God With Us
Transcript
Well, good morning. We are in our third week of our Give Series, and our Give Series is something we do every year, so we always have a series kind of entitled Give three years in a row. And basically what we're doing at this time of year is we're going to intentionally take some time to study the Bible and to remind ourselves. I said study the Bible. We don't usually do that. We're always studying the Bible.
But take time to remind ourselves of what Christmas is about and not just get caught up in all the consumeristic stuff that goes on in our culture. So as Christians, what is always happening is there are some things in culture that we can just kind of accept, that we can go along with, that we can celebrate. And then there are other things in our culture that we're going to have to at times push back on. And so one of the things we just try to do around this time of year is rally ourselves as a church to be generous to some specific causes, to not just have Christmas roll by and all we thought about was gifts and giving and receiving gifts, but we actually think about some more long-term or some more other ways to be generous and to be helpful.
And so this year we've got two gift projects, and we talked about it last week. We may have bitten off a little more than we can chew, and so I don't think so. But we kind of got our work cut out for us. And what we've done is we're partnering with City Church, which is a church plant in Knoxville, where we're trying to raise some money for them so that when they hit the ground, we helped add into them hitting the ground running when they all move to Knoxville and get rolling. And we are helping the Staley's, who are a family affected by the flood that live in northeast Columbia. And we actually had a group of nine people go over yesterday to serve and work at their house and got a lot done.
And we're taking another group this coming Saturday to have another day of work over there. And then in January we'll have to go back to do some rebuild stuff. So right now we're just trying to make a few rooms in their house that are unsafe safe, and then we'll go back and make them beyond safe and back into being like nice and actual rooms in their house. And so that's kind of what we're going for. So I don't know about you.
I like Christmas, and I like the Christmassy-ness of Christmas. And I know some people get annoyed with Christmassy stuff. I was talking to someone this morning, and they said, yeah, I'm already over Christmas music. Like I'm annoyed with it at this point. I'm done. And I'm like singing in front of them because I just love Christmas stuff.
But I'm also the type of person I will cut down like random neighborhoods I've never been in just to see like the people who've lit up their house and decorated. I really appreciate the people that do that because I like the shiny lights and the colors and the tackiness and stuff that goes along with Christmas. I string up lights inside of my house because I want to enjoy them. So if they're on the outside of my house, I only see them when I pull up. So I have like lights strung around like the green outdoor lights and tree lights just strung around my house because I just plug them in, and my house is just lit up with Christmas lights.
And maybe a redneck, but I like that. But another thing you see around Christmas a lot is nativity scenes. And so you'll see nativity scenes. And nativity, the word, we looked it up. It just means like dealing with birth or your birth or something. So you could take someone to the place of your nativity.
So wherever you were born, you could say, this is the hospital of my nativity. They would think you were weird, but you could say that. That would be a correct way to use that word in a sentence. And so really nativity scenes are just a celebration of Jesus' birth. So it's the place of his birth.
And so you see these a good bit. We've got a few to look at this morning. And this is one of those that's like just the outline stuff. They're just shining lights on it. You can see that like Jesus is glowing. They're praying to him is what it looks like.
Maybe they're just praying over him. You've got the star lit up. You've got an angel that's just doing like the Vanna White thing. Like here they are. I don't know how long the angel stood there just doing that. But all right.
So the next one. So that one, you've seen stuff like that. Then you've got this kind. This is like you'd set up at your house. The thing about this nativity scene is it has everything. It has like birds that just float magically.
It's got a shooting star thing going. There's a beagle over here because they hung out in the Middle East. But it's just a whole lot of stuff. You know, it's like a 47-piece set. All right.
So then there's other ones that are just like more stylistic. So these people like coordinated all their outfits together. They're like, Jesus is going to be born. Everybody got your red sash. Yes, I got it. There was one guy who didn't have it, and he doesn't get to be in the picture.
All right. So next one. Then you've got people who do stuff like this, which who knows how long it took to get this to work out right. And in the right corner, it says fleas, navi dog. So if the dogs dressed up wasn't offensive enough, let's just throw this in here.
All right. Then you've got people who just like look around the house and find random things. So that's like a volcano with Batman on top. There's a Lego Garfield. The Bears quarterback is there. There's Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I don't know how the dude with the overalls, he just gets to be there. Like I don't know. And Frankenstein. So that's more traditional, like what you're used to. It's like all this isn't. You read it in your Bible.
No, I'm kidding. All right. So then you've got like Peanuts. They do their own kind of thing. And I think this may even be in the show they do. The next one's my favorite.
It's made out of bacon and sausage. We've had a debate. I think that's long, like long stem rice, but someone else was saying it was hash browns. But if you make a nativity scene, do you feel bad eating it? Like are you allowed to eat? Like it seems like you just wasted time.
Just go ahead and cook the bacon and eat it. Don't take forever. But anyway, there you go. That's a ham, sausage, bacon nativity scene. But we see these all the time, and I think we kind of get used to them.
Yeah, that can go away. We don't need to stare at bacon forever. People are just going to start getting annoyed. It's like, oh, I need a biscuit now. We see nativity scenes a good bit. And it's – I think we've over – it's the celebration that Jesus, that God, became a baby.
And so we set these up in our yard, and we have like a live one, and like church put on a big one, and have to order a camel from somewhere and have them walk around. And we celebrate this, but honestly, it's a little bit bizarre, if I can use that word, that God would become a baby, if you think about it. It's just a little bit – it should make us think. It should make us go, okay, what was the point of this? Like if we're celebrating that God became a human, what – why? What was he doing?
And so let's turn to Isaiah 9. We're going to look at what we've been doing a good bit. Isaiah chapter 9, if your Bible looks like this, it will be page 369. But what we've been doing a good bit is looking at Old Testament prophecy, which is where – so like if you watch movies and stuff and people see a prophet, like prophets like their eyes roll back in their head, and they like utter like cryptic sayings sometimes, and like they don't even know they said it, or like nobody knows what it means, but it's a prophecy, or like they have to climb a mountain and go talk to someone who's blind. And that's not what prophecy is in the Bible.
Prophecy is that God speaks specifically through people. So it's a person speaking on behalf of God what God told them to say. Now sometimes they have visions. Sometimes there are a little bit of things that go on with it where he's giving them imagery that they're – but it's not them. It's God that is speaking. And they're not speaking on their own behalf or through their own power.
They're speaking through God. And so that's what Isaiah is. And we're going to look at a really small prophecy that he made, or a really small section of prophecy that he made that's talking about this coming Savior. But we're going to pray before we hop in. God, we thank you for the time that we have to study your word together. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to grow in our appreciation for what you did at Christmas, what we're celebrating at Christmas, and what we're seeing when we see a nativity scene.
So, God, I pray that you'd help us to see that and to accept the invitation that you're making through being born here. In Jesus' name, amen. Isaiah 9, verses 6 and 7. This is a really pretty kind of piece of prophecy, but it's also – it puts these two images together that are kind of hard to hold together. So it says, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and he shall be called.
So we're going to stop for just a second. So he's saying there's going to be a child born, there's going to be a son given. And this theme runs throughout a lot of movies and stuff where there's this promised person coming, this promised son, this promised child that will be born, this destiny child. So there's like this thing that kind of runs through. Like we see it a lot as a theme, and this is actually what happens in Jesus. There's this promise that this son will be born, this child will be born.
So here's what it says. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. So he'll be in charge. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, and on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Okay, so there's going to be a baby born. And then Isaiah says some stuff that is not okay except for under one circumstance. He says some stuff that would not be okay to say except for under one circumstance. What he says is he'll be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. That's not okay unless this child that is born is actually God. Those are not okay names to call him.
In Hebraic Jewish understanding, it's a very serious thing to – it's blasphemy to take on the name of God or to be worshipped as God or to be called God when you are not. That's actually why they kill Jesus later. They accuse him of blasphemy because he is taking on the name of God. He's being called God. And they're saying, no, you're not. But he is.
He is this promised son. And here's what's crazy. These two images do not fit well together. Everlasting Father. Mighty God. Little bitty baby.
Now I know in our church family a lot of people have recently had children. A lot of people will be having children soon. And I'm not specifically if you're a mom in here and you've recently had a baby or if you just had babies. I'm not talking to you. Your child is excluded. But I'm talking about every other child that has ever been born.
Babies are ugly. Not yours. Yours was precious. Precious little baby angel. All the other ones look like little greasy trolls. Like they just didn't come out right.
Like they don't – every time I've ever seen a baby and they're like, isn't it beautiful? I'm like, hmm. Look how small it is. Like I just try to change the subject. Look at how – like when you say that you mean like look how big its head is. But you mean like look at – you just have to – oh, your baby could be in movies.
And like you're trying – it sounds nice but you meant like Voldemort in the train station in the last movie. Like that's what it looked like. Like you just – you're like, oh, this baby is so precious. But like I had a baby and Anna's like, isn't he beautiful? And I'm like, not really. Like I know I was part of the team here but this – this ain't looking so good.
Like his head's kind of odd shaped and like his face looks like a frying pan. Like I don't know. It turns out okay. They get cute. And I didn't mean – not your baby. Your baby was an angel.
But other people's babies. Not yours. Other people's. All of the other people's babies. Not cute. And God became one.
Everlasting Father. Mighty God. Little mushed up funny looking baby. That happened. And we've tried to clean this up. We've tried to make it nicer.
There's the song Away in a Manger. Away in a Manger. That song – that should be on the singing team. Melody Squad. In that song, this is one of the lyrics. The cattle are lowing.
And lowing means making noises. But mooing didn't sound as good. That's why we don't sing the cattle are mooing. No, it's – they're lowing. The baby awakes. But little Lord Jesus.
No crying he makes. Mmm. The only baby that never cried. Jesus. That would be the creepiest baby ever. Like, that's how babies communicate.
They can't speak. So, like, it's not like – are we trying to argue that Jesus could talk when he came out? Hello, mother. Hello, father. I'm God. I'm going to take a nap now.
Like, that didn't happen. He was a normal baby. Like, if he didn't cry, that's how they communicate that they're hungry and stuff. Like, the cattle low. They're lowing. And he wakes up, but he doesn't cry.
