God's Heart for the Overwhelmed | Presence (Part Three)

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connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.

Merry Christmas to you all. Is this your first time at

Riverbend? Welcome.

Thank you so much for choosing to be with us.

Hey, listen, we would love to connect with you, love to

connect you with some other people, maybe similar age and

stage of life. Probably the easiest way for

that to happen is through that connect card.

So like I said, if you're new with us, again, thank you so

much for choosing to spend your Sunday morning with us.

We would just ask that you take that connect card out.

Whatever info you feel comfortable passing on on that

connect card, you'll just drop it into the giving stations on

your way out. And we look forward to

connecting with you. It also and lets us know where

to ship a small thank you gift out into the mail to you if we

haven't had the chance to meet yet.

My name is Ben. Get to serve as the lead pastor

here. Love this season, absolutely

love this season. Have a lot going on.

I'm sure all of us do This morning.

We have already had the opportunity to worship with with

families here at the 8:00 service.

We'll get to worship with some more families here at the 11:00

service. One of the things that I'm

excited about this morning is being able to worship with our

kids. Our kids are are in here

worshiping with us. Just kind of one of the quick

shout outs to the kids. If you're a kid in here, you're

normally in River Kids, but you are in here with us now.

Here's your chance to make some noise.

So when I count to three, let me hear you.

Kids 123. They're all over here.

All right, good job. Hey, also, if you're a kid, I

hope that you got one of the packets on the way in that has

kind of an activity sheet. That activity sheet will kind of

help you kind of follow along with where we're going this

morning. It on the back of it has a

pretty cool scavenger hunt. Dads, leave your kids scavenger

hunt alone. Don't take it from them.

Get your own. But that scavenger hunt, one of

the things that you're you'll be doing is kind of listening out.

If I say a word, you'll be able to color in that space or cross

it off or however you want to mark it.

So for example, if I say the word angels, you would go ahead

and mark that one off. So now everybody has a freebie.

So adults, you get a note sheet. But anyway, it is so good just

being able to to worship with you.

Just kind of as a quick note is we're going to be able to come

back in here on Wednesday night, Christmas Eve from 5:00 to about

5:45, just being able to just celebrate Jesus together.

So you don't have to sign up. You don't need to register, just

show up. Great opportunity to come.

So this is something that we're new that we're doing this year.

So look forward to being able to worship with you.

But here we are in our Christmas series called presents called

Presents. And I think that this season, if

we could, for many of us, if we could kind of tack on one word

and we weren't kind of trying to impress church people, we would

use the word overwhelming, wouldn't we?

Overwhelming in, in, in so many different regards.

A lot of times it's just overwhelming.

I was reading this past week. In the 1600's the Puritans

actually took the stance and took the step to ban Christmas

for a series of years. They began to get so frustrated

with all the busyness, with all the hurry with with with all the

distractions of Christmas that they just chose to ban it.

For that reason. If you parts of England and

parts of colonial America in the 1600s, if you were caught

celebrating Christmas decorations, parties, gifts,

festivities during the season, you could actually be fined.

Churches went on normal services, businesses, shops were

open normal hours. It's just that Christmas was

banned. No decorations, no gifts, no

festivities. Now I know that some of the

parents in here, you threaten to do the same thing with your

kids. When your kids are all hyped up

on Pixie sticks and Mountain Dew, you threaten them that

Christmas ain't coming. I think that we would.

However, we would all agree that the problem, the problem was

never Christmas. The problem is what people made

Christmas into. And the same thing is true for

us now, right? The problem like the sense of

overwhelm and busyness and, and, and always being rushed and

stressed out and anxiety and all the above.

The problem is not Christmas. The problem is, is, is kind of

us. And isn't it ironic that the

time and the season that is meant for us to really focus in

on the fact that Christmas is really about Jesus, God with us

is the very season that we make, make it all make it seem like it

all depends or it all rides on us.

And because of that, we're, we're in the season, many of us,

we, we are experiencing, experiencing a sense of

overwhelm. And I'm not going to ask that

you raise your hand or anything like that.

