1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:29,980 Let's pray. 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:59,980 Let's pray. 3 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:29,980 Let's pray. 4 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:59,980 Good morning. We want to welcome you to our service this morning. We are excited to be able to worship together. And this Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Advent, in a few moments, we're going to light the, in addition to the candle that represents hope and peace and joy, we're going to light the candle that represents God's love, also known as the angel's candle. 5 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:29,980 As they come to announce the good news. And so when we hear the word love, I think especially at Christmas time, we sort of think of that warmth and nostalgia. The love that comes when Jesus arrives is far deeper than just simple sentiment. It is a covenant-keeping love. It's a love that pursues God's people when they wander. It's a love that forgives them when they fail, and a love that remains faithful even when we are not. 6 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:51,000 And so as the angels proclaim the good news, we are reminded that God does not abandon his promises, but that in Jesus Christ, he has kept them. God's covenant love has come near, not just in theory or feeling, but in flesh. So we're going to pray. We'll read some Scripture together, and then we'll sing. 7 00:08:51,000 --> 00:09:15,000 Father in heaven, we thank you that your love is not shaky. It doesn't ever wear out. You keep your covenant to your people generation after generation. We ask that you forgive us where we are forgetful or we seek to walk in our own way, and that you would direct our eyes back to you this morning. 8 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:34,000 So I ask that as we gather that you would quiet the noise of our hearts, whether it's busyness, whether it's worry, whether it's anxiety, that you would help us to know that in you there is hope, and there is peace, and there is joy, and there is love, and it is found in your Son. 9 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:43,000 Help us as we prepare to hear your word. Help us as we worship. Help us to rejoice in the good news announced by the angels. 10 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:49,000 We thank you that you have fulfilled your promises and sent your Son for us, and it's in his name we pray. Amen. 11 00:09:49,000 --> 00:10:01,000 If you would be standing, we're going to read from the 89th Psalm this morning, and then we will sing "Angels We Have Heard on High." 12 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:04,000 And so, as we get ready, let's go ahead and read together. 13 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:10,000 I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever. 14 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:16,000 With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. 15 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:22,000 For I said, "Steadfast love will be built up forever." 16 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:26,000 In the heavens, you will establish your faithfulness. 17 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:31,000 You have said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one." 18 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:35,000 I have sworn to David, my servant. 19 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:44,000 "I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations." 20 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,000 This is the word of the Lord. 21 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:54,000 And we're going to begin by singing, "Angels we have heard on high." 22 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:59,000 Maybe. 23 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,000 Give us one minute. 24 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:11,000 "Angels we have heard on high." 25 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:15,000 "Sweetly see your wings." 26 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:19,000 "And the mountains hear me blind." 27 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:23,000 "Echoing the joyous dreams." 28 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:34,000 "Glory, in excelsis Deo." 29 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:46,000 "Glory, in excelsis Deo." 30 00:11:46,000 --> 00:12:09,000 Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains belong? What the glad some time has been, which inspired your heavenly song? 31 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:32,000 Lord, in excursis Deo. Lord, in excursis Deo. Lord, in excursis Deo. 32 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:55,000 Come to birth the heresy, Him whose birth the angels sing. Come adore unbanded me, Christ the Lord, the newborn King. 33 00:12:55,000 --> 00:13:17,000 In exorcist Deo. In exorcist Deo. 34 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:27,000 In exorcist Deo 35 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:47,000 Noon, the cries of angels pray. Mary, Joseph, let your aid, while our hearts in love remains. 36 00:13:47,000 --> 00:14:02,000 In excelsis Deo. In excelsis Deo. 37 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:37,000 We're so thankful for the visual representation for the kids who take care of that. We're going to sing next, "Sing We the Song of Emmanuel," a song which traces the story of Advent through the promises and the faithfulness and the love that's ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ. So let's sing "Sing We the Song of Emmanuel." 38 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:49,000 Gloria! Gloria! 39 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:57,000 Sing We the Song of Emmanuel 40 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:01,000 This the Christ who was long foretold 41 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:05,000 Lo in the shade of Bethlehem 42 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:09,000 Promise of dawn, now our eyes behold 43 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,000 God most high in the manger lay 44 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:17,000 Lift your voices and now proclaim 45 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:21,000 Great and glorious, love has come to us 46 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:25,000 Join now with the host of heaven 47 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:37,000 The holy to man you are 48 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:41,000 King who came with no crown or throne 49 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:45,000 Helpless he lay the invincible 50 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:50,000 Maker of man, now Mary's son 51 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:54,000 No one wisdom to save us all 52 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:58,000 Shepherds, sages before you fall 53 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:00,000 Grace and majesty 54 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,000 What humility 55 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,000 Come on, baby 56 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:06,000 A glory 57 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:20,000 Gloria 58 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:26,000 Gloria 59 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:41,780 Gloria, Gloria, Gloria. 