What are you going to do with the news of Jesus’ birth? As we take another step forward in our Advent series, we are finally talking about how Jesus’ birth unfolded. The news of His birth rang throughout the world. It was and has become something no one can ignore. Let’s dig into it together.
Designed to Provoke
Have you ever tried to ignore a toddler who has something to tell you? It may not seem all that significant to you, but when a toddler has something to say, as far as he is concerned, it is the most important thing in the world. And, if you happen to be the person he has deemed most worthy of hearing this information, there’s really not much you can do about the matter. You can try to ignore it if you want, but…well…good luck with that.
Have you ever felt like you’re sitting on the sidelines when you want nothing more than to be in the game? Sometimes life does that to us. As we continue forward in our Advent series, The World Turned Upside Down, this week we are looking at some characters who spent a lot of time on the sidelines before their moment came. Let’s see together how they handled it and talk about how we should.
Sidelined
I played basketball when I was in school for three years. Fourth through sixth grades. I remember when my folks got me a basketball goal for our driveway at the house where I grew up. We had a friend come over and help pour the cement foundation for it. We even got to put our handprints in it. And I dominated the driveway games for a while. So when I finally reached the age I could play a sport other than baseball (which I was generally pretty awful at), I was as excited as I could be to join the school’s basketball team.
This past Sunday we took another step forward in exploring the story of Jesus’ birth through the Gospel of Luke. When Mary received the news that she would be mother to the Messiah, everything she knew about the world got turned on its head. More than that for her, everything about her own life got turned on its head. What she came to recognize early on in this journey, though, was that this God she was following was in the business of turning the world upside down. In a powerful proclamation of praise, she acknowledged as much, and in the process reminded us of something important about God’s character. Let’s explore that together here. Thanks for reading and sharing.
Underdogs
I have basically three sports teams I cheer for and whose progress I follow during their relevant seasons. The Kansas City Royals, who have historically been a mostly mediocre team (2014 and 2015 being delightful exceptions). The Kansas City Chiefs, who have historically been pretty good, are really good right now since we’ve figured out how to play defense again, and things look bright in the years ahead. The third is the University of Kansas basketball team. They’re always good and this season look to be particularly fun to watch. Fun fact for UNC fans in the room, next year will be the first time since 1962 that your coach has not come to you by way of Kansas, so I have no way of guaranteeing any real success for you in the future (we’ll pretend Matt Doherty didn’t happen).
This past Sunday kicks off the season of Advent. We can officially start getting ready for Christmas now. As we move forward in this season, we are going to be exploring the story of Jesus’ birth in the Gospel of Luke. As you read that story something that becomes clear is that in sending Jesus to earth, God was turning the world on its head. Over the next few weeks, we are going to explore together just how He was planning to do that and what the results of it have been. Tune in each week as we work through this incredible set of stories to see how God turned the world upside down.
RSVP
Let me pull back the curtain for you just a bit this morning on the process of doing what I do up here each week. Coming up with the title for a sermon can be an interesting exercise. Some pastors really don’t put much thought into it, but like a good title for a book draws you in before you’ve read it, a good title for a sermon will draw the listener in before she’s heard it. The same thing goes when trying to construct a title for a whole series. Now, different preachers take different approaches in their preaching. For some, they can simply make the title of the book they are preaching through the title of the series and walk away. In that sense, I could have called this series, Luke 1:4-2:40. Even if you’re a full-on Bible nerd, though, that doesn’t sound very exciting. It sounds like a verse reference…which is because it is.
We’ve been talking about the heavy loads we carry when we try to do life without Jesus for a month now. This past Sunday morning we flipped the script and talked about why life with Him is so much better than life without. Don’t miss this powerful conclusion to our series. Then, make sure to tune in starting next week as we see together through the story of Jesus’ birth how God turned the world upside down. Thanks for reading and sharing.
The Sweet Life
Alright, as we get started this morning, I have a confession to make. This may come as a surprise to some of you, so I want to make sure you’re all sitting down. I’ll wait. Okay, good. Here goes nothing. Try not to act shocked if this catches you completely off guard. I have a bit of a sweet tooth. No, seriously, I do. I love sweets. There aren’t too many I don’t like. I’m not all that thrilled with dark chocolate. Nougat isn’t really one I’ll rescue from the post-Halloween garbage dump either. The same goes with Milk Duds. I’m not really sure what the point of those are anyway. But other than that, I’m a pretty open book. I actually have a whole desk drawer dedicated to it. Okay, so really it’s more than one, but there’s one primarily committed to candy…and extra file folders because I don’t have anywhere else to put those. You have to dig through a lot of Skittles and Pretzel M&M’s to get to them, though. And I don’t limit myself to candy either. Pastries, cookies, brownies, cakes, most pies (I’m not really a custard guy), donuts (I’d probably knock you out of the way for a donut if I was hungry), and Dot Alsobrooks cinnamon rolls.
The Nexus 