Yeah. You're listening to the Standing in the Gap podcast presented by West End Baptist Church in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. This podcast will set out to prepare you to stand. No matter your age, no matter your background, we are here to help you and your family take a stand against all the stuff that culture and the world will throw at you. As the great Martin Luther once said, peace if possible, truth at all costs. We want to help you to stand in the gap. Welcome to another episode of Standing in the Gap. My name's Ryan Hubbard. I'm a member here at West End Baptist Church. I'm a husband and a father of four. And it's Christmas time again. There's lights on every house. There's trees up in every window. There's Santas blew up in every yard. People are planning dinners. Kids are wondering what Santa will bring them. There's so much joy and happiness to be had during this Christmas season. But as a father, as a Christian father, I have to battle a lot of these worldly views on Christmas. Each year, each Christmas that passes, when we come around Thanksgiving, Santa is such the focus on TV. And he is in every store and every song and every movie. On the radio, you hear jingle bells. You hear Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You on repeat. There's so much focus towards these things when Christmas time rolls around. Everyone is scrambling to buy the perfect present, as many as possible for your kids, so the whole tree is full of present on present on present. Families are flying in to gather around to open presents, eat food, and watch football and basketball games. Kids are waiting, counting their presents under the tree, waiting for Santa to bring their presents the next morning. But are we forgetting something? Are we leaving something out of Christmas? In today's culture, it seems to be that the true meaning for Christmas has been lost. And it seems even more true that for many Christians, our celebration looks more like a non-believers than what the true meaning of Christmas is. Our celebration should not look like those who are non-believers, because we are celebrating something more special than anything else. So what does our celebration point to? leading up to on this Christmas day. Scripture points us to Christ. Genesis 3.15, one of the first few chapters in the Bible, what some call the first gospel, it reads, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. And he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. We are seeing here God cursing Satan. after he attempted Eve and Adam and Eve's sin. First part of this verse, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. Thy seed being the devil, right, his demons, his people, and her seed being the descendants of Eve, the ones that are to come. They will be at odds. They will be a conflict, a struggle between Satan and believers to come. And he shall bruise, he being Jesus, Jesus shall bruise the head of Satan. Jesus will crush Satan in the end. This is telling the gospel. This is the first time in the Bible that the coming Messiah is mentioned, just three chapters in, just a few chapters in, and we're already pointing towards Jesus, right? We are already pointing towards our Savior. We need a Savior, even in the very first moments after the first sin. We look again at Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14, and it says, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Another prophecy, and it's telling of the coming Messiah, that he would be born of a virgin, which is a woman unmarried, never being with a man. And he shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. And we can continue to go through scripture after scripture in the Old Testament, and it clearly points towards Christ. All through the Old Testament, we are pointing to one day, to one day when Jesus would come. So we are celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. John 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It says, In the beginning, before the foundations of the world, before dinosaurs, before people, before the first Christmas, was the Word. The Word there meaning the source of wisdom, divine power, or revelation. And this is referring to Jesus. So we're saying in the beginning was Jesus. Not after, not first in Bethlehem, but from the beginning, Jesus was with God. Before day one of creation, Before Adam and Eve, Jesus existed with God before all else. He was seated on the right hand of God in glory, reigning with God over all, worshiped by angels. What an amazing sight to see. Jesus was with God in the beginning. We look at the next line there and it says, Jesus is God. What a statement. It can't get any clearer. Jesus says, he that hath seen me has seen the Father. We see this as the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So we see Jesus has reigned with God since the beginning, seated on the right hand of God. We go down a few verses to verse 14, and we see, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. flesh or human, mankind, and Jesus being a man, he dwelt among us. He came down, as we mentioned before, seated on the right hand of God. He came down to live as a man. He came down from where he was seated to live a human life, being fully God and fully man. Philippians 2 says, but emptied his self by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men, being found in the appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. He emptied his self. He set aside his glory, fully submitting to the will of his father. Not doing what He wanted, not doing His will, but God's will. Jesus stepping down from heaven as a slave, not to do what He wanted, not to live how He wanted to live, but to do the will of His Father. He didn't come to earth and be made flesh to be the son of a great king and have all the worldly riches that this world has to offer. He didn't come to be a famous movie star or a sports athlete and have everyone looking on Twitter and seeing Him. But he was born of lowly people in a stable and laid in a manger. He would be hated, pursued, captured, beat, stabbed, dragged, and then nailed to a cross. Not for anything he did, because he lived a sinless life, but he did it for me, and he did it for you. Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. We are all deserving of death and hell for the sins we commit. The punishment for those sins is death. But because Jesus stepped down from heaven to be born of a woman, to be made flesh, live a sinless life, being put on the cross so that we may have eternal life, this free gift, this gracious gift that all believers can have. Wow, what a truth. Wow, what an event that we're talking about, that a man comes to earth so that I may one day be with him in heaven. He died on the cross for me. I deserve hell, but he come down and took my place on the cross. Wow, what a savior. What an event in history this is. What a God we have. Now, it can be difficult to change how we celebrate Christmas. When you start to detach yourself from these worldly culture, these worldly views, the way culture celebrates Christmas. Sometimes you may be looked at as radical or mean when you don't participate in certain events or certain things of Christmas. It can make you question your decisions. Am I doing what's right by my kids? Am I not going to fit in? Am I doing them a disservice? As believers, we can't look to the world for guidance in celebrating Christmas. We wouldn't look to them in matters on what to do on Sundays or how creation came about. Why would we follow their guidance with Christmas? The celebration of our Savior, what the whole Bible points to. Our God stepped down for us. Wow, what an event. What special event that we Christians have on Christmas. So I challenge you to each day, evaluate the focus in your celebration. Look at what you're doing, what you're watching, what you're celebrating. Is it of this world or is it of God? You say, Ryan, are we supposed to stay home and read the Christmas story over and over and over? Well, of course not. Have fun. Celebrate with family. Goof off with your kids. Try all the desserts that you can find at your dinner. But never let Christmas lose its meaning. So as we approach Christmas, take time each day to talk to your kids. Make it well known in what you watch, where you go, what you do, that Jesus Christ is the focus Go to church events, go to plays, go to dinners. Read the Christmas story with family. Let everyone know that Christmas is not for Santa, not for the reindeer, but for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, coming down as a man to be born of woman, to live a sinless life, to die on the cross for my sins, for your sins. Wow, what a reason to celebrate. What a reason to gather around at church and at home and read the story together and praise and worship our Lord. Luke 2, verses 1 through 20. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world would be taxed. And this taxing was the first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. and all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth unto Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and the lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, The days were accomplished that she would be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, watching over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone around about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you, and you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was within the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God. and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they had made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. and all that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart, and the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, and it was told unto them." Merry Christmas and God bless. Thank you for listening to another episode of Standing in the Gap. If you would like to connect with us, you can reach us by email at standinginbsg at gmail.com. You can find our website at westendbsg.org. We are on Facebook and Instagram at standinginthegapbsg. And we are on X or Twitter at standing underscore n underscore bsg. We look forward to hearing from you. Yeah.