WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.639 Okay, for a few moments this morning, I want to look at the passage that Jenny read for 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:10.120 us in Matthew chapter 1 from verse 18, the birth of Jesus, and the title is The Coming 00:00:10.120 --> 00:00:11.120 King. 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:17.179 We're looking at the King, the coming of the King over these number of weeks. 00:00:17.179 --> 00:00:21.480 And I'm pretty sure you all know this story very well. 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:28.440 The nativity stories that we hear about and that are read, and there's probably, you probably 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:32.240 will have an opportunity to go more carol services this year than you've ever had in 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:39.079 your life online because that seems to be what's available and that's great. 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:43.840 But I think sometimes because of that, the nativity information, particularly the nativity 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:49.200 information, maybe becomes stylized. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:53.560 We're so used to hearing it or reading it, particularly this time of year, and for so 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:57.159 many people it is just fable, isn't it? 00:00:57.159 --> 00:00:58.159 It's fable. 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:00.039 It's myth. 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:01.919 It's legend. 00:01:01.919 --> 00:01:04.119 It's cultural. 00:01:04.119 --> 00:01:11.079 It's just part of what they read and hear about and learn at this time of year. 00:01:11.079 --> 00:01:19.359 But we remain firmly convinced and we continue to remind ourselves that what we have in Scripture 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:21.479 is historical truth. 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:29.520 It's not myth, it's not legend, it's not warm and fuzzy emotional imaginations for this 00:01:29.520 --> 00:01:32.880 time of year. 00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:37.200 And it's actually very earthy and it's very gritty. 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:45.320 And if we allow ourselves to consider the truths that lie within the historical facts 00:01:45.320 --> 00:01:50.000 that are recorded for us, we see a great tension. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:55.000 A tension between our reality and God's reality. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.200 And that really, that goes through the whole of life. 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:01.519 That just doesn't just happen in the nativity story. 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:06.939 It happens throughout Scripture and it happens throughout our understanding of us and our 00:02:06.939 --> 00:02:08.199 understanding of God. 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:11.120 There's a tension. 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:17.759 There's always that danger, I think, of trivializing the birth of Jesus with one big almighty, 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:21.079 oh, isn't it lovely? 00:02:21.079 --> 00:02:23.120 Because that's what we do with the birth of children. 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:26.919 We saw the photograph of Emma, that's what we all did. 00:02:26.919 --> 00:02:27.919 That's lovely. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:30.039 And that's absolutely right, of course. 00:02:30.039 --> 00:02:36.599 But it's something much, much greater and much deeper than simply the birth of a child. 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:42.919 There's theological, historical and spiritual truth that is absolutely life-changing and 00:02:42.919 --> 00:02:44.680 foundational for us. 00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:51.960 So I want to look a little bit at God's reality and then through Joseph's experience as a 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:56.879 person, how that affects, what's that like for our reality and what it means. 00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:01.240 So God's reality that comes through this passage is very clear, isn't it? 00:03:01.240 --> 00:03:08.640 He makes clear to us, not just then but now, that there is an indisputable spiritual world 00:03:08.640 --> 00:03:13.240 that we can't see today. 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:14.680 As it was then. 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:24.879 You know, we're told there in verse 20 that as Joseph, Mary had told Joseph about what 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:31.280 was going to be happening and he was going to put her away, divorce her quietly. 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:36.200 But as he considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and 00:03:36.200 --> 00:03:39.800 told him that what was conceived in Mary was from the Holy Spirit. 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:43.360 We just kind of scam over that, don't we? 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:51.000 And yet what we have there is the reality of God's indisputable revelation of a spiritual 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:59.760 world, something that's totally real but not physical so that, you know, there's a world 00:03:59.760 --> 00:04:07.960 that is not measurable by our standards, not empirically provable, not easily defined beyond 00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:12.480 our finite understanding in many ways but real. 00:04:12.480 --> 00:04:18.480 And we sense it, and we sense its shadows in our longings, in our consciousness, in 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:24.680 our creativity, in our love, in our fears, in our relentless search for meaning, for 00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:27.319 discovery, for origins. 