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Good morning.

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How are y'all doing today?

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You know when there's hugs and hellos going on, we could wait for that.

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That's a good thing.

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If this is your first time joining us here at Hosanna in our sanctuary or if you're joining us online for the first time,

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we want to say welcome to all of you.

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We're so glad you're here to worship with us today.

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I am Pastor Nathan and as this is the beginning of Christmas week,

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we're going to be taking a short break from our study in Genesis and really looking at the birth of Christ.

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You know, some of the strangest, most unusual births and pregnancies on record are recorded by the Guinness Book of Records

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and I looked up a few of those just to see what has happened over the time that we've been tracking.

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And so the largest baby ever born, 28 inches long, 22 pounds, and both the baby and the mom survived.

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Smallest baby ever born, 9.4 inches long, 11.3 ounces.

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Baby was 108 days premature and survived.

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The most babies born to one mom over her entire lifetime, 69.

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And that is not 69 labors, however, because this particular mom had 16 pairs of twins,

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seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets.

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She did not sleep ever, yeah.

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Most babies born at one time by a single mother in a single birth, 8.

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The longest labor, and this is from the point of going into labor to the birth of the child,

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75 days.

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And the oldest mother on record to give birth, she was seven days short of turning 67 years old.

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You know, it's pretty amazing, yeah.

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There's some interesting details and stats and records and stuff revolving around births,

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but above all of these strange and interesting pregnancies and births,

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the record for the most unusual birth ever is Jesus Christ, right?

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We're going to look at the details of his birth this morning,

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but we start with this simple understanding that the birth of Jesus Christ was not just another birth among humanity.

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It wasn't just another human baby being born.

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His birth was unique. It was very special.

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It was a birth that affected all of human history.

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And for those of you that know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it has affected your life forever.

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Why? Because of who he was and what he did.

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And so as we're entering into this season and Christmas is just in a few days,

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we want to remember the uniqueness of this birth because it's the uniqueness of the birth

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that matters with everything we know about it.

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Every effect it's had in our life revolves around the fact that it was a very truly unique birth.

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And this season, especially as we're going to be getting together with family and friends and possibly coworkers,

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there's a lot of people out there that don't know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

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And we have the opportunity to share with them this season, to share with them the hope that the birth of Jesus,

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it wasn't just Jesus brought, it wasn't just about the trees and the gifts and the reindeers and the wise men and frosty and all those things.

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No, it was about salvation.

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It was about hope coming into the world for the first time

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and the only time necessary because he changed everything. Amen?

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Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much, God, that we get to celebrate this every year.

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Lord, to look at your birth and what that meant, God, it was you, the God Almighty,

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God of the universe above and beyond all things.

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You became one of us.

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And Lord, I think most of us know that's not necessarily a glorious thing.

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But God, you set aside your divinity to come in the form of a servant in the likeness of humanity.

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God, that then you would live showing us what your intention is for human life.

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Lord, that you would then die our death penalty, paying the price for our sin,

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that you would then rise from the dead, God, defeating the power of death in the grave.

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Lord, your birth changed everything.

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It's because you were born, you were able to live and die.

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It's because you were born as one of us, Lord, your word tells us that you understand everything we go through.

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You understand every trial, every temptation, Lord, because you went through it as well.

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And yet, God, you still look at us with all of our mess and tell us you love us.

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And you extend the free gift of salvation to all who would call upon your name.

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God, we can't do anything but glorify you and praise you and worship you for that.

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And so, Lord, that's what we want to do now.

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We ask, Lord, that you would be blessed by your people, praising you.

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God, that you would bless us today through your word and encourage us.

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Lord, we just, we're speechless really, Lord, when it comes to what you did for us.

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God, we thank you.

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In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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All right, well, we are going to be looking at the birth of Christ as I was sharing with you earlier.

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And, you know, the birth of Christ has so many unique elements to it.

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There's so many aspects to the birth that are really special, that are unlike any other birth that has ever happened in history.

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And one of those things is the timing of his birth.

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In Galatians chapter 4 verse 4, Paul writes, when the time came to completion, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law.

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You know, we always say during Christmas, when Jesus came into the world, hope came into the world.

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Because prior to Christ, there was no hope.

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After Christ, there is no hope without Christ.

