From The Days Of Eternity

So this week is the second week of Advent, and I'm going to be preaching from one of the parts of the Advent liturgy that we read earlier. I'm going to be preaching from Micah 5, verse 2, where it talks about Bethlehem. But before we come to that, I want to talk a little bit about slogans, or a little bit about what makes for a good slogan. And you understand... if we're going to talk about slogans, that they ought to be appealing to us. It ought to be something that catches our interest. It's something that's short. It's something that's sweet. And it's something that we go, oh, well, there it is. I want some of that. You know, marketers understand they've only got so long to hook you. And so I want you to know something about slogans from the very beginning. They have to be vague. To be good, they have to be vague.

Because if they're too specific, what they start doing is they start excluding people who don't want that particular thing. And so I want you to consider the two prevailing slogans of our last two presidential elections. So when President Obama was running for office, what was his slogan? What was the thing you knew? What was it? Hope and change. Okay, so... If I could take that slogan away from, if I could disassociate it from President Obama and I was able to say, would you like hope and would you like to see change? Is there anyone in this room that would say no? Of course not. Now, does that mean that we all hope the same thing and want the same change? Oh, no. No, no, no. Not a chance. Now, the same is true of President Obama.

President-elect Donald Trump's slogan. What's his slogan? Make America great again. And so you see, that's a counter to the previous slogan. The previous slogan said, we want to change things from how they are. Hope and change for the future progress. And so that little word at the end of Trump's slogan, again, signals to us there was something in the past that we want to return to. Now, What is it in the past that we want to return to? Well, that's up for discussion. What do you want to return to? Well, it may well be different than what I want to return to or what our neighbors want to return to. But it's a really good slogan because it allows all of us to say, yeah, I want America to be great again. And this is what I think that means. And it doesn't matter if what...

It doesn't matter if the way I would define that is different than the way you would define that or the way your neighbor would define it or your boss or whoever. The goal of slogans is to rally people, to join people together, and to let them fill in the gap, the blanks. He represents me. He's saying he's about what I'm about. That's how slogans work. And so if you think about the election, there's a lot for us to learn about it, and it actually does bear on the way we think. The way we think about our election in this past election is going to lead into our text. And so if you're a student of politics and you understand the electoral college and how all of that works, you know there's a big hullabaloo about the electoral college and whether it's a good thing or whether it's a bad thing or whether we should keep it or not and whether it's possible to get rid of it. And you can just read forever and ever about this sort of thing.

If you look at a map of our country and you look at how our nation votes, what you find is that, generally speaking, places with high concentrations of people are blue, they're Democratic, and places that are more rural or more affluent are Republican, they're red. And so if you look at the map, the map is overwhelmingly red, right? And there's these little pockets of blue. But there's a lot of people in those little blue areas. And so when you look at numbers of votes, it's fairly similar. It's close when you balance it all out. And so one of the things that you read about this previous election is what was Donald Trump able to do? He was able to motivate.

The Midwest. The places that were kind of like, you know, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin. North Carolina is not the Midwest. Florida. What's that? He's a student of these sorts of things. But there's been, if you watch how the different candidates were campaigning. They were campaigning thinking, where can we win? Where can we win votes? And the rhetoric concerning the Midwest is that the Midwest is slow, backwards, archaic, insignificant, unnecessary. And so the Democrats' plan is they don't come to Indiana and campaign because they're not going to win Indiana. And Trump doesn't go to Illinois because... he's not going to win Illinois because Chicago. And so everyone goes in, you know, you watch the polls and, you know, the day before the election, Trump's got like half a percentage chance, you know, point of, there's no chance he's going to win. And you just sort of watch it change over the next 24 hours. And then we're left, well, he won. And how do you explain this? And you look at the swing states and you find that all of these places that were seemingly

locked up for the Democrats, all of a sudden got switched. That all of these people who were there, who were insignificant and nobodies and were not going to matter, mattered. They mattered in Iowa and they mattered in Ohio and Florida and Michigan and Wisconsin and all these places. All of these people that had essentially been forsaken, they mattered. Because they got behind something and they said, well, this is what we want. We want to make America great again. And so we're going to vote for Donald Trump. Or we're going to vote against Hillary. Whatever their rationale was, we have the results of our election. Now, I want you to think for a minute about Trump's slogan, Make America Great Again. And I want you to think, what does that mean to a Christian? What does it mean for America to be made great again? It's a return to what?

