So here we started off with hope. We moved to peace. There we go. The times of contemplation, the times of repentance, the time when we were thinking about what's ahead and what lies ahead and how far away it would be, and it's a whole month away, four long weeks, it's gonna be, it's gonna seem like we got plenty of time, it's gonna rush upon us, and then last week we turned to joy, joy we had where the Lord had to line things up for us for a baby dedication, announcements of an adoption. We just can't write stuff like that, you know, that God would do that for us. And as we see that we're so close to the end, you know, that it brings the joy, that the fulfillment of the prophecies, we're going to be here. And then I'll go ahead and light today, which is love, which is an intimidating message to bring. Love. Before I do, I want to open with a word of prayer, and then we'll dive in. Lord, we just thank you for this day and, Lord, this season that we set apart to talk about the birth of your son, Jesus Christ, about that divine night. And we're so grateful that we were raised in a country where we don't have to ask the what if, that we have the star, we have the baby in the manger. The gospel has gone forth. It's been the heritage of this nation, and Lord, I hope we reclaim it and we bring it back bolder than ever. I thank you for these that are here this morning, Lord, on our Christmas service. And Lord, I pray that you would just be glorified and honored through it. And Lord, may we have thoughts and reflection of who you are and what you've done on our behalf. Lord, I do pray for the classes downstairs. May they go well. May the children, as they study and as they learn, as we're laying down that groundwork of the greatest story ever told, as they become familiar with it and as they know it. Lord, those that don't know you as Savior, Lord, that it would draw them ever closer to you. Just pray that you'd be with us, may you be honored, may you be glorified, and speak to us through your word. In your son Jesus' name I pray, amen. So zap, just like that, four weeks have gone by. It just seems like time is increasing, doesn't it? It seems like it's going faster. And Jesus even said that in the last days, you know, time will increase for the elect's sake. So maybe we're witnessing that. Maybe we're witnessing the fulfillment of the Lord, helping us get through to get by until he comes back, until it's the second advent, at least for us at the rapture. The fulfillment of the true second advent is when he is back on earth and he is reigning as king, which would be about seven years after we're out of here, in the pre-tribulational view of things. But we are looking for his glorious appearing, the blessed hope when we will see him in the sky. The four weeks have flown by. Well, here we are at the last week of Advent. We arrive at the last purple candle. The first one's about reflection and contriteness of heart. But not this one. This one's about regalness. We've had joy, we've had time of contemplation, we've had time of repenting, and we've had the joy of knowing that it's right here, it's right upon us, and we're right there now, even at the, nearing the eve of this great day, when Christ was born on Earth. This purple is to represent the majesty of the King, the regalness, the royalness of it all, the God-man, I was listening through the Word and the app that I've recommended, we've got a link to it on the website if you haven't been through there yet, and they were going through Leviticus and they were talking about the colors in the tabernacle and it's always interesting to listen to different preachers and different things because people are different. I have a color background. I was a printer. I worked with colors. I would tell you 185 red from reflex blue and all these different things. I grew up with cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. We called it K. We had all these different things that were in my industry that we did. I looked at the tabernacle. I would look at the curtains before you got into the Holy of Holies. I saw the red. representing the humanity of Jesus Christ. The blue curtain that was right behind there that represented his deity. And then when I saw the purple curtain, the last one, to me that's the red and the blue mixing, God incarnate making Christ the king, that's him, that's royal, makes the purple color. They saw it as humanity and how he became human and they mentioned it was like in the center of a man that we are made up with arteries and veins and they painted that picture and I thought that was interesting. Again, pointing to the humanity of Christ but from a whole different way and so it's just neat to see the levels of the Bible that we have. How do you prepare for a king? That's one of the harder questions because I'm an American. And I've always been an American, and it's hard for me to get excited about kings. Only king, I didn't know a king. We always had a queen, right? Until recently that we had a king, and it's like, I don't much care for him. And so, but he hasn't stood for good things. And so it's kind of hard