And maybe you're you're, you're like this with this online to

where if you feel overwhelmed during this Christmas season,

chances are pretty good that you came into this Christmas season

with a sense of overwhelm. So here's the question before

us. How in the world do we navigate?

How do we navigate Christmas and how do we navigate the remainder

of the Christmas season with feeling so overwhelmed?

And I think it really starts with us coming back to a bedrock

foundational truth about Christmas about this time of the

year. And if you're taking notes with

us, this bedrock foundational truth actually serves as our big

idea. And here it is.

Christmas isn't just the story of Jesus's birth.

It's the story of God's heart. Christmas is not just the story

of Jesus birth. It isn't simply just a story of

Jesus birth, as incredible and miraculous and earth shattering

as that is. It's not simply about Jesus

birth. It's really it's the story of

God's heart. It's the story of God's heart.

And like we talked about last week, I think that we would do

really well to understand what God desires for us.

Every single one of us in the room online, every single one of

us. If you're new to church, if you,

if you're a veteran to church, you're in church all the time.

Maybe you're just coming back to church for the first time in a

long time. God's desire for you is not that

you would look back in, in a couple weeks and go, I had a

Merry Christmas and a happy New year.

God's, God's greatest desire for us is that we would discover and

maybe even rediscover God's heart for us, God's heart for

us. So where do we discover and

sometimes rediscover his heart for us?

We discover it in his Word to us.

So if you have a Bible with you, I would invite you to find Luke

Luke 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. Luke chapter 2 with me this

Luke 2 · chapter mention

morning. And it's going to be a pretty

popular passage around the Christmas time.

If you don't have a Bible, no worries.

The passage is on the screen in front of us.

And what we're going to be reading is we're going to start

to read and we're going to start to see the ways in which we can

so easily become overwhelmed. But more importantly, the hope

that we have you. You see none of us in this room.

This is not about like, hey, you're Mary and you're Joseph,

all, all of us in this room. You are you.

I am. I am me, but we still serve the

same God in the same God that was with Mary and Joseph then is

the same God that's with us now. So if you have Luke chapter 1,

Luke 1 · chapter mention

let's pick it up in verse one. It says in those days the decree

went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be

registered. This was the first registration

when Quinarius was governor of Syria and all went to be

registered each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from

Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of

David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and

lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his

betrothed. Don't miss this last phrase.

Who was with child? Who was with child?

So here's what I want to do if you're taking notes with us.

I want to look at 3 common reasons that you and I can so

easily become overwhelmed. Here's the first one.

If you're taking notes with us, It's when we feel unprepared.

It's when we feel unprepared again, if we look back at, at,

at Mary and Joseph, there is so much stress packed into those 5

verses, isn't there? There's so much stress packed

into those 5 verses here. Here you have a, a, a, a young

woman by the name of Mary that very few, if any people don't

consider a liar because she is bold enough to say I'm pregnant,

but I'm carrying the, the, the Messiah.

I'm still a virgin, but I, I, I conceived by the through the

power of the Holy Spirit. And people are like, yeah,

right. So you got a young woman that

that very few, if any don't consider a liar.

You got a young man and Joseph that very few if any don't

consider an idiot. They go, Joseph, are you really

buying that? Come on, man, come on.

And they're, they're expecting their first time parents.

You, you remember, if you're, if you're a mom or a dad, you

remember, you remember that, that, that, that first baby, you

remember everything that goes along with it.

Oh, and, and by the way, they had to pack for a trip.

They had to pack for a trip that was go to going to pay taxes.

Is there any one of us that would raise your hand and go?

I love to pay taxes. As a matter of fact, I love it

so much. I want to pay more taxes.

And I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll be honest with you.

I love how my tax money is being spent.

Can I get an Amen? No, no.

Now multiply that out by about 100, if not 1000.

