ADVENT | Joy - Pastor Scott Silcox

We trace Luke 2 to show how God reclaims “good news” from empire, centers the marginalized, and moves toward people with joy that transforms fear into praise. We call for a response—worship, proclamation, or transformation—and invite those ready to surrender to step forward.

• Luke’s commission and the reframing of euangelion
• Bethlehem over Rome, shepherds over elites, a baby over conquest
• Joy as the person of Jesus, not circumstance
• God initiating and breaking into ordinary spaces
• Prophecy, continuity with the Old Testament patterns
• An everyone gospel widening to include Gentiles
• Moving toward cultural fires with hope and truth
• Three responses to Jesus: worship, proclamation, transformation

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting Up Luke’s Lens;
• 2:40 Reading Luke 2:8–20;
• 5:05 Reclaiming Good News From Empire;
• 9:10 Bethlehem, Shepherds, And A Baby;
• 13:20 Hope For The Marginalized;
• 18:35 God Moves Toward Humanity;
• 22:40 Heaven Breaks Into Ordinary Life;
• 27:00 Stay Awake To Prophecy And Hope;
• 31:00 An Everyone Gospel For Gentiles;
• 35:40 Old Patterns, New Fulfillment;
• 40:10 Joy As The Mark Of Encounter;
• 44:30 From Routine To Revival;
• 48:10 Move Toward The Fire, Not Away;
• 51:20 Your Freedom Fuels A Global Story;
• 55:00 Worship, Proclamation, Transformation;
• 1:00:00 Invitation, Prayer, Next Steps;
• 1:04:50 Blessing And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv. Now join us for a message from Pastor Scott Silcox.

SPEAKER_01: 0:19

So I need to talk about this. If you have your Bibles, I want you to open up to Luke. And we're going to chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2, this is amazing. I want you to try to get in this way of thinking, though. Like, because it's going to be very, very important for us to understand this. It's to understand that Luke has been commissioned to write this book. Right? He's being commissioned. Do you know what I mean when you've been commissioned? My mother-in-law's here, she's an artist, and if there's ever to be commissioned to do an art piece, you you would sit down with the client, you would discuss what that needed to be, and then the artist would take all that information, and then through that expression of their art, they would bring to life that that was talked about, right? That is exactly what has happened in every book of the Bible. They are commissioned through the Holy Spirit to tell his story. No, this is a a commissioned piece of work through the Holy Spirit to declare the word of the Lord. And it really matters because the way Luke frames it is different than the way Matthew frames it. And that's not to say that they're offsetting, but it's to say that there is a richer story. There is one, like when you look at a jewel or a diamond, right? Depending on where the light hits, it reflects differently. It's the same way when we read the word, the way the Holy Spirit reflects through the man and the people writing, what happens? Is it it reflects in a new light? Something else is revealed. So what is revealed in in Matthew is is is mankind pursuing Jesus. But not in Luke. And this is interesting because, and this should matter to all of us because Luke is commissioned to tell a story that gives hope to the Gentile. And that that life, that freedom, that peace, that joy, that salvation is for everyone. And that is different because Luke frames in the Christmas Advent account. He frames it in in a way where Christ is pursuing us. Now you say, well, what in the world does that have to do with anything? Well, if you think for a second, like most everybody in here, the best I can tell, needed Luke to give this kind of clarity. This is your Christmas story. This is the one written for us specifically. And for us to lean in and to capture what is Luke trying to get across. And I'm going to read through that because we're going to talk about the uncommon way that he presents it. And I think it's fascinating, and I think you will too, but we'll go through the scripture first. So Luke 2, verse 8. And we're going to go through verse 20. So just bear with us. We've got a few screens to go through for this. And it says this, 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. Verse 12. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God, and they're saying this, Glory to God in the highest on earth, peace among those whom he has pleased. And when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which is the Lord, uh excuse me, which the Lord has made known to us. Verse 16, and they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And then they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told to them concerning the child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told to them. Classic Christmas story, right? Everybody knows it, everyone's read it, we lived it, we experienced it. You have a card about it, right? You've seen cantata after cantata, right? You've seen your kids go through it, you've been in. How many have been in a Christmas play before? Right? Why aren't y'all on this one? All this experience out here, and yet you're here and not just heads up. Next year. Next year's your year, right? Or maybe you're mortified, right? Because you aren't good at it. You know, and you sometimes you don't know until you get in the middle of it, right? And you're like, I just think it's so awesome. And then you get up there and there's the fear of the you can't see the people, the lights are on, you start to choke up. I can't remember my lines. Anybody? Some of us have it natural, some of us do not, right? The stress. People that did it because they thought it was gonna be fun now, don't like Christmas at all anymore. Right? Right? I mean you've I mean that's just that's the experience. It happens. It happens. We've heard the story, but I I want to I want to point out a couple things that Luke mentions, and and I'll I'll go to this one. The very first thing he talks about is good news. And I want to talk about this. Euangelion. Euangelion is the Greek word for good news. Now, this is important because Luke uses this, and we will skip over this like it's just like, oh no, no, good news. Yeah, the good news, Jesus is coming. No, no, no, you don't understand. The use of this word is very specific because what Luke is gonna do, he's gonna reclaim a word. This is a Greek word that is that is gonna turn around, like even to Augustus, uh, there is inscriptions written about him, about him being uh Euangelion, the Savior of the world. If if you took this word at its original like meaning, it is to announce, it's the announcement of a victory in battle, the proclamation of a new king, right? It's the birth or ascension of a new what? Emperor. See, in in the context of what