Advent of Love

We are glad to be here to worship this morning. We are excited to do that together as we come to the fourth Sunday of Advent, and as we think about God's love for us and light the angel candle, and we think of the angels proclaiming good news that will be for all people. So, I'm going to have a word of prayer, and then we will stand and read from the 89th Psalm, and then spend some time together in worship. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for your church. I thank you for your people. I'm so glad that we can gather this morning, that you restore, that you strengthen, that you guide, that you help, that you correct. And so, be with us this morning as we worship, that you would turn our hearts towards you. It's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen.

Let's be standing as we read together from the 89th Psalm. I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever. With my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, steadfast love will be built up forever. In the heavens you will establish your faithfulness. You have said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to David my servant. I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations." This is the word of the Lord. All right. If kids want to go back to line up to light the fourth candle. Well, I guess they're lighting all four, but... All right. We're going to start by singing "Angels We Have Heard on High." "Angels We Have Heard on High." "Angels We Have Heard on High."

"Sweetly singing all the plains." "And the mountains in reply." "Echoing the joyous dreams." "Gloria in excelsis Deo." "Gloria in excelsis Deo." Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong? What the gladsome tidings be, which inspire your heavenly song. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Come to Bethlehem and sing Him whose birth the angels sing. Come adore on them with me, Christ the Lord, the new home King. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Thank you. Jesus said, "Follow me." Let's pray. Hark the herald in the sea. Glory to the newborn King. Peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled. Joy for all ye nations, rise. Join the triumph of the skies. With the angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn King.

Christ by highest heaven adored. Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold Him come. Offspring of a virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead sing. Hail the incarnate. Deity. Pleased as man with man to dwell. Jesus our Immanuel. Hark the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn King. Hail the heaven born prince of thee. Prince of peace. Hail the son of righteousness. Light and life to all he brings. Risen with healing in his peace. Mild he lays his glory by. Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth. Born to give them second birth. Hark the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn King. Amen. Amen. Amen.

All right, as we prepare to come to the table together, we're going to sing three verses of "O come, O come, O come, O come, O come, O come you well."

O come, O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God comes to the Son of God. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, Thou rod of Jesse, free, Thine own from Satan's tyranny, from death to death. of hell, Thy people save. And give them victory, O other grave. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, Thou key of David, come. And open wide our heavenly home. Make safe the way that leads on high. And close the misery. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. In Matthew, the first chapter, after listing the genealogy of Jesus, which oftentimes to us seems just a very long list of names that we struggle to pronounce, but through that list we see God's faithfulness oftentimes to very unfaithfulness.

To outsiders, to those who struggled, to those who hurt, and through it all, you see God's redemptive promise coming through history to His people. And as Matthew writes, he gets the story with the birth of Christ and Joseph's reaction. And 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 a witch is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. For He will save His people from their sins." And all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel and his king." So we wouldn't have to get a concordance or a dictionary. Matthew puts in parentheses, which means "God knows."

And one of the great, earth-shattering messages that is found in the Advent story is that one is coming who would be with us, and He will save His people from their sins. And in this, we find that Jesus knows what it's like to walk where you walk. In fact, it starts in Matthew chapter 1 with the story of His family in this list of names. Jesus knows what it's like to come from a family that was difficult, filled with some case outsiders, sinful and broken, and He understands that struggle, that hurt, and that pain. And as you move through His ministry, you see that Jesus knows what it's like to have conflict within your family. At one point, the family of Jesus comes and tries to take Him home because they think He has gone crazy.

Jesus knows what it's like to rejoice. He knows what it's like to have close friends. He knows what it's like to be tired, in fact, that you fall asleep in the middle of a storm. He knows what it's like to be in a storm. He knows your joys. He knows your sorrows. He knows what it's like to be betrayed by those who are closest to Him. And He knows what it's like to stand by the grave of the bread of John 11. He knows what it's like in the cross to suffer under the weight of your sin as He takes that brokenness out of Himself. And in the good news of the Gospel, it's not just that Jesus takes our sin, but all of the righteousness and all of His good choices and all of His goodness is given to us.

