WEBVTT 00:00:03.679 --> 00:00:06.799 Hey all, Pastor John here. Thanks for tuning 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:09.980 in to the weekly sermon podcast. We pray this 00:00:09.980 --> 00:00:12.740 message encourages you, strengthens your faith, 00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:15.359 and helps you to take your next step with Jesus. 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:18.359 If this content blesses you and you'd like to 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:20.500 be a part of helping us continue to bring the 00:00:20.500 --> 00:00:22.960 gospel to life, we'd love for you to consider 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:26.079 supporting the ministry of village. Your generosity 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:28.579 makes it possible for us to keep creating and 00:00:28.579 --> 00:00:31.670 sharing resources like this podcast. You can 00:00:31.670 --> 00:00:35.770 give safely and easily by visiting sacvillage 00:00:35.770 --> 00:00:39.409 .org slash give, or by heading to our website 00:00:39.409 --> 00:00:43.350 at sacvillage .org. Thanks again for listening. 00:00:43.670 --> 00:00:54.310 Now let's dive into this week's message. Well, 00:00:54.570 --> 00:00:58.009 Advent does begin today. And Advent is usually 00:00:58.009 --> 00:01:01.399 the season where We turn to the prophets or the 00:01:01.399 --> 00:01:04.620 gospels. We'll open up Isaiah to look at the 00:01:04.620 --> 00:01:08.819 promises of God in the coming Messiah, the servant. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.459 Or we'll go to Matthew or Luke for the manger 00:01:12.459 --> 00:01:15.959 or the angels or the shepherds. But this year, 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:17.400 we're going to do something a little bit different 00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:20.700 for Advent. We are going to ask the question, 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:24.939 how does the apostle Paul tell the Christmas 00:01:24.939 --> 00:01:28.700 story? How does Paul tell the Christmas story? 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:32.879 Paul never gives us a nativity scene, but he 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:34.879 does give us something just as important. He 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:39.400 tells us why Christmas happened, the why behind 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:43.060 it. While Matthew shows us the star over Bethlehem 00:01:43.060 --> 00:01:45.599 and Luke gives us the shepherds in the field, 00:01:46.099 --> 00:01:49.319 Paul opens us, opens for us and shows us the 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:54.170 plan that was behind Bethlehem. For Paul, Christmas 00:01:54.170 --> 00:01:57.969 isn't just a story, it's a mission, the eternal 00:01:57.969 --> 00:02:01.950 son entering the world to redeem and to liberate 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:06.829 and to make us heirs. Paul compresses the whole 00:02:06.829 --> 00:02:10.229 meaning of Advent into these lines in Galatians 00:02:10.229 --> 00:02:13.569 chapter four. When the time came to completion, 00:02:14.110 --> 00:02:20.030 God sent his son. This is a blazing theological 00:02:20.030 --> 00:02:23.860 summary of heaven's invasion. And over the next 00:02:23.860 --> 00:02:28.000 few weeks, we're letting Paul be our Advent guide. 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:31.180 And we're going to see Christmas from above, 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:34.379 from the vantage point of God's eternal plan, 00:02:35.900 --> 00:02:39.360 the cosmic story behind the Christmas story. 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:41.819 And so if you're going to follow along with your 00:02:41.819 --> 00:02:44.439 Bibles, I'd encourage you to turn over to Galatians 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:48.060 chapter 4. Galatians 4, if you have the Church 00:02:48.060 --> 00:02:50.159 Center app, you can open that up as well and 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:53.159 take notes in the Church Center app. Galatians 00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:55.300 chapter four, beginning in verse four, if you 00:02:55.300 --> 00:03:00.020 use the chair bibles, that's page six, 61, make 00:03:00.020 --> 00:03:05.300 it easy for you. Galatians chapter four and verse 00:03:05.300 --> 00:03:11.500 four, when the time came to completion, God sent 00:03:11.500 --> 00:03:17.300 his son born of a woman born under the law to 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:20.090 redeem those under the law. so that we might 00:03:20.090 --> 00:03:24.770 receive adoption as sons. And because you are 00:03:24.770 --> 00:03:28.050 sons, God sent the spirit of his son into our 00:03:28.050 --> 00:03:33.009 hearts, crying, Abba, father. So you are no longer 00:03:33.009 --> 00:03:37.430 a slave, but a son. And if a son, then God has 00:03:37.430 --> 00:03:45.409 made you an heir. This is God's word. If you've 00:03:45.409 --> 00:03:47.490 ever waited for something important, you know 00:03:47.490 --> 00:03:50.240 that waiting Waiting can feel endless, right? 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:53.479 I know some of you have had to wait for test 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:57.479 results to come back. How did you feel in that 00:03:57.479 --> 00:04:02.199 waiting period? I know some of you maybe have 00:04:02.199 --> 00:04:05.139 had to wait for your kid to get home from work 00:04:05.139 --> 00:04:08.520 after a late night shift on a cold and icy night. 