Faith

Not even what it looks like. I mean, they put their faith in it. So the first thing we see them do is encounter it. Faith is encountered. It's not something that we just. That wells up in us. I think, as we continue to live. If we live a life where we think, like it's all about us doing a thing that then, like, invokes God doing something or the world doing something, then we start forgetting that. Actually, it starts with us encountering the God of the universe. In our story, we see them encounter the angels. Remember, they're terrified, the angels. There's like an angel, and then there's a bunch of angels, and they're singing and they're announcing, hey, there's this child that's been born. You should go see it. It's a child. It's the one who's come to rescue us. It's our Messiah and our Lord. It's the rescuer and our King. And they do that. And what they do then, as they encounter God, is they say, yeah, let's go be with this thing. Let's go actively engage with this God, this thing we want to put our faith in. Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about. So God told them about it, or they experienced something that showed them that there was God. This has happened to all of us. Right? Right. We've experienced something. I love the artwork for this time of year is so cool. Just beautiful pictures of this moment where they experience. They encounter God and his. Who he is and even what he's doing around them. I like this one's really cool with the. All the angels. I mean, I don't know what it's like to be. Look up in the night sky and there's. This is our friend who did the painting we saw last week with. I really like him. That had John the Baptist and Jesus and they're leaping in their mother's wombs. I really like. Also, I love his shepherd's painting. This reminds us that we first encounter the God that we can put our faith in, or whatever we're putting our faith in. We encounter first, and then we have to make a decision. Is this thing worth putting our hope in our faith? Our faith is something we hold onto, that we think is going to get us through. Or our faith is something we hold on to, that we hope brings us a future or a thing that maybe could rescue us. Essentially. It's like the thing. Our hope of our lives is what we're putting this faith In. And so in our lives, we don't necessarily get this moment. You probably have not had a moment in a field while caring for your sheep where the angels appeared. But we get this in moments of friends stories. You might have already had this this week. You heard what God was doing in people's lives, and you went, whoa. You encountered what God is already doing. We get this from reading God's word. We open up scripture. I mean, it's one of the big reasons we open scripture and we get to hear what God has done and what he's promised he will do. We get to see all the fulfillment of all those promises and know he's trustworthy. We do that in prayer. We get to encounter God. It's one of those moments, I think, in my life where I'm. I'm struggling even in my faith. I think, like, I don't know, is he. Is he real? And then someone asks, how. How's it been praying with him? And I'm like, I haven't been. I forget. Even prayer is an opportunity to encounter God. I do that in creation. It's one of the reasons. I know we're probably torn. Maybe some of you not torn. You're just not happy about the snow today. You're thinking, I would love not more snow. I'm excited about it. And one of them is that I love when it's done. And it's like just white blankets everywhere, and it's like quiet. If you go for a walk, it's like, quiet. And it's just different, right? At night, there's like a glow. There's something in that. I'm encountering creation, that. And I'm going, I want to know this creator in this. It leads us to want to explore more, examine more. So this encounter leads us there. It's one of the things I love about this painting is we get this cool picture of the shepherds encountering the angels. But. But then on the bottom, he gives us this little moment of, like. Then they actually decide to take a journey to check it out. They're gonna check out Jesus and his family. And so the second thing we get to do is not only encounter in faith, counter God, but then do something with it. We could just go, yeah, I don't. No, that's not my thing. Or we could say, man, I wanna think more about that. God's not asking us to blindly go, sure, there's a kid somewhere in a manger. It's actually saying, you should go check it out, see if it's real. And examine it. So in faith, we don't just encounter. We also. Faith is examined. I think it's part of. Depending on what tradition, maybe you grew up in or around in a church or spirituality, you might have been in one that's like, we, like, have to highly examine and figure out all the apologetics of a thing. Or maybe you're in one that's like, you just have to believe. You don't need any evidence. You just have to believe it. I think in this story, we see the shepherds go, this is incredible. I want to see this child. And actually go see, is this thing real? So they hurried off and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in a manger. It's the same phrase here. Luke uses the exact same phrase. So the thing the angels told me is true. It is true. It's what we sing about in. Oh, come all ye faithful O come all ye faithful Joyful and triumphant O come ye oh, come to Bethlehem Come and behold him Born the King of angels we're singing, we're saying, let's come and see this one. We see it over and over in this story. We see the Magi come to see him. And out of that actually comes the final step here that we're about to see in faith. That maybe is the only part we think about in this believing part of it, right? There's something about encountering God and going, God is fine with you examining, checking it out. Hey, is this real? Is this a true thing? I think of this when I was a kid. This is like the best part of being a kid is someone told you something and then you had to go. Your friend would go, like, you wouldn't believe how big this hole is at the park. And then you had to get on your