We are starting our kind of Christmas mini series this week, it'll go until January 8th, and we're stealing the title actually from our marriage conference, which is at the end of January. And the name is honesty and hope for the holidays, chose the name of holidays, just to make people mad who like to fight over Christmas or holidays, it's a holy day, that's a great word. I'm going to call it a holiday. So there you go, honesty and hope for the holidays. What do we mean by that? We know that there's no hope with that honesty, you can't live in perpetuity, you cannot constantly be lying to people about who you are, about how you feel, about what you're really like. But it's hard to be honest because we're afraid that if we're honest and people really see me and for people really know what I'm like, they're going to reject me. And so it's always tempting to kind of put on false faces, to be plastic, to be artificial. To make people think that we're something that we're not and it's hard to keep that up. And what we want, what we believe in this church is that the gospel is so rich, that God's love for you is so tangible and so real, that it takes away your shame and it enables you to be honesty, honest. And that honesty that you're enabled now to experience gives you hope. And that hope encourages greater honesty. So it's a wonderful spiral really. And we want to encourage you to get into it. And that's where we're going to start today with our sermon text from Luke, chapter 2, very familiar text. I thought hard about having line us, come out here and read it for me. But he was busy. Luke, chapter 2 verses 8 through 20. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were so afraid. And the angel said to them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Front to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ, the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. And the angels went away from them unto heaven. The shepherd said to one another, well, let's go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and they found Mary and Joseph in the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they may know the saying that had been told concerning the child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them that Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart, and the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. As far as the reading of God's Word, I am my only summer job when I was in high school as being a lifeguard. And I told you all that before, but I know I haven't told you this story because Bianca hadn't even heard it. Being a lifeguard is typical kind of minimal way of job, it's great because you got a good tan. You have visions of beautiful girls being all into you in reality. You have ten-year-old girls all into you, and that's really not what you've signed up for. But it's a fine job if you like sitting out in the sun and getting paid for it. And the real money was to be made, lifeguarding, private parties. So I did that a lot, and private parties were fun because you never had more than ten or fifteen people in the water. You just kind of got to hang out and collect your money. And I came to them, I came to this one in particular, very much trying to impress a girl. I remember that. I remember her, I don't remember her name, but I remember what she looked like. And so I came with my polo shirt, the collar popped, I had the moose in my hair, cut right down the middle, feathered back, envision Don Johnson, that's what I look like. And I was there to lifeguard with absolutely no intention of getting near the water. About fifteen minutes into the party, people are coming in, and I noticed this boy, he's about six years old, I'm not sure, I still don't know, he doesn't seem to be kind of one hundred percent on the IQ quotient, he's kind of interesting, and he's walking this little baby who can't walk yet, he's kind of walking around, and I'm like, oh it's cute. And he walks her up to the pool, and I'm thinking, that's a little odd, and he just dropped her in. I don't know, I have no idea what was going on, I looked ahead and went, crud, and I jumped in, polo shirt, moose hair and all, pulled the baby out, there's a reflex that babies have to not breathe the water, which is a good thing. And so I pulled him out, baby was fine, parents screaming, I'm like, I think this is going to be a different party. About thirty minutes later, he seems less three hours, about thirty minutes later, I see these two girls, and this one girl is trying to encourage the other one who obviously can't swim, and who is scared, and they're kind of bouncing out toward the deep end, and I'm watching him going, surely not. And this girl's going to come on, oh this is fun, you're doing great, and she's drowning, and once again I have to go in, and I change shirts, put on a T shirt, now I'm freezing in that, to get nothing else to change into, come out, I'm just thinking, this is just crazy, who are these people? Then an hour and a half later I got the typical mom out in the deep end, yelling to her son who cannot swim, jump to me, I've already taken my shirt off, I see what this is going, child jumps on her face, she goes down under the water, takes a big gulp of water, comes up out, and I jump in, pulling both out, which is a crazy night, crazy night, I have to say three, in my career, two years of life gore, I say five people, three of them at one party at one night, which is a weird