[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com Good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have a Bible, turn to Luke chapter 2, and we're going to be in the verses that Miss Mottie just wrote, read for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're new here at Citizens, you're visiting or maybe you came for the holidays and decided to come to church.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are honored that you're worshipping with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Jayman.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm one of the pastors here and it's good to see you.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were a few TV shows that shaped my childhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the most influential one was Boy Meets World.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'd learned everything I need to know about love from that show.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I had to unlearn it to actually make relationships work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Say, by the bill, was one that we watched a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, we watched a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know every word to the opening song still.
[SPEAKER_00]: One that was on a lot in our house was a show called Who's Line Is It Any Way?
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody know that show?
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, claps.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God, I stayed home from school a lot in middle school for a number of reasons and whose line was just on all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then there was no Netflix, you were just at the mercy of the TV programming, so whatever was on TV is what you had to watch.
[SPEAKER_00]: And who's line is an improv show where they have actors that on the spot make up different skits and they sing different songs and then points that mean nothing or awarded and it's basically just supposed to be fun and funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had a skit called green screen and here's how the skit worked.
[SPEAKER_00]: You had one actor improv guy who was like a field reporter and he stood in front of a green screen and then the other actors were like in studio news anchors.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everyone could see what was happening on the screen behind this field reporter, except for the guy, except for the field reporter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the game was some sort of scene would play out behind him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was dropped in the middle of some sort of story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was supposed to use hints from the other guys in the audience reaction to try to figure out to guess at the very end of the skip what story he was a part of or what scene he was a part of.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if the scene behind him was like he was in the middle of an avalanche, then maybe somebody would tell him to run.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the scene was like a Western shootout, they'd tell him to duck.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the scene was like with a grizzly bear, they'd tell him to play dead or just say goodbye or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's doing his best to fit into the scene.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to act in the foreground based on what's going on behind him in the background.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one way to think of it is just he's just dropped in the middle of this story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's trying to play his role even though he doesn't know the plot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though he doesn't know what's going on behind him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He can't see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just has to make his best guess.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's something that's true about life that's reflected in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: History did not start with me and history did not start with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not the beginning of the story I was born in 1987.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot had already happened before I was born.
[SPEAKER_00]: God wasn't waiting on my life to then say, okay, let's get started.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't start with you whenever you were born, whatever year, whatever day.
[SPEAKER_00]: The scene was already going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story was already unfolding when you were born, when you made your entrance into the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our life has dropped in the middle.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of our life is trying to figure out how to live in light of the world around us, how to make sense of what's happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is this a good world or is it a bad world?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the point of life?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's my role in life?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did the story start?
[SPEAKER_00]: How will the story end?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should I run?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should I duck?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should I play dead?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should I give all of my time in this life to making as much money as I can?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should I try to be moral?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that important?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there something like eternity?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's wrong with the world?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's wrong with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there a God?
[SPEAKER_00]: And to answer all those questions is to first decide what story we're a part of and what scene we're living in and what we believe is what was happening before we got here and what we'll be happening after we leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's the difference between the green screen
[SPEAKER_00]: in real life, God has not left us to wonder.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has not kept us guessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't just give us hints for us to make the best sense of what's happening around us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's made it known to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Theologians call this the doctrine of revelation that God has revealed Himself to His creation that we might not just know Him, but know the story that were part of in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the person of Jesus, the Bible calls him the word made flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the image of the invisible God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the one who makes God visible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the story that the Bible tells.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Bible is 66 books, multiple genres, 40 different authors.
[SPEAKER_00]: It covers 1500 years, 10 civilizations, three continents, three languages, one story.
[SPEAKER_00]: One story of redemption.
[SPEAKER_00]: One plan, one plot, one ultimate champion and king and hero.
[SPEAKER_00]: The beginning of the story is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He creates a world that's full of peace and purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem of the story is sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: The hero of the story is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: The end of the story is Christ returns to make all things new.
[SPEAKER_00]: And your role in the story is determined by how you respond to the story's hero.
[SPEAKER_00]: in all this, God has made it known to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: In His kindness, He hasn't left us guessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the first week of Advent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love this season.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not grow up in a church that observed Advent the way that we observe Advent here at Citizens.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's taken me a bit to understand what all this is about.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the first few years I thought, oh, wow, we really care about Christmas and we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's more than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Advent is not simply the Christmas season, and Advent is not just about the birth of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Advent is about the hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: is reminding us of the true story that we belong to.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not just in a way that convinces us in our head, but in a way that captures our heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Advent is a Latin word, it means a rival, it just means coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: We live in a world where Jesus came, we live in a world that Jesus will one day return to God,
[SPEAKER_00]: This planet wrapped in human flesh in the person of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: One day the sky split Jesus comes back.
