CHRISTMAS | SUNDAY 21ST DECEMBER | SUE BAKER

in Jesus [music] precious name.

Amen.

Minao

morning family.

Thank you.

I love that.

So the current time is 11:03. Right.

Isaiah 11:3

Here we go.

Man, that was just so powerful and so

emotional and just

the spirit of God.

May he rest upon us. Let that be our

gift to one another this to this over

this time that the spirit of God would

rest upon us. You know, this the whole

story of Josh is a little bit kind of

not Christmassy. I think Paul said that

it's it's not really a Christmas story.

It's the prodigal son's story. But you

know, I cannot help but think that that

that story is our story. That in some

way, shape, or form, we are told a

little bit about ourselves or we're

reflected in that story of times where

there was lostness. You may never have

lived on the street. You may never have

been kicked out of your home, but there

are times in our lives where we have

known separation from people we love and

the things we love and the the the the

the places we want to be. We've known

that in our lives and we've come to God.

And this morning, let it be that you can

come to God. Let Aresh Aresh. You may

have been walking this road for a long,

long time, Katupine. Good on you for

walking so well. Well done, good and

faithful servant. But every time, every

every along the way, we need to stop and

pause and consider. Jesus stopped and

paused along the way. He pulled to the

side and he gathered himself and he he

spoke with his father. We need to pause

along the way. And Christmas time is a

really great time to do that, to pause,

to rest, to stop a while.

You know, I can't help but think that

this time of year, the birth of Christ,

began one of the most staggering um

biblical truths in all scriptures.

The word became flesh and he made his

dwelling place in amongst us. John 1:14,

John 1:14

the word became flesh and made his

dwelling amongst among us. We have seen

his glory. You know what? This morning,

in some way, shape or form, my heart is

that you have touched the presence of

God in a way that you have felt his

glory and the weight of that resting on

you to heal you, to love you, to restore

you, to just hold you in the moment.

So, we have seen the glory. The glory of

the one and only son who came from the

father full of grace.

Oh my goodness. Full of grace and truth.

And you know, the eternal son of God, he

didn't just come and visit humanity. He

didn't just pop in for five. He didn't

just stop in for a cuper. He actually

came and he dwelled among us. The Greek

word for that is esosen which literally

means to pitch a tent. He came and he

pitched a tent in among us. He came into

this earth and he dwelt here and now he

dwells in our hearts. He's pitched a

tent in your heart. Um what's his name

anyway? This guy and he says this about

[laughter]

this guy. He says this about Jesus that

he came as flesh and blood

and he stayed.

He dwelt there. He moved in. He made a

home in us. Thank God

that he didn't just pop in for a cuper.

Thank God that he was sent here to

dwell. And I mean literally thank God.

Thank God for that. that he literally

came here to dwell with us. That God

found it important enough for mankind to

hold the son of God in our hands to

touch him to feel his breath to hear his

word. You know those disciples were

privileged to have that with him to

share space with him to share time with

him. You know Christ no longer now is a

distant thought. Christ is now no longer

accessed through the through the blood

of goats and sheep but he is a reality.

He's not an abstract. He's not a special

occasion kind of God. He doesn't just

turn up when the religious ceremony uh

requires it. But he is present and he is

accessible.

He is accessible. We can come in because

he dwells here. He is in us. And this

this is the foundation of our faith. You

know, I go to youth meetings and I watch

our kids accessing God. Come on. Like

they're encountering because he's real

and he's there. And I look around and I

watch us worship and we're accessing

God. People are reaching for God because

we know he is right there. And if you

have never known that in your life, have

a come to Jesus moment. Please let me

encourage you. Take be be of great

courage and come and access and meet

with God.

Christ is here.

He is here.

He is here. And he is here because God

moved.

God's heart was moved by the state of

man. We were in desperation. Paul was

talking about it this morning. I leaned

over to Nathan. I says, "Listen to your

big mouth, brother. He's preaching my

sermon."

He He The world was a mess. Thank you.

