Good evening, Resonate. My name is Keith. I'm lead pastor here at Resonate Church, and it's good to see you here
It's fun to be here as we approach Christmas. This is my first time actually to ever do a Christmas sermon
Usually I'm traveling and at one of the other pastors
Kind of does the the sermon that is right previous to Christmas and so I'm excited to be able to engage in this topic
It's one that I think that is oftentimes
Kind of kind of overlooked. There's a lot of themes in this time of year. There's a lot of stuff going on
There's maybe you have different traditions that you do. I know in my house
We we had certain foods that we ate at Christmas time
We had certain movies that we would always watch in Christmas time, you know
And there's all these different things that are going on and I think in all of this stuff
That is kind of bombarding our culture all the stuff that we're thinking and processing through oftentimes
There can be a deficiency in the theology and the understanding of who God is
During this time and and sometimes we can kind of water it down and sometimes we can get to these ideas that Christmas time is
About generosity or about showing love for each other and those are good mega themes of the Bible
But but there's some certain things that I think that we don't really look at really closely
Oftentimes we can completely overlook and so I'm excited to get to talk to you about this as your pastor
I just
Oftentimes don't get to talk about the explicit gospel of Christmas and what is happening in in this Christmas time and what the
Bible says about this and so I'm excited about what this looks like
The reality is is some of the stuff that gets overlooked and some of the stuff that is oftentimes passed over is
So significant for us
We have Christmas and Easter are often these big major holidays that are kind of connected to this idea of
Christianity and what happens in the Christian story and in the Easter story all that we are celebrating the resurrection
This is God
Flexing his muscles God being able to overcome all that is wrong with the world being able to overcome evil having this
amazing
display of his might and of his power as he begins to write a new story that gives us hope and so we
Celebrate that and that's a big deal
But but there's another idea that that really kind of bookends the Christian faith on the other side and that is this Christmas time story
And this is the story of the incarnation or Jesus coming from being the God's son in deity to human flesh to human form
And this is a big deal. In fact, see us. Lewis says that that that really
That the Easter is great and it is amazing
But the major miracle that we should celebrate is the fact that that everything is connected to God coming to earth and
Taking on human flesh every other miracle is connected to that reality that central miracle
And so when we begin to think about the story of Christianity
It really revolves around Jesus who comes to this earth and the coming of him to this earth is this
Fascinating the idea and we call this the incarnation of Jesus Christ God becoming flesh and this is a
Major thing as we begin to think about this and what is connected to that is something I want to get into today
For us and begin to kind of explore this because this is just something that if we miss this in the hustle and bustle of Christmas
Then we miss the very understanding of how God desires to have a relationship with us
So on one hand if Easter is the way that God wants to give us hope
Christmas is the understanding of what kind of relationship God wants to have with us
And so if you're interested in that if that's something you want to say how do you mean how does humanity connect to deity?
What we begin to see is that Christmas the Christmas story really talks about that and so I want to to talk to you about that
I want to to teach us out of the Bible because I think that understanding how we as
As humans connect to deity is a big part of what it means for us to have spirituality and have faith
And so we find that here in the Christmas story. In fact in Matthew chapter 1 verses 22 and 23
There's an important little phrase in here. It says this and he's talking about all of the things that are describing this
This all things that are happening in this Christmas story all the things that God has done
He's he's come to Mary and he's he said hey, you're a teenager
I'm gonna you're gonna be a teenage pregnancy, right?
But not in the normative sense. I am going to impregnate you right and so that's kind of the strange thing
He comes to Joseph and the angels say hey, so here's what I'm going to do
But you're betrothed to Mary don't divorce her carry on with with marrying Mary
And so that you guys will have faith in what I am doing. I'm writing this entire script
In fact, this script is not something that is just here. You'll see in a second
There's something that's connected to prophecy, but it says this in verses 22
It says all this took place all that stuff that God is doing
It took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet and it says in verse 23
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel which means God with us and that and that
Goes back to Isaiah 714 and we'll throw it up here on the screen
This is the the prophecy that Matthew is talking about it says therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign
This is talking about God's work among humanity
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and we'll call him Emmanuel
Well, Matthew helps us to understand what this big mega theme is all about and how God is interacting with people
It says this in parentheses. Let's go back to this Matthew text
It says in this this word Emmanuel in the Hebrew and then he's talking to Greek people who may not understand
The meaning and the depth of this world. He says you've got to understand this because this makes the story correct
It says which means God with us
And this is this phenomenal thing that when we begin to understand the story that God is writing that what God is doing
To book in these two parts of the faith that we must understand that he is called
Emmanuel that the story must be complete with understanding that God is coming near to us
God with us
Now when we begin to think about what it looks like for the world to understand religion and what it understand
What spirituality looks like this sets apart Christianity from any other religion?