00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:35.519 We find it in what we call our soul, in the unexpected and in the unexplained. 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:45.000 And it's the spiritual reality, it's the spiritual world that God reveals to us as real as the 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:50.439 person sitting next to you, more real maybe in some ways. 00:04:50.439 --> 00:05:00.000 So there's an indisputable spiritual world, and God's reality within that gives us His 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.599 own self-revelation. 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:09.439 So God reveals Himself as God of the spiritual world, as a spiritual God. 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:10.439 He is a spirit. 00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:18.200 He says that, that He is a spirit, a spirit who is real, a person, creative mind and word. 00:05:18.200 --> 00:05:23.360 God who, as He reveals Himself in the Word, is the author of all life and all love. 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:25.280 A triune God. 00:05:25.280 --> 00:05:26.280 Can you understand that? 00:05:26.280 --> 00:05:27.280 No, I can't. 00:05:27.280 --> 00:05:28.280 Can you? 00:05:28.280 --> 00:05:30.360 A triune God. 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:36.720 A God who created a spiritual world, who created the angelic beings who were good, some of 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:42.759 whom became evil and rebelled against God and became demons. 00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:48.080 Reminding us of the reality of where the angels came from, their heavenly home, and of the 00:05:48.080 --> 00:05:56.040 reality of being separated from God in an everlasting hell of demons. 00:05:56.040 --> 00:06:01.200 That spiritual reality where we're immediately uneasy, where we're immediately out of our 00:06:01.200 --> 00:06:03.560 comfort zone. 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:10.720 But I would challenge anyone that I spoke to that however suppressed it may be that 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:13.520 deep down we know that. 00:06:13.520 --> 00:06:15.439 We know that world. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:17.280 We know that spiritual world. 00:06:17.280 --> 00:06:23.720 We made, people may deny it and resist it and ignore it. 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:31.000 But if we do so, we will always be lost until we face up to and live in the reality of the 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:34.600 spiritual world that God reveals. 00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:41.040 Reveals in His Word and reveals through this birth. 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:48.760 Where something new, which something special, which something never to be recreated or where 00:06:48.760 --> 00:06:49.960 we talk about turning back the clock. 00:06:49.960 --> 00:06:52.360 When we like to turn back the clocks from 2020? 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:56.480 Yeah, in many ways we probably can't turn back the clock, can we? 00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:01.439 And we certainly can't turn back the clock nor would we want to on this unique birth. 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:07.800 Where the physical and the spiritual realms are fused together hugely powerfully. 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:15.759 And nothing from that moment on, from that conception on, nothing will ever be the same. 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:21.400 The coming of the King in this way has changed the universe forever. 00:07:21.399 --> 00:07:27.959 That is the greatest and most life-changing event that has ever occurred. 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:38.239 And we see that this unique birth, God prophesied in unfolding history. 00:07:38.239 --> 00:07:43.679 We saw that, Thomas spoke about that last week, the fulfillment of many centuries of 00:07:43.679 --> 00:07:44.679 promise. 00:07:44.679 --> 00:07:50.399 And it's mentioned here in verse 22, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:53.279 to the prophet, behold the virgins who will conceive and bear a son. 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:57.079 They shall call his name, Emmanuel. 00:07:57.079 --> 00:08:04.039 So we know that this unfolding history has been preparing for this unique coming together 00:08:04.039 --> 00:08:07.759 of the spiritual world and of the physical world. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:12.439 It's the unseen overarching pattern of history. 00:08:12.439 --> 00:08:14.839 It's God-shaped. 00:08:14.839 --> 00:08:16.879 History is God-shaped. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:21.000 And history is spiritual, breaking into our physical universe. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:24.120 And so we see that in the unfolding history that's spoken of here. 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:27.519 But we also see it in his unique birth, don't we? 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:31.519 Now this is a really vital truth. 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:36.120 What is conceived in you is, it's conceived of the Holy. 00:08:36.120 --> 00:08:44.639 What is, what is, you've come together and he says, the angel says to her, do not fear. 00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:48.439 What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 00:08:48.439 --> 00:08:57.039 This great vital truth that God the Son, Jesus the Savior, becomes flesh and blood through 00:08:57.039 --> 00:09:03.080 the mysterious touch of God, the Father. 