WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:07.440 So about 2,000 years ago, Caesar Augustus decided he was going to have a census. 00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:09.199 And so this was probably about money, right? 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:12.720 I mean, he wanted a census, see how many people so we can raise the revenues. 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:15.599 And so he declared everybody to return to their hometown. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:17.359 The story's starting to sound familiar. 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:20.879 And so Joseph up in Nazareth, he has to go down to Bethlehem. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:22.000 It's about 70 miles. 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:25.760 It's probably somewhere between, say, four to seven days of a journey. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:32.880 And so he's engaged to this girl named Mary, and she's pregnant, and they're not married, so you've got to see that this is somewhat of a scandal. 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:38.159 And so maybe this is a love-hate trip in terms of they get out of town, right? 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:54.560 Because I'm assuming there's some people in this religious setting that aren't looking too favorably upon their engagement situation with her pregnant, and they're not understanding Luke 1, that actually she became pregnant with the Son of God. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:58.479 And maybe for you, that's where, even, like I said before, that's where you tune out. 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:01.920 You're like stockings, presents, carols. 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:03.679 I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:10.159 Luke 1, uh a girl pregnant with the Son of God. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:12.480 I'm I'm I don't know about that. 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:24.400 So they head south, probably four to seven-day journey, and they make it down there and and uh they they get into town, into Bethlehem, and they're looking around, right? 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:27.359 Uh and and in after inn. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:30.959 Uh we don't know if this means does it mean you know, Hampton in a guest house. 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:33.599 I mean, so basically places to stay. 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:34.480 They're not available. 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:37.519 They can't, and they're needing their own little miracle, right? 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:40.319 We're all looking for a miracle. 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:46.640 And maybe you're here at even that Luke 1 miracle about the girl getting pregnant, and that's like, I'm not, I don't believe that miracle. 00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:48.640 Maybe you hear you say I don't even believe in miracles. 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:50.640 And I would say, well, entertain me. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:52.879 Like just entertain me a little bit. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:55.439 Because I think you do believe in miracles. 00:01:55.680 --> 00:02:21.759 Because I think we're all believing in a miracle, we're all needing a miracle, and whether you believe this miracle is gonna come outside of yourself, this redemptive miracle, that you're gonna, you're gonna, outside of yourself, you're gonna create some redemption out of your shame and your guilt and your inadequacy, um, all of the things that you know about yourself and you wonder if other people knew about them, could they really love me? 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:33.439 Your inability to love others more than yourself, your pride, your judgment towards others, and maybe you're secular and it's just hedonism, or maybe you're religious and it's prideful. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:35.039 Or maybe it's just never enough. 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:36.159 Nothing's ever enough. 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:39.360 And so it's like greed and it's envy and it's lust. 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:44.080 And we all need a miracle out of this. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:55.759 And so I don't know if you're believing in a miracle like Luke 1, or if you're believing in a miracle like that's gonna come out of yourself. 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:57.439 But you need a miracle. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:02:59.759 And you're believing in a miracle. 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:05.280 And the incarnation is the miracle of Christianity. 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:13.520 Him showing up, God showing up face to face with humanity after centuries of prophets and laws. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:17.360 So Joseph and Mary, they cruise into town, there's no room in the inn, right? 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:24.719 There's no Hampton Inn, there's no VRBO, they haven't sent ahead for the reservation, and they're looking for a place, and finally they find a stable. 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.879 That's what we assume a cave, something where animals are kept. 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:32.000 Real, really high-class place here. 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.879 And we know the story because the nativity scene is on your dining room table. 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:38.879 The one your grandmother gave you. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:42.560 You don't like it, you keep putting it out because she's gonna show up for dinner tonight. 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:43.599 She's next to you right now. 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:45.840 You feel a little awkward that I even mentioned it. 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:51.680 She's gonna notice actually that you moved it to the hallway table. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.000 Because it was on the dining room table last year, and now it's in the hallway table, and she's gonna notice that. 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:58.319 She's not gonna mention it, but she's gonna notice it. 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:01.520 Just don't move it to the workbench in the garage. 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:04.639 That's where the family's gonna have a huge tift. 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:13.439 So Mary has this baby boy, and she wraps this boy up in swadding clothes, and she places him in a manger, a feeding trough, right? 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:16.079 I had a feeding trough for animals, right? 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:19.439 And then the story shifts, and we see part of the story out. 00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:21.199 Uh and I and I've I've stood there. 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:31.439 I got I got to go to Israel maybe about five or six years ago, and I was standing in Bethlehem, and I was looking out over these fields, and it's these rolling hills where these shepherds would have had their sheep. 00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:35.600 And so there's shepherds out there, and they're watching over their flocks by. 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:36.959 Thank you. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:37.600 Good job. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:39.120 Great, fantastic. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:44.319 And these guys, these are the lowest of the low shepherds. 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:52.079 I mean, we can't, we kind of we I mean, the shepherd thing, because the New Testament talks about shepherds all the time, by the end of the New Testament, you're like, oh, shepherds are great, Jesus was a shepherd. 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.240 I mean, this is the lowest of low. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:58.480 These are dirty guys, these are guys with horrible reputations. 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:01.600 They're never allowed in the temple. 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:03.360 They're outcasts. 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:03.920 Right? 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:06.720 Like I know some of you, you would have fit in really great with these people. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:12.000 Like we would have all, actually, we would have all fit in really great with these people. 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:15.759 We just shower and dress nicer than these people. 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:18.879 But we're just like them. 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:20.959 Lowest of the low. 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:27.680 And so they're out there and they're watching over their sheep, and it is dead quiet, dead silent. 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:29.360 Right? 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:39.279 Like vacant of any noise, and they're sleeping, but their ears are so attuned to any noise because if they lose a sheep, they they lose income, right? 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:41.040 And so you can imagine this. 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:46.319 You're asleep, but you lose a sheep to some you know, thief, and you're losing income. 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:53.600 So you are asleep, but your ears are attuned to that twig that's broken like 400 yards down valley. 00:05:55.519 --> 00:06:01.120 And verse 9 of Luke 2 says, like, you know, like that, an angel appears in the volume. 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:05.759 The volume and the light goes from zero to a hundred. 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:08.319 And so, of course, they're afraid. 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:14.560 And it says in verse 9, the glory of the Lord shone all around them. 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:16.560 And so, yeah, they're afraid, you know why? 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:19.600 Because the glory of God exposes us. 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:34.000 All of our mass and pretending and performing and achieving, all the ways we escape. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:41.279 Our messy, fragile, sinful hearts are exposed. 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:43.600 Maybe here you say, not me. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:49.759 See, I'm not fragile, I'm not messy, I have my act together, I'm not sinful, I make my own way, I'm a good person, I'm a moral person. 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:52.399 Actually, you'd say, You should see my record. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:59.519 I have this self-righteousness record, and I keep a tab, I got it in my pocket, I could pull it out, I could tell you all about it. 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:01.199 And I was just reminded this week. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:07.680 I was reminded this week, I was listening to a sermon, and it was a kind of a QA thing, and somebody asked the question, and that was the question. 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:12.959 The guy was saying, hey, you know, I think I'm a pretty good person, and the response was, keep looking. 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:17.199 Like, just keep looking. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:25.360 I mean, because if you're saying that, you're like a blind man on the edge of the Grand Canyon saying you don't see a hole. 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:30.399 So let's jump into this passage, Luke 2, verse 10. 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:32.000 We're starting starting verse 10. 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:39.120 The angels are there, that volume has gone to full throttle, they're afraid, and the angel says, Do not be afraid. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:39.680 Right? 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:44.800 So, in the same moment you're exposed and you're afraid, the glory of God relieves you. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:46.319 Don't be afraid. 00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:51.279 I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:54.560 Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. 00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:56.560 He is the Messiah, the Lord. 00:07:56.720 --> 00:07:58.160 This will be assigned to you. 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:01.839 You will be you will find a baby wrapped in clothes, lying in a manger. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:15.600 Suddenly, a great company of heavenly hosts appeared with the angel praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:26.879 I read this last Monday, and I just thought, like, so peace comes by being in God's favor? 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:32.000 And I'm just going, I don't, I don't know if I'm in that club. 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:34.480 You know, I mean, do you know what I'm saying? 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:37.759 Like, I don't know if I'm a candidate for that. 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:42.320 I get impatient with my wife, I get impatient with my children. 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:44.000 Right? 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:50.320 I get I get angry, I get needy, and then I get religious, so I'm a pastor, so I get proud. 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:54.879 And then I think I'm kind of smart, so then I kind of have judgment over you. 00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:07.279 And then I sit in self-pity because of all that, which is another form of pride, and you just go, how could I be favored with all of this going on inside of me? 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:10.799 And maybe you look at your life and you know this feeling. 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:12.480 You know these feelings. 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:26.399 How could I be favored and this peace of God come to me because of your pastor, because of an addiction, because of a family situation, or that thing, that shame, and that feeling of inadequacy that doesn't go away because your situation of some sort. 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:27.840 Ah. 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:30.159 But he came to the shepherds. 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:33.759 He came to the shepherds. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:36.000 Lowest of the low. 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:42.960 That lowly, disreputable bunch. 00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:49.440 See, God comes for those who realize they can never come to him. 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:52.240 That's the way in. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:55.120 So here's the point. 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:58.159 The point is God favors you. 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:02.879 He doesn't just love you, he likes you. 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:07.200 But it's not based on your work for him. 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:10.960 It is based on his work on your behalf. 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:12.960 So let me say it another way. 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:18.720 Your favor before God is not based on your love for him, but based on his love for you. 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:27.600 Jesus is the incarnation, the incarnate love of God for us to know so we can know what he is like and what he thinks. 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:30.080 And what we see in Jesus. 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:37.600 I mean, our church spent about a year, over a year in the book of John, just looking at how does Jesus interact with people? 