Good morning. Welcome, Deach and every one of you this morning, whether you be member, regular visitor, or maybe this is your very first time. We're glad that you're here. We're coming into the heart of our celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, also known as Christmas. And we are delighted that you could be here together as we worship the One True Living God. As you look to your bolt-in, there are many bits of information. And we invite you to look through those. I just want to highlight, as your schedule changes, usually the last week or two of Christmas, so even our church schedule has changed somewhat. And I want to make you aware of those things. This coming Saturday is our annual and traditional Christmas Eve communion service, a very very special service of worship and celebration of Christmas. And that's at 5 p.m. this coming Saturday, our Christmas Eve communion service. There will be a nursery provided through age three. Next two Sundays, as you're well aware of Christmas and New Year's falls on Sundays this year. And that creates some special complications, both in scheduling, and with many of you hosting family and all the rest of it. So, we have simplified, if you will, on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the next two Sundays, we will only have our 1055 service. Just the 1055 service, we'll have nursery, we'll have children's church, we will not have the 830 service nor Sunday school on those two Sundays, the 25th and the first. Please take note of that. And then finally, today, immediately after the service, about 1215 over across the street in the Student Center, we have the Children's Ministry Parents Meeting. I'm sure if you fall into that category, you already know about it and know who you are. But the Children's Ministry Parents Meeting, that's for anyone from infants or with children up through 5th grade. We particularly want to create this opportunity to have you as parents and families there to communicate, dialogue, interact back and forth about the needs, what you like, what you're enjoying, what you would like to see happen there. It's just an opportunity to have interface and interact between the leaders of our Children's Ministry and obviously those that they're ministering to. And that's today, immediately after the service, please participate. And then now at this time, as we continue to prepare for our worship, I want to introduce or ask that Scotty and Sherry Brown and their family would come forward and light the Advent candle. As we light the 4th candle, the season of Advent is drawing to a close. Let this candle of peace symbolize the truth that we can celebrate Christmas no matter what the circumstances we face. Scripture reading this morning is from the book of Isaiah 9 verses 6 and 7. Before to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Let's pray. Father, we know that the first Christmas was celebrated in a stable. Difficult circumstances for the birth of a child, and yet the angel sang. The shepherd's worshiped and Mary and Joseph delighted in God's newborn king. Father, we like this fourth candle. We thank you for your son, our Savior Jesus Christ, who is the Prince of Peace. We who live in the discord and strife have found peace in the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Father, we give you thanks and praise in Jesus' name because he lives and reigns with you and the glory and the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Will you please stand for our call to worship? When you do sit back down, if you just kind of squish a little bit back together, that would be great. A full house, which is a wonderful problem. Our call to worship today draws our attention to the magnification of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christmas is about the birth of Christ, our coming king, our Redeemer. And so I hope that you've regained your voice over this Christmas season and that your voice is full with the joy of the Lord. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, where he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. And so Father, we do come to make a prayer of adoration. You are our great king who at this very moment is raining and ruling from on high. Every life is held in the palm of your hand. Every planet is on its orbit because of your providential care. So Lord, our lives might seem insignificant to us. The vastness of the universe makes us feel so small and insignificant. And yet Lord God, we are small and you are great. That vast empty space communicates something to us, that you are huge, you are limitless, eternal. And so we come humbly to offer you a small but fervent prayer of adoration. We are your people gathered here in the power of your spirit to worship Jesus Christ. Oh, help us, Holy Spirit. Fill us with joy and hope and longing in the midst of our suffering. We lift our hearts to you and we sing to you for your glory and Christ's name. Amen. So we come to our affirmation of faith. We are addressing a question that addresses the great mystery surrounding the incarnation, that God would take on human flesh, that God would become a man not in giving up his Godly principles, but in becoming a human being in all points like as ourselves, yet as Scripture says without sin. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, Immanuel, God with us, the incarnation, a mystery that will remain, I'm sure, a mystery to us throughout eternity because of the greatness of what God has done. But we address that in this 22nd question and answer of the Westminster shorter catechism and we'll do that responsibly as I read the question. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man? Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her yet without sin. You may be seated. Having just made such a bold statement, we then go boldly and confessing our sin, which we will also do responsibly here publicly, but then we have the opportunity as you'll see in the very last statement of the public confession that I'll read. It says, Lord, hear us as we silently confess the many ways. We have that opportunity immediately following our public statement of our sins. Let's do so together. Lord Jesus, you have commanded us to love you with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds. You have commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. You have commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in your name and teaching them to obey your law. Lord, hear us as we silently confess the many ways that we have been hearers but not doers of your word. Heavenly Father, as we confess our private sins before you, as we confess those things that we know that you know because you see our hearts and you know our motives. And yet, Father, we struggle sometimes with shame and guilt. Lord, help us to genuinely flee to your throne of grace and to confess our sins openly and honestly and swiftly. But at the same time, may we then recognize the absolute covering and atoning for our sins that Christ accomplished God with us. Lord, may we experience the full and free cleansing that Christ is accomplished on the cross, being the perfect Son of God. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and specifically each one who has come in genuine faith to Him. Lord, we grasp that, we claim it, we desperately need it and we acknowledge it. Lord, strike away the shame and the guilt because your work was sufficient in us and around us. Lord, may we also gain the confidence that Paul had when he said that he was confident of that very thing that you who began a good work in us will complete it under the day of Jesus Christ. Lord, may we not live under a cloud of fear. May we live in the sunshine of your irrepressible love. And Lord, as we let that sink in, may you also teach us how to pray this morning as you taught the disciples how to pray saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us non into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. We have the great privilege this morning of baptizing two little girls into God's people into his church. And so Jasper and Kathy Reynolds are coming with Mary Katherine. Oh, excuse me, with Elizabeth. I was going to do that. And then Robert and Rebecca Row are coming with you four mentioned Mary Katherine Row. As is Joey Stewart, who is a pastor in our denomination and was Robert's pastor and has baptized his children. And we are happy Joey that you're here to participate in this sacrament with us. We love children, our church loves children. God loves children. And so from the very first days, the very first promises made to man by God himself. To Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, all throughout the Old Testament. God has said, your children belong to me. And so in this sacrament, we are acknowledging what God acknowledges. Our children are set apart. They belong to him. There are promises made to our children. And I do believe that this is in the background of Jesus when he talks to his disciples and says, let the little children come to me. And do not hinder them who are to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven belongs to our children. It is set apart as an inheritance for them. And we long for the day when our children will claim that inheritance with their own voices. And they will say, the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ is for me. And I acknowledge Jesus Christ, but until that day, we will disciple them in our homes. We will set them aside and say that they belong to Jesus. And all that we do, we will teach them the meaning of this sacrament. That because Christ underwent the waters of judgment on our behalf, we don't have to. And we are cleansed by his blood. This sacrament does not make them Christians. God makes them Christians. And when we baptize them, we are acknowledging that they, like we have only, only have hope being in God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And so with that in mind, I have some questions for you as the parents. And note at the very end, I'm going to ask you a question as a congregation and you are going to be making a vow. That vow says that you will assist these parents in the raising of their children. You will be patient when you sit over in Kidd's town, over here. And here are children trying so hard to participate in the service. And sometimes maybe not trying so hard. As they crawl around and make a little bit of noise, that's okay. God's people, God's church is sometimes a noisy place. It's good. I think Jesus loved that and I think we should love it too. And so we're going to take a vow that we will help them and we will disciple these kids in every way possible. Modeling what it means to love as Christians love and to live as Christians live. So that will come to you. And when that question comes to you, they are, do you questions? So you can say when that comes to you, we do. And parents like lies, you can say when the question is asked, we do. Do you acknowledge your children's need of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ and the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit? Do you claim God's covenant promises in her behalf and do you look in faith through the Lord Jesus Christ for her salvation as you do for your own? Do you now unservidly dedicate your children to God and promise in humble reliance upon divine grace that you will endeavor before them a godly example, that you will pray with and for them, that you will teach them the doctrines of our Holy religion and that you will strive by all the means of God's appointment. To bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And now for the congregation, do you