Long Expected - Long Expected Love

Hey, I'm Pastor Forrest, and welcome to the Multiply Church Podcast.

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Now, let's dive into this week's sermon.

Yeah, those uh soldier homecoming videos that get me every time.

I see them all the time.

The soldier returning home sneaks up behind the kids at school or grandparents at a restaurant or pops out of a giant present box, and there's always the same reaction huge hugs, tears, because this person that they loved has come home.

And those videos, and I know you've seen them because I've seen a bunch of them, uh, those things they'll make a grown man cry.

And uh, that's my favorite part about those videos, actually, is the rough and tough dads and the grandpas that burst into tears because their long-awaited grandchild, granddaughter, grandson has returned home, this person that they love.

And love is what we're talking about today.

As we've been walking through this advent season, the arrival, the coming of Jesus, we've walked through the last few weeks hope and peace and joy.

And today we talk about love, a long-expected love.

And love and it's aspects of Christmas and where we see love in this Christmas story.

Now, for some of you, you're here this morning, and maybe you got dragged through the door by somebody, or somebody invited you, and maybe you're here right now, and you're surprised that God loves you at all because all you can think about is that God's judging you for your worst day.

Or maybe you're somebody in the room and you just expect everybody to love you.

What's not the love, right?

So great.

Whichever of you who come through the door, if you're new, welcome.

I'm Forrest Lee Pastor here at Multiply.

Our church is three months away from turning four years old.

And we're so grateful that you're in the house today to celebrate Christmas and Merry Christmas to you and your family.

And when it comes to God and his love, what are we expecting?

See, we have expectations when it comes to love.

We have expectations when it comes to God, and a lot of people have wrong expectations of God, thinking that God ignores them when you do wrong, or thinking that God only likes me when I do right.

Or thinking that God is distant unless somehow I earn my way back to God.

But the truth is this, and the truth that we say a lot to one another is that love shows up.

And the love that we receive from our God, the love of God, it's not earned.

The love of God has arrived in Christ.

The love of God is here.

A few years ago, somehow we pulled off secretly getting my brother home who was stationed in South Korea in the Navy and during a summer vacation.

We had a beach summer vacation planned, and there was a house, and somehow we pulled off.

Just a few of us knew that my brother was gonna come home and come and join us at this time with family.

So I'll never forget him going half away across the globe, and then the moment as he walked through the door with all of our family, and that moment was just an explosion of shock and excitement and laughter and joy and probably some tears because their son had showed up.

That's love.

It's not fake, it's real.

It's our God who loves us and God who truly, really loves us.

The love of our God is not earned, it's arrived in Christ.

And even people, some of the toughest people in the room, or maybe you try to act tough, but even those who try to act tough or are tough, everybody wants love.

Everybody wants to receive love and not the love that's well, I love you as long as you do everything that I want, kind of love.

Or a love that feels like it's halfway or not always there, but instead we want a kind of love that stands right in front of our face.

You want the kind of love that shows up when you're at your worst, and that's what Christmas shows us.

When God showed up.

See, the the Christmas story is kind of the greatest homecoming video ever, because the love of God showed up in the middle of the night, in the form of this baby, the Christ child, it breaks through the darkness, and then we receive hope and peace and joy and love.

And so, what I want us to do is to read through the Christmas story together right now.

So if you have your Bible, we're in Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 1, as we read the Christmas story.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration when Corinius was governor of Syria.

And all went to be registered, each in his own town.

And Joseph also went up to went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was from 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 flocks by night.

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

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

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

And this will be assigned to you.

You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling 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 God is pleased, or he is pleased.

Verse 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.

And they went with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph and a baby lying in a manger.

The story of Christmas.

The Christ child has come.

And comes with this glorious announcement to a group of lowly shepherds who are just out there doing their work.

And I imagine if I was one of them, I probably would have had the same reaction if all of a sudden heaven split open, and all of a sudden these angelic beings started talking to me as I was hanging out with my sheep.

They were afraid.

They were afraid.

And rightfully so.

But the angel announced them to not be afraid, and so they they didn't stay stuck in their fear.

Instead, the angel who showed up, they they then showed up to worship Jesus.

They didn't stay stuck where they were.

Because they probably could have.

They were in fear.

What in the world's going on?

They're hanging out, doing their thing, hanging out with their sheep.

They could have thought, oh, I don't know, should we really go?

Should we really do this?

I'm sure somebody's streaming it live on Facebook.

We can just log on and check it out.

But instead, they showed up.

And they had their love shows up moment, this showtime moment.

The angels said to go, and then they went, and they were just catching up with Mary and Joseph because Mary and Joseph had already had their love show up moment, as Mary and Joseph had angels that came to them and told them what was gonna happen.

