Behold the Gospel

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Thanks for joining us. Circumstances and you're going

to find that to be true in your life as well if you live long

enough. It's not the easy seasons of

your life that you come out with the most experience and the most

knowledge. It's the difficult seasons of

your life. And in one particular difficult

season of my life, when I was very young, about 23 years old,

I had a dear friend of mine, actually the guy who preached

here last Sunday. And I think about this all the

time because he's 10 years old. John is 10 years older than me.

John Crosby preached for me last week.

He and I were, I was walking through a very difficult season

at 23. He was 33.

And I look back on that and think, I thought he was so old

and wise and he was a stupid kid.

All right. And this is what's so

interesting about that is he said something to me when I was

walking through that difficult season that has stuck on me the

rest of my life. I'm going to share this with

you, he said, Stephen, it's not your circumstances that

determine who you become. It's how you respond to those

circumstances that will determine who you've become.

So that and that truth has been something I've used over and

over and over again in my life when I've come up against

difficult circumstances and you will come up against difficult

circumstances, difficult seasons of life where you will have to

pause and say, what are these circumstances going to do to me

right now? Are they going to make me

better? Are they going to make me angry?

Are they going to make me run away or are they going to make

me better? Are they going to make me a

different type of person? A person who trusts God, a

person who leans in, a person who relies on God to help him or

her. So it's not your circumstances

that determine who you become. It's how you respond to those

circumstances that determine who you become.

Now, Christmas, the season of Christmas, which it's great and

we love it, but here's something about Christmas that we all need

to be honest about. Christmas has a way of

intensifying circumstances that you are living in.

Christmas has a way of intensifying circumstances that

you are living in. So let me explain what I mean.

If life is going well for you right now, Christmas amplifies

that joy, right? If things are going well for

you, then Christmas kind of goes, man.

Look, it's been going great for a few months and look at

Christmas now. It makes it even better because

like, you have Christmas to amplify how good life's been

going. But if life is hard for you

right now, if things are not going good for you, Christmas

has a way of amplifying that pain for you as well.

Christmas has a way of saying you see how terrible your life

is. Everyone around you is so happy

and you are so miserable. At Christmas time.

Our unfavorable circumstances seem to be highlighted or

presented to us in high definition.

They seem to be they seem to be enunciated.

I remember around 5 after five years of marriage, Mary and I

Mary and I've been married about five years.

And we decided, hey, let's, let's have kids.

And you know, golly, this seems like a whole lifetime ago.

But she wasn't even sure she wanted children.

Sorry, guys, I know that's hard news to hear.

I always, always wanted children.

She wasn't so sure. We're still debating on who was

right on this, but anyway, but we just say, hey, let's have

kids. We're at Year 5.

We've been married, we're 26. And so we start, you know, we're

going to have kids. And then it doesn't come easy

for us. We have multiple miscarriages.

We walk through some really dark pain of not being able to

conceive and then conceiving and having miscarriage.

And it's just, it was really tough, man.

It was really, I don't want to turn the whole sermon into that

testimony, but it was a really tough season for our lives and

God use them for good. And she'll be the first to tell

you that honestly, that's what made us the marriage we are

today was walking through those years of infertility was we

learned how to trust each other and rely on each other and

really believe that we had each other's back.

And I remember at Christmas time, during those years of

infertility, Christmas time would accentuate that pain so

much more because I have, I have four siblings.

I'm one of five and my oldest sister, she's 10 years.

One of my older sisters had a child when she was in her early

20s and and then another child, she's 10 years older than me.

And so then those grandbabies are there at these Christmas

parties. And my brother had a couple kids

and those grandbabies are there. And so we'd go to these family

Christmas parties and all these little children be running

around. And I should have children by

now, but I didn't. And so I would bring gifts for

the nephews and nieces and it would be so exciting.

And I would always wonder in my head are will my brothers and

sisters ever have nephews and nieces that are my children to

bring gifts to at Christmas time?

And Christmas would have a way of accentuating the pain of our

infertility year after year after year.

But here's the thing about Christmas.

If life will, if life will not change, if your circumstances

are determined to not change, then your faith has to grow.

