Galatians 4:4

Red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose, and if you ever saw it, you would even... Y'all not gonna sing with me?

Oh, okay. Well, thank you for being here to worship with us this morning. We really appreciate it.

Would you stand to your feet as we bless the Lord in song?

We don't know where the drummer is, but we're gonna play anyway.

Jesus, let your kingdom come. Let your will be done here in us. Jesus, there's no one greater.

Let your glory rain shining like the day. King of heaven, come.

King of heaven, rise up

Who can stand against us

You are strong, safe, mighty in your name

King of heaven, God

We are children of your mercy

Rescued for your glory

Read my Jesus

Set your hearts toward you

Every eye will save you

Live in half

King of heaven, come now

Let your glory wait

Shining like the day

King of heaven, come now

King of heaven, rise up

Who can stand against us

You are strong, safe, mighty in your name

King of heaven, come now

Let your glory rain shine like the day

King of heaven, come

King of heaven, rise up

Put this hand against us

You are strong and saved in your mighty name

King of heaven, come

King of heaven come down, King of heaven come now, let your glory rain, shine like the day.

King of heaven come, King of heaven rise up, who can stand against us, you are strong to save, in your mighty name, King of heaven come.

Amen. Boy, do we have a treat for y'all. We've got some girls that are going to be coming up. A couple of these girls recently had a birthday, or are having a birthday today.

So we've got Peyton, Mary, so we're going to sing them a happy birthday. Alright, on three. One, two, three.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Peyton and Mary. Or Mary and Peyton. Happy birthday to you.

Alright. So I want you to think back to when you were a kid and how much Christmas carols and just Christmas music in general meant to you.

And just be thinking about that as these girls sing today. Alright.

Here we go.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her name. Let every heart prepare you.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let every heart prepare you.

Joy to the world.

Joy.

We'll see you next time.

We will sing the Lord, we will sing the Lord, we will sing the Lord, we will sing the Lord, joy to the Lord.

Here we go.

Give a round of applause.

We shall praise the peace on earth.

She's fallen out on the sea of her love.

Come, come, come.

Can you hear the angels singing glory to the light of the world?

Glory to the light of the world is here.

He's a child who's in the sea of her love.

He's a child who's born in the sea of her love.

Come on, Emmanuel

Glory to the light of the world

And when we walk away

We're all who hunger

We're all who pain

For all the wonders

Can't you see

Because I found it out

Can't you wait

To the light of the world

Glory

To the light of the world

Glory

To the light of the world

Behold your feet

Behold my feet

To the light of the world

Can't you wait

Let's pray

To the light of the world

Behold your feet

Your feet

Can't you wait

To the light of the world

O come

To the light of the world

You and you will

Behold your feet

Thank you

Thank you.

He died

All His heart

Proudly unmerited

Mother and child

For the impetus

So tender and fine

Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night

Holy night

Son of God

Loves from heaven

Rain of Israel

Fire and holy grace

Built the dawn of earth

Jesus

Lord at night

Burn

Jesus

Lord at night

For unto us the child is born

To us the son is given

And the government will be on his shoulders

And he will become

Wonderful counselor

Mighty God

Everlasting

Prince of peace

Of the great Christ of his covenant

Peace

There will be no end

He will reign on David's throne

Over his kingdom

Establishing and upholding

The justice and righteousness

Just from that time on

A friend

Oh

And we'll all sing out of the way

Christ the Savior is born

Thank you God for allowing us to come together in this time of worship

And bring people of all ages to worship your name God

Thank you for allowing us to build a relationship with you each and every day

We ask that you bless Pastor Curtis as he goes forward and speaks your word

And you bring him peace and comfort

Thank you for bringing us all together in this time

Amen

Praise God and good morning Rhema family

Let's give God some glory for that beautiful, innocent, out of the mouth of Bays

Hercules, Hercules worship

I love it, I love it, I love it

The bookies really just, oh they bless my soul so much

And I'm sure they bless yours as well

Welcome to another wonderful service here at Rhema Community Church

We are so grateful and grace that you came out today

And we can fellowship together as a family

please fill out the card on the back of the seat so we can get a little bit more information about you so we can stay connected to you and you can answer ask any questions you may have of us. So we just give God glory on this morning. Praise God. I don't know. I'm just in a coffee mood. Let's clap some more. Let's give God some glory. Such an awesome thing to fellowship together. A couple of days, guys, I want to get in your head. One of the first being a December 24th is our candlelight Christmas Eve service.

