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Luke chapter 2, I'll begin reading in verse number 8. For in 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. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, let us now go even into Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. When they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them." Now, verse 21 will kind of lead us into another part of this lesson. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And it talks about them making this trip to Jerusalem. Now, Bethlehem to Jerusalem is about five miles. So it's not this huge distance between them. So it's only like five miles away. And so our understanding is they're going to be in the city of Bethlehem. That's where the birth is, obviously. We know that from the scripture here. And then they're in Bethlehem, continue to be at Bethlehem. Then eight days later, they make this trip to Jerusalem because of the Jewish law and to make a sacrifice and so. Now, we talk about this morning, this idea about a season to live. We like to start out with some questions or something to kind of provoke our thinking. So here's our question that we're going to begin our Sunday School lesson with. Ready? We may be alive. And there's a big maybe about ten times. We may be alive. So look around. I'm assuming that we're all alive here. We may be alive, but here's a question. But are we living? I mean living in a broader sense, not just simply your heart is beating, blood is flowing, organs are functioning, there's some awareness of our circumstances. I mean living as far as enjoying life, accomplishing things, you know, being thoughtful about what's... I mean really living. So that's the question this morning. We may be alive, but are we living? I think we understand this. There's more to being alive than simply routine and schedule. I mean, really, our life is more than working a factory. Here comes the conveyor belt. I know this is not how it works, but I'm just I'm just imagining this way. OK, so there's this big conveyor belt and we spend our life just putting this little this little gadget here on this little thing, my job that goes down the belt is doing, you know, just spend our life just doing this. Now, that may not be your actual job, but sometimes I think we get in that mindset. I just, you know, here's my schedule. Here's what I do day in, day out. We just like we're just we're just plodding through life. You know, and eventually there's a grave at the end of this thing. We're just going through like almost like robots. Well, there's more to life than simply having routine and schedule. Nothing wrong with those things, but there's more to life than that. Now, with that thought in mind, I'm going to give you another thought that we'll kind of use for our Sunday school lesson. And this is something for you to write down, OK? Only a handful of people were present at that first Christmas. We know that from the Christmas story, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds. Maybe a few other people showed up. But that's it. Just a handful of people were present that first Christmas. But think about this. All men, saved or unsaved, all men have been impacted by it. Isn't that true? All men. Even to this day, we're still impacted. In fact, we know this, just think about this, even secular history. If I were to say this year, this year is what? Two thousand and what? Sixteen. Now, this is not the only 2016 that's ever existed. Did you know that? You're like, what? Pastor White, that Tylenol is going to your head the wrong way. How does, but there was, this is 2016 A.D. There was a 2016 what? B.C. So what's the difference? What separates B.C. and A.D.? Christ. The birth of Christ. So even secular history has been impacted. How we look at time, as we look at history, has been impacted by this birth. So even though a handful of people are only present, but yet all men are impacted by this. Now, we're just giving you several different thoughts we're going to kind of tie together in three major lessons here. Christmas is about God changing lives. All these lives are impacted. All these lives are being changed because of Christmas. So they are no longer the same. Now, let's try to tie it together. We talked about you're alive, but are you living? We said only a handful of people are there, but all men are impacted by Christmas. And then we said Christmas is really about God changing lives. Now, here's probably maybe the classical verse about this in John 10, 10. Here's what the Bible says. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. Then here's what Jesus said. I am come that they might have life. But notice he doesn't stop there. Then he says this, and that they might have it more what? Abundantly. What's this abundant life? Well, when he says he came that we could have life, I think he's talking about eternal life, being saved. So Jesus came so that we could be born again. But he said, I didn't come just so you can get saved. There's more to it than that. I want you to live abundantly. I want something to impact your life. I want your life to be more than just this other person who doesn't know me and has no joy, no peace, no comfort. He's just enduring life. I came so you'd be saved, but also you'd have the abundant life. So that's what we're kind of looking at this morning when we talk about a season to live. Now, a lot of times the world thinks that we as believers are missing life. They look at us like you're here on a Sunday morning and they're thinking, boy, you're missing it. Boy, you're missing what life is about. That's how they look at us because we're trying to live right or we're trying to be in church or trying to let the Bible dictate how we live. But I would say this, until you're a believer, you really don't even know what life is really about. It's Christ who helps us understand what life is truly about. Life is a whole lot more than simply acquiring things and accomplishing goals. There's nothing wrong with that, and that has a role in life, but life is much more than that. So let me give you another statement. Whether or not life has eternal meaning will be determined by how we respond to Jesus's birth. Part of that means salvation. But part of that would mean understanding what the Lord wants for us and from us, impacting our life. So the Christmas story, I think, teaches much about the Christian life. And we could say maybe in a way that the Christian life is the Christmas life. Understanding what Christmas is about, that helps us understand the Christian life. So I'm going to give you three things this morning by way of application, three things taught here in what we call the biblical Christmas story that could help us. Here's number one. I want you to think about each one of these, because number one is really the basis, and two and three kind of builds on it. So make sure you get number one here. Number one is this. The Christian life is an interrupted life. Now, what do I mean by that? Go with me back to Luke chapter 2. Look with me in verse 8. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. Now, let's just stop there. In verse 8, that's their typical day. They're shepherds, so they're watching sheep. That's what shepherds do, right? It'd be kind of funny if it said this, and there were shepherds, they're in the same country as shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their pigs by night. You'd be like, well, that doesn't make sense. They're shepherds. What are the pigs doing there? And so they're doing what shepherds do. They're watching over the sheep. Now, all of a sudden, God intersects with them, intervenes in their life, interrupts their life. Look at verse 9. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them. So God's interrupting their routine. 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. Now, think about this. If we want God to work in our lives, and we have to understand that God Maybe I should just read it as I wrote it. If we want God to work in our lives, understand that God works on His timetable according to His priorities. In other words, when God is working in our life, He doesn't do it when it's convenient for us. He has priorities, He has His timetable, and that's determining what He's going to be doing. So if we understand this, that God works on His timetable and His priorities, and we want Him to work in our life, then that means that He is going to interrupt what we're doing. Now think about that. In other words, now if we're going to sit here and say, boy, I want God to work in my life. I want God to do something in my life. Then we have to understand that God is going to interrupt all of our well-laid plan. You ever think about the Bible characters in this Christmas story? Go with me. You're in Luke 2. Go back with me to Luke 1. All these characters are going to have their life interrupted. Look with me in verse 8. This is Zacharias, which would be John the Baptist's father. Luke chapter 1, look at verse 8. Luke 1, verse 8. And it came to pass while he, this is Zacharias, executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course. Again, he's just doing what he's supposed to be doing. According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went to the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense." Again, God is interrupting his life. Go with me to Luke chapter 1, look at verse 26. And in the sixth month, six months later now, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. Now, we've talked about this at a previous time, but understand this, Mary being a spouse, it's almost the same, very much the same as being really what? married now we look we know we say well spousal means engagement not really in our time of engagement maybe for them but but for us we'd look at a spousal as basically being married everything except for they weren't physically connected physically intimate with each other so other than that they're married as far as the law is concerned as far as man is concerned okay but they have not that's why she's still a virgin here So here's Mary, she has all of these, like any young lady, I got all these plans, here's Joseph's gonna be my husband, we're gonna live here, this is gonna be our dishes, I'm gonna put this kind of print in my kitchen, and this is the color of my bathroom, and she's going to Walmart picking out all these things, you know, you gotta read between the lines. Now here's Mary, all of these plans, and then God interrupts them. Look at verse 28, and the angel came in unto her, said and then we go into this part of the story but again God is interrupting so God interrupts Zacharias God interrupts Mary hold your place and Luke go with me to Matthew 1 now we're going to use Matthew again in a little bit so you might want to put a bookmark there to turn to it quickly Matthew chapter 1 let's look at one more character here's Joseph Matthew 1 verse 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was a spouse of Joseph, before they came together, again, Joseph's getting the house ready, making all the plans, trying to figure out how to do this and that, so it's all going to work out when they're married. And then, the Bible says, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Now at that time, he doesn't know it's the Holy Ghost. He just knows that's supposed to be my wife, and I haven't been with her, and she's pregnant. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, goes into that part of the Christmas story. But again, here's God interrupting all of these plans that Joseph has. Now think about this with me. We cannot have God actively involved in our life without Him making changes in our life. Think about that. If God is going to be actively involved in your life, He's going to make changes. Typically, here's what we want. We have our plans, and we want God to get involved so we can get our plans done. Really, all we want is God's help to do what we want to do. That's not the way the Lord works. When God involves Himself, He interrupts our plans so that we're going to be doing His plans, His will, what He wants. Probably a famous verse about this is 2 Corinthians. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a what new creature. Well, that's true about salvation. Now, Paul, what's the next thing? All things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That's true about salvation. But it's also true about the Christian life. All of these things that we had planned and laid out are going to be pushed away because now the Lord has his will and his way should have his will and his way with us. There's two major relationships the Lord uses to explain salvation, marriage and children. We're the bride, he's the bridegroom. We have this relationship with the Lord. The Bible talks about him being our father, we being his children. So he uses the relationship of marriage, relationship of parents to child. Now think about what happens when you get married and when you have kids. When you get married, everything's the same as like before you got married, right? Nothing changes. Is that true? No. Everything changes in ways you never imagined. You may have had some things you imagined didn't happen and other things going to happen you had no idea was going to happen. Now, how about this? How about when you had kids? Did it make any change in your life? When we first got married, we had a one-bedroom apartment, little bitty car, a little Honda Civic, when Honda Civics about the size of my wife's spark out there. Now, all of a sudden we had a child. Now, we only have a one-bedroom apartment. And then in this one-bedroom apartment, we had a second child. Boy, things change. We said, boy, we got to do something. We need more room. We need bigger car, bigger place to live, and need bigger budget, and bigger paychecks, and bigger closets. And everything is going to change because, why? Now you're having kids. Same thing is true in our Christian life. When we get saved and then we start living for the Lord, all these changes start taking place. That's what happens, supposed to happen in our Christian life. Now, why does God interrupt our life? Well, there's a couple of reasons for that. Well, one is this. God interrupts our life because there's sin that must be dealt with. That's the reality of it. A lot of times we want to think that, you know, I got most of this thing. I got to take care of and figure it out. And then all of a sudden we get saved. We start reading the Bible. We start coming to church. And all of a sudden we realize, man, there's some issues in my life. I need to deal with some issues here. These things aren't right. And so when there's sin in our life, the Lord's going to interrupt and want those things taken care of. Hebrew says this, if you've forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not thou chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of him. Now, he's talking about chastening. So when we think about as being children of God and God dealing with our sin, we're not talking about, OK, we're talking about how we would deal with our kids. I know there are. really wackos out there. But most parents, when your child did wrong, you didn't say, you didn't open the door and kick them out of the house. Okay, I know you're three years old, but out you go! You'll never spill milk again, will you? You don't do that. Okay, you don't treat your child that way. Now, even though they do wrong, you still show them love, and you're going to chasten them, you're going to try to work and try to correct those things. That's what the Lord is talking about. He's working in our life to correct some things in our life. Look at verse 6, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? Not only would you not kick him out, but you wouldn't let things go on that was wrong you'd want to deal with. If he's lying or stealing, you'd want to deal with those issues. Then he says this in