Welcome to December Woo. I wonder what that rises in all of you. Some of you, it’s a woo. Some of you, I’m sure it’s stress and some of you, I’m sure it is joy and you love the holiday season. And I wonder if there’s other emotions that arise in this season. And I wanna tell you this morning, I have good news. In fact, my title of my message is Good news, not Good Advice. There are many sermons that will have a lot of biblically rich advice on how to live in light of this message. But this one’s news. And you know the difference, right? News verse advice. Advice is what you should do. News is what’s already been done so you can relax. Anyone need a little bit of that this season? Yes. But here, here’s where this news meets you. I’ll tell you, God himself will meet you wherever you’re at. He’s not going to meet you where you’re not at.

So you don’t have to pretend to be a more spiritual version of yourself all of a sudden for forgot to meet with you. Isn’t that cool? If you’re sitting there and you’re excited about the holiday season, that’s where he wants to meet you. If you’re busy and exhausted from it and you’ve been referring to it as a season, even though it’s become a lifestyle, that’s where he wants to meet you. If you’re grieving, that’s where he wants to meet you this morning. And he’s tender. If you’re angry, can I encourage you? We’re gonna go to prayer in a second. Can you be honest about it? Because you might be surprised if you bring that anger that keeps on spurting out on the people that you love. You know? No, just me. .

God wants to meet you, reach you right there. In fact, maybe even if you’re sitting there and you don’t care, wanna challenge you, would you be willing to be honest with him about that? It’s not gonna surprise him and he actually wants to meet you there. And I’ve studied apathy just a little bit enough to know this, that a lot of people choose apathy because they’ve actually tried in the past, then they failed. And what they found in failure is that they get B can be defined by it. And they were outside of their own controls. What they chose to do is be apathetic. As if they’re apathetic. At least they’re still in control and they get to choose how people perceive them. Okay, so if that’s you, no, no, no, no. Here’s what I just wanna tell you. I wanna go to God in prayer and I wanna be honest because in honest prayer is where you can actually meet with him.

He’s not gonna meet you in dishonesty. He wants to meet you when you’re honestly right there as you are. Come Lord Jesus. And if you’re wondering where you even are at this morning because it’s been a hustle just to get here on time, I’ve learned a trick from one of my theology professors. He taught me this, that have you ever found yourself performing in prayer? Dear Lord, thank you for this day. And thine is the kingdom and the glory. And then you start praying and then your mind begins to wander. Has this ever happened to you? And like where did it go? And it takes you. Am I having a moment or am I not alone in this? Okay. Okay. Okay. And settling. You’re somewhere else and it takes you like 90 seconds to realize it. Am I right? And once you do, you pause the prayer, shame yourself back to the performance prayer. Right? Right. I’m so sorry. Not sure what happened there. I’m back. You haven’t left. That’s good. Where was I then? Is the, okay, here’s what my professor said. He goes, did you know that a wandering mind and prayer is a gift? And I was like, what? Because lemme ask you, because does your mind wander to here’s my encouragement, don’t pause the prayer. Jesus put it this way. He said, where your treasure is there, your heart will be. And do you wanna know what Jesus is after in prayer your heart?

Isn’t it wild that so many of us trust the Lord Jesus for all eternal salvation and the forgiveness for all of my sins for all time? And yet the financial stress that you feel, you feel like that’s something you have to figure out on your own or the relational drama or that person you think is mad at you or the anxiety or the fear of the future. Oh, friends, are you ready? When we call him Emmanuel, may we be reminded starting December 1st and through the rest of the season and on through forever, that friends, he’s not just with you from time to time, he’s with you thereto and he just wants to do all of it with you. Friends, you don’t have to do a single thing alone. So I want to go to him in prayer so that the message doesn’t just land in your head, but it can have the potential to meet you where you need to know it the most. Are you in, oh, let’s go to him in prayer. Heavenly Father, even as we address you, heavenly Father, I just wanna pause my prayer and invite every single person in the room to tell you something, to share what’s really on their heart and on their mind.