bikes and ride to make sure there was a huge hole at the park. Right? You wouldn't believe this bug we found. We gotta go check it out. We get to go check it out. And one of the cool things about Christmas and this year I took some time to just read some of the old prophecies. There's so, so many about Christmas that God said these things will happen in this place, in this time with these people, and that they all happen. And so it's an opportunity when we examine, to actually see that God actually did fulfill what he said he was going to do. He is actually faithful. He is actually bringing a better candy cane, like. And he's coming to us. He's not even making us go to him and believe harder or have faith in him first. First he comes to us and does it. Here's a few of the prophecies I was reading about. All, all these prophecies are just a few that were, that were said about what would happen, this would happen. Even just one of these seems like. That seems a little wild. But all of these would happen. There'd be a virgin birth, be born in Bethlehem. There'd be this slaughter in Bethlehem, as in like this. These firstborns would be sought after and they'd have to go to Egypt. That happens. These things are all told hundreds of years before this. Joseph would return to Nazareth instead of Judea. That seemed. Why would he go there? That's not where the king is going to come from. All these stories, all these prophecies, these promises of God, hey, I'm going to have him come onto the line of Isaac and Jacob and Judah and Jesse and David. And they all happen. It's why we see those in the book of Matthew, in the Christmas story. And in thousands of years or hundreds of years later, there's this baby born, there's shepherds that come and see him. And just these 11 prophecies come true, let alone there's 2, 320 prophecies total that happened of Jesus. That's incredible. I mean, the probability of that is incredible. Numbers. I don't know how to say. There's words that I don't know how to use. Quadrillion, gajillion, googillion. Right. Of probability that could even happen. One scientist who wrote about the probabilities of this said this is how probable this would be for nine of these things to happen in the way they happen. There's a once in a hundred million billion chance that they would happen. So he said to say it's chance that Jesus actually came then and did that thing. As we examine, is even the Christmas story true? It's really tough to say that it's just happened. He said it'd be like covering the state of Texas with 2ft of silver dollars. It's a lot of money. Texas is pretty big. I hear Billy, is it pretty big? She's big. We sent Billy to check for us. It's big. So, I mean, if there was just our stage two feet of silver dollars and we marked one of them, we threw it into the state and then we said, someone go pick one. And then they happened to pick the one that is the one million billionth right. That doesn't happen. But these all happen and more happen to say Christ is the one. Because we're just talking Christmas here. We're not talking about all the things he's done. God said these things will happen when this king comes, when my son comes, when I come to rescue my people, when I come to bear your sin on a cross, when I come to raise from the dead. It's incredible. You take a few minutes just to examine Christmas. We can't go see Jesus in a manger like the shepherds did, but we can examine. And every day, I feel like every month, we hear more beautiful things that happen as archeologists and scientists are digging things up and they go, we found this thing that confirms again this real thing that happened. And I say, not only for me to find an archeological artifact that says, yeah, it's very likely that this baby was born in this place, in this time, along with all this other evidence. There also is just a thing that God does as we examine him and move towards him and we pray and we read his word that he also just changes our heart. So there's this great combination of, like, a list of things that happen, and there's a list of things that God is doing in us. And so my heart and my mind all together, as they examine God says, yes, as the shepherds went, I get there and I say, yes, he did come. He's here. My rescuer is here. And if we encounter God and we take some time to examine him, he comes up true over and over. And we become people then who embody our faith. So our faith is encountered and examined. And. And what I mean, there is that something that becomes who we are. It's not a thing. I just go, like, I'll tack this onto the other things I believe in that are true. This becomes like the thing I hold onto for the rest of my life. It's the glasses I put on that give tint to everything else that I look at. And so we see that in the life of the shepherds. They saw Jesus, they hear from the angels, they go to see if it's true. They. They see them, and then what do they do? It changes them. They can't not go now and spread the word concerning this. They go around and tell people, and how are. How are those people? They now get to encounter this faith of the shepherds. They go, what happened? I would guess some of those people, we don't get those stories, but some of those people probably went or maybe like from a distance, you know, or at least like called the neighbor and was like, did you hear what's happening at Joseph's family's house. And they're like, it's true. I think it's true, right? People start hearing about it and they're amazed as well. Their faith actually grow. They go, this Savior is actually here. They go through the same. It's like this multiplying. It's this sweet disease that we all catch that actually saves us in this. We get that little moment here with Mary where she treasures all this up. She doesn't actually have to go and encounter and exam. She just gets to hold this person who is her faith is in. And then the shepherds return. I like this part of this story that we don't just hear that they go around then and they don't like, become like shepherd vangelists where they travel the country. They actually just go back to being shepherds. They return as shepherds. Now, they're not the same shepherds. They're glorifying, praising God for all the things they had heard and seen that they were just as told. But they do go back to life. They're still ordinary shepherds who are shepherding their sheep. But now they have the reality that God did fulfill his promise, did come back, did rescue them, and now they live with a faith. It's like they put on this faith and now they shepherd as people who know it's true. Which has to change how they shepherd, how they lay at night when they're laying under a tree and their sheep are there and they think about wolves might come. It has to change the fear level, right? It has to change. Like, yeah, God's. He's never not done what he said. He's got us. He's with us. I mean, he sent His Son. They don't even know yet what the Son will go through to rescue them. But they have. And that is what we get to do. We get to go. I've encountered God, I've examined. Is this true? Is God who He is? I've talked with Him. I've read His Word, I've talked with others. And now I want to put this faith on. I want to say yes. I want to cling to this thing as the thing that is who I am. We see this throughout scripture, but Galatians 2:20 is one of the places that we hear this explained. I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. We get to look even past the Christmas story To a moment when our God would come to us with the greatest gift of death on a cross and life, resurrection from the tomb. And he offers it to us. And he says, do you want this too? Do you want to clothe yourselves in this too? And this is now your life. You can actually go back to your job, go back to your house, go back to your friends. But now you go back clothed differently. It changes how you think about yourself and others and God. And we see the same thing in Romans 10. If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. This is what faith looks like. It's not, I believe enough, and so God now saves me. It's that God has already rescued me and I've encountered that, and I've looked at that and I said, that's real. It's true. I want that. And we say, yes, Jesus, believe you saved me. For it is written in your heart that you believe and are justified. And it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. It's this change within and without us. It's the shepherd seeing. And then they can't not share this amazing news with those around us. It's actually the next line of, o come all ye faithful. Come, let us adore Him. Oh, come let us adore Him. O come let us adore him. Christ the Lord. It's the. It's us going, we've encountered him. I. I've moved towards him, examined him as is real, and said it is. And I've been changed by Him. And now I cannot adore, not, not adore him. I can't not move towards Him. I cannot cry out. He is Christ the Lord. I think of it on a snowy day. I think of it like this. I think we are people who need to be. This is a stock photo. I don't know who this is, but she's adorable. We gotta put our snow stuff on, right? Maybe it's been a little while since some of you put your snow stuff on. Some of you may currently be wearing your snow stuff, but you had to put on the whole suit. You know, you, like, put the legs on and the arms and you had to hope you went to the bathroom first so that you didn't have to take it off. You had to put the mittens on and the boots and the hat. It's like you clothe yourself and all this stuff, because then you can go out into the snow and you can enjoy the snow and you can sled and make snowmen. You can laugh with friends and eat the snow. You clothe yourself in this thing and then it allows you to enter in. You're embodied. It allows you to enter into the rest of the world. One of the parts I love about this too is when you're little. I could never do that on my own. Even now might have to call upon Kelly to come help me get my snow pants on. At least lean on her while I'm trying to. But you need someone else to do that. It's even part of our faith that like we need others to help and even God to help us believe. Put our snow suit on so that as we enter into the cold, frigid, snowy landscape or covered, we actually enjoy it. Make sure you aren't worried about frostbite or getting wet. We get to embody it. This is what faith does. Faith allows us then to do this. It's not just I believe and it's magical. And I'm going to run through the streets thanking buildings for how good life is. It changes as I enter through all parts of life as we saw in the shepherds. And so we become people as faith, faithful people who encounter God, examine him, look into him, know him and embody him in this over and over every day. We get to be people of faith who get to do this over and over. You get to encounter him again and you get to look at him again. You get to open his word again and go, wow, you are so faithful. I cannot believe you could do this. And again you get to hold onto him. I want to share before Jordan comes up and helps us sing some of these songs, embody this, cry out these words of our faith. I want to share about a person here who has been a part of Hope for a lot of years. And this, this is Johanna Watkins, who some of you have been a part of this story as well. Maybe some of you, not her and her husband, have been a part of Hope for a long time. You may have known her because she we prayed for many, many years for her. She just passed away in November around Thanksgiving and she fought for many years with a mast cell disease. But she is someone who encountered Jesus, examined it and embodied Jesus even as her physical body really withered away to the point of there was years of her life where she couldn't be around anyone except her sister, maybe a family member, her husband. And so we'll send out this week some links to. She's written some incredible stuff about her faith. Her faith is one that I find if I encounter her faith like the shepherds and the people they encountered when I just read the stories of her. I've never actually met her in person person, but I know of her and she's encouraged me greatly in my faith as I've seen God work in her. And then I kind of go like, yeah, but you're really suffering. Is that gonna hold out? And then I see her become more faithful and God do more on her. And then I go like, I now have stronger faith. I hold on to Jesus more because of her and her brother in law Ben Wasek, who I think last couple years ago preached here for us. He's an elder at Hope for a while. He wrote this beautiful thing about her just recently. I want to share it with you. I think it shows this picture of how faith, what faith looks like in a person and how that faith also becomes something that encourages the rest of our. Let me just read his words about her and then I'm going to read a few of her words before we end our time. On November 24, my sister in law, Johanna entered the presence of Jesus at the age of 38 after more than a decade long battle with mast cell disease. Johanna suffered immensely throughout most of her adult life. She endured great physical pain along with deep relational pain as her disease made her allergic to almost everything and forced her into a life of isolation. Given her circumstances, she had every human reason to grow weary and to lose hope. To withdraw from the One who never healed her on earth though she knew he could. And yet, day after day, Johanna chose faith. Faith in our Creator, the Alpha, the Omega. Faith in the One who is no stranger to pain and suffering and promised he would never leave or forsake her in her hardship. Faith in the God who is all powerful and yet willingly gave up that power to come to earth as a baby, live a perfect life and die on a cross. All because he loved her. Johanna's faith in Christ was unlike anyone I've ever known. Rather than hardening her heart towards God in her trials, she spent hours each day communing with her Savior through prayer, reading His Word and meditating on his character. Though she was only able to physically be with her husband, Scott, my wife, Becca, Ben's wife and a small circle of family, her life has impacted hundreds of thousands of people who knew her story. An incredible face. She wrote some articles for the Gospel Coalition and her Caring Bridge updates would have like tens of thousands of people started reading them. For those closest to her, she was also the most thoughtful an Intentional gift giver, something that makes this time of year especially hard. Though we grieve the loss of Johanna and the many dreams that died with her, we rejoice in knowing that she is now completely healed and experiencing the fullness of joy in the presence of the Lord. We'll see her again and spend eternity with her in a place where there'll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain. These are her words when asked how she deals with this and her faith in God in this. If it weren't for God, I'd have given up long ago. But while I've been broken and empty, God has been faithful and strong. Before getting sick, Jesus was part of my life, a savior for when I needed Him. Now Jesus is my life. Here's my favorite part of this whole thing. I just again this week reread her Gospel Coalition article that she wrote. And in those they always have like, you know, there'll be like an article by Tim Keller and it'll give like his bio of all of his books he read. And I often feel like, well, Johanna can do this. I can't. I can't put faith in Jesus when it's hard. And this is what she had them write in her in her bio on Gospel Coalition. She's a wife, a daughter, sister, proud auntie in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has no claim to fame other than being a believer of Jesus and a child of God. That means we can do that too, because it doesn't take us to like muster up a lot of belief. It takes us saying, really surrendering, submitting to a God and saying, I need you. I can't get through this without you. I pray that her faith would encourage us. We encounter God right now and it would cause us to want to hold on to him and clothe ourselves with him even more. Today, a few things to consider. We're going to move to a time to sing together, take communion together, pray together. Before we head out. A few things to consider. Who is your. Oh, I don't know what that means. Who is your? Are you trusting with your life? Who are you trusting with your life? What keeps you from Christ? What step maybe in that faith steps do you go, ah, I've seen enough clips online. This Jesus thing isn't real. I encourage you, really move towards it, really examine it. Whose faith encourages your faith? Maybe who's your Johanna in your life? Be reminded it's real. How could you help someone else even encounter Jesus? We're also going to respond with communion. We do that out in the hallways we'd love for you to be able to do that if you're a follower of Jesus. It reminds us that Jesus did something that he promised us a long time ago and he did it. That he actually came and he died. His body was broken, his blood was shed on a cross so that our Zwadani rescued us from death. That's why Johanna can say what she says. That's why we can hold on to him and believe it. And that's why communion is so good. Reminds us of that good news. We're going to sing together. Jordan's going to lead us in some great songs that remind us of this. We're going to pray. People in the back of the room who would love to pray for you, take them up on that. And we always can give as a response to the gospel as well, and allow God to use that to help more people know Him. Let me pray for us and we will move into that time of worship. Lord, thank you for your goodness, your kindness, your love towards us, that you do remain faithful and you are worthy to cling onto. And you're all we have to cling onto. And I pray we would encounter you and move towards you and hold onto you. I pray we'd put you on in the midst of cold and dark days, Lord, in the midst of really good days, we would have you to hold to. Lord, you're really good. I. I thank you for the faith of Johanna. And I pray that like many in this room who love you dearly, we would encourage one another to move towards you. And you'd use that today as we leave to remind us how good you are and change us. We love you, Lord. Amen.

Galatians 2:20