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James Richards

In verse 18. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for you shall save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill that the Lord had spoken through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from the sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.

And he called his name Jesus. Let's pray.

Father, we rejoice.

And the fact that you sent your son Jesus into the world to be our savior, Lord, to take our place and to pay for our sins. And we just pray that you would help us to marvel at what a great gift that is. That apart from that gift, that we have nothing of any value in this world. I just pray as we look at this that you would guide and direct us. You be glorified in Jesus name.

Amen. Okay.

Almost 70 years ago, when I was a boy of nine years old, I was at Panhandle Lake, little Bible camp outside of Shelton. And I just loved running through the trails and everything about that. I hadn't been to church much, and that's where I first heard the gospel. And I gave my life to Jesus Christ. The very next week, we came out to the beach where our cabin was, down where the casino is now.

And that's my connection to the church. That's how I got here. We kept coming out year after year after year. And of course, attended this church in 1977 and fell in love with it.

But when I went home, my grandmother gave me a Bible and I started reading. In Matthew, chapter one, so and so begat so and so. So and, you know, begat so and so. And I got through that. And when I came to Matthew 1:21, I don't know why, but that real.

That verse really hit me. And I memorized it. And she shall give birth to a son, and you shall name him Jesus, for he shall save his People from their sins.

And that was my prayer that I would be saved from my sins. And somehow I recognize even as a nine year old, I was a sinner. And so I've been meditating on that verse for this week and just want to share a little bit from it. She shall give birth to a son and you shall name him Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Imagine if you were.

And meanwhile the angels told the shepherds that today in the city of Bethlehem, a savior has been born. A savior has been born. Imagine if you could have been one of those shepherds. And just imagine God didn't choose dignitaries or religious people, but a bunch of rough shepherds to come and see his son right after his birth. Imagine if you could have been one of those shepherds.

If you would have looked down into that little manger and seen the eyes of Jesus, this little baby, I don't know if they were open or not. He was a baby just like you and I are babies. What would your thought have been about him having received that message that a savior has been born in Bethlehem, the city of David. Anyone speak out? Precious hope.

What was that? Yeah, prophecies fulfilled. Isaiah 9, 6.

Yeah, the Savior. I think it would have been hard to look at that baby and say, there's the Savior.

We expect somebody to come riding in on a white horse, knight in armor. Armor ready to fight the battle. And yet God entered the world to save you and I, because only he could. And that's why it not only called him Jesus, it called him Emmanuel. God with us.

And so he came to save. And the immediate question that that raises from what? Why do we need a savior? I think if you go out into the world today and you tell people, hey, there's a savior, and they're going to go, saved from what? I got plenty of money in the bank.

I got a nice home, I've got my family, I feel good. What do I need saved from? Well, what do they need saved from? Sin.

He came into the world to save his people from their sins. Their sins. We know that Romans 3:23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And we quote that verse, but I don't think we feel the weight of that. The fact that, yes, I'm a sinner.

And especially again, if you go out in the world and hey, Jesus is here to save you from your sins. And most people going, what? I'm not that bad of a sinner. And then they would be able to say, well, I never Murdered anybody. You know, I never stole from anybody.

And it could go on and on. But I was thinking about that sin. What is sin? How do all of us fall into that category? And I was thinking of a spiritual warfare, a battle.

And we're in a spiritual warfare. God on one side and Satan on the other. But if you're in a battle and you belong to the army, what's the worst thing that somebody in that army could do?

Hmm? Dessert. That'd be bad enough, wouldn't it? That might be worth getting shot.

Disobey a command, fall into the hands of the enemy. Yeah.

Traitor.

The worst thing that you could ever do if you were fighting for your country is to be a traitor. Anyone know what the penalty for traitor is? Death. Death. And the fact is, when God created you and I, he created us for himself, to worship and glorify him.

And that's why it says in Exodus, chapter 20 and Deuteronomy 20 and Deuteronomy 6, where you have the Lord's. Where you have the Ten Commandments. The first commandment is what you shall have. No other gods before me?

