Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM- Gifts of Christmas Pt2- Pastor Ryan
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Organized into readable paragraphs from the preserved Whisper transcript. Non-speech markers are removed.
All right. Good morning. Glad you all are here. It's good to see everybody. I want to invite you to stand with me. We'll pray and we'll get started.
Father, we thank you for the day, Lord. We just thank you for another day and another opportunity to serve you, Lord, to bless you, to bless your name, and to glorify you. Lord, we ask your blessing upon this time. We ask that your word go out with power, Lord, and help us to focus on you and to lavish praise upon you this morning. We love you, Father, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Praise the hallelujah in the presence of my enemy. Praise the hallelujah louder than the unbelief. Praise the hallelujah. Go ahead and have a seat if you like.
To breathe the air. Yes, Lord. Amen. We look forward to the day that we can stand in your presence, Lord. And shout the hymn of heaven, Lord. Be faithful, joyful, and triumphant. Come up, angels, sing in exultation. Oh, sing, all ye citizens of heaven. Joyful, come, let us adore.
Lord God, we just thank you that you saw fit to step down from your throne in heaven. And to live among us, to be born among us, Lord. Lord, we praise you. We adore you, Lord.
When I feel that you will be with me, when I'm stand or come,
the shadows break, the dark, all the joy.
In some time in your presence, Lord, just fill us up with your joy. Lord, what a joy it is to see you work in our lives. You glorify, you increase.
Oh, the joy, joy so high. God, we just thank you for the day. We thank you for another opportunity, Lord, just to serve you, to glorify you, to lift praise to you, Father. And now, as Pastor Ryan comes, Lord, I just pray, Lord, that you would overflow him. Lord, speak mightily through him. Lord, give him the words to speak. Lord God, use him in a mighty way this morning, God.
Do something awesome and mighty in this place, Lord. You're a big and mighty God, and you do big and mighty things. So, Lord, come and do big and mighty work in our lives this morning. Lord, give us hearts to receive and ears to hear the word that you've prepared. We pray these things in your precious and holy name. All people said? Amen. Amen. Let's have some fellowship.
Good morning.
If you could begin to find your seats, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.
Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning.
Some things to take note of. Over on the left-hand side of the bulletin are all of the things that happen as usual throughout the week. And everything's going on this week, so find yourself a spot to get plugged into. In the middle section of your bulletin, a handful of things to take note of. First of all, ladies, there's a women's breakfast coming up this Saturday.
That says the 7th. You missed it. It's too bad. It was great. I think they had a great time doing it. I think they really enjoyed visiting with each other. You should catch the next one. It's coming up on 12th. It's coming up on 12th, 14, or whatever the next Saturday is, at Steamy Joe's at 8 a.m. And then the live nativity. I don't know if you've taken a look at the sign-up.
You should just stop and take a look at the sign-up sheet out there, because, gosh, there's some opportunities available for you to be a part of the live nativity. And that is coming up this week, so it's this Friday and Saturday, so take note of that. Also, we have a Christmas Eve service coming up. We thought we'd do it on the 20th. It's the 24th this year, and that's a joke from my last church.
It's, sorry. Quick story. So we're sitting in a board meeting, and one of the elders sort of gets this look on his face, and he looks at the pastor and says, When are we doing the Christmas Eve service? He meant, like, what time of the day? Like, what time are we going to have it? And the pastor looks at him and goes, Well, we thought we'd go ahead and do it on December 24th.
Is that going to work for your schedule? So it's a joke that just carries on forever. For me, it's... If two or three of my former, you know, people from up there, we'd all be dying. That's coming up 6.30 p.m. on the 24th, so come join us for that. It's always a good time together. Those are the things that are going on, at least that I'm aware of, to the best of my ability.
And if you would, make sure that your mobile device is silenced. For our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 8. Psalm 8, as always, looking at the New American Standard for this part so we sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm, Psalm 8, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.
I will read the odd verses, if you will follow along with Pastor Allen, and the even verses. Psalm 8, for the choir director, on the gethsemane, a Psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who have displayed your splinter above the heavens. From the mouth of infants and nursing babes, you have established strength, because of your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained. What is man, that you take thought of him, and the son of man, that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than God, and you crown him with glory and majesty. You make him to rule over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet.
All sheep and oxen, and also all the beasts of the field. The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. And read verse 9 with me. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. And Father, we do praise you for how majestic you are, Lord, for your power and your might. And Lord, that in your power and might, you humbled yourself to come down and dwell among us.
So that you could be our Savior. And so Lord, we praise you for who you are. And Father, I pray that as we spend time in your word this morning, that your Holy Spirit would move through our hearts as you see fit. Lord, minister to us in the place where each one of us needs, specifically and individually. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 1.
Matthew, chapter 1. We'll be several places again in scripture this morning, but we're going to start off there. So, we've taken a different direction through the month of December, if you weren't here last week. And the direction that we're taking is to do a Christmas series, but a little bit different than usual. I've entitled it, The Gifts of Christmas, and all the different things that Jesus brought into the world.
