Sunday, December 21
2025-12-21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9jSSeaEIw8

Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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. We thank you that you have fulfilled your promises and sent your Son for us, and it's in his name we pray. Amen. 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." And so, as we get ready, let's go ahead and read together. 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 one."

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. And we're going to begin by singing, "Angels we have heard on high." Maybe. Give us one minute.

"Angels we have heard on high." "Sweetly see your wings." "And the mountains hear me blind." "Echoing the joyous dreams." "Glory, in excelsis Deo." "Glory, in excelsis Deo." Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains belong? What the glad some time has been, which inspired your heavenly song? Lord, in excursis Deo. Lord, in excursis Deo. Lord, in excursis Deo. Come to birth the heresy, Him whose birth the angels sing. Come adore unbanded me, Christ the Lord, the newborn King. In exorcist Deo. In exorcist Deo. In exorcist Deo Noon, the cries of angels pray. Mary, Joseph, let your aid, while our hearts in love remains. In excelsis Deo. In excelsis Deo.

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." Gloria! Gloria! Sing We the Song of Emmanuel This the Christ who was long foretold Lo in the shade of Bethlehem Promise of dawn, now our eyes behold God most high in the manger lay Lift your voices and now proclaim Great and glorious, love has come to us Join now with the host of heaven

The holy to man you are King who came with no crown or throne Helpless he lay the invincible Maker of man, now Mary's son No one wisdom to save us all Shepherds, sages before you fall Grace and majesty What humility Come on, baby A glory Gloria Gloria Gloria, Gloria, Gloria.

Sing for the light overwhelms the dark. Glories shining for all to see. Hold on to our hearts. God has made a way. He will have praise. Tell the world his name is Jesus. Glories shining for all to see. Hold on, love, let the gospel be. God has made a way. He will have praise. Tell the world his name is Jesus. Glories. Glories. Glories. Amen. Amen. Amen.

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. Our communion time this morning is going to be at the end of our message. We're going to sing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come, O Come. Come Thou Lord of mine, good to Thy tribes on Sinai's high. In ancient times, let's give the Lord, in cloud and majesty and o'er. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, Thou rod of jealousy, free. I know from sinners tyranny, from death to hell thy people save, and give them victory over the grave. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. 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. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel! 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

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 generations after generations, but God's people were continually unfaithful to Him. And so I'm going to pray and confess our unfaithfulness, and then we'll read from, as God restores His people in Exodus 34 together. "Father in heaven, you 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 have maybe love with our words, but not with our whole hearts. You have kept your promises to us time and time again, and we have chased after our own desires and our own plans and our own projects to try to save and heal ourselves. So we come this morning confessing our brokenness and our sin. You are the one who forgives and the one who

saves. Help us this morning as we seek to fix our eyes on you. It would not just be for these moments, but that you would be the center of our hearts and our lives, not just now, but in all of our actions and thoughts and in our lives moving forward. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would, let's read together from God as he restores his people after the golden calf. So if you would, read with me. "The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast 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 this song, I would go, "Well, I mean, I think we all know what child this is. I don't really need to answer

that question, but if you listen, and one of the things that happens, I think, sometimes when we sing these Christmas songs or songs we're familiar with, we just, it's very easy to fall into that repetition, but there is in this song, as we sing it, there's somebody who's asking the question, "What is this child that Mary's holding? You know, why are there shepherds and angels?" And then you hear the good news of who this child truly is. So we're going to sing, "What child is this?" and then we'll move into our message this morning. What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's love his sleeve? Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping. This is Christ the King, whom shepherds call and angels sing. Christ is haste to bring Him, Lord, the faithful son of Mary.

While lies He in such needless state, where ox and angels are feeding, Christ is a fearful sinner, see the son of that world is bleeding. Jesus, Jesus Christ, the King, who shepherds on and angels sing. Haste away, Lord the heavenly Son of Mary.