So, he just does this. How does he communicate that he's hungry? Like, no. He was a regular baby. And here's the thing. There's a little bit of us.
At least it's in me. I don't know if it's in you. There's a little bit of us that's like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Calm it down. Like, I look at the bacon nativity scene, and I think a little bit – I would have a hard time eating that. Because it's like, well, this is a nativity scene.
You can't eat baby Jesus. I don't care if you made him out of a sausage. Like, this is weird. You shouldn't have done this in the first place. There's the one with Batman, and you're like, no, no. Batman doesn't need to be here.
There's a little bit of this where you're going, this is degrading. You can't say that baby Jesus was mushy and funny looking. The whole nativity is degrading. That's the point. God became a baby. That is absolutely degrading.
Absolutely humiliating. He humiliated himself. That's what humble means. He humbled himself. He humiliated himself. He wasn't even born in a palace or a nice place.
It wasn't like a mushy, weird-looking baby in a nice house. He was laid in a feeding trough. The whole thing is degrading. Every single of the prettiest nativity scene you've ever seen, even that one that had 42 pieces and a beagle, is degrading. Because God became a baby. And there's a little bit of us that's like, okay, but why?
Why would he have to become a baby? Why did he have to be born? Couldn't he just show up? Couldn't he just have walked out of the woods? Like just ripped open the fabric of the world and stepped out and like glowed and floated? Like when he's 30 or around there and goes back to his hometown and preaches, they don't even listen to him.
One of the things says, isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this the builder? Isn't this the guy who used to just work here? Why are we listening to him? He'd lived a normal, everyday life. Had to cut his hair.
Had to walk places. Had to get strep throat. That's humiliating. That's degrading. And the question is, why? What's he doing?
Galatians 4. Flip over there with me. We'll spend the rest of our time there. It helps us answer this question. Paul is talking about kind of who we are in Christ. He's writing this letter to the church and he helps cue us in on why.
It'll be page 632 if you've got one of the blue and white Bibles. If you don't own a Bible, just take this one home with you. We want you to have a Bible. I want you to read it all the time. We're going to start in verse 4. I love this.
When the fullness of time wasn't a backup plan. It was when the moment was right. He wasn't scrambling to try to figure something out. It was when the moment was right. When the fullness of time had come. God sent his son.
Born of a woman. This is Galatians 4 verse 4. When the fullness of time had come. God sent forth his son. Born of a woman. Born under the law.
To redeem those who were under the law. Okay, stop there. We need to talk about that phrase. Born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. We joked the other day when we started this series. That one of the arguments we make around Christmas time.
Is just that. It's Christmas. So like when you're getting an argument with your family. When you're hanging out and doing Christmas stuff. When somebody's bringing up some things. When someone's crying.
When somebody's like being a jerk. Your grandmother will go. It's Christmas. We do not have that here. It's Christmas. And all the argument is.
Is that you could wait two weeks and be a jerk. But you can't be a jerk today. Because Christmas is coming up. Like that's the argument. And that's kind of a funny weird argument to make. Although we all accept it.
The funnier thing that's kind of sad. Is that we can't hang out with our family for two hours. Without getting in an argument. That's the worst part. I was hanging out with my brothers. And my family over Thanksgiving.
And my younger brother and I got into it. Over a ping pong game. It was getting heated. Somebody else. Like it worked out well. That someone else came out.
And we were both a little bit embarrassed. That we were arguing over ping pong. And we had to like get in. So we had to figure out what the score was. And move forward. And really the biggest problem was.
He wouldn't listen to reason. Like I was pummeling him with wisdom and logic. And he would have none of it. But the truth is. I mean I'm getting. I'm really looking at my younger brother.
And arguing with him. And serious. Over ping pong. And I still feel right. Yeah. We can't hang out for three hours with family.
Without getting into it. There's a little bit of us. If we're honest. If we're honest. We look at the world. And all of us are going.
Yeah this is messed up. This shouldn't be the way it is. Like. There are things that happen. That are just wrong. They shouldn't happen.
If we're honest. We look at ourselves. And think the same thing. I'm not. I'm not really as loving. As I would like to make out.
Like I'm not really as kind. I'm not really as generous. Like I give myself the benefit of the doubt. Like I had good intentions. But really.
But there's a little bit of us. The whole time that thinks. If I just. If we could just. Teach the world. If they could just not be ignorant.
These problems would go away. If we could just. If everybody had good. Family situations. These problems would go away. If everybody just knew the rules.
If everybody was just informed. Over what was good. And what was bad. Like these would go away. If I just. If I just got another chance.
If I just knew the rules. That's the law. There's a little bit of us. When everything got messed up. That it was like. Okay.
But don't we just need to be coached up. That's what religion is. Can't you just tell me what's good. And what's bad. And then we can get it right. Nope.
You see. The world turned into a hot mess. Pretty quickly. After God made it good. And then God gives the law. Which is that idea.
Which is what we all want. A little bit. It's what we all. I can figure this out. If I just have the rules. You just coach me up.
And I can do this well. Just give me another shot. I can do it. I can figure it out. I can be good enough. I can accomplish it.
I just need to know. Kind of what rules to play by. And the truth is. Where the law comes in. There's just more broken laws. We just mess the rules up worse.
It wasn't just coaching that we needed. We needed something to get all together. Different. My dad went to Liberty University. Way back in the day. When it was more intense.
He was asked. Politely not to return. My uncle went. He graduated. I think. His oldest son went.
His middle son went. His third son went. Several of those were asked. It's okay. You're good. Just don't come back next semester.
My older brother went. He didn't finish up there. My younger brother went. He didn't finish up there. Several of them. It was just a formally nice request.
You're good. You're good. You don't have to come back. Then my older brother Logan. Went to Bob Jones for a while. I went to Presbyterian College.
And I didn't break a whole lot of rules. Do you want to know why? Presbyterian College didn't have a lot of rules. I broke one. You're not supposed to have a full size refrigerator. In your dorm.
But Matt and I were roommates. And that little refrigerator wasn't cutting it. So we went and talked to. Our RA. And he was like. As long as I don't see it.
When I check your room. You're good. We threw a blanket over it. We also had a pet squirrel in our room. Those were the only rules we really broke. There weren't a whole lot to break.
We could stand up here all day long. And just talk about rules. We could stand up here all day long. And just lay the law on top of ourselves. It's not going to fix us. You could be as coached up as you want to be.
You can know everything that you're supposed to do. It's not going to fix you. And so Jesus was born. When the time was right. He was born of a woman. Born under the law.
To redeem those who were under the law. See every single one of us fails miserably. Fails miserably. When it comes to the law. So Jesus had to be born into the system.
To get us out of it. He had to be born under the law. Into the system. So that he could live perfectly. Do what we can't do. To redeem us.
To buy us back. Born under the law. So that. So he was born. The reason he was born of a woman. The reason he was born.
So that he could be in the system. He could be under the law. So that. Those who were under the law. That's us. All of us have failed miserably before God.
All of us stand condemned before God. None of us will get to walk into the throne room of God. And say. Check out my track record. You're welcome. I crushed it.
Just here to get my high five God. You owe me. None of us get to do that. Even though we give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. We don't get to do that. So he was born under the law.
So that he could fulfill it on our behalf. So that he could rescue us. Redeem us. Buy us back. So that we might receive adoption.
As sons. And because you are sons. God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts. Crying. Abba. Father.
So not only do we get to receive adoption as sons. But for those who place faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit helps us be sons. And the reason it says sons. And not children. Is that sons are heirs.
So you are no longer a slave. But a son. And if a son. Then an heir through God. So in their society.
Females didn't inherit anything. So it's actually really beautiful. That we all get to be sons. Because in that society. That means you're an heir. So we all get to inherit.
What Jesus earned on our behalf. Here's what's beautiful. When you see a nativity scene. As humiliating. And as degrading as they are. And as how much it's trying to wed.
These two ideas. Of this little screaming baby. Helpless baby. With everlasting father. And mighty God. Jesus was born here.
So that we can be born there. Jesus was adopted here. You see Joseph in all those nativity scenes. That's not Jesus' dad. Joseph adopted Jesus. Jesus was adopted here.
So that we. Could be adopted there. That's the nativity scene. Is that he was born here. So that by faith.
We can trust Jesus. And he will redeem us. And we're born again. We're not. We're made new. And we're adopted into the family.
Jesus was born here. And adopted here. He joined himself with humanity. So that we can be joined. With eternity. So that we can be adopted.
Into the family of God. So that we can be. Completely welcomed. By Jesus' work. Not ours. And that's what's.
Really exciting. About our. Our give series this year. So it's really exciting. About church planting. See Jesus left heaven.
And joined with humanity. He said. I'm going to. Take your problems on myself. I'm going to take the law on myself. I'm going to.
Fulfill for you. What you can't fulfill for yourself. And he. Lived a normal. Life. For most of his life.
Had a job. Lived in a community. Celebrated holidays. Completely fulfilled. The law. And then went to a cross.
On our behalf. And the truth is. Church planting. Is a small picture of that. It's. I'm going to leave my home.
That's what city church is doing. I'm going to leave. Our home. And we're going to go. Join with this community. We're going to go get jobs here.
We're going to go be a part of. This here. We're going to go. Be around in normal life. That's what our groups are. It's us walking in normal life.
With the city. With each other. There's something beautiful about. Jesus becoming a human. Which means that. All of the normalcy of our lives.
Has meaning. And matters. Jesus didn't just float in. Say some stuff. And float out. No.
He went to work. He walked around. Cooked food. Cooked food. And so that means that. As we walk in normal life.
We get to join in. It's actually. Made humanity. In some ways. Godly. Just to go to work.
Just to build a relationship. Just to be friends with each other. Because that's what Jesus did. So that he could redeem us. So that he could buy us back.
And we get to go do the same thing. So that more people can meet Jesus. So go to work. And realize that your goal. As Jesus went to work. To work perfectly.
Your goal is to see more people meet Jesus. To get bought back. To know that he. When he was born. Came to rescue them. That's why we're.
That's why we're. Partnering with the Staley's. To help their house. Jesus said. This isn't my home. And I'm going to make it my home.
