God of the Impossible - Pt 2

[0:00] God's holy word. As I said last week, I believe we're going to finish.

[0:16] ! This is part two to God of the impossible as we continue to look at verses 18 through 25 of Matthew! Chapter one, this situation with Joseph it's pretty deep y'all and I'm getting some fresh eyes on it myself so I'm hoping it'll be a blessing to you as well.

[0:40] God of the impossible number two, let's pray. Almighty God, Father, bless your holy name.

[0:51] Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive all of our praise, honor, and glory. And Lord, we would come to glorify him now as we dive once again into this wonderful passage.

[1:05] This passage where your angel speaks to Joseph, prepares the way for the birth of your holy son. Will you give us fresh eyes and understanding as we continue to meditate upon this truth.

[1:21] And Lord, help us, Lord, to see Jesus in all his wonderful glory, even from birth. So, Father, again, may we wonder, may we wonder at your power and sovereignty in bringing all this about.

[1:41] Hear our cry, O Lord. Use your unworthy servant, we pray, to preach your word. And may we all hear with ears of your spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[1:52] Amen. Verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

[2:08] And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

[2:32] She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet, prophet Isaiah, actually.

[2:47] Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

[3:01] He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. That is the word of the Lord.

[3:13] Praise be to God. Please be seated. Last time we saw that the virgin birth, or more accurately, the virgin conception, was a scandal.

[3:46] Actually, it was the most important moral scandal in history, and it was God's scandal. Secondly, we saw that it was the work of the Holy Spirit, because nothing is impossible with God.

[4:02] Now, by the way, in our text, we are told that Joseph was a just or righteous man, meaning he followed the law of the Lord.

[4:14] But we are also told that he was merciful. Did you catch that? He showed mercy to Mary. You see, in mercy, he refused to shame her. By exposing her publicly as an adulteress, even though he had every right, he had every right to do so from what he knew.

[4:37] Here's a thought I had. This is kind of review, but this is additional. No charge for this. Well, maybe. Okay, never mind. Here's a thought. Justice is good and right, isn't it?

[4:52] That's not a trick question. For society to allow all citizens to prosper, society must be just. But justice without mercy will turn you into a self-righteous so-and-so.

[5:10] Okay, Pharisee. Mercy doesn't cancel justice. He was still going to divorce her.

[5:20] Okay? But mercy softens the heart and keeps us from vengeance or being harsh with people.

[5:35] Okay, here we go. Too often Christians pursue justice without mercy. Or even mercy without justice.

[5:49] Both are injurious to people. Like our culture, sometimes Christians love exposing people. Which shows we don't really understand the grace of God.

[6:07] Or maybe even not even know it. Sometimes righteousness demands public exposure. But not always. And mercy should be present in both cases.

[6:21] You see, in the gospel, we have the meeting of God's justice and God's mercy at the cross.

[6:33] We deserve justice for our sins, which meant we would have got what we deserved. And that would mean judgment. But God satisfies his own justice in the life and death of his son for sinners.

[6:51] So that he can give mercy to those of us who give ourselves to Jesus. At Christmas, we see with God nothing is impossible.

[7:06] Justice and mercy are possible together. And Joseph was a man of justice and mercy. The third thing I want you to notice here is that the virgin birth was a planned pregnancy.

[7:24] I firmly believe that if you're getting married, you should not do so unless you are prepared to have children.

[7:36] Because sometimes they just come. I don't know how. You take all kinds of precautions.

[7:48] But oops happens. But I want you to know the son of God was not an oops baby. Mary's pregnancy was predicted by God through the prophet Isaiah seven to eight hundred years before.

[8:03] The quotation in the text, the virgin, about the virgin, is taken from Isaiah chapter seven. Now I got to do this quick here. If you have a pew Bible, you might want to turn to it.

[8:14] If you have a Bible, whatever. Isaiah chapter seven. I'm trying to give you the skinny real quick. In that chapter, we have the historical record of King Ahaz, who was the king of Judah, the southern kingdom.

[8:26] He's facing an incredible attack. The northern kingdom, which was called Israel, they had a kind of a civil war, is coming against him with another kingdom.

[8:40] He's in trouble. Now remember from when we studied the genealogy of Jesus, Ahaz is in the genealogy. He was a very wicked king. I mean, he was the husband of Jezebel.