And Mary and Joseph had to make this trip because the Roman

Emperor Augustus Caesar, Caesar Augustus was declaring that

every single man and his family had to return to their own, to

their hometown to be counted for the purposes of taxation.

Now, you may or may not know this, but in that time the Roman

Empire was occupying, they were the, they were the occupying

force over the nation of Israel. They were kind of like the, the,

the, the ones that conquered the nation of Israel.

So Mary and Joseph are having to make this trip to pay taxes.

And that tax money they know is going to pay the salaries of the

Roman officials and the Roman soldiers that are there

occupying them. I can't think of anything

anybody thinking I want to sign up for that.

So here they are from Nazareth having to go to Bethlehem

packing for a trip. Now look not to like start a

fight within husbands and wives and and and and moms and dads.

But remember when you were packing for for vacation, maybe

this summer and remember kind of that that stressful time of, of

just the packing. And then you're always

wondering, did I forget something?

Did we forget something? Did, did did you remember to

bring this? Or did you remember to lock the

doors? Or Are you sure that you turn

the oven off? Or you know, did did you are you

made sure that that you know you, you locked you locked the

doors? Imagine that with Mary and

Joseph. They still have that same

feeling. And oh, by the way, not only is

Mary pregnant, she's pregnant with the Son of God, the

long-awaited Messiah. How in the world do you prepare

to be the mom and the mother figure of the Son of God?

How in the world do you even begin to feel prepared to be the

earthly father figure for the Son of God?

So no wonder they felt such a deep sense of overwhelm.

Now, even though we can't really identify with Mary and Joseph, I

think that a lot of times we get so overwhelmed because we feel

unprepared as well. Let me give you an example.

Maybe you're a, maybe you're a young family and maybe you have

a little baby in your home. So you, you kind of know kind of

that sense of unpreparedness. Nothing prepares you for a baby

like actually having a baby or, or, or maybe the, the, the

season, the, the demands of the season, relational and emotional

and financial. They, they've come really,

really fast and really, really hard to where you, you've have

felt unprepared for this season. Maybe you feel unprepared for

that sense of exhaustion that has set in and looks like it's

here to stay as a result of you running so hard and so fast for

so long. You just feel unprepared.

And because you feel so unprepared, you feel really,

really overwhelmed. Listen, one of the one of the

main reasons that we start to feel overwhelmed is a sense of

being unprepared. But there's another reason I

believe that we can so easily become overwhelmed and I want to

look at it with you back in Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Let's pick it up in verse 6. While they, Mary and Joseph were

there, they finally made it to Bethlehem.

The time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her

first born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid

him in a Manger because there was no place for them in the

end. So I think that the second

reason that we start to feel so overwhelmed is we experience the

unexpected. We experienced the unexpected.

I want to just make a, a quick educated guess with you this

morning. I don't think, I don't think

that Mary's contractions, her labor started once they hit the

Bethlehem city limits. I think that Mary's contractions

probably started on that journey before they got to Bethlehem.

Here you have a man and a woman, Mary and Joseph, They know that

they have to travel somewhere between some scholars say 7 to 9

days, that slow, arduous journey.

Somewhere along that journey, she feels the first contraction.

She starts to panic. She's experiencing the

unexpected. And you know, Joseph, if you're,

if you're a dad in here, you know, it's all unexpected to US

dads and US men. You can, you can just imagine

that Joseph trying, trying to, trying to help his wife and, and

calm his wife's nerves. Be like, Mary, it's going to be

OK. We're, we're, we're going to be

there soon. Once we get to Bethlehem.

That was kind of the theme of the last leg of the journey.

And you can just imagine they kind of like dream together.

Once we get to Bethlehem, You know, we, we, we can, we can get

you a room and you can lay down in a bed and, and we'll get you

some, we'll get some medical help.

And once, once we get to Bethlehem, you know, our, our,

our baby boy is, is going to be born and it's going to be great.

And you'll be able to rest just once we get to Bethlehem.

Yep, when they got to Bethlehem in after, in after in no

vacancy, I don't think that the innkeepers and I don't think

that the that the, the hotel desk workers, I don't think that

they were being jerks by denying them.

