WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.439 We may be seated. 00:00:01.760 --> 00:00:02.399 Well, welcome. 00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:05.759 My name is Russ Masterson, the pastor here at Redeemer. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:20.559 Welcome to you, whether uh you're one of our regular folks, or whether you're here with family, or you just found us because you're looking for a Christmas Eve service and you ended up here, or perhaps you are at home and you are watching uh from your living room and you're unable to be here. 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:22.559 Merry Christmas to you. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:26.800 And I say that knowing that it has not always been a merry year, has it? 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:28.320 It's been more interesting. 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:34.719 Uh we use the word unprecedented more this year than any other year for sure, but you are here. 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:38.240 You are here, and I am here, and you are watching. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:40.479 And for that, we are so excited. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:43.520 We are so excited that you are here with us. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:48.479 Last Saturday, I went to take my afternoon nap, and so I got my blanket. 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:49.600 It's the long gray one. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:58.320 The short gray ones go to the girls, the long one gray one goes to me because you know, I've got to cover the feet, get cozied up on the couch, and I turn on the P and C golf championship. 00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:00.799 And you ever watched the PC Golf Championship last weekend? 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:03.520 And so, what this is, most of you don't care, but I'll fill you in on it. 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:10.879 It's a pro golfer plays in this tournament with like a loved one, maybe a daughter or a son or you know, their dad or something like that. 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:16.239 And so you have pro golfer, family member, they're playing together, but it's a tournament, and Tiger was there. 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:24.319 And so anytime Tiger's there, the focus goes toward Tiger, like 50%, maybe 80% of the TV coverage just follows him. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:27.680 And it was interesting because he was playing with his son, Charlie. 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:29.840 And Charlie is 11 years old. 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:38.799 And Tiger, if you've just been asleep for the past 20 years, Tiger has won 82 PGA events, 15 majors. 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:41.439 I got curious, so I Google stalked a little bit. 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:43.439 There's lots of information out there about him. 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:46.480 He's worth about a billion dollars just to fill you in. 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:48.879 It may be 800, it may be 900. 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:50.159 Let's just round up, right? 00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:52.400 Like at some point, you're just like, that's a lot. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:54.159 I can't comprehend it. 00:01:54.319 --> 00:02:01.680 He's one of the most known, greatest, uh, wealthiest, powerful athletes in history. 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:07.439 And then he was there in Orlando playing a golf tournament with an 11-year-old boy. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:11.439 Now, the pros they tee off way, way back there. 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:12.319 Way back there. 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:16.560 And then, like, some of you play golf, and you look at that, you drive right by, you go head to the white T's. 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:18.960 That's where I tee off the white T's, and it's still not pretty. 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:20.719 And further up are some other T's. 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:25.840 Charlie's up at the front T's, he drives the ball at 11-year-old, he drives the ball 200 yards. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:28.800 I can comprehend a drive of 200 yards. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:30.719 Like, that's something like I've known before. 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:32.879 I can I understand, I can comprehend it. 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:36.159 Tiger's driving at about like 330 yards or something like that. 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:37.520 I can't comprehend that. 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:39.439 There's so much I can't comprehend. 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:44.719 Now, here's a picture of Charlie and Tiger at the golf tournament, the two of them. 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:48.159 Now, the announcers couldn't stop talking about Charlie. 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:52.159 I couldn't get enough of watching Charlie play because this is Tiger's son, right? 00:02:52.240 --> 00:03:00.639 Like my mind has a difficult time processing and comprehending Tiger, but I can get my mind around Charlie. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:03.759 If you've been on church long enough, you know where I'm headed with this. 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:05.599 You can already see it coming, right? 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:11.919 Because I can understand the Son, even while I can't always comprehend the Father. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:15.919 That's why we get Colossians 1, verse 15. 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:22.240 He, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:26.479 So Jesus is the exact representation of God for us to know. 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:28.400 It's God incarnate, God in flesh. 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:33.039 It's God saying, I want you to know me, to be able to understand me. 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:39.439 And this Jesus, this Christ, is the firstborn of creation, basically saying, it's not a plan B. 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:50.639 Like from the very beginning, it was God's desire and delight and plan to pursue us and move toward us, even while we never and don't move toward him all the time. 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:53.120 He pursues and moves toward us. 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:55.599 And that's what we have in this Jesus. 00:03:56.240 --> 00:04:02.560 The Christmas story we're going to read tonight is Matthew chapter 1, verses 20 through 23. 