Sin, Death and The Devil

Well, good morning on this balmy Buffalo morning. So glad that you are here. Those of you who are watching online, we're so grateful that you're all here. Now, for those of us who have more Christmases in our rearview mirror than we do maybe in our future, which may be a few of us, the Christmas season can be full of questions. Now, it takes some time and some thought, but seasoned Christmas people might think about some of these deep questions that come around every single Christmas season in our culture. For instance, this question, who invented eggnog? Here's the answer, nobody knows. They know it's British, but nobody knows who invented it, all right? Or maybe you're contemplating this question. Was the person who invented eggnog evil? Also, nobody knows, but I have my suspicions. Third question we contemplate, did the person who invented eggnog know the person who invented fruit cake? Again, nobody knows, but they had to, right? This is some kind of Christmas conspiracy. Let's get off of eggnog. Let me ask you a fourth question. Is "Die Hard" a Christmas movie? These are deep, deep questions, and the truth is nobody knows. Not even Bruce Willis and the producer agree. Or this question. What time zone is the North Pole in? Nobody knows. You know why? It doesn't have a time zone, so you can just make up whatever time you want in the North Pole. It's crazy. Let me give you the last one. Deep thinkers think about, how many gifts were actually given to my true love in "The 12 days of Christmas"? Nobody knows. You're not capable of that level of math. So I looked it up from like a math nerd side and the answer is 364, every single day, except for Christmas Day. Apparently the... That is a lot of turtle doves and pear trees and partridges, that's just a lot of those things. Now, obviously these questions are superficial questions about the Christmas season in our culture, and the truth is most of those questions are unknowable anyway. But when we pause and we ponder the true Christmas story, there's a question that emerges that is as clear as the star over Bethlehem, and it's this, why did Jesus become human? Why did Jesus become human? I mean, that's the great question of Christmas, isn't it? Why did Jesus become human? That the eternal Son of God, the one who the writer of Hebrews in the first chapter describes as the heir of all things, as the agent of all creation, as the radiance of God's glory, why did he become like us, truly and fully human? Why? Well, thankfully that question, the great question of Christmas, is not unknowable, and the writer of Hebrews in chapter number two helps to open the door on some of the reasons that Jesus became human. So I want us to actually look at that question for a few moments, and we won't just look at it and come away going, hey, we learned some things today and that was great, we're gonna apply it as well. But let me begin with just what the first answer to that question of, why did Jesus become human, here's the first answer that the writer of Hebrews gives us, it's this, to bring many sons and daughters to glory. That's the first reason that Jesus became human, is to bring many sons and daughters to glory, as we're reading here in Hebrews 2. Watch what the writer says in verse number 10. "In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered." Now, when we hear that word glory, many sons and daughters being brought to glory, the first thought that we have is we think of heaven itself, right, we think of being with him in his glory in heaven, and that is a fair and right and proper way to think about this because many times in the scripture that phrase, in glory, is referencing our time when we are with the Lord in a beautiful state. But I don't think that's actually all that the writer here has in mind, though certainly he has that encompassing it, because it seems that this word glory is a carryover word from his quotation earlier in the text in chapter one when he was quoting from Psalm 8, and now he's pulling that back in as a reminder. And what it's talking specifically about is about bringing back a restoration of our true humanity. In other words, Jesus is the true human being who can only bring back our true humanity, why? Because we lost it and only Jesus can bring it back. But how, how can he do that? Well, the text says, "Through being made perfect through what he suffered." Now, don't let that trip you up for a moment. Some of you're thinking to yourself, wait, what? Jesus being made perfect, I thought Jesus was perfect. Jesus is perfect, Jesus always has been perfect. This phrase does not somehow mean that Jesus was somehow insufficient or that Jesus needed improvement, that's not what this is talking about. Jesus was and always will be sinless and perfect, but when the writer talks about Jesus being made perfect through what he suffered, that phrase, being made perfect, can also be rendered this way, kind of the background of this idea or this phrase is to fill the hands with, that's kind of the background of that phrase, to fill the hands with. What exactly does that mean? What is that talking about? It's talking about Jesus being fully vested with his vocation of being the great priest and the great savior, that his hands would be full of what he's been called to do. You see, in eternity past, Jesus, the very Son of God, was not yet perfected in that way, sinless, perfect as the eternal Son of God, but had not yet had his hands filled up with his vocation as priest and savior, so in that sense, he was not yet perfected, why? Because he could not yet suffer and die. And as a result of not being able to yet suffer and die, he was not yet perfected in that sense. Remember, every time I come to say that, I'm just reminding you, Jesus is and always has been sinless and perfect. We're talking about his hands being filled up with his vocation as priest and savior. But now that he has by becoming what he was not, fully human, he's able now to bring many sons and daughters to glory. In other words, he can, by becoming human, by suffering in our place, bring a ruined and broken humanity into the glory of who they were really supposed to be. And that can only happen because Jesus became a part of our human family. That's the only way. In fact, the next verse in Hebrews 2, verse 11, says it this way, "Both the one who makes people holy," that's Jesus, "and