WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:01.280 Well, good morning. 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:02.560 You may be seated. 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:05.679 So we're in our fourth week of Advent. 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:10.640 Advent is the season, the church season leading up to Christmas. 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:14.640 And so it's the last Sunday before Christmas Day. 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:17.600 The other night we walked out of a friend's house. 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:20.239 We were there for a Christmas party, and we walked out of our friend's house. 00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:21.199 It was really cold out. 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:28.079 I think it was about a week and a half ago or so where it was really, really got really cold, and it was really cold and it was really crisp and it was clear out. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:35.600 And we get outside, we walk down the driveway, and I had not done this for probably two months is kind of what I figured. 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:36.320 I looked up. 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:37.119 Have you ever done that? 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:38.960 You know, it was at nighttime, by the way. 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:40.880 But have you ever done that where it's just been months? 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:45.840 It's just actually been months, you know, and you had just have not looked up. 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:51.359 And it probably had been two months, and on this night it was really cold, really crisp, and really clear out. 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:55.200 And we're just walking the car, and I just I just happened to look up. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:59.840 And there's just there's just stars, just stars everywhere, right? 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:02.880 We tend to forget that they're all up there. 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:10.239 All of these stars, and I can't even see stars really where I live, thank you to Kennestone's really well-lit parking decks. 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:16.719 Um, but up there are all of these galaxies and nebulas, and I learned this week about the Eagle Nebula. 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:18.879 Anybody know about that Eagle Nebula? 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:19.359 No. 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:21.359 Okay, well, I learned, I'll tell you a little bit about it. 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:23.680 It's 7,000 light years away. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:30.719 So a light year, well, just to understand how fast light travels to review, uh I had to review, Googled a little bit. 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:36.879 And so light travels one second can go around the earth uh seven and a half times, okay, in one second. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:40.879 And so a light year is how fast light can travel in a year. 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:45.680 Not like a minute, you know, a minute would be 60 times seven and a half times around the earth. 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:47.280 And so we're going, oh wow, that's really far. 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:52.000 That's just a minute, not so we're talking hour, day, no, not a week, not a month, a year. 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:53.680 So how far can light travel in a year? 00:01:53.840 --> 00:02:01.519 And so then 7,000 of those away is this nebula, and it's filled with 8,100 stars. 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:08.639 What's incredible about this, as I was reading about, is this nebula is actually creating new stars. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:14.960 Like there's more stars coming out of this nebula that's that far away. 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:29.759 And then out of all the universe, there's somewhere around at 70,000 million, million, million stars, but there's more stars all the time going out, and then the universe in general is is growing. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:33.360 Now, what it's growing into, I don't know, right? 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:36.080 Like, how is the universe what's the universe growing into? 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:38.800 What is space growing into? 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:40.080 Like, what is that? 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:41.520 What's on the other side? 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:44.800 Uh it's just but we know it is expanding. 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:50.080 All right, so you get all that, and then you read something like Psalm 33, verse 6. 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.159 He breathed the word. 00:02:52.719 --> 00:03:00.000 So he breathed out the command, he breathed out the creativity, and all the stars were born. 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:07.280 So out of God's being and his creativity, yes, in the glorious process, we're yay science, we're not like anti-science, you know. 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:16.960 Out of the glorious process that's going on in the nebula, out of that, all those materials and that process, God breathed out of his intelligence and his creativity. 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:23.439 He breathed this process, this ability for this type of majesty to be occurring. 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:25.199 And I was amazed with myself. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:34.080 Last week, I had a Duraflame log and a lighter, and it took me 10 minutes, and I started a fire, and I stood back like I had really done something. 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:37.680 I had really, look what I have done in my home. 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:43.759 I have provided fire for my children, and we will gather around and read a Christmas story. 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:47.680 You know, I was so so impressed, so impressed with myself. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:54.400 70,000 million, million million stars, and there's more being added. 00:03:54.719 --> 00:04:00.879 And then I read this week science writer David Blattner, sure you're reading a lot of science writing this week. 