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People were mired in their sin, dead in their sin, living lives of hopelessness with no point, no end but the judgment of God.

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Now God had created a covenant that the Israelites followed in their temples and in their religious observance.

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But when Jesus came, it was the final hope, the once for all hope that mankind needed for his sin.

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Now Paul said there, it came at the time of completion.

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That's when the birth of Jesus arrived, at the time of completion.

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Now what that phrase simply means is that the birth of Jesus came exactly when the time was right.

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Have you ever thought about why Jesus was born when he was born?

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Like why wasn't he born in the beginning?

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Why wasn't he born right after the fall? That would have been a great time, right?

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Mankind introduced sin into the world, boom, Messiah is born.

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Put your faith in me all is well.

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But no, it didn't happen then.

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We're all in this prophecy that one of her offspring in the future would be the one to crush Satan's head.

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But it was not until this time that Jesus was born into this world.

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Now there are a number of reasons as I was saying and one of those is because at the time Jesus was born,

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it was exactly the right time spiritually in the world.

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You see at the time of Jesus' birth, there was a spiritual hunger that had been developing in Israel,

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a longing and a looking forward to their Messiah that they had been doing for a long time.

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The Jews had been looking forward to their Messiah for generations at this point.

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And so the time was right within the people of the Jewish people.

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And then the time was also right during the secular cultures because there's a lot of evidence in histories and stuff

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that tell us that during the time of Jesus, even secular citizens of Rome were getting burnt out

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on the dead paganism that they were following.

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There were a lot of people saying these gods never speak to us, they never do anything, they don't answer prayers.

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Like this is lame.

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And a lot of people, secular people were turning to the monotheistic Judaism that existed in Israel

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because they spoke of a one true God that was something different than what they were getting from their false religions.

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And so a lot of Gentiles at that time were becoming, they're called proselytes, they were converting to the Jewish religion.

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And so this whole time and place of false religions all over the world and then the Jewish religion was creating a hunger among the people.

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It was exactly the right time culturally because at the time of Jesus' birth, it really was a scenario of,

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since the first time since the Tower of Babel, the whole world really had a common language.

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It was Greek. Everybody spoke Greek.

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The Roman Empire had spread to every extent of the known world and Greek was a language that was spoke all over the place.

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Yes, people had local languages still, they had their own dialects and stuff, but they also spoke Greek everywhere.

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It's kind of like English today, right?

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Everybody has their native languages, but most places of the world you go, people know English.

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It's kind of looked at as the common language of the planet.

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And during Jesus' time, the fact that there was a unified or one language that everybody spoke at the time

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created a scenario where people can go from India all the way to the farthest west side of the Empire of Rome

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and still communicate ideas, still communicate truths, still communicate philosophies,

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still could share knowledge with one another in a common language.

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It was also the right time politically because at that time we know that Rome controlled the known world

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and despite the oppressiveness of Rome and the debauchery of Rome,

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the Roman Empire did bring a unification or a connectedness to the known world at that time.

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You see, there was this thing called Roman Peace, Pax Romana, that essentially was the fact that Rome had conquered everybody

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and so Rome controlled everything.

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So there was economic growth and there was military stability and the cultures and the arts

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and all these things were flourishing at the time.

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But the most important thing that was there is because Rome controlled everything,

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they wanted their empire to be connected and so they built about 250,000 miles of roads.

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I don't know if you've seen some of those memes that are going around today where they say,

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hey, we discovered this Roman road that's still intact and here's the Roman or here's the road in my town

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that has potholes all over it, right?

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It's like these roads from thousands of years ago are still intact.

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Now, back in the Roman times, 50,000 miles of all of that was actually paved roads and so the entire empire was connected.

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So what that meant is at the birth of Christ, it was exactly the right time for this good news to come into the world

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because at that time it could be shared everywhere in one common language that people would understand.

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He was born in a relative time of peace where there wasn't warfare and battle tearing everything apart.

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Instead, there was a peace, a forced peace in many places that provided accessibility

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where people could walk, travel from India all the way to the west side of the known world

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and get there without having to worry about all the dangers.

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Rome had checkpoints set up all over their empire to protect travelers on the road

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because it protected commerce, it protected economy.

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And so when Jesus came into the world, the time had come to completion.

