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Speaker 2Worship God. I keep thinking about the, Matthew chapter two and the, the wise men, they come before Jesus. And, what other response is it that they have other than that to worship him? To kneel before him, to give him praise. So let's do that this morning, shall we?
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Let's sing. We'll bring him all the glory.
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Speaker 1Amen. Woah. Good morning. I'm glad that y'all are all here this morning. Y'all can be seated.
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I'm going to do a few announcements and then I'll give you a chance to stretch your legs, get up, and wander around and greet people but I've just got a couple that are on the list. Should be one about the Cantata choir practice. If you didn't know, the choir is doing more or less a traditional Christmas cantata. It'll have the traditional Christmas story embedded in it and it is beautiful. The music is fun.
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It's fun to sing and I think it'll be fun to listen to. So, if you want to come out for the choir cantata, that's tomorrow night but if you're in it, please come this afternoon and we're going to polish things up for the last time before just after 11:00 service. The Solid Rock Youth having a Christmas party tonight. It's at 05:30. Woo hoo.
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They got together yesterday and they handed out cocoa and candy canes and whatnot on the square and that was a big time. And Conway was there helping, dressed up in his Santa suit. But the Solid Rock Youth Christmas Party tonight at 05:30. Come be a part of that. Christmas Katata already mentioned, candlelight service too.
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That'll be tomorrow twice, five and 06:30 in the evening. Five is kinda early. If you wanna get out and get your presents unwrapped and everything on Christmas Eve, please come to the early but five and 06:30. We are gonna have a baby dedication too right after after the last closing hymn. That will be your benediction.
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We'll bless these two families and bless the babies and hopefully bless y'all as you leave with the benediction over that. And this week, we are lighting the advent candle of love. Krista Nethercott in the room. There you are. I'm going to invite Krista and Cole and the Nethercotts to come forward right now.
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We'll light the advent candle of love. Here it comes. Amen. You got it. Thank you very much.
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The advent candle of love. Thank you, Nethercotts. Now, would y'all all stand back up and you may welcome and greet each other and Carla bring you back around with some music in a minute. Good morning.
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Speaker 3Name and to
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Speaker 2to come before you this morning and worship you. Bow down before you and lord, let it just be our pleasure to do so. And You can be seated. I'd like to ask the offering team to come forward here as we enter into the worship of giving. Isaiah nine six says that for us for to us a child is born, to us a son is given.
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That's pretty awesome. We have been given the greatest gift that ever could be given. We've been given the gift of Jesus Christ, which means we've been given the gift of forgiveness. We've been given the gift of hope. We've been given the gift of joy.
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We've been given the gift of love. We've been given the gift of peace. We've been given so much. So just like the the wise men came before Jesus in Matthew chapter two and and and just offered their gifts to Jesus. May we do the same, not just not just tithes and offerings, but really our our adoration, our worship, our praise toward him because he's given us the greatest gift that anyone could ever give.
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Let's pray together. Lord, you are so good to have given us your son, and I pray God that there would be a lot of joy in us for that reason. That we'd be joyful givers in response to the greatest gift that we could ever receive. We thank you for your son, Jesus. It's in his name that we pray.
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Amen.
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Speaker 3Simple words falling down like gentle drops of rain pierce my heart burn my soul speak in hope again your simple words oh there they're falling down like gentle drops of rain they pierce my heart and they they burn my soul because you're you're speaking hope again when you speak lord all all time stands still and my my every storm I see your simple words oh my my heart's convinced they are heaven's greatest speak deep deep speak I'm listening speak speak I'm listening I'm waiting here in the dark I know your light will shine when words of truth appears the dark bringing hope again when you speak lord all all time stands still and my my every storm I see your simple words oh my my heart's convinced they are heaven's great when you speak lord all all time stands still and my my every storm my my your simple words oh my my heart's convinced they are heaven's great your the
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Speaker 1your
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Speaker 3burn my soul because you're you're speaking hope again pierce my heart burn my soul speak your hope again
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Speaker 1Thank you. Amy. Thank you, Amy. Carl and the rest of the band too. This morning, when I got up, I had not expected run around, getting ready, everything I walk out and there was about, I don't know what y'all estimated at.
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I'm a southern evangelical. I'll say six, eight inches, maybe a foot but it was it was kind of about six inches of snow. It's about like that. Maybe five inches of snow. Anyway, a once in a lifetime event.