to be excited about that. You know, we're Americans. We threw off the king. But I have to wrap my head around a good king. I know enough fairy tales, and I've seen enough King Arthur stories, and the things I know about a good king, and how a good king can be what a good king should be. And I know my Bible that talks about the king of kings. But what if I was gonna have a king come to my house, what would I do? I know I'd probably clean harder than I do for when you're coming to visit. Make things tidy, right? You'd be on your best behavior, you'd have royalty coming over, you know, you would at least act right, you would not be rude, you would not be crass, you would sit straight and you'd know where the fork was supposed to go and how those things would happen, you'd probably study up on that, you would surely brush up on current affairs, right, because you would not want to talk about things you shouldn't talk about that aren't going well for the king or things that are going well for the king that you'd want to bring up, you want to make sure that you mention those, that you are abreast about the current affairs, that you could talk and at least, you know, hang with them, you know, as they're talking about those topics, We're preparing for the King of Kings. That's what this candle's about. Christ the King being born on Earth, the King of Kings. I mainly wanna focus on the why. The why he came, not to our house. He came to our planet. The God of the universe comes to Earth. It's a rescue mission. It's to save humanity. This is why it's the greatest story ever told, the plot and the plan, and we could be all morning rehearsing all that, but I just want to kind of focus on some certain parts. If you turn with me to Galatians chapter four. Because like the play was kind of saying, there's things that we get familiar with and we take for granted. And they ask us the what if we didn't have that at the center of our Christmas. And I kinda wanna reflect on that as well. Galatians 4, in verse 4, it says, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. When the fullness of time was come, he came. First Peter chapter one tells us that the plan of salvation was in place even before the creation of the world, before the foundation of the world, Peter tells us, that this was already mapped out, it was already planned, that God in his foreknowledge knew that he would make mankind, that we would sin, that we'd be plunged into separation from him. Death would be the curse upon the earth and that man would need to be rescued and that God would rescue us. He would not leave us, he would not abandon us, but that he had a plan and that he would send his son down to be the sacrifice for you and I. and he executed the plan anyway. He made the world, put us on it, let us goof it up, and sent his son to rescue us when the time was perfect, when the time was perfect. It wasn't when we wanted, and I'm sure the ancients were probably more zealous than you and I. I wish the rapture was tomorrow. I wish I knew it was today. There's a lot of things I'm like, ooh, but probably not with how they wish the Messiah would have came. I've not been in slavery. I've been in debt, but I've not been in slavery. I've not been under that kind of bondage and that kind of suffering and the things that they went through. But in the fullness of time, he came. And I've heard messages on that that have been thought-provoking, about how Rome had built the roads, you know, and so that the message could spread quickly from here, the cradle of civilization there, where it could go forth of this highway where Israel stuck right in the middle, where everything traded, where everything came through and put them in the most and the best spot to be able to spread the good news of the gospel as it went forth. And there was roads that were there, Greek. had already been in power and then left a Hellenistic culture that had gone everywhere where they had a kind of a common trade language that they could go and they could speak and people would know and understand and that things were broad enough that a lot of people spoke different languages and they could convey the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That Gabriel had already kind of told them when to expect it and to prepare as they were preparing for it in Daniel chapter nine. In Daniel nine he gives them that prophecy. And they had been waiting and they had been watching for some 483 years. They'd already watched some of the keystones go by. They had mile markers. You and I are waiting for the imminent return of the Lord where there's nothing that we are waiting to happen. We don't have to wait for Damascus to fall. We don't have to wait for the Psalm 83 war or the Ezekiel 38 war. We don't have to wait for the temple to be rebuilt or a red heifer. We don't have to wait for any of that. At any moment, at any time, Jesus Christ could come and take us home. We're waiting for nothing. It's been that way since the New Testament that they've been waiting, they've been watching, and they've been anticipating him. They had the decree for them to go back to