241 ~ THE WORD - Advent Series

Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon Podcast.

We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.

We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will

encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.

We have started the Advent season and are thrilled that we

get to celebrate Jesus for all that he is, has been, and all

that He will do. We look at Jesus, the living

Word today, the one who left heaven and walked the earth To

be one of us. As you listen in our prayer is

that you will experience the power and fulfillment that only

Jesus gives. Hi Church, what a joy it is to

bring God's word to you today. The Advent season is upon us.

I personally enjoy this time of the year.

My kids and I, we set up our Christmas tree.

We spend a lot of time just sitting around drinking hot

chocolate and enjoying the weather.

In Chennai, we don't have sweater weather often, but these

past weeks have been amazing. And so we are just so grateful

to have seen an entire year. You know, more than anything I

was when I was rehashing on 20/24, I just realized God, no

matter what the highs and lows have been, God has been

constant. His grace has been constant.

And the fact that we made it to December is a gift from him.

And this whole year the theme has been set apart.

And I feel like even our Advent theme is, is, you know, us being

set apart because we are not looking at the traditional, you

know, Matthew or Luke narrative. We're going to be looking at

John and what the apostle John has to say to us about the

coming of the Lord Jesus. John was the beloved disciple of

Jesus, very close to him. And this is what he says in John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, reading from verse one on, it says in the beginning

was the word, the word was with God and the word was God.

He goes down in verse 14 to say the Word became flesh and made

His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the

glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full

of grace and truth. As I begin, I just want to say

this, that Jesus is like no other.

Why do we celebrate Him this whole month?

It's not about the tree, it's not about the star, it's not

about the carols, it's not about any of that.

It's really all about Jesus, and when we look at John chapter 1,

John 1 · chapter mention

the apostle John is bringing it all back to the one who changed

history as we know it, the one who was the living Word.

Why does he address God, Jesus as the word?

The word that is being used here is logos, and it's a very

multifaceted word. Theologically.

It basically communicates that the Logos.

Theologically, Logos signifies the communication of God's will

and truth to humanity. And the apostle John is

basically saying that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God.

Whatever you receive from God, Jesus was the greatest gift.

Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God's heart for humanity.

And it's amazing because there's another explanation which says

that Logos is basically used as a name for the second person in

the Trinity, and it's expresses the thoughts of the Father

through the Spirit. And that's what Jesus did.

Jesus was filled with the Spirit, it says, and he walked

around earth doing good, teaching people, rescuing them,

delivering them, expressing his heart, his Father's heart for

the world. And so this season, the next

three weeks, this week and the next two weeks, we're going to

be looking exclusively at celebrating Jesus in very

specific ways. This week we're going to be

celebrating Jesus, the Word, the word, the whole of the Christmas

story. If you look at the entire

Christmas story the way we know it, the way we have seen it

portrayed, the fundamental thing is that Jesus coming to earth

fulfilled so many prophecies, prophecies that were made

hundreds of thousands of years before, right?

And these prophets were Speaking of things they had no clue of,

but they just had an inkling. And so the entire Christmas

story is predicated on what these prophets said.

So Isaiah talked about the government being on his

shoulders, the Son would be born.

He talked about how God would be this God who becomes one with

man will be called Emmanuel. Jeremiah talks how there will be

the slaying of babies and a mother weeping for her children,

talking about Herod's killings of children at that time.

Micah talks about how Bethlehem will give rise to this ruler who

will come and shepherd his people.

So if you look at it, Jesus was the summation of everything the

prophet spoke about. Everything the Old Testament

carries is fulfilled in Jesus. The entire story from Genesis to

Malachi was fulfilled in Jesus. But from Malachi to Matthew,

there's this quiet time when God had finished talking and he was

waiting, and the whole of humanity was in this restless

wait. When would the promised one

come? When would this Messiah come?

When would redemption happen? And that's what Jesus brought to

the earth. When Jesus came, He brought

fulfillment to everything that was ever spoken about Him.

So when you look back at John chapter one, verse 14, this is

what it says. The Word became flesh and made

His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the

glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of

grace and truth. I just want to reiterate some

basic foundational truths from this.

