Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM-Gifts of Christmas Pt2- Pastor Ryan

All right. Good morning. I'm glad you all are here. Good to see everybody. Welcome you to Calvary Chapel. Welcome to everybody watching online. I invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started.

Father, we thank you for the day. We thank you for another opportunity, Lord, to be here, to spend some time in your word, Lord, and to worship you. We ask that you bless this time, Lord, prepare our hearts to receive from you, Lord, this morning and help us to lift a joyful noise to you, Father, as always. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

You guys can go ahead and have a seat if you like.

Yes, Lord God, we just look forward to the day where we can stand in your presence, Lord, with a thousand generations and sing, worthy is the lamb who was slain. Amen. O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. O come, let us adore Christ, your master.

Would you guys go ahead and stand with me for this last one?

Lord, as we come to you this morning and as we sing this last song, I just want to say, Lord, it's just such a joy to serve you, Lord. Lord, you fill us with your joy. Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us. Thank you for all the ways you take care of us, Lord. Lord, we praise you.

Lord, that is our desire this morning. Lord, just empty us this morning of all the things that are not of you, Lord. Empty us and fill us afresh with more of you. Fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit. Lord, may you be glorified this morning. May you increase. May you increase and us decrease. Lord, as Pastor Ryan comes this morning, I pray that your word go out mightily with power

and give us hearts to receive it. Lord, if we have a hard heart this morning, soften it. Break it. Lord, mold us into the image that you would have us.

Lord, soften our hearts this morning. And may you be glorified. We pray these things in your precious and holy name. All God's people said? Amen. Amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning.

If you could begin to locate your seats. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

The name tag on the back. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you've joined us this morning. A few things to take note of in your bulletin. First of all, all the things on the left-hand side, take note of those. And find yourself a spot to get plugged into. Middle section of your bulletin. Lady, there's... Ladies, there is a ladies' breakfast this coming Saturday.

Which, fun fact, is not December the 7th, as it says in your bulletin. Otherwise, you missed it. I'm sure they had a great time. But they're going to do it again this coming Saturday. And all you ladies are welcome. That's at 8 o'clock a.m. at Steamy Joe's. Also, I don't know if y'all have taken a look at that live nativity sign-up sheet or not. But, gosh, it's sad.

Is it still sad? It was sad when I came in first thing this morning. Yeah. There's several names scribbled off there now. So, it'd be great if some of y'all would volunteer for that. So, because that's this week. That's this week. And you don't have to do anything hard, right? You just stand there. You don't have to stand there perfectly still. You just have to be there.

So, we need some help with that. Also, a reminder that it's coming up Christmas Eve. We'll be doing a Christmas Eve candlelight service at 6.30 p.m. here at the church. So, if you are around, love to have you come join us for that. And then, a reminder. A reminder to the parents that next Sunday, the kids will be doing a couple of things. They will be doing a little song for us here in the sanctuary.

And then, also, they are going to be presenting. They've been raising money to support missions. And so, they're going to be sharing with us what they're going to be doing with the money that they've raised to support missions. So, those two things are going on next week for the kiddos. To my knowledge, that's all that's going on. So, if you would, make sure that your mobile device is silenced.

And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 8. Psalm 8. Looking at the New American Standard for this so that we all sound the same. If you need a copy of the New American Standard, it should be one in a row around you. If there's not, as always, it's time to make a friend. And as you're turning to 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 get-it. A Psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who have displayed your splendor 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 hands, 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? Yet you have made him a little lower than God, and you crowned him with glory and majesty. You make him to rule over the works of your hand. You have put all things under his feet.

All sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field. The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the sea. 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 you are far beyond our finding out. You saw fit, Lord, to come down and dwell among us. And as we take time to celebrate that in this season, I pray that you would keep us ever in mind of the great love that you have for us in order to do that.

And so, Lord, I pray that as we spend time in your word this morning, I just invite the presence of your Holy Spirit to fill this place. Father, that you would bless our hearts with what it is that your Spirit wants to minister to us this morning. And Lord, may we be surrendered to whatever you want to do. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 1.

Matthew, chapter 1. We're going to be several different places in Scripture this morning, but we'll start in Matthew, chapter 1.

As I mentioned last week, I decided to take the month of December to do a series on Christmas, only a little different than what I've done in the past. And we're talking about the things that Jesus has done for us with his first coming. And so, I've entitled it, The Gifts of Christmas. So, last week, we talked about joy. And this morning, we're going to talk about hope.

It's kind of interesting. I had a little bit of time over Thanksgiving break to watch some movies. I don't watch a whole lot of movies. I watch TV shows, but rarely movies. And I was like, ooh, I haven't watched Batman in a really long time. So, I watched the Batman show, the Dark Knight trilogy, the one with Christian Bale, you know, the real Batman. So, I watched the Dark Knight trilogy.

And I was kind of struggling. I was kind of struck by something. It was actually the very last one that I was watching. And if you don't know the story, in the very last one, there's a villain, a warlord, if you will, that comes in and takes over Gotham City. His name is Bane. And he comes in and takes over Gotham City. And Batman has kind of fallen by the wayside.

He's almost nowhere to be found in the entire city. Those that remember who Batman was and what he'd done at one point in time were all hoping for something. They were hoping that Batman would return. That he would return. That he would return. And that he would once again do the great things that he had done at one point in time. But all of their hope was fixed upon this superhero.