None.

And of course, when Adam and Eve sinned, they disobeyed God and they became traitors. And they actually were in the other camp's army, Satan. And you and I have inherited that. Everyone that has ever been born. We came into this world not glorifying God with our lives, but looking to glorify ourselves, looking out for number one.

And so everyone falls in this category of sinner. And even though you may not feel like a sinner, I'm not that bad of a sinner. I know people that sin worse than me. We all do. But just the fact that we are traitors is worth the death penalty.

We have rebelled against God Almighty. We have not listened to his voice. We have gone our own way. And the penalty for that, he says, is death. Death for all eternity in hell.

And so Jesus came into the world to save sinners because we couldn't save ourselves. We were born that way. Nothing we could do to change that. And so we needed a Savior. And so that brings up the question, well, who does he save?

Who does he save? According to that verse, who does he save?

His people.

He shall save his people from their sins. And so that raises the question, well, who are his people? Is that the Jews? Well, if you listen to Paul In Romans, chapter 9, 10, 11, he says, a Jew isn't someone who's a Jew on the outside. A Jew is someone who's a Jew on the inside.

Okay. And I believe all Israel will be saved, everyone who God has called to be saved. But they're just sinners like you and I, his people, people who belong to Him. And that raises the question, well, how do I know if I belong to him or not? How do I know if I'm really saved?

Not.

What are some things we'd say that would say, yeah, I'm saved. Any thoughts there? First of all, faith. You got to put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fruit. There'd be some evidence of your relationship with Him. Anyone else? Hmm? I said it in case.

Yeah, belief, faith. Everyone who believes in him. And there should be a lot of evidence. It says in 2nd Corinthians 13, we're to examine ourselves to see whether in the faith or not. We can't just say, oh, I believe in the Lord Jesus.

Well, James tells us, well, that's good. Even the demons believe. Shudder. It's not an intellectual belief. And just like going back to that army illustration, if God's the general, and he comes in and he says, okay, today we're going to attack Ocean shores.

They got this mighty army down there and they're going to fight like crazy, and some of you are not going to make it, but we're going to attack Ocean Shores. And of course, what would your responsibility be? Obey. Right. It's interesting in Romans, chapter 10, and we use these verses a lot, and it says, for with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one is confessed.

But just before that, it says, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that's not just saying the words, but meaning the words. He is Lord.

He's brought me into this relationship where I realize that I was Lord of my life, that I did what I wanted to do. And I finally came to this place of realizing, no, that leads to hell. No, Jesus is Lord. And if He's Lord, what should that be doing in each one of our lives?

Well, he's doing a work in our life, that's for certain. What about our response to him being Lord?

Obedience.

That's how you know that you're a believer. That. And we don't do this perfectly, do we? I mean, we've all failed and thank God for His grace and his mercy and his discipline. But as believers, as his children, there should be this desire to do his will.

That's what we pray in the Lord's Prayer. For our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy will be done on earth even as it is in heaven. Jesus was the perfect example of that. He continually said that he came to do the Father's will.

In the same way, if we've given our life to Christ, Christ in you, the hope of glory, more and more, there should be this desire to do the will of God. Even the fact that you're here this morning, it's the will of God that you worship him, that you sing praises to him, that you give thanks, that you encourage one another. And that doesn't make you a Christian, but it's one of the signs you can point to is, he's my Lord. I could be watching the Seahawks this morning. They're on this afternoon.

Okay, but no more and more. We decide we want to do the will of God in our life, and that's different for each one of you. Just like in the army, the General isn't going to make all of us captains and say, you're going to lead the battalion. He might make us a cook or a truck driver or whatever. And you say, yes, sir, I'm here to do your will.

And that's evidence that we have given our lives to Jesus Christ. And we should see that because of the Holy Spirit working in our lives, we should see that more and more and more.

And so when we've come to that place of giving our life to Christ, and that's what it means, I'm yours. I'm no longer mine. How many have been in the military?

