Luke 2 - Christmas With Strength For The Day

Merry Christmas. I want to sing you a song. I want to sing We Wish You A Merry Christmas, but Bryon said it's like a copyright issue and I can't.

Yeah, I don't want Strength For The Day to get destroyed because we-

Listen, we still always learned it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Listen, the music companies don't play.

They want that cash, and Strength For The Day is a little low on our monthly contributions. So if you would like to sow a seed of faith in Strength For The Day, we have not.

This is our Christmas video special. It is. This is our Christmas give to Strength For The Day, Christmas Gifts Bud special.

And you can give any gifts to The Grinch at...

I don't remember who's the part of this.

Rob loves Christmas. I know. I'm just kidding.

Wow.

It'd be more like Christy Guidal.

Yes.

Christy, if you're watching, she doesn't love Christmas.

She doesn't want you to. Well, Merry Christmas. And I hope that this Christmas morning finds you doing well.

And we are here in the Christmas spirit.

We've got a tree.

We've got a tree.

We've got presents. We've got the lights.

We've got the hats.

It feels festive.

It is festive. I just had a cup of coffee. Yes.

Bryon has his Joseph beard. That's funny. Sorry.

That just made me laugh. Anyway, we're hoping you have a great day. Let's see.

Pastor Bryon has been gone from us for two weeks. How's Maryland?

I assume it's good. I'm actually...

Clue bag specifically for this?

I did. I did. Samantha and the kids will be good.

That'll be fine.

Christmas on their own. Yeah.

I'll see them on the 26th. It'll be fine.

Now, wait. You guys are doing Christmas in Indiana?

Yeah.

Family? All right. Well, wherever this video finds you today on this Christmas, we wish you Merry Christmas.

And, man, as we get started, I would just ask you, Bryon, real quick, before we even look today, by the way, we're going to be in Luke 2 in a little bit. Just so you know.

From the year, man, from our podcast from the year, what's one of your studies that you enjoyed? What is something from our strength of the day that's lasted, let's see, seven months that's been good?

3:31

Year in Review

Yeah.

I think...

And I'm taking my hat off, by the way.

Okay. I'll leave mine on. That way, we'll have some counterbalance.

It just keeps hitting my head.

That's kind of annoying.

I'm sorry.

I fixed my hair. All right. Go ahead.

Proceed.

I have loved all the studies that we've been in. Colossians, Philemon, Habakkuk, Antidus.

Yeah.

And I think just something that's stuck out through all of it has just been kind of God's victory. Yeah. Over everything.

And I think that's been a comfort to me this year. Even with all of the moving things, just knowing that He's in control and He guides.

And so whether it's, you know, in the Book of Colossians, whether it's our salvation that it's not through our own self effort, but that God was so gracious to us in Christ as to offer us freely salvation.

If it's a backache that even in troubling and hard and times when we don't understand what God's doing, we can trust that He's in control. Yeah. I think of Philemon that he is our good master.

That though we turned our backs on him and held him in spite, that he welcomed us back just as Pauling exhorted Philemon to.

And then going through Titus, that even though there are false teachers in the world, and even though our natural fleshly desires and the world around us would have us to follow sinful ways, God's grace is strong enough to make godly, spirit-filled,

zealous of good work believers out of even cretins. And so just seeing his sovereignty and the fact that he's victorious, he's in control has been a real encouragement to me this year.

That's awesome. Very cool. For me, I would say all the studies have been great.

Probably the overlying thought that I've had even now as we talk is man, just a genuine love for scripture is very healthy. And I think that the strength of the day has helped me.

You know, I already study a lot for church and all of that, but even the conversations we've had. And I'll be honest, your love for the Word of God has impacted me and has helped me over the last five years. And I hope my love has impacted you.

But, you know, just thinking through the studies we've been in, just loving scripture and seeing, I think this is hard and we've talked about this before. For a lot of us, seeing application is hard. Yeah.

You know, it really is like, oh man, what does that mean for me? But I think when you really jump in and begin to love it, like the application, God brings that. And then God will use people to say, hey, what about this?