Last week, we looked at the gift of joy. And this morning, we are going to look at the gift of hope. Over Thanksgiving week, I had a little bit of time, so I watched some movies. And I watched the Batman Dark Knight trilogy, which has the only Batman, Christian Bale. I don't know who the other guys are, but they're not really Batman. He is. I think in real life, that's actually who he is, is Batman.
But I watched the last one, obviously, most recently. And the last one is what kind of got me, because I was thinking about this theme of hope. And in the very last of the Dark Knight trilogy, Gotham has been taken over, again, by an evil warlord named Bane. And everything has just gone wrong in Gotham, and Batman is nowhere to be found. And those who remember what it was like when Batman was there, all had this hope.
They were all like, man, if Batman would just come back, he could set things right again. And that was the one thing that they held onto, was that hope that Batman would show up again, and he would set things right. And as I'm watching this, I thought, I don't know if superhero movies realize that they preach the Gospel every time that they put together a superhero movie. I think they do.
superhero movie. But that's exactly what happens. Have you ever thought about that? That that's what they do. They put forth that there's a major problem in the world, some evil in the world that needs to be dealt with. And they have one hope. And their one hope is that this superhero will show up and set them free from the thing that has held them captive and ultimately give
them a future and a hope. That's what every superhero movie does. Now, they may not go about it the right way, but that idea is the gospel. And so I was thinking about that with this idea of hope, and it made me think of one of my favorite Christmas songs. I'll read just a short little piece of it for you. I won't sing it because no one wants that. It says,
O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lowly exile here, until the Son of God appears. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come, O Israel. And I thought, isn't that kind of the perfect picture? It's the perfect picture of what hope is, is that the world sat under the sway of sin, that the world sat under the hopelessness, the bondage of sin, and we were just waiting for a Savior. And that's what Jesus brought into the world. And so like we did last week, I want to
look at three different things. I want to look at hope, I want to look at despair, and then I want to look at Jesus. And so first of all, we'll take a look at just kind of define hope. I looked it up in several different dictionaries, and I put together kind of a conglomeration of definitions and synonyms here. The word hope is not usually what we think of. We usually think of wishful
thinking, right? Like a lot of times, kids, especially around this time of year, are hoping that they get a particular thing for Christmas, but unless you're a billionaire, that may or may not happen, right? And so that's wishful thinking, and that's usually what we think of when we think of hope. But hope is very different than that. Hope actually carries with it the idea of expectation, in particular, an expectation of the fulfillment of a promise.
Hope, there's some synonyms that go along with it. There's anticipation or to look for and watch for expectantly, but the one that got me the most when you look up synonyms for hope is the word trust. And as a matter of fact, in the biblical definition, it can also be stated a firm trust. And I thought that was kind of an interesting definition of hope because our hope in Christ is not wishful thinking. It's an expectant anticipation and a firm trust.
And the promise that Jesus has made. Well, as we think about this definition, I started thinking about what are people hoping for? Outside of the material things of the world that we hope for, what is the hope that most people are really having in their life? What are we as human beings ultimately hoping for? And so I just started making a list of all these different things, and so I wrote down 95 things. I'm just kidding. So I made this
list, and I shrunk it down to three main things. Three main categories of things that we're hoping for. People are first of all hoping for freedom. We want some sort of freedom. The idea of not being under the control of someone else, being out of bondage or out of prison, being free to live as we want to live, to be who we want to be, and ultimately as Christians to be who God has called for us to be. But we're all ultimately hoping
for freedom in our lives, right? The second thing that people are ultimately hoping for in their lives is people are ultimately hoping for purpose. They are hoping that there is some sort of a purpose. That there is a reason why they've been created. That there is a reason why they're on this earth and that there's something that they're supposed to do. People are hoping that there
could be some sort of purpose in life. And then the third thing that I wrote down that people hope for is people are hoping for a future. They're hoping for something that is to come. The hope for an advancement or a progression or for things ultimately to get better or to know that in the future everything's going to be all right. But everybody's hoping for some sort of a future. And when we think about freedom and when we think about purpose
and we think about future, we realize that ultimately that kind of wraps up the things that we're all hoping for in life. But once again, I think for us to truly understand hope, we have to also truly understand despair. It's interesting if you look up what's the opposite of hope, you know what it first gives you? Hopelessness. But then you say other synonyms and it gives you the word despair. And I feel like that if we were to look at
it, we really want to encapsulate what it looks like to not have hope. The word despair is the best word to be used. It's defined like this. Despair is a complete loss or absence of hope. It means to be utterly destitute. It is, and this is what got me the most, the expectation that there will be no future. That's despair. And so ultimately what it means to be in despair is that it means that we have no future. We're
in the future. We have no hope and we have no freedom. And that is so much of the world that we live in today. It's interesting because when we think about what brought despair into the world, we go back to that exact same place that brought sorrow into the world. And it's sin. Sin led to despair because sin is what brought mankind into the bondage of sin. Because
while the rest of the world thinks that they live in freedom when they live in freedom, live in sin, what they realize is once you live in sin, you are in bondage to that sin. Sin is what brought a lack of purpose into the world, because as soon as Eve said, that will make me feel good, she took away her purpose, which was ultimately to know and love God, because now she's made herself her own God. Adam and Eve made themselves their own God, therefore their purpose now nestled within themselves instead of an eternal God, and so they lacked all purpose. And of course, sin took away the future, because with sin came death.