those who are made holy," that's those of us who put our faith in Jesus, "are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters." I'll be honest with you, when I read that text, I'm sometimes stunned and amazed that Jesus isn't ashamed of us, that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. I mean, if ever we had a brother that we didn't wanna get compared to, it's Jesus. Some of you have had that in your families, right? Susan's always doing this. He's so great. You know? Right? Johnny's always doing that. Why can't you be like Johnny? Well, how about Jesus who is now in our human family, who the scripture tells us is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters? That is a remarkable thought to me. And to demonstrate how unashamed that Jesus is to call us brothers and sisters, the writer of Hebrews actually quotes from two passages in the next two verses. Here's what he says in verse 12 and 13. "He says," quoting, "'I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters, in the assembly I will sing your praises.'" That's from Psalm 22. "And again," quoting, "'I will put my trust in him.'" That's from Isaiah 8. "And again he says," quoting from the next verse in Isaiah 8, "'Here am I and the children God has given me.'" Now, the first quotes from Psalm 22 is Messianic, here's why I know that. Because Jesus himself quoted it when he was on the cross. He didn't quote that exact verse, but he quoted from that exact Psalm. That Psalm starts out this way, Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That's how Psalm 22 begins. So when the early church would read Psalm 22, they knew that this was Messianic in its intent because Jesus was actually quoting from it. It described his very death, it described his crucifixion a thousand years before it happened, by the way, when David is writing this in Psalm 22, but it also describes his exaltation and his vindication, he wins his people. And so now this writer, the writer of Hebrews, we refer to the writer of Hebrews because we don't know exactly who it was. We know that it was an apostle or the associate of an apostle, but we can't quite pin exactly who that was. That's why we say the writer of Hebrews as opposed to saying Luke or Paul or Barnabas or Apollos, all of which are considered possible authors of Hebrews. So the writer of Hebrews uses this passage and he helps us to see that he talks about, I will praise you among my children, among my brothers and sisters, among my family in the assembly because he wins his people. But in the second passage that's quoted, it's in Isaiah 8, and he quotes two different times if you're looking at your text, the first one he talks about, I will put my trust in you. That was from Isaiah 8. Now, that has an immediate connection to Psalm 22, which is why the writer used both of those passages in this text. Because Isaiah, 700 years before the birth of Jesus, is facing rejection, and he says, "I will put my trust in you, Lord." Psalm 22, Jesus is being described, the Messiah's being described about putting his trust in God, even though he is facing the rejection ultimately of crucifixion. So that's where he ties those two things together. But then he uses the very next verse in Isaiah 8 to talk about the children that you gave me. Now, what is Isaiah talking about? He's talking about his kids in that immediate context. Why is Isaiah talking about his kids, who by the way, had some unique names? Shear-jashub was kid number one, and that means the remnant will return. And then he had another child that he was told to name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. I know, you're like, I'm considering that for my next one, but here's what that means, it means the plunder will come quickly. In other words, here's what God did. God through Isaiah told him to name his kids because his kids were gonna be a walking testimony of God's promise and faithfulness to Isaiah. God was going to demonstrate he's good on his word so much so that Isaiah's kids were going to be named consistent with the theme of what God had told the prophet to do and to say. And here, when this is applied to Jesus, we're reminded that Jesus has children that God gave him that will testify to who Jesus is. You're like, wait a minute. Jesus has kids, so to speak. Yeah, not only does, there's two different metaphors, brothers and sisters and children that you gave me. You're like, well, can both be true? Yes, it's a metaphor, it's a picture. God has given his son a family. This is a part of what theologians call the covenant of redemption. The covenant of redemption is simply this, it is the father and the son agreeing in eternity past what the redemption of humanity is going to look like, what it's going to require. And they have one heart, the father and the son have one heart as to how that's going to be accomplished. But in that covenant of redemption, certainly Jesus understands, I'm gonna be born in human flesh, I'm gonna live, I'm going to die for the sins of humanity to purchase my people back, and God says, I'm gonna give you a family, I'm gonna give you an entire family. This was a part of the promise. This is why the writer of Hebrews is making this connection. Maybe you remember the words, by the way. This isn't surprising because Jesus referenced it a couple of different times in his prayer, his high priestly prayer in John 17. Remember his words. He said, "Father, I want those you have," what? "Those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my," what? "Glory." I want you, the ones that you have given me, what has he given him? He's given him a family, those who would put their faith and trust in him. And because Jesus is the pioneer, the champion of salvation through suffering in his humanity, he can now bring many sons and daughters to glory, a renewed outlook of who we are as human beings, coming more now into the fullness of who we were made to be and also the promise of forever with him. Why did Jesus become human? Because he was going to bring many sons and daughters to glory. Secondly, Jesus became human because it was to destroy the power of death and the devil. Man, is this good news? Watch what the writer of Hebrews says now, I'm picking up in verse 14. "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too," Jesus, "shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their," what is that word right there?

