WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:00.761 I'll hear today. 00:00:00.761 --> 00:00:05.290 Man we had a lot of people text Can't make it but get to six. 00:00:05.290 --> 00:00:07.854 So my encouragement to you is that that is you. 00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:10.323 Stay home, I don't need to be, sick. 00:00:10.343 --> 00:00:11.605 We don't want anybody else to stay. 00:00:11.646 --> 00:00:22.658 So, praise the Lord, there is a thing called the Internet and we are live on Facebook every Sunday, so you are good to watch there and comment and even ask for prayer requests and things like that. 00:00:22.658 --> 00:00:26.004 If you're online, we have someone that's monitoring that and they can respond to you. 00:00:26.004 --> 00:00:42.451 So we just finished all of our Thanksgiving and all of that and we have entered into the beautiful season of Christmas I like to call it Christmas and we are starting our new series called Home for Christmas, and I want to encourage you. 00:00:42.451 --> 00:00:48.164 This is a great time, great time to invite someone. 00:00:48.164 --> 00:00:58.716 This is the time of year when people are open and receptive to hearing about God, to hearing about faith, to being able to walk into the church and not freak out. 00:00:59.500 --> 00:01:01.823 This is a good time and this is a great series. 00:01:01.823 --> 00:01:09.331 Our goal in this is that we are preparing the way for Jesus and Messiah to return and to. 00:01:09.331 --> 00:01:29.474 Also, we are taking steps and going through the Bible over the next several weeks and showing just the way that he is calling us home, the way that we can be home and have a part with that, and so I encourage you guys to engage with others and invite them, because I think that they will really get something out of this. 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:33.908 Our big idea is it is not good for human beings to be alone. 00:01:33.908 --> 00:01:35.411 So what do we do? 00:01:35.411 --> 00:01:36.793 We provide an answer for us. 00:01:36.793 --> 00:01:43.492 We know God is love, and it was love that moved God to create man in the beginning. 00:01:43.492 --> 00:01:48.000 So he created mankind in His likeness and His image, with the ability to love. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:55.980 The desire was for God to have an object to love and for that object to love Him in return. 00:01:55.980 --> 00:02:01.087 So God creates Adam and begins a loving community between God and man. 00:02:01.087 --> 00:02:05.573 But Adam has no object to love in his own. 00:02:05.573 --> 00:02:06.435 So what does God? 00:02:06.515 --> 00:02:07.941 do Genesis 2.18,. 00:02:07.941 --> 00:02:12.188 The Lord God said it is not good for the man to be alone. 00:02:12.188 --> 00:02:14.854 I will make a helper suitable for him. 00:02:14.854 --> 00:02:20.939 So God's creation of a loving community with man and woman to love one another and to love him was now created. 00:02:20.939 --> 00:02:24.028 He is beginning that concept that I did. 00:02:24.711 --> 00:02:26.635 But I think we are still missing a part. 00:02:26.635 --> 00:02:28.000 We need one more to complete it. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:36.754 God allows us, man and woman, the ultimate expression of love and having a part in the creation of children. 00:02:36.754 --> 00:02:44.514 So Genesis 1.28, god blessed them and said to them be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. 00:02:44.514 --> 00:02:48.768 Genesis 4.1-2 says there is a couple of different translations. 00:02:48.768 --> 00:02:50.292 I tried to build up the G-rated version. 00:02:51.561 --> 00:02:55.550 Adam and his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to King. 00:02:55.550 --> 00:02:57.402 She said this is amazing. 00:02:57.402 --> 00:02:58.243 I love this statement. 00:02:58.243 --> 00:03:02.272 With the help of the Lord, I have brought forth the man. 00:03:02.272 --> 00:03:04.524 Later she gave birth to his brother, abel. 00:03:04.524 --> 00:03:09.663 So this completes the creation of the home, the community desired by God. 00:03:09.663 --> 00:03:13.912 It is his divine plan that needs to be part of the loving community we call home. 00:03:13.912 --> 00:03:17.085 He sets up a force as an example. 00:03:17.085 --> 00:03:18.930 That is how he begins the world. 00:03:18.930 --> 00:03:25.532 We have a lot of people that have different views on family and what a home is and what it should be. 00:03:25.532 --> 00:03:29.989 He gives us the example right there 1 Timothy 2.14. 00:03:29.989 --> 00:03:31.953 We know the story did not stop there. 00:03:31.953 --> 00:03:38.000 We know that sin entered the world, and so it says it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:42.372 Then it concludes with Adam's disobedience Genesis 3.6,. 00:03:42.372 --> 00:03:49.490 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. 00:03:49.830 --> 00:03:50.953 She took some and ate it. 00:03:50.953 --> 00:03:54.638 She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 00:03:54.638 --> 00:03:59.308 And this says one directly against God's divine plan. 00:03:59.308 --> 00:04:03.442 But here's the thing. 