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It was not. Here, we've had several of those events over the last little while. I want to talk about a once in a lifetime event from Galatians four, second Corinthians two, eight, and nine but I want to do it with one other familiar verse too. Y'all can turn to it. They'll be up on the screen if you want to turn to feel free but before I start, does anybody know what this is?
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Y'all can yell it out. This is not just a monologue. Y'all can y'all can yell it out. It's a satellite image but where is it? This little doodad have a doodad.
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That that is the Gulf Coast and that or that probably that is the mouth of the Rio Grande. These are clouds. Let me let me zoom in. How about this? Does that help?
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Because those are palmetto bushes and those are palm trees and that is snow. So, this is a satellite image of snow in the Rio Grande Valley and it happened on Christmas Eve in 2004. Is that ridiculous? It had not snowed in recorded history. They started keeping records on stuff like this in eighteen seventies.
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It had never snowed down there. Ever. And Brownsville right up in here was covered. Three and a half, four inches deep and that's not my estimation. That's the actual weather service.
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Victoria, Texas which is further up in here just South of Houston. It's an hour and a half south of Houston. They had 14 inches of snow on Christmas Eve two thousand four. It's ridiculous. That is a once in a lifetime event.
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They dubbed it the Christmas miracle. People took pictures and sent them to the newspaper. The newspaper got so many pictures that they published a book, Miracle of Christmas Snow. It was a once in a lifetime event. We got almost that.
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We got more snow than that last night here but this is normal for here. That was not normal there. We lived there for seven years and on Christmas Eve night, it snowed. So, that is a big picture right there. Satellite image, big picture.
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That's what we're looking at. It's hard to tell what it is unless you know it's hard to tell what it's about. This morning, we're going to look at those three verses I was talking about but they're big picture Christmas verses. They're not small picture verses. Carl was alluding to the wise men in every single one of those songs whether you thought it was a Christmas song or not was about worshiping Jesus.
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This morning, I want to talk about a very special clause. Not that one. It's a very special clause. Yes. It's not going to be Santa or missus clause.
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Y'all know that I'm a grammar nut. I've admitted it. I've done penance for it. A very special kind of clause with an E on the end. It this is a very special kind of clause and I'm going to highlight it in those three big picture Christmas verses.
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You might not think of them as Christmas verses but it's very helpful to see the scope. That satellite image is beautiful as it was with the horizon and all the atmosphere and everything you could see. It could help you see the scope of that snowfall. The clause that I'm talking about, my Greek went went bye bye in the in the slide translation. The clause that I want to discuss this morning is called a henna.
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Henna clause. Henna pronounced like henna tattoos but it doesn't have anything to do with the tattoos. The Henna clause in Greek is a, this is ridiculous. I know I'm a grammar nut. The Henna clause plus the subjective mood has a very specific purpose.
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Very very I know it's funny. I just see people start to smile when I talk about grammar. There's a very specific purpose. It generally shows purpose for an action or result of an action or in many biblical cases, it's both purpose and result because we know that God is all powerful and he's almighty and that which he purposes will come to pass. So, it can be both.
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In the case of God, it can be both purpose and result. So, we're going to look at it. The henna clauses in these three because it gives us the structure and it'll talk about what Christmas is about, what he came to do. So, starting with Galatians four. Galatians four four and five.
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We did Galatians series not long back and touched on this verse but we went past it in kind of a hurry but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. But when the fullness of time had come The reason they dubbed that whole thing a Christmas miracle was because it was on Christmas Eve. If it had snowed on, you know, January 14 or something, nobody would have been talking about miracles and they wouldn't have probably published a book about it but it was the fullness of time. It was it matters when events happen in history. If you get events out of order, they don't matter nearly as much.
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If you have things that fall into place, that's what's happening and God knows the fullness of time and just in the fullness of time. God sent forth his son. That's the Christmas part. Born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law and then the Hena clause. So that, that's what Hena is translated into in English.
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It's the so that and it's great for people who are preaching. It's great for people who are studying the Bible because you don't have to wonder why he did it. He tells us exactly why he did this and he said, so that we might receive adoption as sons. I'll come back to the might but the so that is very very important. If you look at the structure of the verse, it's very much like this next one.
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Second Corinthians eight nine, It has an opening clause there. It says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor. That's what that light of the world you stepped out in the darkness. Open my eyes, made me see. That's what that song is about.