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:22.800 He was saying also, so that many 70,000 million, million, million, if you take 10 drops of water, not big drops, not talking big drops, we're just talking like little baby little little eye drop drops, tiny little drops, 70,000 million, million, million molecules inside of 10 drops of water. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:26.000 See, we're sort of my point, we're surrounded by vastness. 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:33.920 Above us, around us, us, we we are incredibly designed. 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:37.759 We are, we walk in this brilliant design. 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:41.759 And this is just point number one before we get into this Matthew chapter one. 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:44.319 And this is point, God is beyond us. 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:49.839 We we can't always get our arms around around this imaginative, intelligent design. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:52.959 The universe is growing and we don't know what's growing into. 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:54.160 I can't get my arms around that. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:55.439 I have a hard time with that. 00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:57.040 He is beyond us. 00:04:57.120 --> 00:04:58.240 So there's some mystery here. 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:00.560 Can we just embrace a little mystery here? 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:10.639 Even if you're a mathematician, even if you're into science and logic and reason, I'm incredibly reasonable, but there's some mystery here that I can't quite get my brain around everything. 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:12.800 I can't Google everything, right? 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:15.040 Like I can't get everything. 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:26.319 And then we read this Matthew 1 that Rachel read to us about God coming into his design, Emmanuel. 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:41.759 So if there's something more than just the physicality of this world, if there is something more than just physicality, then can the designer choose to come into his design to reveal something, to help us with something? 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:48.959 And maybe this is how we can get our arms around a designer that can seem so beyond us. 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:54.399 Last week I was at home with my three-year-old little girl, just me, and it was her, just the two of us. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:55.360 It doesn't happen a lot. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:06:02.079 Asked her what she wanted to do, and I was thinking more like, hey, go color in the playroom and I'll do some chores. 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:04.879 Like I'll be productive and you'll color. 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:07.839 This was my idea of quality time. 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:09.839 It was not her idea. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.000 She had already broken out this little guy here. 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:15.759 Oh, not that thing. 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:18.639 She'd already broken this out for us. 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:22.720 It's brighter than it used to be, Candyland. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:24.720 It's a little bit brighter. 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:26.240 Same premise. 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:27.920 It's not real bright. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:29.120 It's not it's not real smart. 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:30.160 It's not a smart game. 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:32.560 It's not risk, it's not trivial pursuit. 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:34.959 The peppermint pass is the big moment. 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:37.279 Like that's really the big moment of the whole game. 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:39.279 And it's right at the beginning, to tell you the truth. 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:40.319 Right at the beginning. 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:42.399 Either you hit it or you don't, and it's over. 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:42.959 That's it. 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:45.279 Peppermint pass, that's the big moment. 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:52.879 But in a miracle, in a miracle, I get on the floor and play Candyland. 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:55.519 And it's brainless. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:56.720 I know, it's brainless. 00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:58.160 She's convinced she's good. 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:00.720 She's pulling like double oranges, double blues. 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:02.560 I'm like single blue, single orange. 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:04.000 I mean, but she's killing it. 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:06.879 She is killing it after one after the other. 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:08.560 She's killing it. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:26.319 And I'm slowly learning, what I'm slowly learning is in these moments, with my three-year-old, which by the way, yesterday, uh, she also is walking around the house uh cheerfully singing, oh, don't let us adore you. 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:31.600 Just as as sincere of a heart as you could. 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:36.639 Child number one, we would have taken her to a counselor. 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:45.759 Child number two, we would have had like Christy's mom's group come lay hands on her and her future and the covenant family of God, and is it secure? 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:48.720 Child three, we just laugh and she's walking around. 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:49.600 Don't let us. 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.800 We're not gonna adore him for Christmas, we're not gonna do it. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:54.879 So we're playing Candyland. 00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:57.920 She's killing it, double blue, double orange. 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:01.199 She's convinced she's so much better than me at this game. 