Jesus Christ Really Is That Awesome
First B Jackson
2022-12-11

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Good morning, everybody. How are doing? Good. It is very, very good to see you this morning.

Would you like to worship in song with me? We'll start off with a good word from Luke. To lead us into worship, it says, the shepherds, this was after hearing the birth announcements from the angels, and they said to each other, let's go to Bethlehem. Let's see this thing that's happened, which the Lord has told us about. They heard it.

They sought for themselves, and they later shared it. Shall we start by singing angels we've heard on high?

Can you hear me now? Yeah. Alright. Fantastic. Good morning.

Glad y'all are here. We have tonight. This is kinda in the order they're happening. 04:30 tonight, we're doing Christmas caroling starting off here at the church. We'll spread out from here.

And then after that is a chili cook off. So if you wanna stew up some chili and bring it in this evening, that'd be good. 04:30 is caroling. 6PM is a chili cook off. There are some prizes associated with that.

Monday nights at first b?

Yep. We are on down the hall at I think They're they're on down the hall at six. Tomorrow, small group is going to be serving dinner. And a special treat tomorrow, the Awana council time, they're gonna bring it on up to Monday night. So we get to, participate and hear from Steve Baldock, and, that's gonna be on Monday night.

Council time for Awana is gonna be at Monday night. That's awesome. That's a little crossover. I like that. Connect hour is happening down the hall in between services today, but if you wanna volunteer to supply the food and set it up for connect hour or for Monday night, kitchen volunteers are still needed.

If you wanna do that, you can do that. Angel Tree, Tanya, would you come up? Do you have a microphone? You can talk in mine if you don't. Tanya is my wife.

Much to the surprise of several art students this week that saw me sitting in the classroom and thought, married? This is tough.

Okay. So, Angel Tree. I probably have not been as giving of information this year as I usually am, because I guess I figure we all know it. But Angel Tree is for local people, local families. And there are families that come to us from various ways.

It's prayed up a long time before we get to this point. So we have them come from ministries, from other teachers, from other churches, and they're taken from businesses and other churches too. So it's kind of like a clearing house. We're thankful to be able to do that. So everything that you get off of that tree, there's a tag and usually or some of them will say, please return them by December 20.

Eighteenth to twentieth would be great. They're always something late from Amazon, so it ends up we're doing it on the twenty third, but that's not that's not ideal.

That's not ideal.

So I really appreciate everyone who has brought it so far. If you would bring it wrapped and With the tag. With the tag attached to the bottom of if you don't have time to wrap it, I have lots of elves that are super elves and they will help us wrap. So don't let that stop you your time because, we there are other people that are giving in that way and excited to do that. Anything else?

Okay.

Ideally, by next Sunday, the eighteenth, if you could get them back. Ideally, but we understand if it's gotta be a little late, but ideally, next Sunday.

Also, if you have kids that sometimes we have kids that we're looking for a specific they want an eight year old girl or something that they want to pick. I still have tags that have not gone up. I'm gonna try and get them up in the next hour. So holler at me if you feel led to do something specific, and I have got the children to fit every age.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you very much. Alright. Next one, Blake. Jackson Hole Men's Alliance. There's a service opportunity that's coming up.

So Willie Watzebaugh asked if we would. We're gonna serve dinner at the Good Samaritan Mission. So this is men's ministry thing. So the folks who get together on the first Wednesday of the month are taking over at the Good Samaritan Mission on a Wednesday night, December 14. If you want any more information, you can call Willie Watzebaugh, and there's his number, 730-6519.

So January 4 is the next one that's coming up. If you wanna help out with that, please let them know. I think oh, yeah. Calendars. Calendars for sale.

Y'all ever open a pictorial calendar and not find a picture of Jackson Hole? There's always one, and there's one in this one, but there are calendars on sale in the lobby. We do this every year. The proceeds go to youth ministry. So if you want one of those, they're $10.

You can see Diane or you can see Mick or you can see one of us and get that done. Next week, children's Christmas choir. So you need to know this, 09:00 people, that the service starts at 10:00 next week. You're welcome to come early and drink coffee and fellowship, but the service is gonna start at 10:00. So it'll be next week, combined service, children's choir, and the band will play some, and I'll have a little mini sermon, I think.

