Three Things We Should Ponder All Year Long 12-24-23

Overview: The message is about the birth of Christ and the significance of pondering on what Jesus left, why Jesus came, and who Jesus is. It emphasizes the importance of reflecting on these things not just during Christmas but throughout the year. Pastor Williams also briefly mentions the main idea of Jesus' role in each book of the Bible. Transcription: I want to draw your attention very briefly to Luke chapter 2. A very familiar story. The story of the birth of Christ. We know the instruction that is given there of the census to be taken so everyone must return to their home. So, Joseph and his betrothed wife Mary, pregnant Mary, begin to travel back to Bethlehem. And while they are in Bethlehem awaiting the census to be complete, the time has come and Jesus is to be born. So, the birth takes place. She wraps Him in swaddling clothes, places Him in the manger because there is no room for them in the inn. And during that time, the angels appear to the shepherds. They give them good tidings of great joy for all peoples. They tell them of the sign of the things that they are sharing with them that they will find this babe, where to find Him, and so they go and find Him. And then they make broadly known all these things that were made known to them while they were in the fields. And all of this takes place. And then Luke 2, verse 19. Luke 2, verse 19 is a verse that often sticks out to me within this narrative, which I think would be prudent for us to listen to and even to carry with us throughout the year to do as Mary did in this moment. Luke 2, verse 19, it says, but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. You see, oftentimes, it is during Christmas we are drawn back to this idea of remembering the reason for the season. But beloved, I want to challenge you this morning to not just allow that to be on Christmas, but that all year long that we ponder these things in our heart. And so I want to give you again very briefly three things that we should ponder all year long. We should ponder first of all on what Jesus left. You see, as Jesus was born in a manger, what did He leave behind? He left behind His home in glory. He left behind a perfectly sinless place. He left behind a place that had no sin, that was not tainted by sin, that had no idea of what sin was in its presence. He left behind a perfectly situated home in glory. The things that we find here, the beauty that we see around us, is nothing to be compared to what heaven will be like and is like, and what Jesus left behind in that moment. He left His home in glory. He left His fullness in glory. You see, in glory He sits at the right hand of God. In glory He is recognized as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And beloved, I'm not saying He's not those things here on earth, but what I'm saying is man failed to recognize Him for what He is. Because man, as Scripture tells us, loved darkness. He left behind His recognition as Lord according to Philippians 2. He made Himself of no reputation. He laid beside His recognition as Lord. He did not lay aside His lordship. Beloved, He is Lord whether we believe it or not. He's Lord whether we recognize it or not, but He laid aside that recognition to be born of a virgin, to be laid in that manger. He laid aside His limitlessness coming in the likeness of man. He took on flesh and bone, beloved. Jesus was human. He wasn't some spirit. He wasn't somebody's imagination. He was a real human being that lived on the face of this earth, that was born as we are born, that breathed as we breathe, that was tempted in every way that we are tempted and yet sinned not. He laid aside His fullness. He laid aside His fellowship in glory. You see, He had a perfect fellowship with the Father, but He laid that aside to the point that when He was on the cross, He cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He laid aside His fellowship with the fallen. You see, those that believed and had faith in God and believed in the coming of the Messiah that had laid down and died before us were in His presence, if we believe what Scripture says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And those fallen, those believers that had gone on before us knew who He was, understood who He was, proclaimed who He was, cried out, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. He laid that fellowship aside to fellowship with a man that would reject Him, to fellowship with a man who would turn their back on Him, to fellowship with a man who would nail Him to a cross, to fellowship with a man who needed Him. See, we need to ponder on what Jesus left. We need to ponder on why Jesus came. This was the message of the shepherds to Mary. He said, I bring you good tidings of great joy unto you a Savior is born who is Christ the Lord. Why did Jesus come? Because He is Savior. He is Savior of the sinner, Luke 19.10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost. And beloved, if we are to be saved, we must first realize that we are lost, that we are undone in our sin, that we are dead in our sin and our trespass. There is nothing that we can do to find