back to index2019-12-22 The Descent of Deliver
00:00:00.000 |
Our Heavenly Father, we want to give you thanks. 00:00:07.200 |
Lord, we take time gathered together to consider you, both, Father Lord, your works in history 00:00:14.320 |
past, the amazing redemptive work you have accomplished in Christ, but what's more, your 00:00:26.120 |
And we know, Father Lord, all things come forth from your character and who you are. 00:00:30.920 |
And so today we want to thank you and praise you, lift up to you everything we have, including 00:00:36.720 |
We thank you, Lord, in Christ's name we pray. 00:00:40.720 |
It was sweet to see just the many photos, you know, of the children. 00:00:46.400 |
I want you to take a moment to think about a time when you saw your own photo. 00:00:51.280 |
And I'm not sure if maybe you've had an experience, especially in times when you go visit your 00:00:56.560 |
parents and holidays and things like that, maybe you see old photos of yourself on their 00:01:06.000 |
What's your reaction when you see those photos? 00:01:15.280 |
Maybe we get very nostalgic, thinking back, "I remember those times. 00:01:19.520 |
We didn't have much, but it was so sweet because we were together," or something like that. 00:01:24.160 |
What's more, if you've seen little baby pictures of yourself, it's trippy. 00:01:29.480 |
Trippy meaning it just kind of makes you feel a little weird because it does humble you 00:01:35.200 |
You know, you're the size of somebody's forearm. 00:01:40.880 |
And everything about you is just so small and innocent, right? 00:01:45.640 |
Eyes are all big, skin is all peachy, toes, nose, everything all tiny. 00:01:53.120 |
And it just makes you feel a sense of, "Oh, this is precious. 00:02:00.480 |
And then you get kind of weirded out because that's you, right? 00:02:05.200 |
But honestly speaking, anytime we see any baby photo or an image of a precious child, 00:02:10.320 |
I mean, lately there's been photos of Yoda going around that's baby and everybody loves 00:02:16.720 |
I want you to take a moment to ask a strange question though, is because today is, you 00:02:21.120 |
know, we're approaching Christmas and this is Christmas Sunday. 00:02:24.640 |
We are thinking about our Lord, Jesus Christ. 00:02:28.640 |
And the crazy truth and historical event is that Jesus Christ came, went through the full 00:02:35.600 |
gamut of human experience, including being born in a natural way, in such a vulnerable 00:02:47.220 |
But then I took a moment and paused and started thinking a weird thought, which is, "Hmm, 00:02:52.880 |
what if Jesus had photos of himself as a baby? 00:02:59.480 |
Oh, look at me, all peachy and small and cute." 00:03:06.120 |
And strangely enough, I took extra time to think about that and my word and theme of 00:03:13.440 |
this sermon to you is going to be that from that thought, I realized, "Hmm, I don't think 00:03:19.440 |
I appreciate that coming of Christ as a baby enough because I don't think Jesus looks at 00:03:26.560 |
that as some kind of precious, high privilege for him to come as a baby, but rather something 00:03:37.000 |
Now what we know is Jesus coming to this world as a human baby was a momentous, momentous 00:03:47.720 |
Galatians chapter four talks about it this way, "When the fullness of time had come," 00:03:53.560 |
meaning this has been building up, it's a pivotal moment, "epic," yes? 00:03:58.400 |
"God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law so that he might redeem 00:04:03.240 |
those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoptions as sons." 00:04:12.200 |
However, we recognize that that amazing feat of Jesus coming to save and to redeem, to 00:04:19.200 |
give us the precious gift of adoption, it came at his dissension. 00:04:29.600 |
And so when I think about Jesus, potentially, in his perfect memory, thinking about the 00:04:33.760 |
time as a baby, whereas we have commercialized it, where we have painted it, that he is this 00:04:39.080 |
precious, precious baby in a precious, precious, sweet moment of peace, and the mother and 00:04:44.240 |
father are surrounding him, I wonder if Jesus looks at that and says, "But that was my 00:04:52.440 |
That, to him, was being made lower, lower than angels. 00:05:01.120 |
That to him was being made even lower than, let's say, a full-grown human being. 00:05:14.640 |
To our Lord, he might have seen that as a moment not to look back on as saying, "Yay, 00:05:20.800 |