The world was a mess. We were in

distress. People were lost. They were

They were out in the desert. You may

never have been in a desert, but I know

that we have all at some stage been

lost. We've all been separated from God.

Yeah. And when he came and and where

they hang on where are we? Luke 2:1

Luke 2:1

this is about um this is about this boy

this parodical son story.

Yeah. So when he came to his senses he

said how many of my father's hide

servants have food to spare this guy.

And here I am starving to death. You

know, I mean, I know we've all said,

"I'm starving. Let's go to Meccas." But

he was starving. He was emaciated. This

this this boy was in a bad state. He was

in a state of total desperation. And

he's thinking, "I'll see I'll go back to

my father and say to him, "Father, I've

sinned against heaven and against you."

Because what he did by leaving his

father's home was he wished his father

was dead so that he could access. So he

was literally saying to you, "Dad, I

wish you were dead. Can I have my

inheritance?" And his father full of

grace, let him go to that. You know,

sometimes we have to let people go to

that so that God can draw them back.

Anyway,

here's what here's here's here's what

happened. He says, "I'm no longer to be

worthy to be called your son." And how

many times have we found ourselves in

that position where we're so caught up

with our shortfalls? We're so caught up

with the the busyiness of life. We're so

caught up with being ill. And I'm not

downplaying illness or busyness, but

sometimes it gets in the way.

So he got up and he went back to his

father's house. But here's the kicker.

while he was still a long way off.

While he was still a long way off,

probably still ingraring about whether

or not he should go because that was,

you know, that was humbling. It was

humbling for him to go back to his

father's house.

His father saw him and he was filled

with compassion for him. He ran to his

son and threw his arms around him and

kissed him. Now in that day for a father

to do that was really not the right

thing to do. It really was

countercultural. For a father to um to

to lower himself to actually running to

him his son was not how things were done

there. And yet when we put that onto

God,

he ran to us and in his arms was Christ.

He ran to us with compassion and he

bought us the Christ. He ran to us with

great love that went beyond anything we

had done. Though we wished he was dead,

he ran to us and he came and he wrapped

us around us and he was moved to be with

us. He was moved to love us, to love on

us the God of heaven.

Let that sink in a bit. The God of

heaven, creator God. He who made the

heavens and the earth was moved by me.

He was moved by me. He saw me

and he came for me. He was moved by me.

He moved heaven and earth and he brought

a little bit of heaven. He took what was

holy to him, the most precious thing,

from that sacred place, and he landed

Christ here on earth.

Bought him into this earth that we might

know him and know salvation and know

redemption and know healing and know

deliverance and know the freedom that

comes with being in Christ. He brought

him home. He brought him here to us

moved by compassion.

What a gift. What a gift.

In the parable of the prodical son,

Jesus reveals the heart of the father.

Yeah. We see the father's heart. That's

what I'm saying.

But and in in that portrayal of Jesus,

we are we understand that God comes to

us in our brokenness. You know, we we'd

love to think sometimes and in Christmas

time we often put this best foot forward

because you we got friends and family

around that we're not we're unbroken

that like we're just so super cool and

so super together and really, you know,

we're like ducks underwater. Our feet

are going, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh

my gosh." You know, so like before I got

up here to speak this morning, I had to

go to my lucky toilet. We have a lucky

toilet.

I had to do things, you know, to prove

that it's going to be okay. It's going

to be okay. And I walk in here and we're

singing, "Holy,

holy is the Lord God Almighty." And I'm

reminded

Christ in me, the hope of g glory,

Christ in me, the hope of glory. And

when we when we consider God in this

way, when he is the center of all that

we do, when we understand that the

father came for us and sent for us the

most precious thing on this on the

planet earth that be beyond this time

was in heaven with him and took him from

that sacred space to this space. We are

reminded how precious we are to the

father. And if you're struggling with

that, if you're struggling to understand

how precious you are to the father,

believe me, it's true.

It's true. You are precious to God. No

matter what your circumstance, no matter

how things are are running, you know,

going for you, you are precious to the

father.

You are the most important thing in his

heart. You are in the in his heart. And

when you are looking for him, when you

are seeking him,

he's attracted to that.