And I'm going to make it better. We get to do that. This isn't our home. But we're going to come alongside of you. We're going to treat it like it is. We're going to make it better.
The band's going to come back up. And here's what I want us to remember. Here's the big question. That every nativity scene. Screams at you. You see.
Jesus was born here. So that we could be born again. And he was adopted. So that you could be adopted. And when you see a nativity scene. At your grandma's house.
Riding down the road. A plastic one set up at Walmart. The question is this. Have you trusted Jesus? Have you been born again? Have you been adopted into the family?
That's why he came. He was born of a woman. So that we could be born there. So that we could be redeemed. He was adopted here. So that we could be adopted there.
And the way that works is by us placing faith in Jesus. So when you see a nativity scene. Have you done that? And if you have. Remember that. And celebrate that.
Every time you see one. That God humiliated himself. He degraded himself. So that we could be exalted. He was an inglorious. Un majestic little baby.
So that we could have glory. And majesty. And share that with God for eternity. That's the nativity. That's the celebration of that. That he humiliated himself.
So we could be exalted. Exalted. So we could be welcomed. So that we could be adopted. So that we could be made new.
And we're not going to work it out. We're not going to fix it on our own. We're not going to know enough rules. We're not going to accomplish it. We're going to receive it by grace. And just be welcomed in through what Jesus did on our behalf.
And that's what we're celebrating at Christmas. And that's the picture we get to see every time we see a nativity scene. And if you see one that's cheeky. It's poking fun. Every nativity scene is degrading. And all the more that we get to celebrate.
That our God humiliated himself. So that we could be exalted. So that we could be welcomed. That he was adopted here. So we could be adopted there.
That's the God we serve. That's the Jesus who's welcomed us. And you don't have to earn it. You don't have to accomplish it. He came when the fullness of time was right. To rescue and to redeem and to make you his.
And that's the invitation. To trust Jesus. To be made right by him. Not by your own work. Not by your own. That's why he had to be born under the laws.
Because we've all failed it. God we thank you. We praise you. Pray that we wouldn't miss it. But that we'd get to celebrate.
What you've accomplished for us. God I pray if there's anybody in here. Who has not been born again. Who has not been adopted into your family. Who has not fully trusted. What Jesus accomplished through his life.
And on the cross. And as he rose again from the dead. Pray that you would. Through your Holy Spirit. Send it into their hearts. And let them cry.
Abba. Father. That through your Holy Spirit. You would grab them. And bring them into your family. You've already done everything.
That needed to happen through your life. And through your death. And through your resurrection. And God that I just ask. That your Holy Spirit would move now. To grab people.
And to bring them in. That God you would do. Your work of adopting. That you would do your work. Of redeeming. And making people yours.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
The Best Gift Ever
Transcript
Some people it's like control is your thing, like being organized, having security, like your bank account exists so that you can look at it and know I'm going to be okay because there's money there. And so when Christmas rolls around, it's like we need lists, we need timetables, if we're going to see your family and my family, we've got to organize that. We can't have this – like there's this – we've got to plan, we've got to know what we're buying, we've got to know how we're doing this. We've got to – some people it's just your life is based off of – like life is good if you're comfortable, if you can relax.
And so Christmas rolls around, it's like I'm going to have a little bit of time off. You start stressing out about the ability to relax. This is the thing for college students. It's like I've got two weeks to force all of the nothing into the time that I have. Like I've got to relax. Like I'm going to lay on my couch with one eye open so that I'm kind of sleeping but I can still watch Netflix.
And I'm going to get like a 48-ounce drink and just run a straw into my mouth. So that like there's this level of like I need to be able to see family and friends but I also need to be able to take naps. And I need to be able to have good food but I also need to not have people tell me when to be, where. Like there's just all this pressure that starts going into this weight that goes into. And so we have these moments over the next couple of weeks where you'll be in your car and you're about to get out. You're about to go see family.
And there's this, okay, am I not as bad as I was last year? Do I make more money now? Or you're getting out of the car and you're going, I'm still not in a relationship. There's this weight of like I need to put my best foot forward and I need Christmas to somehow make me feel okay. And when I get around my family I feel this weight of am I doing this right? So you've got your kids and you're trying to like lick their hair down because they're about to see family.
And you know your judgy aunt is there and you're like trying to straighten them out. And you're like what words do we not say at grandma's house? Like those are the conversations you're having because there's this weight of like doing it right. Or you're hosting something and you're like did I cook this well? Did I make this okay? Is everybody going to have a good time?
And then it's over and it's like was that it? Was that all the family moments we were going to have? Was that all the friendship joy I was going to have? Is this all that I'm going to get to do over this time? There's this weird pressure to force all this hallmark into your soul. Like you're like I need to make a memory.
Then there's like traditions which are great. Like you have family traditions. So it's like this is our tradition. But then even those start becoming like we've got to do this well and it's got to be as good and a tradition-y as it was last year. And it's got to feel the same and it's got to be the same as when mom made it. And it's got to be the same as when we had these moments and our kids need traditions.
Or young married couples. You have like the we, my, my, like it's not Christmas if we don't do this. And the other couple is saying well no, no, no. You don't do that on Christmas Eve. You do that earlier in the year. Or why on earth would you watch that movie?
Like you've got to, like these competing traditions or this weird need to make your own new traditions? We've got to have our own traditions. Like we're a family now. We've got to have these moments. And it's like how about yelling at each other about traditions? How about that?
How about every Christmas Eve I'll make you cry? How does that sound? Like there's just this weird pressure. Am I the only one who feels this? I had some people say yeah, you're the only one with that weird pressure. Like there's just this, this, I think we hit January sometimes and we're like did we mess it up?
Was it too fast? Did I not enjoy it enough? Did I not rest enough? Did I not have all the moments we were supposed to have? It was supposed to be Christmassy. It was supposed to be like our culture is bombarding us with all this stuff.
And it's not all bad but it makes us feel like this has to be special. It has to be magical. And I think we go into Christmas sometimes looking for it to make us feel okay. Fill us up. Make us feel whole. Fix us in some ways.
But there would just be, over the next couple of weeks, there would just be a few moments where you just feel perfectly satisfied. And I think a lot of times we roll past Christmas and that never really happened. So what we're doing is we're taking some time to look at who Jesus is, what we're actually celebrating at Christmas. And looking at some Old Testament prophecy where guys hundreds of years before began to tell us that Jesus was coming. And we're going to try to take some time to look at that and actually see how that helps us in this pressure-filled time of year. Actually have some joy.
Actually have some rest. And so let's pray. And then we're going to hop in looking at some stuff. God, we thank you for your grace towards us. We thank you that you do fulfill your promises and that you did come. You did join us in humanity to rescue us and to make us yours.
And so, God, we praise you and we thank you and we pray, Lord, that we would be able to see in your word some truth today that would help us feel some more freedom, feel some more joy as we walk through kind of this Christmas time. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. We'll be in Jeremiah chapter 23. What we're doing is we're looking at some Old Testament prophecy.
These were guys, Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures prior to Jesus. And then you have the New Testament, which is here's who Jesus is, here's what he did, here's what he accomplished, and then letters that were written to churches. And so the Old Testament in the prophets, some of it's history where they're just saying this is what happened. But the prophets are people who, on behalf of God, spoke into their situation or about things that were going to happen in the future. And a lot of the prophecies were specifically about Jesus. And then they were fulfilled.
Many of the prophecies were filled, a lot of them were fulfilled in Jesus. And then we get to, on this side of history, look back at Jesus, how he fulfilled them, and at the prophecies as they were made and kind of see what they were saying, how that was fulfilled in Jesus. And so that's kind of what we're doing today. We're going to look at these prophecies that were made by Jeremiah that were fulfilled in Christ and how that applies to us, how that means something to us today. Jeremiah was a prophet to Israel, and he, one of the main things that God gave him to kind of speak into their lives was that they were chasing after things that were not going to fill them up.
They were looking to other gods, other smaller things, and saying, you'll make me happy, you'll give me joy, you'll fix me. And so he's speaking, and one of the things that Jeremiah does really well is he explains to them that it's like going to an empty well. Well, that looking to other things other than God to fill you up, to satisfy you, to make you happy is like drinking dirt. It's just, it's not satisfying. It's not going to fill you up. It's not going to be okay.
You're going back to that same empty well over and over again. And so he's saying, look, y'all love these things more than God. You're pursuing these things more to God, and they're never going to fix you. And as he's prophesying that, one of the things he prophesies is these two prophecies we're going to see today where he's talking about this coming Messiah, this coming Savior. And so in Jeremiah chapter 23, we're going to read verses 5 and 6. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch.
Okay, David was the best king Israel ever had. Like he was the king. Like if you had Israeli trading cards, you wanted the David card. Like it was the best one to get. Everybody, you know, like Samson was good or whatever, but you wanted the David. Like he was the best one to have.
Like he was the king. And so what he's saying is there was a prophecy made to David that he would eventually have a king come out of his family line that would be a king forever. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless he's an eternal king. So unless he can last live forever. So there's this prophecy made, and that's what he means by a branch, like on your family tree, one of the branches.
See how that works, like your family tree? Some of you grew up in South Carolina. It doesn't branch a whole lot, but you'll get it. Just think about it. All right.
Sorry. So I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness. It doesn't mean that's actually going to be his, like, given name.
It just means, like, when you make a name for yourself. So it's saying this is what he'll kind of an office he'll fulfill. This is kind of a role he'll fulfill. This is the name by which he'll be called. The Lord is our righteousness. So put your finger there because we're coming back.
We're going to flip to Luke chapter 1, which, if your Bible looks like this, is going to be on page 555. Luke chapter 1, that's in the New Testament, so you're going to go right. And we're going to read about the birth of Jesus. We don't know when the actual birthday of Jesus was. The Bible doesn't say it was December 25th. It doesn't say that we should celebrate Christmas as a holiday.
We just do, at this time of year, celebrate that Jesus was born. And so we're going to read a little bit of that today where an angel actually comes to Mary and tells her that she's going to have a baby as a virgin, that God's going to give her a baby, basically. Verse 26. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. All right, so you see that?
See the significance there? He's in David's line. He's on that tree, the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one. The Lord is with you.