[SPEAKER_00]: He makes everything new And we live in that world.
[SPEAKER_00]: We live in that story in between the first and second coming of Jesus So in the passage that we're in this morning We hear a couple things said about Jesus that I want to highlight Luke 2 will start in verse 8
[SPEAKER_00]: In the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were filled with great fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: The angel said of them, fear not.
[SPEAKER_00]: For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ,
[SPEAKER_00]: the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Angels announced good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where we get our word gospel from.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good news of great joy for all people born this day in the city of David.
[SPEAKER_00]: a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's three titles given to Jesus, Savior, Christ, and Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are things that we're used to hearing about Jesus, especially around this time of year, but each one of them tells the story of what God is doing in the world through Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And over the next few weeks, we're gonna unpack each of them for all the meaning that they hold.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll give our attention this morning to Jesus this Savior, the story of salvation that we belong to is the story of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus saves, we believe in God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We believe the story the Bible tells.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why most of us are here, praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know this, we live in a world where the salvation story, the Advent story, is not the only story being told.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our home was especially noisy this week, just because everyone was home every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at one point, Karen and I are trying to have a conversation, trying to hear one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Christmas music is playing in the living room.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do Christmas music just whatever we don't have rules about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just play it and then different Christmas music is playing in one of the bedrooms because one Christmas playlist is not enough and then Asher is in his room playing his guitar and then the dog is at the back door just barking andcessantly barking and barking and I'm trying to hear what Kary is saying and we just we just gave up We just stop trying it's like I'll talk to you tonight when we're both too tired to talk We live in a noisy world live in a noisy world
[SPEAKER_00]: And while God has not left us to wonder about the story we live in, God has not left us to wonder about what's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's revealed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: His voice is not the only one that's speaking.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so many of the stories that we hear, so many of the stories that are embedded into our culture, are telling us where life is found, where meanings found, what it means to be living well, where salvation can be found, and what it can feel like is it can feel like God's voice is the one that we most need and is the hardest to hear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you wake up this morning?
[SPEAKER_00]: Thinking, I live in a world where Jesus came and will come again.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we go about our day, as we live in the world, as we do our jobs and do the things in the tests and try to be faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are the things around us naturally directing our attention to living in a world in a story that God has visited is present in and one day will return to?
[SPEAKER_00]: And part of that is the stories that surround us are, they distract us, they steal our attention away from the story where Jesus is at the center.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's been true for every Christian who's ever lived.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've always tried to believe the Bible, follow Jesus in a world surrounded by stories that would steal our attention away from that.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus was born,
[SPEAKER_00]: When the angels announced good news of a Savior, it was not the only salvation story being told.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Roman Empire controlled most of the known world that these shepherds lived in, and we've talked about this Rome told its own salvation story.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had their own gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: The same Greek word that we find here was written on coins to announce the birth of the Caesar.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the gospel of the Caesar that was born.
[SPEAKER_00]: They called him the Son of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: They called him the Savior of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they had their own salvation story.
[SPEAKER_00]: The peace,
[SPEAKER_00]: of Rome will bring salvation, if you're in right relationship with the Empire, then you are okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you had also people claiming to be Messiah, they had their own salvation story that the song that we sang, the new song that we sang, the manger of throne song.
[SPEAKER_00]: that a lot of people expected that Jesus would not come that the Messiah would not come in meekness, but He would come in military might.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He would run Rome out of town and save everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was the salvation story that was being told.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of people put their hope in that story.
[SPEAKER_00]: My point is this, when the angels appear to the shepherds, and they say, good news, a Savior is here.
[SPEAKER_00]: They weren't the only ones using those words.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that wasn't the only salvation story being told.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's true for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our stories are different.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't use gospel language, they don't use save your language, but they do, they do compete for our affection in our loyalty.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what Advent is after our hope is that the season of Advent, as we tell the true story,
[SPEAKER_00]: of Christ, having come in Christ who will come again, that it would lower the volume on the false stories, which stir our affections for what is true, would create in us a gratitude that Christ has come in a longing that Christ will come again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm going back and forth on the best way to do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we lived in the first century, the false stories that surround us were a little bit easier to name because they were political, they were very religious, so there's the story of Rome and Savior, Caesar is God or the Son of God, and it was the story of the Greek and Roman gods, the gods of the myth, our stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like our idols, they're harder to see because they're mostly nameless and they're not as religious.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were to read theologians, philosophers, pastors who write on this and talk about this, they would name the overarching story that we belong to as the story of secularism.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the moment we live in.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the dominant script that captures our attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it might be changing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like people are more open to spiritual things than they have been in the past, but we're still affected by it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Secularism doesn't mean that no one is religious anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just means this for centuries of human history.