60 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:02,000 Sing for the light overwhelms the dark. 61 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:10,000 Glories shining for all to see. 62 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:13,000 Hold on to our hearts. 63 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:17,000 God has made a way. He will have praise. 64 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:22,000 Tell the world his name is Jesus. 65 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:26,000 Glories shining for all to see. 66 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:30,000 Hold on, love, let the gospel be. 67 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:32,000 God has made a way. 68 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,000 He will have praise. 69 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:38,000 Tell the world his name is Jesus. 70 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:44,000 Glories. 71 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:46,000 Glories. 72 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:50,000 Glories. 73 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:54,000 Amen. 74 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,000 Amen. 75 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,000 Amen. 76 00:30:52,000 --> 00:31:20,000 We're going to sing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Spend a minute following that, just a few moments in confession and assurance of what God has done for us, and then we'll sing again. 77 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:25,000 Our communion time this morning is going to be at the end of our message. 78 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,000 We're going to sing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. 79 00:31:50,000 --> 00:32:18,000 Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come. 80 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:27,780 Come Thou Lord of mine, good to Thy tribes on Sinai's high. 81 00:32:27,780 --> 00:32:40,460 In ancient times, let's give the Lord, in cloud and majesty and o'er. 82 00:32:40,460 --> 00:32:56,240 Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. 83 00:32:56,240 --> 00:33:02,240 O come, Thou rod of jealousy, free. 84 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:20,660 I know from sinners tyranny, from death to hell thy people save, and give them victory over the grave. 85 00:33:20,660 --> 00:33:32,060 Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. 86 00:33:32,060 --> 00:34:01,880 O come thou dayspring, come and sheep, our spirits by my navity. Dispense the unique clouds of night, and death of shadows prove to flight. 87 00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:15,000 Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel! 88 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:31,700 We've talked about how the season of Advent is not simply a looking back, but a looking forward. But as we look back to the first arrival of 89 00:34:31,700 --> 00:34:42,460 Jesus, and as we see God's people waiting for their Savior to come, we find that God had been faithful to His covenant for 90 00:34:42,460 --> 00:34:52,520 generations after generations, but God's people were continually unfaithful to Him. And so I'm going to pray and confess our 91 00:34:52,520 --> 00:35:01,520 unfaithfulness, and then we'll read from, as God restores His people in Exodus 34 together. "Father in heaven, you 92 00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:16,040 have loved us with a love that is so full of grace and mercy. It doesn't waver. It doesn't wear out. And we so often 93 00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:26,000 have maybe love with our words, but not with our whole hearts. You have kept your promises to us time and time 94 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:34,800 again, and we have chased after our own desires and our own plans and our own projects to try to save and heal 95 00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:45,560 ourselves. So we come this morning confessing our brokenness and our sin. You are the one who forgives and the one who 96 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:55,960 saves. Help us this morning as we seek to fix our eyes on you. It would not just be for these moments, but 97 00:35:55,960 --> 00:36:02,960 that you would be the center of our hearts and our lives, not just now, but in all of our actions and 98 00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:10,960 thoughts and in our lives moving forward. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would, let's read together from 99 00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:20,960 God as he restores his people after the golden calf. So if you would, read with me. "The Lord passed before 100 00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:31,960 him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast 101 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:42,960 love.'" This is the word of the Lord. We're going to sing next, "What child is this?" which as a kid when I would hear 102 00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:48,960 this song, I would go, "Well, I mean, I think we all know what child this is. I don't really need to answer 103 00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:53,960 that question, but if you listen, and one of the things that happens, I think, sometimes when we sing 104 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:59,960 these Christmas songs or songs we're familiar with, we just, it's very easy to fall into that repetition, 105 00:36:59,960 --> 00:37:06,960 but there is in this song, as we sing it, there's somebody who's asking the question, "What is this child that 106 00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:13,960 Mary's holding? You know, why are there shepherds and angels?" And then you hear the good news of who this child 107 00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:20,960 truly is. So we're going to sing, "What child is this?" and then we'll move into our message this morning. 108 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:35,960 What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's love his sleeve? 109 00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:46,960 Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping. 110 00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:55,960 This is Christ the King, whom shepherds call and angels sing. 111 00:37:56,960 --> 00:38:06,960 Christ is haste to bring Him, Lord, the faithful son of Mary. 112 00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:22,960 While lies He in such needless state, where ox and angels are feeding, 113 00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:33,960 Christ is a fearful sinner, see the son of that world is bleeding. 