We would love to have all the families come out and just fellowship and worship together. It begins at 6 p.m. here in the sanctuary. So just come on out. I know people I don't cook, but I'm sure people cook on Christmas Eve. So set your dressings and things up together and then come on out and fellowship with us December 24th at 6 p.m. Now they didn't give me this announcement, but I'm a Facebook person. So I saw all the great pictures of the children's party and it looked like it was amazing.

I saw so many videos and pictures and that's what I'm talking about. It looked like the kids and the adults had a great time. So we just give some love to the children's ministry and the people that came out. Awesome, awesome event.

And speaking of Christmas parties, we want you to come out in your jammy jams for our Christmas jammy jam, pajama jammy jam party on December 15th starting at, I want to say it starts at 630 or is it 530? 530.

So we've got a video about our Christmas party. If you guys can go ahead and roll the video.

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Taylor, you know what I'm so excited about?

What's that?

Wearing my pajamas, hanging out with my church community, and going to the church-wide Christmas party.

That's right. It's a Christmas pajama party. And the funnest thing we're going to do is we're going to have a gingerbread house decorating contest.

I heard about that, too. You better bring your best game, because I'm pretty good at building gingerbread houses.

And I'm even better. We're going to have games as well, food, fun, all kinds of good stuff.

It sounds great. And also, I hear that we're also bringing canned food, non-perishable items in to give to...

That's right, for Hope Collective Closet and for our food pantry starting up to bring an item to donate.

I'm super excited about it, and we can't wait to see you there.

So, please come join us at the church-wide Christmas party on Sunday, December the 15th at...

5.30 p.m.

And remember to wear your Christmas pajamas and bring your favorite Christmas appetizer or dessert.

We'd love to see you there. Come join us.

Praise God. So, guys, come on out. Don't be ashamed. Wear your jimmy jams.

I'm going to wear mine. And bring your family out. Don't forget to bring something, if you feel led, for Hope Collective.

And we have a list on Facebook, and we have a list, I think, on GroupMe as well.

We can add another list to GroupMe so you can stay informed of things that's needed and then bring things for our pantry.

So, we want you to come on out. We bless the Lord for all of you.

Would you like me to dismiss the children?

Yes.

At this time, I'm going to go ahead and dismiss the bookies. I call them bookies. They're all bookies to me.

Okay? And if you can just follow the young lady back there in the back, children, go out and enjoy your service.

Praise God.

Amen. Thank you, Angel.

Thank you, Angel.

Children's Ministry has their hands full this morning. Look at that.

Wow.

And they just sent me a message.

They need 17 more volunteers this morning.

Who wants to go back there?

Just kidding.

Hey, they couldn't be here this morning.

Joe Williamson's dad, Ernie Ward, Ernie and Glenda are at home watching, I think, this morning.

So, good morning.

Oh, there's the camera.

Hey, Ernie and Glenda, we wanted to wish Ernie a happy.

Today's Ernie's birthday.

We want to wish Ernie a happy birthday.

So, on the count of three, everybody say happy birthday, Ernie.

Okay?

One, two, three.

Happy birthday, Ernie.

I think the mic's got that.

Is that good?

Amen.

All right.

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

I taught the foundations. So we had a great crowd in a foundations class this morning. A great crowd, great spirit. I'm sorry? Oh, amen. Yes, yes. I was like, what did I miss? Um, but it was just a good, good crowd, good spirit there this morning. So I'm, I'm trying to, I'm trying to transition from my mind going there to where we need to be this morning. But we're beginning a three-part series. And the three-part series is gonna be based on, um, Christmas carols. Three different Christmas carols.

