WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.200 We're going to read together the Christmas story, the story of Jesus' birth. 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:10.919 So it's in the New Testament and the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 2 verses 1 to 20. 00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:15.599 So I'll read it for us and this is God's word. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:24.760 In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:29.600 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria and all went to be 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:34.640 registered each to his own town and Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:39.640 Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:46.079 house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed who was with child. 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:50.280 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:55.960 firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there 00:00:55.960 --> 00:00:59.120 was no place for them in the inn. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:03.839 In the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock 00:01:03.839 --> 00:01:08.719 by night and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:14.920 them and they were filled with great fear and the angel said to them, Fear not, for 00:01:14.920 --> 00:01:19.599 behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:25.319 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord and 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:26.639 this will be a sign for you. 00:01:26.639 --> 00:01:31.639 You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. 00:01:31.639 --> 00:01:36.679 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 00:01:36.679 --> 00:01:41.119 Glory to God in the highest and peace and on earth peace among those with whom he is 00:01:41.119 --> 00:01:42.119 pleased. 00:01:42.119 --> 00:01:47.000 And when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:51.099 Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made 00:01:51.099 --> 00:01:56.019 known to us and they went with haste and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying 00:01:56.019 --> 00:02:01.099 in a manger and when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning 00:02:01.099 --> 00:02:05.679 this child and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 00:02:05.679 --> 00:02:12.819 But Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart and the shepherds returned 00:02:12.819 --> 00:02:18.459 glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told to them. 00:02:18.460 --> 00:02:21.980 This is God's holy word and it's the Christmas story. 00:02:21.980 --> 00:02:25.980 Just want to have a brief reflection tonight on the Christmas story that we got to read 00:02:25.980 --> 00:02:30.020 just a minute ago from Luke chapter two. 00:02:30.020 --> 00:02:34.300 It's the story of Jesus' birth and one of the things that happens in it is that the 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:40.780 angels come and tell the shepherds to go and find him in Bethlehem and when they do, 00:02:40.780 --> 00:02:44.420 the shepherds see him and then they leave and in verse 17 it says that they went into 00:02:44.419 --> 00:02:48.739 the town, they went into the village and they told many people what they had seen and it 00:02:48.739 --> 00:02:52.219 says that all the people wondered. 00:02:52.219 --> 00:02:57.819 So they reflected, they thought, they considered what it meant that Christmas day and right 00:02:57.819 --> 00:03:03.859 after that in verse 18 it says that Mary, the mother of Jesus, that she treasured all 00:03:03.859 --> 00:03:08.739 that had happened that night in her heart and then it says that she pondered it and 00:03:08.740 --> 00:03:14.900 so that's a word that means that Mary was putting all the pieces together of everything 00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:20.580 that had happened to her and everything she had seen in the birth of her baby, Jesus and 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:25.939 it says that when she realized what had taken place that she treasured it. 00:03:25.939 --> 00:03:27.100 That's the end of the Christmas story. 