This is is helping us to understand that God who comes to earth in flesh that God with us is a
Significant understanding and for us to understand the relationship that God has with us and the relationship that God desires for us
We cannot bypass this part of the story
We cannot just go on through this and think about Christmas as simply being generous to each other or or being other
Centered and giving gifts and stuff like that
Much less the consumerism that goes along with what will I get?
What do I want? How will I get what I want all of these things that kind of begin to get into our soul?
And I believe are incredibly tempting for us to begin to have our hearts not pulled towards God in the Christmas season
But towards the temptation of materialism and consumerism, but when we begin to see this idea of God with us
I think it's a profound thing. It's a profound understanding
So this resurrection from God being amazing
But the central idea of the incarnation of God in human flesh is something that we have to understand
To a depth that really changes the way that we perceive who God is in our life
I want to read you a snippet out of a book by Max O'Cato called God
When God drew near and and it's just a little part that helps us maybe to put some
Tangibility around this moment of Jesus entering into the world. It says this
the noise in the bustle
began earlier than usual in the village of Bethlehem as
Night gave way to dawn people were already on the streets vendors were persistent bore positioning themselves on the corners of the most heavily
Trafficked avenues store owners were unlocking the doors to their shops children were awakened by the exciting barking of the street dogs and the
Complaints of donkeys pulling carts the owner of the end had awakened earlier than most in the town after all the end was full
And all the beds were taken every available mat or blanket had been put to use
Soon all the customers would be stirring and there would be lots of work to do
One's imagination is kindled by thinking about the conversation of the innkeeper and his family at the breakfast table
Did anyone mention the arrival of the young couple the night before did anyone comment on the pregnancy of the girl on the donkey?
Perhaps perhaps someone raised the subject, but at best it was raised but not discussed
There was nothing that novel about them. They were possibly one of several families turned away that night
Besides who had time to talk about them when there's so much excitement in the air
Augustus did the economy of Bethlehem a favor when he decreed that a census should be taken who could remember when such
Commerce had hit the village. No, it's doubtful that anyone mentioned the couple's arrival or wondered about the condition of the girl
They were too busy. The day was upon them
The day's bread had to be made the morning chores had to be done
There was too much to do to imagine that the impossible had occurred that God had entered the world as a baby
yet
Or someone to chance upon the sheep in the stable in the outskirts of Bethlehem that morning
What a particular say or a peculiar scene they would have they would behold
The stable stinks like all stables to do at the stents of urine dung and sheep reeks pungently in the air
The ground is hard. The hay is scarce cobwebs cling to the ceilings and mouse mouse scurries along the dirt floor a more
lowly place of birth could not
Exist off to one side sits a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor perhaps perplexed
Perhaps in all no doubt in amazement
Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels
God goes to those who have time to hear him
So on this cloudless night. He went to simple shepherds
Near the young mother sits the weary father if anyone doesing he is he can't remember the last time he sat down
Now that the excitement has subsided a bit now that Mary and the baby are comfortable
He leans against the wall of the stable and fills his eyes grow very heavy
He has he still hasn't figured it all out the mystery of the vent of the event still puzzles him
But he hasn't the energy to wrestle with the questions
What what's important that the baby is that that is that the baby is fine and that Mary is safe
As sleep comes he remembers the name the angel told him to use Jesus. We will call him Jesus
Why to wake is Mary my how young she looks her head rests on the soft leather of Joseph saddle
The pain has been eclipsed by wonder. She looks into the face of the baby her son her Lord his majesty
At this point in history the human being who best understands who God is and what he is doing is a teenage girl and a smelly stable
She can't take her eyes off him
Somehow Mary knows that she is holding God
So this is he she remembers the words of the angel his kingdom will never end
He looks anything but a king his face is prunish and red his cry
Although strong and healthy is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. He is absolutely dependent upon Mary for his well-being
Majesty in the midst of the mundane
Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat
Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable through the womb of a teenager in the presence of a carpenter
She touches the faces of the infant God
How long was your journey?