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It was a time for the Messiah and the Savior and the one true God to come.

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The world was in a place where it was accessible, where the good news can be shared without confusion or misunderstanding.

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And then when he came into the world, Jesus gave us, or God gave us three things through the birth of Christ

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that Isaiah the prophet spoke of 700 years before the birth of Jesus.

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In Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 it says this,

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Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.

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See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Emmanuel.

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Isaiah is one of the great prophets of Israel.

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He is actually quoted in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament prophet.

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And so he gave us this prophecy here about the birth.

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Now, what he told us here is that the Lord will give you a sign, the virgin will conceive, have a son.

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That there was this child born and it would be a sign.

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It would be a mark, it would be a notification.

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And that's what the word means, a token or a signal, if you will.

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The word also means miracle.

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And a miracle would be considered a sign, right?

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If you see a miracle, you're like, whoa, that's a sign that something supernatural has happened.

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Well, the birth of Jesus was God showing the world a miraculous notification

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that something significant had happened.

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Namely, that God was fulfilling the promise he made to Eve all the way back in the garden.

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That promise was here.

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The nature of Jesus' birth was fulfilling prophecy.

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And it was fulfilling prophecy so that God would, or people would know,

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that God is fulfilling what he promised to fulfill.

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Now, Matthew, when he was writing about the birth of Christ,

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he links what was happening in his time, the birth of Jesus, to this prophecy of Isaiah.

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He says in Matthew 1, 22,

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Now, all of this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.

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See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel,

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which is translated, excuse me, God is with us.

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Now, to get some understanding of the background of this prophecy

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and why it's significant that it applies to the birth of Jesus,

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is when Israel gave this prophecy,

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the kingdom of Israel had already been split into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom.

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And so the northern kingdom was called Israel, the southern kingdom was called Judah,

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and Judah was ruled at the time of Isaiah's prophecy by a man named King Ahaz,

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and he was the one leading the nation of Judah in the south.

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Now, at the time that King Ahaz was leading Judah,

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there was a lot of pressure militarily on his kingdom,

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a lot of pressure politically on his kingdom,

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there were a lot of threats coming at him, seemingly from every direction.

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Well, two of those threats were the nations that were directly north of him,

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the northern Israel kingdom, and then above that was the kingdom of the Syrians,

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which was known as Aram at the time.

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They were starting to join forces to defeat an even bigger threat,

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which was the Assyrian Empire that was coming against the lands where they occupied.

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They had gone down to King Ahaz, both Israel and Syria,

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went down to King Ahaz and said,

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hey, can you join forces with us to fight against Assyria?

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King Ahaz said, nope, I don't want to mess with that, they're buff, they will wipe us out.

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And so Israel and Syria said, fine, then we're just going to attack you,

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install our own king in Judah, and then we'll get your help that way.

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So now King Ahaz was panicked, he was worried,

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he was just wondering what is going to happen, how does he deal with this,

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and so what he did to solve the problems, he sent a bribe to the Assyrian king and said,

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hey, can you wipe out Syria and Israel for me so that my nation is safe?

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At that moment, God sent in the prophet Isaiah to King Ahaz.

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And what Isaiah said to him is, God is telling you, King Ahaz,

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don't worry about Israel, don't worry about Syria, trust me,

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they're not going to be a problem for you, there's going to be no destruction in your future.

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And then he says, in fact, they won't even exist as nations in the near future

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because Assyria is going to conquer them and take them captive.

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And then the Lord says this interesting thing to King Ahaz through Isaiah,

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if you want confirmation that what I'm telling you is true, ask me for a sign.

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Now God doesn't often do that, he often says, trust me, right?

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And then it's actually in the New Testament stated that those who seek a sign are missing the point, right?

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They're lacking faith because we have to have these things proved,

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but in this instance, God is actually telling King Ahaz, ask me for a sign.

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It could be anything in heaven, it could be anything under the earth,

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anything you want, I will give a sign to you to prove that what I'm telling you is true.

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Well King Ahaz responds to Isaiah very piously, very religiously,

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and he's like, oh no, no, no, I'm not going to test the Lord, I'm not going to do that.

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And what he really meant was that I don't trust the Lord.