And when you went in, did they say, okay, what do you guys want to do?

They didn't say that, did they? And I remember they weren't even nice about it. You know, today you're doing this and tomorrow you're doing that, and. And then we're going to send you there, and we're going to do that. And you didn't have any choice.

You just said, yes, sir. Yes, sir. And the better you were at it, the more you brought honor to those that you served in the same way, the better that we obey the Lord in our life. And that's different for each one of us. The more we're going to bring honor to God.

And it says over in Hebrews, chapter seven, I believe, and there's quite a few verses in there about our salvation. Maybe it's chapter eight, but it says that he is able to save us to the uttermost because he's always interceding for us. And so if you know you're saved and you know you're growing in the Lord, you give glory to God. Christ is praying for you.

And we get to that place I'm finding, and when we start out, it's kind of like, well, okay, I've got to obey how much, you know? And we start figuring out, you know, maybe this much, you know, I feel pretty good about that, and that's good. But I think the more we fall in love with our Master, the more we go, you know, I don't want to obey just a little bit. I want to obey a lot. In fact, I want to come to that place.

It should come to that place. Lord, if you even asked me to give my life up for you, I want to do that. And that may take a lifetime, but Jesus is interceding for you. Because when we get to heaven, we'll see Christ, and he will know and will know everything that we did to honor and glorify him through our obedience. And it'll be worth it all.

Worth it all. Everything here is passing away. It's temporary. It's vanity of vanities. The only thing that ultimately matters is how did I worship and serve my God.

And when we do that, he's glorified, and then he uses us to bring other people into the army. And that's a wonderful thing to do. All right, well, that's why Christ came a little baby, because only God could save you and I. Only God could pay for our sins. Only God could work in our lives and restore us into that right relationship that Adam and Eve had before they fell into sin.

And that's the goal. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that before eternity you determined that you would send your son into the world to die for us. God, there be no greater glory than you giving your life for us. Rebels, traitors, sinners, deserving hell. And yet you took our place to show us how much you loved us and to glorify yourself. I pray that by your spirit that you would speak to each one of our hearts.

And God, if there's anyone here that realizes, you know, he's not my Lord. I just pray that you would bring them to a place where they. They want. They understand just how wonderful it is to have Christ as the Lord, someone that loves us, someone that intercedes in our life, someone that's working in our life, someone's preparing us for eternity. And then, Lord, for the rest of us that know you as Lord and God, we confess that we struggle with obedience and we struggle with sin.

And we just pray that you would continue to work in our lives, be changing us from glory to glory that you might be glorified in us. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, before we do our song, I'm going to ask Jeremy to come up here. My son Jeremy, and to sit in this chair.

We haven't planned this, by the way. You're walking like me.

And I think. I think most of you know that Jeremy is my third son. And he came into this world kicking and screaming. And I know that because I was the one who delivered him, kind of. Actually, my wife did it all by herself with me causing problems.

But yeah. And Jeremy's been. He's been an interesting boy. He's always been one of those boys that's just always pushing the limits, always, always out there, you know, let's do this daredevil kind of guy. A lot of energy, a lot of love.

And when he was a senior in high school, at the end of his senior year, God touched his heart and changed him in a miraculous way. And Jeremy, it's been exciting for me to watch you as you grow in Christ and as he takes the gifts that he's given to you and uses them for the kingdom. And Jeremy's got a lot on his plate. Jeremy's a farmer, he's a rancher, he's a construction worker, and he works in the church preaching and teaching. And besides that, he has 10 kids that he has to feed, Stacy has to feed.

And so, Jeremy, what I want to do this morning is I just want to pass on a blessing to you. And so if you'll pray with me, Father God, I just grateful for my son Jeremy, for his love for you, Lord, for the energy that you've given him to do an amazing work. And I thank you. You've been working in his heart and changing him from glory to glory. And I pray that you would continue that work and God, that he would be fruitful, that he'd be a blessing to others.

And so, God, it's my joy to pass on a blessing to him this morning. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord.