and we're excited to celebrate with you the message of Jesus Christ, expecting that for the next hour or so, you'll be filled with hope, encouraged, and refreshed as we learn together what it means to follow Jesus.
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I hope you enjoy sitting down. We never seem to get that right for baptism. It is a joy this morning to open the service with baptism. Thank you for being here. We're excited about our time together this morning, and Melissa Massey is going to follow the Lord in Believer's Baptism. If you'll watch the screen, she's got a short testimony to tell you about her life.
That's it, guys. Amen. Isn't that a wonderful testimony? We're perfect. I'm so proud of Melissa and her decision. You know you've trusted Jesus as your Savior. You're ready to live your life for him. Amen.
Then in obedience to my Master's command, and on your confession of faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, buried with Christ in baptism, raised in new life. Amen. Amen. Isn't that wonderful?
I love to start off a service with baptism. It's exciting here at Christmastime to celebrate the new birth and the whole reason for Jesus coming into this world. Take a moment, if you would, stand up, turn around, greet somebody, bump fists, shake hands, elbows, whatever it is you do these days. Let our guests know we're glad you're here, and then we'll get into worship.
You can be seated.
Anybody seen God do anything great in your life? Well, praise the Lord! Man, give testimony to his name. He's done great things in so many of us. Matter of fact, all of us who've had anything great done in our lives, it was God that did it.
For months, we've been praying for God to do great things in our lives. For months, we studied through the book of Acts. And we've come this morning, as last Sunday, we move into this Christmas season. And, boy, it's here, isn't it? I mean, it's right on top of us. Here we go. It's almost Christmas time.
Last week, we talked about Christmas interruptions—a timeless Christmas story. And we looked at it kind of from the earthly perspective. And we're going to talk more about that in the next couple of Sundays. But we looked at Mary's life gets interrupted when the angel tells her she's pregnant with a child of the Holy Spirit of God.
Joseph's life gets interrupted, we saw last week, when he has the dream and the angel tells him that what's in Mary is of God and he should still take her as his wife and move forward. The wise men are hundreds of miles away, weeks or maybe months away. And the interruption comes that they need to travel to Jerusalem when they see the star in the east.
The shepherds are on the hillside watching their sheep, just doing business like always, kind of like us, right? Just going about their life, living their life, taking care of business, and all of a sudden the angels appear and say, "Hey, the Christ child, the Messiah, the Savior is being born in Bethlehem. You need to go worship him." And it blows their mind. And the lowest of the low are called to see the Christ child first.
The interruptions of life. Some of you, you've had some interruptions in your life down through the ages, down through your lifetime. God's interrupted your life so that he might work on you. You've heard many stories from me through my lifetime of the different ways and times and places that God has worked on my life and interrupted my life.
And I would encourage you, you know, you ought to be able to look back through your life. In a couple of months, I'll be 70 years old, and I can look back through my life and see some markers. If you ever go to your property line and you see the stakes with the red ribbon around them, and you see where your property line wanders down through there or comes around the corner and you see those stakes that define the line of the property, you should have those in your life that you can look back on.
As a six-year-old boy, I trusted Christ. As a teenager, I strayed away from God, and God called me back to himself. As a 20-year-old, I did it again, got away from God, and God moved in my life to bring me back to that place. And I kept, like the prodigal son, kept wandering away and coming home and wandering away and coming home until finally God just absolutely interrupted my life.
And I've told that story probably hundreds of times in these years together. Down through the day that God called me to ministry, God called me to Rome, and all the events of the last almost 39 years we've had together here. There ought to be some markers in your life that you look back on and go, "Wow, look what God did there."
Look what God did there. Look what God did there. Look what God did there. It's not just salvation. It's the whole experience of walking with God. I've witnessed the goodness of God.
So this morning, I want to flip the script, if you might. Last week, we kind of looked at what's going on here on planet Earth around the Christmas time, what's happening here in our world and among the humans that are involved in the Christmas story. But this morning, I want you to go with me to John 1, and I want to flip the story over and literally take a look from heaven as to how God sees Christmas and Jesus coming into the world.
And that's where John goes. Matthew and Luke look at it from an earthly perspective. Matthew even lays out the whole lineage of Jesus all the way to Mary and Joseph. He lays out who their grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents are, all the way back through time, and then he lays out how all the events happen.