The first thing is the Word became flesh.

The word for flesh means human. God.

Jesus was fully human. He was not part human.

He was not a little bit human. He was completely human.

And that's so comforting because that shows He could identify

with us completely, it goes on to say, and made His dwelling

among us. We have seen his glory, the

glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of

grace and truth. What does that show?

What is it saying here? Glory.

Glory belongs to God alone. Any glory that we receive is

actually just bounced off glory, but all of the glory belongs to

Him, indicating that Jesus was 100% human, 100% God.

He was completely divine as well.

And interestingly, now it's showing a bridge between heaven

and earth. What is it saying?

It says he came from the Father. Full of grace and truth.

Jesus bridged heaven and earth, and He didn't do that.

He didn't leave it at that. He brought heaven to earth.

How did he do that? He displayed the Father's heart

to humanity. Up until then, God had seemed

like this angry, vengeful, jealous God.

But here he says he, he cares for you so deeply.

He loves you so intentionally, and that's why he pursues you.

That's why he's jealous for you. He was displaying God's heart to

humanity and that is what that unpacks.

John chapter one, verse 14. The Word became flesh, made his

dwelling among us. We have seen the glory, the

glory of the only begotten Son who came from the Father, full

of grace and truth. But knowing this, we already

know this. We know He was fully God.

We know He is fully man. We know that He brought heaven

to earth. But how does that impact our

lives today? How does Jesus being the living

Word change our lives? That's the question.

And we're going to be looking at three people from the original

Christmas story. I can't, you know, teach in in

the season of Advent without looking at these characters

closely. And as I was studying the books

of Matthew and Luke for this, this is what stood out to me.

Look at the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Mary is is a teenager, probably probably 16 or 17, betrothed,

about to be married when this bomb drops on her.

And, you know, the Holy Spirit is about to come upon her and

conceive a child within her. And the Angel Gabriel is sent to

her with this Allah charmingly, disturbingly new revelation.

And she the interesting thing is her response, and this is what

Mary's response to remember, she's a young girl.

She's probably heard of all the prophecies before.

A virgin will give birth to a son and you will call him

Emmanuel. But she I don't think she ever

dreamt that she would be the virgin.

But Luke 138 says I am the Lord's servant.

Mary answered. May your word to me be

fulfilled. Isn't that amazing?

What a response. What a response.

And I wonder if each of us, when we receive a word from God,

something that he asks us to do something that he is nudging us

in the direction, how do we respond to the word we receive,

the word we hear? Do we believe in simple

surrender like Mary? Do we just say in obedience,

Lord, as you say, I will do. It is my joy to honour you.

It's my joy to obey you. And the interesting thing is

Mary's life was not linear after.

It was not just a straight path. No, it had its ups and downs.

She must have been rejected. She must have been embarrassed,

humiliated, disgraced. People would have looked at her

funny. She was stretched in the most

uncomfortable ways. She must have had incredible

discomfort, the pain of childbirth.

And to all of it, it says she just obeyed.

And the interesting thing later on in, in Luke chapter 2, verse

Luke 2:19

19, after the shepherd's visit, the King's visit, there's this

one line which kind of summarizes what Mary's about it

says. But Mary treasured up all these

things and pondered them in her heart for a mother, for a woman

who is watching this child grow. She had other children, but this

child was different. He was heaven's gift to earth.

He was God's son before he was her son.

He was God's son. All she could do was savor what

she was watching. She saw the fulfillment, she saw

the unfolding of God's Word and she what she what did she do in

response? She treasured it.

She pondered it. Others were talking about it,

but she was treasuring it. So the first kind of response to

the word is Mary's response. Mary's response is unconditional

surrender, obedience. Lord, I'm here, I'll do what you

say. There's a second kind of

response, and that is what Zechariah, the father of John

does. Let's look at Luke chapter 1,

Luke 1:19–20

verses 19 to 20. The Angel said to him, I am

Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God and have been sent to

speak to you and to tell you this good news.

And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day

this happens because you did not believe my words, which will

come true at their appointed time.

It's very interesting. The first thing the Angel

Gabriel tells Zechariah's your prayer has been answered.