concept, and you think I've saved people, but let's not go there. The interesting thing about those three people was this, not one of them said thank you, it's fine, I get it, you're embarrassed, it's humiliating, get pulled out of a pool, I get that, but not only did they not say thank you, but at the end of the night they refused to pay me, because I didn't make them feel safe, and just to show you what kind of pushover in the business world I am, I was like, oh I'm sorry, okay, so that's why the elders don't let me negotiate anything anymore, but I thought about that this way, how funny that was, that I was their savior, I was their rescuer, and these people wanted to be rescued, but they did not want me, they were very adamant about not wanting me, but they wanted to be rescued, and I think as we come to Christmas and we hear these familiar words, unto you is born this day a savior, it causes us, it forces us to think, is that what you want, because a lot of us don't, we want to be rescued, we want a magic wand to come in and fix all of our problems, we want a fairy godmother to wing wiggle her nose, or prince charming to give us a kiss, and make everything better, we don't want a savior, we don't want to be in relationship with this person, we don't want to have to walk with him day by day and let him take his own sweet time to save us, we want something quick, but the message of the Bible is unto you is born a savior, and the question is for you, will you receive him today and every day, will you receive him? The first thing I want us to look at is the savior that we need. Now, when I interview people, or just talk to them, make it sound like every lunch with me is an interview, it's not, when I talk to people about more than just football, and somebody wants to get together with me and talk, you know, have a religious conversation. Then one of the questions I'll ask them sometimes is, are you, have you been saved, and some people get offended by that question, and then a couple days later realize that was a good question. If, for people who know religious lingo, and who use terms like, I've been saved, the question I love to ask them is, save from what? What have you been saved from? And the overwhelming idea that most people has though they know that they're already on the hook, and so they don't want to answer it, is I've been saved from hell. That is not what the Bible teaches. That's a part of what the Bible teaches. But the teaching of the Bible is what Gabriel told Joseph. He will call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sin. And you see that involves a whole different definition of salvation and a whole different definition of sin. Because most of us think of sin as kind of those ten fun things that we really wanted to do, but God said we couldn't. And so, you know, it's that list of those bad deeds that we've done. And I want you to know that the Bible sometimes talks about sin that way, but that's not the most current common way. The Bible talks about sin as something that overpowers us as something that lives within us. The first time sin has talked about it was in the book of Genesis, chapter four. And God told Cain beware sin is crouching at the door and it wants to have mastery over you. Paul talks about sin as a slave master during slave two. How does that work? How can sin, whatever that is? I'm not sure I believe in it, in slave somebody. Well, it uses two simple ways. The first most common way is what I call the shame cycle. And it's like this, look, nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, I want to do something bad to somebody today, right? You know, the Joker's not real. villains don't think that. Even the worst people in the world, they don't think that. You know, who's the worst person in the world in the news today? I guess Jerry Sandusky, the Penn State coach, you know, exploiting young boys. Terrible. You think you woke up every morning going, man, I can't wait to do something evil today. I can't wait. I don't think so. I think typically what happens is we go through life. And I don't know if you've noticed this yet, but sometimes you have bad days. Sometimes things don't work out the way you wanted them to work out. And you get this kind of pressure on you, and you feel bad. And you just want to feel better. You want to find something that's going to make you feel better. You didn't wake up that morning thinking, I'm going to eat too much today, or I'm going to spend too much today, or I'm going to go buy something and lie to my husband about how much I spent today, or I'm going to go get on the internet and look at pictures and lie to my wife about what I've been doing today. You didn't wake up thinking that, but as the day went on, you just felt bad. And you wanted to feel better. And maybe your boss was just awful to you all day. And you had no recourse. There's nothing you can say to him. And when you got home, your kids got on your nerves. And you can say something to them. And you didn't wake up, meaning to yell at your kids today. And you weren't really yelling at your kids. You were yelling at your boss through your kids. And he didn't hear it. And they did. And you just wanted to feel better. And the thing you reached out for to make you feel better, kind of after that initial release, after that great feeling that eating a row of chocolate chip cookies gives you, after you're cleaned up all the crumbs, you look in the mirror and you feel awful.