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And we see that because instead of trusting the Lord, he sent a bribe to Assyria already,

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trying to handle it his own way.

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And Isaiah then tells him, the Lord is telling you, this is the Nathan translation, whatever,

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even though you won't ask for one, God is going to give you a sign anyway.

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And it's not just going to be a sign that God is going to take care of your problems,

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it's not just a sign that God is going to protect you, that you will find salvation in him,

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it's going to be a sign to the entire house of David, everybody here in Judea and Jerusalem,

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it's going to be a miraculous sign that is going to deal with everybody's ultimate problem, sin.

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And he says, what that sign's going to be, a virgin is going to get pregnant,

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give birth to a son, and he will be named Emmanuel.

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Now Matthew translated that Emmanuel for us and said, it means God is with us.

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That's how you're going to know the Savior has come.

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That's how you know I'm fulfilling the promise I made to Eve.

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That's how you're going to know that I'm coming to not just take care of your problem,

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but take care of the problem for all of mankind.

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It's going to be God among you, a miraculous birth.

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So 700 years after this prophecy, we read that Matthew said, that sign has happened in our day.

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That sign is what has taken place here in this birth.

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This is what was spoken of by the prophet.

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The sign that a virgin will give birth was a very unique sign.

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It was a very special sign.

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God wanted to make sure that nobody, nobody, whether it was Jew or Gentile,

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could refute that this birth was the promise.

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And so he attached these very unique signs to his birth.

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Now it wasn't just that he would be born of a virgin.

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God also gave us so many signs hundreds of years before his birth

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so that mankind wouldn't miss the point.

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Micah the prophet said he would be born in Bethlehem,

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and that was 720 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

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The prophet Hosea said he will come out of Egypt.

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That was years, hundreds of years before Jesus was taken down to Egypt by his family

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to avoid being killed by Herod, and then he came back into the land out of Egypt.

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Another prophet said that he would come forth out of Galilee.

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Well Jesus grew up in Nazareth, and guess where Nazareth is?

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In Galilee.

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Sign after sign after sign.

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Jesus fulfilled them, and there are hundreds of these signs.

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But why is that so important to our faith?

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Why is it so important that it was a sign and Jesus fulfilled it?

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Well, there are 26 other holy books that exist in the world today.

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26-ish.

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And these are holy books that are purported to be words from the gods

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of these other religions to their people.

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They claim to be scripture.

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Guess what not one single one of them has within their pages?

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Fulfilled prophecy.

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The Bible is the only holy book in the world that has verifiable fulfilled prophecy.

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None of the other religions have that.

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That's why we know Christianity is true.

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That's why we know we can trust the Bible.

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Because God said through his people, hey this is going to happen in the future,

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and it happened.

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That's pretty convincing thing to do.

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So we rely on these prophecies being fulfilled.

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It was a sign.

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It's going to be exactly this way.

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So he said see the virgin will conceive, so that was a sign in and of itself,

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and then she will have a son.

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Now this whole virgin getting pregnant thing, that is a sign in and of itself.

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That's a big deal because we all know how babies are made, right?

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Has everybody not had that talk with their parents yet?

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Okay, the kids are gone so we're good.

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It's not a stork.

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It's biological.

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The birth of a baby requires a contribution from both a mother and a father.

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We understand this biologically.

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Without a mother and a father, without a contribution from a mother and a father,

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the sperm and the egg, there is no baby.

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Now there has only ever been one baby born without the biological contribution of a male.

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That's Jesus Christ.

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This is why Joseph, who was Mary's fiance at the time, had such a hard time with this.

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Mary got pregnant and her husband's like, well, I know I didn't get her pregnant,

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so that means she cheated.

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He was absolutely right in that conclusion as far as his understanding

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and human biology is concerned.

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He was so unnerved by this it took a special visit from an angel

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specifically to come and tell him, hey, bro.

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Nathan translation, you're right.

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But she's not pregnant by cheating on you or by any other man.

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What is in her is conceived by the Holy Spirit.

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So chill out.

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Don't leave her.

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Don't divorce her.

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She is pregnant by a miracle of God.

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An angel had to tell him that he was so upset by it.

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What he had to understand and be told by this angel is that she's pregnant,

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this is a unique pregnancy.

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This is a rare, never before pregnancy.

