So last week I had the privilege of preaching on Sunday morning with two services down in New Smyrna Beach. So I did the same passage. In fact, they've already heard that joke. I got to preach the same passage Cord did. Cord did a better job. You are very blessed here. With Genesis 3.15, as we started the story of the scarlet thread about how the story of the Messiah runs all the way through the Old Testament. we would spend the rest of our lives running that thread down because it goes through every book and all over. But in Genesis 3.15, as Cord very beautifully put it, it talks about from the very beginning, God looking Satan in the eye after Adam and Eve's sin and said, this is what's going to happen. You will wound man's heel, but God will crush your head. And then in Romans 16, 20, it says, the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath our feet. What a beautiful, beautiful passage. But I liked what Kord said, when the virgin birth took place, the fulfillment of Isaiah 7, 14, it was not, it is beautiful. It's an incredible story. Yes, it's angelic, it's singing, but as Kord so aptly put it, it was an act of war. that we're on. You've been wounded heels for a long time, and now the Messiah is here to crush your head. And for the last 2,000 years since the resurrection, that's what's been going on, okay? And the closer we get to the end of time, the more of that battle is engaged. It is serious because souls are on the line. There's never to my knowledge been eight and a half billion people on the earth. So there's a lot of souls in play here and Satan's running out of time and he knows he's gonna get crushed. All right, so that's the setup to where we're going. Now, just real quickly, reminder, next week we will not be here. On Saturday and Sunday, we have two options. We encourage you to go to one of our other campuses and support them. See what goes on in Delan, Bunnell, New Smyrna Beach, pack them out and go and worship there. That would be fantastic. Number two, or and included, we will broadcast a service that we have put together. I watched it yesterday. Honestly, I was brilliant. I'm just, I'm just. Just kidding. All of our pastoral staff does like a three-minute teaching. We take you through one of the prophecies of Isaiah. There's great worship. There's a communion time. So it's designed for you to have worship with your family, and you can do that and go to one of our campuses. Whatever you wanna do, and then we'll put, of course, our energy into the Christmas Eve services. There's information out there to give away to invite your friends to the Christmas Eve services. All that's out there. Also, there's a signup sheet out there. If you would like to get baptized on Christmas Eve, if you've not accepted Jesus or you have and haven't been baptized, there's a signup sheet out there for you. Now, also, and I'm gonna tie this in, just hang on. So our market is open. We only have it open about once a month. And this month we have it full of olive wood items from Bethlehem. And I wanna explain the story to you. So about 40 years ago, Melanie Dulwich, who hides back here playing keyboard, and Charles, her husband over here on the cello, their family went to Israel every year. And they basically adopted a missionary family, a Palestinian Christian family that lived in Bethlehem. And they took care of them for 40 years. When Melanie's mom and dad died, Tomoka stepped in to take their place. And they don't ask for charity, they don't want charity. They run an olive wood factory, a very large one, when things are going well, which right now, things are not going well in the West Bank. And so what we do is we buy all the olive wood we can from them. We don't make a dime on this. All of this goes back to support that one family in Bethlehem. One family, is that a big deal? Tell me if it was your family. So anyway, this is what we do. So I'm gonna, how do I do this? I'm gonna go all the way over here to the corner. I need somebody 10 years old or younger. In the back, right there, all the way up. Come on up here, come on, come on. You have your very own Christmas tree ornament made of Ollywood from Bethlehem, and it says Bethlehem on it. What are the odds? All right. Look at that. Just for getting out of bed this morning. All right. The rest of you buck up. Okay. So from Bethlehem, that's where we're headed today. And we're gonna talk about one of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. And this may be the most difficult one. Because how do you fake where you're born? That's a little difficult, right? You could make up the rest of it. You could say, well, I see in scripture I'm supposed to do this or this or this, but really the first three that I look at, well, four, the virgin birth, that one's kind of hard to fake, where you're gonna be born in Bethlehem, that you'll be called a Nazarene, because that's where they actually lived, and that you would be called out of Egypt, that's in Hosea. And that's all before Jesus is three years old. So it's kind of hard to fake that. So here's the statistical probabilities. The chances of one man fulfilling all messianic prophecies are one in 10 to the 17th power, or one in 100 quadrillion. In other words, it ain't happening. Now, All the time you hear people say, you really believe that nonsense? You believe your Bible? You believe in Noah's flood? You believe in Jesus? You believe in the resurrection from the dead? Yes. Now, if your answer is no, that's okay. You have every right to say no, but at least do your homework. Don't just listen to, don't go to hell on somebody else's advice, okay? Because the facts are there. The prophecies are in place. And what we're looking at today in Micah chapter five was written about 735 BC. Micah is a contemporary of Isaiah. What's going on in Jerusalem? Well, things