Luke is writing, he realizes that when his readers are gonna read that and think one thing, but what Luke's gonna do is totally reframe it. Now, this is what makes the gospels so like like really tough. This is really what got them hunted later. What gets them uh in a place where they're gonna be persecuted is that they're claiming things that are usually reserved for, right? The the empire and not in this new movement. And so Luke just he breaks all the rules and he takes the word and he says, I'm reclaiming it, and this is what he does. He gives it new location, a new audience, and new content. It's so risky. Turns around and says, I'm taking that from you, and this is what I'm gonna do. It's the new location, it's not Rome, it's Bethlehem. This is what he says. It's not like you're looking for, you're look, the last time we heard a prophecy 400 years ago was that Christ was gonna come, right? We get we get John the Baptist who shows up, we talked about that just last week, who's declaring the good news. He's that new prophetic voice. And then this is what Luke says. I'm gonna document this so that everyone is clear. The kingdom you're looking for isn't going to come in Rome. It's not an overthrow of the government, it is something rising from Bethlehem. The second piece where he changes the audience, which you can't see because the piano. You can't see it, but it says, shepherds to elites. What would have been elitist language, those people would have understood. Christ says, I'm gonna reveal myself to the shepherd. Luke is clearly taking us off course of what the societal norm should be. And he's saying, I'm gonna reframe that for you. And the third one is this a content, and that is this it's not a conquest, it's a baby. Wake up, Israel. Wake up, world. You're looking for an overthrow. Even right now, let's just stop right here. We're looking for something to overthrow our world, our society, our culture. We need something to break through. And sadly, we're keep waiting for someone to legislate that. We keep waiting for somebody that will just show up on the scene that will have some convictions. But we don't want the convictions, we just need a leader that has convictions. This this Luke is telling us like, hey, good news for you. The good news is this, is there's something that is possible. There's something you can wrap your heart around, and it's not gonna look like conquest. It's gonna look like a baby. A little baby. I mean, because you have a more is there an extreme any further? We want a warrior that rides in and just wreaks havoc on the world. Who through, and I'll just tell you, they were hoping violent. Can you imagine? Your entire people group are praying for a violent takeover. Violence done to us, violence given back, violence is what we're looking for. Violently take it and then give it to us so that we can rule and reign. That's our hope. And Luke says, I'm taking this and I'm gonna reframe it for you. Not only are you not gonna get a violent revolt, you're getting a baby. Now, if you've had children, they're similar. Because it can feel like a violent revolt, can't it not? Come on, if you have any children, you know, bud. Screaming all during the night, Maria? You ain't slept but 30 minutes in the last week. Just taking stuff from you. What he says, it's just it's a baby. It's a baby. Here's what Luke is saying, top line right here. He's saying, the empire has good news, but God has better news. This is the this is the flag Luke is waving. When we read the Christmas story, we can't just tune out. You can't just you don't tune out. Pay attention. This is Luke trying to tell you there the empire has news, but our God has something greater. It's an invitation. Uh let's talk about what Luke is trying to get at. What is Luke trying to say? Luke emphasizes the lowly, the marginalized, and the overlooked. I mean, we could somebody in here needs to just hear this. Is that when you think you're trying to get yourself ready to receive or to walk with Christ, he's inviting you to this idea. You ain't never gonna be ready for that. You're not gonna be good enough. Here is the other framework I love Luke does. He he's trying to show us is that that not only is Christ coming, but he's gonna show himself to the shepherds. The shepherds? The the the lowest rank. They can't even be trusted, that says. Commentators will tell you that that it was such an unconventional approach because who are we talking about? But what is he saying? I'm making myself available for those on the fringes. There's many of us who who who are always anybody have a justice person in your home? Do you know what I mean when I say a justice person in your home? Somebody that that that can find can find the marginalized anywhere? Jenny? It just don't even matter. It could be about popsicles. It could be, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You don't get two popsicles, not everybody's had the popsicle, justice. I mean, you've seen it. Huh? And then it and then it and it spreads out to every imaginable thing where it's where if you feel like something's wrong, you you have a voice for it. And this is this is good, this is healthy. And I'm and I'm here to tell you is that Christ, when you're sitting around thinking, like, where is he? Is he asleep on the clock? And where is God? When you look at our society, when you look at the rise of anti-Synitism, when you look at the hate and the anger, when you look at the frustration, when you look at the wrong. Some of you have jobs where you sit all day seeing what's wrong with humanity. Do you know how hard it is to sit hour after hour after hour after hour listening to testimonies of kids and adults and things where humans have just tried to destroy each other? And you try to go home and sleep on that. And the thing in you, the justice in you, is like, where is God? Where is God? If you lead with that's not fair. When you when you when you listen to the news and you're just like, that's not fair. That's not right. When you get on social media and you have you have to literally get off before you explode. Come on. The thing starts to rise. I've got good news. This is who he came for. I'm I would like to also, I've I started adding this to my prayer. I I pray this personally. There are times where I get compassionate or are passionate. Sometimes it's compassionate, sometimes it's just fiery passion. And then I have to stop myself and remind myself that I'm acting as if I have a greater compassion for the lost than Christ has. I start to pray prayers as if he is asleep. I start to I start to assume that I have a greater heart for the lost than he has. Or that his care for people is diminished, and thank God I'm around to help lift this load with you. And yeah, that sounds nuts to say out loud. And nobody would