Don’t Miss the Nazarene

Morning Church. Today's scripture reading comes

from Matthew 2. You can find that on page 758 if

you're reading from the Bibles under your seats starting in

verse 13. Now when they had departed,

behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream,

and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to

Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, For Herod is about to

search for the child, to destroy him.

And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and

departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.

This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet

out of Egypt. I called my son.

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise

men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children

in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or

under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the

wise men. Then was fulfilled what was

spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Rama

weeping and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children.

She refused to be comforted because they are no more.

But when Herod died, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared in a

dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Rise, take the child and

his mother, and go to the land of Israel.

For those who sought the child's life are dead.

And he rose and took the child and his mother, and went to the

land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus

was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was

afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream, he

withdrew to the district of Galilee.

And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what

was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be

called a Nazarene. This is the word of the Lord.

What's going on? Port City family and friends.

How we doing? Good.

My name is Tanner. I'm the lead pastor here.

It's a joy to be with you. Merry Christmas to you.

May you eat all the sugar your body can handle this week and

have a lot of fun. We are a church y'all that just

loves Norfolk, loves Jesus. You don't have to have your

whole life figured out. You just got to love those

things to rock with us. And if you're looking for a

church family to to be a part of, we would love to have you.

And next week we're starting a new series in Psalm 119.

Ron's going to deliver a word. It's going to be awesome.

I hope you'll join us and, and maybe even just give us a few

weeks to see what it's like in the normal rhythm of life here

in our church to, to get to know us a little better.

So I'm going to dive into prayer one more time before we, we, we

roll with our texts for today. OK, Pray with me.

Our Father, we're so grateful just for this true story, this

Christmas story. God, open our minds to

understand. God, we need understanding.

Lord, you're after our heart, but the path to our heart is

through our ears, through our understanding, through our

minds. So God, we need help.

Give us humility as we consider these things.

So Lord, what we know not right now, would you teach us what we

have not? Would you please give us and

what we are not? Would you make us let the words

of my mouth, the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your

sight? And God, we just pray you would

get the glory that you deserve from our time today.

And everybody who agrees with that said Amen.

I don't know about y'all, but I I just love sagas.

The long series, the movies, the books.

I love them all. I think the greatest is Lord of

the Rings. But more recently I've been

getting into, I'm into the Planet of the Apes series.

OK. I like any Creed movie.

The Rocky franchise. They could put out another one

right now where Rocky is 80 and fight somebody and I would watch

it. OK.

There's something about the long series that just we just

resonate with them, right? Like we it taps into what life

feels like. Life feels like a saga, Life

feels like a story, like it's going somewhere.

And y'all, that is because God is the ultimate author.

That's who he is. God is the ultimate storyteller.

And what's unique about Christmas is at Christmas, the

author enters the story. This would be equivalent to the

the the writer of Lord of the Rings Jr.

Tolkien or the director of the Creed series getting in the

movie, getting in the book. And what's so hard for our minds

to understand is the author doesn't cease to be who they are

outside the story by entering it, right?

It is that they're outside the story that they could put

themselves in it, right? So he could be God and man in

one person, be in the story and be outside the story kind of

blows our mind. But that's what we celebrate is

that the God who is unbound and timeless enter time and space,

right? The the, the God who created

volcanoes and and sharks and upholds every blood vessel in

your body right now went through the weak baby neck phase.

You know what I mean? Like his neck had to be

supported like the one who created the concept of a neck

went through the weak neck phase.

That it it's just a a mind blowing but true story of the

world and what I believe the Lord has brought us here today

to consider from Matthew chapter 2 for just a few minutes is that

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

this Jesus, this eternal Son of God who became Mary's son came

in such a hidden way that if we don't pay attention we're going

to miss him we're going to miss him and I don't want you to miss

King Jesus. I don't to my kids out there one

of my favorite movies is Mulan in Mulan.

Do y'all remember the scene where Mulan is about to shoot

the little rocket and is aiming at the mountain but Mushu thinks

she was aiming at the the bad guy coming right at her and she

shoots to the mountain and he goes.

You missed, how could you miss? He was 3 feet in front of you as

he's launching off onto the mountain.

That's kind of how it feels like it's that obvious what's in

front of us if we'll pay attention.