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:03.040 I'm getting a little upset, I'll be honest. 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:04.079 I'm not liking this. 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:04.720 I'm not. 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:10.560 I would like to be at least even with her and then let her win just at the last moment, but I don't like being demolished. 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:12.720 Peppermint pass already occurred. 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:14.240 I don't get to have that break. 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:17.600 So here I am in this moment, and I'm learning. 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:18.639 I'm learning. 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:20.879 I need to sell out to these moments. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:26.800 And I'm and I say learning because if this happened yesterday, me and Candyland with my little girl, it probably wouldn't have happened. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:27.839 I was moody yesterday. 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:30.560 I don't know, it was rainy, I don't know, Christmas funk. 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:34.559 I woke up, I was moody, probably wouldn't have gotten on the floor and played Candyland yesterday. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:40.879 But in this moment, I was on the floor and I'm learning, I need to sell out fully in. 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:46.799 No exit strategy, no cell phone on the side, like she doesn't see it. 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:48.000 You know, none of that. 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:49.360 Fully in. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:53.120 And what I'm talking about is coming into her world. 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:54.000 That's her world. 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:55.840 Candyland's her world. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:00.799 It's the same thing when I was 10 years old, and I'd ride my schwin down, schwin. 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:02.159 Anyone have a schwin? 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:06.159 It's just a fun word to say, by the way, schwin, if you're depressed, just say that a few times. 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:07.679 It'll spark you up. 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:12.559 All right, so I'd ride my schwinn down to the tennis courts, and my dad would play tennis several times a week. 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:18.080 And I'd ride down there 30 minutes before his match, and he would play tennis with me for 30 minutes. 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:23.120 And he was a grown man, and I was a 10-year-old boy, and he was so much better than me at tennis. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:26.399 But he acted like those games were everything. 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:30.639 And to me, that meant everything, right? 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:34.639 Because for so much of my life, my dad's untouchable, right? 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:37.440 He's a grown-up in a grown-up world. 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:39.120 But this is incarnation. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:40.000 This is what I'm talking about. 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:42.320 I'm talking about incarnation, candy land, tennis, whatever. 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:45.840 I'm talking about incarnation, coming into somebody's world. 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:52.080 Incarnation is the act of being made flesh for someone to know you. 00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:58.720 And now I'm on the floor playing Candy Land, I'm accessible. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:00.480 Or my dad's playing tennis with me. 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:01.919 He's accessible. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:06.879 See, it's a movement of love, is what incarnation is. 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:12.399 And so verse 23 of Matthew 1, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:14.320 Emmanuel, we sing it all the time, right? 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:15.679 We say it all the time around Christmas. 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:18.879 Emmanuel, which means God with us. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:20.080 This is point number two. 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:24.799 Point number one was God is beyond us, but point number two is God is with us. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:26.799 He breathed the stars. 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:27.440 I don't get it. 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:29.279 The whole universe growing, don't get it. 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:31.120 But Emmanuel is something I can get. 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:39.120 I can look at the person of Jesus and see how he loved people and treated people and what he did with his life, that he was our substitute on the cross. 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:43.360 He took all of our shortcomings, our sin and our shame, and it's on him. 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:45.759 And he gives us his righteousness. 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:49.519 We're made beloved and we're secure by his work and not my work. 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:57.919 So tomorrow I wake up free to honor him, free to honor him, and not tied into a moralistic religious thing, but just gratitude. 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:04.320 And if I screw up, I'm forgiven for it, and I can just, I'm right, I'm still secure as a child. 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:10.000 I can look at that, I can look at him, at Jesus. 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:13.600 So this name Jesus, by the way, is a common name back then. 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:14.879 It's the name Joshua. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:21.360 Joshua is this guy in the Old Testament who helps the people become free from their slavery and from wandering. 00:11:21.519 --> 00:11:22.320 Anybody need that? 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:27.600 Does anybody need freeing from slavery and from just feeling like you're wandering about? 