Your wife is going to have a child.

Was Zechariah still praying for it in his old age?

Because of the response? He says, how will this be?

I'm an old man, my wife is old. But he addresses a prayer that

Zechariah has prayed. Maybe he prayed it 30 years

back. I doubt it was an immediate

prayer that was being prayed. And yet at the moment where, you

know, the rubber hit the road, Zechariah faltered.

There was unbelief, there was doubt.

And a lot of times I can relate to Zechariah because so many

times God tells us things and we have doubts because our logic

kicks in. But God, this is not possible.

I don't have the means for this. I don't have the health for

this, I don't have the capacity for this.

But God is saying, I'm calling you to it.

I will enable you. I will do it.

And so many times our responses like Zechariah, where we, we

bring our logic, we bring our common sense into it and try to

trump faith. But the interesting thing is

that his doubt didn't change God's promise.

It didn't stop what God's Word said it would do.

John was conceived. John was born.

But the unfortunate thing was, in the nine months when, when

Zechariah should have been verbally rejoicing, vocally

praising God, he was put into literally a tomb of silence.

Nine months of quietness. There's a school of thought that

assumes that maybe they didn't want him to wreck the

environment of the miraculous with a lack of faith.

And it was. It's interesting he was not just

struck mute. It looks like he may not have

been able to hear as well. Imagine the kind of silence that

would have ensued for the next nine months in the mind space of

Zechariah. The beauty of having ears that

hear is that we hear everything around us.

Having a tongue that is released to be able to speak of what God

has done. But Zechariah couldn't do it.

Nine months. Very silent nine months.

And he's only set free when John is born.

And John has to be named. When he had to speak out of what

his name would be, he had to write it down.

And the minute he said his name will be John, his tongue is

released. He's able to hear again.

And I wonder if some of us have been looking at the word of God,

at the promises that God has given or the commands God has

left on our life and been so doubtful that we just sat back

and said, God, I don't want more of this.

I'm good. I love the exaltation that

Zechariah does. As soon as his hearing clears

up, his mouth is loosed. He sings this praise to God.

And I, I can't help but think a lot of times when I've given my

kids timeouts in their room when they misbehaved, give them like

1/2 an hour timeout. Sit in the corner of your room

and think about what you did. They come out with a lot of, you

know, they've taught a lot of things.

They come back with so many poignant understandings about

themselves, about their situation, about the wrong they

did. And it feels like nine months of

silence set Zechariah aside in a part to understand what God's

purpose and will would be through his precious Son and

through the Son of Mary. And I wonder if you have been in

a season when you felt like you've been isolated.

You feel like you've been cut off.

God, I can't hear things. I don't hear you anymore when

you've been quiet because you didn't know whether to rejoice

or to or to just tone it down. God is calling us into a place

where we respond to the Word, not with doubt, not with

unbelief. But Lord, if you said it, you

will do it. Maybe He's going to answer

prayers that were prayed a long time back.

Would that we not be like Zechariah saying I forgot.

I prayed that Lord, let's do something new.

If He's answering something like that, maybe be so present and

ready. The third response to the word

was the shepherd's Luke chapter 2, verses 15 to 18.

Luke 2:15–18

I love this, these passages, 15 to 18.

And then verse 20, when the angels had left them and gone

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

Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord

has told us about South. They hurried off and found Mary

and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the Manger.

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what

had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were

amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for

all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they

had been told. Isn't it amazing that these guys

were probably illiterate? They were probably guys looked

down upon. They were, you know, just left

out in the fields to look after the the the flocks while

families stayed in their homes. These guys were left on

hillsides alone, and God saw it fit to meet them.

The angels were sent to them and yet they didn't keep what they

experienced to themselves. I love this.

It says they spread the word. How many of us, when we hear a

word, believe it, experience it, and then share it?

So often we we we feel like the gospel that reached us is this

delightful secret that we sit on.

We experience all of it, we enjoy it, but why would I share

it? I don't have language for it.

I don't know if someone else is going to be blessed by what I

would share. It's time we stop discounting

what we bring to the gospel story.

