If you can turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 2, I'll be reading from verse 1 through 7. What we're really looking at all the way up to verse 20. I'm just going to ask for your understanding because I have candy in my mouth. I have a cough drop in my mouth and I've had this lingering cough and I know some people were like, "Is that guy going to spread COVID?" I had this even before, in a lighter version, before I went to India and Korea.

And then it just got worse. So I don't want to be coughing throughout the sermon, so I'm just going to have the candy in my mouth. So it's a cough drop. I was telling my family that I think it's because of the cats, but they refused to accept it.

So I'm going to be having a cat because I just don't want to cough. If you can turn to Luke chapter 2, 1 through 7, let me read that and we'll jump in. "Now in the days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.

This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house of family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child.

While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn." Let's pray. Gracious and loving Father, open our eyes, soften our hearts.

Help us to receive your word as you have intended it. Help us not to turn from it to the left or to the right. Help us not to take away from it or to add to it. May your word that you have ordained come forth and not return until it has accomplished its purpose.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, whenever I go to DMV or, you know, where I have to tell them my name and they have to look up my name, usually I go through this cycle of, you know, they ask me what my name is, I say I'm Peter Kim, and then they type it up in their database, and they say, "Well, there's 3,000 Peter Kims in here.

Which one?" I say, "Peter Ho Kim." And then they'll say, "Well, there's 30 Peter Ho Kims in here, so which Peter Ho Kim are you?" So eventually I have to go and give them my address and give them more information in order for them to identify and to say, "Is this you?" It's yes.

Well, I had a whole different version of that when I was in India because I was getting COVID tested in order to get into Korea, and they asked me what my name was and say, "Peter Kim," but their database is an international database, not Orange County. And then they looked it up and they said, "It looks like there's over 30,000 of you in here, so which Peter Kim are you?" So I had to, you know, nail it down to the United States or Orange County, and then I actually had to give them my address and my passport number and say, "Is this you?" And I had to go through this, you know, to find out exactly who I am.

So obviously in that context, I need to be able to identify who I am so that they can put it on their database so when I go into different countries, they can say, "Oh, he's vaccinated," or "He did this or that." You know, what's interesting is as we try to identify ourselves, maybe your name is not as common as mine.

You know, I, you know, Kim is a very common name in Korea. So typically when you meet another Kim in Korea, they'll ask you, "What kind of Kim are you?" Right? Because it's spelled the same way. So our, my Korean, my family's name is Gyeongju Kim. Gyeongju Kim is the area that we came from.

Right? And so that's kind of how we, so it kind of tells you the clan, right? But what's interesting is whenever I talk to a Lee, Park, you know, Choi, or whatever their last name is, and it kind of ties us to our ancestry, most people will add on top of that, it's like, "Oh yeah, our great-great-great-great-grandfather was the last king of Korea." Right?

I've never heard a descendant from peasants, ever. No matter what country you're from, somewhere in the line, somebody is a king. You know, I've never heard somebody say, "Yo, I'm a Kim. Yeah, my dad used to take care of cows," you know what I mean? Or "My great-great-grandfather was a servant of this great king." So almost everybody has descendants coming from a king somewhere.

But obviously, we're not all from kings. Somebody must be wrong. Somewhere down the line, somebody added, you know, or misinformation, and they just kind of came in, because that's what you want to embrace. I mean, whether that's true or not, all it does is add a sense of pride, because, you know, at somewhere, maybe our present circumstance is humble, but at some point in our line, at somewhere way up in the line, we had somebody very important in our family.

Whether that's true or not, it's really not that important. But the identity of Christ is absolutely crucial to identify that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies that's been given for thousands of years. In fact, the Bible has over 25 separate genealogies that are mentioned. And most people, when they run to study the Bible, they don't go to the genealogies, right?

Even those of you who are studious, genealogies are usually something that you just kind of skim over. You recognize a few names, and then you go back. But there's a reason why there are so many genealogies in the Bible, because the genealogies are record of God fulfilling His promise all the way from the fall, when He says the seed of the woman is going to come and crush the head of the serpent.

All the genealogies are a record of God's faithfulness, fulfilling His promise from generation to generation to generation. You know what's also interesting is when we read this text, typically this is where we land on Christmas and we hear about Jesus' story. But when we read this in our modern day, we look at it and say, "Oh, it's a story about Jesus' birth." But imagine if you are an individual, Christian or non-Christian, and you're reading this for the first time, the person that is highlighted here is Caesar Augustus.

