December 13, 2024 • 29 mins
"Do YOU know the ultimate gift giver? Today we discuss Him & our 'CHRISTMAS JOE' Tour journey with gospel themes, redemption, inspiring performances and memorable individuals."
Join us as we embark on a heartwarming journey through our experiences performing the beloved 'CHRISTMAS JOE' play at various churches.
Today, we're diving into the profound themes of the gospel's message and the ultimate sacrifice. How do God's high standards compare to a prestigious university's entry requirements? Our discussion pivots to the biblical basis of the Christmas story, exploring human sinfulness and the necessity of Christ's righteousness. Discover how the gospel presents a solution through Jesus Christ, aligning believers with divine standards and offering new spiritual direction. In the spirit of a "madman for Christ," we wrap up with an invitation to share in our enthusiastic faith journey, leaving you with a heartfelt blessing and a promise of something special on the horizon.
Does any of today's podcast resonate with you? Let us know here:
https://playsonword.dm.networkforgood.com/forms/podcast-reviews
To Support Plays On Word Radio and Plays On Word Theater, please visit:
https://playsonword.networkforgood
The Plays On Word Theater team is setting up new performance dates! If you want us to visit your church/ venue/ community, please reach out with your inquiries: https://playsonword.org/book-it!.html
Plays On Word website
Plays On Word YouTube
Plays On Word Facebook
Plays On Word Instagram
Email us: team@playsonword.org
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Yes, the Faith Assembly of Christ in Capitol
Heights, maryland, and yeah, wehad a fantastic time there.
We saw some and our sisterJackie down there, jackie Coles,
and we had just a fantastictime of worship down there and
(00:33):
we had a fantastic time of theChristmas Joe play, the
production of Christmas Joe, andwe continued on our tour and
we've done some plays in between.
Today we did one last nightactually at Calvary Chapel of
(00:55):
Monmouth County in New Jersey,up in Leonardo, new Jersey, and
a few days before that, a coupledays before that, we were at
Grace Bible in North Middletown,new Jersey.
That's Dino and Rocco and Dave,Pastor Dave Durande, that's
(01:17):
their church over there andPastor Shaw is the pastor of the
place we were at last night.
Pastor Shaw is the pastor ofthe place we were at last night
and, man, we had a fantastic.
Just every one of them has beenfantastic.
Randy Yelton, richie Yelton,randy was on drums.
(01:38):
Richie Yelton came out and cameout and played percussion like
a pro, like a champ, and PhilSinclair, brother Phil.
Brother Phil was on the base onSunday night at Grace Bible I
love it and Brother Phil wasdoing his thing.
And then last night we hadBrother Roy Larson on the base.
(02:00):
Phil was on the base Sundaynight and then Roy Larson was on
the base.
That's the cool thing.
We have guys that step in andstand in the gap and the Lord
has raised up a number of guysto play along, to help out, and
it really made a big differencefor me.
(02:21):
I'll give you an example Rocco.
He came out, brought hissaxophone and when we went to
Rocco's home church he wasactually doing sound.
So I gave him a hard timebecause he didn't bring his
saxophone but he was working onthe sound.
I was hoping he could play then.
(02:41):
But it was really nice lastnight when he played the
saxophone because it allowed meto not have to play the melody
on many of the songs and I couldsit back a little bit and be
more of an accompaniment andconcentrate on other things.
And it was fun.
It was just it was enjoyable.
Not that playing the melody isnot enjoyable, it's just that I
(03:07):
offloaded some of the work tohim.
It was beautiful, it was great.
And um, our dear brother, pastorshaw, I believe.
I believe he just had his 92ndbirthday and he came out.
Praise the Lord, man, oh man,he's my official New Testament
(03:29):
Greek instructor and just a dearbrother, longtime worker in the
fields for the Lord, and we'vehad him on the program.
Actually, early on, early on inthis program we had Pastor Shaw
.
So if you want to check him outyou could go look look up.
(03:49):
Man, I forget which episode itwas, it was early on, it was
like five or six or somethinglike that.
And you know he talks about hisstory, how he met Jesus, how he
got involved in ministry.
He came up to me last night andit was such a blessing.
He came up to me and he saidyou know, that was the best
(04:10):
stage play I've ever seen.
That was great.
And he really he was blessed bythe Christmas Joe play that we
do.
So what are we going to do todayon Plays on Word Radio?
We are going to take a look.
(04:32):
Last week we took a look atsome cool verses and today we're
going to look at some coolverses.
I wanted to look at somebiblical text about Christ,
(04:56):
specifically in the OldTestament.
You know Jesus was promised.
You know Jesus was promised andevery one of the plays that we
do I explain the gospel, thegospel message, and in
particular the Christmas Joeconcert, is great because we
(05:17):
have a time of worship and thenin the middle of it, we kind of
we don't, kind of we do explainwhat is going on.
What is this all about?
You know and I start with Adamthe Christmas story begins in
(05:37):
the very first book of the Bible.
The Christmas story begins withthe story of mankind and
mankind falling into sin,mankind rebelling against God
(06:02):
and God providing a wayproviding covering for them and
providing a way providingcovering for them and providing
a way for mankind to get out ofthe condemnation that he finds
himself in.
Now, I don't get into all thesedetails when I'm sharing it
from the stage.
(06:24):
I keep it simple.
I go to Adam, but since youguys are a captive audience, we
can go a little bit deeper inthis.
