MidTree Church
The sermon audio of MidTree Church in Harris County, Ga. BEHOLD // BELIEVE // BECOME
MidTree Church
Loudest Message to the Least Likely | Pastor Will Hawk | December 15th, 2024
Discover the true depth of the nativity story with our exploration of its rich historical and spiritual context. We promise to challenge your understanding of the Christmas narrative, sharing insights into the loneliness experienced by Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds. Together, we'll uncover how God’s message through this story is a remedy for isolation and a beacon of hope for all people.
Ever wondered if Jesus was actually born in the winter? Join us as we dissect the roles of the shepherds and wise men, questioning traditional notions and suggesting a more accurate historical timeline for Jesus' birth. By examining the inclusivity of God's message, we highlight how it transcends societal and racial barriers, continuing to resonate with profound relevance today. You’ll find our discussion on the symbolism of the guiding star and its universal invitation to Jesus fascinating and eye-opening.
As we reflect on the significance of the incarnation, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of how trusting in Jesus transforms sacrifices into meaningful experiences. With inspiration from St. Augustine, we discuss how Jesus' profound love and sacrifice empower us to live a life of faith and devotion. This episode is a heartfelt invitation to see the nativity story not just as a tale of old but as an ongoing call to embrace the transformative power of faith in our everyday lives.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
Good morning. 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 Savior who is Christ the Lord, and this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was, with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and, on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.
Speaker 1: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 saying that had been told them concerning this child. This is the word of the Lord Amen. All right, guys.
Speaker 2:Well, let's dive in. Super excited to be with you If you are joining us for one of the first times in Advent. Just a couple of things. We have a Christmas Eve service, which we have every single year here. It will be from 530 to 630. Please invite friends and family and unchurched folks. We would love to be able to take every opportunity to share the gospel with everyone. Ford, you got my good. Hit the go button on that. If you do Make it turn blue. No, is it me or is it you? All right, good stuff, all right.
Speaker 2:So if you haven't been here, let me get you caught up very quickly in TED Talk version in 60 seconds or so. What we've been doing for the past couple weeks is looking at the texts of the coming of Jesus Christ, and we've been doing it in a little bit of a creative way fixing your nativity to fix your heart on the true and better story. All of the passive-aggressive texts that I'm getting from everybody about your nativity just keep them coming. It only makes me smile and giggle. I love it. I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2:So the first thing that we talked about was step one. You would need to empty out your nativity, and the reason is Christmas began with people who are very, very much alone Mary alone, joseph alone, elizabeth alone, zachariah alone, anna alone, simeon alone. What is this reminding us of? How is this a better truth? That God understands loneliness, that it was tucked into the first Christmas. It is not a bug in Christmas for you to long for and miss family members who may not be there, relationships that are sideways. It is part of Christmas, as God creates a family that one day will no longer deal with loneliness. Number two you would need to put some walls on that stable. The reason most people think that Jesus was born in a stable is one word in the text manger. But many mangers were tucked into many homes and a better word to look at would be a guest house. So Jesus was probably staying in a guest house of one of Joseph's relatives.
Speaker 2:The third thing is, if you're going to start putting things back in your nativity and good news today you get to bring out some of this stuff for your nativity, okay? So if your wise men are still in wrapping paper and your shepherds are still laying on their sides and you're wondering what to do with them, we're going to get that cleaned up today, but we want to fill this back in slowly. Why would we wanna do this? Because God's pace and his preparations are on purpose and they are perfect. We call Christmas the season of hustle and bustle.
Speaker 2:It was the opposite in scripture. In many ways it was slow, it was meandering. It was 400 years of silence from Malachi to Matthew, and into that slowness God explodes with his son. So here's what we're going to look at. Let's begin by looking at Luke, chapter 2, verse 8. Now, landry just read a portion of this to us. So here we go.
