Christmas Service

Turn in your Bible to Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

I love to hear your paper bibles.

Is it OK to read it on a screen? It certainly is OK to read it on

a screen. The thing I love about a paper

Bible. There's many things to love

about a paper Bible still, not just the nostalgia piece of

like, hey, remember books when they weren't on screens, but

also just the practicality. If you get to know where things

are visually in your paper Bible and you go, I remember where

that is. I remember that's like later in

my Bible and I remember that's on the right side of the page

and I remember it's on this column and I'm, and I remember

that I've highlighted it. That's another thing I would

encourage you to do is highlight your Bible.

You can use different color highlighters if you want to, you

know, like, oh, I'll use yellow for promises or I'll use pink

for warnings and I'll use green for just everything else that I

love, which you're going to have a lot of green in your Bible if

you go that way. But the more you mark up your

Bible, the more you get to know your Bible and it's helpful.

And then you can make notes as well.

And you go, Oh, this is a great passage to read for Christmas.

Or you can go, Oh, this is about healing.

And you can, you start to have a, a, a reference that you're

studying that you're getting to know a lot better.

Where is it when it's on the screen?

I just find it difficult to go like, I can only see what's

right here. And it's, even though it's

supposed to be intuitive and convenient, I find it still

difficult to get around. Not to mention the fact that

when I'm reading on the screen, I just got a text message.

Why? I'll go ahead and check that.

I guess I just got another notification.

I just got all the. So thankfully this doesn't pop

up with notifications from anyone other than the Holy

Spirit. So that's why, again, it's not

law for you to follow, but it is wisdom.

So in Luke chapter 1, we're going to read the entire

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Christmas passage. So it's going to be a long

reading. It's not an apology, just to

prepare you and let you know. FYI, throughout church history,

pastors read massive portions of Scripture to the churches.

Paul tells Timothy, he says do not neglect the public reading

of scripture. So Timothy would just get up in

front of people and what would he do?

He would just read the scriptures.

So it's a common thing. It's not a weird thing.

It's not a strange thing. It might not be the template

that we're most familiar with, but it's a very good thing.

So we're going to pick up in Luke chapter 1 in verse 5, and

Luke 1 · chapter mention

we're going to go all the way through chapter 2 to verse 21.

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named

Zachariah of the division of Abuja.

We'll just pretend that I said that, right?

And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name

was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous

before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and

statutes of the Lord, but they had no child because Elizabeth

was barren and they were both advanced in years.

So just a quick pause before I continue.

I want to remind you of what the Lord has already been reminding

us as a church and where we are in this moment and then this

season together. And I'm continuing to pray

through this and what this might look like.

And I think it's even going to change the way I preach, which

is going to be, I think a bit of a learning curve for me, but I

think it's going to be good for all of us.

We, we had the moment of surrender in this season where

the Lord was saying, surrender it, surrender it, surrender it,

which leads to breakthrough, which then leads to growth.

And I have had this since this whole time that this growth that

the Lord wants to take us into is a very, very practical

looking growth, a very, what does it look like on a Tuesday

kind of growth. A very how do I grow?

How do I build a life? And I know the Lord wants us to

build our lives in a way that people could look at it and go,

man, that's just that's wisdom. Where'd you get that?

And you'll be able to say from the Lord, the Lord has blessed

me with his wisdom. Like, because we don't have

everything. Scripture isn't always

explicitly plain. Scripture doesn't say, hey,

spouses, you ought to go for a walk together regularly.

Doesn't There's not a verse for that.

But marriages that are super strong.

It found that's a really, really beneficial thing for us.

Or, hey, you ought to have more conversations with your spouse

and just where you're just hanging out and you don't have

anything on the agenda other than we're just being boyfriend

and girlfriend together. Still, we don't have a verse

that commands that. And yet this is still what it

looks like to build a life. How do we discipline children?

Well, Scripture tells us a few things about that, but he still

doesn't give us the exact play by play.

But when we consider all the truths of Scripture and all the

fruits of the Spirit, we can find that other Saints and other

believers can show us, hey, here's what that's a look like.

Hey, here's what it looks like when we spank the kids.

Here's how we move forward and loving self-control to give them

calm, consistent consequences. Here's how we bring them back to

Jesus into the gospel. Like, wow, this is what it looks

like to build a life. Hey, you know what?

Like we don't have any verses on telling us how to manage our

screen time, do we? But still, wise and faithful

believers are walking these things out in faithful,

wholesome disciplines that will bless us and build us up.

These are the kinds of things we need more clarity on and more

help on. Man, how do I deal with this

toxic family member who, you know, they're, they call me

intoxicated all the time on the phone and they're yelling at me

and they're frustrated with me and I feel like I owe them a

phone conversation because they're family.