And that's what it looks like to live in despair. Well, if you think about the world that Jesus came into, the world that Jesus was born into, I want you to take note that that despair was very active in that world that Jesus came into. So for just a moment, let's put ourselves in about 0 AD, right? The very turn of the time there, and it's ancient Israel, and you're living in that area around Bethlehem, and these are the conditions that you're experiencing. The conditions that you're experiencing are that you are under
the rule of a foreign nation, and that foreign nation is Rome. And while Rome brought great peace to the world, Rome also brought great bondage to the world, because Rome ruled with an iron fist, and uprisings were met with ultimate defeat. Because everyone knew who was in charge, and it was Rome. They were under the rule of Rome, meaning that they were in bondage to an entirely other nation. They were not living in freedom.
Jesus was born into a time, if you're living in Bethlehem at that point in time, of great poverty. Poverty because they were being ruled by another nation, but poverty throughout the land of Rome, because it had taken a great deal of wars for Caesar Augustus to ultimately rule when he did. As a matter of fact, the entire reason that Jesus' parents ended up in Bethlehem is because all the world was to be taxed. And the reason why all the world was to be taxed is because he had to pay for the wars that he had been fighting. And so it was a time of great poverty that Jesus was born
into. It was a time of great taxation that Jesus was born into, not only because of the fact that they were paying off these wars that Rome had fought, but because many within the nation of Israel had found themselves a way to make a pretty good living, and it was through the idea of being taxed. And so it was a time of great poverty that Jesus was born into. And so it was a time of great tax collectors in which, yes, they surrendered their rights and they surrendered their countrymen, but ultimately they could keep anything that they had left over. And so all of the common people
were taxed, literally almost to death. Jesus was born into a time of great and rampant immorality because the times that the Romans ushered into the world at that point in time were times of great immorality. And so people were under the sway of immorality, but they were also times of strict legalism. Because while most of the world was taxed, they were taxed, and they were taxed, the world lived in immorality. The Jewish people, in some ways, lived in the strictest form of
legalism, and many felt they had no future because they could never attain to the righteousness that they needed in their lives. Yes, Jesus came into a time of great despair. And when I look at our world, I see a very similar thing, amen? I see people who are in bondage. Sometimes they're in bondage because they live in foreign countries where a warlord is ruling,
but most of us live in bondage because of the sin that we are in bondage to. Because our world has been conditioned to think that happiness comes from fulfilling your own desires and being your own God. And so they're living in despair because they're living in bondage to their sin. Many feel like they have no hope because they have no purpose in their lives. Because you see, once you live your
life to please yourself, and there's no joy that comes about because of that, you realize, if pleasing myself was my goal, and that's still my goal, I'm going to live my life to please myself. If it still hasn't brought any joy into my life, well, then what's the point in life? And many feel like they have no future. After all, you developed over millions of years to end up where you are today. Your life really doesn't have much value unless someone else places some value on it. And
after all, if there is no God, then maybe there is no future. And people are living in a place of despair. Well, the same Jesus that brought hope to captive Israel is the same Jesus that brings hope into our lives today. And that's what I want to look at, is the hope of Jesus. So there's two things under the aspect of Jesus that I would like to look at. I want to look at the announcement
of hope, and then I want to look at the hope that Jesus brings. First of all is the announcement. So look at Matthew chapter 1. If you're still there, if you need to turn back to Matthew chapter 1, turn there. And I want you to look at verse 21. It says this, Isolated. It's a great verse, but when we put it in context, it's an even more amazing verse. The announcement had come to Mary that she was going to have a son, and that son was going to
be born of miraculous means. It would be something that the Holy Spirit did, not something that was performed in the normal sort of way. And so she had to go and tell Joseph what had taken place. And I think we've all put ourselves, at least if we're men, in the position of being born of a son. We've all put ourselves in the position of Joseph and have to think, what was it like the day that
Mary told you that she was going to have a baby? It wasn't going to be yours, but it also wasn't going to be another man. It was going to be the Holy Spirit. You would start to question some things, right? Maybe you don't think too much about it, but pretty soon Mary starts to show, and you kind of go, uh-oh, we have a problem. Because living like that in ancient Israel,
a time of great legalism, was a pretty dangerous thing to do. She could potentially be put to death for adultery, right? And Joseph could have been the one who said, yeah, let's do that. And so Joseph was stressing over what to do, because how is he going to explain to everybody that this child really is of the Holy Spirit, while he's maybe questioning that himself. And so in that process, an angel shows up to Joseph in a dream. He says, hey,
listen, I realize that's kind of a hard one to swallow. I realize that's kind of a difficult thing to imagine, but I do want you to know she's telling you the truth. As a matter of fact, you're going to have a son, and you're going to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. The name Jesus means Yahweh is salvation. God is salvation, and he will save his people from their sins. Why is that significant? Because what brought
despair into the world? Sin brought despair into the world. I point that out because I think it's important for us to pay attention to, because most of us want to find our hope in the wrong thing. You see, too many of us think despair has actually led us to sin. We don't know why. We don't know
why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't know why. We don't
He didn't come to make Israel healthy again. He didn't come to make Israel great again. He didn't come to do any of those kinds of things. He came to deal with sin. He didn't come to do away with taxes. He didn't come to bring riches. He didn't come to get rid of Rome. He came to deal with the real problem. And the real problem was sin. Because Jesus came to save his people from their sins.
