Advent: Love and Adoration
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· 10 viewsWe adore what we love. Our adoration for Christ is birthed in us as we consider his birth and his love is birthed in us
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning church it is a joy to be with you today. If you are watching from cove or online welcome. If you are here downtown I am really grateful you are here.
We continue our advent series this morning as we consider love and adoration at christmas
in week 1 we considered the hope we have at christmas, then 2 weeks ago we considered the peace we can have with God becasue of Jesus.
Last week we saw joy and how it’s not just a feeling but joy is found in the perosn of Jesus .
This week we are going to consider how the love of God births adoration in our hearts at christmas.
because ultimently we adore what we love.
to understand that’s statement a little more let’s define what it means to adore or have adoration for something.
in a one sense it’s defined as an attacement, an idolizaltion or even worship of something or someone.
and something we probalby all have in commmon today with one another is we have had things in our lives that we have idolized to the point of attachment or worship.
Some of those things can be really good things but given to much love and attention those things can be crushing
they are crusihgn becasue they can never bring the assurance and comfort our souls need the most in life.
At times in my life it’s been a sports team. Why I wouldn’t say I worshiped them outloud it’s probaly the best word
I was all in. There was an attachemtn. An time, and treasure I would put on my favorite sports team they could never deliver on.
I would be all in. I adored the players, the coaching staff, the lore of my team to a degree where when they won I was ok. When they lost or came close to losing I was crushed.
why? becasue we order what we love and I sure have loved my sports teams in ways and allowed them to have places in my heart they can never truly satisfy.
It’s not always a sports team for me. It’s a perfect vation, it’s status, it’s success…at times it’s been a marraige, a family, and all these things can be good.
but given the wrong wieght , the wrong love, the wrong adoration, each of those things can crush me.
and maybe that’s something we have in common this morning. Maybe like me there have been times in your life that your highest love and adoration has been mispleced.
my hope this morning as we consider the Christmas story again our love for Jesus and our adoraiton for him would be birthed a fresh and a new again.
because biblical adoration is worship of God alone.
that’s my hope and my heart for us this Christmas.
I think the way this happens is found in
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
it’s in considering the love of God and what he has done for us that we
stir up our hearts
as we consider Gods love I want us to
first I want to consider How Jesus came
second I want to consider why he came
and third I want to consider who he came for.
Ross shared this thought with me a few weeks ago thinking about love
“You measure love by the distance it travels and by much it gives “
and when we consider how Jesus came it’s hard for me not to think about this qoute.
We measure distance all the time. And distance can impact our decisions. We have maps and apps that tell us how far our destination is and how long it will take us to get there.
We have Races like the rocket city marathon that took place last week that have certian goals or makers that tell us when we have finished the race in front of us.
My daughters basketball team had some turnovers in a game last weekend. So her coach gave them a distance of 2.5 miles to allow them time and margin to think about not turning the ball over again.
and my daughter got to think about that when she came home and the next morning when her legs still hurt
I can remember years ago I had a fitbit. and it was when the technology first came out. and if you don’t know what a fitbit it it’s kind of like an apple watch
but the main puprpose was just to count steps
when it came out there was a neat little feature where you could compete with others to see who could get the most steps in a week.
there was a group of my peers I worked with at a church at the time where we would compete everyweek. And it got really intsenes
and it was really fun but proably didn’t get as much work done as we needed. But we were all chasing those badges and fake trophys so I guess we justified it
there was one guy no one could beat. He’d win everytime. But one week in febraruy I was close.
I knew I could beat him. I worked all week and we came down to the last day and we were neck and neck so I made a decision I wan to the only walking track in hampton cove at the time. The taylor raod walmart and was going walk until midnight to beat him.
It was the distance I was willing to travel to win the competation I loved.
As I walked around walmart and employees asked me for help I secretly knew they were cheering me on. And then for the last 5 minutes a song came on that inspired me. It was the song I would walk 500 miles
it’s a song about love
But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door
and it motvated me to finsih strong.
and we all know of love stories and moments of great distance traveld that move us inspire us and grab our hearts
well how Jesus came into the world can remind us of how he has loved us and how we can love and adore him
It’s what Paul writes about to the church at philipi
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The son had a destation and a distance he was going to travel. In his coming and leaving heaven we see the sacrifical love of the father for us and the muble willingness of Jesus to come.
and Jesus didn’t just do this because he saw something specail in us.
no it was becasue of something holy, and something pure inside of him.
when we think about the christmas story and we consider how Jesus came. The distance he traveld to show us love all self bosting is removed.
no one in all of history could earn this kind of gift. No one really even deserved for this distance to be traveled or this measure of love to be shown
but because of the charcher and nature of Christ this is exactly how he came.
and that can stir up hope inside of us this morning. Because Jesus was willing to come to this destation this place as a baby and take on human flesh
we have hope. This is the kind of leader we follow. This is the kind of God we worship.
Not one who comes on a chariot demending all to worship him but when who comes as a baby. To serve us. To expierence all we would expierence.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
To take on flesh and be like us.