Like scripture doesn't tell you, hey, you don't have to answer

that phone call and you don't have to call them back.

But wise and faithful Christians would be able to teach you that

kind of thing. This is how you build a life.

Is this making sense? So I'm going to, we're going to

more and more beginning into even more practical things.

We always have an eye towards practicality when we're looking

at the scriptures. But I think the season, the

Lord's taking us and two together, there's going to be

even more of that. The thing I wanted you to notice

from the Christmas story, as we're going to continue to read

it together, is the Lord is calling us to simple things.

Everything I just listed is not rocket science.

It's not complicated. Building a faithful, wholesome

Christian life looks like a basic obedience.

It looks like a long obedience in the same direction, but it's

not flashy. It's reading your Bible.

It's praying real prayers. It's giving your spouse and your

kids your full, unhurried presence.

That kind of life doesn't feel flashy, but Scripture shows us

that God loves to work through it.

So that's exactly what we're going to see here this morning.

The Lord is showing us that ordinary people are living

ordinary lives. Zachariah and Elizabeth were not

special. You think?

I think they were because yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But until then, until they make

it into the Canon of Scripture, they weren't.

They're just doing their regular life stuff.

They're just loving God and loving each other.

And just today's a Tuesday. What's on the docket?

How do we love God and follow him today?

Same thing with Joseph and Mary. I think they're really special.

Yeah, but they weren't until they were.

And, and what got him, there wasn't anything special that

they did. It was just the Lord's choosing

to work through people who are walking at a faithful and simple

ordinary obedience. So the Lord is showing ordinary

people living ordinary lives. Zechariah, Elizabeth are one

picture of that. Joseph and Mary are another.

Through them we see God advancing His mighty plan

through quiet faithfulness. Amen.

They had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they

were both advanced in years. That's verse 7 of Luke one,

verse 8. Now, while he was serving as

priests before God when his division was on duty.

So it's a, it's a cycling thing and it's his turn to do this

job. And he's doing this thing

according to the custom of the priesthood.

He was chosen by lot. So they, they cast lots and they

said, all right, who's going to go do this job now to enter the

temple of the Lord and to burn incense.

And the whole multitude of people were praying outside at

the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an

Angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of

incense. So Zechariah's life just changed

dramatically. He has never seen angels.

He hasn't had grand visions. He's just amazed, like it's my

turn to do the incense. What an honor.

I'm going to take it in. I'm going to do my job.

I'm going to come out, insert the Angel of the Lord.

Things have just taken a massive turn.

Verse 12. And Zechariah was troubled when

he saw him, and fear fell upon him.

And the Angel said to him, Do not be afraid Zechariah, for

your prayer has been heard. And your wife Elizabeth will

bear you a son. And you shall call his name

John. And you will have joy and

gladness. And many will rejoice at his

birth, for he will be great before the Lord.

And he must not drink wine or strong drink.

And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his

mother's womb. Babies can be filled with the

Holy Spirit in their mother's womb.

We have plenty of verses in our Bibles to show us that babies in

the womb are human beings made in the image and likeness of

God, with souls and spirits that matter to the Lord.

This is another one of them, verse 16.

And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord

their God. And he will go before them in

the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the

fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the

just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.

And Zachariah said to the Angel, How shall I know this?

For I am an old man, and my wife has advanced in years.

And the Angel answered him, I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence

of God. And I was sent to speak to you,

to bring this good news. And behold, you will be silent

and unable to speak until the day that these things take

place, because you did not believe my words, which will be

fulfilled in their time. And the people were waiting for

Zachariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the

temple. And when he came out, he was

unable to speak to them. And they realized that he had

seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them

and remained mute. And when his time of service was

ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife

Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself

hidden, saying, Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when

he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.

In the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a

city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man

whose name was Joseph of the House of David, and the virgin's

name was Mary. A regular guy and a regular

girl. A working man and a regular

girl. They're going to get married.

They've made preparations. They're engaged.

It's official. Everybody knows they're looking

ahead to a wedding at some point.

Normal life, normal folks. And he came to her and said

greetings. Oh, favored one, The Lord is

with you. But she was greatly troubled at

the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might

be. And the Angel said to her, Do

not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God, and

behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and

you shall call him his name, Jesus.

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High,

and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his Father

David, and he will reign over the House of Jacob Forever, and

of his Kingdom there will be no end.

