Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Brian: We have another candle to light.
Jacque: Yes.
Brian: Do you know what that one is? It's the purple candle. Even though I'm color blind, they almost all look the same to me. I know there is significance in purple. Purple is a color that represents what? Do you know what it represents? Royalty, yeah. It represents royalty. Even for Elmer Fudd, it's important. It represents royalty. There are a number of players in the Christmas story that are actually connected to... That's a big one. It took off there for a second, a number of players in the Christmas story that are connected to royalty. We don't always think of them as royalty, but they were; like Caesar. Caesar was the top dog in Rome. They didn't call him king; they call him Caesar because he actually thought he was God. There are kings who don't actually think they are God. There are many that think of themselves as God's representatives, which in some sense it is. They are.
I think because of some of the Christmas carols that we've sung through the years, we associate the wise men with being three kings, we three kings, not three we-kings. We three kings, we connect them with royalty as well. They brought gold, frankincense and myrrh. They had some monetary strength to them. I think the real term is magi, wise men, scholars from a far country along distance ways away. It's another beautiful connection thing that we can learn about God is that Jesus came for the whole world. Part of that whole story is represented in that people from a different culture, in a different maybe way of thinking, maybe different religious background or whatever came to worship him because they saw the sign in the heavens. We saw his star in the east. We saw his star.
Another guy that we don't often think of as royalty, but in a sense he was, was Herod. He lived in a palace and so forth. He was kind of a ruthless guy. I don't if you know this, but the Romans, Caesar had kind of a little slogan that he said about Herod. He said it was better to be Herod sow than his son. The reason for that is that he killed the number of his sons who he thought were trying to take over the throne. He actually killed his favorite wife because he felt she was trying to undermine his rulership. This reputation got back to Rome to Caesar. Caesar basically started to say it was safer to be his sow, a pig than his wife or son.
We also have another person who really is royalty. That of course, is the main player in the Christmas story; that's Jesus. He was a king who became an infant, a baby infant king. When we think of royalty, the whole ultimate goal of the advent of Christ was to make a way for you and me to become part of God's Royal priesthood. I would like to read a scripture, have Jacque read a scripture. We find it in 1 Peter, chapter 2 verse 9. Why don't you read it, sweetie? This talks about God's heart for us to be this royal priesthood,
Jacque: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Brian: Have you ever had something that you thought of as a very special possession? Oftentimes, it's not necessarily something that was the most valuable piece of property or whatever that you owned. It might be something that just had an emotional connection to some significant event or person in your life. In this particular case, God calls us his special possession. That's how he feels about us. I hesitate to do this, but it's almost like the Lord of the Rings, my precious. The problem with the precious in that scenario is it created all sorts of problems for the people who own the ring. I would probably say that we, as God's possession have created all sorts of problems for God too; haven't we? Yet he looks at us as this very, very special possession. I would like to read this portion, go a little bit further down to verse 12 and read it in the Message Bible now, and kind of keep this in mind that God's heart for us was to be grafted into his family, so we could become the royal family, and being part of this royal family, we would also be part of this royal priesthood. Eugene Peterson really does a great job of describing this.
Jacque: But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy temple, God's instruments to do God's word and speak out for him to tell others of the night and day difference he made for you from nothing to something; from rejected to accepted.
Brian: Let's just pause here for a second. God's heart is for us to experience so deeply that our response would be like the disciples when they were forbidden to talk about Jesus. What was their response after the resurrection? They said, 'We can't help but do it right. I mean, I can't keep my mouth shut.' I can guarantee you something; if the Minnesota Vikings ever won the Super Bowl, nobody in Minnesota would keep their mouth shut about that. This is so much greater than that for Minnesotans. He says he has made us from nothing into something, from rejected into accepted. He wants you and me to tell other people about that; for what reason? So that they can experience the same thing we've experienced. Let's go on.
Jacque: Continue.
Brian: Yeah.
Jacque: Friends, this world is not your home, so don't make yourself cozy in it.