So pray, Jesus, golden work, a pleasant King to own you. Forgive, all kings, salvation, praise, let loving hearts enthrall you. He is, Jesus Christ, the King of Shepherds, Lord, and angels sing. He is, he is to bring you all of the day, the Son of Mary. Let's pray. Father in heaven, be with us this morning. Help us to see the height and the width and the depth of your love that is beyond all of our understanding. We just ask that you would encourage us with hope, that you would encourage us with your peace, you would encourage us with your joy, and then this morning you would help us to see the goodness of your love. It's in your Son's name we pray. Amen. 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.

Sometimes they're ornaments, sometimes they're decorations, sometimes they've been in the family for years. 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 come near all of our breakable things. And sometimes it's not just sort of the fragility of glass ornaments or nativity sets, 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. We'll wrap something carefully and beautifully, and there's always that one guy on Christmas who grabs and goes, "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. 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.

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, and now Christmas is ruined. Sometimes we are filled with stress, sometimes of schedules, of expectations. 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. We have the struggle of comparison as we look at how everybody else celebrates. We go, "My celebration is joyful as theirs is." Often forgetting the parts that everybody shares publicly are always the best parts, not the hard days or the hard parts. And then in this, we reinforce all of this idea of sort of difficulty and stress and brokenness.

Every Christmas movie you watch, the premise is that there is some kind of struggle surrounding Christmas. The Christmas tree farm is going under. Your tree ornament shop is going under. The place where you had your Christmas fair. The big developer is coming, and he's going to put a McDonald's there. You come home, and you're from the big city, and your family cookie shop is about to go under. Thankfully, there's a rugged guy who comes in and helps you put it back on track. There's no snow at your Vermont ski resort. Maybe your family has run off to Paris and left you by yourself, and there's burglars attacking the house. Your nose is red, and all your co-workers are laughing and calling you names. And we have this idea, if I can fix it, all of my problems are solved.

And so the media of this time, and I love Christmas movies, but they show us how fragile Christmas is, but then they tell us the fix is really simple, and we can get it all put back together in just under two hours. And so here we come, and we hope for peace. But life isn't always peaceful. We hope for joy, and sometimes we're filled with sadness. We hope for lasting love, but our experience tells us that we often have to be very, very careful, because we know what it feels like when love disappears. We've experienced love that is extremely conditional, right? I'll stay as long as you meet my expectations. We experience that love that is often just excitement, kind of like a match where it lights, and it flares brightly, and then it just sort of goes out.

We experience love that sort of pulls away from us when we fail. It feels present one moment, and it's gone the next. And so even when we talk about God's love sometimes, because we've experienced all of this brokenness in our world, it's so easy to see God's love as fragile. What if I messed this up? What if I wander too far? God's patience runs out. And one of the wonderful things about Advent is that it speaks directly into that fear. And what we'll see this morning, and I wanted to give you sort of two headings to begin with. First of all is this, right? Biblical love is not fragile. And so over the past couple weeks, we have moved through the Israelites in the wilderness. We've been sort of walking with them as they walk in hope.

They're seeking peace. They're seeking joy. And the love that God expresses to them, and to us as well, is not fragile. 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, you know that that is game over. And it hits the ground, and it shatters, and so we're very careful. And so when you see a child running with that nice china mug that you got from your great-grandma, right, you're a little worried, because if it drops it, it's sort of game over. And what you find is that Israel in the wilderness, they've just been constantly dropping the fine china. Everywhere they go, if you haven't been with us, right, before they even out of Egypt, right, they're complaining. God parts the Red Sea miraculously, and they complain. He gives them water. They complain. He gives them food.

They complain. They don't like that food. They want different food. They stop to make a covenant with Sinai. They make a golden calf instead of a covenant with God. And what you find is in the midst of all of that brokenness on part of God's people, God still comes to them with this word of love. And in a few moments, we're going to take a look at that specific word. It's used like 250 times in the Old Testament. And the word is chesed, and it speaks not simply of love, but a deep and abiding covenantal love. A love that goes deeper and beyond what so many of us experience. And it's a big thing, and it leads us to the second thing I want us to see this morning, is that God's love is bigger than we expect.

