Why would God waste His time on Us?

[0:00] Merry Christmas to all of you. I'm gonna pray. Almighty and gracious Father, we're so happy to sing to you.

[0:17] This is a happy day. Singing about the incarnation of your eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And for some, it's singing in the midst of sufferings, and for us, sickness.

[0:37] For some, heartache, sadness, despair. And yet, there's such satisfaction even in the midst of that.

[0:49] Because we're so excited for a day like today. Your steadfast, enduring, covenant love for your elect people.

[1:01] So we join the billions upon billions of angels. And the millions upon millions of saints.

[1:12] Who sing, glory to the newborn King. Oh, come, let us adore Him. Christ the Lord. Thank you, Father.

[1:25] And thank you, Lord Jesus. Help us as a church body, not only to remember the incarnation of your Son, but also to remember the reason for the incarnation.

[1:39] That your eternal Son would die upon a cross of wood in the place of sinners. As a substitute for all who would repent and trust in Him alone.

[1:54] Help us to be a body that remembers that you are with us in your Son. That He was the one to bring us to you so He can, you can be with us so that we can have the relationship with you restored.

[2:12] A relationship marred and destroyed by sin. So keep restoring us, changing us, molding us, shaping us, transforming us by your powerful Spirit and the glorious Gospel which begins at the incarnation, which begins at the truth of God with us.

[2:38] We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen. If you take your Bibles and go to Matthew's Gospel, if you're visiting that black Bible in the chair in front of you, kind of going towards the middle, like three quarters of the way, you'll find the Gospel of Matthew, page one, because we're going to look at Matthew chapter one.

[3:34] Matthew chapter one, I'm going to read verses 18 through 23. Matthew chapter one, verses 18 through 23.

[3:55] Matthew chapter one, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

[4:13] And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly or divorce her secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

[4:36] And she will bear a son and you will call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins. Verse 22, Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord to the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us.

[5:02] A few weeks ago, I was going for a run and iTunes will automatically download songs from the iCloud. And so a song came on there.

[5:14] I'm like, What the heck is this? I didn't want to listen to this song. And then I went, Oh, I know this song. I started listening to it. It was a song by Mercy Me called God With Us. And let me read you some of the lyrics.

[5:30] Who are we that you would be mindful of us? What do you see that's worth looking our way? We are free in ways that we never should be.

[5:42] Sweet release from the grips of these chains. Like hinges straining from the weight, my heart no longer can keep from singing. All that is within me cries, For you alone be glorified.

[5:55] Emmanuel, God with us. My heart sings a brand new song. Excuse me, The debt is paid. These chains are gone. Emmanuel, God with us.

[6:07] Lord, Lord, you know our hearts don't deserve your glory. Still, you show a love we cannot afford. Like hinges straining from the weight, my heart no longer can keep from singing.

[6:22] All that is within me cries, For you alone be glorified. Emmanuel, God with us. My heart sings a brand new song. The debt is paid. These chains are gone.

[6:33] Emmanuel, God with us. So we're here to celebrate God's love to humanity shown through His eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[6:49] He's the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son, who took on human flesh to dwell with us, God with us. So as we look at and think about Emmanuel, God with us, why?

[7:07] Why would God waste His time with us? Ponder that phrase, God with us.

[7:20] Ponder that phrase. Is this not amazing? God is not some impersonal thing or like the force of Star Wars.

[7:36] Like in Buddhism, Shintoism. Not a thing. It's personal. It's relational.

[7:47] So you have God, the great creator of all humanity and who sustains everything, took upon Himself humanity.

[8:04] I mean, you think about the things we do just as humans. I won't go into some of the things that we have to do as humans, but you can use your imagination. Jesus had to do those things too.

[8:20] For what reason? Because unless God acted on His own, of His own accord, to have someone take the full righteous, just judgment that we as rebellious sinners deserve, we would be condemned.

[8:47] That's why He does this. God acted on His own accord. He moved. We would not move towards God. We want to move towards God on our terms, not on His terms.

[9:04] Well, God doesn't work that way. He doesn't work on our terms. He works on His terms. And yet He took on flesh so that way He can bring us to Himself.

[9:20] Think about it. Unless God did something, all of us would perish. Unless God did something, all of us would be judged. Unless God did something, all of us would be hopelessly lost.

[9:35] Unless God moved to be with us, we would be without God. So He moves on His terms for us, for His creation.

[9:49] And that's what we celebrate. The 25th of December, which mind you, Jesus was most likely not born in December. for crying out loud, to be freezing for those dear shepherds.

[10:02] Come on. But it's the time we celebrate it. And so the idea is for us to remember those things, to remember the incarnation and the purpose for the incarnation.

[10:18] Unless God moved to be with us, we would be without God. Here's the real question. What do you think you deserve?

[10:36] If you've been sinned against, if someone has violated you, someone has abused you, if you've been raped, wouldn't you believe that you deserve justice?

[10:52] I mean, we would all say, yeah. I mean, if someone was violated, abused, and raped by another person, we would say, that violated, abused person, they deserve justice, right?

[11:10] They do. So what about God? Is He not included in that? Haven't we abused Him?

[11:23] Haven't we violated Him? Haven't we spurned Him? have we not raped His creation? Have we not abused His image bearers?