If you’re sad, you can tell ’em. If you’re anxious, you can tell ’em, overwhelmed, tired, distracted. Just tell ’em. Tell ’em you wants something different. Tell him you want more of him. Tell him why you’re angry or disappointed. Disappointed in yourself. Holy, heavenly Father Emmanuel, thank you for being with us and not just coming to us. But what you did on that cross may this message, this good news of you, Jesus, meet us and not leave us there. We pray and all God’s children said, amen. So what I want to do this morning is go through the entire book of Romans real briefly. So we should probably get started.

And here’s why. Because we can find out the context of where the Christmas season lands and how we come to Christmas and how we live out of Christmas. And Paul does a great job giving a sweeping overview of really of the entire biblical narrative. And what he does in chapter one is he goes all the way back to creation. And as you’re turning there or getting ready to read it on the screen lemme tell you just a brief little bit about Paul and it’s this. He has a past and then he meets the Lord Jesus. And everything changes. Which tells me this God can do whatever he wants with whomever he wants whenever he wants to do that thing. .

And yes, I can talk that fast. And here’s what Paul, who ends up writing a majority of the New Testament writes at the beginning of Romans chapter one, verse 19. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them for since the creation of the world. God’s invisible qualities. So what is invisible things you can’t see, right? His invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature. Check this out, have been clearly what did you catch that? That’s a little confusing. God’s invisible qualities have been clearly seen how keep reading, being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. So how is the invisible scene from what has been made? In other words, creation is what puts the creator on display.

Every time someone creates something, there’s a point to it. Everything that has ever been created was created on purpose with a purpose. I mean everything this cup created on purpose with a purpose to hold liquid, right? And there’s a way in which it’s meant to stand in order to hold that liquid doesn’t make a lot of sense on its side, but upright makes a lot of sense that someone created this on purpose with a purpose. Let’s go through everything I have on stage. We got this, what’s this called? Podium stand. Podium. Fancy way of saying music stand. Yeah, I appreciate that. So you got a music stand. So someone created the music stand. Why? What’s its purpose? What was it? Hold music. Hold music. Yes. So when they created it, what they did is they went in ahead and designed it and then watch this, watch this. They added the little lip. You see that? Why? So,

So it can hold stuff ’cause someone created every single part of this and then they’re like, okay, so there’s the worship leaders, there’s the tall ones and then there’s the small ones. Like he, everything was created on purpose with a purpose because everything that was created was created on purpose with a purpose. Yes. Perfect. Every single thing that was ever created was created on purpose with a purpose that includes you. Everything. And what’s our purpose? Is it found in what we do? Is it found in our relationship status? Oh friends, to make the invisible God visible. How do we do that? As the fruit of the spirit comes out, as God transforms our life, have you ever noticed the things that God does to you is never meant to stop with you. It’s always meant to go through. You may maybe you’ve heard the the phrase hurt people.

Hurt people. Have you heard that? Yes. What about this one? Healed people. Heal people. Yeah. Oh friends And Christianity gets deeper ready, forgiven People forgive people, transformed people, partner with the Holy Spirit to transform people. Friends, I wanted to share this message because it’s the single message that transformed my life. And I wanted to meet you in exactly where you’re at. ’cause It’s met me in all sorts of stages. In fact, I went back to school to get my doctorate in spiritual formation, fancy way of saying how Christ is formed in you because I really wanna partner with the Holy Spirit so that you can look more like Christ. How does that happen? And here’s how it happens. It doesn’t happen from graduating from the gospel. It happens as you go humbly more into it, the same exact way that you were saved. When you show up and go, oh Lord, how I need you.