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It's the fact that that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor. So that through his poverty, you might become rich. Now, there's a henna clause in that one too. They're actually, they're actually two hennas in there. This, that, I'm going to do this.
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That right there, that is ridiculous and I love grammar so much. That is in a positive henna. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and then that first that is like an equal sign. You know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ equal to he was rich but for your sake, he became poor. My brother, bless his heart, loves this acronym.
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I've mentioned it a couple times here, grace. God's riches at Christ's expense. God's riches at Christ's expense. The grace is that he was rich yet for our sake became poor. Now, immediately when I think, when I say rich, what do we think of?
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Yeah, there you go. Thank you. Somebody's honest. That's right. We normally think money.
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Okay, if I were to throw up slide of cheesecake and say, what's the first word that comes to your mind? Rich. Rich. It's very rich. Sometimes, it's so rich that it's too much for one person and you have to end up getting two forks, three forks, spreading it around a little bit.
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The richness is too much. Jesus Christ being God and being eternal since before we can even think of the beginning. He was rich. But he left that and he came to be born in the traditional Christmas story just in the stable, manure, smells of animals. This is what he was born into.
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He was rich yet for your sake, for my sake, for our sake. He became poor. Why did he do it? The hentaclause. Thank goodness.
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There's that hentaclause plus this revunctive mood. So that you through his poverty might become rich. So, do you notice there's a similar structure? God acted in the front half so that you might enjoy a specific blessing. God acted or God gave maybe better for Christmas.
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God gave something or gave something up so that henna, so that you might receive a blessing. You get that? That's two verses and there's another one that's right on the heels of this one that's exactly the same sort of structure. If you'll notice, The first part of the statement is absolutely certain. In the verb tense is looking at it, God did something.
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There's no doubt about it what he did. He's very specific in both of those verses and one of them it says, when the fullness of time come, God sent forth his son to redeem. That's what he did. He sent forth to redeem. He sent forth Jesus to redeem and then the second verse it says, that though he was rich, he became poor.
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So, he gave something up for us. God acted so that you might enjoy a specific blessing. I'm going to go left like the basketball coach says. The Henticlaws tells us though why he acted. God acted so that you might enjoy a specific blessing.
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The so that you might enjoy specific blessing. That's that clause. But does the might bother anyone? Have I been sitting here standing up here talking to you going, he's getting really really excited about something but there's still a kind of a might that's just hanging out there. That's the subjunctive and this is another ridiculous grammar explanation and I realize it but it matters.
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Words matter. If our constitution were not well written, it would not have lasted. That make sense? If it didn't say what it meant and we can debate what it says based on the grammar but you gotta base it on something. You gotta base it.
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Words mean something. Contrary to the postmodern notion that I mean whatever you want them to mean. No. Words mean something. They really do mean something.
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So, the might is in there for a very specific reason. The subjunctive mood is disappearing in English. It's just completely disappearing in English and there are several grammarians. I could see your heads bobbing. They're lamenting the fact that we no longer use the subjunctive properly in English but in Spanish, Ay, Caramba.
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That's the hardest part of learning Spanish is understanding and learning the subjective. It's the hardest part of learning any language and the reason is because let me just do the big picture on this too. Usually, it's because there's more than one will involved. If I say, I'm going to go to the store. I can speak with fairly fairly definitely about what I'm going to do because it's my will involved.
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You know, I might hit a blizzard in between but normally, I'm going to go to the store. I can say that. If I think, I want for Carl to go to the store. I would like for you to go to the store but that would in there subjective. It gives a little space for Carl's will to get involved.
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Does that make sense? Yes, it's the hardest part to learn in any language. I know that but there is something that that we used to say in English and if you ever watch any of those old movies, Tanya mentioned Pride and Prejudice, any of those where they're saying shall all the time. Shall we do this? May we, might we?
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There's always that in there. This is that kind of might. It's not that it might happen. I don't know. Maybe.
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Could. Maybe not. The might is a question of the will of the one that might receive the blessing. That make sense? I hope it does.
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This sounded so good in my head. Let me explain it with another another one. Well, that was the quick note on the subjunctive, subjunctive mood actually, not tense. This is a very familiar verse. Y'all all know this verse.
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It's very familiar. Indeed, God loved the world. He acted In such a way as this that he gave, he acted. He gave his one and only son so that there's Yohima. Why did he do that?