[11:40] Slandered other humans, those that are made in the image of God? Have we done that? Haven't we broken His perfect, perfect, just law?

[11:56] Oh, but He doesn't count, though. He should just be nice to everybody, like Santa Claus. Is that how it's supposed to work?

[12:08] That's what we think. And yet, when it comes to human to human, we say, there should be justice. Well, what about God? Shouldn't He bring justice?

[12:21] Yes, He should. But no, He doesn't. Jesus said, I do not come into the world to judge the world, but to save the world.

[12:39] God acted of His own accord, sending His eternal Son to take on flesh. Jesus was perfect, showing Himself to be the perfect sacrifice.

[12:51] He sacrificed Himself, taking all of God's justice upon Himself, so that anyone can have mercy and grace. That's the substitution, substitutionary atonement.

[13:04] God unleashed all His angry justice that should be upon us because we've abused, we've spurned, we've violated God and His creation.

[13:16] He poured it out upon upon Jesus instead of upon sinners. He poured it out upon Jesus instead of sinners.

[13:29] He poured it out upon those, on Christ, instead of those who so deserve it. He did this, Jesus did this for all those who would repent and trust in Him alone.

[13:47] That's good news. I mean, instead of justice, you get mercy. And instead of wrath, you get love. Isn't that great?

[13:58] And then, God goes over the top. So God goes over the top. Then God gives you His own righteousness.

[14:12] So He doesn't just pardon you of sin. Then He gives you His own righteousness. This is amazing. So instead of God declaring you like in a just court, you know, like they say you're not guilty, right?

[14:28] Instead of that. So there's either not guilty or guilty, right? No, see, God doesn't go not guilty or guilty. You should be guilty, but He doesn't call you not guilty.

[14:39] He says, He declares righteous. You now have the righteous standard of God. Wow! So not only are you pardoned of all your sin because of Jesus, you're actually credited with the righteousness of God Himself.

[14:58] what an amazing truth. There's a bridge to the song that I mentioned earlier.

[15:12] Here's what the bridge says. I think I have, do I have one on three? Oh yeah. Such a tiny offering compared to Calvary. Nevertheless, we lay it at your feet.

[15:26] The debt has been paid. I'm forgiven. I'm declared righteous. I'm free.

[15:38] So, Emmanuel, God with us, what should be our response? Here's my life, take it, I live for you.

[15:52] Here's my life, take it, I live for you. I'm so amazed that you would show such grace to me. Here's my life, I live for you.

[16:02] Instead of talking about this song that I've mentioned, you're gonna listen to the song, once you listen to the song, and then we'll do our time of thinking and pondering after that.

[16:20] So, wanna agree to play that song, Tyler? That'd be great. So this is by Mercy Me, God with us.

[16:31] Amen. That you would be mindful of us.

[16:52] What do you see? It's worth looking our way. We are free.

[17:07] In ways that we never should be. Sweet release. From the grip of these chains.

[17:26] Like him just trading from the weight. My heart no longer can keep from singing. All that is within me cries.

[17:41] For you alone, Be low with the mighty Emmanuel. Emmanuel. God will rest.

[17:51] God will rest. God will rest. God will rest. My heart sings a brand new song. The dead is pain.

[18:04] His chains are gone. Emmanuel. Emmanuel. God will rest. God will rest. God will rest. Don't you know?

[18:21] Our hearts don't deserve your glory. Still you show love we can't afford.

[18:34] Love we cannot afford. Like him just trading from the weight. My heart no longer can keep from singing.

[18:49] All that is within me cries. All that is within me cries. For you alone, for you alone, be glorified.

[18:59] Emmanuel. Emmanuel. Emmanuel. God will rest. My heart sings a brand new song.

[19:15] The dead is pain. The dead is pain. The chains are gone. Emmanuel. Emmanuel. God will rest.

[19:27] God will rest. You're such a tiny offering compared to Calvary.

[19:41] Nevertheless, we lay it at your feet. Since you're tiny offering, compared to Calvary, nevertheless, we lay this at your feet.

[20:10] Lord, you're such a tiny offering. Oh, Lord, that is within me cries. For you alone, be glorified.

[20:26] Emmanuel. God will rest. God will rest. My heart sings a brand new song.

[20:39] I've been saw no day before my heartεις. My car nenhum song. My dead is pain. His chains are gone. Emmanuel. Emmanuel. God will rest.

[20:54] ¶¶ Tiny offering.

[21:47] Father, it's our tiny offering of our lives. Compared to the death of your son. We're amazed at the mercy that you've shown.

[22:09] The promise coming to the forefront of history. The promise made all the way back to Adam and Eve and the garden.

[22:23] That you would save sinners. That you would crush the head of the evil one. Thank you.

[22:34] Thank you for bringing it to fruition. Thank you for bringing Christ. That's what we celebrate today. And not only will we give our monetary means in just a few moments, but we give our lives, we give our minds, our hearts.

[22:55] Oh God, help us. So take a few moments, if you would, and just ponder and think what we've seen from God's word here in Matthew chapter 1.

[23:13] Let yourself just ponder what we've seen in his word and we'll have some time of silence. And after a few moments, the men will come. We'll do our time of giving. And we'll sing one more song and have our closing prayer.

[23:29] Amen.