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:11.120 Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:17.439 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:21.279 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:30.240 Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:33.360 So I have a one-point sermon tonight. 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:34.240 Merry Christmas. 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:35.519 Next Christmas present. 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:36.000 Nothing else. 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:39.040 I didn't get you anything else, but a one-point sermon's pretty good right on Christmas. 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:41.120 You didn't know what you're going to get when you came here. 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:42.160 One point. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:47.199 In great compassion and abundant pardoning. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.000 God is with you and for you. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:52.000 That's the story of the scriptures. 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:53.680 It's the story of Matthew 1. 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:55.120 We're going to look at Isaiah 55. 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:56.480 It's always the story. 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:00.879 In great compassion and abundant pardoning, God is with you and for you. 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:03.759 Emmanuel means with us is God. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:05.759 It doesn't mean God is against us. 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:11.439 It doesn't mean God is sort of for us when we get our acts together or God is for us when we're for him. 00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:13.920 No, it just means God is with us. 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:19.279 This whole fall, I've been studying my way through this book called Gentle and Lowly. 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:20.160 It's a book on Jesus. 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:23.519 I just read like two pages a day in the morning as my devotion. 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:27.120 Dane Ortland, who wrote the book, he writes this. 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:30.399 This hit me this week, just happened to hit me this week. 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:42.800 We tend to project our natural expectations about who God is onto him instead of fighting to let the Bible surprise us into what God Himself says. 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:48.959 So the question for us is, are we willing to allow the arc of the scriptures, right? 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:53.600 The arc of the gospel story to tell us who God is for us. 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:54.160 Right? 00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:59.279 So not one story in the Old Testament that you scratch your head on, you're like, what in the world was that story? 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:08.079 Not one like commandment, but the arc of the story of the scriptures as God is revealing himself in time. 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:14.399 Are we willing to allow that to surprise us into who God is for us? 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:23.920 Ortland takes us to the Old Testament to show that even in the Old Testament, God is revealing Himself to be this God of redemption and love. 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:26.160 Isaiah 55, 6 and 7. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:34.240 Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:36.160 And I can pause and just say, maybe you relate. 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:37.600 I can relate to that. 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:42.639 I can relate to having wicked thoughts or even behaviors at times. 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:45.040 I've known unrighteousness. 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:57.360 Let him return to the Lord, that he, God, may have compassion on him, me, and you, for he will abundantly pardon. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:01.680 So the first part of the passage tells us what to do: seek the Lord. 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:03.279 Repent, return. 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:11.600 So as you come aware that you're more broken than you originally thought, yet you're more loved by God than you could ever dare to dream, fall back into the grace of God. 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:13.040 Repent back. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:14.959 Turn to Him. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:16.879 And then the second part tells us why. 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:17.759 Well, why would we do that? 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:19.439 Why would we want to do that? 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:23.600 And it's not because He's going to zap you. 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:25.519 That's not the reason here. 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:31.439 The reason here is so wonderful for us that He may have compassion on us. 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:35.680 And abundantly pardon us. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.800 That's the desire of God to you and to me. 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:39.279 Wow. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:42.319 So God doesn't just merely accept you. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:46.240 Like, ah, sort of gotta accept that one. 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:47.199 Yeah, he turned back. 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:48.079 And no, no, no. 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:54.319 He doesn't merely just accept you, he delights, abundantly delights to pardon you. 00:07:56.720 --> 00:08:04.240 And then Isaiah, after that, just grace bomb of what God's regard is to us, says his thoughts. 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:07.839 Verse 7, his thoughts aren't like your thoughts. 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:14.160 Now I'd always connected that over time to like God's sovereignty, mysterious ways. 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:15.279 He's in control of all things. 00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:16.639 His thoughts aren't like your thoughts. 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:17.600 He's so much bigger. 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:22.319 But in the context here, it's connected to compassion and pardon. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:24.959 So, verse 6, we're a wandering people. 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:25.920 We need to repent. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:27.680 We need to fall back into God's mercy and grace. 