In your mind, what's it a return to? Okay, so it's a return to our laws reflecting more closely the law of God. Okay. Isaac? Similar. Okay. Yeah, you guys are both getting at it. Suffice it to say, to a Christian, when we think of making America great again, what we think is making America returning to its Christian heritage. That's what making America great would be, is America returning to its Christian heritage. Now, let me ask you this. What happens if America doesn't return to its Christian heritage? What's the implication for you and for me? Well, the implication is hardship and difficulty and persecution. And we're all acutely aware of that. We're aware of our liberties or our rights or our freedoms coming under...

question and being taken away from us. And so I want you to bear in your mind from the very beginning that we have in our minds, we want America to be great again so that we can maintain life or have life better than it is currently. And there is some selfishness in that. Because if we were to think, okay, well, what are the implications of me having comfort and ease now? What are the implications for my children? Or my grandchildren? What will these decisions now mean for them? Do I want what's good for them? Am I willing to endure hardship for what's good for them? And I want to know, what do you think would be good for your children? Do you think that America has to return to your conception of what was good for it to be a place for your children to be formed?

in Christ and be fruitful members of his kingdom? Does it have to become like it was? Do you want it to become like it was? Yes. And so there's this tension. It's like, yes, it could be good for the future and the progress of God's kingdom, not America, but God's kingdom. It can be difficult to live here. It could be comfortable to live here. But if given the choice, all of us would say, we want it to get better. We want it to become great again. Because great things are good things. Great things are comfortable things. Great things are God's things. He made our nation great once. And everything's going to fall apart if it gets difficult for us here. And I want you to see this morning as we come to our text that God doesn't work that way.

He doesn't share those priorities with us, that things have to be easy, they have to be comfortable, they have to be without difficulty or persecution or burdens or sufferings or trials for his people to be good. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word from Micah chapter 5, verse 2. This is the word of the Lord and it is eternally true. But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah from you. One will go forth for me to be a ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Now, the reason I've taken so long to introduce this and to get to our text is because as soon as we enter our text this morning, we see that Bethlehem is mentioned. And what was Bethlehem? Well, Bethlehem was the city of David. It's the place where David was born.

Bethlehem was a small, insignificant town. And how do we know that Bethlehem was a small, insignificant town? Well, we know because it says that it was too little to be among the clans of Judah. Well, what's that mean? Well, what that means is that when the land of Canaan was apportioned out to the people of God to inhabit, the way that their armies worked was, you know, they measured the size of a city by how many men they could muster for the army. And to be considered a clan or a province meant that from that town and its villages, you could muster a thousand men, able-bodied men to fight. And what we're learning about Bethlehem is that the town with its villages couldn't muster a thousand men. It was a small place. And being a small place, it becomes an insignificant place. It also becomes a vulnerable place. And it's despised.

Similar to if you think through the prevailing opinion of the Midwest or of North Dakota or Oklahoma, these are insignificant places. There's just no people there. That place doesn't matter. Nothing good can come out of there. They are unimportant because there's no people there. They have no power. That's Bethlehem. Too little to be named among the clans of Judah. You don't have enough people to even offer 1,000 soldiers for battle should the need arise. You're insignificant. And so it's overlooked. Now, we also know about Bethlehem, that Bethlehem is the place where David was from, King David. And when Samuel sent into Bethlehem to find the king that was to come, to replace Saul, that the kingdom was going to be removed from Saul's and it was going to be placed on another man's household, Samuel is sent to Bethlehem, this little, small, insignificant place. And he comes to a shepherd's house. He comes to Jesse's house. And so he goes to the farmer's house. Now, if you were going to pick the next king of the land, wouldn't you go to Trump Tower? Wouldn't you go to Manhattan looking for this man?

Experience, wealth, power, knowledge. No, not here. The next king of Israel was to come from Bethlehem. He was to come from Spencer, Indiana. Here he comes from Crawfordsville. How could anything good come from a place like that? And so Samuel goes to Bethlehem and he goes to Jesse's house. And Jesse's a farmer. He keeps sheep. And so Jesse's got a bunch of sons. And he, in process, brings them all before Samuel. And Samuel says, no, it's not him. Nope, not him. Nope, not him. Nope. And he's thinking, well, the oldest, the most mature, the most competent. And they all go by Samuel. And Samuel says, no. And at the end of all of those sons going by, Samuel says to Jesse, are these all your children? And Jesse says, there remains yet the youngest. And behold, he's tending the sheep. Then Samuel said to Jesse, send and bring for him.

Bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here. So he sent and brought him in. Now he, speaking of David, was ruddy with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. And so who is David? David's the king of Israel, but look where he came from. He was insignificant. He was the youngest of a family. When all of the prominent brothers came by thinking, Is he the next king of Israel? Samuel says, No, it's not them. But then comes the boy, and it's him. The most insignificant man in the family. You could scarcely call him a man. He was a child. And yet he's to be the next king of Israel. And Samuel in that place anoints him. Later on in Samuel, in 2 Samuel, the Lord covenants with David and tells him, here's who you are and here's what you're going to do. Speaking to a prophet, he says, I took you from the pasture from following sheep. So this is the dog catcher, you understand. This is nobody.

He keeps sheep for a living. It's as high as his calling in life is ever going to get. He's going to take over his dad's farm. I took you from the pasture from following the sheep to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. I will also appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly.

Even from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build the house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men. But my loving kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. This is a little shepherd boy from Bethlehem. And you have, even in this text from 2 Samuel 7,

you have a similar prophecy. He's talking about, in some senses, he's talking about Solomon. Solomon's going to build me a house. Because David says, how is it that I can have a house and you don't have a house, Lord? And the Lord comes to him and says, no, I'm going to build your house, but your son's going to build my house. And when he screws up, I'm going to straighten him out, but I'm not going to treat him the way I did Saul. I'm not going to remove my blessing from your household. I'm going to establish your household forever. But the language of speaking of David's son here is almost identical to what we find in Micah. I will raise up your descendant after you who will come forth from you and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish his throne of his kingdom forever. Is that not true of Jesus Christ? Is he not the fulfillment? Is he not the descendant of David whose kingdom was to be established, whose throne was to endure forever? Come from Bethlehem.

Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. David was a nobody from a nowhere town. And God established his house and his throne forever. He was preparing, communicating to David things that David didn't understand at the time. That from his lineage was to come the Messiah, was to come a Savior. That's what comes into better focus when we read Micah. Speaking of the town, Bethlehem. One will come forth from you for me to be ruler in Israel. This prophecy that we read here in Micah, that Bethlehem was to be the birthplace, the hometown of the Messiah, this is where, if you were to count back from Joseph and from Mary, actually both of them are from the line of David, you fast forward to Jesus' birth, to Mary and Joseph. She's very pregnant. Bethlehem's very far away from where they live.

very expensive trip, very uncomfortable trip, especially for poor people. He's a carpenter. She's a virgin. They're young. They're insignificant. And they get told, you've got to travel to Bethlehem, says Cyrenius, who is the governor in Syria. He says, you've got to go there because you've got to participate in the census so you can be taxed. And so at their own expense, they go. They go to Bethlehem because they were both of the house and lineage of David. They had to go back and be counted. Where are you from? You know, it's sort of like absentee ballots with voting. It's like you have a home. You might be living somewhere else, but when it comes time to cast your vote, you cast your vote in your hometown, your home state, depending on the election. And the same is true here with the census. Where do you live? You've got to go back there. I can't send an email. I can't mail it in. They've got to go there. So they go there. They get to Bethlehem. Mary, this lowly virgin.

When she finds out that she's to be pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit, when she's rejoicing and she's singing and praising God, she says, he's had regard for the humble estate of his bond slave. And she's saying, I'm nobody. Who am I that I should be blessed with the responsibility and the privilege of bearing and raising the Son of God who's going to save Israel from all their sins? Who am I? He's had regard for the humble estate of his bond slave. And Joseph's a carpenter. And if you think, well, I'm not sure whether Mary was of low means, I can guarantee you she was of low means because her parents gave her to a carpenter. And they wouldn't have given their daughter to someone that was beneath their class. They were all poor and insignificant. Bethlehem was insignificant. David was insignificant. Joseph and Mary are insignificant. They're all nobodies. They're all nowhere.

So you're starting to see the theme of how God works. Bethlehem's nowhere. David's nobody. Joseph and Mary, who are they? Too often we think that God can't or won't or doesn't want to work with lowly means. That somehow his will is thwarted if things aren't grand, if things aren't big, if things aren't prestigious. And yet when we read this text and we see the kinds of places and people that he chose, we see something completely different. You realize that God could have chosen the sorts of things we would. He could have chose grandeur. He could have chose prominence, wealth, and power. He could have done it. When Jesus was being arrested and Peter lops off the guy's ear and Jesus heals him, what does he say to him? Don't you think if I wanted, I could command the angels and legions of them would show up?