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This is something that has never happened before and will never happen again.

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This is a virgin birth.

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Now, some people want to argue that point, that a virgin gave birth,

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and we call it a miracle of God.

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There is this thing that exists within creation called parthenogenesis.

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Parthenogenesis is what we would call an asexual birth.

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Like where a creature without having fertilization from an outside source

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will have a child, have an offspring.

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There are honeybees do this sometimes.

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Frogs do this.

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Silkworms do this.

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And so what people do is they go, no, no, no, no.

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There's this thing called asexual procreation that already exists,

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and that's all Mary did.

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It wasn't a miracle of God.

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Now, if you study this, and I don't encourage you to because it's quite boring,

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but I did it for you, there's different kinds of parthenogenesis, right?

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And the differences in the type of parthenogenesis depend on the gender

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determination system of the species.

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That means that the species has chromosomes that determine male and female.

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There are actually different types of these chromosomal systems

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in the kingdom of creation.

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Humans use the XY chromosome system, right?

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You've heard that before.

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If a baby has an XX chromosome, they are female.

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If they have an XY chromosome, they are male.

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Well, science knows that amongst all the different types of parthenogenesis,

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when it happens in a species with an XY chromosome system,

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the offspring will always, 100% of the time, be female.

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What that means is if Mary had in some way conceived parthenogenetically,

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she would have had a daughter.

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But she didn't have a daughter.

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What did she have?

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A son.

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And that's a part of the sign, that God is saying, look, this is unique.

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This is special.

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This is a singularly unique miracle of God.

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And then Isaiah 7.14 says,

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The virgin will conceive, she had a son, and name him, you will name him Emmanuel.

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So the third thing that the birth of Jesus gave us that makes it unique

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is the one and only Savior of all mankind.

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Now, I get that people are going to say, well, you believe that as a Christian.

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I'm not.

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I don't believe that.

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But it's all wrapped up in the name, Emmanuel.

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Matthew translated that for us.

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It is God with us.

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You see, one of the things that has attacked so aggressively today,

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and has been attacked for generations, and probably will be attacked until Jesus comes back,

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is that Jesus, whether or not Jesus is God.

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I've asked people from different cults, and they always have a different version of who Jesus is.

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Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus is Michael the Archangel, not God.

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Mormons, he's just another God, but he's not God.

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He's the brother of Lucifer.

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And then you go down the list, and you find that they all have a different interpretation,

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but every interpretation the cults have always come down to Jesus is not God.

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But God told us that you're going to call him.

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His name will be God is with us.

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Now, incidentally, when it says you will name him that, it's not like that's his name.

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You know, we're going to name him Nathan.

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It's a title.

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It's a designation of what he is, his position among all things.

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And so it is God with us.

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It's very important to understand that this birth was unique from every other birth that has ever happened,

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because it was literally God being born into the form of a man.

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The Bible tells us that when Jesus laid aside all his divinity, laid aside everything that makes him God,

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all the rights, all the stuff, he put it aside, and then he came to be born as one of us.

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He wasn't just another human birth.

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He wasn't just a good guy.

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He wasn't just a really sweet prophet, as Islam says.

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It was God being born into this world.

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Isaiah said in chapter 9 verse 6, he said,

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That is one of the best proof texts of who Jesus is.

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That as Isaiah is going through these chapters that he's writing or that are written for us

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and he's given these prophecies and stuff, he keeps telling us about this son,

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the son that will be born of a virgin, this son that will be given to us,

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this son who will become the ruler of all things, this baby who is called what?

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Mighty God.

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There is no clear declaration of the nature of Jesus than that.

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I guarantee you if you have a conversation about baby Jesus this Christmas with somebody who doesn't know the Lord,

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that's going to come up in your conversation.

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He's not God.

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Well then why are we celebrating him and not every other birth that has ever happened?

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He's God.

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The Bible declares it.

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Isaiah 9 tells us that this male child will be born, given, delivered to us.

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That child will be mighty God who lives among us.

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It also calls him eternal father.

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I want to address that because there are cults in the world today.

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One of them is the oneness Pentecostal church that says, no, God the father, God the son are not separate within the Trinity.

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They say in fact there is no Trinity, that there is only oneness within God, that God is one only,

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and that God the father actually left heaven and became the son.