00:09:03.080 --> 00:09:10.039 Through the Spirit, He is born into the womb of Mary, conceived into the womb of Mary, 00:09:10.039 --> 00:09:14.279 the God-man, spiritual, physical coming together. 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:17.679 Now I can't explain that. 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:23.399 As beyond my comprehension, probably I suspect beyond yours. 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:26.159 But it's very important. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:27.919 It's not to be rubbish. 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:38.919 It's not to be mythologized because there's deep theological truth that God enables us 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:42.000 to recognize the importance of this. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:43.120 He's breaking. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:50.000 And is clearly breaking the hereditary, sinful nature of human birth. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:58.320 He's breaking into the ordinary will and physical and physiological union of a loving couple 00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:04.159 in bringing conception to bear. 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:15.480 And He is breaking into that with His own infinite Son who takes on flesh, a human nature along 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:25.480 with His divine nature in one person, in utero, the remarkable truth of the incarnation. 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:31.720 And so God is breaking in both through history and the revelation of prophecy, both through 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:38.480 the unique birth of Jesus in this unique way which has never, ever been repeated nor will 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:46.279 it be, but also in His names, in the names that He gives and that are declared of Jesus. 00:10:46.279 --> 00:10:50.879 You know, we talk just for a moment about names with the kids, and I'm not sure how 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:56.720 much names mean to us or how much effort other than, well, I really like that name or that 00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:59.480 name is important in our family or something like that. 00:10:59.480 --> 00:11:09.080 And I certainly think in our context we don't weigh names in the same way that it would 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:16.279 have been in the ancient Near Eastern culture, but we see often in the Bible that names help 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:22.080 to describe the work or the character even of an individual. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:31.400 And the Christ has many names, but He is giving the name Jesus. 00:11:31.400 --> 00:11:35.680 All His names are very significant, and again last week Thomas looked at a number of them 00:11:35.680 --> 00:11:42.120 from Isaiah that are very well known to us, wonderful counsellor and so on. 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:43.120 But He is called Jesus. 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:50.520 They're both very significant names, Jesus, the Savior, Joshua, the Savior of sinners, 00:11:50.519 --> 00:12:01.840 the Savior, and Emmanuel, God with His hugely significant names that are declared to Joseph, 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:10.960 who will be His earthly father as it were, although not genetically or physically. 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:14.679 And they explain, don't they, right from that early, right from the very beginning, they 00:12:14.679 --> 00:12:16.799 explain why Jesus is here. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:19.039 He's not called the woodworker. 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:20.759 He's not named the carpenter. 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:22.759 He's not named the preacher. 00:12:22.759 --> 00:12:27.559 His name doesn't mean any of these things, particularly here, because what God wants 00:12:27.559 --> 00:12:34.719 Joseph and us to know is that He has come to be the Savior of sinners. 00:12:34.719 --> 00:12:35.719 That's His role. 00:12:35.719 --> 00:12:41.799 He will be called Jesus because He is the one who will save His people from their sins. 00:12:41.799 --> 00:12:42.799 That's us. 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:45.360 That's every one of us. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:50.480 And He will be called Emmanuel, God with us. 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:54.919 These names tell us a great deal about what we would casually call the reason for the 00:12:54.919 --> 00:12:57.159 season. 00:12:57.159 --> 00:13:02.519 They remind us of the significance and the importance that we need to be redeemed. 00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:03.519 We need to be... 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:05.320 We need a Savior. 00:13:05.320 --> 00:13:10.920 And the most important person we need in our lives is God, God with us, which is promised 00:13:10.920 --> 00:13:14.639 through the person and work of Jesus Christ. 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:21.639 So we have this unmistakable spiritual reality, God breaking into our physical world to reveal 00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:31.879 our spiritual bankruptcy before Him with this astonishing commitment to gift us His Son. 00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:37.919 And that is huge because it has turned the world upside down, but I hope and pray it's 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:41.200 also turned your life upside down. 