Sermon Transcript:Well, I want to add my merry christmas as well, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. In fact, it's been there for a little while. I know, as you go to the stores, and as I go to the stores, we've seen it for a while they started pulling them out, right after Halloween, and many of us have been ready for weeks. If you remember, when we came out of COVID, there was a trend that started as far as you know, let's let's bring on Christmas, let's bring some hope. Let's bring some cheer. And I felt like in a lot of ways, that sort of idea has kept rolling through the years. But others of y'all are not ready, as Danny already asked, Who's done their shopping and who has not. For some of y'all, this whole season is a struggle for all kinds of reasons. And maybe you just sort of let it go, you're just like, I don't really want to think about it. I've been disappointed so many times around this time of year, whether it's through relationships that have gone bad, or, you know, a lot of times it is a thermostat or a thermometer of where your relationship is at. You think about some family, things that you've already maybe gone through with thanksgiving. And there's anxiety, sometimes that's created with that, who goes to whose house and where we're going to sleep and what we're going to give and how much we're going to spend and I can't really afford to give that kind like my other aunt, uncle, cousins, brothers, sister. All these kinds of things, bring all kinds of feelings and thoughts, whether they're warm, fuzzy thoughts, or anxiety thoughts, or something in between, but it is here it is upon us. And one of the things that we need to think about is that all of this is leading somewhere. I love how Joy began the service and our worship team, where we understand why we're here, we're here to worship the God of the universe, and that none of us are here by accident, whether you're in the room or listening later on in that all of our lives are leading somewhere. That's hard to really sense at times, when we feel like things are cyclical, right? We feel like okay, nother year. I mean, we just, we understand that we have seasons, and we're in a Christmas season. And we can believe falsely that this is just Okay, another another time to go around the wheel. But history is linear. So we understand and believe as Christians and even in Western thought, in general, coming from Christendom, this, this whole idea that everything bends towards redemption, it's all leading somewhere in that is meant to bring us comfort, even if our current situation is less than ideal or less than what we would like or desire. There's always hope, even in the midst of times and circumstances that seem quite hopeless, whether that's on a personal level, or you feel that at an economical level, or a national level, or whatever it is that you feel, and understand and see and perceive. whether it's real or not, it makes us at times seem like me, and where's the hope this feels like a pretty bleak situation. But there's a long history of God coming through in the darkness. You think about this, that, that God himself when he created in the beginning in Genesis that that he created light, and that light shines in the darkness and that darkness does not overcome it as we're told in John when Jesus Himself comes as the light. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna start by going all the way back and looking at the hope that was laid out right there in the beginning, you see Genesis chapter one where God talks about creation. And then you see Genesis chapter two, where Adam and Eve are put into a garden and it is paradise and they have all that they need and all that they could ever want. But of course, we understand that in there was also the knowledge of good and evil tree and that ultimately that they are tempted and they partake of that fruit. And when that happens, they fall they are going to be banished from the Garden and then all of humanity falls within that we are now born under the curse of sin born under what Adam and Eve's choices were in that moment in Genesis three. God he delves out what we understand is the threefold curse that he's gonna say, because of your choices, Adam and Eve, here are some gonna be some things that are going to come your way. And he talks to Adam and he talks to Eve and he talks to the serpent and that's where I want us to look, because in this sort of condemnation of the serpent because of the deception that he participated in, there's also some hope. And so go ahead and the first slide in Genesis 315 says this, this is God talking to the serpent The personification of Satan here, and I will cause hostility between you and the woman. and between your offspring and her offspring. That's all of us, right? We're all worn of a woman somewhere, all of us are Children of Adam and Eve, He, there's going to be one that's gonna come, he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. So way back in the beginning, I don't know if you've ever thought about this or seen this in the scriptures, all the way back to Genesis chapter three, verse 15, we see what we often called the first messianic promise or the first glimmer of hope. Messianic just is just a fancy word to say the Messiah was who would come to redeem all things and put all things right, not just for Jews, but for Gentiles for the whole world. If you read a little bit further in the scriptures, in Genesis, chapter four, verse one, Adam and Eve, they know each other, and then all of a sudden Eve gets pregnant, and she has a child, and his name is Cain. And she says very clearly in the scriptures, I have created a man with the Lord's help. And what she's thinking in that instance, is good. Maybe this will be the one to reverse the curse that has been given to me and my husband. And if you know the story, it doesn't go so well for Cain who comes first. And then his brother Abel, because what happens, Cain kills his brother, because of jealousy and because of sin. And it's interesting, because right there in the opening pages of Genesis in Genesis chapter four, beginning in