I always give, uh, uh, Shannon and the worship team a lot of grief because, uh, about singing certain Christmas songs. To me, certain Christmas songs, they just need to stay where they're written and leave them on the pages. Other ones are good. Other ones are good. You know, but, you know, some, some, some, sometimes, uh, it's, it's a little crazy. And when they start singing them way before Thanksgiving, and that drives me crazy as well, too. But this morning, today's, uh, today's emphasis is on the song. Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel. Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel.

And when you, when you, when you, when this song, it speaks of desperation. Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel. It speaks of desperation. We don't know who wrote the hymn. Um, uh, and I, you know, I think we don't pay a lot of attention to a lot of the, the, the lyrics and some of the songs when we sing these Christmas songs that we've sang over and over a lot.

We might sing the words. We don't really think about them a lot, but, uh, or we don't think of the implication of the words of some of these Christmas carols that we sing. And, um, if you've ever sung the song, oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel, you'll see that there's an interesting

confliction in the emotion of the lyrics because one of the refrain goes, rejoice, rejoice, right? But then there's seven verses of that song. And four of those seven verses speak of darkness and speak of desperation.

Desperation. It speaks of desperation. Again, we don't know exactly who wrote it. We know it was written in 1854 and it's a French processional that's usually sung during the Advent season. Okay. But listen to, listen to a couple of the verses here.

Oh, come, oh, come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here. Desperate, right? Speaks of desperation. Oh, come, thou key of David, come and open wide our heavenly home, the captives from their prison free and conquer death's deep misery.

That's it. It's desperation, right? Okay. Oh, come, thou day's spring, come and cheer our spirits by thine justice here. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death, dark shadows put to flight. Desperation. Oh, come, desire of nations bind all peoples in one heart and mind from dust.

Thou brought us forth from life. Deliver us from earthly strife. Again, speaks of desperation. You know, you can heal here and you can feel the desperation that not everything is right.

When they sing this song, we need Emmanuel to show up. We need Emmanuel to show up. Okay. And it was although we need Emmanuel to step into our world.

And although it was a spiritual longing, okay, it was also a literal longing for the Messiah to show up in the context of a broken and a fallen world.

And there aren't any solutions out there. There aren't any solutions out there. And so our cry is, oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel. We are desperate. We are desperate.

I'm going to, I'm only going to cover one verse this morning. And I know it's going to be a shock to a lot of you.

I'm going to cover one verse and maybe a little bit of verse five in there, but Galatians 4, 4. If you got your Bibles, turn to it, look to it.

We're going to cover Galatians 4, 4. But I want to encourage you when you get home to at least read through Galatians 4, verses 1 through 7 for the context.

But in our verse this morning, the Apostle Paul says, but when the fullness of time had come, when the fullness of time had come, the fullness of time, God sent forth his son to be born of a woman, to be born under the law, to redeem, to redeem.

And I think the overall implication here is that God sent Jesus when the world was desperate and when the world was ready. God sent Jesus when the world was desperate and ready. That's when Jesus came. Jesus didn't come at some random point in history. Okay? Hear me on this this morning. It mattered when Jesus came. It mattered when he came. It wasn't happenstance. Okay?

And that's the reason why parenthetically, even in our own walk and relationship with Jesus Christ, I have never met a person who has ever truly trusted in Jesus Christ, who was not at a desperate point of need in their life when they came to Christ.

There was desperation somewhere in their life. There was desperation somewhere in their life. There was desperation somewhere in the heart of that person who was truly, who has truly grabbed a hold of Jesus Christ.

One, because you don't just add Jesus to your life. You don't just add him to your life. You don't just add Jesus to make you look better. You don't just add Jesus to help you with your business.

You don't just add Jesus to the, then you think all your troubles are going to disappear. That's nothing. You don't add Jesus to have the best life now.

Better life now. That's not. You come to Jesus because he is your only option. He's your only option. And you realize that sin has overtaken you and there aren't any other solutions.

There's no other solution. So people who come to Jesus really come to Jesus out of desperation. Now you may not have understood that and all the implications.