happy birthday to me," but potentially, "Do you recognize to what degree I've had to come 00:05:29.360 |
And that's what we're talking about this morning, this Christmas Sunday. 00:05:34.280 |
And so, going to the very first point of the sermon, I want to make this case that Christ's 00:05:45.040 |
That unlike maybe when we're looking at our photos, like, "Ah, that's so embarrassing. 00:05:49.320 |
Now I had fuzzy hair or a huge head," or something like that, we are talking about his looking 00:05:55.320 |
at the past historical event in a strange way. 00:06:00.720 |
Absolutely necessary, pivotal moment in history, and yet incredibly humbling for Christ. 00:06:08.080 |
Turn your Bibles, please, to Philippians 2, verses 5 through 8. 00:06:16.040 |
This portion of Scripture says to us, "To have this attitude in yourselves, which was 00:06:22.520 |
also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality 00:06:28.180 |
with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, 00:06:32.840 |
and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself 00:06:39.680 |
by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." 00:06:44.240 |
So when you look at that passage as a whole, think about the general statement that it's 00:06:51.520 |
What he's saying is, there is an attitude of humility, and the perfect example of that 00:06:58.200 |
Christ is the prime example of self-sacrificing humility. 00:07:04.920 |
And what he says is, he talks about his incarnation. 00:07:09.040 |
That although he existed in the form of God, and this therefore is my point A, that there 00:07:16.040 |
is this massive contrast the Apostle Paul is trying to show us. 00:07:20.380 |
Jesus Christ was in the form, had the fullness of God Almighty. 00:07:30.480 |
And yet the repeated contrast is there is a progression. 00:07:38.520 |
He took the form of a man subject to death on a cross. 00:07:46.760 |
And the way I want us to think about it is, wow, what huge depth. 00:07:53.480 |
If we're talking about some kind of quantifiable distance of which our Savior had to come down, 00:08:04.320 |
Scripture tells us in Colossians chapter 1 verse 16 through 19 that Jesus Christ was 00:08:09.760 |
Verse 16 says this, "For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, 00:08:15.080 |
visible, invisible, where the thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities, all things have been 00:08:24.640 |
What's more, he is before all things and in him all things hold together. 00:08:34.520 |
Verse 18, "He is also the head of the body, the church. 00:08:37.320 |
He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have 00:08:43.960 |
For it was the Father's good pleasure," look at this, "for all the fullness to dwell in 00:09:02.100 |
The fullness of the praise and worship that all the host of heavens gives to him. 00:09:09.840 |
And then Scripture says, "Although he was here," but look at this, "we have to think 00:09:17.900 |
in this time and wrap our minds, try, at least chip away at the immense, the immense humility 00:09:28.820 |
He has come down so far, and the case that I want to make to you is, that to us should 00:09:33.900 |
shock us, because if then Jesus is fully God and he deserves all of heaven's praises, anything 00:09:51.900 |
But then Scripture teaches us that even though it was, although he had this form of God, 00:09:59.420 |
Now in order to make this case even more emphatic, what I'd like to say is, the kind of birth 00:10:04.220 |
that Jesus had, the arrival of our Savior Jesus Christ onto this world, if that was 00:10:11.660 |
applied, or that was the experience of even a human king, even that would be humiliating. 00:10:18.420 |
That's point B. If you think about this, even somebody who is human, but is of high-ranking 00:10:25.180 |
authority, this kind of birth and entry into this world is still humiliating. 00:10:29.460 |
I mean, you imagine with me, if you were royalty, you know? 00:10:33.700 |
You were in Europe, and you are in the royal line, and your whole life, not your whole 00:10:39.580 |
life, but the life of the family, the whole heritage, was all this incredible palm, and 00:10:44.940 |
pageantry, and dress up, and you live in the castle, and all that kind of stuff, right? 00:10:50.620 |
And imagine if you were, let's say you're an adult now, and you're all grown up, and 00:10:54.940 |
yeah, you're a king, let's say you're a prince, whatever it may be, you're royalty. 00:10:58.780 |