You have to respond to that pain of circumstance with a growing

faith. That's really the only option,

because here's the other option. The only other option is to be

angry, to be bitter, to be sad, to look at your circumstances

that refuse to change and say I am angry because of this and I

will make everybody around me miserable because I'm angry

because of this. Have you ever been that person?

Have you ever been the victim of that person?

See, that's one option. You can look at your

circumstances that refuse to change and you can say I will be

bitter and I will be angry about this.

Or you can look at your circumstances that refuse to

change and you can say the answer to this is faith.

So I look back on my season of difficulty of Mary and I walking

through infertility and how Christmas would accentuate that

pain. And I would pray and I would

talk to God. And sometimes those prayers were

anger filled and sometimes those prayers were yelling and

sometimes those prayers were weeping, but they were always to

God. In other words, I was always

leaning into my faith through the pain of that season.

And that's really the only option you have when

circumstances refuse to change. You and I must have our faith

grow. And this truth sits at the very

heart of Christmas. Think about the message spoken

by the angels to some shepherds. Maybe you know the story.

Maybe you haven't read it in the Bible, but you saw Charlie

Brown's Christmas, right? And an Angel appeared to the

shepherds, right? And they were afraid.

And what did the Angel say to the shepherds?

The Angel said to the shepherds, do not be afraid, for behold, I

bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the

people. Those two words fear not, or do

not be afraid. And then the other word, behold.

Behold, these are the key to our faith growing, rejecting, fear

and beholding, fearing not and beholding.

These are the key to your faith growing.

This is the key to your faith growing.

You must reject fear and you must behold.

So this morning as we start this new teaching series called The

Wonder of Christmas, today we're going to talk about something

that many of us have lost or we struggle to hold on to or we

hold on to it with loose fingers.

And that is this, the wonder of faith, the wonder of faith.

And this is the type of faith that comes from beholding the

gospel freshly again. And Christmas time should force

us and push us to behold the gospel freshly again.

So to start our conversation around the wonder of faith,

let's read the passage that many of you will recognize, Luke

Luke 2:8–11

chapter 2, verses 8 through 11. It's famous, it's great, and we

ought to read it every Christmas.

And then Christmas morning you ought to force your kids to make

force your kids or your grandkids, you read it to them

before they get over one single gift, all right?

They will remember this passage of Scripture the rest of their

life if you do that right. Luke chapter 2, verses 8 through

Luke 2:8–11

11. This is what it says, it says.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby,

keeping watch over their flocks at night.

An Angel of the Lord appeared to them.

Do you guys ever think, oh, it's angels, right, right.

It's like, but at first it's just an Angel of the Lord

appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

And they were, everybody say terrified, terrified.

But the Angel said to them, do not be afraid.

I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the

people today in the town of David.

A Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah of the Lord,

you and I, We all need our faith to grow.

And here's the big idea. So if you're a note taker, I'm

going to give you the big idea up front, the thesis of this

whole talk so you can know this up top at the top, you ready?

Faith grows when we behold the gospel more than we behold our

fear. All right, let me say that

again. Faith grows when we behold the

gospel more than we behold our fear.

All right, so you have two options.

You can behold your fear, or you can behold the gospel.

Your faith will grow the more you behold the gospel as opposed

to beholding your fear. And here's the two we're going

to, we're going to unpack 2 ideas from this text.

Ready #1 Permitting your fear to rule is the problem.

Permitting your fear to rule is the problem.

And #2 permitting the gospel, perceiving the gospel, I'm

sorry, is the solution. So #1 permitting your fear to

rule is the problem. And #2 perceiving the gospel is

the solution. So first of all, let's just jump

into this. Permitting your fear to rule is

the problem. Now I know when we read the

story of the shepherds, we see them getting terrified.

We think to ourselves, well, of course, Steven, they got

terrified. If an Angel showed up to you and

you were out in the field doing something and an Angel just kind

of like came out of nowhere and there was light all around you.

I mean, what does that even, like, look like?

Wouldn't you be terrified? That's true.

But I think when you read it that, you know, on the surface

and you think, well, of course they were terrified.

It was an Angel. I think you're missing something

more important in the text, and I think you're missing why Luke

shares with us that the shepherds were terrified.