[8:53] That should give you some idea here, if you're not familiar. Now, but Ahaz is terrified of what's about to happen.

[9:06] So he's planning to get help from the kingdom of Assyria. He's planning a political solution to a problem that he should have gone to God with.

[9:22] Okay, are you with me? So God sends the prophet Isaiah to Ahaz. Notice the grace of God. He sends a word from the Lord, from him, to a wicked man, a sinner.

[9:35] Hello. So, basically, he tells Ahaz, don't be afraid of them in their plan to depose you as king and put a puppet in your place.

[9:46] That's what they wanted to do. Take him down and put somebody they could manipulate in his place. God tells him in verse 4 of Isaiah 7, Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint.

[10:00] Wow. But isn't that our tendency? When faced, even, when, when, when, when, as a human being, when faced with dangers or great difficulties, isn't that what we do?

[10:14] We're afraid and our hearts begin to faint when our little kingdoms are threatened. What we need at that moment is hope. But we can look for hope in two places.

[10:28] Some part of creation, government, family, friends, our own wisdom and power. Or we can go to God for it.

[10:40] Now, the other things aren't necessarily bad or wrong. But in the end, they can fail and will fail. Ultimately, will fail. Ahaz and the people were terrified because they were only looking at their own resources and totally forgot about God.

[10:58] That's what fear will do to you. Fear will cause you to forget about where your real help is. Fear will cause you to fear. So he goes to politics.

[11:11] For national, for a national crisis. Hmm. Does sound familiar to me at all. And God sends a word to him.

[11:25] He ends that word, part of that word he says in verse 9, he says, If you're not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all. Wow. Without firm faith in God and his word, we have no firmness at all in life.

[11:39] We are unsupported and unstable. We're like those movie, those movie facades, right? They call them flats now. You know, you've seen them. They put up the front of a building and there's nothing behind it but a few poles holding it up.

[11:53] You look at it and you say, wow, on TV, on TV to us, it looks like a building. But all you got to do is... And the thing is going to probably come coming down because it's unstable.

[12:09] It's not supported. First of all, saving faith is God's gift to us. You can't produce it. But then you can encourage it.

[12:19] You can't encourage your faith. I tell people all the time, don't encourage your faith. Don't encourage your doubts. Encourage your faith. Doubts we got. Faith needs to be encouraged.

[12:33] Once God gives it, it needs to be encouraged. It needs to be fed. It needs to be fed constantly on the word of God, on prayer, on the sacraments, on godly fellowship and godly service.

[12:45] This is how the Lord feeds your faith as you walk with Jesus. Or, if not, you can allow your faith to become mediocre and stagnant.

[12:59] As you avoid the means of grace, as you avoid the things I just mentioned, your faith will plateau like this. And eventually, it will start to sink if you're not strengthening your faith.

[13:12] The world will always seek to destroy your faith. The news will shake your faith. Politics will crumble your faith.

[13:26] Illness will test your faith. God says, strengthen our faith. Be firm. But the way that firmness is not by your own bootstraps.

[13:37] It's by going to the means of grace that God is giving you to meet him. And he will strengthen your faith. What kind of faith do you think King Ahaz possessed?

[13:51] Well, his heart was hard. But once again, the Lord is gracious to this sinful king and offers him a sign. He offers him a promise. He even tells him to choose what sign will it be.

[14:05] Can you imagine? God gave him a blank check. You choose. I don't. And he says to him, I don't care how difficult you make it. Choose.

[14:15] And I'll give you a sign that I'm going to keep my word to you. Now, listen to this. Here's God. He's speaking. Ask a sign of the Lord your God. Verse 11. Let it be as deep as Sheol or high as heaven.

[14:28] Blank check. Ahaz, in false humility and piety, refuses. He says this. He refuses, as he says, to put the Lord to the test.

[14:44] God was not impressed. He knew it was fake. He knew Ahaz didn't trust him. That's why. And he didn't want God to be in control anyway.

[14:55] He liked running things. It's like he kind of had a belief in God's existence, but at the same time, he was fighting against him. That's scary, y'all. God wasn't impressed because it was lack of faith.

[15:09] Here's the thing. Here's the thing you got to be careful of. Beware of using Christian language that sounds like faith but doesn't reflect your heart. Amen. Amen. He believed in his own diplomacy and national strength.