114 00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:43,960 Jesus, Jesus Christ, the King, who shepherds on and angels sing. 115 00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:54,960 Haste away, Lord the heavenly Son of Mary. 116 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:15,960 So pray, Jesus, golden work, a pleasant King to own you. 117 00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:26,960 Forgive, all kings, salvation, praise, let loving hearts enthrall you. 118 00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:36,960 He is, Jesus Christ, the King of Shepherds, Lord, and angels sing. 119 00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:52,960 He is, he is to bring you all of the day, the Son of Mary. 120 00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:55,960 Let's pray. Father in heaven, be with us this morning. 121 00:39:55,960 --> 00:40:04,960 Help us to see the height and the width and the depth of your love that is beyond all of our understanding. 122 00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:11,960 We just ask that you would encourage us with hope, that you would encourage us with your peace, 123 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:16,960 you would encourage us with your joy, and then this morning you would help us to see the goodness of your love. 124 00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:19,960 It's in your Son's name we pray. Amen. 125 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:31,960 There are often times in our houses and places that we go as we decorate for Christmas where there are a lot of really, really fragile things. 126 00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:37,960 Sometimes they're ornaments, sometimes they're decorations, sometimes they've been in the family for years. 127 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:47,960 Glass things that shouldn't be dropped, and then maybe we sort of think let's not let the kids or the dog with its tail whipping back and forth 128 00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:57,960 come near all of our breakable things. And sometimes it's not just sort of the fragility of glass ornaments or nativity sets, 129 00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:06,960 but every year we go to put up new lights, and you find that the lights that worked so well last year, they don't work as well this year. 130 00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:13,960 We'll wrap something carefully and beautifully, and there's always that one guy on Christmas who grabs and goes, 131 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:22,960 "What is this?" and just shakes it really, really hard, right? We have to be considerate and sort of think through the fact that things sometimes are fragile. 132 00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:33,960 And somewhere along the line, as we are surrounded by all these things that break so easily, and in our world it's very easy for us to feel that Christmas itself can also be a fragile time. 133 00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:42,960 But if I can't get to do this, or maybe we can't afford this, or maybe we don't have time for this, or we can't get there, or this isn't going to happen, 134 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:52,960 and now Christmas is ruined. Sometimes we are filled with stress, sometimes of schedules, of expectations. 135 00:41:52,960 --> 00:42:03,960 Sometimes you have this holiday, but you also have all the other parts of life that you have to get done, and it doesn't stop just because everybody is celebrating with joy. 136 00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:11,960 We have the struggle of comparison as we look at how everybody else celebrates. We go, "My celebration is joyful as theirs is." 137 00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:18,960 Often forgetting the parts that everybody shares publicly are always the best parts, not the hard days or the hard parts. 138 00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:25,960 And then in this, we reinforce all of this idea of sort of difficulty and stress and brokenness. 139 00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:32,960 Every Christmas movie you watch, the premise is that there is some kind of struggle surrounding Christmas. 140 00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:38,960 The Christmas tree farm is going under. Your tree ornament shop is going under. 141 00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:44,960 The place where you had your Christmas fair. The big developer is coming, and he's going to put a McDonald's there. 142 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:50,960 You come home, and you're from the big city, and your family cookie shop is about to go under. 143 00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:55,960 Thankfully, there's a rugged guy who comes in and helps you put it back on track. 144 00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:59,960 There's no snow at your Vermont ski resort. 145 00:42:59,960 --> 00:43:06,960 Maybe your family has run off to Paris and left you by yourself, and there's burglars attacking the house. 146 00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:14,960 Your nose is red, and all your co-workers are laughing and calling you names. 147 00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:18,960 And we have this idea, if I can fix it, all of my problems are solved. 148 00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:24,960 And so the media of this time, and I love Christmas movies, but they show us how fragile Christmas is, 149 00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:31,960 but then they tell us the fix is really simple, and we can get it all put back together in just under two hours. 150 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,960 And so here we come, and we hope for peace. 151 00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:41,960 But life isn't always peaceful. We hope for joy, and sometimes we're filled with sadness. 152 00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:47,960 We hope for lasting love, but our experience tells us that we often have to be very, very careful, 153 00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:50,960 because we know what it feels like when love disappears. 154 00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:54,960 We've experienced love that is extremely conditional, right? 155 00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:58,960 I'll stay as long as you meet my expectations. 156 00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:03,960 We experience that love that is often just excitement, kind of like a match where it lights, 157 00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:09,960 and it flares brightly, and then it just sort of goes out. 158 00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:14,960 We experience love that sort of pulls away from us when we fail. 159 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:18,960 It feels present one moment, and it's gone the next. 160 00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:25,960 And so even when we talk about God's love sometimes, because we've experienced all of this brokenness in our world, 161 00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:28,960 it's so easy to see God's love as fragile. 