January 7, 2025 9:32 am
Pastor Josh concludes his Christmas series, Emmanuel. In this final sermon, we look at the birth of Christ from Luke 2 and how Christ came for ALL.
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The Truth Network Podcast is playing now. Thank you so much for being here and I do want to encourage you to grab one of those new here cards.
We'd love a record of your visit and also to get a gift in your hands just as our way of saying thank you for being a part of the service here today. Well listen, it is my last chance to really talk about this. We've been talking about this for the last month, month and a half, but tonight is our family Christmas service. It starts at what time? All right, you guys, okay, you kind of said that like you're tired of hearing about it.
Okay, rolling my eyes, whatever. Hey, six o'clock tonight. We are so excited about it and we got a lot of things planned.
I would love it if you were here. Bring your family, invite somebody, bring somebody with you and this is always one of my favorite services of the entire year. We'll be right in here at 6 p.m. We'll be singing songs by Candlelight. The kids choir is going to be singing. Pastor Grady will be leading or he'll be reading the Christmas story to all of the kids and it's just a lot of fun and things like that. So it is a family service, so bring your kids in here and they're not going to be a problem, so bring them in here.
We welcome the chaos, okay, and so it's a good thing. And then after the service, I want to invite you to stick around for a little bit and hang out with us outside. We'll have a winter wonderland outside, Christmas cookies, s'mores, hot chocolate, all that kind of stuff. So stick around with us. I do want to tell you though, you probably want to bring some gloves or something because it is going to be chilly tonight and so don't let that keep you away. Just come prepared for that.
Hang out with us here tonight and let's celebrate Christmas together. Well, we are in week number three of a series that we have entitled Immanuel. Can we say that name together? Immanuel. And we're in week number three of this series.
The series will conclude next week. Pastor Bailey is going to be preaching next week. Well, we've been in this series for the last few weeks talking about Immanuel. Now the name Immanuel was actually a prophetic name that was given to Jesus, the birth of Jesus, way back about seven or eight hundred years before Jesus was even born. The Prophet's name was Isaiah. We looked at that over the last couple of weeks and Isaiah came onto the scene and God raised him up to deliver a message specifically to Ahaz and to the nation of Judah.
Ahaz was the king of Judah at the time. And he raised up Isaiah to deliver a message to him about the coming Immanuel. Now the name Immanuel, it actually forms two Hebrew names. You have Imanu which actually means with us and then you have at the end of the name you have the Hebrew name El which means the mighty God. You really could translate this and it's exact Hebrew you could translate it the mighty God is with us but what we say is Immanuel God with us. That's what we get to celebrate this season is Immanuel our Messiah has come to be with with us. Well today we move to the New Testament and we go to the most famous story of Jesus's birth and that is Luke chapter number two so if you have your Bible go to Luke chapter number number two and here's what we're gonna see real quick here today is is one major idea that I want you to leave with we've been looking at this name Immanuel and this is why it's good news it is good news the gospel is good news but here's what I want you to know about Immanuel that we're gonna look at here today it's this is that Immanuel came for everyone Immanuel came for everyone what we are gonna see from Luke chapter number two is that we are gonna see that Immanuel came for all of us for every person on the face of the planet that is why it is good news is because Immanuel came for you and he came for all of us and that is why we call the Christmas story good news here today so Luke chapter number two we'll read through verse number 20 I'm gonna read it kind of fast listen here's what I want you to understand for us we've heard this a thousand times right I know I have as a boy I learned this I quoted this and the Christmas programs at my church and so I know this as well as anybody and I know that you do too but what we've been asking the Lord over the last few weeks is for us to behold him like we've never beheld him before and that's my prayer for you as we read this familiar story Jesus's birth Luke 2 verse 1 it says this they came to pass those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria and all went to be taxed everyone into his own city and Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be taxed with Mary his espouse wife being great with child verse 6 and so it was that while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered she brought forth her first foreign son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end they were in the same country shepherds everybody say shepherds shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock by night and lo the angel of the Lord came upon them the glory of the Lord shone round about them they were sore afraid the angel said unto them fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord this shall be a sign unto you you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host can you imagine this praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace goodwill toward men and came to pass as the angels were going away from them into heaven the shepherd said one to another let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass which the Lord have made known unto us it came with haste and found Mary and Joseph the babe lying in a manger and when they had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child and all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them listen about 700 years before what we just read Isaiah comes onto the scene as a prophet of God and he prophesies about this very baby and he prophesized specifically to a has a Judah and he tells them that one day Emmanuel the Messiah a baby would come and everything that you need in life and everything that you are searching for and looking for and everything you need is found in this baby and here's