00:03:27.100 --> 00:03:28.540 She treasured it in her heart. 00:03:28.540 --> 00:03:32.300 What does that mean, that verb to treasure, to have treasure? 00:03:32.300 --> 00:03:40.219 It means something like she found in Jesus something that could never be taken away from 00:03:40.219 --> 00:03:47.340 her, a wealth in the bottom of her soul that could be there no matter what her circumstances 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:50.900 in life would ever become. 00:03:50.900 --> 00:03:56.060 Christmas is about finding treasure, it's about a wealth in your soul. 00:03:56.060 --> 00:04:00.500 It's about finding something that you can have that can never be taken away from you, 00:04:00.500 --> 00:04:02.460 no matter what happens in your life. 00:04:02.460 --> 00:04:08.259 And Mary found that this very day when Jesus was born and we're told what it is in verse 00:04:08.259 --> 00:04:10.180 14, the angels sang about it. 00:04:10.180 --> 00:04:15.580 They said peace, peace on earth in the birth of this baby. 00:04:15.580 --> 00:04:16.579 What's the treasure? 00:04:16.579 --> 00:04:18.459 What can make you full this Christmas? 00:04:18.459 --> 00:04:20.100 It's peace. 00:04:20.100 --> 00:04:22.420 Jesus came to bring peace. 00:04:22.420 --> 00:04:24.019 What kind of peace and how can you get it? 00:04:24.019 --> 00:04:26.180 I just want to say that briefly tonight. 00:04:26.180 --> 00:04:27.180 What kind of peace? 00:04:27.180 --> 00:04:33.660 First, very famous, the shepherds come in verse 14 and they sing a song. 00:04:33.660 --> 00:04:35.780 We know it more by the Latin. 00:04:35.780 --> 00:04:40.220 We might not know very much Latin, but we do know this song by the Latin name Gloria 00:04:40.220 --> 00:04:42.180 and ex-Chelsea's Deo. 00:04:42.180 --> 00:04:43.300 We all, people often sing it. 00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:45.740 You can hear it in the department stores at Christmas. 00:04:45.740 --> 00:04:49.939 Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth amongst humankind. 00:04:49.939 --> 00:04:54.460 And so there's a vertical dimension to that song and a horizontal dimension. 00:04:54.579 --> 00:04:59.180 Peace, vertical dimension, glory to God in the highest, Gloria and ex-Chelsea's Deo. 00:04:59.180 --> 00:05:01.579 It's worship, it's praise the angels are giving. 00:05:01.579 --> 00:05:07.500 But the vertical dimension says, and tonight in the birth of this baby, peace on earth, 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:08.500 that he came to bring peace. 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:10.620 Okay, what kind of peace? 00:05:10.620 --> 00:05:17.060 It's been 2,000 years since Jesus was born and we still have a lot of wars. 00:05:17.060 --> 00:05:20.139 We still have a lot of conflict on this earth. 00:05:20.139 --> 00:05:26.939 And you can think about the opposite of peace, war, conflict at a national scale, a global 00:05:26.939 --> 00:05:30.459 scale, but you can think about it in your own life. 00:05:30.459 --> 00:05:34.779 You say he came for peace and you think, I've got conflict in my life. 00:05:34.779 --> 00:05:38.579 And when you come to Christmas, I don't know what you're up to on Christmas day or Christmas 00:05:38.579 --> 00:05:45.939 week, but when you pack lots of people together for meals, family come in for Christmas, it's 00:05:45.939 --> 00:05:49.459 always complete peace, right? 00:05:49.459 --> 00:05:53.819 We even feel it when we pack all our family in at Christmas, there's conflict, there's 00:05:53.819 --> 00:06:00.019 struggle, there's strife, that family struggle with family and siblings struggle with siblings. 00:06:00.019 --> 00:06:05.339 And we feel it between our employers with our workplaces. 00:06:05.339 --> 00:06:07.099 What kind of peace did he come to bring? 00:06:07.099 --> 00:06:10.699 Maybe it's existential peace, the kind of peace in your inner life that you really long 00:06:10.699 --> 00:06:12.299 for, emotional peace. 00:06:12.299 --> 00:06:16.620 What most modern people are searching for when they go to waterstones and black wells 00:06:16.620 --> 00:06:19.060 and they look through the sections of self-help. 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:23.620 They're looking for a way to get rid of the intrusive thoughts, the negative emotions, 00:06:23.620 --> 00:06:24.740 right? 