And it is the third week of Advent. So if we have our folks come forward, it looks like the Landes' are on.

Good morning, church. It's good to be with you this morning. My name is Ian Landis. This is my wife, Lisa, our son, Lucas, and our daughter, Kaya. And this is the third Sunday in Advent, which is the candle of joy.

Jesus came to give us fullness of joy and abundant life. Joy is ours because of Jesus. His presence brings the promise of joy. Luke two eight through 11 says, and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is Christ

Amen. You can have a seat here for a moment. This is a worship through giving part of the service. I'll invite the ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing a Christmas offering.

Christmas offering from Matthew two. When a wise man, they saw the star that were filled with joy. They recognized the grace of God. And they entered the house in Masabachai. What favor?

His mother Mary and they bowed down and worshiped him, giving gifts. Before we sing, Ray, would

you like pray?

Sure.

God almighty, I'm overjoyed this morning. The the Sunday of joy. The it's every day. It's all the time, but I love Carl's definition. He always uses for joy, Lord.

It is grace recognized. Lord God, you're leaning towards us with favor. You're actually leaning towards the world with your favor. Goodwill towards men. God, maybe we'd be a part of that.

Would you allow for this body that's gathered in your name this morning, singing your praises and worshiping you? Would you allow us to roll in this community and throughout the world? We've got people here from all over the place. Would you allow us, Lord, the opportunity? Would you allow us to recognize the opportunity?

I pray, Lord, that we would see the divine appointments as they're happening and that you would, Lord, just spread your love for this world through these humble and obedient servants. Lord, I pray that you'd bless everything that goes into these plates this morning, that you would do your will and your way with it. May we be good stewards and honoring the gift and the giver, Lord, but also the recipients. Lord God Almighty, may we be concentrating efforts on reaching out to the very least of these. In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask for you to move among us this morning and throughout this next week, Lord, that you would that you'd show us your way and allow us to walk in it.

In Jesus' name, we ask your blessing. Amen. It is time. It's children's church time. Downstairs, and there they go.

Amen. Next week, they're staying up here. They're gonna stay up here, up here, up here, up on the stage up here. Children's choir will be doing service next week at 10:00. Lord help me, I'm nervous this morning for some reason.

All of a sudden, the clickity clicker is not working, so that's probably why. So if you would click just one more slide there. We're doing a Harmony of the Gospels approach right now. We're going through the Harmony of the Gospels and we're working our way through. But, there we go.

This is call this a Christmas edition, okay? Harmony of the gospels Christmas edition. And I prefer to go chronologically because that's the way my mind works. So we're building towards Christmas. We're not gonna tell about the wise men.

We're not gonna tell about the shepherds this morning yet. It's coming. Y'all all know it's coming. We're not gonna change the characters. We're not gonna change the story.

We're not adding anything different or new, but maybe we'll pay some attention to something this morning in the synoptic gospels that you usually skip over. If you've ever done a Bible reading plan and you get to chronicles one through nine, oh my goodness, it's genealogies the whole time. So and so begets, so and so begets, so and so. All these names you can't pronounce, you probably just started flipping pages. And if we get in that habit when we get to the first chapter of Mark or the third chapter of Luke, we might do that again.

So I'm gonna look at it. And the last week, we covered the prologue of the gospel of John. I'll just share three verses from that that are kinda getting after it. In the beginning was the word. So this is pre Genesis one one, before, there was light in this world, before there was this world.

In the beginning was the word, and the word that Jesus was with God, and the word was God and he was in the beginning with God and I told you last week, this is about the Christmas the most Christmassy verse you can find. In one place and the word, God's communication, exactly what he wanted to represent to us, exactly that became flesh. And he pitched his tent among us. He dwelt with us. He camped out here.

And we, John says, saw his glory. Glory is that of the only son from the father. Full of grace. Full of truth. He would go on to say that as many as believed in him, he gave them the right to become children of God.

That's amazing. That's good. So that was last week. This is the Christmas edition from the Synoptics. So Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And we'll be finishing off today with a participatory exercise. Let me fair warning, okay? Fair warning. I'm asking you to participate in the last half. We'll see a slide come up.

And when we do, I want you to read it, all right? It will be obvious. Verses of of Hebrews. If I were going to do a Christmas message, I can't think of a better one than the first four verses of the book of Hebrews, the exordium. So we'll go together to that after going through the synoptics.