And so when we think of God with us, I want you to understand that He understands your struggles and your burdens, and your joys and your sorrows that He has come to save you. As the angel says to Joseph in a dream, "She will bear a son, and we shall call His name Jesus, and save His people from your sins." Father, as we rejoice and take comfort and find peace and see hope, as we feel your love in these verses, that you are gone far, and through your Son you become, and He has been with us and near us, that we are saved from our sins, and still this truth, not just in our sins, but pour it neatly into our hearts, and may it also flow with us. May this meal be part of hate, and may we see the burden of sin, and may we see the burden of sin, and may we see the burden of sin,

the promise of hope and restoration. I ask that you bless this bread and this cup, and in Jesus' name we pray. Lord, if you would partake with me of the bread that Jesus shared with his disciples, thank you for this. And if you would partake with me in the confidence of the blood of Jesus. And as we remember, we seek to proclaim the good news of Jesus until he comes again. We are in the fourth Sunday of Advent this morning. We are going to be talking, we've talked about hope and joy and peace, and this morning we will be talking about Advent love. And so I'm going to read our Scripture from 1 John chapter 4, and then we'll pray, and then we'll just dive right into it together. 1 John chapter 4, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love

is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God, and anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." This is the word of the Lord. Father in heaven, take your word this morning and use it to open our eyes, to strengthen our hearts, and to call us into right living with you. We know that your word is powerful. It is transformational. May your spirit be at work to encourage and

help those who are struggling, convict those who are walking in sin. That you would help us to see your love so clearly through your Son. Go on the cross, and take the wrath that was intended for us. In this, you saved us. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So I think I can say this because all the kids are downstairs, and not because it's something that kids can't hear, but they probably wouldn't understand. But you guys all seem like you're old enough to understand that broken record. If you've ever played a record, which most of you probably have, right? It gets to that point in the record, and there's like a little scratch, and it just sort of starts repeating itself over and over again. And that broken record, it almost feels, as if you read these verses in 1 John chapter 4, that

John is a little bit of a repeating, broken record. And there are two themes that just find themselves repeated over, one very clearly, the other woven through this text that John is making sure that we can see. The first one is this idea of love. In fact, not counting the word "beloved," John uses this word 11 times. He's "love, love, loves." Love, love, love, loved, loved, loved, loved, love. Right? He's a broken record here about love. The second theme that you see sort of repeated over and over throughout these verses is not found in a repetition of a word, although there is a little bit of that, but in the truth that our love for others comes from knowing the love of God. And knowing not in some sort of cloudy theoretical way, but in a concrete way that moves us to action. What John is saying is that our

knowledge and our knowing of God, and I don't think he's simply speaking in a head knowledge kind of way, but a head knowledge that is in our hearts that moves out through our actions, and this knowledge transforms how we live. And these two themes, when woken together, are transformational and they are life-giving. And so I want to take a moment this morning and to take a look at this transforming truth. And we're primarily going to be in verses 9 and 10 this morning. 1 John 4:9 says this, "In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him." And I want to zoom in where John says that this, the love of God, was made manifest among us because this is a big deal.

There's a temptation, and I think it's probably a universal one, and when I say universal one I don't just mean in this room for people who proclaim that they follow Jesus, but I think throughout the entire world there is a tendency to treat God like a combination law. And my first real experience combination law was as a freshman in high school, and I remember being so afraid that I would forget my combination on my lock and not be able to get into my locker, you know, 24, 35, 16. Like, it's still, like, I don't remember any other combinations from any time everywhere. In fact, I don't remember most people's names, but, right, I drilled that combination into my head. Then I got to college, and I didn't need a combination lock for a locker, but in our student center where our mailboxes were, you needed a combination to access those.