And then Luke picks it up and tells the story from that side of Christmas, and it's all from where we are looking at it. And I wonder how your Christmas story looks. Some of you have had Christmas bought since July. You've got something every day and every night. And some of you are sitting at home just saying, "Man, if everybody would just leave me alone." Right?
There's different stories, different aspects to the Christmas story, even for us. But boy, right here from John, you see John take a whole different look at Christmas.
And I've got three things I want to share with you. I don't think I'll be long, but I want you to lean into it with me because it's a whole different look. It's not like looking at the wise men or the shepherds or Mary or Joseph or some of the other things that are happening here on planet Earth—the guy at the end that said, "I have no room in my inn, but I'll put you out here in the stable."
It's a whole different look into the Christmas story, and I want you to look in there with me. I believe God's got something for you this morning. Wasn't that wonderful to see Melissa? What a great testimony at Christmastime to the goodness of God to save a life and change her and draw her to be a Christ follower and to do that publicly right here in front of you this morning.
That's incredible. That's the great story of what Christmas is really all about—the new birth of Jesus. We sang about it a while ago; the songs lined up perfectly.
For God so loved the world that he gave. We're about to see God from heaven give his son. So go with me to John chapter one. I'm going to read a few verses here, and then we'll talk about the last few. It's kind of the prologue, if you will, the introduction of John as John opens up his book.
And he says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Now, just if I can help you for a moment so you don't have to be a Bible scholar to understand, when he speaks of the Word (W-O-R-D), it's capitalized. He's talking about Jesus, as Jesus is the living Word of God. Our Bible is the written Word of God, and Jesus and the Bible go perfectly. They mesh perfectly; they dovetail together perfectly.
And Jesus is the living Word of God, and that's what John's referring to here. He's referring to Jesus as the living Word. He was in the beginning, and in the beginning, he was with God. Way back there in Genesis one, in Genesis three, when God says, "Let us," not "me," "let us make man in our image," Jesus is standing there with the Father at that moment.
He's all the way back in the beginning with God. And then he reminds us, "And the Word was God." I won't even begin to try to explain the Trinity to you this morning, but you have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and they are all God. They are God in three different forms and personalities, yet one God that speaks to the human race.
And we have the record of him through the Bible in the Old Testament down through time, and we have the record of him through the Bible in the New Testament. We find God coming to earth in Jesus, the God-man, and that's what John is telling us here.
All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made. In him, talking about Jesus, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it.
I'd say today the world still doesn't understand Jesus. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came to be a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He's speaking about Jesus. He came to his own, to the Jewish people, and they did not receive him. But as many as received him, I love this, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those that believe in his name, who were born not of blood nor of the will of flesh nor of the will of man, but they're born of God.
And the Word—this is where I want to hone in this morning—verse 14 and 15: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He comes after me. He is preferred before me, for he was before me.'"
And of his fullness, we have all received, and grace for grace. For if the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
Let's pray together.
Father, so many profound verses here. Such a profound perspective to look from heaven and see your view of sending your Son into this earth. Help us with our abilities, our finite minds. Help us today to hear these words and to look and see the truth of the Word of God here from John 1 and bring it home to apply to our hearts, to let us know first our need of Jesus as our Savior, our need of him to live his life and be Lord and live through our lives and empower us by his Holy Spirit.
Speak to every need, the brokenhearted, the burdened, those that have major needs and issues in their life here today. Amen. I pray you'd speak directly into their hearts and guide them to look to Jesus, the hope of eternity, the hope of salvation, the hope of glory. Move in our hearts and lives. Speak to every one of us and draw us closer.
For those that have been living for you for years, God, draw them just a step closer today. Move us out to actually apply your life and live it around those that need you. Speak and move. Move and work in this time together for your glory and honor. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
It's like a musical symphony. It's like the beginning of an incredible song that John writes this prologue. This Jesus is with the Father in the beginning. And he's going to become, in verse 14, he reminds us that this Word, this Jesus that was there in the beginning with the Father, that same Jesus—and the John he speaks of is John the Baptist.
John the Baptist would testify, "I'm not worthy to unlatch his sandals." The one we've been giving testimony of, he's come, and he is Jesus. He's the one sent from God. He is the God-man come into this world to save us from our sin.
John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten Son," his one-of-a-kind Son. There has never been another one like Jesus, and there never will be another one like Jesus. He is the one and only Son of God sent into this world. Listen, that whosoever.