Well, if we move on to John chapter 1. So go to John, Gospel of John chapter 1.
Oh, excuse me, John chapter 8. No, wait with 1. I'm sorry. I'm screwing with you here. My notes got confused on me for a second. John chapter 1 verse 29. It's one of those mornings, kids.
In John chapter 1 verse 29, it says this. And the next day, he saw Jesus coming to him and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Again, isolated a great verse. But let's put it in its context, shall we? John the Baptist, who is the one who would be the forerunner for Christ, has now been born and he's grown up. And now he's doing the ministry of preparing the way.
And Jesus comes to John the Baptist to be baptized. So that he can identify himself with sinful man. And after Jesus identifies himself with sinful man, John the Baptist sees him walking one day. And he looks and he says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away, the sin of the world. You see, the announcement that had been made to Joseph in Matthew chapter 1
is now coming to fruition in John chapter 1. As Jesus, an adult, is walking around the streets of Jerusalem, walking around in that Jordan River area. And John the Baptist sees him. He says, he's the one. That's the Lamb of God. That's the ultimate sacrifice who's going to take away the sin of the world. Because that's why Jesus came into the world. Is to deal with the despair that came about.
Because of sin. So that he could restore hope to a hopeless world. And so, as we see this announcement of what Jesus is going to do. That he is going to be the one who deals with the main problem that brings despair into the world. I want to go back and look at those three things that we said everyone's looking for, for hope. And how Jesus is ultimately the one who deals with all three of those things.
Let's look at the hope that Jesus brings. Go with me to the Old Testament. Back to Isaiah chapter 61, because I want to talk to you about freedom. Isaiah chapter 61, and I want you to look at verse one, Isaiah chapter 61, verse one. Again, if you can't turn there in time, you're not familiar with navigating your Bible. You might just write it down and look it up later.
It says this, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, pay attention, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners. You may recognize this as something that Jesus himself said in Luke chapter four. And I'll talk about that in just a moment.
But there's two interesting words I want you to pay attention to that have to deal with our subject of freedom. The first word is liberty, because he is there to proclaim liberty to the captives. The word liberty means release. Release from confinement or condemnation, release from confinement or condemnation. And that's exactly what Jesus did. He released us from our confinement and our condemnation.
The second word is the word freedom, and it means opening of prison doors. That's literally what that word means. It means opening prison doors. And that's exactly what Jesus did for us. You see, each of us was under the bondage of sin. Each of us was held captive. Each of us was under the bondage of sin. And Jesus came and he set us free. This is what we call a messianic prophecy in Isaiah chapter 61,
that there would come a Messiah who would proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to those who were held in prison. Again, Jesus, and just write this down. We're not going to turn there. In Luke chapter four, in Luke chapter four, Jesus goes into the synagogue. One of the very first times he preaches publicly, he goes into the synagogue and he takes a scroll,
and he opens it up to the Bible. He takes the book of Isaiah, or takes the scroll of Isaiah, and opens it up to chapter 61 of Isaiah. And he says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.
And he rolled up the scroll and he set it down. He says, This has now been fulfilled in your hearing. Because that's what he came to do. Jesus came to set us free. Jesus came to grant freedom to those of us that were held in the despair of sin. Go with me one more place in scripture. Now I want you to go to John chapter eight. See why I got confused there? John chapter eight.
Luckily, I'm turning pages slow this morning. John chapter eight. I want you to look at verses 31 through 36. It says this. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed, If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. And they answered him, We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone.
How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, that everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, so if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. The word free there is very similar to what we read in the Old Testament. It means to liberate or to deliver. It means to liberate or to deliver.
And Jesus just told them that anyone who is committing sin becomes a slave of sin. And Jesus came in to set us free. Therefore, whoever the Son has set free, has liberated or delivered, is free indeed. I want to read this to you out of a couple of different translations. In the Weiss translations when he says, He whom the Son has set free is free indeed, it says free in reality.