And so every year you got a new combination, and it's a little tiny dial where you couldn't really see the numbers. And I remember it was either my junior or my sophomore year in college. I'm desperately trying to get into my mailbox. There was a piece of mail that I desperately needed to get, and I'm just running through, like, every combination I know to try to get that box to open up. And I think it's very easy for us to take this approach in terms of our relationship with God. And I think everyone, regardless of your belief in the God of the Bible, because biblically, everybody is a worshiper. Whether you worship God or you worship something else, all of us are worshipers, and we take this approach that there's some sort of combination that we can get in our life that will make everything work.

If I can get everything to line up correctly, I'll find the peace, I'll find the joy, and the satisfaction. And whether you're using that combination outside of religion in this world, you're still worshiping, trying to find a combination that will lead you to joy, satisfaction, and peace, but also, Christians, we do the same thing. If I can get this to click right with God, then everything will be okay. And it's not a biblical idea in the sense that it's something that God can have us do. In fact, if you want an idea of what this treating God like a combination log looks like, in 1 Kings 18, there are the prophets of Baal, who are about to go before and fight against, sort of in this spiritual battle of worship, against the prophet Elisha. And if you know the story, the prophets of Baal come, and the goal was which God will send down fire and accept an offering.

And so the prophets of Baal build an altar, and God does nothing. And they offer their calf and still nothing, so they begin to sing and shout and dance, and God says nothing. And Elijah in the corner goes, "Well, maybe he had to go out of town, or maybe he had to run to the bathroom real quick." And they just think, "God needs more intensity." And so in their worship of their false God, they say, "We're going to sing louder, dance harder." And they begin to cut themselves with knives, all in an attempt to find the right combination to get God to answer. And if you remember, by contrast, what happens with Elijah. He comes with his altar and his sacrifice covered in water, and he simply goes down in prayer. And God sends the fire to the altar.

We have to be so careful of this danger of thinking that there's some way we can combine practices and actions in order to manipulate God, treating him as a combination. And I want you to see what John says about the love of God. He says that it was made manifest. That word manifest, it's not some kind of hippie word here, right? Or some guy standing in the mirror going, "I am strong. I am healthy. I am manifesting the life that I want." That's not what John is talking about here. In fact, this word manifest, its root is in the word for light. And the picture is one of illuminating something that is in the darkness. The other day I was driving back from picking up groceries, and I'm coming down 522, and it was really dark.

And I'm in the car going, "Man, these lights are not bright enough." And Rachel goes, "Hey, you are missing a headlight. You're like 50% of head." Not enough light, you can't see in the dark. And what John is saying when he says the love of God was made manifest is that it lit up the dark. But it's more than just light that shows us something. That word in this day was used in a different kind of way. In another sense, it was used to say grasp. The Word of God was made manifest, not just that you could see it, but that you could grab it, that you could hold on to. What John is saying is that the love of God came in a way that could be held on to, and I don't think he means just in a literal, sort of intellectual sense,

that I could understand and hold on to this with my mind. Because she gave birth to her first Lord's son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in danger. The love of God is not just manifest intellectually in some kind of idea for us to wrap our brains around, but it is graspable to hold on to. What John is saying is that the truth that we need has been made known very clearly. You don't have to guess or formulate a hypothesis. You have the truth, you can know, and you can hold on to it. That's the one theme, this picture of knowing that runs under all of these verses. And now that second theme, the wonder of God's love. For us, sometimes we treat God's love as sort of a platitude, right? Those platitudes are phrases that are supposed to make us seem thoughtful or deep, but they don't really say anything, right?