And the thing you looked to to make you feel better made you feel worse. Now you have shame. And so where does that shame drive you? You just want to go look for something to make you feel better don't you? Get you. It keeps you down under the spiral of always wanting to feel better.
And it enslaves you. So some of us live in that shame cycle. Others of us have broken free of that cycle through the gospel. But we still live in this situation where we're just too weak to be righteous. The Apostle Paul describes it like this. This is the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 describing life after in Romans 6. He's been very clear to say we're not enslaved to sin anymore. So let me tell you what my life's like. I don't know what I'm doing. The things I want to do. I don't do. The things I've said I'm not going to do anymore. I keep doing those. I have this law at work that whenever I seek to do good, evil is right here with me. And he says this tremendous sentence that absolutely describes me on most days. I have the desire to do what is right. But I'll lack the ability to carry it out.
Raise your hand if that's ever described you in the last week. I have the desire to do what is right. But I'll lack the ability to carry it out. I want to do what's right. I want to. I want to make this Christmas about more than just presents and rush and stress. But it's just bigger than me. I like the ability to carry it out. I want to be gracious and patient with my children, but it just seems like no matter how patient I can be able to be, they need one step more. I like the ability to carry it out. I want to be loving and gracious to you and I want to listen to you and I want to show you how much I love you. I'm tired and I got these words with friends games going on on my phone and that's just easier and it requires less from me. And I like the ability to carry it out. I want to do it is right. I want to stop complaining. I want to stop gossiping. I want to stop coming to church angry. But I like the power to carry it out. I just can't do it. The sin is left our bodies the way a stomach flu leads our bodies just weak. And so we're all kind of like old 42 year old men on a basketball court and we see the things that we want to do. We just lack the power to carry it out. And because of that you see we need a savior. That's why we don't need a teacher. We don't need a good example. It's completely irrelevant to me what Jesus would do because Jesus isn't here. This is Ricky not Jesus. And I don't need a teacher. You see if we were on a shipwreck boat, a marooned boat, not maroon because that would mean a disabled boat. That's what I'm trying to think of. Miles away from the coast. I wouldn't need swim lessons. I wouldn't need an example. I wouldn't need an Olympic gold medalist to jump in and go do what I do. He takes off. I would need somebody to pull me in. I need a savior because I get caught in this shame spiral. And because I see the good that I want to do but I like the ability to carry it out. And therefore it's good news for me that unto us is born a savior. And I want us to look at the savior who is Christ Jesus the Lord. Let's look at him for a second because I think we all agree that we need one. Most of you probably agree unless you just got forced to come here. But you probably agree that you need one. But do you want this one? Let's think about the shepherds for a second. Let's think about those poor shepherds. They're on the hillside. They're just doing their job. They're not asking for trouble. Angels appear to them. Again, there's this kind of chronological snobbery we tend to have. We look back on people and olden times ago. Well, that kind of thing always happened. It did not. There's one time in history that I'm aware of. So angels appear to them, right? They are utterly terrified. We know that because the first words the angels say is don't be afraid. Come on, really? You're going to appear to me in the sky and say, don't be afraid.
Unto you is born this day a savior. And so they say, well, let's go see him and they go find him. Now, and they worship him and they go home. Now ask yourself this question. What did they do for the next 30 years? I mean, they probably went home that night, told their wives, told their friends. It's here. The savior's here. Well, great. What do you look like? He was a baby and a barn. Thank you for that. That was helpful. Okay, we'll just wait and see what this baby turns into. So they're in the area. You know, they're doing their jobs. I guess kind of going, when is the salvation going to get here? He's just a baby. I don't think he can do much. You know, a few months later, they definitely would have heard of the entourage. These three wise men from the Orient come in and they would have brought, you know, it would have been a huge news in that area. You know, they said, see, see. He's here. Now, a few months later, when King Herod sends the Roman soldiers and slaughters every child under the age of two, they would have said, oh, no, maybe they had children in that slaughter. Maybe they had brothers or nephews in that slaughter. And they would have said to themselves, well, what good is this? Did they know that he made it? I don't know. Maybe they helped Joseph out of the country. We have no idea. But they would have been doubting whether this savior was any good. Well, good is a savior who brings a Holocaust with him. And then they heard nothing for 30 years. That's a long time. They heard nothing. And then maybe, you know, maybe they were in Jerusalem at that Passover. Maybe they were in the multitudes who were yelling out when Jesus came into Jerusalem. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Maybe they were in the multitudes shouting, crucify him. We don't know. But I know this. I just from human experience, because I have experienced being a human. They did not want a savior who's going to require them to wait for, see nothing for 30 years. They didn't want that kind of savior. And I don't think we do either.