We were all, we all.
Mankind is under condemnation.
What do you mean?
Why that's mean?
That's mean.
Listen, man, you had no choiceover what city you were born in,
what nation you were born in,what time period you were born
(06:48):
in.
We had no choice in that, okay,so don't don't give me a hard
time about the fact that youwere born in a sin.
It's just one more thing there,and it's actually the main thing
thing.
(07:42):
We were all born in Adam.
We come from Adam.
We were not born good andperfect, contrary.
The heart of man Is wicked fromchildbirth man.
Yeah, that's a shock for somepeople to hear, but that's
scriptural, that's biblical.
Don't argue with me.
You can choose to not believeit, but just know that you're
choosing to reject the word ofGod that's on you.
(08:02):
The heart of man is wicked fromchildbirth man.
Before the child comes out thewomb, the child is already in
Adam.
I'm not saying that every kidis an axe murderer.
No, I'm not saying that.
But in comparison to a perfect,righteous, holy God, there's no
(08:30):
comparison.
And this whole idea of beinggood without God and without
redemption, without Christ, youcan do good works, but your
works are like filthy ragswithout Christ.
Again, that's scripture.
(08:53):
Without Christ, you know,without God, the best that man
can do, the best man can do, isfilthy, dirty rags.
With Christ, all things arepossible with faith.
It is possible to please god.
Without faith, you can forgetit, man.
(09:14):
So get back to this main point.
All man is under condemnation.
I mean, that's the book ofRomans man Condemnation.
It starts out we're allcondemned and it's a shame and
it's sad, but don't blame God,it doesn't make him mean.
You know, we can blame Adam andblame ourselves.
(09:38):
Okay, adam share a sub and ablame, because it's because of
him.
We're born, in Adam, we comefrom him.
Okay, adam and Eve, they sinnedand everybody else from them
has been a sinner.
But we also are guilty in thatand we are also culpable.
(10:06):
We also contributed.
We contributed to it.
Not one of us has kept the TenCommandments perfectly, and
that's just ten.
Not one of us, not one of us.
(10:31):
And so God intervened and founda way not found a way, he made a
way because there was no way.
So he made a way for us to notbe under condemnation, which is
incredible.
To not be under condemnation.
Which is incredible and that iswhat we celebrate at Christmas
(10:55):
is the fact that God sent this,promised this son, this promised
son of his.
He sent his son.
And in Genesis 3.15, we get thefirst inkling of that, of this
(11:16):
promise, this gospel promise,this good news, this good news,
promise of wait a second as soonas sin shows up, god makes a
promise In Genesis 3.15,someone's coming and we're going
to deal with this.
And then the Bible unfolds asthe story of redemption,
(11:42):
redeeming fallen mankind.
Of redemption, redeeming fallenmankind.
The Bible is a story of theultimate gift giver, who is God?
Yeah, god gave this opportunity, this chance, this way out from
condemnation.
(12:04):
The thing is, god's a gentlemanand he's not forcing it on
anyone.
He does put a premium on peoplebeing able to reject or to
choose.
He does do that, I mean, hemakes that possible.
He's a gentleman, though he'snot going to force you into his
(12:25):
presence for all eternity.
If you don't want that, thatwould be hell for you, as weird
as that sounds.
He's not taking it away kickingand screaming into heaven, into
his presence.
No, no, that's not the wayGod's working, no, but if you
(12:46):
come to him and you want to beout from underneath this
condemnation, from this fallenrealm, you come to him by faith.
Man, he is more than willing,to the point of death and beyond
man.
He, you know he bled.
So let me get back to my story,because I don't go into all that
(13:10):
either when I'm sharing.
We're having our conversationhere, okay, guys, listen, we're
having our conversation here.
Okay, guys.
I start with Adam and I saylisten, every single person from
Adam has sinned and fallenshort of the glory of God, every
single person, every singleperson, and Jesus, when he was
speaking to the religiousleaders and to all the people
(13:37):
and the disciples really, it's asermonermon on the Mount, but
there were some religiousleaders that were listening, but
it was mostly the disciplesthis big crowd of people, it was
a big crowd and he went up onthe mountains and he sat down
and started to teach, the wayrabbis do, and he started
(14:02):
teaching the Sermon on the Mount.
But within that sermon, he saidlisten, unless your
righteousness surpasses that ofthe Sadducees and Pharisees,
(14:27):
you're not going to make it intoheaven.
You're not going.
And he set the bar at a level ofperfection that we cannot
comprehend, you know.
He says in Matthew 5, 48,.
He says and this is where thebar is set, man, he says you
must be perfect, not the way yousee perfection, not, no, no, no
, no.
Not perfect from your point ofview, your perspective.
(14:49):
No, uh-uh, wrong, uh-uh.
You must be perfect, as myfather in heaven is perfect.
What?
Drop the microphone.
What Are you kidding me?
Wait a minute.
I don't even.
I can't even begin tocomprehend the level of
perfection as your father inheaven is.
(15:16):
I have no point of reference,because everything I see is
skewed and broken in one way oranother.
Yet we're, we are, there's thebar.
He said it at perfection.
So that's the standard, that'sthe line we have to meet in
(15:38):
order to get to heaven.
So the you move over a fewblocks from Matthew 5 48 and you
go to Romans, chapter 3,specifically verse 23.
It says for all have sinned andfallen short of the glory of
(15:59):
god.