Speaker 2:In the same region, there were shepherds out in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel of the Lord appeared to them. I just want you guys to notice it appeared to them, the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear. And then the angel gives them a message. He says you're going to go and find this. It's, in a way, it's a prophecy from the angel to them, as he describes, very similar to what Jesus did at the last supper hey, you're going to go, you're going to find this thing, grab this thing, talk to this person and come.
Speaker 2:The angels look at the shepherds who, by the way, had to be absolutely beside themselves. I mean, these are guys who are hanging out. We know that it's getting late in the day, so God didn't send angels at noon. He picks a time when they're really gonna pop. One of them shows up, freaks out. However many shepherds there are, we don't exactly know, but by the end of their time, the hills are filled with angels who are praising God I love in verse 15. 15, where we read this when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another let us go.
Speaker 2:I never think about this from the perspective of the angel. I always think about it from the perspective of the shepherd. Think about it, though. What would it have been like to be one of those angels? I mean, it's field trip day in heaven, that's what's happening. They're like to be one of those angels. I mean, it's field trip day in heaven, that's what's happening. They're like what's going on now? We're gonna go. Oh, he's gonna go, he's gonna go down. All right, good stuff. Hey, man, have a good trip. We can't wait to hear. And the guy's like no, I'm sending a bunch of you. And this field trip of angels leaves the heavenly places, just as Christ is leaving. And Adam, what a great intro for us out of John 1. Not just the Savior who came, but always was and always will be, as Jesus is preparing to put off much of the royalty and the majesty and the glory and to condescend to put on human flesh. And these angels get to go on this incredible field trip to earth. And here is what we continue to read in verse 16. They went with haste. They found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger and when they saw it they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. So we have a little bit of good news.
Speaker 2:The shepherds actually make the nativity. You're allowed to use them, but before you do something you may want to know the shepherds that were out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. It probably wasn't winter. It's not the best call to leave your sheep during the rainy season in the dark and in the cold. It would be a little bit of shepherding malpractice. In all likelihood, it is closer that Jesus would have been born in the summer months June, july, august. And this makes sense because when we read that there is a census being taken that is forcing Joseph to go to his family home. You would do those kinds of things in the summer, when travel was easier, not in the bitter cold of winter, and so while the shepherds begin to make it into our nativity, our timeline might be a little bit off. We see this in Luke 2. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This is what was happening politically. That drove Joseph and his family back to Bethlehem, and another reason we think it probably wasn't in those deep winter months.
Speaker 2:But there's something that I want you to notice, because we're going to look at shepherds and we're also going to look at wise men today, and I just want you to see this because I think it matters for you on Wednesday. I think it matters for you when you're not sitting at church with your Bible in your lap. When it came to the shepherds, god sent them a message that they absolutely could not miss. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, to the most humble among us, the shepherds. And when it comes to the wise men, the impressive and the noble, god makes sure that they can't miss it either. We'll read this text in a moment, but just to give you a snippet. Behold the star that they had seen when it rose, went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. Whether it is the humble or the noble, whether it is the impressive or the unimpressive, the well-known or the unknown, god sent his son in such a way that, across all the realms of society and you'll see in a moment all the realms of society and you'll see in a moment all the realms of race as well this is a message for all of the people.
Speaker 2:If you were to go to Bethlehem today, you would still find fields where sheep are grazing. In fact, I may I don't know if you guys are able to I grabbed a little video to show this to you. When I think of a shepherd, because of sort of my context is that y'all tell me yes or no. They're figuring out. We're doing something new as of four weeks ago and there it is. Okay, I'm just going to keep talking. There's not any sound or anything. These are sheep near Bethlehem in modern I love that one in modern day times, and what I want you to realize is most of us, when we bring out our nativities, you have this sweet little shepherd boy with an angelic face and rosy cheeks. They were probably pretty rough guys. They probably cussed a little bit. They probably didn't smell very good. Their attire would not have been impressive. These were, to the greatest extent that I can describe to you, the most regular people. Please don't miss this.
