Music.

So this morning we are continuing in our sermon series on Christmas carols,

or the carols of Christmas.

And so, you know, we've all got these songs.

Some of them we sung this morning to begin our worship is these songs that we've

maybe been singing since we were little.

I remember being in like Christmas pageants as a little kid,

a part, a Harold, you know, Like I remember I remember meeting a friend of mine

thought the words were Hark, Harold, the angel is singing like Harold, the name, you know.

So these these old songs have definitely their their their own certain way of,

shrinking words or over instead of or or whatever, you know.

So all these fun words and stuff. But we sing these songs because of their importance

to us and what they signify and what they communicate.

There's a quote that is kind of float that floats been floating around for a long time.

I'm not really sure who said it, but it's something like, who,

who, he, who sings, sing or praise twice.

Let's say that again. He, who sings praise twice. And what that's meant to convey

is that there's absolutely the words that we're saying, right?

The prayer that we're saying to God, but there's also something about when we

sing and we're engaging not just my vocal cords, not just my mind,

but also engaging my heart in praise,

that there's a way in which we're almost praying twice.

It's kind of a poetic way of thinking about it. Music and the songs of the church

have always been a way to, um,

to communicate in a more full expression what we believe and how it affects us entirely.

In some ways it's like, you know, when we're dealing with things that are ultimately

true, things that are of the most supreme importance,

it's really hard to not want to sing them, to communicate them in a.

Almost a hyper-real way, in a way of saying like, this is true,

it's so true that my whole body and being has to be engaged in the speaking and the singing of it.

And so engaging with these carols is an interesting way for us to maybe sit

with them in a way that we've not sat with them in a long time,

because they use older language,

or maybe we're just so used to and accustomed to hearing them around Christmas time,

maybe playing on whatever radio station you've been listening to.

They've been playing it for like three months now or something like that.

You know, so it's a way to begin to re-engage, not just with the songs though,

but with the theology and the Savior that the songs speak about.

Right? Because this isn't a sermon ultimately about a song. It's a sermon about Christ.

We're using a song as a way to kind of leap off and get into that.

It's kind of the pastor Cameron's been using it as the primary sermon.

Example is the song.

And so the song that we're examining this week is What Child Is This?

By William Dix. And so this is a fairly well-known song.

William Dix, he wrote a number of hymns, but this one is probably at least the

most popularly known hymn.

And he was kind of an interesting person.

Not that there was a ton to his life, nothing extremely extraordinary. He was a,

insurance salesman. He managed like selling insurance for like ships and stuff like that.

And so it was a little unique in that he was really, he wasn't a clergyman,

he wasn't a pastor or anything like that.

He just kind of wrote these poems. And he, in this song, and a number of his

poems and hymns that were turned into hymns, were written after an experience

he had when he was 29 years old.

He fell very, very ill when he was 29 and nearly died.

And during that period came out of a lot of hymn writing and songwriting and poem writing.

Many of the ones that he's most well known for come from that time,

including this particular one was written at least shortly time after that illness.

And I find it really interesting as we've been kind of going each,

going each week and looking at these different things is,

last week's in particular, last week we talked about I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,

and the significant amount of suffering and pain that was sort of the nexus

or the beginning and what came out of it was that song.

And it's, if you look at many hymn writers, you'll find, and you'll notice that many times.

Some of the songs that we sing the most often that connect with us the deepest

are the ones that have been written out of a place of struggle with sin,

struggle with humanity, and the brokenness and fallenness of this world.

And so I find that particularly interesting just Just as one of note,

just to say that, like...

We sing these songs, right, like we talked about last week, and we get this

sense of like, oh, well, we need to be happy, happy, joy, joy.

But in reality, many of the places that these songs come out of is a place of

wrestling with God, of having walked through difficult and dark seasons with

God and come through on the other side.

And so that kind of leads us to the carol itself this week.

So, which is, What Child is This? So let's kind of look at this song.

We'll read it here together and we'll kind of, we'll kind of look at it and

kind of break it down in its major themes.

So, What Child is This? Goes like this. I'm not going to sing. Don't worry.