say it. No one's crazy enough to say it, but that doesn't mean we're not acting on it oftentimes. That's when you start to think you're the best prayer person. Well, well, somebody's got to get in here and pray. Well, as if God doesn't know what's going on. The intercessor. Ever making intercession for us. I just don't want to get my pride in the way. Amen? Can anybody follow me on this? What are we saying? What are we saying here? It's really, it's this the kingdom begins where no one is looking. Isn't that great? The kingdom begins where no one's looking. How do we know? Where does he where does he start? Luke, the barren elderly couple. Who's looking for new life in the barren elderly couple? I mean, come on. Right? It sounds funny. Like, oh, a elderly couple, hundred years old, doesn't have a baby. Who's going to them for baby advice? Encouragement. New life conversation. Probably nobody. Luke's talking about it. Why? He's showing us something. Pay attention. What else is he showing? A teenage girl. A teenage girl. What are we what's more vulnerable than a teenage girl who's never been with a guy? And yet, there he shows up. How about this one? A little town Nazareth. You guys ever been there? Right. It's a know-nothing town. And in the middle of that, there he shows up. What do we see? Luke is trying to show us something. Right? He cares about. He is identifying with those that are on the fringes. He sees us. If I could maybe just sum it up like he sees us. I think there are people in this room who just feel like they haven't been seen. Even the play talks about that. Isn't that great? But I won't tell you anymore because I don't want to spoil it. Right? But talks about that idea of like, where am I? Do you even see me? And here's the answer to that. Luke is saying, no, he sees you so much so, he's coming to the marginalized folks. He goes to shepherds, the least likely, to witness anything like this. Why? I told you earlier. They just couldn't even be trusted. They didn't have a valued voice. If you're gonna herald good news of a new kingdom, here's who you don't give it to: the shepherds. You don't give it to them because they're out in a field. They're not even mixing it up in the city. They're out there just dealing with a bunch of dumb animals. Hurting animals. You're not gonna herald good news to the four-year-old classroom teacher. They're hurting animals back there. Come on. You ain't going to receive life from the four-year-old teacher today. That person's on fumes after this service. You don't deliver the good news. If I'm to announce that we have this special guest, I don't start in the four-year-old room. No, we get up on the stage, we put a microphone on somebody, and we start heralding. And then we start looking for the people who have who have respect and leadership and authority, voices we can trust. And yet, this isn't at all how our Savior came. He chose the shepherds? Good night, the shepherds, Lord. He had to have known something. Luke Luke knew it too. All right, I I gotta go fast. All right, so um. What's he trying to say? Luke is highlighting, he highlights joy as a dominant theme. So this is different than Matthew. Luke says the dominant theme in what I'm going to write about, the very beginning of my book, when I tell the story I've been commissioned to write by the Holy Spirit, I want everyone that reads this to get a prominent theme of joy. There is joy. I'm saying it, and you're like, what? We don't just look, look, look. Elizabeth, when she receives the message, she what? Rejoices. What else do we have? Mary magnifies the Lord. She's completely unknown. I don't know what's happening. I just have to trust it. But what is her response? I magnify the Lord. In the thing that she can't see, touch, feel, she doesn't know. And yet her natural response is to magnify the Lord. Zachariah prophesies the goodness of God. The angels proclaim great joy. Shepherds return praising God. Now they started in fear. You remember that? Fear not. Is that that always the angel has to enter with fear not? Right? Fear not. Don't run. Don't scatter. Don't freak out. Am I the only one that can relate to that? There's some times where I lead with fear. We've been asking for God to show up. We want heaven's approval and for him to show himself, and when he does, we're just like, no, I don't want it. It's too scary. Can you you know what I'm talking about? Like just fear. And I love it where right, the angel just moves past that. Fear not. I'm bringing you good news. There's a joy that you don't know you're looking for. And I'm putting it on the radar. This is Luke telling us today. Hey, there's a joy you're looking for, you don't know. You think the joy is in your job. You think the joy is in something on the outside, trying trying to find that. But but my my my bet is that is like a circumstantial joy. If you get your way, then you'll be happy, and that's not the same thing. Getting my way is not what he's trying to do. Joy is a person. It's not an event. It's a person. So this is what he's trying to communicate. What else is he trying to say? Luke is trying to say what? Luke shows a God who moves towards humanity. Now I love this. This is very important for us to understand because the world would want you to believe that you have to find him. The world wants you to believe you have to chase down the in fact. Some of us have come here today thinking you're chasing God, but I'm telling you, he's been chasing you from the beginning. He's playing hide and seek like my little girl plays hide and seek. Because she she does this. If I can't see you, you can't see me. And this is so oftentimes we we we do this too. It's really funny. When there's sin in our life, we respond to the Lord that way. Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves as though they were not. Maybe we'll blend in. Isn't that great? Self-protection, right? Maybe we'll just blend in. Don't say anything. Adam, where are you? Eve. Don't say nothing. Right? Just little leaves covering. What are we doing here? This is oftentimes how we respond. But but on the reverse side, I believe it's this is very much like this is the Lord making it so easy to be found. Is what I'm trying to say. He's so present. And in fact, I don't know about you, can anybody can anybody testify to this that when you came to Christ, it felt like all of my past came into like crystal clear. And I mean I I I gotta be careful because maybe it's not every every time it's like this, but I would say a lot of times, like in reflection of God pursuing me and me responding to him, my past started to come into to to view where I was able to see he'd been there. Where I was like, oh, that's you were right there. Oh, oh, you were you were getting my attention right there. And I wasn't seeing it. And and you