It's like, "Time heals all wounds," right? Well, maybe you just haven't been wounded hard enough to understand, right? Or, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." I don't know, my life experience has said that sometimes what you find at the end of that struggle is that you are weaker. The wonder of God's love is not some sort of platitude or conventional wisdom. It's something wonderful. The reason we struggle with the love of God, and oftentimes treat it as a platitude, is because the idea of love in our experience, and in many ways, has become diluted. It's like when our kids were very little, and we started giving them juice. It's like, we're not giving them straight juice, right? You take a little bit of juice, and they're sipping up, and then you add a bunch of water to it,

so they get some of the flavor, but not all of the excitement and craving of the juice. And what has happened in the idea of God's love for us is that the idea of love in our world has become so diluted. It's been filled with other things that we have lost the impact of what is happening. If I was to ask you this morning, say, "What does love mean?" You might respond with, "Well, what do you mean by love?" Right? We can love a lot of things, right? I love puppies. Tacos this time of year, right? People going back home after they visit. Somebody says, "Do you want a cup of coffee?" And you go, "Man, I'd love one." I don't really mean anything about love, right? I'm just saying it's nice to have a cup of coffee.

And we use the word in so many different ways. However, in John's day, they were a little bit more specific about love. And so they would talk sometimes and use a word specifically for romantic love, right? She is pretty. He's handsome. And this time of year, right, he's a lumberjack working on the family Christmas tree farm. She's the angry executive from the big city coming to bulldoze the Christmas tree farm. And they see each other, and then snow starts falling, and they kiss, and it's a Merry Christmas. And there's all this romantic love. Or I remember when I was younger, right, we used to, you know, boys versus girls on the playground, and we would run and play tag. And then there came a point where it's like, hey, it wouldn't be so bad if they caught us, right?

There's this idea of romantic love. It's not what John's talking about. And then there is this love of sort of friendly love, right, where we like somebody or we have similar interests. They do something nice for you. You go, "Man, I like those people." There's family love that just often times sort of comes naturally, I guess maybe depending on your family. It's like the natural movement of our soul, or our kids, or our wife, or those people that we hold very dear and close to us. Kind of a, somebody described it as a quiet, abiding feeling within a man that rests on something close to him that he feels good about. But John is speaking about a love that goes deeper than all of these others. And at the heart of this love is the willingness to sacrifice for others.

And I never thought, right, that a Disney movie would be a good example of love, right? Especially this kind of love. But our kids went through, like many kids did, right, the frozen epidemic where Frozen won, and it was, you know, let it go. The snowman, all of that. And it's a story where at the heart of it, it's all about love, right? She's freezing, and she needs to find true love. But what I love about the end of the movie Frozen, if you haven't seen it, our kids will probably watch it with you still, is that the end, the love that she's looking for doesn't come from romance, but it comes from a sister who's willing to sacrifice herself for her mother or sister. A sister who risks everything. It's a self-sacrificing kind of love. And that's the kind of love that John is speaking. It's a love that sets God's people apart.

It's a supernatural love. It's a love that sacrifices. And if you want an example of this, sometimes it's easier to see examples biblically. In Luke chapter 10, there's this big debate and question. Somebody said to Jesus, "What's the greatest commandment?" He talks about loving God and loving his neighbor. And the guy, like many of us, wants sort of some limits on what he's called to do. So he goes, "Who is my neighbor?" So I know who I can love, and I know who I can hate, and it's all good. And so Jesus tells us this story, this parable. And the purpose of the parable, ultimately, is to answer the question, right, "Who is my neighbor?" And the answer is everybody. But in this parable, there's something else we see. We see what real love looks like.

And in Luke 10, verse 30, we see this. "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him, and departed, leaving him for dead." So this is not a good situation on a dangerous road, right? They don't just take your money. They don't just beat you up until you're almost dead, but they take all of your clothes. So not only is there physical hurt, financial hurt, right? You're left naked and beaten on the side of the road. There's some emotional hurt there as well. Verse 31 and 32, "Now by chance, a priest was going down the road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place, saw him and passed by on the other side." And oftentimes we talk about how these guys who are supposed to be religious professionals,

they end up walking by the guy on the side of the road, and maybe they didn't want to be unclean, or maybe they didn't want to get dirty, so they kind of go as far away and ignore the man's suffering. But I think there's another explanation as well. If this guy has been beat up, robbed, and stripped naked on the side of the road, that obviously means there's a gang of ruffians around somewhere that's doing that. And they're obviously operating in this location, and maybe this guy is just a trap for whoever stops to help to come along and attack him here. So there's not just their religious aspect or their pride, but there's also self-preservation. I don't want to end up by that guy, so I'm just going to keep on going. Then, in Luke 10, 33, what a Samaritan, a sword enemy, helped the Jews that worship God on a different mountain in a different way.

