The Gift of Hope

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Amen.

Good morning, CCW.

All right.

Have y'all turn your Bibles to John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

And uh thank you again, uh Jamie, Leanne, for a great job you've done on your boy.

And thank you, Eli and Kirby.

I missed, I should have I should have said the reason for it all is Kirby.

So anytime there's a good man, there's a great woman behind him.

So thank you.

She's been just as precious as she could be.

Um, a couple other things I just want to mention today.

I know that they'll watch online.

My father turned 66 yesterday and had a birthday, so happy birthday, Dad.

And uh Amanda had a birthday yesterday as well.

She did not turn 66.

36, I think.

So that's right.

And then uh Anita, who worked for us for a long time with the children and now uh is primarily focused on the Mother's Day Out program.

Her daughter, Krista, uh, was married yesterday.

So Krista and her new husband, we say congratulations to them.

If you rode by here yesterday, it's really cool.

It was the first time for the CYC program to have basketball games.

We had hundreds and hundreds of people in this building yesterday.

You would have no idea that there was a church going on in here the following day.

And so praise God for the way, man, it just filled my heart to ride up yesterday morning and watch as people came in and the parking lot was filled.

We want to be a church that God uses day in, day out, all the time.

So praise God for what's going on here.

It's an exciting time uh to be at CCW.

And I'll fill you in.

I'm supposed to tell you it often, but I can't help but but tell you now.

So tomorrow, early in the morning, there's gonna be concrete poured right next door to here for the kids' ministry building.

So, amen.

Lots going on.

John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

As I was looking at this, the title of today's message is The Hope of Christmas.

Researchers were performing an experiment to see the effect that hope has on those undergoing hardships.

Two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water.

The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour all of those rodents had drowned.

The other rats, though, were periodically lifted out of water and then returned.

When that happened, they saw that the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours.

Why had that happened?

It wasn't because they were given a rest, but they determined through this experiment, because they suddenly had been given hope that these animals somehow hoped if they could just stay afloat longer, that they would reach down and be rescued.

If hope holds such power for unthinking rodents, how much greater should hope be on our lives?

This is what's been said.

When the world says to us to give up, hope whispers one more time, try again.

It says to try again.

They say that one of the greatest emotions is fear, but it's been said, even greater than fear is hope.

So what is the hope of Christmas?

Let me pray.

Father, we love you this morning.

I thank you even just for your presence and the licensing of Eli and the worship, God.

Lord, anytime that you show up in a place, God, uh, it is a special time.

So thank you, God.

We pray that you would be lifted up this morning and draw men to yourself.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Three things about hope this morning.

I want to show you from John 1.

Number one is this hope is the God man.

Hope is the God man.

The child became flesh.

He became a man.

So what we celebrate this time of year, this Christmas season, it seems off it's all about a baby.

Well, what about this baby?

Uh, this morning I want you to know that the baby was flesh.

Why is that important?

We're gonna get somewhere.

Flesh in Scripture, Galatians 4, 4 and 5 says, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, under the law.

Mark that, understand that, under the law to redeem those who were under the law.

Paul says that the demand of the law is that for redemption it requires flesh.

There's just one problem.

The demands of the law for us are impossible.

You can't not sin.

Just try.

You can.

Romans 5 12 says that by one man sin entered into the world, and that death came through sin.

And so we can't not sin.

It's a plague, it's a disease.

If you think COVID was anything but that, you're wrong.

It was.

It was a plague, it was a disease, and it is the result of sinful man.

It's God's judgment.

We have a sickness because we have sin.

No matter how much we try to heap up our good, we can't not do wrong.

Because we're flesh.

And the demands back to the law are for flesh.

I'm getting somewhere.

Demands remain, flesh for authority.

That's what that scripture says.

Galatians 4 says, when the fullest time come, God sent for the Son, born of a woman, under the law to redeem.

It requires flesh.

Have you ever called somebody and you got an automated machine?

And you're on there and you are just waiting, and they're giving you the options, press one, press two.

