Episode Transcript
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Thank you for bringing to us good
news of of comfort and joy, even
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great joy. Um. We thank
you that this news delivered to the shepherds
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has come to us as well.
And we asked that as we hear the
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reading and preaching of your word,
that you would allow us to hear with
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with open ears, ears that are
ready to receive and know that you are
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God, and that you have brought
a salvation into your world, that indeed
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is saving um that lifts us up
and brings us peace. Lord. We
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asked that you would help us to
be submissive to your word, to stand
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ready to hear and to receive,
to treasure and enjoy. Lord, we
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asked that you would bless your word
to us, and we pray this in
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Jesus name. Amend. Please remain
standing if you're able, and let's turn
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our attention to Luke chapter two.
Luke chapter two, MM, I'll be
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reading verses one through one. M. Let's hear God's word this morning.
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In those days, a decree went
out from Caesar Augustus that all the world
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should be registered. This was the
first registration when Queerness was governor of Syria,
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and all went to be registered,
each to his own town. And
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Joseph also went up from Galilee,
from the town of Nazareth to Judea,
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to the city of David, which
is called Bethlehem, because he was at
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the house and lineage of David to
be registered with Mary, his betrothed,
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who is with child. And while
they were there, the time came for
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her to give birth, and she
gave birth to her firstborn son, and
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wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid
him in a manger, because there was
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no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were
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shepherds out in the field keeping watch
over their flock by night. And the
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Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone
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around them, and they were filled
with great fear. And the Angel said
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to them, fear not, for
behold, I bring you good news of
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great joy that will be for all
people, all the people foreigunto you,
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is born this day in the city
of David, a savior who is Christ
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the Lord. And this will be
a sign for you. You will find
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a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger. And suddenly
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there was with the malt with the
Angel a multitude of the heavenly host,
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praising God and saying glory to God
and the Highest and on earth peace among
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those with whom He is pleased.
When the angels went away from them into
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heaven, the shepherds said to one
another, let us go over to Bethlehem
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and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to
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us. And they went with haste
and found Mary and Joseph and the baby
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lying in a manger. And when
they saw it, they made known the
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saying that was told that had been
told them concerning this child. And all
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who heard it wondered at what the
shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up
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all these things, pondering them in
her heart. And the shepherds returned,
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glorifying and praising God for all they
had heard and seen as it had been
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told them. And at the end
of eight days, when he was circumcised,
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he was called Jesus, the name
given by the Angel before he was
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conceived in the womb. Praise be
to God. You may be seated m
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M. Can you imagine being out
in the field a regular cold night,
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and then all of a sudden an
angel appears. Can you imagine after seeing
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that angel and hearing a word a
great multitude of the heavenly host appearing and
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singing, what an amazing, amazing
thing, and bringing on top of that
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really really good news, good news
of great joy um. They say,
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they say news has a way of
affecting us. A lot of times when
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somebody says I have news, the
first thing we want to know is is
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it good or bad? Right?
Or somebody says I have two pieces of
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good news. Right, were saying
is it good or bad? Tell me
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the bad news first or the good
news first? Right, This news,
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when we received news, it has
a way of affecting us, of changing
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us. Several years ago, when
we were looking for a new home and
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having trouble finding one, one day
we found one that became our current home,
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And as soon as we realize that
this is the place we would want
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to live, there was a lot
of talk, right, thinking about how
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it would happen, what it would
like to be, what it would be
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like to to live there, and
once the home was actually secured, even
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more right, we were thinking about
painting and who's going to sleep in what
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room? And all of these things
are our lives, and thinking about our
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lives these these things changed before we
ever moved into the home, just the
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news that we would have this place
to live. We go through a lot
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of life like this. We received
these these this information um sometimes very external
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or far away from us that still
impacts us, and sometimes very close.