Our God is in the heavens. He does as he pleases, and we would be wise to learn and to see what he chooses. He didn't choose Bethlehem because he couldn't get a place in Jerusalem or somewhere more prominent. He chose it because that's what he wanted. It's our Lord's habit to choose the meek and the lowly and the pathetic and the despised and the foolish things of this world to shame the powerful. That is his way. Now concerning this prophecy in Micah, I want to say to you that this was not plan B. That redemption and salvation through Jesus Christ was not God's response to sin in the garden. This ruler that's to go forth from the Lord in Israel, his goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. God chose this plan, this place, this manner of redemption.

from before the foundations of the world. Jesus wasn't an afterthought to go, oh no, look, sin in the world, how'd that happen? We'll have to do something to fix it. I'll send my son. No, God chose this plan from the days of eternity. His will, God's will, is that he would receive all glory, all praise, all laud and honor because he's God. That's his purpose. That's what we exist to do, is to provide that to him. to demonstrate his glory and fill the world with his praise. That's what we're here for. God allowed Adam's sin in the garden so that he would receive greater glory in the end. You think of Job and Job's life. Job lived a long, long time ago. And Job was a wealthy man. Job was an upright and righteous man. He was a wealthy man. He was a powerful man. And he was a good man.

And he didn't love money and he didn't revel in all of the blessings that he had. No, he interceded on behalf of his children. He rescued the weak and the helpless. He broke the jaw of the wicked. This is Job. And then Job loses everything. It's all taken away from him. First, the Lord says to Satan, he says, if you considered my servant Job, he's upright, walking in truth. This guy, he's a good guy. And Satan says, yeah, that's because he's got a comfortable life. But if he lost all his stuff, he wouldn't do that. He'd curse you to your face. And the Lord says, okay, Satan, you can go to him and you can take all that he has, only you can't touch him. And so Satan goes and takes all of Job's wealth, meaning all of his cattle, all the agriculture is gone. He takes all his children, kills them. And Job's left with nothing except a wife who's not happy. And yet Job doesn't sin. And so then the Lord...

And Satan have another interaction. And Satan says to the Lord, skin for skin, if you afflict him in his body, then he'll curse you. And the Lord says, fine, you can afflict him in his body, but you can't kill him. So away with his wife. He's covered in, from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, he's covered in sores. And he's taking broken, you know, from all the house that got destroyed, he's taking broken pottery and he's scraping himself. And it's just an awful picture. Why? Why would the Lord allow this to happen to Job? Was he being disciplined for being unrighteous? No. Job was a righteous man. The reason he allowed it was because in the end, if you read the book of Job, the things I've described to you, those happen in the first couple of chapters of Job. Then you've got 35 chapters of Job arguing with his friends and going from sad and hurt and frustrated to very angry at God. And then at the end of the book, the last couple of chapters,

The Lord comes and speaks with Job because Job says, I'll make my case before the Lord and I'll tell him what he did was wrong. And so the Lord shows up, he appears, and he puts Job in his place for three chapters. And the question to us is, did God receive more glory from Job's life before the calamity or after the calamity? And the answer is obviously after the calamity. Because Job, who was a righteous man before, was in need of growth. And all of those difficulties that the Lord allowed in his life exposed where he needed to grow. And he received more glory as a result of all of those things. And the Lord repaid him. He restored his wealth. He restored his family greater than it was before. And so we've got to see that the Lord, that our desires for comfort and ease and grandeur and prosperity that God doesn't place the same priority on them that we do. Jesus wasn't God's plan B to respond to sin. Jesus was the plan from before the foundations of the world. One would come forth from Israel to rule his people, and his goings forth were from before the days of eternity. So are we content with that? Are we content with some of the hardships and the difficulties that we face?

Or what resonates more with us? Donald Trump's slogan, make America great again. And you say, yeah, I want it to be great again. Or God's plan for redemption, which is Bethlehem, which is a shepherd boy, which is a lowly virgin and a poor carpenter. Which one do you desire more? Which one gets you going? What are you more excited about? Which one do you care more about? God's shown us clearly in his word how he works. One of the things I want to say to you is I'm not saying that prosperity or peace are things that we shouldn't seek. That's not the case. We ought to seek those things. We ought to value those things. We ought to promote and propagate those things. They're good things. But in our work to promote and propagate and pursue those things, we can't live as though God's hands are somehow tied if he doesn't grant us those things. If he chooses to use insignificant means as opposed to

prominent means. His will's not thwarted. And in the interaction between our good desires to see peace and prosperity for God's people, for the benefit of the world, it's actually better for the world when God's people are enjoying those sorts of things and able to carry on their life without the difficulties that persecution bring. The gospel is not being opposed with such tenacity. And yet when you find persecution, when you read about the difficulties that God's people have endured, you have to see that God's will is not handcuffed now because it's hard, because it's not easy, because there's insignificant people in insignificant places faithfully serving God. You know how the Democrats despise the Midwest? You know who conservatives despise? California.