verse 8, but if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then you are bastards and not sons. In other words, if God is not dealing with you as a father would deal with a child, then maybe the problem is he's not your father and you're not his child. You're not a born-again believer. And so sometimes God interrupts our life because there's sin that must be dealt with. Well, why is also the Christian life an interrupted life? Well, secondly, sometimes God interrupts our life Because there's a new direction God wants us to go. God's trying to get our attention, trying to redirect us. I mean, we're this way. We got our mindset, we're tunnel vision, and here we go. And the Lord sometimes has to interrupt, involve Himself to get us to go in a different direction than He'd have us to go. Again, one of the famous verses about it is Romans 12. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed, completely changed by the renewing of your mind. Watch this, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So as a believer, we want the will of God to be accomplished in our life. Not my will, but His will. Not my way, but His way. Not what I want, but what does He want for me? I'm His. I belong to Him. I'm His child. He saved me. He bought me. I'm bought with a price. And so if there's a different direction the Lord wants, often the Lord has to interrupt us. It's not always because we're hard hearted or we hate God. Sometimes we're good people trying to do good things, but not thoughtful what the Lord would have us to do. And so the Lord has to interrupt us to get us going the direction he wants. Then here's a third thing about God interrupting our life, and that is this. Sometimes God interrupts our life and we never know why to heaven. Now I'm going to see how well you're thinking. Ready? Blood flowing. Ready? Here we go. Can you think of a character in the Bible that God, I mean, he interrupted this fellow's life. Major. Job is the answer, yes. Then you get the question out. Job is the answer. Here's a guy, the Bible says he's eschewing evil, the Bible talks about him following the Lord, obeying the Lord, and all of a sudden the Lord interrupts in a major way, interrupts in that all of his wealth is gone, all of his health is gone, all of his children is gone, his wife says curse God and die. And here's the amazing thing. You read all the book of Job, Where I'm going by what the Bible records, nothing's recorded in the book of Job where Job said, oh yeah, okay, I see what God is doing. In fact, you get towards the end of Job and Job says this, well, Lord, why are you doing this? And God said, well, Job, let me ask you some questions. Where were you at when I created this world? Where were you at? And how did I do this? And how can you... He begins, and Job basically says, and I'm paraphrasing, okay, I'm shutting my mouth, you're right, I don't know, you're way beyond me, and whatever you say is fine with me. Now, I said this, some things you'll never know until you get to heaven. But here's the thing about heaven, really will it matter when you get to heaven? Really won't. Some people have this idea, when I get to heaven, I'm going to walk up to God and I'll say, God, I have some questions for you. Really? You think you're going to do that? You know, the Bible explains what happens when we face the Lord. Two words, face plant. What does that mean? You get on your face. No one's going to stand before the Lord and shake your finger at him and say, Lord, I got some questions for you. When you stand, when you stand before the holy high and lifted up the Lord, you're going to be on your face. And you're going to understand that He knows best, even when we don't understand why. Now, we do that by faith today. Someday we'll do it by sight. But we trust Him. And so I'm just telling you, God interrupts our life sometimes, and we're never going to know why until heaven. And in heaven, it really won't matter, because we're in heaven. 1 Corinthians says this in chapter 13, verse 12. For now, where we live right now, for now we see through a glass darkly. A lot of things we don't understand. But then, talking about heaven now, face to face, now I know in part, but then, now he's contrasting this life to heaven, but then shall I know even as also I am known. So I think when we get to heaven there will probably be a better understanding, but I'm simply saying when we get to heaven it really won't matter because we're in heaven and it's all done away with. So God interrupts our lives. because he's trying to make changes, sometimes because of sin, sometimes because God has a new direction, sometimes we don't understand why he's doing it, but we trust him and we say, okay, Lord, let your will be done. Let me give you a couple more thoughts about this and we'll get to point two. Okay, the Christian life is about change and change requires interruption. In other words, God cannot accomplish what he wants in our life unless he interrupts our life. Not wrong to have plans, not wrong to have goals, not wrong to have dreams. But sometimes you've got to just take them all, give them to the Lord and say, Lord, let your will be done. If this is OK, then fine. But if, Lord, you have other plans, then let your plans be what happens. So the Christian life, and we see this from the Christmas story, the Christian life is an interrupted life, which brings us to a kind of a follow-up thought. Now we're going to go back to Matthew chapter 1. I'll show you the verses, and I'll give you the point. Matthew 1, look with me in verse 16. Notice what it says. And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Then he says this. So all the generations, now prior to this, starting in Matthew 1.1, he goes through these generations. This is a summation of it. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. From David and carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon and to Christ are 14 generations. All these people he's talking about in these previous verses. Now, let me give you the point and then give you a few moments to explain it. Number two is this. The Christian life is a useful life. A useful life. There's two places in the Bible that give us the lineage of Jesus. Matthew 1 and Luke chapter 3. And they're not the same lineage. And you're thinking, well, how could that be the same lineage? I mean, it's one Jesus. Well, one, he gives a lineage through Joseph. And the other lineage in Luke 3, he gives through Mary. They both come through David. Both Mary and Joseph both are children of David. Great great great great great great grandchildren of David. Joseph through Solomon. Mary through Nathan. Two different sons of David. And there's a reason for it. It deals with prophecy and the legal right to be king and all this. We're not going to go into that this morning. But just to say there's two lineages. Now here's what's interesting. If we spent time this morning going through the entire lineage of Jesus from Joseph, through the life from Joseph going back, or from Mary going back, some of the names would jump out as a couple of the names. We'd say, oh yeah, I know that Bible character or that person. A few would be known outside of that lineage. Most of them, the only reason we know their names is because they're in that lineage. That's their claim to fame. I don't mean that in a negative way, but that's their claim to fame. They're in the lineage leading up to Jesus. So there are names that are recorded forever because they were a part of God's plan. They just did what they're supposed to do. They were part of God's plan, and their names now are recorded forever in the Word of God. So here's why I'm saying that. Here's the great blessing of God's interruptions. They provide opportunities for us to be used in God's eternal plan. Because if I just talk about interruptions, you're like, well, that really seems kind of, I don't know. I mean, the Lord just, he just kind of does what he wants. Well, he does. I mean, there is a job description being God, and that is you get to do what you want and no one else can tell you not because you're God. And so the Lord does what he wants. He is sovereign. That is no doubt about that. But on our side, we say, but it doesn't seem like he cares. Oh, yeah, he cares. There's no doubt he loves us. We know that through Calvary. I mean, he died for us. He gave his life for us. We know he loves us. But then we understand this. When God interrupts, he's providing us opportunities. It goes back to the original statement. We're not just alive, but we want to live the abundant life. And these interruptions are opportunities that God can use us in his plans, something bigger than us. So that means this, we ought to thank God when He interrupts our life. It's opportunities to be used. Let me put it this way. I know this is a little negative, but think about what I'm saying. God interrupts our small, insignificant, self-absorbed plans and then uses us for great eternal purposes. I mean, really, think about what our plans are. Well, you know, I'm planning to save up enough money so we can go on vacation this summer. We're not wrong going on vacation this summer. I'm not criticizing that. But I'm thinking, but there's bigger things in that. God can use us to influence lives. God can use us to help missionaries around the world get the gospel. God can use us to help be a testimony for Christ in our neighborhood. So there's something bigger than just our small, insignificant, self-absorbed plans. Every character in the Christmas story is known because God interrupted their lives. Now, let me ask you a question, okay? You got that answer pretty good. Let's see how well you do this. How many remember Mary, talking about Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary's next door neighbor? Anyone remember her name? How about the girl she went to high school with? You say, the Bible doesn't say it. Exactly. You know why you know who Mary is? Because she was the mother of Jesus. Her life was interrupted in a major way, but that allowed her to be used in a major way. And so when God interrupts them, those lives, there are opportunities for God to use them. So every character in the Christian story is known because God interrupted her life and then used them in his plan. Without that interruption, they would have never been used or known. What if instead of Mary, what if the next door lady, was chosen. Let's say her name was Betty. And then for 2,000 years, we've been talking about Betty and Joseph, right? I mean, Mary is not anything. There's nothing. OK. I'm sure Mary was a great person. I'm not attacking Mary. I'm