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Sometimes they may be things on the
other side of the world or very close
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to home. Getting engaged, getting
a new pet, a death in the
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family, a diagnosis of a health
problem. These things, all of a
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sudden, they change us, and
they change not only how are planning,
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but are thinking as well, our
decision making, what we spend our time
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on, how we make how we
um prioritize things, how we make decisions,
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and and all the rest. Well. Today, what we have in
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our text is God delivering to us
the biggest news that you will ever receive.
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And I don't mean that in any
kind of hyperbolic way. It really
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is the biggest news that you will
ever receive. Some of these other things
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that I mentioned, getting married,
a new pet, a death in the
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family, these kind of things,
those are very big, but they're not
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as big as this. I'll explain
why. When we received this news,
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the biggest news that you or anyone
will ever receive. It's worth thinking about
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how do you respond to that,
how we ought to respond to that,
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and if we are responding to that
well. And I want to pay attention
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particularly to Mary's response and the shepherd's
response. This morning. We read in
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in verse nineteen that Mary treasured up
all these things, pondering them in her
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heart. We read that the shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all
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that they had heard and seen as
it had been told to them. Before
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we think about those reactions, let's
first think about the word itself. What
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is it that they heard? What
is it the news that they heard?
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What is it? What is the
news that you just heard this morning?
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Because it's the same, right,
like Mary, like the shepherds, Um,
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we have received a word this morning. They're different from us, of
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course, Um there many centuries ago. Um, they are in a different
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time and in a different place.
But we read in this text exactly what
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those shepherds heard, and it's interesting
in a way, we're very similar to
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Mary. In this way. Mary
wasn't in the fields, right, Mary
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was in Bethlehem. Mary wasn't out
with the shepherds and Joseph with her,
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out with the shepherds. Um,
No, the Angel came to these shepherds
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revealed that message. Then the shepherds
went to Mary and Joseph and said,
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this is what we just heard.
This is, by the way, how
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the Gospel always spreads. God tells
it, he reveals it. He reveals
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this good news to someone, and
then that someone just takes what they have
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and tells it to another person,
over and over. Throughout the scriptures and
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in your own lives, you've seen
that happened that way. Now it's worth
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noting that any word from God is
no small thing. Before we consider the
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message itself, just spark on that
for a second. It is a word
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from God that these angels deliver,
that the shepherds receive and then share with
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Mary and Joseph, and now is
recorded by Luke for us a word from
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God. Now, people go through
all kinds of gyrations to get God's word,
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to know and have some sort of
understanding of something beyond this world,
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to have access to the spiritual realm, higher power, that force that is
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around us that people feel and recognize
that is God. Witchcraft and sorcery,
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prayer walks and vision quests, decoding
ancient documents, paying lots of money to
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people on TV naval gazing, looking
deep into our souls to try to catch
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some sort of glimpse of the divine. Ultimately, all these places are like
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looking into a well. You look
down and it's just dark, dark,
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dark, And we strive and we
look and we try, we try so
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hard. But that's how what these
shepherds did. They're just watching their sheep.
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They're just out there doing nothing to
get access to God. They're not
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climbing up to heaven. They're not
doing some um magical thing. They're just
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doing their job. And the Lord
reveals himself to them. He just reveals
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himself, and in this great way, the Lord sends his angel, and
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the Angel appears. We read in
verse nine, the Angel appeared to them,
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the glory of the Lord shown around. They were filled with great fear
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of receiving this message. That's the
first reaction we see. And coming into
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into close contacts with the Glory of
the Lord, they don't say, oh,
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that's kind of interesting. They're filled
with great fear, and so much
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so that the Angel has to tell
them fear not, and he gives them
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a reason why I bring you good
news of great joy that will be for
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all people. What's really remarkable is
that this nest is that they received is
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the same message that we have received
as well. This message that they heard
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out there in the field is exactly
the same message that you've heard, plainly,
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openly, simply. So many people
go on these treasure hunts right to
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find God and to hear his word, and he's just giving it to you.