provided a way out right there. And oh, I didn't do that. I mean right, oh, there was my way of escape. Ooh, that's five years gone. Can anybody relate? Oh that that was my that was my opportunity, and it was right there. And this is the Lord. When we come to him, he starts to reveal that to us. I've been present. I've been present and with you. This is what Luke's trying to say. He says this. He says, Luke reveals God who initiates and breaks through our reality. Angels come to fields, the spirit fills Mary, Elizabeth, Zachariah, Simeon. Heaven breaks into ordinary spaces. This is all written the way Luke is writing. This is what he's trying to proclaim. He is moving past the ordinary. It's not just the shepherds. He's showing himself in a field. Most of us, uh, last week we talked about the dawn of peace, didn't we? And and the and the sun rising, the the advent and the anticipation of hope, right? Right? And that and that that brought a lot of encouragement to us because we can relate to that. There's just there's this sense of I can see the sun, I can see the light, I can feel its warmth, but I can't see the sun rise yet. But he is rising. Right? That was that was great. But but like in in the juxtaposition is this week, is that we find out when Christ comes, he comes in the middle of the night. When it's the darkest. He breaks through the mundane. 400 years there's been nothing, and all of a sudden, an angel shows up. He says, Fear not, I've got good news. And when he's done saying that, the heavens smooth open up. And there is a heavenly host of angels. I don't know about see, you guys are acting all cool and calm, like that's normal life for you. But I'm just telling you, if an angel shows up, just one, I just need, I just need a feather from Todd. I'm looking at Todd on this, but I'm having all of these memories of you and I having this conversation where people found little tiny feathers and we're like, look, it's an angel that's been here. We're like, a feather that big. It's an angel. You think the feather might have a little bit more girth to it. But we see the bird feather and we're like, there it is, he's with us. And then you see that bird fly through the rafters, and you're like, Don't, don't look at that. I'm just I'm I'm just saying, like, one angel sighting, and I'm I'm like, I'm in shock. Right? But then they're like, hey, chill out, guys, don't fear. I got good news for you. And then all of a sudden, all of heaven breaks loose, and there's a holy host of angels declaring this majesty, this great. Can you imagine what they're thinking to themselves? Like, what did y'all put in my porridge out here? What kind of trip are we on out here? Like, I mean, I knew I was not feeling well with these little lambs, but what are we doing? And I just I just I mean, they're the most, they're the most like down-to-earth guys, right? Right? They're the salt of the earth, right? They're just they're good dudes, they're just doing their jobs, and their life is now radically transformed. And Luke is trying to tell us the story. Why? Why? Because it's gonna matter to us where we're at today. Because we can get lost in the mundane. You, you, you, you can get lost in the daily grind and forget that he's on his way. You can get so burdened by what you think is important today, and you forget, hey, look up. You are the bearer of good news. Christ is returning. Now for the second time. He has come, but now he'll come again. And see, the problem is, is we are like many of those shepherds, and many of the people is that we've been talking that talk so long we haven't seen anything. And so if you haven't seen it, you start to lose hope. You start to think, well, that's probably never gonna happen. It's like, yeah, you guys remember like our grandparents always talking about like Christ is coming? Well, that was wild, wasn't it? So much so that you can stop paying attention about what's being shaped in the world around you. You can see something happening in the world, be like, yeah, that's unfortunate. No, that's actually in the Bible. That's like part of prophecy, and that's the lining up of Christ's return. That's why we have to shake ourselves, get really serious about our word and understand it so that we don't get, what, deceived? Knocked off course? We don't want to be, we don't want, we don't want to be a church that's so easily knocked off course. Right? And this is Luke's invitation. Hey, this is your gospel message, Gentiles. It there's an expansion coming. Let me talk about that. Luke writes with Gentiles in mind. It in commentators will say this, it's a everyone gospel. All right, I thought that was gonna get better action. I mean, what are we doing? I just told you it's an everyone gospel. You know why that's hard for us to to celebrate? Because we don't think it is for everyone. You don't really think it is. You kind of do. Yeah, it's cool. He'll he'll he'll reach everyone in due time. When you really understand what that means, two things should come to mind. First and foremost, if I have already received Christ, it should mobilize me. If I know it's for everyone, then why am I so afraid to tell anybody about it? If I know it's for everyone and it's gonna transform somebody's life, why am I not partnering with the Lord on that? Why is that not part of my work? Why am I not feeling convicted to tell somebody and why am I embarrassed when someone finds out at work that I'm a Christian? So much so that I have to quantify it. I have to sit down and explain the kind of Christian I am. Now, I'm not that radical kind. I mean, I know you've probably heard, well, what church do you go to? Well, it's a good one. Well, yeah, what kind is it? I mean, we do we do worship and we pray, right? And what you do, you try your best not to say anywhere where you go, because that reputation of that church is gonna decide who they think you are. And you don't want that. This is real. Trying to tell you what we as humans often do, and it's unconscious sometimes. And and you know what it's over? Fear of rejection, usually. It's a fear of rejection. It's a fear of rejection. It's the idea that if I if I'm really true about who I am, it might isolate me somehow. It might make me put me on the fringes, it might put me in the what? Margins? Well, Luke says that's who he came for. That's who he's revealing himself to. Yeah, but I want to be on the margins. I kind of like being in the middle of the book, right? Kind of the main story, kind of the main topic. I just I don't want to be in the margins. That's where the notes are. It's also where space is. It's the margins that make the book able to be read. Anyway. I just I don't there's too much to even talk about with all this, but but what is Luke? What is what is the advent of Christmas? What is he trying to say? This