2023.12.24 Be Born In Me Today
Notes
Transcript
Be Born In Me Today
Be Born In Me Today
• Isaiah 42:1-10
1 “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 “He will not cry out nor raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street.
3 “A bent reed He will not break off And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 “He will not be disheartened or crushed Until He has established justice on the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.”
5 This is what God the Lord says, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it:
6 “I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations,
7 To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.
8 “I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to idols.
9 “Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they sprout I proclaim them to you.”
10 Sing to the Lord a new song, Sing His praise from the end of the earth! You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it; You islands, and those who live on them.
Western Culture has helped spread the name of Jesus Christ to all the major areas of the world! But in some aspects, Western Culture has also done a disservice to God.
While we’ve spread the name of Jesus, we’ve also missed much of what he came for. We’ve told people they need to be like us in order to be rescued. It’s all too easy to divide the world into “us” and “them”.
You know, the Pharisees taught people they had to be like little pharisees in order to receive God’s favor. They essentially taught that you had to ‘be clean before you could take a bath’.
Similarly, we’ve taught that looking or talking or even dressing a certain way is required to be a follower of Jesus. I can’t fathom the depth of his hurt and disappointment at that.
The simple truth of His Gospel has been co-opted into building something of our making instead of something of his making. Are all people really welcome in the Kingdom of God? We say it … but do we really believe it?
Or is there a category of “they” who don’t fit into our picture of God’s kingdom? Whoever “they” are … chances are, the Son who was born in that stall and laid in that feeding trough probably is a ‘them’.
As a European descendent, my pictures of the Kingdom are usually Caucasian, but I can tell you Jesus was more than likely olive-skinned and much of Western Culture for a very long time would’ve considered Jesus sub-human because his complexion was darker than acceptable.
As a middle class person, my pictures of the Kingdom have been peppered with expectations of middle-classedness, and that struggle continues today. “Education is the answer” (but ignorance isn’t the problem) … “Well, I’d help others, but I know what they’d do with the money” (but compassion doesn’t come with strings tied to it).
As the product of a nuclear family, my pictures of the Kingdom have been influenced by what we would call a ‘traditional’ family … It’s true that those sinning sexually should stop, but I can’t expect them to stop BEFORE Jesus comes into their life. Yes, broken families are made up of broken people, but God’s own Son was born to an unwed teenage girl.
The Pharisees didn’t recognize Jesus for who he really was because he was a “they”! And we love bagging on the pharisees, but our boundaries of “us” and “them” look an awful lot like the pharisees’ boundaries.
We all have these visions of what the Kingdom looks like … or perhaps what we think it SHOULD look like. But God did NOT send His son for us to mold him into our likeness!
The purpose of Jesus’ birth on that first Christmas was to make a way for us to be molded into HIS likeness! How dare I act like a Pharisee and hold to man’s rules as if they’re God’s.
Jesus being born in me WILL necessitate a change, but that change won’t be in him! If I’m really willing to let him be born … I must be willing to let him be born in me … and I must be willing to let him be born in everyone else, because HE said he came for all!
And his birth in us won’t show itself by just coming to worship every Sunday and going home largely unchanged. If Jesus has truly been born in you, your life should show it! Other people should be dying to find out why you’re so different …
Why you react differently to trials of life
Why you treat other people so differently
Why you have peace in the worst of circumstances
Why you’re real with people
If Jesus is really living in us, we should look dramatically different than the worldly people around us … and I’ll be first to confess I do not look different enough! I have not lost all of my worldliness, and I need Jesus to save me from myself … still today … I stand in need of Jesus to rescue me … to be born in me.
I may not be able to bear the savior in labor pains and deliver him into this world the way Mary did … but I have pains of my own to go through in order to deliver Jesus into this world! And much of the time … I fail to consider and accept those costs!
So today … Christmas Eve … the day we celebrate his birth … I confess to you, and I desperately cry out to the King of Kings:
O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to me, I pray
Cast out my sin and enter in
Be born in me today!
I’d like to play a song as our commitment prayer today. I invite you to the altar rail to make a commitment to be changed and let him be born in you today as you listen to this song and respond.
[Be Born In Me - video]