You may have been a child when you, when you, when you accepted Jesus Christ. Um, but if you came to Jesus Christ and he was only one of many options for you,

then I would say that you probably don't have a real legitimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

If he was just one of many options for you and you chose him because that's the best on the table.

No, he was the only thing on the table. He's the only thing on the table.

And so people receive Christ because of crises of crises in our lives and desperation.

And so it was in the world when Jesus came, God sent Jesus into the world when it was desperate.

And when it was ready, this was, this was a divine intervention.

And this divine intervention brought hope and it brought freedom.

This divine intervention brought hope and it brought freedom.

The first word that we're going to talk about this morning is fullness, fullness in the fullness of time.

These are not random words that, that Paul gives us.

He doesn't put it there because it's just poetic.

Okay.

The fullness of, of, of time.

It implies fully prepared.

Nothing's missing.

It further implied that everything is ready, fullness, everything in ready.

And the word fullness in the Greek is the word play Roma.

Okay.

And it was a word that was used, used in reference a lot of times to the cargo that fills up the ship.

Okay.

Meaning that you can't add anything more.

The ship is full.

You can't add anything, anything more.

The ship, there's nothing, nothing else is acceptable.

And so it also implies that which makes something complete.

Makes something complete.

Okay.

The moment in history was made complete.

Play Roma.

Fullness.

I think about, we just celebrated Thanksgiving recently.

I have some memories of maybe, maybe likewise with you.

I remember back, you know, some of my Thanksgiving celebrations with family and everything.

You sit down at the table and you look at the table and man, what's up?

You look at the table and there is every, there's not room for anything.

There's this and that.

You even have side tables that you have to have the other dishes to put the side dishes on the other tables.

Because you look at the table and you're like, what's missing from here?

There's nothing.

There's everything and then some.

That's what this is.

Fullness.

Everything and then some.

Every, that's what Paul is trying to get across.

It's the fullness of time.

And there's a little bit of tension in there.

You know, it's the fullness.

Fullness is bursting.

It's ready.

The fullness of time.

There was a religious bankruptcy. There was a spiritual hunger everywhere. Does that sound familiar today? Spiritual bankruptcy. And religious. And there was a spiritual hunger. Religious bankruptcy, I should say. And spiritual hunger. That's taking place today. God was preparing the world for the arrival of His Son. Listen, I'm excited about this message this morning. I need you guys to wake up with me a little bit this morning.

Somebody besides Gene smiled at me this morning. My goodness. But there's. Okay. Yes. God was preparing the world for His Son. But there's shades of personal implications here. You know. How about your own life? How's your philosophy working out for you? Fixing your own junk. How's it working out for you? Amen. Amen.

You know. You know. Is your personal philosophy? Is it satisfying? Is it quenching that guilt in your gut? Is it taking care of that? Is it giving you that permanent sustained peace? Or do you feel like something's maybe missing?

Maybe this season? Maybe this season God is turning up the heat a little bit in your own personal life? Trying to wake you up a little bit. Trying to wake you up in the fullness. In the fullness of time. It also is. The implication also in this is that this is devastating if you miss it.

It's devastating if you miss it. Fullness. Right here. Right now. Don't miss it. Right now. Fullness. Right here. Right now. That's what Paul is saying. The fullness of time.

You don't want to miss this opportunity. You don't want to miss it. I remember several years ago. Several years ago I traveled to Joplin, Missouri to help take care of those some tornadoes that came through the area that were very devastating to the community.

I was with the missions organization and we were helping to rebuild and reestablish some homes up there and everything.

But I had to fly into Tulsa, Oklahoma and rent a vehicle and drive up to Joplin and I had to stop at a couple other camps and check on some things, all that.

But after two weeks, after two weeks of sleeping in bunk beds and on four inch mattresses, I was ready to be home.

I was ready to be home. I wanted to be home. And so I drove my rental car back from Joplin all the way down to Tulsa, Oklahoma because I had to catch my flight to get home.

And by the time it's on a tight schedule, I get to the airport in Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and there is it seems like nobody's at the rental car place.