And you go, oh, that's a great thought. I've never looked at it from that angle. So I'm through all of it.

That's a good thing. A takeaway I have from the seven months is just keep loving the Word of God. Well, this morning or afternoon or evening, whenever you're watching this, of course, we celebrate the Lord's birth.

And if you've been at our church for the month of December, we definitely will have heard a lot about the Lord's birth. I think after this year, I think I'll have preached 40 messages specifically on the Christmas story or something around that.

So, it is cool.

You should make a Christmas devotional some year that has those.

All the devotional, all the Christmas things? Yeah, maybe. I don't know, because some of them have the same statistics and stuff that overlap a little bit.

Actually, it's a really good idea. Man, you're leaving staff and you're already giving me ideas. So, maybe we'll do that, but.

It's the time apart has made me go, hmm, what are his gifts?

Christmas.

The time apart, the whole two minutes in between the last recording and this one. Anyway, anyway.

7:39

Christmas Misnomers

Today we come, we celebrate Christmas. So here's what we're going to do. I would like to, let's do a couple of things.

So before we read the story, I will ask you, what are some Christmas, well, what are some Christmas story misnomers that you've learned about over the years that you thought, uh-huh, like that's not what I've found. Does that make sense?

Like I mentioned in church a few weeks ago, for everybody out there, just so you know, Jesus was not born on December 25th. So we celebrate it, yeah, but he wasn't born on December 25th. In all seriousness, I believe Jesus was probably born in April.

There's some great studies on that. So I'll highlight that in just a minute, but what are some things that you would say from the Christmas story you've learned over the years that maybe aren't as the story is told in culture?

Sure. Man, obviously the most well-known one would be that it didn't necessarily have to be just three wise men. There could have been more.

There's three gifts. Yeah, that one's kind of a famous one. The fact that they came much later in the story.

Yeah. It wasn't Jesus is born, and five minutes later, they're showing up, and then kind of the cutesy Fisher Price. Yes.

Nativity scene, that's another one. There's one even because there was no room for them in the inn. Growing up, I had the idea of a holiday inn or something, a hotel, and back then, it would have been guest rooms.

Right.

There's no room at the Airbnb.

Yeah. That is inhabited by other people. And also that it wasn't the innkeeper's fault.

I've seen a lot of things that are randomly like, oh yeah, how could the innkeeper not have room? Didn't he know it was Jesus?

I was studying years ago, I was studying to preach a message, and it was kind of on the innkeeper.

And as I was studying, I was like, this is so like not, this dude was like, no, like we don't have room, but I will give you, so I think he's a great dude. He's like, but I do have a cave.

He's the only guy that made place for them.

Yeah, yeah, so anyway, as is funny. What else? Anything?

I think that's about all I have at the moment.

I'm sure there are a little bit more.

So for me, there's been, of course, those things, where Jesus was born, you know, after traveling to Israel and seeing what a stable was, that hewn out cave, very cool. I say this every year, a manger is a feeding trough. That's interesting.

But probably the one that's on my mind this year, because I was just reminded about it recently, is when Jesus was born, and the situation surrounding Bethlehem. So, you know, okay, so Jesus probably born in spring. And here's why.

And this is historians and stuff like that. The sacrificial lambs, I said this last week at church, so by this time of this recording, it'll be like four weeks ago.

But anyway, the sacrificial lambs were all raised birth and raised in Bethlehem and for Jerusalem, seven, eight miles down the road. Yeah. Well, this is, I never knew this until just recently.

There was only one time of year that the sacrificial lambs would be born. Like, it wasn't like lambs being born throughout the year. It's like, there's one time and it was normally spring, sometimes early summer, but spring.

Okay, so the month April in Hebrew is the month Nissan, right? Nissan.

Car?

Yes. Oh, the car. I thought you were correct.

I thought you're like, no, it's called car. No. So yeah, Nissan, the car.

The month April is Nissan. Okay, so this is super cool. Esther, they were freed.