And now they're in Bethlehem, and now it's a this is a real moment for them as all of this is happening, and the shepherds then, instead of being stuck in fear, they then move forward and they begin to become searchers.

They're searching out this Christ child, and they do it with haste, and they find the baby, Mary and Joseph.

They could have stayed stuck, but instead they showed up because love shows up.

So as we talk about love and we talk about this love of God and we talk about this love of Christmas, we have expectations.

So what should we expect of love?

This love that we have and this love that we receive, what should we expect of it?

Because these shepherds are filled with fear, but they showed up, and I don't know about you, but I know what it's like to be afraid at times and have that temptation in my life to fear the future more than I have faith in my heavenly Father.

That happens for me.

I I know fear, I know all the what-ifs that stay up late at night asking all the what-if questions and having this temptation of, man, what if God doesn't come through?

And maybe for you, maybe for you, you want God to show up for you, but you don't show up for God.

You want God to be close when you're stressed out, you want God to be close when there's hard times or when things are difficult, but you keep it at arm's length the rest of the time.

Here's the thing that we see from God's love.

God's love for us that showed up for us, it gets proven by his presence.

That's my first point.

It gets proven by presence.

See, love put on flesh.

Way John describes this beginnings of Christ's coming to earth is that that the word that it put on flesh and it dwelt among us, that it was among us, that that Jesus made the decision to come down from the heavenly throne and to put on flesh and to take on flesh and to become a human who is also the savior of the world, the son of God, to show us what it looked like for us to love on this side of heaven.

This presence of God, it proves to us now that God loves us so much.

Now in the South we have this saying, you're gonna know this when you're leaving somebody, and maybe they have some family and friends that you know, and as you leave, you say something like, uh, hey, send them my love, or give them a hug for me.

And what that means really is I'm not showing up for them.

What that means is I'm not going to see them.

You can send them my love, give them a hug for me because I'm not even gonna call.

I'm not gonna do it.

Here's the thing: love isn't proven by what we say, it's proven by who shows up.

And Christ showed up for us.

Showed up in the form of this Christ's child on Christmas.

And it begs the question: are we going to be a person who shows up for God or are we gonna be somebody who stays stuck?

See, as we just read through this few verses of the Christmas story, we see every bit of advent and the arrival of Christ, this transforming blessings that we've been talking about for weeks now, of hope and peace and joy and love.

We see hope in verse 11.

When the angel announces that unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior.

The Savior has come.

Who is Christ the Lord?

The Savior.

The hope is here, the hope that we've been waiting for, the hope of salvation, the hope, the good news.

And there's peace.

As the angel proclaims to the shepherds, glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among those with whom he's pleased.

And joy, as the angel proclaims to the shepherds, is said to them, Fear not, behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, and the love of God that arrives in the Christ child and in the birth of Christ that Christmas night.

And all of these aspects show up in the moment of the birth of the Savior, and Jesus is still providing those things today.

He's still providing them for us who are in Christ.

In 1943, at the height of World War II, Bing Crosby released the Christmas song, I'll Be Home for Christmas.

And it became the number one requested song by soldiers at USO Christmas shows that year in both Europe and in the Pacific.

Because this song it embodies the this desire to walk through the door to show and to receive love.

And the lyrics that you know it says, I'll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams.

Because that year many of them they didn't get to see their family.

Some of them never saw their family ever again.

God's presence, his love for us that is eternal is a proof of the fact that he is waiting for us and he loves us so much now and into eternity.

That Jesus would come for us and to us in the form of this baby that eventually would grow up.

Many years later, as Jesus' ministry is beginning, another searcher shows up in the night.

Jesus is around 30 years old at this time, and this good news of great joy is now being received by all, and Jesus' ministry is beginning, and this night this searcher, this skeptic, comes to see Jesus, this curious religious leader named Nicodemus.

Who we see later that Nicodemus actually helps to even prepare and to bury the body of Jesus after the crucifixion.

But in John chapter 3, he comes to Jesus as this searcher in the night, and he's asking him questions.

John 3 · chapter mention

And this is what Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3 and verse 3.

Jesus replied, Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

How can someone be born when they are old?

Nicodemus asked.

Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born.

Jesus answered, Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but spirit gives birth to spirit.

You should not be surprised at me saying, You must be born again.

This time of year, there's a lot of talk about a Christmas spirit, which basically just means that you're not going to be a Grinch.

Which my wife actually called me a Grinch this week, but we're not going to talk about that.

The Christmas spirit.

You're supposed to have this Christmas spirit.

But what really is that?

Because this Christmas spirit, this it's it's it's stripped of what it truly should be, because we can't have the spirit of Christmas without us being born again of the spirit.

The world wants to have this Christmas spirit, but what we know is true is that in order to have this spirit, we must be born again.