And I jokingly say, but withlike 99 seriousness, that in the
greek that word all means all.
So the bible says you must beperfect at a level which you
can't even comprehend, a levelof perfection.
(16:24):
So you got to be perfect.
And then the Bible says guesswhat?
Nobody's perfect.
And therein lies the problemfor mankind.
This is the problem.
Man God's not mean because hedemands a level of perfection
(16:50):
that we can't even comprehend.
No, that doesn't make him mean.
That means he has standards.
It doesn't make Harvard, yale,mit and I'll throw you a pen in
there because I'm an alumni butit doesn't make them mean
(17:14):
because they're not takingstudents that have only straight
A's.
And you can't just havestraight A's, you have to have a
whole bunch of sweetextracurricular stuff going on
too.
You just can't.
It's not enough to be an, astudent.
You got to be better than yougot, to be exceptional.
And it doesn't make them mean.
(17:38):
It means they have standards,that's all.
And so you'll hear a lot ofpeople say you know, god won't
allow you to, won't allow you toto to have to deal with more
(18:00):
than you can handle.
That's not completelytechnically true.
Now, if you're not in Christ,you have a standard to meet.
That is something you cannothandle.
There's no way to get back tozero.
(18:20):
You were born in the negativeand it doesn't matter if you do
a bunch of good deeds.
You can't get back to groundzero.
You can't get back to a cleanstarting slate starting slate,
(18:44):
it's just, there's no way to doit.
So this is where the gospelcomes in, this is where the good
news comes in, because God, godhimself, came, stepped into
time, space, which is what hecreated and lived the perfect
life, met the requirements thatAdam refused to meet, that Adam
(19:14):
was disobedient in keeping.
Not that he couldn't keep it,he didn't keep it.
He didn't keep it.
He wouldn't keep thecommandment.
There's a little bit of adifference there, and now all of
(19:38):
the trouble we see comes fromhis decision and our
contributions.
I mean literally even checkthis out, even the brokenness in
creation itself.
Yo, that's heavy.
Yeah, adam being therepresentative for God for the
(20:05):
whole cosmos and being entrustedas the steward over the
creation.
That's why it says in Romansthe whole creation is waiting
with eager expectation for thesons of God to be revealed,
because the creation wassubjected to frustration.
(20:28):
You know the creation, thecreation has suffered.
Here, everything we see.
Our point of reference is bent,it is busted, broken.
We don't have that rightperspective because we've never
had it, never, not one time, oh.
But, believer, he has given usof his spirit, though, so we
(20:50):
have tasted hey, what, yes,taste and see that the Lord is
good.
We've gotten a down payment,though, and our compass is set
the right way.
If you're in Christ, yourcompass has been recalibrated
towards the right north, theproper north, towards Christ,
(21:14):
towards God.
When you're in Christ, by faith, we still suffer difficulties,
but our compass is set right.
We are no longer wanderingaround like, like, uh, people
with no rudder.
I'm using all kinds ofmetaphors here, please forgive
(21:35):
me.
I guess you could tie it allback to sailing.
But yeah, so.
So the lord came down and livedthat life and met the
requirements.
And when he came down at theright time, god sent forth his
(21:55):
son, born of a woman, born underthe law, to redeem those under
the law.
This, I mean that Galatians 4.
Right there, that's a Christmasverse.
What we celebrate is God'sintervention into this messed up
, broken situation.
And we see him flex divinely.
(22:18):
We see him flex and be the manof God that Adam wouldn't be Let
me make sure I get that right.
And he lived the perfect life.
And then he was put to death onthe cross.
(22:42):
See, he was born to die.
Look the Lamb of God that takesaway the sin of the world.
Look the Lamb of God that takesaway the sin of the world.
That's what John the Baptistsaid about Jesus, the Lamb of
God.
And all the Old Testamentsacrifices, in one way or
another, pointed to the ultimatefinal sacrifice of Christ Jesus
(23:04):
himself.
The only place in the Biblewhere God accepted a human
sacrifice, it was himself.
Yes, he asked for a humansacrifice with Abraham and Isaac
.
Isaac, I want you to take yourson, your only son, take him to
(23:25):
Mount Moriah, where I will showyou, and sacrifice him there.
And Abraham was like oh man,whoa, and Abraham did what God
wanted.
He went, and Abraham, I believeAbraham he pulled out the knife
and I believe he was.
He was swinging it downwardwhen the angel of the Lord said
(23:45):
Abraham, abraham.
And Abraham stopped like withininches and said here I am.
And the angel of the Lord saidAbraham, don't harm the boy.
Now I know that you love me.
And that was God.
It wasn't just, it wasn'tGabriel, it wasn't Michael, it
wasn't just a, an angel, it wasthe angel of the Lord that
(24:10):
speaks, the messenger.
That's what angel means inHebrew the messenger of God.
This angel speaks as God, withthe authority of God.
Because this angel said now Iknow you love me.
Oh what?
The angel of the Lord is asighting of Christ in the Old
(24:31):
Testament, it is a Christophany.
Yeah, and Abraham stopped.
So Isaac didn't actually have todie, but in his mind, Abraham
(24:57):
had reckoned that God was ablelisten to this, that God was
able to raise him from the deadafter he killed.
It was a done deal.
Man, in Abraham's mind, can youimagine this?
He's walking with Isaac andIsaac wasn't like an
eight-year-old kid.