They're all on coffee break. And I'm standing there. My flight is and I'm finding out that because of a storm, they've moved, moved, moved my gate connection.

That was so readily available to you, Mr. Gary, right here at this gate. No, they've moved my gate connection to another place at the other end of the airport.

I got to hump it. I got to bust it to make it in time to get to my flight. And I'm the last person to get on the plane before it left.

It would have been devastating for me in that moment. I know that's a silly example, but it would be devastating for me to have missed my flight.

I was ready to be home. I missed my girls. I wanted to be home. OK, I was exhausted.

And that's the point of the fullness of time. It's not just a great opportunity. OK, that's that the implication is here.

You don't want to miss it. You don't want to miss it in the fullness of time.

God sent forth his son to be born of a woman, to be born under the law, to redeem us.

Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas.

You know, and I want to draw an application here.

You know, listen. Maybe maybe this morning you hear you're not a follower of Jesus Christ.

You're not a follower. You know, you've heard this stuff for a long time and you've been hearing this stuff and you see all the little kids every Christmas season.

And they sing their cute little, oh, aren't they adorable and this, that and the other.

And you hear this stuff and you hear the gospel.

You know, and the reality is, and you fill your life with all kinds of stuff, all kinds of activities. And you try to snuff out that sense of guilt, that sense of conviction that you feel inside. And you keep giving yourself excuses. But here's the devastating part of that. When you ignore that, what you ought to do, it's not just neutral. You're not just being neutral. You need to understand that it creates a little bit of a callous, a little bit of resistance.

And then there's that little bit of sustainability in your life. And it makes it easy and easier and easy and easier and easy and easier to ignore the fullness of time.

I got other stuff I need to concentrate on now. I'll get to that Jesus stuff when I have a crisis. That's when I, when we have kids, then we'll get back into church.

Oh, I'm not, this is not funny. I hear that all the time. Now, pastor, when I get married, yeah, when I get married, we'll get into church. I'll get into church.

Because she's a good girl and I need, no, you don't do it for her. You don't do it for her. You don't do it for him either.

The second word is fullness. Oh no, that's the first word. Sorry. Time. Time. All week long, I've been, we'll get to that in a second.

The fullness of time. The fullness of time. And I believe what Paul is saying by that when he says the fullness of time is that the birth of Jesus was not, listen, it was not an accident.

It was an appointment. It was an appointment. In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son.

In the fullness of time, finishing the idea, God sent forth his son.

This is, this is the, the, the intersection between human, between human history and God's intentions. Right here.

The fullness of time. It's time. It's time.

This point, it mattered. It mattered when Jesus showed up.

It mattered when Jesus showed up. Okay.

In, in human history. And this word time, uh, is usually translated into two different words in the New Testament.

The first one is, is Kairos, uh, K, um, which has more to do with cataclysmic different events and the order of events and stuff like this.

But Kairos that's used here has to do with an appointment.

It has to do with an approved time that an event or an activity is going to take place.

An approved time. Who approved that time?

God did. He approved that. It's an approved time that an activity or an event is going to take place.

Okay. Okay. Another silly illustration to this is that somebody calls me on the phone.

Hey, Curtis. Hey, can you meet me at wake up coffee on community road, wake up and have a cup of coffee with me Thursday at three.

I can do Thursday at three. So I get out my little smartphone.

I key it in. Also put a little reminder in there that beeps off earlier in the day.

Okay. So I don't forget you at three, but we're locked in, right? It's an appointed time.

An appointment has been made. Listen, the birth of Jesus Christ, the incarnation was scheduled.

The incarnation was scheduled. And I got to tell you this, and maybe this is going to perhaps blow some of y'all's categories,

but God did not come up with the plan of salvation after Adam and Eve fell into sin.

He didn't come up with that. Okay. This was scheduled before the foundations of the world.

God knew in his sovereign wisdom that all of this was going to happen.

He knew all the mess that was going to take place. He knew all the stuff that was going to be in our hearts and in our lives.