You know the great news of John 3:16? You can take whosoever and put your name in there. Take out whosoever; it's really a bloodline. Take it out, put your name. For whosoever, for if David Harper will believe in him, he shall have eternal life. That's the hope. You put your name there. If you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, he promises Jesus came into this world for you.
And through Jesus Christ, he's willing to give you eternal life if you turn to him and put your full faith and trust in him. See, that's the story of Christ. Is God giving his Son?
I've entitled the first point of this sermon. I've struggled with it all week. It's really the great condescension. And I don't know if you fully understand. And this is the part of Christmas that has blown my mind forever. That I can, as far as I can go back, see God reaching the shepherds.
We talked about it last week. The shepherds were the lowest of the low in the culture. They couldn't go in the temple. They were unclean. They couldn't testify in court. They didn't trust them. But they're the very people that God reaches first.
Mary and Joseph are these—Mary's a teenager. Joseph is probably a teenager or a very young adult man. And God's going to trust his Son to them? They've got to go all this way. They travel all this, travel. The wise men come, the shepherds come, Herod tries to kill Jesus.
There's incredible parts of the story that we look at from the human perspective, and those are amazing. But guys, stop and think for a moment. Why in the world would a perfect God step out of heaven for a human race that has cursed him, blasphemed him, turned their back on him?
When you read the Old Testament, you find the Jewish nation would have a great king. A guy like David would lead them, man, prepare to build a temple and worship God. They would bring the holy of holies towards Jerusalem to celebrate this great God. Solomon would build this big temple, but the very next guy comes in, and they're worshiping trees.
They're worshiping blocks of stone. And they're killing their babies and turning their back on God and destroying the things of God. And God still pursues them. Who does that? Who does that? Who loves those who hate them? Who loves those who try to destroy everything about them?
Our God does. He continues to pursue. And when you see the example of it in the Old Testament, it's really just an example of who God is and what he's doing. And you see a bigger picture of the human race that there's a time people love God. There's a time they turn their back on God. And it's just like an up and down. It's like a seesaw. It's like a roller coaster.
We're up here with God, and we're down here destroying the things of God. We're up here, and we're down there. And you see that go on through time. And God, in the middle of all of that, in his perfect plan. That's what you've got to understand. There's a plan to Christmas. There's a plan to this story.
God has been planning this since the beginning of time, since before the world. The Bible says Jesus was the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. God put a plan in place to send Jesus to this earth.
And the thing I can't understand about Christmas is why Jesus would even come into this world, much less the Son of God. Now think about it. He lives in heaven. We don't know exactly what heaven is. We're told about the new Jerusalem, the new heaven, the new earth. One day there's going to be streets of gold and walls of jasper and gates of pearl and all these magnificent, beautiful aspects of the future.
We don't know exactly what heaven looks like now, but I'll guarantee you it's not shabby. Huh? It's better than anything we've got. It's beautiful because God's there. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is there. This incredible place.
And Jesus steps out of heaven to go to a stable with a bunch of... Do you know what's in a stable? Around a herd of cows? Aaron's got a herd of cows down on his property, and we hunt on the backside of the property. Every time you walk out to hunt, it's like walking through a minefield. Huh? In the dark.
Imagine what that stable, imagine what that manger, what that place. Jesus, the Son, the glorious Son of God is stepping out of heaven, condescending, stepping down to the human race to not only lower himself but to become one of us.
He's as much God as God is. He's as much human as you and I are. He is the unique, one-of-a-kind, one-and-only God-man so that he could live a perfect life. And all of this, the reason Jesus was born in Bethlehem is so he can go to the cross. Because he's going to be the perfect sacrifice that's headed to the cross.
He's getting married at Calvary one day to die in our place. That's the story of Christmas—God stepping down out of heaven to be with us. It's the great step down. It's the great step out.
I don't understand why he would even leave heaven. The very people of Bethlehem he's seeking to save are going to kill him. John told us there, he came to his own, and his own what? Received him not. They didn't want him. Just a few days before he's crucified, they said, "Crown him king. Hail to the king. Hallelujah to the king. Hosanna to the king."
And just three days later, they stand at the same place when Pilate washes his hands of him, and what do they say? "Crucify him. Crucify him. We don't want the man. Give us Barabbas." They want no part. He came to his own, and his own received him not.
Who would give up their life for somebody who hates them and turns their back on them and seems to despise everything about them? That our God loves you that much, that even when you hate him and turn your back on him and despise him and push back on the things of God, he still loves you.