ourselves. See, the message of this world is you need to find yourself. Beloved, until you realize that you're lost, you can't find yourself. You can take the identity of anything and everything around this world, but you cannot find true identity outside of God because it is God who created you. It is God who identifies you. It is God who gives you who you are. And if you try to find it outside of Him, then all you're going to find is a false identity. And that false identity will fade. And this world is living in false identities right now and it's struggling to find who it's truly meant to be because it is looking to someone that can never tell them who they are until they look to God and say, God, who have You created me to be? They will never find out who they truly are. He has came to be Savior of a lost sinner. He has came to be Savior of the world. John 3.16, a very well-known verse, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It was good tidings of great joy to all people, not just to one type of person, not to just one heritage of people, but to all people. He came to be a Savior of the sinner and of the world. We need to ponder why He came. He came because He is a Savior. He came because He is Christ, the Anointed One. Matthew 16.16, Simon Peter answered when Jesus said, Who do you say I am? He says, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Luke 4.41, the demons also came out of many crying out and saying, You are the Christ, the Son of God. Beloved, the demons believe and tremble. The question is, do we believe that Jesus is the Christ? He is the Anointed One, the Promised One, the Messiah. Genesis 3.15, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. Beloved, all through Scripture and from Genesis to Revelation, there is a scarlet thread is what they call it, that we can see Jesus. And if you will permit me the time to do so, I want to present to you who Jesus is in all of the books of the Bible. And I promise you, I'm going to try to do this as fast as my voice will let me. Genesis, He is our Creator. In Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb. In Leviticus, the High Priest. Numbers, water in the desert. Deuteronomy, He is the eagle's wings of deliverance. Joshua, the commander of the army of the Lord. Judges, He is the Lord of peace. Ruth, He is our Redeemer. 1 Samuel, He is our prophet, priest, and king. 2 Samuel, the rock of salvation. 1 Kings, the builder of the temple that will never fall. 2 Kings, He is the reigning King. 1 Chronicles, the Son of David that is coming to rule. 2 Chronicles, the King who reigns eternally. Ezra, the priest proclaiming freedom. Nehemiah, the one who restores what is broken. Esther, the protector of His people. Job, the mediator between God and man. Psalms, He is our song in the morning and in the night. Proverbs, our wisdom and our strong power. Ecclesiastes, our meaning for life. Song of Solomon, author of faithful love. Isaiah, He is our wonderful counselor. Mighty God, everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. Lamentations, He assumes God's wrath for us. He is equal to the Son of Man. Daniel, He is the Son of God with us in the fiery furnace. Hosea, He is the faithful husband even when we run away. Joel, He is the baptizer of the Holy Spirit. Amos, He delivers justice to the oppressed. Obadiah, He is the mighty to save. Jonah, He is the great missionary. Micah, He has cast our sin into the sea of the forgetfulness. Nahum, He proclaims future world peace. Habakkuk, He crushes injustice. Zephaniah, He is the warrior who saves. Haggai, He restores our worship. Zechariah, He is the Lord and King of over all the earth. Malachi, He is the Son of Righteousness who brings healing. Matthew, He is the Messiah who is King. Mark, He is the Messiah who is servant. Luke, He is the Messiah who is the Deliverer. John, He is the Messiah who is God in the flesh. Acts, He is the Spirit who dwells in His people. Romans, He is the power of God and salvation. 1 Corinthians, He is our conqueror over death, our resurrection. 2 Corinthians, He is the down payment to what's to come. Galatians, He is our inheritance. Ephesians, He is our peace at the right hand of the father. Philippians, He is the God that supplies all of our needs. In Colossians, He holds the supreme position in all things. In 1 Thessalonians, He is our comfort in the last days. 2 Thessalonians, He is our returning King. 1 Timothy, He is our crown of righteousness. 2 Timothy is our Christ, our helper. Titus, He is our hope. Philemon, He is our friend that sticks closer than a brother. Hebrews, He is our high priest. James, He is the great physician. 1 Peter, He is our hope in times of suffering. 2 Peter, He is our restorer of all things. 1 John, He is our love and light. 2 John, He is our Christ come in the flesh. 