This baby has overlooked the universe these rags keeping him warm were the robes of eternity
his golden throne room had been abandoned in favor of a dirty sheep pin and
Worshipping angels has been replaced with a kind but bewildered shepherd shepherds
Meanwhile the city homes the merchants are unaware that God has visited their planet
The innkeeper would never believe that he had just sent God into the cold and now people would scoff at anyone who told them
The Messiah lay in the arms of a teenager on the outskirts of their village. They were all too busy to consider the possibility
Those who missed his majesty's arrival that night missed it not because of evil acts or malice
No, they missed it simply because they weren't looking for it
Little has changed in the last 2,000 years has it
It all happened in a moment a most remarkable moment as moments goes
That one appeared no different than any other
It was one of the countless moments that have marked time since the eternity became measurable
But in reality that particular moment was like none other
For though that segment of time as through through that spectacular segment of time a spectacular thing occurred
God became a man
While the creatures of earth walked unaware divinity arrived heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb
The omnipotent in one instant made himself breakable
He who had been spirit became piercable. He who was larger than the universe became an embryo and the one who
Sustains the world with the word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl
God as a fetus
holiness
Sleeping in a womb the creator of life being created
And as we begin to kind of wrap our minds around this I
Want us to understand what a miracle it is
that God chose to leave heaven
Wrap himself in humanity and live on earth for our sake to draw near to you and to draw near to me and
This is something that we cannot overlook in the understanding of what Christmas means
In fact the incarnation in it it is so profound because what it does is it rips
this divide between humanity and
God it pulls us closer and this is the desire of your heavenly father
to draw near
To be a manual that God is with us
And this is so profound because this is this idea of incarnation leading to intimacy
This idea that he has made himself wrapped himself in human flesh so that he might be known and so that he might know you
And this is the relationship between man and God
This is how this this Christianity separates itself from every other religion and that it is something that is an
Intimate the desire is an intimate relationship between you and your heavenly father and that he came down to earth that God came near and
manual with us and so this incarnation is this pathway to intimacy and
This intimacy with God is something that does two things in our hearts something
I want to just talk about today is something that comforts us and confronts us
When we understand that the story that God is writing is that God came near to us
It is something that is to be both comforting to us and confronting to us
It is something that that should radically change our lives and change the way we perceive this
See when we begin to understand what God is doing
I want you to first understand that God coming near to us is
Comforting to us that the intent of God being able to come into this world and to be able to live as we are living is meant
To comfort us is meant to be a part of the story that we connect with that is meant to be in terms of a relationship
that is deeply deeply meaningful and
so many ways that
The way of spirituality seem to be something other something out there something that is that is kind of nebulous and ambiguous and that
We are to kind of have all and honor for but what God said is that that is not enough. I want to come close and
That should be of comfort to us
You see in Hebrews
Hebrews chapter 2 verse 16 through 18 it says this for surely it is not angels. He helps but Abraham's
Descendants he's talking about this is the idea of who God is not just set to to be up in heaven
He is connected to hear us on earth for for this reason
He had to be made like them
Fully human in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in
Service to God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted. He is able to help those who were being tempted
See this is good news for us as we begin to live our life and we have these things that happen in our life
See
Immanuel God with us
He's saying that in everything that we go through in everything that all we experience
Our God has experienced that same thing
And so when we have an emotional response to this there's an understanding
And what this does is it transforms the way that we understand our relationship with a heavenly father
See oftentimes what constantly plagues humanity is that their perception of deity is an especially perception of the Christian God
Is that here's one that makes the rules and those rules are clear and that we live on one side or the other side of those rules
And so for us to have acceptance we have to follow those rules and that is really what allows us to be acceptable to God
And so we live kind of in this idea that we have a clarity in knowing that I am acceptable or not acceptable and
oftentimes for us
We live in places in our lives where we do not live up to the commands of
Our heavenly father and what that makes in our hearts is this underlying knowledge that we have a
Problem that we are living in shame. We are living in something that is not acceptable to God
And so we try harder and
This is the thing over and over a couple of weeks ago
We had a baptism service and over and over the story that is told is I thought that there was a scale, right?