the thing the good news of Emmanuel was here God with us he has arrived and listen here's what I want you to see here today is that before anyone else could know before anybody knew that the baby had been born God chose to tell the shepherds ever thought about why that is I mean out of all the people that God could tell now this is the greatest news in all of history okay this is the greatest news and it's still good news it's good news for us here today this is the biggest news ever and he could have told it to anybody I mean if we had have learned that you know God decided to go tell Herod and his wonderful massive palace this great news we would all think well yeah I mean Herod was the king and that would make sense and he lived in a palace don't you think that the greatest news of of the king coming from heaven to earth that Herod would need to know or perhaps if if God chose to go to Rome and to to make that news known to Rome first before anybody else we would think sure they're the largest Empire of the day that makes perfect sense or perhaps if God chose to go into the temple and to tell all of the religious crowd the good news that the Messiah that they had heard about over 700 years ago and it's been passed down from generation to generation about this coming Messiah Emmanuel has come sure wouldn't the religious crowd be the ones that would need to know that first and all of those would have made sense we would have all nodded our heads in agreement that of course the king or Rome or the religious crowd in the temple would be the first that needed to know that the Messiah had come but isn't it interesting that God chose to appear with an angelic choir to the shepherds first they were the first ones to receive this incredible news that the Messiah has come you say what's so significant about the shepherds well a lot of times for us we actually look at the shepherds that's kind of a glamorous thing I don't think that we understand some of what I think the shepherds were actually considered during that day listen the shepherds was some of the lowest forms of labor that you could actually find during that day they were literally like nobody was growing up hoping if you would to be a shepherd in fact if you look throughout scripture most of the shepherds that we find were were children let me take a sip of this water okay this is the most awkward thing it's when you have to drink water in front of people because I can't talk and drink water at the exact same time and I'm about to choke to death in front of you which will also be awkward so give me just a second but going back to the shepherds you have the shepherds listen shepherds were considered lowly people they were not they were not considered anything special they were poor and oftentimes they felt forgotten by by society and yet Emmanuel is coming this great news about Emmanuel it came to the shepherds first to those that were lowly to those that felt forgotten by by society Emmanuel came to them first you say what's God trying to teach us with showing up to the shepherds first here's the simple truth is I think God's trying to remind us that the Emmanuel and the news of Emmanuel coming to the shepherds first is a reminder that Emmanuel came for everyone for everyone now us in the church we sometimes think that we're kind of the elite right we're the religious crowd we're the we're the good ones right and sometimes we forget that no actually Emmanuel came for everyone and God revealing this great news the greatest news ever to the shepherds first is a reminder that Emmanuel came for everyone and here's why this is good news for you and for me is because you know what the scripture says about us right now listen I'm a church kid how many of you grew up in church it's kind of all that you've known right well that's that's my story that's my that's my story as well so I understand where you're coming from like I grew up in in church since the day I was born I grew up in a Christian school and so if you had a scene me like you would have thought man he's a great kid he's a good kid and I was I was a good kid but here's the problem is that Ephesians chapter 2 says that I was I have a lot of things that I can relate to with the shepherds I was I was lowly right I was dead in my trespasses and sins right I was I was far from God I couldn't do anything but just try to live to please my flesh I was disobedient to the to the law of God all of those things and here's my point is that it's a reminder to me in Ephesians chapter 2 is a reminder to me that Emmanuel came for for me he came for for me he came for the lowly he came for the forgotten he came for the messy he came for the poor he came for the dead and sins and he came for the outcast of of society you see that's that's the good news of the gospel that's the good news of of Emmanuel coming is because he came for us and here's what I want you to see today is that when you come in contact with Emmanuel when you come in contact with him and you get to know him as your Lord and personal Savior like the shepherds when you get the greatest news in your life ever there's really only two responses there's only two responses and you see these with with the shepherds the first thing that we see that the shepherds do their first response when they receive the greatest news ever is this the shepherds worshiped they worship look at verse number 20 of our text they worship it says this and the shepherds returned glorifying praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen I was as it was told unto them let me just say this to you here today is that the only posture when you receive the greatest news in all of the world that Emmanuel God came from heaven to earth in the form of a baby so that he could one day die to take away your sins when you trust that Jesus says your Savior here's what I want you to know the only response and the only posture that we have in response to that is worship that's the only posture that we have is worship an adoration for him for what he has done for us and and the reason is is because of this we like to think of salvation what Jesus has offered us it's a gift you see salvation is is a gift for you you know this week many of you I mean I'm assuming all of you are probably gonna open gifts right you got gifts under the tree I know that we do and we're gonna have gifts and everybody's excited and and you've been