3 John, He is our prosperity, our health, and our peace. And Judy, Jesus is the Lord coming with 10,000 of His believers. In Revelation, Jesus is the King of kings. The Lord of lords, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is coming again, the One who makes all things new. Jesus is King! He is Savior. He is Christ. Why did Jesus come? Because He is love. That agape love. That self-sacrificing love. He laid it all down, beloved, for you. And for me. And we need to never forget that. We need to ponder that all year long. Why did Jesus come? Why was He born of a virgin? Why was He born as a babe laid in that manger wrapped in swaddling clothes? Beloved, it was for you. It was for you. That's why He came. Because He loves you. And thirdly, we need to ponder on what that means for us. What does this babe born in a manger mean for us? It means complete forgiveness. There is no sin too strong. There's no sin too deep. No sin too dark that can overcome the love and the grace and the forgiveness of God through Christ. You are forgiven. You can forgive yourself. You can forgive those around you. When you allow yourself to be wrapped in that love, to be wrapped in the forgiveness of God yourself, it means complete forgiveness. It means complete fellowship. Beloved, God meets you right where you are. There's nowhere you can go that God is not. There's nowhere that you can go that you're hidden from Him. He knows exactly where you are. He will meet you there. And God makes us into who we are. I've shared this in the past. I want to take the time to share it now. As we look across this congregation this morning, there's a lot of differences. There's a lot of diversity. There's a lot of upbringings. We weren't all raised the same. We weren't all raised in the same household. We weren't necessarily born into a Christian home. Some of us were more well-off than others. And we were raised differently in different areas and different backgrounds. And you know what? God brought us together to enjoy complete fellowship with one another. He makes us a family. What does this babe born in a manger mean for us? Complete forgiveness, complete fellowship, and complete faith. See, when we see this and we understand this, then our faith is strengthened. Our faith is strengthened. And one day, our faith will be sight. When He calls us home, all those things that we hope for, all those things that we read about, all those things that we see in Scripture will be in front of us. The loved ones that have gone on before us, these great heroes of the faith, well, think about this. You'll get to shake hands with Abraham. You'll get to stroll with Jacob and find out what it's like to wrestle with God. You'll get to talk with Paul and hear firsthand accounts of what it's like to be walking down the road and all of a sudden, a blinding light hits you and the voice of God speaks out to you. You'll get to conversate with Balaam and see what it's like for a donkey to start talking to you. But more than any of that, you'll see Jesus face to face just as He is. That's what this babe means for us. So, beloved, let this birth of Christ that we celebrate each year remind us of how completely God loves us. With that in mind, I want to turn your attention to this Advent wreath that we have been doing for the last... this is now the fourth week. The first candle represented hope. The hope that the prophets preached about. The hope of the coming Messiah. The hope that we can now read about and now we have in the second coming of Christ. The second candle, peace. That we can have peace with a holy God through the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. The joy that we have knowing that when we stand face to face with God, He will look at us and not judge us based on our deeds, but He will judge us based on the blood of Christ. Have we trusted in Him? Have we acknowledged Him as Lord and Savior? The last candle is the candle of love. The love that God has shown to us. The love that God has poured out to us in Christ. The love that led Christ to lay down all of those things in glory to take on the form of man and submit Himself to death, even death on a cross. Beloved, I don't know where you stand this morning, but I want you to know this. God loves you. God loves you. And He showed that love by sending His Son to be born of Mary. And that's what we celebrate at Christmas. This babe that was born of Mary laid in this manger would grow up and He would become, as John proclaimed, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He loved you enough to die for you. The Bible tells us that He could have called thousands of angels to rescue Him. But He submitted Himself to death. It was the joy that was set before Him to endure the cross for you. Have you put your faith and trust in Him this morning? Have you submitted to His Lordship? Have you acknowledged Him as Lord of your life and Savior from your sins? If you've not done that, have a great day to do that. As we enter into a time of invitation, God loves you. Do you love Him? Are you thankful for His love and His provision? How will you respond this morning? This altar's open. If you want to come and acknowledge Him as your Lord and Savior, I'd love to share with you what that looks like and what that means for you. Maybe you just need to come and just say thank you. Thank Him for Jesus. Thank Him for His forgiveness, for His grace and for His mercy. You come. I'd love to pray with you, pray for you. I'll be right here down front. You come however God leads.