I thought that there was this idea that if I did more good than bad and I would go to heaven or I would be acceptable to God and
The thing that we have not understood is that God is with us that he is a sympathetic high priest
In Hebrews 4 it says that he is someone who is who has lived this life and understands those temptations
Who understands in every way what we are going through and if we understand that and if we live that out that scale begins to disappear
Because he understands the difficult the difficulty that we may have the temptations that we may have and
The idea is not that we would see God is simply a judge
That God is the the all-powerful and omnipotent
That but that we'd also understand God as
Being close being near to us someone who we can go
to
someone with grace and mercy and
This is the relationship the incarnation speaks to that
What happens?
And what we celebrate on Christmas speaks to the kind of relationship that God's want God wants with his people that we
Would have an intimacy that removes shame
Here's what this requires from us though
It requires us to be able to accept that and
And that's the second idea is that not only does God's
Incarnation comfort us
But it confronts us
See the God of the universe went to great lengths to connect with your experience
We should not dismiss the idea that God doesn't understand what we're going through
We should not dismiss the idea that God is not sympathetic to this
And so when we go through difficult times when we have sin when we have things that we don't do right what we do is
Oftentimes we begin to think that God judges us instead of we draw near to him
This is the God's desire he's he's come into this world to have a relationship to have an intimate relationship
to comfort us and
confront us
And when I begin to reflect on all that God has done to come near to us all that the sacrifice of leaving heaven
would be
What it meant for him to leave
The connection with his Heavenly Father to come down to earth to live among sin
To be mocked to be scorned to endure that all that the world has to offer all that is messed up and broken in this world
That was a big deal
And and so when I begin to think about this
It's amazing how our response can have two sides to this how we long for God to come near to us and comfort us how we long to
For him to know us to hold us to cling to him and times that are difficult and yet on the other sides
There are moments for us
Where we might have some ambivalence towards God coming near to us or God being so close to us
Because oftentimes we want part of that but not all of that sometimes we desired God to be at a safe distance from us as
an impersonal creator
Something I can acknowledge
Without having to get and give a scent to him in any particular way. See us. Lewis describes it like this
He says it's like children playing burglars in the house and then suddenly hearing the sound the presence of another
scaring them when I was a child, I
remember
We lived right next to a church and I remember planning this escape
And planning this this thing that I would do to to get out of my house and to in the middle of the night
kind of act like I was I
Was I was going out on on my own and so I
Remember hiding my bike and the bushes in front of my window
And I had this plan with my friend and we memorized Morse code for about a month
And I had this lamp that on this like hinge and I he lived about I don't know three or four hundred yards away
But our windows had direct eyesight and so we memorized this Morse code
To be able to communicate back and forth that it was this was the time that we were going to escape
both out of our houses get on our bikes and go I
Don't know what we were planning on doing go right around it
You know at 3 a.m. And so this is our this is our thing
So I remember having an alarm clock and I remember setting my alarm for 3 a.m. I don't think I ever slept
I think I just looked at the alarm clock because of the excitement of getting out in the middle of the night and
And the church had these powerful lights all around there. So it wasn't like it was unsafe
It was just risky right because we were strictly forbidden to leave the house in the middle of night
Like all children should be like my parents weren't you know over the top of the rules
This is just a normal thing right and so I remember getting up at 3 o'clock giving the signal to my friend the Morse code signal
I
Didn't see anything back. I did it again
And I didn't see anything back and I realized he had not said his alarm
He was not expecting for this. It was all me. So I remember
Sliding my window open getting out dropping down behind the bushes and getting my getting on my bike
And I rode around this big parking lot of the church and I checked all the doors to see what was open and to see
What was there and kind of mocked this this this burglary thing and so
So then I got bored after about 15 minutes of
Of this and thinking about all the freedom that I had to leave and it's like I want to go back home
I'm kind of getting tired at this point riding my bike around at 3 a.m
And I just wonder if someone wrote you know
It just drove by if they thought what is the second grade kid doing on his bike at 3 a.m.
In the morning
What are these crazy people around here and so I remember getting back to
To the house well, I'd intentionally left one of the doors open so I could get in but my exit from the house had waked
Woken up my parents
So my dad kind of went around and realized that one of the doors had been
Had been unlocked and so he locked it back
and then I
Came back hid my bike under the under the bushes and went to the door that I thought would be opened and it was locked
My plan was not going like I thought it was going to go
And so then I decided if I couldn't do this there was one window in our house that would never quite work
Right, but it was the window to my sister's room, right? And so I finally slid open the window
But this window was up about about four and a half five feet
And so being at second grade this was difficult for me to go
So I finally got myself up onto the ledge and begin to pull myself in but my sister had this shelf and had all these dolls on
There so as I pull myself in I knock all of her dolls out and it causes a racket and there comes my dad
face to face leaning over you know this
This shelf and there I am and I'm just mortified like I've been caught in this
But that wasn't the worst thing the next day
My dad
Sits me down and says son get me all of your shoes
Which was a strange request my dad had never asked for all my shoes before he took all of my shoes and
He flipped them over to look at the souls I
Said dad, what are you doing? He said never mind Keith. What are you doing dad? I don't understand. Why are you looking at all my souls?