Isaac was probably 30 when thiswent down, or maybe 33.
(25:21):
Either way, abraham was walkingwith him and Isaac was like
Father, we have the, you knowIsaac was carrying the wood.
He was like we have the wood,we have the fire, where's the
lamb?
And for the sacrifice.
(25:42):
And I could just feel like theAbraham's stomach turn a little
bit.
Feel Like the Abraham's stomachturn a little bit Because it's,
it's, easy to read over.
But we have to realize theseare people With real emotions.
(26:03):
They're not superheroes thatare, and you know what Not to
ADD right now.
But the superhero movies, thebest superhero movies, are the
ones that show the humanity theemotions of these characters,
(26:26):
even the villains, like on theAvengers, thanos.
He became a sympathetic villain.
To a certain extent you canalmost understand.
He just wanted to.
You know he wanted to wipe outhalf the universe but you know
it was for a, from hisperspective, a noble reason.
Either way, these biblicalcharacters, like Abraham, he's a
person, so he's.
You know he's got to kill hisson, but he reckoned, oh, he
(26:48):
reckoned in his mind kill hisson.
But he reckoned, oh, hereckoned in his mind, this is
faith.
He reckoned in his mind thatGod could raise his son from the
dead.
Nobody's seen anybody raisedfrom the dead up to this point.
What are you, are you kiddingme?
And he did it.
He reckoned it in his mind, man.
And so, therefore, when he wasgoing to slay his son, kill his
(27:10):
son, that knife was moving inIsaac's direction and God said
Abraham, abraham.
And he stopped.
What was going through Isaac'smind?
Was he willing Say yes, father,okay, your will be done
(27:31):
whatever, like Christ in thegarden, we don't know.
I don't want to go beyondscripture, I just want to give
you some seeds there to thinkabout.
The only place where Godaccepted a human sacrifice is
(27:56):
the cross of Christ, who wasborn to die to take away the sin
of the world.
And that's what he did.
There was no shout from heavenwhen Christ was slain.
(28:17):
There was no Abraham.
Abraham, don't harm the boy.
Now I know you love me.
No, the sacrifices of the OldTestament all pointed to Christ
His blood, the atoning work, thecomplete in the burnt offering,
(28:39):
the complete sacrifice, all ofit was burnt.
The scapegoat, taking our blame, taking the blame of the people
.
I could go down the list and Iknow some of you want me to
right now, but hey, it lookslike we're running out of time
(29:00):
for plays on word radio.
Oh, my goodness, I tell youwhat we're going to have to
continue this.
We are celebrating the fact thatthe ultimate gift giver gave
the ultimate gift, because Godgave his one and only son so
that whosoever would believe inhim would not perish but would
(29:24):
have eternal life.
This gift we celebrate Aroundthis time of year.
Well, I try to celebrate itevery day.
I mean, we celebrate it everytime.
We say hallelujah, praise God.
Right, you should, but thisspecific Christmas time, the
(29:44):
time of Christmas, you know, thebirth of Christ.
The birth of Christ makespossible the death of Christ,
which makes possible ourredemption and our sin removal
from us to him, transferred tohim the scapegoat to him, off of
(30:05):
us, so that God can look at usas if we had never sinned in the
first place.
Oh, hallelujah, are you kiddingme?
What?
If you're not happy about that?
Then you don't understand it.
And then, on the third day, hewas raised to life again, as a
(30:26):
sign of approval, as a stamp, aseal, saying the sacrifice has
been accepted.
And now, by us putting our faithin him and trusting him, it is
by grace you have been saved,through faith, not works, so
(30:47):
nobody can boast.
Works, so nobody can boast.
But by us putting our faith inhim, we stand before God not
guilty, meeting the righteousrequirements of the law.
How is this possible?
There's no way I could have metthe requirements of the law.
There is no way I could havebeen that righteous dude.
(31:07):
I could have been thatrighteous dude, but yet he made
a way for me to be counted asrighteous.
Oh, are you kidding me?
This is absolutely amazing.
(31:28):
To be counted, hey, some of youknow what I'm talking about
when you're how happy I am,because I know I was.
I was a skunk and some of y'allnodding your head saying, yeah,
he was a skunk.
Hey, wait, not me.
Some of you nod your headsaying, yeah, I was a skunk too.
(31:50):
Praise God, I can stand beforeGod, meeting those requirements,
the requirements of perfectionthat I can't even comprehend,
man.
This is incredible, the factthat I'm not guilty.
But it goes even farther.
Not only am I declared notguilty and I've been given mercy
(32:11):
.
He's given me mercy.
I'm not going to suffer.
He's not giving me what Ideserve to get.
I'm not going to suffer.
Condemnation for eternity, butit gets greater.
Listen to this.
He lavishes grace on us.
He adopts us into his family.
He says I love you, I'm givingyou my last name, I am putting
(32:35):
you in my family.
You're not a servant.
You're not a servant, a slaveanymore.
You're my child.
We are heirs, co-heirs withChrist.
We've been adopted into thefamily of God.
Are you kidding me, man?
If you don't, man, if somebodydoesn't say hallelujah, I'm
about to run out.
(32:56):
I'm sitting in my car recordingthis right now, but I'm about
to run outside.
Just somebody, get somebody tosay hallelujah with me.
Somebody needs to praise theLord on this.
I'm not a madman.