It's like the story of the prodigal son when the father—the son looks at the father and says, "I wish you were dead. I want you to die. I want you to die so I can get my half of the inheritance." And the father cashes out, gives it to him, and he runs off into the far country and blows all the money and spends it all in foolishness.
And there, when he's done, he winds up with nothing—no friends, no family, no occupation, nothing. He's feeding pigs, and so hungry he's ready to eat pig slop. Now, I gotta say something to you. I've been around some pigs too. First of all, to even be near pigs and smell something that you think you would want to eat is incredible because there is a stench.
You could put a beautiful steak and potato down, and you wouldn't be able to eat it because of the stench. And he looks at their stench slop and says, "I'm so hungry I want to eat the husk." And he says, "I will arise and go back to my father's house. Hopefully, he'll make me a servant. Hopefully, he'll let me serve him somehow. I don't have to be a son. I don't have to live in the big house. I'll live out here where the servants live. I'll live just so I'll have a place again."
And he comes home, and what does the father do? The father—he's all—he's prepared that speech. Can you imagine him preparing that speech all the way home? "Dad, I just come to tell you I don't have to be your son, and I know I stink, and I've wasted it, and I blew all your money, and I'm sorry. And if you'll just let me live in the servants' quarters just so I have a place to live and some food to eat, I'll do anything. I'll serve you for the rest of ages."
I can hear him rehearsing that speech over and over and over again. And he comes and he sees the father. The father runs to him, and part of the reason the father runs to him is because in their culture, if everybody else had got to the son, they would have killed him for bringing shame on the father the way he did when he left.
And the father wraps his arms around him to protect him, to hold him, to love him, to draw him close to say, "No matter what you've done." And I can hear him start to try to get the speech out. "Dad, if you'll just—" He's like, "My son! My son that was lost is now found! Praise be to God!"
And he wraps his arms around him and says, "Put a robe on him! Put a ring on his finger! Prepare the fatted calf! We're going to celebrate! Not that you've come to be a servant; you are my son!"
And can I say to you this morning, no matter how far you may have gone from God, no matter what you may have done, no matter how far you've been out there, you are my son. No matter what sin you've committed, there's not a sin that separates you from God that God can't forgive you and restore you, except for blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
If you will come home, he will return to you and love you and restore you to walk as your child, as a child of his, with him. Amen. That's the story of Christmas—God steps down to our level because here's what he knows: we can never get to God's level.
What do you have to do, preacher? How many good things do I have to do to get to God? Do I have to save somebody's life? How many lives do I have to save? How much money do I have to give? How far do I have to go? Do I have to travel the world? Do I have to heal cancer? Do I have to heal leprosy? What do I have to do to earn my way to God?
Just come to Jesus. Because the step has already been taken that gets us to God, and God took it for us because he knew we couldn't take it. So he took the step for us to come to God.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Wow. What an incredible story John tells from God's side. Down here, we just see a baby being born and all the interruptions and all the stuff going on at Christmas. But from God's side, we see God stepping out in this incredible love to come to us.
That's the story of Christmas. John uses the word flesh. The Word became flesh. This word means more than just skin and bones. It meant corruption. It meant the filth of the human flesh. The horrible things that we do to each other are considered part of the flesh—the murder, the rape, the lust, the theft, the horrible things that we do to each other. That's wrapped up in that word flesh that John uses.
That Jesus came and wrapped himself in our flesh so that he might be able to bring us, step up to God. What an incredible, what an incredible moment. The perfect Son of God wrapped in human flesh with all of its frailties. The one who was never tired, the one who has all energy and power and glory on his life is wrapped up now in flesh.
That makes him hungry. That makes him sleepy. That could have caused him to sin. He was human flesh yet without sin. Every emotion that you've ever felt—the death of a loved one. When you've been weak and tired. You remember Jesus slept in a boat in the middle of a storm. He was so exhausted with having helped people. He was so exhausted he was tired and slept and took a nap.
See, naps are biblical. Some of you need that. My wife loves that. That may be her favorite part of the Bible is that naps are biblical. Jesus took naps. I said, "It's okay for me."
The Word, the God of heaven comes into this world in the likeness of human flesh to see all the corruption and the filth and how we dealt and we then, our flesh deals exactly with him that way. What an incredible, what an incredible step Jesus takes.