So here they are. Matthew, Mark, and Luke. If you look for the Christmas story in Mark, you will not find it. When he says, this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And Mark, when he says that, he starts with the ministry of John the Baptist.

He does not tell the Christmas story. So Matthew and Luke both do. So we'll just go Matthew and Luke this morning only through this portion. Matthew one one through something. I think it's 18, not 25.

Luke three twenty three through 38. That's what we're gonna cover before we get to Hebrews, and it is, oh, boy, the genealogies. How could this be interesting in any way? Well, this morning my mom and dad are here. They're right over there.

And family matters, right? Yeah. Would you all stand up for a second? Yep. There they are.

Yes. I get my height from my dad and my comportment from both. The genealogies through Billy for me, it's this, Benjamin J. McDaniel, not to be confused with Benjamin A McDaniel. Ben McDaniel was born in 1853.

And Olivia Ann Victoria Grant, he married. And they had Will Mac, we call him, William Will McDaniel. That's my dad's grandfather. So granddaddy Mack is what they called him the whole time when I was little, although he died four years before I was born. Now he and his wife, Nina, had Raymond Rex McDaniel.

Raymond Rex, I'm named after Raymond Rex, who married Emily Grace Moore. Pascal's named after Grace. And they had their firstborn, William D. McDaniel, Billy, who's here today. And he married little Linda Sue Pike from Manchester, Georgia, just seven miles away.

And they had two sons, Ray and Toby. Now I am not the genealogist in our family at all. Toby is much more of that. In fact, my grandmother and Toby could talk about genealogy forever to the point that it crosses my eyes. And my dad would, I don't care.

He would say something like that. And so before my grandmother passed, she said to my brother, Toby, if he ever asked you a single question about it, don't answer it. Don't tell him. Don't tell him. He doesn't want to know.

So if you go through Sue. So Ray and Toby were born to William Billy and Linda Sue Pike McDaniel, who my mother is the ninth child but sixth daughter of Jesse Wade Pike and Anathea Flora O'Neill, who was the daughter of Elmyra Ella, who was Native American. Jesse Wade Pike was born to Benjamin Pike. Now aren't you glad we have last names? Maybe middle names too.

Because it looked like just a couple of generations back that they were related because they both had Benjamin in the line there. But Benjamin Pike and his wife, Martha Rebecca Whitley. So one of those goes from 1853 forward, and the other one goes from 1971 backward. Do you see that? And one's my mom and one's through my dad.

So in Matthew, we have Jesus' legal lineage. Now I won't arm wrestle over this. I believe this to be true, but I won't arm wrestle over. There are various harmonization attempts in trying to figure this out. But I believe that Matthew tells the legal lineage of Jesus, and we'll go through that in a minute.

And Luke has a different focus. Now Matthew goes forward from Abraham. It starts at a certain point in the redemptive past, which makes sense to start with Abraham, father Abraham. Abraham forward to Jesus is what we're looking at in Matthew. And it starts off like this.

This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David. Wait a second. Son of David. Okay. Son of David is really important because he's the king.

Right? And he is the one who's promised that his line would be the line of Messiah. He would be the one who would reign forever and ever as Handel tells us. The record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Now son of David is used in Matthew's gospel 10 different times as a name for Jesus.

It comes from this opening. It comes from people calling out his name wishing to be healed. It calls 10 times, but this is the first time of that 10 in Matthew. And then it emphasizes the legal lineage to King David. It is saying Jesus rightfully is the king of kings and lord of lords.

Messiah would be a descendant of David, and he's already said in the opening line, he's already said messiah and son of David right there. Now it gets to son of Abraham. Now why why would you emphasize Abraham? Well, this is the promise. The proto euangelion.

This is the promise. This is before the gospel. This is the gospel. Now the Lord said to Abram, you get up and go from your country and from your relatives. I'm sorry.

When I read that list a minute ago, I was like, there are five generations that all lived in that same place, and I'm here. When I was trying to figure out all those relations last night, all of them were in the same graveyard on my dad's side. Sorry. I didn't expect that. Somebody else finished.