I liked that translation. He is free in reality. In other words, that's the reality that we live in. The reality that we live in is that we have been set free by Jesus. And then the Amplified Bible put it this way, Unquestionably free. Because without a question, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Jesus has set us free. And he did so by coming to the earth to deliver us from our sins through the cross.
And brothers and sisters, I want to tell you right now, you and I were made to live in freedom. But too many of us, both as believers in Jesus Christ and people in the world, will not live in the freedom that God has for them to live. You say, what do you mean? I think that there's a lot of people that don't really live in freedom. Because you have been conditioned so long
to live under the bondage of sin that in your mind, you're still in bondage. That in your mind, you're still held underneath that sin. Perhaps you're still held under the guilt of sins that you've committed in the past. Perhaps you still feel the shame of the sins that you've committed. Or perhaps you still find yourself returning like a dog to its vomit, back to those exact same sins.
And you're not living in the freedom, either in action or in thought. And I want to tell you, this is because you have been conditioned by sin to live in sin. There was an experiment that was done in the 60s, a crazy experiment. So follow me on this. I'm not saying this was a good experiment, but it teaches an interesting lesson. The experiment was this. They put some dogs in a cage.
And they electrified the cage to where if the dogs tried to escape, and they closed the door, if the dogs did anything to try to escape, every time they did, an electric shock would be sent through them. And they did that enough to where the dogs knew, if I try to escape, it's going to hurt. I can never be free. I can never be free. They even started turning down the voltage,
and the dogs reacted the same way every time. Whatever level the voltage was, you would have thought it was always at the highest voltage. And then one day, they turned the voltage completely off, opened the cage, and you know what the dogs did? They just sat there. They just sat there. Because they had been conditioned to live in bondage. But they did one more interesting thing
in this experiment. The next interesting thing that they did is they introduced a dog back into the cage that had never once been shocked like the other dogs had. And they turned up the sound of the voltage, and all of the dogs started going crazy. They opened the cage, and the one dog who had never known bondage ran out of the cage, and the rest of the dogs followed.
Because they knew, if he can be free, we can be free. Brothers and sisters, you and I were conditioned by sin. We were conditioned by sin to say this is the bondage I'm always going to live in. This is the place I'm always going to be. This is what I will always be like. I can never be free. And that's why Jesus came. Jesus came so that he could show us the way to be free.
But listen, the only way that we can be free is to follow Jesus as he leads us out of bondage. Because that's the freedom that the hope of Jesus brings to us. Brothers and sisters, there is freedom in Christ. The second thing that I would like to tell you that Jesus has done for us is that Jesus has given us purpose. The coming of Jesus gave us purpose. Go over to the book of Colossians,
chapter one. Colossians chapter one. And I want you to look down at verse 16. This for me has been one of the most eye-opening verses for purpose in my own personal life. And it's a small little line, but it tells us why we have been put on this earth. Colossians chapter one, verse 16 says this. For by him, meaning Jesus, all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. Here's where I want you to pay attention. All things have been created through him and for him. That was the purpose that you and I were created for. We were created for God. And we were created to know God. But when sin was introduced into the world, when sin came into the world,
it destroyed the purpose. And I know that this was God's purpose because as always I like to remind us what God did the day that he discovered that Adam and Eve had sinned. Is he showed up to walk with them, in the garden like he did every single day. Only this time something had changed. What had changed? Their purpose had been destroyed. And their purpose had been destroyed through sin.
And the evidence of their purpose being destroyed was shown in two things. Number one, they had to clothe themselves because they were now covered in the shame of sin. But number two, they hid themselves because of the shame of their sin. And now their purpose of knowing God had been destroyed by sin. And so they could not fulfill that purpose any longer because there was something in the way
and the something in the way was sin. And so Jesus came to restore our purpose. And he did so by his death on the cross. I didn't put it in there but it's in the book of Mark and it's in the book of Matthew and it's in the book of Luke that the last thing that took place right after Jesus gave up the ghost, Jesus cried out one last thing from the cross. He cried out, it is finished.
A fascinating word, a whole study in and of itself. But the Greek word is tetelestai which means paid in full. And so when you owed a debt in Roman times, that debt would be nailed to your door. Your credit card statement basically would be nailed to your door. That would be awesome, right? And you had to work to pay that off. And when it was paid off, they would take a stamp
and they would stamp that bill, tetelestai, paid in full. And so the last thing Jesus says on the cross is the certificate of handwriting that was against us, the debt that we owed of sin that we could only pay through our own personal death and separation eternally from God, Jesus did for us by dying on the cross. And so he cried out, it is finished. Now up to that point in time, there was always a separation between God and man.
There was a symbol of the separation of sin between God and man. And that had to do with the tabernacle. The tabernacle was set up, which was where they were supposed to meet with God, was set up in three different sections. You had the outer court, you had the holy place, where the table of showbread and the lamp and everything was, only the priests could go there.