All right. What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping whom

angels greet with anthems sweet while shepherds watch are keeping.

This is Christ the King, whom shepherds worship and angels sing.

Haste, haste to bring him praise, the babe, the son of Mary.

Why lies he in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding?

Come, have no fear, God's Son is here. His love, all loves exceeding.

Nails, spear shall pierce him through. The cross be born for me, for you.

Hail, hail, the Savior comes, the babe, the son of Mary.

So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh, all tongues and people own him.

The King of kings salvation brings, let every heart enthrone him.

Raise, raise your song on high while Mary sings a lullaby.

Joy, joy, for Christ is born, the babe, the son of Mary.

Some of you were wondering if I was going to read that second verse or not.

Anyways, so this song is kind of framed in kind of this kind of almost question and answer Bye bye.

Format, particularly the first two verses, begin with these questions,

and then the second half of the verses answer that, and then the very third

verse gives this kind of call to response or exhortation that we ought to listen to.

And so, that'll kind of be the structure of our time together,

is looking at what's those questions,

how are those biblically answered, and then what What are we called to do in

response to those answers that we've learned from those questions?

So the very first question is really that question that the song is named after, right?

What child is this?

You get this idea that this song almost kind of has this like very nativity-esque picture.

You can kind of imagine this first verse is almost the shepherds coming in and

saying like, okay, what child is this?

What is it about this child that's sleeping on this young woman's lap?

What is it? What's about that?

And so the question we could say is like, what is so special about this child? Right?

I'm sure that in a city that big with a big census going on,

that there probably was other babies being born that night.

You guys ever thought about that? Like, that's a fair thing.

Like, you know, people were being born all the time, right?

And this Jerusalem or Bethlehem was not a minuscule city, but it was,

you know, and so there was a large number of people.

It's likely that somebody was being born that night or somewhere around the

same day, but the angels came for one particular baby.

So what is so special about this particular child?

Well, the thing that I think that makes, I mean, some of you are all like,

well, Luke, it's Jesus, right? That's why.

Right. But like, why is Jesus so important? Right?

Like if we just kind of move past sort of the easy Sunday school answer of saying,

well, it's Jesus, so therefore it must be important.

But like, why is Jesus so important?

And to answer that question, I want to walk through the Old Testament with you just a little bit.

We're going to go all the way back to the beginning of the book. So, Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis chapter 3.15.

And some of us, we're really familiar with the story of Adam and Eve,

right? They're in the garden.

They have this relationship with God. There's these two trees,

the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

God's like, you can eat from the tree of life. Just don't eat from the tree

of knowledge of good and evil.

And what did they do? They do what they're supposed to do, right?

And they step away from God's control or authority or God's goodness in their

life and they say, no, no, we want to be our own gods in a sense, right?

They believe the lie of the serpent that if they eat and they take hold of this

and they become the directors of their own life that they will make the right

decisions, that they become the arbiters of good and evil.

And when they do that, sin enters into the world.

And we have that interaction between God, Adam, and Eve, and the serpent,

where God then explains the curse that's now inhabiting the world.

And he talks about how there is now going to be pain and work,

suffering and childbirth, difficulties in relationships between one another.

They can no longer remain in the garden connected to God, but they need to be on the outside, right?

These are things that we've seen, we've heard, they're part of the story that

we're perhaps familiar with.

But maybe there's a verse or a particular verse that you've skated over top

of because it sounds weird and you're like, what's that talking about?

But it's perhaps one of the most important verses in the whole story.

And that is this verse here, 3.15. So, what does it say?

This is God speaking, and he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman.

He's talking to the serpent right now.

So between the offspring of the enemy and the offspring of the woman,

and between your offspring and hers.

He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." So that verse right

there is talking about the seed, some offspring of the woman that is going to come,

who is going to ultimately crush the enemy's head,

but in doing so, bruise his heel, who is going to be injured in the process.

Bonus vocab word alerts, this verse is often called the proto-evangelion,

which is like first proto-gospel.

This is the first hint of the gospel in the Bible.

Before Adam and Eve are even completely kicked out of the garden,

God's saying, don't worry, there will be a way that this curse is undone.

And it sets this expectation that we should, that should follow us all the rest

of the way through the book.

Because every time a child is born, we ought to be wondering, is this the seed?

Is this the person? Is this the child born of the woman who is ultimately going

to crush the head of the serpent.

If we turn ahead a couple of chapters, we go to Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis chapter 12, a lot of things happen in the book of Genesis,

lots of births, lots of families, and floods, and all of that.

And ultimately God decides to, um, to make create a unique people set apart for him.

He's like, I'm going to establish a unique relationship with this family.

And he starts off with one particular person, Abram and Sarah,

and he gives them this promise in verse two of chapter 12.

He says, I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.

I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who curse you, or I bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you, I will curse.

All of the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you.

So, there's this promise, again, about offspring made to Abram.

He says, Abram, I'm going to turn you into a nation, and from that nation is

going to come people who, someone who will ultimately bless all nations.

Not just the nation of you, but all the world, all peoples. So,

again, another promised birth.

We keep turning forward in time in the Old Testament and turn to 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel, a significant portion of the book deals with King David.

We all know King David as the guy who slew the giant with the slingshot, right?

And and David here is he's not the young boy who slew the giant,

and he's not the young man who was on the run from King Saul. He's now the king.

And and he's here and he's coming to a place where he's going to he wants to establish a palace.

Wants to create a place for God, he wants to create the temple,

and God says, no, David, you're not the one who's going to make the temple.

But God makes this promise with King David in chapter 7 of Samuel,

and he says this in verse 16.

He says, your house, this is God talking to David, your house and your kingdom

will endure forever before me.

Your throne will be established forever.

So he makes this really long promise about how he will bless David's son,

but then he goes on to say, he's like, your throne, your lineage,

your family line, there will be someone in that line that will be on an enduring,

everlasting, forever throne.

Again, another promised descendant, another someone who will come.

And then if we flip forward to some of the last well-known books of the Bible, let's go to Micah.

Micah is towards the back of the Old Testament, getting closer to the New Testament.

I'm going to go to Micah chapter 5.

This is probably about the,

you know, we did a sermon series on the minor prophets a year ago, two years ago,

and so we like the minor prophets here, know that, but this is probably the

only time in the year you've turned to Micah.

So, Micah chapter 5, we're going to go to verse 2,

says this, But you, Bethlehem, Ephrath, through you, though you are small among

the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be a ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from of old, maybe as old as Genesis.

From ancient times, therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she

who is in labor bears a son and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.

Verse 4, he will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord and

in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God and they will live securely for

then his greatness will reach the ends of the earth." Another promised birth of a great shepherd,

someone who would come and reign and reach and touch the ends of the earth.

If we turn backwards to the book of Isaiah.

A passage that we read often in Christmas time, but Isaiah chapter 7.

Isaiah 7.14 says this, it says, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.

This is giving a sign, the Lord's promising that a virgin will give birth to

a son and he will be called Immanuel. while that name we talked about two weeks

ago, but just to refresh your memory, means God with us.

There will be a son born of a virgin and his name will mean and represent and be God is with us.

Now I read you and I have you jump all over the Old Testament because I wanted

to show you, and this is just a small, small few verses,

that are showing that there is this promised birth,

there is this promised one who is going to come, who is going to crush the serpent's

head, who is going to be God with us, who is going to be a good shepherd,

one who will bless all nations.

Let's turn forward to Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew being the very first book in the New New Testament.

We're going to go to Matthew chapter 1. We're going to start in verse 18.

And this is Matthew's account of Jesus's birth and his parentage.

And remember all of those things that we just talked about. We talked about

the crushing of the serpent's head.

We talked about the son of David. We talked about Emmanuel.

We talked about a shepherd, the blessing of all nations.

And let's listen with that as a filter as we read this in starting in verse

18 of chapter 1 of Matthew.

It says this, this is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about.

His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together,

before they were married, before they were together, she was found to be pregnant

through the Holy Spirit.

Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to

expose her to public disgrace.

He had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a

dream and said, Joseph, son of David.

Joseph was a descendant of David.

