1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,520 We don't like being trapped in a claustrophobic space 2 00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:03,840 with no escape. 3 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:07,560 Only our problems for company, do we? 4 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:11,280 In fact, for myself, when I feel the weight 5 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:13,480 and pressures of this world, 6 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:16,480 one of the best remedies for me is to get outside 7 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:18,720 and the great expanse and wide open, 8 00:00:18,720 --> 00:00:22,160 to go out into my front yard and to sit underneath the sky 9 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:25,000 or to look at the stars in the sky. 10 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:30,000 The last thing I want is the cramped claustrophobic space 11 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:33,920 in my own head or my own heart or my bedroom 12 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:36,920 with the problems to keep me company. 13 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:39,240 And we may not like it, but it's also true 14 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:41,120 that our problems and our difficulties 15 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:43,000 and our sufferings in this life, 16 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:47,560 they actually have the ability to shrink our world. 17 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:48,840 They shrink our world. 18 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:51,920 If you're having financial problems, for instance, 19 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:56,720 it's almost impossible to have big, spacious dreams 20 00:00:56,720 --> 00:00:59,480 when you are struggling to make ends meet. 21 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:03,160 To put food on the table or to pay bills 22 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:06,640 or maybe you're having marital problems. 23 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,360 It's hard to have a vision for hope 24 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:12,080 or a vision of hope for the future. 25 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:15,160 Everything shrinks down to our problems. 26 00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:20,160 Each day is focused on managing our problems. 27 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:25,160 Sure, there may be a wishful longing for a better future. 28 00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:29,000 We all have that, but plans can't be made 29 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,280 until the problem is fixed. 30 00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:38,000 Even economies, world economies don't like uncertainty. 31 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:40,440 They don't like, if you have any investments, you know this. 32 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,160 World economies don't like uncertainty. 33 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:44,840 Instead of expanding and growing, 34 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:49,000 economies shrink back in the face of looming issues. 35 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:54,000 Well, it doesn't take much looking around for us 36 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,520 to see the problems of our world, does it? 37 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:01,400 They are in the news each and every day. 38 00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:05,080 They are filling our timelines on social media. 39 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,320 They are the conversations that is oftentimes 40 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:10,600 the easiest to have with a stranger. 41 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:14,120 Back in the day, we used to make small talk 42 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:14,960 about the weather. 43 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:19,960 Now, we make it about wars, about political corruption, 44 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,080 about pandemics and more. 45 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:28,240 We are inundated with all of this 46 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:31,280 and it can make us easily feel like we are locked 47 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:35,120 in the smallness of a world of darkness and gloom. 48 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:40,360 This is nothing new for humanity though. 49 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:45,360 Ever since the fall of humankind into our sinful rebellion, 50 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:47,560 we have lived in dark days. 51 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:51,640 In fact, all the darkness we experience out there 52 00:02:51,640 --> 00:02:56,640 and in here is a result of the tumbling of humanity 53 00:02:56,840 --> 00:03:01,840 into the undoing of God's good creation because of sin. 54 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,680 Humanity, which was once the crown of creation, 55 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:10,160 the God of sin, was a symbol of the darkness 56 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:12,920 and the darkness of the world. 57 00:03:12,920 --> 00:03:15,880 The guardians of God's special work 58 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,560 now stumble about in the darkness 59 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,800 and the smallness of their world 60 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:25,600 as echoes of Eden call out to them 61 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:30,320 and only impressions of the glory that they once were 62 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:33,920 seen in pale reflections and dirty mirrors. 63 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:37,440 Sure, this is nothing new, 64 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:41,800 but it keeps popping up in the timeline, in the history. 65 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:44,520 There's something else that keeps popping up 66 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:47,960 and visiting humanity even in its darkest place. 67 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:53,280 It's beams of light that cut through the darkness 68 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:56,120 and stir in the heart of humanity a hope. 69 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:00,960 In Isaiah chapter nine, it is said, 70 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:03,080 it is something like this. 71 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:07,600 People walking in darkness have seen a great light. 72 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:10,760 A light has dawned on those 73 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:12,960 who are living in the land of darkness. 