as a congregation undertake the responsibility of assisting the parents in the Christian nurture of these children, do you? Reynolds family, we are going to come to the baptism of God. Elizabeth Reynolds, child of God, we baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, we do indeed acknowledge little Elizabeth's need for the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. For God, we thank you that she has been adopted in more ways than one. That she has a family, a natural family, a spiritual family, those who will love and care for her, and may we do so with all our joy and with all our might to the glory of God who you love us and died on the cross for us in Jesus' name. Amen. Joey, Robin and Rebecca, I'm Michael Drop. Children are a blessing from the Lord. That means you have been exponentially blessed, this now your fifth child, and it's my joy to be able to stand with you to celebrate God's grace to you and God's grace to this little baby. Mary Catherine Rove, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Our Lord, we pray that you would bless Mary Catherine. We are grateful for her. We pray, O Father, that she would never know a day when she does not know Jesus. We pray that Father that you would walk with her, and may we anticipate that day when the meaning of her baptism will be fulfilled, and you renew her and save her by your grace. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Goodness gracious. That's a lot of joy, and I want you to share the joy with one another as we greet one another in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I had my welcome to Chris's. I'm so glad that you're here. If you're a visitor that we're especially glad if you're here, some of our members were happy to see you. Not all of our members. I would say most of our members now were happy to see. It's my privilege to welcome you and to point you to Christ. Let's pray together. O Father, we do. We turn our hearts toward Christ. And we pray and the power of your Holy Spirit would rest on us in such a way that our hearts would be softened. Lord, you would cause the soil of our heart to be good soil. And Lord, even as we've helped to root out some of the sin of our lives, the rocks and the roots of bitterness, we pray now that you would plant great seed in us, that we would grow, and that we would come to the place that we would have a crop, 30, 60, even 100 fold. We thank you and praise you, Lord, for the work you're doing in our church. Lord, you gathered Jack McKinnon home to be with you recently, and Lord, that is a sadness, and it is a joy. We pray for Vivian. May her eyes be lifted to heaven, the glory of the Lord. And Lord, we know that Roger and Boone's the Ingallson. Roger is struggling right now. Lord, O Holy Spirit, communicate to His soul in a way that only you can. We pray for your healing hand. We pray for your presence and power. Lord, be near to us. We're here to worship you. Help us. Some of us are very distracted. We're overwhelmed for a variety of reasons. May the God of peace rest on us. Now as we give our ties and offerings, Lord, help us to be generous. Our church is behind on her budget. Lord, we are going to balance our budget over time. We need your help. Help us to give generously and help us to set budgets that are realistic and honoring to you. O God, carry us along for your glory. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Would you please stand for the reading of God's Word? This song begs the question, what did Mary know? How much did she understand? We'll be reading the Christmas story according to the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, the Gospel of Luke chapter 2. In those days, the decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This is the first registration when Carineus was governor of Syria and all went to be registered each to his own town. Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end. 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 filled with fear and the angel said to them, fear not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. And 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 cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel of multitude of the heavenly host praising God insane, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, 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 found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But 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. And at the end of eight days when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. The context of this event historically is one where Caesar Augustus is reaching out his bony Roman fingers to grab into everybody's pocket he can reach. It's under this idea of a consensus or this registration that's required where this little family had to travel all their way over to Bethlehem and they had to gather in Bethlehem in order to basically pay their taxes. And I don't know how you feel about paying taxes, but it makes me wonder if that happened to be one of the topics that Mary and Joseph were discussing along their way. They had a lot to discuss, a lot to think about. Well, one of my favourite economists is Milton Friedman. He died at the age of 94, but he had a few things to say about government and taxation. And I wanted you to think a little bit about these with me because when you think about Milton Friedman, he's a Nobel Prize-winning economist. And I think he could shape some of our thinking. One of the things he said, if you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert in five years, there would be a shortage of sand. Secondly, he said the most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit. Thirdly, when everybody owns something, when everybody owns something, nobody owns it, and nobody has a direct interest in maintaining or