The second thing I'd give you, and I'll do this quickly, is the amazing discovery. He talks about we've seen his glory, the second part of verse 14. He says, "We've seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
See, John was there. There was a mountain that they went up on. There was a mountain outside in the desert, in the wilderness area. They went up on this mountain of transfiguration. And there they looked around on this mountain, and Jesus was praying and worshiping God.
And all of a sudden, Moses and Elijah descend from heaven. This is the beginning of Jesus' walk to Calvary. This is where it really begins that Jesus has set his face towards Calvary, that he's ready to go die and give his life for us.
And there, on that mountain, as he talks to Moses and Elijah, they see the glory. Because see, inside that flesh, that likeness of human flesh that Jesus was in, God was still in him. It was that same God power that raised that boy at the city of Nain.
Jesus is God. He's standing there as they walk into this city. They bump into a funeral procession. And Jesus just walks up. These men are carrying a casket. And in that casket is the one and only son of a widow woman. And as they're walking out to bury that son, Jesus just walks up and puts his hand on the casket.
And lo and behold, the power of God, that boy sits up alive. And that mother rejoices that her son is alive. How many great miracles and show of power did Jesus do to show the God that was in him, the God that he was, the God-man, that he did these incredible things—raising Lazarus from the dead. "Lazarus, come forth!" And Lazarus comes out of that tomb, feeding 5,000 out of a little boy's sack lunch, healing the blind, the lepers, the lame, the broken.
The power of God at work through the life of Jesus. When John says, "We've seen his glory," he meant we have witnessed the glory of God coming through the life of Jesus.
You know why these men were never the same? You know why these 12 men were willing to go all across the world? They will scatter out around the world, and every one of them, every one of them will be exiled and executed, put to death for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Even John that writes this book, they will take John and boil him in oil, but he don't boil. God had bigger things for him to do, so when he doesn't die in the oil, they take him out and they exile him to an island in the Mediterranean called Patmos.
And there he'll write 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and he'll write the great book of Revelation. God wasn't through with him yet, but every one of these men will be put to torture and death for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And you know why they're willing to go? Because they've seen the glory of God. They've seen the glory of God. They saw Jesus alive after the resurrection. They saw the miracles. They heard the words. They saw the testimony of what he'd done. They saw the change in their own life.
They saw Peter become from this filthy mouth fisherman to this apostle of God that writes 1st and 2nd Peter. He's a different man. They saw Saul become Paul. They knew in their own lives what he'd done, the glory of God.
Has the glory of God done anything in your life? Has the glory of God, have you seen Jesus do something in your own life that you go, "That wasn't me. That wasn't David. I know what David would do. If it wasn't for my mom and dad and for Jesus Christ, I'd be in prison or dead today. I know where I'd be."
The Bible says there's nothing good that dwells in our flesh. My old pastor used to put it this way: "The only thing good, there's not enough good in me to make salt for one egg."
You stop and think about it. A lot of us think we're a pretty good person until we measure ourselves up against Jesus, and we realize I'm nothing outside of him. They saw the glory of God.
And that's the story of Christmas—the glory of God, the glory of heaven comes into this horrible world where we kill and steal and destroy and hate and bring war on each other. And we're sinners. It's part of our culture. It's part of our flesh. It's part of our nature. It just comes so natural.
Just let somebody cut you off in traffic and see what comes out of you. Or whatever it is. Let somebody grab that present you're trying to get for Christmas time. I call it, you've been out Christmassed.
That's the reason I don't go out on Black Friday. I'd probably lose my salvation. Because that TV I wanted, about the time I put my hand on it, somebody else would grab it. The fleshly Harper in me from Sand Mountain, Alabama would come out.
And they'd go, "Aren't you the pastor at Hollywood?" Well, I used to be. I used to be. You know, I know there's anything good that comes out of us. It's the glory of God. Amen.
The music we sang this morning and honoring him, that's the glory of God. We're singing about the glory of God. Understand what you're singing when we worship in this place. When you worship at home, you're singing praises to the glory of God. Not just what God did for you, but what God's done all over.
It's the glory of God we sing to, the glory of Christmas that God would leave heaven and come down. He would do that. The amazing, the amazing discovery that he comes and he causes us to do incredible things.
You know why we had hope for the hungry Thursday? It was freezing cold. Good Lord, what was it, like 22 degrees out there, out in the cold? We were trying to shift things around and make it where people could get in and kind of get out of the wind, and the wind was blowing.