And then when you went beyond the holy place, there was what was called the holiest of all or the most holy place. And that was where the Ark of the Covenant dwelt. And in that place was where they were supposed to meet with God, only there was something that separated them from meeting directly with God. And it was a curtain that depending on who you read was anywhere from six to 16 inches thick that showed that there was separation between God and man.
Because the purpose had been destroyed through sin. Well, when Jesus cried out from the cross to Telestai and he gave up the ghost, there was a great earthquake and we're told the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, showing that God had restored the purpose for man. Because now, through the blood of Jesus Christ, we have access directly to God and we can live out our purpose. Our purpose again.
So you were created with purpose. Number one, the purpose to know God, which is why when you jump into John chapter 15, which we talked about last week, and Jesus says, Abide in me and I in you and you will bear much fruit. When we realize that that abiding relationship is an active and living relationship with Jesus Christ and we realize that was our purpose, that's what sin destroyed and that's why he died, it colors that idea of an abiding relationship even more because we realize, but that's the reason why I was created, is to know God, which is why the world is running around right now with no purpose because they're trying to find purpose in everything else instead of the one place where it was intended to be, a relationship with the God
who created them. But that relationship plays itself out in interesting ways. Turn over to Ephesians. Go back to your left. Philippians, Ephesians. And I want you to look at Ephesians, chapter two, verse 10. Oops, I hit Galatians. That's too far. If you hit Galatians, you've gone too far. Galatians, chapter two, verse 10. Beautiful verse. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus, pay attention to this, for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them. We are God's workmanship. That word in the Greek is the word poema, which is where we get our English word poem from, but the idea of the word poema or workmanship is masterpiece. In other words, when God created you, he created you to be one of his masterpieces.
And when your purpose is restored of knowing God, he says it's wonderful that you know me, but I have even more for you than that. I have good things for you to do. I have such an important plan for your life. I have such an important job for you to do so that you can know me and glorify me in an even greater way. And do you know that it is specifically set aside for you.
These are things that only you can do. And it's such a beautiful truth. Quite a few years back now, I ran a half marathon. I haven't done it since, but I ran a half marathon and it was always kind of fascinating to me that you had to sign up for a time. And I thought it was odd that they were like, what time are you hoping for? I'm like, well, that's a little bit personal,
don't you think? But anyway, I had to put in what time I was hoping for, which was a little slower than I would have wanted, but I had to put in what time I was hoping for. And then I showed up to the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and I realized that blocks and blocks of the street are just full of people and I'm like, that's why you have to sign up for a time. So that you know where to stand.
So that you don't end up standing in front of the kid from Oklahoma State that's gonna run it in half the time that you're gonna run it and then his skinny little 115 pound body plows over you, right? That's why you have to sign up for a specific time. Because there is a race that I run and it's specific to me. That's the way it is with you, it's specific to me.
I don't know if that's the case for you. Do you know that even before you were born, God knew you and he had a plan for you and he was like, this is the things I want them to do? This is the work I have prepared for them? Now go and walk in it. Friends, your life has more purpose than you can even imagine. Not only to know the God that created you, but to serve
the God that created you. And listen, that serving won't end the last time that you breathe on planet Earth. It will just continue on and you're gonna be in ages to come. There's one more thing. Go to Philippians. So go to your right. Nope. Yeah. Galatians and Ephesians. Philippians. And I want you to look at Philippians chapter three. Oh, I wrote verses 13. No, we can do 13 and 14. Philippians 3, 13 and 14.
It says this. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. But one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What does that mean? It means that every day our purpose is to become more like Jesus. That's part of the purpose that you have in your life is becoming
more like him. And everything in your life is about forgetting what's behind and pressing on towards the goal. Forgetting what's behind and pressing on towards knowing him. Forgetting what's behind and pressing on to what God has prepared for you. The first thing that you have to do, of course, is that forgetting what's behind, right? And in our purpose and what God has called for us
to do, it goes back to that freedom thing, is we remind ourselves constantly that we are free. And then we remind ourselves constantly that I was set free for a purpose. I wasn't set free just so that I could tell everybody that I'm free. I was set free so that I could serve God and so that I could become more like him. And every day we press towards the prize.