74 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:19,120 Maybe this darkness isn't all there is to life. 75 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,560 Maybe the problems, the suffering, the pain of defeat, 76 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:26,480 the desolation isn't it. 77 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:29,680 Maybe there's more to the story. 78 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,200 And this proposition keeps breaking through, 79 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:35,480 keeps breaking through and it's carried along 80 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:39,920 one generation to the next in the songs that we sing 81 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:42,200 and the stories that we tell 82 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:45,240 and in the practices and yearly rhythms that we keep. 83 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:48,160 In fact, if you are here today, 84 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:51,280 you are keeping one of those yearly rhythms, 85 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:53,800 light beams breaking through the darkness. 86 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:57,160 This is one of those moments. 87 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:00,920 Christmas reminds us of the time 88 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:03,200 where the script was flipped, 89 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:08,800 where what seems to always be and just the way it is 90 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:13,800 got rewritten and Christmas is an invitation 91 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:17,200 to enter a real life story. 92 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:20,560 A reality that is far more spacious 93 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:22,920 than you or I could ever imagine. 94 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:26,000 C.S. Lewis once wrote in the Chronicles of Narnia, 95 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,840 the last battle in a dialogue 96 00:05:28,840 --> 00:05:33,040 between a couple of the characters talked about a manger 97 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,960 and that a manger once had something inside of it 98 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:42,240 that was bigger than the whole world. 99 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:45,120 A manger once had something inside of it 100 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:46,640 that was bigger than the whole world. 101 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:48,200 What was that something? 102 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:49,760 What was that something? 103 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:53,480 That was bigger than the whole world, what was that something? 104 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:57,320 What was in the manger that was bigger than the whole world? 105 00:05:57,320 --> 00:05:58,880 Well, it was a someone, 106 00:06:00,280 --> 00:06:04,680 a someone whose very presence on this earth 107 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:06,280 was an act of love, 108 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:12,240 an act of love toward rebels and sinners. 109 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:17,040 It was an act of self-giving 110 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:20,320 from the giver of life himself. 111 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:24,280 That something in the manger 112 00:06:24,280 --> 00:06:27,400 that was bigger than the whole world was a gift. 113 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:33,320 And we read about that gift in John chapter three verse 16, 114 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:35,720 one of the most famous verses 115 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:39,040 or the most famous verse there is. 116 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:44,040 For God loved the world in this way. 117 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:46,280 He gave his one and only son 118 00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:51,800 so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, 119 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:55,800 but have eternal life. 120 00:06:55,800 --> 00:06:59,080 For God loved the world in this way. 121 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:04,560 The first point I wanna make today 122 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:08,360 is number one, God enters. 123 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,200 Just like our actors up here came on and off 124 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:14,600 stage, they entered the scene 125 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:16,880 and they began to do their work, 126 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:19,880 so God enters the scene. 127 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:21,280 And something that we need to remember 128 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:23,240 is that love is an action. 129 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:25,840 We often think of love as a feeling, 130 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:29,840 but love is an action and is measured in action. 131 00:07:32,520 --> 00:07:35,400 It's not just any sort of action. 132 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:39,400 It is primarily the act of self-giving. 133 00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:41,400 Love is self-giving. 134 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:43,520 When someone truly loves another person, 135 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:46,480 they give themselves to them. 136 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,480 The more fully, the greater measure the love. 137 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:55,800 So how great is God's love for us? 138 00:07:56,800 --> 00:07:58,800 He enters our world. 139 00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:01,200 He enters our world. 140 00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:05,400 The eternally existing God enters the person of Jesus, 141 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:07,760 takes on flesh, takes on flesh, 142 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:10,760 and a human nature and is born, a baby. 143 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:17,760 We heard throughout that presentation the refrain, 144 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:20,800 oh come, oh come, Emmanuel. 145 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:24,960 Oh, you may be wondering, who's this Emmanuel guy? 146 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:26,160 When does he come? 147 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:27,480 When does he show up on the scene? 148 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,120 Well, Emmanuel means, it's an old Hebrew word, 149 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:35,120 and it means God with us, or God is with us. 150 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:37,440 And so the song that we sing is a cry. 151 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:41,440 It's a longing to have God with us, to have God present, 152 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:44,440 because where God is, all things are made right. 153 00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:48,440 Oh come, oh come, God with us. 154 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:54,640 The story doesn't end with just a baby in a manger. 155 00:08:55,840 --> 00:09:00,840 No, that baby grows up to experience our pain 156 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:01,840 and our suffering. 157 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:04,840 He knows what it is to grow through all the stages 158 00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:06,840 of adolescence. 159 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,840 He knows what it is to be a young child. 160 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:13,840 He knows what it is to be a teenager. 161 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:17,840 He knows the loneliness of despair. 162 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:20,840 He understands the social outcast. 163 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:24,840 He walked the hardest miles that we have ever walked. 164 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:27,840 He understands the pain of the world. 165 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:30,840 He understands the pain of the world. 166 00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:32,840 He understands the pain of a beating, 167 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:38,840 the sting of a whip, and the tearing of flesh and bone. 168 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:42,840 He experienced it all, even our death. 169 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:48,840 Every other religion will tell you that you must work 170 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:51,840 your way through good deeds and good living, 171 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:53,840 earning your way up to God. 172 00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:56,840 You must climb the mountain, doing the good deeds, 173 00:09:56,840 --> 00:10:00,840 doing the works, earning your way one step at a time, 174 00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:03,840 pulling yourself up by your bootstraps to get up that mountain 175 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:04,840 up to God. 176 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:06,840 Every other religion will tell you that. 177 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:08,840 Christianity is different. 178 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:14,840 Christianity says that God came down to us. 179 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:21,840 In all of our weakness and in all of our failing, 180 00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:25,840 God enters our story. 181 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:28,840 This is the greatest gift ever. 182 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:30,840 Some of you guys are gonna get some good gifts 183 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:35,840 in the next 24 hours, some pretty, pretty good gifts. 184 00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:40,840 None will be greater than the gift of God 185 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:42,840 entering into our story. 186 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:49,840 But not only did he enter, number two, he acted, 187 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:51,840 or he acts. 188 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:57,840 The self-giving of Christ isn't only in his coming to us. 189 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:00,840 It reaches his apex where? 190 00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:01,840 At the cross. 191 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:06,840 At the cross, if God came and he experienced our plight 192 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:09,840 and he understood our suffering, and he got down to our level, 193 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:13,840 and then he went, man, that sucks. 194 00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:16,840 Whew, that's rough. 195 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:18,840 I'm gonna head home. 196 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:22,840 Hope it works out for you guys. 197 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:24,840 That would not be enough. 198 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:25,840 That would not be good news. 199 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:27,840 There would be no gospel in this. 200 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:32,840 That would just be sentimentality. 201 00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:35,840 That would be, man, I feel your pain. 202 00:11:36,840 --> 00:11:38,840 But nothing would change in our situation, 203 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:40,840 but that is not what he did. 204 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:44,840 God enters and then he acts. 205 00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:46,840 He doesn't leave us in our despair 206 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:48,840 to figure out a way for ourselves. 207 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:52,840 This is, again, how we know the full measure 208 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:55,840 of the love that God has for us. 209 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:58,840 No, he acts by doing the one thing 210 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:00,840 that we could never do on our own. 211 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:04,840 He acts in a way that, the one way that we could never do 212 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:07,840 on our own, he takes on himself, 213 00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:09,840 this is that self-giving of love, 214 00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:13,840 he takes on himself the penalty for our sins. 215 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:16,840 And he pays for them at the cross. 216 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:19,840 Everyone is under the curse of sin and death. 217 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:21,840 Every one of us. 218 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:25,840 Everyone has participated in the treason against heaven. 219 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:29,840 Everyone has lived for themselves 220 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:31,840 and lived for their own gain. 221 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:35,840 Everyone has placed themselves at the center of the universe 222 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:39,840 and in doing so have stolen glory 223 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:43,840 that is reserved for God and God alone. 224 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:49,840 It is God's love that demands justice. 225 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:53,840 God's love is so fiercely wrathful 226 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:55,840 toward the destruction of what is good 227 00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:57,840 and glorious and true, 228 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:00,840 he cannot let that treason just stand. 229 00:13:03,840 --> 00:13:06,840 And because the offense is so great, 230 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:11,840 the love of God displayed in wrath toward sin 231 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:14,840 demands a penalty that matches the crime. 232 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:19,840 And the only just penalty for the treason of sin 233 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:21,840 and rebellion against heaven 234 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:23,840 is that you would be separated 235 00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:25,840 from the eternal source of life. 236 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:27,840 Eternally. 237 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,840 I'm telling you, you can crack your piggy bank open at home, 238 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:36,840 you can take off all of your couch cushions 239 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:38,840 and go looking for quarters, 240 00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:41,840 and you can never find enough of anything 241 00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:44,840 to satisfy the debt you have before the Lord. 242 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:46,840 The debt of sin. 243 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:50,840 You and I are hopeless. 244 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:55,840 But Jesus paid the penalty. 245 00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:58,840 Jesus could pay the debt. 246 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:02,840 He took the punishment that's yours in mind 247 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:04,840 to pay for it, and instead, he paid for it 248 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:05,840 with his own death. 249 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:09,840 Only a human, only a human could stand 250 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:11,840 in substitution for you and I. 251 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:12,840 We're humans. 252 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:14,840 This is an affliction of the human race, 253 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:16,840 and so only a human could stand 254 00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:18,840 on behalf of all humanity. 255 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:21,840 And only a perfect one could stand 256 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:25,840 before the judgment seat, guiltless on his own, 257 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:27,840 undeserving of the punishment. 258 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:30,840 See, if he had been guilty of his own sin, 259 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:31,840 and he stood before God, 260 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:33,840 he would have first had to been punished for his own, 261 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:34,840 and that would have been the result of death, 262 00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:36,840 and there'd be no salvation for you and I. 263 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:39,840 But we have a perfect human 264 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:43,840 who can pay the substitute for you and I. 265 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:46,840 But how can this perfect human 266 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:49,840 stand under the judgment of death 267 00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:52,840 because of the guilt of our sin? 268 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:54,840 Because he's God. 269 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:56,840 He's not just human. 270 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:58,840 He's also God. 271 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:01,840 And God can endure the penalty, 272 00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:03,840 and God can triumph over death. 273 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:06,840 And therefore in Jesus we have the perfect human, 274 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:09,840 divine, two natures together, 275 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:12,840 the perfect God man who could take away 276 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:15,840 the sins of the world. 277 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:18,840 John 3, 16 says that we were perishing. 278 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:20,840 A lot of people want to believe, 279 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:23,840 oh love, man, love conquers all, 280 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:25,840 and it's applied to everyone. 281 00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:27,840 The Bible says that we're perishing. 282 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:29,840 The Bible says that we're lost. 283 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:32,840 The Bible says that the just penalty 284 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:34,840 for our lostness is death 285 00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:36,840 because our lostness is a result of sin 286 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:38,840 and rebellion against God. 287 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:41,840 And yet the Bible also says that we were perishing, 288 00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:44,840 but we don't need to perish 289 00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:46,840 because God so loved the world. 290 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:48,840 He loved the world in this way 291 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:49,840 that he gave his only son 292 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:51,840 that anyone who would believe in him 293 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:53,840 does not need to perish, 294 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:54,840 does not need to be lost. 295 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:56,840 And that leads to the final point, 296 00:15:56,840 --> 00:15:58,840 which is God saves. 297 00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:02,840 For God loved the world in this way. 298 00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:04,840 He gave his one and only son 299 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:08,840 so that everyone who believes in him 300 00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:11,840 will not perish, 301 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:13,840 but have eternal life. 302 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:16,840 The good news this morning 303 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:18,840 about the gospel of Jesus Christ 304 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:20,840 is that no amount of working, 305 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:21,840 no amount of money, 306 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:23,840 no amount of anything can buy your way 307 00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:25,840 into the salvation of God 308 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:28,840 because God, it is a gift. 309 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:30,840 It is a gift, 310 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:32,840 as many of you will receive 311 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:35,840 tomorrow for Christmas. 