This is the Caesar of Rome, the greatest, powerful empire of that time. And so naturally you would gravitate towards Caesar Augustus. In fact, Caesar Augustus is not a name, it's a title. Caesar is basically the emperor of Rome and Augustus until this man was never even used of a human being.

Augustus basically means honored or exalted one. So because he was so popular for the first time, they actually attributed that to a human being. And so if you were reading this in the first century, it's like, "Caesar Augustus? What is he doing?" But now we look at it and Caesar Augustus is actually just a side comment.

In fact, the rest of this morning I'm not even going to mention him because it just happens that God used him to fulfill what he was doing. But the highlight of this whole story is about this child who comes from no significant background, born of a young teenage girl in a manger with shepherds as a witness.

Would have been insignificant compared to this man, but now 2,000 years later, knowing who he is, he's the central figure of this story. There's a reason for that because all of this is a fulfillment and is a record of God's faithful promise. That Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise.

In Micah chapter 5, it says, "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephraith, too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you one will go forth from me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity." In other words, this fulfillment of this prophecy is not a random set of events.

The genealogical records are not random set of events. This is something that God has ordained. In fact, if you remember in the previous, it talked about this fulfillment of the son of God that's coming. Son of the most high God. He's not just a fulfillment of the King Leland, which clearly he is because Bethlehem basically means city of David, and he's going back to have a concrete record that this is who he is.

He's coming from the tribe of Judah. But more than that, if you remember the prophecy, he says he's not just a human king. He's the son of the most high God, and he's going to be the eternal ruler and establish a kingdom that's going to be everlasting. So if you understood and you heard that prophecy, what do you think would have been the next event?

Some parade maybe? Maybe the kings of Rome or at least in Israel, they would have prepared and you would have thought that there were going to be a gigantic crowd to receive them. Instead, there's this chaotic scene of a non-month pregnant child who's moving around, not knowing where she's going to give birth.

The storyline is pretty clear what Luke is trying to convey. Luke is not just gathering random facts and just putting it together and Theophilus hears a record. There's a point that Luke is trying to make, and it's pretty clear that God's perfect plan is unfolding through humble means. God's perfect plan is unfolding through humble means.

You would expect something spectacular is happening, but this is consistent with what we saw in chapter one. Remember, he said the son of God is coming, and then prophecy comes to Zacharias and Elizabeth that they're going to have a child. This is an old couple, beyond years of being able to bear children, and God blesses them and they're able to have a child.

Now we talked about that last few Sundays, that in this particular time to not be able to have children was considered possibly a curse from God, even though it had nothing to do with God. God prepared them for this blessing, but the nation of Israel kind of whispered from the background that they must have done something wrong, kind of like Job's friends.

When he was suffering, they were kind of telling him, "You must have done something wrong." It was to this humbled old couple that this prophecy comes. In fact, in Mary's song, her whole song is, "The reason God chose me," she says, "is because I was humble." And then the rest of the prophecy basically, or the Psalms, goes, "God, how he humbled the proud, the kingdoms, and he raises up those who are humble." In fact, John the Baptist, where we left off, right?

Jesus calls him the greatest of all those who were born of a woman until the time of Christ and to the new covenant. But what made John so great? After the prophecy, how he's going to go ahead and prepare the way for the Messiah and the king, he basically goes out into the desert, most of his life, probably loses his aged parents and lived and grew as an orphan out in the desert.

We don't hear about him until about six months before Jesus shows up. And then he goes out preaching and prepare the way of Christ, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then after Jesus shows up, he lives maybe another six months and then he's beheaded and he dies.

So when we talk about John the Baptist being the greatest of all the other prophets, what made him greater than Moses? What made him greater than Elijah? What made him great? All we know is that short period where he stood before the coming of Christ to point to him.

And so all we know is his greatness was related to his proximity to Christ and his humility. That when Christ came, all he did was say, I must decrease and he must increase. And in the same line, as Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of Lord is coming, the story of the birth of Christ begins with this edict.

And can you imagine of that time when it says it's the way it's spelled out, he says all of the known earth, obviously under Rome's rule was given an edict to go back to their hometown, their ancestor hometown, not that where they grew up, not where they were born, but their ancestors.