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He's throwing it out to you.
Just take it and receive it.
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It's a marvelous thing, and it
ought to be treasured and and and we
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should be thankful for it. Now
in hearing the word of God. What
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kind of word is it? I
want to say two things. First,
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it is a world changing word,
a world changing word. Notice the type
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of news that comes. First of
all, it's good news. It's not
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bad news. Also, it's a
promise, it's not a command. God
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doesn't come like he does on Mount
Sinai and give ten commandments. Instead,
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he comes and he gives a promise. Fear not for behold, I bring
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you good news of great joy that
will be for all the people. This
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is a different word than the word
that was delivered to the people when He
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brought them out of Egypt. When
God revealed his word there on Mount Sinai,
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everything was about fear. The people
were trembling and shaking. When Moses
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came down from the mountain, his
face shining with the glory of God,
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they said, put a veil over
it. The Lord said, touch this
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mountain and you will die. That's
not what's happening here. The Lord has
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revealed his law. He's condemned the
whole world by it. Now he's revealing
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his gospel. He's revealing the promise
that he will save us from our sins,
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will save us from our disobedience to
that law that he commanded. Fear
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not for I bring you good news
of great joy that will be for all
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people. This is world changing news. It is going to be for all
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people, no matter what place they
are in, where they come from,
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what their background or their family is. It's for the whole world. And
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that news, in particular concerns this
birth announcement, the birth of a child,
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a child that has already been promised
multiple times in the Old Testament,
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and then to marry, and now
to these shepherds here a very particular child,
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a very particular child in which prophecies
and expectations throughout the whole history of
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the world are now being fulfilled.
That's why I say this is the biggest
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great eightist news that anyone will ever
hear, right, because no nothing else
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in the world comes even close to
being that thing to which everything in history
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was pointing. Alright, Sometimes we
have news events right in our news cycles
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where we're expecting something, right.
Um, maybe elections, for example,
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we hear of this thing and that
thing, and then there's primaries and then
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there's this and there's that, all
leading to the great day when there is
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the election and then you have the
results. Or maybe it's something else.
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Maybe it's a great winter storm that
is coming. Um, not here yet
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but in other places. Right this
that's coming, it's coming, it's coming,
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and then it happens. Right,
these these big events where there's lots
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of anticipation doesn't compare to this.
Ever since the first man and the first
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woman, we're here on earth.
This expectation or people have been expecting this.
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When God promised to Eve that he
would save them, that he would
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give her a son who would crush
the head of the serpent, crush the
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head of the evil one, that
he would save them and bring life and
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living, that she would be the
mother of living, even after being promised
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death because of their disobedience that good
word that was promised their way way back
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in Genesis and was repeated and opened
up in various ways over and over and
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over again throughout the Bible. Now
it's here. The time of fulfillment is
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at hand. This one born of
a woman, Paul says, born under
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the law, who is fulfilling all
things, and at that perfect time.
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Just a couple of prophecies to point
you to Isaiah nine. For example,
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Isaiah nine, verse seven says this, of the increase of his government and
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of his peace and of peace,
there will be no end on the throne
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of David and over his kingdom.