Wow. We had 63 families come through that you fed and took care of and ministered to. Three people gave their life to Jesus because of that ministry. You know why you do that? Because the glory of God has changed you.
It's not just feeling bad for somebody. It's not just feeling, "Oh, I feel bad for them. Let me help them." No, that's the glory of God in me that says, "You need to care for others the way Jesus cares for you." Right?
Some of you last Sunday, I think there were like 25 or 28 little decorations, Christmas decorations up here that had names or things on it that some children need for Christmas. And, boy, you snapped them up. You always amaze me. This church amazes me. You amaze me for what you do for people.
But that's the way it's supposed to be. See, that's church. We worship and glorify God, and then we go show the glory of God to those who need to see it. And that's what you're doing.
Some of you, I hope, brought some of those gifts back today, or soon they'll be coming back. Those go to families that are in need, and we're doing that. Why? Not because we just feel sorry for somebody. We want them to see the glory of God come through the church.
And, by the way, the church is you and me. It's not this building. They don't need to see this building. They need to see the glory of God through us. Wow.
So the crowning statement, the last thing, and I'll give you this and we'll wrap it up, is the startling revelation. You know what John says here? He says it, and I think it's in verse 18 here. He talks about it in verse 18. He says, "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, the one who is at the Father's side, has revealed him."
You know what he's saying? If you want to see God, you see Jesus. Jesus is revealing. He's come into this world to reveal what God's really like. Because when you look at God in the Old Testament, you look at the example of the Old Testament. Man, God's a pretty tough guy. Right?
I mean, God's pretty hard in the Old Testament. The Old Testament's pretty tough. People say, "We need to live under the law." You wouldn't make it under the law.
Hey, can I just say something to you? Everybody under the law dies. Everybody under the law dies. I'm not much of a dancer, but I could dance up here and say, "Praise God for grace." Amen.
Thank God for grace that I don't live under the law. I'm still supposed to abide by the main teachings of the law or to guide my life, but I live under the grace of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
My knee wasn't hurting, I'd dance. Man, I love grace of God. Thank God for the grace of God that allows a sinner like me to become a son of the living God, one who was absolutely unworthy, is made worthy, not because of me, but because of what Jesus did for me.
And I get adopted into the family because of Jesus. And that's you. That's the grace of God. The grace. You know, God should have just, if I'd been God, I just said, "Hey, let's just wipe them all out and start over again."
Matter of fact, he said a couple of times in the Bible he's going to do that. He looked at Moses and said, "The Jewish nation, they hate me. They're not obeying me. I'm just going to wipe them out, and I'll just take Moses, I'll just take you and your family, and I'll start all over again."
And Moses said, "If you're going to kill all of them, kill me too." The grace of God. The grace of God allows us to hear the gospel.
Listen, that Jesus came into this world with one purpose—to go to the cross, to reveal God to us, and to make a way that we could have forgiveness of our sin. And the only way, the only way—listen to what I'm saying to you—the one and only way you'll ever know the forgiveness of sin is through Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
Because he is the only way. He is the only one perfect person who ever lived, and he died in your place and in my place so that I could have that eternal life and be with God forever.
If I fall over or dead right now, if I hit this floor and my body stops breathing and my heart stops beating, I'll be with Jesus—not because of what I've done, but because of what Jesus did for me. That's the gospel.
It's not about us; it's about what Jesus did for us. Now I've got to put my faith in that. I've got to put my trust in that, and I need to let that Holy Spirit in me, the Holy Spirit in me, live out that life through me.
But there's only one way to get to God, and that's through Jesus. And that's the great story of Christmas—the startling revelation that Jesus now reveals God to us. He shows us the heart of God.
And that's why John could go just two chapters later and look at Nicodemus and say, "You must be born again." And Nicodemus says, "I'm old, but my mother, how am I going to go back into my mother's womb?" And he said, "No, you don't understand. It's not a physical birth; it's a spiritual birth."
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." That's the picture of Christmas.
This revelation that you find God through Jesus. And I love it, and I'll share it, and I'm done. John chapter 14 is probably— you've heard me use it at funerals. I use it at almost every funeral I do because I think it's one of the greatest truths in all the Bible, maybe the greatest verse in all the Bible.
Jesus is sitting there in the upper room. He's looked at Judas and said, "You're going to betray me. Go do quickly what you have to do," and Judas runs out. He looks at Simon Peter and he says, "You're going to deny me. Before the rooster, before the sun comes up, before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times."