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So that whoever is putting their trust in him might not perish but might be having eternal life. My orange is not showing up all that well but you can see the so that and the mites. This verse is laid out exactly the same way. Paul did those other two verses. This one's John.
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We've been in a study on John for the past few weeks. Indeed, God loved the world in such a way as this that he gave his one and only son so that he gave definitely, certainly, that was act in the past. No doubt about that action. He did it and he did it with intent and his intent was that whoever puts their trust in him might not perish but might have a lesson in life and I'm not talking the might like it might happen or it might not happen. It's going to happen.
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What matters on this one is the putting their trust in him. That putting their trust in him makes it definite as to whether it might or might not happen. Does that make sense to you? Are you following me? Are you picking up what I'm putting down?
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Yes. Okay. Alright. When I said that it's the subjective mood is disappearing in English. For one thing, our society is becoming less and less and less civil.
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We care less and less and less about the will of another. I'm I might cry. In Spanish, when you're praying and you're learning to, you're learning this language and even in English when we do it, we still hold on to some of this. When you pray, God, please, would you do such and such? It's not would like asking a question, it is, Is this your will?
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I want this, but it's if it's your will, it's leaving some space for the will of the other. In Spanish, when you're praying, that's one of the hardest things for me to remember. You have to change over and use different verb endings and everything else but the reason is because you're leaving space for the other And in our society, we have gotten less and less and less civil. I'm afraid to say that in politics it's become more and more and more polarized and we're less likely to listen to the views of the others. And that's very difficult and it shows up in the way that we speak.
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The might could be translated would and it's usually translated this familiar verse is usually translated this way. It's exactly the same thing. It's just that through the unconventional language to make you think about it a little more. For God so loved the world in such a way as this is that so. That he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish.
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That shall is the same subjunctive deal. It's the same kind of thing. But it's dependent upon what that whoever believes. I've all I've when I've stood up here before in the past, lots of times, I've said it is a very real invitation. It's a very real invitation of God.
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He has made an offer. He's property. He's put it on the table and it's a very real whosoever and people will debate this or that. This verse says it so many different ways that the whoever believes in him shall not, would not, might not. All of those things say, it is a question of your will.
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Are you willing to align your own will with the will of God? We know from Peter that it's not God's will that any should perish but that all would come to know him. So, aligning your will with God's it gets the might out of the question. The might that's so bothersome, it removes that. To as many as believed, this is John one twelve.
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To as many as believed, God gave them the right to be called childrens of God even to those who believe. He's not just the ones who have done it in the past but it's all of them who will do it into the future. John says, John one hundred twelve and thirteen. As I thought about this, I I I kept coming back to something that CS Lewis said, and this is it wasn't written in Greek so I can't say it's a henna clause but it's exactly the same structure and it sheds light on something. If you haven't ever thought about it this way, the son of God became a son of man.
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In order that the sons of men might become. The sons of God. With the lack of civility that I was talking about just a minute ago, this is something that I I I'm I hesitate to say because it's so it's hard to express this. That might there, he has done all that he can do for you. He's done everything that he can do to get you.
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He's made the way in Jesus. He's given you his word. He's given you all that he can and he's expecting from you a step of faith. He's accepting from you to put your trust, to place your trust but he's done what he needed to do. That's the deal at Christmas.
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That's the big picture. If you look back at those verses again, Galatians four, when the fullness of time had come, timing is very very important. He gave Jesus at exactly the right time. During the Pax Romana, he gave him an exactly the right place. All of those roads, all of those ways for the gospel to spread.
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He he removed him from the situation. Carl preached on Monday night about the Herod wanting to attack and kill the baby Jesus before he got grown, and he provided him with the means that the wise men brought along to be able to get to Egypt and get back from Egypt. All the fullness of time, I've been thinking about the fullness of time today in this way. This is the day that God has made. Let us rejoice.
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Let us be glad in it. Today is the day of salvation. Today, a savior is born. When the fullness of time had come and why was he born to redeem those who are under the law? That is every single one of us and why?
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So that we might adoption as sons. His one and only son, his one and only special his only son, the only begotten of the father, now has made a way for him to have many children of God. But as many as receiving, he gave the right. To those who believe in his name. There's no henna clause right there.
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There's nothing. It says, to those who have believed, as many as have received him, that's the definite action from the first part of the verse but in this case, it's us. It's people. As many as received, if we have done that, he has done something very certain to you. He's given them the right to become children of God even to those who believe in his name.