You're like press 74 down the list, and you're like, oh my soul, I just need something, I've got a problem.

And finally you get to talk to somebody, and you're like, they're probably in their pajamas in Arizona, and I'm dealing with a problem right here in Alabama, and they push you throughout the conversation to an email.

Now, what you're gonna have to do is email this problem.

You're like, but I called you, and I need a person, I need flesh.

And they're like, Well, it's gonna take time for processing.

I hate the word processing.

You know why?

Because it can mean anything to anyone.

We're processing.

Like, like what that means is they've got a piece of paper and somebody needs to walk it down the hall for somebody to sign processing.

It can take five to seven days, it can take three weeks, two months.

You can be in processing for a year.

And so it's processing, they say.

And I'm like, I just need someone with human flesh to have authority over this situation.

Not an email, not an automated thing.

I need flesh to deal with this.

So there remains we need flesh for authority.

In Genesis 1.28, I want you to understand where we're getting with this.

God Himself gave authority to man.

God gave in Genesis 1.28 dominion over the earth to man.

It says for him to subdue it and for him to take care and have rule over all the earth.

Psalms 115, 16 says this.

Listen, heavens are the Lord's, but the earth has he given to men.

So we're stuck, right?

Man is sinful, and because man is authority on earth, we're riddled with sin, then we must have zero hope.

Sin is going to reign and rule eventually as Romans 6.23 take us to death.

Right?

Or not, right?

John 5.27 says this enter God's plan here.

God hath given him authority, him who?

Jesus, to execute judgment also because he is the son of man.

He was called the son of man here on earth.

Why?

Because he became flesh.

There's a process to this whole thing of Jesus being born to the surface.

It's not just a beautiful Christmas thing.

He needed to be here in the flesh.

He became the flesh, so he took authority.

He has the right to authority.

He earned it by under God's plan, who he gave dominion to flesh, under God's plan, he sent him to earth to be a baby born in Bethlehem.

He had a heaven to earth transformation to become a baby here on earth.

Think about this.

Jesus Christ lived in a world riddled with sin and yet never once sinned.

Can you imagine never sinning?

You never sinning?

You'd be so proud.

And therefore sin.

The child was flesh.

The second thing I want you to see about it, Jesus, as the God man, the Son of Man, as flesh, he was finite.

Here on earth he came as flesh, and it wasn't as if he had God powers and he felt nothing and he was invincible to everything and he was not subject to all those things.

Hebrews 4.15 says that we have not a high priest who has not suffered all the infirmities like as we did yet, without sin.

He was hungry.

You get hungry?

He was tired.

Some of you came in and you're like, I'm at the last of my rope, Pastor.

I'm like, you got three more weeks of parties and work parties and Christmas.

Listen, I know you're tired.

You've had pain.

Jesus had pain.

He was cold.

He had no place to sleep, often scripture said.

Jesus experienced these things.

He was restless and sleepy.

Man, I uh I think about I'm 41 now and I look at the kids sleeping in.

You ever watch this?

You get older and you watch the kids sleeping in, and I'm and I look at them and I'm jealous.

I'm literally like I watch them and I'm like, look at you.

How did your brain just does that?

It just blesses you with the extra ability to have no cognition.

You can just be gone.

And over there, and it's like, you know, you're just in your sleep boasting.

They almost look boastful about it, do they not?

Eight, nine o'clock, twelve noon, still gone.

Wyatt had a basketball game yesterday.

I had to call him and wake him up at 11.

I'm like, are you up?

I can't even believe this.

If I wake up at four, I'm up.

That's it.

Y'all with me?

You know what it's like?

Like, you wake up and you're just up.

I can't go back to sleep.

And so, but Jesus felt like we feel.

I say this, I know this in heaven, you're never gonna be sleepy.

You're just gonna have energy.

What is that like?

You're never gonna feel what it's like to be hungry or irritated.

It's just gonna be worship.

And so, but look at John 1, I want you to see verse 18, and then I want you to hold that place and turn over to Philippians chapter 2 for a moment.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

And I want to explain this process that took place.

