Christmas Eve Morning Service

Emmanuel

Exclaiming God’s return

Evan Rogers

December 24, 2017

Genesis 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

Genesis 3:22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”

God made 4 covenants with man in the Old Testament

The Covenant with Noah not to destroy the earth

The Covenant with Abraham to make him a father

The Covenant with Israel through Moses to establish a lineage of his people

The Covenant with David to have a descendent on the throne forever

Each one a gift from God and a chance to redeem ourselves. Each one Failed

Noah Cursed Canan

Abraham had Ishmael

The people of Israel had idols

David had Bathsheeba

Isaiah 59:2

2 but your iniquities have made a separation

    between you and your God,

and your sins have hidden his face from you

    so that he does not hear.

Deuteronomy 31:17

Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’

We had separated ourselves from God, and to separate yourself from life invites all kinds of death. 

2 Peter 3:9 not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

God made us a deal we couldn't keep. He asked us to write a check that we couldn't cash, not so he could own us but so he could buy us back.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 

“For the Son of God to empty himself and become poor meant a laying aside of glory; a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice, and misunderstanding; finally, a death that involved such agony—spiritual even more than physical—that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it. It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely men. . . .” J.I. Packer  Knowing God

Every Covenant God has ever made with us He has wholly

fulfilled by Himself.

Aren't you thankful for the birth of Christ?

Isaiah 46:10  Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure; 

“God could see every part of the future, the end before the beginning, the cost, the reward, and the journey. He knows your every mistake and your greatest achievements. This means that God cannot be surprised by your failures nor can he disappointed by your smallest triumphs. He cannot be convinced of a lie about you. He knows the truth, He knows your heart, He knows you. He knows you more than anyone ever could because He's already spent more time with you than anyone could. He's seen an eternity with you and valued it more than anything. So he bought it at the cost of himself, because if He didn't die you couldn't have lived.”

“The claim that Jesus is God also gives us the greatest possible hope. This means that our world is not all there is, that there is life and love after death, and that evil and suffering will one day end. And it means not just hope for the world, despite all its unending problems, but hope for you and me, despite all our unending failings.”  Timothy Keller

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Matthew 28:20 “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

No problem we face will ever be bigger than God who is with us.

“Christianity says God has been all the places you have been; he has been in the darkness you are in now, and more. And, therefore, you can trust him; you can rely on him, because he knows and has the power to comfort, strengthen, and bring you through.” Timothy Keller

Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

May we realize that God did all of this so we could be with him.

May we realize that the virgin Birth proves God's intent to save us all a long. 

The greatest gift of Christmas is to know the love of the father who's greatest joy in Life was giving his so you could live.