Always wonderful.
to visit our brothers and sisters here in Wauwatosa.
In case you're wondering or worried about it, Donna will be singing after.
I preach today. Everybody…
Love to hear her sing and she loves to minister here.
And I ask you to pray for her.
uh…
Since we were here in July.
Her meniscus in her right leg start going bad. She tore a muscle in her left leg.
She still has problems with arthritis in her wrists.
She has Raynard syndrome when it gets cold, her hands lose feeling, and that's painful.
Her back is hurting.
Sometimes her neck hurts sometimes.
Am I forgetting anything? Okay. Oh, and she's blind. Okay, but so this…
This trip has been brutally hard on her. She doesn't want me to talk about it too much, but I ask you to please pray for her.
She wouldn't miss this for the world.
Well, we read our last prayer, whatever, things are humming along okay in Mentasta.
Well, not completely okay. If you read the part about the bed bugs.
Where we do it, where we do our Bible study in this man's house. His name is Junior. He's 60 years old, goes by Junior.
But he is our most faithful.
a tender, most faithful person that we want to build from that relationship and
The problem we've got is there's bed bugs in his house.
And no one wants to come there.
Oh, by the way, don't worry. We check our clothes every day. We didn't bring any with us. Don't worry.
But, you know…
Elijah had to deal with Jezebel and Ahab.
Jesus had to deal with…
The scribes and the Pharisees, Paul with the Romans, we have to deal with bed bugs.
So we have to…
Get other people to come. They won't come to that house so we
But if we stop doing it in his house, it will offend him.
And so it was this minefield we're trying to
No matter what you do, you're going to offend somebody.
But we ask you to pray.
For that situation.
were only in town for a few
a few days we have to
deal with some more issues with some more issues
My sister's estate, hopefully we'll get it all done. We'll be flying out of here.
early Wednesday morning, like about 6.30, so…
We ask you to…
To pray for us but we would definitely…
The short time we were here, we wanted to make sure we came
to Wauwatosa.
Well, once again…
It's Christmas.
Once again, decorations come out.
And once again, decorations are put up.
Once again, people agonize over what to buy loved ones for Christmas.
Difficult.
What do you buy for someone who has everything and doesn't want anything more? Well, you have to figure it out.
Once again, people vow not to eat too much and then promptly break that vow.
Once again, it's a wonderful life is shown ad nauseum on TV.
Once again, some atheists will go apoplectic over a nativity scene displayed on public property.
That is…
Christmas here in America.
But we Christians…
will celebrate without apology.
We will put up nativity scenes. We will put up decorations.
We will buy appropriate gifts.
we will have joy.
And you know, we need to do that, don't we?
We can, if we wanted to this morning.
name a bunch of problems.
in the world.
Don, I hates it when I watch the news.
I'm one of these news junkies.
types, like to watch the news.
It's just, I'll be in the bedroom, you know.
And unfortunately for her, she doesn't want to watch the news, but unfortunately for her, I'll come in and tell her what I just watched.
And…
It's a lot to take in sometimes.
It's a lot to be sad about.
But…
We are commanded to have joy.
We should have joy.
Throughout the Bible, God expects us to have joy.
Many times in scripture
Leviticus chapter 23.
Verse 40.
And you shall take you on the first day that the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees and willows of the brook, and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.
Deuteronomy 16, 15 through 16.
Seven days shalt I keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God.
in the place which the Lord shall choose because the Lord thy God shall bless thee and all thine increase and in all thy works of thy hands.
And therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.
Even when they're solemn rejoice.
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose.
In the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in the feast of Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles, and they shall not appear before the Lord empty.
Those three feasts that the men had to come
Yeah, they were solemn, but they were also full of joy.
They were happy.
And they sang a song, psalm about it, Psalm 122, a psalm of assent, a psalm that they would
sing when they were going.
to Jerusalem. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.
Psalm 100, verse…
For enter his gates with what?
With thanksgiving.
And into his courts were praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name.
With everything else going on, let us have joy.
Let us never forget. Let us take a moment and remind ourselves of joy.
I love during the…
During breaking of bread, the early service, they read…
Mary's magnificent.
And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit
hath rejoicing God my Savior.
And then she gives the reasons.
You know, here's a trivia question for you.
When was the first…
Celebration of Christmas. When did it happen?
What year was the first celebration
378 A.D.
See, aren't you glad you came this morning? You weren't something.
Now, here's an even tougher question.
Where did it happen?
It was a congregation mentioned in the New Testament. That's a hint.
Antioch. Interesting, the very first place where believers were called
Christians is the very first place that Christmas was celebrated.