Your story matters. What you've experienced of God

matters. What you have tasted of his

goodness needs to be told to someone else because they need

to taste and see that the Lord is good.

How will they hear if we don't tell?

The shepherds took it so seriously.

They spread the word concerning what had been told them about

this shall think about it. They had everything to lose.

They go and tell people this is a child, the Messiah, the one

who's going to save the whole thing, the whole world.

This guy is gone. He's the Messiah, He's the

ruler, he's the shepherd, These amazing things.

But nothing had yet happened in faith.

They believed what they heard, the word they heard, and they

spread it. You and I live in this amazing

season of our lives where we are seeing God on the move. 11

months down. Have you seen God move?

Have you seen his hand in your life?

Have you experienced his compassion?

Maybe it was hard, but in the midst of the heart, did you see

him come through in marvellous ways?

Did you experience the miraculous?

If you did, you owe someone else that story.

You owe it to Jesus to share that story.

So even as this year ends, you know, I like to take stock.

I'm heavy on feedback. I, I, I, I take feedback for

myself, for others. I love to take stock of a year

gone by. And as I, you know, was just

looking at the calendar, the year ends in 30 days.

Where do I find myself with the Word?

And when I say word, I mean with Jesus.

Jesus is the living word, He is the logos.

What does that actually mean? In the beginning was the Word,

the word was with God. The word was God.

We have the written word which we look at, right, the Bible in

the Old Testament times, they had the Torah, the five books

that Moses had got, the Law. And then of course there were

the prophetic writings which were condensed and called the

Law and the prophets, and this is what they had as the Word.

But when Jesus came on the earth, He embodied all of it.

He was the living word. He was the one who had breathed

the world into existence. He sustained the world with the

power of His mouth. It says the Psalms talks about

how He sends His word and heals at his word, at his command, the

heavens dropped you. This is the God we serve.

He is the Word. He is the word Incarnate.

Now if that is the case at the end of this year, where do I see

myself with the Word, with Jesus.

You know, many times along this year it felt like I was alone.

It felt like Jesus, I'm doing this thing, but I can't feel

you. But my constant consolation has

been that he said Be not afraid. I will never leave you nor

forsake. He has been by my side.

And the interesting thing that I looked at, when I looked at

Mary, when I looked at Zechariah and I look at the shepherds, I

asked myself this Have I been like Mary, that I said yes to

God for the things that He asked of me?

Did I follow Him where He led me this year?

Because Mary received the Word, obeyed it.

Do I in receiving the Word, who is Jesus, have I obeyed Him?

Have I been able to cherish His sweet company to to, you know,

enjoy His intentional love for me even in the hardships and the

unexpected? Or have I been like the

shepherd? Sometimes, you know, I I got so

caught up in just enjoying my story that I forgot to share

what God has done with me. Have my lips sung His praise and

glorified Him like they did? Even in the difficult

situations, their life was not hard.

There is no guarantee that the shepherds moved from being

shepherds that night to something else.

They went back to herding their sheep.

But something had changed in their demeanour, and I wonder if

this year elicited praise for my lips or it silenced me.

Or have I been wrestling with doubt and unbelief like

Zechariah, so much to the point where I've been tense, unable to

hear God, unable to speak his praise.

These are the questions I want you to wrestle with as we take

stock for this last month. I want to ask, have you been

saying yes, yes, yes, God? Whatever you say, I'll do it.

Have you been cherishing his presence?

Have you been like the shepherds, loud and proud about

your faith, talking about it to whoever would listen?

Or have you been like Zechariah in a tomb of your own

construction? I want to leave two things with

you. Wherever you find yourself.

You may say, well, this year has been one full of doubt.

I have doubted God because I didn't feel him at all.

Or maybe you said no. I have been talking about God to

people. Wherever you stand on this

spectrum, I want to leave two things about the Word with you.

Jesus, the word Logos, right? The Word.

Two things that you remember about the word.

The 1st is that God's word is unfailing.

Whether it's the Logos word, the written word, or the Rhema word,

the revealed word, the word that you know is so pivotal and

timely in a season, It is unfailing.

It is not like us, which oh boy, today it's raining.