Clearly God's hand is in that because there's a clear record of Jesus's heritage that's coming from the line of Judah. But can you imagine the historical scene of what's going on? Everybody packing their bags. If I, you know, if there was an edict in our generation and said, you have to go back to your ancestor home and to be counted and you have the next three months to do so.

Can you imagine the chaos that's going to break out? Almost every single person in this room, I would say probably every single person in this room, and no matter what stage in life you are, right, maybe you're in the middle of business, right, or maybe you're waiting for something.

Maybe your wife is pregnant. Doesn't matter what circumstance you are in. Everybody has to pack their bags, find tickets, and you got to go back to whatever country, whatever place you're in, because I don't think anybody was here in Irvine, right, a thousand years ago, right? So can you imagine what that was like?

Everybody just packing their bags and leaving. I remember the closest thing to this I experienced when I was in Beijing in 1993 on our first trip while I was a seminary student. It was right at the beginning of the Spring Festival. And so those of you guys who know about the Spring Festival, that's like they give you about one month to go back home.

And this is a period in 1993 where it wasn't the country it is now, where it's very developed and everybody's riding cars, but I would say 90, 95% of Beijing was still riding bicycles. And so the only transportation that they had to be able to get somewhere far is to get on this train.

Now, so you have to remember at that time where people lived was basically where the government told you to. So if you were a good student and you graduated and they made you an engineer, they'll say there's a company that, you know, run by the state and we need you to live over there.

So they would sometimes move you hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles away from you. And so only during the Spring Festival, if you saved up enough money, you can buy a ticket and then get on the train and get back home. But if you're not able to go back home, basically you have a whole another year you have to wait until you can buy the ticket and go home.

So can you imagine the number of people who are headed toward the train station at the beginning of the Spring Festival? We just happened to be traveling right at that time. And so when we went to the train station, there were pictures, large cardboard pictures of just mangled people everywhere.

It was just gruesome. I said, why are they doing this? So I asked the guy who was guiding us. It's like, why are they hanging these gruesome pictures at the train station? And they said that every year we have so many hundreds and thousands of people who get mangled on the train because they are trying so hard to get on the train.

And so if they can't get on and get regular seats, regular seats mean just even just standing, sometimes they would have to go for three, four days. But so many people just hanging on from the outside because that's the only way that they can get home. And as a result of that, many hundreds, hundreds, sometimes thousands of them will be thrown under the train and get mangled.

So they would put these pictures to scare people that if you try to get on this train, this is going to happen. Now I know that during this period when the people were moving around, maybe the population wasn't as big, but can you imagine the chaos? You would expect that after a prophecy of the king, son of the most high God who's going to conquer all their enemies and bring about final peace, that you would think that there will be something else going on right after.

But the very next scene, we see utter chaos. Mary was nine months pregnant. Those of you who have children or experienced pregnancy, if she's nine months pregnant, she's about to give birth. Do you make travel plans? No. You can't even come to the retreat if it's too close to the date, because if it happens, you have to be closer to the hospital.

But can you imagine being nine months pregnant and she's about to give birth and now they got to pack up and travel 80 miles from where they are to move to Bethlehem, just because of the census. Now 80 miles at that time, just normal healthy adults would take them about five or six days.

But with her being fully pregnant, and typically when we see Mary traveling, we see her on a donkey and Joseph kind of carrying her along. That may have been the case, but we know that they weren't rich. They didn't have money. So the possibility that they may have walked this whole process is probably highly likely.

That this 13, 14 year old teenage girl with the husband who is, with Joseph, who's only a couple of years older, is in the middle of this chaos. And imagine, remember, she's holding the King of Israel in her stomach. So can you imagine what she was thinking? You prophesied that I'm going to give birth to the King of Kings and this is how he's going to come?

Out on the street? In fact, you know what's interesting is most likely they made this journey alone. And the reason why I believe that is because in Luke chapter 2, 5, it says, "In order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child, engaged." Remember nine months ago when the prophecy came, how Joseph responded to that?

That she's not even married with her yet, but during the time of engagement, prophecy comes and says, "Your wife is pregnant." And so Joseph's response in Matthew 1, 19, it says, "Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly." So Joseph was very concerned.

Being a righteous man, he could have just blasted it and said, "How could she have done this?" And then to save face, dismiss her. To shame her and her family and him go his own way and marry another person. But instead the angel comes and reminds him, he's like, "This is not because she was unfaithful." In fact, exactly the opposite.