How many of you would love to see California and all of its problems just go on? You take all your liberal whatever and go away. What's that? Back to Mexico, says the guy from Venezuela. And so I say, you think, you know, so the small and insignificant places are despised. Well, only if you don't live in the small and insignificant places. If you live in the small insignificant places, then you despise the people who oppress you. But Joseph and Mary, who were from a small insignificant place and were poor, went and faithfully reported for the census. And what I want you to see through all of that, really through their obedience, what I want you to learn, here's the takeaway from the sermon. God's will is accomplished through ordinary means.

His will is accomplished in your life and in this world through ordinary means, not only extraordinary. And if you have an appetite for the extraordinary, for the showy, for the prominent, you're going to miss God's will because he chooses places like Bethlehem and he chooses people like David. And one of the things that we are tempted to believe is that our lives are static. And static means not moving, just not changing, just here it is and here's how it will always be. And that's not true. That's not true because there's a God in heaven who's accomplishing his will in this world. Where you are today is not where you will be in two years. It's not where you'll be in six months. You will have made decisions. You will have done things. You'll be further along in your life than you are now. And God's will will be being accomplished through that. You think of children.

It's hard to have little children. Many of us do. We have a bunch of little children at home, and you think, it's hard, it's expensive, it's just, ugh. And I'm telling you, it won't always be that way, because every day your kids get older. And you can be a part of, this is just one example, but you can be a part of shaping and growing and teaching and loving them in insignificant, small ways that aren't big and great, but that are used of God to accomplish His will. You guys, some of you know Jim Striedelmeyer. He's a pastor down at Neighborhood Fellowship here on the near east side of town. Very poor neighborhood. And do you know where Jim came from? Do you know what church sent them down there? Zionsville Fellowship sent them down there. Now, if you were to compare the two churches, you'd see quite a discrepancy. Zionsville Fellowship is a big church. It's a nice church. It's in an affluent community. And Jim goes there and preaches, and he...

And he enjoys it. He loves preaching there. And because what he would say is, because I love telling rich people they're sinners. Just plainly. If you know Jim, he doesn't pull punches. He'd just say, rich people need to be told they're sinners. And who better to tell them than a poor guy? But one of the things that's, you know, when I think of evangelism, or I think of faithfulness, and I think of fruitfulness, I often think of Jim. Because Jim works down in the hood, in the ghetto. One of the last times I talked to him, he's telling me about how his car got stolen from in front of the church while they were sitting inside of it with an air compressor hooked up to the flat tire. And the crackheads got in his car and drove it down 10th Street and stole it. And he's laughing, roaring with his big belly laugh. He's telling me about it. And I think, and he said, we didn't worry about it. We've had our car stolen three times. We went home and had dinner. And we prayed, and then we went and looked for our car. And you know, he found it.

a couple of blocks away behind a crack house getting the tire changed because the tire was flat. And he stopped in the dark and chased off all of the people and took his car home and called the police and says, I found my car, don't worry about it. And he's laughing and telling you, he's joking the whole time. Now, why do I love Jim? Why do I think of Jim? I love Jim because Jim's happy to minister where nobody sees him. You guys, have any of you heard Jim on Moody Radio? Jim's on Moody Radio. They have him on, they interview him. Moody's a big deal, isn't it? Nationwide radio broadcast. And here they're talking to this pastor and Jim's on there. Do you not think that Jim could be more significant than he is? Do you think he has to minister down on the near east side because he couldn't find a better place? Jim loves the insignificant things. He loves humble faithfulness. And that's why he's an encouragement to me. And those of you who know him, he's an encouragement to you. You know what he said to Dan?

One of the things they do down there is they have a, up until recently, they had only a 3 o'clock worship service in the afternoon. They don't have church on Sunday mornings because poor people don't get up in the morning. So they don't have church if the people aren't going to come. So they have all these poor people and they have their worship service at 3 o'clock. And then they have a meal, like we're going to have once a month. They have a meal every single Sunday after church for all the poor people. And the church provides it. And so the church has a need. They have a staffing need. They need people to serve the food.