- [Crowd Member] Fear.

- "By their fear of death. For surely it is not the angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants." The beginning of this passage is so remarkable to me because it says, "He shared in their humanity so that by his death." Did you see that? "He shared in their humanity so that by his death." We are literally told in the first part of this verse, verse 14, that Jesus was born to die, that's what we're told here. The purpose of Jesus birth is his death. That's not the purpose of our births, the purpose of our birth is to live. And certainly Jesus did live, but the purpose of his coming, the purpose of his coming was to die. Let me see if I can say it in a way that makes good sense to us in this season. The purpose of Christmas was good Friday. The purpose of Christmas was good Friday. Why? So that Jesus could break the power of him who holds the power of death. Do you remember how John talked about this when John was writing his epistles? You remember how John talked about this? And it's in 1 John 3. He says, "The one who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." That's why he appeared. And if you say, well, sin is the devil's work. What is the wages of sin? It's death. So what Jesus came to do was to break the power of death from the one who holds the power of death. But don't be confused here. Satan is not, the devil is not inherently the power of death. Satan is not equal to Jesus. God hasn't portioned out his authority and gone, okay, Jesus, you get a little here, and Satan, you get a little bit here. These are not equals. The power, watch this, the power of death that Satan holds, the text already told us, is fear. That's the power that Satan holds, it's fear. That's why the writer tells us that's what he uses to enslave people. See, death feels like the final answer and Satan holds that over the world to bring fear of what is such a great and seemingly overpowering enemy. But in Jesus becoming human, he's now able to die, and through his death, he kills death. Jesus breaks death by death itself, overcoming it by the victory of resurrection and ripping from death the very stinger that brought so much fear to us. Only the pioneer, only the champion of our salvation could do that. And that's how Jesus shows himself greater than death and the devil. And by the way, he didn't go through this for angels. He wasn't made like angels, sharing the makeup of angels, mm-mm, he went through this for human beings because he was made like a human being to share what human beings shared so that he could die and we could fulfill our true humanity and be promised the glory that will come. So, why did Jesus become human? Well, to bring many sons and daughters to glory and to destroy the power of death and the devil, but thirdly, to become our great high priest. This is why. Watch what the writer goes on to say in verse number 17. "For this reason he had to be made like them," Jesus had to be made like us, "fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." You see, when the writer here describes a great high priest, and by the way, this is going to continue to unfold in the Book of Hebrews. More and more as you progress in the Book of Hebrews, you keep hearing about Jesus as a great high priest, and he's introducing these thoughts early in the text, and he's gonna make an argument for those as the text continues to move on. You know what a priest is, right, in the Old Testament, a priest is a mediator, like a go-between, between God and humanity. But for priests in the Old Testament, they had to be of the people that they represented. In other words, a priest would have to sympathize with those he becomes an intermediary for. And he can't do that unless he also knows what it's like to experience what they experience. That's what priests did, that's why Jesus became human. And we get glimpses of it from the time the Magi dropped off their gifts to Jesus, by the way. We get glimpses of what he was going to be, what this meant, because when they brought gold to Jesus, they were acknowledging him as king. This is just what you did in the ancient world, you brought gold to a king. And when they brought frankincense, you're probably going, what is that, like an ancient essential oil? Like smell good for a less than 2-year-old? Do you think he's gonna like that present? Now, frankincense was very costly. And here's the thing, the Magi that were coming over who'd been influenced by Daniel so many years prior to that, who Daniel had helped them to see. You remember Daniel, right? Daniel when he was captive in Babylon, and the Magi are mentioned, that group of people, this class of people called the Magi or the Wise Men are mentioned there. And King Nebuchadnezzar has them in his court and he's having these dreams that he doesn't understand and he can't interpret. And he's asking his wise men for their interpretation and they don't know. And Daniel asks the Lord and the Lord tells him, and then Daniel shares with him what this is all about. The Magi all of a sudden went, oh, oh. And then now Daniel's influencing them and he's teaching them about the God of Israel and he's teaching them about the prophecies, about the one that's to come. And then hundreds of years later, generation after generation, the Magi have passed on this. And finally when a star appears over Bethlehem, and these were people that were in disciplines of astrology and politics and philosophy and other things, and now they are coming and with them they are bringing gold for a king, but they're bringing frankincense, why? Because they knew that frankincense was used by the great high priest in worship. In fact, if you were to go back, the priesthood is out of Aaron's line, right? Moses' brother, Aaron. And if you were to go back to Exodus 30, in fact, I'll take you there, here's what it says, "Aaron must burn fragrant incense." Frankincense was a part of the makeup of what this incense was. "Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come. Do not offer on this altar any other incense or any burnt offering or grain offering, and do not pour a drink offering on it. Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns. This annual atonement must be made with the blood of the atoning sin offering for the generations to come. It is most holy to the Lord." This was a picture in the Book of Exodus about the day of atonement where the great high priest would come in and he would make these offerings where the blood of the sacrifice would be put on the altar and where the frankincense would be burned as a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord. What was all this pointing to? It was pointing to the great high priest. It was pointing to the one that was to come in Jesus as great high priest. But we know, friends, that Jesus wasn't just the great high priest, he was also the great sacrifice. By the way, if you wanna pull that back into the gifts that the Magi brought, they brought gold for a king, they brought frankincense for a priest, and they brought myrrh because it was an embalming oil to recognize that he was going to have to die. This was the picture that was happening. The great high priest became the great sacrifice, and only he could do that, listen, if he became human, it's the only way. You see, the writer of Hebrews answers the great question of Christmas for us. Why did Jesus have to become human? To bring many sons and daughters to glory, to destroy the power of death and the devil, and to become our great high priest, that's why he had to become human. But for too many of us, stay with me here, for too many of us, we may be satisfied to let this just be an intellectual and maybe a theological answer to that question, and come away walking out, going, wow, I learned some things that I didn't know. This was pretty great. I know some stuff now and I can be impressive at the holiday party that I'm about to go to. That's not what it's meant for, this is meant to do more. These truths are a means to change the way we live. It's not just theological mumbo jumbo to satisfy an intellectual curiosity, it matters how we actually live. Now they are coming, and with them, they are bringing gold for a king, but they're bringing frankincense, why? Because they knew that frankincense was used by the great high priest in worship. In fact, if you were to go back, the priesthood is out of Aaron's line, right? "Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come. Do not offer on this altar any other incense or any burnt offering or grain offering, and do not pour a drink offering on it. Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns. This annual atonement must be made with the blood of the atoning sin offering for the generations to come. It is most holy to the Lord." This was a picture in the Book of Exodus about the day of atonement where the great high priest would come in and he would make these offerings where the the blood of the sacrifice would be put on the altar and where the frankincense would be burned as a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord. What was all this pointing to? It was pointing to the great high priest. It was pointing to the one that was to come in Jesus as great high priest. But we know, friends, that Jesus wasn't just the great high priest, he was also the great sacrifice. By the way, if you wanna pull that back into the gifts that the Magi brought, they brought gold for a king, they brought frankincense for a priest, and they brought myrrh because it was an embalming oil to recognize that he was going to have to die. This was the picture that was happening. The great high priest became the great sacrifice, and only he could do that, listen, if he became human, it's the only way. You see, the writer of Hebrews answers the great question of Christmas for us. Why did Jesus have to become human? To bring many sons and daughters to glory, to destroy the power of death and the devil, and to become our great high priest, that's why he had to become human. But for too many of us, stay with me here, for too many of us, we may be satisfied to let this just be an intellectual and maybe a theological answer to that question, and come away walking out, going, wow, I learned some things that I didn't know. This was pretty great. I know some stuff now and I can be impressive at the holiday party that I'm about to go to. That's not what it's meant for, this is meant to do more. These truths are a means to change the way we live. It's not just theological mumbo jumbo to satisfy an intellectual curiosity, it matters how we actually live. So, could I offer this in summary to you? It's a mouthful, but because Jesus became human and showed himself greater than sin, death, and the devil, what does that mean for us? It means you don't have to be afraid anymore. You don't have to be afraid anymore. All of this, Jesus becoming human and showing himself greater than sin and death and the devil, what does that mean for us? It