And Simon Peter's bold like a lot of, "I'll never do that. That'll never happen. I'll never do that." Jesus says, "Yes, you will." And he does. Before the rooster crows, by the third time, he's cursing. He says, "I don't even know that blankety-blank man."
And the rooster crows, and Simon Peter's broken. And then Jesus, as he sits at that table, and he tells Judas, he tells Simon Peter, he looks at the rest of them, "Look at me." They think he's about just a few days before they're ready to crown him king. They think he's about to become king of the Jews and take Herod's job.
And he looks at them and says, "Before the sun goes down tomorrow night, I'll be dead. They're going to crucify me," and they are crushed.
Have you ever been crushed by the circumstances of life? Look at them as they're crushed with this news. And he says, "Let not your heart be troubled."
Why would he say that? Because their hearts are—they're all freaking out on the inside. "You're going to die. You're about to be king. No, this can't be happening. Judas is betraying you. Simon says, 'What is going on in life?'"
And Jesus says, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again that where I am, there you may be also. And whither I go, you know, and the way you know."
And Thomas—and everybody slams Thomas. I've got to tell you, I love Thomas. Because Thomas dared to ask the question that we're all thinking of in our minds but won't ask.
Thomas says, "Hey, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out. I don't know where you're going, so how can I know the way?" And it's the perfect setup for Jesus to give what I think is the greatest verse in the New Testament when he says, "I am the way."
Thomas, you want to know the way? You're not sure of the way? Let me explain it to you. "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me."
Wow. See, you'll hear today a lot of people quote that verse, and they'll say, "Jesus is the way, the truth, the life." And they'll cut it off right there. You know why? Because it becomes exclusive after that.
When he says, "No one comes to the Father but by me," you don't get to the Father through baptism. You don't get to the Father through the altar. You don't get to the Father by coming through a door of a church.
You don't get to be the Father by being a Baptist or a Presbyterian or a Pentecostal or a Catholic or any other denomination. The only way you get to God is through Jesus—Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection.
Jesus came to make a way that you and I could be with the Father forever. And that here on this earth, he could live his life through us so that others can come to know Jesus as well.
That's the wonderful message of Christmas. From heaven's side, God's looking down, making a way—a way for us to be right with God. Are you? Are you?
Are you right with God? Are you walking with God? Do you know Jesus as your Savior? Have you found that way, truth, and life through Jesus? Because you better look down the road of life. And if Jesus isn't standing at the end of that road, you're on the wrong road.
You need to change roads and follow Jesus.
Let's bow for prayer.
Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for what you continue to do. Thank you for the new life story we saw and heard early this morning.
And Lord, I pray now through the eyes of our heart, the eyes of our soul, we would see that glory of God that's given to us through Jesus. We would see our need of Jesus as our Savior, as our Lord, as our God.
And we would seek to follow him. We would seek to follow him with all of our heart. If there's somebody in this room that doesn't know you in the forgiveness of sin, I pray today's the day they would step out and trust you with all their heart.
Recognize they have no hope outside of Jesus, outside of God. Draw them to yourself. Let them see you as the way, the truth, the life, and be drawn to you this very day.
All across this room are needs, issues. Things that need to be dealt with in our lives. Help us now to deal with those, to bring them to you, to lay them at your feet, and to know you are the only one that can fully meet those needs that we face this week.
Guide and direct our lives. Guide and direct this time. Guide and direct our thoughts and our hearts, our processes in our mind right now to engage with you and see what you, Holy Spirit, would have us do in this moment.
Heads bowed, eyes closed. I just ask across the room, what's the Holy Spirit saying to you? What do you need to do, Dad, Mom, grandparents, teenagers? What's the Holy Spirit telling you you need to do this morning?
That you need to take that step to move into where God wants you to be. You take that step of salvation to know Jesus as your own Savior. Just really see the glory of God. See the glory of God that's revealed to save your life.
Or maybe you're that prodigal son or daughter walking at a distance, and you know God loves you, and you know He wants you, but you've been at a distance, and today's the day to come home and say, "I want to walk with God. I want God to live and work. I want that Christmas life to be in me and to work through my life and the needs I face."
Maybe it's the heartache or heartbreak of a loved one around you or some great need that your family's facing. Bring it to God this morning. Whatever it may be, the Holy Spirit will make it clear to you if you'll ask Him.