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:29.919 And that's what Joshua did in the Old Testament. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:33.360 And then Jesus gets the name Jesus, but there's lots of boys named Jesus. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:34.879 There's lots of boys named Joshua. 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:37.679 This name Emmanuel is something different. 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:40.399 Nobody was given this name. 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:45.360 I mean, this is like me, this is like me having a boy in the name of Abraham Lincoln Masterson, right? 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:52.080 Like just like a little pressure, just a little, to live up to a standard of doing some good things with your life. 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:57.679 I mean, this is this is saying so much more of a child than anybody would dare to dream. 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:07.919 And what these names together they say to us about this child is that God is present and God is freeing. 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:19.759 And Mary would have heard this, all this, this story for her would have meant everything because for centuries prophets had been talking about how God would come amongst her people. 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:23.600 And the prophets are speaking for God all through the Old Testament. 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:36.720 You have all these, you have the minor prophets and the major prophets, and they're speaking out to this tribe, Mary's people, and they're telling how that one day God will come amongst them, and God will come for them, but also for all people. 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:39.759 And Mary's people weren't perfect, far from perfect. 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:41.519 That's the great thing about reading the Old Testament. 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:44.399 It's so far from perfect. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:59.200 They complain, they worship other gods, they fight their own fights, they go by their own logic and their own reasoning, and they get captured, they get ran off by the Assyrians and taken, and they get Babylonians and the Romans, and then this little tribe. 00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:02.240 They're beggars at times, they're in exile at times. 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:12.320 Through Cyrus and Ezra, they come back into their own land, they're taken over by Alexander the Great, taken over by the Greeks, taken over by the Romans, and they had a rough run of it. 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:18.480 And all the time the prophets are speaking to them and saying to them, hey, you're loved and you're precious, you're far from perfect. 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:19.279 You need to repent. 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:21.279 You're trying to self-save and run your own life. 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:22.799 You're far from perfect. 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:25.200 You screw things up big time. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:26.159 You need to see it. 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:26.720 Do you see it? 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:27.840 That's what the prophets are saying. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:29.039 I just summed up all the prophets. 00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:29.440 There you go. 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:30.799 You don't have to read all of them. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:32.080 That's what it is. 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:36.399 And these people have all this stored up in them, this history. 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:45.600 And then from Malachi, the last prophet in the Old Testament, to these words coming to Mary, 400 years. 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:47.519 They've been waiting. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:48.960 No prophet. 00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:50.639 Nothing. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:52.080 Just distance. 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:54.080 Silence. 00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:58.080 When, God, where will the relief come? 00:13:58.240 --> 00:13:59.279 Anybody's ever felt like that? 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:00.399 Where would the relief come? 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:01.440 When will the relief come? 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:05.200 That's what these people have lived with for 400 years. 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:07.360 And then this happens. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:09.360 You're greatly favored. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:11.600 You're gonna have a son. 00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:14.000 This is gonna be the rescue for your people. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:16.000 It's gonna be the rescue for all people. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:20.480 God with his people. 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:25.039 My grandmother granny died a few months ago. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:26.639 It was a stressful week for us. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:27.919 I have to talk some about it. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:32.960 We hosted my whole family in our house, in a couple houses right around us. 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:36.639 And so that meant all the meals for about three or four days were at our house. 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:44.080 And so Christy's organizing, like where people are sleeping, is there's sheets there and towels there and food there, and then also food in our house, and all the meals at our house. 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:46.639 And then I'm I'm the minister for the week. 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:49.919 And so I'm you know planning the funeral and handling the funeral. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:55.120 So I'm grandson, I'm son, I'm brother, and I'm doing the minister thing. 00:14:55.200 --> 00:15:06.240 And I show up to the funeral on that day, and uh you're showing up as a all these different roles, it's it's weird sometimes, and but I got in my mind every I just have to execute. 