To establish it and to uphold it with
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justice and with righteousness. From this
time forth and forevermore, the zeal of
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the Lord of Hosts will do this. And another passage from Micah Micah chapter
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five, verse two. But you, oh Bethlehem, Fritha, you who
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are too little to be among the
clans of Judah, from you shall come
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forth for me one who is to
be ruler in Israel, who's coming forth
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is from of old, from ancient
of days. These prophecies a long,
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long, long time ago are being
fulfilled here in this moment. Prophecies which
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aren't just some random fact about where
he might be born, but prophecies that
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are caught up in all of the
history of God's redemption, Prophecies that are
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a part of the saving of his
people from their sins and even the whole
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world. Prophecies which then are are
retold and given to Mary. Remember in
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Luke chapter one we read that he
he comes to Mary, and he he
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tells her what is going to happen. He explains to her and says,
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this is verse thirty one. And
behold, you will conceive in your womb
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and bear a son, and you
shall call his name Jesus. He will
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be great and will be called Son
of the Most High. And the Lord
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God will give to him the throne
of his father David, and he will
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reign over the House of Jacob forever
and of his kingdom. There will be
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no end. Another prophecy. And
in Marry response the angel and says,
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how will this be? Since I
am a virgin? The Angel answered her,
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the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most
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High will overshadow you. Therefore,
the child to be born will be called
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Holy, the Son of God,
God becoming man. There's no bigger news
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than that God becoming man to fulfill
what man failed to fill fulfill in the
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very beginning. God becoming man,
to save us from our sins, to
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conquer the debt, to conquer the
devil, to conquer death, so that
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we might enjoy a resurrection from the
dead and be citizens of an eternal,
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heavenly kingdom, with the Lord Jesus
as the head of it all. There's
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no bigger news than that. And
here the Angel in our back, in
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our passage in chapter two, he
says that these things are fulfilled unto you,
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born this day in the city of
David Bethlehem, a savior who is
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Christ, which is to say,
who is the Messiah, the anointed One,
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the Lord. He identifies this child
as God and is the one who
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had been prophesied and expected for a
long long time. And it all happens.
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Mary doesn't wait nine months and then
go, well, I guess it
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didn't work out. No, she
conceives a child, though a virgin,
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bears a child, wraps him in
actual cloths, lays him an actual manger.
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This word goes to these shepherds who
then come and and in some ways
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un another prophecy. Right, you
will go to beth Lehammon, You're going
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to see this another sign. God
just keeps confirming and confirming and confirming.
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It's news that we can rely on. It's news that we can believe in.
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We don't have to doubt it and
wonder if it's true because God keeps
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saying it over and over and fulfilling
it, oh, and bringing it to
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fulfillment over and over and over.
This is world changing news. Listen to
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one other verse here in Galacians four
four, which I kind of paraphrased earlier,
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but I'd like to read it exactly. Glacians for four, Paul says,
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but when the fullness of time had
come, I kind of think about
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pregnancy with that image, and the
fullness of time right, like time itself
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is just ready to give forth to
the thing that time is destined to do.
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When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son,
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born of a woman, born under
the law. Why to redeem those who
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were under the law, so that
we might receive adoption as sons. And
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that brings us to this second point
about this word. It's not just a
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world changing right cosmic moment, this
single moment in time and the fullness of
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time at this huge meta level,
but it affects us deeply and individually,
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every single one of us, for
better or for worse. It affects us
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all. Paul says that he came
for the redemption of sons so that we
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might receive a option as the children
of God. This is life changing.
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God comes in the world not just
to do this thing out there somewhere,
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but to change our hearts, to
remove our idols, and to do it
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from ever for everyone. From kings
like the Magi who come two shepherds out
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in the field good news of great
joy for the world, and in people
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like Paul, we see that great
change. People who before knowing Jesus,
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before trusting Jesus, were hard at
work, living their lives, trying to
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do their best, but came to
understand that their best wasn't even close,
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that our best is never good enough. That, as I said earlier,
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when Jesus comes into the world,
he comes not to make good people a
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little bit better, to just increase
our program of of works and of righteousness
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He comes to save us from our
sins. If you know yourself as a
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sinner, if you know yourself as
a person whose body gets sick and will
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one day die, If you know
yourself as a person who is in a
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world that is backwards and twisted and
broken and crooked, that fails all the
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time, and is full of vanity, then you are a person who is
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eligible for salvation. You are a
person who ought to put your faith in
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the one who is the savior of
the world, the Lord of the universe,
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and who has come to bring peace, peace in the world, peace
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in our hearts. When Jesus rules
in a when Jesus um does his work,
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he subdues us to himself. He
stops the clamor and the noise.
