Advent 2023 - Week 4

We have an idea about what we want to do in a service like this,

and all the preparation and all of those things, and I just feel

that the Lord's taking me in a different direction this morning, and I want

to I want to read the same passage of Scripture, but then I want

to do something that I very rarely do. I'm not going to teach anything

today. I want to just kind of share from my heart. In John

chapter one, verse fourteen, it says in the Word became flesh and dwelt

among us, and we beheld as glory, the glory as of the only

begotten of the Father, full of grace, full of truth. Father,

thank you for your word. It's the only change agent on the face of

the planet. And today I pray that you meet with us and changes very

core of our being, or that you help us to see exactly who we

are and who you are. In Jesus's name. Amen. Now. Scripture

says that Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth, So

before Adam and Eve were even created, formed from the dust of the ground,

Jesus already knew his plight. He already knew that he would become the

sacrifice for all man sins. I want you to think about that. As

he spoke everything into creation, he already knew that the things he was doing

would cause him to have a brutal encounter with his creation. And then we

speed through a few thousand years of Old Testament history and we get to that

moment that we just read about where Jesus, the creator of all things,

became flesh, able to feel pain, to feel hunger, to feel tired,

every opportunity to be frustrated. He surrounded himself with people that were frustrating.

Think about the people you're going to be surrounded by during this Christmas season.

He came as that baby in a manger, and at that moment,

he became the sacrifice for humanity. Fyodor Dosievski said this. He said,

Suppose you have before you the entire fabric of human destiny. The only thing

you need to do to create a perfect utopia is torture to death one innocent

soul. Suppose you were the creator of everything, and all you had to

do was offer your child to be battered and bruised, tortured, mocked,

and ultimately put to death. When the shepherd's marveled at the baby in the

manger. His dad had to look on in great sadness and a horrific thought

of what would transpire in just a few years. But to create a perfect

opportunity for humanity to sculpe the landscape of eternity, to allow me, to

allow you to escape from our sin, he chose to do the unthinkable that

from his throne in heaven. It wasn't with brutal thought. It was with

love that he offered that child to be the replacement for you. Because the

reality is, every single one of us in this room we deserve death.

From the best to the worst and all in between. We all deserve death.

None of us really live up to God's standard. We all miss the

mark. The Bible says. We just don't measure up in our deeds and

in our actions. But he didn't care. He looks into this room right

now, and from the best to the worst and all the in between,

he chose you. He chose you over his own son. And people ask,

what kind of God would do that, the one who loves you.

You just saw my two children and my wife. I wouldn't I love y'all.

I'm not giving one of them for y'all. If I have to choose,

I choose them. But God, in his sovereignty, in his holiness,

in his power, in his love, in everything that he is,

he chose you. So when the rest of us celebrate the baby in a

manger, the Father sees a sacrifice, a sacrifice needed because he created you.

He could have spared the life of Jesus by not creating you. He

could have spared his son and left his son in glory by just simply omitting

this brief part of history that we call life and creation. But he chose

you. And I wonder today if we really understand the magnitude of Christmas,

if we really truly at the soulish level of who we are, not at

the not not in the not in the mind, but down deep at the

very seat of our being, if we really understand that we are chosen,

and He didn't pick us last, He picked us first. He didn't take

us because we were left over, despite what the world says. He doesn't

choose us because we're weak minded, because we need some kind of crutch,

because we believe in a fable or some kind of bedtime story. He chose

us in our brokenness. He chose us in our fragility. He chose us

in all of those things because he loves us and he wants to be with

us. And I wonder today, see what Pastor Clay, you guys come

on back. I wonder if today, knowing that you are chosen, if

today you might want to reach back. God's already reaching for you. He

has been for thousands of years. He's been reaching for humanity. His desire

is for humanity. He wants to be with you, he wants to have

a relationship with you, and he's reaching. I wonder if there's anybody here

who's willing to reach back. It's a very complicated process, very formulaic and

deep in the way we have to do it. After all, he's a

complex God that nobody can figure out, so surely to come to him,

to reach back, it has to be a complicated process. Right, This

is how complicated it is. Now listen, because I'm going to ask some

of you to reach back in just a moment after he gave everything, Surely

there's hoops that we have to jump through. There's some kind of something that

we have to live up to, that we have to measure up to.