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So when Jesus was here on earth, heaven knows there's no one in heaven, no one on the throne.

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This is what some cults teach.

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But when it says eternal father here, it's saying father as in the source or the author of all things.

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He is the author of eternity.

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That's who Jesus Christ is and the Bible tells us that, that he is the one who created all things.

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All things were made through him.

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This is not a statement that he is the father in heaven.

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So Jesus' birth is the virgin birth of Isaiah 7.

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Jesus is fully human because he was born through the womb of Mary.

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He was born in the flesh, but he is fully God, mighty God because he wasn't conceived by man.

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He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, by God himself.

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And Jesus is the source, the author, the creator of everything,

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who was pre-existent to everything before it existed.

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You see in Colossians chapter 1 verse 16 it says this,

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For everything was created by him in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible,

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whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

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All things have been created through him and for him.

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He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

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He is also the head of the body, which is the church.

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He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,

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so that he might come to have first place in everything.

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For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,

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and through him to reconcile everything to himself,

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whether things on earth or things in heaven,

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by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

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Why is it so important for us to believe and understand that this birth was indeed miraculous?

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That it was indeed of a virgin?

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And that this baby born Jesus was God, is God?

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Why is it so important?

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Because if Jesus isn't God, then our salvation is non-existent.

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The Bible makes that argument.

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Like if Jesus was just another baby,

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if he was just another human,

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then that means he was born stained with sin like all of us are.

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That means that he would be a sinner like every human is.

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And throughout the Bible, God makes it very clear that

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because of his justice and his holiness and his purity and his perfection,

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that the only sacrifice that could possibly wipe away the sin would be a perfect sacrifice.

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It couldn't be anything stained or corrupted,

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and if Jesus was just a human,

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then it doesn't matter if he died on the cross.

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It did nothing for us spiritually.

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It was just another human baby.

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If Jesus is not God, then there is no hope.

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If there is no hope, then what is the point?

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And that incidentally is what a lot of people struggle with during this season, every year.

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Some of you may be entering this Christmas season this year,

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and this is the first one without a loved one.

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Maybe it was a spouse that has gone home to be with the Lord.

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Maybe it was a child or a family member or a friend.

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Maybe this season every year is something that hurts

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because of how you were raised or what happened to you in your past.

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There are so many people out there that look forward to this joyous season

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as the most gloomy and depressing of their life.

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We have the opportunity to tell them about hope.

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We have the opportunity to share with them the hope that is Jesus Christ.

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We have the opportunity to share with them that,

449
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:58,000
yeah, what we're celebrating here is not just a baby in the manger,

450
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:02,000
but it was God who came to this earth to be born, live as a man,

451
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,000
so that his perfect life can be attributed to you through faith,

452
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,000
so that when God the Creator would look at you, he'd say,

453
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,000
you're perfect, and that when you would leave this earth,

454
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,000
when you would die, when this body would perish,

455
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:18,000
you would go home to be with God forever in paradise.

456
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:22,000
It's a little bit more than Christmas trees and ornaments.

457
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:26,000
It's a little bit more than Christmas decorations.

458
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:34,000
It's a little bit more than candy canes and reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, right?

459
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:38,000
It's about life being forever changed.

460
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:44,000
And we have the opportunity to share that with people this year, in this season.

461
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,000
Every year we get to share that.

462
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,000
We need to take advantage of those things because Jesus is God,

463
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:55,000
and if you believe that, then everything that is based on that is true.

464
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:58,000
And if you have salvation, if you've been saved, the sinner that you are,

465
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:02,000
the sinner that I am, if you understand that God loved you so much that he said,

466
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:07,000
look, I'm going to give you a gift, and it's a gift you have to receive,

467
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:12,000
but it's not a gift you earned, it's not a gift you're worth or that you deserve.

468
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:15,000
Isn't that what we do with gifts during Christmas time?

469
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:20,000
We buy gifts for our loved ones, and we don't hold the gift back and say,

470
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:24,000
you were bad yesterday, no gift for you.

471
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,000
Right? Can you imagine that?

472
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:31,000
If it was based upon how bad we were, I would have never gotten a single gift in my life.

473
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:35,000
In fact, I probably would have been the one having to give gifts,

474
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,000
but please forgive me, right?