If you think about the Bible, humans are always afraid of the

holy or the representative of the holy.

Every time an Angel shows up in the world, what happens?

The Angel shows up in front of a person.

What does the text say? The Angel says what do not what?

Be afraid. Why does the Angel say do not be

afraid? Because the human that the Angel

has appeared to is what afraid. The natural response of humans

to anything to holy, to the holy or to the representative of the

holy is fear. Think about Isaiah in chapter 6.

I know if you're not a Bible person, you're like, I don't

know what that is. That's OK.

You should go read it sometime In Isaiah chapter 6, what does

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Isaiah, he finds himself where? In the throne room of God.

And what does he say? He says, woe is me for I'm a man

of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.

And what what what's what's happening to him in that moment?

He's fearful. He's fearful.

When we find ourselves confronted with the holy or the

representative of the holy, human beings are fearful.

We're afraid. Now, here's the thing.

No Fear is a real deal. Follow me.

We're talking about fear right now, OK, and how we give into

fear. And some of you live in a

constant state of fear. You live in this perpetual state

of fear. We actually choose fear.

We choose it. Fear is bad for us, but it's

natural to us. It's natural to us, it comes

natural to us. We choose fear.

And This is why. Because you and I have thrown

off God's rule in our lives and in this world, we've thrown it

off. We've said, hey, I don't need

God's rule. I don't want God telling me how

to live. I don't want a matter of fact, I

don't want anybody telling me how to live.

I'm my own man, I'm my own woman.

I'm in charge, I'm sovereign over me.

And we throw off a God's rule. And when you and I choose to

throw off God's rule, the only other option is to choose fear

that will now dominate your life.

We choose fear. OK, Stephen, what do you mean?

Think back to Genesis chapter 3. Thinking back to Genesis chapter

Genesis 3 · chapter mention Genesis 3 · chapter mention

3, if you, I know some of you have read Genesis, you know the

story. The first humans are in the

garden. Satan comes along in the in the

form of a serpent and he lies to the first humans.

He lies to Eve. And what is the essence of the

lie that he tells? He the essence of the law that

he tells to the first humans is based in fear.

What is the fear? The fear is this.

You have a God doesn't have your best interests at heart.

He's holding out on you. He's not telling you the whole

truth. You're being, it's being you're

being withheld from. You're not getting the whole

story. You're not getting the whole

truth. In other words, the law that was

told by the serpent to the first humans was based in fear.

You do not have a God you can trust.

You do not have a God that's looking out for you.

You have a God who's holding out on you.

When in fact, the very first humans had a God that loved

them, supplied their needs, and was in daily unfettered

relationship with them. And what did the first humans

do? They did.

They did exactly what you and I do most days.

They threw off the rule of their Heavenly Father, they threw it

off, They threw off the rule of God, and they by doing so became

a fearful race. Think about this.

After Adam and Eve eat other fruit, the Bible says that God

came into the garden and was walking in the garden and the

cooler the evening to look for them.

And what were they doing? They were hiding.

They were hiding. You only hide because you are

what? Afraid you are fearful.

You see, when humans throw off the rule of God, they take up

the cloak of fear. And that's a principle you can

in your everyday life. If you throw off the rule of

God, you were taking up the cloak of fear.

And you think, well Steven, is there an in between?

Can I throw off the rule of God and somehow not choose fear?

Friend, I'm sorry, but there isn't.

Either God becomes your sovereign or fear will dominate

your life. That's just the way it is.

That's what the Scriptures teach.

And at the point that Adam and Eve chose to cloak themselves

with fear and throw off the sovereign rule of God, at that

point, a, a detrimental mindset has entered into human beings,

which you and I all suffer from to this day.

And this is the detrimental mindset that you and I, you and

I all suffer from. You ready?

Here's our mindset. You and I think that it's up to

us. It's up to me and it's up to

you. If I'm going to be safe, I have

to make sure that I'm safe. If I'm going to be happy, I have

to make sure that I'm happy. Even to this point.

If I'm going to be right with God, if I'm going to be saved,

then it's up to me to be saved. Now, what is this mindset?