FLESH HUMAN EXPIRENCE> Itsn’t that LOVE. TO say I am willing to go through every single thing you have gone through
To face all the challenges you face. To identify with you in this way
its what
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
and as the writer of hebrews reminds us. As we consider how Jesus came. HOw well he loves us we apporach his throne of gracce to love and adore him.
IT’s what considering how he came does in our hearts and lives
but not only should we consider how he came this morning
we need to conisder why he came
and in order to do that we have to go back to the beginning of the story
We see in Genesis God created and it was good. He created adam and eve in his own imagie. and they enjoyed a perfect relationship with God and with each other.
but then the fall happened
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
in chapter 2
we are told they were not ashmed or felt no shame
but becasue of sin shame enters the picture. and to cover their shame because of their sin they made a covering for themselves
once sin entered the picture the God they had so enjoyed they hid from becasue of fear
Adam tells God I hid from you becasue I was afraid.
but he was misunderstanding who God was again.
It’s why Jesus would come to deal even with this fear
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
it’s what God even begins to do in the garden. While adam and eve hid, God pursued.
and in their shame they tried to deal with it the only way they could. They made themselves a covering.
They sowed fig leaves together. It’s interesting right. Sin marred them. Sin touched them in ways they couldn’t explain and they tried on their own to fix thier problem
at best the fig leaves where a tempoary soultion to deal with the shame and guilt sin brought into their lives
eventually those leaves would wither and die. Exposing them again
and it’s proably something we have in common with them
that when sin enters our life shame can quickly follow.
and as shame exposes us we can be quickly to try to deal with this shame on our own. We become afaid of God and others and we put on our own fig leaves
(Illustration of fig leaves)
but at best our fig leaves wither and die
and we are exposed again. We need something better and so did adam and eve
In Gods love and kidness he provided something better for adam and eve
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
there was an animals blood shed and something more permant given to them. Something better for them
there was sacrifice but in Gods love he didn’t leave them to solve their problems on their own.
He as he alwasy would do in the futre provided something better
and moving forward as PDT says history continued to march toward the birth of Christ
it was part of Gods redemptive plan
later in the Old testament we are told that sacrifices of animals would be offered and made as an atoment and covering for sin
but all of this was pointing us towards something greater, something more amazing, something more beatuful
becasue when Jesus was born he was born to deal with our sin and shame once and for all
his birth would march towards death becasue of his love for us
and his death woudl offer us hope and covering once and for all
It’s what
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ”
When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
That’s why Jesus was born. He was born to die and in his death our sin and our shame is covered once and for all
no longer do we have to sew on fig leaves that shrile and fade away.
No we have a better covering. The body and blood of Jesus on our behalf
this is what love looks like. This is what sitrs worship and adoration in our hearts
knowning that we belong to Jesus and as peter reminds us in 1st peter
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
our salvaiton is safe and secured because of Jesus
which leads us to consider who he came for
He came for sinners and suffers like us.
we looked at romans 5 a few weeks ago when thinking about hope and peace but I want to look at it as we consider who Jesus came for
Read
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Jesus was born to die. And it’s in his death while we were still sinners christ died for us and showed us Gods love
He showed us the distance it would travel and the measure it would go
and if he loved us while we were still sinners
in other words if he loved us at our worst How much more do we expiernce his love through his life and the new life we have in him?
it’s what Christmas reminds us of every single year and hopeful all year
It reminds of of how God first loved us
why God first loved
and who God first loved
and we get to rest and respond in that love
it’s his love for us that casues love and adoariont to sitr in our hearts
it’s been happening since Jesus was born and still happens today
it’s why i’ve come to apperciate the story of the magi in matthew 2.
Men who had come from a far away place. Foloowed a star and we are told
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
They come into the house. They see God has truly come with us and they expierence his love
even as he is a baby
and their response was to fall down and worship
and then they laid thier treasures before him
and the amazing part of this story is even though they traveld far to express their lvoe and worhsip Jesus had traveld father
even though they would give up their treasures what was most important to them
Jesus would give up more
reminding us with Jesus we always get more then we give up
and isn’t that what births love and adoration in our heart for him?
so as we move towards Christmas let your heart be filled with wonder again.
consider
how Jesus came
why he came
and who who came for
and let it birth love and worhsip for him in your hearts a fresh and a new
be filled with wonder and love
and if you are here this morning and you’ve never recived the greatest gift of all: Jesus into your life would you do so today?
He still comes to us and travels great distance to save us
He still comes in the same humilty he came as a baby
His purpose for coming to us hasn’t changed. He still comes to deal with sin and offer a better covering then fig leaves
and he still comes to sinners and suffers today
because of love
would you turn from your sin and trust him to save you
to know he loves you and desires a relationship with you
he is ready to bring you into his family and save you
the Bible says whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Today if you call on his name he will save you
and maybe for the first time you can expierence his love in your life and in return you can express love and adoration for him
let’s pray