their land, for them to return. They had the decree to rebuild the walls and they had these mile markers to mark it off and to count time to the point where Jesus held them accountable when he said and presented himself when he rode in on the donkey as this thy day. You should have known, you should have anticipated me. You've been asking for me, you've been crying. Gabriel gave you a prophecy and now here I am on this thy day doing what I was supposed to be doing, riding on the donkey, presenting myself as king. You should have been ready, you should have been prepared. But they weren't. Daniel also said that he would be cut off from the land of the living that he was. And that's the secret mission that we didn't really know about. But that was the way in which he was gonna rescue us. The fullness of time had come and Jesus was made of a woman. It's a virgin birth. Talked about here even in Galatians 4, and we know from Isaiah that that was part of the prophecy about what he would do, that God would give a sign to the world. That he'd be born, not in our church age, because we live in the day of grace. And I'm grateful that that's all we've known, the grace and the goodness of God, that we could have God's riches at Christ's expense, you know, the acronym for it. But Jesus was born under the law. It makes that specifically there in verse four. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. They were still under the law. The law had to be kept. The law had to be satisfied. And Paul argues in many of the accounts, it's like, we can't keep it. It's a taskmaster that we couldn't do. And so why would we plunge people back under the law? But Jesus could, and Jesus did. Verse five, he says he's there to redeem us. To redeem us that are under the law. To adopt us, it says, for the adoption of sons that we're no longer an outcast, we're no longer a stranger, we're not somebody who doesn't know him, but we're now family. That's why Christians have brothers and sisters. Yeah, we call each other brother and sister. Because we're all family, under God's family. Look at Ephesians one. Should just be a page or two to your right, Ephesians 1, verse 10. Ephesians 1 says that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. Jesus is the one who's going to unite us with all of our ancestors. which I find interesting. I'm curious about my ancestors. My dad liked genealogy, and he left us a pretty thick book of people I don't know, and some of them I'll meet someday. But interesting stories, and it is interesting when you stop and think, you know, about how many generations back we really don't know. You know, we might have names, and some people know better than others, you know, if you have somebody famous in your line, but it's kind of like, man, and they lived a life, and they fought, and they got up and went to work and did all that, and it's like, it's gone that fast. It makes me consider my life quite a bit when I think that way. But we're gonna be gathered together, and we'll be able to talk with Adam, and what it was like in the garden and those things, and when he fell, and I'm sure he's not looking forward to that day as much as you and I are, because we're all gonna be like, why did you do that? And he's like, you'd have done it too. And I'd be like, yeah. Noah, that's one of my favorite parts of the Creation Museum and at the Ark over there to go and see that and the things that he did and the step of faith that he had, to talk with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to talk with David. He says he's gonna gather us together with them, with Samson, Gideon, Isaiah, and all the old saints that are in there. We'll have a fellowship and there's a commonality that they were looking forward to his coming. We know that he has come and there was this one narrow spot where he did come while they were all alive on the earth and he was there with them. The rest of us were looking forward or looking back and going to that same point in time. But there we have a joined together in the fullness of time that he would gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven. He's going to unite it all on earth as it is in heaven. It will go back as it was supposed to be. Adam was going to be an extension and a caregiver of this domain of earth. They would gather together and he would meet with God and they would have times of uniting. There were angels that were involved from their realm and they had this interaction that was going on. One day that'll all be restored. We'll be in those realms and we'll work on those different things. And it's kind of weird. You think about it, we're just worried about people and trying to travel on the earth, let alone, there's a whole other realm that we'll be a part of. And Jesus is coming to reunite all that, put it all back together. Look at Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews 1 and verse 2. Well, I'll start, I'll back up to verse 1. God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. No more sending prophets, no more sending someone else, But he finally just sends his son. I'll send my son. That's the