account is for the whole world, it's a global salvation. It's it's Israel's story is widening to include the Gentiles. You need that to happen. I don't know how to say this. Like, without this, you ain't saved. You ain't got it. You don't get Jesus, you don't get salvation. If this is not the widening of the net, this stays in home base in Jerusalem, in Israel. This this becomes just about them and has nothing to do with us being grafted in, of which we've been. This is Paul's message, which really got him into a lot of arguments with Peter. Right? The apostles really wanted to lock in on the Jewish focus. And Paul's saying, like, I hear you, I am a Jew. But the revelation is he has made it available for all men. I am standing here today because of this revelation. I am secure in Christ because of this gift. We this is why this is this this compels us into the highways and the byways. Anybody else just like I mean this this this means so much more than than Christmas trees and gifts and I mean I feel like sometimes if we would just do that, I think you get you get much more crowd approval. But this right here is life. This is gonna take you after the 25th. This will prepare you for the 26th and the 27th and the 28th of December. Where we don't just like, oh well, that was fun. Let's get ready for the new year. No, what I'm talking about, what Luke is saying, this is a revelation for life. This is something you can live in, walk out. How about this one, the last one, which you can only read some of? Luke's account mirrors Old Testament patterns. Have you noticed when you read the book? Have you noticed that when Luke is doing this account of the Christmas, is that there's something that should resound to you, something that should stick, jump off the page. It should be, you've heard this story before. Right here. God is continuing the story, not starting a new one. This is an old ancient story that he's continuing to build on. And guess who he is using to build on that story? You and I. So when we hear testimonies of people who have been radically transformed, they build the case that he is not starting a new thing. It's an old thing that he, why does it need to be an old thing? Because if it's not an old thing, then what he said at the beginning wasn't true. It has to be an old thing because it has to have, it has to stand the test of time. The revelation gets sweeter as we grow. But who he is, what he paid for, what he established, what he always intended to provide for us was salvation. Intimacy with him. The garden was the invitation to be with him. It was man who separated himself through sin. And he had spent a lifetime, lifetimes over winning us back through prophetic words, but he had already predetermined to reach us. He is chasing you, he's running, he is making every available opportunity. And he says, it's not a new thing. You don't have to look up and see what your crystal says about this month or your your come on, you don't have to you don't have to sage around you to get in the presence of the Lord. You don't need those elements. You just need to know that he's continuing a story that he's invited me into. And if we we won't just run from the Old Testament, right? That's old, right? They they called it old for a reason, Pastor Scott. Right? It's the Old Testament. We don't need it. We just need the New Testament. That's when Jesus really did something. Did you know he was here from the beginning? So you have to you have to pull those together. And Luke is doing that. How? He says, the barren woman, the angelic announcement, miraculous child, prophetic destiny? Sounds like Abraham to me. Sounds like the birth of a nation. He's trying to tell you, I'm going to let you, I'm commissioned to write this story, but it's so that when the Gentiles read it, they don't think they were forgotten back here. It's that they can see themselves in Christ's pursuit of them. All the way through to what we're living today. And sometimes it looks like a barren woman. Sarah, who doesn't have a child, and we we know that God's already promised a nation to come from him, a people whom Christ would come from himself. Oh, and by the way, like this doesn't get lost on me in these other areas, too. Is it interesting that he shows up to the shepherds? Right? But that's that seems a little shocking because of who they are in terms of status, but maybe not, since it was David who was a shepherd, of which his own lineage is going to come from. So it's not accidental that he shows up in a field. It's not just to shake it up, it's intentional. He's saying, I cared about my entire people group were shepherds. Who the people of Israel were were shepherds. This is how we originated. And so he when he shows up in body form, he shows up to the to his people in their purest form. But isn't interesting that the people couldn't see it. Because at that time they'd already given up on the profession of. Shepherding. Okay. Miraculous job. Prophetic destiny. I want you to think about this. Think about it. Think about it. Touch your neighbor and say, think about it. Johnny, please come and help us. Think about it, Johnny. They need this. Think about it. I want you to think through where you're at today. If joy came to shepherds, it came to you. If joy, the joy of his salvation, the joy of his arrival, the anticipation of joy. Has come to the shepherds. It's come to you. You don't know what I'm going through today. I don't actually know at all what you're going through today. God does. And he wants in exchange. Your burden for his joy. What he did for them, he offers it to us today. You know what? He offers it to us every single day. On the hour, every I mean, it's available. But you gotta choose it. You gotta choose it. This is invitation. God still breaks into ordinary places. He is still busting through the ordinary and mundane. We're just not looking for it anymore. You categorize your life as just life. No, no. Know your people. Know your room. Routine. This is routine. Who has a good routine? Come on. Come on. I know some of you, right? You live and die by the routine. Right? My dad's this way. Isn't he? He's a routine guy. Has been his entire life. Routine. Now, you you you break that routine. It's not a great day. I mean, most people that understand routine, right, understand that if I don't hit all of those marks, I the result of the routine is a good day. You see what I'm saying? The only way for me to get to a good day is to hit the routine. If I skip a step in the routine, I can't even enjoy the back side of this because I know and you know you ruined one of those check marks. Now let me ask again. Who's a routine person here? Yeah, I knew you were out there. Scott is out here. I know it's him. That's what I'm talking about. This is a whole nightly routine.