Speaker 2:Outside of Mary and Joseph, seemingly, according to the Bible, the very first people to welcome the creator of the earth to his own creation would never be the people that you and I would pick. If you were able to do some kind of an Instagram poll or post or Facebook or whatever it is, and you got to vote. Who gets to meet Jesus when he first comes? Who gets to meet Jesus when he first comes, I don't know who you would pick. Now, honestly, if I'm trying to get a message to the world, I'm picking somebody who's popular. I'm picking somebody who's powerful. If I'm wanting the entire world to know good news, your sin has been seen and a savior has been sent, I'll tell you who I'm not picking Kyle, who hangs out at the gas station. Because why would I pick Kyle? I'll tell you who I'm not picking. I'm not picking the C student who's struggling through their undergrad work. Not picking that guy. No, I'm gonna pick somebody who has followers. I'm gonna pick someone who can get this message out, but not God.
Speaker 2:There's a message tucked into this message. The gospel is for regular people, and when you try to make yourself better than regular, you move yourself outside of the message that God is trying to send. The gospel is for very normal people. The shepherds received the loudest message, though they were the least likely among us. An angel says born today, you're the first one getting the birth announcement Is a savior for every man, woman and child who will ever go through the gates of heaven. And you men are receiving this message. You will be my son's first visitors. You're gonna be the hospitality team. You're gonna be the ones who show up, probably smelly, maybe unwanted, underdressed and unrefined regular guys, because God sent loud messages to regular people. He came to both the lowly and the noble and you'll see in a moment, he came to both the Jew and to the Gentile.
Speaker 2:I hope that, in a society where we are constantly trying to judge where we are in our social capital, that this hits deep, especially in a season when you see people that you only see in this season, season when you see people that you only see in this season. What does it look like for you to lean into, just being a regular, non-impressive guy at Christmas? What does it look like for you to lean in and be a regular woman who's not trying to impress people? You just want to be impressed upon by a God who loves regular people. So what do we need to fix? Well, a little bit of good news and a little bit of bad news. First bit of bad news you're going to need to move the angels out of your nativity. I know it's the one everybody fights over to hang. I know the angels are always in the middle of the nativity.
Speaker 2:Angels are all over the Christmas story. We see them with Zachariah, we see them with Mary, we see them with Joseph. Three different appearances there. They show up to the shepherds, then they show up to Joseph and tell him to leave. They show up to Joseph and tell him to come. Nowhere in the Bible are you gonna find them at the birth of Christ.
Speaker 2:So if you gotta put your angel somewhere, find a fridge. If you've got to put an angel somewhere, put it. Don't put it on the tree. I'll explain that in a minute too. If you've got to put your angel somewhere. Just kick it off to the side because the shepherds were close enough to get the message and get there on the same night. But if you've got the angel just hanging out right over baby Jesus, it's beautiful and I'm sure there were angels attending him, but you're not going to find it in your Bibles.
Speaker 2:Now why does this matter? Because Jesus is the focal point of undistracted worship and had an angel been there, might I argue with you that they would have taken some of the attention from Jesus who had clothed himself in flesh Might. I argue with you that these shepherds that had just had their minds absolutely blown they somehow show up to this babe and begin worshiping. They see something there in the regular and in the unknown, mysterious that absolutely changes the hearts of rough and rowdy regular men that Jesus was the light in the darkness. Next thing, step five, bring in the shepherds. They make the cut.
Speaker 2:I'll be honest with you, I don't know that the sheep do. I was doing a walkthrough manger nativity with a couple of my boys last night and I was explaining the Christmas story. We had a couple of animals we had Johnny the sheep, we had Charlie the goat and we had Dominic the donkey, which I thought was too perfect, and I asked the I don't know what you call a donkey guy him? I was like is his name really Dominic all the time, or is that just what you call him at Christmas? He's like no, it's Dominic.