parable that Jesus tells, you know, to the Pharisees at one point in time. Hey, there's a man who makes a vineyard and he makes everything in it and he needs and it comes time for him to get the increase. And he sends some of his ambassadors to go down there, some of the people that work for him. And they beat them and they kill them and they don't give up what is his rightfully. He says, so he finally goes and sends his son. And Jesus tells him right out and they kill him. What should that king do? And they're like, kill them all. Jesus, I am talking about you. So no more sending prophets. We finally have Jesus Christ himself. We have God's words. We have the red letter edition, right? We have the letters of red and Jesus Christ speaking to us. So God sent his son to tell us that we are in the last days. So there's no doubt. I can always be in confidence that we are in the last days because we are since Christ has been here. But we're impatient, but God is patient. God is long-suffering, and we're to be long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. And the other parable that Jesus tells, he's the king who has the marriage supper, and he's like, there's not enough people in here. Invite more people. They're like, we are inviting some, they're not coming. He's like, well, go get more, and go into the highways, get whoever you can. That's God. We'll wait just a little bit longer. One of the things I like about Cornerstone when a missionary comes or we have a visitor, they'll be like, what time does it start? What time should I get there? I'm like, well, officially 6.30, but we start at 6.35 to allow anybody else to have a chance to get in. I don't want to rush it. I don't want to go too fast. I want to allow time. I'm usually running late. And so we're going to allow for that so they can get in and they can enjoy the service as well. And they're like, well, that is different. I'm like, good. That's how my Lord is. He's long-suffering. He's patient. He's kind. He's waiting. But now we need to stop and think a little bit. I want to change from just the why that he was coming down to redeem us, which it is. But I want to appreciate more what he did. We are very familiar with the Christmas story as Christians, and we do our best to try to make sure that it stays at the forefront and the center. I hunted through Walmart and made sure I didn't get any can with Santa Claus on it. And they're like, what's that weirdo doing with his third cart of popcorn? I've explained to the checkout lady. I'm like, I'm a pastor, and these are for my people. So we know about poor Mary and poor Joseph. And we've all tried to imagine what it must have been like as a man of Joseph. And they're like, your wife's pregnant, but trust her. She's good, she's kind. It's not what everybody's gonna tell you and it's not what you think. This is God saying, I'm sending Messiah. And Mary, I know you women think about Mary. But God would tell her, all the prayers of your people have been answered and it's you. You're gonna conceive and bear a son. The Magnificat, when she prays and she rejoices and talks about her Savior. How they had to travel. Would you ever imagine them traveling? I've gone to the live Bethlehem walkthroughs and you see the animals and mom treated us to a ride with a carriage ride the other day, just being pulled by a horse. It's different than riding in something. You're like, ah, you're riding in something. You're riding in something that's alive and can do whatever it wants. It could bolt if it wanted to. Because one time I was working with my dad and my brothers with me when we were cutting some wood and they were using mules and they were using the old gee and ha and getting them to pull. And we're riding back on this little sled on the way back and something spooked them and they took off. And I watched my dad fall off the thing, and I watched the neighbor guy fall off the thing. And I was still clinging on. I'm like, this is probably not going to be good. So I bailed off the thing. And then watching that little sled jump all across, banging it. I'm like, that's dangerous. We went to a horse pool one time at the Morton County Fairgrounds, because we're advanced like that. And so there was like tractor pull or anything with horses and they were pulling it all. And man, you had to get it. If they dropped it and the horses thought that that weight was on there, man, they buckled down and they pulled and they missed it. And that thing took off, damaged cars in the parking lot. They just ran crazy. You know, and they went to boom, boom, boom. You know, and you're sitting on this carriage with your grandkids thinking, I hope this thing stays straight. I hope this thing's going right. And so put in a pregnant lady on a mule and traveling for miles. Hopefully they at least had that. Maybe they had to walk. I don't, we always draw that. Maybe the pregnancy, the mockery. Try to picture the little town of Bethlehem. If there's no room, the rooms are all sold out. I've been on vacation like that, and you're like, I'll just go in. How many other people are really planning on going to