312 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:37,840 So it is a gift. 313 00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:40,840 And you receive it by believing 314 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:43,840 and trusting in God's work. 315 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:46,840 That gift is believed and received, 316 00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:49,840 is received by believing and trusting 317 00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:53,840 in Christ's act of love on your behalf. 318 00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:55,840 C.S. Lewis, who already got a little, 319 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:57,840 I dropped his name a little earlier, 320 00:16:57,840 --> 00:16:59,840 he's one of my favorite authors, 321 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:01,840 and therefore I'll drop his name again. 322 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:05,840 He once wrote about how so great 323 00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:08,840 a God could come down. 324 00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:12,840 How could so great a God come down from heaven 325 00:17:12,840 --> 00:17:15,840 and take on the state of a lowly human? 326 00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:18,840 Why was that the plan? 327 00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:22,840 Why did that, and why did he condescend to our level 328 00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:25,840 to such a humble place? 329 00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:30,840 And Lewis, in the way that C.S. Lewis can only do, 330 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:33,840 he begins to talk about, well, you know what? 331 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:39,840 The truth is that in order for any strong man 332 00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:41,840 to lift up something heavy, 333 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:43,840 to lift up anything heavy, 334 00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:45,840 what does he have to do? 335 00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:47,840 He has to stoop. 336 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:49,840 He has to get down. 337 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:51,840 To pick it up. 338 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:55,840 And if it's super heavy, he has to get really low. 339 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:58,840 He has to get underneath it. 340 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:01,840 He has to feel the weight of it on top of him 341 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:05,840 before his strength can triumph over that thing. 342 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:09,840 To lift something heavy up, he must stoop down 343 00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:11,840 to the level of that something. 344 00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:13,840 And if it's a big something, 345 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:17,840 he might even be hidden underneath it for a while 346 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:22,840 until his strength engages and lifts that thing up. 347 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:26,840 Jesus Christ came and stooped down. 348 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:31,840 He got his hands under the burden of humanity's sin, 349 00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:35,840 and he felt the whole weight of it upon himself. 350 00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:37,840 And by the power of the Holy Spirit, 351 00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:39,840 as the eternal God man, 352 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:44,840 he stood up and lifted us all up on his shoulders. 353 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:47,840 We didn't have to climb the mountain. 354 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:49,840 Christ did the lifting. 355 00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:52,840 Lifted us up before God. 356 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:55,840 All we must do is receive. 357 00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:57,840 In the coming of Jesus, 358 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:02,840 we see that the all-powerful God stooped down to our level, 359 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:06,840 that he might lift us all up by his eternal love 360 00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:10,840 into and unto eternal life. 361 00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:15,840 To borrow from another great author, J.R. Tolkien, 362 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:18,840 because of Jesus, 363 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:24,840 one day everything sad will come untrue. 364 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:28,840 Everything sad in your life 365 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:31,840 because of Jesus can come untrue. 366 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:32,840 We say some things, you know, 367 00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:34,840 some things become true, 368 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:36,840 some things come to be true, 369 00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:38,840 but they don't come true. 370 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:41,840 Some things come to be true. 371 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:44,840 I'm looking forward to the things that come untrue. 372 00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:47,840 The pain, the suffering, 373 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:50,840 the despair, the hopelessness. 374 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:52,840 All of these can come untrue. 375 00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:55,840 And that's our invitation this morning, 376 00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:56,840 this Christmas morning. 377 00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:00,840 You are invited to escape the smallness 378 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:04,840 of an existence marked by fear and marked by shame. 379 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:07,840 You are invited to escape the smallness 380 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:12,840 of an existence marked by anxiety and hopelessness. 381 00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:15,840 And instead you are invited to enter into the reality 382 00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:19,840 of what God has done and given to you. 383 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:24,840 And I want to invite each one of you to believe him. 384 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:40,840 Friends, believe him.