verse seven, you'll see that God warns Cain, that sin is crouching at your door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master. This is devastating to Eve who's thinking, I thought there would be a man that would come through me through Adam through our lineage that would come and take us back to the garden, allow us to go back to paradise allow us to not have all this pain and struggle, and by the sweat of our brow, be all these things that are occurring. And of course, it did not come with Adam and Eve children or their children or their children. And we begin to see all throughout the Old Testament, how things begin to unravel on Earth, and God's there, and he's working, and he's moving, but there are times of great war and famine and darkness. And so what's going on here? Well, he cane wasn't the one and neither were his children or his children. But there is going to be one who comes. And I want you to see this other image that maybe you've seen or thought of maybe not this exact image, but it's just that whole promise that there is going to be one, there is going to be one who is going to crush the head of Satan and in that his own heel is going to be bruised. If you remember the movie, The Passion of Christ, it's now almost 20 years old, that opening scene is there where the actor of Satan is there and a snake Sluis across. And Jesus says he's in the Garden of Gethsemane, he crushes the head of that serpent right there as a character in that, in that screen, in that movie, we can go to the New Testament writers they pick up on this theme I want to show you one in the book of Romans, Book of Romans is one of those books that you can go to, and you can really see how we are to understand our salvation, this gospel that we believe in that we preach as Christians as believers, and it walks through and maybe you've had someone walk through sometimes what's called the Roman road where they go to chapter three, and they go to chapter five, and six, and seven, and eight, nine and 10. And they show you exactly what God would have for you and me in terms of getting back to him or getting to him for the first time how to have a relationship with God. Well, in the end, after Paul has laid all this out, he starts giving some concluding remarks. And here's how he concludes it are part of what he concludes at the last chapter of the book of Romans. He says, The God of peace will soon crush Satan, under your feet. Now, whyis this important? I thought, I thought Jesus had done it. I thought that that messianic promise occurred when Jesus came not only as a baby in the manger, but ultimately died on a cross for your sins and mine. Well, yes, that took care of it. But we as we are sitting here, we don't feel the full effects of that redemption, do we? Why because we still had aches and pains and fights this morning and this week, and we had things that we had to overcome just to even get to church this morning. And we have things we have to overcome just to pay the bills or to go about our daily task. Why does it have to be that way? Why does it have to feel that way? Because what is promised for us in the scriptures is yes, Jesus came. And yes, Jesus is going to come. But we live in this tension of something has already occurred with the hope of the baby in the manger, and with him dying on the cross for our sins and rising and three days later, but it's not fully realized yet. Later on first point, I want us to see this morning, which is our deliver is coming. We've sort of thought about this, we prayed about this, we've taken elements and we sang them out this, but do we believe it? Do we understand what that means that you saying, Pastor? What does this mean? Does this mean our deliver is coming? The first time that we look to the hope that we're talking about here at Christmas? Are you talking about some sort of second coming, where he's going to come in the clouds and set all things right? The answer is, yes, it's yes. And that we understand that he has come and that He will come again. And that not only has he dealt the Satan, the death blow, but that ultimately we will be okay. And that's what Paul's trying to say, at the end of this book that, that God will soon come, Jesus will soon come and Satan will be crushed, your enemies will be crushed underneath your feet. Our hope it starts in Genesis, but it obviously doesn't end there. We can look at other Old Testament passages this morning to think about our hope that's coming that we're celebrating in this Christmas season. I think of the book of Micah, Micah is another Old Testament book, there's a time in which they're not feeling very victorious. If you know anything about the history of the Jewish people, there's, there's wars, there's the Assyrians who conquered the north, and the Babylonians who conquer the south of Israel. And there's a 500 year period called the intertestamental period, just between the time of Jesus and the last hearing of the prophets have four or 500 year period. But in the midst of that you have the prophet Micah. And he says this in verse two, but you owe Bethlehem, and breath are only a small village. Among all the people of Judah, yet a ruler of Israel whose origins are in the distance past will come from you on my behalf. So you see all the way back hundreds of years before Jesus was even born, that there are passages talking about him coming. Of course, there's numerous others if you know anything about your Bible, or the old or the New Testament, there's all kinds of scriptures we've already sort of given one from Genesis that is a what it says it alludes to it is allegorical, as we understand how the scriptures work, but then sometimes you have things that are straight up in black and white to say, This is what God said. And then you see it again and say, This is how God full filled it. Now, that's what you're going to see fall from a passage like this in the book of Micah, because what happens if you know anything about the Christmas story, we eventually get to Matthew, chapter two, and the Christmas story as we sort of traditionally understand it is told in Luke chapter two, and