the holiday world right now? Apparently everybody in Indiana, because it's all sold out, and there's no room. So they're in a stable. I think as Christians, anytime we're near a barn or something, or mine at least goes there once, when you get that smell, and you're kinda like, this is where my Lord was born. Not in a clean house, not in a palace, in a stable with animals, where they clean up a manger to be able to lay our Savior in, where they swaddle Him with swaddling clothes that were meant for sheep. Well, the first ones to come and greet you aren't your parents and grandparents, it's shepherds. as they were told by angels. It's humble, it's meager, it's dark, it's smelly. But for us, it's been made holy, right? There's something about it, you're like, that's holy. We wanna set up a manger, or you wanna go to the walk through Bethlehem, you wanna see it. I was looking at the inflatable ones, that you could have something, you wanna honor it. We have nativities around our house, you know, to look and imagine and to think about it. It's been made holy for us. But that's on our side. What was it like? in the spiritual realm. In verse two here in Hebrews, it says, he hath in these last days spoken, spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Jesus is the heir of all things. He is over all things, that all things are his to have. And then it says, he is the maker of worlds. Do we appreciate the power of Jesus Christ and His divinity? the second person in the Trinity, that he is the maker, the creator of worlds. And worlds here means times. He made time to be able to put it in. We always think about, oh, there's a lot of space. Well, he had to make the space to put it in. He had to make the time to put the space in because we exist in time as well as in space. He had to make that. He made the ages and how it would go. And he had it all mapped out and perfect to where there'd be a fullness of time that he would have to come. He made the universe as it summed up within that world. He is the eternality that he made time for us to live and exist with him. He did all that for us. This is the power that Christ had. Go with me to Colossians chapter one. Colossians one verse 12. Colossians one verse 12 says, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light. who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. There's a lot in that right there. But verse 14, in whom also we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. "'For by him were all things created "'that are in heaven and that are in earth, "'visible and invisible, "'whether they be thrones or dominions "'or principalities or powers. "'All things were created by him and for him, "'and he is before all things, "'and by him all things consist.'" Don't get thrown off by the firstborn there. That means he is head over, it's a title, it's a position. In a family, normally it was the firstborn son, who would then be the heir, who would then inherit the father's things, then he would be in charge over that, and then would pass down to the brothers. But as a position, it is not a birth order. And we should know that better than any, because throughout the Bible, it's not always the firstborn son, it's always someone else. It was Jacob, not Esau. It was Joseph, not the other brothers. It was David, and he had all those other brothers in front of him. Like, you got anybody else? Yeah, there's a little shepherd guy out here. You know, go get him. It's like, it's not the firstborn, but he is made firstborn and given that title because it is a position and not necessarily the order in which you're birthed. So Jesus Christ has always been, it's not a birth order, it is a title, a position that he holds. Jesus created everything, all that is in heaven. And I don't know about you, but I wonder about heaven a lot. And I'm like, what all's in there? I don't know, but I know it's gonna be mysterious. I know it's gonna be spectacular. I know it's gonna be splendor. And it's gonna be one of them that'll be like, look, and there's more, and look, and there's more, and look, and there's more. And I love that. He's the God who foreshadows. He's the God who has secrets. It is the honor of God to hide things, but the wonder of a king to find them out. And so God likes that. He likes, oh, I like it when you find them. I like it when you dig. I got a surprise for you. We like that, I like that. I like knowing there's something more, there's something to look for. The Bargers invited our family over for Thanksgiving and hosted it. And unbeknownst to them, me and my sons and son-in-law hid 10 little Bigfoots all over their house. And then they had to find them and they didn't know it. They were playing a game. And all of a sudden it was like, there's something in every one of our plants. I don't think you found them all yet, have you? All right, yeah, you still got a couple to go. And so, but put a little mystery on them, you know, to help them as they were waiting. And so, That's in heaven, earth. He makes earth, too. And I've never seen all the earth. I've seen pictures of earth, and I still see pictures of earth, and