Do not be afraid. Take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in

her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son, and you will give him the name Jesus because he

will save his people from all of their sins.",

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet,

the virgin will conceive and give

birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord commanded him and took

Mary home and his wife, but he did not consummate their marriage until she gave

birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus.

Since the fall of mankind, the world has waited for the birth of a special son

who would undo the curse.

Since the very beginning of it all,

humanity has been waiting for someone who would come and reverse the curse,

someone who would crush the head of the serpent, who would undo and forgive

all of his people's sins,

who would be God with us, who would restore the connection that was lost between

humanity and God when they were kicked out of the garden.

And so this question, what is so special about this child?

And when the song proclaims this, this is Christ the king. This is Emmanuel. This is the baby.

We have been waiting for. This is the child that the prophets talked about over and over again.

This is the one birth that we were waiting with excitement for,

because we knew that His coming was foretold and that its importance would be huge.

It's so important that everything from the lowliest of shepherds to the highest

of angels have to sing about it.

This is Jesus the Christ.

So, you know, we think about, like,

you know, I was talking earlier this morning about, you know,

kids who are very young, you know, like three, four, five, like when you,

when you're at that age and Christmas is coming,

right, it doesn't matter how many Christmas or Advent calendars you put out,

there's still a very hard time to conceive.

How many more days are there until Christmas, it's Christmas tomorrow,

right? Like when you're at that age, you're just like so excited.

You're like, when's it going to be? It's going to be tomorrow, right?

Like, no. How many days were there yesterday?

Thirteen? OK, how many are there today? One? No.

Do right like like that, that that we want it to come now.

That kind of childlike anticipation and excitement for the thing that see it

feels so big. right? Christmas.

Can we take that and can we perhaps understand and say, shouldn't that be placed

around not just the holiday, but the person Christ?

That the whole Bible in its whole story, in the whole Old Testament is constantly

saying, remember, there's a promised one who is coming. This will be undone.

There will be a child who is born, who will be the Savior.

Jesus is at the center of the Bible, He's at the center of human history,

and He ought to be at the center of our lives.

Jesus is the center of the Bible, human history, and our lives.

Christ is the most important focal point.

It's the hinge place. It's what this whole book is talking about.

When we say that it's all about Jesus, it's not just a tagline.

We actually mean it. And the Bible actually says it.

And so there is this importance that we need to have this understanding that our faith,

what we're here doing when we're singing, when we're opening up the scriptures, when we pray,

when we talk about God, we're not talking about some sort of idea.

We're not talking about a concept. I'm not talking about like some sort of ambiguous sky daddy.

I'm talking about a person, right?

Someone who now has flesh, Jesus, God incarnate,

God himself has fingernails, has hair, has a body like you and I do.

It's no longer just some sort of ambiguous, like, Casper the Friendly Ghost type thing.

Like, physicality to it.

And so, God is a person, in a sense.

In that, like, he has a personality. He is someone we can know.

And I think so often we slip into this place where our faith becomes oriented around other things.

Maybe we become oriented around certain theologies that we kind of,

we find is like, oh, well, this is the, this is the theology that you really

got to know. You got to know this type of theology.

Or maybe we become oriented around maybe the gifts or the blessings of God.

Well, you know, God helps me get through this.

And this is how I feel when I'm at church.

And we can orient ourselves around that. Or maybe we just kind of orient ourselves

around behaving a certain way.

I'm supposed to dress a certain way, behave a certain way, do these things,

because that's what I've always done.

But the invitation of Christ, the invitation of the Bible and of Christianity,

the invitation that's in front of you today is to not get like an idea or to know a concept.

It's to know the person, Jesus Christ.

It's to know him in a personal and relational way.

That's what our faith ought to be oriented around, not oriented around,

you know, I go to this type of church or that type of church,

or it's not oriented around what I think I can do in order to get God to give me a certain thing.

It's oriented around knowing and being known by God, Jesus Christ.

So that's the first question I ultimately have for you.

We answer that first question is, you know, what's so special about this child,

but the question I ultimately need to ask you is, is your faith oriented around

that child, around Christ and who he is?

So, that's the first kind of part of that song, is that question,

what's so special about this child? What child is this?