The savior that we have is one who came in weakness. He came as a baby. He was born in poverty. He was hunted down for the day of his birth. He was hated and despised. He was poor. He was rejected. He was betrayed. He was falsely accused. He was punished. And he suffered the most violent and inhuman death that human nature has ever devised by suffering on the cross. That's the savior we've got. It is a savior who is patient, who is painstakingly infuriatingly patient. It is a savior who has taken 2000 years to make this world into the mess that it is today. He's taken him 2000 years to proclaim the gospel among all nations. It is a savior who is patient, who is content to leave me the arrogant jerk that I will always have been. He's patient. He's changing us so slow. He's changing our culture so slow. He's changing our world so slowly that every generation that's ever lived is thought that they were the worst. Every generation is thought we're the ones who just is all gone the hell today. He's changing us so slowly. We don't see any change at all sometime. And that's not what we want. He's working at us. He's making us hate our sins more and more. We feel worse about ourselves sometimes. We looked to him in faith and he's working so slowly. We don't even notice that he's making us better. We don't even see that we're being made better sometime. You know, I just lied to you. I said, I'm the same arrogant jerk I was 20 years ago. I'm not. I'm not what I ought to be, but I'm not that. I know that because my wife is still with me. And I'm certainly not on the trajectory that I was on 20 years ago because that trajectory was not leading me here. Okay. That's clear. He's changing us and he's doing it slowly. And that's not what we want. I wanted him to come and I wanted him to blink his eyes and I wanted him to make me better and I wanted him to make me never have any fears again. And I wanted him to make me never lose my temper again. And I wanted him to make me like Tim Tibo. And he didn't. And we don't. And frankly, I know that y'all don't like him either. He's not the savior that I wanted and he's not the savior that you wanted. I know that because some of you don't come to church real often and you don't come for a good reason. There's a good reason why you don't come. You don't come because it doesn't help. You're going to leave today and you're going to be a lot like you were when you got here. And the argument that is conclusive that you're going to use is there's no use to go to worship. There's no use to engage in a relationship with Christ because it doesn't help. So I'll go again next year. And with the safety of, you know, good 40 feet in between me and you, I will tell you this. It doesn't help because you don't come. Jesus doesn't work that way. He doesn't want to come and fix everything that's wrong with you so that you can go away and never need him anymore. We want to be rescued. We don't want a relationship with the life guard. The God won't let us get away with that. He didn't give us magic wand. He gave us his son. He gave us a baby, not a magic spell. And to receive the savior, you have to do two things. You have to pick up the baby and you have to trust him. You have to pick up the baby and you have to trust him. I tell this illustration every Christmas. You know, I haven't gotten sick of it yet. So here we go. I went to college in the 80s and in the 80s, the AIDS epidemic just kind of hit. It kind of came out of nowhere we thought. And nobody was really clear. Everybody thought they were clear but nobody was really clear about how you get it and how you know, you know, and there was these people down in Florida saying they got it from mosquito bites and they didn't, but they said that. And, you know, there were people saying you could get it from toilet seats and there was just a tremendous amount of fear surrounding it. And there was a award in Philadelphia filled with babies who've been born with AIDS and no nurses would touch them. And we know that babies have to have human skin to skin touch. You have to have that. You'll be scarred for life without it if you don't get it early. And nobody would touch these babies because they were afraid that changing the diapers without, you know, several layers of plastic between you and the baby would give them the disease. And there was a Catholic priest who spent his ministry going through that ward holding babies. Because he didn't see a moral dilemma. He didn't see an interesting ethical issue. He saw babies. And what I want you to understand that Jesus is the God of the universe, but he's come to you like a baby. And to receive him means that you've got to see more than a tradition. You have to see more than a philosophy. You have to see more than a moral code that you have to start keeping. You have to see more than a religion. You have to see a baby and