And, of course, the superhero returns. Spoiler alert. The superhero returns and sets Gotham City free. I know you weren't picturing that at all. You weren't imagining that that was going to be the ending. But that's what's going to happen. And as I was watching it, I thought, you know, I don't ever think I've thought about this before. But basically, superhero movies preach the gospel.

You ever notice that? Because the world or the city or whatever is under the sway of some sort of evil. And everybody is hopeless. And all they're hoping for is for this. One superhero that will come along and set them free from the bondage that they're in because of evil. And it's like, hello, that's the gospel, right? Only instead of a superhero, we have Jesus.

And so I got to thinking about that. And I thought, that's exactly what we do this time of year is we have hope. And the hope that we have is not that some superhero is going to show up and set us free. But our hope is in the one true superhero, this Jesus, that ultimately sets us free for all of eternity. Well, so I was thinking about the lyrics to one of my favorite Christmas songs.

And it's O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. And it says this. 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. Isn't that great? That's the hope is that Emmanuel will come. And so as we take time this morning to look at hope, I want to do three things. We're going to look at, first of all, hope and what it is.

We're going to look at despair so that we can truly understand hope. And then we're going to look at Jesus. And so we'll start off with just a little definition. The definition of hope. Again, I went to several different sources. I looked it up on the internet, on Merriam-Webster and all these different dictionaries. And, of course, in the Bible dictionary.

So I kind of took all that together and put together the definition of hope. Now, the definition of hope looks different than what we usually think of. Usually, we picture hope, especially this time of year, as I hope I get this thing, right? We call that wishful thinking, right? Like I hope one day I'm going to dunk a basketball. That's called wishful thinking.

There's no basis for that hope, right? And so hope that we're talking about. It's different than wishful thinking. And this is the definition. Hope is an expectation of the fulfillment of a promise. The expectation of the fulfillment of a promise. And so there's no wishful thinking involved. It's that you expect that this is going to happen. It's interesting because another place defined it like this.

It means to watch for expectantly because you know that it's going to happen. A couple of synonyms for hope that were given to me. Number one was anticipation. Which? With expectation, that makes sense. But the one that got me the most is that synonymously with hope is the word trust. Trust ultimately is what it means to have hope. That we trust that someone is going to do what they said they're going to do or keep their promise.

And actually, one Bible dictionary even defined it as a firm trust. And so that's really what we're looking at when we're looking at this idea of hope is a firm trust, a firm expectation in the fulfillment of a promise. But I got to thinking about something. As I was looking up all these definitions, I thought, what are most people hoping for? Not the material things, because this time of year, everybody's hoping for something, right?

But not the material things. What are people actually hoping for? And so I started making this list of things that people are hoping for. And so I've got 112 things for you to write down. I'm just kidding. A couple of you looked up. You're like, I don't have that kind of ink in my pen. No, I've shrunk it down to three things. Three main categories that people are hoping for in life.

Number one, people are hoping for freedom. Number two, people are hoping for some sort of freedom in their life. And of course, freedom is defined as not being under the control of another or not being in bondage to something or someone. And ultimately, that's kind of what we hope for, right? Is we hope that ultimately we can be free people who live as free people,

not under the bondage of anyone, not under the bondage of anything, but able to live life as free individuals. A lot of people are hoping for that. Second of all, most people are hoping for some sort of peace. They're hoping for a purpose in their life. You want to know that there's a reason. You want to know that there's a reason that you're here, that there's a reason that you're alive,

that there's a reason that you've been put on earth, that there is a reason for all of the things that are taking place because you want to know that life has a purpose and that you have a purpose. And so ultimately, you're hoping in a purpose that God has for you. And then number three, most people are hoping for a future. You're hoping that this is not it, that there is something to look forward to, that there is some future that you'll have.

And whether it's people of the world who are looking to have a hope for a future on this earth or maybe to pass things on to their kids, or for those of us as believers, our hope is in a distant future, an eternity beyond here. But those are the three things that all of the other categories, all of the other things that I listed can all fit into. We're all looking for freedom, we're all looking for purpose, and we're all looking for a future. Well, again, I think if we truly, if we want to truly understand hope, we have to first truly understand the opposite of hope.

It's interesting because I first, because I'm not that creative, when I thought of the opposite of hope, I was like, hmm, hopelessness? There's a better word for it than that, right? So ultimately, the opposite of hope is despair. Despair. And despair, is that not just one of those words that makes you sad even when you think about it? Despair, right? And immediately you get this downcast look on your face

because that's what it is. It's defined as this. Despair is defined as the complete loss or absence of hope to be utterly destitute. I added my own definition to this. I said, despair is the expectation that there will be no freedom, no hope, or no future, and no purpose. It's the expectation that that's what's gonna happen. And too many people are living in despair.

People in our culture right now are living in despair. And there's one central location where despair came from. Despair. Despair did not come because we don't eat healthy enough. Despair did not come because we don't have the right economy. Despair didn't come about in the world because we didn't have the right leader. Despair didn't come about in the world

because we didn't have the right education system. Despair came into the world for one reason and one reason only, and that's sin. Sin is what brought despair into the world. Because I'll remind you of what happened to Adam and Eve when they first ate the fruit that they were not supposed to eat. They hid themselves from God in despair because they felt like all hope was lost.

Now, as we think about the world that Jesus was born into, I think despair is a really good word that we could use to describe that world. And so for just a moment, I want you to think back to what it would have been like in the world that Jesus came into, into ancient Israel. Because in ancient Israel, there was a great deal of despair that took place in the world at that point in time. So imagine, if you will, that you're living in Israel.