Well, I am a madman, but I'mtelling you I'm a madman.
Well, I am a madman, but I'mtelling you I'm a madman for
Christ.
When you start thinking aboutthis, you just ought to get
excited.
Hallelujah.
I'm telling you hey, oh, that'syeah, yeah, that's that.
(33:17):
That looks like it's all thetime I done talked up a whole
storm here.
I talked and talked and talked.
All I did was talk.
So we got something specialagain next week for you too,
(33:40):
alright, and I know I've beensaying that, but we really do
have something special for you.
We're closing up our tour,we're coming back, so listen to
this Until we meet again nextweek.
I really want you to listen tothis and take this to heart.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you
(34:03):
.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
you peace.
See you next week.
Yes, the Faith Assembly of Christ in Capitol
Heights, maryland, and yeah, wehad a fantastic time there.
We saw some and our sisterJackie down there, jackie Coles,
and we had just a fantastictime of worship down there and
(00:33):
we had a fantastic time of theChristmas Joe play, the
production of Christmas Joe, andwe continued on our tour and
we've done some plays in between.
Today we did one last nightactually at Calvary Chapel of
(00:55):
Monmouth County in New Jersey,up in Leonardo, new Jersey, and
a few days before that, a coupledays before that, we were at
Grace Bible in North Middletown,new Jersey.
That's Dino and Rocco and Dave,Pastor Dave Durande, that's
(01:17):
their church over there andPastor Shaw is the pastor of the
place we were at last night.
Pastor Shaw is the pastor ofthe place we were at last night
and, man, we had a fantastic.
Just every one of them has beenfantastic.
Randy Yelton, richie Yelton,randy was on drums.
(01:38):
Richie Yelton came out and cameout and played percussion like
a pro, like a champ, and PhilSinclair, brother Phil.
Brother Phil was on the base onSunday night at Grace Bible I
love it and Brother Phil wasdoing his thing.
And then last night we hadBrother Roy Larson on the base.
(02:00):
Phil was on the base Sundaynight and then Roy Larson was on
the base.
That's the cool thing.
We have guys that step in andstand in the gap and the Lord
has raised up a number of guysto play along, to help out, and
it really made a big differencefor me.
(02:21):
I'll give you an example Rocco.
He came out, brought hissaxophone and when we went to
Rocco's home church he wasactually doing sound.
So I gave him a hard timebecause he didn't bring his
saxophone but he was working onthe sound.
I was hoping he could play then.
(02:41):
But it was really nice lastnight when he played the
saxophone because it allowed meto not have to play the melody
on many of the songs and I couldsit back a little bit and be
more of an accompaniment andconcentrate on other things.
And it was fun.
It was just it was enjoyable.
Not that playing the melody isnot enjoyable, it's just that I
(03:07):
offloaded some of the work tohim.
It was beautiful, it was great.
And um, our dear brother, pastorshaw, I believe.
I believe he just had his 92ndbirthday and he came out.
Praise the Lord, man, oh man,he's my official New Testament
(03:29):
Greek instructor and just a dearbrother, longtime worker in the
fields for the Lord, and we'vehad him on the program.
Actually, early on, early on inthis program we had Pastor Shaw
.
So if you want to check him outyou could go look look up.
(03:49):
Man, I forget which episode itwas, it was early on, it was
like five or six or somethinglike that.
And you know he talks about hisstory, how he met Jesus, how he
got involved in ministry.
He came up to me last night andit was such a blessing.
He came up to me and he saidyou know, that was the best
(04:10):
stage play I've ever seen.
That was great.
And he really he was blessed bythe Christmas Joe play that we
do.
So what are we going to do todayon Plays on Word Radio?
We are going to take a look.
(04:32):
Last week we took a look atsome cool verses and today we're
going to look at some coolverses.
I wanted to look at somebiblical text about Christ,
(04:56):
specifically in the OldTestament.
You know Jesus was promised.
You know Jesus was promised andevery one of the plays that we
do I explain the gospel, thegospel message, and in
particular the Christmas Joeconcert, is great because we
(05:17):
have a time of worship and thenin the middle of it, we kind of
we don't, kind of we do explainwhat is going on.
What is this all about?
You know and I start with Adamthe Christmas story begins in
(05:37):
the very first book of the Bible.
The Christmas story begins withthe story of mankind and
mankind falling into sin,mankind rebelling against God
(06:02):
and God providing a wayproviding covering for them and
providing a way providingcovering for them and providing
a way for mankind to get out ofthe condemnation that he finds
himself in.
Now, I don't get into all thesedetails when I'm sharing it
from the stage.
(06:24):
I keep it simple.
I go to Adam, but since youguys are a captive audience, we
can go a little bit deeper inthis.
We were all, we all.
Mankind is under condemnation.
What do you mean?
Why that's mean?
That's mean.
Listen, man, you had no choiceover what city you were born in,
what nation you were born in,what time period you were born
(06:48):
in.
We had no choice in that, okay,so don't don't give me a hard
time about the fact that youwere born in a sin.
It's just one more thing there,and it's actually the main thing
thing.
(07:42):
We were all born in Adam.
We come from Adam.
We were not born good andperfect, contrary.
The heart of man Is wicked fromchildbirth man.
Yeah, that's a shock for somepeople to hear, but that's
scriptural, that's biblical.
Don't argue with me.
You can choose to not believeit, but just know that you're
choosing to reject the word ofGod that's on you.
(08:02):
The heart of man is wicked fromchildbirth man.
Before the child comes out thewomb, the child is already in
Adam.
I'm not saying that every kidis an axe murderer.
No, I'm not saying that.
But in comparison to a perfect,righteous, holy God, there's no
(08:30):
comparison.
And this whole idea of beinggood without God and without
redemption, without Christ, youcan do good works, but your
works are like filthy ragswithout Christ.
Again, that's scripture.
(08:53):
Without Christ, you know,without God, the best that man
can do, the best man can do, isfilthy, dirty rags.
With Christ, all things arepossible with faith.
It is possible to please god.
Without faith, you can forgetit, man.
(09:14):
So get back to this main point.
All man is under condemnation.
I mean, that's the book ofRomans man Condemnation.
It starts out we're allcondemned and it's a shame and
it's sad, but don't blame God,it doesn't make him mean.
You know, we can blame Adam andblame ourselves.
(09:38):
Okay, adam share a sub and ablame, because it's because of
him.
We're born, in Adam, we comefrom him.
Okay, adam and Eve, they sinnedand everybody else from them
has been a sinner.
But we also are guilty in thatand we are also culpable.
(10:06):
We also contributed.
We contributed to it.
Not one of us has kept the TenCommandments perfectly, and
that's just ten.
Not one of us, not one of us.
(10:31):
And so God intervened and founda way not found a way, he made a
way because there was no way.
So he made a way for us to notbe under condemnation, which is
incredible.
To not be under condemnation.
Which is incredible and that iswhat we celebrate at Christmas
(10:55):
is the fact that God sent this,promised this son, this promised
son of his.
He sent his son.
And in Genesis 3.15, we get thefirst inkling of that, of this
(11:16):
promise, this gospel promise,this good news, this good news,
promise of wait a second as soonas sin shows up, god makes a
promise In Genesis 3.15,someone's coming and we're going
to deal with this.
And then the Bible unfolds asthe story of redemption,
(11:42):
redeeming fallen mankind.
Of redemption, redeeming fallenmankind.
The Bible is a story of theultimate gift giver, who is God?
Yeah, god gave this opportunity, this chance, this way out from
condemnation.
(12:04):
The thing is, god's a gentlemanand he's not forcing it on
anyone.
He does put a premium on peoplebeing able to reject or to
choose.
He does do that, I mean, hemakes that possible.
He's a gentleman, though he'snot going to force you into his
(12:25):
presence for all eternity.
If you don't want that, thatwould be hell for you, as weird
as that sounds.
He's not taking it away kickingand screaming into heaven, into
his presence.
No, no, that's not the wayGod's working, no, but if you
(12:46):
come to him and you want to beout from underneath this
condemnation, from this fallenrealm, you come to him by faith.
Man, he is more than willing,to the point of death and beyond
man.
He, you know he bled.
So let me get back to my story,because I don't go into all that
(13:10):
either when I'm sharing.
We're having our conversationhere, okay, guys, listen, we're
having our conversation here.
Okay, guys.
I start with Adam and I saylisten, every single person from
Adam has sinned and fallenshort of the glory of God, every
single person, every singleperson, and Jesus, when he was
speaking to the religiousleaders and to all the people
(13:37):
and the disciples really, it's asermonermon on the Mount, but
there were some religiousleaders that were listening, but
it was mostly the disciplesthis big crowd of people, it was
a big crowd and he went up onthe mountains and he sat down
and started to teach, the wayrabbis do, and he started
(14:02):
teaching the Sermon on the Mount.
But within that sermon, he saidlisten, unless your
righteousness surpasses that ofthe Sadducees and Pharisees,
(14:27):
you're not going to make it intoheaven.
You're not going.
And he set the bar at a level ofperfection that we cannot
comprehend, you know.
He says in Matthew 5, 48,.
He says and this is where thebar is set, man, he says you
must be perfect, not the way yousee perfection, not, no, no, no
, no.
Not perfect from your point ofview, your perspective.
(14:49):
No, uh-uh, wrong, uh-uh.
You must be perfect, as myfather in heaven is perfect.
What?
Drop the microphone.
What Are you kidding me?
Wait a minute.
I don't even.
I can't even begin tocomprehend the level of
perfection as your father inheaven is.
(15:16):
I have no point of reference,because everything I see is
skewed and broken in one way oranother.
Yet we're, we are, there's thebar.
He said it at perfection.
So that's the standard, that'sthe line we have to meet in
(15:38):
order to get to heaven.
So the you move over a fewblocks from Matthew 5 48 and you
go to Romans, chapter 3,specifically verse 23.
It says for all have sinned andfallen short of the glory of
(15:59):
god.
And I jokingly say, but withlike 99 seriousness, that in the
greek that word all means all.
So the bible says you must beperfect at a level which you
can't even comprehend, a levelof perfection.
(16:24):
So you got to be perfect.
And then the Bible says guesswhat?
Nobody's perfect.
And therein lies the problemfor mankind.
This is the problem.
Man God's not mean because hedemands a level of perfection
(16:50):
that we can't even comprehend.
No, that doesn't make him mean.
That means he has standards.
It doesn't make Harvard, yale,mit and I'll throw you a pen in
there because I'm an alumni butit doesn't make them mean
(17:14):
because they're not takingstudents that have only straight
A's.