00:04:03.442 --> 00:04:05.185 This is the good news, right? 00:04:05.185 --> 00:04:08.710 Whatever it talks about, that didn't stop God from loving mankind. 00:04:08.710 --> 00:04:13.021 John 3.16,. 00:04:13.021 --> 00:04:25.391 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish for eternal life, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:30.449 So what does God use to show his continued love for us? 00:04:30.449 --> 00:04:34.884 A family, and what family does he use? 00:04:35.625 --> 00:04:45.067 Mary the mother right, joseph, jesus' earthly father, and then, of course, the Messiah, the Son Right, a complete family union. 00:04:45.067 --> 00:04:50.894 So God spoke to both of the parents separately and each of them played her role in Jesus' birth. 00:04:50.894 --> 00:04:53.319 He spoke to Mary and Luke one. 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:57.339 The angel went to her and said Greetings, you, who are highly favored. 00:04:57.339 --> 00:04:58.403 The Lord is with you. 00:04:58.403 --> 00:05:06.199 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greetings might be, but the angel said to her Do not be afraid, Mary. 00:05:06.822 --> 00:05:08.146 You have done favor with that. 00:05:08.146 --> 00:05:12.331 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call on him Jesus. 00:05:12.331 --> 00:05:16.339 He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. 00:05:16.339 --> 00:05:22.319 The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, david, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:24.047 His kingdom will never end. 00:05:24.047 --> 00:05:25.964 How will this be, mary? 00:05:25.964 --> 00:05:33.552 As to the angel, since I am a virgin, the angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. 00:05:33.552 --> 00:05:35.382 So the. 00:05:35.442 --> 00:05:38.009 Holy one to be born will be called the son of God. 00:05:38.009 --> 00:05:48.048 Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive in her sixth month, for no word from God will ever fail. 00:05:48.048 --> 00:05:49.814 I am the Lord's servant. 00:05:49.814 --> 00:05:50.259 Mary answered. 00:05:50.259 --> 00:05:52.988 May your word to me be fulfilled. 00:05:52.988 --> 00:05:54.713 Then the angel left her. 00:05:55.862 --> 00:05:58.279 And so we know that was probably hard. 00:05:58.279 --> 00:06:06.564 She's a teenager, right, and God says I'm going to use you in the biggest way possible, right. 00:06:06.564 --> 00:06:12.550 Then he goes to Joseph, matthew, chapter 1, verse 18 through 23. 00:06:13.901 --> 00:06:15.908 Oops, sorry, 25. 00:06:15.908 --> 00:06:18.908 This is how the birth of Jesus and Messiah came about. 00:06:18.908 --> 00:06:25.228 His mother, mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 00:06:25.228 --> 00:06:32.971 Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 00:06:32.971 --> 00:06:45.339 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said Joseph, some day, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived of her is from the Holy Spirit. 00:06:45.339 --> 00:06:52.319 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give her the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:56.339 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. 00:06:56.339 --> 00:07:02.259 The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. 00:07:02.259 --> 00:07:07.971 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:13.146 But he did not consummate the marriage until she gave birth to a son and he gave him the name Jesus. 00:07:14.360 --> 00:07:14.682 Mary and. 00:07:14.723 --> 00:07:18.932 Joseph were normal people, right, he chose him, my God, with a giant test. 00:07:18.932 --> 00:07:24.173 Giant test, and they have the same struggles and hardships that we do. 00:07:24.173 --> 00:07:29.867 It's not as though, the angel appeared and said hey, you're going to do this miraculous thing and it's going to be easy. 00:07:29.867 --> 00:07:34.988 I just want you to say yes and everything will go smoothly, right. 00:07:35.269 --> 00:07:36.012 That wasn't in there. 00:07:36.440 --> 00:07:40.454 I didn't read that part, and maybe you did, but there were some hard things. 00:07:40.454 --> 00:07:46.055 She was unwed, so the law stated that she was to be stoned to death. 00:07:46.055 --> 00:07:50.319 That's what was going on in their minds. 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:53.925 Joseph and Mary were like this can't be, how is this going to happen? 00:07:53.925 --> 00:07:59.339 She was a teenager, she was trying to get before she married Joseph. 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:06.627 They had to travel to Joseph's hometown because the census was due and that was at the worst possible time because she was super pregnant. 00:08:07.470 --> 00:08:07.670 Right. 00:08:08.961 --> 00:08:13.319 And she did not get to have her baby at her home. 00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:15.646 She had to have her baby in a strange place. 