And you go to read the story of Esther. Yeah, they were freed and everything took place. And there was a big celebration in the month of Nissan.

Passover is the month of Nissan. And then there was one other thing. There's one other major event thing that connects.

But Jesus is the Lamb of God, born to be slain for the sins of the world. He's the sacrificial lamb.

He is the one who is supposed to be now assuming the position of all the lambs in the sense of Genesis all the way to where Jesus is, like it's all been pointing to him.

So I'm getting at this idea that Jesus being born there as the Lamb of God in Bethlehem, the house of bread, he's the bread of life, like all of those things.

He's the light of the world.

Yeah, the festival lights, or feast of lights. Yeah, festival lights. Like, yeah, it's just there's so much around it that if you just read the story, you don't see all of that.

But you study it out and those are some things like, I went, whoa, like that's super cool. You know, as a kid, you're always like, no, Jesus was born December 25th, ah, you know.

I remember arguing when I was a teenager with some people like, no, like in Israel, it's still nice weather, you know. And I'm like, I have no idea where I got that stuff. Like my dad was even like, what, where did you get this stuff, you know?

Anyway, so.

No more internet for you.

Yeah, yeah.

If the internet had been invented.

Now, see, now Pastor Bryon on Christmas is calling me old. This is not good.

He was here during the first Christmas. This right here, this lamb was actually in the stable. This is a picture.

Okay, anyway, so let's get back to this.

13:55

Luke 2 Insights

Here's what we're gonna do today. We just kinda go through some things. Maybe you have some, I don't know, some things about Christmas that you've learned.

Drop those in the comments. We'd love to read that. But today, let's just read the story and we'll be done in maybe seven minutes, about 20 minutes total.

And so, Bryon, why don't you read that story? Let's just go through the first, I don't know what, 20 verses.

Yeah.

And then we'll give a couple thoughts and be done. Go for it.

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone round around them. And they were greatly afraid.

Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is borne to you this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you.

You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherd said one to another, Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.

And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child.

And all those who heard it marveled at those things which are told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them.

It's a beautiful story and of course it is a story that has changed history.

16:23

Christmas Message

When Jesus, the son of God, was born so that you and I might have life. He was born to die. And man, there's so much in the birth of Christ.

But Bryon, take a minute and tell us something that stands out to you from the story right now. That you're just looking at.

God loves those that are down and out, looked down on, viewed as irrelevant. I think of Joseph, a guy from the town of Nazareth. You can think of the same during those times.

Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And that was him. And God used him in an incredible way.

You think of Mary, just a young girl, not someone that anyone would view as important in that day and age. And God chose her to be the vessel that Jesus came into the world through. I think of the shepherds.

Looked down on, it was a smelly job. It was something you would have to constantly be babysitting. It was something that if you had seven or eight sons, you would send the youngest son out to do like we see with David.

It's the little town of Bethlehem. You think back to, what is it, Micah's prophecy? Bethlehem afraid of you are little among the thousands of Judah.

Out of you will come the one who will be the world of my people. During this season, many people feel some sadness. They feel hurt and loss.

And I just want to encourage you wherever this Christmas season finds you, whether you feel real important or real forgotten, God sees you and he loves you.

And if he proclaimed his son's birth first to those who were down and out and looked down on and irrelevant, then he cares about you and you are important and valuable to him and you are why he sent his son.

Yeah, I love that. I love just the individual message for us, recognizing that what was given in Christ for Mary and Joseph and the shepherds is given to us, and that is Jesus Christ, the gift of his life.

And the one thing that stands out to me, I'll give you a quick challenge after that, is verse 20, the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them.

Here's what jumped off me just now as we were reading, you know, the shepherds, they were there. They saw it, it was told to them, hey, that's what Luke is saying, like as it was told to them. So everything happened the way it was told to them.

Well, here's what you and I can know over 2,000 years later. The way it was told to us, everything happened that way.

And we can still praise God and glorify him because of the individual message that salvation is for us and that Jesus Christ was born, lived a perfect life. And at the end of that life, he laid his life down. He was crucified on the cross and buried.