Are you with me? We just got to pay attention to

what this story is and to who this king is.

And we'll recognize this is who we've been looking for.

OK? So my prayers that we will walk

out of here hidden in Christ, OK?

That that is that is my my dream.

For us to get there. We got to look at 2 hidden

themes and 1 hidden king, 2 hidden themes, 1 hidden king.

If you are ready, let me hear you say I'm ready.

OK, first hidden theme, Jesus begins the new exodus.

OK look with me in verse 13. Now when they had departed,

behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream

and said, rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt

and remain there until I tell you.

For Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.

And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and

departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.

This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet

out of Egypt. I called my son.

Verse 16. Then Herod, when he saw that he

had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent

and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that

region who were two years old or under, according to the time

that he had ascertained from the wise men.

OK, if you weren't with us last week, we we saw the first part

of the story where the wise men from the East come to Jerusalem

to find out where is he who's been born king of the Jews.

And they end up in Bethlehem. They bring him gold and

frankincense and myrrh. And we made the joke that

although we love the Kirk Franklin song, we 3 kings have

traveled so far. That's not really historically

accurate. We don't know that it was 3 and

they weren't kings, OK, They were wise men.

They were think astrology, think stargazers, think they're just

on the lookout for truth. That's who they were, OK?

And they stumbled upon a prophecy.

They see a star, they connect some dots and they end up in

Bethlehem. OK.

Now what is happening here in our text today is that we are

picking up in Bethlehem. An Angel appears to Joseph.

OK, after this has taken place, it says it's time to go.

OK Herod is about to search for your son.

Who is my son, Right? And you're going to go down to

Egypt. And then by the end of our story

today, they're going to leave Egypt and go up to Nazareth.

Are you all with me of just the geography?

We got Bethlehem, we got Egypt, we got Nazareth.

Kind of makes a triangle. OK, Now this is the work we got

to do. OK, So just stay with me for a

few minutes. Look at verse 15 at this word

fulfill. It says this was to fulfill what

the Lord had spoken out of Egypt.

I called my son, you're going to see that word fulfill 3 times

today. Everybody say fulfill.

If you just stare at the word fulfill, go ahead circle it in

your Bible. If you see it, if you look at

it, it's kind of 2 words. Okay, full fill.

Imagine if you flipped it backwards.

What does it look like? Fill full.

OK, to full fill means to fill full.

So imagine like a bucket, OK, and it's empty, and to fulfill

it means you're filling it up like with water or something.

So what Matthew's trying to get us to see is that what's

happening in front of our eyes is something's being filled up.

So the question becomes, what's being filled up, right?

That's where we got to talk about the exodus.

Somebody say Exodus. Now, if you don't know the

Bible's super deep, you don't know Exodus.

You don't know some of what the details are of what I'm about to

talk about. That's OK.

The wise men knew probably less than you know right now.

What's keeping you from King Jesus isn't just what you know,

OK? It's once you learn things, what

your heart does with what you learn, OK?

It's your heart that keeps you from the Lord even more than

your mind. OK, but in time you will learn

the story more and more. But I want to break down the two

things you need to know about the exodus here in just a

second. For now, think about the Old

Testament as a whole. Like when a road project goes on

off y'all ever notice this? Like it'll be a giant set of

trees and it's just this area where they plan to put a road.

OK to get that road built they got to clear it out.

Are y'all with me? There's a clear out project that

has to go down. Think of the Old Testament like

things being cleared and the road being built.

OK. What we learn in the Old

Testament is where we come from, what's wrong with us, and how

God wants to make it right. His goal is to fellowship with

us once again, to be in relationship with us.

So He imagines us and Him walking on this road that He has

cleared out. So what we see in the Old

Testament is the clearing being built.

Some symbols, some pictures, some ways were made right, all

this stuff. The problem is nobody ever walks

the road in the Old Testament. Are you with me?

The, the, the path gets cleared out.

The road is built, but nobody's walking it.

There's no fellowship going on. OK.

So what Jesus is coming to do is walk that road for the first

time, and we'll talk a little bit about how his death plays

into that and what it looks like for us to get on that road.

OK? But for now, just think of that

image and what's being filled up in front of us.

The road being built has to do with this Exodus theme.