You look at your family photos, and all of a sudden, you catch a picture of a baby, and 00:11:12.540 |
Hey, let me send you my Christmas card, the nativity scene. 00:11:17.620 |
It would just be an unfit, it would just be embarrassing, it's like, what is this? 00:11:21.580 |
Would you have me be born next to sheep, inside the trough, in the feed? 00:11:29.540 |
You see, Jesus Christ, even on his birth, yes, was hailed as a king, and people thought 00:11:39.180 |
He had prophecy predicting it, he had people confirming it, and yet he was born. 00:11:46.060 |
No vacancy, no VIP reservation, next to animals. 00:11:52.260 |
Now just to put a little bit more tangibleness to that, have you guys ever taken kids to 00:12:00.940 |
People think it's a great idea, you take your kids, and they're like, let's go, it's like, 00:12:05.460 |
You get over there, sheep aren't nice, they're not nice. 00:12:09.640 |
You get down low to them, they want to knock you over. 00:12:12.020 |
What's more, just being real, the stench of urine is unbearable. 00:12:17.620 |
And all of a sudden, the parents get up, like, did you wash your hands, did you wash your 00:12:25.980 |
I even have this photo, I believe right now, it's just too commercialized almost, where 00:12:29.980 |
we have this perfect image, like we think, we think that outside of the privileges of 00:12:37.060 |
having a nurse with you, a doctor with you, that mother and father, young, I believe they 00:12:42.300 |
were, Mary was probably really young, forced to give birth to their child next to animals 00:12:48.780 |
with the stench of their feces, and they come out looking like this. 00:12:54.260 |
All of us, we know, dude, after labor and delivery, you don't look like that, okay? 00:13:01.420 |
Even for a high-ranking human, this is humbling. 00:13:11.300 |
To be born in such circumstances, to be born in such scenarios, and let me even make it 00:13:18.700 |
more emphatic to you, please take another moment to fantasize and imagine with me that 00:13:23.780 |
Jesus, rather than coming to this world as a baby, he came into this world like Terminator, 00:13:31.060 |
where he materialized, and when he stood up, he was perfect. 00:13:36.800 |
His hair was thick and black, there was not a single white hair on him. 00:13:40.500 |
His shoulders was broad, his chin, this line was defined. 00:13:46.420 |
He was tall, he had a great deep voice, and he was muscular, not the gross muscular, but 00:13:57.620 |
Now I say that, yes, a little bit tongue-in-cheek, but if he was an amazing specimen of a human 00:14:05.260 |
being, that we would all be like, "Wow, look at him, he's perfect," right? 00:14:12.180 |
That would still be humiliating for God to enter that form, right? 00:14:20.220 |
For the one who is timeless to touch time, a finite limited space, for one who surpasses 00:14:26.860 |
all material to now come into this material world, subject to the need of food and water, 00:14:42.400 |
We should, because during this Christmas time, we are remembering the moment when our Savior 00:14:50.500 |
C.S. Lewis puts it in this way, he's a great British writer, somebody with a great imagination, 00:14:55.540 |
and he writes in his book called The Miracles. 00:14:58.220 |
He says, "In the center of the Christian story, the center of the Christian story, God descends." 00:15:07.740 |
He comes down, down from the heights of absolute being, an eternal being down into time, an 00:15:14.160 |
ever-present being down into space, down into humanity, flesh and bone, down to the very 00:15:20.100 |
roots and the seedbed of humanity of which he himself created, stooping lower and lower 00:15:27.680 |
to get himself underneath this great complicated burden of mankind. 00:15:36.300 |
If we think about the incarnation, we have to look up, and I'm challenging every single 00:15:41.420 |
one of you during this time, look up and see the depth to which Christ has descended, because 00:15:48.240 |
letter C is that Christ emptied himself of all of this, right? 00:15:56.880 |
For him to have the fullness of God, including then the glories, the honors, the riches, 00:16:01.820 |
the exercise of his authority, his rights and privileges, and then to empty and pour 00:16:06.780 |
that all out, that to us is the grace and love we hear in the gospel, amen? 00:16:15.580 |
That is our Lord freely pouring out and giving to us. 00:16:20.480 |
And so I want to challenge every single one of us, let's not have some strange commercialized 00:16:25.140 |