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:13.719 I've been there before. Or maybe you've waited 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:15.939 for God to finally answer a prayer you've been 00:04:15.939 --> 00:04:19.519 carrying for years. The people of Israel did, 00:04:19.879 --> 00:04:22.120 too. They knew what it meant to wait. And by 00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:26.040 the time we get to the coming of Christ, God's 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:29.959 people had been waiting for centuries, waiting 00:04:29.959 --> 00:04:33.399 under Roman occupation, waiting under self -righteous 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:37.480 religious exhaustion, waiting under exile, waiting 00:04:37.480 --> 00:04:40.399 under the weight of their own sin and failures, 00:04:40.819 --> 00:04:44.959 waiting for God to act, waiting for God to speak. 00:04:45.689 --> 00:04:52.529 waiting for God to rescue. And then what? Silence. 00:04:55.449 --> 00:04:58.750 400 years between the last words of the prophets 00:04:58.750 --> 00:05:04.290 and the birth of the Christ. Four centuries of 00:05:04.290 --> 00:05:09.050 unresolved longing. If you were living in that 00:05:09.050 --> 00:05:10.649 moment, you might have been tempted to think 00:05:10.649 --> 00:05:14.160 that God had forgotten about his people the promise 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:17.120 to Abraham that he had made that hope was dead 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:23.220 or hope was naive. But Paul tells us when the 00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:29.420 time came to completion, not early, not late, 00:05:30.819 --> 00:05:36.399 not rushed, not random. Advent reminds us that 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:41.759 God is never late. He's always right on time. 00:05:42.819 --> 00:05:46.819 He knows the moment to move. He knows when to 00:05:46.819 --> 00:05:50.279 break in. And what was God doing in that perfectly 00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:54.300 timed moment? Why did the eternal son step into 00:05:54.300 --> 00:05:57.339 our world the way he did? Well, Paul answers 00:05:57.339 --> 00:06:00.779 that in these four verses and he gives us four 00:06:00.779 --> 00:06:06.500 Advent truths. Jesus arrived in real time. Jesus 00:06:06.500 --> 00:06:10.879 entered real humanity. Jesus came under the law 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:15.259 to redeem us. And Jesus brought us into a new 00:06:15.259 --> 00:06:19.540 family. And that's Advent according to Paul in 00:06:19.540 --> 00:06:22.259 Galatians chapter four. Christmas not just as 00:06:22.259 --> 00:06:26.439 a story, but Christmas as salvation. What Jesus 00:06:26.439 --> 00:06:30.300 did for us. So if you're taking notes, that'll 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:33.180 be our four points. Number one, he arrived in 00:06:33.180 --> 00:06:37.899 real time. You see, Christmas is not accidental. 00:06:38.459 --> 00:06:41.000 It wasn't God improvising a plan because humanity 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:45.139 had gone off the cliff. It was intentional timing 00:06:45.139 --> 00:06:51.819 when the time came to completion. The phrase 00:06:51.819 --> 00:06:54.839 Paul uses means the perfect moment, the moment 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:58.379 when everything God had planned was mature and 00:06:58.379 --> 00:07:03.449 ripe and ready. You could translate it, when 00:07:03.449 --> 00:07:06.870 the timeline was full, when history was pregnant 00:07:06.870 --> 00:07:14.149 with purpose, God sent his son. At first, Paul 00:07:14.149 --> 00:07:18.029 wants us to see that the advent reveals divine 00:07:18.029 --> 00:07:22.209 initiative. But before we talk about shepherds 00:07:22.209 --> 00:07:24.610 and angels, before we talk about Caesar and the 00:07:24.610 --> 00:07:26.949 census and the stables, Paul wants us to see 00:07:26.949 --> 00:07:29.949 the hand of God, the father, sending the son. 00:07:31.060 --> 00:07:34.779 Not humanity reaching up to God, not religion 00:07:34.779 --> 00:07:37.740 climbing its way toward a God, not good people 00:07:37.740 --> 00:07:41.899 performing their way into God's favor. No, God 00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:47.699 moved first. God sent, God initiated, God came 00:07:47.699 --> 00:07:52.699 down. This is the heartbeat of Christianity. 00:07:53.819 --> 00:07:57.360 We don't climb up to God, God climbs down to 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:04.220 us. We don't find God, God finds us. We don't 00:08:04.220 --> 00:08:12.000 rescue ourselves, God rescues us. Advent is the 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.480 story of a God who refuses to leave us alone, 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:20.180 amen. And Paul also wants us to see that Jesus 00:08:20.180 --> 00:08:23.519 didn't begin in Bethlehem. He doesn't say when 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:26.199 the time came to completion, God created his 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:31.720 son, does he? No, he says God sent his son. The 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:34.639 son already existed. The son is eternal. The 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:37.820 son shared glory with the father before creation. 00:08:38.039 --> 00:08:40.840 The son is the one through whom all things were 00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:43.899 made. And so Bethlehem is not Jesus' origin. 00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:51.059 It's his arrival place. And Jesus arrived in 00:08:51.059 --> 00:08:56.659 real time to confront our hopelessness and helplessness. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.460 If the father had to send the son, what does 00:09:00.460 --> 00:09:03.000 that tell us about the condition we were in? 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:05.679 Well, it tells us that we were unable to fix 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:08.379 ourselves, unable to break sins, power, unable 00:09:08.379 --> 00:09:13.159 to clean up our own hearts. Advent says you cannot 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:19.259 save yourself, but God can. And this cuts against 00:09:19.259 --> 00:09:23.000 the grain of our modern instincts, right? Right, 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:28.580 people? We want to believe I can do better. I 00:09:28.580 --> 00:09:32.539 can do better. Just give me one more shot. If 00:09:32.539 --> 00:09:36.340 I just try harder, if I just adopt a few of those 00:09:36.340 --> 00:09:41.220 atomic habits, if I can just get more momentum 00:09:41.220 --> 00:09:43.840 in my life, then I'll be able to take it from 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:50.100 there and do something. And Paul says, no, the 00:09:50.100 --> 00:09:55.320 sun had to be sent. We needed something. We needed 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:58.139 someone completely outside of ourselves to come 00:09:58.139 --> 00:10:01.419 rescue us. And this is the grace of the Advent, 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:04.019 of the coming of the Christ. God didn't wait 00:10:04.019 --> 00:10:06.240 for us to get it all together. Instead, he stepped 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:11.940 into our mess at the right time. For Israel, 00:10:11.960 --> 00:10:16.539 God seemed silent. For centuries, it felt like 00:10:16.539 --> 00:10:20.659 nothing was happening. But behind the scenes, 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:25.830 God was setting the stage. of history. Think 00:10:25.830 --> 00:10:29.450 about this, politically. The occupiers of Israel 00:10:29.450 --> 00:10:32.889 at the time in the first century were who? Anyone? 00:10:33.929 --> 00:10:39.029 Rome, right? Rome had united the world under 00:10:39.029 --> 00:10:44.110 one empire. That's politically, culturally. Did 00:10:44.110 --> 00:10:47.169 you know that Greek had been the unified language 00:10:47.169 --> 00:10:51.639 of the world? And so you see, The setting of 00:10:51.639 --> 00:10:54.120 the stage, the setting of history, politically, 00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:58.980 Rome, now one nation, one empire, culturally, 00:10:59.480 --> 00:11:02.220 Greek, unifying the world under one language. 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:06.179 And then economically, trade routes were created 00:11:06.179 --> 00:11:08.840 across the nations, connecting nation to nation. 00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:11.100 And did you know that those very trade routes, 00:11:11.179 --> 00:11:13.480 those very roads would become the roads that 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:19.830 would spread the gospel to the known world? Those 00:11:19.830 --> 00:11:23.590 roads created by invaders, those roads created 00:11:23.590 --> 00:11:26.389 by oppressors would carry the gospel to places 00:11:26.389 --> 00:11:30.850 it couldn't have gone without them. Spiritually, 00:11:31.129 --> 00:11:34.309 Israel had longed for a deliverer for 400 years. 00:11:34.710 --> 00:11:38.210 You see, the moment was coming together. It was 00:11:38.210 --> 00:11:40.850 all colliding and coming to a head, coming to 00:11:40.850 --> 00:11:43.590 a point. And when all of it came to completion, 00:11:44.049 --> 00:11:49.340 God sent His Son into it. And this is how God 00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:53.799 worked in the coming of Christ. And this is how 00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:58.960 God works in your life. You may feel like God 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:03.100 is slow or that you're in the silent years. Anyone 00:12:03.100 --> 00:12:05.700 ever feel like you're in the 400 years of silence? 00:12:10.659 --> 00:12:18.250 God is never late. God is never rushed. and God 00:12:18.250 --> 00:12:23.870 knows what he is doing with your story. Advent 00:12:23.870 --> 00:12:26.470 is the reminder that God's timing is perfect. 00:12:27.830 --> 00:12:33.529 Even if to us it may feel at times painful. If 00:12:33.529 --> 00:12:35.210 you're taking notes, number two, write down, 00:12:35.330 --> 00:12:40.309 he entered our humanity. Paul's next phrase is 00:12:40.309 --> 00:12:43.509 really easy to skip over. It says, born of a 00:12:43.509 --> 00:12:47.970 woman, born of a woman, If you grew up around 00:12:47.970 --> 00:12:50.889 Christmas, you can almost miss the shock of that. 00:12:51.149 --> 00:12:52.990 Of course he was born of a woman, everyone is, 00:12:53.149 --> 00:12:57.730 right? But think about it, the eternal son of 00:12:57.730 --> 00:13:00.429 God, the one who created galaxies, who holds 00:13:00.429 --> 00:13:03.549 atoms together, who spoke the universe into being, 00:13:03.870 --> 00:13:06.669 entered the world the same way every other human 00:13:06.669 --> 00:13:12.370 being does. Not floating in, not descending fully 00:13:12.370 --> 00:13:16.110 formed. not wrapped in glory and splendor, but 00:13:16.110 --> 00:13:22.110 born. Born to a real mother, with real pain, 00:13:22.629 --> 00:13:26.190 in a real body, in a real town, with real blood, 00:13:26.429 --> 00:13:31.490 sweat and tears. This is the scandal and wonder 00:13:31.490 --> 00:13:37.970 of Advent. God became human. Paul isn't speaking 