[SPEAKER_00]: Belief in the supernatural, God's spirituality, eternity, it was just assumed, it didn't have to be proven, it was just assumed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we live in a time where it's no longer assumed, it's met with skepticism, and the burden of proof has shifted from, we just assume that the spiritual realm exists to, you have to convince us that exists, and so the competence,
[SPEAKER_00]: that a society used to have in the existence of something beyond what we can see, that confidence has shifted and now it's been placed on our ability to make sense of the material world without something beyond what we can see.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe God exists, maybe God doesn't either way, we don't need God to make sense of life, we don't need God to be able to live well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's how you've experienced this.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one, or at least few people, are going to find out that you're a Christian and say you can't believe the story the Bible tells.
[SPEAKER_00]: The world around us is going to make it really hard to live like it's true, because the world around us is not directing our attention to God, the things that are transcendent and spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: In our attention, we'll be given over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our lives, our energy, our affections, we'll be given over to living in ways that don't require God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So individualism, or consumerism, or nationalism, or anything, but here's what I want to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to remind you.
[SPEAKER_00]: what is true because the Advent story is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus came, Jesus will come again.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one who is born in the city of David as a savior is your savior.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the true thing about your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the true story that you belong to.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here are a few things that are true that I hope quiet some of the false stories and stir in his confidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the story Advent tells us true,
[SPEAKER_00]: you don't have to create your own meaning in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to justify your existence with your performance or possessions.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story event tells us that you're a created being, you're loved by your creator, you are made in his very image.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you don't discover meaning.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to create meaning for yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are as an image bearer of God, you are born.
[SPEAKER_00]: with dignity, value, and worth simply as a sacred image bearer of God, your life matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: It matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before you do anything, before you perform anything, before you accomplish anything, you are born into a story.
[SPEAKER_00]: where the moment that you are conceived into this world, your life matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the story is around us will tell us that meaning is something we create.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you just think about the way we talk about this, from an early age, we try to make something of ourselves, we're asked beginning an elementary school.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you want to be when you grow up?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so all the pressure is then on having a plan, and executing that plan, because somewhere in that plan, I'm going to justify my existence.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to live, validate, and meaningful life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the pressure is to get the degree, and then to get the job, and then get the family, and then get the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's just the starter house for the bigger house that comes later.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can achieve our way into a meaningful life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And listen, there's not something inherently wrong about any of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But none of that, none of that is what makes life worth living.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can get all of that and be empty.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can miss out on all that and still be full.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's why we keep going back to the CS Lewis Quote and we'll keep going back to the CS Lewis Quote.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we desire is for things that are less than what we are made to desire.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have to substantiate our life with success.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what we are made for.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is especially prevalent in this part of the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't create meaning by the stuff that we acquire.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a consumerism that drives this season, and we know how it goes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't live without these things, and so you buy these things, and you enjoy these things, and then you get tired of these things, and you want other things that we are convinced that we can't live without.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're at the dinner table last week, and I was talking about Christmas with our family, and about Christmas presents, and I was trying to talk the kids into not doing any presents this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And instead take the money that we would spend on presence and do something together as a family.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my daughter said, are you thinking, Disney World?
[SPEAKER_00]: How much do you think we spend on presence over here?
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, no, just maybe we do go somewhere, not Disney, maybe we go somewhere as a family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because here's what I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that experience experiences together has a longer lasting effect than the stuff we buy each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about trips differently than we talk about the things that we've bought.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was trying to convince some of this, and so to make my case, I was like, hey, name one thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Name one thing you got last year for Christmas that you still used today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they each named like five things, which was really surprising, and I lost the argument, so we're just going to buy a bunch of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is an air that there is something about the consumerism that just exists all the time, that is exacerbated at this time of year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we know is it's a over-promise and an under-deliver.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all know the disappointment of wanting something and then getting that thing and discovering it's not what we thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as silly as it is, we could be dismissive of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: As silly as it is,
[SPEAKER_00]: We look to things, we look to possessions, to rescue us from meaning-starved lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because in a world that's influenced by the secular story, we're starved for meaning, and we have to find it in things that are not God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So be reminded, meaning in life is not what you make of yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning is not found in what you have, Augustine's famous line.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, you have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the true story of salvation in Christ, God made you in His image.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are born.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are born, replete with meaning and significance and sacred value.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not that you have to prove or substantiate.