Speaker 2:I was hanging out with these animals as I was telling this story and this is what struck me they don't stand still, they don't sit down, they don't obey commands, and these shepherds likely would have had numerous sheep. In addition, I can take a teaching from Jesus that says when he goes after the one that has strayed, he leaves the 99 in the open country. What are the odds that these shepherds received a message from an angel and went with haste, the Bible says. But they also said all right, men, gather the sheep, we're going to bring them into town and the first Christmas parade begins leaving the biggest mess down like Central Street. I don't think so. I think they said if God can give us this message, he can take care of these sheep and they book it. Now look, maybe they had one of their kids with them and one of them threw one over a shoulder because they just couldn't miss their. Maybe if you gotta get a sheep in there, feel free, but bring the shepherds in and may it remind you that the coming of Christ was for normal, regular people, potentially people in your family that you have given up on, potentially people in your life that, when you look at, you would say there's no way that this person would want the things of Christ. And yet it takes one message, perfectly tuned by God, to these men, and their lives forever change. Christians, do not doubt God's ability to give the right message to the right person. Unbelievers in the room, please hear me on this. It may be this message that God is giving you from his text this morning.
Speaker 2:What is also fascinating about this is what happens when we turn to the wise men in Matthew. So you're going to have to drop books for just a moment. Luke and Matthew are where we see the Christmas story. Here's what we read in Matthew 2, 1 through 6. Now I'm not going to read it straight through, because I want you to notice something there's a promise, there's a prophecy that's coming.
Speaker 2:If you look all the way down in verse 5, it says for so it is written by the prophet. You see that what I want you to notice is what the prophet said before I read it oh, bethlehem in the land of Judah, you are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah. You may be normal, you may be regular, you may be small, you may seem inconsequential, but no, from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people, israel. And do you know who this message is given to? Not the shepherds, this message is given to the wise men, and I just want you to see this before we read a thing about them that the men who made the most sense, who had the most influence, the ones who had power and prestige. They are reminded that it is God who is a shepherd and he comes to his people lowly, because his people are lowly.
Speaker 2:Now, verse one after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and when they arrived, they were saying where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. In all likelihood, what you and I call wise men were pagan astrologers. They were non-believing Gentiles in the world who knew some of the scriptures because they studied all types of different religion and all types of different wisdom. It would have been their job to be the smartest guy in the room. Wherever they were, they were looking at signs and looking for wonders. They were leading, many times in superstitious ways, the rulers of the world at that time. And they see something unique a star that rose.
Speaker 2:Verse three when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. Why? Because the ones who influence kings are now coming to Herod and saying hey, we heard there's a new king that was born in your region. Okay, in the event that you never watched or read any history just I hope this isn't a spoiler for you Kings don't like hearing that there are young uprising kings in their kingdom Tends to lead to heads falling off and blood in the streets. And so Herod, who is a guy just like anyone else, who is not redeemed, wants his name to be big, wants his name to be great, wants his life to be cushy. He hears this and he's troubled. In fact, all of Jerusalem is troubled with him. Whenever there was turmoil in the upper political class, it always trickled down and, assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born and they told him.
Speaker 2:Well, according to our readings of the scriptures, in Bethlehem of Judea For so it is written by the prophet that God will shepherd his people, israel, shepherd his people, israel. And so God sends shepherds a sign that they cannot miss, while simultaneously sending pagan, gentile astrologers a sign that they cannot miss. And I find that so cool. I love it because there's something about this star that captured me. I think most of us think a star rose. All right, just play this out for me for just a minute Tonight. I double dog. Dare you to walk outside and look at a star and then follow it? Please, please, get on YouTube and document your journey. I hope it goes viral as you meander and realize you're just walking, because that thing's a million light years away. How are you the guy who's like? And, oh Savior, I found him. I found, yep, it's right here, guys, it probably wasn't a star, the way that we think of a star.
Speaker 2:God is sending them a message specifically for them, and we know this because take a look at verse seven. So Herod summoned the wise men secretly. Why? Because he's about to ask a favor of them and he doesn't want the word to get out. He wants to ascertain from them what time the star appeared. Why does that matter? Because, if you know the Christmas story well, there's a passage that is tucked right into the Christmas story that most of us don't like reading around Christmas, and it's the part where Herod sends soldiers to kill all of the young boys in the area. It doesn't tend to make the card, it doesn't tend to make the sermons.