As he journeyed, he came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. There's a picture here of the enemy. He comes, and he sees the hurt and the brokenness. And he doesn't just see the problem or feel the problem, but what does he do? He does something about it. And he went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine. So he goes and he soothes, but he also sanitizes. He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, said, "Take care of him. Whatever you spend, I will repay you when I come back." Notice what the Samaritan does. He gives up his resources, his oil and wine. Likely, his tunic as well, in binding of the wounds.

He takes off his overcoat and rips it into strips to bind this man's wounds. He gives up his ride and his transportation, setting him upon his animal. He gives up his cleanliness. Have you ever cleaned up a cut on somebody, especially a man who's been beaten almost to death? He's given up his cleanliness. He gives up his rest as he takes care of him through the night. He gives up his certainty about his future resources by saying, "This whatever you need, I will repay." This is the kind of love that makes us go, "I don't understand." Why would you give up your stuff, and your clothes, and your ride, and your money? You need a quote before you sign over this contract. You see, the love we're talking about is not the kind where we're attracted to someone,

or someone we like, or someone who is part of our family. It's a love that makes people forget in a weird way, and you go, "Why would they do that?" Why would they risk it? And it's this love that should bring us to wonder. This is the love of God that was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. That it's become clear and graspable. John says, "God is the one who initiates this love." Twice he'll say, "That God sent." And it's not that the love of God in our life is in any way deserved. Right? When you look through the pictures, the SBCA posts,

and you go, "Oh man, that's a cute puppy. I love that puppy." That's not what God is doing when He looks at us. It's not a love that's earned or deserved. If you zoom out to the larger passage you see in verses 7 and 8, that God is the source of this love, right? Not only does He give it, but He is the source. God is love. He's so exclusive of a source that you can't know love without knowing God. Not just a source, meaning that He has a lot of love, but love is so closely tied to God that you cannot separate it. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us. That God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him in this love. Not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins.

The great love initiated by God. I want you to see the depth of this love right now. Verse 9, God sent His Son. I don't know if you've ever loaned something that was valuable to you. I remember our first dog. Her name was Rigby. And I remember the first time we dropped her off at the groomers. We'd had her for a couple months, and we dropped her off to get her nails clipped and get cleaned. And we sat in the car going, "Oh man, I hope she's okay." And I thought for a minute that was traumatic, and then I had kids. And I remember the first time we left them with somebody other than us. And we're going, "We really trust." "I know they raised us, but can they raise the grandkids?" Because you're giving Him something that's valuable.

God sent His only Son. This picture of emotion and of value and of worth being given. Notice what the purpose is. That God sent His only Son into the world for what reason? So that we might live through Him. You say, "Great, there's a problem." Have you ever sang in the Christmas hymn, "I wonder as I wander"? Or, "I wonder as I wander out under the sky, how Jesus the Savior had come for to die"? Do you know what the next line is? For what? Poor, ornery people like you and like I. How can poor, ornery people be brought to God? And in verse 10, we see this, and this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us, and He has sent His Son, His only Son, for the propitiation for our sins.

That word propitiation, which seems like a big church word, means satisfying the wrath of God through a sacrificial offering. Or another way of saying it, maybe a little, it means paying the price for sin. And this word very clearly and very directly directs all of us to the wrath of God. Merry Christmas, tidings of comfort and joy. And not just the wrath of God, but that you and I deserve the wrath of God. Ephesians 2 says this, "Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath." And we need to understand a little bit of what we're talking about. The wrath of God is not because of any kind of sinfulness that's so common in our anger.