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So, the might. I'm going to extend the invitation today but rather than, well, I know it's a short sermon. I'm going to extend an invitation today for you to just where you are sitting. Consider this question, might you believe today and therefore, receive the blessing of Christmas that God has purposed in the fullness of time. Might you?
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Would you? Should you? I pray that you will but it is not a question of my will. It's not even at this point a question of God's will except that yours could align with his. Might you believe today?
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I'll flip back to that slide. I don't think it's ever going to happen again. Maybe it will. That snowstorm in South Texas but becoming born again is a once in a lifetime event. Carl, would you all come on back up?
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Now, I'm going to extend the invitation beyond the song today. Beyond like the time when we're usually up here and I'd like to have a couple of people stand too. If you're an elder in this church, would you stand? Martin, we've had a couple of folks that and Doug, we've had a couple of folks that called in this morning and said they are stuck and could not get out. Gary, would you mind standing too?
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Gary Geek, Doug Wacham, Martin Murphy. I'm going to extend an invitation to any of you who would like to discuss this possibility further. The might of salvation. If you would do or doing an honest self evaluation and you're looking and you don't know whether you've ever done that before. If you would just get in touch with one of these guys in between this service and the next service or with me or with Carl and we'd love to talk to you about it.
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I'm not going to ask you to walk the aisle. Come on down. If you want to, I'm right here. But I'm not going to ask you to do that. But we're going to do one more song.
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Go Tell It on the Mountain and then I'm going to ask the Dale Bouts and the Hoovers if they'd come up and we're going to do a baby dedication. It's also a once in a lifetime event. So let's sing it.
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Speaker 2Would you stand with me? And just like Ray said, God has done everything on his part. What step will we take then? Will we receive? Another question is, will will we share?
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That's just as important.
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Speaker 1Amen. Can I get the Hoovers and the Dale Bouts to come on up and y'all can be seated, the rest of you? It's a good time of year to do this because families gather at this time of year. So, this is Hey, is that too much cuteness or what? My goodness.
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That is something. Sweet, sweet, little baby girls and this is Liv and Shaila Delbelt and this is Kyle and Megan Hoover and the ones who are on show right now are Sawyer Rose Hoover and Layton Shyla Delbout. So, I'm going to ask you, brothers and sisters, and I'm going to stick close to the script. Whenever you're working with children or dogs, always stay really close to the script. Brothers and sisters, today, these parents come bringing these little girls, Sawyer Rose and Layton Shiloh, acknowledging and professing their dependence on God, the Lord, to raise their child.
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Parents, do you come professing Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of your lives? You may respond what we do.
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Speaker 3We do.
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Speaker 1Alright. And do you come to dedicate yourselves to the biblical instruction, discipline, and love of this child? And do you come dedicate both Sawyer Rose and Layton Shiloh into the ultimate control and will of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Fantastic. Now, church, Do you agree to support these parents and as much as you are able, some are not close by.
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Y'all are from Bozeman, some are. By your loving example through acts of service, do you agree to reinforce the biblical instruction, discipline, and love of Sawyer Rose and Layton Shiloh. And love of this and and their love under the supreme rule of Lord Jesus Christ. If so, you may signify by standing. I'm going to read a blessing from scripture that is the hero Israel.
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You'll hear it sometimes called and I'm going to just say, here, oh church. Here, oh church, the Lord our God is one lord and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and these words which I command to you this day should be in your heart and you should teach them diligently unto Sawyer Rose, Layton Shiloh, and your children, and shall talk of them when you sit down, when you stand up, when you're in your house, and when you're walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up, and you should bind them on as a sign upon the hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall write them on the post of your house and on the gates. Train up a child in the way that he should go or she should go. And when she is old, she will not depart from it. Let's pray.
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Father, we bring these two little girls to you with all our heart, soul, and our might. Their parents want to raise these children to love you and serve you and serve others. Please help us as a congregation and help the parents that will set the right example for this child, for these children, and that these children would love you and serve you throughout their lives. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.
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Amen. Thank you all so much.
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Speaker 3Thank you very much.
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Speaker 1Thank you. And y'all are dismissed. God bless you this week. Please do come back tomorrow night for the Christmas cantata, five and 06:30. Thank you.
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May God bless and merry Christmas. I'm pretty free.