And you can't just havestraight A's, you have to have a
whole bunch of sweetextracurricular stuff going on
too.
You just can't.
It's not enough to be an, astudent.
You got to be better than yougot, to be exceptional.
And it doesn't make them mean.
(17:38):
It means they have standards,that's all.
And so you'll hear a lot ofpeople say you know, god won't
allow you to, won't allow you toto to have to deal with more
(18:00):
than you can handle.
That's not completelytechnically true.
Now, if you're not in Christ,you have a standard to meet.
That is something you cannothandle.
There's no way to get back tozero.
(18:20):
You were born in the negativeand it doesn't matter if you do
a bunch of good deeds.
You can't get back to groundzero.
You can't get back to a cleanstarting slate starting slate,
(18:44):
it's just, there's no way to doit.
So this is where the gospelcomes in, this is where the good
news comes in, because God, godhimself, came, stepped into
time, space, which is what hecreated and lived the perfect
life, met the requirements thatAdam refused to meet, that Adam
(19:14):
was disobedient in keeping.
Not that he couldn't keep it,he didn't keep it.
He didn't keep it.
He wouldn't keep thecommandment.
There's a little bit of adifference there, and now all of
(19:38):
the trouble we see comes fromhis decision and our
contributions.
I mean literally even checkthis out, even the brokenness in
creation itself.
Yo, that's heavy.
Yeah, adam being therepresentative for God for the
(20:05):
whole cosmos and being entrustedas the steward over the
creation.
That's why it says in Romansthe whole creation is waiting
with eager expectation for thesons of God to be revealed,
because the creation wassubjected to frustration.
(20:28):
You know the creation, thecreation has suffered.
Here, everything we see.
Our point of reference is bent,it is busted, broken.
We don't have that rightperspective because we've never
had it, never, not one time, oh.
But, believer, he has given usof his spirit, though, so we
(20:50):
have tasted hey, what, yes,taste and see that the Lord is
good.
We've gotten a down payment,though, and our compass is set
the right way.
If you're in Christ, yourcompass has been recalibrated
towards the right north, theproper north, towards Christ,
(21:14):
towards God.
When you're in Christ, by faith, we still suffer difficulties,
but our compass is set right.
We are no longer wanderingaround like, like, uh, people
with no rudder.
I'm using all kinds ofmetaphors here, please forgive
(21:35):
me.
I guess you could tie it allback to sailing.
But yeah, so.
So the lord came down and livedthat life and met the
requirements.
And when he came down at theright time, god sent forth his
(21:55):
son, born of a woman, born underthe law, to redeem those under
the law.
This, I mean that Galatians 4.
Right there, that's a Christmasverse.
What we celebrate is God'sintervention into this messed up
, broken situation.
And we see him flex divinely.
(22:18):
We see him flex and be the manof God that Adam wouldn't be Let
me make sure I get that right.
And he lived the perfect life.
And then he was put to death onthe cross.
(22:42):
See, he was born to die.
Look the Lamb of God that takesaway the sin of the world.
Look the Lamb of God that takesaway the sin of the world.
That's what John the Baptistsaid about Jesus, the Lamb of
God.
And all the Old Testamentsacrifices, in one way or
another, pointed to the ultimatefinal sacrifice of Christ Jesus
(23:04):
himself.
The only place in the Biblewhere God accepted a human
sacrifice, it was himself.
Yes, he asked for a humansacrifice with Abraham and Isaac
.
Isaac, I want you to take yourson, your only son, take him to
(23:25):
Mount Moriah, where I will showyou, and sacrifice him there.
And Abraham was like oh man,whoa, and Abraham did what God
wanted.
He went, and Abraham, I believeAbraham he pulled out the knife
and I believe he was.
He was swinging it downwardwhen the angel of the Lord said
(23:45):
Abraham, abraham.
And Abraham stopped like withininches and said here I am.
And the angel of the Lord saidAbraham, don't harm the boy.
Now I know that you love me.
And that was God.
It wasn't just, it wasn'tGabriel, it wasn't Michael, it
wasn't just a, an angel, it wasthe angel of the Lord that
(24:10):
speaks, the messenger.
That's what angel means inHebrew the messenger of God.
This angel speaks as God, withthe authority of God.
Because this angel said now Iknow you love me.
Oh what?
The angel of the Lord is asighting of Christ in the Old
(24:31):
Testament, it is a Christophany.
Yeah, and Abraham stopped.
So Isaac didn't actually have todie, but in his mind, Abraham
(24:57):
had reckoned that God was ablelisten to this, that God was
able to raise him from the deadafter he killed.
It was a done deal.
Man, in Abraham's mind, can youimagine this?
He's walking with Isaac andIsaac wasn't like an
eight-year-old kid.
Isaac was probably 30 when thiswent down, or maybe 33.
(25:21):
Either way, abraham was walkingwith him and Isaac was like
Father, we have the, you knowIsaac was carrying the wood.
He was like we have the wood,we have the fire, where's the
lamb?
And for the sacrifice.
(25:42):
And I could just feel like theAbraham's stomach turn a little
bit.
Feel Like the Abraham's stomachturn a little bit Because it's,
it's, easy to read over.
But we have to realize theseare people With real emotions.
(26:03):
They're not superheroes thatare, and you know what Not to
ADD right now.
But the superhero movies, thebest superhero movies, are the
ones that show the humanity theemotions of these characters,
(26:26):
even the villains, like on theAvengers, thanos.