And Mary said to the Angel, How will this be, since I'm a

virgin? And the Angel answered her, The

Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High

will over shadow you. Therefore the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has

also conceived a son, and this is the 6th month with her who

was called Baron. For nothing will be impossible

with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the

servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

And the Angel departed from her. In those days Mary arose and

went with haste into the Hill Country to a town of Judah.

And she entered the House of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby

leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the

Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry.

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your

womb. And why is this granted to me,

that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?

For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears,

the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

And blessed is she who believed that there would be a

fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices

in God my Saviour. Can you imagine the beauty of

this moment? These are just two normal

ladies, 2 normal loved ones who are experiencing a supernatural

blessing, and the Holy Spirit is filling them and they're

rejoicing together and weeping together and celebrating

together. And the Holy Spirit comes upon

Mary, and now she's singing and prophesying and glorifying the

Lord. My soul magnifies the Lord, and

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me

blessed. For He who is mighty has done

great things for me, and holy is His name, and His mercy is for

those who fear him. From generation to generation He

has shown strength with His arm. He has scattered the proud in

the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty

from their Thrones and exalted those of humble estate.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he

sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel

in remembrance of His mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to

Abraham, and to his offspring forever.

Hallelujah, the offspring of Abraham forever.

Those are the people of faith who trust in Jesus like Abraham

trusted in God. And Mary remained with her about

3 months and returned to her home.

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a

son, and her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord

had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

And on the 8th day they came to circumcise the child.

They would have called him Zachariah after his father, but

his mother answered, No, he shall be called John.

And they said to her, None of your relatives are called by

this name. And they'd made signs to his

father inquiring what he wanted him to be called.

And he asked for a writing tablet, and he wrote, His name

is John. And they all wondered.

And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed,

and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their

neighbors. And all these things were talked

about through all the Hill Country of Judea.

And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What

then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was

with him, and his father Zachariah was filled with the

Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God

of Israel. For he has visited and redeemed

his people. And he has raised up a horn of

salvation for us in the House of His servant David, as he spoke

by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we

should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who

hate us. To show the mercy promised to

our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath that He

swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being

delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without

fear and holiness and righteousness before him all of

our days. And you, child, will be called

the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord

to prepare His ways to give knowledge of salvation to His

people in the forgiveness of their sins, Because of the

tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from

on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the

shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in

the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all in

the world should be registered. This was the first generation,

first registration, when Quinarius was governor of Syria.

And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of

Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called

Bethlehem, because he was of a house and lineage of David to be

registered with his, with Mary his betrothed, who was with

child. And while they were there, the

time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her first

born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him

in a Manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field,

keeping watch over their flock by night, and an Angel of the

Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around

them, and they were filled with great fear.

And the Angel said to them, Fear not, for behold I bring you good

news of great joy that will be for all the people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour who

is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you.

You'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a

Manger. And suddenly there was with the

Angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and

saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace

among those with whom he is pleased.

Normal shepherds, normal night, They've done this 1000 times.

But suddenly the sky breaks open, and heaven is meeting

them. When the angels went away from

them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go

over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which

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

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

And when they saw it, they made known the things that had been

told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at

what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these

things, pondering them in her heart, and the shepherds

returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had

heard and seen as it had been told them.

And at the end of the eight days, he was circumcised.

He was called Jesus, the name given by the Angel before he was

conceived in the womb. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for your powerful word, your living Word, your active word.

We rejoice and I pray that you would help us to apply the

goodness, the greatness and the glory of your magnificent plan.

Help us to see what we should see, that we will walk out our

obedience at Christmas and always in Jesus name, Amen.

I've got multiple points I'm going to move through quickly.

We see two couples here though 2 couples that give us a great

example of faith. One older couple who has waited

a long time for something. One younger couple who obeyed

while they were under pressure. The first point I want to make

to you is that God delights and quiet faithfulness.

He celebrates it. He honors it.

He honored it in the shepherds. He honored it in Joseph and

Mary. He honored it in Zechariah and

Elizabeth. He honors it in Simeon and Anna

in the temple. And a few verses that follow,

Luke 16 says they were both righteous before God, walking

blamelessly in the commandments and statutes of the Lord.

And then we see Mary's response, Behold, I am the servant of the

Lord. Let it be according.

Let it be to me according to your word.

Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, and Mary.

They weren't chasing highlights. They weren't trying to do

anything quote great. They were being faithful with

the faithfulness that was put in front of them.

And the Lord caught them doing exactly what he left them to be

doing. Remember, that's the parable

that Jesus told. The master leaves.

He gives the servant assignments.

Jesus said blessed is the one who his master finds doing when

he returns. That's what the Lord requires of

you. What is the Lord put in front of

you to do? That's what he expects you to

do. What a relief that you don't

have to obey somebody else's obedience.