Three days later, he rose again to prove that he's God, to prove that he's going to be trusted, to prove that we could have a relationship with God. And that is really what Christmas is about.

It's about God being with us and God bringing Jesus to this earth, that we might have a relationship with him. And this Christmas is again, as Bryon said, wherever you are, I want you to know you matter to God.

And if you are out there, you're watching this today, and you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that's the best gift that you could give the Lord and that he has given to you on this Christmas day, is you can make that decision right

there in your home. Or wherever this podcast finds you, you could just simply bow your head and ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sin, to come into your life and save you, recognizing that it is his perfection that offers us restoration with

God, his sacrifice, death, burial and resurrection. And so we wish you a Merry Christmas and man, it has been a good year doing this podcast.

I hope that it's been a help to you and Bryon, why don't you take 30 seconds and tell them kind of your plan for the new year with your church and what's going on and then I'll give them an update about strength of the day. Yeah.

So beginning in the new year, I'm going to be doing a kind of a daily Bible Study Podcast, much like we've been doing here weekly for, especially for those at Tabernacle Baptist Church and kind of for those in the area, or technically anyone that

comes into the podcast. But I'm going to be doing some of that for my church and having some different people on at different times in those endeavors.

And same thing for strength of the day. So this is our strength of the day is going to transition a little bit back to what it was originally. We're going to be jumping in daily podcasts, five days a week, Monday through Friday.

And we're going to study out as the year goes, the first three months for studying out the Book of Nehemiah, the Book of First Thessalonians and the Book of Judges. That's January, February, March. Have a great time in that.

But Bryon and I are also excited because we're going to be launching a brand new podcast for really for anybody, but kind of for both of our churches. And it's just, I don't know, do we ever come up with a name for it yet?

Not yet. I don't want to say a name and then they search the name.

We don't have a name.

But it's going to be really good. We will share info about it from both of our respective pages. So you'll be able to find that.

But really kind of going through some different topics and things that both as pastors and as members of our churches, just things that we believe would be an encouragement and help as you seek to follow the Lord through being a part of your local

church and just in your walk with the Lord. And we're really excited about what we'll be able to cover. And did we say we'll do that one about weekly or so? Yep.

We'll do that one.

It'll be for a month or so, something every week. And that'll come out. Of course, we'll be doing it together.

We also have some guests that will be with us. It won't be in person. It'll be over Zoom.

I'm looking forward to it because I love outlets to be able to bring out leadership to the podcast and qualities and things like that, that I think will be healthy. So that'll be good.

But anyway, I know this will be the short part of this video, but we certainly love encouraging you. We hope the podcast has been a blessing to you. And I hope that Bryon, we love you and we'll miss you.

And I know we're going to keep doing some stuff, but being in person will be a bummer not to be in person.

Yeah, that's right. We'll figure out some times where we can be in person again and we'll see. And just kidding.

He's pulling that divisive person from Titus 3 and the wall. But thank you very much for tuning in to Strength for the Day. Hope that it would be an encouragement to you.

There have been tons of episodes. I think this is probably somewhere in the realm of 140s or 150s that we've done in total, so I would encourage you to continue to always implant God's Word into your heart and your life.

And I would encourage you to keep tuning in to Strength for the Day. You guys are going through what book first?

Nehemiah.

Okay. Nehemiah. I haven't picked mine yet, so I'll let someone know.

Nehemiah.

Just kidding.

But I'll just listen to yours, record mine and then we'll be good.

Or vice versa. He's going to do Nehemiah. We're going to be a day late.

There we go.

But we'll encourage you with that. And just have a love for God and His word. And I hope you have a very, very Merry Christmas and happy New Year.

Yeah.

Honor the Lord today. Remember it's His day. And wherever you are, if we can be a help and encouragement or blessing to you, please reach out to us.

And again, Merry Christmas from Strength for the Day, from Moses Lake Baptist and Tabernacle Baptist. And we will see you next year. Bye.