00:13:37.970 --> 00:13:40.190 metaphorically either. Born of a woman that's 00:13:40.190 --> 00:13:44.200 not poetic language. Jesus had lungs. Jesus had 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:47.519 a digestive system. He had sleep cycles. He had 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:50.639 a childhood and adolescence and adulthood. Jesus 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:53.019 knows what it's like to be hungry. He knows what 00:13:53.019 --> 00:13:54.879 it's like to be tired. He knows what it's like 00:13:54.879 --> 00:13:59.580 to get dirt under his fingernails. He knows what 00:13:59.580 --> 00:14:02.779 it's like to feel the limits and the frailty 00:14:02.779 --> 00:14:10.000 of human existence. He became like us, fully, 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:17.679 truly. end completely. This is why Christianity 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:21.500 is not a spiritual escape plan. It's not a get 00:14:21.500 --> 00:14:23.740 out of your body and float into heaven someday. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:28.779 God dignified humanity by taking it on himself. 00:14:29.779 --> 00:14:32.559 Jesus didn't borrow a body that he could possess. 00:14:33.740 --> 00:14:39.419 He stepped into the human story. He knew loneliness. 00:14:40.950 --> 00:14:47.669 He knew temptation, he knew tears. Hebrews says 00:14:47.669 --> 00:14:50.490 that he was tempted in every way as we are, yet 00:14:50.490 --> 00:14:53.250 without sin, meaning when you feel weak, Jesus 00:14:53.250 --> 00:14:57.870 has been there. I don't know if you guys ever 00:14:57.870 --> 00:15:00.850 go perusing for a new show to watch, but me and 00:15:00.850 --> 00:15:03.190 my wife typically spend about three hours looking 00:15:03.190 --> 00:15:06.850 for a show and then just give up, right? That 00:15:06.850 --> 00:15:11.950 is the show, right? But I think one night after 00:15:11.950 --> 00:15:14.049 spending three hours and me going back and forth 00:15:14.049 --> 00:15:16.350 between YouTube videos that bore the heck out 00:15:16.350 --> 00:15:20.750 of her, I finally said, have you heard of Sheriff 00:15:20.750 --> 00:15:24.409 Country? It's this show that's on one of those 00:15:24.409 --> 00:15:26.769 TV streaming platforms. And I was like, well, 00:15:26.769 --> 00:15:28.929 let's just try it, right? If nothing else, we 00:15:28.929 --> 00:15:31.070 can mock it for the next 45 minutes. That's good 00:15:31.070 --> 00:15:34.129 television, right? Turns out, yeah, it has Emmy 00:15:34.129 --> 00:15:38.639 award -winning acting. Not. It is very mockable 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:41.679 and the acting and scripting is very stupid. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:45.440 But you know, once you start, eh, gotta finish, 00:15:45.500 --> 00:15:49.019 right? So anyway, all that to say, we pretty 00:15:49.019 --> 00:15:51.440 much spend the 45 minutes mocking the show the 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:53.779 entire time, looking at each other, rolling our 00:15:53.779 --> 00:15:58.759 eyes. But that's entertaining, so hey. What was 00:15:58.759 --> 00:16:02.460 my point? No, my point was, we were watching 00:16:02.460 --> 00:16:05.419 the show yesterday. Again, my wife rolled her, 00:16:05.500 --> 00:16:07.399 I said, last night I said to my wife, do we have 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:13.120 a show? I'd forgotten. She's like, uh, kind of. 00:16:13.700 --> 00:16:15.480 And I was like, oh, yes, that one, yes. Well, 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:17.539 let's watch an episode, right? So we start watching 00:16:17.539 --> 00:16:22.659 this episode of Sheriff Country. And there's 00:16:22.659 --> 00:16:26.340 a point in there where the deputy is left in 00:16:26.340 --> 00:16:29.960 charge of the station. And she gets her chance 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:31.879 to like hold the fort down and she keeps saying, 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:34.159 well, what would Mickey do? She's the sheriff, 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:37.200 right? What would Mickey do? That's her thought 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:39.480 processor. Well, it turns out that there's a 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:41.220 man and a woman who come into the lobby and they're 00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:43.440 demanding something. The man is very overbearing 00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:46.440 and demanding. The woman has a hoodie on and 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:49.519 she looks kind of absent and she looks like she's 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:51.019 in trouble in some way, distressed, but she's 00:16:51.019 --> 00:16:53.460 not talking. And the deputy's trying to figure 00:16:53.460 --> 00:16:56.279 out who set this fire in the bathroom, right? 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:58.700 Who set the fire in the bathroom and why did 00:16:58.700 --> 00:17:00.779 they do that? And so she's interviewing people 00:17:00.779 --> 00:17:02.039 and trying to figure this out. And then she looks 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:04.480 at the woman and you can tell some instinct kicks 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:06.839 in. She sees something, she recognizes something. 