What a relief you don't have to live somebody else's life.

What a relief that you don't have to compare yourself to your

favorite dead preacher who did all these great and mighty

things. He was supposed to walk out the

obedience set in front of him for the day.

And you and I are supposed to do the same thing today.

We look at the Saints, we honor them, But their example was

simple obedience and simple faithfulness to what the Lord

had given them. Whenever the Angel comes to

Mary, she doesn't pull out her vision board and say, well, hang

on, the next year. Here's here's some of the things

that I had planned. And you know, I'd like to

negotiate a little bit. Maybe if we could set this into

motion in the way that I had envisioned.

She just gave her simple yes, and Joseph doesn't get a lot of

screen time here in the film, but what does he do?

He protects, he provides, he leads simple loving masculinity

stuff. He's doing what he needs to do.

He's doing what the Lord requires of him.

He's doing what the law required of him.

Caesar says he's got to go to Bethlehem.

So he's like, all right, I have to protect and take care of my

my bride or soon to be bride. I'm not to I'm not to be with

her sexually until after we're married.

So we're going to do all these things.

Just the simple obedience that the Lord has given him.

He's not a man who makes great speeches.

He's a man who obeys God and the Lord is pleased with Joseph.

Most of your Christian life is not going to be dramatic.

It's doing what you already know to do.

It looks like reading the Bible. It looks like repenting quickly.

It looks like praying honestly. It looks like giving your spouse

and kids your devoted presence. It looks like worshipping

loudly. God sees that life.

God honors that life. You don't need to chase big

moments. What we need to chase is simple

faithfulness. That is what we need to maximize

our effort. Where do I need to put all of my

effort? Man?

I really want to do something great for God, brother.

I know you do, sister, I know you do.

And you can get there whatever you have in mind for great, but

it will always start with the small obediences that everybody

wants to overlook. The small obediences that that,

that most people, I will tell you honestly, most people never

master. It's the small obediences that

make the difference. The scripture says it's the

little foxes that spoil the vines.

It's the small things. It's death by 1000 cuts.

Many Christians are experiencing death by 1000 cuts.

It's not some massive chronic thing.

It's attacking their life. The massive chronic thing is

their lack of focus. The Lord is saying I love you,

I've saved you, and they're saying I love you, Lord, thank

you for saving me. But I still can't build a life.

I'm still a wreck and I'm still a mess.

And Lord saying I want you to walk out.

Simple faithful obediences, simple faith.

Not not to earn heaven. Jesus has already earned heaven

for you. But because you're mine now, I

want you to stop living like a peasant now that you live in the

palace. I need to teach you that we, we

act differently in the palace. You don't look like all the

other kids out in the streets. You don't talk like they talk.

You don't dress like they dress. Things are different in the

Kingdom. So if you're a child of the

king, there's a whole different, there's a whole different thing

to learn. And if I don't do it right, then

I won't be a child of the king. No, that's not what's being

said. You are a child of the king.

That's been done, that's been sealed by Jesus, thank God.

And because you're a child of the King, now you need to renew

your mind to learn how to think differently.

We have been adopted in, we have been grafted in.

And now as such, we need to learn the rules of this

household. And we need to learn what wisdom

looks like and how the king perceives things and how he

thinks about things. We're not chasing big moments.

We're chasing simple faithfulness.

Second point I want to make is that we need to focus on the, I

want you to realize that God's timing is not our timing, but

God's timing is perfect. Scripture says that they had no

child and they were advanced in years.

And then he comes to Zechariah and he says your prayer has been

heard. What prayer was this an old

prayer that Zechariah had stopped praying?

Was this a prayer that Zechariah was still praying?

Lord, would you give us a child and our old age?

Did he have something to stand on?

He most certainly did. He remembered Abraham, he

remembered Sarah, so the Lord did it for them.

So I don't know why Zechariah was praying the way he was

praying. And even then when he receives

the answer, he doesn't believe. Have you been there?

You've been praying, you've been praying, you've been praying.

And it turns out I wasn't even praying in faith.

I was just praying with words that I actually, when the answer

came, I was shocked. Hey, guess what, God's answered

your prayer. What two things.

Number one, yes, He's really answered your prayer #2 you just

revealed that you actually weren't actually expecting

anything from the Lord, which is means that the Lord is just

blessing you with His kindness, disconnected from your faith.

Unfortunately, because you didn't have any faith, you were

double minded, which makes you unstable in all your ways.

But God, in his sovereignty, God in His goodness is blessing you.

But God's timing is not ours, but His timing is perfect.