improving its condition. That's why buildings in the Soviet Union, like public housing in the United States, look decrepit within a year or two of their construction. And lastly, this is his opinion on taxes. I am in favour of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible. I wonder if Mary and Joseph would have enjoyed Milton Friedman's comments about taxation. As Caesar reached out and grabbed into their pocketbook seeking taxation, he was taking from them in order to run his kingdom, in order to run his government. You have to wonder in your sanctified mind what did Mary understand about what was going on in this situation. More than likely, she was between the ages of 13 and 15. Historians tell us that children, women, when they came of age, were almost immediately married between the ages of 13 and 15. And so we have a little girl, a young woman, Mary, and she has a story to tell. Some other traditions within Christendom make much of Mary. In fact, we say they make too much of Mary. They deify Mary and make Mary a co-redemer with the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't hold that view. We do not believe that that is a biblical view. The Bible teaches that Jesus alone is the Redeemer of mankind. But I think somewhere along the way the Protestant Church has stepped away from Mary, almost afraid of dealing with Mary because of the Roman Catholic view of Mary's deification, we've ignored her. I want you to notice that the Christmas story has much to do with Mary. And I wanted us to do diligence on Mary this morning to think about her. What did she know? As Laura was singing that song, it just penetrated us. In fact, many of us will sing that song over and over and over and over again today and the week ahead. What did Mary know? I want you to notice in verse 19, it speaks that Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart. When we think of treasure enough, I want you to think of stacking these facts inside your brain in hopes that the Holy Spirit would ignite it and move it to your heart. And so Mary is putting together her little baby album. I bet it was quite a baby book. When you think about all that she experienced it, she experienced that she was going through her walk as a young girl. But she stacked these things in her brain in hopes that she would ponder them in her heart. And that's what I'm going to ask you to do this week. I'm going to ask you to stack God's word in your heart this week day after day in hopes that the Spirit would ignite it that you would become or continue to be passionate about the work of Jesus Christ. That you would look at him day after day in marvel that you would stack up you would treasure the literal Greek says she kept on keeping together all these things this week. I want you to keep on keeping together all these all these things all these truths about the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I'm going to list them for you for as long as time allows. And if you're taking notes, it'll be easy for you. You'll be able to refer to these over the days. If you're not a note taker, you're going to have to pay very close attention if you're going to do what I'm asking you to do. I think you have the intellectual capacity to do so. I just simply want you to think clearly and focus clearly because if it was good enough for Mary to ponder and to stack up and to roll over in her mind again and again and again, I would submit to you that it should be our food and drink. It should be our meat, our sustenance because the word ponder means to place an opposition and to continually compare and contrast. Do you know what she was doing? She was trying to make sense. She was trying to make sense of all this in her life. And that's what I want you to do this week. I want you to make sense of the story of Jesus Christ in your life. What does he really mean to you? So Mary has according to our story, she's just had her little baby Jesus. But what did she know as she held him? She's in this stinky dirty manger. It's this place where there's there's manure and the straw is accurate. It is a terrible place, probably the closest thing to clean cleanliness she could find would be her own bosom that she held her little baby boy up away from the mess, cradling him as a little 13, 14, 15 year old girl pondering the thought of what, what will he be? What will he do? Are all these things true about him? He's just this little Jewish boy, but he's my little Jewish boy. And so she's going to gather these things together. And I'm asking that you would allow the Holy Spirit to enliven your affections. How did he do this with her? Well, first of all, he had given her the promise in Micah, chapter 5, verse 2. He had given her an Old Testament passage. So Micah, chapter 5, you can scribble that down or commit it to your iron memory. Micah, chapter 5. But you, O Bethlehem, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from whom you shall come forth for me. One who is to be the ruler in Israel, who's coming forth is from a bold, from ancient, of days. So this prophecy was given through Micah and the Holy Spirit brought this, brought this to Mary's mind and she's thinking Caesar Augustus is the ruler of the Roman Empire. How is it that my little baby, my little Jesus, is going to compete with that? We're poor. We're in a horrible situation. Could you imagine the look she would give her husband Joseph, possibly she could look over and say, this is the best you could do. You've placed me in a horrible position, Joel. And yet Mary full of faith is pondering these thoughts of the prophecy is about Jesus. But what else did she had? She had this prophetic angelic appearance in Luke chapter 1, just a page back in your Bible in Luke chapter 1. And angel shows up to her and brings to her some news that it would shock anyone. But especially a little girl, Luke chapter 1 beginning in verse 26. In the sixth month, and I believe the sixth month there is the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, Mary's cousin. And you'll see why in a moment as we go through the text. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin be trod to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. So here we find a little virgin Mary, this little girl. And he came to her and said, greetings, O favored one. The Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the stain and tried to discern what sort of greeting this night might be. Now stop and listen to that. Don't just read the Bible and just pass over the top of it. She is a thinking girl. Verse 29, she tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. She wasn't overwhelmed by the angelic appearance. She's a thinker. She's a 15 year old girl who's very bright, who's observant and is trying to make sense of her life. Men, I will tell you, do not underestimate the intellectual power and emotional stamina of a woman. Our dear brother Peter even says, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, those she is the weaker vessel. Trust me, Peter was not referring to her intellect or her will when he was speaking of a weaker vessel. I think in general men are physically stronger than women. And surely our little Mary was very weak but she had a strong mind. And she was employing this mind and we see it right off the bat as she's seeking to discern what's going on. The angel said to her, don't be afraid, Mary, for you found favor with God and behold, now listen to this. If you're good at making lists when you study God's word, here's a list for you. Behold, you will conceive in your room and bear a son and one, you shall call his name Jesus. Two, he will be great. Three, he will be called the son of the most high. Four, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. Five, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. Six, and his kingdom there will be no end. This is a six-layer, powerful description of who Jesus is, Jesus, the one who's going to come and to save. He'll be great. He'll be called the son of God. God will give him the throne of his father, David. I mean, to a little Jewish girl, David hung the moon. I mean, David was everything. David, they would harken back during Caesar's reign and say, oh, oh, for the life of David. Oh, the life of Israel being powerful, being in charge of all the trades that pass through the continents through our little part of the world. They'd longed for that. So Mary's mind must have been exploding as she heard these words. But I want you to notice verse 34. Here's our clear thinking, Mary again. She says to the angel, I'm sure she looked up at him and simply said, how will this be since I am a virgin? She wasn't overly impressed. With all of this information and all of the pomp and presence of a powerful warrior angel, she simply looks at him like many women I know and cuts immediately to the chase. They want the facts. I want the bottom line. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, time out. What's that mean? What are you going to do, big boy? Mary somehow has this incredible ability to be a clear thinking little girl. And she says, how will this be? And now get ready for this. Remember, Mary's remembering all this as she holds her little baby in this dirty, stinky manger. And the angel said to her, the Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy the Son of God. In other words, Mary, you are going to conceive in your virgin womb miraculously by a visit from God. You are going to have a miraculous conception within your womb. And I'm sure Mary at that point was beginning to put two and two together. She's such a bright thinker. She has this sense of the implications of this. She's thinking, well, I'm engaged, but I'm not married. And you're going to put me in a position where I have a baby in my womb. And I've got to explain to my parents, to my fiance, to my village, to the priest, yeah, and God impregnated me. No, no, it wasn't Joseph. We have a pure relationship. We have the, our marriage bed will be pure on the night of our consummation because I'm a virgin. I honor God with my body. I will not have a physical relationship with anyone other than my husband. That's what godly women say. That's what godly 13, 14 and 15 year old women say then and they say now they say I belong to my Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not involved physically with anyone other than my husband. Mary took that chain. And I'm sure at some point she wondered if it was really true. Did the Holy Spirit really visit me? And is there really a baby conceived in my womb? And in my way of thinking, and this part is not scriptural, by the way, my way of thinking is she wondered, but then her body started to change. A woman's body changes when she's pregnant. And as her body began to change, she began to really know, not simply believe, but really know she was pregnant. Maybe her tummy started to to pooch out a little bit and she thought, I think it's time I tell Joseph. Imagine Joseph. Imagine his response in this. It goes on here in the text in Luke chapter one begins to explain in verse 36, behold your relative Elizabeth in her old age has conceived a son. And this is the six months. See, that's why I tied the six month back to verse one with her who has called who was called Baron for nothing will be impossible with God. Listen to Mary's voice. Behold, I'm the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. We had a faithful. I'll say 15 year old little girl, young woman who obeyed God, who obeyed God. And God sent her to visit her cousin Elizabeth and speaks through Elizabeth, a prophetic statement over Mary and the fruit of her womb. Jesus, who's going to come just chronologically let