It’s Christmas, the King Has Come

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

The virgin sings her love of God, The joy, the joy for Christ the King, To make the Son of ever since. This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds God and natures say. He says to bring Him Lord, the Babe, the Son of Mary. to the world the Lord is come. Let earth receive her key. Every heart prepare. And Heaven and nature sing, and Heaven and nature sing, and Heaven and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns. And when their songs implore While fields and floods Box seals and plays We keep the sounding joy We keep the sounding joy We repeat the sound Lord, let's sing and arrows blow. No thorns infest the grumps to make his blessings flow. For as the curse is found, for as the curse is found, for ever as the curse is found. This powers the world with truth and grace And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness And wonders of His love

And wonders, and wonders of His love, and wonders of His love, and wonders, wonders of His love. It's been a very special Merry Christmas for me, from the ladies that had put together all the baked goods this morning. A little love for them, please. A little love. Yes. And I'm going to point them out. My brother, who was playing up here with David Tribble, that's my older brother, Kent, so let's hear for Kent. I will pay for that later. Okay. Well, good morning. Merry Christmas. I just want to say very quickly this morning that the King has come. We've been talking about the coming king, this whole season of Advent, and this morning we celebrate that the king has come. In fact, all month, really, if you would make an argument sometimes, sometimes some people start right after Halloween, okay? Like November 1st, they're like, it's Christmas time, let's go, right?

We only get this once a year, let's just strain this two month period for everything it can get, and they're excited. So for some of us, it's a two month long celebration, but it's at least a month of us celebrating this moment. And it all leads up to today. It all leads up to this morning. So as we celebrate, I wanna just take a moment to be clear on what we are celebrating. Because sometimes you can just get caught up in celebrating stuff, right? So let's not get caught up in just celebrating stuff. Let's be clear on what we are celebrating. What we're gonna do this morning, we're just gonna look at a few places in Luke one and Luke two, we're gonna start in Luke two. And we are gonna find people who are celebrating Jesus's birth just like we are this morning. And we're gonna see kind of what they said and how they said it and what we can learn and what we can celebrate.

First is Anna the prophetess, okay? Anna the prophetess, She was in the temple whenever Jesus was dedicated or kind of came to the temple for his dedication. And in Luke chapter two verse 38 says, and coming up at that very hour, she being Anna began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel, of Jerusalem. Gosh, I can't read. The redemption of Jerusalem. They were waiting for redemption. This morning, because the king has come, we are free. We are redeemed, and we need to remember that. Anna was waiting on redemption, and it had finally come, and that's what we are celebrating this morning. We have been redeemed. We don't have to live in fear. We don't have to be anxious about the future. We can be super optimistic, not because we're not gonna encourage, or not because we're not going to incur any debt, not because we're not going to mess anything up,

and not because we're going to somehow miss the suffering that everyone on this earth has to endure, not for any of those reasons. We can be optimistic because we don't need to fear what that future holds. We don't need to worry about having a situation that we can't control because as Christians, because the King has come, we have come to the amazing conclusion that we were never in control in the first place. What a freeing thought. We are free. That's what Anna teaches us. Look at the angels when the shepherds heard about the Christ being born, the angels, in Luke chapter two, verse 14. They said, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. Because the King has come, we can have peace. Peace is brought in in a new way. And that means because the angels are rejoicing, because peace has come upon us, the King is bringing peace to us.

We can change because Jesus is bringing peace to us. We don't have to be stuck in the same rut that we are in, because Jesus is bringing peace to us. We can change. Look at Simon the Elder, who's also a Simeon, the elder waiting, also in the temple, kind of right before the Anna situation. This is what Simeon says, in Luke chapter 2, verses 30 through 32. He says, For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for salvation, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel. And let's not miss this this morning, because the King has come, we can bless others. Because the King has come, we can bless others. Jesus brings blessing to everyone. Even in the Old Testament, it talked about how God would bring the rain and the sun on good and evil, right? That there is a general blessing that is happening and God just throws that blessing out.