God has favored her and this child is a son of God. But he did this, he says, discreetly. And most likely, my guess is, the people around them did not believe that. All they know is that this young girl that was betrothed to Joseph was pregnant. And maybe they tried to tell them, but I don't know how many of them would actually believe it.

Because even Zacharias and Elizabeth had a hard time believing. But my guess is they kind of kept it discreet. And it says on this journey, they were still engaged nine months later. So they waited until she gave birth. Maybe start over somewhere new. So this whole journey, being discreet, maybe running away from shame, pointing fingers for where they were at, and they're moving along.

And then finally, when they get to Bethlehem, all these people were traveling back. All these people, maybe ancestors come from Bethlehem. They probably got there first. Because she was pregnant, so it probably took her longer. If a normal adult would take five days, my guess is it would have taken her many more days than that.

So by the time they arrive, the inn is completely full. And as a result, she ends up giving birth. And Jesus is in the manger. The manger basically is where the animals eat their food and drink their water. You know, what's interesting was years ago, now we have funds and we're doing all this stuff and we have a nice portable baptismal.

But years ago, when our church didn't have money, we're Baptist, so we need to have a baptismal. But we couldn't afford a nice one, right? So we were researching online, and I was researching, and I found that a lot of the churches who don't have money would buy this tin tank.

It's about 200 gallons, and it's big enough for an average adult can get and dunk. So they would take this outside, fill it with water, and then that's where they would do baptism. So a few churches, not many, found that they were using that because they didn't have money.

So we were very tempted to get that because we didn't have money. And it was only a couple hundred bucks. And at the end, I decided not to do that because, you know, we're getting baptized and people are starting their new life in Christ, and we have guests coming giving their testimony and they're going to go into this tin tank where the horses drink their water, you know what I mean?

And people are going to come and say, "What is this?" So for that purpose, it's kind of humiliating to present this in this tank, and so we decided not to do that. Well, this is the Son of God. The Son of God that was prophesied, who's going to bring eternal peace.

Like they come and He's in a manger. This is not by accident. It wasn't because they didn't have money. This is not by accident. God is clearly trying to do something here. In fact, the first group of people that are given to be a testimony of this, it says they were shepherds.

Now you have to understand the shepherds at that time was a dirty profession. It was probably the lowliest of profession. Not only because they were around animals all the time, and they were dirty and they smelled like animals, the Jews considered them unclean because they were around unclean animals all the time, so they said, "Oh, they must also be unclean." And so not only were they physically the lowliest, even spiritually, these are people that they wouldn't want to have in their house.

And Luke emphasizes it was the shepherds that were noted, and then they were the ones to come and they were the ones to praise God and they were the first witnesses to tell other people. It's not by accident. In fact, in the book of Matthew, it says that the Magi's were alerted.

They saw the prophecy of the star, which represents the King of Israel is going to come. And when they found out about this, where did they go? Straight to the King, King Herod, and gathered the high priest because they wanted to find out where this was going to happen.

Why did they go to King Herod? Where else would the King be? When the Magi's, these Gentiles, heard about this and this prophecy was going to be fulfilled, not knowing what's going to happen, of course they went to the King of Israel and asked, this prophecy is being fulfilled, where is this King?

And obviously King Herod, understanding this, in fear of losing his throne, sends an edict to kill all the babies, male children. And so the Magi's are alerted, don't go back, you may not survive this. And then they follow the star that takes them to where Jesus is. Can you imagine the shock of the Magi's when they went to the King and are rejected and then they actually follow the star to where the real King is and he's in a manger.

It doesn't record their reaction, but you can imagine what their reaction is. This is the King? King of Israel? In a manger? With these children? How can this be the King? Again, it's not recorded their reaction, but all of this is not by accident. Luke is not just bringing together just random set of facts, random set of things that took place and said, it just happens to be that this is the context in which Jesus came.

Luke is emphasizing every single part of this for a reason. We talked about this last time, that God who is exalted, emptied himself, became nothing in order to walk among us so that he can be a sympathetic high priest. Every part of the call of Christian life is to empty ourselves, not to become something, not to gain notoriety, not to become this great name, but to empty ourselves so that we can be useful.