are bad. The temple is there, Solomon's temple is still there, but it's gonna get wiped out. Nebuchadnezzar's gonna come in from Babylon and he's gonna level the temple, level the whole city of Jerusalem. There'll be nothing left and Micah's gonna talk about that. At this stage, they think because they're Israel, that they're untouchable. and they live totally out of line with God's word. And Isaiah is constantly warning them, Micah, it's only nine chapters, but he is to the point and blunt about their sins. But in the middle of that story, he pops up and tells us about the Messiah. If you'll stand out of respect for God's word. And he says, marshal your troops, O city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel's ruler on the cheek with the rod. But you, Bethlehem, Eprathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come from For me, one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Therefore, Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth. and the rest of his brothers will return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach where? to the ends of the earth, and he will be their peace. Okay, you can be seated. Now that first part, I'll just hit very quickly. Israel is a vassal state. which means they owe allegiance to Babylon. And that first part about being struck on the cheek, the king would have to go, all the kings that were under this authority would have to go once a year and bow down to the pagan God of the Babylonians. And then they would slap the king in the face with a stick to let them know you are under our authority and our God rules. And he says, but in the middle of that story, the living God will arise. That's what verse two is all about. Out of Bethlehem will come one who will be the ruler of all Israel and his origins are from of. ancient days. So let's talk about Bethlehem just for a minute. Bethlehem's about 10 minutes from Jerusalem, at least now, by car. I mean, it's not that far, I guess, if you walked it. It's over a hill from Jerusalem. But it's never been a big deal. When Micah wrote it, probably 200 people, so it would have been very insignificant. By the time Jesus is born, two to 300 people live there. Nobody would have gone to Bethlehem. In fact, the only people that were in Bethlehem pretty much were the shepherds. The sheep that were used for the sacrifice, remember the sacrifices are going on every day. at the temple, right? Sacrifices for our sin. And so the sheep were all from Bethlehem. They're all out there in the fields eating. And it's full of limestone caves and hills. And so the sheep would come in. There's nine gates that go around the old city of Jerusalem. And there's one gate that goes straight to Bethlehem. Bethlehem straight into Jerusalem. Anybody wanna guess the name of that gate? A sheep gate, that's correct. You go in the sheep gate and turn left, and you're on top of the temple mount. You're right there ready for the sacrifice, okay? So here's what it looks like, I'll just show you. This is early 20th century, gives you an idea. It's very built up by then. It's still a small, I mean, it's a city now, but at the time of this writing, it's two or 300. Here's a modern picture. of the city of Bethlehem. And you can see it's all built there on those hills, because that's all it is. Now, this is where the story of Ruth takes place. This is where the story of King David takes place. This is where David and his family live. This is where he's watching the sheep. And it says that the Messiah would come out of David. So we have that. And then here's the spot everybody goes to. This is the church. the church where Jesus was born, the church of the nativity, and the door is actually here, there it is, you can see the little door there, it's kinda hard to see, but this used to be the door, this whole big thing, okay? Now this church is sixth century, which is pretty impressive by itself, built on top of a fourth century church, which you can see when you're inside of there, and then that's built on top of the cave where Jesus was born, okay? But that gate's very interesting because the reasons, they had the great big doors, just like if you've ever been to Rome or any of the ancient cities, they have these huge massive doors. Well, that's what they had here on this church. But when the Muslims came, they would ride their horses into the church to desecrate the church. So the church, brought the door down, now you have to bend over and kind of, it's not easy. I mean, anybody could get in technically, but as Indiana Jones would say, only the penitent can get in. That's where we get the phrase, the eye of a needle, the camel. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven. That's the picture right there. Now, why? Well, you have to do your camel homework. Because you ever looked at camels, how their knees work? They work backwards. Take a look at a camel. A camel could never bend down and go through there. When camels get up, camels get down, their knees go all different directions. It's the wildest thing you'll ever see, but it works for a camel. But he said, it would be easier for that camel to get through there than it would be for a rich man to get into the kingdom of God. because he thinks he's got everything already taken care of. So Bethlehem is this small little village, unimportant in history, and would never know about this town if it weren't for Jesus. And just so you'll know, there is a second Bethlehem in Israel. God knew, God knew some dummy would come up and say, I think you got the wrong Bethlehem. So God even put it in there, Bethlehem of Ephrathah. So you can't get it wrong, it's right there. But it's this tiny little town. And sometimes we wonder, well, can God use me? And what John said in the communion meditation was so good. Could God use me? The question