I think they just had literally no room to put them.

And yet in the midst of going from place to place and no

vacancy to no vacancy, Mary's contractions start to intensify

and they start to come closer together.

And the only place that Joseph could find for his wife to give

birth wasn't in a hotel room. It wasn't in a hospital,

certainly wasn't in a palace. It was in a stable or a cave

where animals slept and ate. So through screaming and tears,

Mary delivers her baby boy in no way that in that she had ever

dreamed of. And instead of wrapping the Son

of God, Emmanuel, God with us, this little baby boy and clean

birthing blankets, I think that Joseph just pulled out some of

the clothes that they had packed with them that probably weren't

very clean and certainly weren't sterilized.

And that's what they wrapped Jesus in and laid him.

There's no crib. They laid him in a feeding

through for the animals. In no way, shape or form did

that night turn out the way that they thought that it would.

You got to believe that they felt such a deep sense of

overwhelm. I think for us that that deep

sense of overwhelm because we experienced the unexpected.

Maybe there's some of us in here this morning that have just come

out of the last few days or last couple weeks.

Or maybe we're in a season to where we feel that our world is

rocked because we've been experiencing the unexpected.

Maybe there's a relationship that was once close that now

it's distant and silent, and now there's tension and conflict in.

It's completely. Unexpected.

Maybe there was a a medical diagnosis that was told to you

by by your doctor, or maybe a close friend of yours or

somebody that you deeply care about or love opened up their

patient portal and they got some some news.

It's a diagnosis. It's an.

Unexpected diagnosis that seems to have rocked your world and

now it's overwhelmed you. There's a million and eight

different things that we can face this unexpected in our

lives that bring us to a sense of overwhelm.

But then there's a third way that I think that we can so

easily get overwhelmed. And this third one, I, I think

this is the most important in a lot of ways, but it's, it's,

it's beyond positive. The first, the first 2, not so

much, but this third one is beyond positive.

And it kind of set the stage for this third way that we can get

overwhelmed. I want to bring us back to Luke

Luke 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. The night is the same, yet the

setting kind of shifts a little bit outside of the city limits

of Bethlehem. In verse 8 it says in the same

region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over

their flock by night, and an Angel of the Lord appeared to

them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were

filled with great fear. And the Angel said to them, fear

not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will

be for all people. For unto you is born this day in

the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord, and this

will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in

swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger.

And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the

heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the

highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is

pleased. When the angels went away from

them into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, Let's go

over to Bethlehem and see this thing that's happened which the

Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste, and

found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a Manger.

And when they saw it, they made known the word saying, made

known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.

And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherd's told them.

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her

heart. And the shepherd's return,

glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as

it had been told them. I think the third way that you

and I can experience a sense of overwhelm, be overwhelmed during

the season is this when we're confronted directly with the

overwhelming. We can.

Experience a sense of overwhelm when we're confronted directly

with the overwhelming. It would be such a gross

understatement to say that the shepherds that night, the

shepherds in the field that night, were confronted directly

with the overwhelming. Here's what you, you, you need

to know. And maybe you already knew this,

maybe you didn't. But here's something that we

need to know and need to remember about the Shepherds.

No. Kid in that day and age grew up

wanting to be a shepherd. That was not the desired career

path. As a matter of fact, if you were

a shepherd, it was for one of two reasons.

It was because A you couldn't do anything else because you

weren't skilled enough, whether that was socially or manually or

or or or or whatever. You couldn't do anything else

because you weren't skilled enough or B, nobody would hire

you because of your previous record.

You see, these were the unskilled laborers, laborers.

These were the outcast of society.

These were where the violent offenders.

Once they served their time either officially or by

reputation, they became shepherds.

Outside of the lepers of Jesus day, which at least had the pity

of people, shepherds were considered to be the lowest of

the lowest rung of the social pecking order.

And you know who knew this most about shepherds?

Shepherds. They knew it about themselves.