in Matthew chapter one and two and and what happens when you get to Matthew chapter two, we get a verse very, very similar to what you just read, because they're quoting that Old Testament passage, and it says this, and you are Bethlehem in the land of Judah, right? Because there's that line, that lineage that Adam and Eve and then ultimately you get to the 12 tribes of Israel, and it's gonna be through the line, the lineage, the tribe of Judah, that the Savior, the Messiah would come and you owe Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah. Now, when we hear a phrase like that, what do we mean, right? You've seen this, when you begin to pass out things or somebody passes out things to you, you get to these last but not least, right? Because when we will make you feel bad, right? Because everybody knows, we feel like, Hey, I was an afterthought, that I was not thought about at all. So we have to be told, hey, look, you're not you're not least there's nothing wrong with you. You just happen to be last to receive whatever it is we're handing out. And so again, just like in the Old Testament, and the New Testament, which is just a quoting from Micah saying, and you are Bethlem and Lana, Judah are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will shepherd for my people, Israel. And it goes on in that passage. If you know the story that the wise men, they're the ones who have seen this verse, and are the ones who are heading to Bethlehem in order to worship the King of the universe. And so they're meeting with Herod and they tell him this and so here it says them. You can see this in Matthew chapter two, beginning of verse eight. Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and watch To him too. Of course, Herod has no desire or means to do that he wants to kill the child because he wants to be king. After this interview, the Wiseman went their way in the star that they had seen in the East guided them to Bethlehem it went ahead of them, and stopped over the place where the child was, when they saw the star. They were filled with joy, they enter the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chest and gave him gifts a gold, frankincense and myrrh want to show a little pictorial representation of that. And so you're like, wait a second, this isn't what's on my mantle. This isn't what I think I when I think of the nativity story, whether it's the movies or the cartoons that we've seen, well, oftentimes, what we'll do is, we'll put everything together. And I do this at my house too, and it that we want to tell the whole Christmas story. So we'll tell all the elements and sort of put them all together. But when you read the scriptures is, it seems apparent that it has been some time, there's been some time that has passed beyond the manger scene, when the wise men come to see Jesus. And that's the whole idea. They enter the house, and they saw the child and, and so it seems to me that he was a young, little one, it also makes sense, because after they're warned, Joseph has warned in a dream to flee to Egypt, again, we get the idea that he takes a child, not a brand new newborn baby, that doesn't mean that we have to get rid of our nativity sets, it tells a holistic story, it's just I think this helps us to see probably what occurred, they had already established themselves and had a little home there in Bethlehem until, again, Joseph has warned in a dream to go where to go to Egypt. It's fascinating when you think about this historically, because Egypt was kind of always the place that the the people of God would go to, to kind of be there for a little while, but then to be what to come out of Egypt, to come back into the land that God had given him, please. The second point I wants to see this morning is that God consistently uses people, places and things that are seemingly insignificant, even today, if you go to Bethlehem, and there's a lot of hoopla around there now, because everybody knows that that is the place where Jesus was born. And if you look, and you go there today, that throughout the Middle Ages, in some of their crusades, they built a huge ornate churches kind of on top of some of these sacred sites. So it's kind of hard to, to envision it. But again, it would just be a small village, it's not very big, even today. And so this is important because all of us have a desire to make our lives count. Everyone in the room, if you're breathing right now, and you're up your vertical, so to say that you have a desire to do something to accomplish something to be significant, I think that's put there, by the very spirit of God, in this whole idea that we want to be significant, we then begin to feel our way around you think about this, when you're young, you decide, okay, how is it that I can have significance? How can I make my mark and, and that's why we think about teenage years that social media can magnify or distort our significance. And so a lot of times, that's why we limit adolescents on their social media platforms, because they're literally not ready for the world, right? That you're still in that formation stage. Even us as adults, we have to monitor ourselves to make sure we're not living for some sort of platform or for someone else's approval or likes that we don't even need or barely like or barely know. But we think about this, even if even if there was no cell phones, we could go back 2030 years, we would still have this desire to be known to be noticed to be liked. And so this whole idea that we would sit there and we'd say, Man, I'm just not as famous as him or her.I don't have what he or she has, how could God possibly use me? I mean, I'm, I'm too short. I'm too tall. I'm too skinny. I'm too fat. I didn't come from the right family. I came from this kind of family and that's a hindrance or whatever. No, that God consistently uses people, places and things that are seemingly insignificant, just like he is Bethlehem. I think about this with people. You think about if you know the story of David, that he was the youngest of all his brothers. They didn't even bother to go get him when they're presenting the brothers to