[15:30] The word for virgin in that passage in Isaiah 11 can be translated maiden. Virgin or maiden, either one. And Ahaz has this context.

[15:41] A child was born. Okay? The immediate fulfillment of that prophecy, it did happen. A child was born.

[15:52] In chapter 8, verses 3 and 4, you'll see it. We believe, many scholars believe, it was likely Isaiah's son. So there was an immediate fulfillment of that prophecy.

[16:03] A child was born and God destroyed that confederacy of nations coming against him.

[16:13] He took care of them. But here's the thing. Ahaz refused to trust him. And he did go to Assyria. He did ask for their help.

[16:25] Right? And what Assyria did was they helped him. God used him. They helped him. And then Assyria took over Ahaz. You see, when you go to the world for help, instead of God, the world will take over.

[16:42] Come on, somebody. I'll let you apply it. Just start thinking about that. Just keep that in mind. Christian people, when we go to the world for help, when we should be going to God, we go to the world, the world will take over.

[16:59] Impersonally and collectively, the world will take over. The enemy will use that to corrupt your life. It happens to Ahaz. It happens to us all the time. But there was a second fulfillment of this prophecy.

[17:14] It's in Matthew 1. God wasn't done. Because in chapter, remember chapter 8, Ahaz gets, God tells Ahaz, you're going to get messed up.

[17:26] Remember chapter 9 of Isaiah? For unto us, a son is given. Unto us, a child. Come on, y'all. And the government should be upon his shoulders.

[17:40] His name shall be wonderful. Counselor, mighty God, prince of peace. You see, the prophecy, you know God was talking not just about a baby, but about someone more than a baby.

[17:50] Chapter 9 proves that chapter 7 is about someone more. Matthew jumps on that. And in chapter 1, he pulls that down. The Spirit of God is going to pull it down and show us that it was really all about Jesus.

[18:04] God coming to his people to rescue them. In the fullness of time, Galatians 4 tells us, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law.

[18:18] Right? To redeem those under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. The fullness of time is Christmas Day.

[18:29] This is it. God is coming to keep his word, to deliver his people. Now watch this. It hit me earlier. They were in a very similar position as Ahaz.

[18:41] They too were living under a foreign enemy's dictatorship. The people of Israel. The time of Christ.

[18:52] You heard me say it before. The Romans had conquered them and they were living under their oppression. But what were they doing? Many of them were looking again, just like King Ahaz, to a political messiah.

[19:08] One who would come and take over and lead them to physical victory over their enemies. And what did God do?

[19:21] He sent them a child. Again. And this time, the ultimate child. You see, God sends us what we think is weak.

[19:35] That we may be made strong. And so the baby is born. So this prophecy here in Matthew is a fulfillment of over seven to 800 years before.

[19:47] Here is God fulfilling his word to defeat our greatest enemies. You see, our greatest enemies are not physical.

[19:59] And they have physical manifestations. But behind the physical, behind the oppression, behind people not liking you, behind governments that are wicked, behind all of that stuff, behind corporations doing their dirt, behind all of those things, there is the world, the flesh, and the devil.

[20:21] The unholy trinity. And when you say the flesh, guess who's got flesh? It's not talking about physical flesh. That's a technical word in the New Testament.

[20:32] It's talking about your fallen sinful nature. You are your own worst enemy. And the devil plays you like a harp. If you're not careful. And Jesus has come to defeat those enemies.

[20:49] Listen, he will defeat the others too. They only have a certain amount of time. And God is, Jesus is coming and will wipe out all of the oppressor.

[21:02] But the first thing he does is deliver us from our sins. That's why, give him the name Jesus. Give him that name.

[21:15] Call him Joshua. Yeshua. Just like the first Joshua delivered the people in battle in the promised land, this one comes to do battle too.

[21:26] He's called the divine warrior in theology. The divine warrior comes to fight and win our battle, but he defeats our sins. He is the one who will deliver us so that we can be the children of God.

[21:38] Because that's what we need most. They didn't expect it this way.

[21:52] Has God ever done something you don't expect? Has he ever, have you ever prayed one way?

[22:05] And God does it a different way? How, how you feel about that? Are you okay with that? How are you dealing with God's plans for your life that are unexpected?

[22:19] Do you believe, here's where it gets sticky. Do you believe his plan for your life is better than yours? I know, I know some of you are going through some hard stuff.