When he when we, you know, when we're

worshiping, angels heads turn this

morning when we worship the Lord. Every

time we gather together to worship the

Lord, heaven is attracted to this.

People calling out to God, calling on

the name of the Lord, worshiping our

God, our eyes are turned toward Jesus.

You know, in in the story when Emma

sings, "Turn your eyes on Jesus." It's a

little bit undid did me a bit. It's done

done that a few times. That song, you

know, a soul soul are you weary and

broken. Well, yeah.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in

his wonderful face. And those things

will grow dim.

He's not He's not the fairy godmother,

and they're not going to disappear. But

he's going to walk you through it. He's

going to bring people around you to help

you walk through that. He's doesn't He's

not going to wave a magic wand because

God didn't have a magic wand, you know,

but he does have love and he does have

the son of God and he does have the

spirit. The spirit of God is here to

journey with us, to walk with us. Christ

is here. God moved to be with us. He

moved heaven and earth to be with us in

the form of his son Jesus. And now he's

calling us to fix our eyes on Jesus. And

I want us to do that this morning. Can

we please just take time? And I know we

already have a little bit, but just a

little bit more.

Just a little bit more. Just a little

bit longer.

Try there. Stay there in the love of God

and let him wrap around you.

Let his grace and his mercy wrap around

you. You know what? Sometimes, and I

just fail to say this, sometimes our

world is so together,

we're wrapped us up so tight in our

togetherness that Jesus struggles to get

in there

because we don't have room for that. But

we we're we're together.

And Jesus is saying, I just come to love

you, to lay down my life for you, to

send you to bring the spirit of the

living God here is dwelling amongst us.

The spirit of the living God is here to

serve us, to love us,

you know, and as we engage on in this

relationship with God because salvation

comes. Yeah. We receive Jesus Christ,

salvation comes. And he's he who is

faithful enough to bring us salvation is

faithful to complete it. He will journey

this out with you. He will walk it out

with us. And together we walk together

stronger because he is with us. Christ

is with that hope that we come we we

have because of Christ Jesus. the love

that we can now give because it's God's

kind love and he's showing us what love

really means. Unconditional

true love one for another. That we would

lay down our lives for one another. That

we would would would lay hands on

people. That we would take the word of

the Lord. That we would be brave enough

to go beyond ourselves and speak the

word of the Lord over the life of

somebody who's sitting beside a barrel

on the side of the road. that we would

feed people who are hungry, that we

would draw them in and that we would

hold them and for a moment, just a

moment, share with them the love of

Jesus Christ. You don't have to pull out

your Bible and tell tell them that this

is what the word of the Lord says. But

you can say, "Come,

come with me. I'm going to church." You

can say, "Come on, bro. This is where

you belong.

This is what mom said.

She told us that Jesus died for us and

Jesus came for us. That's loving. That's

loving God's way. It's not holding

holding a person's arm up their back.

They're just saying, "Here's the way.

Walk in it. Here's a path. Walk in it."

When Christ dwells among us and he is

central in us, we have a poe or an

anchor.

Pastor Devy loves anchors. When he is in

there, he lo he becomes our anchor. He

steadies us and life is not so abstract

because he helps us make sense of who we

are and why we're here. And this is not

about our gifts. This is not about our

gifts and talents. This is about our

love for him and the fact that we know

we are loved. If you walk away with

anything today, walk away with the

knowledge that you are known by God. You

are known by God and you are loved by

him richly.

Walk away today understanding that you

have got to touch

a bit of heaven this morning by

worshiping with the saints and being in

this environment. You may not have

lifted your hands or wanted to even sing

this morning. That's catered by pipe

because the presence of God is here. The

spirit of God is here.

So, we're calling you to seek first the

kingdom of God. This church doesn't need

it doesn't exist

um to preserve for for you to to to be

self-pres p

self self something or other selfish

self-preservation that's what I'm saying

but it doesn't make sense in the

sentence grammatically incorrect Nathan

hey to preserve ourselves but rather

that he is here that we might live. He

is here that we might live to worship

his name. He is here that we might share

the his love of that who came into moved

into the neighborhood and came to live

in amongst us. We are here to share the

grace of God and the spirit of God that

is carried by him that comes when we he

is the center and the anchor of our

lives. When Christ is alive in us, our

ordinary faithfulness

becomes

love.