00:17:07.339 --> 00:17:09.400 And so she goes out to the lobby and she arrests 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:11.720 the woman and pulls her into the back room. And 00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:13.359 when she pulls her into the back room, the first 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:15.880 thing she says to her is, how long has he been 00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:19.900 hitting you? And this opens a conversation about 00:17:19.900 --> 00:17:22.259 the domestic abuse that she's been enduring. 00:17:23.220 --> 00:17:25.940 Bruises all over her neck. And there's a point 00:17:25.940 --> 00:17:29.799 sometime in that interview where the woman is 00:17:29.799 --> 00:17:31.839 sharing something and the deputy says something 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:35.140 like, I understand what you're going through. 00:17:36.019 --> 00:17:38.519 And the woman, you know, pushes back and says, 00:17:38.579 --> 00:17:40.599 no, you don't, you don't know what it's like. 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:42.920 You don't know what it's like to go back with 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:45.779 him. And at that point, the woman, the deputy 00:17:45.779 --> 00:17:48.920 rolls up her sleeves and all over her arms is 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:52.880 scars. And it was a moment that I've seen many 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:54.710 times before in other shows. You've probably 00:17:54.710 --> 00:17:57.210 seen that in real life, but it's a moment where 00:17:57.210 --> 00:18:00.369 something happens. You don't know what my experience 00:18:00.369 --> 00:18:02.930 is like. And then this woman rolls up her sleeves 00:18:02.930 --> 00:18:05.789 and shows the scars and she says, I know, I understand. 00:18:06.069 --> 00:18:07.990 And the woman goes, oh my goodness. She begins 00:18:07.990 --> 00:18:10.349 to cry and weep. And there's a connection that's 00:18:10.349 --> 00:18:12.849 made because this woman knows, she understands, 00:18:13.170 --> 00:18:15.970 she's experienced it. This is what we're supposed 00:18:15.970 --> 00:18:19.029 to feel when we think of the incarnation of Jesus 00:18:19.029 --> 00:18:22.990 Christ. We're supposed to understand that he 00:18:22.990 --> 00:18:25.329 understands our weakness, that he knows what 00:18:25.329 --> 00:18:28.170 it is to be lonely. He can say, I've been there, 00:18:28.250 --> 00:18:31.049 I understand. And you can have that connection 00:18:31.049 --> 00:18:33.769 with him, that relational connection. You can 00:18:33.769 --> 00:18:36.549 trust him, you can pray to him. That's why you 00:18:36.549 --> 00:18:38.549 can bring everything that is in your heart to 00:18:38.549 --> 00:18:42.089 him, because he understands and he knows. He's 00:18:42.089 --> 00:18:45.710 experienced it. Born of a woman, Jesus stepped 00:18:45.710 --> 00:18:50.839 into our darkness, not away from it. And if you 00:18:50.839 --> 00:18:53.099 and I were writing this script, God would have 00:18:53.099 --> 00:18:57.380 certainly shown up with power, right? You know, 00:18:57.619 --> 00:19:00.880 ACDC playing on the loud speakers, right? In 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:03.700 a chariot with flowing white hair, flames, right? 00:19:03.740 --> 00:19:06.099 That's how God would show up on the scene, right? 00:19:09.619 --> 00:19:11.819 I'll bet someone could pop that into AI and have 00:19:11.819 --> 00:19:14.119 a picture by the end of this of what that would 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:17.950 look like, right? That's how I'd write the script. 00:19:17.970 --> 00:19:21.289 That's probably how you'd write the script. But 00:19:21.289 --> 00:19:27.750 God chose weakness. He chose a womb, not a throne. 00:19:29.190 --> 00:19:33.309 He chose a manger and not a palace to be born 00:19:33.309 --> 00:19:36.589 of a working class family, a poor family, not 00:19:36.589 --> 00:19:41.349 in the royal courts. He came all the way down, 00:19:41.349 --> 00:19:46.839 not to impress us, but to be with us. And that 00:19:46.839 --> 00:19:51.099 is the beauty of Advent. There is no place you 00:19:51.099 --> 00:19:57.740 can go that God cannot enter. Advent also shows 00:19:57.740 --> 00:20:01.339 us that our humanity matters. Sometimes we treat 00:20:01.339 --> 00:20:04.900 our bodies like inconveniences, like our limits 00:20:04.900 --> 00:20:09.680 are as failures, right? So yesterday we stopped 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:13.140 to get some food, me and my son. And we got done, 00:20:13.240 --> 00:20:15.849 you know, you're powered up, got some food. And 00:20:15.849 --> 00:20:18.809 I get out of the front door of this place, and 00:20:18.809 --> 00:20:21.009 I see the car. It's about here to Gary at the 00:20:21.009 --> 00:20:24.450 back there. That's our car. And I was like, race 00:20:24.450 --> 00:20:26.210 you to the car, right? Really quick. I said it 00:20:26.210 --> 00:20:28.009 really quick. I was going to race my son, Gabe, 00:20:28.349 --> 00:20:30.230 the one who leads worship up here. Race you to 00:20:30.230 --> 00:20:32.529 the car. And I'm thinking, it's not that far. 00:20:33.349 --> 00:20:35.710 Just getting that jump, that head start, I'm 00:20:35.710 --> 00:20:40.390 going to beat him, right? Yeah, you know where 00:20:40.390 --> 00:20:44.119 this story goes, right? I kind of get two or 00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:45.519 three steps, and I say, race you to the car. 00:20:45.539 --> 00:20:48.140 And I start running, right? And I'm running all 00:20:48.140 --> 00:20:50.980 my whole heart, right? Everything. And I get 00:20:50.980 --> 00:20:53.920 about here halfway, just past Diane right there. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:56.920 In the middle of the aisle there, I'm about halfway. 