God sees Zechariah, He sees Elizabeth, He sees their pain,

and He loves them and He's not in a hurry.

I want God to answer my prayer the moment that I pray it.

That's my preference. I know you all are more

spiritual than me. So you're like, no, Lord, let it

be decades. Let me just walk out of

faithfulness. And but for me, when I pray, I'm

like, you know, today would be great, tomorrow at the latest.

Lord, you know, we can really, you know, 3:00 tomorrow if we

could set a deadline on this thing.

But it's through faith and patience that we inherit the

promises of God. I've got faith, I've got faith,

I've got faith, I've got faith. That's good.

It's important and it's necessary and it's a command,

and we should get faith from the Word of God.

But it's through faith and patience, and those always go

together. Because if you and I prayed and

we had instantaneous responses to everything that we pray for,

we actually wouldn't be a people of faith and we would not be a

people of endurance. We would not be a people who

know how to suffer well. And Christians are supposed to

be a people who know how to suffer well.

Not just suffer, but suffer well.

I've suffered poorly before anybody else ever suffered

poorly. Just me.

Not, not just me good. I've suffered poorly.

I go through the season, but it's full of griping, it's full

of complaining, it's full of self pity.

It's full of eyes on me instead of eyes on Jesus.

But there have been a couple of times where I've actually had

moments where I was suffering well, what a relief when my eyes

were on Jesus. And he builds endurance and he

blesses with a special a special touch of his presence.

And I remember that he's my reward.

Not the thing that I think that I need so bad, not the thing

that I want desperately, or even the thing that he's promised me

that I'm still expecting and still counting on.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't let go of it.

But his timing is different. But his timing is perfect.

For Elizabeth, she's waited decades for this moment.

But for Mary, there's no waiting at all.

There's just a sudden surprise. We see things different in

different believers lives. Why is this happening for them

so quickly? But for me it seems like it's

taking so long, like it just dropped out of them out of

nowhere. Yep, Mary can relate and for me

it's taking forever and Elizabeth can relate.

God's timing is different for each of us depending on what

he's doing. Now I want to clarify this

passage is not saying if you're faithful you'll get what you

want. You always receive the promises

of God. So if there's a promise for it

in Scripture, then yes, that much is certain.

But it's not every every single inkling of every desire that I

might personally have. Well, I got a promise for that,

Pastor. God will give me the desires of

my heart. Yes, you do have a promise for

that. And also as as long as you

stand, you can expect to receive.

And also the world is broken, the devil is bad, you are

imperfect. And those things cast their vote

into our lives and they create changes in our timelines of how

we can experience things. God told Moses that he was going

to raise him up as a mighty leader, and he was going to lead

God's people into the Promised Land.

Did Moses go into the promised land?

Everybody say no, no. Why didn't Moses go into the

promised land? Because Moses disobeyed the

Lord. And the Lord said, because you

disobeyed me that day when I told you to speak to the rock,

and instead you hit the rock with your stick, You're not

going into the Promised Land because you didn't believe my

word. And Moses like man, but you

promised. No, we don't see Moses press.

I have a theory. I think Moses was tired.

I think Moses like death would be relief at this point, Lord,

like I don't need to go. I know you're going to take your

people, you know, I think, I wonder what it might have looked

like if Moses had interceded a bit for himself and been like,

surely, Lord, I wonder what how that might have played out.

But also I think Moses like, count me out.

Like I know you're going to finish your work with the people

who I love and bring me home. Just a theory, can't prove it.

God's timing is perfect, but he's not in a hurry.

We don't control his timing. Part of simple obedience is

humble trust. Our waiting is not God's

absence. Often it's just his preparation.

We need to be a people who endure, a people who can endure.

I've preached this way, I've raised my children this way, and

I've preached this way as long as I've been a preacher.

You need to have the kind of faith in Christ.

You need to have the kind of relationship in Christ.

You need to have the kind of life in Christ that can sustain

anything, that can sustain you being dropped in the middle of

Pakistan. You need to have the kind of

life in Christ that's not built upon the comfort of your

geography and the comfort of the culture around you that

encourages you. And now more than ever, I can

see why. The why.

That has been the grace of God to me, the sovereignty of God

and those that I preached to. And I'm the mercy of God because

I'm more than I could never see things with my eyes before.

I've been preaching for two decades now.

Yeah, something like that. A little over 2 decades, and

whenever I would preach that way and emphasize to the Saints and

emphasize to my sons that we will love and follow Jesus no

matter what I really could. I really didn't have a picture

in mind of why that was going to be so important.

I had this sense that it was going to be important, but I

didn't have a play by play of what that might actually look

like and how things might fall apart.