God is not like us where he gets grumpy and starts snapping at people. God's pride is not somehow wounded and he gets snippy. Or like me in Costco, God doesn't get angry because he's self-centered. I was at Costco Thursday night. I was on a mission. I had a limited time. The kids were being awesome. We came in the door. We got what we needed. We headed down the outside aisle, and there's these people three wide across the aisle just taking their good old time. And I'm sitting there, and I'm just getting madder and madder because I've got 45 minutes until I've got to be back to the church. The reason I'm mad, right, is because I'm being human. That's not what we're talking about when we talk about God's wrath. You see, the idea of love must also include anger at sin and injustice. Think about our love.

And what I've realized as I've got older, the things that make me truly angry, not just the stuff I complain about, which is a lot, or the dumb stuff I rant about, which is also a lot, but what makes me truly and deeply angry is the harming of people that I love. Somebody intentionally harms somebody that you love, and if you look at them, you're okay, whatever. I don't question whether you truly love that person. If the suffering and the hurt of those that you love does not make you angry, do you truly love? And what you find is that our sin has created untold amounts of brokenness and hurt. More than we probably know or can see. Just a small example, if you ever had somebody say something to you that hurts and just sticks in it,

and years later you can remember that phrase, you wake up and it still hurts. It's been 15 years and it still hurts, and we have been on both sides of that, not just hearing that, but saying that. And the herder doesn't think about the person they're hurting very often. But our sin and brokenness is not just against our fellow beings. It's direct rebellion against God. The one who created all things, and by right of his power and might and righteousness and justice and the fact that he has created is the one who is allowed to set the standard, and we don't like it, and it makes us uncomfortable to think about the wrath of God. But God is rightfully angry at sin. You see, the Lord is God, and we are not. And I think frequently our anger and uncomfortableness of the wrath of God is because deep down we know it is deserved.

But I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. In our clearer moments, we understand our brokenness and our sin is not simply against those who are around us, but we have sinned and rebelled against Almighty God. And into this wrath of God. Righteous wrath against sinners. Listen to this. In this love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us. And sent His Son to be in appreciation for us. But you take that brokenness and anger, and we feel that resistance. Listen to what He says. God did not pour out His wrath on us, but on His Son. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to His own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity or the punishment for us all. This is the love of God. And some of you have maybe only heard about God's anger at sin, but the good news of the Gospel is that poor, ornery people, broken by sin, that God sent His Son. In this, He loved us. Not that we loved Him, but He loved us, and He sent His Son to stand in our place. I think this is the love that we're talking about. She gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid into the manger because there was no room for Him in the inn. She will bear a son, and He will call His name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.

We call this to the place to be fulfilled, spoken by the prophet, the Holy Spirit. Our virgin will conceive and bear a son, and we'll call His name Emmanuel, which means God with us. And how does God with us save us? When they came to a place called gall, it was placed in the skull. They offered Him a drink mixed with gall, but when He tasted it, He was not drinking. When they crucified Him, they divided His garments among them by casting blonds. And when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished." He bowed His head to His feet. Our brokenness, our sin against others, our rebellion against God, paid for by the Son. Listening back around this week as I was writing this, and as I was thinking through and finishing things up,

these are the words in the background: "It is finished. He has done it. Let your weary heart rejoice. Our redemption is accomplished. Raise a shout with ragged voice, and go bravely into battle, knowing He has won the war. It is finished. Lift your head and weep no more." In this, the love of God has made manifest among us, that God sent His Holy Son into the world, so that we might live. Think about what's being said. The love of God was made manifest. It becomes the propitiation for our sins, the clear picture of God's love for His people. In this word "manifest," we have this picture of it being held onto. What I would say to you this morning in this Christmas season is hold on. Remember Jacob in his pride and his self-reliance, and where does that come to the end at?