00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:08.799 I have to execute as a it's an execution type of day. 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:13.759 Like you gotta execute all these things to do, and I'm in charge to make sure it runs. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:36.480 And so I'm showing up sort of in that mindset, and I get up on uh the stage there, the the funeral home, uh chapel, big holy chair up front, and she loves those holy chairs, and I get to sit in the holy chair, and uh you know, so separate from everybody else, we're different, and so sitting up there and just running through everything I need to do. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:38.799 There's not a lot of people there, not a lot. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:42.000 My grandmother was it was 93 years old when she passed away. 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:44.080 A lot of her friends had already passed. 00:15:44.320 --> 00:16:02.320 So a lot of my mom's friends were there, a lot of some family friends, and I get up to do the introduction, and I stand and I look out, and and back in the back was my friend Brian and my friend Kevin. 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:08.720 They're indicator, 45 minutes from here, they're suited up. 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:12.240 They go 45 minutes, they barely know my grandmother. 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:13.679 Right? 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:21.840 And they're there and they're suited up to exist in a space with me. 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:24.879 That's incarnation. 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:28.399 To come into somebody's world. 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:29.919 Right? 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:36.000 This is the profound truth of Emmanuel, that God would come into your world. 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:40.799 And I told Christy after the funeral, I said, you know, I I never, I missed it. 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:43.919 I don't know, maybe I wasn't taught it, maybe I just I missed it. 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:49.440 I missed why you go to a friend's family member's funeral. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:51.120 I never got it. 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:55.440 And you go because of incarnation is why you go. 00:16:55.679 --> 00:17:06.079 Even you you might not even know, you don't know that person who passed away, but you show up for your friend because showing up, the incarnation, showing up means everything. 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:10.079 To play Candyland means everything. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:15.759 Because to go into another person's space is an act of love. 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:21.519 This is why Christmas is the place where we know God's love is not abstract, it's not just a philosophy. 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:32.480 God makes it concrete for us to know in a person, in physicality, in Jesus, to reveal to you that in all things He's chosen to be present. 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:39.440 And Jesus, yes, he dies, he resurrects, and then we have the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit that lives in us. 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:56.640 And so whether the human emotion of the day is like feeling it and connected, or whether you're moody and you're sort of huffy or not, we don't always have to wake up every day and just take like the temperature, our spiritual temperature and our moral temperature, and then base our validation, our standing before God on that. 00:17:56.880 --> 00:18:05.920 We get to base it on, oh, there's a concrete love that came toward me 2,000 years ago in the person of Jesus, and his work is what I base today on. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:09.680 And I'll be moody and huffy today, but I'm secure by his work. 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:10.960 And you know what happens? 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:12.480 The heart gets freed. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:15.440 Transformation starts to begin. 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.960 And sometimes you'll be moody and sometimes you won't. 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:22.960 But you're secure because God is always with you. 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:24.559 The Spirit of God lives in you. 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:26.799 Do you remember the story in John 4? 00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:29.359 We talk about it a good bit here. 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:31.200 There's this poor woman. 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:34.079 This poor woman, and she's at a well during a day. 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:38.720 Being at a well during a day, and back in the ancient times, was it was an odd thing because it was hot. 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:42.079 You didn't go to draw your water during the day. 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:45.519 That's so the fact that she's there during the day, she's probably hiding. 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:48.000 Like she's she's she's ashamed. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:50.720 She wants to avoid people. 00:18:50.880 --> 00:19:00.160 And then Jesus, as a Jew, is there and she's a Samaritan, and these two races, the Jews were on the social status way above the Samaritans. 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:09.519 And so Jesus, when he speaks to her, this is a step of love toward her, and he asks her, he says, Hey, will you give me a drink? 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:11.279 And she's like, Hold on. 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:14.079 Like, first off, somebody's speaking to me, and he's a Jew. 00:19:14.240 --> 00:19:15.599 Why would a Jew speak to me? 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:17.279 And she's going, Do you know who I am? 00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:20.240 Do you know that I don't have it together? 00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:27.759 I'm not religious elite, I'm the wrong race, I'm the wrong look, I'm the I'm the failure, I'm the ashamed one. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:36.640 If you knew Jesus, you wouldn't move toward me because nobody would move toward me if they really knew me. 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:37.680 Right? 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:40.319 She speaks all of our fears there in John 4. 