Look at John 1, 18.

It says, No one has seen God at any time, only the begotten Son who was in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

So before the fullness of time, Jesus is there with God the Father.

Now turn with me to Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

What I'm gonna explain here in Philippians chapter 2, if if you go to seminary one day, they call this, is a big spiritual word, a big uh churchy word, it's called kenosis.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

What is it?

Well, kenosis is right here in Philippians 2, verses 5 through 8.

Philippians 2:5–8

It says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, this is talking about the Trinity, this against some death, but being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

Jesus equal with God in the heavens, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.

And being found in appearance as man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

The kenosis, that word, means the act of Jesus emptying himself of his glory.

He chose to be empty.

Don't listen, church, don't miss the weight of this exchange, this Christmas season.

As Jesus came, what would you exchange today to do God's will?

If God told you to do something, how deep would it go for you?

What would you exchange to be in God's will?

Jesus, before the fullness of time, there with the Father in all worship, in all glory in the heavens, exchanges all of that glory for what?

I don't want you to miss the weight of this exchange, his glory.

You see, in Exodus chapter 33, Moses began to enjoy the presence of God so well that he said to God, he had the audacity to say to God, Would you for a moment just show me the brilliance of your glory?

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

And God responds back to him in Exodus chapter 33.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

It would absolutely obliterate you for me to show you my glory.

But if you hide in the crevice of a cliff, I will come by and show through the backside of my shadow that much of my presence.

And Moses saw just a glimpse and a crevice of a cliff of the glory of God, and he came down the mountain just beaming full of radiance because he was near the glory of God.

You see, Jesus Christ, the glory, if he came in today in all his brilliance, we would all fall to the floor.

It would have killed men.

It's like the other day, Heather walked around the corner.

She had a fresh haircut, bright blue eyes.

She smiled at me.

Almost fell over.

I said, Oh, the glory of that being.

It took my breath away.

It hurt.

Still does.

Am I doing good?

I gotta take my opportunities, church.

Christmas is coming.

Have you ever been awestruck by something that you saw?

Have you ever seen a sunrise and sunset?

I've seen some people posting this week.

Oh my goodness.

People here, you've been to Niagara Falls or you've been to the Grand Canyon, you saw something.

I need you to grasp this.

Jesus was that creation and spoke those things out of his glory.

They came out of the glory of his speech.

Now look, I don't know anybody here that's spoken and glory felt like that.

Are you with me?

Jesus spoke.

And out of the essence of who he was, these beautiful things that we see were created.

The intricacies of your body were developed by Jesus' glory.

And he said, just fill them with this.

The power in your mind, the cells in your body, the glory of this earth came from this creator.

His glory is matchless.

It is priceless.

It is unfathomable.

The glory that he has and it is infinite forever and it's eternal.

And he released it in an exchange.

For what?

Imagine exchanging your current position that you have with a baby.

You refined you.

You worked these years and acquired your wealth.

You with all your intelligence and all your sufficiency for a poor babbling spitting up child.

Can't walk, can't eat on their own.

Can you imagine this exchange?

Can't talk.

Compared to other babies, y'all, you're average.

But compared to you yourself, right now, nothing.

There's no comparison.

The fullness of God in all of creation.

And he exchanged his glory.

Let me tell you why.

Jesus exchanged the glory of God next to his father.

He was so full and he became empty so that empty you and me could one day become full and glorified next to his father.

He emptied himself so that empty me could one day be full in all of eternity.

So his mortality was received because sin needed a worthy payment.

Romans 6.23 says, for the wages of sin, listen to me, we have a death appointment.

The wages of sin is death, and one day we're gonna meet with that appointment.

It didn't end there.

It says, but the gift, the gift, the gift, Christmas, the gift of God is eternal life.

It doesn't stop there through Jesus Christ in the flesh, our Lord.

But the gift.

You see, I need you to understand, God the Father, cannot die.

He's eternal, he's immortal, so he has no flesh.

He could not come and die, and so he had to send a proper propitiation.