Speaker 2:What's happening here is Herod is trying to protect his own reign. When did you see that star come up? Somebody look at the calendar and mark down the date. I need to know why. Well, I want to worship him, of course. No, I want to try to snuff out the light of the world before it becomes too bright, because it is inconvenient for me. Verse eight and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying go, search diligently for the child and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. Liar, liar, liar, pants on fire. That is not what's happening here. What's happening here is he is looking to end the life of the son of God. But if you want to see something even cooler, watch this. Not only is God going to protect his son, who is unable to protect himself.
Speaker 2:After listening to the king, they went on their way and behold I've told you guys this a million times. When you see the word behold in the text, highlight it, underline it and circle it. This is the Bible telling you. Don't miss this. Not all of you guys are going to have the 50 bucks to go buy a study Bible, so I'm just giving you this little, this little tidbit. By the way, if you don't have a study Bible and you can't afford it, I will work to get you one out of my own book budget. They are awesome to have. My preferences are the ESV and the CSB, but any of them would be good. Don't just be a reader of your Bible, be a studier of your Bible as well. Because studier of your Bible as well, because look at what happens next.
Speaker 2:After they listened to the king, they went on their way and behold don't miss this the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. Whatever this star was and I think, contrary to popular opinion, it was probably not something typical it was not a shooting star that never burned up, or a supernova, or an alignment of planets. I think God did something supernatural and this is what makes me think it this star and I didn't go into a ton of word analysis because I've got one coming for you in just a second this star somehow rises up and these guys who watch stars are like did you see that, bro? Like texting pictures of this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw it, I saw it. I saw it.
Speaker 2:It leads them to Jerusalem. No surprise, there, that's where you would expect the king to be born. And it chills until they talk to Herod and Herod's like hey, go and do this little thing for me, I wanna worship too. Then the star moves. Now, all of a sudden, this becomes understandable, because if this was some beam of light, some star type thing, they could actually follow it. And they do, and it moves, and it moves, and it moves and it rests somewhere close enough for them to be able to say here is the promised king.
Speaker 2:And when they saw the star in verse 10, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child Just keep that word in mind for a moment with Mary, his mother and they. They fell down and worshiped. An angel of God was sent to them, the shepherds, and they, these pagan astrologers, worship him. They then opened their gifts, their treasures gold and frankincense and myrrh and, being warned in a dream not to return to Herod because God knew what was up, they departed to their own country by another way.
Speaker 2:I mentioned this earlier. The shepherds receive a sign specifically for them so they cannot miss it. The wise men receive a sign specifically tailored for them so that they cannot miss it as well. God not only spoke the language of shepherds, he spoke the language of the noble as well. So what do we need to fix? And why does it even matter? This is my last fix for you today Move out the wise men and the star sort of. You're going to move out the wise men because, by the time they arrived, jesus was no longer a baby in a manger. Too much time had passed. Remember I circled the little thing where it said Herod was trying to figure out what time it was. It's because it took them a while to see this thing rise and to make it all the way to Jerusalem. It took a little bit of time, and one of the ways that we know this is because of the way the word child is used.
Speaker 2:Now, if you look in verse 216 of the shepherds, here's what you would read. They went with haste. They found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. When they find the baby, what they are finding? It's a different Greek word and it means an infant. It can even refer to one in utero. But by the time we get to Matthew 2.11, the wise men go into the house and they saw a child, a padion, a young child.
Speaker 2:Now, why does this matter? Well, one, it matters if you want to be biblically accurate. You're wise men, you can get them out of their tissue paper, but unfortunately they're never going to make it into that nativity. By the time they get there, they're living in a different place and in all likelihood, jesus is no longer little. So if you want to get accurate, you're're gonna have to go make another Jesus, and he's probably gonna have to be a toddler, and I don't know anybody who's making toddler Jesuses for your nativity. But if you wanna be biblically accurate, go for it.