162 00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:32,960 What if I messed this up? What if I wander too far? 163 00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:36,960 God's patience runs out. 164 00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:42,960 And one of the wonderful things about Advent is that it speaks directly into that fear. 165 00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:47,960 And what we'll see this morning, and I wanted to give you sort of two headings to begin with. 166 00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:52,960 First of all is this, right? Biblical love is not fragile. 167 00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:58,960 And so over the past couple weeks, we have moved through the Israelites in the wilderness. 168 00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:01,960 We've been sort of walking with them as they walk in hope. 169 00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:04,960 They're seeking peace. They're seeking joy. 170 00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:10,960 And the love that God expresses to them, and to us as well, is not fragile. 171 00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:16,960 And we've all experienced that, where you drop something, and as soon as it slips out of your hand or slips off your counter, 172 00:45:16,960 --> 00:45:23,960 you know that that is game over. And it hits the ground, and it shatters, and so we're very careful. 173 00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:30,960 And so when you see a child running with that nice china mug that you got from your great-grandma, 174 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:37,960 right, you're a little worried, because if it drops it, it's sort of game over. 175 00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:41,960 And what you find is that Israel in the wilderness, they've just been constantly dropping the fine china. 176 00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:47,960 Everywhere they go, if you haven't been with us, right, before they even out of Egypt, right, they're complaining. 177 00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:52,960 God parts the Red Sea miraculously, and they complain. He gives them water. They complain. He gives them food. 178 00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:55,960 They complain. They don't like that food. They want different food. 179 00:45:55,960 --> 00:46:02,960 They stop to make a covenant with Sinai. They make a golden calf instead of a covenant with God. 180 00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:08,960 And what you find is in the midst of all of that brokenness on part of God's people, 181 00:46:08,960 --> 00:46:13,960 God still comes to them with this word of love. 182 00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:16,960 And in a few moments, we're going to take a look at that specific word. 183 00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:19,960 It's used like 250 times in the Old Testament. 184 00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:27,960 And the word is chesed, and it speaks not simply of love, but a deep and abiding covenantal love. 185 00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:32,960 A love that goes deeper and beyond what so many of us experience. 186 00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,960 And it's a big thing, and it leads us to the second thing I want us to see this morning, 187 00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:39,960 is that God's love is bigger than we expect. 188 00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:42,960 So I was making some Christmas treats the other day. 189 00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:46,960 I'm mixing everything together, and it's always one of those things, 190 00:46:46,960 --> 00:46:49,960 I don't know what it is with at least the Christmas recipes I try to do. 191 00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:55,960 It's always like, "Well, you've got to do this while the sugar is boiling hot and will scald you immediately." 192 00:46:55,960 --> 00:46:59,960 And you've got to do it quick, because if it hardens up, the recipe is going to be ruined. 193 00:46:59,960 --> 00:47:02,960 And so there I am, and I'm stirring it. I've got to get it in the pan. 194 00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:08,960 And about halfway of one-handing this boiling pot of sugar and butter, 195 00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:14,960 and the other hand scooping it out, I realize the container I'm going into is not going to be big enough. 196 00:47:14,960 --> 00:47:18,960 And so there I am going, "Well, what do I do? I've got to try to find another container." 197 00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:26,960 Thankfully, there was another one, like right there, just transitioned over and saved myself and the treats. 198 00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:33,960 What you find is that the love that we find, the covenantial love that we're going to look at this morning, 199 00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:43,960 is like that. It overflows all of our categories. It's too big for our small definitions. 200 00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:49,960 In Exodus 34, God's going to say of Himself, "Abounding in steadfast love." 201 00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:53,960 In fact, we just read that a moment ago. We're going to read it again in a minute. 202 00:47:53,960 --> 00:48:02,960 And what's interesting about this is that different translations of the Bible translate this word for covenantial love differently. 203 00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:10,960 Some will say "steadfast love." Some will say "faithful love." Some will say "loving kindness." Some will say "mercy." Some will say "goodness." Some will say "grace." 204 00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:19,960 And it's translated differently because this love is so big that it fills up more than just one pan. 205 00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:24,960 And this is not a battle of translations. My translation is better than your translation. 206 00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:35,960 It's a reminder that this word and the idea that God is giving to us, as He says, of His abounding in steadfast love is so big 207 00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:44,960 that it's hard to sort of simply sum up in just one word. And what's remarkable is this love is not a feeling. 208 00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:50,960 It's not simple excitement. It's not based on mood or circumstances. This is a covenant-keeping love. 209 00:48:50,960 --> 00:49:00,960 This is a love that stays because it is promised to stay. It remains faithful even when that faithfulness is not returned. 210 00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:09,960 That's why we see it translated differently. Not confusion. It's just overflowing from one end to another. 211 00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:14,960 But it's not a false picture of bigness. The other day I got a package from Amazon. 