[22:37] And I say this with great love for you. But if you belong to Jesus, if you are a child of God, if you have submitted your life to Jesus, you must understand you are just where he wanted you.

[22:52] And don't get me wrong, he takes even your sin into account. You may have screwed up. But he hasn't stopped loving you. He hasn't said, oh my goodness, the plan.

[23:03] What happened to the plan? What would you do? He's just sitting there going, mm-hmm. You know, it's like you said, he's sitting there going, come to me.

[23:19] Come to me. Come to daddy. Come to daddy. That's what he's doing. In the middle of your pain, that's what he's doing. He's saying, come to me. Come on, come on, come on, come on. I'm right here. Come on, come on. Don't do an Ahaz.

[23:31] I can handle it. I can get help from there. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come. Right here. And you'll find help and strength in an unexpected way.

[23:44] How you doing? Waiting for God. The best way to wait for God is to pray for faith and keep following Jesus. Second thing I want, well, one, two, three.

[23:58] Fourth thing I want you to notice, I'm counting last week. The virgin birth demands faith. Remember, biblical faith is not believing in something that you cannot prove. Or if some have said, take it on faith, leap of faith.

[24:11] That's not biblical faith. Please understand, that is not biblical faith. That's the culture's view of faith. But Bible's view of faith is confidence, believing, and trusting in what God has said.

[24:30] There is real backbone to our faith. We believe God has spoken. And ultimately in his son. Faith is trusting in that revelation.

[24:40] Faith is trusting in God, his character, and the reality of his word. This word says Jesus was born of a virgin.

[24:55] Faith in the virgin birth is not an add-on or an option to saving faith. Faith in the virgin birth is to deny salvation.

[25:07] Because you end up with a very human Jesus only. And a human Jesus alone can't save you. A human Jesus would be just like you or me. He'd be a sinner.

[25:21] He'd be messed up like the rest. He'd be toe up from the flow up like the rest of us. Just purely human, okay? Like all the other Jesuses that had been born.

[25:31] That was a common name, by the way. You know, listen. The name Jesus is powerful to us because of something else behind that name.

[25:45] Lord. Lord. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

[25:58] It's because he is Lord that the name Jesus has power. Otherwise, it's a common name, y'all. But because he is Lord, he had to be virgin born.

[26:14] He had to be born, not of carrying the sinful nature, passed down. Some say I was believing. I tend to believe it. Passed down through the Father. Just as Adam sinned.

[26:25] And we fell in Adam. So therefore, God could not allow Joseph to be his biological father. It's debatable on that, but I think that's the best explanation.

[26:39] Because Mary was a sinner too. Why did he get the sinned nation from Mary? It has to point to what I just said. Faith.

[26:51] The virgin birth is essential to our faith. Without the virgin birth, we don't have a Savior. Do you believe that?

[27:01] Do you believe that Jesus was God and man? You shall call him Emmanuel.

[27:12] God with us. God with us. That's not just a title. It's a reality. In Jesus, God came among us to see about us, to help us, to deliver us, to be one of us, to be one with us, so that he might represent us.

[27:32] Jesus stands between, as it were, humanity and the Father, representing both. He's the true bridge of heaven. He's the true Jacob's ladder.

[27:44] So the virgin birth is not something you can just take or leave. It's essential.

[27:56] In his perfect humanity, Jesus is what Adam was at his creation and would have become had Adam not failed. Had not failed to obey God.

[28:09] Much is made also about the fact that God chose Mary. We sang about it, too. But our song said, God also chose Joseph.

[28:21] Yes. He chose Joseph. By the way, Jesus is the only child in history to choose his own parents. He was a righteous man.

[28:34] Joseph, a righteous man. I'm talking about faith. Because Joseph was a man of faith. That's faith and righteousness go together. We are declared righteous through faith.

[28:46] Okay? So that's the connection I'm making here. He's a righteous man who's truly a man of faith. And his faith, his trust, is in the God of his righteousness.

[28:59] He did know. This is the thing. This is the thing. Joseph didn't know it. But his righteousness was about to be born. 1 Corinthians 1.30.

[29:10] Because of him. Because of God the Father. You are in Christ Jesus. Who became to us wisdom from God. Righteousness. And sanctification. And redemption.

[29:22] Jesus is our righteousness. As we trust in him. He becomes. He stands before God. Having taken our sins. And given us his goodness, as it were.