00:08:15.646 --> 00:08:24.065 I was going through this and I was talking to the brethren and we were thinking about stories and things, and so we reminded of the story of the kids. 00:08:24.065 --> 00:08:34.025 Our kids were beating kids, right, they were jumping around on the couch, acting wild and Brooke went in to get on to them and she said stop doing that. 00:08:34.046 --> 00:08:40.706 You weren't born in a barn and if you've ever met our oldest, take and response was but Jesus was, jesus was. 00:08:40.706 --> 00:08:44.171 That's the way it is. 00:08:44.171 --> 00:08:50.167 And so Mary had to give birth to her baby in a barn with animals and hay and dirt. 00:08:50.167 --> 00:09:02.299 She had none of the comforts at home and it wasn't even traditional, because traditionally in that time, there was all these people that were involved to help you have a birth, and so it was an immediate thing. 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:03.466 It was a short-term. 00:09:03.466 --> 00:09:05.340 You know we didn't have a big grown-up plan. 00:09:05.340 --> 00:09:07.219 We weren't ready for all of this right. 00:09:07.902 --> 00:09:09.969 And so there's a lot of difficulty that came with that. 00:09:11.202 --> 00:09:13.289 And then God told Joseph they would have to move again. 00:09:13.289 --> 00:09:18.097 They needed to go to Egypt Not something no mother must do with a newborn baby. 00:09:18.097 --> 00:09:20.158 Right, Move all the way across town. 00:09:20.900 --> 00:09:21.482 So, mary, and. 00:09:21.503 --> 00:09:23.528 Joseph began their journey around Vietnam. 00:09:23.528 --> 00:09:30.028 In fact, Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, confirms that Mary is pregnant with the Messiah. 00:09:30.028 --> 00:09:42.018 I'm sure Mary, as a teenager, was longing for a family, for a home in that situation, right, I'm sure that she was stressed a little bit. 00:09:42.018 --> 00:09:49.198 But her visitors were shepherds and kings from other countries Strange. 00:09:49.198 --> 00:09:54.331 So it begs the question what exactly is home for you? 00:09:55.705 --> 00:09:56.729 What is your idea? 00:09:56.729 --> 00:09:59.299 Is it a place, a certain location? 00:09:59.299 --> 00:10:00.607 Is it people? 00:10:00.607 --> 00:10:02.279 Is it your favorite traditions? 00:10:02.279 --> 00:10:08.340 I went and looked up some of these quotes from some famous authors and things and it was cool to see what they had to say. 00:10:08.340 --> 00:10:11.289 Finally, the elder says home is where the heart is. 00:10:11.289 --> 00:10:15.340 William Bennett he was a US Secretary of Education. 00:10:15.340 --> 00:10:19.158 Home is a shelter from storms all sorts of storms. 00:10:19.158 --> 00:10:23.072 Maya Angelou, the egg for home, lives in all of this. 00:10:23.072 --> 00:10:25.539 And Jane Mawston here is nothing. 00:10:25.539 --> 00:10:32.840 There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort, and so maybe we don't all have that same idea, right? 00:10:33.181 --> 00:10:36.849 Maybe we don't all have that same feeling about home or family. 00:10:36.849 --> 00:10:44.008 There was a study published in Psychology Today a few years ago that they asked a group of people. 00:10:44.008 --> 00:10:56.851 There was a couple of studies, I don't know the exact number, how many they asked, but their responses were they're already reminded them of childhood, community and even places of worship. 00:10:56.851 --> 00:11:01.602 So home, really, if we think about it, is an idea, it's an abstract concept. 00:11:01.602 --> 00:11:03.648 It's not an actual location. 00:11:03.648 --> 00:11:08.803 It's a place where you feel attached, comfortable and secure. 00:11:10.447 --> 00:11:14.384 Maybe you've heard the song there's so many versions that I'll be home for Christmas. 00:11:14.424 --> 00:11:18.403 I'm not going to sing it for you, but maybe you've heard it there's a ton of different versions. 00:11:18.403 --> 00:11:19.892 Right, I tried to look up. 00:11:19.892 --> 00:11:27.727 I was going to play one of the versions for you, but still copyrighted, and so I didn't want to be shut down on my Facebook channel and I didn't want to sing it, so we probably know it. 00:11:27.948 --> 00:11:32.943 Bean Crosby did it, Michael Bouguette has done it, Whitney Houston did it. 00:11:32.943 --> 00:11:43.523 There's been a bunch of them, but they all are different styles, but they're all in the same way with the same phrase I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams, right? 00:11:43.523 --> 00:11:45.307 That's how much we long for home. 00:11:45.307 --> 00:11:49.277 That it's satisfying, even if it's just in the dream. 00:11:49.297 --> 00:11:53.346 For me, and so we all have different memories of our family Christmas celebration. 00:11:53.715 --> 00:11:55.198 I remember when I was a little kid. 00:11:55.198 --> 00:12:15.948 My mom's family she's one of 13, we would all get together and one of our uncles would dress up as Santa and it was so ridiculous it was and he would come with this giant bag of gifts, right, and we'd sit down like all 60 of us sit down, and we'd all be there and we'd be so excited and every year we got the same thing. 