unknown: 42:54

Right?

SPEAKER_01: 42:55

The whole deal, you gotta have it in order. But when when when life only reads his routine, you you you you do not get permission for him to break through. And and this is how we justify that. You ready? Hear what I'm saying. What we will say in our hearts is uh I already um that's already submitted to the Lord, that's already done. See, that's in the dun com, Scott. We got that in the dunk call. Yeah, but what if God wants to talk to you midday? No. No, no, he doesn't do that. He doesn't talk midday. He talks between the hours of 5 and 5.45. Precisely. That's when he talks. Right? That's when he talks. If he wants to do midday, he's gonna have to get on the books. Right? If he's gonna cause me to detour off of this, then he's gonna need to speak something totally different. You understand? I know it sounds wild, but this is a lot of times, if you if you're constantly leading with routine, he can't break into the ordinary place anymore. And yet he's doing it daily. Give an example. There's a massive revival on college campuses that have become mundane. Or like I get up in the morning, right? I stay out all night, right? Stay out all night, doing things I don't need to be doing. I get up late trying to get to class. I sleep through half of those things. I chat GPT all my homework. Right? Just life. And yet, right now, in the middle of that, God is breaking through in unprecedented ways. He is moving in and out of dormitories, he is awakening kids out of their slumber. He is He is stirring a passion for them to get out and evangelize. He's moving on their hearts so dratically that they're they're out there baptizing kids all over the place. I mean, you hear about things like at Auburn University, all them kids that are just in the lake out there, just going in and coming out, new humans. Texas AM, Arkansas. I mean, it's not an SEC thing, but it is, you know. But it might be. I don't know. We ought to track that trend. Some of my engineers, y'all should get on that, right? Track that trend. Let's see what that's doing. Let's see what that's doing. Right? Yeah. So many things I want to say, but I'm not. I'm not doing it, and you can't force me. I won't do it. I was gonna talk about it's there, Johnny. It's attempting to me. I'm not doing it. You didn't push me. God's kingdom moves towards the world. God's kingdom moves towards the world, not away from it. Now, you might you might ask, why is that such an important distinction to make? God's kingdom moves towards the world. We have got to get better at moving towards the fire. When the thing's on fire, God's calling the church with answers to move towards the dumpster fire of a society that we have. And we have to be ready to bring truth, solution, hope, peace, joy. These candles that are lit behind me. We have something to carry into that chaos, but what we can't do is retreat because the kingdom doesn't retreat and call the world in, he calls the church out. That's the difference. Churches that that try to retreat and create a little world within a world find themselves insignificant very quickly because they lose the ear of what's really happening. Which is why we're we really like it when we see our people are moving into their industry, into their work. Like people are like, don't you want more people to work at the church? I don't want any of us to work at the church. And I know that's so bad. My staff's like, well, I mean, uh, hold on. Uh I mean, isn't I mean I'm important. Like, I do stuff here. No, no, you just hear what I'm saying. It's like our motivation has got to be outward. And I think you guys can hear me uh when I say that. Your story is part of something ancient and global, and and and the reason I say this is because uh oftentimes you only believe the narrative that you have about yourself, and so oftentimes it's hard for you to crawl over what what either people have said about you or what you believe about yourself. And so you start somehow in a weird way, you internalize things too long and too often. Can I say that? Because we we do that. I mean, I'm and I I'm I'm just telling you, just I'll say for me, I have I have been in an atmosphere where I've stayed too far, like obsessing over who I'm not, to the point I'm I become ineffective for what he wants to do in me. And in that place where like it's important for me to understand is that the work that God is doing in my life matters to a global narrative. Like, like, the more you get free, okay, I'm trying to say this so that we can understand what I'm saying. Who we talk to you, Tim, okay? Just Tim won't get offended. And he leads freedom, right? But like why freedom matters and why it's important for you, Tim, and I to continue to get free is so that when we continue the cycle of being freed and freed again. So somebody's like, yeah, but what about uh already, already asked God to forgive me for all those things? Right, right. Um He has forgiven you. How many know the enemy also knows that that that's been forgiven and wants to make sure you stay in as much bondage as possible? And that bondage is usually right here. That bondage is usually right here, right between the ears. It's here, and if it stays here too long, it starts to go south to here. And this is what you've have to guard. You've got to guard the distance between here and here. And if this repeated cycle in you, like, what well ultimately the reason we do that is because we don't understand that every ground that he takes in me, he's taking in advancing the kingdom in the globe. Does that make sense? And so, like when someone says, I don't know why you are always asking for forgiveness, because if it helps aid in our process, hey, first start with me, Lord, but also I want us to be as the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, to be clean and spotless and before you. Why guys like Paul and those guys would say, I die daily? The disciples were all given that message. I die, I'm dying all the time. I'm climbing up on the cross all the time. Right? I'm just saying we got to get back in the habit of that because we are part of an ancient story. And that story isn't dead and it's being lived out daily through your life of repentance. Joy