Samuel about who would be anointed king. They had to go get a little old David, insignificant in most people's mind. And yet he is the one who's chosen the most powerful king in Israel until Jesus comes think about this with Mary. Just just just a little girl somewhere that God chooses to reveal himself to her and chooses her to carry the God of the universe. Think about this with Jesus himself and what they say about him. They're like, aren't you just a carpenter's son? And then you just come out of of Galilee. It's just this whole idea that God uses people places and things that are seemingly insignificant. The manger scene itself is meant to point us to that think about this with terms of places. I think whether it's in terms of we've already celebrated communion, and that was, again, a redefining of the Passover meal. That's Moses stuff. Where was Moses, when he was called to go back to Egypt to lead the people out, he was tending his father in law's flock, on the back side of the desert, again, literally being in El Paso where we're five hours from the next major city in the United States. And we know we have our sister city, Juarez, and I'm down but But you think about this from, from a American border perspective, that we're a long ways it can seem like we are insignificant, or that we're just out here in the middle, nowhere Has God forgotten about us, forsaken us and some desert like he has Moses, but did he forsake Moses? What did he choose to do there? That's where we think of the burning bush. And these kinds of things. Think about this in terms of the new world that are America that we enjoy, and of course, the Americas, which includes all of the continents, but just this whole idea that that people would come across on a boat and about 170 would gather in a room in Philadelphia, and they would sign the Declaration of Independence. And they all did it with great trepidation saying that, well, we'll all hang together a wall be hung eventually, because it was an act of treason. And they think this is we're just, we're just some small little people over here in the New World, and God chose to make that nation into something great. I think about this in terms of things, I think about the staff that Moses had, that God used to do many of the plagues of judgment on Egypt, I think about the little boy with the five loaves and the two fishes, seemingly insignificant. I think about the act of Saul being there when coats are late at his feet, while Stephen is stoned to death and Acts chapter seven, all these things that are so seemingly insignificant. And this isn't just from a biblical perspective and a world history perspective, think about your life and mind. I come back to it over and over again, you and I should take great comfort, that it is not just some sort of random thing floating through the universe called Earth collapsing into something else that maybe something got created. And maybe we're heading somewhere, but know that there's intentionality, divine purpose for every single thing in your life in mind, and that God is leading it somewhere. And all the little things whether they're good, bad, indifferent, annoying, or not, but that God placed in there that he uses them that he can use them for His glory, and are good. So let's lean in and believe this Christmas season, that God has something for us, and something better for us. That is the hope that we have in Christ, and for our own lives as well. Well, this was talked about. In many places in the Old Testament, I love reading the prophets and says we sort of begin to understand and have handles on them. Jeremiah 31, is a great prophet Jeremiah is sometimes known as the weeping prophet. And in Jeremiah 31. There's a lot there and a lot there that alludes and points to the coming King becoming Christ and then also in the midst of some real turmoil. Because when you look at the beginning chapter of Jeremiah 31, he says, now there's going to be some pain that comes when the Savior of the world comes, it's going to cause even the people of Bethlehem something because all the young children now all the young little boys are going to be killed because of Herod's anger and hate. It's been done before because all the little children were thrown into the Nile by Pharaoh himself. All these things were done to try to squish the plan and the purpose of God and there will be great weeping and a cry heard and Rama and Rachel weeps for her children. But then he goes on if you keep ringing in Jeremiah 31. And he gets to some good things like we'll talk about here. He talks about the day is coming, verse 31, says, Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah, this covenant will not be like the ones I made with their ancestors. When I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I love them as a husband loves his wife says the Lord. One of the things that I love about the scriptures is God is always telling us, I'm gonna do something great, I'm gonna do something new. I'm gonna do something amazing in your life. And even though you have squandered other chances and opportunities, even though you have rebelled against me, even though you've done some really stupid things, my love pursues you and me and guides us all the way back into the Old Testament. And then we get to verse 33. here and it says this, but this is the new covenant. Now covenant is one of those words we don't use very often we have the idea of contract, but covenant is a promise made between at least two parties. Often in the Old Testament, it will be sealed with blood. But this is the new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts, I will be their God and they will be my people. This is such good news. Think about where we've been already in a survey of looking at some things this morning where, you know, Cain had to deal with the fact that sin was crouching on his door, and he was told he must rule over and of course, he failed. But now, what we are being told is that in this new promise in this New Covenant, that God Himself will be able to write on your heart and mind, His love, He will be able to give the very spirit