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:46.920 Not just 20 years ago when you professed faith, or five years ago, or 40 years ago, or last 00:13:46.920 --> 00:13:55.040 week, but every day that our life is transformed by this knowledge of who God is. 00:13:55.040 --> 00:13:57.800 So we've seen God's reality. 00:13:57.800 --> 00:13:58.800 What about God's... 00:13:58.800 --> 00:14:02.200 Just briefly, what about God's reality for us? 00:14:02.200 --> 00:14:03.200 How that... 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:07.440 We take that and apply it into our own hearts and lives on a regular basis. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:08.920 And I'm just going to focus on one thing. 00:14:08.919 --> 00:14:16.039 I'm just going to focus on Emmanuel, God with us, and what that means. 00:14:16.039 --> 00:14:21.120 Not all that it means, just a little bit of what it means in the person and work of Christ. 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:27.000 And at one level, Emmanuel, which we sing about and which we believe and which we rejoice 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:37.240 in, at one level it's the most inconvenient truth that we are ever faced with as sinners 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:39.919 before a holy God. 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:45.980 It's not the most comforting truth in many ways for us in our natural sinful condition 00:14:45.980 --> 00:14:52.000 because we've rebelled against God and we're not really that keen on God, even in His love. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:58.120 And if we are challenged by the spiritual reality which is unseen and which therefore 00:14:58.120 --> 00:15:03.879 is easy to avoid, our lives will be turned upside down. 00:15:03.879 --> 00:15:09.320 And that's ongoing tough for us as Christians. 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:16.080 In many ways, He's the most troublesome and uncomfortable challenge, at least to our self-absorbed 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:19.559 independence where we want to go alone and we want to be on our own. 00:15:19.559 --> 00:15:23.439 We're not really that keen on having God in our lives. 00:15:23.439 --> 00:15:24.720 We know there's much more to it than that. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:29.480 But coming to Christ and being in Christ, it doesn't make life easier, does it? 00:15:29.480 --> 00:15:30.960 Can we testify to that this morning? 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:35.440 Can we be honest enough to testify to that this morning? 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:40.320 We're spiritually alive, and I'll go on to talk about that briefly, but we're battling 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:50.820 evil and deadness and remaining defeated certainly, but intoxicating blindness and deep spiritual 00:15:50.820 --> 00:15:57.040 opposition to God because of what remains of sin to be defeated and not to be defeated 00:15:57.040 --> 00:15:58.920 but to be destroyed in us. 00:15:58.919 --> 00:16:04.279 I think of the battle that I have with God in my heart and life sometimes. 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:08.559 I think of Tom Jones' great song, Did Trouble Me. 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:13.639 When I close my eyes and would not see, my Lord did trouble me. 00:16:13.639 --> 00:16:18.699 When I let things stand that should not be, my Lord did trouble me. 00:16:18.699 --> 00:16:23.839 Did trouble me with a word or a sign, with a ringing of the bell in the back of my mind. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:30.440 Did trouble me, did stir my soul for to make me human, to make me whole. 00:16:30.440 --> 00:16:36.600 And there's this wrestle, isn't there, with us in our lives when we come to know the spiritual 00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:42.639 dimension and the spiritual realm and the reality of God in our lives. 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:45.519 Let's look briefly at Joseph. 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:49.720 Matthew speaks more about Joseph's side of the event. 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:53.160 Luke looks more at Mary's side of the event. 00:16:53.159 --> 00:16:55.639 Think of Joseph for a moment. 00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:58.559 His life was literally turned upside down, wasn't it? 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:05.480 Firstly, with that conversation from his fiancee, as we would say, but it was his betrothed. 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:12.519 It was almost like marriage in his own culture, saying she's pregnant. 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:17.159 Ah, a dream from God she'd had. 00:17:17.159 --> 00:17:21.240 Sure, Mary, sure you're a dream from God. 00:17:21.240 --> 00:17:27.799 Can you imagine how devastated he was in that culture, at that time, at his position? 00:17:27.799 --> 00:17:30.880 But, you know, he was a righteous guy. 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:34.440 He loved her and he didn't want her disgraced. 00:17:34.440 --> 00:17:41.559 Let's not try and put 21st century lenses on what's happening here with a self-righteous 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:45.480 judgment on how he's dealing with this. 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:47.000 He loved her and didn't want her disgraced. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:51.920 He was going to divorce her as was necessary quietly in these days. 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:53.960 But then he is a life-changing dream. 