Brian: Do you ever find yourself trying to make this world our home? Don't we all? We just want to hang on, don't we? We want to hang on to our worldly possessions and not be generous with them because we think that... It's not true that man who dies with the most toys wins. No, the man who dies with the most toys dies. They still die. I'm not saying that we should be bad stewards of the things that God has given to us. We should obviously be good stewards over the things that God has given to us, but I just feel like it's so easy, myself included, to be sucked into wanting to be great in this world, rather than being in a sense, great in the kingdom of God. They are not the same thing. They are not the same thing. Let's not make ourselves so cozy. Let's not make our lives end and goal to just be cozy in this world. Let's go on,
Jacque: Keep the future in mind to make the right choices now.
Brian: Very good.
Jacque: Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Wow, that's something. That's something.
Brian: How many of us like to indulge our ego? Let's all raise our hands. Our egos can be fragile and we need to pamper them at times, but there is a place where we have to really feed the spirit, not just the ego part of man.
Jacque: And remember that I'm living here for Jesus's sake.
Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Let's go on.
Jacque: Living exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they will be one over to God's side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.
Brian: Again, here is the whole thrust again, of just sharing the wonderful, good news of what Jesus has done and what he has to offer for us. I can guarantee you, my friends, it doesn't come by judging somebody else, and it's not going to happen by us holding up signs that says God hates them. It just doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. There are so many wonderful things to learn about our father in heaven and about life itself. We can learn many of those even through the Christmas story. There are obviously thousands of other sources as well. One of the revelations from God that I find very attractive about God's nature, we find it in the Christmas story; we find it in the story of the magi- for they traveled from a faraway land.
When I think of a faraway land, I think of the story of the prodigal, where the son demanded his inheritance; the father capitulated, gave it to him, and he went to a distant country. He went to a distant country, and there he squandered it all. When I think of a distant country or far away land, I think of that kind of condition that the prodigal found himself in. We see that these magi, although they weren't prodigal in the sense of the protocol, they were from a distant country. They were from a distant land. They were not from the culture of Jesus. They weren't from the culture of the Jewish tradition, yet they had in their hearts, which is something that we can learn from this. In the heart of every person, no matter what culture they are born into, no matter what heritage they come from, no matter what color their skin is, no matter where they were born and raised on the face of this earth, there is a part of their heart that wants to worship God. There is a part of their heart that has a need to be connected to their creator. I find the players of the magi, shall we say, if you really look at it closely, this is one of the things that God is trying to get through to us today, that this gospel truth and this gospel story and this birth of Jesus was for all people.
He will save what? His people from their sins. Wow, this wonderful gift of Jesus. There is another aspect I would like to kind of focus in on this morning of the Christmas story that comes under what I would call the category or the heading of what could have been; what could have been. Do you ever reflect back on circumstances or situations, or maybe even your life, and you think what would have happened if I would have done this or what would have happened if I wouldn't have done that? What could have been? God doesn't want us to live in regret. Let me just make that clear. God doesn't want us to live in regret. When we think of our past, we need to be grateful that God has brought us to where we are at.
I want us to just look at a player and what could have been for them in the Christmas story. That player is the innkeeper. The innkeeper could have witnessed a birth of Jesus Christ. Just think about that. The innkeeper could have really witnessed, been a real part of the birth of Christ. All he needed to do was make room. That's all he needed to do, make some room for this young couple from Nazareth, but he didn't. We see these very sad words, I think found in Luke chapter 2, verses 6 and 7. Let's read it here.
Jacque: While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them.
Brian: There is a lot left unsaid in this portion of scripture, isn't there? There is a lot left unsaid. There are a lot of things that weren't said in this passage. We actually know nothing about the innkeeper. We actually know nothing about the inn itself. My guess is it was probably like what we would call a hostile today. I don't think it was like a Ramada. I don't think they had like 1B, 2B, 3B or whatever, or 13 stories to it. Obviously, that wasn't what it was like. What we do know, however, we do know that the innkeeper did not invite Mary and Joseph into the place that he was providing lodging for. Obviously, the census that was required by Caesar turned this little Hamlet, Bethlehem, quiet little town into a boon town when Mary and Joseph had showed up.