00:12:15.948 --> 00:12:23.134 So I don't know why we're expecting new things but we'd get this little bag of oranges, of fruit and cons and candy the nuts. 00:12:23.355 --> 00:12:27.030 I still don't know what that means or what the significance behind those items. 00:12:27.030 --> 00:12:30.784 But no matter what, we were still excited to get it. 00:12:30.784 --> 00:12:40.269 And it had nothing to do with what we were getting, it was the company, it was the idea that we were surrounded by our loved ones, their security in that right. 00:12:40.269 --> 00:12:51.802 And so we grew older and broke and I got married, we had kids and we developed our own traditions, and our traditions are really found around the idea and concept of home. 00:12:52.445 --> 00:12:58.749 We want the kids to know that homes were your love, homes were your side right. 00:12:58.749 --> 00:13:03.581 And so we would always go to a church on Christmas Eve and open our Christmas pajamas. 00:13:03.581 --> 00:13:12.638 We'd all go put them on, of course, take some selfies and then, we'd hang out and watch the greatest movie ever made, which is National Anthems, mrs Vacation. 00:13:12.638 --> 00:13:20.541 I could probably quote the entire thing, and so maybe we don't all have that idea in that concept right. 00:13:20.561 --> 00:13:26.528 Maybe some of this comes from a little bit of a background, a rougher family environment, right, and maybe we don't. 00:13:26.528 --> 00:13:29.019 But maybe there's that one Christmas that was really great. 00:13:29.019 --> 00:13:33.118 And when you think of Christmas, when you think of home, that's the minute it comes up for you. 00:13:33.118 --> 00:13:39.759 And even if you just have that one, it's enough to give you that idea and the concept right. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:44.673 We have a longing for home, a homesickness inside of each of us. 00:13:44.673 --> 00:13:50.250 I'm not talking about the house, we're homesick to be back walking with God. 00:13:50.730 --> 00:13:54.623 We're longing for God even if we don't realize it. 00:13:54.623 --> 00:13:59.716 Right, the Bible tells us the Holy Spirit's been calling us since the beginning of time. 00:13:59.716 --> 00:14:10.730 Right, and so the word home in the Greek is oikos, which means house, but more specifically an inhabited, restful house, a place of rest. 00:14:10.730 --> 00:14:14.118 We're searching for more than just a place to lay our heads. 00:14:14.118 --> 00:14:22.462 We're seeking security, not just four walls to call our own, but a sanctuary of rest for ourselves. 00:14:22.482 --> 00:14:26.413 Psalm 91.1 has the same sentence. 00:14:26.413 --> 00:14:30.485 It says he who dwells in the shelter of the most high, the rest in the shelter of the Almighty. 00:14:30.485 --> 00:14:31.897 I will save the Lord. 00:14:31.897 --> 00:14:36.446 He is my refuge and my fortress, my God and my trust. 00:14:36.446 --> 00:14:39.879 So we have a deep longing planted within us. 00:14:39.879 --> 00:14:48.043 Moses spent most of his life wandering in the wilderness right, and he declares that home is where God is. 00:14:48.905 --> 00:14:50.048 Psalm 91. 00:14:50.048 --> 00:14:54.892 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. 00:14:54.892 --> 00:15:01.748 We know that the Israelites, for thousands of years, longed for a home that they called the Promised Land. 00:15:01.748 --> 00:15:04.880 But Moses recognized that it wasn't the location. 00:15:04.880 --> 00:15:06.806 It was to be with God. 00:15:06.806 --> 00:15:09.682 Exodus 33, verse 15, says. 00:15:09.682 --> 00:15:15.085 Then Moses said to him If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 00:15:15.085 --> 00:15:19.303 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people? 00:15:19.303 --> 00:15:25.029 Unless you go with us, what else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? 00:15:25.029 --> 00:15:28.701 Moses said I don't want to go to the Promised Land. 00:15:28.701 --> 00:15:32.798 If you're not there, I won't go without you. 00:15:34.375 --> 00:15:39.845 This is supposed to be the paradise right, the landform of milk and honey, but Moses says I don't care about paradise. 00:15:39.845 --> 00:15:41.480 Home is where you are, god. 00:15:41.480 --> 00:15:47.245 King David has a beautiful way with words and he says it like this in Psalm 84. 00:15:47.245 --> 00:15:50.482 How lovely is your dwelling place, lord Almighty. 00:15:51.134 --> 00:15:54.985 My soul yearns even faints for the courts of the Lord. 00:15:54.985 --> 00:15:57.982 My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 00:15:57.982 --> 00:16:07.379 Even the sparrow has found the home and the swallow and nest for herself, where she may have her young, a place near your altar, lord Almighty, my king and my God. 00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:09.861 Blessed are those who dwell in your house. 00:16:09.861 --> 00:16:14.419 They are ever praising you, and here's the best part. 00:16:14.875 --> 00:16:17.101 Someone may have sung that a bit, but this is my favorite part. 00:16:17.101 --> 00:16:20.964 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand housework. 