475
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:41,000
We give gifts because we're like, I love this person, I know what they like,

476
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:49,000
I want them to be blessed, I want to give them this gift to show them how important they are to me.

477
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:54,000
Well, when Jesus sent, when God sent Jesus Christ down to this earth,

478
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:59,000
when God the Father sent God the Son, two persons of the Trinity,

479
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:03,000
which is one God, to be born, to live, and to die,

480
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:08,000
it was God saying, this is how much you mean to me.

481
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:15,000
This is how much you matter to me, that I want to secure your eternity,

482
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:20,000
and all you have to do is receive the gift.

483
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:25,000
If it is true that Jesus is God, that he was miraculously born of a virgin,

484
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:31,000
without any contribution from human male, then he is God.

485
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:35,000
He was God, he is God. He did live a perfect life without sin.

486
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:40,000
He did die on the cross for you and me, to pay the price for our breaking God's law.

487
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,000
He did rise from the dead, which was witnessed by many, and he is alive today,

488
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:50,000
praying for you and me. That's hope. That is hope.

489
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:55,000
He saves us from the great enemy, Satan.

490
00:35:55,000 --> 00:36:00,000
He says, don't worry about them. I dealt with that.

491
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:03,000
I took care of the enemies that are coming to threaten you.

492
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:06,000
I took care of the ones who are coming to destroy you, who are saying,

493
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:10,000
we're going to take you out. I took care of the sin that has put you in a situation

494
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:15,000
where you deserve destruction. Matter of fact, this is how I did it,

495
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:22,000
so you won't miss it. There was a baby born of a virgin.

496
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:28,000
He was a son, and he's God with us.

497
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:35,000
And that God died for you to pay the price for your sin.

498
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:40,000
What more could anybody possibly ever ask for?

499
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:45,000
Now, as a man, he's the perfect representative of all of us.

500
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:49,000
The Bible tells us that he is tempted in every way we are,

501
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:54,000
but he's sinned in none of it. He gets it when it hurts.

502
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:58,000
He understands when life throws curve balls at you.

503
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:04,000
He understands the times where we say, God, just please anything else.

504
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:07,000
He understands being let down by friends.

505
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:10,000
He understands his family not getting him.

506
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:14,000
He understands that he lived it all.

507
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:19,000
But he went through it without ever sinning.

508
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:26,000
Nothing we did. We experience all those things, and we sin in it, right?

509
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,000
I mean, let's be real. Some of you are going to get to Grandma's house

510
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:33,000
Christmas Day, and it's going to be the wrong cranberry sauce.

511
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,000
And you're going to be like, come on, Grandma.

512
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:38,000
You're going to judge.

513
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:42,000
Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. It's not about cranberry sauce.

514
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:45,000
We mess up all the time, but Jesus lived through all of it.

515
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,000
He's the perfect representative of us to God the Father.

516
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:53,000
To say, look, I get it. I get why they struggle. I get why they fall.

517
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,000
It doesn't mean get right. It doesn't mean we don't deserve the judgment for it.

518
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:59,000
He goes, but I understand.

519
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:05,000
And so, Father, take my sacrifice in their place.

520
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:10,000
And as God, Jesus is the only one, that only pure, that only perfect sacrifice

521
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:17,000
that has ever existed. He is the atonement we all needed.

522
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:23,000
The picture is this. The two that were separated by sin, you have God the Creator,

523
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,000
and you have mankind.

524
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:33,000
Separated by sin. No possible way man could get to God because God is holy and perfect,

525
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:35,000
and man is sinful.

526
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:44,000
So without something to bridge the gap, man is going to go to judgment forever.

527
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:52,000
And so Jesus was born into this world, taking God in one hand, taking us in the other,

528
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:55,000
and bridging the gap over his dead body.

529
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,000
That is the gift of Jesus Christ.

530
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:03,000
And because of that, there is fellowship between us and God again.

531
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:09,000
Yes, there have been many unusual and amazing births in the histories of humanity,

532
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:14,000
but there has never been one quite like this one.

533
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:17,000
This unique virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

534
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:23,000
Jesus wasn't somebody that was parthenogenetically produced.

535
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:26,000
Jesus was not someone who was just another human baby.