And then that second question is kind of asked in that second verse,

it says this, why lies he in such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding? king.

Why is God in a barn?

That's the question. Why is God, if this baby, if this child is actually Christ

the King, why is he sitting in the hay that's set out for the horses to feed,

or more appropriately as the song says, the donkey to feed from?

Why is the Creator of the universe in a feeding trough, right?

When I was a little, I always like, I was like, what's a manger?

Like, manger's just like a weird bed in barns.

Like, I always just thought of it as a bed, but it's not. It's,

it's, it's where you put the stuff for the, for the animals to feed out of.

It wasn't some sort of like, you know, just like impromptu child crib that's

in every barn, it was being repurposed, right?

And so, why, like, the gospel story should be scandalous.

We've like we've seen you can go to like all these you can see like a gazillion

nativity scenes right now Right like and you know Growing up.

I remember like there was this one I can picture it in my head if I had thought

ahead I would have googled it, but there was this one that was like just these like,

you know plastic like You know hollow plastic cutouts of Mary Joseph and Jesus

and they got the light bulbs in them and they're just all glowing right and

they're just all like huddled around like we get these like really kind of like,

uh cute pictures of them like you can go and

you can find you can find a manger like

scene with like all these like

you know you can get like them themed different ways

you know like with different characters you know like there's

the precious moments which was like everything everybody's

a baby and they're all

kind of like half naked like it's really weird like those

precious moment like nativity scenes or you could go

and get like you know i don't know i'm sure there's a

star wars nativity scene um right and like so we see all of these images of

this picture and it becomes cartoonish to us it becomes almost like it becomes

so We become so used to seeing this picture that we cease to actually see it.

When in reality, the whole manger scene, the fact that God is inside of a barn,

you've been in a barn, it smells, right?

Actually, the fact that God was born.

Think about that. Right? Like, we all, like, you know, like,

anyone who's actually given birth,

or been at a, in a room with someone giving birth, right, knows that it's not

the way that, like, movies and TV shows kind of gloss over those scenes, right?

Like, where it's just kind of like, and then done, right?

Like, right? It's not that way.

It's not that way. That's what I'm saying, let that be clearly understood.

Right. But like, that's the way it is in movies, right? Movies,

it's just kind of like, oh, like, oh, look, she's in pain.

And then they're like, oh, look, it's over.

Right. And so that's how like it's often portrayed.

And that's the way that we kind of tend. But like, it's messy.

Right. Like, like, if I can be just a little crude, because I think the text

is like there is just like God incarnate Jesus passed through a birth canal.

Think about that. Why in the world is God in a barn?

Why wouldn't God just like, you know, just appear, right?

Isn't that the way that we would imagine it to be? Like much more clean,

much more like appropriate, sanitized, not messy, right?

But that's not the God of the Bible.

Let's turn forward to Philippians. We're going to go to Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians chapter 2, verse 5.

So, this is Paul talking to the church in Philippians, and this portion of scripture,

funny enough, is possibly a song of the early church. We're talking about songs.

This is very possible a song that may have been sung or something that was often

recited in the early church.

So Paul is quoting something here that the church would be familiar with and

he's saying this he says in your relationships with one another have the same

mindset as Christ Jesus. So he's saying.

You ought to be behaving the way that Christ did.

Now I'm going to tell you the way that Christ behaved. The same mindset.

Jesus, who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God

something to be used to his own advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing By taking on the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death,

even death on a cross.

We wear crosses, we put crosses up in our churches, we wear crosses as jewelry.

Crosses originally in their context were a very shameful thing.

It's, I've heard people liken it to, and it's, I don't think it's a bad analogy,

thinking about wearing a jewelry with a electrocutioner's chair at the end of it.

That's what a cross would have felt or look like to people who regularly saw

people hanging on crosses. It's a shameful, awful thing.

And so when this passage says, even death on a cross, it's saying like he humbled himself that low.

Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. Amen.

And that at that name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God to the Father.

Jesus displays his glory through an upside-down kingdom.

When we think about kings and royalty, we think of like this elegance, right?