Remember in Matthew chapter 8 verse 20, the scribes come to Jesus because he's beginning to get fame and people are starting to follow him. And the scribes who are very educated, who knew the law more than anybody else, came to Jesus and said, we want to follow you. But Jesus knowing exactly where their heart is, says to them, Jesus said to him, the foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

In other words, you're coming to me to seek glory, but the son of man is homeless. You're coming because you think that if you hang out with the Messiah, that somehow some of that glory is going to come to you, just like the disciples. As he's prophesying, he's going to go to the cross.

Can we sit to the left or to the right? And he says, I'm going to the cross. I'm going to die. And he's told his disciples, if you want to follow me, you deny yourself, empty yourself, humble yourself, and pick up your cross and follow me as well. Think about the beatitudes when Jesus begins to speak about the kingdom of God.

And he begins by explaining that the kingdom of God is completely different than the kingdom that you're used to in this world. What do we consider to be blessed? Blessed are the poor. I mean, how often do we say we're blessed because God gave us a good job? How blessed are we because we got a raise?

We're able to find and be able to pay our bill. We're so blessed. But Jesus says, blessed are the poor. If you were sad and God answers your prayers and we're rejoicing, he says, no, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who are gentle, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

You know how often we think of like establishing righteousness because we do quiet time, we're so disciplined and we read scripture and we're evangelizing. And sometimes when we are good at spiritual things, so we're blessed. He says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst. Sometimes those who are the most broken are hungering and thirsting.

Those who recognize their own sins, those who have gone through trouble and fell into sin and in need of repentance sometimes. He says those who are hungering and thirsty sometimes, and I confess, you know, being a leader is hard because when you're a leader, you have to teach and everywhere we go, every person I meet, I have to teach.

So one of the downfalls of being a leader is you stop becoming a student for a while. You become a teacher. And I see a lot of people fall into this temptation that as soon as you become a leader, you have this mindset of like, I got to have all the answers.

He says, no, you're not blessed because you know, or you have a degree or, you know, you've been around for a long time and you have all these experiences. He says, blessed are you because you hunger and thirst for righteousness. Think about who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. Usually it's new Christians, brand new Christians.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst. Blessed are those who are merciful, not those who conquer and are able to defeat every argument, but he said those who are merciful, those who are pure in heart, those who are peacemakers. You know, we think about our current situation. We said India, the persecution meter is rising rapidly in North Korea.

You can't even own a Bible that could cause you to have death sentence. There's certain part of Middle East just for gathering like this. There's a possibility that you may be blown up. Here it says, blessed are those who are persecuted. We think of blessing as because we live in a free country, nice air conditioned room and park your cars and we have these buildings.

We're so blessed. But Jesus says, blessed are those who are persecuted. Blessed are you when you are insulted. Now why are they all blessed? If you know the Beatitudes, every one of these things he said they're blessed because it's a doorway to Christ. Every single one of them. Every single one.

Whatever brings you closer, whatever causes you to be broken and bring you closer to Christ is the blessing from God's perspective. Matthew chapter 18, one through four, it says at that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And he called the child to himself and said him before them and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." You know, I've heard some people say that what Jesus was saying here is don't ask questions, right? Like a child. So if Jesus says jump, you just jump like a child. That's not what he's saying.

He's saying this because they're coming and asking this question, who's the greatest? So he's pointing to a child who has no power, no authority, no honor. He has nothing. He can't own property. And he's talking to the lowliest, humblest person that he can think of and he says, "Unless you become like him, you cannot understand the kingdom of heaven." How much of our life is a pursuit of the next stage?

When we plant the church, when we get educated, get a job, our relationship, how much of our pursuit is somehow getting to the next stage of glory? Even in the church, in the name of Christ, how much of it is so that we can get to the next stage of glory?

And James chapter 1, 14 to 15, he says, "But each one is tempted when he is carried away, enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." You know, when we think of lust, we automatically think sexual lust, which is part of that.

But the word lust simply means great passion. Great passion. Sexual lust is not the only lust. What about the passion? What about this desire to make it in life? What if this desire, you go to someone's house, it's like, "Wow, I want to live in that house." How much of our anger and how much of our fighting is because our desires, our strong desires, somebody gets in the way?

Our pride is the source of the conflict among our friendship, in our marriages, our relationships, and even with our children. Pride is the reason, oftentimes, why churches break up, why we fight with our neighbors, why even wars begin. Pride is the source and the underlying factor that identifies a rebellious man.