But she was greatly troubled at this saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. I think that's a little bit of an understatement. An angel showed up. It's like she was wondering about what he said. It's like, this is an angel? She probably was pretty, this is an intense encounter.
Like, I know if I met an angel, I'd be paying attention. So, verse 30. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.
And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end. So, this is that eternal king. And that's Jesus is the eternal king that is promised in Jeremiah. So, go back to Jeremiah. We're looking at an Old Testament prophecy that is fulfilled in Jesus.
So, when we celebrate Christmas, we're celebrating that Jesus was born. And we're celebrating that he fulfills these promises that were made by God for us. Jeremiah 23. We're going to read that one more time, and then we're going to read where he makes a very similar prophecy a few pages later. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.
And this is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness. Okay, flip over to 429, if your Bible looks like this. Flip over to chapter 33. Jeremiah is going to make a very similar prophecy. Just a little bit is going to be changed, but he's making the same point.
Alright, Jeremiah chapter 33, starting in verse 14. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called. The Lord is our righteousness.
Okay, so, first time he says this is the name by which he will be called, the Lord is our righteousness. And then it says this is the name by which it, being the city that he's over, will be called, the Lord is our righteousness. So, the Lord is our righteousness is this beautiful promise made to us by the prophet Jeremiah that's going to be fulfilled by this coming king, who is Jesus. The Lord, that God, that this coming king, this coming Messiah, will be our righteousness. How excited are we? Well, first, what does that mean?
Sounds like a nice promise because it's got big words in it. But what does it mean? What's he saying? Righteousness really just means that we'll be made okay. Righteousness means to be holy, to be good, to be blameless, to be right. You ever get in an argument and you just know you're right?
Like you just know? Like you're going to make a bet and you know you are correct? My brother and I were betting the other day on whether it was Iowa or Iowa State that we're going to be in the, they were ranked number four. They're not ranked number four anymore, unfortunately, if you're an Iowa fan. I don't know why you would be. But we were arguing and I was saying it was Iowa State and I was incorrect and he was like, how much money do you want to put on this?
And I was like, dude, it's Iowa State. And the reason I was saying that was because I had just seen the ticker say that Iowa State was number four. But he had paid attention to the fact that that was like men's basketball or something or like ladies volleyball. And I was like, it's Iowa State. I just saw it on the TV. And he was like, how much?
How much do you want to bet? I got off on a technicality because Iowa State was number four. We did not specify football. So I was able to wiggle out of that. With video evidence. But he knew he was right.
That's what righteousness means. It means that you are right. You are correct. You are valid. A lot of us were walking through life trying to prove that I'm okay, that I'm correct, that everything is good. We're trying to use something to be able to verify that for us.
And this promise is that this coming Savior will be our verification. We'll do that for us. We'll complete that for us. That's the promise. So I've got an eight-month-old.
And one of the things you start doing as a parent, and I didn't know this, other than smelling diapers, like that's a thing that you start doing as a parent that I wasn't prepared for. You just have to like smell your child on a regular basis, which is really weird. But it's like the quickest way to be like, I don't know. All right, yeah, you're good. And people that don't have kids are like, that's weird. And it is.
It is weird. But other than that, one of the things you do as a parent is that you'll look at kids and you'll say, you're okay. Like you have to tell the kid they're okay. Like they'll fall, smack their face, blood will squirt out, and you're like, you're okay. It's okay. You're okay.
Like that's one of the things that you do as a parent is you chase your kid saying, it's okay. You're okay. And really, when your kid falls, because they're not used to this stuff. Like he's trying to learn how to stand, and then he just like is holding something and then just wants to grab something. So he just moves his hands, which you and I know if you're leaning on your hands, you can't just move them.
He doesn't know that yet. So his face just like picks up the slack. And he's like, I'll hold you up on the table here. And so one of the things when your kid does this, there's a range. Phase one is he didn't hurt himself and doesn't care and is still focused. And phase one is the best phase because he just like rolls and immediately hops back up and starts doing his thing.
And you don't have to parent at all. You don't have to do anything. He just fell over. You're like, and then he's just like doing something else. Like sometimes he just falls and completely forgets what he was doing because he sees something else. So he just falls, hits the ground, and he's like, ooh, something else I can stick in my mouth.
Like that's kind of, that's phase one. Phase two is he's looking at you to see, should I freak out? Smacks the ground and then looks. And if you go, oh, he goes, ah! Like I don't know why I'm scared, but you're scared. I'm probably going to die.
That's phase two. You have some control over phase two. And then phase three is he does not care. He has legitimately hurt himself. He doesn't need you to tell him that this is a problem. He is going to just cry.
And this sometimes will start off with the non-breathing cry where he just like smacks his head and then goes, and you're like, I think you're going to pass out. I want to smack your head again to get you to breathe. And then he just screams like a psycho. So phase two, you got some control. So here's what I've started doing.
When he falls, because I'm a great parent, I point at him and laugh. And here's my theory. If it is a phase two fall, he thinks it's funny. We're cool. The problem with that is phase three falls. When he is legitimately hurt and I'm his dad going, my wife thinks I am evil.
So like he smacks his head and he rolls over and I'm like, and then it's like a welt and there's blood. And he's like, ah, she's like, what is wrong with you? He's a baby. And I was like, I thought it was phase two. I'm sorry. I messed it up.
I'm miscalculating. I'm miscalculating. But he's judging whether or not he's okay based off of us. So like you run over, you're like, you're okay. It's okay. You're good.
That's all right. That's what he's doing. And there's this, you get told that throughout the rest of your life. You're okay. You're going to be okay. And sometimes it means more.
Sometimes it's more helpful. You're getting sued. You have to hire a lawyer. Your lawyer comes in, looks at the case and says, they have no ground to stand on. You're okay. That feels better.
Like that's a really good, you're okay. That's not the same as when someone breaks up with you and your friend says, oh, you're going to be okay. It's like, am I? Is it okay to die alone? Like you just feel that. Like that okay doesn't help.
But the lawyer's saying it helps. Like the doctor comes in, is looking at your charts and says, oh, you're okay. It wasn't what we thought. Like that insurance adjuster. That's what you want them to say. You're okay.
We got this. This is fully covered. You're good. Jesus being our righteousness is a cosmic, eternal, you're okay. It is a, at the highest level, at the most true, real center of reality, it is the God of the universe saying, you're okay. You see, because in the Old Testament, the big question was, how are we going to get out of this mess?
God is good and holy and we have rebelled. I know that I'm supposed to worship him, but I love money more. I know that I'm supposed to care about his opinion, but I care more about the people around me. I care more about what they think. There's this, I've rebelled. I've chased after other things.
And the question is, how are we going to be made okay? And there's this promise of a coming King who is going to be our righteousness. Who is going to be the one that fulfills for us everything that needed to be fulfilled. That's the promise of Jesus. So how does that help me when I'm turning the ignition off and I'm about to have to go be around family?
How does that help me when I'm sitting at my house this year and I've moved and I'm at school and I'm not going to get to see family. And I feel like Christmas won't be Christmas if I can't see family. How does that feel when it rolls back around and I'm still single? How does that help me? How does Jesus being my righteousness actually work in there? Well, the promise is that at the most fundamental and real level, you have nothing to prove.
If you've placed faith in Jesus, you have nothing to accomplish, nothing to achieve, nothing that you have to work out to point to and say, this makes me valid. This makes me okay because Jesus was born. Jesus lived perfectly. Jesus went to a cross to pay for our sin, to set us free. And he is what makes us okay. Second Corinthians 521 says it this way.
For our sake, he, the first he is God, God the Father, made him, that's Jesus. For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin. To be sin. Yep. To be sin. Who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus fulfilled this prophecy for us. Fulfilled this prophecy for us that we become the righteousness of God. So Jesus, when he went to the cross, became your sin. Became all the times you fell short. All the times you failed. All the times you came up empty.
All the times you messed up. All the times you were greedy and selfish and hurtful. He became that. He didn't earn it. He didn't deserve it. But he became it so that we who didn't earn it and didn't deserve it can become the righteousness of God.
That you are made blameless and holy. And guess what? Having a relationship at Christmas won't take away from that and can't add to it. Finding the perfect gift won't take away from that and can't add to it. Making more money this year than last year won't take away from that and can't add to it. So when you're about to turn the ignition off and you're about to go hang out with family and you feel this need to have the perfect children, to have the perfect life, to make yourself look better, to suck in your gut a little bit and strut a little bit more and make yourself sound like your work is more interesting than it is.
It is not. The reason, like when you feel all that weight, take a second. And remember that the reason you're about to go into this party, the reason you're about to hang out with your family, the reason you're about to go hang out with friends you haven't seen in a while is that you're celebrating Christmas. And at Christmas we're celebrating that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy. And you have nothing to prove and nothing to earn and nothing to achieve and nothing that will take place in that party and nothing that will take place in your life will add or subtract from the fact that Jesus has already made you full, already made you complete, already made you whole.
When you're at the store and you're trying to figure out last minute how to find the perfect gift, how to cook the perfect meal, how to have the right stuff, how to make your house look the right way so that people will feel, how to have the perfect memories. It's the weirdest thing to try to force yourself to have. Make a memory. Take a second. Remember that you're celebrating Christmas, which is that Jesus was born to fulfill this prophecy, to go to the cross for us, and that we have been made complete and full and holy because of him. That's what we're celebrating.
You're complete. You're okay in the most real sense possible. You're free. You just get to go enjoy all of the stuff we get to partake in. You get to have fun. You get to rest.
You get to hang out with family. You get to take a nap. You get to one-eyed watch Netflix and suck down a Slurpee. Go for it. But you don't have anything to earn from it.
You don't have anything to prove. You don't have anything to accomplish. And when you get passed into January, you didn't mess it up. Because it couldn't add to you. It couldn't take from you. You're good.
Because what we just celebrated was that Jesus fulfills this on our behalf. And we don't have anything to prove or to work out. We actually get to rest because God, when we place faith in Jesus, became our sin so that we could become righteousness. That's it. So at this time of year, we try to take a minute to press pause on some of the consumeristic stuff to push back on a little bit to all the pressure that we have around Christmas and to say we're going to do some things to rally as a church family to be generous.