And finally he said after looking at all my shoes and having a
Relieved look on his face. He said last night someone broke into the building someone broke into the church
Stole some stuff out of the church and I needed to know if that was you
But I thought what would have been like for me just playing around
Trying to break into the building see if there was any open doors and
There must have been something that was open somewhere because got some somebody got guy got into there
but what if
while playing
Like a burglar I had met the real thing
See as Lewis goes on to say this is it's always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone
Look out. We cry. It's alive and therefore at the very point at which so many drawback
I would have done so myself if I could and proceed no further with Christianity and impersonal bull God all well and good a
Subjective God of beauty truth goodness inside our own heads better still a
Formless life force surging through us a vast power which we can tap best of all
But God himself alive
Pulling at the other end of the cord perhaps approaching at an infinite speed the hunter the king the husband that is quite another matter
when it comes
There comes a moment when the children who have been playing burglars hush suddenly is that real footsteps in the hall
There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion man searching for God suddenly drawback
Supposing we really found him
We actually never meant to come to that. We're still supposing that he had found us
You see when God draws near to us
It's not just comforting to us
But his desire to know us is confronting to us
Because often we want God on our terms we want God to say
I'll give you these things, but you can keep those things right?
We want to have some sort of control over this but God says I want to know all of you
That when we begin to think about this
We have to understand that in the celebration of Christmas it confronts us to draw near to him without compartments
To let God in to allow God access to give God to let God into every part of our lives
and this is the essence of
Intimacy and to be honest, this is what Americans do very poorly
Our desire for control of our lives
Leads us to have an immense
loneliness
God with us
means every part of us and
Intimacy in marriage intimacy in friendship and intimacy with your heavenly father
They all have the same idea that it means that everything is on the table that there's nothing
Nothing
Left hidden that there's no closed compartments of our life
Every close compartment of your life in any relationship
Makes that relationship more shallow
You cannot have deep and abiding relationships when you have things that you don't let people into and
You cannot have an abiding strong
Satisfying joy filled relationship with your heavenly father when you say I'll let you in this far
But not any farther you can have access to this part of my life, but not this part of my life
You can have access to what I do with my time Lord, but not my checkbook
You can have access to what I do as a hobby, but not with my children
You can have access to my
My my my checkbook, but you can't have access to what I do as a job and what I do in my plans for my life
You see all this makes me wonder just how sacred are my plans to God
Do I secretly expect that I can enjoy God's presence in my life on my own terms without it being disrupted
And Mary has God come to her he says you have favor
And yet her life is never the same the plans that she might have had as a teenager to marry this carpenter Joseph
Are wrecked because of God's presence in her life
And yet what do we see Mary do in Luke 138 it says I am the Lord's servant may your words to me be fulfilled
It says then the angel left her
And my question to us is in Christmastime with the story of Jesus God drawing near does it comfort us
There's some of you who need desperately to cling to Jesus who says I'm here with you
I understand you don't have to play the game of whether or not you measure up. You don't have to hide your shame
I'm here to give you access to me. I'm here to sympathize in your weaknesses
But also is there something that when we begin to understand that God wants all of us that this understanding of who God is
This understanding of what he wants to do in our life means that we are confronted with the idea that anything
That we hold back from God is limiting his ability to be with us
This incarnation is meant to lead us towards intimacy
So in Christmastime as we begin to celebrate this is this a celebration in your heart of being able to say God has come to be with us
Therefore I can give over I can trust God with everything
Are there things in our hearts are the compartments that we say God?
I don't want to allow you to have access to this
What I desire for you and I desire for myself is for us to have the rhythm in our lives of
Allowing ourselves to be known in Resonate Church one of the most significant ideas is this idea of being connected in community
To be able to be known by other people to have deep and abiding relationships I
believe one of the most unhealthy things that happens in our world is
Is isolation is?