means we don't have to live in fear anymore. We don't have to be afraid anymore. We live in a culture that is afraid all the time. We've got 24-hour news cycles that freak us out. Everywhere we turn, we've got something else to be scared of. But let me offer you a handful of things that we don't have to be afraid of anymore. Here's the first. You don't have to fear that God's ashamed of you. If you put your trust in Jesus, you do not have to be afraid that somehow God is ashamed of you. The writer made it clear, didn't He? That Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters and children. Yes, we've shaken our fist at him a time or two. Yes, we have disobeyed and broken his heart, but if we are truly his, he will never be ashamed of us. What a remarkable thing. He can't not love you with a pure and holy love that was demonstrated at the cross. It's who he is, this is what he does. He became like you to rescue you and make you into the person that you were designed to be. He hasn't forgotten you. He's not ashamed of you. He loves you, and he's demonstrated that at the cross. God demonstrated his love for us in this while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He's made you for the glory of being fully human and the glory of one day being fit for eternity with him. You don't have to live in the fear that God is ashamed of you because he's not when you're his, he claims you. Let me tell you a second. You don't have to fear that God will hold your sins against you. If you're in Christ, if you know Jesus, you don't have to fear that God will hold your sins against you. I can't tell you how many times I've heard this from people. It's like they live in this fear that every time they sin, every time they mess up, that God has given up on them, they're done now, but they never have a good explanation when I ask them how they can get back into God's good graces. Because what they're realizing is, well, I guess I have to somehow earn that. Well, that's not going to work. Maybe you're one of 'em that every time something happens, you sin or you've made a mistake or you've come short of God's glory and his perfection and his holiness, and you think that God's given up on you, that means that what you think at the core of who you are is that God works on a meritocracy, that you have to earn his favor or his kindness, but that, friends, is the opposite of grace. Grace is opposed to earning. Grace is not opposed to effort, that we have to walk with God, that we have to build disciplines in our lives that help us to walk with God. Grace is not opposed to effort, it is, however, opposed to earning. Grace is opposed to earning. Christ is who earned our salvation, he is the pioneer of our salvation. He's who earned it, we can't do it, that's why it's by grace. And the only way we can appropriate that grace is trusting in what he's done, that's why it's by faith. That's why Paul says, "It is by grace you have been saved through faith." It's not of ourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus became human and died our death as an atonement for our sins. Jesus paid the price for our sins. Jesus bore the judgment, do us for our sins. Jesus endured the hell of our sins, but in his sinless human life and in his sinless human death, he overcame the power and the guilt of sin on our behalf by becoming sin for us. Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 5, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." When we put our trust in Jesus, we now stand in the righteousness of Jesus, only because he came and only because he was like us in order to rescue us. I don't know how else I can say this to you. Listen to me. If you're in Jesus, your sins are not hanging on over your head because they've already hung on a cross. You don't have to live in the fear that your sins will be held against you when you are in Christ. They can't be held over your head, they've already been held on a cross by the sinless Son of God. Let me give you a third. You don't have to fear temptation. Now, I'm not suggesting that you get all boastful and decide you're gonna go put yourself into tempting situations. That's what we call, what's the word in the Bible? Stupid. Right, foolish. That's silly. Temptation, listen, even if we try to avoid it, it's gonna come find us. You know what I mean? It'll come find us. Don't have to go any further than the phone that's married to your hand. But Jesus knows, whatever temptation we face, Jesus knows he was made like us to experience everything like us, yet without sin, he can help us because he has empowered us to live truly as we have been made to live. As the writer of Hebrews tells us later on in the letter, watch what he says in Hebrews 4. "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who's unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." See, because Jesus was made like us and understands us, he can give us help and he can give us victory when we appeal to him in times of temptation. We don't have to be afraid of it anymore, we just turn to him and allow him to empower us because he who has been fully human and who has experienced every temptation common to man, yet he has not sinned and he gives us the power not to as well. So we don't have to fear temptation. Let me give you a last truth. We don't have to fear death. We don't have to fear death. Listen, I know that death can be scary. It feels so final, it makes us feel so helpless. And it's not just about ourselves fearing for