So Can you imagine the sense of overwhelm that of everybody in

the world, they were the first to receive the birth

announcement of the long-awaited Messiah.

An Angel showed up in the field, and that Angel began to tell

them that on this day, tonight, the Savior has come, the Messiah

has been born, and this is how you will be able to recognize

him, and we'll tell you where to find him.

And then the sky begins to light up with thousands upon thousands

of angels all singing and unison, glory and praise to God.

And then the sky goes dark and they go on to Bethlehem.

They were 1000% overwhelmed by the overwhelming.

I think that there are certain times and moments in our lives

that you and I, we can be, we can be overwhelmed by the

overwhelming. Maybe you're in the room with

us, or maybe you're online. Can you think back to a time to

where you experienced mercy? You were given mercy even though

you didn't deserve it and you were given grace.

You, you, you were given grace when you didn't deserve it.

With. Mercy you receive.

You didn't receive what you did deserve with grace.

You received something that you didn't deserve.

Or maybe have you ever been at a point in time in your life to

where you've experienced somebody actually loving you

when you yourself saw yourself as so unlovable?

You've been so overwhelmed by the by the overwhelming and it's

that sense of awe and wonder and overwhelmed that can drive us

into the season and can drive us closer to the heart of God.

You know, I don't, I don't know everybody's story in the room or

online. You may be going through a deep

overwhelming season right now. Or maybe if it's not you, maybe

you know somebody that you're near and dear to, that you're

very close to, that you love, that you care a lot about.

That's being greatly overwhelmed this season.

I want to give you a word of hope.

And. Then in the remainder of our

time, I want to give us some handles to hold on to in this

season as we navigate the sense of overwhelm.

Here's the word of hope that I want to give you.

And if you're taking notes with us, encourage you to jot it

down. Even though it may not feel like

it, God still got you. And even though it may not feel

like it, even though it may feel like it, God's not finished with

you. I think there's some of us this

morning again, whether you're live with us in the room or live

with us online or watching this all back online, wherever you

may be, that you are convinced that God doesn't have you

anymore, that you're too far gone from God, let me assure you

word of hope throughout this season.

This is the word of hope for Christmas for you.

Even though it may not feel like it.

Listen, God still got you. God's still got you.

And even though it may feel like it, there's some of us in the

room and some of us online that feel like God is finished with

us. That, you know, God is like kind

of like a three strikes and we're out.

And you know, we've already used up all the strikes that God's

already finished with us. Let me assure you that's not the

case at all. The message of Christmas is

this. Even though it may not feel like

it, God has got you. And even though it may feel like

it, God is not finished with you.

So how can we remind ourselves what are?

What are three handles that we can hold on to during the latter

part of this Christmas season? What are three handles of hope?

How can we fight for peace? How can we have peace when life

begins to feel heavy? If you're taking notes with us,

here's the first way #1 reminding ourselves that God has

already given me everything that I will need to follow Him today.

God has given me everything that I will need to follow him today.

Again, let's go back to the picture of, of Mary and Joseph

and the two of them kind of getting ready for that journey

ahead, that 7 to 9 day journey from time to time.

You, you got to know that Mary, she wanted to help pack, but

Joseph kept telling her, Mary, you need to sit down.

You need to take it easy. They had 7 to 9 days ahead of

them and they were worried about like, do we pack this?

Do we pack that? You know, should we leave the

toaster and the and the coffee maker at home or surely the

hotel will have one when we get there?

And, and, and, and their mind is just running wild with all the

with all the what ifs and they feel so unprepared.

And you know, I don't know if they gave voice to it to one

another, but you know that deep down within each of them, they

had to think, I can't let Mary know that I'm thinking this.

And she probably thought, I can't let Joseph know that I'm

thinking this. But what in the world are we

going to do with a baby? How, how, how in the world we

don't know what we're doing that that was that was Mary and

Joseph. But did you know at no point in

time to God ever look at Mary and Joseph and wonder if he made

a mistake? Did you know at no point in time

did God ever look at Mary and Joseph and go not sure if those

two crazy kids are going to make it?

God knew what He was doing when He called Mary and Joseph, when

He selected Mary and Joseph. Can I give you the same word of

encouragement? At no point in time, no matter

how overwhelmed you may feel by life.

Due to. Whatever factors, at no point in

time does God ever look at you and think he made he made a

mistake when he made you. At no point in time does God

ever look at you and go man, don't know if that crazy kids

ever going to make it. God loves.

You God loves you so much. He loves you so much that He

does promise to consistently and to constantly and to faithfully

provide everything that He knows that we will need for the day

ahead. That's a word of encouragement,

but that's also a word of frustration.

Here's why I say that. It's a word of frustration.

I want God to unroll for me a 10 year road map of my life.

I'll settle for for three, but I'd really like 5.

Has God quick survey in here? Has God ever sat any of us down

and said, hey, hold on, buckle up.

I'm about to roll out the five year road map of your life.

Anybody in here? All right, good.

We're in good company. He doesn't do that, does he?

Anybody else get frustrated by that?

I do, and then I'm reminded God never promises to roll out the

three, the five, the 10 year road map of my life ahead of me.

But what He does promise is to faithfully, consistently and

constantly provide what He knows, that I will need to be

faithful and to follow Him for the day ahead.

I believe that's what the prophet Jeremiah meant when he

wrote this in the book of Lamentations.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end.

Check out the beginning of verse 23.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, O

God. The Lord is my portion, says my

soul. Therefore I will hope in Him.

That meant that when you and I, when we woke up today, there are

some parts of today that we knew that we're going to be

happening. We had a pretty good idea that

would be happening. There are other parts of the day

that we have no idea, but God does.

It means that when every single 1 is when we woke up today, we

woke up with a perfectly proportioned amount of

everything that God knew that we would need for today.

And guess what? When we go to sleep tonight, we

can lay our heads down on our pillows and go to sleep in peace

knowing that when we wake up in the morning, God knows

everything that I will need to be faithful and obedient to Him

in the morning. And guess what?

It will be perfectly portioned out for me in the morning.

The great word of hope and encouragement is this is that

God already knows exactly. He's already given me everything

that I will need to follow Him today.

That also means second handle. God has already gone before me

beyond my unexpected. God has already gone before me

beyond my unexpected. Let me kind of spend a little

bit of time sitting down on that and I'm packing that for a

second. Remember Mary and Joseph along

this seven and nine day journey. Nothing went right once they

went. Once they got to Bethlehem,

nothing went their way. No room, no hotel, no bed, no

medical help, just the two of them.

They had no idea what they were doing and they were having to

give birth to their son, who, oh by the way, is the Son of God,

the long prophesied Messiah, in either a stable or a cave,

either way a place to where animals eat and sleep.

There was no crib for him. They laid Jesus into in a

Manger. I'm.

Convinced. I'm convinced that it wasn't so

much the innkeepers and the and the front desk clerks at these

Inns and hotels just being jerks to Mary and Joseph going, hey,

sorry, no room in the inn, no room in the inn, no room in the

inn. I think that it was God's

guiding hand because he wanted his Son to come into this world

being born in a stable. Make no mistake about it.

If God wanted his son to be born in a hospital, it would be no

big thing for Jesus to be born in a hospital.

If God wanted his son to be born in a hotel, he could have

created a hotel. He could have if the God that

made all the universe made everything.

That is. He could have saved a room for

Mary and Joseph. No big deal to God.

If God wanted Jesus to be born in a palace ballroom, he would

have been born in a palace ballroom.

Yet God wanted his only son to come into this world, being born

in a stable, laid in a feeding through for an animal.

Why? Because God wanted us to know

that none of us have to clean ourselves up in order to come to

Jesus. None of us have to get our act

together. None of us have to make special

reservations. We come as we are.

Jesus came into the mess for our mess.

And it's a beautiful thing when you start to realize that God

all along is setting the stage. For example, 730 years before

Jesus was born, God gave the word to the prophet Isaiah.

A virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and he shall be

called Emmanuel. God with us. 730 years before

Jesus was born. 1000 years before Jesus was born, God gave

King Solomon the words that Solomon wrote down, and we know

him as Psalm 72. Talking about kings from a

distant land would come and bring the Savior gifts from

afar. 700 years before Joseph and Mary made the journey from

Nazareth to Bethlehem, God gave the word to the prophet Micah in

Micah 52. The Messiah would come into the

world, be born into Bethlehem. Not only was that 700 years

before the birth of Jesus, it was literally centuries before

the Roman Empire was everything God prepared the way for Jesus.

Long before Jesus, long before Mary and Joseph ever hit the

road for the first time. He was before them.

He was with them. And guess what?

He was always going to be guiding them to His plans for

him. Here's the great hope.

God has already gone before me beyond my unexpected.

Got to see this play out this past week.

There's a lady in our church that I got to pray for before

they took her back into surgery. Got to pray.

That God would would. Guide the doctor's hands that

thank him for for gifting the the surgeons and the and the

nurses and the medical professionals in so many

different ways and just praying that God would enable them to do

what he had so gifted them to do but I remember.

Us. Us talking.

There was a sweeping piece that kind of fell over that room

because I looked. At her and I said you know I.

Don't say this flippantly, but did you know that years ago God

knew that we would be right here, right now, praying to Him

about this? God is already on the.

Other side of your surgery, the same God that has guided you

this far is the same God who's with us now, and he's the same

God that's already on the other side of it.

Let me give you a. Word of hope.

Church, I don't know what may be going on in your life right now.

I don't know all the insurance and outs and the details.

Here's where I would tell you. God's already, already on the

other side of that situation. And just as he has always been

faithful, just as He is faithful, he always will be

faithful. So when you find yourself kind

of sinking into that deep and being covered up with a deep

sense of overwhelm, remind yourself of God's faithfulness

and that he is already beyond the current situation.

There's a third way, third handle.

And I think that this is probably the most important for

us this morning. It's an encounter with God

always requires a personal response to God that.

Go back to Luke. Chapter 2 The shepherds no doubt

Luke 2 · chapter mention

had an encounter with God forever changed their lives.

You know, I happen to believe that most, if not all of those

shepherds that night, you know what they did the following

night probably went out to that same field and shepherd

shepherded their flock. But you got to know that every

time that they went out into the field and they looked up into

the night sky, they never saw that night sky the same, did

they? You got to know.

From time to time, those. Shepherds would would have to go

back into town and and run errands and I think from time to

time they would probably pass that, that stable and they

passed that, that, that feeding through.

But it was not. It was never just a mere stable

and and feeding through to them ever again.

You see, we're we're. Recorded or we're given to us in

Luke chapter 2. We know that the shepherds

Luke 2 · chapter mention

responded their response to the to the news that they had seen

and and heard. We know this because we can see

how it says let us go to Bethlehem.

See this thing that's happened which the Lord has made known to

us. When they saw it, they made

known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.

The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God all

for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them they

were never the same. When you and I have an

experience with God. We can never be the same.

There will always be a response required Required of us.

Now where? We are right now.

There's three possible responses whether you're in the room or

with us online. We will all fall into one of

three categories this morning when it comes to what we do, how

we respond to what we just heard.

Category 1 You are well within your rights to view everything

that we talked about as just a religious narrative and a

religious fairy tale, and in so doing, reject your only source,

your only hope for. Peace.

And love and forgiveness and purpose.

You can do that. Option two, you can chalk up

everything that we just talked about this morning as just a, a

warm fuzzy religious moment. It wasn't so good to come to

church this morning and talk about Jesus at church.

It was just a good, good warm fuzzy moment.

Can I tell you something as your pastor, warm fuzzy religious

moments don't really change anything.

Essentially a kind of worthless or we.