Wanting to touch some of that glory, wanting to have what God has, maybe in different degrees. The whole world is in pursuit, and you know it. I know it. Because the moment that we are born, the question is, what is he going to be? And we have in Korea, we have this doljabi thing.

Some of you guys know what I'm talking about. You've been to one of those parties and you grab what he's going to be, and it's usually his doctor, it's a scholar, he's going to be a businessman. I've never seen anybody put trashcan in there. And he throws up and he grabs the trash.

Because, like all of us, we are expecting that our children are going to become something great. And so all our pursuit is pursuing what we may have had in our mind, now we're hoping that our children will fulfill that. But how much of our natural pursuit of our glory and glory for our children is killing us?

This is not by accident that the Son of God came in the lowliest of possible situation. These are not just random facts. God is demonstrating to us. And he says, if you want to live, what does he say? Die. He who finds his life in me will find it.

See, because the Jews and the people of that time could not understand this, and say, why would the King of Kings, who's going to establish us and bring eternal peace and conquer all our enemies, why would he go to the cross? That doesn't make any sense. Even the disciples didn't understand, even as he was making it very plain.

That doesn't make sense. Maybe we just didn't understand. I know he said he was going to die and be crucified, but maybe we just don't understand. How much of our frustration in our walk with God is because we don't understand? How much of our frustration if God's not answering our prayers is because we don't understand?

That where God wants to lead us is the exact opposite of our pursuit. That we've created in our mind that being blessed means this, this, this, and this, even in the church, even with our children. But here's a thing that I think is important for us not to miss.

Because when we think of Christ, it's like he's humble, right? In fact, we would say that he's not just humble, he's humiliated. If you follow me, not only do you have to humble yourself, you must be willing to be humiliated. But understand, he's not just calling us to be humble, to empty ourselves, become nothing.

There's a reason for that. Jesus did what he did in order to seek and save the lost. In fact, if you see his exalted state, right, in the book of Revelation or whenever you see prophecy of Christ in his throne, he's not in a humbled state. He's not on his knees.

He's glorified. He's sitting at the right hand of God. And all of Israel, all of mankind are bowed down worshiping him. In fact, Philippians chapter 2 ends with that. Because he humbled himself, God exalted him to be a name above every name, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Christ is Lord.

So that's, his humbled state was during the period when he was here specifically for the purpose of saving the lost. In Mark chapter 10, 45, it says, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." He hummed himself and became nothing to save us, to walk in our shoes, to go where we were at so that he can be a sympathetic high priest.

He experienced the manger, the shepherds, the chaos, being born in this young family, maybe losing his father at early age, suffering the things that sinful mankind experiences, all for the purpose of saving us. Luke 19, 10, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost." And Jesus told his disciples that you must do the same.

Apostle Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 9, 19-23. He says, "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all." At that time, in any period of time, who aspires to be a slave? Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen. He was more privileged than an average Jew.

He was a Pharisee among Pharisees, possibly already sat in the Sanhedrin. The guy who discipled him was Gamaliel, already famous, the top scholar of Israel. And he says he's a free man who can travel anywhere he wants. He has all the money and family prestige. And he says, "Though I am free, I have made myself a slave to all so that I may win more." He emptied himself and stepped in his shoe and took on what a slave would have to do in order to save them.

"To the Jews I became as a Jew so that I might win the Jews. To those who are under the law as under the law, though not being myself under the law so that I might win those who are under the law." Imagine Apostle Paul lived all his life trying to live perfectly under the law.

And imagine the kind of life a Pharisee had to live in order to be considered a perfect Jew. And Apostle Paul was on the top of that and then meeting Christ and realizing all of them had been freed. The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but we have been separated.

We have been delivered and covered. So we're no longer under the law. So can you imagine the freedom that they felt living under this oppression of the law and being freed? And yet Paul says he puts himself right back to live under the law to save those who are under the law.

Turn 21, "To those who are without the law as without the law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ so that I might win those who are without the law." He was called as an apostle to the Gentiles. And you remember how much Paul hated the Gentiles.

They were unclean people. That good Jew wouldn't even step into Samaritan because they considered themselves to be unclean. And so if you look at the New Testament, so much of the language is trying to bring the Gentiles and the Jews to be able to worship together. And yet Apostle Paul says, "To those without the law I became without the law.

