Unto Us a Child Is Born — Isaiah 9

0:00 You know, my name is Chris Schroeder. It's nice to meet you all again. Thank you for letting me come and Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. I'm a weird person.

0:14 Most of you know that already. And when I when I found out, I'll never forget when Barb told me, we were married, oh, fifteen years, we were married fifteen years, so we were married at 21, so now we're in our 30s, I'm 37, and Barb is 36, and she comes home one day, and we were in Southern California, and she said, You know, I went to this clinic because I have a cold and I just wanted to see if I was pregnant. That's weird. Most of our friends they've got teenagers, right? I said, well, what is it?

1:01 I mean, you know, of course, you're not you're not brave. No way. This is what I'm thinking. She goes, it's positive. I'm going...

1:14 Positive, negative, what does that mean? You know? She goes, I'm pregnant. And she sees saw saw the consternation on my face. She goes, I'm pregnant.

1:26 I'm going, we're going to have a kid? We're going to have a kid? Are you kidding me? I could feel the sweat going down the small of my back. We're going to have a child.

1:38 This is a I mean, I was happy. I was like, but shocked, you know, because of so many years without, you know, we're going to be that childless couple. You know, everybody knows. Nobody, you know, everybody, oh, that Schroders, they don't have kids at all. And we're going to have a kid.

1:55 So it was really weird because when I started thinking of... We started thinking, okay, what is it going to be? We didn't want to know until birth. We didn't want to know until we wanted to be surprised. So we had names picked out.

2:10 I wanted to have a name that was significant. I wanted to have a name that was significant to us. So we named him John Christopher Francis Schroeder. Named him after my friend John Gorman and also Barb's grandfather. His name was John, j o h n, not Jonathan, and then named him after me, middle name because I was Christopher Robert after my father, you know, like a little...

2:38 And then Francis because at the last end of it, he was born on my mom's birthday. So her name was Francis. So we gave him and we messed him up with the IRS big time. Don't know how those guys... Don't they ever see two middle names before?

2:58 They always said, Who's this Francis guy living with you? Was really strange. So John Christopher Francis Schroeder, we called him JC for short, to make it easy for him. 31 letters, that's why we called him JC. And it's it's just an interesting thing in terms of naming him, and I I actually wrote it down in my bible, the reasoning for it, for that kind of thing.

3:28 Well, I think to myself when we when we have this kind of a day today, Christmas, 2022 will be the next time Christmas will be on Sunday. And then the next one will be 2033. So, this is this is an interesting phenomenon that Christmas is on a Sunday and and so the next time it'll happen will be 2022 and then that's six years and then it skips for some reason, it skips another six years and then hits in 2033. So I don't know if I'll be here when it's on Sunday, but we have an incredible opportunity today to talk about talk about how great, how great this name of god is, the name of god, the name of Jesus Christ. And I'd like us to look at a passage of scripture that really talks about this.

4:46 It was really a wise decision not to have chapel. And I'm shoveling out my driveway in Richmond, Michigan. Live in a new neighborhood because we sold our old house and we live in a new place. And we live in an actual neighborhood. And I saw police cars.

5:05 I saw two police cars, two or three EMS at a neighbor's house. And I'm thinking, this is really strange. So I went down there and I knocked on the door, and the deputies waved me in. And there's a woman sitting there sobbing her eyes out, and the husband is next near her with his eyes moist and totally red and staring into the carpet. Just staring.

5:45 That morning, they came home from their anniversary gathering with themselves to find their son, 25 years of age, dead in his bed. They were in shock. And I thought to myself as I tried to minister to them, and the police really were happy that I was there trying to minister to them. They're waiting for the coroner now and all this kind of stuff. And I thought to myself, well, that kind of a situation brings into focus all of our human existence.

6:27 It brings into focus everything. It really does, doesn't it? It's very sobering. It's a very sobering situation in which they, you know, I look at that and I say to myself, what what is life? You know, and and this is how when when god looks at us and what god provided for us in the person of Jesus Christ is absolutely stunning.

6:52 Absolutely because nothing else matters. At that time, those that mom and dad had no other thoughts except these two, our son is gone, and where is he? Where is he? They were shocked out of their minds. Totally sudden.

7:23 And I think to myself, when we look at a situation like that, when we look at what God has done for us, I really appreciated, Ray, what you said this morning at the breaking of bread in terms of the... That's the focus of life. That's the whole focus of life. And God, in his tremendous love and wisdom, showed us in the Old Testament, shows us in the Old Testament of how he was going to redeem mankind. Showed us in the New Testament how he was going to redeem mankind.

8:03 Before the foundation of the world, Peter tells us, god sent, you know, god would send his son. He he planned the whole thing because man is sinful. Man is incredibly sinful. I like us to look at a passage of scripture. I think that it's going to talk about some names here.