I hope every morning, I hope every morning you wake up and you think, how am I gonna pursue God today? How am I gonna seek after God today? How am I gonna become more like Jesus today? How am I gonna serve Jesus today? It's a wonderful thing to think about on a Sunday morning, but let's employ it in Monday through Saturday as well, shall we? Because you have a purpose and that's
your hope that you have in life. And so don't think to yourself, oh, I'm just some guy that tried to find a little bit of faith in Jesus so that I could hopefully avoid hell. No, God had a whole lot more purpose for you than that. God's purpose for you is more than you can ever imagine. And every day he wants you to discover a little bit more of what that looks
like. I was listening to David Jeremiah teach on something very similar to this. And he said, and I hear people say it too, because Christians usually live lives much differently than the world. At least they should live lives much differently from the world. And the world looks at the way that a Christian lives and think, oh, it must be kind of boring. Because you're not
living all the same desires and things that they're pursuing. And because of that, they think your life must be pretty boring. And David Jeremiah said, I would never categorize my life as boring. There's nothing boring about my life. Because when you pursue God every single day, he creates the most interesting situations that you can ever find yourself in. And that's what
it's like following Jesus. So I hope, I hope every day you wake up and you say, Lord, what do you have for me today? How can I become more like you today? How can I seek you more today? What good works do you have for me to walk in today? Because you don't know from day to day what God has for you. And you don't know from day to day how God's using you. And so we have purpose. Now, the third
thing that we want to look at. So we've seen that Christ brings the hope of freedom because he has set us free. He brings the hope of purpose because we have a reason to be alive. But number three, he brings us the hope of the future. I want you to go over to John chapter 14.
John chapter 14. And I want to look at verses. Let's do one through three. Verses one through three of John chapter 14. Jesus is towards the end of his time on earth. It's again part of those last teachings that he gave his disciples, part of the upper room discourse. And he knows he's about to head home. He knows he's about to endure the cross and then be,
and then ascend into heaven. So he's telling his disciples things to pay attention to. And notice what he says. Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That
where I am, there you may be. Also, Jesus knows he's about to depart and he wants them to know this is not the end. Even time on earth is not the end. And so he tells them, please don't let your heart be troubled. And I would say to everybody here this morning, don't, don't let your heart be troubled. There's a lot of things in the world that want to trouble our hearts right now, but I want to remind us of the
future that we have, because this is what we're looking to. He says, don't let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Just believe also in me. He says, in my father's house are many dwelling places. Now, if you're reading the Bible, you're going to see that there are many dwelling places. Old King James, I think even the New King James says this. It says, in my father's house are many
mansions. Now, I grew up thinking something about that. I grew up thinking that someday I was going to get to heaven and there was going to be a large spread for me there. And it was going to be an amazing house with all of the things that I can imagine. And as somebody who grew up being fascinated by lawn mowing and still enjoys it to this day, I thought I'm going to have the most
beautiful yard anyone can ever imagine. And it's going to be perfectly striped, just like a baseball field. When I was a little kid, it was Wrigley Field, and now it's a little bit more Kauffman's Stadium. But that's what it's going to be like, and it's going to be amazing. I sense have come to understand that mansions may or may not actually be homes that we live in like that. We may have
homes that we live in when we get to heaven. But it really speaks of a dwelling place, a permanent body. Paul in 2 Corinthians tells us that right now we're living in these tents, these temporary dwelling places that we live in. And these temporary dwelling places that we live in are subject to so many of the things of this world, the weaknesses of this world, the sicknesses of this world, the fallbacks of this world. And there's going to come a day,
and Jesus wanted them to know, I'm going home, but it's okay. I'm going to come back and get you. But I'm going to go home first, and I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'm going to come again, and I'm going to receive you unto myself. So that wherever I am, that's where you're going to be, and you're going to be with me for all of eternity. And
listen, everybody's looking for a hope for a future, right? And I'm going to be with you for all of eternity. How am I going to provide a future for myself? How am I going to provide a future for my kids? How am I going to provide a future for my family? Can I leave something for them so that there's some sort of a future, the future generation? That's what everybody talks about in a political
season, right? What are we going to do for the future generations? Well, the problem that most of us have when we think about the future is we don't think far enough. We think future here, and we forget that future here is not as important as future there. Because all of these things here, they're all eternal, or they're all temporary, right? Nothing's eternal. And if I leave
something for my kids, if I leave a bunch of money, or a house, or some cars, or Carl, you know, I don't know, whatever I leave for my kids, my dog, or you know, whatever I leave for my, if I leave all that for them, that's wonderful, but that doesn't do anything for eternity, because eventually they're going to leave that to someone else. Because future is not just on this earth. Future is eternal. And Jesus says, I want you to know eternity is sealed. It's taken care of. Because
I'm going to go, and I'm going to prepare a place for you. I'm going to prepare a dwelling place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'm going to come again and receive you unto myself. And that's what we're waiting for right now, right? We're waiting for him to come again and receive us unto himself. That wherever he is, that's where we're going to be. That's the future
that we're looking forward to. And because we have that future that we look forward to, we can deal with a whole lot of things today. Go over to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, and I want us to look at verses 18 through 25. Romans 8, verses 18 through 25.