this soak into your mind so you can ponder it throughout the week, the chronology of the engagement or be truffle, the idea that the angel comes and then she's impregnated and then she goes and visits her cousin Elizabeth who speaks this magnificent word of prophecy over her. What does Mary do? She breaks out in the magnificent which means magnify to magnify. She's going to magnify. She's going to speak in the power of the Holy Spirit, the truth about the fruit of her womb. She's going to speak about Jesus. And so as you begin to stack these thoughts, you begin to treasure them, to stack them in your mind so that you can compare and contrast them. I want you to recognize that she also knew the angel went to Joseph because not only did Mary obey Joseph obeyed Joseph was in a position where he could walk away. How many men in our culture have walked away from a woman once he has had a relationship with her that's inappropriate. They just walk away, they just abandon them, they just abandon them and they leave the woman, they leave the woman standing there or sitting there saying, what am I going to do with this baby in my room? What am I going to do? Mary decided to have the Son of God and Joseph decided to believe Mary, to believe God and he married her. Do you think Mary thought about that as she was holding the little baby? She wasn't a single mother, an outcast in that society in some places still in our culture. She treasured her little one and she treasured her husband, they were there together. Oh, that God's spirit would fall on us and help us to recognize how God stacked together the thoughts about the birth of Jesus in Mary's heart and mind. And then we had the testimony of the shepherds and we'll study that last week. I would submit to you that I believe in general women have a better memory than men. If you're not married, be patient. I think you will find that women have a better memory than men. They can remember the details of conversations. They can remember insinuations and I don't mean this pejoratively. I mean it empirically. I believe the clarity of their thinking is such that they are allowed to recall issues with greater acuity than most men. Mary with her great powers of observation and faith and belief in what God had promised was holding her little baby Jesus and she was wondering what will he be. Some of you are in a similar situation. You're holding your daughters. We had two daughters baptized this one and you're wondering what will she be. What will she be? What will she become? And we don't know. So we say things like, you could become anything you want to be in the United States or if you have a little baby boy, you could say, you could become anything. You could become the first chair and play the violin. You could become a star national football league player. But eventually, the truth is going to sink in. Eventually, you're going to be cut from the middle school basketball team. Are you going to show up with your own pom-poms, your junior, you're in high school and they're going to say, no, but to a parent, we don't know what our child will become. And so we dream big dreams and we provide for them the best education we can and we provide for them a Christian greenhouse environment in our home that they would grow to be the best young man, the best young woman for Christ they could possibly be. That's what Mary was pondering as she held this little boy. Now, each day this week, I'm asking you to go to God's Word, Matthew and Luke, chapters one and two. And I want you to go to God's Word and I want you to look and I want you to ponder. I want you to stack up the wood of God's Word in your mind and ask the Holy Spirit to inflame you to ignite your godly passions for him. I do not want you to walk through another generic Christmas. I want you to be like the little boy who sneaks down when everyone's asleep and he picks up the present kind of ways it maybe gives it a shake holds it up to the light. I want you to do this with the truth of God with God's Word that the spirit of God would ignite and enliven in you a new passion for the Christ, the Christ who came to be your Redeemer, yours, your personal Redeemer. Yes, he died for his people. What about you? Do you believe the Christmas story? Do you believe that Christ came to die for the sins of his people that we might have new life through him? That's the Christmas story. Let's pray together. Oh, Father, as we shake your word this week, we pray your Holy Spirit would accompany your word and would set a flame our hearts through our minds. We stack the wood of your word. We return to Micah. We return to Luke 1 and 2 and Matthew 1 and 2. We pray, oh God, that you would not allow us to walk through Christmas like an automaton, like a robot, like a person in a culture who dutifully puts on the appropriate tie for the appropriate occasion. Oh God, may we be hungry for you, may we see you and worship you and praise you, for we are indeed poor sinners. Lord, if anybody belongs to be in a dirty, smelly stall, oh Lord, it would be the sinners of the world. It would be men and women and boys and girls just like me whose hearts are helpless apart from the redeeming work of Christ. So we gather, we gather today, we gather each day this week and we gather next Sunday to worship the Christ child, the Redeemer King who was born a baby. To a young woman named Mary and her husband Joseph, oh God, fill us with the eyes of faith that we might see. We make our prayer in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. Would you please stand for the benediction, if you would turn your face toward the throne of God, where even now the angels are surrounding him, praising him, giving him honor and glory which only he deserves. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace both now and in the life everlasting. Amen.