8:22 I'd like us to look at Isaiah chapter nine and this is one of those if you saw Peanuts Christmas, you saw... I don't know if it's Pigpen that says it, but he quotes this passage. He quotes this passage. One of those guys in Peanuts Christmas quotes this and it's not my big authority but the word of god is the big authority. That's for sure but you know this passage and this passage is very familiar but I like us to look at this passage like maybe we've never seen it before because the prophet Isaiah shows us two aspects of this little child, the savior and ruler of the world and I want us I want us to look at this because these these two aspects are fantastic.

9:09 We're going to look at the person and we're going to look at the work. We're going to look at who is this child and what will this child do? People look at this passage and this is on Christmas cards. This is the, you know, it's a famous passage but how powerful is this passage to us? Look at it.

10:06 The zeal of the lord will perform this. Ain't this ain't this fantastic? You look at this and we look at the person of it. Who is this child? Who is this child?

10:17 And we see, you know, we see his humanity for unto us, a child is born. God stepped into history. God stepped into history. We talked a long... We talked a number of weeks ago about, you know, god, the god man, the god man, the god god in the flesh and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

10:44 Right? We talked about that. Think of the incredible miraculousness of this particular event. This is seven fifty years prior to his actual birth. Unto us a child is born.

11:01 Isn't that amazing? Seven fifty years, there's going to be and then we're going to see, we're going to see throughout this these two verses. How wonderful he is. How and who he is, this child and this will separate. When we look at this passage, it'll separate Jesus Christ and Christianity from everybody else.

11:26 All other religious ideas, all other religious personalities. He is none like him. There is none like him. And this is the beauty of this. This is the beauty of Christianity.

11:41 Christianity revolves around the person of Jesus Christ. In this last election, we've seen a lot of personalities. We have. We've seen a lot of personalities and some, you know, we we look at those guys, right? And we when we look at those personalities and I don't know if I've said before, but it's really true, let's say you could become a good friend, you know, hey, we're good friends, but you know, eventually as you examine my life, and you start to see me as a friend and that kind of thing, you start to see flaws, right?

12:13 You go, oh man, I end up breath really bad, or or you know, he's really inconsiderate or we start to see flaws but the more you examine the life of Jesus, you don't see any flaws. You see how great he is. And this is the one that I love about this. When you look at the lord Jesus Christ, there's no flaws. And people like Hume Schoenfield who who wrote the Passover plot and all this kind of stuff try to put flaws in Jesus.

12:43 Make him more human. He's the god man. He is the perfect man. There is no flaws with him and you can't even assign it to him. He is who he is and he is the savior of the world and we're going look at that.

13:00 Unto us a child is born. Now, it's a staggering thing to me for Mary to give birth to the son of god. It's hard to imagine and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. He became a he was a baby. I mean, talk about the humiliation of the savior of the world.

13:20 He didn't come and go, here I am. Submit to me. You know, like the Greek mythology guys would have. He's no myth. I had a guy one time in Wall Street tell me, he says, there's no Christianity and Greek mythology really the same.

13:36 I said, do you hear what you just said? I said, Greek myth, you said Greek mythology. It's a myth. I said, but Christianity is wedded with history. Jesus Christ is real.

13:50 Ain't that some myth? He's not like Zeus. He's not like Poseidon. He's not like whatever god you want to put on. Like the Greeks had a whole pantheon of gods, right?

14:00 I know a whole bunch of em and that you know, Jesus Christ is is wedded with history. He lived in time and space. He was born of a baby. Can you imagine? The god who spoke the world into existence became a baby?

14:16 Unto us, a child is born. Wow. You can't get greater love than this and in fact, that's what he says. No greater no greater love is no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends and we look at that sacrifice but the humiliation of the god of the universe becoming man, that's humble humiliation enough? And as as Paul writes to the Philippians, even death on the cross.

14:50 Wow. Unto us, a child is born. So, You look at Jesus Christ and I triple dog dare you to keep looking at him. I love it because Isaiah says, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on thee. You keep looking at him.

15:13 And you're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great time. But examine him. Go at him. Try to figure out flaws in the lord Jesus Christ.

15:23 Go ahead. Try to do it. I mean, in an honest intellectual way. I mean, in an honest way, not in a a creepo way but in an honest way. I mean, from the facts.

15:35 Unto us, a child is born. Fully human. In fact, the the in the after the after the death, burial, and resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ and church history comes on and then in two hundreds and the... It started like 180 and the two hundreds and the three hundreds, three twenty five AD and that kind of stuff, they had big discussions regarding the nature of Jesus Christ and his humanitarian, you know, is he human? And then the historians, these guys and the historians, you know, they tried to make him a different type of person.