Every room, every closet were occupied. Cots and mats were probably lined the hallways. Roll ways, if they had such a thing back then, were probably all strewn out all over the place. There was no spot for them. The place was obviously very crowded, yet, if you were, I would have been there. I would like to think that a young woman about to give birth would have been given a spot for that to happen for her. I would have thought, at least I would hope that I would have been willing to give up my room for this young girl who was very close to delivering this child to have a place to do it in. Maybe there were other reasons why the innkeeper turned the parents of Jesus away. Maybe there was prejudice involved. Prejudice isn't something that just happens and happened in our country in the last 300 or 400 years. Nazareth of course was the other side of the tracks town. Nazareth was a very poor part of Israel.
It wasn't the affluent place of Israel to come from. In fact, there was a saying, ‘can anything good come from Nazareth?’ Interesting, can anything good come from Nazareth? That was one of the other stereotypes said Jesus had to overcome because he was a Nazarene. He was from Nazareth, and people said nothing good can come from Nazareth. Nothing good can come from Nazareth. So there was prejudice. Maybe there was prejudice involved, or what if the innkeeper thought 'she is going to have a baby boy; that can be a loud thing. I've heard women scream when they are having babies. We certainly don't want to bother the guests that night with screaming woman, so we've got to find someplace far away for her'. Or ‘babies, they make a lot of noise, don't they? Our guests, they need to get their peace and quiet.’ This is a motel, this isn't a maternity ward.
There are all sorts of reasons that I'm sure when that knock came on the door from Mary and Joseph to the innkeeper's place of residence, there were all sorts of reasons that went into his mind as to why he was able to say, no. I've often thought that, I wonder if Mary and Joseph, if they would've showed up with an entourage of camels and trumpeters and herolders and servants and everything else, I wonder if the innkeeper would have made room for them. I wonder if it was like Queen Elizabeth or Queen Mary or one of the queens that we are familiar with, if they would have just showed up, I wonder if the innkeeper would say no room for you. I doubt it very much. I doubt it very much. I think there could have been found a place for them to be there, but instead Mary and Joseph showed up with just a few piece of cloth, maybe to wrap Jesus in. I'm not sure they actually had real good blankets back in the day, comforters. You can go to any store nowadays and get the softest, nice little things. We looked at a couple yesterday. We were attempted to buy them, even though we have like 60 of them in our house. Well, not quite that many.
Jacque: Another soft throw.
Brian: Yes, another soft one. I wonder if they would have received a warmer welcome. The innkeeper missed the opportunity of a lifetime, didn't he? He missed the opportunity of a lifetime. Today many still miss the opportunity of a lifetime. They miss the chance to open the door when the door is being knocked on. They let the birth of Jesus passed them by. I want to encourage you today. Maybe you just turned on this broadcast to see what we still look like. I encourage you to open the door to Jesus today. The miracle of Bethlehem still happens. God enters the sleepy hamlets of our lives, and he wants to speak to us. He wants to speak to us. He speaks to us through the scriptures, the wonderful word of God that never changes. I can tell you something; I have never read the scriptures and got discouraged.
There are other things I've done that I got discouraged. I've read financial reports, even our own financial reports at times from our church and get discouraged. I've read the newspaper, get discouraged, listen to the news, even watch some movies that left me anxious and angry. Even though it's fiction, I'm still angry. Why do they write such stupid stuff? But I've never read the scriptures and find myself discouraged. The word of God brings life to us, doesn't it? There is life in the word. Isn't that something? Don't we want to like really live? Don't we really want to enjoy life? You would think that we would go to the word of God more often to get life from it, to saturate ourselves with it. God speaks to us through the scriptures. He speaks to us through sunsets. He speaks to us through rainbows. Every time there is a rainbow, God is knocking on people's hearts who see that rainbow. He speaks to us through friends. He speaks to us through Christmas carols, if we are willing to actually listen and meditate on the lyrics of those Christmas carols, other than grandma got hit by a reindeer or something like that.
Jacque: That's not a Christmas carol.
Brian: That's right; that's not a Christmas carol.
Jacque: But you played a Holy Night, and that line came to me- He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
Brian: And then a weary world rejoiced.
Jacque: I'm just back on the last line- he appeared and the soul felt its worth. I heard the best quote today- Jesus coming explains our life.
Brian: Yeah. Say that again.
Jacque: Jesus coming, Jesus explains our life.
Brian: Yeah, he gives meaning, right?