And now, God, I just ask you by the power of your Holy Spirit to guide this time. Tell us now what we need to do. Show us now. Give us courage now. Give us strength now to be able to step out and break the chains of sin and break away from the evil one to step forward to obey you and to trust your gospel for us, to trust your word for us in this moment.
Help us to obey you fully. Give us time together in Jesus' name.
Heads bowed, eyes closed. Just a second. We're going to stand to our feet. The music team's going to begin to sing. And I'm going to ask you, whatever's going on around you, just disregard that and step out. Mind the Holy Spirit.
You need to come and pray. There's folks that'll pray with you. You want to pray by yourself, you can pray by yourself. Whatever it may be, you need to know Jesus is your Savior. We'll show you how.
You're that prodigal son or daughter coming home; we will welcome you home and cover you with the power of God in prayer this morning. Whatever it may be the Spirit of God's doing in your life, this place is wide open for God to work in you and to meet the need that you face.
But you've got to trust him, and you've got to act on it. And this is the moment to do that. Let's stand to our feet. You guys begin to sing. You step out and mind the Holy Spirit, whatever that need may be. Let's obey God for these few moments.
Come on. Come on.
Come on, you've thought about it.
Be seated. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here this morning. Thank you for your attentiveness. I've got a few things I need to announce to you.
We have the opportunity to give this morning for a guest. Welcome again. Thank you for being here. There's a card in the chair in front of you if you'd like to fill that out, or you can text WELCOME to the number that will be on the screen, and that will connect us.
And we just want to find out what we can do to be a help or a blessing to you or encourage in any way possible. We'd love to do that. If you have the opportunity to take a second and do that, we'd be grateful.
There's a basket here at the front and a box in the back for our family. Our guests, we don't ask you to give, but to our church family, we do. We ask you to be obedient in giving and be part of the work that God's doing, and we'll talk more about that in just a moment.
Just a couple of quick things: the kids' check-in has changed locations from the east end of the preschool building, building B back there behind the A building. It's now moved to the west end, to the end nearest the D building out there.
And so they've got that all set up, and hopefully, there'll be some more signage put up this week to help out with that and some people to guide and direct you.
Don't forget, it's on your announcement sheet. The second annual pancakes and pajamas is this Friday the 13th from 6 to 9 in that same preschool building, building B, back behind the A building there for a 9-student sitting up that little dozer that student room done.
And then I want you to give—we need to thank all the men and ladies that worked up to get all these decorated. Doesn't it look great in here? Man, what a great look for Christmas! I love Christmas decorations.
It'll turn dark enough quick enough here in January, but I love the light and all that's here right now. Thank you for all that. And then they're starting on the exterior of the building there. We're at least putting a beam in place in the corner here.
In the future, we hope to be able to put a cross on that. We're not sure if it'll happen right now or later, but they've also started laying out to start putting the cladding on. I assume that'll happen this week, weather permitting.
We've hit December, and we never know. It's supposed to start raining tonight, rain for three days, and turn cold again. And so we hope all that will begin to carry on and draw quickly to a close.
I just also want to mention there's a list of shut-ins on the hutch. If you'd like to get a copy of that list, I just encourage you to drop them a card or something just to say we remember you and thinking of you at Christmastime is a big help.
And then there's a number of people we have that are sick. Is Dow still in the hospital? Went home? Okay. Dow Turrentine, one of our guys here in the church, he's a police officer for Rome, got sick the other day, was in Floyd Hospital having some tests run, went home this morning.
Tommy Renfro, Daryl Marie Hodges, Shelly's dad is still—is he still in ICU? Yes. Continue to pray for Shelly's dad. And then David Bailey. David had chemo this last week and has some struggles out of that. They're not here today, watching online, I think I saw earlier.
Keep David and Shelly's dad in the hospital and then David Bailey. David had chemo this last week. Tracy and the family in your prayers.
If you're watching online, God bless you. Hope you have a great week. Reach out and encourage somebody, and we'll see you again next Sunday, whether you were with us online or in person.
Thank you for joining us today. We hope you experience God's presence in today's service and see God moving in your life. We would love to pray with you and come alongside you on your journey with Christ.
So be sure to connect with us this week and let us know how we can help. You'll find us on social media, or you can visit us at hbcrome.org and connect with us there. We would love to hear from you.
on Dec 08, 2024