And so for you, your flesh must be then born of the spirit, because love gives birth to spirit.

But you say, oh, Forrest, you know, I mean, I don't know about all this.

I'm not a church person, I'm not religious.

Or I don't know about this being born again.

I I I need to clean up a few things first before I do that.

Or maybe you're thinking, oh, well, I'll just figure that out later.

See, people reduce Christmas, this Christmas spirit, to just being nicer, to trying harder to not be in a Grinch.

That's not the gospel.

The gospel is that Jesus was born so that you could be born again.

Nicodemus, that night he shows up and he's asking questions, and he still came before Christ to ask questions, and Jesus meets him with truth.

Don't settle for Christmas spirit.

Receive the Spirit of Christ this Christmas.

Be born again, be made new.

And a few verses later, Jesus says to Nicodemus, this famous scripture that most of us or many of us know or know by heart, John 3.16, where Jesus says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Jesus says this to this searcher, Nicodemus.

And in doing so, he's proclaiming this gospel for us that we can be made new and receive the Spirit of God, that we would be saved, that we would be bought with a price, that we would be restored fully.

And this is a fulfillment of prophecy, and we've talked about this over the last few weeks.

Hundreds and thousands of years of prophecy in the scripture, the proclamation, all the way back to the very first proclamation of the gospel, all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve have sinned in the garden and separated us from God.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

God is cursing the enemy, Satan, the serpent, and he says to him, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise your heel and you shall bruise his head.

What that means is that this is a promise of this coming Savior that one day that sin, Satan, and death will be crushed, and it would be crushed by the Christ child.

By Jesus that would go to a cross and would die in our place and return to the Father.

And it's so easy for me right now at Christmas to just focus on all the plans and all the travel and the gifts and all the trivial things.

Things and forget the love.

The love of God that came down and goes out.

It's easy to say, I love you, and not show it and not show up.

But the love of God, it changes us, it moves us, and it moves us toward other people.

See, this love that we have from God, what we should expect of it, that it commissions us, that the love of God would flow through us and move us towards other people who need God's love and need to receive it.

And so this love that we have, that it should have us go towards the lowly, like these lowly shepherds, and Jesus coming and the humility for the Christ child to be born in a manger among animals, so that he could show us the way that we could walk out this life and give himself as an example and ultimately a sacrifice for us.

See the love of God, it doesn't just it doesn't just solely save us, it also sends us to others who need to receive it.

That's why at Christmas, I we just try to be real around here.

You you just heard, like we we this Christmas have got to come alongside 49, and then this week 50 families, one more who reached out about needing help for Christmas, and you know what?

We said we can do for one more.

Amen.

Now 50 families that are gonna receive some peace at Christmas time and know that it comes from the witness of the fact that it's coming from a church who loves God and wants to show the love of God to others.

Because Jesus, he came as a baby, but he stayed because he wanted to show us and live a life and fulfill the promises of God and defeat sin and death through his humility, his obedient humility that saves us now from the inside out, and then it can this love compels us to see that happen for others.

Move us towards others because Jesus didn't this come and then go.

So that we can embody it, so that we can show it, so that we can be the love of God that shows up for others because Christ has showed up for us.

Imagine, imagine your Christmas this year.

If it was marked by love, godly love.

Your friends, your families, your co-workers, at your school.

That you would be love showing up in the way that Christ showed up in his love for us.

You know, maybe, maybe it's as simple as as as you that maybe you're new around here, or maybe you've been around here, but you've had one foot in and one foot out.

Here's what I'm asking you.

I'm asking you to give me one year of your life.

Give me one year of your life prioritizing the purposes of God and gathering in worship of God, and I'm gonna make you a promise.

Your life will never be the same.

Your family's life will never be the same, your kids' lives will never be the same.

You see all the people in this room?

These people are the ones who gave me one year of their life, and their families have never been the same because of it.

Because of our Savior.

So for you, maybe for you, this next year, it needs to start with the fact that you need to receive Christ and what he did for you on the cross.

That this day, in the town of David, in the city of David, a Savior is born for you, so that you can be forgiven and free, so that you can repent of your sins and turn away from a life without God and turn to Christ and receive his gift of salvation that he purchased for you on the cross in your place.

Or maybe for you, maybe this year it starts with baptism as you need, you've never been baptized, and you need to go public with your faith, and you need to be obedient to Christ.

And for others of you, maybe for you, this means that you're gonna you're gonna show up.

You're gonna show up this year and worship and in a group.

Jump in on a team and start to serve.

You're gonna lock in.

We're so grateful you joined us for this week's message.

At Multiply, we believe life was never meant to be lived alone.

If today you made the decision to follow Jesus, we'd be honored to walk with you on this journey.

Visit multiplyky.com to let us know.

We love you and we'll see you again soon.