He cannot die.

He is the one, even in his name, he's called the I am, and that means to be or to be existent one.

He existed before time, he will live forever.

He's Alpha and Omega, he's first and last, he's not bound in our time.

And so, what kind of hope was this?

I imagine when onlookers came, the wise men, the shepherds, and they saw this, maybe they didn't have an idea of the spectacular sight that it was.

The one time, 33 years in creation, can you imagine if you had lived in that 33-year gap, your life that you've had?

One of the people that saw, the one that was gonna be savior of all, truly Messiah, the only one, there's no other one that could have been saved.

So when we celebrate Christmas and you think about this child, it's a much greater thing.

The Bible says, the only one that could say, He who knew no sin, came and took sin from me and you.

He was fully fleshed, like yours and mine.

But I want you to just think about this.

He didn't just take on your debt or my debt right here.

He didn't just take on the 15,000 persons that live in Chelsea's debt.

He didn't just take on the 5 million in Alabama's debt.

He didn't just take on the 331 million in the United States debt.

He didn't just take on the 8 billion people who live in our world today's debt, but he took on over 100 billion people's debt for all of history and every sin that they would commit.

That's the payment that this child took and exchanged it.

He loves you and me, church.

He loves us that much.

Jesus can accurately be described as being in that moment as much God as if he'd never been man, and as much man as if he'd never been God in vital union, the God man.

And from the beginning, that was God's plan.

That's letter number two this morning.

Hope is God's plan.

That's God's plan.

It's God's plan for reflection.

I want you to look in John chapter 1, there, verse 1 through 5.

John 1 · chapter mention

It says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

He was God's plan for reflection of light.

Light reflects, light shines.

Jesus is the radiance of God's glory as the man that he came here.

I got a picture here.

I want you guys to see this photo that I found, and it was a picture that was reflecting.

You see the reflection as you look off that beautiful body of water and the sun hits it.

I want you to hold that in your mind and hear the law of reflection.

This is how it works.

The law of reflection works on specular objects.

That means light reflects off an object that is tiny or mirror-like.

And so, my question for you and me today are you reflecting?

In all that you're doing right now, are you reflecting?

Light requires a conduit, and then vision and perception can happen.

Are you reflecting?

God chose you and me.

Genesis 1 27 says, God made man in his own image.

So we're made that God God would be in us and reflect out of us.

Heather sent me a video the other day of uh Callie running in this race.

Some of you may have seen some on Facebook.

And I looked at the video, and I didn't, it's not like I had gone into the video emotional, but I looked at it and there she was.

She's just running, and I looked tears coming down my eye, and I'm like, what is going on with me?

And I'm wiping the tear, and all she, you know, she it was just 12 seconds, but I watched it and I'm like, that girl is a reflection of something that God allowed to be put together, and we have invested in that, and it's a reflection.

She can't help, she can't deny her mother.

It's like twins sitting there right there.

Okay?

You guys today got to experience a reflection of something you've invested and put in.

They can't deny that.

If you saw my sons today, they can't deny me.

They're a reflection of something that already exists.

What do you have in you?

Are you reflecting?

I want you to turn to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

We need to unpack just something for a moment.

Turn to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

You see, you've been given a spirit.

If you have Jesus as your Savior, you've been given something that's to live inside of you so that you can reflect.

Here's what it says in Romans 8.

We're going to read a few verses.

It says, There's there now for, therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, listen to this, by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on the account of sin.

He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh, listen, set their minds on the things of the flesh.

But those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

What is he saying here?

This process of sending this child in the flesh meets the requirements of the law, but then if you receive him in your heart, you receive the Holy Spirit of the living God, and then you are now a reflector on earth for this threescore and ten or whatever your life is.

You to be a reflector.

You've heard people say the Spirit bears witness of it, so now listen to me, sometimes you don't bear that witness.

People might say, I'm a Christian, but I'm gonna tell you, Christians, they got a flicker of light.

There's a light about them, there's something about them, there's something that's different.

You ought to be different.