00:17:53.960 --> 00:17:57.119 A spiritual reality comes into his experience. 00:17:57.119 --> 00:17:58.240 And all is well again. 00:17:58.240 --> 00:17:59.240 He feels honored. 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:01.880 This remarkable truth has happened. 00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:06.039 Something unique is going to happen with him and with Mary, and he's going to be involved 00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:10.000 in the coming of the Messiah and the Savior. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:13.480 And so he resets his life and it's brilliant. 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:18.480 It's future with Mary, there's joy again, it's turned out well as God is coming to his 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:19.480 life. 00:18:19.480 --> 00:18:30.319 And then there's the census where he has to move to Nazareth. 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:36.599 And he's homeless because there's no room in the inn for them. 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:39.680 And the child is born. 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:42.240 A cousin for John. 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:44.640 Well turns out good. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:51.039 And then there's shepherds more breaking in from the spiritual realm, more dreams, more 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:52.039 messages. 00:18:52.039 --> 00:18:57.920 Then there's wise men from the east with amazing expensive gifts. 00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:00.480 But then he has to go. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:04.880 He has to leave everything because his life is in danger. 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:09.799 And there's assassins that want his child dead along with all the other children, male 00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:17.079 children, desperate killings, desperate death, desperate annihilation, moves to a foreign 00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:19.079 country. 00:19:19.079 --> 00:19:25.480 He eventually returns to family life in Nazareth. 00:19:25.480 --> 00:19:28.079 Many unrevealed joys and battles. 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:32.559 And we're not told anything really about that upbringing except that when he's Jesus 12 00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:37.639 years old, he goes missing in Jerusalem. 00:19:37.639 --> 00:19:39.319 Pretty little story. 00:19:39.319 --> 00:19:45.639 But 12 years old, three days lost. 00:19:45.639 --> 00:19:50.759 Image of previous assassins who wanted their child dead. 00:19:50.759 --> 00:19:55.839 There not being great terror and great fear. 00:19:55.839 --> 00:20:00.159 It wasn't a casual event in his life. 00:20:00.159 --> 00:20:03.000 His life again turned upside down. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:08.119 And then sometimes within the next 18 years he probably died. 00:20:08.119 --> 00:20:10.359 Probably young, we presume. 00:20:10.359 --> 00:20:18.039 So you know, it's not the easiest of life that we have recorded for Joseph. 00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:21.559 Unheralded and unrecorded faith generally. 00:20:21.559 --> 00:20:23.159 And undoubtedly there were good times. 00:20:23.159 --> 00:20:25.159 But there's also poverty, wasn't there? 00:20:25.159 --> 00:20:30.839 And there was fear and there was doubts and confusion, illness and ultimately death. 00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:35.079 But yet God. 00:20:35.079 --> 00:20:38.639 God was in him and with him. 00:20:38.639 --> 00:20:47.000 And when we look at that life, God's reality and the challenge of the spiritual reality 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:51.439 of God breaking into Joseph's life, what's the counterbalance for us? 00:20:51.439 --> 00:20:59.559 What's the counterbalance for that life of challenge and difficulty and unremarkable 00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:02.679 battles? 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:05.120 He was declared righteous. 00:21:05.120 --> 00:21:11.640 You know, we're told there in verse 19 that this Joseph was a just man. 00:21:11.640 --> 00:21:12.640 Righteous man. 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:19.680 There's a declarative emphasis behind this term biblically that applies to him. 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:24.080 He had received the great gift of salvation. 00:21:24.080 --> 00:21:31.640 He was one who trusted in the coming Messiah who happened to be his son at that level. 00:21:31.640 --> 00:21:33.400 And that's the great... 00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:36.560 It's not even a counterbalance. 00:21:36.560 --> 00:21:42.640 Overbalances overcompensates a million times for anything that we will face in this life. 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:48.320 However difficult and challenging and overcoming, it is the biggest deal. 00:21:48.320 --> 00:21:59.400 Because trusting that God is the Savior and that God is with us is the most...and committing 00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:04.519 our lives to Him is the most powerful counterbalance we could ever have. 00:22:04.519 --> 00:22:06.759 It's a presence, isn't it? 00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:16.000 Your ordinary mundane run-of-the-mill life is touched by the presence of the Holy Spirit 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:19.640 in our hearts, the presence of God in our lives. 00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:22.800 Wherever we go, wherever we are, we are one with God. 00:22:22.800 --> 00:22:27.680 His essence is in us and with us through the Holy Spirit. 