That’s the exact same posture by which we grow. It’s not head knowledge. It’s about being transformed. Why? So that we can live out our purpose. What’s our purpose? That the created can put on the display who God is. But what went wrong? ’cause That sounds well and good. But Paul keeps writing ’cause he wants to address every portion of our life. And he writes this in verse 25. He says, they exchanged the truth about God for a lion worshiped and served, created things rather than the creator who is forever praised. They began to worship and serve. I like that. It starts with the word they. You know why I like that? ’cause It’s a lot easier to see everybody else’s sin they than our own. Am I right? Then you turn to chapter three, verse 23. And you see it’s not just they, it’s this four for what’s the next word? All have sin and fall short of the glory of God. So here’s the glory of God and yet we all fall short and it’s all of us. In fact, do me a favor, turn to your neighbor and say Neighbor. Oh, just decided not to. That’s okay. Try again. Neighbor, I’m so glad.

Okay, last one, last one. I promise. Neighbor, I’m so glad that you’re as messed up as I am. ,

We have something in common in this room. We all fell short. Can I just tell you something? I hear this phrase a lot. They go, I know God forgives me but I can’t forgive myself. Can I tell you something? Whose standard are you belittling in that statement? ’cause His is perfect and we all fall short. So here’s my question, what do you do with the gap? Truly what do you do with the fact that you’re not as you should be genuinely? ’cause You show up to church and you hear of the Christian ideal things like ready, pray without ceasing or watch this one put off anger.

What do you do with this gap? Dr. John Coe wrote an article and he says, I think there’s three temptations when it comes to the gap. First one, despair. And this can take all sorts of forms. Some people say despair is like more just a depression, but I think it’s pretty rampant in the church. And it goes like this. I tried to shrink the gap. I felt really inspired on a Sunday morning from a really great message. And then I tried really hard and then it didn’t seem to be sticking. And then I tried over and over again. Then I got tired and I felt defeated and it made me feel self-conscious and I feel like I’m never gonna get it. So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna keep coming to church but I’m gonna show up and I’m gonna trust that the person at the front can inspire me to keep trying.

‘Cause To be honest with you, I’m exhausted and I’ve settled for a valley of dry bones. Faith, can you relate despair. Second temptation. Immoral temptation. We see this one rampant when people say, you know what? I’m gonna have a different standard and I get to choose what that is. And a lot of people depart from the church because here’s what they do. They go, you know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna go find a gap that I can actually succeed at. Give me a different ladder, give me a definition of success that I can have control in. So what do they choose? They become workaholics or they go after financial success. Anything that is a ladder that I feel like I can climb. And we see this rampant right now. The third temptation is what surprised me the most. And it’s this the temptation when you realize we’re not as we should be and it’s this the moral temptation.

Is anyone else a little surprised that those two words are friends in any way? ’cause Being moral is good, right? It is. But here’s the temptation is to see the gap and then think and believe that it’s all up to you to be good enough for everybody including the Lord. And so you try and feel the full weight and responsibility of your own growth and it’s all up to you to feel the gap to make it smaller and that’s on you. And no one else. And I’ll say this, the reason something’s wrong with that is where’s God in that equation. You hear the great sermon on Sunday morning, pray without ceasing and you go, I’m gonna make a decision. I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna not stop praying and I’m gonna do it and it’ll lasts till Monday. Right friends, here’s why it lasts till Monday because you are relying upon your weakness of the flesh.

Now if those are the three great temptations, what’s the best response? And here’s the point. The best response to the fact that you and me are not as we should be is not even our response to it. Chapter five verse eight begins with these two words, but God, let me visualize, but God for you. ’cause We see the gap. But maybe we can see it a little differently because we’re not the only ones that have this type of metaphor. In fact, every world religion has one of these metaphorical ladders. And here’s the basic metaphor. Humanity at the bottom, God at the top what I need to do is get closer to God. So I show up to church on Sunday morning. I see you okay online. Sure. Okay. And then during that one song, you meant it so proud of you, you know, you know, am I the only one that does this? And then you get up and sun, you get up and have a quiet time before Sunday morning, what Bible study retreat.