Students, if you go to school this week, there ought to be something different.

They ought to be able to say, yeah, that one, there's just something different in the way that they live, in the way that they act.

Because if we have it, it can't help but glow.

Y'all ever been in the dark with your phone?

Pitch dark, but you turn that thing on, you got something to guide you.

All you need is a little bit, and it guides you.

And so a Christian ought to have this reflection of light.

Others can't deny it.

Matthew 5.16 says, Let your light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

So we shine, we reflect for him.

2 Corinthians 5.17 says, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creation.

Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.

That old man has died.

And now a new reflection has come.

Do you know that you can even reflect in the darkest night?

Any all ever watch these, I'll call them crazy people.

You ever watch these people late at night, 9, 10, 11 o'clock, go jogging?

I see them in my neighborhood, and you know, they look like a crossing guard, head to toe, and I'm driving by, and all of a sudden the back of somebody's shoe catches my eye, and this reflection has got me almost wrecking.

And I'm like, I guess they gotta do all that.

You know, they jog at night and do all that because, you know, they gotta add some danger to jogging, because otherwise, there's nothing fun about it.

Let's do it at night, and we'll be out there with the elements.

Cars won't see us, we'll blind people driving by.

But listen, I've had one of those things catch me, and here's what happens: a reflection in the dark catches off the moon at night, and I can see this crazy person.

Listen, church, God wants a world that's living intention, living in darkness to have a reflection of light.

In the darkest of times, listen to me, church, your deeds matter.

Your conversations always matter.

Your attendance, you coming today matters to the person around you.

It matters.

Your smile matters, it glows in darkness.

Listen, there's a lot.

In this world right now, there's a lot.

There's a lot of abuse, there's a lot of fighting, there's a lot of neglect, there's a lot of perversion, there's a lot of grief, there's a lot of abandonment, there's a lot of depression, there's a lot of poverty, and there's a lot of injustice.

There's just a lot.

Look at your neighbor this morning and say, There's a lot.

Now I want you to look at him and say, but there's a light.

There's a light, church.

Hope was God's plan for reflection.

It's also God's plan for rescue.

Look at John 1.12.

God's plan for rescue.

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God.

It was God's plan for rescue.

He sent this child.

The exchange happened in the heavens.

He came to earth and he came as a rescue plan.

There's a lifeguard story of a man named Tom Lopez.

And Tom Lopez, what I call it, he was on the news, and he had been fired from his job, and they were going back asking what happened.

Tom Lopez saved a man's life and then got fired.

And Tom was explaining what they had said, and he had swam outside of his territory.

That's what officials said.

He swam outside of his lifeguarding territory, and that was an endangerment to those who were not drowning.

You lost your job because of the possibility of people that could have been drowning, but saved a man's life and then was fired.

I think if I were Tom Lopez, I would have gone to court on that one.

But he said this they trained us to rescue lives.

If I hadn't left my post, if I hadn't left that area, a man would have lost his life.

He would have died.

Let me tell you about our part in this.

Jesus was provided.

Romans 10, 9 says, if we confess our sins and believe in our heart that Jesus died and rose from the dead, that we can be saved.

If you're drowning, your part is to yell out for help.

That is your part.

His part.

Listen to me what Jesus did.

He swam in every territory.

He went to the deepest depths.

In fact, when he was announced, the angel Gabriel Matthew 121 said his name this way his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save their people from their sins.

I want to tell you, church, they I don't think Jesus cares.

The thing that you're swimming in and the helplessness that you feel, and if you've gotten away when he sees us drowning, he's there for rescuing.

He's there open arm for rescuing.

Heather was a lifeguard, and she would tell me that if a person began to drown, that they will fight the rescuer often.

They become paranoid and frantic in that moment and gasping and trying to save themselves and become paranoid and will fight somebody and could cause two drownings because they become so frantic.

Sin is like a person drowning, church.

When you get to them, you have to wait until they'll quit fighting because they can drown.

Quit fighting.

Listen to me.

Quit struggling.

If you're in that tension, let go.

You don't have the air to keep in that battle.

You don't have the fight in you.

You're not going to heap yourself up out of it.

So quit gasping and let go.

Because let me tell you today, church, Jesus Christ has a blood preserver and he wants to save us from our sins.

That's what this child was sent for.

Hope was God's plan.

Well, lastly, hope is God's Lamb.

I want you to turn John chapter 1 and look at verse 29, and I want you to see the greatest announcement in history.

John 1 · chapter mention

Let's read this verse.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Now there's been a lot of famous voices throughout history with famous saying, Maybe you uh remember or you've seen the journey of Apollo 11, and people have watched that statement, one giant step for man and a leap for mankind, or uh maybe you you you're a sports history person and you've heard that line with the famous fight, down goes Frasier, or maybe you've caught this great movie, The Miracle of Ice 1980 U.S.

hockey team that had no hope, and the great announcer Al Michael says to everyone in the audience, do you believe in miracles?

Has U.S.

won the hockey gold?

Well, I watch uh I watch some fighting.

Don't hold this against me.

Um, but uh there's a healthy amount of mixed martial arts violence I can take in.

And um, anyways, I was watching a documentary on this announcer, Bruce Buffer.

Fifty thousand dollars this guy makes per event.

Man, what a voice.

But Bruce Buffer in this thing, he he goes on to talk about coining this phrase, and he coined the phrase, it's time.

And there's these special things he does before the fight.

He'll jump and turn sideways.

And and but I thought about that announcement, and what a great job that would be to get up, just amp people up right before a big fight.

You know, you've got the best job.

These guys, they're about to get rearranged, right?

You just get you say it's time and collect your 50k.

Good day.

Am I right?

Anyone you could pack it up right now and take that one?

Well, you're gonna have to work on your voice.

Um, but I was thinking about these announcements in John the Baptist.

John the Baptist gets to be the greatest announcer of announcements of all time here, with the most important announcement that the don't miss this and just chalk it up.

There's been a lot of good announcements.

But this child, the only way you and me get to go to heaven.

The only way that sins are forgiven, this child, this 33-year gap in John the Baptist got to be born and be the announcer in this moment.

What a great time to have a Bruce Buffer voice.

And I'm betting he did.

I'm betting John the Baptist walked out and he said, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, people of all ages, behold the Lamb of God that comes to take away the sins of the world.

Can you imagine that moment?

There it was.

I want to tell you something.

John was the first voice, but now you're a voice.

That message, that's your message.

That is my message.

Listen, we're gonna do a lot of shopping and we're gonna go see a lot of lights and do a lot of things.

Man, if you get one chance to tell one person this, that's the story.

That's why we're here.

This message, he came to take away our sins.

John was the first, but now you're a voice, and I'm a voice.

You see, he was the God's lamb of promise.

Letter A.

In Exodus 12, we've seen the Passover lamb that was required for the blood plague that came over all of Egypt.

In order for you to be passed over, the blood of a lamb had to be placed on your doorpost.

This continues, and they would need lambs and they would offer sacrifices for sin all through Old Testament.

And when Jesus came, listen, first Peter said this that a lamb to wipe away this sin must be without spot or blemish.

This lamb was a promise that God was sending on earth a reckoning for sin.

Satan can't stay in your ear about your sin.

You can't be made to stay guilty.

Oh, in the flesh you will stay guilty sometimes, but you can't be made to stay that way.

You might choose to stay that way, but Jesus done paid all of it.

You don't have to stay in that.

You can say, I'm washed, I've been sanctified.

Yeah, I messed up, I'm human, but it's already been paid.

And so he can stay in your ear, but you don't have to listen to that.

And so he brought this reckoning because he was the spotless lamb.

This lamb was a promise that God would send.

He's the once and for all lamb.

Now hear me about this.

He's once that blood covered you and it's done.

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says it, for by grace are you saved through faith, not of works, not of yourself, lest somebody should boast.

It's a gift of God.

You can't heap up enough to keep you saved.

And if you could lose it, you would lose it.

And so he's done all to make you saved.

He said, He comes to take away the sin of all the world.

Well, letter B is this.

He's God's lamb.

A was promise.

Letter B is God's Lamb of propitiation.

Propitiation is a word that means the act of appeasing God's wrath through the atonement of sin.

You see, we do say that God is love, and we speak of God's great love for us, and it's there's nothing like it.

I do want you to feel the weight that God's wrath, God's wrath, is righteous and it's indignant and it's fiery, and God hates sin.

So what is on the line here for propitiation was a big deal.

It was about propitiation and not position.

You can't positionally make yourself right with God.

1 Peter 1, 18 and 20 says it this way you were not redeemed by corruptible things like silver or gold.

Peter thought it was important that people knew your wealth and your affluence and all this place that you've risen in this world and your trophies doesn't get you anywhere with Jesus.

Money does not buy you forgiveness or happiness.

No gold statue, no big trophy, no power, no prestige, no big house, no marble floor, none of those things before him equals forgiveness.

Some of the wealthiest people that have ever lived, most powerful people have wanted to commit suicide.

Why?

They've had it all.

And Solomon said it this way all of it is vanity and vexation.

You know what that means?

It's useless and aggravating to try to keep up.

That's what Solomon said.

I've tried to keep up, and you know what?

It is.

Listen, students, everybody's gonna tell you get all the right stuff, look the right way, get all that stuff, and then you'll be popular and get trophies, and then you will have arrived.

And Solomon, the wisest man next to Jesus in the Bible, said, That's all useless.

All of that is pointless.

It's not gonna take you any place.

And he said, furthermore, it's vexation, it's aggravating to try to keep up with what other people think.

Am I right, adults?

There was a song, Ernie Haas popularized a song, and the phrase in it says this the ground was level at the foot of the cross.

Anyone may come and there is no cost.

So I want you to see two quick things about propitiation, and we'll be done.

Number one, propitiation is for all.

Jesus Christ tasted death for everyone.

Romans 6.10 says, the death he died, he died for all.

2 Peter 3.9 says, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and faith.

God wants his people to be saved.

That is what Jesus the Christ's child was.

He was the answer, the propitiation, answer for all.

And the second thing, his propitiation was worthy.

It was a worthy sacrifice.

It had to be flesh, it had to be a man.

But let me tell you something.

The sacrifice on that cross, it was worthy.

Revelation 5, 6 and 12 says this, and look, and I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures stood a lamb as though it had been slain.

Verse 12, listen to this.

Ten thousand, thousand angels' voices were singing, Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

Blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever.

That lamb was a worthy propitiation for yours and my sin.

Christmas church is so much more.

It's so much more than sometimes commercial eyes get seen.

It's so much more.

He came in a manger, but he came carrying on this purpose to fulfill and take his father's cup of wrath.

And he was the only Lamb that could shed blood that had never once been touched by sin.

I'm not enough, and you're not enough, but thank God Jesus Christ that was born Christmas Day was enough and released us from our condemnation.

Well, I was thinking about how to finish this sermon and was thinking through and studying and listening to Christmas songs.

And we sang a song earlier, and I just want to tell you just a glimpse of the story to it.

We sang, it came upon a midnight clear.

Edmund Sears was a pastor in Weyland, Massachusetts, and he wrote this poem in 1849.

Well, when he wrote the poem, it was right after he had suffered a major breakdown.

Sears was said to be depressed.

And with the revolution then in Europe and war with Mexico in the U.S., he was in a dark place.

Sears had a physical condition that continued to grow, and so as a pastor, he was no longer able to orate.

He couldn't get his voice to do what it had always done, and so he could not project to speak to his people.

So physically his work was waning.

He couldn't sustain the needs of his congregation.

And so everything around him at that point for Sears felt full of sin and strife.

And he was walking down that path in despair and darkness.

And God sent him some light.

He penned these words.

I want to ask if you guys would stand with us this morning and sing the words to a song now that you've known, but sing it with heart behind the meaning.

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