Happened in 378 AD.
And the first…
sermon.
that we have record of was preaching 386 AD. I'm sure they preached something in 378, but the
The oldest sermon we have…
was from 386 AD.
And I love reading that sermon.
He said many wonderful things in it.
In case you're interested, the man who preached was named John Chosatum.
He said many wonderful things.
But something he said…
that truly stood out to me.
that resonated with me when I first read it.
He said…
Bethlehem looked like heaven that night.
And you know, it did, didn't it?
Bethlehem.
looked like…
Heaven itself.
It looked like heaven.
Because the eternal Son of God, Emmanuel, God with us.
was there.
He left his home.
and took up…
a home in the womb of a virgin.
Now, there has been a lot of research
as to how old
Mary was when this happened.
Looking into the different…
cultures and writings of the ancient rabbis. How old was she?
The best research that I've read is that chances are
She was somewhere between the ages of 13 and 12 and 14.
when this happened.
Ah.
And then she says this.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior, for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
He has showed strength with his arms. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty.
from their seats and exalted them of low degree. He had filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away.
He hath helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, and he has spake to our father, Sir Abraham, to his seed forever.
wow, we can learn an awful lot about worship from a 13-year-old girl, can't we?
It proves a fact.
You know, there was a question, did the women know how to read back then? Well, she certainly, for someone who was illiterate, she certainly was very articulate.
And Bethlehem looked like heaven.
Because of that.
And then after…
He took up residence…
in the womb of a virgin.
He took up residence in a manger.
You ever wonder why it was in a manger?
We know the story well.
We can tell all about it.
We can recite it to everyone.
But why?
There has been a lot of people thought about it, and I've thought about it.
Maybe the shepherds will never have access had he been
born in a palace.
They represented us.
they had access
to the eternal Son of God.
Because he wasn't in the palace. He was in a manger. And because they had access, so do we.
The major…
symbolize a shocking condensation of the creator of the universe.
the Son of God, didn't it?
The shocking condensation of him coming down, condensation.
Coming down condensation?
Thank you, dear. I need you.
Ascension.
The manger.
maybe was a metaphor
of the feeding of Jesus.
feeding him being the bread of life that comes down from heaven.
he came down.
from heaven to a womb of a virgin than to a manger.
And then…
His next home was in Egypt.
Then Nazareth.
Nazareth is an interesting place.
everybody hated Nazareth back then. It was considered the backwater town
It was…
The place no one wanted to go to.
Remember, they said no prophets ever come out of galilee?
Which is kind of funny because, you know, Jonah was from Galilee, but that's beside the point.
No one liked Nazareth. So he's in…
more of him lowering himself.
And most wondrous of all that I like to meditate on
is the internal Son of God, the creator, the Alpha and the omega.
became homeless.
Luke 9.58. And Jesus said unto him.
Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of God hath not where to lay his head.
He became homeless.
So we could sing.
I've got a home in glory land that outshines the sun.
Another way that Bethlehem looked like heaven that night
was that the heavenly host of angels
who are charged with praising God.
For eternity.
came down to praise God in front of a bunch of lowly shepherds.
They praise him in Isaiah 6, 3, and one cried unto another and said, Holy, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
Psalm 148, praise ye him, all his angels. Praise ye him, all his hosts.
Psalm 103.
Verse 20 through 21.
Bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure.
That's their job.
That's what they were created for, to praise him.
You know, a lot of people say that Christmas
The roots of Christmas go back to pagan.
society that, you know, idol worship, you know, the winter solstice and all that.
And, you know, they will say about how there's various symbols, you know, some idolatry about the Christmas tree and that this is wrong, that's wrong, we shouldn't do it, but we do it anyway.
But you know…
That's really not true.
Actually, the reason why December 25th
was thought of as the birth of Jesus
was part of a Jewish…
a Jewish belief
that a prophet that a prophet
would die around the time he was conceived.
Jesus died during the Passover, March.
Nine months later, Christmas.
That's how they did the numbers.
I always thought that was interesting. And once again, hey, you weren't something to come here.
They praised him.
at Christmas, we get to praise him.
You know…
Anybody here in going to secular college?
now or planning on?
The academics knew attack.
on belief in God.
is that God is full of ego.
To want to be worshipped.
Oh, yeah. They'll find something. They pick that out.
But let's remember something.
It is for our benefit.
That we worship God.
Because we become what we behold.
What we worship is what we will be like.
Go into the Old Testament.
And you'll see something very interesting.