Jacque: And how loved we are and how much we are worth, because God would send Jesus and Jesus would come for you.
Brian: Yeah. Amen.
Jacque: Just for the individual. I don't know how many times I've heard, even as a child, if there was only one person on earth, Jesus would have come. That's how much he loves the individual.
Brian: We can drive around this time of year and we can see Christmas lights. I really believe every time someone looks at a Christmas light God is trying to knock on their heart. God's trying to knock on their heart.
Jacque: The beauty in this world, if we can just stop and see. Stop, that's the key. He is talking to us all the time. I need to stop and listen and watch.
Brian: He is saying here I am. That's what he is saying. He is saying here I am. I'm right here. As pastor Jeff said, Emmanuel, God here with us. Here with us, God is. I'm right here, he says. I'm actually knocking on the door of your heart. That's what God is doing. Sometimes the knock is so faint that we are tempted to ask the question, did you hear something? Did you hear something? When Jesus comes and knocks on the door of your heart, it's not like when the ATF shows up and bashes in your door, because they are doing a whole search. That's not how Jesus shows up. He doesn't show up with one of these big things that knock your door in. He just gently knocks on the door of your heart. That's why we miss it. That's why we miss it. Sometimes we hear that knock, and we are just about to put our hand on the door knob and open the door and the phone rings.
Jacque: We get a text.
Brian: We get a text, or the list of things that we made yesterday now pops into our mind, and the alarm goes off that these things need to be done. I have to do the laundry or the grass needs cutting, or in this time of the year, the sidewalk needs shoveling. The timer goes off reminding us of something else that needs to be done. The fact of the matter is life is crowded, isn't it? Life is crowded. It's hectic. It's beyond busy people say, how are you doing? I know you are so busy, and my standard response is everybody is busy.
Jacque: So many distractions.
Brian: So many distractions; people will call me say, I'm sorry to bother you. I know you are busy. I say, everybody is busy. I'm not the only busy guy in the world. Everybody is busy. We all have more than we can do. We all have more than we can do. And then Jesus comes to us, not with a list of all the things that we have to do. He comes to us with the list, but that list is of all the things that he has already done for you and for me; what he has already done and what he is willing to do. There are people in this season of COVID that are concerned about dying, and he has got that already on the list. He says death has been defeated. Your appointment with this life's end is not the end because he has defeated that. He has defeated that. When you come to him with the list of your failures and your sins and all the things that have kept you in your mind from God, he says, they are all forgiven. That's what's on his list. All your sins are forgiven.
When you come to him with fears and what's tomorrow going to bring, and how is this going to get paid or what are we going to do here? I don't know what to do, Father. When you come with him with all your fears, he will give you a courage and strength for the day ahead. When you come to him with questions, because we all have questions, why this? Why that? Why not this? Why not that? Do you know what he gives us? Guidance, he gives us direction on what to do when we have questions. There are times when we feel weighted down with burdens and he says, 'Hey, my yoke is easy. My yoke is easy. I'll help carry that for you.' When you are filled with sorrows, because of loss and disappointment, he will bring you joy. He promises you that his joy will be your strength. His joy will be your strength.
Jacque: I just got this in my mind this morning- Let the Prince of Peace give me his peace. He is the Prince of Peace. That's one of his names.
Brian: The piece accompanies him as he comes. Have you ever been around a happy guy, happy person? I like Shana Rutledge. I always say, how are you doing Shana? I'm happy. I love Shana.
Jacque: Since she was a child she has been like that.
Brian: Ever since she was a child. I'm happy. I'm happy. I say, "Can you just hang out with me for a little bit? I want to be around someone happy." Let some of that happiness rub up on me. When we have disappointments, and we all have disappointments, we all have delays and disappointments. In those times of delay and disappointments, he will bring you hope. He will bring you hope.
Jacque: I just said to the Lord this morning, I was thinking about something. I said, “How is this going to turn out?” Well, the answer is okay, just wait. Just wait.
Brian: And he says, "Well, I know how it's going to turn out."
Jacque: Can you tell me?
Brian: Can you tell me? No.
Jacque: Just trust.
Brian: Yeah, just trust.
Jacque: Oh, it's a good discipline.