You've got to go home, and you've got to make sure that all things

are straight before you can come to It's so complicated to come to him that

many of us don't ever do it because complexity is our excuse. The reality

is, this is how we come. You just simply say, Jesus,

I need you. Jesus, I need you. There's nothing beyond that.

There's nothing cinematic and grand. It's just Jesus, I need you. I

feel alone today. Jesus, I need you. I don't know why,

but I just feel sad today. Jesus, I need you. I feel

so bad about the life I've lived and the things I've done, and filled

with shame. Jesus, I need you. I don't know where I'm standing

in my relationship with you Lord. I said a prayer one time and tried

reading my Bible, but man, that thing's hard to figure out. I

got lost at the these and the thousands, the thus is and the whatsoevers

and whosoever. I'm not sure exactly where I stay. But Jesus, I

know I need you. He was born in the stink of the stable,

so he's not offended by the stink of our lives. Nobody standing with me

just real quick. I know y'all came probably for something a little more elaborate

than what I've done here today, but I don't care because I just came

here for one person. That's it. I didn't come here for the rest

of y'all. I just came here for one person. And if you're here

today and you would say Jesus I need you, I don't care why you

need him. If you would just say Jesus, I need you, just

slip up your hand wherever you are right now, say that's me, pastor,

I need him. Jesus, I need you. Maybe there's hands up

everywhere. Amen, Amen, Jesus I need you. I don't You may

even be sitting here thinking, well, you know, I want to raise

my hand, but I don't know why I need him. That's the beautiful

dilemma of Christ. The creation longs for the Creator. Tell you what I'm

gonna do. If you raise your hand and said Jesus I need you,

I'm gonna count to three and I'm gonna ask you a step out and make

your way to the front. When you get here, all the team you

don't have to come. We're gonna We're gonna all pray together right here in

the front. Then our ushers are gonna get ready to service communion and listen,

we're gonna do it different. So what we're gonna do is, as

people come to the front, we're gonna allow them to be served first.

Everybody, look by, look at me. I'm giving specific instructions. We're

doing it different. They're not coming to you, you're coming to them.

The ushers are gonna line up right here. And it doesn't matter which section

you're in. When I say it's time to receive communion, not when I

count to three and people start moving. That's not you that I'll tell you

when it's time for you. Okay, you're going to move out of your

row to your left. You're going to come down, take your communion elements.

You're gonna go that way. I knew it was gonna happen. You're

gonna move out and you're gonna come down. Then you're gonna go back up

that way into your section, and then we're gonna receive communion together. You

know why, I like to make sure that I give you a chance to

think through the decisions that you're about to make. That's why I take these

comedy breaks sometimes because Jesus doesn't want an emotional decision, It wants a lifelong

decision. So if you raised your hand, he said, Jesus, I

need you. On the count of three, I want you to step out

from where you're standing and make your way to the front. When you get

here, don't take the element yet, just stand there. We're gonna pray

together, and then we're gonna give you an opportunity and get your communion elements.

But maybe you're here and you didn't raise your hand. But since then,

the Holy Spirit's kind of been tugging on you and you realize you should

have. I want you to come to you. It's on the count of

three. I want you to step out, and I want you to move.

If you raise your hand and said Jesus, I need you one,

two, three, step out and move right now. Come on, come

on, come on, come on, come on. Oh he's never gonna

leave you alone. He'll never abandon you'll never forsay. Listen, He'll wash

you clean of your sin right now. He'll eraise that guilt and that shame.

If you're here, you've never asked Jesus to be your lord and your

savior. You've never asked him to forgive you of your sins, never ask

him to be the lord of your life. You need Jesus. You need

to come right now. The only way to heaven is through Jesus. So

I want you to come right here in the altar. I want everybody to

pray this prayer. I want you to say this after me. Say Lord,

thank you for coming to meet me, for never leaving me, never

forsaken. I need you in my brokenness, in my loneliness, in my

heart, my dysfunction, my shame. You know all about me. I

need you touch me right now. Lord, give me your peace, wash

me clean, and make me knew. I repent of my sin, and

I receive you as my Lord in Jesus' name. Amen, listen, if

you said those things, I believe that when you speak the words of faith,

it changes the environment around you. The things begin to spend in the

supernatural and the invisible realm. And if you just prayed that God's already working

and moving to bring peace, to erase that loneliness and draw close to you.

His desire is to be with you