Put our money somewhere else. Put our time somewhere else. And so this year, we may have gotten a little ambitious. Just so y'all know. We talked about it, prayed about it, and decided to do two gift projects and kind of wrote a check that we're then saying, all right, church family. What do we got in the account?
Like, what are we doing here? Because we're saying we're going to do two things. And really, we're saying we're going to do both of these and want all of our church family to participate in both. I think we can do it. I'm excited about it. But it is going to involve all of us hopping in, getting on board, and choosing to take some of this time to be generous and to give.
And so the two things we're doing this year. First one, we talked about last week, is we are giving to City Church, which is a church plant in Knoxville. And I am pumped about this opportunity. First of all, we love church plants. We are one. So we're for them.
In case you didn't know, we're pro-church plant. We love to see more churches get started, more people being on mission in more cities. And the really beautiful thing about getting to give to the Knoxville church plant is that we're going to get to tap into what God is doing in a city that we won't go. Like, unless Carolina has an away game there, and unless I suddenly have a change in my financial statement, I'm not going to Knoxville. I might one weekend, if someone gives me a ticket. That's it.
Like, that's the only reason I'm going to Knoxville. It's not to be on mission. It's to eat some food, watch a game, and come home. Like, we get to, by giving into City Church, tap into all the stuff they're going to do, all the times they get to serve, all the times, all the relationships they get to build, all the times that they have baptisms. And they celebrate that more people place faith in Jesus. We won't be there, but we'll have gotten to tap into it.
We'll have gotten to give into that. We're going to show a video of City Church, of Kent Bateman talking. He was here the other day. We're going to show that, and we're going to keep talking about them, and then we're going to talk about our second gift project. He's wearing a plaid shirt and has a beard. I trust him and think it's going to be great.
We know them. They're part of Midtown Fellowship right now, which is in downtown Columbia, and we're a part of the Grassroots Network to try to plant more churches. I'm very excited to be able to partner with them. Here's some of the things we've started dreaming about for them. They've got 25 people that are going to be moving there, and they're going to go ahead and start some groups because they're like us. They're groups first.
We love each other. We're on mission in the city together, and we believe that people will see that and come to know Jesus through it. And so what if we give enough for each of their groups? They start three groups. What if we give enough for each of their groups to have a $300 party budget, a $500 party budget? What if we get to tap into that?
What if our money goes towards bacon and fried chicken to help people meet Jesus? You know how beautiful that is? What if we're able to give enough for them to get a tailgating spot at Nylund Stadium? Nylund Stadium. I don't know how to pronounce it. Nylund?
I think it's Nylund. Yeah. What if we're able to give them a tailgating spot so they can throw parties all year long and get to build relationships with people and get to know people? What if we give enough for them to buy their own baptismal? We borrow Midtown Columbians, but that's going to be too far for them to drive. They're going to have to have their own.
What if we give enough for them to buy one? And we get to be a part of every single one of their baptism gatherings? I don't know. I don't know how much we're going to give. Here's what we're asking. That all of us will begin to pray and ask God, what does it look like for us to give?
You can write a check and put for City Church and put it in that box. You can go onto our website and through our Give link, you can click a drop-down tab and give specifically to City Church so that we can know this is how much we're giving them. We can write them one big check and we can celebrate together. This is how much we rallied to help your church get started. See, more people meet Jesus in Knoxville. And a bunch of those people from Columbia, maybe they'll help them become Gamecock fans.
But it's something that we get to be a part of. Something that we get to join in and we're very excited about. The other thing, that's why I said we may have bitten off more than we can chew. We're going to find out. It's going to be great. The other thing that we're going to do is there was a family affected by the flood, the Staley family.
Affected by the flood over off of the North Main area. The wife had just had surgery. They have three children. The husband was only able to pull some carpet out. And otherwise, they have left two rooms that were flooded untouched. Mold and mildew have taken over those rooms.
And they are now unsafe for their family. And so this coming Saturday, the 12th, and the following Saturday, the 19th, we're taking crews over there to make their house safe again. And then in January, we're going to come back and help them rebuild. That's the plan. And that's going to take manpower. The first one is going to take money.
This is going to take manpower. And we want everybody to be involved with both. Let me show you a few pictures of that house. This is the Staley residence. It's over in North Main. Kind of on out towards I-20.
This is Miss Staley. We met her and her daughter. And I do not remember her daughter's name, but it's like a Zola or Nola. It's got Ola in it. And I should have remembered that or not brought it up. But we are where we are now.
That's Miss Staley. And that's little Miss Staley next to her. That is their back patio room. That glass was broken prior to the flood, and the whole back patio just filled up. And they have not done anything in that room. And so show the next picture.
That room is filled with stuff. That chair, you can't see it in the picture. You can kind of see it looks speckled. That is completely molded out. That's the technical term. Molded out.
Everything in that room is covered in mold and mildew. And we are going to have to wear suits and masks and go in and very slowly bag it all up. There is now mold and mildew growing in the ceiling. We are going to have to spray everything with shockwave, pressure wash the inside of both of these rooms. They have completely locked that room off. They're not going in there, and everything in that room is getting thrown away.
That's what we're starting with on this coming Saturday. The next room is on the side of their house. That's the entrance door to it. The front of the house is here, so you're kind of walking up to the house here. This is actually the door they use to enter into their house, and they've got mold and mildew growing in there. So every time they walk through that room, they're tracking mold and mildew into their house.
The only thing they've done is pulled up the carpet, but there's still carpet over here that they're growing mold in and taking it inside. That whole room back there has a washer, a dryer, a freezer that we're going to have to clean out. We're going to have to pull all this stuff out. Show the other side of the room. There's mildew growing all in the corner. We're going to have to take everything out of this room, throw it away, pressure wash it, clean it to make their house safe again.
And that's what we've signed up to do. That's our gift project. That's what we get to be a part of this year. They're rolling into January. Their daughter, their other children can play in their house, and they don't have to. While we were there, the daughter was in the room.
She sat down one of her toys. There was an adjuster with like an assessor with us. She sat down one of her toys on the couch, and he said, you're going to need to throw that away. She doesn't get to have that anymore because that's not safe anymore. And they're walking through this every day. And so here's what we're doing.
We want to give to City Church.
Joy Has Dawned
Transcript
Well, good morning. Festive seasons greetings to all of you. I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. I was invited early on in November to a Friendsgiving, and so I got to go eat Thanksgiving-type meal then, and then our community group had a Thanksgiving meal on Tuesday, and then we had a Thanksgiving meal at our house on Thursday, and then I went to my parents' house and had one on Saturday, and that was great, and I plan on doing that every year from now on. And I just wanted to throw this out there. If any of you are having Thanksgiving things and would like to invite me, I absolutely will try to come.
Eat turkey and drink gravy at your house. So I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. I hope you got to spend some time with friends and family. I want to take a quick poll. I want to kind of see where we land in the room, because I think there's really three types of Black Friday shoppers. So I just want to find out.
I want to see who's in the room. So three types. The first type is this. Oh, heck yes. There's good deals. I'm going to shop for 24 hours straight.
I will camp out. I will buy an expensive tent just to camp out so that I can save less money than I spent on the tent. I will fight a grandmother over an Xbox. She shouldn't be out if she can't handle it. Stay home. This is Black Friday.
Who's kind of in that zone like you get into Black Friday shopping? Really? Nobody. Nobody gets into it. All right.
My brother, he camped out because a friend of his told him that Cabela's was giving away guns, and the least amount you could get if you were in the top 600 was a $100 gift card. So he went and slept outside. They gave him a $15 gift card. He looked at his friend and said, I'm going home. He actually went and slept in his truck and then went to work, and that was it. That was his Black Friday, but nobody camps out here.
Who is in the second category, which is I will Black Friday shop, but I'm going to sleep, and I'll go for a little bit if there's a specific thing I want, but I'm not trampling anybody. Who's kind of in that zone? You will Black Friday shop. Okay, the third category is nope. Yeah, okay. My kind of people.
That's the zone I'm in. Again, I know some people are like, well, I'm going to Cyber Monday shop. That's good. You do that. Use the Internet. But I just kind of want to see what had happened, who's already been kind of out there in the world shopping and doing stuff.
So here's what happens. We have Thanksgiving. We have this week, this moment of like everybody just appreciate what you have until about 6 p.m., and then let's go get more stuff, and let's like be aggressive about it. Like that's kind of like that's the tone. That's kind of our culture is like let's be thankful, but not for too long because we're going to get some stuff. Like so our stores are opening at 6 p.m.
Like Black Friday is immediately the day after Thanksgiving where it's like, did you say the stuff you were thankful for? Cool. Get new stuff. Throw that stuff away. You can be thankful for this stuff next year until this moment, and then you've got to get new stuff and throw that stuff away. So that's kind of the zone.
And so when we come to Christmas season, we always do a give series, which is intentionally reminding ourselves what Christmas is about, taking a few weeks to just remember what we've been given, what we've received from God, and then intentionally leveraging our resources, our time to be generous, to not just get caught up in the consumer frenzy that is American Christmas, but to actually take a moment, take some time, and appreciate what's been given to us, and then try to leverage our time, our energy for some generosity, for some things that will last and will matter. And it's one of my favorite things that we get to do every year together as a church family, and excited that we're getting to start that this week. I love Christmas. I love Christmas.
I'm not one of these, like, I'm into it. I love Christmas. I'm not anti-Christmas. I am anti-Christmas until after Thanksgiving. So I know some of y'all were like busting out Christmas decorations before Turkey.
Like, let's appreciate the day we eat food. Like, why are we skipping past this? It's a wonderful holiday. But after Thanksgiving, I'm listening to Christmas music in my car. Like, I love Christmas music. Like, my, we got Christmas coming up with my family, and Archer and I, Archer's my eight-month-old son.
We have matching, horrendously ugly, Ninja Turtles Christmas sweaters that we are going to wear at Christmas. Is that a waste of money? Yes. Will it be great? I think so. I think it was worth it for us to, just to be able to celebrate some Christmas with some ridiculous stuff.
And one of the things I love about Christmas this time of year is that collectively, our entire culture is like, peace and joy. Good cheer. Good cheer? When do we ever use that phrase? But people will be like, be of good cheer.