00:06:24.740 --> 00:06:29.060 And let me say that Jesus Christ came into this world, yes, to offer both those elements 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:30.980 of peace ultimately. 00:06:30.980 --> 00:06:34.459 But in this story, the Christmas story, that is not the peace that's being talked about, 00:06:34.459 --> 00:06:36.500 peace on earth, what is it? 00:06:36.500 --> 00:06:41.939 And we sang about it, Charles Wesley is great, Carol Hark the Herald, Angel Singh, glory 00:06:41.939 --> 00:06:48.779 to the newborn king, peace on earth, mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled. 00:06:48.779 --> 00:06:54.899 The peace that gets sung about in this Christmas story is the peace that we need that we want 00:06:54.899 --> 00:06:57.339 as human beings with God. 00:06:57.339 --> 00:07:02.779 It's that we need reconciliation with the living God. 00:07:02.779 --> 00:07:06.459 That's what Christmas is really about, that kind of peace, that there's peace with God 00:07:06.459 --> 00:07:08.379 on offer in this story. 00:07:08.379 --> 00:07:12.819 And what happens here is that the shepherds, they're out watching the flocks at night, it 00:07:12.819 --> 00:07:16.699 is nighttime, they are in the dark, there is no electricity. 00:07:16.699 --> 00:07:22.139 It is Edinburgh winter, very dark, but boy, darkness in the first century, much darker 00:07:22.139 --> 00:07:23.779 than our darkness. 00:07:23.779 --> 00:07:28.539 And they're out and they're doing their night shift duty of shepherding the flock. 00:07:28.539 --> 00:07:34.120 And then the angels show up and it says in verse eight and nine that when the angels show 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:39.219 up the glory of the Lord shows up, the glory of the living God himself shows up. 00:07:39.219 --> 00:07:45.419 And it uses a verb that says the light engulfed them, it's shown all around them. 00:07:45.420 --> 00:07:47.420 And what happened to the shepherds? 00:07:47.420 --> 00:07:53.860 We think about it as a very nice sweet story, but boy, it says they were sore afraid, a very 00:07:53.860 --> 00:07:57.140 literal way to translate the original passages. 00:07:57.140 --> 00:08:00.660 They were so afraid, they were mega afraid is what it says. 00:08:00.660 --> 00:08:02.220 They were absolutely terrified. 00:08:02.220 --> 00:08:04.780 They were shaking in their boots. 00:08:04.780 --> 00:08:10.700 And that's the story of our relationship with God, that we were made for God, we were made 00:08:10.700 --> 00:08:12.379 to be in God's presence. 00:08:12.379 --> 00:08:17.060 But if you read the Bible in the Old Testament and here in the New Testament, when the glory 00:08:17.060 --> 00:08:23.699 of God shows up, the light of God, the luminosity of God, boy, people become sore afraid. 00:08:23.699 --> 00:08:26.959 They're shaking their boots, they're afraid. 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:33.820 And we see in that, that every time God shows up in the Bible, we realize we were made by 00:08:33.820 --> 00:08:40.460 God to be with God, but because we've rebelled against God, but because we've run away from 00:08:40.460 --> 00:08:45.780 God, when God shows up, we realize we are unfit, unfit for God's presence, unfit for 00:08:45.780 --> 00:08:52.460 God's light, the luminosity of God comes into our lives and we're sore afraid. 00:08:52.460 --> 00:08:56.100 And so there's this sense, I think, I think modern people, I think in a city like Edinburgh, 00:08:56.100 --> 00:08:58.300 we are feeling this very much right now. 00:08:58.300 --> 00:09:02.940 So many people I get to talk to all the time that didn't grow up in Christian churches, 00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:07.900 didn't grow up at all in any sense of what we call traditional religion, but say, I am 00:09:07.899 --> 00:09:10.980 a spiritual person. 00:09:10.980 --> 00:09:15.740 And I think that makes sense to me, and the reason it makes sense is because we all, I 00:09:15.740 --> 00:09:20.659 think, what the Bible says, what Christianity offers you is an answer that says we all are 00:09:20.659 --> 00:09:27.659 made by God and actually want God, we long for God, yet we consistently push God away 00:09:27.659 --> 00:09:31.620 and we run from God and we suppress that truth. 