you have to pick them up and receive him as a human and relate to him as a human day in and day out. And I want you to see that. I want you to see that today. And I don't want you to worry about what you've ever done in the past. A friend of mine came up to me Sunday last week, really sweet. But he came up to me and he said, I don't think I don't know for sure that I've ever been saved. And he said, every time I've ever asked anybody that question, they've always said to me, well, it says you'll know them by their fruits and I see from the fruits of your life that you have been saved. And I said, well, I'm not going to tell you that. And he said, you know, I know you're different, but I don't think I've ever been saved. I said, I don't care. Let's get saved today. He said, but I don't think I've ever done it. I said, I don't care. He said, I don't think I could be a Christian the way I live. I said, I don't care. Yesterday is irrelevant. Let's do it right now. Today is the day of salvation. Do it today. And I said, you're going to do the same thing right now that I have to do right now. I have sinned the day and I'm going to trust Jesus to cleanse me today and receive me on his love alone. And you're going to have to do that right now too. Let's do it together. He's like, okay, great. They don't have to worry about it anymore. Today is the day. Receive him today. And finally, receive him every day. We take off sin and we put on faith every day. A relationship is in every day of currents. And we know that we hate that. There's something about us in our culture and our our kind of generation that makes us think we don't have it doesn't have to be that way. I asked somebody last night how close are you to your brother and he said, well, we would both say close, but we don't actually talk more than once every other month. Well, then you're not are you? I mean, that's just the way I mean, I'm sorry. You may really, really, really like each other, but you're not close. If you don't talk, that's what a relationship requires. Sorry guys. You got to talk to your wives. Sorry. That's what a relationship requires. It's a daily thing. You walk close to him every day. And how does Jesus keep us close to him every day? What does he do to keep us close to him every day? In my mind, I have the desire to do it as right, but I like to power to carry it out. He leaves us dependent. He leaves us needing him because he wants us to say close to him every day. So every day we confess our weakness and we ask him to fill us and to work through us every day. We lay ourselves on him and ask him to carry us. I don't remember a single thing from lifeguarding school. If you were drowning in the middle of the ocean, I would call 911 for you. That's about it. Okay. I don't remember how to save anybody. I do remember this. There's one thing you learn at lifeguarding school and that's how to be a good victim. See, a bad victim tries to save himself. Lifeguard gets there and you're going, I got to get my head about water. You're pushing the other guy down while you're trying to get your head up and a good victim, which we all, you know, we had to swim like, you know, two links to the pool carrying somebody. So we all were like, okay, everybody be good victims. How do you be a good victim? You lay there. Just trust me and lay there. And the lifeguard puts you right here on his chest and he hooks his arm up under you and he's that's why we used to do it. And he's swimming in. That would do this work. I'm right handed. And the victim just rests and lays there for the savior that Jesus, that God gave you to receive him means you lay there. You let him carry you today. You let him forgive you for what how you failed. You let him wash you from where you're dirty. You let him work in you to enable you to do things that you never would have done and to make you more gracious than you ever would have been and you thank him for anything good that you're able to do because you know you didn't do it yourself. And you lay there. Let's go to the Lord and lay there together. Father, we pray that you would give us the faith to put ourselves on your chest. Father, this is the opposite of everything we believe about ourselves. What we admire in people is independence and strength. We admire people who are self-made and who need no help. And the last thing that we want to do is confess that even though we have the desire to do it is right, we lack the power to carry it out. The last thing we want to do is admit that we need a savior.
The last thing we want to do is admit we don't have the love in our hearts to make our relationships work. I pray that you give us the grace to do the last thing in the world we want to do.
Give us the grace to humbly submit ourselves to your loving and brave and to receive the baby. I pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.