00:20:57.319 --> 00:20:59.819 And Gabe comes jogging by. And as he passes, 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:01.859 he turns to me and says, don't hurt yourself, 00:21:02.059 --> 00:21:09.599 dad. And then he tags the car. It really felt 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:17.930 like slow -mo. A wink, you know. And in that 00:21:17.930 --> 00:21:24.849 moment, my body was a liability. In my brain, 00:21:25.049 --> 00:21:28.390 I came out of there thinking, I'm going to smoke 00:21:28.390 --> 00:21:30.690 him. I don't know why I thought that. That's 00:21:30.690 --> 00:21:40.369 stupid. Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking, apparently, 00:21:41.130 --> 00:21:43.309 McDonald's gives you intrusive thoughts, right? 00:21:44.470 --> 00:21:50.410 I could beat him. Come on. No, but we see our 00:21:50.410 --> 00:21:53.269 limits and we see them as failures. We see our 00:21:53.269 --> 00:21:56.069 limitations and our bodies as inconveniences. 00:21:56.089 --> 00:21:59.690 And we count our emotions as liabilities. But 00:21:59.690 --> 00:22:02.750 God dignified being a human and what it means 00:22:02.750 --> 00:22:07.549 to be a human. He shows us that our bodies actually 00:22:07.549 --> 00:22:11.369 matter. He shows us. that our emotions matter 00:22:11.369 --> 00:22:17.809 to him. That your limits matter to him. That 00:22:17.809 --> 00:22:20.710 goes against everything American, doesn't it? 00:22:21.490 --> 00:22:25.369 Your limits, your margin matters to him. He understands 00:22:25.369 --> 00:22:30.269 it. He's lived it. Your humanity is not something 00:22:30.269 --> 00:22:33.789 to escape. It's something to allow God to redeem. 00:22:38.109 --> 00:22:43.960 Number three. Jesus stood under the curse. Born 00:22:43.960 --> 00:22:47.500 under the law to redeem those under the law. 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:52.500 Jesus lived the life we could not live. You see, 00:22:52.700 --> 00:22:55.000 every human stands under the law, not just Israel. 00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:00.539 The law of a perfect God requires perfect righteousness. 00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:04.920 The law of a perfect God requires unbroken obedience 00:23:04.920 --> 00:23:07.220 and wholehearted devotion and perfect purity. 00:23:07.299 --> 00:23:12.940 That is what he is deserving of. But what does 00:23:12.940 --> 00:23:16.359 Paul say about us? We're under the law in the 00:23:16.359 --> 00:23:19.880 sense that we are condemned by it. We're under 00:23:19.880 --> 00:23:22.180 the law in the sense that the law is not bad. 00:23:22.740 --> 00:23:25.039 I use this illustration in first service. I was 00:23:25.039 --> 00:23:27.460 driving in today on a road as I was driving. 00:23:27.579 --> 00:23:29.839 I was thinking about the sermon today and I was 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:32.079 driving 50 miles an hour. And I look up and guess 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:35.640 what I saw? A speed limit sign that said 45. 00:23:36.619 --> 00:23:39.839 And that speed limit sign testified against me. 00:23:40.440 --> 00:23:43.259 The speed limit sign didn't make me a law breaker. 00:23:44.059 --> 00:23:47.960 It exposed my law breaking. I was going five 00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:51.319 miles over the speed limit and it showed me that 00:23:51.319 --> 00:23:53.859 if you were to be caught, you would be subject 00:23:53.859 --> 00:23:58.740 to judgment right now for breaking the law. You 00:23:58.740 --> 00:24:01.799 see, that's what the law did. The law was good. 00:24:01.880 --> 00:24:05.319 The law is holy. It's the grace of God to show 00:24:05.319 --> 00:24:08.240 humans how they must live in order to relate 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:12.660 personally with God. And his law is his blessing 00:24:12.660 --> 00:24:17.119 because he wants communion with people. He wants 00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:23.369 to love and dwell with them. But his law is such 00:24:23.369 --> 00:24:27.329 a blessing and so, so good and so, so holy that 00:24:27.329 --> 00:24:29.250 in and of ourselves and under the effects of 00:24:29.250 --> 00:24:34.670 sin, we can't keep it. It's that good. And so 00:24:34.670 --> 00:24:39.730 the law condemns us as lawbreakers. And the idea 00:24:39.730 --> 00:24:42.230 of a curse in the Bible, sometimes we can get 00:24:42.230 --> 00:24:43.769 the idea that we're talking about witchcraft 00:24:43.769 --> 00:24:46.970 or voodoo here. Like what curses, right? The 00:24:46.970 --> 00:24:50.390 curse of the law. The idea of a curse in the 00:24:50.390 --> 00:24:53.349 Bible is not about witchcraft or voodoo. It simply 00:24:53.349 --> 00:24:57.369 means the consequences of disobedience to God's 00:24:57.369 --> 00:25:01.750 word and his law. The idea of a curse in the 00:25:01.750 --> 00:25:04.630 Bible is God allowing his people to experience 00:25:04.630 --> 00:25:08.430 the effects of trying to seize blessing on their 00:25:08.430 --> 00:25:11.849 own terms instead of faithful obedience to God. 00:25:12.690 --> 00:25:15.529 In other words, to choose not to have relationship 00:25:15.529 --> 00:25:19.750 with him on his terms, as the good, perfect and 00:25:19.750 --> 00:25:22.630 holy God, but instead to go and seize life and 00:25:22.630 --> 00:25:25.869 all of its blessings for myself on my terms will 00:25:25.869 --> 00:25:29.230 always result in consequences, negative consequences. 