view of Christmas, or even in our best intentions, thinking we're going to sing happy birthday 00:16:32.500 |
It's going to be a sweet time, almost like we're going to encourage him and remember 00:16:36.180 |
you on your birthday, because I'm not sure Jesus actually sees it that way, neither is 00:16:45.740 |
This is an incredible paradox, great humiliation for our Savior, exuding joy and celebration 00:16:55.100 |
Moving to point number two, the idea of the dissension of our Deliverer, our Savior Jesus 00:17:04.340 |
Point two is that the descent of Jesus is even deeper than we assume, okay? 00:17:09.860 |
The descent of Jesus coming down to us is even deeper than we would presume, why? 00:17:18.060 |
You might be thinking, what do you mean just look at us? 00:17:21.300 |
In the previous point, point number one, I said essentially look up to the heavens and 00:17:25.620 |
see the depth to which Christ had to come down, but now what I'd like you to do is look 00:17:30.020 |
at yourself and ask, why did Christ have to walk, or metaphorically walk and travel such 00:17:41.900 |
In order to come to your aid, to the place that you are, to the circumstance and the 00:17:47.020 |
state, the status quo that you are in, where did he have to go? 00:17:52.740 |
When Jesus shows up and says, "I am here to save you and to help you and have come to 00:18:09.300 |
There are times when I would look at the gospel narratives of Jesus' arrival and I'm sitting 00:18:13.620 |
here thinking, why does the entire generation not get it? 00:18:17.940 |
They literally knew where he was going to be born. 00:18:20.220 |
He was going to be born in a small city of Bethlehem. 00:18:22.460 |
You take the right turn over there and he's going to be in the state. 00:18:27.220 |
There was a star for crying out loud, and these wise men from afar came even looking 00:18:31.940 |
for him, and they asked the scribes if they knew exactly where he was. 00:18:43.940 |
He came to help, and rather than thinking, "Yes, we knew it. 00:18:47.580 |
We knew we were in help because I was sacrificing animals and it never worked, and my sin was 00:18:52.820 |
right here and right here, and I can't get it out." 00:19:07.060 |
You show up one day and all of a sudden I need your help? 00:19:12.420 |
And so A, I find a common sinfulness and a common error that across time mankind have 00:19:18.380 |
shared, which is one, we typically try to devalue Jesus. 00:19:23.580 |
We bring him down and underestimate who he is, but the other is we overestimate who we 00:19:33.860 |
I'm like really good, but this time I was bad just this one time." 00:19:40.740 |
If we count the sins of our minds, the sins of our hearts, we sin regularly. 00:19:46.700 |
Scripture teaches us this, that we are so adverse. 00:19:49.580 |
Another way of putting this, that not only are we frequently overestimating ourselves, 00:19:54.040 |
we are so adverse to feeling guilty, feeling weak, feeling powerless, right? 00:20:02.160 |
We are so adverse to being guilty, but let me tell you this. 00:20:07.420 |
The arrival of the deliverer makes everyone feel guilty because that arrival then announces 00:20:20.340 |
Take a look at Philippians chapter two one more time, Philippians chapter two one more 00:20:24.780 |
time and starting from verse six, it says this, again, "Although he existed in the form 00:20:30.020 |
of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, meaning held onto, 00:20:37.380 |
but he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness 00:20:41.140 |
of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to 00:20:50.340 |
And earlier, I highlighted and pointed out to you, did you notice that there is this 00:20:54.420 |
sequential humbling or I guess progressive humbling that Apostle Paul points out? 00:20:59.160 |
He says he didn't grasp it, but instead let go. 00:21:02.700 |
And then there was this being made in the likeness of men, lower, there's a being made 00:21:07.300 |
in the likeness of a bondservant, which means slave, lower, and then he's being made one, 00:21:15.860 |
That is incredible weakness when you don't last and you have an expiration date. 00:21:21.020 |
Lower, and then he says to the point of death on the cross. 00:21:25.060 |
Let's ask the question, as good students of the Bible, what categorical people, who dies 00:21:36.260 |
And the answer is criminals, people who break the law. 00:21:42.820 |