is, are you small enough? Are you incapable enough? Are you broke enough? Because what God can't use is somebody who thinks they've got it all together. God's looking for people who will say, Lord, this is yours, and whatever you wanna do, here it is. Now Bethlehem, the name, anybody? House of Bread, that's correct, because it's also the place where all the bread was made for the temple. and it was brought into the city of Jerusalem. John chapter six, Jesus says this, he says, I am the bread of life. When Jesus was born, they wrapped him in swaddling clothes. Anybody know about this story? So out in the fields, when the sheep were born, to be a sheep that could be sacrificed for God, does anybody remember the requirements? had to be a spotless lamb, spotless, no defects, no marks, no anything. And when that spotless lamb would be born, there'd be a lot of them, but that lamb would be wrapped in a special cloth, a swaddling cloth, so that nothing would happen to that particular lamb because that was one that was good enough to go for slaughter. So this imagery of the swaddling cloth, when Jesus comes along, that imagery would not have been lost on the shepherds, nor would it have been lost on Mary and Joseph or anyone else in Bethlehem, because that's the only reason you use that particular cloth. Let's go on. Then he talks about one, and I don't want you to miss this. He says, out of Bethlehem will come one who will be the ruler over Israel. How many? This is important. In today's synchronistic society, you need to pay very close attention to this. One, because our culture says, even the modern church, the progressive church says, oh, that's nonsense. All roads lead to heaven. Just believe something, believe anything. And I know you get sick of hearing it, but I'm gonna keep saying it, because there's always somebody new here. 50% of American churches today will not mention the name of Jesus. They won't talk about Jesus. They won't talk about salvation. They won't talk about repentance. What they will talk about is sexuality, immigration, whatever else they may choose to go down, but they will not deal with Jesus and salvation because they don't know. And if they do know, they're not gonna tell you. That's the sad truth about so many churches. In fact, I'll give you this story. The first two words are a real problem, lesbian bishop, all right? A lesbian bishop in a major denomination, you can figure it out for yourself, she said that every church in their denomination should have a place for Muslims to pray. You see, this is, and what she doesn't realize, she'll be the first one killed, but that's for another time. False teaching is everywhere. If you read the Bible, One, one. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and life. Nobody comes to the Father except. I didn't write that. Ephesians, here's what Paul said. There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Savior, one God and Father of all. So you're welcome to believe in multiple ways. If you believe in multiple ways, you can't believe in Jesus. because the Bible makes it very clear that there's only one way to get to heaven. Now, it's so crazy that that bothers people. I don't know who I stole this quote from, but this is so good. One cannot complain that the gate is narrow who stands amazed that the gate is open at all. See, we forget that it was our sin that Jesus had to come and rescue us from. So for us to sit there and complain about the gate, let's go back to Noah. You know I love that story. I don't think we'll ever get to the bottom of everything that was involved in this flood story. But in Genesis 7, 16, and I could make a whole sermon right here, this will throw the whole progressive church off. The animals went in, male and female. Huh, why? What was the purpose? to reproduce after the flood, that's correct. But then it says, God commanded Noah and the Lord shut him in. I never paid any attention to that. I was doing some research the other day and I never thought about it. How many doors were there on the ark? There was one. Now let's talk about that door, okay? Because the design is incredible. The size, we didn't build anything until the late 19th or early 20th century that was the size of Noah's Ark. But the door, it's estimated based on the wood that it was made out of and the tar and the pitch and so it lays down, it lays down like a tailgate so we can go up and get the supplies in, get the animals in. It weighed 25 tons. The door weighed 50,000 pounds. Now in Genesis 7.22, it said Noah did everything that God told him to do. That's awesome. He built the door. How are you gonna move a 50,000 pound door? Hey Noah, what's your plan? I got no plan. God put you in a spot like that? What are you gonna do? I can't move that door. How did the door close? God closed it. Here's what I wanna show you though. According to Peter, that door stayed open for 120 years. Anybody could have got on the boat. Anybody was welcome. In fact, there were a lot of people that died in the flood that were probably on the boat, working on the boat. But when it came time to get on, they didn't get on. and then the Lord shut the door. And it doesn't rain for seven days. Now, I don't know what Noah's thinking during those seven days. I don't know what the people outside, I'm sure outside they're mocking and making fun of Noah, but inside Noah's probably learning how to pray. Then the rain starts. Now, here's what it says in John. Jesus said, I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. If you go a little further, it says, Jesus says, I am the door. Same imagery as is used here in John. Noah. Now, if you go around Bethlehem and really anywhere outside of Jerusalem, if you're out in the country, you will see to this day these rock corrals, I guess would be the way to call them, but they're