I'm like, eh, it's gotta be AI at this point. And you're like, nope, that's a real tree, and there really are things that way, and the ocean really is that color, and there's a pink body of water, and there's a blue body of water, and there's all these, it's just amazing. But all the things, and then he says, all the things that are unseen. The stuff at the microscopic level, the stuff at the atomic level. You know, the things that we don't even think about, the wonder and the mystery of all that and the similarity and the symbiosis of it all. When you go outward to the macro view and you think of the universes and the planet, the atom kind of symbolizes that as well with the nucleus and the things orbiting it, just like, it's crazy. You know, there's a common designer and it shows itself everywhere. The realms of authority that God has established, that there would be such a thing as kings and that men would be under that and there'd be rulers and leaders and they would have it on the earth. to the point where there would be rulers in the angel realm, and even to the supernatural realm, we get into the powers and principalities and the things that he mentions. That God says, I have set this all out and have established it, and I put them all there. Christ is the one who established and did all that. Verse 17, he says, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. He's the one who not only is before and makes it all, but he is the one who maintains and keeps it. Think of it often when they're out there, CERN, they build this big old Hydron Collider to try to find the God particle. What is holding the universe together? There's too much space. It should all fling apart. It shouldn't work. And I'm like, I know, Colossians 117. It's Jesus Christ you're looking for. He's the one who's holding it all together, not some invisible particle that you're trying to put your name on. No, it is Jesus. Humble yourself and acknowledge him. He's the one who holds it. He's done this to confound you, to drive you to him. And so he makes the universe, and the universe is what? Uni, one, verse, single spoken sentence, let there be. We go through creation, the creation story of Jesus, let there be light, let there be earth, let there be single spoken sentence, we even call it that in the universe, it's single spoken, let there be. What kind of power does he have? What kind of praise is Jesus Christ worth, worthy of? When we say he is worthy, that's what we're talking about. He is worthy to be praised because he died for us, true. But he is worthy to be praised because he made all this. I mean, the world's kind of enamored by Elon Musk, right? Because here's a guy who builds tunnels and builds flamethrowers, builds PayPal, builds rocket systems, builds all these different things. We're like, that guy's pretty innovative, that guy's pretty smart. So we kind of give him some position just because we're like, that's smart. He's working on some things. Jesus Christ is like, I made all these things. Worship me, honor me, I am praise worthy, I deserve it. Turn to Philippians chapter two. To your left a little bit. Philippians chapter two and verse five. Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus. So we're talking about Christ, verse six. Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God because he is God. And so he's like trying to convey, it's like get your head around this, Jesus Christ is God. Verse six, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross. Verse seven and verse eight, especially verse seven there. Made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of the servant and was made in the likeness of men. That verse there is Christmas. That's what Christmas is. It's the incarnation of the all-powerful, almighty creator God, the maker of worlds, the maker of power and dominions, the maker of the seen and the unseen, Taking all that off to be born in a stable as one of his creatures in a very humble, very vulnerable state. That's the incarnation. That is Christmas right there. Jesus did that. He made himself one of us. I don't know about you, but I have drawn pictures I have tried to make things out of clay. That's not as easy as you think it would be. I've tried to craft things out of wood and do all that. I would not want to be one of my creatures. Quasimodo, running around, you could not move around and Jesus is like, I will limit myself and be one of you. Thank the Lord that he is as good and as crafty as he is, that he would make us us, but we're nothing like him. The humiliation of Christ is that he became one of us. that he would strip himself of everything that he is due and say, I'll be one of you. The poem that John read for us the first week, the man and the birds, right? If I could just get to him, if I could just reach him, if I could just convince him to go into the barn. Incarnation, right? If I could become a bird, I could lead them. Jesus is like, they're not listening. I've sent my prophets, I've done all this, but he knew it was the plan beforehand. I'm gonna have to become one of them and I'm gonna have to die in their place. That's