All right, so with that as a backdrop, what Matthew is doing

is he's quoting from a book called Hosea, where he says out

of Egypt, I called my son, somebody say Egypt.

All right, there's two pictures. I got to get in your head about

the Exodus, and then we'll be good to go.

OK. In Egypt, God's people were

slaves to Pharaoh. OK?

That's what was happening. So you've got the people dynamic

and then the the rescuer, the people and the rescuer.

This is the key that some of you all have got to got to lock.

Maybe that know your Bibles OK, in Exodus 4, you can write that

down. We're not going to look at it.

Make a little note. Exodus 4, all of God's people,

all of them. The collective bunch is known as

God's son. OK, all of them like together.

Imagine them making one person. So, so stay with the imagery.

Once Upon a time God led his people out of Egypt and his

people as his son. He let his son out of Egypt

through the the 10 plagues, all the stuff.

And in our text today he's going to bring his son out of Egypt.

Are you with me? Do you see that one to one

correlation? He's going to lead his son down

to Egypt and then to Nazareth out of Egypt.

I called my son once and now I'm doing it again.

Y'all see that one to one link out of Egypt?

I called my son. Now, the second thing that our

text has in common with the original Exodus story is the

rescuer side. You might have noticed Herod's

reaction to finding out he'd been tricked was to try to kill

all the babies in that region who were two years old or under.

That sounds very similar to some of us of what happens in Exodus

chapter one, right? In an attempt to control the

people of God, God's Son, he tries to kill God's son Once

Upon a time by having all the babies killed.

Are you with me? So it's like history is

repeating itself, but this time he's trying to get rid of God's

singular son. Are y'all with me?

So that's kind of the two pieces.

And what God did to rescue his people then was to, under the

nose of Pharaoh, raise up a rescuer who made it through

though they were trying to kill him.

And who was that baby Moses? OK, He made it through in the

basket and shout out the Prince of Egypt, which is actually a

pretty good movie, OK, and Moses makes it through well here in a

similar way, though, Herod is trying to snuff out King Jesus,

the Son of God. He's going to make it out.

Are y'all tracking of the 1:00 to 1:00, the sun side and the

rescuer side? Notice that Jesus is playing two

roles at once. You see that He's like the sun

that needs to be LED out. He's reliving the people side

and he's reliving the rescuer side.

OK, do y'all see how he's doing both?

That's because he's got a man. What Matthew is doing, what God

is doing by having the story replay itself, but new is he's

saying a bigger exodus is happening and a more full rescue

needs to happen. Are y'all with me?

So even though it happened once, what happened wasn't enough.

They might have gotten out of slavery to a place, but we got a

bigger slavery going on that the Son of God came to undo.

Are you with me? So what we've got to hear the

Christmas story, y'all is not an inspiring cute story.

It's a rescue story. It's a story about the king, the

sun coming to set the people free.

It's about a rescuer greater than Moses coming to help people

in a bigger issue than the people of God once were in

Egypt. OK, to my kids, y'all ever y'all

ever played dodgeball at school? Anybody.

That was when we played dodgeball.

I would just, I would turn up OK.

Like I just was like, yes. But then the question became,

which version are we going to play?

You know what I mean? Like, are we just going to line

them up and just have at it? My favorite was always a

jailbreak version. OK, Jailbreak is when you would

get hit and then you would go stand in the paint of the

basketball court and you had to wait and somebody had to throw a

dodgeball and hit the backboard. And I liked it when the teachers

made it. You have to make it not just hit

the backboard. You got to make the shot.

And then everybody goes free you all.

The Christmas story is a jailbreak story.

The Christmas story is that there are people in prison, so

to speak. OK.

And we're not in prison in Egypt.

So the question becomes if we're we're the trapped people, what

are we trapped by? What the scriptures teach is we

are stuck in sin. Somebody say sin, sin.

Basically, when you stuck in sin, you are stuck with

yourself. The consequence of sin is self

to fall into sin itself. And the consequence, it's like

your resource itself and what you get is yourself.

It's like the only ammo you got itself, which is why the

Christmas season tends to be, we have a lot of hope going to the

new year and all that. But it's also sad because we

realize it's another year where I'm my own worst enemy.