for sheep. And you don't have to build them real high, because I don't think sheep are known to be huge like leapers or anything. And so they may be two or three feet high, and that's all they are. And it's not yours, it's communal. That fact that might've been there for the last 3,000 years, and you're bringing your sheep through the flock, you stop for the night, you park them there, you eat. Go on your way. The next night, somebody else is there with their sheep. But every one of them has a very distinctive build where there's a gap about five feet long, because you got to get the sheep in there, right? Who's the gate? The shepherd is. The shepherd, when he gets all the sheep in, the shepherd lays down, because that's the only reason we got him in there is for the night. So the shepherd lays down and he becomes the gate. Jesus said, I am the gate. There you go. And he also said something about, I am the good shepherd. Yeah, it's all there. And then we'll go to the last part where he says, the one who's gonna come, the one who's gonna save us will be from eternity. Now, I think when they write this, I'm not sure that they know what to do. Literally, the word means outside of time, space, and matter. The one who's gonna come and say, well, that makes sense. It is, again, a statement about a virgin birth. It is a statement that the one that's gonna save us is not from this world. He will come from outside. It goes back to Genesis 3. It goes back to Isaiah 7. Daniel uses this imagery in Daniel chapter seven. He says, as I look, thrones were set in place and the ancient of days took his seat. I love that. I have loved that phrase since I was in high school, even though I was a pagan, I still loved it. Twice he uses that phrase, ancient of days. It means before time. before anything we understand. See, you and I can look forward and we can sort of understand heaven and hell and living forever somewhere. It's a possibility in your mind. But living forever backwards? No, no, I saw my birth certificate. I know when I showed up. God has no birth certificate. Jesus, well, he has one physically, but spiritually, He's been there forever. So this ancient of days is the idea that the one who is going to save you will step into time. He is before time, he is time. I mean, I don't even know what to do with it, and that's why they just call it, say, before eternity. But then he goes on and he says, his story will go to the ends of the earth. Well, we're still doing that to this very day. We're still taking the gospel all over the world. Our Christmas trees out there to help the people in Egypt to find the Lord, to feed the poorest of the poor. We've got missionaries all over the world. We've got church plants going on across the United States. We are still taking the message of Jesus to the eight and a half billion people out there because that's what it said would happen. And it says, then in the end, he says, that one that stepped in from eternity will gather up all the people. He will gather all of his people and he will give us what? Come on, peace. Peace. Anybody use that right now? One day, everything will be peace. Everything will be right. One second into heaven, everything will be right. Listen, if you've not accepted Jesus yet, don't go to hell on somebody else's words. Don't go to heaven on mine. Do your own research. Find out for yourself. Is the scripture true? Is history true? Is the archeology true? You'll find it to be so. If you need to accept Jesus, go out to room three. We got folks out there. If you're ready to be baptized, you can do it Christmas Eve, you can do it today. Whatever you want, whenever you wanna do it. But I'll finish with this story. And sometime I'm gonna do a whole series on this, but that would, not today. When Jesus is on the cross, they made a fake crown. Now this is the creator of the universe, right? We know Jesus is the creator, he's the savior, but they mocked him with a purple robe and this crown. Now this tree is an interesting tree. You can look it up. It grows all along the Jordan River. And I grabbed one one time. You'll not make that mistake twice. You gotta be super careful because those dudes are razors. And that's the way the tree grows. It doesn't have branches. It grows kind of like grape vines, but it's a tree. And this is what the vines look like. And so they took these and they wound them together and these razor sharp thorns were taken as a fake crown to mock Jesus and jammed him on his head. Now, yes, it would have hurt beyond anything you could imagine. The blood would have been intense. We could go through all of that, but don't miss what's being taught here. When Adam and Eve last week, when Corb talked about, they were thrown out of the garden, Satan got his lesson. Adam and Eve were thrown out and God says to Adam, look, Things used to be easy for you, but from now on, you're gonna work and you're gonna make a living by the sweat of your brow and the ground, instead of just producing perfectly, it's gonna produce thorns and thistles. When Jesus went to the cross, he took that curse with him. The curse that he laid on Adam and all of mankind, Jesus just reversed it right there. I'll take the thorns for you. Joe, I'll take the thorns for you. Tamoka, I'll take the thorns for you. So Father, I thank you that nothing is ever an accident in your word. You blow us away with every sentence. Open our eyes to the truth. For those who need you, that this is the day of salvation. For others who are just struggling to know that, hey, I can trust the Bible. With all these crazies running around, I can still hang on tightly to my faith. And Lord, the rest of us, it's time to share this story. Because Lord, the one thing I think we all can agree on is how desperately we would like to end the story with peace. In Jesus' name, amen.