212 00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:20,960 I had ordered a part, and this box shows up, and it had to be close to the biggest box that Amazon got. 213 00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:26,960 It's like getting a Christmas present from your brother. You open up the big box, and then there's a smaller box inside of that and a smaller box. 214 00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:35,960 There's like three boxes, and the thing that was like 20 some odd inches wide, the actual part that I got was like three and a half inches long. 215 00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:41,960 And I don't know if it was the Amazon shipping algorithm, or some guy has it in one box, and the manufacturer puts it in another, and they're like, 216 00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:48,960 "Well, you know, this size box goes in here." But I opened it up, and the box, categorically, was mostly empty. 217 00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:54,960 When we come to the love of God, especially the covenant love of God, this is not a thing where we say, 218 00:49:54,960 --> 00:50:01,960 "Man, this is big," and then we open it up, and we go, "Well, where is it?" This is something that cannot be contained. 219 00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:06,960 In fact, when Paul speaks about the love of God in the book of Ephesians, he says that we need supernatural power 220 00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:15,960 just to grasp how high and how wide and how deep the love of God truly is. 221 00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:22,960 I want you to see that God's love is not fragile, it's not small. We'll take a look at why it's not 222 00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:29,960 fragile and why it's not small. I love that God doesn't simply go, "Here's the definition," 223 00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:34,960 but as we'll read in a moment, he demonstrates his love toward us. So we're not going to start in Bethlehem. 224 00:50:34,960 --> 00:50:42,960 We're going to start back in the book of Exodus and talk about God's covenant love or his covenantal love. 225 00:50:42,960 --> 00:50:49,960 So most of us, I think, are probably far more familiar with contracts than we are with covenants. 226 00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:55,960 There are some similarities, right? Both a contract and a covenant. They have an element of agreement. 227 00:50:55,960 --> 00:51:00,960 There's often responsibilities. There's often consequences. 228 00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:06,960 But what we'll see, as we talk about the difference between contract, which is in our mind, and covenant, 229 00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:16,960 which is what God is saying to us, is that there is a different focus, purpose, and the heart of a covenant versus a contract. 230 00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:23,960 There's a different focus. In a contract, it's very much focused about getting versus giving. 231 00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:30,960 A contract is, "Here is what I will do, and I want to do the least amount possible, but I want to get the most from you." 232 00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:39,960 So good contract negotiations minimize what you put out, but maximize the benefits that you get. 233 00:51:39,960 --> 00:51:45,960 Whereas a covenant, on the other hand, is not focused on getting. It's focused on giving. 234 00:51:45,960 --> 00:51:52,960 There's a different purpose at the heart of a covenant versus a contract. 235 00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:59,960 A contract is very much about performance and about protection. 236 00:51:59,960 --> 00:52:05,960 These things are going to be done. We're going to guarantee this performance, and if it doesn't happen, then I am protected. 237 00:52:05,960 --> 00:52:12,960 If you don't do what you say you're going to do, then I will be properly compensated. 238 00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:17,960 And I have the tools to enable your compliance, so I'm protected if you fail. 239 00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:31,960 A covenant is about relationship. Even though it's hard in our society, one of the best illustrations, maybe the most familiar, is that marriage should not be a contract, but rather a covenant. 240 00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:37,960 When we say our marriage vows, we don't sign a marriage contract, we say marriage vows. 241 00:52:37,960 --> 00:52:52,960 And we vow that in the good times, which are usually pretty easy and pretty fun, but also when the road gets rough and rocky, and when there's disagreement, and when there's sickness, and when there's struggles, and when we annoy each other. 242 00:52:52,960 --> 00:53:04,960 Covenant love, not contract. There's a difference in the heart. The warmth versus the coldness. 243 00:53:04,960 --> 00:53:11,960 You see, one of the greatest differences we'll see is that a contract has a very specific end, whereas a covenant endures. 244 00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:16,960 Let's take a look at Exodus chapter 19 and get a view of the covenant that God shares with His people. 245 00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:21,960 "While Moses went up to God, the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, 246 00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:25,960 "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel, 247 00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:32,960 "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself. 248 00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:37,960 "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, 249 00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:42,960 "you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples. For all the earth is mine, 250 00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:45,960 "and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." 251 00:53:45,960 --> 00:53:49,960 These are the words that you should speak to the people of Israel. 252 00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:54,960 And so God here, speaking in covenant terms, not contract terms, but covenant terms. 253 00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:59,960 First of all, what God does is He initiates the covenant. 254 00:53:59,960 --> 00:54:02,960 His people have just arrived at Mount Sinai. 255 00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:05,960 There aren't any laws, there aren't any commandments. 256 00:54:05,960 --> 00:54:08,960 There's been some instruction. 257 00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:13,960 But before all of that is laid out in the law of Moses, God speaks first. 258 00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:19,960 And look at what He says, "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians." 259 00:54:19,960 --> 00:54:23,960 The Israelites at this point were slaves. 260 00:54:23,960 --> 00:54:27,960 They had no power, they had no strength, they had no wealth, they had no self-determination. 261 00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:41,960 And God says this: "I came to you, I saved you, I picked you up on eagle's wings, and I brought you, not just brought you out." 262 00:54:41,960 --> 00:54:45,960 Here's the difference between a contract: "I brought you to myself." 