simply saying, as far as we think about the Christmas story, Mary's only significant because God interrupted her life and used her. And that's what we're thinking about. When God interrupts our lives, there's opportunity to be used here. That's what we ought to think about and rejoice in. So the question this morning as we think about this, are we willing to let God interrupt our plans so that we can have a life that's used by God? So the Christian life is an interruptive life. The Christian life is a useful life. Let me give you the, go back with me to Luke 2. Let me give you the third, I'll read these verses and then give you the third thought about this. Look at the Christian life through the Christmas story or the, he said the Christian life is like the Christmas life. So Luke chapter 2. Look with me in verse 25. Now, there's a couple of characters that we don't talk about much because it happens eight days later. But I mean, eight days after Christmas, you're still within the same ballpark of the Christmas story here. Verse 25, Luke chapter 2. that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents, this is Mary and Joseph, brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of law, then took he up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. And he continues on. Drop down, if you will, to verse number 36. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser. She was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of Him to all that looked for redemption in Israel. So not only is a Christian life, an interrupted life, a useful life, but number three is this, the Christian life is a consuming life. Simeon and Anna were consumed with seeing the Messiah. So we talked about being interrupted allows the Lord to use us and that's the blessing of being interrupted. We're going to build on that, on this thought here, and that is this, a life that has been interrupted and used by God will lead to a life that is consumed by God. Because the more he interrupts, the more God uses us, the more we're going to consume with what the Lord is doing and what the Lord accomplished in things in our life. So a life that is consumed with a higher purpose, well, that's the life I think that's worth living. So it goes back to, are you alive or are you living? Well, if you want to be really living, there's got to be something that consumes you, something bigger than you. Hebrews says this. Hebrews chapter 12, wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. And then notice what he says in verse 29. For our God is a, what's the next two words? Consuming fire. When we're serving Him, we're giving ourselves to Him. That's what should consume us. Doesn't mean you can't have a job. Doesn't mean you don't have hobbies. Doesn't mean you don't go on vacation. Doesn't mean you have a scheduled routine. But it means there's something bigger to life. Bigger than just going to work. Bigger than just mowing the grass. Bigger than just washing dishes. The Lord really means something to me. There's something that propels us, that motivates us, gets us up out of bed in the morning. Think about what the Lord wants to accomplish in my life. So a life that is consumed with a higher purpose is the abundant life. that Jesus promised. I think it was when he says, I'll give you a life more abundant. That's what he was talking about. I'm going to give you something worth living for. I'm not just saving you, but I'm going to give you something that's worth living on this earth about. We're not just going through the motions until the grave shows up. There's something that's compelling us, motivating us. I'll give you another statement. But to have that consumed, abundant life. You must be willing for God to interrupt your plans and dreams. Notice how they all go together. Interrupted, useful, consumed. All right. We're like one minute before, so let me give you these last concluding statements quickly. Ready? God is the same today as he was on that first Christmas. You know, that's like saying, I know water's wet, but just understand that. He's the same. God hasn't changed over 2,000 years. He was no different from creation to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus. He's no different from Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, to today. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Well, if that's true, then that means this, that God still has eternal purposes that He is accomplishing. We look at these folks on Christmas and say, well, you know, I guess I'm out of luck. I mean, there's Mary and Joseph, there's Zacharias, they got it, they got in, but not in 2016 years too late. No, God still has eternal purposes He's trying to accomplish. And God is still looking for people who are willing to be interrupted to be used in those purposes. God's not done yet. God still has things He's trying to accomplish in this world. So He still has eternal purposes. He's still looking for people who are willing to be interrupted, shake up our priorities, shake up our routine, shake up our schedule. And then the last statement is this. That means this, God is still providing a consuming reason to live through those interrupted lives. Saving an ant is not the only people ever to have the opportunity to have something consume them. We still have that reason today.