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:42.160 But he knew. 00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:43.920 He knew everything. 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:50.960 And he knows everything about you how exhausted you are, how broken you are, all the way you cover up, you cover that up so people don't see it. 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:51.839 But he knows all that. 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:54.720 He knows why you cover up, and he knows the thing behind that. 00:19:55.440 --> 00:20:04.160 He knows why you're a control freak or you're you're you're apathetic or you're an approval junkie or why you're considering that affair that's gonna cause so much destruction. 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:05.680 He knows about all that. 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:17.039 He he knows how and why I hold my cards really close to my chest with people, and I let people think they know me, but I'm I don't really let them know me, and I'm not sure if I want to let them know me. 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:20.960 And he knows how I do that and why I do that. 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:28.880 And he knows, and he stays because he manuel. 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:31.119 God is with us. 00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:35.519 And point number three there in verse 21 God is for us. 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:44.559 He will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:48.640 Newsbreak, you and I, we're not perfect. 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:50.480 We are sinners. 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:52.640 Your sweet Nana. 00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:55.200 Sweet Nana's a sinner. 00:20:55.920 --> 00:20:56.559 Newsbreak. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:01.279 Sweet, your sweet little baby, sweet little baby, sinner, okay, sinner. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:04.960 Um Donald and Hillary, sinners. 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:05.440 Okay? 00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:08.160 We're not gonna we're not gonna take sides just saying both. 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:09.279 Both are sinners. 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:11.200 Sorry to break the news. 00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:15.359 Your liberal Facebook posting cousin, she's a sinner. 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:20.000 Also, your moralistic judgmental mother, sinner, both. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:21.599 Both are sinners. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:24.960 Truett Kathy, not a sinner. 00:21:25.119 --> 00:21:26.240 Not, he's not. 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:30.240 Not a sinner. 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:32.319 Everybody else. 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:34.160 Everybody else is a sinner. 00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:35.519 Except Truett. 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:38.319 Even Truett's a sinner. 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:44.000 We don't know how yet, nobody knows, but somewhere, somehow. 00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:51.920 And Jesus takes us past our behaviors, and he takes us into our hearts. 00:21:52.559 --> 00:22:01.839 And that's why it doesn't matter how how kind and great somebody looks, they're still a sinner because there's stuff going on in our hearts that are not honorable. 00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:07.920 We act kindly to somebody, but in our hearts we're judgmental why nobody else is kind to that person. 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:16.720 Out of a hurting, scrambling, frazzled heart comes harmful behaviors. 00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:20.160 Out of a sinful heart comes sinful behaviors. 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:22.640 And all of this is self-saving. 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:42.079 Whether we're self-saving by running from God and doing our own thing in a hedonistic way, or whether we're self-saving in a religious way, and we're going to build our own report of righteousness to hand to God, either way is rebellion from God saying to you, I'm the Savior. 00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:49.920 And the good news is you don't have to work or achieve your way out of your shame. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:52.240 The good news is you don't have to be your own savior. 00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:55.279 It's an exhausting, it's a role you can't play. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:05.599 And Jesus came to take our sin upon himself in that great exchange of humility and love toward us, where he fulfills all justice. 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:07.759 Fully just God. 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:11.200 And he's taking on all of our sin. 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:29.599 So there's no gap between us and God, there's no relational disconnect, that the Spirit of God can reside in us, and it's not by our work that's ever been done in the past or today or the future, but the work Jesus has done for us, so we are fully secure, righteous children of God. 00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:36.720 So, my brothers and sisters, may you know that God is beyond you and He is with you and He is for you. 00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:38.880 Jesus Emmanuel. 00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:40.160 Let's pray together. 00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:57.119 God, thank you that while we cannot move toward you, and we are dead in our sin and self-saving methods, you came and you continue to come toward us. 00:23:59.119 --> 00:24:02.480 And that while we are still sinners, you died for us. 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:07.119 We thank you for Emmanuel, the incarnation. 00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:11.440 That while you're beyond us, you chose to be with us. 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:20.400 Would you help us with our faith as we love to turn to our own word? 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:24.240 Would you help us do that? 00:24:25.839 --> 00:24:33.599 Place faith in you greater trust in you with a greater word of Jesus. 00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:38.160 Open our hearts. 00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:44.319 In Jesus' name we pray.