263 00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:50,960 A contract says, "Here's what I get from you." 264 00:54:50,960 --> 00:54:53,960 And a covenant says, "God says, 'I'm bringing you to me.'" 265 00:54:53,960 --> 00:55:03,960 Right? Not when you were strong, when you were righteous, when you were good, but while you were slaves in Egypt, this is what I have done. 266 00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:09,960 Right? And so God initiates the covenant. 267 00:55:09,960 --> 00:55:19,960 What's interesting is that the part of a covenant is not to get things, but God brings you to Himself. 268 00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:26,960 The second thing I want us to see is that God is the one who ultimately defines the relationship. 269 00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:36,960 In verse 5, He says this, "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine." 270 00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:42,960 Look at the language. We've glimpsed this a few moments ago in verse 4, "Bring you to Myself." 271 00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:47,960 And I want to go to the end of this, and we'll come back and talk about the beginning in just a minute. Look at what He says. 272 00:55:47,960 --> 00:56:04,960 You shall be My treasured possession. Right? That in the covenantal relationship with God, you're not annoying, you're not too much, you're not too difficult, you're not too exhausting, but God sees you as His treasured possession. 273 00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:11,960 Think about those things that we hold on to, and that we treasure, and God looks at you and goes, "You're My treasured possession." 274 00:56:11,960 --> 00:56:22,960 Not just tolerated, but joyfully, joyfully cherished. The kingdom of priests. You belong to God and represent Him to the world. 275 00:56:22,960 --> 00:56:35,960 A holy nation, set apart because of who God is. And God says, "This is the identity of My people. Here, I brought you out. Here is what I will make you into." 276 00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:49,960 Covenants give an identity, right? Not just instruction, but identity. And right in between that initiation, where God initiates His covenant, and where He gives us the identity, you see that God's love leads us to obedience. 277 00:56:49,960 --> 00:57:02,960 Now, we are so good at getting this backwards. We tend to think that love is earned and deserved, and so we obey, or we please people in order to get them to give us some sort of love. 278 00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:16,960 That's not covenantial love. Obedience matters so very much, and God's covenant calls them to faithfulness, but notice the order of faithfulness. 279 00:57:16,960 --> 00:57:22,960 "You yourselves have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings, and brought you to myself." 280 00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:31,960 So there at the beginning, He says, "I brought you out. I initiated this." And at the end, He says, "You're going to be my treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine. 281 00:57:31,960 --> 00:57:42,960 You're going to be my priest. You're going to bring glory." In the middle, He says, "Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant." 282 00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:56,960 Notice how this flows. The obedience is a result of the therefore from the fact that God saves, God brings you out, and God brings you to Himself. 283 00:57:56,960 --> 00:58:08,960 That in this covenant that God is speaking to His people, that obedience is the fruit of the love of God rescuing, saving, and transforming you. 284 00:58:08,960 --> 00:58:25,960 And so many times we get that backwards. And if you get this backwards, if you reverse verse 5 and verse 4, you end up so uncertain, so fearful, so angry, and so bitter. 285 00:58:25,960 --> 00:58:34,960 And this matters in part because when the angels announce the good news of great joy that will be for all people, they're announcing that God's coming to fulfill His covenant. 286 00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:49,960 And so here is this wonderful picture of not a contract, but a covenant of this great God who initiates with His people, transforms them, they respond in love, which leads to obedience, and He treasures them. 287 00:58:49,960 --> 00:59:03,960 But what happens when this inevitably breaks? Here's where we move to God's steadfast love. Covenants, or contracts, instead, are fragile. 288 00:59:03,960 --> 00:59:14,960 A large part of a contract, if we write it up, is about what happens if it's broken. The covenant that God makes with His people is different. 289 00:59:14,960 --> 00:59:22,960 We are sometimes very fragile. Our faithfulness, our obedience, our consistency, but the good news is that God is not fragile. 290 00:59:22,960 --> 00:59:32,960 Let me read to you a section here from Exodus 34, give you a little bit of background, and talk just a little bit about how you see God's enduring covenant with His people. 291 00:59:32,960 --> 00:59:37,960 "The Lord descended in a cloud, and stood with Him there," that's Moses, "and proclaimed the name of the Lord." 292 00:59:37,960 --> 01:00:03,960 The Lord is saying, "The Lord, the Lord, a good God, the Lord, a merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping the steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who by no means will clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation." 293 01:00:03,960 --> 01:00:18,960 These words are spoken by God in a dark moment of failure in Israel's history. You have to remember what has just happened. God has redeemed Israel, brought them out, brought them through the wilderness to Sinai. 294 01:00:18,960 --> 01:00:30,960 The tablets of the covenant don't even make it off the mountain. We would say the ink isn't even dry, and there are the people worshiping a golden calf. 295 01:00:30,960 --> 01:00:42,960 Moses, coming down with God's covenant, as soon as he came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 296 01:00:42,960 --> 01:00:49,960 If this is a contract, it's all over. It is completely and totally done. 297 01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:56,960 If you remember a few weeks ago, we talked about this, that Moses then proceeds into the tent of meeting outside the camp. 298 01:00:56,960 --> 01:01:04,960 We learned that God's peace is not just the absence of all of these struggles and differences, but it's the presence of God with us. 299 01:01:04,960 --> 01:01:12,960 And Moses says, "If you can't go with me or won't go with me, then I can't go on." 300 01:01:12,960 --> 01:01:16,960 And what you find is that God reveals himself. Listen to these verses. 301 01:01:16,960 --> 01:01:22,960 The first thing God does is he reveals who he is. The Lord descended in the clouds, stood there, and proclaimed his name. 302 01:01:22,960 --> 01:01:28,960 So God's like, "This is who I am." And the text is very emphatic about making sure we understand. 303 01:01:28,960 --> 01:01:35,960 This is not Moses talking about God, but God speaking about himself in a way so that we will not be confused. 