To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that I might be all means, save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may become a fellow partaker of it." You cannot love, truly love, without emptying yourself.

It's not possible. Let me ask you a question. If there was a job description that said, "Your job is to wipe people's butts," right, would you sign up? Some of you have already signed up because you're nurses. Whether you like it or not, it comes with the job. But if somebody said, "You can be a nurse without wiping butts," I'm sure most of you would sign up.

You do it. I think it's a very honorable profession, but it's a dirty job. And you do it, right? And more power to you. But if you had an option not to wipe butts, right, and give needles and take care of them, do all this stuff, I'm sure you would easily volunteer.

It's like, yeah, that one thing will hire somebody else, right? What if the job description says, "You got to wipe butts," with no pay? Who would sign up? In fact, not only will people sign up, many of you have already signed up. Every parent has wiped butts for years.

There are people in our church who are praying to wipe butts, that they get an opportunity to wipe some butts. And you're doing it happily, voluntarily, and it brings joy to your life. Why do you do that? Because you love that child. Every single one of you had your butts wiped, and every single parent has wiped butts.

Why do you do that? Because you love them. I know some people, they gag at their own poo. And it was like, "Well, how are they going to have kids? I'm not going to change diapers." But they adjust because it's their own kid, because they love them. The Bible says, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." Every step of redemptive history, every step of Jesus' journey to do what he did, was not just humbling, it was humiliating.

And the only reason that you and I can possibly fathom is his love. Now, that's the mystery. Hell is not a mystery. Every single one of us would create hell for the Nazis. Every single one of us would create hell. We just don't know who to put in there.

That's not the mystery. The mystery is why would the Son of the Most High God put himself to be humiliated to save us. You know, those of you who have children, you know, you're raising your kids, and because of your love, you're going to be challenged one day, to different degrees.

You know, those teenage years come around, and you hold on to your pride, you're not going to make it. God's going to humble you. He's going to humble you. Everything that you held, "How dare he? How can he say, after all I've done, after everything I've done, after the sacrifice I've made, how can he possibly say this?" And everything in your flesh wants to, "Get the heck out of my house." But the love of Christ, love for your child, will compel you to humble yourself for their sake.

And that's exactly what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.14, "For the love of Christ controls us," in the NIV it says, "It compels us, having concluded that one died for all, therefore all died." You know what context Paul is saying this? This is a church that Paul loved dearly.

He came and he sacrificed, and he came to the city, burnt out, and being beaten, stoned, put into prison, and then Jesus himself said, "I have many disciples here, you continue to preach." And he labors there for a year and a half. He loves this church, but the church started going off, getting divided, all chaos coming in.

So Paul had to write this very difficult letter in 1 Corinthians, and their response in many of them was not good. "Who the heck is this guy telling us, 'Shall I come to you with a whip?'" He said, "Maybe this guy's not an apostle." They were questioning his apostles, so he writes a second letter defending his apostleship.

And he's struggling to love them and to rebuke them at the same time. Humanly speaking, just shake off the dust, just move on, there's so many other places. Just move on. In fact, the thorn on his side, in my opinion, most likely was his detractors. Who is this guy?

But Jesus says, "In order to humble him because so much was coming through him, in order to keep him humble, God allowed the thorn on his side to continue." Because once pride started coming, it will ruin him. And so Paul is writing this in this context of probably wanting to wrap it up, move on, shake off the dust, and why is he writing this letter?

He says, "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died." Because Christ did that for me. Because Christ did that for you. That's why we persevere. That's why we humble ourselves. And that's why we continue. Sanctification is not becoming more.

Sanctification is becoming less, becoming less. So that as we become closer and closer to Christ, that we can have the same attitude that John the Baptist had. That I must decrease, so he must increase. None of this is by accident. Every part of his birth story is to remind us.

Humble Christ in his humility. Glory will come one day when he comes. But until then, for the sake of the lost, clothe yourself with Christ. That we may go where he goes. Uncomfortable places. People we would not naturally love. Say things that we would not naturally say, that have consequences.

But we would get out of ourselves, humble ourselves, as Christ came to us, that we would go to them. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. You know our struggle with our flesh. How much we struggle to compete, to compare, and ultimately creating conflicts. Lord teach us what it means to deny ourselves, and pick up our own cross and follow you as well.

Lord, we thank you for your love, your humility, your humiliation. That we also may have life abundantly in you. May your name be exalted. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.