Speaker 2:And then the second thing you need to do is you need to rethink your star, and the reason is it's probably not what you and I think of as a star you and I think of as a star. It was this divine gift specifically tailored for this group of people to lead them there. This star moved two to three times it rose, it went and it rested and this makes more sense. It led pagan unbeliever outsiders to the feet of Jesus, and there's nothing in the Bible that guarantees that these men became true Christians and followers of Christ, but I think there are enough hints for us to believe it, that God went to this unlikely group who were not followers of him and he began speaking their language. Why do I think that? Because they had enough faith to follow the star. You could write that off as just curiosity, but then the Bible says that they worshiped Jesus. Not only did they worship Jesus, they sacrificed of their gifts. And not only did they sacrifice, they were obedient to disobey a king, to follow a dream. And when I see somebody who has faith to follow and belief to worship and sacrifice to give and obedience to obey, I'll just tell you those are the kind of people I would want to do church with. So, in all likelihood, what you have just read is the first non-Jews who have been brought into the family of faith, right after God said, this will be a message for all of the people.
Speaker 2:Now, if I'm sitting in church and I'm listening to this, here's what I'm thinking Will that's really cool, and about four weeks out of the year it's going to matter to me. All right, fine, I'll tell my kid they can't have a sheep in there. I like bothering them. Anyway, it's gonna be fun, let's do this thing. And when people come over and they wonder why wise men are on the fridge and why the star is on the tree which, by the way, that's a pagan symbol anyway, so fire it off, whatever.
Speaker 2:But while I am doing all of these things, how does it even matter to my own worship of Christ? What does it matter for me for these things to be true? Well, let me tell you why I think it matters. I think it matters because Jesus' coming, what we call the incarnation, remains to this day, and until his second coming, the loudest message regular people have ever gotten your nativity is God, at the top of his proverbial lungs, screaming his love to all people, and it has echoed for thousands of years. This is the easiest way. If you wanna memorize a verse, god can't make it any easier. Matthew 1, 2, 3. Easy peasy, right? And what is it telling us? The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which means God, with me speaking my language, understanding my life.
Speaker 2:The incarnation is where the supernatural and the natural slam together. Now, look, there are some misconceptions that don't really matter. Was there a donkey there? I don't know. I don't even care if there was a donkey there. What matters to me is this God became a man to save me, and he had to become a man to save me. So he did, and the Bible wants to make sure that, as much as the shepherds knew it and as much as the wise men knew it, that you know it as well. So here is why I think this matters.
Speaker 2:Number one the incarnation matters every day because Jesus really understands what your life is like. We do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. We have a high priest who, in every respect, has been tempted as we are without sin. Would anybody have faulted God for sending his son to live in an upper class home in a mansion? No, he's the son of God, and yet what does he do? He shows us even greater love by coming into the lowest rungs, to one of the poorest families in one of the smallest countries. Jesus knows what it is like to live in this broken world. He understands temptation. He understands messy family. He understands all of the brokenness that you have navigated.
Speaker 2:I was praying about this before I fell asleep last night, and so you know how that is If you think about something. I woke up this morning thinking I had taken tons of notes. Throughout the night I had dreamed that I had taken tons of notes. I don't even remember what half of them was, but I do remember this. How amazing is it that Jesus would know what it would be like to want to press the snooze button. That God, who never sleeps, would wake up some mornings and have just the temptation to press that nine button, that nine minute button. Jesus, please hear me on this, especially if you may not be a Christian in this moment, jesus understands your life.