What am I talking about? Well, all of a sudden,

everything that that we think gives life meaning, joy,

happiness, safety, being saved or right with God, you know,

getting rid of our guilt, getting rid of our shame,

getting rid of our of our embarrassment, our sin.

Like everything we think that will give life flourishing and

give life hope. Everything we think that we need

in order to to be happy fulfilled people.

It's up to me to do. And when we think that way, we

have a detrimental mindset that will create fear.

And there are Christians who think this way.

Well, I better be good enough. I better be holy enough.

I better go to church enough. I better give enough money away

so that God is happy with me. Friend, that is not the gospel

of hope drawing you to the heart of God.

That is fear based and it's detrimental to us.

Let me write. Let me give you this.

If you take notes, fear festers when I assume life is up to me.

Fear festers when I assume life is up to me.

When life feels like it depends on me, I will always be afraid.

Because what I know deep down is I'm not up to the task.

And I'll never admit that. I'll tell you I can make it.

I'll pull myself up. I'll get through this, I'll be

happy one day, but that thinking will lead me to always be

afraid. Now the Angel in Luke 2

addresses fear not as something to be managed.

Like hey guys, don't be afraid, it's OK, we can talk through

your fear. The Angel in Luke 2 actually

addresses fear as something to be removed.

The Angel treats fear as something more than just an

emotional problem or an emotional flaw.

For the Angel, this is important.

For the Angel, fear is not emotional.

Fear is spiritual. In other words, for the Angel,

what the Angel understands and what the Bible understands is

that fear is a tool of Satan. It's a tool of the enemy.

It's a weapon of the enemy, your fear.

And my fear is not just like an emotional flaw.

It's not just like, oh, I'm just kind of going through some tough

seasons. I got some bad mental health

issues. No, the, the mental health

problems we have are the outcomes of the spiritual issue

of fear. All right, spiritual this the

spiritual issue of fear is a weapon in the hand of Satan.

And perfect love drops out fear. The Bible says in other words,

and God is love. So God drops out fear.

So if we find ourselves fearful, it is never from God.

It can only be from the enemy who hates you.

Do you follow me? In other words, fear is not

like, oh, I'm really afraid of my life.

And and that's not just like a neutral thing, like, well, I

just, I just tend to be a fearful person.

That's not neutral. That's a spiritual demonic work

that's happening. I know that's too heavy, right,

That we don't want to think that way.

But fear is what fills the space in your heart where you don't

trust God, where you where your heart doesn't trust God like

that part of your heart. And you know, there's parts of

your hearts where you just don't trust God.

I got them. We don't have a long enough

sermon for me to walk you through them.

There are parts of your hearts where you don't trust God in

those places where you don't trust God, that's where fear

fills up that space. This is why fear is the enemy

beneath so many of our problems. Things like anxiety, dread,

catastrophic imaginings. Anybody have catastrophic

imaginings like you just imagine terrible stuff happening to you.

Just me, OK, You, you, there's three of us.

You want to get together, have coffee for all right.

I mean, I feel like I'm, I feel like I'm a screwed up person and

I would love to have some friends.

So. And it turns out there's not

that many of us. Kind of always thought there

were a lot of us. I don't know if I should keep, I

don't know if I should keep being a preacher.

Anyway, I'm kidding. Of course I got to keep being a

preacher. Catastrophic imaginings.

Anger. So if you deal with anger, if

you deal with resentment, if you deal with panic, if you deal

with lying, deceiving, self self protection, deceiving.

You know when you tell lies to make yourself look better or to

protect yourself? Nobody does that, right?

Yeah. Self protection, addiction.

Now, these are mental health nightmares.

They are they They really are. But listen to me carefully.

Those mental health night nightmares, they grow in the

soil of the spiritual problem of fear.

That's the soil they grow in. These emotions.

A fear, anxiety, resentment, panic, lying, self protection,

addiction. These things are downstream from

the waterfall of fear. Fear is at the root of all of

them. Fear is the crushing belief that

life is up to me and God cannot actually be trusted.

Friend, that is the first lie that humans believe and it is

the lie that you are tempted to believe today.

Life is not up to you to fear, to that fear that you have and I

have, and the shepherd's hat to that fear.

The Angel announces 2 words, or three words depending on your

translation. Do not be afraid or fear not.