00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:31.360 And by the powerful work of Jesus Christ. 00:22:31.360 --> 00:22:41.200 We have meaning, joy, purpose, assured victory, promises, fulfillment, forgiveness. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:50.320 That nothing in this world can match that our pursuits and our...what we chase for in 00:22:50.320 --> 00:22:55.080 this life can only ever be a shadow of what we have in Christ. 00:22:55.079 --> 00:23:01.399 There's no human security, ambition, wealth, health or long life that can replace us being 00:23:01.399 --> 00:23:06.960 able to say, my Father in heaven. 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:08.720 Our Father in heaven. 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:09.720 Nothing can replace that. 00:23:09.720 --> 00:23:13.519 There's nothing more significant than being able to say that. 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:23.639 The privilege and the blessing of knowing...being reunited with our God through Jesus Christ, 00:23:23.640 --> 00:23:30.840 through Him breaking into our experience, living the life we couldn't live, dying the 00:23:30.840 --> 00:23:37.240 death that we deserve and being raised as the first fruit of our resurrection. 00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:38.240 Nothing changes in that. 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:40.360 And I know you've heard that before. 00:23:40.360 --> 00:23:43.800 I know you know it back to front. 00:23:43.800 --> 00:23:50.759 But the challenge is for it to allow the Holy Spirit to work that into...to moat, to just 00:23:50.759 --> 00:23:57.599 work that into our hearts and to allow our heart of stone to be replaced by a heart of 00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:04.279 flesh which knows and loves the living God as a...as an appreciation of the gift that 00:24:04.279 --> 00:24:08.440 He has given to us. 00:24:08.440 --> 00:24:14.920 Because along with that we have the great anticipation of heaven and all that heaven is, the anticipation 00:24:14.920 --> 00:24:23.279 of reunions and restoration and renewal, not just of our existence but of the existence 00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:25.039 of this universe. 00:24:25.039 --> 00:24:26.600 And that is our hope. 00:24:26.600 --> 00:24:34.200 And in that light I don't think our lives are easy in Christ because you know that spiritual 00:24:34.200 --> 00:24:44.360 realm is woken up, is awoken both for our salvation but also in opposition as well as 00:24:44.359 --> 00:24:46.199 the battle we face in our own hearts. 00:24:46.199 --> 00:24:47.799 And I think it's easy to lose sight of that. 00:24:47.799 --> 00:24:54.479 And I hope you don't lose sight of that because He promises to be with us through these things 00:24:54.479 --> 00:24:57.919 not always to deliver us from them. 00:24:57.919 --> 00:25:03.639 And if today you're struggling with what you see, what you experience or what you can't 00:25:03.639 --> 00:25:11.439 see and what you wish you could see spiritually, if there's much you don't understand about 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:18.720 your sufferings and your soul pain, and if you're tired and weary, which I am and I'm 00:25:18.720 --> 00:25:22.160 sure you are too in these days. 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:29.120 And that just please pray that you will see Jesus and that you will recognize the gift 00:25:29.120 --> 00:25:34.960 He is in the very complexity of your day to day life and of mine. 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:44.400 And see the shalom, the peace that He brings in order to be reunited with our Father. 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:53.799 And I hope that transforms our lives and that gift that is promised to us is the most precious 00:25:53.799 --> 00:26:00.720 one that we have and not one that we treat with disdain, which is so easy for us to do 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:07.960 isn't it, with our flesh and blood, lives and thinking, mentalities which Christ has 00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:10.720 come to redeem and renew and transform. 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:11.720 Amen. 00:26:11.720 --> 00:26:12.720 Let's pray. 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:17.680 Father God, we thank You for Your Word. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:22.480 And we know it's a battle for us and we know that often we don't see things and how easily 00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:31.599 we fall under the deception of thinking that God is rough and bad and unfair and mean, 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:34.360 and that we deserve better. 00:26:34.360 --> 00:26:46.599 And ignoring this remarkable event which brings on the remarkable reality of a life of obedience 00:26:46.599 --> 00:26:53.959 and then a death of huge and incomparable and unimaginable suffering and judgment in 00:26:53.959 --> 00:27:03.079 our place so that we might live, so that we might breathe Your air and that we might know 00:27:03.079 --> 00:27:10.959 You, to know as whom to know as eternal life. 00:27:10.960 --> 00:27:18.440 For help us not to live in the shadows, keep us from bitterness or pain that separates us 00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:19.640 from You. 00:27:19.640 --> 00:27:27.519 Help us to know Your victory and understand that victory even in the midst of battle and 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:34.880 difficulty and we rejoice genuinely, be able to rejoice genuinely for the reason for this 00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:35.880 season. 00:27:35.880 --> 00:27:36.880 Amen. 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:43.880 Amen.