Paul says, starting in verse 18,
He rejected it in hope, that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption. Lost my place. Into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope, we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance, we wait for it eagerly. You see, that hope creates a whole different way that we look at life, right? It creates a whole different
way that we look at things. First of all, it creates a different way that we look at suffering. Because he says, we know that the sufferings of this present life, they're not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to come. They're not worthy to be compared with, the things that are coming in the future. Because we understand that this will pass. It may pass like
a kidney stone, but it will pass, right? Eventually, that's what's going to happen. This place is going to go away. We won't be here forever. This will not last forever, because we have that future hope. See, the reason why most people going through the hardest sufferings of their life struggle so much is because they don't see a future hope. They don't see that there's a potential, that this is
not it. And I can continue to live with joy that though the outward body is perishing, the inward body is being renewed day by day, because I know that I have an eternal hope beyond here. And so it changes the way that we view the sufferings of this present life, because we view them no longer as a despairing end. We see them as a means to prepare us for that which is to come. But not only that,
we realize that there's a whole lot of groaning that's going to be going on, right? Did you notice how many times the word groan was used? Creation is groaning. And why is creation, which by the way, have you noticed that? Creation is kind of groaning right now. I don't know if you've, like, I always see all the different things taking place throughout the world, the different earthquakes. When we first started
having earthquakes in Kansas, I was like, really? Kansas? This is what we're going to do now, huh? Feels right. I mean, we do something different every day, right? The other day it was winter, today it's spring, right? It's just what we do. We like new things. We like surprises. And then earthquakes start happening. And they'll give you all kind of, oh, this is right,
we're having earthquakes. No, it's because creation is groaning. Creation is groaning because creation wants to be set free. Creation wants to see the sons of God revealed, that's us, so that a new creation can take place. But not only that, we're groaning. We groan because of all the things that go on in this world because we are looking forward to that hope. But not only
does that hope cause us to view the things of the world differently, the sufferings of the world differently, but that hope creates perseverance inside of us. Because if we hope for what we have not seen, we, with the grace of God, we can see the things that are going to happen. And we can see perseverance, we eagerly wait for it. We keep saying, Lord, what's going to keep preparing me for the future? Lord, what's going to keep my mind and my eyes focused on the future? Lord, I know
that this place isn't it. So keep my eyes focused on the future and we wait for it eagerly. Go with me one more place in scripture. My favorite verse in all of the Bible, 1 John chapter 3. I want you to look at verses 2 and 3. 1 John chapter 3, verses 2 and 3. It says this, starting in verse 2. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be,
but we know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is. It's pure. I love this verse so much because it reminds me who I am now. It reminds me of what's coming, and it reminds me of what I need to be doing in the meantime. Who we are now is we are
children of God. We are children of God who have been set free from the bondage of sin. Children of God who have been set free from the bondage of the world. Children of God who have been set free from the opinions of the world, from the things of the world. Children of God who have been set free. Children of God who have been given a purpose. a purpose of knowing God, what we were originally intended for, a purpose of serving God, what God
wants for us, and a purpose of becoming more like our Savior every single day. We've been given a purpose, but children of God who also have a future. Because he says, beloved, now we are the children of God, and it's not yet been revealed what we shall be. How many of you can say that you prove on a daily basis that it has not yet been revealed what you shall be, right? I call it every day of
the week. Every day of the week I prove to myself I have not yet where God wants me to be. It's not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that one day we will see him as he is, and that's the day we're looking forward to. As children of God who have been set free, as children of God who have a purpose, then as children of God we have a future. That's who we are. That's the hope
that we have. Therefore, in the meantime, what do we do? Well, everyone, who has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. What does that mean? It means every day I ask myself what's not allowed in heaven and what needs to get out of me. Every day I ask myself what will keep me from knowing this Savior? What will keep me from this purpose? Every day I
ask myself where am I living in bondage that I need to be set free from? Because every day I am purifying myself even as he is pure. Brothers and sisters, there is hope because of Jesus. Two thousand years ago, in a world that was filled with the despair, despair of bondage, despair of taxation, despair of poverty, despair of all the things going on in the world of immorality, of legalism, hope was born. And he came to give us freedom, and he came to give us
purpose, and he came to guarantee for us a future, all because Jesus was born. Amen? Let's all stand.
Bow with me. Father, we come to you now. We thank you for who you are, and we thank you that you have come to save us. Lord, I thank you that because of you there is hope. And so, Lord, I lift up each person that's sitting in here this morning, or maybe even watching online, and Father, I pray that if there are any that are battling with that hopelessness, Lord, any battling with those,
with the things of sin, Lord, that they would know the freedom that there is in you. Father, that they would see you, and that they would follow you out of that cage, that they would follow you out of that bondage, and that they would pursue you with all of their hearts. Lord, keep us ever in mind of who you are, and keep us ever in mind of the freedom that we have in you. And we just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.
Thank you. You stepped down from your throne, Lord. You paid the price for our sins, Lord. But not only to do that, Lord, but just to also give us freedom, to give us hope, to give us new life and a future, Lord. So, Lord, we thank you. We expressed our gratitude to you this morning, Lord.
Lord God, we just thank you again for who you are and for what you've done for us, Lord God, for all the...for just the new life, Lord, that we have in you, the freedom, the future, and the hope that we have in you, Lord. And as we leave here today, Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit go with us and continue to minister to our hearts and our lives. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. Merry Christmas.