preparing for this for a long time and this week you're gonna gather together with family and you're gonna open gifts well let me say this that the greatest gift that has ever been given is Emmanuel is God coming from heaven to earth to be with us but if you think about it this week like we'll be traveling we got a town tomorrow we'll be going to Florida so we got to figure out all the gifts and get them all to Florida and all that good stuff and so we'll be heading to Florida tomorrow and here's what I'll tell you is that there has been times in the past where we'll leave a gift behind right you leave one at home or something like that and then you got to figure all that out when you get to Florida and things but here's what I want you to know if if this week when you're you know opening gifts and stuff if you leave a gift with somebody's name underneath the tree it's still there but here's what I'll tell you it's only good if you receive the gift right it's only good for you if you pick up your gift and and receive it well when we think of salvation as a as a gift here's what we have to understand is that every single one of us when we think of Emmanuel coming for us every single one of us in this place we are all undeserving of the gift that's given to us there's not enough good things that you could do to receive this gift no it's literally a gift and think of it like this if you're in here today and possibly you got invited to the service today or you know you just kind of slipped in for whatever reason because it's Christmas time and you just thought this was the right thing to do and you're just here today or perhaps you're part of the religious crowd and you've been attending this church for forever and you just don't know Jesus as your Savior and you've never trusted in what he has done for you and you're placing your trust and man if I'm a good person or if I you know raise my kids right or or things like that let me tell you this is that none of those things can actually reconcile you back into a relationship with God the only thing that can is what Jesus has already done for you what he's already done on the cross for you we celebrated and remembered that earlier the only way you can be saved and experience remission from your sins is through what Jesus has already done for you and what he's done is it's already done he's now just offered you a gift it's like a gift under the tree with your name on it but you have to receive it you see you have to receive the gift that he has given him you see the shepherds when when they got the greatest news ever in all of the world in all of history the only response was they praised and glorified God in heaven that's why we sing songs like oh come let us adore him not just because it's a Christmas Carol and that's what we sing no that's what we are here to gather to do each and every week is to adore him to behold him and to lift his name high you see that's the proper response so the shepherds when when they received the greatest news ever that Emmanuel had come for even them by the way we don't know their names we don't even know where they're from we don't know anything about it but God chose to reveal that the Messiah had come to them and when they received it the only response was first to worship him but second here's what they did they told everyone the shepherds told everyone look at verse number 17 says this and when they had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this this child I mean listen how could they not something that Isaiah the Prophet prophesied 700 plus years ago has finally come to pass the greatest news in all of the world Emmanuel has come God has come from heaven to earth how in the world can we keep that to ourselves right that's that's what they did and so so they left and they they told everyone abroad I would love to know what that word abroad really means because they told everybody you get the sense that they went out of here and they told told everybody that they came in contact with about the good news that Emmanuel has has come let me ask you a question how many of you are bad you're probably not gonna admit this but how many of you are not good at keeping secrets you admit that anybody in here who want to care to admit that okay how many of you let's ask it a different way how many of you know somebody or have somebody in your family that cannot keep a secret okay is that better all right so listen keeping secrets is hard but here's what I'll tell you is when you have really good news to share that keeping that a secret is really hard right I can remember years ago my daughter's 13 now but I can remember when Abby got pregnant with with Lindley our daughter our first child and and I can remember so we she takes a pregnancy test and and it tells us that she's pregnant so we're excited but you kind of still want to go to the doctor first before you tell anybody just in case the pregnancy test was was wrong for whatever reason and so so it just so happened she scheduled a doctor's appointment and at the time that she had her appointment I was with our students actually a Union Grove Christian school years ago I was with them at the wilds Christian camp and so I was at camp with them while she had her official doctor's appointment so I told her I said listen I'm gonna be at camp but you better call me the minute you get out of there so that I can know if this is true and that kind of thing so it's confirmed and and so that day comes and I'm at camp up at the wilds I'm waiting for her call and she calls me and she says Josh it is confirmed we are gonna be parents now that's huge news and and parents in here you understand that when you're having your first kid like that's a massive massive thing and so I'm so excited and we're rejoicing the whole deal and then she tells me right before I get off the phone she says she says now you can't tell anybody and I'm sitting up here I'm like you know three and a half hours away and I'm thinking what nor how can I keep something like that to myself and she says we want to do you know all these fancy announcement things and stuff which are totally overrated but it is what it is and so she wanted to do all these kind of things and and so she told me Josh can't tell anybody and so I'm stuck and now I'm just like how in the world am I gonna keep this incredible news to myself and so I happen to be right outside of a the bookstore that is on on the site there at the wilds and so and I wasn't even going in there to buy anything but I just walked in there after I got this phone call and I just went up to the lady that was like working and she's like can I help you sir and I said listen I'm gonna tell you something right now we don't know each other but I am gonna be a dad and this random stranger she's like okay good can I seriously help you find something sir you need to leave or something but I had to tell somebody why why because you have great news and when good news is inside of you you have to tell people you don't want to keep that good news to your yourself well when the shepherds heard of the greatest news ever this great news that Messiah what Isaiah had said way back over 700 years ago it's true it's happened Emmanuel God with us is here the only response is worship and we must tell people about it in fact Carl Henry the theologian he said it this way listen to this he said the gospel is only good news for someone if it gets to them in time that's why that's why I love love our missionaries there you know they're like man I'm willing to give my life to move across the world sometimes to even move in dangerous places so that they can get the good news of the gospel to people that have never heard it let me tell you this church listen there's people all around us that need the good news of the gospel there's people at your schools there's people at your place of employment there's people in your neighborhood there's people all around us that need the good news of the gospel and we have the only cure for their sin-filled life we have the cure they can't get back into a relationship with God on their own we have the answer but so many of us you know what we keep that answer to ourself don't we don't talk about it we just kind of think that what Jesus has come Emmanuel has come it's just something that stays in these walls and and when we go to our work we don't mention it when we go to our schools we don't mention it we go to the ball fields we don't mention it we're at the gym we don't mention it we're at school whatever we just don't mention these things this is a church thing but let me tell you this this is the greatest news that has ever come for us that has ever come from the world and it must be shared in fact Charles Spurgeon this will convict you here's what he said about it he said if you aren't telling people about the gospel you might not be truly changed by it let that sink in listen if you're not telling people about the gospel perhaps you've never even been changed by it to begin with that's what he's saying because this is the greatest news ever and we must share it with others I can think you know as a church we have opportunities we tell you to invite people you know when we do these different things we had a movie night just recently in our gymnasium there was an opportunity to use hey invite people I'm thinking about about tonight we got family Christmas service and and I told you that you know statistically people might say yes to a church invite around this time of year more than any other time of the whole year outside of maybe Easter and I'm thinking like how many of us we have the greatest news in all of the world how many of us have used like an event like tonight to leverage an invite to try to bring somebody with you I was telling somebody even today I invited this past week over the last couple of weeks I invited two different people families to come that I'm connected with outside of here in the community in different ways and I've invited them and I am praying that they come here tonight you say why is that it's because I want everybody to experience the good news of Emmanuel the way that I have I want everyone to experience the fact that God came to us in the form of a baby so that we could be reconciled back into a relationship with God it's the greatest news in all of history and it must be he shared so you say pastor what's what do we do with this what's what's the next step it's very simple here today and listen I love I think every single sermon that we ever hear we should respond in some way we shouldn't ever walk out of here the exact same that we came in and so every single sermon has some type of response and I try to help you with what those next steps and response should look like and very simply here's the first thing if you are a you don't know Jesus as your Savior perhaps you slipped in here it is Christmas time and or perhaps you're a guest here today and you don't know him as Savior here's what your next step is here today receive the free gift receive the free gift you see if you're in here today and you say pastor I don't know Jesus is my Savior listen there is a gift for you you say man I don't you don't know what I've done it doesn't matter what you've done because he knows everything you've done and yet he chose to come to you anyway and offer this gift to you say pastor I'm just skeptical about it I get it it takes faith to believe that Jesus came but let me tell you this it can change your life it can change your life listen if you're in here and you're saying no for different reasons or perhaps you're a church person and you've been in church your whole life like like my experience and you just think that that's what's getting you to heaven and you think that that's enough let me tell you this that's not it you can have a actual relationship with the Father he's offering that to you Jesus is the free gift that we have all we have to do you say what I got to do to do it all you got to do is receive the gift all you got to do is receive and believe what he has freely offered you but if you're like me and you're a Christian here today and you say what's my response to this I've heard this story a thousand times I know it by heart and everything what's our response it's simply this bow and worship to him listen like for some of us we think worship is just what we do on Sunday some songs that we sing and things worship is something that we get to do as followers of Jesus every single day like you should have times of worship just you and your home are you in your car like you don't have to be in this building to worship the Lord no we actually because of the good news that Emmanuel has come to us we need to bow in adoration and worship him all the time it should be our daily posture in front of who God is because