00:16:20.964 --> 00:16:26.306 I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 00:16:26.306 --> 00:16:32.306 I'd rather be home for just one day than be anywhere else in the world. 00:16:32.306 --> 00:16:39.061 Even Jesus gives us an idea of home In John, chapter 14, verses 2 through 4. 00:16:39.061 --> 00:16:42.567 It reads In my father's house were many rooms. 00:16:43.154 --> 00:16:51.985 If it were not so, I would have told you I am going there to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me. 00:16:51.985 --> 00:16:55.188 That you may also be where I am. 00:16:56.355 --> 00:16:59.905 There's a concept that's presented in the New Testament. 00:16:59.905 --> 00:17:02.062 Jesus is the Brim. 00:17:02.062 --> 00:17:08.186 We are the bride that has been bought with a price and when the time is right, he will take us to be with him. 00:17:08.186 --> 00:17:11.880 For you, jesus went to prepare it for us. 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:14.326 He told the thief on the cross even. 00:17:14.694 --> 00:17:16.358 Matthew 27, verse 39,. 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:23.003 One of the criminals who had been hanged on the cross beside him kept hurling the abuse of him, saying Are you not the Christ? 00:17:23.003 --> 00:17:25.521 Save yourself and us from death. 00:17:25.521 --> 00:17:33.282 But the other one rebuked him, saying Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 00:17:33.282 --> 00:17:37.786 We are suffering justly because we are getting what we deserve for what we have done. 00:17:37.786 --> 00:17:39.701 But this man has done nothing wrong. 00:17:40.674 --> 00:17:44.184 And he was saying Jesus, please remember me when you come into your kingdom. 00:17:44.184 --> 00:17:51.324 Jesus said to him I assure you and will solemnly say to you Today you will be with me and pray to us. 00:17:51.324 --> 00:17:58.503 Today you will be home, and we all know there's only one way to get there through Jesus. 00:17:58.503 --> 00:18:02.605 Right John 14 and 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. 00:18:02.605 --> 00:18:05.462 No one comes to the Father except through me. 00:18:06.515 --> 00:18:11.626 Jesus goes on in verse 23 and says If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. 00:18:11.626 --> 00:18:17.865 My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. 00:18:17.865 --> 00:18:25.826 Isn't it interesting that Jesus prepares a home for us, even though he had no home when he was born. 00:18:27.214 --> 00:18:29.902 We didn't make room for him, but he's constantly making room for us. 00:18:29.902 --> 00:18:38.423 All the great men and women of faith that I talked about in Hebrews had a residual case of homesickness. 00:18:38.423 --> 00:18:40.902 You can see in Hebrews 11, starting in verse 13,. 00:18:40.902 --> 00:18:55.443 All of these guided in faith, guided and sustained by it, without receiving the tangible fulfillment of God's promises, only having seen and anticipated them and having welcomed them from distance and having the knowledge that they were strangers and exiles in the earth. 00:18:55.443 --> 00:19:08.923 Now, those who say such things make it clear that they are looking for a country of their own, and if they had been thinking of that country from which they departed as a true home, they would have had a continuing opportunity to return. 00:19:08.923 --> 00:19:13.044 But the truth is that they were longing for a better country, that is, a heaven now. 00:19:13.954 --> 00:19:24.622 For that reason, God is not ashamed of them, or to be called their God, even to be surname their God, the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, for he has prepared a city for them. 00:19:24.622 --> 00:19:31.761 They were all looking for a home of their own, but what they were looking for was a heaven. 00:19:31.761 --> 00:19:34.880 Now, right, we're all searching. 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:36.720 We're all searching for something. 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:39.843 We all think we're going to find it in all these different things, right? 00:19:39.843 --> 00:19:43.403 Part of our problem is that most of us are anchored in this physical life. 00:19:44.855 --> 00:19:50.265 We've become too tied to this place, this world, our possessions, our habits, our ways of life. 00:19:50.265 --> 00:19:57.664 Right, we, especially as Americans, often think this is the land of the living, the land of opportunity. 00:19:57.664 --> 00:20:05.545 But life is what's happening now, and then, when we die, we go to the wave of the dead and our lives are over for it. 00:20:05.545 --> 00:20:07.577 Right, we couldn't be more gone. 00:20:07.577 --> 00:20:09.595 The. 00:20:09.615 --> 00:20:14.481 Bible says our lives are just a vapor, a mist, a wind that has scared one moment and gone. 00:20:14.481 --> 00:20:29.204 The next Life on earth is fading, it's going to end and once our physical life is over, we're transferred either to a home of eternal joy or to a place of terrible torment forever. 00:20:29.204 --> 00:20:32.261 This life, this body, this world, it's all temporary. 