In the middle of the night, in the middle of a scheme to not get killed with his wife and family, he wrestles with Jesus. And in all his brokenness, when we say, "I'm not going to let go, I'm going to bless you." Jacob holds on for dear life. Or maybe in your doubts and in your struggles, like Thomas. What does Jesus say? Thomas. My hands. He said, "Come touch and see. Grasp. Hold on in the midst of your doubts." Like the unnamed woman. We don't know who she was, but we know that she had been suffering for years. Who said, "If I can just grab a hold of his garment and grasp that." Like Mary in the garden, who clings to Jesus. And the passage is probably a little humorous where Jesus is in part saying, "Mary, you're not so tight."

Like, "I've got things that I have to finish." But she's not going to let go of Jesus for anything. And maybe the issue is not that you're not holding on, but maybe you don't think Jesus wants to be anywhere near you. There's an account in the Gospels where Jesus encounters a leper. Somebody who is an outcast, and who is far away from people, separated, contagious, and he comes to Jesus for healing. Do you know what Scripture says? It says that Jesus touched him. And I don't think that Jesus touched him like our kids touched the mealworms that were feeding their hamsters yesterday, where it's like, just kind of touch over here. I don't think that's what Jesus does to this leper who has no human contact. There's no human touch who hasn't been able to hold on to anybody.

You know what Jesus does? He holds on to him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace and for your love and for your mercy. And we thank you for your justice that stands for what is bright. And we thank you that you sent your Son to take the justice that we deserved so that we might be part of your favor. Help us to hold on in our struggles, in our doubts, in our sickness, in our joys. But remind us in all of this, that you are really holding on to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing a song we've been singing for a little bit, "I Set My Hope." And as we sing it, you probably remember, we set our hope on Jesus. But in this song, in each of the verses, there's a different picture of struggle and things that draw our hope away from Jesus. And so we want to sing that our hope is in Jesus regardless of our struggles. So let's go ahead.

Joy that runs still deep. When this life of trials test my faith, I set my hope on Jesus. When the questions come and doubts remain, I set my hope on Jesus. When the questions come and doubts remain, I set my hope on Jesus. For the deepest wounds the time won't heal. There's a joy that runs still deeper. There's a truth that's more than all I feel. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock, my only trust. Who set his heart upon me first? I set my hope on Jesus. Though I falter in this war with sin, I set my hope on Jesus. When I feel the fight and sink within, I set my hope on Jesus. Though the shame would drown me in its sea, and I drain the wave of justice. I will cast my life on Calvary. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My God, my only trust. Who set His heart upon me first.

I set my hope on Jesus. Though the world call me to leave, my Lord, I set my hope on Jesus. Though it offer all its vain rewards, I set my hope on Jesus. Though this heart of mine is prone to stray, Give me grace enough to finish, Till I worship on that final day. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. I run my only trust. You set His heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My wrath, my only trust. You set His heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus.

We're going to have great joy on Christmas Eve, and so we would like to invite you to join us. There will be no Wednesday evening Bible study on Christmas Day. Also, the following week on New Year's Day, we will resume our Wednesday evening Bible study in January. So Christmas Eve service this Tuesday. Worship next Sunday. We are thankful that you're here. I'm going to pray, and I'm going to read a little bit of a few more verses than we normally do a prayer by Paul before we sing a chorus of Go Tell It on the Mountain. Father, thank you for Jesus. We thank you for grace. We thank you for the love that has been poured out. Help us as we consider and as we have moved through this Advent season to see the hope and the joy and the peace and love that are found in your Son.

Both as we look back to his birth and as we look forward to his return. Give us the strength that we need. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Paul prays this for the church in Ephesians, the third chapter. "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of you, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints, all God's people, what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, and that you may be filled with the fullness of God.

Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. Go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.