he came to us and so for some of you when was the last time you you bowed in worship because of what he did these shepherds when they heard the greatest news in all of the world they left praising God think about the lame man in the book of Acts he went leaping and praising God here's what I'm gonna tell you I can only imagine as the shepherds you know ran around with all this news and they're praising God they're glorifying God they're getting all happy in the spirit and everything else I bet you there were religious people all over the place just judging them up and down for how excited they were for getting you know praising the Lord and some of us are that way we're so fearful but I'll tell you this when God gets a hold of your heart and when you see him for who he is and you behold him the way the angels have told us to do and you behold and you get a fresh glimpse of him listen sometimes it's gonna bring something out of you worship it's gonna bring something in you that you want to bow in adoration for who he is because it's the greatest news we've ever heard in history so for those that don't know Jesus your next step is to receive the free gift that's freely offered to you and for us that are Christians it's to bow and worship and then number three to go tell everyone about manual God with us we've been looking at this name and and I know you guys know what it means God with us Matthew chapter 1 even says that and I get it and stuff but the beauty of this name of God and the reason why it's my favorite name of God that there is is because it is a constant reminder around this time of the year of the reason why Jesus came you know the gospel story he created you or really he created Adam and Eve why why did he create mankind for one purpose so that they could have a relationship with him think about it the God of heaven created man so that they could have a relationship with him know what your purpose is in life it's to have a relationship with God that's it it's so that you can know him so that you could have a relationship with the Creator that's the reason why we were all created so you say what's the problem well the problem happened in Genesis chapter number three when man sinned you see when man sin sin now passed upon every single one of us and now all of us were born into sin you say what's the problem with that you got a holy creator a perfect righteous father and you got a sinful people when sin entered into the world that relationship remember Adam and Eve they could walk and talk with God that relationship that fellowship that communion was broken not because of anything God did but because of everything that we did because we sin we broke the commandments of of God every single one of us and because of that our relationship with God was broken and you say okay well how do I fix that well listen there's nothing that you can do to fix it the Bible says that we are sinners and there's nothing that we can do so God loved you enough and he wanted a relationship with you enough that he sent his son Jesus Christ to come as a baby so that he would live the perfect life something you couldn't do the only life worthy of a relationship with a perfect father is a perfect life and you couldn't do that so he sent Jesus to do that for you and then on top of that he died to pay for the sin every sin you've ever ever done he paid for it all on the cross of Calvary why would he do that so that you could be reconciled back into his original design that he created you to be have a relationship that's good news that's the greatest news that we could ever hear is that God did that for us and listen when you get news like that listen you got to worship him that's the only proper response and then we got to go out and tell everybody about him would you pray with me heads bowed hearts lifted in prayer I don't know where you're at here today perhaps you're in here and you got invited and and you don't know Jesus as your Savior I don't know I don't know what your story is here in this place today but if you're in here today and you say pastor I don't know Jesus as my Savior I'm not asking about your upbringing I'm not asking about your past I'm not asking about what you've done I'm not asking about any of those things but if you say pastor I don't know him as my Savior I've never been reconciled into a relationship with him if that's where you are here today would you be honest and I'm not going to embarrass you at all I promise you that but would you be honest with me and before God today and slip up your hand and say that's where I'm at here today amen you can receive him as your Savior here today that's your next step but if you're in here today and you say pastor I'm a Christian my church kid just like just like you are perhaps maybe you you've not been worshipping him church is a routine your relationship with him is a routine and you just don't worship him you don't bow in adoration with it if you're in here today and you're a Christian you say pastor I need to worship him more in my life I need to behold him that's what I want for my heart and my life this Christmas if that's where you are here today would you be honest and slip up your hand high enough for me to see it yes hands going up everywhere and then we got to tell people about him and we have so many people that we come in contact with and we have the greatest news in all of the world and sometimes we keep that to ourselves Wow how foolish we are let us be a church that goes and tells people would you stand with me heads bowed hearts lifted in prayer I'm gonna pray if God spoke to you in any way this altar is open or you can pray right where you are whatever is comfortable to you you have questions about your faith we are available to talk about that with you we love nothing more than to spend our morning showing you how you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ father blessing this invitation time help us to bow and adoration and in worship to you and help us to tell everybody about you or it's in your name we pray as God speaks you do business with God you need somebody to pray with who'd love to pray with you we'd love to help you in any way that we can but let's spend a moment just in reverence and praying and bowing before God for giving us the greatest news in all of history
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-07 11:01:09 / 2025-01-07 11:14:33 / 13