Fear is not something to be managed.

It's something to be rooted out, something to be removed.

When the Angel says fear not, the Angel is not offering

emotional support. Instead, the Angel is offering a

new reality, a new spiritual reality.

The holy has come near. The perfect love of God has

entered into the fearful space of man, and now this space where

you cannot control anything, a sovereign God who controls all

things has entered into it, and he has come just for you.

So fear not, do not be afraid. And that leads us to our next

idea this morning. If fear, if permitting fear to

rule is the problem #1 if permitting fear to rule is the

problem, then #2 perceiving the gospel is the solution.

Perceiving the gospel is the solution.

Now today we've read from the NIV 2011, which that was on the

screen. That's what many of you have,

and you may have noticed that when we read that on the screen,

and maybe if you have it in front of you, the word behold

isn't in your translation and it wasn't on the screen.

And the word is actually there in the original Greek, the word

behold. Fear not, do not be afraid.

Behold. I, I give you good news.

The reason that the NIV and some other translations remove the

word behold is because they think it's archaic that people

don't really use the word behold anymore.

Like we don't really walk around and go behold, grab me some

bread. You know what I mean?

Like, I mean, I do it in my house.

I'm like, behold make me a sandwich, but it doesn't happen.

But we don't really use the word behold anymore.

And so they make it. The translators made a decision

because it's archaic and like, hey, let's don't use that.

But then there are, there are translations that that use that

original Greek word, translations like the ESV, the

New American Standard Bible, which happens to be a great

translation. They still include it.

Now, why do I, why do I point that out?

Why? Why did I take the time to tell

you that? Well, because the word behold is

important. The word being there matters

because I think that Luke includes it and I think that the

Angel says it because the Angel was not simply saying, hey, just

don't be afraid. Like just get over it.

I think the angel's offering, listen, I think the angel's

offering an alternative to being afraid.

How helpful is it if somebody says, hey, listen, just stop

being so fearful with your life? Is that helpful?

No, if I could bro, I would, you know what I mean?

Like I don't need a therapist to tell me.

You guys remember that new heart episode?

Hey, nevermind, I'm showing my age I'm 50 in February, you

know, stop it 2 words stop it $5 please everyone Google that

later. If you watch it on YouTube, you

will, you will think you're like, that was the best summit I

heard because I got to see that bit on YouTube.

But anyway, so if I could just stop being fearful, I would.

So the Angel is saying more than just stop being fearful.

The Angel is offering an alternative to being fearful,

and that alternative is the word behold.

And This is why the word behold is.

It's important. So the Angel is saying, hey,

don't be afraid. Instead behold.

And what does the word behold mean?

The word behold means instead look at this, perceive this,

take this in deeply. Behold or beholding is the

alternative to fear. It's what we do as opposed to

fear. And so the word behold means to

shift your focus, to take your eyes off of what frightens you.

And you have something to fix them on.

Because if you say, hey, take your eyes off of what frightens

you, and I look over here and there's nothing, that's what I'm

going to do. I'm going to go back to what

frightens me because I have nothing here to fix my eyes on.

And what the Angel is saying is, no, there's an alternative for

you to put your eyes on something different, on

something better. Behold, put your eyes on

something better. Turn them from the fear and put

them on something better. And behold does not mean to

glance or to just notice. Behold means to perceive, to

absorb, to internalize, to see it to the bottom.

And So what? What is the Angel telling them

to behold? Behold, I have some news, some

good news, not advice, not recommendations, but news.

I have some news that changes reality, that makes things

different. So in the midst of your fear

right now, the Angel says to the shepherds, and the word of God

says to you, in the midst of your fear right now, look into

this news, this good news, the good news that a Savior has come

to remove our sin. Good news, right?

It goes deeper than that. Good news that a Savior has come

to remove the enmity between God and me, and a Savior has come to

make me right with God. A Savior has come to remove my

shame from me, to put me back in right relationship with God, my

heavenly Father. That a Savior has done for me

what I could never do for myself.

That's good news. The gospel is good news.

And here's what the Angel is saying, and here's what I'm

trying to teach you today is that we allow, we permit fear to

rule our lives. And we wonder why we're

miserable. And what the Angel has offered

as an alternative and what the text offers as an alternative is

don't permit fear to rule your life.