And if you're living in Israel in the time that Jesus was born, there's a handful of things that were true. Number one, you were under Roman occupation. You were not living in a free land. You were not a free people. You were under the occupation of a foreign ruling government who ruled, by the way, with an iron fist, who ruled with the idea that uprisings were to be met

with great defeat and great violence. You were under the sway of a different government. You were living in bondage. Number two, it was a time of great poverty. It's a time of great poverty, partly because of the culture that they lived in, but it was also a time of great poverty because great wars had been fought. By the time Caesar Augustus came to power,

he had fought so many wars to end up in the place where he was to end up ultimately being the ruling Caesar that everyone was broke, including the Roman government, which leads us to the next thing that was going on. If you were, when Jesus was born into his culture, taxation was very high. As a matter of fact, the entire thing that brought Jesus's family to Bethlehem in order for Jesus to be born was the fact that all the people were to return to their hometowns to be taxed. Do you know why they were being taxed?

Because the government was broke and they needed to pay for all of the wars that they fought. And so it was a time of heavy taxation. Not only that, it was a time of moral bankruptcy because in the Roman world, immorality was rampant, but even within the Jewish world, that immorality continued to be rampant. But oddly enough, and this often happens when immorality is rampant, they were also under the thumb of extreme legalism.

In other words, they felt like they could never measure up to God. And usually the thing that immorality brings is legalism because I'll give in to sin over here as long as I do the right things over here. And this was the world that Jesus was born into. It was a world, I would say, that was full of great despair. And can I tell you that our world today doesn't always look a whole lot different

than the world we live in today. It doesn't look a whole lot different than the world we live in today. It doesn't look a whole lot different than the world back then. We may not be under the sway of the Roman government, but all of us are under the sway of sin. And we are watching our culture, at least in the Western culture, that's considered a free culture,

become more and more in bondage to sin because we are seeing more and more people find themselves in the place where they only live to satisfy the desires of their heart. They only live to satisfy the desires of their flesh. We oftentimes, as we all know, the economy could be a little bit better. Poverty is an issue. Inflation is a major issue. And taxation always goes along with that.

Immorality runs rampant. And quite frankly, there's a great deal of legalism in our world today. The world today faces a great deal of despair. We fear that there's no future, there's no purpose, and there's no freedom. Well, now that I've painted the picture of what despair really looks like, let's talk about Jesus. Because Jesus ultimately brings hope. So let's look at Matthew chapter one.

Because as we look at Jesus, I want us to notice two things. I'm gonna talk about the announcement of hope, and then I wanna talk about the hope that he brings. But let's first talk about the announcement. Look at Matthew chapter one. I want you to look at verse 21. It says this. And she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Now, as a standalone verse, fantastic verse, but let's put it right back in its context so we know exactly why this verse is there, and paint an even greater picture of the hope that's presented to us here. Mary had already had the announcement made to her, you're gonna have a son. Only this son's gonna be a little bit different. This son is gonna be born of God.

This is gonna be a work of the Holy Spirit. There will be no physical union that takes place. This will be a work of the Holy Spirit, because Mary was a virgin. You're gonna be with child, and this child is gonna be a special child, because this child is gonna be the one that God had promised from long ago. He will be the Messiah, or the chosen one, who will take away the sin of the people.

Well, Mary at that time was betrothed, or promised, to a guy named Joseph. And can you imagine, I always put myself in Joseph's position this time of year, what it must have been like to have Mary come to me, be like, so I got good news and I got bad news, right? The good news is, I'm gonna have a baby. Bad news is, I'm gonna have a baby, right? Like, that's kind of an odd thing to,

and I promised it was God, right? And Joseph's going, God did this. Are you serious? Right? So he's kind of dealing with the reality of that, and then all of a sudden Mary starts to show. Now that was a pretty intense thing in that particular culture, because in that culture, she could have been put to death for the fact that she had committed adultery, right? And

so Joseph's weighing out all the things that he's supposed to do. He wants to be a godly man. He wants to be a good man. And so as he's weighing all of these things out, and probably dealing with a little bit of doubt himself, an angel shows up to Joseph in a dream. He says, hey, I want you to know, like, that's a true story. Like, what Mary told you, I'm editorializing a little bit here

right now, okay? Like, that's a true story that Mary told you. Like, this is really me. And she is going to have a son, and you're going to call his name Jesus, which means Yahweh is salvation. God is salvation, and he will save his people from their sins. Doesn't it bring even more color to that particular verse? It's this promise that there's going to be this Savior who is going to come, and

he's going to save his people. The sin that led them into despair. The sin that led them into the depression. The sin that led them to a place of ultimate hopelessness. Don't worry. A Savior's coming. He's going to be born of Mary, and you're going to call his name Jesus, because he's going to save everyone from their sins. Well, let's go one another place in Scripture here. I say one more, but there's like 12 more.

One more place in Scripture here. Go to the book of John. Gospel of John chapter 1. So go three Gospels to your right. Gospel of John chapter 1. And that's where I'll insert. If you're not good at navigating your Bible, that's totally fine. If you just need to write those verses down and find them later, I totally understand that. I don't want you to feel like you're not keeping up, but if you're

able to, then please turn with us. John chapter 1. I want you to look down at verse 29. John chapter 1 verse 29. This is John the Baptist speaking, and he says this. The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and he said, Now, this is an announcement that's made by John the Baptist. Jesus has now grown up, lived 30 years on this earth, and at this point in time begins his earthly ministry. And the way

that he begins his earthly ministry is by going and being baptized by John the Baptist. John, who would be the forerunner of Jesus that you read about in the book of Luke. He goes and is baptized by John so that he can be identified. With sinful man. In other words, I'm one of you guys so that I can bear your sin. And so John baptizes him, and that's when the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove, and God pronounces,

this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And the next day, John the Baptist sees Jesus, and it's like it absolutely dawns on him. Oh my gosh, that's the guy. He says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The promise that the angel made to Joseph in Matthew chapter 1. John the Baptist is seeing come to fruition in Jesus as he sees him begin that earthly ministry.