You know what I mean? Everything that's wrong in my

life is because of me, my cycles of anxiety, my cycles of

thinking these thoughts, my cycles of pride, my cycles of

these things. And it's like we think in the

next week between that New Year's, my willpower will Get Me

Out of where I got me. And guess what?

Next year you're going to be feeling that again.

Because what what this time of year does is it shows the power

that sin has, which is it's addictive, it's rhythmic, and it

just keeps us stuck. We're just stuck with ourselves.

You are not made to be turned in on yourself the way that you

naturally feel. But you can't break out of that.

That's what sin does. It just keeps you self absorbed,

self-centered, and addicted to your cycles of trying to rescue

yourself from yourself. And you can't because you need a

rescuer. You need a jailbreaker.

And y'all, What's hidden about the Christmas story is not only

that Jesus came as rescuer, but how he came to rescue.

Y'all, to use the road imagery, what we think is that he walks

the road and then he coaches us how to walk the road, right?

Like I walked it, now you guys walk it.

That is not the Christmas story. You know what the, what the

Bible teaches is that this Jesus, this baby would live with

God in perfect fellowship, not consumed with self, OK?

He would not live stuck in self. He would live free as we were

designed to be. And he walks that path in that

road, not to teach us how to do it, but to give us what we can

never do for ourselves. That's the Bible is that

salvation is a gift, not a reward.

It's what Christ did, not what you do.

This is about Jesus, not about you.

The good news of Christmas is about him, not us.

Christmas should be a relief, not a burden.

So the Christmas story starts with a question.

Do you agree that you are trapped?

You can't miss that Jesus came to set trapped people free, but

you can't be free if you don't think you trapped.

It's just pretty basic. Only trapped people can be

freed. You know, I always love the

jokers in the dodgeball game that would act like they didn't

get hit and then the rest of the game they out there still just

beaming people. I'm not getting out because

you're invalid. Like you don't even count.

You should be in jail over there.

Like this is not. You don't even count.

You know what I mean? That's us.

Many times we're in denial and it doesn't set us free to be in

denial. Amen.

The freedom comes on the backside of truth coming, OK.

And the truth is we need a rescuer.

The truth is we're trapped. The second hidden theme in our

text here today has to do with exile.

Jesus brings the end of exile near.

We're going to see another fulfillment here.

You're going to be like, what is this?

And I'm going to explain it to you.

Look with me at verse 17. Then was fulfilled.

So you can circle that again. This is our second time here

today. What was spoken by the prophet

Jeremiah, A voice was heard in Rhema, weeping and loud

lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children.

She refused to be comforted because they are no more.

What led to this fulfillment, this filling full moment was

that Herod chose to kill the babies, OK?

And Jeremiah 31 is a moment in Israel's history where now they

don't live in Egypt. So years later they're in the

promised land. OK.

They were supposed to be the people of God that showcased to

the world how good Jehovah is. And we got it made so much.

Y'all should have flocked to Jerusalem to get in on the

action and then go back. We got it made.

But they were so not walking the road of fellowship with God that

there was nothing special about them.

They became just like the nations around them.

And so quite literally, the land was spitting them out in

something called exile. Somebody say exile.

So in Jeremiah 31, imagine like the mom of all the people, you

know, like the group mom, that that group mom is Rachel.

OK, Rachel was one of the first moms in Israel back in the book

of Genesis. But here, in a poetic way, it's

imagining her weeping over her people being carried off.

It's like she's standing, watching them being taken out as

slaves to exile. Does that make sense?

That's the imagery. So what what's happening?

What's being filled full? Another bucket being filled full

right in front of us here in this text is that there's a

weeping nature to Herod killing these babies right like that.

That is another moment in history where God's people are

being tyrannized by somebody like a Herod.

OK, but the second thing that's being filled full is why

Jeremiah wrote that in chapter 31 was because God said a day

will come where your weeping needs to stop.

Because somebody's going to come who's going to make it right and

y'all will come back into the land.

OK, so the image is once that person comes, it's time to stop

crying. So by quoting it, what Matthew

is saying is Jesus is that king. Jesus is that guy that makes the

crying stop. Are you with me?

For those of y'all who know the lion, the witch and the

wardrobe, it's kind of like the, the, the ice is thawing.