Can choose to. View what we just read together

in Luke chapter 2 and we can see the invitation of a loving God

Luke 2 · chapter mention

that says, I love you so much. Come to me just as you are.

If you're new to church, or maybe you've been looking for

forgiveness and hope and love and mercy and grace and

forgiveness and purpose, Listen. You've been looking your entire.

Life you Here's where you'll find it.

By surrendering your life to. Jesus, which basically just

means God. I'm tired of going my own way.

I want to give you my life and I want to give you control of my

life. God, will you forgive me?

Will you change me? Will you guide me?

That's it. And the Bible says that if you

believe in your heart, you confess with your mouth that

Jesus is Lord, That means that his boss of your life you will

be saved. And at that.

Moment you will experience. The forgiveness that you've been

looking for, and the grace and the mercy and the hope and the

love and the purpose that you've always been looking for.

Maybe you're here with us this morning and you've.

Already surrendered your life to Jesus, but there's something

that you're still holding on to. Maybe it's maybe you've come in

here. This morning, you're just

really, really overwhelmed out of the three reasons that we

talked about. Or maybe there's another reason

that you're just overwhelmed and maybe there's one of those

handles that you need to kind of grasp onto and hold onto by

faith this morning. Regardless of what it is.

Here's what I want to do is turn the corner and about to wind

down. I want to direct your attention

to that Connect card that you received on your way in.

On the front of that Connect card, there's three, there's

three boxes there. One is I'm new to Riverbend.

Another is I'm placing my faith in Jesus.

Another is I would like to be baptized if this.

Morning if this morning is the. 1st morning, first time that

you've ever realized I need to turn control of my life over to

Jesus or I want to find out more about what that means.

I just want to ask that you do something.

Just check that middle box. Check that middle box.

Make sure that you give us your name and best contact info.

And then as we leave in just a few moments, you'll slide that

into the slot of the any of the giving stations outside the

doors. And what that does is that lets

one of our pastors to know to to personally contact you to, to

help you in any way to help answer any questions that you

may have. Maybe it's something else going

on in your life that you want us to pray with you for.

Pray, pray, join you and praying over then the back.

Of that the the prayer. Request section on the back.

I would encourage you to to jot something down.

We love praying with you and for you and over you.

But here's how we're going to end this.

Morning. We're about to end with an

opportunity just to be able to sing one more time and there's a

song that we're going to be singing.

It's called Noel. It's called Noel.

Do you know what Noel means? I didn't.

Until I had to look it. Up.

It actually can mean several things in in French, it can mean

Merry Christmas. In Latin it.

Can mean birthday and I love what we're about to sing is

Christmas. Christmas is really all about

celebrating the birth of Jesus. So after I pray, I'm going to

encourage us to to stand and sing together.

But as you, as you stand and sing, I would just want to ask

to the very best of your ability to block out all the

distractions that may be going on around you, to block out all.

The thoughts of the. Places you got to go and the

things you got to do to just. Really.

Rest in. This moment to rest and reflect

in this moment about Jesus coming into this world for you.

God, we love you and we thank. You so much for.

Loving us first, God, Your love for us is clear in the sending

of Jesus into this world. God, we thank you for the

reminder of His coming during this season.

God, I pray that you would help us to understand that all the

different nuances and all the different details under which

your son came into this world. God, none of them were by

accident. None of them were by

coincidence, none of them were were forced by any type of

situation. God, they were all guided by

your hand and God, your hand directs us to your heart, and

your heart for us is to remind us that no.

One none. Of us have to clean ourselves up

to come to you. We don't have to get our act

together. We don't have to get our ducks

in a row. We don't have to do this or

that. We just simply come as we are.

So God, I pray that. We would do just that.

We would come as we come, as we are.

We'd respond to you the way that you're calling us, God that we

would lean into you, God that we would press into you, God, that

we would depend on you like never before for everything that

we're going through in this life and more.

And it's in Jesus name that we pray.

Amen. Thank you for listening to

Riverbend. Church's podcast.

To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,

connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.