Brian: It is. I know there are so many people, because I encounter them. We encounter them. They are broken, they are wounded, and they are without direction. So many people are tempted to say, it's too late for me. It's too late for me. I just want to say no, it isn't. No, it isn't. It's never too late for the arrival of Christ. It's never too late. That's what Mary Martha said, ‘It's too late, Jesus. If you would have been here, Lazarus wouldn't have died’, but it's never too late. Jesus showed that in the story of Mary and Martha.
We had an uncle that you and I visited the day before he died. We had prayed for him and loved him and talked to him about the Lord, and he just was never... He was like, it's too late for him. I remember thinking that at times, it's too late. And then God's spirit spoke to us and said, go see him, go see him. We went and I said to him, "Uncle, all you've got to do is say yes. Will you say yes today?" And he said yes. He said yes.
It's never too late. You will never be too old to say yes to Jesus. You will never be too messed up to be able to say yes. You will never be too worn out, too used up, too young, too broken. Will we be different than the innkeeper? Will we say yes to this Jesus? I realized some years back that God did not give me the job of screening the applicants of those who he is inviting. He didn't give me that job to screen the applicants of all those people whose doors that he is knocking on. Just say yes.
Let me tell you someone who I would have disqualified- the thief on the cross. Too late for him besides he is just been a thief he stolen from innocent people, yet Jesus said to him, one of the last words of Jesus ever spoke, "I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise." He said, yes. It's never too late to open the door to Christ. Your stack of sins is never too high. Your list of failures is never too long. That knock at the door of your heart, it's Jesus today. It's Jesus. I often think how the life of innkeeper would have been dramatically different. If when he heard that knock, he would have opened the door and said, 'I will find a place for you. I will find a place for you. We will find a place for you.'
Is there room in the end of your heart today? Is there a room? Will you say yes to the knock on the heart door? You may have said yes to Jesus in the past, and then your life got busy and there were more and more things that he wanted to do for you and with you, and you had just been too busy, too many distractions, too many other things. He is knocking today. This is the season where we can take our minds and grab a hold of the truth that Jesus is knocking on the door of a heart, and he wants you to open your heart to him today.
Jacque: I just want to encourage you along with me to take extra time this holiday season, to encounter God in new ways. There is no end to the depths that we go in relationship with God.
Brian: The pauses, like the one minute or three minute pauses are a great practice to do three, four, five, six times a day that keep that focus on letting our hearts to hear his knock and our souls to be open.
Jacque: Being, just be being with him.
Brian: Just being with him. Let's pray. Father, I thank you. I feel bad for the innkeeper, Lord. He missed out on so much. Your love for him didn't change. You loved him just as much after he said there was no room as you did before he said there was no room, but he missed out on so much. There was so much more that you had for him. I pray today that we wouldn't miss out on anything that you have for us as you knock on the door, Lord, of our hearts. May we truly finish the race well. May we run well, Lord with you. Let's not look back and say, man, I could have done this, I could have done that, I could have done this, but every day that you knock on the door of our heart, I pray that we will say, come on in, come on in. There is room for you today. There is room for you today.
Let's raise our hands together. Now may the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you his peace. When you hear that gentle knock, you open your heart's door and welcome in the savior and just be with him. This, we pray, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Before we leave today, I just want to give you all a special invitation to join us this coming Thursday at 4 o'clock in the afternoon for our Christmas Eve candlelight service. We will have some beautiful music. Some of the people who have been struggling with some COVID are coming out the back end of it now, and they are getting their health back and they will be singing on Thursday night. So we are excited about that. It's a wonderful time just to celebrate the birth of our Lord. If you are not in the Twin Cities area, tune us in on live stream. We will be doing this live stream as well, 4 o'clock this coming Thursday, Christmas Eve. Please join us. We will just celebrate the birth of Jesus together as he knocks on the door
Jacque: If 4 o'clock doesn't work, you can always catch it later on live stream. That's the beauty of live streams.
Brian: Yes, you can. God bless you. We love you all. If I don't see you Thursday, Merry Christmas; send us some Christmas greetings, those of you who are watching by live stream. We love you all. Thank you for being a part of this. Have a wonderful week. God bless you. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 12-20-20. If you would like to watch the full service, click one of the links below.