Go from your father's house and go to the land which I will show you. And I will make you, Abram, into a great nation and I'll bless you. And I'll make your name great so that you shall be a blessing. And I'll bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I'll curse. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

This is the beginning, right, of this line where Matthew starts. He starts with Abraham. So Abram went away and he did just as the Lord had spoken to him. He believed God. Actually, Genesis 15 reiterates, and Abram believed in the Lord, and God credited that to him as righteousness.

In Romans, Paul says, what does the scripture say? Pay attention, actually. What does the scripture say? Pay attention. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Believing God is important. Trusting him is important. And Abram did. And he became Abraham, and then Abraham did. He believed God.

Actually, if we go to Genesis 22, the angel of Lord called Abram a second time from heaven. This is after the incident with Isaac on the mountain. Right? And he said, by myself, I have sworn, God says. By myself, I have sworn, declares the Lord.

Because you've done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, Abraham, indeed, I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and of the sand which is on the seashore and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. And in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. It makes a difference that you believe God and that you're willing to be obedient to his direction. It blesses families. And your seed actually, I'd probably capitalize the s right there because I think it's pointing towards Jesus Messiah.

In you, Abram, in your line, in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham is the beginning. Abraham fathered Isaac. Actually, in mine, did you notice that there were women and men involved? That's that's pretty normal for us.

I couldn't even do it. I tried to put just, you know, been begat begat begat. I couldn't do it. I had to I had the ladies in there. Culturally speaking, I had to.

I could not do it. By myself, I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you've done this thing and you've not withheld your son, your only son, what about the foreshadowing there? Oh, that God would give his only son. Whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. So Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob.

Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers. That's a weird one to mention, but they're the 12 tribes. Right? Judah fathered Perez and Zerub. Wait a second.

Usually, you don't mention both. I mention both because I can't leave my brother out. But Perez and Zerah by Tamar, what a story that was. My goodness. Google that sometime.

Perez fathered Hezron, and Hezron fathered Ram, and Ram fathered Amminadab, and Amminadab fathered Nashon, and Nashon fathered Salmon. Salmon, really? Salmon fathered Boaz. Oh, I recognize that name. Boaz by Rahab.

I recognize that name too. Rahab, the one who hid the spies, the harlot she's called over and over in most translations. Sam and father Boaz by Rahab and Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth and Obed fathered Jesse. Jesse Wade Pike. That's probably who he's named after at some point.

Right? Jesse fathered David the king. Now David's already been mentioned up top, and then he's mentioned again right there. And now on the next screen, he's mentioned again. David.

David. David. No pay attention. David. David the king.

David fathered Solomon, we remember that story, by her who had been the wife of Uriah, that's Bathsheba. And Solomon fathered Rehoboam, bad dude. Rehoboam fathered Abijah, Abijah fathered Asa, Asa fathered Jehoshaphat, jumping Jehoshaphat. Father Joram and Joram fathered Uzziah and Uzziah, father Jotham, Jotham father Ahaz, and Ahaz father Hezekiah and Hezekiah father Manasseh and Manasseh fathered Ammon and Ammon father Josiah. Oh, Josiah, the eight year old king, who in a pretty evil time said, hey, there's a book.

Have you read this? It's really good. We ought to pay attention to this. And it was wonderful, the the redemptive history of Israel. Josiah was a good king.

But in only one generation, there was Jeconiah. Oh, terrible dude. Probably the worst in the list. Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. So that's the second set of people there.

I won't go into it. Actually, I've covered this before because Christmas comes every year. Okay? If you want to hear it, go back. Listen to them.

The list is kind of interesting to go through. But after the deportation to Babylon, so this is a time marker. After the deportation of Babylon, Jeconiah, father Shiltiel, Shiltiel, father Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel, father Abihu, Abihu, father Eliakim, Eliakim, Azor, Azor, father Zadok, Zadok, father Akim, Akim, fathered Eliud. Eliud fathered Eliazar. Eliazar fathered Matthan.

Matthan fathered Jacob. And if you don't know how to pronounce it, just make a stab at it. I don't know what these things sound supposed to sound like. Jacob fathered Joseph. Oh, a name I recognize.

I recognize him. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I recognize that name. Jacob fathered Joseph. This is Joseph's line, the legal lineage back. But it says Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born.