[SPEAKER_00]: And your life has meaning because you made you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And your life finds ultimate purpose when you are made right with God through Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: The most important relationship in your life is not your relationship with your achievements or your possessions or even yourself, the most important relationship in your life is your relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what's beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're in a right relationship with God, nothing in this world can make your life meaningless because nothing in this world can threaten your relationship with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't create meaning.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to create meaning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's number two.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't save yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the story of Adventist Truth, if the story of the Savior is true, you can't save yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: The angels announced born this day in the city of David, a Savior is Savior's or rescuer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means we're in trouble and we need someone who's not beset by our problems to come in and save us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can't save ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you're, think about when you're walking through the store,
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're looking for something, and somebody who works at the store will ask you, can I help you?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you say?
[SPEAKER_00]: We had lost in our house a few weeks ago, like so many wasps in our house.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were getting in through our chimney.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I went to Home Depot to get wasps spray, and my plan was to get on our roof.
[SPEAKER_00]: with a couple of cans of toxic waspray and shoot at all these wasps like I was a ghostbuster and I did and it worked and I found a lot of meaning in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt like a strong man.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I was going to get the waspray, I was walking around Home Depot and I couldn't find the spray and I was stopped by no less than five very kind people who worked there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I must have looked very lost because they kept stopping me and asking me, do you need help?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I did.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I said.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you help?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't tell.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know exactly what I'm doing is what I wanted to portray.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's me.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I need help, when I need help, I will try to do it myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like asking for help.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like being in need.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like looking weak.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like being weak.
[SPEAKER_00]: So even if the answer is, yes, I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: My response is always, no, I'm good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: That works for a lot of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I eventually found what I was looking for.
[SPEAKER_00]: It took longer, but it was fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can try and live like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So many of us with areas of deeper need.
[SPEAKER_00]: We try.
[SPEAKER_00]: We try and fix all of our problems in our own strength.
[SPEAKER_00]: When someone offers help, it's, I don't know, I got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will fix this marriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will fix this child, I will fix this job, I will fix this circumstance, I will help myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story that Advent tells the true story of the world is that our need is so great, we cannot save ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians describes our condition without Jesus, that we are dead in our trespasses and sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean literally dead, it just means that all of our strategies of self-salvation are lifeless, they don't work.
[SPEAKER_00]: If our problem was, I needed to be a little bit more moral than you could save yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: If our problem was, we just need to be better than the worst people we know than you could save yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: If our problem was that we needed to balance every bad deed with a good thing, then the best of us could maybe save ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: If our problem was, we need to follow our heart and discover our unique self, then we could get lost saving ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we're dead and sin, if we're dead and sin, all that's lifeless.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians two forces this way, the good news of the gospel of our Savior, born in the city of David, but God, being rich and mercy because of the great love with which He loved us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why Jesus came.
[SPEAKER_00]: to rescue us, from sin, from self, the announcement of the angels to the shepherds in that moment on that night, it was good news because the one born in the manger would die on the cross, for you, for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: John Piper says that this way, the incarnation was God's locking himself into death row.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ did not risk death he embraced it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He took our nature and Bethlehem to die
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus did not come to make bad people good, or to make good people better.
[SPEAKER_00]: He came to make dead people live, and only he can do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He took our nature as human, live the life that we fall short of living, and then died in our place and rose again.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Jesus asks the question of you, do you need help?
[SPEAKER_00]: The answer is yes, lost without you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cannot atone for my own sins, Cannot cancel my own debt,
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot make my dead heart live only you, Jesus can do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's the goodness, the greatest news of the gospel is that acknowledging our need for a Savior is the very condition where the Savior will meet that need.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus tells a group of self-righteous people, I did not come for the healthy, I did not come for the healthy, I came for the sick.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the secret that's not so secret is that there are only sick people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there are sick who think they are healthy and can save themselves and then there are sick who know that only Christ can do for us what we can't do for ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know we've been beating this drum the last few weeks.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can try and pretend, we can try and conceal, we can wear a mask and cover our sin and pretend to be doing better than we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is a self-salvation strategy, it does not work.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does not work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our Savior offers grace that frees us from hiding.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is way better at being a Savior than you aren't being a sinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have a future.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have to create our own meaning.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot save yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus delights in doing for us what we can't do for ourselves and you have a future.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the true story that Advent tells where Christ has come and will come again, you have a future.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at me at verse 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, there's a little detail in here that just I find so encouraging and helpful.