It's like, what on earth are we talking about? Like, we're singing that where, we have this, this collectively, we're all just, joy. Like, you go to Dunkin' Donuts, and I think now Starbucks, I think they caved, because people threw a fit, about their red cups. But, go to Dunkin' Donuts, you get a cup of coffee, and it just says joy on the side. How nice is that? Like, we just, you hang up in your house, you just hang up the word peace.
You guys, peace. Look, it's bedazzled. Like, this is kind of our, our cultural attitude, is like, joy, and peace, and hope, and forgiveness, and happiness, because it's Christmas. And what's really funny to me, be of good cheer, what's really funny to me, is that, if you got a cup that said joy on it, in June, your name had better be joy. Like, why is that on my cup? Like, if they give you that cup, and you're like, why, are these cups old?
Like, what it, y'all way ahead of the game, or way behind it, why does this cup say joy? I just want to drink coffee. Don't tell, don't tell me how to feel. Give, give me another cup. I don't feel joyous. It's June.
Like, we push that, like, movies, and your mom and your grandma, but we'll talk about movies first. Then we'll talk about your mom and your grandma. Movies. A lot of movies, Christmas movies, have this. Something terrible happens. Somebody steals.
Somebody hurts somebody. Somebody does stuff. And then at the end, they go, but it's Christmas. TV shows. Just horrible shenanigans and hijinks. And then, at the end of it, they go, but it's Christmas.
The person said they're sorry. Let's forget. And this, this happens with your mom and your grandmother. You're, you're at Christmas. People are getting aggravated, and they'll go, mm-mm. No.
None of that. It's Christmas. And this is a valid argument. We're like, oh yeah, good point. That's the argument. No, you made a good point.
No. Grandma's right. The calendar. That's the argument. It is this time of year. This, this two, kind of two, three week zone.
Mm-mm. Mm-mm. No, sir. No, sir. You can get drunk, and argue with people, and spread everybody else's business, some other time of the year. Not at Christmas.
You can throw a fit, and be really rude, any other time you want to. Not at Christmas. Or we'll just be like, you have to forgive. It's Christmas. And all we're really doing is saying, see the calendar? If you want to do this in January, perfectly acceptable.
Start an argument. Be mean to people. Don't forgive. Whatever. Sorry. It's in the two week window.
It's Christmas. Joy. Look at your cup. Look at it. Drink it, and shut your mouth. It's Christmas.
This is our attitude. And we all are like, mm-hmm. Good point. Why? We have collectively, as a culture, decided, this is the time of year we're happy. We've painted smiles on everything.
We've painted smiles on ourselves. It's Christmas. And then what really happens is, if you're not happy, it's like way more sad. Did you notice that? Like your cup says joy, which makes you feel worse, if you don't have joy. Like if you're sad.
Like, okay. If I eat Taco Bell, and watch Die Hard, on a random Tuesday, that's a good night. If I eat Taco Bell, and watch Die Hard on Christmas Eve, I feel sad inside. Because it's like, it's Christmas Eve. I should be doing Christmas-y things. Even though Die Hard is kind of a Christmas movie, you guys.
John McClain. Putting it out there for Christmas. Here's the thing. Culturally, collectively, we have all decided, this is the time of year we're going to have joy and peace. And we're going to have good cheer. And we're going to have forgiveness.
If you keep asking questions though, if you keep asking why, why are we doing that? Why do we have joy on our cup? Why do we have good cheer? Why? What? Why?
The answer, without Jesus, is, we've decided to. That is the answer. If you keep asking why, and you eventually pull the curtain back, there's nothing there. Just that, we collectively have decided this is the time of year that we say peace, and we're not hippies. Collectively, this is the time of year that we put joy on our cups, and our name isn't joy. Like, that's what, we've just decided that.
And if Jesus isn't behind the curtain, we're really not a big foundation for joy. Really not a big reason for peace, and for good cheer, and for good forgiveness. It's really just that culturally, we've all decided, sure, sounds good. We'll all be on that team. And that's okay. I mean, I think people can get on board with the cultural decision, but it ends up being a lot more hollow, a lot less real, if there's nothing behind it.
And so one of the things we want to do is take a few weeks to actually see where that joy comes from. To actually show that scripturally, biblically, for us as Christians, we have a real reason for joy. You can have it on your cup in June. We have a real reason for joy, a real reason for peace, a real reason for forgiveness, and good cheer. We can all be of good cheer because we have a real reason. And so that's what we're going to celebrate.
That's what we're going to look at. And so we're going to look at, over the next couple weeks, we're going to look at some Old Testament passages that point to this coming Messiah. Some Old Testament passages that are pointing to this coming Redeemer, this coming Messiah, and what He's going to do, and what He's going to accomplish, and then how we get to celebrate that at Christmas. So, I'm going to pray and then we'll hop in. We'll be, well, I'll tell you in a second, we'll pray. God, we thank You for Your goodness.
We thank You that we actually have a reason for joy, that we actually have a reason for peace, that we actually have something to celebrate as we gather here this morning. That it isn't just a smile painted on, that it isn't just the word joy written on a cup that otherwise would just be a cup. God, it is actually real joy, real peace, and something real to celebrate and to get excited about. And so, God, we praise You. Pray that You would help us to see how good You are and then join in the generosity and join in the love and join in the sacrifice as we try to get behind that opportunity this year in our gift series.
And so, God, we praise You and we thank You. In Jesus' name, amen. We'll be in Isaiah chapter 35. So, Isaiah chapter 35. Isaiah was a prophet to Israel and he would, prophets in the Old Testament do a couple of things. They speak to, they speak like into their time, into their culture, and then they speak about things that are about to happen, currently happening, about to happen, or are going to happen sometime further in the future.
So, they're speaking right into what's currently happening, what's about to happen, and then sometimes they're speaking into things that are going to be ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, ultimately fulfilled further in the future. And sometimes it's both. Sometimes it's about to happen, and there's a bigger, greater, later fulfillment. And so, there's a couple places in Isaiah. We read one where he talks about there's going to come a child unto us, a child is given unto us, a son is born, and on his shoulders will be the government, and he'll be called Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He'll be called God.
At one point, he says he actually will be called God, so it can't be just a human. It's got to be something bigger, something later. At one point, he says that there will be a virgin who gives birth to Emmanuel, and Emmanuel means God with us. That's what we just sang. We were singing, Emmanuel, O come, O come, Emmanuel. And that God is with us.
God has joined us. And so, these are prophecies that would be spoken into, and everybody in the culture started looking for, when's this going to happen? Is it now? Is it going to happen now? So, my brother's a really big South Carolina fan. I'm a South Carolina fan.
On Friday, he and I were hanging out, and I looked at him, because we were going to be hanging out as a family, and eating a Thanksgiving meal, and watching the game, and then hanging out with each other. And I looked at him, and I said, Vince, are you mentally and emotionally prepared for what is going to happen tomorrow during the South Carolina-Clemson game? And he was like, he goes, you and my wife. And I was like, what? And he goes, you going to pout all day tomorrow? You know?
He tears him up. So I was like, dude, you got to be prepared. South Carolina, look at my face. South Carolina is not going to win. I love South Carolina. Not going to happen.
And he looked at me and went, okay. And I said, and that little voice inside of you that just said, but maybe let it die. And he busted out laughing. And he goes, I did just think that. You know, it's a rivalry game, and it's like, no, none of that. But here's what South Carolina has done all year.
South Carolina has been just good enough to lose all year long. That's it. They've been just good enough to lose. They've lost by a touchdown. They've lost by a point. They've lost by, that was to the Citadel.
They lost by a field goal. They've been just good enough to lose. And so every game, they get your hopes up though if you're a Carolina fan. So I was telling everybody, don't get excited. They're just going to play well and lose. And then when we got within like three points, when it was 25 to 28, I was like, everyone get your hopes up.
Please. Like Carolina just wants to get you in that area so they can crush your soul. And here's what happens. Every time I watch one of those games, I'd be like, oh. I'd be telling people, don't be excited. But inside I'm going, maybe we'll do it.
Like every single time and every single time they were like, are you excited? No. None of that. That's kind of how the nation of Israel felt over and over again with these prophecies. There's this, is it going to be, is it coming? Is it this time?
Is this, is this the one? Is this going to be fulfilled now? Is it like, there was this national longing, maybe a little more dull, but definitely dragged out and definitely over time there's this, when is God going to come? When is this prophecy going to be fulfilled? When is this going to happen? Is it now?
Is this the time? There was this national, oh, is this it? Kind of thing going on. And it's because of prophecies like this. And so we're going to see some of the promises that were given to the people of Israel, some of the promises that were given about what the Messiah is going to do when he comes, what it's going to look like when God joins us. And so we're going to see four promises and then we're going to look at some of the implications for the redeemed, for those who are saved, for those who are rescued by this Messiah.
We're going to see four promises about the Redeemer and then we're going to talk about kind of some implications for the redeemed. So Isaiah 35, verse 1. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad. The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it.
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord and the majesty of our God. Okay, so the first thing we see, the first promise about this coming Messiah is that the Redeemer brings life. What it says is that the desert will rejoice and be glad. The wilderness will break out in joy and singing. So it's some colorful imagery to talk about how the mood, what's actually going to happen, where he's going to take desert, he's going to take what's dead, what's dry, where there is no life and it's going to be vibrant.
It's going to be overwhelmed with joy and singing. So the desert is going to break forth in singing. So it's just this colorful picture of when this Redeemer comes, areas that are depressed are going to see economic renewal, areas that are broken are going to be fixed, areas where there's just death and sadness and guilt and shame are going to be renewed, are going to be given life. One of the things that I think is beautiful here is he says, the desert will bloom with the crocus. This is the crocus. that's pretty. I mean, that's a pretty flower.
I consider myself pretty manly. When I look at that, I'm like, oh, that's a pretty flower. Let me show you, he says it'll bloom abundantly. This is a field of crocus and you can just Google crocus and there are pictures of fields after fields of just that. So that's what he says.