00:20:34.454 --> 00:20:35.199 It's all temporary. 00:20:36.275 --> 00:20:37.880 Our next home is for eternity. 00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:41.160 So here's the reality. 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:44.344 God wants to meet our deep longing for home. 00:20:44.344 --> 00:20:46.901 He's been planning for you since the beginning of time. 00:20:49.035 --> 00:20:49.838 But we have a choice to. 00:20:50.555 --> 00:20:59.858 We can feel that longing for home in Jesus the only way, or we can choose to fill it with other things people, possessions, fame, things that make us feel good. 00:20:59.858 --> 00:21:03.423 I promise you I've tried some of that. 00:21:03.423 --> 00:21:05.339 Nothing is going to fill that void. 00:21:05.339 --> 00:21:08.480 Nothing on this earth is going to do that for you. 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:14.023 Not money, not a spouse, not a best friend, not even a new or a different house. 00:21:14.023 --> 00:21:20.998 And maybe we don't even think about it this way, but we don't realize God has homestead for us too. 00:21:20.998 --> 00:21:28.253 He is the good Father who has been waiting for each of us to return home. 00:21:28.253 --> 00:21:40.286 Second Peter 3.9 says the Lord has not slow and fulfill his promise as a sin kind of slowness, but his patience toward you, Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 00:21:40.855 --> 00:21:41.699 God always had a plan. 00:21:41.699 --> 00:21:44.742 He has a plan to one day build his home with us. 00:21:45.515 --> 00:21:47.661 Revelation 21 reads the forces. 00:21:47.661 --> 00:21:55.321 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying Look, god's dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them. 00:21:55.321 --> 00:22:00.121 They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. 00:22:00.121 --> 00:22:02.416 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 00:22:02.416 --> 00:22:08.388 There will be no more death or mourning, or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. 00:22:08.388 --> 00:22:13.279 His plan has always been, from the beginning, to build a home with us. 00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:18.738 He even walks in the garden with them. 00:22:18.738 --> 00:22:21.123 That was His plan. 00:22:21.123 --> 00:22:32.423 That was His desire to commune with us, to have time with us like a real father, a true father that sits there and listens and talks and walks with you. 00:22:33.071 --> 00:22:44.665 He had a relationship with them, the man messed it up, and our great-father has been spending the last thousands of years trying to fix our mistakes and rerouting our path so that it leads us back to home with Him. 00:22:44.665 --> 00:23:06.368 And the whole Bible points to this very moment, If you read everything from beginning to end he wants it to end the way that it began, and full, complete restoration is us at home with Him. 00:23:07.070 --> 00:23:16.300 So, no matter what happens on Christmas, if this Christmas is good or bad, there's still a sense of the message that we get because God is calling us. 00:23:16.300 --> 00:23:22.490 That's the message that I would love for you all to go out and share with the world. 00:23:22.490 --> 00:23:23.332 We've said it. 00:23:23.332 --> 00:23:31.469 In the meantime, it's not the amount of Scripture that you can quote, it's not how perfect your life is, because you don't know what it is. 00:23:31.609 --> 00:23:40.906 This one's not but it's how you love it and that love is an expression of saying God's calling you home. 00:23:40.906 --> 00:23:43.897 There's a story in the Bible about the prodigal sign. 00:23:43.897 --> 00:23:53.248 It's my favorite story because I think it gives us a complete idea of God and the Father, and I'm just going to paraphrase part of it because it's a pretty lengthy one. 00:23:53.248 --> 00:23:59.902 But there are two signs who work for the dad on the farm and they had a big inheritance. 00:23:59.902 --> 00:24:05.240 Dad was wealthy, they had a big inheritance, and one of the sons comes to dad one day and says I'm not waiting. 00:24:05.622 --> 00:24:08.490 I don't have money, I don't own my inheritance, that's not to happen. 00:24:08.490 --> 00:24:11.340 And dad says well, that's what you want, you can have it. 00:24:11.340 --> 00:24:12.526 So what does he do? 00:24:12.526 --> 00:24:13.529 He goes out. 00:24:13.529 --> 00:24:15.277 The other son stays home and works. 00:24:15.277 --> 00:24:17.529 His good son takes care of the place with dad. 00:24:18.516 --> 00:24:22.518 And the other son goes out and just blows all his money, Pits the casino and just goes wild. 00:24:22.518 --> 00:24:31.622 And he ends up waking up finding himself in the pick-pin looking at the slot that they keep thinking oh, is this what we've come to? 00:24:31.622 --> 00:24:33.569 This is it, this is my life. 00:24:33.569 --> 00:24:35.115 And they had a thought. 00:24:35.115 --> 00:24:41.440 Even the servants who have my dad's place live any better than this. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:45.055 Why don't I just go home and work for him? 00:24:45.055 --> 00:24:47.701 I'll just be a servant. 