[SPEAKER_00]: When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, so the angels come, the choir comes out, they sing, glory to God, and the highest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph in the baby lying in a manger.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all who heard it, wondered what the shepherds told them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart, and the shepherds returned.
[SPEAKER_00]: Glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an unfraidable night.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about them only around this time of year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you know this about Shepard.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shepard is in the first century.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your low class people.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had a reputation for being untrustworthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they were low class and they were a marginalized class.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they would not.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would be no one's popular pick for the choir, gospel announcement.
[SPEAKER_00]: First people to meet Jesus in the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they were probably surprises everyone else as everyone else was.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they see the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they hear the worship of heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they see Jesus face to face, the very face of God, and they sit with Mary and Joseph and their front row seat to see in God in real time in history fulfill His promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are just so few people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think it's to say that they experience that kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you do after that, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a life-changing evening.
[SPEAKER_00]: You tell these shepherds told that story of that evening for the rest of their life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what do you do when something like that happens?
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse 20.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the shepherds returned, glorifying God and praising God for all they had heard and see.
[SPEAKER_00]: The shepherds returned.
[SPEAKER_00]: They see the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: They hear the worship of heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: They see Jesus the face of God and then they go back to their fields.
[SPEAKER_00]: Same field, same sheep, same job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Still outcast, still marginalized, still poor, what was different?
[SPEAKER_00]: The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, same field, same sheep, same job, new joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Life was the same, they were not.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because they knew they were part of what God was doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know if before this night, they thought they were part of the people of God, or if they would be part of the salvation story, or if they'd be part of God's redemption, but going home that night they knew, a child born in the city of David is not just these Savior, he's our Savior.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not a whole lot changed in that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that moment changed them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They returned glorifying and praising God.
[SPEAKER_00]: My friend, Zackess Wein, has a insightful comment on this verse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Seeing God's glory, hearing his voice, receiving his good news and beholding his love, was never meant to deliver us from ordinary life in love in a place.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was meant instead to provide the means to preserve us there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ has come, life around me feels very ordinary.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ has come, there's a lot in my life that I worry about, stress over, Christ has come, the holidays are really painful for me because of loss, Christ has come, some of my relationships are falling apart, Christ has come, I'm still sick, Christ has come, and it can feel like not a lot has changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story adventels.
[SPEAKER_00]: is that everything will be made right, but not everything is right right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's easy to believe?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's easy to believe?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like going back to the field and it's the exact same as when you left it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to believe that what's happening now is all that will ever happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's easy to believe that things will never change and it's not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look right at me, you have a future.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have a future.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Savior born in the city of David, he will come again.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will come again.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will make all things new then and what he is changing now is you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's changing you.
[SPEAKER_00]: His grace, His love poured out in your life, His glory, His story made known to you that it might preserve you in the present because you have confidence in the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you and I, like the shepherds, can rejoice in this moment, in the ordinary, in the painful, in the disappointing, and be faithful in whatever's happening, because God is faithful, and He will keep His promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we one day, like them, we will see Jesus face to face.
[SPEAKER_00]: God hasn't left us to wonder,
[SPEAKER_00]: He hasn't put us in his life and given us hints to try to figure it on our own.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has revealed the true story of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has filled your life with meaning.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Savior of the world has forgiven you of all of your sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has secured for you a safe future.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Christ, our Savior, has come and He will come again.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, thank you for loving us and saving us from our sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are so glad you were born, Christmas is about you, life is about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can't wait to see you again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please come back soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I pray that this had the season, as we enter in, and are reminded and just try our best to say familiar truths and fresh ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that the...
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it is, that can cloud us to the reality of your presence among us, that all of that would just be driven away, and that we would be the kind of people that wake up in the morning and think, I live in a world where Jesus has come and will come again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that would be the realest, truest thing, in the false stories that just make that hard for us to believe in, in that,
[SPEAKER_00]: that make us think that what's in our bank account is more real than that, and what's in our calendar is more real than that, and the problems that we're having a hard time solving is more real than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just pray that that face, I don't know, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I'm asking for my own life, and then on behalf of this church, I love God.
[SPEAKER_00]: is that there would be a palpable, experiential sense that we are characters loved and seen in the true, beautiful story where you, Jesus, or the hero and may that shape change affect our life right now, right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to confess with our mouths
[SPEAKER_00]: and live in our actions, like we can do this without you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our lives aren't meaningless.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not up to us to justify our existence.
[SPEAKER_00]: We cannot save ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the midst of ordinary mundane, disappointing, painful, our future is unthreatened, because of who you are and what you've done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Help us believe all these things, help us to believe all these things, look at them.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.