So I was making some Christmas treats the other day. I'm mixing everything together, and it's always one of those things, I don't know what it is with at least the Christmas recipes I try to do. It's always like, "Well, you've got to do this while the sugar is boiling hot and will scald you immediately." And you've got to do it quick, because if it hardens up, the recipe is going to be ruined. And so there I am, and I'm stirring it. I've got to get it in the pan. And about halfway of one-handing this boiling pot of sugar and butter, and the other hand scooping it out, I realize the container I'm going into is not going to be big enough. And so there I am going, "Well, what do I do? I've got to try to find another container."

Thankfully, there was another one, like right there, just transitioned over and saved myself and the treats. What you find is that the love that we find, the covenantial love that we're going to look at this morning, is like that. It overflows all of our categories. It's too big for our small definitions. In Exodus 34, God's going to say of Himself, "Abounding in steadfast love." In fact, we just read that a moment ago. We're going to read it again in a minute. And what's interesting about this is that different translations of the Bible translate this word for covenantial love differently. 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." And it's translated differently because this love is so big that it fills up more than just one pan.

And this is not a battle of translations. My translation is better than your translation. 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 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. It's not simple excitement. It's not based on mood or circumstances. This is a covenant-keeping love. This is a love that stays because it is promised to stay. It remains faithful even when that faithfulness is not returned. That's why we see it translated differently. Not confusion. It's just overflowing from one end to another. But it's not a false picture of bigness. The other day I got a package from Amazon. I had ordered a part, and this box shows up, and it had to be close to the biggest box that Amazon got.

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. 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. 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, "Well, you know, this size box goes in here." But I opened it up, and the box, categorically, was mostly empty. When we come to the love of God, especially the covenant love of God, this is not a thing where we say, "Man, this is big," and then we open it up, and we go, "Well, where is it?" This is something that cannot be contained.

In fact, when Paul speaks about the love of God in the book of Ephesians, he says that we need supernatural power just to grasp how high and how wide and how deep the love of God truly is. 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 fragile and why it's not small. I love that God doesn't simply go, "Here's the definition," but as we'll read in a moment, he demonstrates his love toward us. So we're not going to start in Bethlehem. We're going to start back in the book of Exodus and talk about God's covenant love or his covenantal love. So most of us, I think, are probably far more familiar with contracts than we are with covenants. There are some similarities, right? Both a contract and a covenant. They have an element of agreement.

There's often responsibilities. There's often consequences. But what we'll see, as we talk about the difference between contract, which is in our mind, and covenant, 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. There's a different focus. In a contract, it's very much focused about getting versus giving. 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." So good contract negotiations minimize what you put out, but maximize the benefits that you get. Whereas a covenant, on the other hand, is not focused on getting. It's focused on giving. There's a different purpose at the heart of a covenant versus a contract. A contract is very much about performance and about protection.

These things are going to be done. We're going to guarantee this performance, and if it doesn't happen, then I am protected. If you don't do what you say you're going to do, then I will be properly compensated. And I have the tools to enable your compliance, so I'm protected if you fail. 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. When we say our marriage vows, we don't sign a marriage contract, we say marriage vows. 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.

Covenant love, not contract. There's a difference in the heart. The warmth versus the coldness. You see, one of the greatest differences we'll see is that a contract has a very specific end, whereas a covenant endures. Let's take a look at Exodus chapter 19 and get a view of the covenant that God shares with His people. "While Moses went up to God, the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel, "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself. "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, "and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation."

These are the words that you should speak to the people of Israel. And so God here, speaking in covenant terms, not contract terms, but covenant terms. First of all, what God does is He initiates the covenant. His people have just arrived at Mount Sinai. There aren't any laws, there aren't any commandments. There's been some instruction. But before all of that is laid out in the law of Moses, God speaks first. And look at what He says, "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians." The Israelites at this point were slaves. They had no power, they had no strength, they had no wealth, they had no self-determination. 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."