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:40.559 Man, he just loves people. 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:45.759 He loves a whole bunch of disreputable, lowly folks. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:11:06.639 So yesterday morning I was looking through Luke 1 and Luke 2, I was at the Starbucks up by my in-laws, and so I'm sitting at the table and I got my laptop open, I got my earbuds in, and I'm working, and the music going, and what I see play out is I see a lady, and she's not much far beyond my table. 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:10.000 I mean, she's just at the table beyond, and so she's just like five feet away. 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:16.399 And she's there waiting, and a guy walks in and he walks in, and they're both dressed casually, right? 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:20.240 And so he walks up and they she stands and they shake hands. 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:22.399 It's good, good to meet you. 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:29.759 And I'm going, all right, so it's like December 23rd, they're both dressed casually, but they shake hands. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:31.039 That was the curveball, right? 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:37.360 So this is, you know, it's a shake, but they're dressed casually, so it's probably not business, but they're so casually dressed. 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:41.200 And so so I'm just I'm nosed, I'm nosy and I'm curious. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:43.279 What is this playing out in front of me? 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:47.679 And so I don't take my earbuds out because I don't want them to know that I'm gonna listen in on all this. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:50.720 So I just I mute my music. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:56.960 And fortunately, they were right above my screen, so I didn't even have to like you know be looking over. 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:02.080 I mean, I was I was dead-eyed looking into their situation. 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:25.440 And so he starts talking, and he starts saying, Well, I I I was I'm from North Dakota, and then I moved to Texas, and then I was in Ohio a little bit, and now I'm in Georgia, and then she talks, and and she says, you know, I like to ski, and he says, Well, I like to water ski, and they're talking, and he's fidgeting, his feet are like in and out of the legs of the chair. 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:27.360 He can't quite figure out how to sit. 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:34.000 You know, he's like this, and he's like this, and he's like this, and it's like, am I engaged or like cool? 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:45.200 I mean, it's like back and forth, and and she's uh, you know, just kind of about every two minutes. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:13:00.559 And so finally I hear one of them say, Yeah, so I saw on your profile that, and then the other one says, Yeah, yeah, so when you messaged me and said, So, okay, so I'm putting it together, right? 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:07.840 Like this is the this is the this is the first date of a whole bunch of online interaction. 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:09.360 And I'm in the date. 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:12.080 Like, I mean I'm I'm with them. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:13.600 I'm online dating. 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:19.600 So I'm learning about them and all this. 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:24.080 But this meeting had to happen, right? 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:30.639 See, she's there, he has to show up. 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:42.879 Incarnation has to happen if there's ever a shot at real knowledge and real relationship. 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:56.240 See, God had to walk into the Starbucks and extend his hand to us for any shot of relationship to really happen. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:06.320 And he does it, not as a Starbucks, he does it in a stable and in a manger, surrounded by animals and surrounded by shepherds. 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:08.879 I mean, the most humble of ways. 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:10.080 Because here's why. 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:11.279 Listen, here is why. 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:19.039 Because he didn't come with a sword to slay you because of all your inability to live up to all of his standards. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:22.720 He came to extend his arms to you. 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:28.240 Do you see it? 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:30.080 This is what the incarnation is about. 00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:30.559 Do you see it? 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:38.159 Because what it's about, it is about he bent toward us as we are always bending away from him. 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:47.679 It is the only way for a sinful heart to be relieved and forgiven and freed and to be brought back to God. 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:50.000 Paul expounds on this in Ephesians. 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:50.639 I close with this. 00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:52.320 Ephesians 1, 7, and 8. 00:14:52.480 --> 00:15:05.919 In him, in Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us. 00:15:06.879 --> 00:15:11.919 So that word lavished, it just means it's just too much. 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:13.039 Right? 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.960 Like this is what we're all a lot of us are going to experience tomorrow morning. 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:21.120 This is gonna be some lavish amounts of gifts. 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:23.440 It's just too much. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:33.919 It's extravagant, it's out of control, it's over the limit, it's grace upon grace upon grace, it's never ending, it's forever. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:36.639 See, you and I were shepherds. 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:40.320 We're the lowly bunch out in the fields. 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:48.000 We're the lady at the Starbucks waiting, just hoping someone will show up to love us. 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:52.000 Will someone show up to love us? 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:53.600 And the answer is yes. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:55.759 The incarnation occurred. 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:58.080 That's what Christmas is about. 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:04.159 We need the riches of God's grace to pull us out of our perpetual poverty. 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:08.320 And this is how he gives peace to men. 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:16.720 That we are favored because he came toward us to live amongst us and to die for us. 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:18.320 Let's pray together. 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:34.399 God, we thank you that you come toward us even as we move away from you, and that in you we have the redemption of our blood. 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:38.399 We confess we love to try to pull miracles out of our own pockets. 00:16:39.759 --> 00:16:43.919 And for so many of us, we're exhausted trying. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:57.679 It is only by you and in you that we will have redemption, only by your blood, and in your blood that we have the forgiveness and the freedom that our hearts so desperately need. 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:02.320 Only by the riches of your grace toward us. 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:06.240 That you lavish on us. 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:08.799 Are we made whole?