304 01:01:35,960 --> 01:01:41,960 This is not opinion. This is not somebody's theories about God. This is not how somebody feels God should be. 305 01:01:41,960 --> 01:01:48,960 But God himself is saying this, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful, gracious, slow to anger, 306 01:01:48,960 --> 01:02:00,960 abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." Right? That love in verse 6 that we just read is this covenant-keeping, chesed kind of love. 307 01:02:00,960 --> 01:02:08,960 But I want you to notice that this love does not minimize sin. It doesn't pretend that it doesn't matter. 308 01:02:08,960 --> 01:02:17,960 He goes on to say that he forgives iniquity and transgression, but by no means will clear the guilty. 309 01:02:17,960 --> 01:02:29,960 Well, God does not minimize sin. He doesn't minimize it in any way. He doesn't pretend the golden calf doesn't matter. 310 01:02:29,960 --> 01:02:34,960 He says, "By no means he doesn't clear the guilty." Think about what we do in sin, and we want to reconcile. 311 01:02:34,960 --> 01:02:42,960 We brush it under the rug, but God acknowledges that there is guilt, and there is consequences for sin. 312 01:02:42,960 --> 01:02:56,960 And here is the good news, right? And in the midst of this, God confirms who He is, that He is merciful, that He is gracious, that He abounds in steadfast love. 313 01:02:56,960 --> 01:03:03,960 God is not indulgent. He's not permissive in what He is saying. He is faithful. 314 01:03:03,960 --> 01:03:10,960 You see, you and I know what it's like to fail after committing, to wander after promising faithfulness, 315 01:03:10,960 --> 01:03:14,960 to feel the guilt and the weight and assume that distance is coming. 316 01:03:14,960 --> 01:03:23,960 And Exodus 34, as God speaks to a broken people who are guilty of unfaithfulness and idol worship, 317 01:03:23,960 --> 01:03:30,960 and the first words that He says is that He abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness. 318 01:03:30,960 --> 01:03:38,960 But this for us, I think, should raise a bigger question. If God's love is truly steadfast, if He really is both 319 01:03:38,960 --> 01:03:43,960 merciful and just, how can this covenant stand? 320 01:03:43,960 --> 01:03:48,960 And we begin to see this in covenant love demonstrated, right? 321 01:03:48,960 --> 01:03:54,960 Think about this. If He's merciful and just, how can you keep a covenant? 322 01:03:54,960 --> 01:03:59,960 If He keeps His covenant and deals justly with sin, how can we stand? 323 01:03:59,960 --> 01:04:02,960 Israel fails. We fail. 324 01:04:02,960 --> 01:04:05,960 What I love, think about what happens when some kind of failure happens. 325 01:04:05,960 --> 01:04:08,960 One of the things we tend to do is we lower the standard, right? 326 01:04:08,960 --> 01:04:11,960 You can't run a mile? Well, let's walk a mile, right? 327 01:04:11,960 --> 01:04:14,960 You can't be here at 8:30, let's start at 9, right? 328 01:04:14,960 --> 01:04:20,960 So when failure happens, oftentimes our response is to lower the standard. 329 01:04:20,960 --> 01:04:22,960 The other thing we do is we just ignore it. 330 01:04:22,960 --> 01:04:25,960 Well, it's like it never happened. It's like it didn't happen. 331 01:04:25,960 --> 01:04:33,960 We'll ignore it. God, when He comes to the brokenness of our sin, neither lowers the standard, nor He ignores the brokenness 332 01:04:33,960 --> 01:04:38,960 that we have experienced. In fact, I want you to see what God does. 333 01:04:38,960 --> 01:04:41,960 A very familiar verse. 334 01:04:41,960 --> 01:04:48,960 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." 335 01:04:48,960 --> 01:04:52,960 I want you to understand that covenant love is deeper than a fear. 336 01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:56,960 It's more than just a positive outlook. That covenant love takes action. 337 01:04:56,960 --> 01:05:02,960 That God loved the world, and because of that love, He gave His Son. 338 01:05:02,960 --> 01:05:08,960 He doesn't abandon His covenant. He doesn't lower the standard for righteousness. 339 01:05:08,960 --> 01:05:13,960 He doesn't pretend like it didn't exist, brushing it under the rug. He fulfills it. 340 01:05:13,960 --> 01:05:17,960 He sends His Son, Jesus, to do what we cannot do. 341 01:05:17,960 --> 01:05:23,960 Jesus begins His ministry. The testimony of John the baptizer walks into the wilderness, 342 01:05:23,960 --> 01:05:31,960 faces the same type of temptations that we do to satisfy our hearts with something other than what God gives. 343 01:05:31,960 --> 01:05:39,960 To advance in power and prestige, to put our troubles aside by seeking our own plans and our own authority. 344 01:05:39,960 --> 01:05:43,960 By making compromises that get us what we want. 345 01:05:43,960 --> 01:05:49,960 And Jesus walks into the wilderness that the Israelites walked in the wilderness that we live in often. 346 01:05:49,960 --> 01:05:54,960 And He is faithful where we are not. He is obedient where we are not. 347 01:05:54,960 --> 01:06:00,960 He is faithful where we are unfaithful. And He doesn't cancel the law. He doesn't brush it under the rug. 348 01:06:00,960 --> 01:06:06,960 He doesn't lower the standard. He bears the cost of the failure. 349 01:06:06,960 --> 01:06:17,960 Remember we read in Exodus that oftentimes the cost of sin and unfaithfulness continues from generation to generation. 350 01:06:17,960 --> 01:06:21,960 This is all met at the cross. 351 01:06:21,960 --> 01:06:29,960 For God shows His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 352 01:06:29,960 --> 01:06:43,960 And because of that, we hear these words in verse 17, "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him." 353 01:06:43,960 --> 01:06:54,960 It's at the cross that justice and mercy meet. The covenant love, revealed in Exodus, takes flesh at Bethlehem. 354 01:06:54,960 --> 01:07:09,960 Covenant love holds on to us, and I hope you've seen it, that God's love is not fragile, it's not small, does not find its hope in us, it's fulfilled in Christ. 355 01:07:09,960 --> 01:07:18,960 And His love does not stop at the cross, but it holds us now. Because even now, right, we are prone to wander. 356 01:07:18,960 --> 01:07:28,960 Sometimes we sing that, right? Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, now take it and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. 357 01:07:28,960 --> 01:07:37,960 Seasons of doubt, distractedness and busyness and fear and misplaced trust. Our path is not always a straight line. 358 01:07:37,960 --> 01:07:45,960 And sometimes we circle the same struggle again and again, and we have this fear, "What if God gets tired of me? What if I've gone too far?" 359 01:07:45,960 --> 01:07:51,960 And covenant love answers that fear, not with denial, not with indulgence saying, "Do whatever you want," 360 01:07:51,960 --> 01:07:58,960 but with faithfulness saying that Jesus Christ died in your place for your sins. He rose for your victory. 361 01:07:58,960 --> 01:08:04,960 The weight of your sin has been taken away, and the grace of God is poured out upon your life. 362 01:08:04,960 --> 01:08:12,960 2 Corinthians says that it took Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 363 01:08:12,960 --> 01:08:17,960 This is why the angels announced good news of great joy that will be for all people. 364 01:08:17,960 --> 01:08:27,960 The same God who carries Israel through the wilderness, who renews His covenant with them in Exodus 34 after their failure, 365 01:08:27,960 --> 01:08:38,960 steps into this world and into this wilderness. And He doesn't renew a covenant. He fulfills it, and He makes a new one. 366 01:08:38,960 --> 01:08:48,960 And this God holds His people fast. A love that does not flicker with our circumstances. It doesn't pull away when faith feels thin. 367 01:08:48,960 --> 01:08:55,960 It does not unravel when life gets messy. God's steadfast love does not waver. 