Perceive the gospel and perceiving the gospel is the

solution to our fear. Tim Keller says it best.

Listen to this quote by him. It says if you take time to

comprehend or behold what is in the gospel message, it will

remove the fear that has dominated and darkened your

life. To the degree that you truly

behold, gaze at, grasp, relish, internalize, rejoice in the

gospel, to that degree, the fears of your life will be

underminded. Isn't that beautiful?

Man? I miss Keller.

Let's think about this for a moment.

Fear goes down. The fear in your life will go

down. The fear in your heart will go

down to the, to the degree that the gospel truth becomes real to

you, to the degree not that you believe the news, but that you

internalize and know that the news is true, your fear will go

down. Not to the extent that you hear

sermons about the gospel or to the extent that you go to church

and this is what people think. I got problems in my life.

I'm going to go to church. That doesn't solve your

problems. Sitting through a sermon is not

going to fix anything. I've preached a lot of them.

I'm telling you they don't. What fixes things is what the

Angel is saying is to internalize the beautiful news,

the truth of the gospel. Jesus did not come just for

people, but to internalize it to the point that you understand

that Jesus doesn't. Jesus didn't come just for

people. Jesus doesn't just love people,

but listen to this. You internalize it to a point

that you say Jesus came for me and Jesus loves me for that.

News changes fear. It diminishes the power of fear

in your life. The gospel is news.

It's not tips for better living, and it certainly isn't moralism.

Don't let me get started on that.

The gospel isn't ethical teaching.

It's not even spiritual inspiration.

So you do good deeds for your neighbors.

I'm all for ethical living, moral living.

I'm all for doing good deeds for your neighbors.

But that is not the point. The gospel.

The gospel is news. News that something has

happened. It happened in history and it is

independent of human beings. Did not come from the philosophy

of man, but it came from the mind of God.

News that God has come into our world.

He has come to you, not in order to get you to do something for

him or to behave better for him, but He's come for you to rescue

you and put you back in a relationship with Him.

That He did this for you. The God who wrapped himself in

flesh in order to come to us is a God you can place your total

faith in, your total trust in. And when you place your total

faith in this God who came for you, friend, your fear will

dissolve. This is why perceiving the

gospel is the solution to the fear.

Your fear will dissolve as you trust fully in the God who came

for you. Another Keller quote, this one

won't be on the screen. But Steven, you ask, you might

say, Steven, how can I trust God?

Like I want to trust God, I want to believe this.

Listen to what Keller said. I love this, he says.

The answer to why you can trust God.

The answer is that that little baby in the Manger is the mighty

Christ of the Lord. So think, so think, perceive,

ponder If the omnipotent Son of God would radically lose

control. This is what we're all afraid

of, right? Losing control.

If the omnipotent Son of God would radically lose control and

you understand that that's what Jesus did.

The God of creation lost control.

Your biggest fear is losing control.

The guy who made you chose to lose control by becoming a baby

for you. When you realize that, then you

can trust him. And what Keller says is that you

that truth should undermine our fear.

So this morning, the main idea that I wanted you to walk away

with was simply this Faith grows when we behold the gospel more

than when we behold our fear. That's it.

And we unpack 2 ideas. Permitting fear to rule is the

problem, and perceiving the gospel is the solution.

Quite beautiful, right? But before we go, I want to

bring your attention to something really cool about the

shepherds. And I was tempted to not include

this because I knew it would add just a few minutes, but bear

with me. Though I did not read the part

of the text that shows the shepherd's response to the news.

You may know the story. Once the shepherd's heard the

nudes and they beheld it, they internalized it.

They knew it to be true. Something changed inside of

them. Something shifted inside of

them. Luke tells us that they left

their flocks. It's a big deal, their

livelihood. They walked away from it, they

hurried, they sought out the baby.

They saw the baby, and they told others about the baby.

Friend, these are not the actions of fearful men, are

they? These are the actions of bold,

courageous men, men of faith. You see, this is what happens

when our faith is awakened and our fear decreases.