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He brings about healing, sanctification,
growth, and righteousness. Love. This
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is what God does. This is
what he has done, and he is
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now doing. As this word from
the Shepherd's continues to travel throughout the world.
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A word that you have heard,
a word that you can share just
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as easily as they did. You
received exactly what they received this morning.
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You can go tell somebody exactly as
they said to Mary, this is what
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happened this is what I heard,
as simple as that. That's one of
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the reactions that we can have.
And there are others that are that are
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worthy as well. And I want
to think about that now as we close.
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When you receive the greatest and best
news that has ever happened in the
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history of the world, and and
your and and will ever happen in your
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whole life, what do you do
with that? Well, there's lots of
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options, and we can look around
in our own hearts, in our lives
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and sort of catalog different kinds of
reactions. Some people hate it herod we
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will read as we continue to read, not right now, but if you
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continue to reading on, he goes
and murders a bunch of children as a
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result of this news. That's how
some people react. Wanting to hold on
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to their own kingdoms, whether they
are big like his or are very small
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like many of ours, in our
own personal lives, and the things we
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want to do in our projects,
in our way, and the things we
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love and want to hang onto.
And when we say no, I want
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my life to be my own and
not his. We rebel and we fight,
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and we do awful, awful things. Other people are um just neglectful.
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And it may seem better in a
way, right, just neglecting the
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news instead of uh, fighting against
it, but it ends in basically the
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same result. It's a kind of
passive aggressive rebellion, I guess, a
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rebellion that says I don't really care, not for me, not really important.
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How you say to the Angel of
the Lord and a multitude of heavens.
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That is causing the shepherds to quake, to shake with fear, and
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go about proclaiming the good news of
God. To stand there in the field
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with them and say, yeah,
I got things to do. But we
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do do that. Sometimes times we
get caught up in our own lives,
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and but these are our own lives. This is our life. We get
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caught up in distractions and our idols
and our desires and the things that that
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say, no, why I'm more
important right now? There's a third option,
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and we see it in Mary.
We see it in the Shepherds.
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Let's focus on Mary as we begin
to close. So we read in verse
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nineteen that she treasures up all these
things and ponders them in her heart.
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What does it mean to treasure something? What does it mean to treasure a
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promise to treasure this news. How
do you treasure news? Will you hold
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it close? You protect it,
You think about it, You make sure
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that you understand it perfectly and that
no one would steal it from you.
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As we read earlier, the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking
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one to devour. The scriptures tell
us he's a liar from the beginning.
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How will the devil steal good news
from you? Or try to by lying
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to you, by telling you it's
not really good, or it's not really
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important, by telling you that maybe
it didn't really happen, or exceeding all
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kinds of doubt. Treasuring it means
protecting it, holding close it. It
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also means sacrificing for it, being
willing to to give up really everything for
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the sake of that word. Rather
than fighting against it or neglecting it.
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We should hold it close to us
in our hearts. We should prioritize it
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and consider it often, which leads
to the second thing Mary does. She
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ponders it in her heart. She
considers it's implications. She thinks about what
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it means for everything else, what
resolutions perhaps, or what actions that she
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or others might commit. Themselves to
in light of it. Just like the
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example of a house or a storm, once you receive the news, you
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think, Okay, what difference does
this make? If I know that a
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big storm is coming and is going
to going to barrel down and affect these
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things, You're going to spend time, right You're gonna ponder that, think
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about it, think about it's it's
implications. Another word for this is meditation.
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Meditation is that internal work of turning
something over and over and over.
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Now you all know what meditation is. You all know what pondering is,
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just as I do, because we
do it all the time. Maybe for
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the last few weeks, you've been
thinking about something you really really want to
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see under that tree, and you
think about it over and over again,
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and you wonder what it's gonna be
like and look like, and if it's
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gonna be there, and what you're
gonna do with it when you get it.