I'm probably not going to do this.

I said I would do it, but I won't.

That's our word. God's word is unchanging.

It doesn't change based on the seasons.

It doesn't change based on His moods.

God is unchanging in Jesus. Every promise given is yes and

Amen. The only problem is many times

when I think about I was just thinking on the people had to

wait for more than 400 years for the promise of the Messiah.

But he was. It was not him being late.

He knew when to come. There was a careless moment when

Jesus arrived on the earth, not a minute before, not a minute

later. And so in with us.

He is not delayed in keeping His word.

If you've been waiting for a long time for marriage, for that

child, for that breakthrough in your relationship, for that

reconciliation, He is not late in keeping His promise.

He is ordering things all around you and within you so that at

the right time you'll be able to carry it.

But His word is unfailing when you look at the prophetic words

that were spoken over Him. You know what Micah said?

I said this, that he will be born in Bethlehem.

He will be a ruler, He will be a shepherd.

Wasn't Jesus? Then he said I am the Good

Shepherd. He is the King of kings and the

Lord of Lords. Isaiah talked about Emmanuel,

God with us. Little did we know how much He

would be with us in the flesh, in spirit, within us,

surrounding us. Whatever you have looked like,

whatever you've looked at God like this year, maybe you've

looked at God and said, Lord, you didn't keep your word.

I thought this year you would come through on this.

Lord, I thought I would accomplish this this year.

Maybe you're ending ending the year on a note of

disappointment. I want you to stop right there.

God's word is unfailing. The very fact that you and I

have the Logos Word with us and in US is sufficient because

Jesus is the fulfillment of everything.

He's the Redeemer, He's the rescuer, He's the Saviour, He's

everything we would ever need. And when He is with us, what

more do we need? So are you still waiting while

you're waiting with the best person?

You're waiting with the King of Kings, you're waiting with the

One who's faithful and true. He does not change like shifting

shadows. Your year can be looked at

differently when you look at the one who was with you and the

fact that he is unfailing. He's unfailing.

I found this verse this week which really blessed me.

In John 15 verse 7, it says if you remain in me and my words

John 15:7

remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for

you. If you remain in me, Jesus is

saying abide, rest in me. And then God's Word, Jesus

remains in you, the revealed word.

When God gives you a word and when that is in you, you're

meditating on it, you're cherishing it.

He says you can ask anything and it will be done.

I wonder why most of us have unanswered prayers because first

of all, we don't know how to abide in Him.

Secondly, His word doesn't abide in us.

God is calling us for a reversal because when we are abiding in

Him and His Word abides in us, the careless time we are not

concerned about, we know it will happen.

We're not worried. Oh my God, it's been 10 years.

Lord, Father, I've been waiting for this for ages, 20 years.

I'm waiting for that child to return home.

He says my time is perfect, my timing is always right.

All my job is to do is to just abide and let His Word abide in

me. Thanks to Jesus, the Logos Word,

He resides in our hearts, so the onus is on us to remain in Him.

That's the first thing. God's word is unfailing.

Don't let anyone make you believe that his word will fail

you, that it's got an expiry date on it.

It doesn't Ask God to show you God.

Show me. I've been asking God this, open

my eyes to see how you're working this out in my life

because I feel like a dunce when I don't see it and I complain.

I want to see you in the minute details, God.

I ask that you would start praying that as well.

The second thing about God's word is exceedingly powerful.

We looked at how God's word is unfailing because Jesus is

unfailing, He is God's word. We now look at how God's word is

exceedingly powerful because Jesus is the name above all

names. When he descended into hell, he

overcame death, came back up as the first born from the dead,

and overcame death in its entirety.

He's the name above every other name.

And I love what Gabriel attests about God's word to Mary.

This is what he says. Luke one verse 37.

I'm reading from the Passion translation.

It says not one promise from God is empty of power.

Nothing is impossible with God. Isn't that beautiful?

Not one promise of God is empty of power.

What promise have you been standing on?

Did God give you a promise at the beginning of the year?

Have you been claiming it? Have you been believing it?

Have you been playing it into your situation?

The power that has been unleashing is unparalleled.

I want you to picture the most impossible thing in your life

right now. Multiply that by 10.

That's how God can work for him. Impossibility is nothing.

The things that look impossible to man are very possible and

doable by God. In fact, he he's thrilled by the

impossibility of a situation. Oh yes, physically this is not

possible. I'll intervene.

The problem is we're so busy orchestrating every detail of

our lives that we think we are the most powerful people in our

own lives. Or maybe we have friends with

connections. Maybe we have money.

Maybe we have all of that influence and and God is saying

all of that is nothing compared to what I will bring into this

if you would let me in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 talks about

Hebrews 4:12

the living word. It's active.

The word of God is alive and active, sharper and double edged

sword it it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints

and marrow. It judges the thoughts and

attitudes of the heart. What are we talking about here?

Jesus, the word of God, he is powerful and when Jesus works in

our life through His Spirit, he brings conviction.

Through His word he brings conviction.

So when you look at a double edged sword, there are two

elements to it. Yes, it is used on the offensive

to attack the enemy or to pull down something on the opposite

side. But it also works on convicting

us, not condemning us. It convicts us, it corrects us.

That's what God does. Jesus is not in the business.

He didn't come to condemn, He came to save.

His word is like a double edged sword.

It says he will bring down enemy strongholds.

The word of God, Jesus himself. He will also bring conviction

and correction to us. So I want to ask you today, have

you been living by the word of God?

Have you been living close to the word, the living Word, Jesus

himself. For in Him are all the riches of

wisdom and knowledge. Matthew 4 four says it is

written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word

that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Maybe this year has felt powerless for you, but it's not

too late to start. What if you started living on

what you hear from God? What if you start living based

on what you read from His word? Too many times we're so

dependent on what someone says as a word for the season.

But if you are listening closely enough, if you are reading God's

word for yourself, if you're planted, you're deeply rooted in

the Word of God, you will begin to see the Rhema word come

alive. As for a season, He will speak.

It'll be so apartment, it'll be so tailor made only for you.

No one else can receive that word.

It'll be just for you. But if we don't know the Logos,

we don't know Jesus, we don't know His word, there is no way

we will be in a position to receive the Rhema.

Even if we receive it, we would drop it.

God is calling us back into a place where we invite Jesus into

the very closed recesses of our heart.

Maybe this year Jesus was off limits from your finances.

You said, Lord Jesus, this year I've got it under control.

End of the year you're feeling maybe not I should have involved

him. Maybe in that relationship you

kept him all because you were afraid he would say this is not

the best thing for you. Maybe it was in your work.

Maybe it was in your education, Maybe it was in your personal

work with him. Whatever your ear has looked

like, I want to encourage you that you would walk in close

communion with the Word, because if you don't have that

connection with the Word, you will miss out on what he's

trying to tell you in this time of history.

I love that the Holy Spirit is the one who reveals things from

God's Word, who enables us to understand it in the in the

light that it was written and intended for us.

There's this passage, I think it's in the book of Corinthians,

where it says when the old covenant was read, the people

had a veil over their eyes, much like the veil that Moses wore

when he came out of the presence of God.

But now in the new covenant, we have freedom.

We live by the Spirit and the veil is removed and we can see

Him. We can see God as He is.

There is no veil. You have access to the Word, who

is Jesus Himself, and when you have access, He will help you

with everything that you need henceforth.

Do you need help with your business?

Do you need help in your marriage?

Do you need help in your health? He is the one you will lean on.

He is the one you will listen to.

For man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that

proceeds from the mouth of God. As I close, I want to leave the

thought with you that the Word is nearer than you know.

Jesus is closer than you know. Would you read the Word for

yourself? Begin to read.

Even if 11 months you haven't done much of reading of the

Word, you can start now. Read the Word, Read it.

Speak the Word because when you speak it out, faith arises.

When you speak it out, it is sent out to do the job that it

has to do and share the Word. Like Mary, if you were reading

the Word, you would cherish and ponder the things that God

reveals through His Rhema word. Too often we don't read the

Word, we don't know the Logos, we don't receive the Rhema.

But if you want the Rhema word, you want that revelation, you

want that fresh insight, you need to be soaked in the Word of

God. You need to be so intimately

connected with Jesus Himself, and this is not something you

have to force. It is you positioning yourself

every single day in his presence and saying, Lord, I'm here, what

do you want to speak about with me?

I do this sometimes when my kids are at school, my husband's at

work, I just do lunch by myself and I picture Jesus sitting

opposite the table from me and I just enjoy the silence.

What if we need to come back to a place like Mary, of just

cherishing and pondering the things God has done for us?

The second thing is you speak the word.

Jeremiah likens the word to a fire to a hammer to bread which

nourishes. A fire burns up and leaves

behind a remnant. Hammer breaks things in pieces.

Bread nourishes. The Word of God is all of that,

but it requires that we open our mouth and speak.

Maybe for too long you have been mute like Zechariah saying I

don't have anything to add to this narrative.

I don't have the language, I don't have the English

knowledge. I don't know what to say.

Or maybe you're just like, you know what?

This is not for me. Yes, I received it.

I accept the gospel. I believe in Jesus.

God is saying it's time that you start to speak the word.

Speak it out, speak it out. Don't be mute with unbelief and

like the shepherds that we would share the word.

It's this month, December. It's amazing.

I love the month of January as well because in a new year,

people are looking for hope, people are looking for blessing.

And what better way to do it than to share?

Hey, Jesus is the one I'm going to do this year with.

Jesus is the one I celebrate. In him I find all that I need.

What a great story it is to share even as we close.

I go back to John 11. It says in the beginning was the

word so many of us in looking at 2024 probably looked at well.

Jan started started out great, but December not so much.

I don't know what your season looks like.

I don't know whether you started out whole and by the end of the

year you broke, Maybe relationships broke, maybe your

finances broke, maybe your health broke.

This week my my son was opening the fridge and we dropped a huge

porcelain bowl out and it just shattered into pieces.

And I collected the pieces and just kept it not as a monument,

but just to kind of remind myself that while Christmas is

also put together and it's all green and red and all of those

thrills, the reality is this, that many of our lives are still

broken because of things that have happened to us.

Things that people have put us through, things that we have put

people through. And the shambles are there.

But you know what it says? God in the flesh who made his

dwelling among us. And in the midst of the

brokenness, the shards of my life, Jesus is with me.

He hasn't left. And the encouraging thing is

that in the beginning in the book of Genesis, the Spirit

hovered over the waters and a triune God spoke existence,

spoke life into existence, as we note, and created the world.

You look at the Book of Revelation, Revelation 19 verse

1113 says I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a

White Horse whose rider is called faithful and true.

With justice he judges and wages war.

His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns.

He has a name written on him that no one knows but himself.

He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood and his name is the

Word of God. Isn't that amazing?

So whatever your Jan began like, he's the Alpha and Omega, the

beginning and the end. He's faithful, he's true, He is

the word of God. Everything in our lives, the

shambles, the shards, the broken pieces, he holds it all

together. His Word holds it all together.

So whatever this year end looks like, whatever you're going into

the new year thinking, I want you to remember this.

We celebrate Jesus, the Word, the Logos who became flesh and

made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory and we

will continue to see His glory till we see Him face to face.

Can I pray for you? Father in Heaven, I just thank

you so much for what you are doing, for what you have done

through this year. We enter the month of December

with great hope, Lord, that we will see the fulfilment of

things we began in the month of January.

We believe that we will enter a new year with a fresh, refined

hope. God, I pray for those who have

been finding it hard to believe your word, who have been finding

it hard to trust you Jesus, that they will have a shift right

now, that they will take the call to trust you.

I pray for those who have been hesitant to share the gospel

with others, that Lord, you will put a fresh Holy Spirit fire

within them. I pray very specially God, for

those who have been unable to say yes to you.

They've said yes in the past, but now they would rather just

wait quietly. I pray that God once more their

hand would go up and saying yes. Jesus, where you go, I'll go.

Give us courage. Clothe us with your peace.

Lord, be with us and bless us in Jesus name, Amen, Amen.

God bless you. Have an amazing Advent season.

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