00:24:47.701 --> 00:24:50.998 Even that life is better than what I'm doing now. 00:24:50.998 --> 00:24:51.239 Right. 00:24:51.239 --> 00:24:53.096 And he works himself up. 00:24:53.096 --> 00:25:05.207 He gets the boldness to go home and apologize and repent for his sins and if you would just let me be a servant, I would accept that, Right. 00:25:05.207 --> 00:25:07.532 And he comes home and what happens? 00:25:07.532 --> 00:25:11.294 Dad is waiting there with open arms. 00:25:11.294 --> 00:25:14.321 Right, he's there. 00:25:14.321 --> 00:25:15.614 He welcomes him home. 00:25:15.614 --> 00:25:20.771 Not just welcomes him, he says go kill the fat calf. 00:25:21.589 --> 00:25:26.865 I celebrate my son's home Of course the other son is not happy about it, right? 00:25:26.865 --> 00:25:28.440 So we're under books on that part. 00:25:30.255 --> 00:25:34.566 But the son that returned, didn't even know that the father had never stopped him from him. 00:25:34.566 --> 00:25:40.458 That's how I see God Open arms, just leave. 00:25:40.458 --> 00:25:45.089 Nothing we do in this life will make him stop living this. 00:25:45.089 --> 00:25:50.106 We'll make him stop hoping that one day we'll return home. 00:25:50.106 --> 00:25:50.896 Romans 8.38,. 00:25:50.896 --> 00:26:07.159 For I am convinced that neither life nor death, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor death, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our God. 00:26:07.159 --> 00:26:10.681 God, the Father, is always ready to receive us. 00:26:10.681 --> 00:26:20.750 We all long to be long, but we will be lost until we find that home with God. 00:26:20.750 --> 00:26:22.240 Here's maybe a different way to think about it. 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:24.280 Christmas is about God coming to us. 00:26:24.280 --> 00:26:33.171 Jesus is in manual, god with us, right, and God chose to be with us to walk in on this so that one day we can live with Him in our heavenly home. 00:26:33.171 --> 00:26:35.374 There's a pastor that I've followed for years. 00:26:35.374 --> 00:26:38.874 He was a pastor at the church for 30 years and he's an author. 00:26:38.874 --> 00:26:44.704 He's got a lot of books of under one and he says that this way. 00:26:44.704 --> 00:26:45.667 I love the way he states it. 00:26:45.689 --> 00:26:54.121 Tim Keller says Christmas is the end of thinking you're better than someone else because Christmas is telling you that you could never get to have Him on your own. 00:26:54.121 --> 00:26:56.077 God had to come to you. 00:26:56.077 --> 00:27:05.746 So we'll remain unfulfilled and restless and homesick till God becomes your dwelling place and you find your home in Him, and that is the goodness. 00:27:05.746 --> 00:27:09.343 That is what we should be sharing with people, right? 00:27:09.343 --> 00:27:11.186 That is the one that is the welcoming. 00:27:11.186 --> 00:27:24.482 One of our ideas over the next four weeks is that we talk about what it really truly means to be at home with Christ, right, when he comes and presents Himself as fully man in the form of a baby. 00:27:24.482 --> 00:27:40.586 It completes the idea of Him, and all he's asking is that we will return and join Him in that, be a part of that family, be a part of that restoration, right, and so maybe you have a family member or a friend or a coworker you've been praying for. 00:27:40.586 --> 00:27:46.125 You don't have to come to church to be sinned, all right. 00:27:46.547 --> 00:27:46.887 You don't. 00:27:47.976 --> 00:27:58.423 Anything I say doesn't mean anything unless you go and have Him in your life, unless you go and study the Word and spend your time with God. 00:27:58.423 --> 00:28:03.926 I can tell you all I want this is what you should do, but until you do it, it doesn't mean a lot. 00:28:03.926 --> 00:28:10.345 And so at Mercy Church, our goal is to help people find and follow God. 00:28:10.345 --> 00:28:18.747 The following, the last part of that is disciples becoming disciple makers. 00:28:19.615 --> 00:28:21.721 You signed up to be a Christ follower. 00:28:22.734 --> 00:28:24.098 You signed up to lead people to Him. 00:28:24.098 --> 00:28:28.364 That's your life's purpose, that's your life's goal. 00:28:28.364 --> 00:28:33.325 And the number one way that we evangelize the world is by how we live. 00:28:33.325 --> 00:28:39.161 It's not by what we say, it's by how we worship. 00:28:39.161 --> 00:28:42.482 Our life is to be a life of worship. 00:28:42.482 --> 00:28:46.329 How I go to work is not because I think my boss is a great man. 00:28:46.329 --> 00:28:51.306 It's because I work for God, almighty the Creator, the heavens, the earth. 00:28:51.306 --> 00:28:54.555 My reward is not here. 00:28:55.077 --> 00:28:57.515 My reward being to have Him Right. 00:28:58.317 --> 00:29:14.654 So how I treat my co-workers and my family and my friends and my neighbor, that I can't stand, how I treat them right is a reflection of God, the church, his family, jesus, the Son, that's how the world sees Him. 00:29:14.654 --> 00:29:17.128 It says that we have the hands and feet, so guess what that means? 