Are you with me? Like this is the moment where

like, it's not over yet, but something has shifted because

the ice has thought, right? So what's happening here in

Matthew 2 is Matthew is showing us that's what's happening.

Jesus is the king who will end stuff like the exile in Jesus.

The reason to stop crying has come.

What that means for us y'all is that your gut that life is

busted is a correct gut. If you ever felt like something

just ain't right, well, you right that something ain't

right. Let me tell you that something

ain't right. The Herods of the world

sometimes run the world. They get what they want.

They execute an order that seems unjust and it happens.

They have control, they have power, they get what they want

done, done. And exile is a good word to

describe what that feels like. It feels like it's not what it

should be. This isn't our final home,

right? And what's tricky with the exile

theme is we do partially live in it, sort of as victims to a

Herod, but we also sort of 'cause it you.

You see that, right? Like in our sin, when you

gossip, you are part of why nobody trusts nobody.

Does that make sense? Why don't you trust me?

Because you're always talking trash, that's why.

And I bet you're doing it about me behind my back, too, OK.

When we buy things that are not good for people, it perpetuates

those people to keep selling them at lower and lower prices.

So everything we do that is sinful leads to exile.

So we both live in exile. And we 'cause it.

You see how that works? We are the cause and effect.

Chicken and the egg. It's like, do I live in it

'cause it is it? Yes.

Is it it 'cause I did it? Yes.

Merry Christmas, OK, We live in exile of our own making and also

we feel like we need to be delivered from that which we

live in. If you agree with everything I

just said that something ain't right and somewhat you to blame

for it, I got one question. Just something for you to be

ruminating over this Christmas season.

Does the secular culture we live in provide the story that makes

sense of why things are not right or how it gets made right?

Does karma in energy and universe make sense of why

things are the way they are and how they get restored?

I would say absolutely not. It's randomness.

It's it's lacking a story, lacking a hero that would make

these things the way they ought to be.

And you all the Bible isn't offering what's so cool about

the story here that we're reading.

It's not offering a cheap fix. Those babies were killed.

That is a weepable thing. Mourning makes sense in exile.

OK, where I I love the example of men in black is one of my one

of my favorite movies. Those little things are like

look right here, ma'am. After like devastation goes down

and Cha ching and then nothing happened.

Just a squirrel got in here. Don't worry about it.

No, no, no bad things happened. Just you need to go to the

store, get some new friends, brush your teeth and buy a new

dress. And it would always be funny,

but it was like, I can't make sense of what happened, so I'll

just make something up. That's kind of what it

represents, right? That's not the Christmas story.

It looks at paying for what it is.

The Bible is about redemption. It's about taking brokenness and

making it beautiful. It's not erasing what happened.

It's redeeming what happened. OK.

So that's part of what we have in the Scriptures as well, that

much of the other stuff out there.

Secularism at the top of the list.

Can't do so. Take heart today, friends, that

Jesus will win. Exile will end.

That's part of the Christmas story.

This is not our forever home. That's such good news.

The same hero who rescues from slavery is the one who puts an

end to exile. And part of what's hidden y'all

is how he wins. Y'all.

Jesus beats Herods without becoming a Herod.

Do y'all see that he does not fight power with power the way

we see it. He doesn't flex harder than

Herod does. He doesn't.

That's part of what's so miraculous about who Jesus is,

is he wins, but he doesn't fight the way we fight.

The cross is a symbol of power and weakness at the same time.

It's a power. It's a symbol of defeat, but

it's victory, you know, it's a, it's a, it's an amazing upside

down. It blows our mind a little bit.

How was that victory? You died.

You know the Romans laughed at a God who would die.

That's not power, right? Herod is power.

Herod has the power. He builds the palaces.

Herod is awesome. And Jesus just allows himself to

be a toddler by the end of this story and be carried away while

Herod just dies. I heard one song that says,

yeah, that's the way that God do it.

Thank you. Getting away with murder.

There's another side to it. Herod's look like they're

winning. They play our game, our way.

And Jesus is a baby and waits him out and rises up, becomes a

king. Like this is who our God is.

And it can be a little hidden. If you're looking for a Herod,

you will miss Jesus. Are you with me?

OK, Third thing that's hidden that I want you to see is that

Jesus is the king you long for. Jesus is the king you long for.