Like if you've ever like seen like or you've watched any of the television shows

that are about like the royal family in England and stuff like that,

like we think of this palace like everything being put so well together and

there being servants and like you know,

someone's there to wake you up and give you breakfast in bed and you just kind

of wake up and they dress you because you don't even have to dress yourself.

We think of like royalty like that.

That's our human conception of what a kingdom and what those who are the rulers

of that should look like. But here.

Christ was born in a manger. It's upside down, it's backwards,

it's not the way you and I would expect it.

But in doing so, it displays this magnificent glory.

It displays a love, it displays a kindness, it welcomes us in to know Him.

You've ever played with a kid, right?

Like, when you're hanging out with, you know, kids and they've,

like, I was talking with a friend of mine and one of his sons has finally entered into the,

why stage of life, right? Where he's like, why?

Why, Daddy? Right? Like that question, right? And, you know,

like, there's this, like, you know, there's a couple ways you can answer that question, right?

You could answer that question in such a way that just shuts down the question, right?

Someone says, like, you know, why do we put Christmas trees in our house?

Well, there's one way of answering that. You could say, well,

the ritual started back in, you know, the early da-da-da-da-da,

and, you know, the winter solstice, which is the part at which,

like, the sun is farthest away from the evening, and, like, what we're doing

is we're trying to, like kind of bring some part of the inside and dealing with

seasonal affectional depression and blah, blah, blah.

You can answer it that way, but the child will never ask why again, right?

Instead you say like, what's to celebrate Christmas? You get down on their level.

You answer the question like in a way that is appropriate.

Or when you're playing with a child, like this is a thing, I think I've shared

this story before. I struggle with this when I'm playing like a board game or

like a video game, right?

Like I want to crush. I want to win.

And sometimes the kid next to me, right? Like I need to play on his level.

I need to play on their level.

I need to, you know, and if I, you know, what good is that?

If like, you know, I'm in a foot race with like a 10 year old and I'm like,

get out of my way, kid. Right. And I'm like, I win. Right.

Well sure, I want easy. Why is that? But that's not a very good display of my strength.

Right? Isn't it more glorious? Isn't it better to play on their level?

And so in some sense, isn't that what God, the creator of the universe, has done with us?

Rather than having a God who is so high and so high above that we could never

ever relate to him, know him, connect to him.

He's like, no, no, you guys stay there.

I'm coming down to you.

Christ humbled himself.

He considered, he did not consider equality with God something to be used to

his own advantage, rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.

God displayed his glory in an upside-down kingdom.

There's another poem by William Cox who wrote What Child is This?

He wrote another poem that is less well-known.

It's called Manger Throne. I wanted to read one stanza out of that poem.

Says this, never fell melodies half so sweet as those which are filling the

skies and never a palace shown half as fair as the manger bed where our Savior

lies and no night in the year is half so dear as this which has ended our sighs.

Thinking about that as the palace, the manger,

the barn where Jesus was born was transformed in some glorious way into something

more than what it was, not because of the surroundings,

but because of who was in it and who chose to be in it, so that you and I here

could know and be in relationship with God.

And so I have a question now for you is, does your life, does our life,

display God's upside down kingdom?

If we can look at God and we can say like that is absolutely glorious,

that God would choose to become flesh, to become human with us,

to know what it is to be human,

and if He would ultimately, he would die on a cross for us so that we would be made right.

That's all great for him. I'm going to live on my high horse though.

Is that in keeping with the life that Christ has called us to?

Does our life, are we more concerned with everyone perceiving us the way that

we want them to perceive us?

Right? Well, like, I'm only going to tell stories that make me look good.

Well, you know, like, I'm really got to make sure I keep up my appearances.

Well, you know, like, I'm really like, I've really got to make sure that like,

I've got a pretty successful life.

I really need to achieve my definition of the American dream.

Or are we consciously saying, where am I invited into God's upside down kingdom?

Where is my weakness being invited to be on display so that Christ could be seen in me?

Right? Because we could say like, oh, like, look how strong I am.

Look how well together I've got my life. Well, that's great,

but that's what you see if I were to get up here and I say, you know,

I've got my life all together. I've got no problems.

I've got no issues I need to work on. What does that show?