00:09:31.620 --> 00:09:35.539 And when God shows up, the only way that it could be fixed is that God would show up, 00:09:35.539 --> 00:09:37.339 he would overwhelm us. 00:09:37.339 --> 00:09:42.179 But when that happens, when his light comes into the world, we, boy, we realize I'm unfit. 00:09:42.179 --> 00:09:43.679 That's what happened to the shepherds. 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:49.339 The light came into the darkness and they realized they became fearful. 00:09:49.339 --> 00:09:56.219 This desire we have deep down in our souls, I think we carry it, all of us, it's a desire 00:09:56.219 --> 00:10:00.219 that can only be satisfied by seeing the living God. 00:10:00.820 --> 00:10:08.019 C.S. Lewis, who's the author of the Chronicles of Narnia stories, he gave a talk once called 00:10:08.019 --> 00:10:10.379 The Weight of Glory, and I just want to give you a paraphrase of it. 00:10:10.379 --> 00:10:11.379 He talked about this. 00:10:11.379 --> 00:10:12.379 This is what he said. 00:10:12.379 --> 00:10:18.860 The vision of God, being in the presence of God's glory is the secret scent, the secret 00:10:18.860 --> 00:10:24.019 ache, I should say, for a far off country we've never been to, a deep desire for something 00:10:24.019 --> 00:10:26.540 that we have never actually experienced. 00:10:26.540 --> 00:10:27.899 It is what we really desire. 00:10:27.899 --> 00:10:31.299 We get traces of it when we experience beauty. 00:10:31.299 --> 00:10:36.699 But the thing itself, God himself, the glory of the Lord, it's the scent of a flower that 00:10:36.699 --> 00:10:38.100 we have never found. 00:10:38.100 --> 00:10:41.980 It's the echo of a tune we have not heard. 00:10:41.980 --> 00:10:44.579 It's news from a country we have not yet visited. 00:10:44.579 --> 00:10:48.620 It's the reality that can break the evil spell of worldly enchantment. 00:10:48.620 --> 00:10:53.500 Every human, each of us, remains conscious deep down of a desire which no natural happiness 00:10:53.500 --> 00:10:56.899 will ever satisfy to be in God's presence. 00:10:56.899 --> 00:11:00.820 But when he comes, fear. 00:11:00.820 --> 00:11:05.419 Except Christmas, the angels say, but peace on earth. 00:11:05.419 --> 00:11:08.559 Fear not, peace has come. 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:12.940 How can you have the peace that Mary realized she had that night, the treasure, a peace 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:14.580 that can never be taken away from you? 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:17.419 Ultimately, that peace is reconciliation with the living God. 00:11:17.419 --> 00:11:18.980 How can you have that? 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:21.379 Let me give you three things and we'll finish. 00:11:22.059 --> 00:11:27.539 You've got to see in this passage that it's all about first, that the history of Christmas 00:11:27.539 --> 00:11:29.419 is reasonable. 00:11:29.419 --> 00:11:31.580 How can you receive the treasure, the peace? 00:11:31.580 --> 00:11:37.139 You've got to see that the history of Jesus is reasonable to believe in, that it actually 00:11:37.139 --> 00:11:38.139 happened. 00:11:38.139 --> 00:11:41.379 And when you read Luke's account, just listen to some of the language. 00:11:41.379 --> 00:11:46.299 He says, in those days, the decree came out from Caesar Augustus, and the governor at 00:11:46.299 --> 00:11:47.620 that time was Quirinius. 00:11:47.620 --> 00:11:50.580 He was the governor of Syria. 00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:55.540 Well after detail, I could go forever through Luke's gospel and show you how many historical 00:11:55.540 --> 00:11:57.500 facts he was putting along the way. 00:11:57.500 --> 00:12:05.540 We know that when Jesus was born, Gaius Octavius was the Caesar emperor, that the governor 00:12:05.540 --> 00:12:11.820 that's being talked about here is Quirinius Varus, and he died in 1480. 00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:16.820 It's very important to see that when the Bible writers, the gospel writers write this account, 00:12:16.820 --> 00:12:22.740 they are writing this as history, not as parable, not as mere myth, not as a fable. 00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:26.140 They are writing this to be believed as history. 