He knew all the garbage that we were going to get into, and he made provision for that.

He made provision for that before we fell, before we ever thought of falling.

He had scheduled in the divine smartphone of heaven, okay, I'm going to send my son in the fullness of time.

In the fullness of time.

It's the moment that God ordained that Jesus would be born. And I would also have to say in the, in the, with, uh, in context with what Paul's saying here in Galatians four, if you read around that and you read Galatians chapter three, and you read all the way through Galatians four, verse seven, he's talking about the whole idea that the law had already, the law had already done its educational work. The law had done what it was supposed to do is done.

What was the purpose of the old Testament law? The purpose of the old Testament law, the purpose of the 10 commandments was to show that it's impossible to keep the 10 commandments. Here's just, just do these 10. I can't do it. You try it for, for, for just a day. Seriously. One day you try to keep the 10 commandments. All of them. Cause Jesus says you break one, you break them all, right? That's not even counting all the other hundreds of laws.

The Jews had for you. Just 10. Just 10. God says, I know just 10. Just do these 10. There, there has never been a person alive that has ever consistently kept the 10 commandments. No, not one. And the whole purpose of the law was to show our inadequacy. And the whole purpose of the law was to show us. Oh, come, oh, come Emmanuel. Come Emmanuel.

The law was to show us supposed to show us how desperate we are, how desperate we are. And to show us how empty we are. And to show us our great need for a savior.

You know, this was the appointed time for God's big event, God's big event. And I don't want to make too much of it here for time's sake, but there was some considerations in here.

You know, I, I believe it was the right time for a vast number of reasons. And I'm not going to go into all of them, but I'm just going to give you a big three right here.

Top three observations. Number one, it was the right time because the Roman empire had brought peace, even though it was a strong arm piece, the Pax Romana.

Okay. But they brought peace and they also brought a road system, which, which facilitated travel.

It was amazing. Okay. This was the appointed time that Jesus was going to be born. This wasn't by accident.

God intended for the birth, the life and the death of our savior and his resurrection to be talked about or to be spread around the world.

That was his, that was his intention. And it was the right time for the Roman empire with their brilliant engineering to draw all the world, all the known world together by a road system.

That had never been done before. And God says, let's make a road system, make it easier for you.

Who would have thunk it? Oh, I had that on my, my divine smartphone. I was, I was going to do that way ahead of time.

Second reason it was the right time is because Greek was the adopted language by the Roman empire.

Okay. I mean, now you have a trade language. Now you have a language as a central language that could be spoken across all boundaries, across all ethnicities.

It could be made clear. The gospel could be made clear now in the Greek.

The third reason was there was a churning. There was a churning of the confliction, even within Judaism itself. Okay.

Yet there was a positive thing from Judaism because the Jews had proclaimed this monotheism.

Okay. The one, a one God system, a one God thing. And they were kept, they kept preaching about a messianic hope, a messianic hope.

There's a Messiah coming. There's a Messiah coming. And they were preaching among all the synagogues, all up and down the Mediterranean during this time.

It was time. It was time. What time is it in your life? In your life?

What time is it in your life? It's easy for us to read these and kind of one off these things as some esoterical historical terms and about what's taking place and this, that and the other.

But I think the question really begs, you know, what time is it in my life?

Because friends, we're talking about eternity here. We're talking about eternity.

Did you know, did you know that every one of you, including myself, we are made in the image of God?

Red, yellow, black, white.

This tent is going to die one day. Your tent. Some of you's tents look better than others. That's just life. But your tent is fading. I'm being real. But your soul. Your soul.

My soul will last forever. Does that not blow your mind? My soul. I mean, what peers out from beyond these eyeballs? And you know, when you do that, you think that he has that too. She has that too. But here's the thing. If your soul is going to live forever, where will it live forever? That's the question.

Will it be in the presence of the creator? That's his ultimate desire and design. Or will it be? Why would God force you to live in eternity with him when you spend a whole lifetime telling him you weren't ready for him and you wanted nothing to do with him?