Verse 21. And he rose and took the child

and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelos was reigning over Judea in place

of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.

And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of

Galilee. And he went out and lived in a

city called Nazareth so that what was spoken by the prophets

might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Now, the first thing I just want us to just, Jesus is so

different than the way we would have drawn up our hero.

And the way this story goes is just not what we would think.

OK. I just want to show you some of

the sheer time and geography in our text here today.

So remember, we got Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth.

If we got that map, throw that thing up there.

No map. OK, listen, imagine a map.

It makes like a triangle. You can go look this up.

Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth. And what's what happens in this

text is you've got 200 plus miles each trip, two to three

weeks, OK. So imagine a two to three.

It's not again, God, Jesus is God.

He made everything. He made the concept of roads, he

made oceans of volcanoes and he doesn't like I'm feeling Egypt.

We're in Egypt, you know, like it took two weeks to get there

and then they're in Egypt and it's let's go to Nazareth.

It's not a snap of fingers and we're in Nazareth.

What I'm trying to point out is Jesus lived life on life's terms

just like you do, had to be held.

By the time they left, he was probably a little toddler, might

have been walking like go ahead Jesus, go ahead.

Like probably, I mean just like it would be for you to go on a

long journey. I don't know about you.

Car rides with kids are difficult.

They were going on a long journey, a 2-3 week journey

y'all. Jesus did not circumvent what it

means to be human to save us. He is God and he is man and he

saved us within the confines of life the way we feel it.

He didn't like escape reality as we know it to save us in it.

Does that make sense? He entered time and space like

it's an amazing thing that he did it the way he did it.

And I want to draw your attention to our third use of

the word fulfilled here. Circle that if you see it,

something else is being filled full, but this one's a little

different. So 1/3 bucket being filled up.

In this case, it says in verse 23, it says so that what was

spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be

called a Nazarene. That's a little different than

the other two. In those two cases, it was a

quote, it was Hosea, it was Jeremiah.

In this case, it's pointing to all of the prophets.

There were many of them. OK, So it's not quoting a

particular verse. You can't go look up exactly

what it is. So scholars debate what does

that mean if it's not pointing to one verse?

What does he mean by all of the prophets saw that he would be a

Nazarene if none of them said it, OK.

And the two kind of best theories are these right here.

The word Nazarene sounds a lot like this Hebrew word that I'm a

butcher called Netzer. And it looks like the word

branch. OK, so it it's rooted in Isaiah

11. Jesus is from the Davidic line.

OK? So be like saying you're a a

twig from the the David tree, OK.

And Twig is almost this demeaning reference to Jesus

affiliation with that line. OK, so anytime he's called a

Nazarene, it's basically saying he's from the David tree, which

makes sense because from the lineage of King David, right?

The second theory that I I think more feels what the scriptures

have in mind because the the first theory kind of taps into

Isaiah and Jeremiah the most, in case you're wondering.

The other one I think is just saying all of the prophets

foresaw the type of Messiah that will be irrelevant because

Nazareth is an irrelevant place. Are you with me?

Nazareth is a place where it's like you're from where Nazareth

it. Some of you know, in John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, like this dude, Nathaniel kind of makes fun of

Jesus. Hey, that's the map.

Y'all check it out. I told you.

Imagine like a triangle where they're going down.

They actually walked at y'all. Yeah.

And then remember everything I said while looking at that.

OK, so all all of the prophets foresaw that the type of

reaction you would have to hearing about the chosen one who

made all things in enter time and space would be like he's

from where can't be him. Does that make sense?

And here's what I'm trying to get you to see.

Here's what's here's what's hidden to me about the God of

the Bible. But it's so amazing is if God

wrote himself in a story, he would write himself in a place

that you would overlook. And if you're in Christ, that's

exactly what you think he would do.

Does that make sense? But if you're on the outside,

you're like, why would he do that?

So it's kind of like once you see it, you can't Unsee.

That's exactly who God is, because he's not like us.

Are you with me? He would allow himself to grow

up in a place and be referred to, dismissed, considered

irrelevant. But the more you get to know the

Lord, that makes a lot of sense to you.

Because Jesus is OK with being overlooked.

When they would make fun of him for being a Nazarene, he

wouldn't go well. You know I'm from the lineage of

King David from Bethlehem right? He never once flexed information

you didn't know and needed to know.