Individualism it leads to all kinds of destructive things in our lives
And so do we allow God to know us first do we allow others to know us?
This is the idea of God with us not just alongside
But intimately connected to our ideas are in our hearts
Allowing our plans to be directed by his presence
So the question is is that the kind of God that you want to know
The God of the Bible says he wants to be with us
That comforts us, but it also confronts us it confronts us to say are my plans
Do I have plans that I can give over to God?
So that I might walk intimately with him
There's a story of those who leave Resonate Church one of two ways
One is saying that was great. I enjoyed that time still gonna live out my plans
And there's the other story of finding Jesus
Who says do you trust me with my life and opening up their hands and saying?
Whatever you desire
Those two stories
So far in the seven years of Resonate Church
Have dramatically different
Senses of joy and satisfaction and purpose
Over and over those who leave here those who go through here and say I'm gonna cling to this
That was a great experience struggle on the other side
But those who come face-to-face with what Christmas is all about and the incarnation of Christ saying God with us
Have lives that are radically changed the joy is apparent the satisfaction is apparent
And so it is my desire for us not to just be people who have hope
Not just to be people who understand that we have been and we have a high priest
We have a guide who has conquered all
Of sin and allow us to live victoriously, but a God who doesn't want to do that on the sidelines
But wants to get into the game of our life
Wants us to know him wants us to be known by him
And so what he says to Mary what he says to the shepherds this whole narrative this whole dialogue that Jesus
That God is writing in his entry into the world has a phrase over and over in it and that phrase is this
He says over and over
Do not be afraid
He says it to Joseph. He says it to Mary. He says it to the wise men over and over
He says do not be afraid as I come near do not be afraid
For some of you that is do not be afraid of God allow God to come in change your viewpoint of who God is from this
cosmic judge
That you are judging your actions right or wrong to something who is
Who desires to know you intimately who has a conversation?
Regularly in your heart that you go to God with the details of your life that you have nothing that you say God is not interested in that
But that you have a relationship with God
It says in the Bible that you walk like a friend
David it was man after God's own you walked with God as if he was a friend
This is the desire of God in life
When it says do not be afraid. This is a guy who we should not be afraid of on the other hand
When God draws near to us, there's some that need to hear the do not be afraid in
In terms of do not be afraid of what happens when God's presence is manifested in your life and what happens as a result of that
Because really sometimes we get afraid that
The desire that we have for our lives and the desire that God has for our lives that we know better
We're afraid to have an open hand towards those things. What are you gonna do with my career?
What are you gonna do with my choice of major?
What are you gonna do with this relationship with my kids? What are you going to do in all of these things?
So I want to keep you at a distance. I want to compartmentalize these things even though you desire to come close
This is do not be afraid
do not be afraid and
These two pillars of what it means the resurrection on Easter and the incarnation in Christmas
Beckon to us to live a relationship with God and so this Christmas
This is my desire is that some of you begin to
To push into Jesus that you leave shame aside that the connection with God
Maybe you have days off that these are not just spending your days
Puttering around the house trying to fill your time, but you engage your heavenly father because he wants an intimate relationship with you
There's others that you begin to write out maybe some things that you begin to say God, I don't want this I
Don't want my plans to change. I don't want you to get into this, but you begin to say I'm not going to be afraid of what happens
I'm not going to be afraid if God begins to write the story of my life how things would end
Mary sings a song about God's working in her life
My hope that in these next few days as you begin to consider Christmas
You begin to understand a manual
God with us as what this season is all about
And that you begin to press in
to a God who
Sacrificed to press into you to be a part of
Humanity not just looking from the outside, but understanding everything that happens in our lives
That we might not just live this meaningless life
With our spirituality, but it would be full of meaning every single day because you understand
The sacrifice that Jesus made and how on Christmas we celebrate that stinky stable
That lowly entry into the world
Where Jesus put on flesh so that you and I could know him not just as
Something that is amazing and powerful, but something that is connected and is intimate. Let me pray for us
God I pray that Christmas time for us this year
Would be different
God that we would not see Christmas time is just something that is filled with all of the classic traditions
But something that is bookending this most significant thing that happens in this earth on this world in this story
God that you would come
To us or that you would not just leave us
to figure it out Lord that you would just not be in the air just
Proclaiming that we would glorify you, but Lord that you would be deeply connected on the ground in our lives
Help us to understand how powerful that is help us to recognize how that changes the way that we live in your holy name. Amen