He's going to take the desert, he's going to take dry, broken, dusty land, he's going to take what's parched and dead and turn it into that. He's actually going to make things more beautiful. Or you're going to walk out and just feel renewed, feel life, so that the Redeemer, the first promise is that he brings life. The other thing it says is the glory of Lebanon, so he's talking about the desert and the wilderness, the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. So he picked kind of well-known places that were known for their economic activity or known for their beauty and says, I'm going to take the wilderness and turn it like that.
It would be kind of like Columbia, it's a nice place, I like Columbia, it's really hot and it's not the prettiest city. I like Columbia, but nobody's like, oh Columbia is so beautiful. People just don't say that about Columbia. They say other things about Columbia, but they don't say that. And so it would be like him saying, I'm going to take Columbia and I'm going to give it the prestige of New York, the beauty of the Rockies, and the life of New Orleans, the kind of celebratory life of New Orleans. So it's kind of, he's taking the wilderness and saying, but I'm going to bring this over because Lebanon was known for its cedars, Sharon and Carmel were known for their economic activity and one of them was these two mountains that were next to an ocean.
And so he's like, I'm going to make this beautiful. And so the Redeemer, when he shows up, the first promise that's made in Isaiah 35 is that he's going to bring life. He's going to bring vibrancy with him. Verse three, strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.
Recompense means repayment. He's going to come and make it right. Behold, your God will come with vengeance and recompense. What he just did was he looked and said, all of you who are weak, all of you who are outcast, all of you who've been pushed to the fringes of society, all of you who have no voice, no power, don't be afraid. God's going to come with vengeance and repayment. And so what the promise is is that God knows what's happening.
He sees it and the guilty will not get off scot-free. The oppressors will no longer be able to be oppressive to those under them, but he will bring vengeance and justice that this God will take up the sword when he comes. That wickedness will have no place in front of him. And all the things that have been stolen, all the things that have been broken, all of that that's been taken will be repaid, will be given back. And so the second promise that's given is that this Redeemer brings justice. This Redeemer, when he comes, is going to bring justice.
He's going to level it out. He's going to rescue the weak. He's going to defend against oppression and tyranny. One of the pictures I have in my mind is like every Robin Hood movie so if you, I mean, I'm talking the one with Kevin Costner, I think even the one, the more recent one was Russell Crowe, Robin Hood Men in Tights, if that's your thing. I think one of the best examples of this is the Disney version where it's like a fox is Robin Hood. One of the things that happens in these plot lines is King Richard is gone.
The rightful king is gone. And in his place is his whiny little brother, Prince John. And while King Richard is gone, Prince John starts abusing his power. He starts overtaxing people. He starts just everything he can do to oppress and to steal. And so that's where Robin Hood shows up as this kind of anti-hero where he begins to steal from the government to give it back to the people.
So he's stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. And he's helping level everything out. And what happens in those movies though is as soon as King Richard gets back, everything gets straightened out. As soon as King Richard gets back, there's this celebration where King Richard takes his brother John and gets him off the throne and begins to let equality reign again where he begins to not oppress people where the kingdom gets set back right. And that's kind of the promise here is that this Redeemer is coming. And when he shows up, all the false gods, false saviors, all the false leaders, all those who've oppressed, all those who have been tyrannical are going to be removed and justice is going to be there.
And he's going to reign and rule with justice. He keeps going. So Isaiah prophesying about this coming Redeemer. He says, Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water. In the haunt of jackals where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. The Redeemer is going to bring healing. So he's going to take the desert and water's going to pour forth where the sand would burn anybody who decided to walk on it, anybody who dared ventured out in this desert.
He's going to turn that into an oasis. It'll be cool pools of water. But he says, The blind will see. The deaf will hear. The lame will leap like a deer. And the mute will sing for joy.
He's going to heal that that's unhealable. He's going to take what's broken beyond repair and repair it. That's a heavy promise. That's the kind of healing that this Messiah is going to bring. I watched a video recently of a deaf boy and he had to be, he was a baby, he had to be six months, eight months and they were able to go in and do some kind of a hearing aid implant thing and he heard his mom for the first time and it's the coolest video. It's really short but his mom starts talking to him and he looks at her and he goes like this and then he just starts crying and he's like a six month old baby.
I could understand an adult crying by being overwhelmed by hearing for the first time because they mentally know their deaf. Like they know there's something off and they know kind of, but this kid's six months old and you can tell that he's had this moment of this is how it should have been the whole time. There's something that he recognizes in that moment. He's not scared. He's like he just, he's like he can't handle what has just happened to him and that's the promise of this coming Messiah. That he's going to set it right so that there's moments for all of us where we go, this is how it was supposed to be the whole time.
This is what it was supposed to be like. You know that feeling that we all have that the world just isn't the way it ought to be. Even people who would say there is no God, there is no, they don't look at the world and go man this is great. We are crushing this right now. Turn on the news. You don't come away with that feeling.
If the news is not, turns out puppies are more snuggly than ever. Like that's not the news. We look at stuff and it's, we realize the world isn't the way it's supposed to be and this redeemer is going to show up and take what's broken beyond repair and fix it to the point that where it's the way it ought to always have been. Fourth promise of this coming redeemer. And a highway shall be there and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way. Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. No lion shall be there nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it. They shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there. and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads and they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. This redeemer is going to bring salvation.
He's going to open up a way of holiness. He's going to open up a highway and the redeemed will get to return. The ransomed will come back. When the Bible talks about a highway, so in this time they didn't have machinery so they mostly just had kind of paths that were worn out as people walked on. My mother-in-law recently moved to the northeast side of Columbia. She was talking to me the other day and Two Notch Road runs right past my house over in West Columbia and she lives on Two Notch Road in downtown on the other side of northeast Columbia and she said to me, I saw Two Notches over here.
Would it be just quicker and easier if I just followed Two Notch all the way to your house? And I was like, no. That would be terrible. That's a horrible idea because Two Notch I think originally started as like a path that people took their feet over and horses. Like, it's like we're going to go around the big tree and then there used to be a creek here so it just cuts and runs like this for a while and then that rock's really recognizable so we'll turn right there. Like, that's Two Notches this like old path that eventually just turned into a road.
We have highways now. You don't take Two Notch. You got I-20. Just hop, just come on around. Like, it just comes straight. Two Notch is like this windy and so that's how paths worked and then they cut highways which were the king's highways that they could travel armies over and what they do is they lower hills, they dig them out, they raise up the ground and they make a path that you can't get lost on.
It's not walk till you see the recognizable rock so that you're walking and going, is that a rock? That seems recognizable if you've seen it before. You should have had them draw me a picture. It's not that. Like, if I had to explain to her how to take Two Notch all the way here, it's not follow Two Notch. It's like, you gotta turn here and you gotta, like, they have highways now.
A way of holiness is gonna be opened up. It's going to be clear and evident and then it says the redeemed will return and the ransom will return. Redeemed means that he takes what's broken and he fixes it. He renews it. He makes it right so that people will be renewed and made right and then the ransomed means that he buys them out of slavery. That a price was paid for them to be set free.
It's like in Hunger Games where they have the, they draw the little names out of the hat on who's gonna have to go into the dome and die is basically how that thing starts off and they draw out that little girl's name and Katniss Everdeen, if you don't know anything about Hunger Games, she's the one on the cover holding the bow and arrow. She says, I volunteer as tribute because it was her sister. A tribute had to go so she took her place. That's the idea of ransom here. That a payment had to be made but that those who were going to be enslaved, those who were going to be crushed, those who were going to have to pay have been set free.
This is the promise that's given. That there's going to come a redeemer, there's going to come a savior who's going to bring life, who's going to execute justice, who's going to bring healing, and who's going to bring salvation and that promise is made over and over and over and over and over again. So there's this, this, is it now? When's it coming? Put your finger in Isaiah 35 because we're coming right back. Flip over to Matthew chapter 1.
This is your first time. You may be surprised. Turns out, this promised Messiah is Jesus. If you're a part of our church family, you knew we were coming to Jesus. We're always going to make it to Jesus. Matthew chapter 1, verse 18.
It's on page 523, if you're in the Bible, it looks like this. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. So they're basically engaged. Before they came together, that means they had not slept with one another yet, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. So the way they did betrothal was you were technically married, like you couldn't just break off an engagement.
You had to actually go through like a divorce process, but you're not married yet. So betrothal was more intense than it is for us. And so he decides, because she's pregnant and he knows where babies come from, he decides, I don't want to be marrying you because that baby's not mine. That was his decision making. But he also cares about her, so he doesn't want to put her to shame or have her harmed because there were some rules, some very strict rules against that in their time.
So he just decides to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. That's the prophet Isaiah. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Back to Isaiah 35. Jesus is God with us. He is the fulfillment of all of these prophecies. He is the fulfillment of all these things that have been promised over and over and over and over again.
And Jesus fulfills all of this. Here's what Jesus does. He lives a perfect life and then goes to the cross for us. That's where he bought us back and made us right. That's where the ransom was paid. That's how we are redeemed.
And so these promises for the redeemed and for the ransomed are for us who have placed faith in Jesus and are offered to everyone because Jesus went to the cross on our behalf. So let's look at this quickly and see how these promises are open to us and given to us through Jesus. So Jesus brings life, which means that in us, he takes shame, but he took it to the cross. And so now our shame and our guilt and all the things that had weighed us down and brought death to us, all of our depression and pain, because of Jesus, because this Savior did come, becomes glory. So he takes a desert and he gives to it glory.
Becomes glory because what it does is all of your guilt, all of your shame, all of your sin, all of your depression points to the greatness of Jesus as your Savior. The greatness of the salvation that's been given to us. So Jesus brings life to us. He takes all the darkest places in you and shines light on them, but not to shame you, to set you free from them. And so he brings life. He turns your desert life into that beautiful purple flower.
So Jesus does in us. He beautifies. He takes what's broken and he makes it right. The second thing he does is he brings justice. Read that again. Start in verse three.
Strengthen the weak hands. Make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, Be strong. Fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.
Say that to those who have an anxious heart, who can't stop worrying, who have let fear take up residence in their soul. Fear not. To those who are burdened with every possibility of what could go wrong and are continually asking the question, Does God know? Does God see? Does he realize what has happened to me? Does he know what's been done to me?
And what Jesus says is, Fear not. Fear not. Vengeance belongs to me. And repayment belongs to me. That's the promise given to us in Christ through the cross. He brings justice.
Jesus brings healing to us. The eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute shall sing for joy. Waters will break forth in the desert. All of us have something in our souls that we think this will be with me forever. This will Mark me forever.
This is unfixable. I saw a commercial recently of, well not recently, some years ago. Sorry. In my family, we say the other day, and that means any time past yesterday. Could be seven years ago. The other day I was in first grade.
Like that's how we do that. I think it was during the Super Bowl, and it was a commercial about some kind of medical something, and Christopher Reeves, who was Superman, way back in the day, back when Superman could go around the earth backwards and actually reverse time. That Superman? He was in an accident. He was paralyzed from the neck down, and in this commercial, he rides his wheelchair up on stage, and then he stands up and walks across the stage. And that stuck with me because I was like, is that real?
And it was not. They were just indicating kind of where they were headed. The progress that was going to be made. That has not happened yet. We haven't gotten to that point yet. But there was this moment where you see him stand up that it's like, can that really happen?
And currently the answer is no. Not outside of Jesus. But all of us have stuff that we think this is permanent. And with Jesus, no it's not. He can repair the unrepairable. He can fix broken relationships that are beyond repair.
He can heal what is so broken in you, so dark in you, so hidden in you. Jesus can bring life back to it. That's the promise given to us on the cross because Jesus died and came back to life and he can heal anything. That's open to us because Jesus became a man and went to the cross for us. I love the fourth thing that is true for us. A highway shall be open there and it should be called the way of holiness.
That's in caps in most of the Bibles. That's because that's Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He's the way of holiness that's opened up for us that will get us back to God. The unclean shall not pass over it because Jesus makes us clean. It shall belong to those who walk on the way.
Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. That is beautiful. It's my favorite verse in this whole passage. Jesus is going to do everything. Morons can't mess it up. Do you know how good news that is?
Some of you, that needs to be your life first. Write that in soap on your mirror. Even fools cannot go astray. You can't get lost even if you're a moron. For a lot of us, our past is littered with bad decisions. Horrible, I feel this in my gut, horrible gut calls that led to disaster, broken relationships, pain.
There hasn't been a thing that we haven't messed up. Even fools won't get lost. That's how big and beautiful this highway is. Get on the highway. Then what?
Keep going. When do I turn? You don't have to. Should I write this down? No. Just get on the highway.
That's all you gotta do. Jesus has done everything that needed to be done for us to be saved. We don't have to earn it. We don't have to religion it. We don't have to be good enough. We don't have to be smart enough.
We don't have to accomplish it. We don't have to climb the mountain. We don't have to meditate enough. We don't. Trust in Jesus because Jesus has paid everything with his blood and even fools can't get lost. And then it says that no lion shall be there nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it.
They shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Because of Jesus joy is given to us. You can have it on your cup year round. Because of Jesus.
Because he was born as a man and died in our place to ransom us to redeem us to open up a way back to God that we can't mess up. This is not a book of rules for you to follow. It is a book about a coming savior that is promised over and over and over and over again in the Old Testament and then in Matthew 1 where it turns into the New Testament we get told that promise is fulfilled. This was this happened so that Emmanuel that prophecy could be fulfilled and God could be with us and accomplish everything he said he was going to. Jesus is our redeemer and we can place our faith and our trust in him and he takes care of everything and he gives us joy and sorrow and sighing aren't allowed.
When he eventually returns and calls us all home everything is made right and he's already done everything that needed to happen for us to be made right with him. So the first implication of who this redeemer is in Jesus is that he does all this for us. The second thing is that he does all this through us as his church. We actually get to join him in bringing life. Join him in executing justice. Join him in bringing healing and join him in bringing salvation.
That he actually uses his church to join in on this mission. So we get to bring life. That means digging wells. It also means making things prettier like those flowers. It means that we can Christians can be graphic designers and architects and can do things to just help life flourish. It means that we volunteer at clinics because we get to join him in bringing life.
Executing justice it means we take up the cause of those who don't have a voice. We're at the margins of society. We defend the weak. Bringing healing it means that we work to fix relationships. We should be counselors and people who make peace among our friends and nurses and doctors and people who work to fix what's broken. Rescue workers.
We get that opportunity as Christians to join in with all that God's doing on earth and bring salvation which means that we proclaim the gospel to everyone which is there is a way that's been opened through the cross and life is given to us through Jesus. So for our Give Series that's what we're celebrating. That joy and peace have actually been given to us. That's who Jesus was. That's why he came. That's what he accomplished for us.
That sorrow and sighing flee away because we have hope in him forever and we get to join him in that. So that around Christmas we don't just celebrate the things that we can get. We don't just celebrate trying to get the best gift for people in this consumerism stuff. We actually get to remember that joy has come in the person of Jesus to give us salvation and hope and that he gave everything to rescue us and that we get to join him in that mission. And so I'm really excited. We try to take around this time of year we pick some different things to just try to leverage our energy for and the truth is we could do the same thing every year.
In most cases we could pick something and just say we're going to do that every year. But we want to intentionally try to do some different things. Just pick something each year and say this is where we're going to pour our energy, this is where we're going to pour our time, this is where we're going to put our money and hopefully maybe God works in you and it's something you want to keep doing but we're going to pick something every year and kind of get to pour some energy in it. And this year we're doing two things. God kind of worked it out and we kept praying about it and looking at it and we decided there's going to be two things that we're going to pour our energy and our effort into.
And we're not a huge church so that means we're going to have to be on it to pull off two things. But here are the two things we're doing this year that's very exciting. One is we're part of the grassroots network where we want to see more churches planted. And two weeks ago or three weeks ago Kent Bateman was here and they are planting a church in Knoxville, Tennessee. And so as a church we want to leverage some of our finances to help them get started. And so we are going to be pouring money into City Church which is going to be in Knoxville.
And what's beautiful about that and I was thinking about the other day it feels like cheating. And here's why. We get to do different projects to help serve people on the marginalized people or people that need help or do different work in our city all the time. And we try to do this through our groups and we rally towards it at Give. If we give to a church in a part of the country that we aren't going to live or be or build relationships we're giving into all of the things that they'll get to do. All of the Give series that they'll get to have.
All the times that they'll get to serve. All the people that they'll get to build relationships that we never get to build relationships. All the ways that they'll get to bring justice and healing and life and salvation to that area of the country where we'll never be. So we can actually leverage some of our money to help them do that and basically make a down payment on eternity for people that we'll never meet. And that's really cool. And we love church planting because we think that Jesus works through his church.
That's plan A and there is no plan B. and so it is exciting that we get to help them get started by taking some of our money, some of our finances, some of our energy and giving it to them. So that's the first thing that we're going to do. We're going to try to rally to put some money specifically towards City Church in Knoxville and we've got a couple of different specific things we're working on that we're actually going to say this is what we're going to try to pay for for y'all. This is what we're going to try to accomplish. And so we're talking with them and we'll have more details as the weeks come.
The second thing that we're going to do is we've gotten in contact with the South Carolina Baptist Convention and some of the people who have been affected by the flood locally. We had some people give us money specifically when the flood happened for us to be able to help victims and we are going to pour some of our energy and our effort into doing some work for at least one family that we've already been working out with and talking to to go clean their house, help pull off some work that they wouldn't be able to pull off on their own. So we're going to give money to City Church and we're going to give sweat and energy to help them do some work here. We're going to give money too but we've already raised money for that to give to help work on somebody's house who had surgery right after the flood and has not been able to do any of the work that needed to be done.
Doesn't even honestly know what work needs to be done. And so we're going to say alright we're your team. And we're going to have people around and we're going to come work and we're going to come do stuff. And what's beautiful is that we all get to do both. Some people just got really excited about giving money. Thank Jesus for you.
Some people just got really excited about putting in some work. Some people got excited about nothing. You need to start praying. Jesus will work in you. You got excited because you think I think he's wrapping it up. Um.
Um. But the truth is we want to all do both. We want to all begin asking how can I work and how can I give. And even if it's just a little bit we want to all do both as we leverage some of our energy some of our effort. Let me tell you something. I'm going to buy Christmas gifts.
I'm going to celebrate if if uh sugar cookie eggnog is back this year. I wrote them a letter last year just so y'all know I don't usually do that. I sent them an email because they didn't have it last year because they want to have regular eggnog and I was like what you're sitting on a gold mine which is sugar cookie eggnog and y'all are making regular eggnog. Get it together. It was nicer than that and they gave me a really lame response. But if sugar cookie eggnog is back I'm going to that's like half my budget over the next month is going to go to sugar cookie eggnog because I got to stock up.
But that's not going to last. When the Bible says that we're going to spend eternity with Jesus and that only certain things are going to make it there. Sugar cookie eggnog isn't. Oh it'll be in heaven but me buying it now won't make it there. But the money that Anna and I sit down and look at our budget and intentionally give to City Church and the days that we spend going over and working with this family that's going to make it.
And we always want to take some time around this time of year to say I want to be a part of something that is beyond the next month. That makes it past the calendar moments where I have to be nice to my family. I want to give in to something that's going to matter and it's going to last and the truth is as we get to rally for a church plant. Every penny of that. And as we get to spend our energy and our effort and give up some of our time and take a day off from work to go do some work for somebody who can't get this work done on their own. Every second of that.
And all of it gets to be a celebration that this Redeemer came. All of it as we do this over Christmas and maybe even into January with some of the work gets to be a celebration that he brought life to us. That he brought justice to us. That he helped us when we were weak and we couldn't help ourselves. That he brought healing into what was broken and we didn't know how to fix it. And that ultimately he brought salvation which means that we have an eternity to celebrate with him.
Band's going to come back up and here's what we're going to do. We're going to sing again the song Joy Has Dawned. We just sang it a minute ago. But we're going to sing it as we remember that everlasting joy crowns us. That the desert breaks forth in joy and singing because this Redeemer has come. That sorrow and sighing flee.
That justice is executed because we have hope and joy given to us through Jesus and we actually have something to sing about and we actually have something to celebrate at this time of year. And you can have joy on your coffee cup for the rest of the year if you want. Because we have something real given to us through Jesus. Y'all stay and let's sing. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.