He became a sympathetic villain.
To a certain extent you canalmost understand.
He just wanted to.
You know he wanted to wipe outhalf the universe but you know
it was for a, from hisperspective, a noble reason.
Either way, these biblicalcharacters, like Abraham, he's a
person, so he's.
You know he's got to kill hisson, but he reckoned, oh, he
(26:48):
reckoned in his mind kill hisson.
But he reckoned, oh, hereckoned in his mind, this is
faith.
He reckoned in his mind thatGod could raise his son from the
dead.
Nobody's seen anybody raisedfrom the dead up to this point.
What are you, are you kiddingme?
And he did it.
He reckoned it in his mind, man.
And so, therefore, when he wasgoing to slay his son, kill his
(27:10):
son, that knife was moving inIsaac's direction and God said
Abraham, abraham.
And he stopped.
What was going through Isaac'smind?
Was he willing Say yes, father,okay, your will be done
(27:31):
whatever, like Christ in thegarden, we don't know.
I don't want to go beyondscripture, I just want to give
you some seeds there to thinkabout.
The only place where Godaccepted a human sacrifice is
(27:56):
the cross of Christ, who wasborn to die to take away the sin
of the world.
And that's what he did.
There was no shout from heavenwhen Christ was slain.
(28:17):
There was no Abraham.
Abraham, don't harm the boy.
Now I know you love me.
No, the sacrifices of the OldTestament all pointed to Christ
His blood, the atoning work, thecomplete in the burnt offering,
(28:39):
the complete sacrifice, all ofit was burnt.
The scapegoat, taking our blame, taking the blame of the people
.
I could go down the list and Iknow some of you want me to
right now, but hey, it lookslike we're running out of time
(29:00):
for plays on word radio.
Oh, my goodness, I tell youwhat we're going to have to
continue this.
We are celebrating the fact thatthe ultimate gift giver gave
the ultimate gift, because Godgave his one and only son so
that whosoever would believe inhim would not perish but would
(29:24):
have eternal life.
This gift we celebrate Aroundthis time of year.
Well, I try to celebrate itevery day.
I mean, we celebrate it everytime.
We say hallelujah, praise God.
Right, you should, but thisspecific Christmas time, the
(29:44):
time of Christmas, you know, thebirth of Christ.
The birth of Christ makespossible the death of Christ,
which makes possible ourredemption and our sin removal
from us to him, transferred tohim the scapegoat to him, off of
(30:05):
us, so that God can look at usas if we had never sinned in the
first place.
Oh, hallelujah, are you kiddingme?
What?
If you're not happy about that?
Then you don't understand it.
And then, on the third day, hewas raised to life again, as a
(30:26):
sign of approval, as a stamp, aseal, saying the sacrifice has
been accepted.
And now, by us putting our faithin him and trusting him, it is
by grace you have been saved,through faith, not works, so
(30:47):
nobody can boast.
Works, so nobody can boast.
But by us putting our faith inhim, we stand before God not
guilty, meeting the righteousrequirements of the law.
How is this possible?
There's no way I could have metthe requirements of the law.
There is no way I could havebeen that righteous dude.
(31:07):
I could have been thatrighteous dude, but yet he made
a way for me to be counted asrighteous.
Oh, are you kidding me?
This is absolutely amazing.
(31:28):
To be counted, hey, some of youknow what I'm talking about
when you're how happy I am,because I know I was.
I was a skunk and some of y'allnodding your head saying, yeah,
he was a skunk.
Hey, wait, not me.
Some of you nod your headsaying, yeah, I was a skunk too.
(31:50):
Praise God, I can stand beforeGod, meeting those requirements,
the requirements of perfectionthat I can't even comprehend,
man.
This is incredible, the factthat I'm not guilty.
But it goes even farther.
Not only am I declared notguilty and I've been given mercy
(32:11):
.
He's given me mercy.
I'm not going to suffer.
He's not giving me what Ideserve to get.
I'm not going to suffer.
Condemnation for eternity, butit gets greater.
Listen to this.
He lavishes grace on us.
He adopts us into his family.
He says I love you, I'm givingyou my last name, I am putting
(32:35):
you in my family.
You're not a servant.
You're not a servant, a slaveanymore.
You're my child.
We are heirs, co-heirs withChrist.
We've been adopted into thefamily of God.
Are you kidding me, man?
If you don't, man, if somebodydoesn't say hallelujah, I'm
about to run out.
(32:56):
I'm sitting in my car recordingthis right now, but I'm about
to run outside.
Just somebody, get somebody tosay hallelujah with me.
Somebody needs to praise theLord on this.
I'm not a madman.
Well, I am a madman, but I'mtelling you I'm a madman.
Well, I am a madman, but I'mtelling you I'm a madman for
Christ.
When you start thinking aboutthis, you just ought to get
excited.
Hallelujah.
I'm telling you hey, oh, that'syeah, yeah, that's that.
(33:17):
That looks like it's all thetime I done talked up a whole
storm here.
I talked and talked and talked.
All I did was talk.
So we got something specialagain next week for you too,
(33:40):
alright, and I know I've beensaying that, but we really do
have something special for you.
We're closing up our tour,we're coming back, so listen to
this Until we meet again nextweek.
I really want you to listen tothis and take this to heart.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you
(34:03):
.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
you peace.
See you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!