of God Father, Son, how do we experience the Father and the Son? That is the very spirit of God, the Holy Spirit? What does that look like this promise in the New Testament today? Hang with me, Hebrews chapter seven says this, it says, yes. Hebrews chapter seven. Yes, the old requirements about the priesthood was set aside because it was weak and useless. What does he mean by that? He's saying that once Jesus came along, if you read through the book of Hebrews, it's showing that you can go back to the old sacrificial system, but it's gonna keep giving you the same struggles and the same problems over and over again, because you're gonna have to go annually, and continue to offer blood sacrifices for your sin. But when Jesus comes, He takes care of that once and for all, as Prophet as priests, and as king, and He's superior to any other deity or angelic beings. And that's what he's talking about in the first six and up to the seventh chapter of Hebrews. He's saying that needs to be put aside, for the law meant never made anything perfect. It doesn't mean your household or my household either, who is obeying perfectly the rules of your household, not even you, not even me. And of course, certainly not those who we live with, for the Law never made anything perfect. But now we have competence and a better hope. There's that word hope, through which we draw near to God, and the hope is in a person, this new system was established with a solemn oath. Aaron's descendants became priests without such an oath. But there was an oath regarding Jesus, for God said to Him, the Lord has taken an oath, and will not break his bow, you are a priest forever. Because of this, oh, Jesus is the One Who guarantees this better covenant with God. There's a lot there. But he's really talking about this, this Old Testament sacrificial system can be done away with because of the New Covenant because Jesus Himself, He is not only prophet, priest, and King, He is the very sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God. And when that occurs, and what he does, and the obedience that he has his righteousness, is now able to be ours. And this is a guarantee what he does the what he walks, what he teaches, the very idea that he came, and we're going to celebrate in the coming weeks ahead, him being a baby in the manger, why do we celebrate that because it really does represent hope. It really does represent light for your life and mine. And we really do get to carry that with us. So it's not exterior there. So when you're out and about, and when I'm out and about in the community, we don't have to say, you have to come to life church experience, God, if you say no, let me tell you about God right now.Let me show you God right now. Because the hope of glory resides in you. And me, even in the midst of our struggles. He said, Well, wait a second, I can start sharing and I can start giving and I can start serving and I can start growing. Once I get everything right. We'll never get there. Because there's always going to be elements of struggle and resistance, as long as we're here on this earth right now, right now. That's why Jesus over and over again, talks about who is fit for the kingdom of God. It's that whole idea that put your hand to the plow and get about your father's business, and don't look back. And that even in the midst of our struggles, and our trials and our pain, we are the people who worship you came this morning, by your own minutes, we could go around the room and we can say what kind of week you've had. And some of it's not that great, but yet you came and you worship because he is worthy. And because God is doing something in your life. And in mind, this isn't all just circular pain leading to nowhere. We're not just, you know, being catapulted through the universe in absolute randomness, but that God Himself is watching over every detail of your life. And mine is leading somewhere. Last and final point it wants to see is that Jesus offers a better and then abiding covenant. We've already said that a covenant is a promise. And this is a promise given by the God of the universe. I get this idea of better and abiding from Hebrews chapter 10. If you read Hebrews and you get to that very end, he talks about the persecution and the trials that are going on Common he talks about whether it was Moses in the Old Testament or other saints, other people of God, that they all look to the future with such an wielding hope, because they believed that they saw who God was and what he had done. And they believed that he got himself that Jesus himself was a better and abiding, prized possession. This is this idea that Jesus is offering you and me a better and abiding covenant, whatever we are putting our hope in this Christmas season, or any day of the week, it will ultimately fail us. Sure, go enjoy Turkey, but you'll get hungry again, go enjoy the tamales, but you'll get hungry again. Right? Sure, go and buy your children, little toys and trinkets and show up, you know, at a guest house and bring what you're supposed to bring. I get all that but know that it will all ultimately go away. But what will not go away is our hearts and souls and they will either reign with God or they will reign separate from him and we can make a choice today. We can choose to believe we can choose to believe this hope and this promise that he lays out for you and me. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you that you don't leave us wondering or wandering that you've shown us so clearly just the hope that you offered us I pray for those in the room who are considering but struggling to believe it. I pray that you just help us to take steps of obedience in the midst of our struggles and our pain and our hurt that you help us to walk in the faith in the favor that you have upon us. And even though it feels like drudgery at a time or just putting one foot in front of the other but that you see us that you watch over us and you are leading all of this somewhere which is ultimately to you. It's in that we hope and we pray in Christ's name, Amen.

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