Speaker 2:The second thing that I think this shows us is that God cared enough to do something about it. Sin was a man problem, but God made it his problem so that he could become the solution For our own sake. God made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Why does the incarnation matter every day? Because God cared enough about your sin to do something about it. He cared enough not just about your sin, so that one day you could say God, would you forgive me of my sins? And he washes you clean, he dies on the cross so that you don't have to die a permanent death, and he invites all people to simply and you don't have to talk with a pastor, you don't have to come down for prayer, you can simply in your seat right now, seat right now Say God, I am a sinner and I need forgiveness, and I hope all of us will have done that. But here's the reality God cared enough to do something about it. He would have been righteous and he would have been just to leave us to our own devices. But he enters into a problem that he never created or made and he fixes it.
Speaker 2:The other hope that this gives us is that you can choose holiness today, and I think there are a few people in the room who really need to hear this. You can choose holiness today In that area where you have continued to fail. You can choose holiness today In that place where you feel like you will never be good enough or great enough. You can choose holiness today. What is it like for Jesus to be right around people who were constantly wrong and remain quiet about it? My Bible reading plan has me following Jesus as he stands before Herod and as he stands before Pilate. What's it like for them to say who are you? And him remain silent. What is it like for him to be wronged but remain quiet? The one who created all things.
Speaker 2:I promise you, if you are trusting in Christ, you can choose holiness today, because God did not just come to save you from your sins and then immediately take you to heaven. Every Christian in this room who is still breathing and has a heartbeat. He left you here for something, why, I promise you, it is not your small dreams of your own life. That's the Herod path. There is another way to live. There's a way to live where we can say okay, god, you have chosen for me to live for eternal things, and for many of us, it is one or two small changes.
Speaker 2:I would tell you this the incarnation matters every day, because sacrificial living is worth it and it is temporary, for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. If you are trusting in Jesus, sacrifice is real and it's worth it, and it's temporary. But if you're not trusting in Christ, sacrifice is just real, it isn't worth it unto something greater and it isn't temporary. It's a small foretaste of what is coming if you don't have faith in Christ. Christians, every difficult thing that you will walk through doesn't compare to what it must have been like for Jesus to walk through it, and he has left you here for a reason. What it must have been like for Jesus to walk through it, and he has left you here for a reason, why he has spoken to you in a kind of way that you can understand, why he has placed you in different circles of society and with different groups of people. Why? Because he has left you here for a reason that your sacrifices in this broken world would not be wasted.
Speaker 2:And finally, I would say this the incarnation matters every day, because Jesus left everything, and we can too, and that may sound impossible to you. Well, how could I really give up everything? Because I believe that there's something better coming, because I believe that God will always take sacrifice and turn it into something beautiful that he is the one who takes the smallest little offerings of bread and fish and multiplies it to care for thousands. And I have no clue what your little offering of bread is or your little offering of fish is. I don't know if it's reading your Bible for the first time or if it's actually saying I'm going to be someone who shares the story of how God saved my life. I don't know if it's going to be starting a little Bible study or asking people that you don't know how you can pray for them. But what I can tell you is this all of that social awkwardness that you may feel, all of that time commitment that you may require, god multiplies that for all eternity and you get to choose. Life on this earth is going to be sacrificial. Do you want it to be unto something or do you want it to be unto nothing? Jesus left everything so that we can too. He left everything and came with nothing to show us that we can come with nothing to him and receive everything we've always needed.
Speaker 2:Came across this quote from St Augustine. I'll read it to you and then I'll leave and Stokes you whenever you're ready for us to move into worship. That'd be great guys if y'all would leave this up until they start singing. Man's maker was made man. That he, ruler of the stars, might nurse at his mother's breast. That the bread might hunger, the fountain thirst, the light sleep, the way be tired on its journey.
Speaker 2:That the truth might be accused of false witness on its journey. That the truth might be accused of false witness. That the teacher be beaten with whips, the foundation be suspended on wood. That strength might grow weak. That the healer might be wounded, that life might die. This is the message that God has given to you, and if you're a Christian, this is the life that God calls you to. I promise you it will be worth it, but if you're not trusting in Christ, these are the links that God went to so that you would receive a message in your own language. Hey, regular people, a supernatural God loves you in a supernatural way and he came so that you could see him and walk toward him and believe in him, so believe.