This world,

we we write a song about this. What the

world needs now is love. Eh, this world

needs love. It's a mess. It's in

distress.

There is so much going on.

So my heart for us this morning is that

you have an increased influx of the love

of God over you and your family and your

household as you gather to to celebrate

celebrate Christmas. When Christ is is

alive of us, we are no longer ordinary

but we become signposts for the kingdom

of God. We point people in the direction

of truth. We point people in the

direction of wholeness. We point people

in the direction of love. We point

people in the direction of generosity.

We pull people out of the fire. We pull

family back from the edge. We take them

home. We feed them. We love them. We

bring them to church. We pray for them

for years. We pray for them sometimes.

Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep

praying. Don't stop. Don't stop. And let

the love of Christ be that thing that

causes you to be spurred on and stirred

to love those around about you.

Christ is here

and he has come to dwell amongst us.

He has engaged in every part of our

living so that others through us might

know him.

That's the ultimate goal

is He has come to dwell

with us. He's moved his tent in

and he's here with you.

And I love the fact that any time of the

day, whether I'm driving my car or road

raging, no, not oops, I wasn't supposed

to say that. When I'm driving my car

sensibly as a blur abiding citizen,

Christ is with me.

And when I am low and I am afraid,

Christ is with me. And when I'm nailing

it and everything is good and everything

is humming along,

Christ is with me. His tent is pitched

in my heart.

Receive the love of Christ this morning

in a greater measure. Receive the love

of God in your heart this morning. And

do not forget as you gather with your

family that he is in the midst of us,

that he is here with us. Do not forget

how much he loves you. He has come near

that we might know redemption, that we

might know salvation, that we might know

him. He has come near that we might

engage with his word and with his spirit

that we might make him known to others.

He came from that sacred place. Jesus

did

and landed here on earth because of the

father's love for us.

He has come.

He is near. And my prayer for you

is that you will know moments of loving

Jesus in a way that perhaps you haven't

felt for a long long time or you may

never have felt before.

Let me just say this this to somebody.

Don't complicate

the love of Jesus Christ with all the

knowledge that you've been inundated

with in your life.

Knowledge is great and it is powerful.

But sometimes knowledge can be so

disruptive in terms of faith. It's count

often counterproductive to faith. Your

faith in Jesus Christ is a raw thing. It

comes from the core of your being and

you believe in him. And by knowledge I

mean worldly knowledge. I mean knowledge

about

Yeah. Okay. Worldly knowledge. Don't.

There are so many things you could be

knowledgeable about and it could

interrupt and disrupt the love of God.

God just wants to love you. It's simple.

It's 1 + 1 equals 2 love. Yeah.

So,

I said all this to say I said all that

to say this. I love saying that. I said

that to say this.

As you gather, you know, these kids all

want you to get their friends over to

your house at Christmas time. So, I hope

you heard that. As you gather with

people that you love and people that you

tolerate, because sometimes Christmas

has got those kind of people at them.

As you gather together with people,

remind your family

that this is about the birth of Jesus

Christ, the son of God, the redeemer,

the one who brought salvation to us, and

that he is here

and that he is with us and he is for us

and he loves us.

I just want us this morning to take a

moment. Pastor Paul's going to come

to absorb that truth.

It's about you. This is about God loving

you so much. He moved out of heaven to

come for you. God has come for you this

morning. And I pray that you will know

him in new ways and deeper ways and

richer ways, ways that you have not seen

before. I had my brother who's been a

Christian for all of his life text me

the other day or message me the other

day and he said, "I'm knowing

experiencing God in ways that I never

knew. Now he's been a pastor. He's

walked with the Lord I never knew

before.

There's always something new to discover

about the love of God and it is rich and

it is for you. So Faro, enjoy your

families as you come together. God bless