It's very specific. It goes out of its way to say that. This is not Joseph's kid. This is Joseph's by blood, but by adoption. Joseph, the husband of Mary by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

Already been called Messiah twice in this list. And that's the end of the genealogies of Matthew. And then Matthew gives us a mnemonic device. How many of you all ever been in a class that you had a lot of information you needed to remember and you needed a mnemonic device? So all the generations listed from Abraham and David are 14 generations, from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations.

And from the deportation of Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations. 14 generations, 14 generations, 14 generations. How many people should be in the list? David's mentioned twice. Isn't that interesting?

Because David's super important. We list up to David and then we start with David. So he's on two lists, it's 41. Ain't that interesting? Okay.

But it's a wink to say, pay attention to this guy. Son of David. Son of David. Son of David. It says it over and over.

So that's a legal lineage through Joseph, and it is up through verse 17, it looks like. So Luke three twenty three through 38 shows Jesus' natural lineage through Mary. So Jesus was absolutely 100% God and absolutely 100% man. So his natural lineage through Mary, I believe, is covered in Luke. There are people that disagree with me, but honestly, there are people that disagree with me about everything.

Okay. Jesus. This is the natural lineage through Mary. And it starts with Jesus and it goes backwards all the way to Adam. Can you think of another genealogy in the Bible that goes all the way back to Adam?

Well, yes, there are a few, but they're not 75 names long. This one goes through and we know that there are some that are skipped, but that's okay. Now in genealogical families and genealogy people, they don't like those open blanks. They don't like them one bit. Actually, Tanya and I, thirty years ago, eloped.

And we did so on the way back from the University of Georgia back home, and we just stopped into a random courthouse at five minutes till five on a Monday afternoon. And it made no sense. Now all of my people are buried in the same graveyard. And her grandmother was a genealogist, and she said, I love Ray, and I'm glad you all did this, but you're going to confuse genealogists forever. So she went herself up to the Walton County Courthouse and took a copy of my birth certificate and Tanya's birth certificate and said, put this in their file.

I don't want to confuse genealogists because these two crazy people got married. And then she went to Harris County where it should be and put it in the file there. So somewhere enshrined in black and white are our records in multiple places so that genealogists of the future will not be confused. Jesus, backwards to Adam. So actually when I listed my mom, I started with Ray and Toby at the top and I went backwards from there.

Just the same amount of generations back to Benjamin. So this is the list. I'm not going to go through all of these this morning. This is the whole list, 23 through 38, 75 human fathers listed in Luke. So there are some interesting ones.

The J in Hebrew, I think is pronounced like a Y, and Yoda is in the list right there. There is some overlap, but not much in these lists. But once you get back a few generations, you're going to have overlap, especially if you go all the way back to Adam, right? So 75 human fathers. One of those is adoptive.

It starts off with, and he began his ministry. Jesus himself was about 30 years old being as was commonly held the son of Joseph. So that's another way of saying, this is not Joseph's son, but it is his adoptive son. It was not. It was being as was commonly held.

We know your parents. You hear the pharisees talking about that sometimes, and and actually, they use it against him a lot of times where they hint at some sort of sex scandal. Actually, in Matthew's list, there are four different ladies listed and all of those in some way could be listed as some sort of sex scandal. Rahab, Ruth, there Tamar, all of those, all of those that are listed. As was commonly held, Joseph, son of Heli, Heli, Eli, it looks like Eli, but Heli would be the way that's pronounced.

And Jehoiakim and Heliachim are related. It's kind of like Charles and Chuck or Ramon and Monche in Spanish. If you look at that list, it just bounces. It's going, going, going. And at the end, after the 75 human fathers, it says, son of Adam, the son of God.

Now Adam failed his probationary period and was thrown out of paradise. Jesus voluntarily left paradise, laid down his rights, humbled himself, and came to be born of a virgin, a poor family, not even in indoors really, in a stable. One adoptive and one heavenly father. That's the most thorough genealogy that I've ever seen. So looking at these two, and there's more there.

You can dig in. You find a lot if you want to. But looking at these two, why is it that we would go to such great lengths? Why do you think that God went to such great lengths to share that information with us? Why do we say Merry Christmas?

This is the participatory part of the program here. Merry Christmas. The reason we say Merry Christmas is because of Christ. Because Jesus Christ really is that awesome. He really is.

Two thousand years later, right, and here we are gathered in his name singing him praises. Nero claimed godship. Right? Does anybody sing his praises? Not many.