[29:35] Joseph displays his righteousness. By faith. In hearing the word of God. Believing the word of God. And doing the word of God.

[29:47] Did you notice this? There was no argument. The text says Joseph was considering what was going on. How much time that was, we don't know.

[29:59] But it took a bit. A minute. Joseph went home after Mary shows up. And you remember, she went away for three months. Oh, it was the six months.

[30:11] Somebody help me out. It was three? Thank you. So when she comes back, she's in her second trimester. So she's probably, maybe she's a young girl. So she's, but she's starting to show maybe possibly.

[30:24] But whatever it was, it's found out. She's pregnant. And Joseph is going. I'm not the baby daddy.

[30:37] He's freaking out. So he goes home. He does what men do when we get confused and messed up. He goes to sleep. Ladies understand that. You understand your husband. Give him a minute. Give him a minute.

[30:48] He may need a nap. All right? He takes a nap. And while he's napping, God speaks to him. Ho, ho. Say amen to that, brothers. Pray for that. Pray for that. I get some of my best thoughts in the middle of the night.

[31:00] It's true. So he speaks to him. And so Joseph's going, let me think about this. What am I going to do? Okay, no. He got a plan. Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I want to divorce her quietly. I don't want to put her to shame.

[31:11] That was his plan. Now watch this, y'all. Listen, this is important. When Joseph is sleeping, God gives him a better plan.

[31:25] Listen, Joseph had his plan, but God changed it. And Joseph said, okay. Are you with me?

[31:38] Come on now. Because you know how hard that is. You know when you start this thing through, you got it all set up. You got to come. College students, are you out? Anybody still here from college? Anybody? Did y'all go home yet? Anybody here from college?

[31:49] Anybody? You got a plan for your life. But you got to be old. You got to hold that plan loosely. Because God may change your plan. And at that point, do you believe the word of God?

[32:02] Will you obey the word of God? Or are you going to fight for your plan? Joseph demonstrates for us what it means to be a man of God. What it means to have faith in God.

[32:15] He says, my plan. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. I'm going with you.

[32:27] See, that's a man of God. He submits to God's plan. And he does. In this case, he does it right away. Now, I know sometimes you may take a minute.

[32:38] But in this case, he got up and did it. That's the most important thing that you follow. You may have to take a minute to get there, but please get there. And follow. And he knew.

[32:50] Now, here we go. Here we go again. I think I missed something like this before. But here we go again. God changed his plan. And he knew by trusting, having faith in God's plan, he would walk into difficulties.

[33:05] He was certain of it. It wasn't an if thing for Joseph. He knew by adopting Jesus, the people would have seen that as a confession.

[33:16] That he was the baby daddy. He committed adultery. Because no righteous Jewish man would have wanted Mary. And none of that virgin birth stuff talk would have worked.

[33:28] No one's going to believe in a virgin conception. Because that's not normal. Family, Jesus isn't normal.

[33:41] He's supernatural. Allow me. He's super normal. Many times following Jesus is to embrace hardship and even suffering. Suffering.

[33:56] I know we've been inundated with that faith, prosperity, heresy stuff. Please jettison that thing. Please. Because following Jesus will mean embracing suffering and hardship.

[34:14] It's better to choose to follow Jesus through the fire rather than to avoid the fire. Because through the fire with Jesus is the path to glory. It won't seem possible.

[34:26] It won't even feel possible. But faith in God is much better than faith in your feelings. I know how much we love our feelings.

[34:38] So don't hurt me, please. I bruise easily. Your feelings are human. But faith is in the word of God. Not faith in your feelings.

[34:50] I'm trying to get through to somebody. God is the God of the impossible. Listen. The alternative to having faith in God's word. There's an alternative.

[35:01] The alternative is this. Like Paul Tripp says. It's to live like a fool. The fool in Psalm 14 says denies God's reality.

[35:12] Or denies that you need God. That you need his authority. That you need his wisdom. That you need his power. That you need his grace. You see, if you're going to hear God's word and say, no, my plan is better.

[35:30] You've just shown yourself to be very foolish. Paul Tripp says it in his wonderful little devotional for Christmas. Come, let us adore him.

[35:42] Every time you take your life into your own hands and do whatever you want, no matter what, you are functionally denying the existence of God. Every time you make decisions as if your life belonged to you, you are denying the existence of God.