They'll give the list of sins that
that Israel will do…
Some of the other, the Moabites or the Hittites would do…
You know, look at their list of sins.
And, you know, Psalm 106, verse 34 through 39,
talking about Israel. Okay, so they did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them.
But we're mingled among the heathen and learned their works and they served their idols which were a snare unto them.
yea, they sacrifice their sons and their daughters unto devils and shed innocent blood.
Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters whom they sacrifice unto the idols of Canaan.
And the land was polluted with blood.
Thus were they defiled with their own works and went a-whoring with their own inventions.
You know, when you read about all the sins
that they committed…
Idol worship is always there.
When you worship an idol, you become the idol. You become what you behold. Remember that. If you remember nothing else, I say this morning.
And Israel, believers
are not immune from that.
On our way in this morning, Donna picked up her Braille reader and
read some scripture.
Hosea chapter 4.
Verses 2 and 7.
By swearing and lying and killing and stealing, committing adultery, they break out and blood touches blood.
Talking all about the sins. He goes on and on in chapter 4, starting in verse 2.
All the sins of Israel.
And then the last one he mentions, he goes.
is joined to idols, let him alone.
And we all know that in Hebrew…
writings in Hebrew culture, the last thing mentioned is the most important.
Idol worship.
led to who led to this?
You are. So if you want to be holy.
Don't worship evil gods. You will become holy.
worship the righteous God.
And you will become righteous.
Worship is a cure for depression.
In Psalm 73, he lists all the different ways he's upset. A very classic psalm.
about how…
He's upset because he sees the…
the unrighteous prospering and the righteous suffering.
And he goes on and on.
about…
about how tough it is.
And it is tough.
Don't you get depressed?
When you're sitting there figuring out if I pay this bill, I can't pay that bill.
Maybe I can extend this one a little bit. And then you read how such and such a person just made, he was just paid $25 million to make a stupid movie.
a movie that you don't want to waste an hour and 30 minutes of your life watching.
And he's got $25 million.
Let's admit it. It's a little depressing.
See, envy is all about
is not saying that it's wrong to desire something.
Envy means you can't live without it.
Hey, everybody here old enough remember the old Magnum PI TV show from the 80s?
I've always wanted a Ferrari like that.
And surely you're not going to say I don't deserve one.
But…
Envy means I can't live without it.
And since so far nobody's offered me one.
I move on.
Depression.
The cure for depression has reached Psalm 73 because right in the middle of the psalm.
He says, then I went to the house of the Lord.
And I saw their end.
And then the rest of the psalm, he praises God.
Circumstances didn't change.
Didn't change. He's still broke.
And…
You know, you worship, your circumstances won't change. You'll still have to figure out a way to pay a bill.
But you know what?
you won't be depressed because you worshipped.
You won't be depressed because you turned your eyes upon Jesus.
The angels.
that spoke to the shepherds that night in praise the heavenly hosts.
When we get to heaven.
We…
we'll see that heavenly host praising God.
We will stand there.
And listen to them.
In wonder.
And they will sing a new song in heaven.
We will get to hear that song.
And you know what? We'll get to join in with them. We'll get to join their choir.
And when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining like the sun.
We'll have no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.
Bethlehem looked like heaven.
Because the Holy Spirit of God
that moved on the face of the deep.
moved in the hearts of an old prophet named Simeon and an old prophetess named Anna.
He moved in their hearts to show
That he would be salvation.
You know, Evan knows how God knows
uses…
People…
as a literary device.
You know, Isaiah chapter 9, the virgin shall conceive and bear a child.
What Don and I read in devotions on the way here this morning, Hosea.
What Hosea went through.
with his wife.
committing adultery.
And how it showed how God forgives us.
how we commit adultery against God.
And yet he takes us back, no matter how much we have hurt him.
I like meditating on that.
the pain that Hosea went through is a pain that God goes through when we are unfaithful.
to God.
He uses that.
And he shows salvation to all of us.
The Holy Spirit that moved in the hearts of Simeon
And Anna…
is the same Holy Spirit.
that convicts the world of sin.
and righteousness and judgment.
You know, when you get depressed.
A lot of people look for miracles.
They want a miracle to happen.
You know something?
There's miracles happening right now in this room.
Because every time you open that book.
that has been inspired by the Holy Spirit.
It's a miracle.
The letter that came down from heaven and he illuminates it.
So we can understand it.
The depression need not be there for the joy of having that book in your lap.
or beside you.
And he is our comforter.
The one who comes beside us.
That same Holy Spirit.
All things, pain, sickness, financial troubles
pain from a loved one.
He is our comforter.
So we may sing whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well.