Here's the difference between a contract: "I brought you to myself." A contract says, "Here's what I get from you." And a covenant says, "God says, 'I'm bringing you to me.'" 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. Right? And so God initiates the covenant. What's interesting is that the part of a covenant is not to get things, but God brings you to Himself. The second thing I want us to see is that God is the one who ultimately defines the relationship. 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." Look at the language. We've glimpsed this a few moments ago in verse 4, "Bring you to Myself."

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. 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. 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." Not just tolerated, but joyfully, joyfully cherished. The kingdom of priests. You belong to God and represent Him to the world. 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."

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. 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. That's not covenantial love. Obedience matters so very much, and God's covenant calls them to faithfulness, but notice the order of faithfulness. "You yourselves have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings, and brought you to myself." 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.

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." 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. 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. 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. 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.

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. But what happens when this inevitably breaks? Here's where we move to God's steadfast love. Covenants, or contracts, instead, are fragile. 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. We are sometimes very fragile. Our faithfulness, our obedience, our consistency, but the good news is that God is not fragile. 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.

"The Lord descended in a cloud, and stood with Him there," that's Moses, "and proclaimed the name of the Lord." 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." 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. 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.

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. If this is a contract, it's all over. It is completely and totally done. If you remember a few weeks ago, we talked about this, that Moses then proceeds into the tent of meeting outside the camp. 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. And Moses says, "If you can't go with me or won't go with me, then I can't go on." And what you find is that God reveals himself. Listen to these verses. The first thing God does is he reveals who he is. The Lord descended in the clouds, stood there, and proclaimed his name.

So God's like, "This is who I am." And the text is very emphatic about making sure we understand. This is not Moses talking about God, but God speaking about himself in a way so that we will not be confused. This is not opinion. This is not somebody's theories about God. This is not how somebody feels God should be. But God himself is saying this, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." Right? That love in verse 6 that we just read is this covenant-keeping, chesed kind of love. But I want you to notice that this love does not minimize sin. It doesn't pretend that it doesn't matter. He goes on to say that he forgives iniquity and transgression, but by no means will clear the guilty.

Well, God does not minimize sin. He doesn't minimize it in any way. He doesn't pretend the golden calf doesn't matter. He says, "By no means he doesn't clear the guilty." Think about what we do in sin, and we want to reconcile. We brush it under the rug, but God acknowledges that there is guilt, and there is consequences for sin. 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. God is not indulgent. He's not permissive in what He is saying. He is faithful. You see, you and I know what it's like to fail after committing, to wander after promising faithfulness, to feel the guilt and the weight and assume that distance is coming.

And Exodus 34, as God speaks to a broken people who are guilty of unfaithfulness and idol worship, and the first words that He says is that He abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness. But this for us, I think, should raise a bigger question. If God's love is truly steadfast, if He really is both merciful and just, how can this covenant stand? And we begin to see this in covenant love demonstrated, right? Think about this. If He's merciful and just, how can you keep a covenant? If He keeps His covenant and deals justly with sin, how can we stand? Israel fails. We fail. What I love, think about what happens when some kind of failure happens. One of the things we tend to do is we lower the standard, right? You can't run a mile? Well, let's walk a mile, right?

You can't be here at 8:30, let's start at 9, right? So when failure happens, oftentimes our response is to lower the standard. The other thing we do is we just ignore it. Well, it's like it never happened. It's like it didn't happen. We'll ignore it. God, when He comes to the brokenness of our sin, neither lowers the standard, nor He ignores the brokenness that we have experienced. In fact, I want you to see what God does. A very familiar verse. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." I want you to understand that covenant love is deeper than a fear. It's more than just a positive outlook. That covenant love takes action. That God loved the world, and because of that love, He gave His Son.

