreciated, he came to be known.

He came to destroy the devil's work.

He came to seek and save that which is lost.

So you ought to ask yourself if the joy is all his.

See, you you walk away from that first blush with the gospel, and not religion, not church, not doing better, but the first blush with the God, you walk away and you kind of go, what kind of God takes pleasure in this?

And your mind is captured.

And pretty soon it begins to pick up mental momentum and your your thoughts are headed in a direction they've never been before.

That is the gospel.

It's not, do you believe Jesus was the Son of God?

Check.

Do you believe you've sinned?

Check.

Would you like to pray this prayer and ensure you'll go to heaven when you die?

Fumble.

Epic fail.

Because your mind and your heart and your affections have never been ravished by this God of the gospel.

There's a God that can only flourish in the American church.

He can't survive the gospel.

Fourthly, he tells us it's for everyone.

Verse 10, you still with me?

Sorry, brief momentary aside.

And the angel said to him, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that'll be for all the people, for everyone.

I just want to say fourthly, it's for everyone.

I have a friend, Claude Hickman, who's kind of wacko.

He signs all of his emails, everyone, everywhere.

And you ask him, he'll tell you, it's because I just want to remind myself that the gospel's for them.

I think we've gotten in the habit of determining in our minds, not who qualifies for the gospel.

We believe, oh, everyone needs to hear the gospel.

Oh, we believe that.

But what we do is we kind of make an evaluation based on whether or not we think how they'll respond, and how we think they will respond determines what, if anything, we will say.

And that's an abhorrent violation of the truth that it's for everyone.

One of my prayers for us as a church going into the new year is that we'd be faithful to the proclamation of the gospel.

And secondly, that we'd be faithful to the demonstration of its implications.

I wasn't trying to be funny or different in the bookstore the other day.

I just never walked by an activity scene ever again.

We got one on our piano at my house.

If you came right now, we have an advent cowler with movable little people with velcro on them.

You stick into the story when you tell the story.

And there's not a time.

We don't put that little wooden manger on that burlap square.

I don't hear L L Kul J in my spirit.

You see, we've got to reclaim the gospel this Christmas.

It's not sentiment, but substance.

As I heard someone who stood up here last night and say, it's it's God didn't just send frosting, he sent cake.

It's not this sugary, sweet, sacrinated nonsense that's destroying us.

It's substance.

It's God with skin on him.

Fifthly and finally, it it's it's it's the gospel.

Look at verse 11.

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

All you've got to know to know the gospel is Luke chapter 2, verse 11.

Luke 2:11

Just break it down phrase by phrase, for unto you.

For unto you.

For unto you.

Because you see, this is the gospel is something that is done not by you, but for you.

It's unto you.

So there's no one that you work with or you come in contact with, or tomorrow when you go capitalize on the big sales, no one you're not going to come in contact with.

That this is not unto them.

For unto you, secondly, is born.

Is born.

I love little kids because they they just ask the questions.

I talked last night about one, Susan Ripley, uh, who used to be our children's pastor here, still a member here, stopped by our house.

She teaches first grade at Holly Elementary, right over there, five minutes from here.

And she said that she was sitting there and her kids were talking, and one of them said, Well, how could God be born?

I don't get that.

See, the reason some of you are flatlined in your faith is you stop asking simple questions.

Nicodemus, one of the most learned men in the Bible, in John 3, asked the same question of Jesus.

Did you know that?

Smart people don't ask smart questions.

Smart people ask the obvious question.

Nicodemus said, How can a man be born again?

How can I enter a second time into my mother's womb?

And Jesus was like, Really?

And you're a teacher in Israel?

Let me just get this.

Just he did his Columbo.

You're just gonna ask a question.

You get to stand up in front of people and talk?

You don't get this?

See, the answer to the question, oh, for unto you, but is born, why how can God be born?

God had to be born so you could be born all over again.

Because if he doesn't come and he's not born, sinless, then you don't stand a chance.

I don't stand a chance.

But he says, for unto you is born this day.

This day.

Hear those two words.

This day, not yesterday, not there was a time in space in which God entered the world.

And by the way, everyone's got a response to that.

Have you noticed that?

Everyone's got a response.

Like, I'm standing in another store this week, this past week, and people were, well, you know, uh, well, it's Christmas, and one guy said, I'm about done this Christmas stuff.

I mean, any idiot knows that Jesus was not born on December 25th.

And somebody looked at me and then who knew me and kind of said, You gonna do something about that?

I said, Why am I the general manager of the universe?

My wife tells me all the time, you're not the general manager of the universe.

Shut up.

So now I'm just doing what my wife says.

Say something.

That guy's over there talking.

Why don't you say something?

How long have you been going to church?

Don't you know what to say?

You won't carry me around in your pocket?

Here, I'm gonna pull my pastor out and pull the string.

He's gonna wrap LL Cool, Jay.

You better watch it.

This cat's battery never goes down, and he's got a kung fu grip.

I just looked at the guy and I just said, Can I just ask you a question?

Is that your biggest protest to the gospel?

Well, it's one of them.

You know what?

Yeah, we celebrate Jesus' birth on December 25th.

He was probably born in the spring, you're right, but we we celebrate it here.

Is that the biggest thing you got?

That biggest big that's your big argument?

Is that your weapon of mass destruction?

Because right now you're just verbally streaking, you got nothing on, and the gospel's still true.

And then it dawned on me.

Jack MulGorman taught me this.

I'm Romans professor in seminary.

Your true character is revealed when you get the upper hand on your enemies.

Who you really are is most on display when you start winning the argument.

And because the gospel is good news, and for everyone, it's for him too.

And so the conversation takes an entirely different tone.

He says, From to you is born this day in the city of David at a specific time, at a specific place, a savior.

Hey, look at me, mom and dad.

Your kids make bad saviors.

Kids look at me, your mom and dad make bad saviors.

One of the reasons our kids don't depend on God when they get to be about 20 is because we've bailed them out their whole life and they're just looking over their shoulder, waiting for you to come get them.

Uh-oh.

Did you feel that?

Some of you are like, uh Christmas.

Sexy it up.

I got twisters.

Told them you were funny.

This is not funny.

One of the reasons your young adult children do not depend on God.

The way they were created depend on God.

And I'm not saying, let me hear, hear me.

I'm not saying don't, don't, don't, don't, don't help your kids.

I'm not saying that at all.

I'm saying that to the kids in the room, mom and dad, don't make a good savior.

Because see, you have a savior that was born unto you.

See, a lot of your life will be affected by who is your savior.

So I just want to finish this one by asking you who your savior is.

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

Who is Christ the Lord.

He's both Christ, the Messiah, the fulfillment of the promise, and he's Lord.

God, King, boss.

See, you need a savior that has the capacity to do both of those things.

But see, even the word savior has kind of lost its luster.

And so I just want to paint a picture of what maybe a savior, if you could get this in your head, just picture for a moment that you're kind of driving, like if you were driving on Highway 6, and right there where it crosses Highway 90, before you get to Highway 90, you know, there's a railroad track right there, right?

And you know that everybody, and I don't know why I do this, but I do.

I don't think it's wrong.

I just don't think it's the safest thing in the world.

Because when the light's red, no one, they stop, they go way over the railroad tracks and they stop way back here short of the railroad tracks.

And there's room, if you're way back there, you can pull out on the shoulder and drive all the way up and cut right onto the railroad tracks.

Don't do that, boys and girls.

But one time I was in a big hurry, and I might have done that.

Not saying I did.

It's called plausible deniability in a court of law.

But I'm sitting there, just part of me is on the track.

I kind of got all the way over.

And then you hear a sound that makes you realize that wasn't a good idea.

Sounds like this.

And you just think about what would happen if you were on the track.

So you just picture that you just in a hurry, Christmas shopping, getting that last minute thing.

You're sitting there, and all of a sudden you're not kind of on the track, you're on the track, and all of a sudden you're like, uh-oh, it's coming around the corner, it's right there, okay, and you're and you're trying to move and the light's not turning red, and the guy in front of you is not even paying attention.

I mean, he's listening to LL Cool J, destruction terra, and you're honking and nothing's happening, and all of a sudden you're like, you know what, I gotta get out of this vehicle, and so you reach for the door, but your seatbelt's stuck, and you're like, oh my goodness.

You ever notice the more nervous you get, the harder it is to do manual, dexterous things?

It's kind of like, I've got ten thumbs, and you're like, ha ha.

And then all of a sudden, bam! You get hit, but it's from behind.

The guy in the truck behind you rams your car.

You look back, he's got a pickup like real men have.

And he's yanked it down in low one, and his tires are smoking wild.

And he's pushed you off the railroad track and the car in front of you, and you're like, yeah, get that guy too, and just piling cars up.

And then you hear a secondary bam, and it's the train broadsiding the guy in the truck.

And you get out, and your first thing is, what just happened?

Oh my gosh, what just are you kidding me?

There's no way he could have survived.

Are you, oh my, and you'd like to reach in your pocket and pull out your cell phone, and then you hear some knocking in the trunk of your car, and you're like, What?

What in the world?

And you hit the little button on your on your remote, and all of a sudden your youngest son climbs out and he's like, What just happened?

What just happened?

We were playing hide and go seek.

I'm so sorry.

And before you left the house, I jumped in the trunk.

I was just kidding.

What just and every second there's a new revelation of what just happened, the depths of what just happened, and an appreciation for what just happened.

Nobody in your family will remember that man's name.

I mean, your wife might, your husband might.

Your kids will when they tell the story at school.

But they go off to college, they'll forget.

But you'll indelibly have that just kind of burned on your heart.

You'll hear somebody else say his name, say his name was John, you'll hear somebody say the name, you'll be like, Yeah.

You see, because that's what a savior does.

They rescue you from what you deserved.

And you never forget them.

So when Luke says in Luke chapter 2, you see, don't think just baby sentimental Jesus.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

That's okay to think there, but don't stop there.

He goes on and says, For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior.

And the question I want to give you this Christmas is who's your savior?

Do you have a savior?

Let me voice a prayer.

Lord Jesus, thanks for today.

Thanks for the the gospel.

Thanks that you put on flesh and came into this world.

And you moved about and you ate and you drank and you did it with such gusto that they called you a glutton and a wine bibber.

And yet when you talked, a story big enough to live in came out.

And people said, I want to live in that story because my story's too small.

And maybe today we could just exchange our stories that are so small for a story that is big.

That's the gospel.

It's the only story big enough to live in.

So on Christmas Day, Lord, we tell the story of the gospel of a Savior who came.

As we read earlier, a prince who left everything to come and ransom his prized possession.

Holy Spirit, I uh pray that you would appropriate and press in what had our name on it today.

Let everything else fall to the wayside.

Let us be light and free.

Most of all, God, let us live like people who have a savior.

That's our prayer.

We prayed in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Hold your hands out.

Your God of incarnation and illumination came.

And he came because he didn't want you to be alone and in the dark.

That's it.

He didn't want you to be alone and in the dark.

So don't be.

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

Amen.

Bless you.

Merry Christmas.