00:12:26.140 --> 00:12:29.580 And the very first thing to see is if you want the treasure Mary found, as you've got 00:12:29.580 --> 00:12:34.740 to know that the claim of Christianity is that the Son of God really did become human 00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:41.020 in the first century, that he was born, that he came in real history, that it's not a mere 00:12:41.020 --> 00:12:42.020 myth. 00:12:42.020 --> 00:12:46.060 We've got to be very weary of any sense of chronological snobbery as modern people, where 00:12:46.099 --> 00:12:49.339 we think these first century writers, they were gullible. 00:12:49.339 --> 00:12:51.339 No, not at all. 00:12:51.339 --> 00:12:53.579 Luke says, this is an eyewitness account. 00:12:53.579 --> 00:12:59.259 I've done a great work of gathering eyewitness testimony here. 00:12:59.259 --> 00:13:01.739 One New Testament scholar puts it like this, Richard Balkum. 00:13:01.739 --> 00:13:07.379 He says, there is no other faith in history that has so extensively crossed the cultural 00:13:07.379 --> 00:13:12.379 divisions of humanity and found a place in so many diverse cultural contexts. 00:13:12.379 --> 00:13:13.379 Why? 00:13:13.500 --> 00:13:17.820 Because it's because the eyewitnesses in the first century went around consistently 00:13:17.820 --> 00:13:21.899 claiming what we saw is real history. 00:13:21.899 --> 00:13:28.899 Balkum says, that's why Christianity spread so far because of that consistent message. 00:13:28.899 --> 00:13:31.259 Look, let me move on, but I'll say this. 00:13:31.259 --> 00:13:39.259 If Luke wanted you to think, if this is mere legend, mere myth, the one thing you don't 00:13:39.259 --> 00:13:46.259 do as a first century author is put the primary eyewitnesses of the birth of Jesus as shepherds. 00:13:47.460 --> 00:13:51.580 Shepherds in the first century had no social weight, societal weight. 00:13:51.580 --> 00:13:52.580 They were not respected. 00:13:52.580 --> 00:13:53.580 They were poor. 00:13:53.580 --> 00:13:56.899 They weren't educated, but they're the primary eyewitnesses. 00:13:56.899 --> 00:14:00.899 The only reason you would put it in is if it happened that way. 00:14:00.899 --> 00:14:01.899 That's the only reason. 00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:05.819 The second thing, how can you receive this treasure tonight? 00:14:05.860 --> 00:14:09.980 Look at the birth itself for just a moment. 00:14:09.980 --> 00:14:13.860 In verse 12, the shepherds were told, go to Bethlehem. 00:14:13.860 --> 00:14:15.379 You'll find the savior of the world there. 00:14:15.379 --> 00:14:18.860 He'll be wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. 00:14:18.860 --> 00:14:24.560 When you go to the one verse that's actually about Jesus' birth, it says that he was wrapped 00:14:24.560 --> 00:14:26.060 in swaddling cloths. 00:14:26.060 --> 00:14:27.379 What is that? 00:14:27.379 --> 00:14:30.260 Swaddling cloths are work cloth. 00:14:30.700 --> 00:14:36.700 It's cloth that had been previously used in strips for work. 00:14:36.700 --> 00:14:40.220 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, become human. 00:14:40.220 --> 00:14:44.340 Very first clothes were work cloths. 00:14:44.340 --> 00:14:46.379 And then it says, and you'll find him lying in a manger. 00:14:46.379 --> 00:14:51.500 The word for manger is a feeding trough. 00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:54.379 It's where animals come to eat. 00:14:54.379 --> 00:14:57.740 The muck, the spit, the yuck of a feeding trough. 00:14:57.740 --> 00:15:00.620 It says that there was no room for him, so they put him in the inn. 00:15:00.620 --> 00:15:02.019 What is an inn? 00:15:02.019 --> 00:15:03.019 It's a guest room. 00:15:03.019 --> 00:15:07.019 It's the first floor of a home where there is nothing but animals. 00:15:07.019 --> 00:15:13.940 Jesus Christ came into the world and was born and laid in the muck, the yuck, where animals 00:15:13.940 --> 00:15:16.620 spit and feed. 00:15:16.620 --> 00:15:20.100 And the sign of his birth, what does it mean? 00:15:20.100 --> 00:15:21.220 He came to be poor. 00:15:21.220 --> 00:15:24.220 He came to take on our feeble estate. 00:15:24.220 --> 00:15:26.820 It's the sign of his entire life. 00:15:26.820 --> 00:15:33.019 The Son of God humbled himself all the way to the point of taking on our feeble estate, 00:15:33.019 --> 00:15:36.500 even to die because of our injustice. 