ADVENT: THE UN-USUALLY USUAL: (The Humility of God)

Luke 2:1–7 (ESV)

1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

“AN UNUSUALLY USUAL STORY.”

Everything about this story, the Christmas story, the nativity story, the birth story of JESUS has such noticeable extreme’s.

TWO VERY DIFFERENT EXTREMES.

On the one hand you have The DIVINE NATURE OF CHRIST...Divinity of God & The FRAIL SIMPLE HUMBLE humanity of God - BOTH IN THIS MOMENT WE KNOW AS CHRISTMAS.

And working within those two extremes you the Miracle working supernatural power of God.... Bringing to be the very natural, normal person of Jesus. as a CHILD.

Its a story of EXTREMES’s

The Natural BIRTH & the Supernatural POWER OF GOD/.

YOU HAVE A God in Heaven

and NOW a Baby lying in a manger.

THE VERY UNUSUAL.... and the VERY USUAL

THERE IS NOTHING USUAL ABOUT THE SON OF GOD BEING BORN INTO THE WORLD FULL OF PEOPLE

But there is SOMETHING VERY USUAL … and NATURAL… and NORMAL about a CHILD BEING BORN.

...... But what we shouldn’t MISS here is WHAT THIS ACTIALLY IS

THIS IS WHAT WE KNOW AS the HUMILITY of GOD (GOD ALMIGHTY coming to the earth)

THE WAY HE CAME.....

WE SEE NOTHING BUT STEP AFTER STEP OF THE LOWLY WAY IN WHICH GOD HAS EXPRESSED HIMSELF AND HIS DESIRE TO CONNECT TO US… through the MIRACLE of the iNCARNATE CHRIST.

The Baby Lying in a manger

The Son of God - Born to a Virgin

Across all the players of this story.... We see God’s desire to be with us - His humility at work in the story of JESUS being born.....

I mean think about all the leading players in the story: Go all the way back to the line of JESUS you have:

DAVID - A shhepherd Boy.... the least chosen by his father Jesse - completely overlooked for the job in fact when samuel the prophet made his visit.... He was with the sheep, doing a very USUAL… Normal.... LOWLY thing

Elizabeth - Elizabeth desired to have a baby, seemed destitute and maybe thought she was forgotten by God - But God heard the cry of her heart.... Elizabeth didn’t have a BIG Fancy title or a nice office somewhere . She was one of the daughters of aaron. And even when she was pregnant with John she kept herself Hidden and out of sight!

Zechariah - Just going about his business as a priest, he was of the 8th division (not the first) he was a priest - Rightouse and blameless before God. he was just GOING about his business. doing what he was called by God to do. Show up in the temple of Lord and burn incense. It didn’t seem like it was

Mary - a Virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. the angel gabriel visits and delivers the news she will deliver the Christ The Holy Son of God. Mentions as well that Elizabeth is going to have a baby too and says nothing is impossible with God. Mary says “fair enough, im a servant of the Lord: let be to me according to your word” and the angel leaves. i mean this is a pretty unusal moment in a pretty usual life. it doesnt say that Mary came from a long line of prophets… or she was of an amazing family or that her father had done something amazing - It was unusually USUAL.

Joseph - Joseph; inserted into the story with so little said of him excot that he was a from Bethlem, the city of david, from the line of david....just man and he was going to marry mary. But God had other pklans.... wanted to quietly,… and simply deal with matters to protect everyone and do the right thing but an angel shows up, says its all good, proceed as you were - and HE DID.

The Inn Keeper - pretty usual to have an INN in a small town, probably just the one - it was a busy time - it was FULL...

The manger itself - pretty usual, There wasnt anyting else. it was a simple feeding trough, would have been considered USUAL to have a feeding trough inside a barn where there were animals present! thats very USUAL

The Shepherds - pretty usual!

AND EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK YOU HAVE THE USUAL… AND THE UNUSUAL>

Two things about Christmas that we OUGHT to RECOGNIZE & CELEBRATE AS GODS PEOPLE AT CHRISTMAS TIME! (and these are just good to know ).

1.GOD DOES THE EXTRA ORDINARY WITH WHAT WE THINK IS ORDINARY.

Have you ever wondered that your normal.. your usual… is ENOUGH for God

What is considered USUAL, GOD can turn into something very UNUSUAL!

God brought Jesus from the line of David… David was from bethlehem…bethlehem wasnt an UNSUAL PLACE - it was a verty ORDINARY place - but its because quite ExTRA ordinary - That Which was an insignificant that became significant!

THIS IS WHAT GOD DOES ALL THE TIME!

& Here is the VERY BEST PART! HE can do it with you!

What very ordinary thing could you place in the hands of an extraordinary GOD?

Your marriage?

Your JOB?

Your Family?

.... Your Heart?

Your heart is a VERY ORDINARY THING in the SCOPE of a world FULL of people:

8,748,000,000 hearts beating around the world.

There is nothing special about your heart compared to the rest of the world is there?

There is when its given to GOD.

the ORDINDARY becomes EXTRA ORDINARY!

Why?

Because God does the EXTRA ordinary with whatever the WORLD things is ordinary.

The WORLD See’s things that arent big in size, or scale or value and deems them WORTHLESS or BASIC or ORDINARY… But our GOD.. HE TAKES THE ORDINARY & MAKES IT EXTRAORDINARY!

I MENTION THE HEART because the BIBLE says the HEART is deceitful and wicked....

But there is also a small thread of the supernatural… of heaven… of eternity in EVERY ONE OF THOSE HEARTS:

ecc 3:11 “11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

“Give God your life, He can do a better job with it than you ever could”. - Rev Billy Graham.

(There will be a moment here in a few minutes and if you’ve never given your heart to Jesus, you’ll get your chance!).

2.JESUS CAME HUMBLY SO GOD WOULD GET THE GLORY

This is important to catch: The way JESUS came to us.....is important

He came normally

He came supernaturally

But he came HUMBLY

Low and in a Manger.... near an INN where there wasnt any room

to parents that no one really knew

in a town that had no profile

why?

SO no one would get the GLORY except GOD HIMSELF.

GOD WOULD GET… and GOD WILL GET ALL THE GLORY>

(HE MAY NOT GET THE GLORY IN YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW - BUT LISTEN ...HE WILL STILL GET THE GLORY!)

he is the ancient of Days… the GREAT I AM, YAHWEH, ADONAI,

We see time and time again the scriptures the very normal with the abnormal. the usual things being accompanied by an unusal GOD

ITS

luke 2:8-9 “8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.”

WHAT VERY NORMAL THING IN YOUR LIFE DOES GOD WANT TO SHINE HIS GLORY UPON?

I pray this inspires hope into your heart today there is a GOD in heaven who showed up in a field at night for a few shepherds and that means he can certainly show up for you!

After the shepherds saw....

luke 2:20 “20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

HERE WERE MORE VERY USUAL - RUN OF THE MILL PEOPLE - ENCOUNTERING A VERY UNUSAL SUPERNATURAL GOD!

Here is the point of the message:

God can do anything with your everything.

What you give to God - He does two things

He gets to you

& He Gets the glory through you.

There is a MULTI-LAYERED PURPOSED TO YOUR LIFE & Its this:

GODS GLORY TO YOU + GODS GLORY THROUGH YOU!

CHRISTMAS IS EXACTLY THAT

THE SON OF GOD.. EMMANUAL BORN TO US… SO GOD WOULD GET THE GLORY THROUGH US