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:32.080 Verse 7, God is compassionate and abundantly pardons us. 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:36.799 Yet Isaiah knows that the human mind plays tricks. 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:41.120 And we don't always allow the Bible to surprise us into actually who God is for us. 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:43.039 We often project back onto him. 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:50.639 And so then he lays eight and nine to us, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:56.240 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:04.159 As high as the heavens above the earth are these loving, compassion, pardoning regard of the Heavenly Father to us. 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:05.919 That's what we have. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:10.799 Last weekend, Christy and the girls, they made a bunch of Christmas treats. 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:12.000 They put them in different bags. 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:16.720 Each girl got to pick a few friends to go and drop treats to. 00:09:17.039 --> 00:09:18.799 And so we got in the car. 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:20.399 It had gotten dark. 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:24.879 So it was a little kind of fun to kind of like ninjas sneak up to somebody's door, right? 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:31.120 And so first we pull in the driveway, I pull in the first driveway, and our youngest one gets out, and we say, Oh, you're going to do this on your own, right? 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:32.799 Like we wanted to make it feel like pretty fun. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:46.799 And so she gets out and she sneaks up, you know, to the door and she peers through the window and she sees a few people, and then she sets the treat down, she rings the doorbell, and she comes flying back through that, through that, down that sidewalk to our car, and she jumps in. 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:52.399 And it was the first time I realized that's the fun part for Christy and I is watching them run back. 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:58.639 And like, so in order to increase my fun, it means I need to park further and further away from the door. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:00.720 So I'm not pulling in the driveway anymore. 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:04.480 Now I'm on the street, like I'm making them run through the yard. 00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:12.399 And every single time, every single time, they come running back, laughing and smiling. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:13.840 Just laughing. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:18.720 They're huffing it through the yard, they're jumping over bushes, and they are just laughing the whole way. 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:19.120 Why? 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:23.600 Because they had a plan and a delight to deliver this gift. 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:27.600 Right? 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:33.519 Their hearts just overflowed in delight at getting to deliver the gift. 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:37.679 See, in Jesus, God doesn't just put up with us. 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:47.759 Jesus is God incarnate, saying to us, coming to us to say, I delight to redeem you and have a relationship with you. 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:53.360 God delights to forgive and redeem and accept you. 00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:56.080 It's his plan and his delight to do so. 00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:08.159 Now if we go back to verse 9, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:08.559 Wow. 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:17.919 Okay, so that first phrase, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, that's a Hebrew way of saying spatial infinitude. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:20.080 Spatial infinitude. 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:24.960 So God's compassion to you, right where you're at, you don't have to get any better for this. 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:35.360 God's compassion for you and abundant pardoning of anything you've done or will do, currently doing, it is so abundant, it is spatial infinitude. 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:35.840 Right? 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:36.720 And what does that mean? 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:39.120 Goes on forever. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:47.440 And we know this in Jesus, this God incarnate who comes, and our sin is put upon the cross. 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:50.080 And his righteousness is given to us. 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:54.320 So we're forever beloved, forever, spatial infinitude. 00:11:58.159 --> 00:12:01.120 This year probably hasn't been the year you thought it would be. 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:03.120 I'm taking a guess at that. 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:11.039 Probably didn't expect last Christmas to be in a Christmas service this Christmas with all these constraints and stuff. 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:12.559 It probably looks different. 00:12:12.639 --> 00:12:15.919 Maybe even your Christmas traditions had to get changed around. 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:17.519 Maybe you're online. 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:21.840 And you would have never thought last year that you'd be watching a Christmas service online. 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:28.639 Maybe, maybe, maybe it's just another year feeling like you're not quite enough. 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:32.559 You're still carrying around some guilt of some sin. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:42.320 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, Jesus, for he will save his people. 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:46.639 And this Jesus is Emmanuel for you. 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:48.399 With us is God. 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:53.440 He is compassionate to you and abundantly pardoned. 00:12:54.720 --> 00:12:58.399 May we allow the scriptures to surprise us for who God is for us. 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:00.080 Let's pray together. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:06.080 God, thank you for your grace and your mercy to us, which we desperately need. 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:12.480 That you are a God of compassion and grace. 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:17.039 Help us to trust more in the great gift of Jesus. 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:18.000 Amen.