I need a sin. Okay you showed up today. It’s kind of been a long time. It’s been a while. I haven’t really talked to God all week, but I said I was thankful for him. Okay? Friends, I’m gonna say this word night. I’m gonna let your mind just do what it does. The secret. Your secret, what do you do with it? I know we all know it like eats us alive. Everything that lives in darkness grows there. And so then you feel all this, but then you like tell someone or you try and then you’re going to, and then you’re just, is anyone else a little exhausted? Friends, there is a distinction between Christianity and every other world religion. And by the way, other world religions have like levels of heaven and then they have directions. You have to pray at a specific time of day.

There’s all sorts of things when it comes to the ladder. And the distinction between Christianity and all world religions has to do with that ladder. And it’s this because we serve a God who knew that all would fall short. He knows that you could not climb up the ladder to get to him because there’s a problem with the illustration. And it’s this our God is perfect, which means that ladder is infinite. And because our God knew that you couldn’t climb up the ladder to be with him, he climbed down the ladder to be with with us. That’s Christmas friends. That’s why the church should go nuts and get an ice skating ring to get people here. Why? To go like this. He knows you’re not good enough for him and he loved you anyway.

And so we’re gonna make his love visible for you, our God. But God. And then he sends us to but God in our neighborhood. And so we show up there. Why? Because let me tell you, he didn’t just come to us. That’s Christmas it. Finishing off that verse, chapter five, verse eight says this, but God, here it is, demonstrates his own love for us. He didn’t just come to us 2000 years ago. He continues to move toward us in our direction, but he doesn’t stop there. He came to us. Christmas, lived the perfect and pure righteous life for us and then demonstrates his love for us in this while we were, what’s the next word?

Still? Are you still doing nothing? He loves you even as you’re still doing it. Is that crazy? He’s crazy about you even though you’re still doing it. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Here’s a question. Why? Yes, he loves us, but why did he have to die? You ever thought about that? Now you are chapter six, verse 23. It says this for the wages. What does the term wage mean? Sorry, that sounded like this. strike again. Wages. What is it? Earn. Earn yes wage. I work a job. I earn a wage. Yes, something you earned. Well the wages of a life, of sin, of missing the mark. That’s an archery term of missing the mark. Which that mark is perfection. Any missing of that mark, the earning of that is death. Not just physical death, but spiritual death. A separation.

Think of the word separation from God. What we earn is that for the wages of sin is death. But there’s that word again. The gift of God is eternal life. Here it is in Christ Jesus. Pay attention to that phrase ’cause you’ll see it all throughout all the Pauline letters. He writes in Christ Jesus, in him in Christ. And he goes over and over and over. And what in the world does that mean? Here’s what it means. He clarifies it in Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21 when he writes this, for God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. Who is he talking about? The answer in churches. Yes. So God made him Jesus who had no sin to not just come to us, live a perfect pure life, which means he did not earn the death. Who earned the death.

We earned the death. But God made him who had no sin, the one who didn’t earn it. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. The theological term that this verse articulates, you can use it and impress your friends, not the ones who are here. They’ll know where you got it from. But the other ones, here’s the term double imputation with an I, not an a imputation is this, our sin was imputed in other way, credited to our sin was placed on Jesus. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that he could pay in full that which we earned. So he goes to the cross on our behalf so that all who believe on him and his sacrifice, not just his death but he died to take that which we deserve. And then on the third day rises from the grave to prove two things. One, he is God. Number two, he is the power to make anything dead alive.

What’s the wages of our sin? Death. He has the power to make you alive again. And another part of Corinthians Paul talks about Jesus being the first fruit of the resurrection. The first fruit is an agricultural term and basically it’s this the first and the very best. But here’s the best part, all who follow after him, he’s the first one that goes from death to life. And same thing for us, for all who believe on him, death doesn’t become the end of our story either. We resurrect a new life in him. So God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. So that all who believe on him, guess what? On that day will stand before him. As everything is uncovered and laid bare to him, to whom we must be given account on that day, he will look and you will have been fully forgiven for all of it. And let me say it again for the guy or gal who doesn’t believe it, I pray God would give you faith to believe it all, all of it. But I said that the imputation was double friends. The good news gets gooder.