Think about it. These men, their circumstances

had not changed. They did not all of a sudden get

better careers. They were still stinky

shepherds, the lowest rung of the rung in the social status of

their culture. Rome was still oppressive.

They were still poor. Their daily reality of living

with stinking sheep had not changed, and yet fear no longer

had a hold on them because faith had replaced their fear.

Faith had replaced their fear. When you behold the gospel, your

fear decreases and your confidence for action, your

confidence for action will rise. It's not a confidence rooted in

self or confidence rooted in like your own ability to control

things. No, it's a confidence rooted in

the One who came into the world as a baby to save you.

You're confident in him. You trust the news, and that

will embolden you to take action, to walk in, and to take

hold of what God has called you to see.

The more deeply you behold the gospel, the more naturally your

life begins to move in response. Not out of obligation, but out

of wonder. Faith grows not when you strain

to increase it, but when you behold the One who has already

come near. And like the shepherds, that

faith will release you to step into what God has called you to.

Action always follows faith, not because you're obligated, but

because faith will always stir confidence in the God who can't

be trusted. Does that make sense?

So let me give you an action step in response to what we've

learned today. I want you to set aside a quiet

few minutes and write something out in your own words.

You can use your Notes app on your phone.

I want you to write out what you believe the gospel actually is,

not a theological definition, but as if you were explaining it

to a friend in a coffee shop. Let me give you a, a sentence

here. Maybe you can start it this way.

So if you take notes, write this down.

If you want to take a picture of this, the gospel is good news

because so if you were sitting with a friend at a coffee shop,

you're a believer. Now, do you don't have to raise

your hand, But when I ask this question, say yes or no in your

head, do you believe the news of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Do you believe that news? OK, So if you were sitting with

a friend at a coffee shop and you were talking to your friend

who's maybe a believer or not a believer, doesn't matter.

And you started the sentence this way.

If they said to you, why, why do you, why do you think the gospel

is good news? The gospel is good news because,

and just in an organic way, what would you say to your friend,

come on now, you're a believer. You believe this stuff.

Certainly you can answer. Certainly we can do this

provides everlasting hope. The gospel is good news because

be able to write that down and don't just keep writing.

Write as much as you want. That's the first sentence.

But here's the second sentence directly beneath that sentence.

I want you to write this because this is true.

I don't have to fear. And then you write out the thing

that is holding you down. The fear that has been the

loudest lately, the fear of failing, the fear of being

alone, the fear of finances, the fear of future, of loss, of

anything else that keeps heavy weighing you down.

The fear of grief, the fear of facing the future.

And then take these two sentences and keep them close by

during the holiday season. And maybe your life is going

good right now and the holidays will accentuate that goodness.

Go back and read these two sentences to remember that the

true goodness of the gospel, the true goodness of the Christmas

season is the gospel, not your circumstances that happened to

be good right now. Because give it a minute.

And if your circumstances are not good right now and the

holidays are accentuating the pain and the heartache of your,

of your, of your circumstances, and keep these sentences close

by and read them throughout the week.

Hey, remind yourself the gospel is good news because and because

the gospel is true, I don't have to fear these things.

So how would you explain it to a friend at a coffee shop?

That's how I want you to write it.

The simple act of reflecting on the gospel is how you behold to

the gospel. And that, friend, is how faith

grows. And it's how fear begins to lose

its authority in your life. So let me say this over you and

then I'll pray for us. Very simple today, do not just

hear the gospel, behold it. And to the degree that you

behold the truth and the news of the gospel, your fears will lose

the authority in their lives. In your life, your fears will be

diminished as you behold the gospel.

Will you stand with me as I pray for us?

Father, thank you for the truth of the gospel, the beautiful

truth of the gospel. I love it so much it invigorates

me. It just for thousands of years,

Lord, this truth has been proclaimed and preached by men

much wiser than me and women much wiser than me.

And I'm honored to join in that song, that song that says

there's nothing we can do. We can only receive this gift.

And Lord, you are the one who even awakens us to receive it.

You are so good. Thank you that at Christmas

time, regardless of our circumstances, good or bad, we

can celebrate the good news that you came for us, that you came

for me. The name of Christ we pray.

Amen. If you enjoyed this episode,

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Have a great week.