Even if my own child, even my own child, if Caitlin, if I raise her my whole life, give everything to her, this, that, and the other, and finally age 18, dad, I just, now that I'm out, I can be on my own.

I just don't want to have anything to do with you or mom or the house. I want my own life. I want my own stuff. Just please don't ever call me or, man, it would be devastating.

I would still love her. I would be there for her. If the phone rang, I would, I would come running. I wouldn't tell her she had to get herself cleaned up or fixed up or what.

I would run. I would embrace her. I would fall down. I would take her in. But I would not force her to live and be with somebody she doesn't want to love and be with.

I can't. Because then that's not really love if I'm forcing her, is it?

Eternity is at stake.

So the question is, what time is it in your life?

What time is it in your life?

Now that Christ has come, now that Christ has died for our sin and he's risen again, it is always the right time to trust Jesus.

It's always the right time to trust. It's always the right time to turn from our sins.

And it's always urgent.

It's always urgent.

Why? Because there's the uncertainty of life.

Again, I'm not being morbid.

But there's an uncertainty of life.

We are only granted right here, right now, this moment.

That's it.

Pastor Curtis is not giving us a great Christmas message.

La la la la la la la la la.

You know, and please forgive me.

I'm going to be straightforward here.

Listen, don't confuse confidence with arrogance.

Don't confuse.

Absolutely.

Yes, we should live our life confidently.

But don't be that arrogant to assume that you and I control the inevitabilities and the outcomes of our lives.

We don't.

It's time.

You know, have you ever stopped to think that maybe the reason why you can't make some of this stuff right is because you're not supposed to make some of this stuff right.

You ever stopped to think that maybe one of the reasons why you can't forgive yourself is because you can't forgive yourself, okay?

We need that which is outside of ourselves to forgive us.

You ever stopped to think that maybe the reason why you don't have peace and you can't find that everlasting peace is because you and I were created not to have peace until we were connected with the God of peace, to the Prince of Peace.

That's when true peace happens.

Have you ever stopped to think that the reason why can't I overcome these habits of mine?

It feels like I'm two steps forward and I'm five steps backwards half the time.

Could it be that the sweet, tender, loving God of the universe?

I have sinned, my son for this time. I forgive you. I forgive you. I want to encourage you this morning please don't try to hide from your desperation. Desperation is like anger, we talked about a few weeks ago. They are action emotions. They are given to us to change. They are given to us to point us toward a solution. The solution is in the fullness of time. God sent forth his son. God sent forth his son.

to be born of a woman to be born under the law to redeem us to redeem us

the third word is sent forth i know it's two words but it's actually one in the greek text

and sent forth means that it's a special mission in the context here and i'm going to state the

obvious here but we need to we need to get this christmas gig thing right okay it's not about a

little baby uh who was who was born and and the shepherds and and the manger and everything

listen to me jesus was born to die jesus was born to do something jesus was born to correct something

jesus was born to pay for something okay the only reason why he came into human history was he was

born to solve he was born to solve the sin problem once and for all once and for all i know i've said

this every christmas season so i may as well say it this way jesus is not the reason for the season

sin is the reason for the season that's why he came jesus was born to die the greek word sent forth

is the greek word ex apostalo okay and again the english translation that's where we get a

apostle from and it's one who sent but it's the idea of one who sends another with a commissioning

to do something

jesus said i do nothing except for what what the father tells me to do

the father has sent me

i have been ex apostalo sent forth sent forth it was in the foreknowledge of god even before we

messed up even before human beings were ever created it backing blow your mind in eternity past what

because god's not bound by time god's not bound by time okay before we fell into sin god in his

eternal love for us provided the solution the lamb of god had been slain before the foundations of the

world that's why john the baptist could come along and say behold the lamb of god who comes to take

away the sins of the world it's a fulfillment of it all jesus was on mission he was on mission it was

not a generic mission either okay his mission his mission was was for you for me i needed i needed a savior

you needed a savior

that's the reason why we can't be neutral about jesus

that's the reason either you accept what he has done for you or you reject it

there's no middle ground really folks there's no middle ground

he was not just born he was commissioned

and the purpose was to redeem to buy back that which belongs to him you belong to god