Y'all know that we do that constantly, right?

You looking out of shape? Well, I used to play on a wreck

team five years back. We used to be in shape.

Then I busted my leg and then my knee and then my elbow.

And we, we're constantly giving you the information you need to

know to see me accurately, right?

You don't have the full picture. You weren't there when I did

X&Y&Z. Jesus never like.

Well let me stop you right there.

I may be from Nazareth, but I created volcanoes, you know?

Did you know sharks have whatever amount of teeth?

Which one of my kids could probably answer he wasn't like

flexing. He wasn't insecure if you

overlooked him. This is crazy all he would let

you. That's who God is.

That's who Jesus is. He's not a flexing, insecure,

power hungry. He is a power holding, secure

fulfiller of all that we long for in need.

And he just could vibe in a room and you not even see him.

Here's the last thing I want to say to you as we begin to move

towards closing. Don't miss the Christmas story

and its hero Jesus. Don't miss them.

I want you to turn with me to John chapter one for a minute.

If you're using our Bibles as page 844, one of my favorites,

Just just think about this line. We about to read y'all think

about this. We're going to start in verse 9

and just read through verse 13, OK.

The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the

world. He was in the world and the

world was made through Him, yet the world did not know him.

He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He

gave the right to become children of God who were born

not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man,

but of God. I had a friend that led me to to

faith in Jesus back in college. He would say Jesus is hidden in

Plainview. All these years later, I'm like,

why didn't you say hidden in plain sight?

Like, I don't know, but maybe there's something I don't see

yet that he sees, you know? But I love that image.

Like he's right there, you know. But even when he walked this

earth and did the things and the miracles and the healings and

all the stuff, some people missed it.

We themed this this Christmas service Hidden in Christ, one of

my my favorite songs. You can look it up Hidden in

Christ by a dude named Flame talking about this story.

In the story he said star in the sky, let it guide you.

Prophecy or lie. What should I choose?

Every nation, every tongue, every tribe too.

Herod tried to find him. Herod couldn't find him, but he

tried to let him hide you, let him hide you.

Hidden in the Christ, let him hide you.

Here's the idea in the Christmas story here in Bethlehem, you

have Herod searching Jesus to find him for his own gain, to

destroy him. He's searching.

Can't find him, right? And then the people who look for

him in faith travel hundreds of miles.

The three wise men do find him. You see that?

There's this play on Jesus being hidden.

If what you're looking for is more of you, you won't find him.

But if you see him for who he is, he will transform you.

Y'all, this is the story we need.

This is the hero we need and one of the ways that we miss Jesus

in our our secular moment right now.

Y'all might have heard these phrases.

I'm, I'm spiritual but not religious.

This phrase, oldest phrase, what our culture is pushing us to

want. Y'all is a spiritual experience

without a actual narrative of reality.

We are allergic to the grand narrative of where we came from,

of an actual story that is true and make sense of what we see

and where things are going and who's right and wrong and law

and these things. But we want to feel good about

ourselves. We want a spiritual.

I want to be spiritual. Like it's almost cool to say

you're spiritual, but most times that comes with an allergy to a

grand narrative. Y'all what the Christmas story

is is about reality. Reality is we're trapped and

need to be freed. Reality is we're not home and

home is coming. There is an exile.

We need help. We need a deliverer, we need a

rescuer, we need a restorer. So I just want to push you that

this Christmas, what you don't need is a cool spiritual

experience. What you need is a true story

with a God who is a person for you to submit to.

The most spiritual thing you can do is submit to God.

That submission is what God is after.

Love fellowship with Him. The way the Bible sees being

spiritual is to agree with God, agree with him about who you

are, about what it means to need his rescue, that you need him.

Y'all this hero, this Jesus, he is wooing you.

Let this Nazarene, this guy from nowhere who is God and man, let

him woo you over. That's what the cross is about

is what Jesus is doing is He's living your life that you fail

to live. He is perfection in every way.

He is humility, He is love, He is mercy, He is justice, he is

kindness, he's all of it. And He is walking the road none

of us can nor will walk. And at the end of his life He

would die as if he lived like you and I, so that in His

resurrection He is establishing the gift He can give you.