That symbol, the cross, was a symbol of punishment, that your crime of action, your crime of intent, 00:21:51.620 |
you have been indicted, you have been convicted, and you are guilty and therefore deserving 00:21:56.660 |
of a heinous death, being also propped up as a symbol of that consequence. 00:22:04.980 |
For Jesus Christ then to descend, point B, Christ descended to the form of a condemned 00:22:14.420 |
Think about that in that act and its relation to us. 00:22:21.800 |
We don't like being judged in our heart, meaning we don't like people assuming things of our 00:22:26.340 |
intention and we say stuff like, "Oh, I know I hurt you, but you know I didn't mean it." 00:22:33.020 |
Truth be told, I'm a pastor and I'm regularly trying to work on my heart, but are there 00:22:44.740 |
Are there moments when I feel hatred, embitterment, frustration? 00:22:52.840 |
Man who sits there hating his brother is a murderer. 00:22:57.220 |
All I need is the opportunity and I'll hurt that person. 00:23:01.580 |
I am just simply confessing the fact that if we are real and honest with ourselves and 00:23:05.980 |
with each other, there is a whole slot of various wickedness. 00:23:09.540 |
Yes, I am using the word wickedness and evil within all of us, within all of us. 00:23:18.360 |
In John chapter one, it summarizes in big overarching narrative the coming of Jesus. 00:23:24.860 |
This is what it says in John chapter one verses one through five. 00:23:27.500 |
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. 00:23:31.460 |
He was in the beginning with God and all things came into being through him and apart from 00:23:36.540 |
him nothing came into being that has come into being. 00:23:45.340 |
Verse four, in him was life and the light of the light of men. 00:23:49.380 |
And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it. 00:23:57.660 |
Jesus Christ, when he entered into this world, he didn't come to a nice, lovely community 00:24:07.620 |
When Jesus Christ entered into the world, he walked into darkness. 00:24:17.940 |
No, he's talking about the darkness of the times of the people. 00:24:26.740 |
Now I recognize that this is Christmas Sunday. 00:24:30.020 |
Perhaps many of you weren't expecting a sermon like this where I'm talking about the darkness 00:24:34.100 |
of our generation and also the darkness of our heart. 00:24:38.380 |
But this portion of it is the reality of Christ's coming. 00:24:44.180 |
He didn't just come to help nice people in Irvine and Orange County and the greater LA 00:24:53.060 |
And at that time when he came, he didn't just come so that the Greeks and the Romans would 00:25:02.180 |
And you might be wondering and thinking, "Whoa, Pastor, are you just condemning everybody 00:25:16.800 |
The scripture says that we must accept this truth. 00:25:28.140 |
James chapter four verses nine through 10 commands us, "Be miserable and mourn and weep 00:25:33.860 |
and let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 00:25:37.580 |
Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you." 00:25:49.460 |
We have to accept that without Christ we are desperately lost in darkness. 00:25:55.220 |
Without Christ we are desperately lost in sin. 00:25:57.860 |
And this is not just simply a ploy to manipulate people. 00:26:14.600 |
And I want to say, again, I recognize that perhaps today we do have family and friends. 00:26:21.100 |
I'm assuming that there are people in here who, you know you're not a Christian, maybe 00:26:32.500 |
But I want to share with you what's strange to me is that every single religion understands 00:26:38.940 |
there is some kind of sin, evil, wickedness, right? 00:26:46.280 |
And you don't have to be a religious person to know certain things are vile, certain things 00:26:50.680 |
are virtues, certain things are criminal and evil, yes? 00:26:57.480 |
But the apprehension comes when all of a sudden that finger starts pointing not at the world 00:27:07.400 |
We could point to various things, pointing here and pointing there. 00:27:10.440 |
It just gets super troubling when that finger starts coming towards me. 00:27:16.240 |
And I'll confess right here, prior to becoming a Christian, I was a vile, wicked man. 00:27:25.080 |
There were moments when I got into many, many fights. 00:27:29.640 |
Incredibly filled with lust, selfish desire, concern only for myself. 00:27:34.080 |
All the things that you would think as vice, it was here in abundance. 00:27:46.480 |