our own death, we fear for the deaths of those that we love. It's just kind of a standard fear. And at Christmas, let's be honest, we feel that even deeper 'cause maybe we've seen death's cruel grip in the lives of those that we cherish so deeply. I mean, just this week you have a school shooting that happened at a Christian school. Just this week, some people that I love have lost people that they love. Pastor Leroy's godly dad went to be with the Lord this week. Janie Cockrell went to be with the Lord, Pastor Al's precious wife who was here and so influential in what we did as a church for so very long. And they're gonna hold her service in North Carolina where she's been living since 2018. And we're gonna do something here that's gonna be, we're gonna stream the service here, and there'll be some more information. For those of you who knew Janie and loved her, there'll be some more information on our Facebook page tomorrow. No wonder Paul describes death as the final enemy, right? It just hurts. And here's what Satan does, Satan leverages that fear of death and he wants to make us slaves to it. That's what he does. But Jesus came to break his power over death, the power of fear that Satan wields. That's what he does. It's the power of fear. But as the pioneer of our salvation, Jesus became human and went directly into the hells of death for us so that he could free us from its grip and its power. He became the pathfinder of a road that we couldn't walk. We needed someone to walk it for us, someone greater than us that could walk it for us. And as the champion of our salvation, Jesus conquered death, never to die again. And now we don't have to live in the fear that Satan wields at us. Yes, if Jesus does not come, there is a day that our bodies will die, but for those of us that are in Christ, we will be safely kept until that time of Jesus' return when we will receive resurrected, immortal, imperishable bodies like his and death will be no more. That's why when we sing the great Christmas carol that John Wesley wrote, "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing", he said, "Hail the heaven-born prince of peace. Hail the son of righteousness. Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings. Mild he lays his glory by, born that men no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king. Jesus became human and showed himself greater than sin and the devil and death so that we don't have to live in fear anymore. What a great promise. Here's what I wanna ask you to do. Did you guys receive a couple ornament tags when you came in, didn't you? One of them is to take home, but one of them is for here. I want you to take just a moment right where you are and I want you to fill in. It says, "God is greater than," and has a blank. What is that in your world today? What do you wanna put and remind yourself that God is greater than what that you need to know about, that you need to hear in this moment, right now at this time? And then after you fill that out, just take a moment, ponder that, I'm gonna come back and close this in prayer in just a moment. Write that down, and then when we dismiss, you find any of the trees that are out in the atrium, doesn't matter which direction you go, wherever you wanna go, any tree you want, and hang that ornament on there so that we together as a body can be reminded that God is greater than everything. But maybe there's specific things in your world you need to be reminded that he's greater than. So take a moment and do that, and then I'll close this in just a moment in prayer. As you're doing that or finishing it up, whatever that looks like for you. And if you didn't get one, you can just check in with an usher or somebody on your way out and you can grab one. But if you're here and you've never before entrusted your life to Jesus, I want you to know something. There is, there is a legitimate fear when we have not embraced Jesus. 'Cause he's the only one that can save us, he's the only one that can free us, he's the only one that has the keys of eternal life. So it is a fearful thing if we walk through this life without him, but when we come to him, all fears are gone because we have to live in that place anymore. He can forgive us of our sins, change us, give us eternal life starting now and lasting for forever. And if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus, then when we dismiss in just a moment, there'll be a few men and women that'll be standing right down front. They would love to take a moment, share with you, pray with you by faith, how you could receive Jesus and have your life made new, transformed, changed, right here, right now at this time. And I pray that you'll do that. For the remainder of us, those of us who claim to know Jesus, who've been transformed by his grace, maybe as you're writing down what you're writing down, you just wanna make that a holy moment and say, Lord, I've allowed myself to move into territory where I have under-esteemed, I've undervalued the glory and the greatness of who you are and what you've done. And I've let my life creep into fear of this or that. But I wanna let your word by your spirit reshape all of that for me in these moments. Father, I pray that you would do among us what only you can do, that you would do your good work in the hearts of people by the power of your spirit. You would draw people to yourself and that you would do it for your glory and for our good. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.