More than ever in my life, it's not hard for me to have much

imagination for how this world could fall apart very quickly,

whether it's an AI invasion or a Muslim invasion or anything

else. I'm not afraid.

You know why I'm not afraid? Because there's oil in my lamp.

And when you have oil in your lamp and people say it's getting

dark, you go, I got plenty of oil.

I'm not looking forward to it. I'm not saying yippee.

I would prefer none of the crazy chaos break loose in this world.

I would like to be a very old man surrounded with lots of

great grandbabies who all love and follow Jesus.

And we just have this idyllic life.

And it's just been, it's just been the blessing of the Lord.

May I tell you, I don't think that's going to happen.

I just don't. And I'm not afraid.

And the Lord doesn't owe me that picture.

I want that picture. I've dreamed about that picture.

I've prayed for that picture. The Lord does not owe me that

picture. Anything could happen in this

world. The only thing I need to focus

on is I'm your servant and I want to walk with you and I need

to prepare my children and my wife and my church and whoever

hears my preaching. They need to build lives that

can withstand anything. Just be full of oil.

What if you're wrong about all that?

First of all, I hope I am. I hope this whole conversation

ages very poorly and we all laugh about it later.

That would be great. And in the meantime, it's always

good to have more oil. It's always good.

What should we do to prepare? I'm not talking about saving up

water or, you know, increasing your food supplies in the

basement. I'm talking about building a

life in Christ. That's what matters.

That's what matters. What does it look like on a

Tuesday walk with Jesus? Wake up and follow Jesus.

I've preached that for faith faithfully for 20 years as well.

Just wake up and follow Jesus and build a faithful life.

The Third Point I want to make, don't let your waiting turn into

doubt. Zechariah doubts and the Lord

corrects him for it. He disciplines him for it.

Gabriel says, I'm Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God

and I came to bring you this good news.

Like Gabriel's kind of like disappointed.

He's like, dude, I you're supposed to be excited, man.

I was looking forward to this assignment.

Here you are like really? How's it going to work?

I don't know if that he's like you shut up until the baby's

born. How about that?

The word corrects him not because God is harsh, but

because unbelief poisons and ruins faithful perseverance.

Zechariah's How should I know this is different from Mary's?

How shall this be? Zechariah is being skeptical.

Mary is stumped, but she's still surrendered.

Mary is saying, am I supposed to go make a baby happen?

You know, Mary, Mary is like, I love it.

Is there anything I need to do, particularly with Joseph for any

of this stuff to happen? He goes, no, no, no, no.

The Holy Spirit's going to over shadow you.

Oh, I'm the Lord's servant. Whereas Zechariah is just giving

resistance. There's a way where we can ask

questions where we're saying I want to believe, help me

believe. And there's a way we ask

questions where we are seeking to justify our own skepticism.

I got a question I want to believe.

I got a question I want to believe.

Help me believe versus the skeptic, the cynic, the really,

those are very different. The question, the language might

even sound the same. But the heart makes all the

difference. Jesus told us to be childlike,

dependent, and trusting. Hope deferred can make the heart

sick, and if we are not watchful over our own hearts and our own

minds, the promise of God can quietly replace God as the

treasure we have promises from the Lord and hope deferred, hope

set, set back longer can make the heart sick.

And if we are not watchful over our own hearts and our own

minds, the promise of God can quietly replace God as our

greatest treasure. We treasure the creation over

the creator. It's idolatry.

Like I'm never going to worship a wooden statue.

I'm never going to call upon the name of some false God.

I'm never going to do anything like that.

But anytime I take the treasures and the creation and I go, this

is the most important his, the promise is the most important

thing. He's going no, no, no, no, hang

on. I'm the most important thing.

And then from there, yes, there are benefits and there's

privileges and there's pleasures and there's joys.

I remember whenever I would come home from work when the boys

were little and my oldest would come out and greet me so

excited. Daddy's home, which is the best

feeling in the world. That's the only downside to

working from home is that only, you know, I when I come

downstairs, everybody doesn't celebrate.

You know, I mean, he's home from the office.

But I would come home and he would come out and greet me and

we would hug and then he would get to honk the horn on my

truck. So we, that was, that was our

process. And one day he came out and he

jumps in my truck and he goes straight to honking the horn.

And I said stop, stop, stop, hang on.

Daddy's home. Daddy's the special thing.

Daddy's the most important thing.

You and me together, that's the most important thing.

And then we'll honk the horn after that.

So that's what we do. We recalibrate and we want to

retrain. Well, he's little.

Yeah, I know. But you have to train your

children. You train them, you have to

teach them how to think. You have to teach them what to

believe. You have to.

And he got it. And he learned.

He's like, you're right, Daddy. Now, did he maybe just like

Daddy Horn, maybe I'll take it, You know, like we're growing,

we're in process and we're in progress.

But we want to make sure that the thing doesn't, that we don't

latch on to the creation instead of the creator.

God is our greatest treasure, and Christmas helps us to

correct all of that. Christmas helps us to

recalibrate and remember what our treasure is.

Yeah, we give gifts. Yeah.

We love to be generous. Yeah.

We love to see people open things.

Why? Because we're like our Father

and we love to give. But all this is intended to draw

us back all of our traditions and habits, but maybe not all of

them. What they should be doing is

pointing us back to the point. There is one gift.

There is one gift above every gift.

God gave His Son to the world that He loved.

That recalibrates our hearts. So we do not want to let our

waiting turn to unbelief #4 we want to wait well and not wait

bitterly. Notice how Zechariah and

Elizabeth, we don't notice that there's any bitterness in their

lives. We don't see that they have any

sort of a complaint going on. He's doing faithful work.

He's working in the temple. Elizabeth is a godly woman.

Zechariah meets God in his routine.

Obedience, ordinary worship, his ordinary duty.

Joseph takes his wife, takes a journey.

No complaints are recorded. His obedience isn't passive,

it's active. He's not grumbling.

We don't see Joseph saying this is a RIP off.

My wife's about to have a baby and I haven't even been with my

wife yet. We don't see any of that.

We don't hear any of that. Waiting well means staying in

God's presence while you wait, shepherding your own heart,

taking thoughts captive, refusing subtle idolatry.

Mary protected her heart by what treasured all these things,

pondering them in her heart. Keeping the things of God as

your meditation will be your protection no matter what you're

facing. Whether it's a promise you're

holding on to that hasn't been fulfilled yet that you're still

praying for or whether it's just a a discouragement.

Maybe you're disappointed with how your life has gone over all

the whole thing decades back that you regret.

No matter where you're at, this is your protection.

This is what will change you and bless you.

Keeping the things of God as your meditation.

Waiting seasons should not be wasted seasons.

When God has you waiting, do not waste the season.

It's supposed to form you and it's supposed to make you look

more like him. And then our last point, the

Manger also tells us why the Lord came in.

Luke 117 says, and He will go before him in the spirit and

power of Elijah, talking about John the Baptist to turn the

hearts of the fathers to the children.

And the disobedient will turn to the wisdom of the just to make

ready the Lord, a people prepared.

John is preparing the way so that the King can actually

prepare the people for God. Jesus prepares us to walk with

God. Jesus makes us fit to walk with

God because we're not fit to walk with God until Jesus

changes us and makes us new, God can't have fellowship with us

until we become a Christian. God cannot have fellowship with

us because we're not holy, we're not purified, we're not marked.

He can't live in us, He can't dwell in us.

But now we can become the temple of God.

So John prepares the way. God is setting the table.

Eve was promised a seed thousands of years ago.

Generations waited, humanity sinned, suffered, and groaned as

slaves under sin. And then in the quiet of the

night, a baby cried. God could have fixed everything

instantly and forcefully if He had chosen to.

But that's how man does things. God, in His perfect wisdom works

through seasons, and He works through humility.

Seasons. His timing is not my timing.

It's not your timing either. God has worked through season

after season. Adam and Eve sinned.

OK, your next baby is going to be the hero.

Your next baby is going to be the saviour.

Or one of your daughters will be a virgin and then she'll give

birth. Why?

Why didn't God do all the things right then?

I don't have every answer I can theorize, but we know God is

good. We know He wants to be chosen.

We know who He wants to be loved, and we know He's giving

himself more glory over time, not less.

God didn't drop Jesus into a palace.

He entrusted him to a faithful young couple.

A teenage girl gave her humble yes, and a working man gave his

common obedience. We're closing.

So why did Jesus come? He did not just come.

The baby in the Manger didn't just come to show us how to

live. If we only hold up Jesus as a

moral example as many have done, non Christians make this mistake

all the time. They think that Jesus is a moral

example, that Christians go I need to try and live more

perfect like that. Which is yes, but that's not why

Jesus came. I want to live more and more

like Christ because Christ has already saved me.

That's the point. Christ came to save people from

sin. He came to set people apart and

make them holy. Anyone who looks at Christ as a

moral example will be crushed by Christ and will spend eternity

in hell. Why?

I'll try. I'll try my very, very, very

best to look like Jesus. But you can't.

There's only one Lord Jesus. There's only one Christ.

Well, if he sees my best effort, will that be enough?