00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:41.500 The light of the world entered into the darkness so that we could have light, we could have 00:15:41.500 --> 00:15:42.500 peace. 00:15:42.500 --> 00:15:45.899 And the condition of his birth tells the whole story. 00:15:45.899 --> 00:15:50.460 Wrapped in swaddling cloths, he laid in the muck the yuck of the animals. 00:15:50.460 --> 00:15:54.180 If you want to know peace with God, if you want to have treasure in your heart this Christmas, 00:15:54.659 --> 00:15:59.139 you've got to believe that Jesus Christ, the light of the world, came and entered the darkness 00:15:59.139 --> 00:16:04.179 in your place, went to the cross in your stead so that you could have Christmas peace. 00:16:04.179 --> 00:16:08.539 Now lastly, and I'll close with this, the third thing, the third way to receive this 00:16:08.539 --> 00:16:15.379 treasure tonight is to see simply that the peace that Mary received, the treasure that 00:16:15.379 --> 00:16:19.019 she received, really is peace. 00:16:19.059 --> 00:16:25.019 It's a peace that is unlike any other peace that's on offer in this world. 00:16:25.019 --> 00:16:28.939 Let me say it like this. 00:16:28.939 --> 00:16:34.460 If you are a person who's had a lot of success in your life, you know, you wanted to get 00:16:34.460 --> 00:16:39.899 a good education and you got it, you wanted to make money and you made money, you wanted 00:16:39.899 --> 00:16:43.899 to make partner in your firm and you're on your way to that, that's already happened 00:16:43.899 --> 00:16:44.899 for you. 00:16:44.899 --> 00:16:48.860 You wanted to be successful in whatever adventures you're into in your life. 00:16:48.860 --> 00:16:50.460 And you've gotten that. 00:16:50.460 --> 00:16:56.980 The claim of Christmas is this, if you don't have peace with God, if you don't have peace 00:16:56.980 --> 00:16:58.940 with God, then you don't have real peace. 00:16:58.940 --> 00:17:06.220 You know, if you've chased every success in your life and you still feel empty, you keep 00:17:06.220 --> 00:17:11.740 finding that it's never enough, the claim of Christmas is that if you've not yet found 00:17:11.740 --> 00:17:17.819 peace with God through Jesus, you're still in the darkness. 00:17:17.819 --> 00:17:20.139 And let's say the opposite is true of you. 00:17:20.139 --> 00:17:23.379 Nothing has gone right yet in life. 00:17:23.379 --> 00:17:27.220 You at every turn have not been successful. 00:17:27.220 --> 00:17:33.299 You have struggled financially, educationally, economically, materially, relationally. 00:17:33.299 --> 00:17:36.619 You've never gotten the relationships you wanted. 00:17:36.619 --> 00:17:39.779 And it feels all the time like the ice is cracking underneath your feet. 00:17:39.779 --> 00:17:44.740 One little thing is going to be the last thing. 00:17:44.740 --> 00:17:50.700 If your circumstances are terrible, but you have peace with God in your life, you have 00:17:50.700 --> 00:17:58.500 been reconciled to the living God through Jesus, then you have light and not darkness. 00:17:58.500 --> 00:18:00.059 You are full. 00:18:00.059 --> 00:18:03.660 You have a treasure that can never be taken away. 00:18:03.660 --> 00:18:08.240 You could lose everything in this life, but if you have peace with God, the very thing 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:12.299 you were made for, you have a treasure that can never be taken away. 00:18:12.299 --> 00:18:17.819 Very on this day, the day of Jesus' birth realized in him, this baby, I have peace 00:18:17.819 --> 00:18:18.819 with God. 00:18:18.819 --> 00:18:19.819 I have treasure. 00:18:19.819 --> 00:18:23.579 Do you have that on Christmas Eve? 00:18:23.579 --> 00:18:24.579 Let us pray. 00:18:24.579 --> 00:18:28.019 Father, we ask that you would show up, that you would touch our hearts, and that you would 00:18:28.019 --> 00:18:31.139 show us the peace we need through Christ. 00:18:31.139 --> 00:18:37.419 And so I ask, Lord, that you would shake our hearts up and help us to see how much we really 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:42.460 do desire to be in your presence and how much the Christmas child, Jesus Christ, mercy 00:18:42.460 --> 00:18:44.700 mild, can give us that very hope. 00:18:44.700 --> 00:18:49.100 And so we pray for that recognition, that acknowledgement, that faith. 00:18:49.100 --> 00:18:50.580 In Jesus' name, amen.