Gentle and Lowly

Children’s Bible Page 1039

Merry Christmas Christ Covenant Church as well as friends and visitors.

We are excited to spend these few moments together in worship as we celebrate the birth of the Savior.

Now, I have a confession to make.

It’s something that has really been bothering me this Christmas season, and I thought it best to just tell the truth to my church family since the truth shall set you free.

Multiple times throughout my childhood, I went searching for and found some of my gifts before they were wrapped and put under the tree at Christmas.

I just couldn’t wait.

I just wanted to know so badly what I was going to get!

One time, I even took a wrapped gift from under the tree, ran it to the bathroom, and pulled open the corner in order to peek and see what it was.

Shameful. I know!

I am so thankful you kids in the room would never think to do something like that!

But, you know, every time I did that, I ended up feeling so bad about it.

You see, I liked to think of myself as a really good kid.

I was the kind of kid who wanted to please everyone, but I was also willing to keep secrets and tell lies thinking that I could please others while still pleasing myself.

The truth is: I’ve always struggled with putting really high expectations on myself, then feeling really badly when I don’t meet up to them.

I told myself this year that I was going to write meaningful handwritten notes to the most important people in my life for Christmas this year.

Yet, here we are at Christmas Eve Night, and I haven’t written one note.

So, I feel kind of bad about that, and I start telling myself all the great things I am going to commit to do in the New Year to make 2025 the best year I’ve ever had.

But, let’s be honest, in the corner of my mind, I know I will disappoint myself in 2025 as well.

I wonder if you have ever felt like I do.

I wonder if you have some things in your life that you know are wrong, and maybe you really want to change them.

I wonder if you have told yourself over and over again, this is the last time.

I’m never going to do that again.

I wonder if you are super concerned about convincing people around you how good and godly you are, so you lie and keep secret the parts that you only know about yourself.

Whether it be things we wish you had done, but just haven’t gotten around to, or whether is be things you should not have done, but you keep on doing,

I wonder if you ever find yourself caught in this cycle of self-expectations, disappointment, and resolves to do better.

If I can be honest one more time with you tonight, many times I think that God feels about me just like I feel about me.

I think of God like this overbearing Father who pushes all these rules and expectations on me, and is constantly disappointed when I don’t measure up.

Maybe it’s me, but I think this is part of being human.

This Christmas season, I have been preaching a series called Merry Christology!

The word Christology simply means a study of Christ.

And it is so important for us, especially this time of year, to dive into a study of Christ, because we do not naturally think of Jesus Christ, the God-man, our Lord and Savior, the way we ought to.

We are constantly tempted to think He thinks and feels like we so often think and feel.

So, we must constantly come back to God’s word and study and think about who Jesus Christ truly is and what He has done.

So, we have looked at Christ from the perspective of his eternality, power, and majesty as the Creator of all things,

We have looked at Christ as the servant who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but instead, took on the form of a servant, being obedient even to death on a cross.

We have looked at Christ victorious over Satan and darkness and nourishing His people throughout our time of exile here on earth.

And tonight, for just a brief moment, I invite you to consider with me the very heart of Christ.

If this Jesus, who is God and creator of the universe, and this one who came as a baby at Christmastime,

If he were to describe His heart to us, the very center of what directs and motivates him, what would he say?

We don’t have to guess, because Jesus does this in

Matthew 11:28–30

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

If I’m being honest, that is not how I would have expected Jesus to describe his heart.

I may have expected, “I am worthy and holy in heart.”

Or maybe, “I am wise and truthful in heart.”

Or even, “I am just and generous in heart.”

But, out of anything Jesus could have said to describe his heart, the center of what drives and motivates him, Jesus said, “I am gentle and lowly in heart.”

It’s surprising to me after so many years of disappointing my own expectations and expecting that God was at least mild and disappointed with me as well.

Maybe you have a gift you didn’t put under the tree because it is super fragile so it needs to be handled with the utmost care.

Jesus’ heart being gentle means he can relate with us with the utmost care.

Isaiah 42:3

3 a bruised reed he will not break,

and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He is gentle and lowly in heart.

To be lowly speaks of humility.

When Mary praises God for making her pregnant with the Savior, she proclaims

Luke 1:52

52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones

and exalted those of humble estate;

Certainly, the way in which Jesus came to earth as a baby shows us his heart of gentleness and humility.

Like the song says:

You could have stepped into creation With fire for all to see Brought every tribe and nation to their knees Arriving with the host of heaven In royal robe and crown The rulers of the earth all bowing down.

But You chose meekness over majesty Wrapped Your power in weak humanity.

Mary was a Jewish teenager from a poor family.

She would have been socially shamed for being pregnant before being married.

She had to travel on a donkey all the way to Bethlehem with Joseph due to the mandate of a cruel Roman leader.

She gave birth among stable animals, and I know we can make these nativity scenes look so nice, but I imagine the ground was hard, the hay was itchy, the smell was sickening, and the pain was horrible.

And Jesus was born, fully God, and fully man.

And Jesus lived in all the weakness of humanity, all the hurts, struggles, limits, and temptations, but no sin.

Jesus lived a life of love to God and others as we were all meant to live but have fallen so far short.

And at the time when Jesus was old enough to punish humanity for our sin and rebellion against God and His glory,

Instead, Jesus submitted himself to a cruel death on a Roman cross, taking the punishment of sin we deserved on himself.

And Jesus rose three days later defeating our sin and death for us.

And his invitation from this passage is “Come to me.”

Have you come to Jesus? If not, his hands are open wide for you to come.

You don’t have to prove yourself in order to come.

You don’t have to clean yourself up.

Jesus came and got dirty in your place, so that you could come dirty, and he will make you clean.

Come to Jesus. Confess your sin against him, receive his sacrifice and forgiveness.

And for all of us who have come to Jesus, gentle and lowly in heart, we find rest for our souls.

We don’t have to be constantly beating ourselves up and disappointed in ourselves.

Instead, we look to Jesus who has forgiven and freed us from all sin.

We grow to love and obey him as we bask in the freedom of a God who knows every ugly thing about us, but took that ugliness on himself, so that he could treat us as perfectly beautiful.

Two examples, and we are done.

One simple way I enjoy expressing the heart of Jesus is in how I interact with people who are serving me, whether that be in a restaurant or on a phone call.

I know people who work over the phone a lot are used to having people frustrated and angry, so I decide before I ever start the call that no matter what, I am going to be kind, complementary, patient, and encouraging.

It’s just one little way to surprise with a gentle and kind response like God so often does with me.

The other example is one I’ve shared before, but it is so helpful.

When our children were first learning to walk, it’s so fun, because you take them by the hands and get them on their feet, then as you let go of there hands, they take one maybe two steps forward then fall flat on their face.

And what do we as parents say, “That’s it? Two steps? What’s wrong with you? Surely you have more in you than that! You are a disappointment. You’ll never amount to anything!”

No, of course that not what we say.

Instead, you get as you release their hands, and they take those two steps and fall flat on their face, what do we parents say,

“Great job! Way to go! You’re walking! Let’s celebrate!”

In the same way, your gentle and lowly Savior walks with you, and his mercies are new every morning for every failure, stumble, and missed expectation,

And every time you look to him, trust in him, or do the smallest act of obedience, he celebrates by saying, “Great job! Look at you! You’re walking!”

Jesus said, “For I am gentle and lowly in heart, come to me, and you will find rest for your souls.

Let’s pray.