I mean, you woke up this morning and you were not in, you know, such bad pain that you couldn't actually walk to a church service or get in your car and come to a church service today. That is the blessing of God, right? But that you receiving that blessing is not the end. Because the King has come, we can also be a blessing to other people. We have a purpose in our life that extends beyond ourselves. Because we are not just here for others, we can bless other people. And there's one more thing for us to see. So we're free, right? We can change. We can bless others. I want to look at what the angel said to Mary. And this is the angel kind of celebrating the fact that Jesus will be born. So this is cheating just a little bit by my own rules. Luke chapter 1, verses 32 through 33. The angel says to Mary, he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most

High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Today is a good day, but there's also going to be a sad part of today. I want to warn you, there's going to be this sad part of today when all the presents will be opened. And really, the only memories of Christmas are going to be the wrapping paper in the trash can. That's all you've got. You're going to take those Christmas decorations down. It might not be today. If you're wise, it will not be today. Don't be in a hurry to take those down. I've learned that the hard way. Don't you dare. It doesn't matter if it's December 27th. Don't you dare touch those Christmas decorations yet.

But it will, regardless of when exactly it happens in your household, there will be a moment whenever Christmas is going to feel over. It'll just be done. Christmas will feel over. For us, for us, even though the King has come, Christmas truly hasn't ever stopped since it began. It hasn't ever really stopped. We're going to put Christmas decorations away, but Christmas is not stopping. Because even though the King has come, the Kingdom is still arriving. It says in verse 33, He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. Right? It's never going to stop. We are still celebrating the King who has arrived. And we are still waiting on the kingdom to arrive in full. That's why we're a church, guys. Because we are a part of this kingdom. And that's why that we can even welcome people from other churches, We don't have to be all weird and territorial because we are all part of the same kingdom.

And for those of you here from other churches, welcome. We are glad to have you celebrating with us. But it is, even in a small way, it's a part of an expression of a kingdom that extends to Lubbock and extends to other churches in Fort Worth, extends to Louisiana. It extends to all these other places, to California. It extends everywhere because it is still happening.

It's still coming, it's still arriving. Here's my encouragement this morning. Continue to live in Christmas. Even when the wrapping's put away, remember that you're free. Even when the Christmas tree is down, remember that you can embrace change. You can see what the Lord is asking you to do and do it. And just because there's no more Christmas movies playing on the TV, that doesn't mean that you have to stop being a blessing to other people. Christmas is still with us. Even though it technically ends tomorrow, Christmas never really ends. Today, I'm just gonna lead us in a quick prayer, and I wanna end this way, I just wanna end in prayer this way.

And I wanna just lead you through a few things that we are going to pray for, and then we're gonna quietly just be dismissed after that, and I would encourage you even after we're dismissed, I'd love it if you stay and talk. There's still more food from what I understand. Yes, can I get a confirmation on that? Yes, more food. There is more food, yes. Cindy says so, great. So I'd encourage you just, you know, we said it would be an abbreviated service, so we're making an abbreviated service. But let me lead us through a time of prayer. So I would just encourage you, if it helps you, please bow your head and close your eyes. If it helps you to stare at the ceiling, do that. If it helps you to kneel, do that. Just whatever you need to do to pray. Lord, we are thankful that you have made us free. Help us to remember a time when we experience that freedom

and thank you for it. Help us remember a time that we've experienced that freedom and thank you for it. Lord, you've asked us to embrace change. What is something that you are calling us to do right now, be it large or small or maybe even barely noticeable? What are you calling us to do? Lord, give us strength. Lord, we ask you to bring to mind someone that you are asking us to bless. It could be somebody that we live with, somebody that we see every day. It could be somebody that we hadn't seen in 20 years. Somebody that maybe even we don't want to see. Bring to mind someone that you want us to bless. Lord, we thank you for Christmas. We pray that we could walk in. It's in your precious name that we pray. Amen. Guys, you're dismissed, Merry Christmas. Of course you did it. You did it, you actually got a bathtub.