[35:59] Every time you buy into the delusion of independent wisdom, righteousness, and strength, you are telling yourself that you can live quite well without the presence, power, and grace of the one who made you.

[36:13] Every day that you live without God in your thoughts and his glory as your core motivation, you functionally deny the existence of God.

[36:28] You see, what we see in Joseph is the normal. This is me now. I was in quote. What we see in Joseph is the normal Christian life. He lived as if God existed and as if God truly mattered.

[36:47] The God who loves you so much that he sent his only son to rescue you is the God of the impossible. He wants you to understand.

[37:01] He loves you. And he matters. Trust him. Follow him. Put your faith in him.

[37:12] Well, my time's about up. The virgin birth is a miracle. Yeah, it's a miracle. Is there room in your worldview for miracles?

[37:29] Do you live in an open universe or a closed universe? A closed universe means that nothing from outside what you can see and touch and feel and understand exists. Only what you can see, touch, and understand exists.

[37:41] That's the closed universe. An open universe means that there's things outside of the world that you cannot understand that exist and impinge upon this world.

[37:52] That's what we believe as Christians. That's what we believe as Christians. More than that, we know who it is. We know who it is.

[38:02] Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Christmas is God putting his foot on the devil's throat, coming into our world and shaking us to the core.

[38:15] Christmas, family, Christmas is God shaking the universe. It's God saying to humanity, you are not alone.

[38:27] It's saying to you personally, you are not alone. You have to trust in your own wisdom all the time or your own strength.

[38:39] There's someone wiser and stronger and more loving and more gracious than you could ever hope to imagine.

[38:50] And he's revealed himself in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of the living God.

[39:01] And Christmas is when the story gets interesting. He always existed. But at Christmas, the story gets really personal to us.

[39:14] The archangel said it best. When Mary asked how it would be possible for her, a virgin, to conceive. Gabriel said it so wonderfully in Luke 137.

[39:29] For nothing will be impossible with God. Nothing will be impossible with God. If God can create the world. Leonard, help me out.

[39:40] Sarge, help me out. If God can create the world. If we really believe that. Do we really believe that? Or do you believe in the Big Bang, secular Big Bang, I call it?

[39:52] Because there was a Big Bang. But do you know what the secular Big Bang is? I did some research real quick. It's called the singularity. It's a belief that something smaller than an atom, densely packed with infinite power and intense heat.

[40:12] This thing that you can't even see exploded. It blew up. It blew up. And from that. And by the way, where'd that come from, by the way?

[40:23] Anyway, that's another story. It blew up. And from that invisible molecule. We got you.

[40:36] And everything that we see. I think that takes faith to believe that. It takes faith to believe that there was an intelligence behind it.

[40:51] And that God said, let there be. And it was. Yeah, an explosion? I can go with that.

[41:02] But an explosion controlled by God. Amen. So that you, as handsome and beautiful as you are, that you be made in his image. And not in the image of apes or whatever.

[41:16] But you be made in his image. And you be intelligent and kind and compassionate. Loving community and family.

[41:26] And that you be creative. To take what he's given us. And use all these things that we see in touch to make beautiful things. To make a beautiful world.

[41:38] I think that's more believable to me. If you can believe that God did that, didn't it? Virgin birth. Virgin conception.

[41:51] Another day with God. Paul said it best in Acts 26 when he was talking about the resurrection. He was giving testimony about the resurrection. Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

[42:08] Why is it thought incredible that God could give a virgin conception? God is with us. And this Christmas I pray that you would find him anew.

[42:20] And afresh in your faith. That you would meet him in the songs that we sing. And more importantly in the word of God. That you'll meet him afresh.

[42:32] And recognize that he has invaded history. Just as he said he would. Father. Please. Drive home the truths that we've.

[42:43] Sought to expound and explain. Father. Please. To all of our hearts. To my heart. All of these wonderful truths. And lessened. And lessened the history. Of the birth of your son.

[42:55] Oh God. Give us eyes to see. And ears to hear. And if there's anyone here Lord. Who's never surrendered themselves. Who's never truly embraced. What Christmas really means.

[43:06] Will you please grant them the gift of faith. Grant them the gift of life. In Jesus. That they may see. And they may. And they may live with you. Day by day.

[43:17] Knowing. They're not alone. They're not alone. In his name we pray. Amen.