00:29:17.128 --> 00:29:18.234 We're the representation. 00:29:18.234 --> 00:29:25.817 His body, physically human form, is not here, so that's our job. 00:29:27.454 --> 00:29:28.921 So I know we get busy. 00:29:29.535 --> 00:29:31.662 I know that this is holiday season. 00:29:31.662 --> 00:29:38.275 Everybody's just got stuff coming out of their ears to do, but just take a second and think of someone else. 00:29:38.275 --> 00:29:45.473 Just take a second right and just shake and feel. 00:29:47.066 --> 00:29:51.854 Share and talk, share and prayer, all right. 00:29:51.944 --> 00:29:53.170 That's all that is needed. 00:29:53.170 --> 00:30:02.086 You'd be surprised how much difference that can make in someone's life, and so we all know that we're longing for the same thing that is, to be a home of God and. 00:30:02.086 --> 00:30:03.239 His presence for each other. 00:30:03.865 --> 00:30:06.584 So they would be home with His presence. 00:30:06.865 --> 00:30:12.750 If home is where the heart is, then family can be a choice, and they know family is a choice. 00:30:12.750 --> 00:30:20.336 If you've been in mercy church, been a part of mercy church or any of the ministry of mercy church, you'll hear a few things. 00:30:20.336 --> 00:30:22.332 One, finding and following Jesus. 00:30:22.332 --> 00:30:28.930 Two, reading, being rooted in the Word yeah, the voted worshipers. 00:30:28.930 --> 00:30:34.076 You'll hear all these things, but what you may not catch right away is your choice. 00:30:34.076 --> 00:30:36.724 We've been talking about choice a lot. 00:30:36.724 --> 00:30:42.011 Our pastors are really trying to nail that in and we can understand that everything is a choice. 00:30:42.011 --> 00:30:46.893 The right perspective is a choice, but ultimately Jesus is a choice. 00:30:46.893 --> 00:30:48.069 Our Father is a choice. 00:30:48.069 --> 00:30:51.513 He's either our Father or he's not. 00:30:51.513 --> 00:30:53.327 It's our choice. 00:30:53.327 --> 00:30:58.238 So if we want to come home, if we want to be home, we have to make that choice. 00:30:58.238 --> 00:31:06.073 We have to make the choice to leave the big pick Come out, we won so. 00:31:06.256 --> 00:31:06.683 I love you guys. 00:31:06.683 --> 00:31:14.096 Hopefully we're going to make that choice, because that also means we're going to go work tomorrow to make the choice to leave Jesus to the world. 00:31:14.096 --> 00:31:20.663 But if we're not ready for that for any reason, the prayer team is going to be up here. 00:31:20.663 --> 00:31:29.968 So if we're not ready to leave the light of Jesus, if we don't have the light of Jesus, if we haven't become sons and daughters. 00:31:29.968 --> 00:31:31.031 Yet I want to be here. 00:31:31.031 --> 00:31:36.088 We want to be here as a church to help you guys to welcome y'all into the family. 00:31:36.632 --> 00:31:37.695 Because family is a choice. 00:31:37.786 --> 00:31:40.163 Maybe we didn't have a great family. 00:31:40.163 --> 00:31:42.290 But I choose mercy first of all. 00:31:43.285 --> 00:31:44.631 I've got brothers and brothers in two. 00:31:45.066 --> 00:31:46.903 But mercy church is my family. 00:31:46.903 --> 00:31:49.508 You guys are my family, guess what? 00:31:49.508 --> 00:31:51.479 Everybody around me. 00:31:51.479 --> 00:31:53.352 We can change the world, one interaction at a time. 00:31:53.352 --> 00:31:54.368 But that's a choice as well. 00:31:54.368 --> 00:31:57.579 But if we need to hope that choice, I want to be here to join the Jesus spirit. 00:31:58.204 --> 00:32:08.594 And the prayer team will be up here for whatever it might be, whether you want to come to Jesus for the first time, whether you want to come back to Jesus because we all say wait, we all walk, wait, we all take many breaks. 00:32:08.594 --> 00:32:14.875 Whatever you want to call it, if there's a financial need in your life, just be patient. 00:32:14.875 --> 00:32:17.250 It's a big need right now. 00:32:17.250 --> 00:32:19.211 Whatever it might be, whatever it is, it will be best. 00:32:19.964 --> 00:32:26.982 So it brings to y'all that not only does the Father have every gift we can ever need, but must think of choice for you. 00:32:26.982 --> 00:32:28.410 So we love you guys. 00:32:28.410 --> 00:32:33.378 We're going to pray this message real quick in prayer, and then the prayer team will be up here and we'll have a few answers. 00:32:33.805 --> 00:32:35.190 So we're going to be praising. 00:32:35.210 --> 00:32:36.032 We thank you, father. 00:32:36.032 --> 00:32:38.573 We praise you that you allowed us into your home. 00:32:38.573 --> 00:32:40.795 You want to spend time with us. 00:32:40.795 --> 00:32:46.017 You want us to choose to spend time with you. 00:32:46.017 --> 00:33:02.731 So let us take that moment, let us take that time during this season to really really just drop those six feet as a family, as a Father, that we can be the children that sit at your feet, because that's your desire. 00:33:02.731 --> 00:33:08.775 Thank you, lord, because sitting at your feet will cause the change within us that will change the world. 00:33:08.775 --> 00:33:11.172