He doesn't abandon His covenant. He doesn't lower the standard for righteousness. He doesn't pretend like it didn't exist, brushing it under the rug. He fulfills it. He sends His Son, Jesus, to do what we cannot do. Jesus begins His ministry. The testimony of John the baptizer walks into the wilderness, faces the same type of temptations that we do to satisfy our hearts with something other than what God gives. To advance in power and prestige, to put our troubles aside by seeking our own plans and our own authority. By making compromises that get us what we want. And Jesus walks into the wilderness that the Israelites walked in the wilderness that we live in often. And He is faithful where we are not. He is obedient where we are not. He is faithful where we are unfaithful. And He doesn't cancel the law. He doesn't brush it under the rug.

He doesn't lower the standard. He bears the cost of the failure. Remember we read in Exodus that oftentimes the cost of sin and unfaithfulness continues from generation to generation. This is all met at the cross. For God shows His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 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." It's at the cross that justice and mercy meet. The covenant love, revealed in Exodus, takes flesh at Bethlehem. 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.

And His love does not stop at the cross, but it holds us now. Because even now, right, we are prone to wander. 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. Seasons of doubt, distractedness and busyness and fear and misplaced trust. Our path is not always a straight line. 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?" And covenant love answers that fear, not with denial, not with indulgence saying, "Do whatever you want," but with faithfulness saying that Jesus Christ died in your place for your sins. He rose for your victory.

The weight of your sin has been taken away, and the grace of God is poured out upon your life. 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. This is why the angels announced good news of great joy that will be for all people. The same God who carries Israel through the wilderness, who renews His covenant with them in Exodus 34 after their failure, steps into this world and into this wilderness. And He doesn't renew a covenant. He fulfills it, and He makes a new one. 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. It does not unravel when life gets messy. God's steadfast love does not waver.

As we prepare to come to the table this morning, we don't leave this message behind, but we enter into it more deeply. The bread that we're going to eat in a moment reminds us that the bread of life was given for us. The faithful Son laid down His life for covenant breakers, not reluctantly, not at a distance, but willingly. In the cup that we'll drink, remember Jesus' words, "This cup is a new covenant in my blood." Remember the covenant we talked about earlier, the love revealed in the wilderness, fulfilled in Christ? This new covenant we find, we don't come to tablets of stone, but God's Word written on our hearts. 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.

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, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled word that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." All the way back to Genesis. Do you remember what the blood of Abel said? As Cain kills his brother Abel, and God says, "Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground." Abel's blood cries out for vengeance and for justice. The blood of Christ cries out for our forgiveness. That's the better word than the blood of Abel. We come to this table a moment not because we're strong, but because God is faithful.

We come to this new covenant because Christ has stood in our place and has saved us. So as we eat this bread and drink this cup in just a moment after prayer, we're reminded that God's steadfast love does not waver. So I invite you this morning as we pray to come to the table with us in repentance and celebration and in hope and joy to be nourished by the good news of the gospel. Father in heaven, may you bless this bread. Remind us that the bread of life has come down and has given himself for us. And then in that he meets our needs and the deepest desires and struggles and heartbreaks. He brings us to a place where we aren't hungry. So help this bread to satisfy the longing of our soul. Thank you that we come to a new covenant, one not with the blood of bulls and goats,

but with the precious blood of your son, a lamb without spot or blemish. Encourage us. Strengthen us in your love. Bless us in this moment together. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would, take the bread and let's remember Jesus together. If you would, let's partake of the new covenant in the blood of Christ.

One of the great things I always love, and we hear it probably every Sunday. But we are reminded in Scripture that as often as we eat this bread and we drink this cup, that this is not just something internal. It's something together. It's something for our soul, something for us together, but it's also a proclamation of where we stand. And so we're proclaiming Jesus. We've proclaimed him with the word, with the Lord's Supper. Let's proclaim him as we sing together. We're going to stand and sing "Go Tell It." This is our sort of out-the-door song. We're going to sing the whole thing. "Go Tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. 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.

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. Go Tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. 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. Go Tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. To our head, our holy manger, the humble Christ was born. In God's center, salvation, that blessed Christmas was born. 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. Jesus Christ is born.

Watch over us, that you would give us strength and peace. 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. 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." 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.

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. Over the hills and everywhere, we're going to heaven on the mountain, and that Jesus Christ is born. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you.