Rich people would say, well, I'd love to come serve you food. And you know what Jim says to them? You're not allowed to. We don't need your help. We don't need your service. If you want to come and be a part of our fellowship, that's great. And this is what he said to Dan. Because Dan's thinking, our small group could go and it'd be a great ministry and we'd love to help them. And Jim just laughed at him and said, no, you can't come. What did he say? Don't pride yourself? He says, if you want the privilege of serving us, what you're going to do is come worship with us first. And you're going to let us serve you.

You come to our worship service and worship with us, and you come to our meal and you eat our food. And then we'll let you come serve food if you still want to. What a blessing. What an encouragement. Is the kingdom of God being built down there? Yes. Yes. Insignificant, lowly, humble faithfulness. And God's blessing people through it. I want us to be a part of that work. I don't want this church to become pretentious and proud. And I want our church to be about money. Or about classical Christian education. Or about whatever else we can get proud about because we like to. I want us as a body to see the way God works. He chooses towns like Bethlehem and people like David. And he accomplishes his will through them. And I want us to be like them and to not despise the fact that here we are small. You know, I get those papers. I get papers every week that talk about attendance and how many people were here and all this kind of stuff.

And I get emails from the connection cards about whether there are visitors or whether they're not, whether they filled out the connection cards and stuff. And today there's a dozen probably people, new faces I haven't seen before. And that's really encouraging to me. I love it. I love seeing new people. I sent an email to a guy, and the guy emailed me this last week. They're looking for a church, new to town. So we communicated a little bit, and I'm hopeful that he'll come. But I want us to... I want us to love the people that we're around. I want our church to grow. I would love for there to be single moms in our church. I'd absolutely love it. I bet you all know single moms. I know single moms. My wife knows single moms, probably more so than I do. That's who I want here. If you don't have poor friends, it's not because there aren't poor people. You should have poor friends. You should have humble friends. You should be humble enough to befriend them and love them with the love of Christ and bring them here.

Because if you could stand where I'm at and you could look out at you guys, there's not very many of you who are prominent in the world's eyes. Is there? You all want to get better and have more. Not prominent enough anyway. That doesn't mean God can't use you. It doesn't mean he won't use you. He delights to use you. His plan is to use the poor and the insignificant of this world, to shame the proud and the rich and the powerful. And so if you want to find yourself in God's will this Advent season, don't despise your station in life. If it's humble, good. God chose Bethlehem. He chose Joseph and Mary. Don't despise your humble estate. Mary didn't. Mary says he's had regard for the humble estate of his bond slave. She praised God for his kindness during her humble estate. And so if you find yourself humble and you find yourself...

in this season feeling like you can't keep up with the joneses and you can't buy the stuff and do the stuff and have the stuff and be the thing you're supposed to be says the world that wants to make america great again i say get rid of all that it's it's it's it's cotton candy anyway give yourself to the humble substantive things of god loving your families loving your neighbors caring for them when people don't see it we live we're celebrating a season of advent where jesus came to begin and to establish his kingdom and told us he's going to prepare a place for us and he's going to come back and he's going to separate us all out into the sheep and then the goats. And he's given us work to do in this meantime. And Advent's a wonderful reminder to us that we do have that work to do because Jesus is returning. He came to establish his kingdom and he's going to return to consummate his kingdom. And we want to be found faithful slaves, faithful servants, faithful sons of our master, Jesus Christ.

And so don't despise small things. Don't feel like you have to keep up with the world. The world's going to burn up. That's what's going to happen to the world and all of its stuff. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. That's your work. And it's joyful work. There's no work that will give you more satisfaction in this life or in the life to come. Love your neighbors. Be content with where God has you because he could give you more if he wanted to. And he's given you everything you need. And so praise him for it. And then get to work with a smile on your face because you love Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, you have been good to us, merciful and kind in sending us your son. What a privilege it is to be called by your name. I pray, Father, for those in this room who don't know you and who haven't bowed their knee to your son, that you would have mercy on them. Father, I pray that you would afflict them with...

pain and misery and the consequences of their sin. I pray that you'd pull their eyes wide open to see the destruction that's before them. And I pray that you would turn them to your son, Jesus Christ, in repentance and faith. And I pray, Father, that you would equip us, your people, to do your will and to do it with joy and to do it by faith. And we pray, Father, that you would bless the work of our hands. We pray that you would strengthen us. And we pray that you would show us the fruit of our labors. in our marriages, in our homes with our children, in our workplaces, in our neighborhoods. Father, I pray that we would be fruitful and that we would produce fruit a hundredfold because of your mercy toward us in your Son, Jesus Christ. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.