536
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:30,000
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb.

537
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:35,000
And then God did that work to enable her to produce that single cell zygote.

538
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:40,000
And then that zygote developed into an embryo, and then that embryo became a fetus,

539
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:44,000
and then that fetus became a child, and that child grew up, and then that child died.

540
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:50,000
And then that man rose from the dead again, now living forever.

541
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:58,000
Telling you today, I love you, I took care of your tab, trust in me.

542
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:00,000
You don't have to earn it, you don't have to do anything.

543
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,000
I want to give you this gift freely.

544
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:09,000
Just put your faith in me, and I will save you.

545
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:12,000
Because Jesus was fully man and fully God at the same time,

546
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:19,000
he was the only one who could bridge the divide between man and God.

547
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:26,000
And so that we wouldn't miss it, God gave us a very detailed sign,

548
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:33,000
that virgin birth, that son being born, that Savior that we need.

549
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:36,000
You know what that means in short?

550
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:40,000
When we look at this prophecy, and we look at these signs that God gave,

551
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:44,000
and the gift he gave to us, you know what that means in summary?

552
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:53,000
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

553
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:59,000
Marvel at his birth because of what it was, a miracle.

554
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,000
A miracle that brought hope into this world,

555
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,000
the miracle that brought all of us of our salvation.

556
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:07,000
In this Christmas season, if you haven't taken the opportunity yet,

557
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:12,000
pray that God would give you the opportunity to share that hope with someone who doesn't know him.

558
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:16,000
As you celebrate Christmas in a few days, I'm looking forward to celebrating with you

559
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:19,000
at our candlelight service and our Christmas day service,

560
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:22,000
but in and with all of our families that are going to be there with us,

561
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:24,000
take the opportunity.

562
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:30,000
The greatest gift you could offer to somebody is the gift of Jesus Christ.

563
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:33,000
Step out in faith and share.

564
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:38,000
And don't forget yourself how utterly unique this birth was. Amen?

565
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:39,000
Let's pray.

566
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:43,000
Father, we thank you so much for who you are.

567
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:49,000
We thank you for sending your son Jesus to this earth,

568
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:53,000
to be born as a man,

569
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:57,000
to have that humanity, to be clothed in that humanity,

570
00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:59,000
to be tempted in every way we are,

571
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:06,000
to understand what it is to be human.

572
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:10,000
All the challenges, all the weaknesses,

573
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:16,000
all the strengths, all the joys, Lord, he experienced all of it.

574
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:23,000
But God, none of those outside things have really anything to do with the inside problem that we are sinners.

575
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:27,000
And that God, because of sin that we were born with, that we cannot pay for on our own,

576
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:32,000
we are forever separated from you, our Creator.

577
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:42,000
And yet, God, in the very beginning you made a promise to send one who would defeat the enemy for all time.

578
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:45,000
Lord, you've given us your word so that as we read it and we study,

579
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:52,000
we, like King Ahaz should have done, can be like, God, I trust you.

580
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:58,000
You're going to protect me. You're going to grant me salvation from the enemy.

581
00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:04,000
And that, Lord, when we do that, we have the promise, the hope of heaven,

582
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:11,000
the hope now of a changed heart, the hope now of finding joy and peace, even in the midst of travesty,

583
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:17,000
to find victory in the midst of struggles.

584
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:21,000
And God, it was because of you. We can't miss it.

585
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:28,000
It's not something else. It is you, the baby born of a virgin,

586
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:35,000
who is and was and will forever be God who is among us.

587
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:40,000
Lord, may those that don't know you receive that gift this season.

588
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:45,000
May we, God, be filled with the Holy Spirit to share that in love with people,

589
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:51,000
to take the opportunity to share what Christmas is really about,

590
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:56,000
to share that impossibly unique gift that God has offered to everybody

591
00:43:56,000 --> 00:44:03,000
and to share the hope that they, too, can have if they put their trust in him.

592
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:07,000
Lord, we thank you for this time of year to focus on this.

593
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:10,000
And we ask, Lord, that you would bless us as your people,

594
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:15,000
that you would be blessed, Lord, and that your name would be lifted high above all names.

595
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:21,000
We love you and we thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

596
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:44,000
Well, let's worship church.