No. Which is why he had to die.

It's why he suffered, it's why he was raised again.

If Jesus just came to be a moral example, he wouldn't have needed

to go to the cross. He could have just lived a

sinless life as an old man and then died and been like, hey

everybody, I showed you how to do it from the cradle to the

grave. I lived 97 years.

I lived a perfect life. Obey what I did.

That's not what happened. His blood had to be poured out

for all of us guilty sinners so that we could actually be

rescued, which is why he had to be born from a virgin.

Jesus couldn't have been born from a woman who had already had

sex with a man. Why?

And he, he couldn't have come from another man because sin

travels through Adam. Sin travels through the Father.

So all of us are born sinners, because all of us have fathers.

And sin travels through the head, which is the man, which is

the husband, which is the Father, which means every single

baby ever born is sinful, except for that one baby who didn't

have an earthly father. That's why he had to be born

from a virgin. So Jesus is born truly without

sin, and then he is tempted in every way, as we are.

He had temptations come against him, fleshly temptations, it

would say. I would actually prefer that,

and I actually reject that because ultimately I don't

prefer that. He never sinned, not in thought,

not in deed, not for a moment. And if he had, then he wouldn't

have been the qualified sacrifice.

How do we know he's a qualified sacrifice?

Because God raised him up from the dead on the third day.

The baby in the Manger doesn't say the baby in the Manger.

The baby comes to save the whole world, perfect and sinless.

That's why he had to be born from a virgin.

He lives perfectly of his own doing.

His own doing. He lives a perfect and sinless

life. Then he pours out his blood on

the cross. God the Father treats him like

he should treat you and I. I deserve that cross.

You deserve that cross. All of us deserve to suffer and

be punished. Why?

For our sins against God. I don't think I'm that bad.

Well, that just means you just don't know how great God is.

He's infinitely perfect, infinitely good.

Can people be worse and and better than one another?

They can. Morally, we can.

They're they're people we know like they're the worst.

They killed 900 people with an axe.

That's objectively worse than the person who.

You know what? Yeah, I did.

I didn't help the old lady across the street that I should

have. And still, in every case when we

don't obey the direction of the Holy Spirit, and in every moment

that we don't perfectly fulfill God's will for our life, we've

sinned. It's possible that we've all

sinned this morning already, and because of it, we deserve

punishment. But God, who is rich in mercy,

sent his Son Jesus. He came to die in a place in

place for our sins because our obedience could never save us.

Thought we're supposed to have this humble, simple obedience,

Pastor, we are. We do that out of the overflow

now as the people who have already been redeemed, as the

people who have already been saved and as the people who want

to continue to build a Kingdom life to say, oh, I live in the

palace now. Oh, it needs to look different.

Teach me, Lord, teach me your ways.

That's why we live differently now and we don't do it in our

own strength. We have to do it in the power of

the Holy Spirit. So we enjoy this side of the

Manger. God put us here on this earth

for such a time as this. Whatever you're going through in

your life, God put you here for this purpose and for this

moment. And there's somebody He wants to

bless through you for whatever is coming next.

The Lord wants you to be have a life that's built up.

He wants you to have plenty of oil in your lamp, come what may.

We are filled with the Holy Spirit.

We have real power to live for Him.

We obey, not to earn His favor, but because He empowers us to

obey. We build our lives on the

cornerstone from Bethlehem because he came to save us.

At Christmas, we remember that we are a people who can endure

with joy because the Christ who came before is the same Christ

who will come again. Jesus is coming soon.

He came once, He's coming again. Joy to the world.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your your perfect

wisdom that's so far above ours. I pray you will continue to

bring us revelation that we that your thoughts would be our

thoughts. Lord, I know they're not, but I

pray that we would think more like you that we would see

things the more the the way you do God, I pray you would fill

our lamps with oil, that we would fear no darkness, that we

would be prepared. I pray you would build our lives

that they would sustain anything and that we would endure with

faithfulness. Not only that we would endure,

Lord, but that we would be just like our Savior Jesus.

That we would be on a mission to see as many people come to know

the grace and the love of God as possible.

Fill us with boldness and fill us with love.

Particularly this Christmas, as we see family members and

friends who we might not always see, give us opportunities to

bless with the gospel. Not just with the Christmas

parties, not just with the delicious food, not just with

the fun gift exchanges. But I pray that you would give

us opportunities for each of us to have a real conversation to

glorify Jesus and to lead somebody closer to him.

That would make this Christmas special, Lord, that would honor

you and that would fulfill your purpose and mission for our

lives. Help us to walk out our faithful

obedience today and every day, in Jesus name we thank you.

Amen.