Christmas. The creator of all, the head of all, to lower himself to be one of us for all eternity. The shocking thing for you and I should be, not that Christ is sitting on the throne, that there's a man sitting on the throne because he takes that on and he's never gonna shed it. He's not gonna take it off anymore. He became a man and died for us. C.S. Lewis tried to compare this in a short little thing in his book Miracles. He compared it to a diver. He said, imagine there's a diver standing on a dock. It's a beautiful summer day. He strips himself of his clothes, gets down to his swimsuit, and then he leaps into the sky. He's in midair, and he's gone in a splash. He enters the water. He vanishes into the water. He's rushing down through the green, warm water, down, down to the deep, darker, cold water. down to the increasing pressure, he can feel it in his ears, and to the death-like region of the ooze and the slime of old decay that lies on the bottom. Then, in as quick as a flash, he's up again, back to the color, back to the light, his lungs are almost bursting, needing air, breaking the surface, he comes forward, but he's holding in his hand a dripping precious thing that he went down to recover, a pearl. He says, that's what Christ did. He stripped himself of everything, plunged into darkness, goes even deeper down to the death and the decay and to the uttermost parts to bring up victory for you and I, triumphing over death, to rescue us and to set us free. That's what Christ has done. First time I read that, it struck me, because I'm very visual when I think. And I've been on the bottom of a lake and it's nasty and it's gross. And to think that he would dive into that and dig into the bottom to get what was most precious. And I think he even tells us those parables, right? It's like a man who finds the most precious of pearls and sells all that he has to go after it. Christ's like, I did that. It's like a man who found a treasure in a field that sells everything, gives up everything to go and buy that field so he can have that treasure. That's you and me, Christ did that. That's Christmas. That's what he's done for us. That's Jesus. took all that was due him, all his glory. Three disciples saw just a peak of his glory, one time, the transfiguration. But he was bathed and clothed in glory that was due him, that every eye would look at him and be drawn to him, because you're drawn to the most beautiful thing, and we would look and we would gaze and wonder. And he becomes a helpless baby. dependent upon poor parents who don't have much means of their own at all, in a stable, not even made for humanity, but made for animals to feed in, wrapped in clothes not meant for people, but for a sheep, for a lamb. Look at verse 8. It says, in being found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of a cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow and of things in heaven and things of the earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and the glory of God the Father. He will be exalted. He will be lifted up. Lewis also had another comparison to this great burden that he had to carry. And he compared Jesus to a strong man. He said, imagine the strongest man. A strong man, he is called to lift the greatest burden. To do it, he must first stoop very, very low. I don't know if you've ever watched a strong man try to pick up one of those heavy rocks or a heavy cement ball or something like that. They have to get down, get down low, get underneath it very low. He almost disappears under the load until his hands finally find a grip. And as he rises, he straightens his back. and bearing the whole weight on his shoulders, he's able to carry it, because he took himself so low that he's able to lift the burden so high. He says, that's what Christ did. He stooped himself so low that he could get under us, that Christ would go under us, that he'd be made a curse for us, that he would die on a cross for us, that he would suffer the penalties that you and I should have suffered in hell, at six hours on a cross on one Friday, that He would do all that for us so that He could bear that burden upon His shoulders so that He could take it off us, so that we would be burdened less, that He would be burdened for us. Jesus did that. Look, Jesus carries our load. He sets us free. He has done that. Look at 1 John chapter four. 1 John chapter four and verse nine. And this was manifested the love of God toward us. First John four verse nine. And this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. How much do you love this? He sent His Son to be the propitiation or the payment for our sins. That's love. That's the fourth candle. That's the incarnation. That is Christ at Christmas. That is why He came. Because God the Father, because God the Son, because God the Holy Spirit loves us. That they would not leave us lost and cursed. That they would send a Redeemer to rescue us. And Jesus Christ volunteered, sent His Son that we might have life, and not just life, but eternal life, and not just life as someone who's saved in heaven, but adopted as children, as sons of daughters of God. Do you trust Him as your Savior? We give gifts at Christmas time. Wise men brought gifts to Jesus Christ, and that helped them get through their travels to Egypt and back till they got to Nazareth. But the reason we should do it and the reason we ought to do it and the reason that it should be the foremost of our mind is because God gave us the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the gift. He is the one that is wrapped up and given and presented for us. That is why, because of love. And that's why most of us give gifts too, love and appreciation. Look at verse 15 of chapter four. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he dwelleth in love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, we are in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out all fear, because fear hath torment. And he that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. We should not be fearful. We should not be disbelieving. We should not be afraid as we go through this life because we are loved. And when you're loved, that's an anchor to your soul. That we are not adrift, we are not forgotten, we are not abandoned. But we were loved enough that God came down to rescue us. We used to sing a third day song, a love song for our Savior, and it kind of talked about how I'd swim an ocean and I'd climb a mountain, all these things you promise and love. Christ hung on a tree. true love that he would die as a sacrifice for you and me. Have you ever asked him to save you? Because you don't get it by osmosis. You don't get it by coming to church and sitting in a pew and listening to a message. You have to ask, you have to claim it. It's like open that Christmas present under the tree that has your name on it. Jesus Christ has died for you and is your gift. Have you opened it? Have you claimed it? Have you made it your own? Have you applied it to yourself? The salvation, the repentance and forgiveness of sins? You need to, you must, and if you haven't, do so today. He died on the cross for us. We must trust Him. We must make Him Lord of our life. There's no more, there's nothing else to fear. We have to trust Him. And in a day where it seems uncertainty, and we don't know what's going on, and promised attacks, or maybe attacks, and oh, there's sleeper cells of Chinese and of other terrorists for Islam, and everything has been let in and through, and you never know how it's gonna be, that we are not tossed to and fro, that we are not anguished and lost on the ship, that we know that God's in charge. Look at verse 13 of chapter five, 1 John 5, 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe in the name of the Son of God." We don't have a hope so salvation. We don't have a please, I hope it works out that way. We have a no so salvation. If you've repented and trusted the finished work of Christ, you have a no so salvation. We're not trusting in water to wash us. We're not trusting in church membership. We're not trusting in our giving our good works. We're trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And if you've done that, if you put all your faith and trust in him, you have a no so salvation. And that is the greatest gift, that you are loved, that Christ would die for you, that you will be adopted into his family, that you have eternity with him. And then they say, you can really tell as a person dies. how much they believe, how much they trust. I read several stories this week of people and the confidence that they had as they were dying, the things that they were seeing, I'm going to be with my Lord, I can't wait to see him, that is there. See, that is put into action, it is there and it manifested itself and you know there's nothing else in between them, it shows then. But we build on that, we show it even now in our faithfulness and our obedience unto him. Oh. Are we obedient? Are we prepared to meet our King? Are you obedient? Are you serving Him in the way you ought to? Are you doing all He's called you to do? You might think, well yeah, I surrender to a call, but calls change. God draws us all the more, sometimes to more, and sometimes out of our comfort zone into even more. Because He will come suddenly, and what will we say to Him? I thought I had more time? Now we need to take the example of Advent here, that man, four weeks was gone like that. He'll be like a thief in the night. Are you ready? Are you prepared? He'll come in an hour when you do not expect. So we need to surrender to our king and we need to then be obedient to what he's calling us to do, to serve him. And if you haven't, have him as savior, surrendering to that because he loves you. And I thought we might end by quoting together a verse that we all know that talks about God's love for us. John 3, 16. You mind saying that with me? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's love. That's Christmas. That's what Christ has done for us. And if you've not accepted that gift, I pray that you take it today. And if you have, are you letting him be your king? Is he leading you and guiding you? Are you surrendering to everything that he's calling you to even now?