is the natural overflow of encountering Jesus. Have you ever met someone? Um, David, you probably have experienced this recently, where someone recently gives their life to Christ, gets baptized, they come up out of the water, and have you ever seen that person? They're just not the same. Like you know who they went down and they came up, that's a totally different human. And you know you can't shut that person up. You cannot do it. It's it's as if the Holy Spirit has that little drawstring in the back and just pulls it and it says like and they're just off. They're off. And what I mean by that is they have to tell everyone, everyone, hey, did you know what happened to me? I mean, I don't know. It might be weird to you, but I was baptized, my life is completely changed. I'm just telling you, I have never felt more what you hear things like light. I've never felt more alive than I feel right now, right? I love when people give their life to Christ. I see colors for the first time. Isn't that great? Is that they have been living in bondage so long that the joy of salvation has caused even their physical body to transform, their their mentality, the way they see life, and in fact, they no longer see people as a problem to get around, but but someone to tell the message to. Do you guys remember? Has it been so long since you felt the joy of his salvation? Have you been so distant from what he did in your life that they're just sort of like, yeah, it was cool, it was good. No, it wasn't cool, good. It was life-changing. It was not just life-changing for you, but it brought life to all those around you. The overflow, the natural overflow is for joy to rise. Now, you why am I I'm saying this because some of you walked in here so sad, so frustrated, so angry with life, so disappointed with the outcomes. You walked in here today saying, I need an answer, and I've given it to you. It's joy. And that joy is a person, his name is Jesus. And you can respond at any point, and you can exchange. I have been depressed, I am full of anxiety, I can't, I can't wait for Christmas to be over. If I could skip Christmas, I would. If I hear another carol, I'm gonna throw up. I don't want fruitcake, I don't want a present, I don't want seasons greetings, I don't want to drink out of a Starbucks Christmas pagan cup. I don't want any of it. Maybe here today and you're so disgusted, you're busted and beat up, frustrated with life and the outcomes. You walked in here and you said it's not fair, I don't deserve this, and I'm here to tell you, he has seen you from the beginning. Those that are marginalized, those are on the edges, those who feel like they're not worth it, he sees you. The invitation is this right here: joy. You can have it today. You don't have to walk out of here frustrated, you don't have to walk out of here confused. You walk into surrender, you receive in exchange all of that, all of who you think you are for all that He is. And today the invitation's joy. You can go to your car happy today, you can go to your lunch today happy, you can go to work tomorrow, believe it or not, happy. Not because the work is better, but because your relationship with the Lord is better. That is the joy that you have. He's with me. He's with you in the questions, he's with you in the confusion, right? He's with me when I've made this mistake, he's with me when I've made this decision that was not the right one. Guess what? The invitation daily is receive joy. Joy in the salvation that he has paid for on the cross, and tell somebody about it. Because it might just change their life. It's interesting. Last point. Everyone in Luke's story responds to Jesus. Everyone. Three ways they respond. They either respond by worship, they respond by proclamation, or they respond by transformation. And today, every one of us in this room are gonna get a chance to respond to one of those three ways to respond to Jesus, just like it is in Luke. Some of you, this is just a confirmation of what you've already known. And so your pro your your job, your only natural response in joy is worship. You may be here today, and you say, honestly, he has done all of those things, and I'm hearing what you're saying, Pastor Scott, and this story is our story. It is our Gentile Christmas Advent story, and I'm just not really good at telling it. I feel like I'm hiding behind it. I want to get better at it. I want to be able to tell this story with full conviction and no embarrassment, with all the joy and the love that comes along with it. I want to be a dealer of hope. You have one responsibility to respond to proclamation. Declare the word of the Lord. When you leave here today, this week, make it your goal. I will tell his story. Somebody needs to hear it, somebody needs to hear how God transformed me and how he can transform them and start proclaiming the good news. The third and final response today. If you're in this room and you don't know where I don't relate to any of those, I don't have a relationship with the Lord, I do not know how to respond. I don't know enough of the story to tell because I don't know that it's changed me first yet. Good news. Just like in Luke's gospel, you get to respond in this way. You need a transformation. The only logical, clear response to joy is invite yourself to a life of transformation. Not one that you do on your own. I can testify that I tried it on my own and it like came up way short. Amen. Anybody else tried to fix their own life? Man, I wasted a lot of time and a lot of effort, hurt a lot of people, including myself. But surrender and responding to the message the appropriate way, which is what? Transformation. Stand with me. Would you bow your heads with me? If you're in the room today and you say, hey, Pastor Scott, that's me. I don't know Christ, but I need that salvation message. I need to meet the Jesus you're talking about. I need to meet the Jesus that Luke has been writing about. I need to meet the Jesus I read all the books about. I need to meet the Jesus I've been sitting in cantatas and not responding to. I need to meet the Jesus that people are buzzing about around me, but I'm too afraid to admit that I need a Savior. If you're here today, I want you to slip up