Okay. Now we're going into Hebrews. This is participatory. I want you to listen to it line by line. The exordium of Hebrews tells all what Hebrews is gonna be about, and really, Hebrews is about Jesus Christ really is that awesome.

He's more awesome than angels. He's more awesome than the law. He's more awesome than Moses. He's more awesome than all these things. We're only gonna cover the first four verses together.

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke think about the speaking and the word of God. Right? In the past, at various times and in various ways, God spoke in times past, and he spoke to the fathers by the prophets. And he has in these last days spoken to us by his son. God's message of love is through Christ.

Jesus says so when he says, no one comes to the father except they come through me. If you are going to be a child of God, you have to be adopted in through belief in Christ. So God speaks through Christ because Amen. He is in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things. Jesus Christ is the heir of literally everything.

Now the prologue of the gospel of John says that there was not a thing that was made that was made without him. So he's the agent of creation, and it all belongs to him. So if we are gonna be a part of God's family, we are going to be joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this side, the song says, because

Jesus Christ through he is our God.

That sounds like a little bit of a drone. Do y'all mean it? Next time it comes up. Come on. Whom he has appointed the heir of all things through whom he also made the worlds.

Because no. You got me. Jesus Christ was the agent of creation. I already covered that. Because Jesus Christ through his love.

You got it. Okay. Who being the brightness of his glory, the resplendence of God. It is the radiance of God's glory. It is the rays that are going out from God.

That's Jesus. Christ is the active brilliance of God almighty and the express image of his person. If you've seen me, you've seen the father. Jesus says to Philip. If you've seen me, you've seen the father.

Have you been with me for this long and you don't know that yet? Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. I'm the express image of his person. Christ is exactly what God looks like camping out here in the flesh. Right?

He is upholding all things by the word of his power. Go to Colossians and see that. Oh, isn't it beautiful that he's holding all things together? Nothing would continue to exist without Christ because? Jesus Christ really is without us.

Okay. I believe you believe it now. When he had by himself by himself, he didn't need anybody else to take up any slack because there was no slack. He himself when he had himself purged our sins, he alone handled our sin. There's nothing you can add to it, and you better not be taking anything away from it.

Right? He alone handled our sin. When he had by himself, I love that he puts it in there, purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. His work was done. We talk about Jesus' life, burial, resurrection.

You know, life, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, but we don't talk a whole lot about his session. Not in this church. Fred Bashirians talk about it all the time. Session. Jesus sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high after he had done the work.

He alone handled our sin, and then he sat down. Why? Because Jesus Christ really is that awesome. Having become so much better than the angels, so much better than the angels. Hebrew's theme is Jesus is better than because Jesus Christ really is that awesome.

He's way more awesome than angels. And what we see every time we see angels in the Bible. They scare people to death because they're awesome. They have to say, fear not. Come on.

Get up Because Jesus Christ really is that awesome. And he has, by his inheritance, obtained a more excellent name than they. And they have a good name. Cherubim and Seraphim. They have a good name.

But Jesus is better than. He is a son, and angels are just ministering servants. Now they exist. Angels exist, and they are ministering servants. And they, Hebrews says, are sent to take care of his people.

Jesus Christ though really is that awesome. Angels are messengers. And the message that the angels carry is this, Jesus Christ really is that awesome. I think that's it. You all participated well.

Is that the last slide, Blake? Josh? It is. Would you all stand with us? We're going to sing another hymn, another Christmassy song, I imagine.

Yeah. Good news of great joy.

Good news of great joy. This is the Sunday of joy. If you recognize that Christ really is that awesome, when people say, well, Jesus was a good moral teacher, but he wasn't never claimed to be the son of God. They're not reading their Bible. Okay?

Jesus Christ really is as awesome that the whole world is celebrating two thousand years later. Every tribe, tongue, and nation will worship around this throne. You're a part of something that is huge, and it's all because Jesus Christ really is that awesome. Let's sing. Good one.

I don't always know what the benediction's gonna be, but this is great. Because Jesus Christ really is that awesome. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all of your cares upon him because he cares for you. He is that awesome and he cares for you. Lord, would you extend your loving care through us to others?

In Jesus' name, amen. Remember remember connect hour down the hall and say

hi