And there is fellowship. There's an experience of walking

with God. Don't, Don't hear me knocking

you. You're seeking an experience

that's great. There's an experiential nature

to walking with God, but it's in submission to who He is and has

revealed Himself to be to you. That's where the experience

comes from and what Jesus came to do for everybody.

This grand jailbreak, this grand exile ending is very personal.

Like he wants to hide you in himself.

You're like, what does that mean?

It basically means what Jesus would go on to say.

He wants to live in you and you in him.

He wants to hide you in him. He wants to save you from you

and show you the true you. The the reality is he knows the

real you. You don't, and He wants to take

who you truly are, make you new. The old has died, the new has

come. He died in your place.

It's almost as if when you trust in Christ, it is as if you died

2000 years ago and then you come to your true self in Him because

you are quite literally in Him. It's like where He starts and

you start, that you are bound up in one another.

It's like you're a little Christ.

That's sort of the idea. You're sealed with the Spirit.

You are in Him. So if you are not in Christ here

today, I just want to say, let Jesus hide you in him.

He wants to personally transform everything about your life.

He wants to save you from your sin.

He wants to teach you how to live again.

You're like, what do I need to learn again?

Everything you need to learn how to be human again in him.

He's going to transform you from the inside out, but it starts

with a green with him about why he came in the first place.

And if you are a believer here today, I just want you to hear

you're hidden in Christ. Sometimes the season can just

bring we just get in our feelings.

It can almost like our culture almost pushes us.

Getting in your feelings can be like, cool, you know what I

mean? Like let's get in our feelings,

you know, and I just want to say like, you're not behind.

This might be another year. You feel behind, you're not

behind, you're not missing out. You're hidden in Christ.

You have all that you need in Him, even if your dreams have

not come true yet. You have Christ, you have all

you need, you have the King. You are free from slavery.

Exile is over. The best days are still to come.

And I just want to call you to lift your eyes up.

Don't fall in on yourself. Let let let Jesus hide you in

Him. I want to read Colossians 3 over

you and then I'm done. OK, let me read a few verses

from Colossians 1. If then you have been raised

with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is

seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that

are above, not on things that are on earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will

appear with Him in glory. You'll Part of what Christmas is

supposed to do is just make you forget yourself.

Just look at Jesus. Just look at him, this champion,

this rescuer, this exile ending hero who is hidden.

The more you focus on him, the more you will become you.

But many times we miss him because we're so mesmerized with

us. Does that make sense?

Just flip it. This Christmas, focus more on

him than yourself and your joy will increase.

Amen. Let's pray our Father.

Thank you for this. Great, this great Christmas

story of what what you've done for us, what you came to do God,

we we just want to declare that we agree with you that we are

trapped and need to be set free. God that this place is not

right. It is busted.

Even on our best day, there's so much pain, so much ain't right.

So much of it we bring. But then there's so much stuff

out there that's big and beyond us that just is not the way it

should be. And Father, thank you that in in

your son being sent full of the spirit just among us, God, that

we see that we're right. Those instincts are right that

we're not right. That is not right out there.

And you want to set us free. You want to make things right.

So God, just give us faith to agree with you.

God, open our eyes. I pray for somebody, maybe all

of 2025 they have been fighting and resisting.

God, would they agree with you? Would they submit to you?

And for the first time in their life, would they just worship

you? God, I think there's somebody

under the sound of my voice who continues to think that if you

love them, God, that they would. You would make sense of

everything about their life for them.

But God, help them to see you. Help them to see your Son on the

cross. Help them to understand these

things and how it unlocks joy. God, what we don't need is all

of our circumstances to go the way we think it should go.

God, would this be the moment? Would this be the time in their

life where that just clicks God where it just flips and we see

you for who you are. So Father help us give us faith.

God it is so quick. Our eyes pull down under

ourselves so quickly. Got to pray for your church

here. Would you lift our eyes?

Would we worship you? God where there is just holding

on to sadness and disappointment.

God teach us to weep and mourn there things that that that are

to be mourned over. But God then lift our eyes get

our eyes onto you. Please Lord, please help us to

see you God and may we just be transformed by our sight of you.

God, teach us what it means to be hidden in you.

Bless the rest of our time. Now we pray in Jesus name, Amen.