He says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And that's exactly who Jesus was going to be. He would go on to live a perfect three years declaring the truth of what God always intended in the law, of what God always meant in the law, and declaring exactly what God looked like. Showing them what that was supposed to be. Showing them what it looked like to live as a part

of the kingdom, and then dying for them so that they could become a part of the kingdom. And as he did so, he provided the Lamb that would take away the sin of the world, and he would ultimately deal with the despair that holds all of us down. And so, as we look at this, there's three things that Jesus brings when it comes to hope. And this is what we'll spend the margin share of our time in here this morning looking at. Three things that we'll look at when

it comes to hope. Number one is freedom. Number two is freedom. Number three is freedom. Number two is freedom. Go with me another place in Scripture. Old Testament. Crack her open. Isaiah chapter 61. Isaiah chapter 61. And I want you to look at verse 1. Isaiah 61 verse 1. And it says this. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord 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. This is what we call a messianic prophecy. It was a promise in the Old Testament about the coming of Jesus who would come and do these things. And I want to point out to you two really important words that we want to focus on. The first word is at the end. It says liberty. It says that to proclaim liberty to the captives.

That word liberty means the release from confinement or condemnation. The release from confinement or condemnation. And then comes the second word. It's the release from confinement or condemnation. The second word. And that word is free. Because that word free literally means to open the prison door. To open the prison door. And that's exactly what Jesus did for us. Is he set us free from the

confinement and condemnation of sin. And then he opened up the prison door so that we could be set free. That's what Jesus did for us on the cross. Because you and I were under the bondage of sin. You and I were under the confinement of sin. Under the condemnation of sin. And Jesus came along and he died. And when he died, he set us free from that condemnation. He set us free from that

confinement. He set us free from that prison that we were all in. That prison of sin. Now interestingly enough, in Luke chapter 4, which you might just write Luke 4 in the margin of your Bible if it's not already there. In Luke chapter 4, Jesus in one of his very first public teachings goes into the synagogue. And as an itinerant rabbi, an itinerant teacher,

he walked in and he picked up the scroll of Isaiah. So imagine, if you will, against synagogue model. Jesus goes in and opens up the scroll of Isaiah. And he opens it up to Isaiah chapter 61. 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, freedom to the prisoners, and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. He rolled up the scroll and he says, today this has been fulfilled in your hearing. Indicating that he was the one who was going to bring freedom to the people. What a beautiful moment, right? There's one more place I want us to go when it comes to freedom. Go to John chapter 8.

Back to John. You can do it. I believe in you guys. Keep turning pages. John chapter 8. I'll give you a minute to get there. I want to look at verses 31 through 36. John 8, 31 through 36.

Starting in verse 31, it says this. 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're 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, everyone who commits sin is the slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever. Therefore, if the son makes you free, you are free indeed. A couple of other translations translate it like this. You are free in reality, or you are unquestionably free. In other words, the reality that we live in as believers in Jesus Christ is freedom. That's who we're supposed to be.

That's who we're intended to be. The rest of the world thinks that they live in freedom by living in sin. Do we realize that? Do we realize that sometimes we struggle with that same mentality, that sin equals freedom? I want to be free to do what I want to do. Only what people don't realize is that sin is not freedom. Sin is bondage. Because once you begin to give in to sin, you always have

to give in to sin. Once you begin to live a lifestyle of sin, that sin will come calling you every single day. Whether it's an actual addiction or just the addiction of sin in your mind, it will call you back over and over and over again. And while you're declaring to everybody else, I'm free to do whatever I want to do on the inside you like, but I'm in bondage.

Because this is all I can do. That's why Jesus comes in and says, therefore, if the sun sets you free, you are free indeed. You are unquestionably in reality free. Only the problem we have, too many people, is we have been set free by Jesus, but we still live in bondage. We have been set free by Jesus, but we still live with the mentality of the bondage of sin. And we do it in two ways. We do it in the way that we think, and we do it in the

way that we act. We do it in the way that we act by continuing to go through the same sin. So let's go back to the exact same sin. You don't understand, this is just what I was born with. You don't understand, this is just my nature. This is what I've always done. This is what I'll always do. It's just a part of who I am. And we tell ourselves that we can't be free, so we're not free. But the other way that oftentimes we live

in bondage is we live in bondage up here. Because we tell ourselves, this is who I'll always be. That shame is always going to hold me in bondage. That guilt is always going to hold me in bondage. My inability is always going to hold me in bondage. And we forget, truth that you have been set free. There's an amazing study. I just read this earlier this morning. There was an amazing study that took place in the 60s. Amazing meaning it was a little

bit weird, but it taught a really interesting principle, right? It was the 60s. Everybody was doing weird things. Anyway, so this study involved a bunch of dogs. They put a bunch of dogs in a cage, and they put an electric current in the floor. And every time the dogs would try to get free of the cage, they would turn up the voltage on the floor so that it would shock the dogs,