God had made him who had no sin to be sin for us. First imputation our sin placed on the cross of Christ. Now watch this. Look at the second half of the verse. So that in him, those who place their faith in him, we might become the righteousness of God. The imputation is double. There’s an exchange that happens the moment you believe in him, your sin is placed onto the cross of Christ. You’re forgiven his righteousness, his right standing before God is imputed back. And if you wanna know all of that means read Ephesians one, two, and three and in it, here’s what you’ll find in him. You are blameless in Him. You’re pure. Hear that again, pure in Him. You are the dwelling place in which God lives by his spirit in him. You are chosen in him, you are adopted in Him, you belong in him.

You are welcomed into the family of God. In him you are saved, you are loved, you are accepted. Are you catching what it means to be in him? He took ours. We receive his. That is called grace. And grace is different than what our culture does when it comes to favor. Grace is unmerited favor. Our culture’s really good at meriting favor. You do something impressive. We merit it. If you’re athletic, we merit you with millions. You merited it, you get the favor of it. Friends. Grace is not that grace is this, you didn’t deserve it. And you get all of it in him. The moment you stop just believing in yourself and you declare with your mouth Jesus, you are now Lord. In fact, he gets real explicit with this in chapter eight verse one. It says this, therefore, there is now no condemnation for who? Those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Oh, read the rest of that one. It gets good. Chapter 10, what do you do in response? Verses nine to 11? If you declare with your mouth, oh Jesus’ Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you’ll be saved from what? Everything that would keep you from him. So that on that day you’ll stand before him.

And nothing that is hidden will be hidden and nothing will surprise him. And everything will be exposed on that day. And here’s the good news on that day, you can declare Jesus’ Lord. And that will be more than enough. Now this gets personal for me because almost four years ago, my husband did stand before God, heart attack, middle of the night, surprised all of us. And I’ve thought about that holy moment so much. And what would he say? What would you say? I hear a lot of people, and when I think about that moment, I hear a lot of people say things like, well, I’m, I’m a good guy, but lemme tell you something, a good guy is not good enough. ’cause We all fall short, even the best guys.

But there was one guy who was good enough and there was a great exchange. God, by the way, doesn’t just ignore your sin. Just hear me loud and clear. He absorbed it on the cross, paid in full and our appropriate responses to confess, not just on that day, but you’re invited to respond on this one too. Jesus your Lord. And I believe God raised him from the dead and I get to follow his lead and experience eternal life now and for all of eternity. And as I’ve studied heaven and near death experiences and all the dense theology books when it comes to heaven, there’s a whole other sermon on that one. Just here’s what I know on that day, everything will be seen, maybe even like a 360 degree version of your story. How we doing? And I think in that moment with everything laid bare, you’ll finally see how loved you are with all of that known.

But here’s the best news, that reality is not just reserved for heaven. He loves you knowing all of you. Now, so on this December 1st, let me remind you, Emanuel, he’s with you and you don’t have to do a single thing alone. So let’s go to him in response. However, this Holy Spirit within you is prompting you. But I also wonder if there’s a few of you that go, I’ve never confessed Jesus’ Lord, and I thought I had to just be good enough. Oh, friends come before your Heavenly Father who loves you, who knows you, and you can simply call out to him, put your faith and trust in him this day, this December 1st, 2024. I think there’s a reason we’re having this conversation so that not just that person, but all of us can make an invisible God visible. Let’s pray. Holy Father, I wanna make you visible, but I kind of also get distracted wanting to be seen. So forgive me, holy Father, I wonder what you’re prompting in the heart of every single individual who you know and love and are pursuing right now. So I pray, Lord Jesus, that by your spirit you would knock on the door of our heart and we would listen. How are you leading us to respond to your truth?

Oh, father, have your way. We pray and all God’s children said, amen.