00:25:29.289 --> 00:25:31.569 And those negative consequences are what the 00:25:31.569 --> 00:25:38.670 Bible calls a curse. The Bible tells us that 00:25:38.670 --> 00:25:42.269 all of us have fallen short and missed the mark. 00:25:43.410 --> 00:25:48.160 All of us have rebelled and wandered. But where 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:52.799 we disobeyed, Jesus obeyed. Where we twisted 00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:56.460 the truth, Jesus spoke truth, and where we sinned, 00:25:56.619 --> 00:25:59.500 Jesus remained spotless, and where we failed 00:25:59.500 --> 00:26:01.799 every day, Jesus fulfilled every commandment 00:26:01.799 --> 00:26:05.339 of the law. Jesus didn't come to relax the law, 00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:10.599 he came to fill it full. He didn't lower the 00:26:10.599 --> 00:26:15.269 bar, he cleared it for all of us. And Jesus didn't 00:26:15.269 --> 00:26:17.890 just obey the law, he took the law's judgment 00:26:17.890 --> 00:26:21.130 for us upon himself. To be under the law doesn't 00:26:21.130 --> 00:26:23.970 just mean carrying out the obligation to obey. 00:26:24.490 --> 00:26:26.910 Paul uses that phrase to describe the whole human 00:26:26.910 --> 00:26:29.690 condition of bondage, being under guilt and under 00:26:29.690 --> 00:26:33.109 condemnation, under the curse of sin. And Jesus 00:26:33.109 --> 00:26:35.910 enters that place willingly. Paul actually said 00:26:35.910 --> 00:26:39.589 earlier in Galatians chapter three, Christ redeemed 00:26:39.589 --> 00:26:42.809 us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse 00:26:42.809 --> 00:26:47.549 for us. Meaning every judgment that should have 00:26:47.549 --> 00:26:52.029 fallen on you Every righteous sentence your sin 00:26:52.029 --> 00:26:55.089 deserved every ounce of wrath that stands against 00:26:55.089 --> 00:27:01.609 your rebellion Jesus stepped under it He didn't 00:27:01.609 --> 00:27:03.670 just obey the law in your place. He took the 00:27:03.670 --> 00:27:07.170 consequences of your disobedience in your place 00:27:07.170 --> 00:27:13.750 This is why the manger leads to the cross When 00:27:13.750 --> 00:27:16.460 Paul says Christ redeemed us To redeem means 00:27:16.460 --> 00:27:18.980 Jesus bought us out of slavery. We sang that 00:27:18.980 --> 00:27:22.019 earlier. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am 00:27:22.019 --> 00:27:25.140 a child of God. Well, redemption was this marketplace 00:27:25.140 --> 00:27:28.579 term in Paul's world. And it meant paying the 00:27:28.579 --> 00:27:31.640 price to free a slave from their master so they 00:27:31.640 --> 00:27:34.579 would never have to go back. That was redemption. 00:27:36.740 --> 00:27:39.380 And Paul says, that's what Jesus did before Christ. 00:27:39.660 --> 00:27:43.440 We were not struggling people trying to do better. 00:27:43.539 --> 00:27:48.069 We were enslaved. We were enslaved to shame and 00:27:48.069 --> 00:27:51.049 guilt and addiction to self -righteousness and 00:27:51.049 --> 00:27:54.049 people -pleasing. Sin cycles we couldn't break. 00:27:54.630 --> 00:27:57.329 Advent is not sentimental. It is liberation. 00:27:57.869 --> 00:28:00.430 Jesus was born under the law so he could break 00:28:00.430 --> 00:28:02.710 the chains of those who lived under the law. 00:28:04.450 --> 00:28:07.910 He didn't come to inspire us. He came to rescue 00:28:07.910 --> 00:28:13.109 us. Redemption is God's declaration. You are 00:28:13.109 --> 00:28:17.269 free. And when Jesus redeemed you, he didn't 00:28:17.269 --> 00:28:20.150 simply give you a clean slate. He didn't give 00:28:20.150 --> 00:28:24.710 you a second chance to try harder. He transferred 00:28:24.710 --> 00:28:28.289 you out of slavery and into freedom. You don't 00:28:28.289 --> 00:28:31.490 belong to sin anymore. You don't belong to shame 00:28:31.490 --> 00:28:34.390 anymore. You don't belong to your past anymore. 00:28:34.650 --> 00:28:37.869 You don't belong to the law as your judge anymore. 00:28:38.029 --> 00:28:43.829 You belong to Christ. This is what Christmas 00:28:43.829 --> 00:28:48.079 means to Paul. The son of God was born under 00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:53.900 the law so that slaves could become sons. The 00:28:53.900 --> 00:28:58.160 eternal son became a slave so slaves could become 00:28:58.160 --> 00:29:00.700 sons. The one who owed nothing paid everything. 00:29:01.819 --> 00:29:05.119 The one who was free was bound so the bound ones 00:29:05.119 --> 00:29:10.700 could go free forever. And finally, number four, 00:29:11.579 --> 00:29:18.720 he brought us into a new family. Paul now takes 00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:21.839 us to the goal the climax the reason behind the 00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:25.279 incarnation and the Redemption though the point 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:28.480 of all of it everything God did in sending his 00:29:28.480 --> 00:29:32.759 son was aiming toward this breathtaking gift 00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:40.720 Adoption Adoption A new identity, a new relationship 00:29:40.720 --> 00:29:44.599 with God, a new family, a new future. If redemption 00:29:44.599 --> 00:29:47.480 is God bringing us out of slavery, adoption is 00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:52.420 God bringing us home. I'll tell you, adoption 00:29:52.420 --> 00:29:57.339 is the highest privilege of the gospel. There 00:29:57.339 --> 00:30:00.039 is no higher privilege. It is the point, the 00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:02.480 apex, the climax of what Jesus said. Thank God 00:30:02.480 --> 00:30:04.900 for redemption. Thank God for freedom from the 00:30:04.900 --> 00:30:08.230 slavery to sin. Amen. Thank God for all that 00:30:08.230 --> 00:30:11.529 he's done, but thank you, Jesus, for adoption. 00:30:13.890 --> 00:30:16.990 You can go in and set someone free and put them 00:30:16.990 --> 00:30:19.109 out on the street and say, good luck, right? 