we were created in his image we were created for fellowship with him we were created for union with

him we we belong to god by creation we are separated from him by sin

by sin and he says i want you back and i paid for that sin i paid for it curtis everything that you

have ever done wrong everything that you will ever do wrong my son has paid for that he died on the

cross and he paid for that he came to redeem to redeem

e

you

because in the fullness of time i sent forth my son and he paid the price that you never could

you never could but because of that because of that merry christmas

merry christmas

and the way we get back to him is turning from our sin and believing in our hearts that jesus

has died upon the cross this is the solution this is the solution that changes eternity

it's the solution that changes everything it changes everything

so the question is what time is it in your life

what time listen christmas demands a decision christmas demands a decision the person and

the work of jesus christ requires a choice

and that's the re that's the reason why if you understand that that's the reason why

people either fall in love with jesus or they get picked off with jesus

you can throw the god card oh god god god god but jesus oh no

no no let's not let's not get so personal

i'm not gonna mix church and state

give me started down that road

and so really i know a lot of you here i don't know everyone here but

you know have you knowingly and willingly turned from your sin and trusted jesus christ as your lord and savior because here's the deal

he's the cure for whatever ails you

he's the cure for what ails you

well you don't understand my past

i don't have to understand it

we have a high priest who has gone before us

who knows everything that we have been through

and yet remains sinless

we have a high priest who has promised i will never ever leave you nor forsake you

and that high priest woos us

and why not at christmas time say i'm i'm stopping

i'm stopping chasing all that other stuff

and playing a religious game

playing church game

playing like i love my brother

like i love my neighbor

like i love myself

whatever that verse says

or whatever pastor tells me to do

no stop playing at it

walk it

live it

let it let it eat you up at night

let it eat you up at night

let let your let your disappointments and your failures of how you have how you have failed in this relationship in this walk with jesus christ

be the very thing that pushes you towards him even even more

don't let it be a dividing rod

i just never can't make it why should i even try man

why should i even try

jesus

jesus has come

and he's here

the question is will you come to jesus

come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden

i will give you

rest

some of you i see your faces you need some rest

i hear your conversations you need some rest

i mean a real rest

not sitting in front of the tv

that's not rest

you listen to my wife scream at the tv when college football is on

that's not rest

and you know what in a certain sense

it's not really relevant for us to sing

oh come

emmanuel

you know

think about that i mean you have

to give eschatological longings for that kind of stuff

because

we can't we don't need to sing oh come oh come emmanuel

because he's come

he has come

he is here

he is right here

and you know what

i see him

he lives in joe williams

i have seen him i have seen him i have seen him he is here stop waiting for jesus he's here embrace him walk with him he has come that's the message of christmas he has come how can we not celebrate this great savior he has come he is here amen

amen

ah

so in the fullness of time

god sent forth his son

to be

born of a woman to be born under law

come on up worship team

to redeem us

and you know i just want to close out

by giving you this challenge this morning

simply this

stop

trying to manage

the despair in your life

because we all we all get despair

over different things

well we can we can stand up and have a testimony

right now

or just the despair that we've

faced we've gone through

stop trying to manage your despair

and let it drive you to jesus

because

sometimes we run away from the very thing that god is giving us as a gift to push us towards him even more

he didn't he didn't say it always would be comfortable

but i believe he loves us enough to be able to say it's best

this is best for you

praise be to god

god of israel

for he has come

he has come

we're gonna sing that this one

he has come

he's come

he lives in me

he lives in you

let that be the declaration of our hearts

this season

amen

let us carry forth in every day

every day

he has come

won't you stand

praise be to god

the lord of israel

he has come

he has remembered us

blessed the child

will rescue us

he has come

he's come to bring life to the empty

strength to the weary

love to the needy

he has come

to bring hope to the dying

mercy for the asking

life everlasting

let's come

sing that verse again

praise be to god

the lord of israel

he has come

he has remembered us

this blessed child

will rescue us

he has come

and be too

he has come.

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