your hand. I want to know who I'm praying for. Every head bowed, every eye closed, I'm looking for specific people today that need the salvation message. I'm looking. One, I see one, I've seen one, I see two, three. Anybody else? Four? Five? Six. Come on. It's not never too late. Today's the day. God ordained this time for you. He called you to this moment. I think I was on seven, was on seven. No evangelistically speaking here, real numbers. There were hundreds. No, there were seven. Seven souls, seven people who need Christ today. It's amazing. If you're one of those seven, you had your hand lifted up. I would ask you just continue to lift your hand. I want to pray for you, and I would just want to tell you, it's real simple. It's a surrender. Your life for his. What he sees in you versus what you see, and how many know what you've been seeing ain't as pretty as what he sees. He sees a hope and a destiny and a future, and all he's asking is for you to make room in your heart for him to be the Lord. And it's a real quick, it's this prayer. Lord, I tried and it failed. I repent for trying to do it on my own, for living a life that was outside of you, trying to prove to myself and others that I had it all together. But I need a savior. And I want to invite you into my heart today. I want you to be the Lord of my life. It's that simple. If you make that exchange, I guarantee you this Holy Spirit has brought you to this place, and the Father is here to meet you. And He says, Well done. Great choice. Transformation is on the way. Not because you're good, not because your circumstances are going to be perfect when you walk out the door, but that you've invited Jesus to walk that out with you. And He'll show you and He'll guide you, and we're here for you for that. Immediately following the service, I'm gonna have some of my elders here. Prayer team is gonna be here. I encourage you to come down and respond. If you'd like to have prayer to follow up with us, we would welcome that. We want to obviously put you on the right track for what the best next steps are. So I encourage you before we leave today to come down to the altar and to introduce yourself to one of our prayer team and let them walk you through in prayer and what the next best step is. Still with everybody's head bowed and eyes closed, there's two more ways to respond here. There's two more ways to respond. What is it? Well, proclamation. Maybe you're here today and you say, you know what, I haven't been doing my part. God's done so much to me, for me, through me, for I mean, that I can't be quiet. I need a fresh revelation on reaching the lost. I need a fresh passion to tell the story. I want to be a light in a dark place. I want God to use me in a way where I proclaim his goodness and I get comfortable with it. If you're here today and you say, I need a fresh revelation of what that is, that story alive in me and a fresh renewal vision for what it is to see the lost that's broken and recognize that God's using you and your story to bring them to the place of salvation. If you need a fresh anointing to do that, I want you to lift your hand. Keep it up. I want you to just keep it up. Heavenly Father, I pray for every hand lifted. God, I thank you for that commitment, that desire to get out and tell your story and tell it better. God, I pray for holy boldness to come on every hand lifted, every heart lifted up to you. I pray for a supernatural grace to deliver your message. God, I thank you for the testimony, God, of the lives lived in this room. God, what you've done miraculously in them. God, would you use them to miraculously unlock God's truth and reality to the people around them? I pray for favor at their workplace. God, I pray for godly encounters. I pray for every time they grocery shop, they get a chance to minister. Every time they pump gas, they get to encourage somebody. Every time that they pause long enough to think, God, you did it. You're doing it, and you're using me, God. I pray for a grace to tell your story better so that we can see your kingdom advance in ways that we've only prayed about for this city. God, I thank you that from this place we move beyond just a Christmas story and we live out the reality of heaven, is that we live in an ancient story that should be told. And it's an invitation for many to come. Now, last but not least, there's only one other response. If you know, if you know the Lord and you're empowered, would you lift up both hands and can we just worship the Lord for just a second? Come on, can we just worship Him? I you don't need music. There's no song that's gonna get you there. This is a heartfelt worship towards you. God the Father, to God, come on, to God the Father, to the child. Here we are. Here we are, Lord. We worship you. We thank you for your faithfulness and your goodness. We thank you for the gospel message that met us in our lowest and weakest place. We thank you that you've come to empower your people to be your witnesses. You are to be glorified, you are to be praised, you are to be worshipped. We worship you. We thank you for what you're doing in this house, in our own homes, God, in our community. We lift you up. We thank you for the revivals that we're seeing crop up all over the globe. We thank you for the God's salvation that is coming to college students, God. We thank you for salvation that's coming to the nations, God, as they as they bring themselves to a God who loves them, cares for them, has provided a way for them. God, we are grateful today. God, we are thankful that you have covered our own sins. God, you have your blood is enough. Your blood is enough to cover our lowest and weakest places. And we thank you today, God, that we couldn't do it on our own. We can't take credit for it, but we give you glory. We give you glory. We worship you today. We worship you today. We thank you for what you're doing. We give you glory. We magnify you above all things. We lift you up in Jesus' name. Everybody said, Amen, amen, amen.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:00

We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impactful. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at the Rock Family. Have a Jesus filled with you.