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That's meditation, that's pondering. Or
maybe there's been something you've been worried
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about, something in your life that
you've been anxious about, and you keep
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turning it over and over and going
what's going to happen? How am I
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going to do? That what's gonna
work. When is it going to happen?
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This internal action that we do,
pondering, meditation, it it's it's
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um. It can go good and
bad directions, right, it can be
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something that's debilitating and crushing if we
fix our hearts and our minds on something
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that is consuming us. Sometimes we
ponder and meditate on the worst things,
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like sin or how to commit a
sin. Proverbs speaks about the one who
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lays in his bed trying to figure
out how he's going to do an evil
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thing. That's meditation, that's pondering. That's what we ought not to do
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in response to this good news.
Instead, with good news, ought to
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replace everything and become number one and
shed its life on on everything else.
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If you hear that a big storm
is coming, for example, or if
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you hear that let's let's use a
more positive example. Let's say you uh,
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your uh long lost uncle comes and
tells you that for Christmas, you're
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gonna be getting three million dollars.
That might change the way that you're worried
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about spending on a toothbrush. Right, the concerns that you have about this
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thing or that thing, all of
a sudden, go oh, well,
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that's fine. We got that three
million coming. We're gonna be fine,
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right. It sort of sheds this
light on everything else that affects these other
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decisions. Well, this is not
just monetary. This good news of great
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joy about Jesus is everything. Financial, emotional, spiritual relationships are communion with
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God, our our relationship with the
world. Everything comes under this, which
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means there's a lot to ponder.
There's a lot to meditate on. Think
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about it for a moment, ponder
it for a moment with me. Ask
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yourself what might Mary have pondered in
her heart in light of this news,
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the good news about Jesus. What
could she have been thinking about? She
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could have thought about the attributes of
God? What does this have to say
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about God? Knowing that God has
just done this, announced this in this
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particular way, has brought forth this
child and me? What does that tell
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me about him? What implications does
that have for what I believe about him?
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Does it have anything to say about
his goodness, or his graciousness,
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or his omnipotence or his faithfulness?
Does it have anything to say about how
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we understand previous promises? Indeed,
Mary could spend the rest of her life
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with only this information, going back
through all of the Old Testament and thinking
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about all of it in light of
this moment, and that would be enough.
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She could be busy with that for
the rest of her life, just
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just doing that. How does each
and every book of the Bible, all
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these promises and all these words lead
up to this moment and this point?
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How do they connect? What is
God doing? She could ponder the needs,
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the needs that she will have in
light of this prom Miss Let's think
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really specifically about Mary. Imagine you
were her. How are you going to
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raise this child? It's a lot
of questions around that. At least I
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would have What are you gonna say? Most parents think about this right with
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their children. What books are we
gonna buy? What toys are we gonna
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get? Where are they going to
sleep? All of these things? What
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if you knew that your child was
the savior of the world, how are
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you going to do that as a
parent. I think one thing that she
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might have considered is a to pray
a lot and trust God for help.
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He's the one, after all,
who had given her this child. He's
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the one who had given her this
promise. He is the one that would
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be faithful to help her to do
her work. Okay, to pray prayers
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of for of of of petition to
the Lord. Lord, Please help me,
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give me the strength, give me
the wisdom, Help me to know
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how to distinguish lies from the truth. Help me to have opportunities to to
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um, to protect the truth,
to live for the truth. I wonder
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how Mary pondered these things when she
saw her son and the Savior on the
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cross. Good news of great joy. This is a time when a lot
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of people scattered, many of all
of the Lord's um future apostles, leaving
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doubting running. There's a hard time. Satan would, no doubt, capitalize
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on these moments in his death.
What then, is this really good news?