I mean, do you have to prove to the world like this world is full of decay, it's not 00:27:56.640 |
It's like all around us and many of you have been hurt by it, like directly hurt by it. 00:28:07.960 |
You see, all since the beginning of the history of mankind, people have turned every which 00:28:22.800 |
People have tried different things to deflect. 00:28:31.020 |
People have sometimes said to me, when I share with people, just recently I was at the mall, 00:28:35.640 |
I was at the mall and we were talking and I just told somebody, I said, "What are you 00:28:46.880 |
I'm not just turning to faith because it's helpful, because it's beneficial." 00:28:51.320 |
Because otherwise I could turn a faith into, "I believe in Santa. 00:28:59.960 |
Rudolph, he goes from a, "Oh man, he's a runt." 00:29:08.920 |
People turn every which way to find the solution for the feeling they have of deficiency in 00:29:16.720 |
Both the weakness, susceptibility, and also the vital things they look into their lives. 00:29:23.800 |
The challenge is, first and foremost, to not be frustrated, to not give up, to not be arrogant 00:29:40.600 |
And what's more, I want to give this challenge. 00:29:42.520 |
Please do not resist what Christ is doing when he shows up and he is saying, "I am here 00:29:50.440 |
I am here to do for you that which you cannot do." 00:29:56.000 |
Point three is to resist Christ is both foolish and offensive. 00:29:59.880 |
To resist Christ when he appears and his presence comes before you is absolute foolishness. 00:30:08.200 |
Have you guys ever tried to help a young child who's trying to do an art project? 00:30:13.040 |
They're doing something together, making a mess, glue's everywhere, their hands are starting 00:30:19.400 |
And you walk over and you're like, "Let me help you." 00:30:35.600 |
Imagine God is reaching down because he sees we're making a mess. 00:30:43.420 |
But to slap his hand away and say, "I can do this." 00:30:49.320 |
He would say to us, "You know, I just tried to reveal to you how much I've had to come 00:30:55.880 |
I just tried to show to you how deep you are in sin and the kind of pit that you live in 00:31:13.480 |
And there's an entire book called the Book of Proverbs that says, "Open your heart and 00:31:22.600 |
But I just want to give this further warning that resisting Christ is not only utter foolishness, 00:31:30.480 |
And what I like to say is not only is it offensive, but think about this. 00:31:40.880 |
I would like to highlight a special passage for you. 00:31:43.680 |
And it comes from John chapter three, verses 17 through 20. 00:31:47.880 |
John chapter 16 is a very, very famous verse. 00:31:57.520 |
Now, here, take a look at what he says immediately after. 00:32:01.640 |
"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might 00:32:10.320 |
He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of 00:32:20.720 |
Verse 19, "This is the judgment that the light has come into the world. 00:32:25.520 |
And the men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. 00:32:30.000 |
For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that 00:32:44.520 |
Because first and foremost, we already, according to this passage, we already stand condemned. 00:32:50.280 |
Underneath the lives that we've been living, the history of mankind, there has been a plethora 00:33:09.000 |
He recognizes some of you are just so ignorant. 00:33:20.200 |
And Christ comes not to judge, but to do all of that, to heal, to minister, to convict 00:33:31.720 |
And if you see that and you resist, that is sin upon sin, and it is offensive. 00:33:41.640 |
What's more, if you have this attitude of like, "You know what? 00:33:51.840 |
But saying I need all this, and I need all that, that's too much. 00:34:00.720 |
To not admit that you need Christ, but to think that you need just little bits of help, 00:34:10.880 |
And let me now speak to some of the Christian brothers and sisters in here. 00:34:14.320 |
I've been counseling many, many people, and what I find is that sometimes the scenarios 00:34:18.680 |
of your lives are very difficult, and genuinely so. 00:34:23.320 |
But if we sometimes act like all we need in our lives is just that small fix, "Help me 00:34:29.800 |
and my family just stop having so much strife, and maybe just give me a better family," or 00:34:36.080 |
"Give me the skills to have that job, to persevere in this. 00:34:42.080 |
And you feel like that's all you need, and all you would need in life, in this life, 00:34:46.000 |