368 01:08:55,960 --> 01:09:03,960 As we prepare to come to the table this morning, we don't leave this message behind, but we enter into it more deeply. 369 01:09:03,960 --> 01:09:10,960 The bread that we're going to eat in a moment reminds us that the bread of life was given for us. 370 01:09:10,960 --> 01:09:17,960 The faithful Son laid down His life for covenant breakers, not reluctantly, not at a distance, but willingly. 371 01:09:17,960 --> 01:09:25,960 In the cup that we'll drink, remember Jesus' words, "This cup is a new covenant in my blood." 372 01:09:25,960 --> 01:09:32,960 Remember the covenant we talked about earlier, the love revealed in the wilderness, fulfilled in Christ? 373 01:09:32,960 --> 01:09:38,960 This new covenant we find, we don't come to tablets of stone, but God's Word written on our hearts. 374 01:09:38,960 --> 01:09:46,960 We don't, as the writer of Hebrews says, come to a mountain that cannot be touched, with the glory of God so great that the people beg not to go near. 375 01:09:46,960 --> 01:09:56,960 But we come, as Hebrews says, to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels and festal gathering, 376 01:09:56,960 --> 01:10:01,960 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, 377 01:10:01,960 --> 01:10:06,960 and the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, 378 01:10:06,960 --> 01:10:11,960 and to the sprinkled word that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." 379 01:10:11,960 --> 01:10:15,960 All the way back to Genesis. Do you remember what the blood of Abel said? 380 01:10:15,960 --> 01:10:21,960 As Cain kills his brother Abel, and God says, "Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground." 381 01:10:21,960 --> 01:10:30,960 Abel's blood cries out for vengeance and for justice. The blood of Christ cries out for our forgiveness. 382 01:10:30,960 --> 01:10:33,960 That's the better word than the blood of Abel. 383 01:10:33,960 --> 01:10:39,960 We come to this table a moment not because we're strong, but because God is faithful. 384 01:10:39,960 --> 01:10:46,960 We come to this new covenant because Christ has stood in our place and has saved us. 385 01:10:46,960 --> 01:10:49,960 So as we eat this bread and drink this cup in just a moment after prayer, 386 01:10:49,960 --> 01:10:54,960 we're reminded that God's steadfast love does not waver. 387 01:10:54,960 --> 01:10:59,960 So I invite you this morning as we pray to come to the table with us 388 01:10:59,960 --> 01:11:05,960 in repentance and celebration and in hope and joy to be nourished by the good news of the gospel. 389 01:11:05,960 --> 01:11:10,960 Father in heaven, may you bless this bread. 390 01:11:10,960 --> 01:11:17,960 Remind us that the bread of life has come down and has given himself for us. 391 01:11:17,960 --> 01:11:24,960 And then in that he meets our needs and the deepest desires and struggles and heartbreaks. 392 01:11:24,960 --> 01:11:29,960 He brings us to a place where we aren't hungry. 393 01:11:29,960 --> 01:11:34,960 So help this bread to satisfy the longing of our soul. 394 01:11:34,960 --> 01:11:39,960 Thank you that we come to a new covenant, one not with the blood of bulls and goats, 395 01:11:39,960 --> 01:11:46,960 but with the precious blood of your son, a lamb without spot or blemish. 396 01:11:46,960 --> 01:11:51,960 Encourage us. Strengthen us in your love. Bless us in this moment together. 397 01:11:51,960 --> 01:11:54,960 It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 398 01:11:54,960 --> 01:12:00,960 If you would, take the bread and let's remember Jesus together. 399 01:12:00,960 --> 01:12:09,960 If you would, let's partake of the new covenant in the blood of Christ. 400 01:12:14,960 --> 01:12:20,960 One of the great things I always love, and we hear it probably every Sunday. 401 01:12:20,960 --> 01:12:26,960 But we are reminded in Scripture that as often as we eat this bread and we drink this cup, 402 01:12:26,960 --> 01:12:31,960 that this is not just something internal. It's something together. 403 01:12:31,960 --> 01:12:37,960 It's something for our soul, something for us together, but it's also a proclamation of where we stand. 404 01:12:37,960 --> 01:12:42,960 And so we're proclaiming Jesus. We've proclaimed him with the word, with the Lord's Supper. 405 01:12:42,960 --> 01:12:47,960 Let's proclaim him as we sing together. We're going to stand and sing "Go Tell It." 406 01:12:47,960 --> 01:12:52,960 This is our sort of out-the-door song. We're going to sing the whole thing. 407 01:12:52,960 --> 01:13:15,960 "Go Tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. 408 01:13:15,960 --> 01:13:38,960 While shepherds kept their watching, o'er silent flocks by night. Deep over throughout the heavens, there shone a holy light. Go Tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go Tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. 409 01:13:38,960 --> 01:13:45,960 Go Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. The shepherds feared and trampled with love above the earth. Bring out the angel chorus, let hear the Savior's murder. 410 01:13:45,960 --> 01:13:51,960 Go Tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. 411 01:13:51,960 --> 01:14:06,960 The shepherds feared and trampled with love above the earth. Bring out the angel chorus, let hear the Savior's murder. 412 01:14:06,960 --> 01:14:23,960 Go Tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. 413 01:14:23,960 --> 01:14:40,960 To our head, our holy manger, the humble Christ was born. In God's center, salvation, that blessed Christmas was born. 414 01:14:40,960 --> 01:14:52,960 Go Tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go Tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. 415 01:14:52,960 --> 01:14:55,960 Jesus Christ is born. 416 01:15:22,960 --> 01:15:47,740 Watch over us, that you would give us strength and peace. 417 01:15:48,160 --> 01:16:05,140 Help us as we celebrate, in all the different ways over the next several days, that we would see your goodness, your mercy, your grace, your love, your peace that has been poured out upon us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 418 01:16:05,140 --> 01:16:15,220 Well, Paul writes this in Philippians 1:6, "I am sure of this, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus." 419 01:16:15,220 --> 01:16:38,280 So I would just remind you of this, that we can go in peace, confident in this, that the God who began a good work in us, he does not abandon his work. The one who kept his covenant, who sent his son, he will safely bring you home. He will complete you, he will restore you, he will secure you in Christ. 420 01:16:38,280 --> 01:16:56,280 And so as our prayer and blessing, may the love of God the Father, the faithfulness of Christ Jesus the Son, and the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit guard you until the day of his appearing. We're going to sing the chorus of "Go Tell It on the Mountain," and then we'll be dismissed. 421 01:17:08,280 --> 01:17:20,280 Over the hills and everywhere, we're going to heaven on the mountain, and that Jesus Christ is born. 422 01:17:38,280 --> 01:18:08,260 God bless you. 423 01:18:08,280 --> 01:18:38,260 God bless you. 424 01:18:38,280 --> 01:19:08,260 God bless you. 425 01:20:08,280 --> 01:20:38,260 Thank you.