It is well with my soul.
We are saved because of that night.
We can look forward to
eternity praising him.
But until then, we have a comforter.
to go by, to let us go by.
You know…
We want to know what actually happened.
When Mary conceived.
by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible just says it happened.
But…
How did God do it?
Did he change Mary's bodily chemistry?
Did he create?
a separate…
entity to be implanted in her womb
Did he…
Did it happen in heaven? Did it happen on earth?
I mean, and this is something the early church wrestled with.
Hey, a lot of heresies have arisen from this discussion.
How did it happen?
Did he change biology?
How can this miracle have happened?
Now…
I love that sermon from 386. He says.
What shall I say to you? What shall I tell you? I behold a mother who has brought forth, I see a child come to this light by birth.
The manner of his conception I cannot comprehend.
Nature here has overcome the boundaries of the established order set aside.
Well, God so wills.
For not according to nature has this thing come to pass.
Nature here rested while the will of God labored.
O ineffable grace. I love that.
nature rested while the will of God labored.
But we want to know.
And of course, we think we're going to get to heaven.
You know…
All this stuff is going to be answered.
You know, when we get to heaven.
our minds and our eyes will be enlightened.
What we don't understand now
We will understand then.
But you know…
Maybe not.
You know, even though our minds would be enlightened, they're still going to be finite.
there's still going to be…
It's still going to be limited.
Whereas God's mind is eternal.
God's mind is infinite.
And maybe…
When we get to heaven…
this wondrous thing about the virgin conceiving
and bringing him forth and laying him in a manger.
maybe is so of God.
David, it is so wondrous.
that we won't even be able to understand it then.
But you know, the older I get an award.
And I look back on my journey.
You know, I went to Ethnos 360 Bible School. I was talking to Tim about it.
One is called New Trise Bible Institute.
And I was telling him and telling you, I was so young in the ward.
And so much I didn't understand. I thought it was pronounced the book of Job.
I was over a year and a half in the war before I realized you don't pronounce the P. It's not past Psalms, it's Psalms.
And the person who gave me a Bible, they didn't explain why all these words are red. What's all that about? And so I got to new tribes and someone explained it to me.
And of course, when I was young in the Lord.
I wanted all the answers. Some were easier to find out the answer to than others.
But this one.
how it happened.
I don't care anymore.
And maybe we won't care either.
Maybe when we get to heaven.
We won't ask a bunch of questions.
Maybe all we're going to do
is cast our crowns at his feet…
fall on our faces.
Cry out, worthy is the lamb.
An Abba father.
Maybe that's what we will do.
when we get to heaven.
I know that's all I want to do when I get to heaven.
So, in the meantime, here in this world.
Let us celebrate.
without apology.
Let's…
Sing so loud.
that our voices give out.
Let's laugh so loud at ugly Christmas sweaters and everything else that our sides
ache. Let's eat so much that our stomachs bulge.
Let us celebrate and celebrate and celebrate.
And when we get done celebrating, let's celebrate some more.
Because Bethlehem looked like heaven that night.
Thank you, brothers and sisters, for loving us coming.
Now my dear wife.
Excuse us.
No, she doesn't want to take medicine.
He definitely doesn't want any operation.
I practically have to pull wife submit to her husband to get her to take an Advil.
So please pray for her, though.
Okay, that's right.
Do you want to sin? No.
Got it.
Angels from the realms of glory.
Wing your flight or all the earth.
Ye who sank, we hear.
Now proclaim Messiah's birth. Come and worship. Come and worship.
Worship Christ, the newborn king.
Shepherds in the field abiding.
Watching all your flocks by night. God with man is now.
residing. Yonder shines the infant light.
Come and worship. Come and worship. Worship Christ the newborn key.
Sages, leave your contemplations brighter visions gleam afar. Seek the great desire.
of nations ye have seen his natal store. Come and worship.
Come and worship.
Mercy Christ, the newborn. Saints before the altar bed.
Watching long in hope and fear
Suddenly the Lord descending in his temple.
I'll appear calm and worship, come and worship.
Worship Christ the newborn king.
Come and worship.
Harm and worship, worship Christ, the new horn.
Let us pray.
Our dear Heavenly Father.
Thank you for your son.
who came down.
And took up residence in a manger.
became homeless for us.
Thank you.
for opportunities to praise you.
But it's never…
waste those opportunities.
And thank you that we are not alone. We have a comforter with us always.
Let us never forget a reason to celebrate.
And let us celebrate.
Thank you for bringing us here to all our brothers and sisters and dear friends.
In Jesus's name and for his glory.
Amen.