00:30:19.569 --> 00:30:22.069 Or you can go in and set someone free and say, 00:30:22.210 --> 00:30:25.710 get in the minivan, we're going home. That's 00:30:25.710 --> 00:30:32.930 what Jesus did. Adoption is the highest privilege 00:30:32.930 --> 00:30:36.519 of the gospel. And Paul. chooses the term sons 00:30:36.519 --> 00:30:39.599 actually on purpose. No need to get offended 00:30:39.599 --> 00:30:42.759 that he said sons and not daughters. He said 00:30:42.759 --> 00:30:45.940 sons on purpose because in his world, in the 00:30:45.940 --> 00:30:50.000 Greco -Roman world, sons were the ones who received 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:56.019 full legal status, full inheritance, full rights. 00:30:56.650 --> 00:30:59.670 And so Paul is not excluding women when he says 00:30:59.670 --> 00:31:01.910 that. What he's actually saying is he's including 00:31:01.910 --> 00:31:05.269 women in full rights of sonship. He's going completely 00:31:05.269 --> 00:31:08.630 counter -cultural and saying, you're all included 00:31:08.630 --> 00:31:15.150 in sonship in Christ. No one gets a second tier 00:31:15.150 --> 00:31:18.690 salvation. No one gets half membership or junior 00:31:18.690 --> 00:31:22.589 inheritance in the family. In Christ, you get 00:31:22.589 --> 00:31:27.859 everything the son gets. Jesus didn't just save 00:31:27.859 --> 00:31:30.559 you from slavery. He saved you into sonship. 00:31:31.519 --> 00:31:33.839 And Paul writes, God sent the spirit of his son 00:31:33.839 --> 00:31:37.400 into our hearts, crying, Abba, father. You notice 00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:40.420 the language crying or crying out. The spirit 00:31:40.420 --> 00:31:44.019 produces a cry. Abba, a word that means something 00:31:44.019 --> 00:31:47.220 like dear father, a word that carries with it 00:31:47.220 --> 00:31:50.400 a sort of simplicity, a sort of comfort, a sort 00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:54.099 of letting down our guard and finally resting. 00:31:56.589 --> 00:31:59.970 Paul is saying the spirit himself puts the truth 00:31:59.970 --> 00:32:03.630 of your adoption and pulls it from your head 00:32:03.630 --> 00:32:08.309 down into your hearts That's the spirit's work 00:32:08.309 --> 00:32:13.509 He makes the father's love real and felt and 00:32:13.509 --> 00:32:18.509 experienced Adoption is not just a legal reality. 00:32:18.509 --> 00:32:21.650 It's a relational experience God is not simply 00:32:21.650 --> 00:32:24.769 your judge or your creator or your Redeemer He 00:32:24.769 --> 00:32:28.640 is now your father He delights in you. He welcomes 00:32:28.640 --> 00:32:31.500 you. He listens to you. When you pray, he carries 00:32:31.500 --> 00:32:34.000 your burdens. He is patient in your weakness. 00:32:34.259 --> 00:32:37.059 He knows your limitations and he is present in 00:32:37.059 --> 00:32:43.420 your pain. This is the Advent according to Paul, 00:32:44.700 --> 00:32:50.460 the son came so you could know the father. As 00:32:50.460 --> 00:32:52.380 we wrap it up, I'm going to invite Gabe to come 00:32:52.380 --> 00:32:55.240 on out as we prepare for communion, but The last 00:32:55.240 --> 00:32:58.359 thing I want to say is that adoption will rewrite 00:32:58.359 --> 00:33:04.420 your entire identity. Paul ends with this definitive 00:33:04.420 --> 00:33:08.200 declaration in Galatians chapter four. So you 00:33:08.200 --> 00:33:12.700 are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, 00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:20.460 then God has made you an heir. Not you will be. 00:33:21.400 --> 00:33:28.839 Not you might be. Not you should try to be, but 00:33:28.839 --> 00:33:36.559 you are. This is your identity now. This is yours 00:33:36.559 --> 00:33:40.400 to own. This is the privilege of the gospel, 00:33:40.579 --> 00:33:43.420 the highest privilege of the gospel for you to 00:33:43.420 --> 00:33:47.619 walk in, for you to believe and you to live out 00:33:47.619 --> 00:33:52.039 of, not slave, not orphan, not outsider, not 00:33:52.039 --> 00:33:58.319 spiritual employee. not sinner as your primary 00:33:58.319 --> 00:34:07.599 label, but son, daughter, beloved, co -heir with 00:34:07.599 --> 00:34:12.300 Christ. And if God has made you an heir, then 00:34:12.300 --> 00:34:15.780 nothing in hell or on earth can undo that reality. 00:34:16.539 --> 00:34:19.420 You have a future, you have a name, you have 00:34:19.420 --> 00:34:22.559 a father and a family and an inheritance. You 00:34:22.559 --> 00:34:30.280 belong now today. And that's Advent. That's Christmas. 00:34:32.320 --> 00:34:36.780 That's the gospel. And that's the invitation 00:34:36.780 --> 00:34:41.500 God extends to you today. You don't have to live 00:34:41.500 --> 00:34:45.559 as a slave. You don't have to live under guilt. 00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:50.840 You don't have to live under fear. And you don't 00:34:50.840 --> 00:34:56.260 have to wonder where you stand with God. through 00:34:56.260 --> 00:35:00.639 through Christ Father says get in the minivan. 00:35:02.099 --> 00:35:07.739 I Got a room Just waiting for you You're coming 00:35:07.739 --> 00:35:13.659 home We're having a good old dinner tonight all 00:35:13.659 --> 00:35:17.480 the family's gonna be there All the brothers 00:35:17.480 --> 00:35:22.940 and sisters You never met before Just look at 00:35:22.940 --> 00:35:26.590 their faces when you walk in See how happy they 00:35:26.590 --> 00:35:30.809 are to see you. Feel the heart of the Father 00:35:30.809 --> 00:35:38.550 and the family of God. This is Advent. This is 00:35:38.550 --> 00:35:41.969 our Father. If you are hearing Christ, it is 00:35:41.969 --> 00:35:42.289 you.