and it would cause them great pain so that they would know trying to get free will equal pain. And eventually, they kept turning down the voltage and turning down the voltage and turning down the voltage until there was no voltage left, and they left the cage door open. And you know what happened? None of the dogs moved because they knew if I try to escape, it's going to hurt. And they were

conditioned to live in bondage. But then they did one more thing in this study that was kind of interesting. They introduced one other dog who had never once been shocked, and they put that dog in there, and they opened the cage door, and they turned up the voltage, and all of the dogs squealed. But the dog that had never been shocked before ran, and every other dog followed. You see, too many of

us are just like that. We've been conditioned to believe I can only live in sin because sin has conditioned us to live in sin. And we've been conditioned to believe I can only live in sin because sin has conditioned us to say, I'm always going to be in bondage. And what we need is for someone to come in and say, this isn't normal. It's time to go. There's freedom. Let's run for it. You

know who that is? That's Jesus. Because Jesus comes in, and he brings freedom. And those of us that have that mentality, we need to see Jesus. That's why you've got to pursue Jesus in every part of your life. You came to him for salvation. You came to him to say, I'm a sinner, and I need a Savior. I'm a sinner, and I need someone to take care of my sin. But now he doesn't want you to continue in

it. Now he wants you to be set free. But the only way that you can be set free is the same way that you came to him. You have to keep following him. Follow him to freedom. Because the Son of God brought freedom into the world. And that's our hope. So number one is freedom. Number two, he gives us purpose. He gives us purpose. Go over to Colossians. Colossians chapter one.

This has been one of the more foundational verses in my life for understanding the purpose. Why am I on this earth? Colossians chapter one. I want you to look at verse 16. I'll give you a minute to get there. Colossians chapter one, verse 16. Colossians 1 16 says this, For by him, meaning Jesus, all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,

all things, pay attention close, all things have been created through him and for him. In other words, he is the purpose for which we were created. You were created for a purpose. And the purpose that you were created for is to know God. That is the entire reason that you're on this earth, is because God created you for the purpose of knowing him and having a relationship with him.

The one thing that affected that was sin. And I know you guys have heard me share this before, but I want to share it again. The one thing that affected it was sin. Because we know that God was created for us. We know that God was created for us. We know that God was created for us. We know that God would come and walk every day in the garden with Adam and Eve. That's what we

learn in Genesis chapter three. Only on that one fateful day, when Adam and Eve decided they wanted to be their own gods, when they wanted to be the masters of their universe, when they wanted to be like God, and they ate of the fruit, their eyes were open. And the first thing that they saw was that they were naked. The second thing that they saw was that they had offended God. And so what

did they do? They hid themselves. And that's the first time that we see that the purpose of man had been destroyed. God created us to know him. And the thing that will keep us from knowing him is sin. And so they hid themselves from God. They hid themselves, first of all, by making garments out of leaves. And then they literally tried to hide themselves from God because they did not want to do what God

created them for because they were too filled with shame. And that purpose was destroyed. Well, the very purpose that was destroyed by sin is what Jesus restored through his sacrifice. So when Jesus was crucified, a couple of interesting things took place. The first thing is the very last thing that he declared from the cross. When Jesus was on the cross, the very last thing that he yelled out was,

it is finished. That's what it says in our English Bibles. But the Greek word that he that he yelled out to say it is finished is the Greek word tetelestai. And the word tetelestai means paid in full. You see, at that point in time, when you owed a debt, that debt would be nailed to the door of your home. Can you imagine your credit card bill getting put on the door of your house?

Right. So your debt gets nailed to the door of your house until that debt is paid off. And when that debt is paid off, a stamp is used to put on there that says tetelestai, paid in full. You no longer are held accountable for the debt that you owed. And that's exactly what Jesus declared from the cross is he declared paid in full. We owed a debt that we couldn't pay. It would take all of

eternity separated from God. But Jesus paid that penalty for us and he cried out, it is finished. Tetelestai. Well, something else really significant happened right after that. Right after he cried that out, there was a great earthquake and then something fantastic happened. It's a little verse in each of the Synoptic Gospels accounts. And it says, and then the veil of the temple was torn

in two from top to bottom. Now, if you don't know how the temple or the tabernacle was set up at that point in time, there were basically three main compartments. You had the outer area where the Jewish people were free to roam about. And then you had the, the inside, which was called the holy place. And only the priests could go in there to have the table of showbread, the lamp stand, a couple of other different, different implements. And then

beyond that was what's called the most holy place. And the most holy place housed what's called the Ark of the Covenant. And the Ark of the Covenant was a visible representation of the presence of God amongst the people. It was where they were supposed to be able to meet with God. But the only person that can go in there was the high priest once a year. Well, when Jesus cried out,

Jesus finished to tell us, die paid in full. The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Why is that significant? Because there was a veil that separated everyone else from the presence of God. And depending on who you read, that veil was anywhere from six inches to 16 inches thick, representing the fact that never could we come into the presence of God. He was

always far apart from us. Our purpose was always affected by sin. And so when Jesus died, and that veil was torn in two, it represented the fact that there's no other thing that separates us from God, because it was dealt with by Jesus Christ on the cross. Our purpose had been restored. Now we can know God in the way that he always intended us to because of the coming of Jesus

Christ. Well, go over to the book of Ephesians, because while God created us to know him, he didn't just want us sitting around thinking, thoughts about how much we know God. He had a job for us to do. So go over to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, because while we were created to know God, we were also created for good works. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10. I love the sound of those pages turning. Ephesians chapter 2,

verse 10 says this, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in it. Walk in them. You and I are God's workmanship. Now that's a fantastic word in the Greek. The word in the Greek is the word poema. It's where we get our word poem from, and what it literally can be described as, is masterpiece. I don't know if you ever view yourself that way, but you're