What shows me?

It doesn't show anything else.

But if I'm up here and I'm willing to say, you know what, I don't have it all together.

My life is not perfect. I still struggle with things.

I have to work and you

know what I really I need Jesus every single

day because without him I would

be an absolute wreck an absolute

wreck I'm not perfect I

will mess up what does

that display doesn't display me displays the Savior in me?" And so often we

get caught up because we're scared and we want to live a life where we display

ourselves more than we display Savior.

And so are we living a life that displays God's upside-down kingdom?

Finally, in this last verse of the song here,

the song, this verse of what child is this, doesn't start out with a question,

it starts out with a so bring, it's like so then,

like so all of these reasons that we've listed, let's then do this thing,

this exhortation, It says,

So bring him incense, gold and myrrh, all tongues and people own him.

The king of kings, salvations bring. Let every heart enthrone him.

Raise, raise your song on high.

While Mary sings a lullaby.

Joy, joy for Christ is born, the babe, the son of Mary.

Bring in him praise. What response can we give to this?

If Christ the King has been born in a manger so that you and I could be put

right with God, so that we could be forgiven from sins, so that brokenness could be undone,

what ought to be our response? Praise.

Jesus entering into the world should fill our hearts overflowing with praise.

It's like what I was talking about earlier, sometimes something is just so magnificent,

that the only human response left to say is, I don't have the vocabulary left

to describe the magnificence of the gospel.

I don't have the vocabulary to communicate to you right now how magnificent,

glorious and wondrous it is that Christ was born.

I don't have those words. My vocabulary lacks. All I've got left is praise.

All I've got left is to sing song, is to offer my whole self and sacrifice to

God because I have nothing left to give.

And what else can we do when we have a God who's entered into the mess of our life.

We have someone who has come near to you and I and has not just like come,

like he's not just standing on the doorstep of your life.

He's like, no, no, let me in. Let me see. I know you weren't ready for me to

come. You didn't clean everything up.

I know things. I know that's not the nice over wear like it's fine, right?

Jesus has come into your house and says, I want to live here and I don't care

what it looks like right now.

I'm willing to be in your mess.

I think a lot of times we are uncomfortable actually accepting how close Christ is at any moment.

How present that God actually wants to be with us.

I think we want to be distracted sometimes. I think we want to not think about

the fact that Christ is present with us all the time, that that's uncomfortable.

But he is.

Christ is actually present with you in the things that you kind of wish he wasn't.

In the places where you're like, that's not a thing that God can be like associated with, right?

Like that's not, that's that's kind of messy.

And my question is, where in your life is it scandalous that God has entered

in, entered with his love, his compassion, and his presence?

Where in your life are you like, Jesus are you here?

Jesus can you deal with what's going on right here, whether that's a secret,

whether that's something we feel shameful about,

whether that's just a circumstance that feels like it's a mess,

feels like it's out of control, feels like this is a place surely God cannot be.

And I'm here to tell you that if Christ was in a manger and if Christ was on a cross, he's with you.

That's the gospel, that's the good news of the Christmas story that God is with us, Emmanuel.

And so, perhaps my exhortation to you this week would be to reflect.

Take some time from the distraction and ask the Lord to make himself,

known in the places where it feels scandalous that he might be and say, Lord, are you here?

Are you with me in my mess?

And can you give me a sense of your love, your compassion, and your grace? Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are first and foremost so thankful that you have come and known us.

Lord, that you did not stay far away from us, but rather you came running close to us.

Lord, I pray that this morning you would help us to become more aware of your

presence with us, that we might know that you are here with us today,

that you are inviting us to know you,

to not just know about you, but to know you.

Lord, I know that there are those here this morning that are hearing an invitation

from you to come in deeper.

Lord, I pray that your spirit would help those who are feeling that invitation

to take that next step, to surrender, to let go,

to be willing to come and to know you.

Lord, as we are in this season, I pray that we would be ever reminded of you,

of your great gift to us, yourself.

And Lord, might we be filled with your spirit.

Might we be a light amidst the darkness as you are to everyone around us.

Lord, in your people here today, I pray that you would have your way.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.