is to have that rectified, and then you'd be good. 00:34:53.600 |
For us, we're all children to our parents, no matter how old you are. 00:34:59.000 |
Try going to your parents when you're younger, and you are so dependent on them. 00:35:08.160 |
All I needed in that moment of time was your car, and I would have been good." 00:35:13.640 |
That would be such a slap in the face to your parents. 00:35:18.240 |
You didn't need people to feed you 18 plus years of your life? 00:35:27.560 |
That kind of mentality of thinking, "All I need is just one thing from you, one thing 00:35:32.520 |
That would be for you to act like you did not receive the greatest thing from Him. 00:35:40.440 |
And so I want to say now, I know the sermon so far has been a bit convicting and heavy 00:35:50.080 |
But when we realize these things, this is when we celebrate. 00:36:00.240 |
If we know that we are in desperate need, lost without Jesus, if we know that our Savior 00:36:05.280 |
is capable, and He has freely and willingly sacrificed and humbled Himself to come down 00:36:10.400 |
to us, then we will now recognize, "I have exactly what my soul needs, my Deliverer and 00:36:19.440 |
And this is why we celebrate together all the various experiences of being lost, being 00:36:26.960 |
Now you have freedom in Christ because that Savior is going to free you. 00:36:32.280 |
All that you've been looking for of overcoming your greatest fears, your longing for your 00:36:36.320 |
greatest loves, these are satisfied in Christ Jesus, amen? 00:36:40.940 |
To us as we celebrate Christmas, we are saying, "Wrapped up in this Savior is everything I 00:36:49.360 |
Let me turn with you to a passage in Hebrews chapter two, a beautiful passage highlighting 00:36:55.240 |
again the importance of the incarnation, the rationale beyond why Jesus had to come just 00:37:06.520 |
"Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook 00:37:11.800 |
of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, 00:37:17.760 |
He might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. 00:37:23.880 |
For surely He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendants of Abraham." 00:37:31.220 |
We are here at an incredibly privileged position. 00:37:38.960 |
And that first coming, He has said, "I did not come to judge, although I could." 00:37:43.000 |
He could have very easily come and said, "You know what? 00:37:59.680 |
And what He says to us now is, "Yes, He is coming with that help and aid, but that's 00:38:06.080 |
The only problem is, are we willing to trust the helping hand, the merciful sacrifice, 00:38:21.720 |
If you have not experienced the freedom of doing that, let me tell you from personal 00:38:27.480 |
experience, that is the definition of freedom. 00:38:33.100 |
To be in the safety, to be in the forgiving, loving hands of God, that equates freedom. 00:38:40.840 |
You can be free all you want from the things you think are problems and solutions in your 00:38:46.260 |
life, but if you are still living with your fallen heart and mind, you are not free. 00:38:56.440 |
But to be forgiven, washed, cleansed by the Savior, this to us is our deliverance. 00:39:04.780 |
And so today we remember Jesus Christ who has come down, humbled Himself to such great 00:39:10.740 |
depths, sacrificed to the point of dying on the cross to help us. 00:39:17.740 |
Would we with great trust, great faith receive that? 00:39:21.420 |
I want to end with this passage, Philippians chapter two, verse nine. 00:39:25.580 |
For this reason also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above 00:39:29.860 |
every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven 00:39:36.020 |
and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ 00:39:53.220 |
Lord God, we took time to meditate on the height from which you came down. 00:40:00.740 |
We cannot even fathom what you had to let go of just to help us. 00:40:07.980 |
But for that Lord we thank you so much, what grace you have given us. 00:40:12.380 |
We also took time to meditate, Lord, the depth of our sin and how deep into the muck you 00:40:19.540 |
God, to sympathize with our weakness, to experience the limitation, to experience also the many 00:40:28.900 |
shameful things that happen in this darkness. 00:40:33.020 |
But thank you so much, God, that you are willing to experience all of that so that Lord you 00:40:38.060 |
would deliver us and God that you would rescue us.