God's masterpiece. Like God's putting a lot of work into you. God has great plans for you, and as his workmanship, he has already created good works for you to walk in. Let me tell you what that means in layman's term. God has a plan for you. God has a plan for you. God has a plan for you. God has a plan for you. for you. And God has a plan for you to do amazing things. And He already, and I love this, I've read

this several times, and He already took into account the fact that you're a moron, right? Isn't that great? When God, when you're His masterpiece, I like that. I like that God's like, He's one of the slow kids, so we'll just, He's going to do great. We just have to be patient. He already took all those things into account, because I'm His workmanship. You're His workmanship,

and God has so many amazing things planned for you, and I don't think you always realize that. I think sometimes we get content that we're saved. I'm just content that I'm a born-again believer, that I'm not going to hell, and we forget that as a born-again believer, we weren't just saved so that we could tell everyone we're saved. We were saved so that God could do something through us, because He had something that He wanted for you to do. Listen, something that He

had established before the foundations of the world. Do you know that? Do you know that He knew who you were before the foundations of the world? You were in His mind, you were on His heart, and He already had a plan for you, and it may not look like the plan that you have, but it may look like He may not take you the way that you want to go, but it will be the plan that He has, and it will be something amazing, and through it all, He will produce the most beautiful work you can imagine, because you are His workmanship, and you have been specifically created for good works that only you can do. Quite a few years back now, I ran a half marathon. I haven't done it since.

It may be a reason, but I ran a half marathon, and when you sign up for a half marathon, you have to sign up for a specific time frame. Like, this is my goal time, and I was like, well, that's kind of dumb. Why do I have to do that? It's kind of personal, isn't it? Not as fast as the other kids. I don't know if you should really know what my goal time is. So you sign up for your goal time, and I was like, I don't, that makes sense to me, but okay, so I put

down two hours, and so, and I showed up to run the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, and I realized why you had to sign up for a goal time, because there's just blocks of nothing but people, right? And it's like, oh, I need to find my people, because I don't want to end up in front of the 19-year-old kid from Oklahoma State who ran it in half the amount of time. I would be embarrassed if he ran me over, but that's exactly what would have happened when the race would have started, right? And so you have to sign up for your time, because everybody's race looks different.

Your race is specific to you, and what God has for you to do is specific to you and you only. Only you can do what God's called for you to do. Doesn't that make you feel pretty cool? God has good works that are prepared just for you, and only you can do it, which is why he wants you to lock into that purpose that he has for your life, because you were created to know God, and you were created to serve God.

Let's go to the next one. Philippians. Philippians chapter 3. Go to your right about two pages.

Maybe three if you have a large print Bible. Philippians chapter 3, and I want you to look down at verse 13.

Philippians chapter 3, verse 13. It says this. Brethren, this is Paul speaking to the church in Philippi. 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 prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You know what that means? It means your purpose is to know God,

your purpose is to serve God, and your purpose is to become like Christ. And every day we make a decision. Every day we decide what's today going to be like. What am I going to do today? Well, I hope every morning you get up and you make the decision that today I'm going to let go of everything that took place in the past. I'm going to let go of past failures.

I'm going to let go of past sins. I'm going to let go of past shame. I'm going to live in freedom. And I'm going to let go even of the victories of the past. And today I'm going to press on to know Jesus more. Today I'm going to press on to become like Jesus a little bit more. Today I'm going to press on to serve Jesus a little bit more. Because every day you have a decision.

Every day is a gift that you've been given from God for the purpose of knowing, serving, and becoming like Him. And every day you live with that purpose. And so every day I hope you wake up and you make the decision that today I'm going to forget the things that lie behind. I'm going to forget about yesterday. I'm not going to wallow in the failures. I'm not going to glory too much in the victories.

And today I'm going to press on. I'm going to press on for the goal. I'm going to press on for the purpose. The purpose of knowing God, the purpose of serving God, and the purpose of becoming like Christ. Because every day Jesus wants you to become a little bit more like Him. Every day He wants you to be fashioned a little bit more into His image. Every day He wants you to grow a little bit more in love.

To grow a little bit more in patience. To grow a little bit more in grace. So that every day you become a little bit more of who He has intended for you to be. Because that's the purpose that you have for your life. Again, too many people are floating around in this world right now not knowing what their purpose is. And sometimes their purpose has been destroyed through sin.

It's been destroyed either by the sins they've committed or by the sins that have been committed to them or both. And you're living with this lack of purpose. And Jesus is like, I have so much purpose for you, you can't even imagine. Start with knowing Me. And then move to serving Me. And then every day you're going to become like Me. And that's your goal every single day.

And I'm here to tell you right now, the Christian life is literally one of the most exciting things I could have ever imagined. I was listening to David Jeremiah teach about this same thing the other day. He said, I think because people of the world can only view things through the lens of sin, they think that being a Christian is a really boring thing to do. They think that following Christ is a really boring thing to do.

Because it doesn't equal the same thing that all of their sins equal. He said, I'm here to tell you right now, I've walked with Jesus for a really long time. And I haven't had a boring day yet. And I got to be honest with you, I've been walking with Jesus since I was 17 years old. And I can't do math that well, so I don't know how long that's been. But there's not been too many boring days.