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See the Savior of the world pondering
these things and and internalizing them and
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questioning, not questioning um, questioning
them in the sense of trying to understand
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them. And sometimes, you know, I think that she, like all
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of us do, when we consider
the things of the Lord. It doesn't
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mean we're always going to come to
an answer, is it? Some of
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these things we're gonna say? I
don't know how to be a good parent.
402
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I don't know what this crucifixion means
I don't know how to understand this
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death, at least not yet.
Sometimes the Lord reveals things in time.
404
00:37:52.599 --> 00:37:58.199
Sometimes the Lord shows us and makes
us depend I want to say, makes
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us depend on him, makes us
wait on him, makes us trust him
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and believe him. We can finish
by saying that Mary could have also pondered
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the ways that she might respond.
Right, how do you respond to this
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praising God, obedience to the Lord, faithfulness in her own walk, connecting
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it with other truths? What does
this news say about uh nature, the
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nature of God, the Trinity?
What is this reveal about men and angels?
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What is this news reveal about the
expectations she should have now? And
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all of these questions, of course, except for maybe the very very specific
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ones, are questions that we can
ask as well. Almost everything that I've
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said are things that we can ponder, that we can treasure, and certainly
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we ought to. And that's my
encouragement to you as you come into the
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new year, as you have just
heard, perhaps again to the praise and
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glory of God, the best news
that you have ever heard and will ever
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hear. As you come into the
new year, consider pondering in as many
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days as the Lord gives you.
Consider it. Consider treasuring and pondering his
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word a lot, instead of fighting
against it or neglecting it. Treasure it,
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hold it close, read it,
consider it. Start by giving your
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heart to the Lord, devoting yourself
to him, and knowing and believing what
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he says is true. Let this
news be like a light that just shines
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on everything in your life. Has
implications for every area and every aspect of
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every everything you do, every worry, every anxiety, every hope, every
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dream. Give it all to him. And then protect that treasure from the
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doubt and from lies by making use
of that promise and by hearing it and
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reminding of yourself over and over again. Start with Sunday's. Start with Sundays.
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Let your life grow on the trellis
of hearing God's word over and over
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again. Come ready eager to hear, to enjoy the fellowship with others,
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to be encouraged by that word in
his work. And let your not just
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your weeks begin this way, but
your days as well. From the moment
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you open your eyes, just spend
five seconds giving acknowledge meant to the Lord.
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Boom, good morning, Lord,
Let him be at the center of
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everything, treasure that word treasure,
being with him, spend time daily acknowledging
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him, hearing and reading his word, meditating on it, praying on it.
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And as you do these things,
it will result. And what we
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see with the shepherds the glorifying and
praising of God. When God comes and
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brings this news into our heart,
when he changes our hearts and makes them
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alive for him, it makes us
new people. We glorify him, we
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praise him, we live for him. May this be true of us as
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He reveals his word in our lives, this good news of great joy about
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Jesus Us our savior. Let's pray
our heavenly Father. We asked that you
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would give to us this word over
and over and over again. This world
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is often cruel and deceptive. It
it lures us in with all kinds of
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bait, which we are often ready
to receive according to our flesh. We
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ask that you would protect us from
this by giving to us your means of
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grace, particularly the word of God. Lord. We asked that your word
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would come to us, and that
it would come to us with the authority
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of the of the Spirit, who
would work in our lives and change us
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so that we might treasure and ponder
and consider. And as we consider these
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things, as we consider what your
word means for our understanding of you,
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what your word means for our understanding
of ourselves, our world, our plans,
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our hopes, our fears. We
asked that you would help us to
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commit ourselves to be solely devoted to
You above all things. We asked that
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you would give us uh, that
you would take away the fleshly nature and
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the hearts of stone, and give
us hearts of flesh, that we might
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live for you, glorifying you and
enjoying you now and forever. Thank you,
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Lord for the revelation of this word. Thank you for delivering it again
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to us today, that we might
proclaim with all those who have gone before
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us that Jesus Christ is the Lord. We pray this in his name, Amen,