Because every day is a little bit more exciting. Every day is a little bit more of learning who Jesus is. Every day is serving Him. And there's days where my purpose shows up, and I didn't even realize it was coming. I didn't even realize I was fulfilling it. I was just doing what God called me to do. And as I was doing what God called me to do, He used it for His glory.

Because that's the excitement of what it is to walk with Jesus. With the purpose that you have that's been restored through the work of Jesus Christ. Amen? So, we see that the hope that Jesus brings, first of all, is that He brings to us freedom, real freedom, freedom in reality. Unquestionable freedom. And He gives to us purpose. The purpose of knowing God.

The purpose of serving God. And the purpose of becoming like Christ on a consistent daily basis. But the third thing that He gives us, is He gives us the hope for the future. Go to John chapter 14. John chapter 14. And I want you to look at verses. I put two. Oh look, he changed it for me. Good man. Verses 1 through 3. Again, John 14 takes place in what we call the Upper Room Discourse.

This is right before Jesus goes to the cross. Right before Jesus goes with His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane where He will be ultimately arrested and betrayed. And He's giving His disciples final instructions. And this is what He tells them. He says, Do not 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. He gives them this hope for a future. He says, listen, I realize I'm about to leave. I'm about to depart. And it's going to not really be in the way that you want for it to take place.

But I'm going to come back and get you. But in the meantime, I'm going to prepare something for you. He says, in My Father's house are many dwelling places. Now, if you're reading the Old King James, and I think even the New King James, it says, in My Father's house are many mansions. Now, I had a whole different view of that when I was a little kid. Because we memorized everything in the Old King James when I was a little kid.

And I used to think, what's my mansion going to be like when I get to heaven? Right? Like, what's it going to look like? I thought there was going to be this giant house. Right? That, coupled with the fact that Audio Adrenaline sang this song, Big, Big House, right? Had us all thinking that there was a big house we were about to move into someday. And I was like, what's it going to look like?

Is there going to be an amazing slide? And of course, I've always loved lawn mowing because I'm a geek like that. And when I was a little kid, I was just like, dude, my yard's going to look like a Wrigley Field. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be the most awesome thing you've ever seen in your entire life. And then I started growing up and getting a little bit older

and studying Scripture a little bit more. And I realized that it has nothing to do with the house that I'm going to live in. And it has everything to do with the dwelling place that I'm going to have. Because Jesus says, in My Father's house are many dwelling places. It speaks of this brand new house. It speaks of this brand new body that we're going to have.

See, right now, what we're living in is we're living in tents. That's what Paul tells us in the book of 2 Corinthians. Right now, we're living in this temporary dwelling place. And this temporary dwelling place is subject to all the weaknesses of the world, all of the injuries of the world, all of the sicknesses of the world, all of the sin of the world. We live in these temporary bodies, right?

But Jesus reminds us, hey, listen, I need you to know something. In My Father's house, there's a lot of dwelling places. And I'm going to go 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. Because you're going to be with Me for all of eternity. You're going to be with Me forever.

Well, that all of a sudden creates a future for us, right? We realize that we have a future that goes far beyond here. A future that goes far beyond anything that we have, right? Too many of us think too small when it comes to future, right? The whole world wants to lay up something for their kids. And that's great. You know, you want to be able to lay aside an inheritance.

But I could give my kids everything in the world, right? I could leave them all the money. I could leave them all the money in the world. All the house in the world. All the cars in the world. I could leave them Carl. All those things could be left to my kids. But they're all going to perish. They're all going to ultimately be temporary. Jesus says, I want you to think future.

And I want you to think future. I don't want you to think future like 401K. I want you to think future like heaven. Like eternity. That's what I want you to think with future. And brothers and sisters, that's what we have. We have a future hope. A hope that goes beyond this earth. A hope that goes beyond this place. A hope that stretches into eternity. And that future hope changes our view.

It changes the way that we look at life. I want you to go to another place with me in scripture. Go over to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. I want you to look down at verse 18. Romans 8 verse 18. Paul says this in Romans 8 verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. But the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption 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 we also ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he's already seen? But if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance,

we wait eagerly for it. Paul says, I need you to understand something. That future hope that we have, that promise that we have, that Jesus is preparing a place for us, and one day he's going to take us home to be with himself, reminds us that the sufferings of this present life, they're not worthy to be compared with what's to come. That means that it changes the way that we view all of the difficulties and all of the hardships that we face on this side of eternity, all of the hardships that we face on this earth.

We can change the way that we view those because we realize this will not last. This is not forever. This too shall pass. It may pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass, right? And we can endure the things of this world because we realize we have a hope beyond here. We can endure the sufferings of this world because we realize that we have a hope beyond here.

And this is just preparation for eternity. And so he says, we know that the sufferings of this present life are worthy to be compared with the future because our future has so much hope. Even though there's a lot of groaning going on right now. He goes on to say that. There's a lot of groaning going on right now, right? Like creation is groaning. I don't know if you realize that.

But the actual creation itself is groaning. Can you kind of hear it sometimes? Maybe not audibly, but you can kind of feel creation groaning, right? I was talking to somebody about trying to plant grass seed earlier. And it's like, well, that's just a pointless thing to do in Kansas anymore because it'd have to rain. And we don't really like that here. We get it once every three months and that's it.

You notice it? I don't know if it's going to come in December or not because we got a bunch in November, maybe February by the time we get it again. And so it's really hard. And creation is kind of groaning as I watch my yard split apart, right? I never thought I'd see earthquakes in Kansas, right? And they can tell you, oh, it's fracking. It's all these things.

No, the earth is groaning. The earth is groaning because they want us to be redeemed. The earth wants to see the future restored. And that means the redemption of our bodies. And not only that, but we're all groaning. Amen? Like every year, I groan a little bit more. And I get up a little slower than I used to. And... And all those kinds of fun things. It's just the way that it is.

I can only imagine what my 70s is going to be like because my 40s have been rough. So... So, you know, we groan in these things. But we groan because we know that there's a hope that we're looking forward to. And did you notice what he said? If we hope for what we see, it's not really hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see,

then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. What does that mean? That means that we persevere constantly because every day we say, maybe today's the day I get to see my Savior. Maybe today's the day. Maybe today's the day he takes us home. But one day, we will see him. And so I can continue working towards that goal. I can continue working towards that thing

because I know that there's an end in sight. I know that it's going to happen. One more place in Scripture. 1 John 3. My absolute favorite verses in the Bible. 1 John 3, verses 2 and 3. John writes and says, Beloved, now we are the children of God. 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 pure. Beloved, right now, I need you to know this. If you're here this morning and you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, right now you're a child of God. If you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, I need you to know something. You're not a child of God.

And unfortunately, you don't have this same hope that we do, which is why you've got to come to Jesus. Because you probably feel really hopeless and in despair right now. You probably feel like there's no hope for your purpose. You have no hope for freedom and you have no hope for a future. And you're going, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life now

because I don't feel like I have any hope. I'm here to tell you right now, the only way you can have that hope is if you come to Jesus. Is if you come to Jesus and you say, Lord, I'm a sinner and I need saving. And allow him to come into your heart to become your savior because at that point in time, you will have hope. And you can say with the rest of us, beloved, now we are children of God.

As children of God, what does that mean? It means that we've been set free. It means that we have purpose. It means that we have a future. And that's who we are right now. It's not yet been revealed what we shall be. And I prove that every single day. Do you? That we prove every single day, I'm not there yet. Right? I think it was Alan Jackson that said, be patient, I'm a work in progress.

I'm not there yet. And I'm not quite who he wants me to be yet. But I know that one day, one day I'm going to see him. I'm going to see him as he truly is. When I see him as he truly is, I'm going to be like him. And I have that hope. And I have that hope. And it continually purifies me. I pray that every day, you have the hope that one day you're going to see Jesus.

That one day, you'll get to look him face to face, square in the eye. When you will see the one who gave his life for you. The one who decided that the best way that he could come and take care of us, the best way that he could save us, the best thing that he could do for us, was to take on the form of a man and to be born as an innocent little baby. And to live a life on this fallen world so that he could die a death for fallen man so that he could restore the hope that sin ruined.

And he who has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. What does that mean? It means brothers and sisters, every day we say, if it helps me follow Jesus, I'm going to keep doing it. If it keeps me from following Jesus, I got to jettison it. If it helps me follow Jesus, I'm going to pour myself into it. If it pulls me away from Jesus, I got to get rid of it.

Because that's what it means to have hope that purifies you. If it's going to be in heaven, you should invest in it. If it's not, you should think about it. Right? Is what I'm investing in going to have eternal value? Because the things of this world is just not much, right? I think Rich Mullins said it best when he said, the things of earth compete for the allegiance

that I owe only to the giver of all good things. He who has this hope in him purifies himself. Brothers and sisters, at this time of year we celebrate the fact that Jesus came to live among us. And he came to live among us to restore hope by giving us freedom, by restoring our purpose, and by giving us a future. Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me.

Father, I come before you, Lord. I just want to lift up every person that's in here this morning and everyone that's watching online. And Lord, in a time where sometimes hope can be a little hard to find, we thank you that you have brought it to us through the person of Jesus Christ. And so Lord, I pray for every person that's here that they would truly take the principles of your word, the truth of what your word has to say, and they would begin to live it out, to believe it, to allow their lives to reflect it.

And Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here this morning that doesn't know you, Lord, if there's anyone here this morning that doesn't have hope, that you would move through their hearts, that you would move through their hearts and lives, that you would move in them, Lord, to bring them to a place of truly knowing you. And so Lord, I just pray that you would move on those hearts. As a matter of fact, I just feel led to say, if you don't know Jesus this morning, if you're struggling, heads bowed, eyes closed, if you don't know hope in your life this morning, if you don't know that freedom, if you don't know that purpose, and you're saying, man, I kinda need that in my life, then I'm just gonna offer an opportunity for you to receive the Lord today.

And I'd just like to lead us in a prayer. If that's you this morning, I just want you to take a little bit of a difficult, bold step of faith. I just want you to put your hand up in the air, just to say, that's me. I need that in my life. I need that hope. I need that work of God in my life. Praise God. So, let's just all pray together. Shall we? Just repeat after me.

Father, I know that I have sinned. I want you to come into my heart. I want you to restore me, forgive me, and be my savior. Thank you, Father, for your work. In Jesus' name, amen. And so, Lord, I just lift up each person here. And Lord, I pray that if hearts were changed today, that you would just make that clear. So, Father, be with us as we go out now. Keep us close to you.

In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed. Lord, we just thank you for the day. We thank you for who you are and for what you've done for us, Lord, for the freedom, for the hope, for the purpose that we have in you. And Lord, for those that, that may have come to know you today, Lord, just pray that you would just work mightily in them, Lord. Just reveal yourself to them

and work in their lives as they leave here today, Lord. Father, we love you, God, and we praise you, glorify you. These things in your name, amen. You guys have a wonderful week. Merry Christmas to you.