16:12 You know, they... What they did was they they they faulted him in terms of his humanity. He is 100% man and he is 100% god. And there's no one like him. Ain't no one like him.

16:34 He's not one of these religious leader types. He is god in the flesh and the humiliation that he suffered even becoming a child. Unto us, a child is born. You know, Peter, like I said before, Peter, Peter tells us this, that god was planned from the foundation of the world that he would save mankind and he actuated this and the thing about it is this, is that Jesus knew this and still came. The humiliation of being a baby, being carried.

17:15 The one who spoke the world into existence was carried. At the age of 12, he goes and he's talking to the brain trust of Israel in terms of religious. He's talking to the doctors, he's talking to the brilliant people at the age of 12, and he's confounding them. And his parents lost him. You know, they they came back and they found him talking.

17:41 Right? They they were, where are you, son? And they chided him, I must be about my father's business. It was his comeback. It's the age of 12.

17:52 There's no one like this person. Unto us a child is born. This is seven hundred and fifty years spoken before he ever came on the scene. And then notice what it says, and unto us a son is given. Folks, he is the eternal son of God.

18:35 God sent his son to die for us. He sent him among us. You know as well as I do. There's no good. There's really going to be no political solution apart from Jesus Christ in this world.

18:55 Amen. There's really not going to be any humanitarian solution apart from Jesus Christ. There's gonna be no solution in terms of man's condition. You know, well, how are you gonna handle Putin? What's Trump gonna do with Putin?

19:14 What's this guy going to do with Putin? How are you going to handle this and all the geopolitical garbage that's going on right now and the Ukraine and and Middle East and all this kind of stuff? Well, let me tell you something. Nobody can handle this except one person. Satan's going to give his fake with the antichrist but he's not going to do it either.

19:41 I read the end of the book. I know what's coming down the pike. It's going to be him. Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given.

19:55 Isn't that fantastic? Don't you want to start crying? I want to start crying. Mean, or you probably want to get to the tree, maybe. But I I look at this and I say...

20:07 And then then notice what he says, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. In the old monarchs, during the ancient days, they used to wear, they would have a robe or something to that effect, a garment, and they would have on their sleeve or on on their person, on that robe, a marking of what they controlled. You know, it would be, you know, Mesopotamia. I don't know. You know, it'd have something like that.

20:41 Government should be upon his shoulder. He's just not gonna carry it. He's gonna be lord of it. So I love. I don't know how reformed theology gets around this but I I look at this and I I I look at I look at this and I say to myself, government should be upon his shoulder.

21:05 He's going to control. Notice verse seven, and the increase of his government and peace shall be there shall be no end. He's going to rule the world. Psalm two. He's coming again.

21:15 He is going to literally sit on the throne of David. That's what the scriptures indicate. This one who is a child will be king of kings and lord of lords. This one who is a child is going to come again and he is going to rule the world. Isn't that amazing?

21:35 He's going to do it. He is the solution. Not Trump and it wouldn't have been Hillary, it wouldn't have been anybody human. It had to be the god man to do it. Is that right?

21:50 I I I this is you know, in our whole issue of the of of politics and the, you know, all the things that are going on, it's going to be the name of Jesus Christ in the end. It's going to not just his name. It's going to be him that's going to control this whole this whole thing. We can talk about eschatology but we see it right here. We see it right here and he is the increase of the government should be upon him.

22:18 He will control this and so that we're we're getting a little ahead of ourselves, that's for sure but when we look at this, we see he's the child, he's the son, he is also the mighty God. Notice what he says, unto us a child is born and the son is given, the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful. Now if you have the ESV, it says wonderful counselor. But Kylen Delich makes a great point that these are names, these are nouns. This is not wonderful is not an adjective modifying counselor.

23:09 So I think it is separate. I think the ESV is wrong in its translation. I think when you look at this when you look at this, this is a noun aspect and it's describing who he is and what he is really going to do. He is wonderful. He is not exotic.

23:24 I don't want to put exotic because that has a bad connotation in some some senses but he is he is wonderful. He is so the depth of this person in which Isaiah is speaking of is incredible. He's wonderful. He's he's mysterious. That's what worldly wonderful means.

23:46 It's mysterious. He's, you know, you're not going to be able to get the whole thing about him for eternity. How's that? You're going to keep discovering through eternity who this person is. He's wonderful and counselor.

24:06 He is a counselor. He is the one who knows how to control. He counsels. He's the one. He is approachability.

24:14 We can come to him. We can come to him. His approachability. I mean, you know, he can counsel. He...

24:22 There's no one like him that can give the wisdom that he gives. Many of you today are sitting here wondering how to navigate through life. You're wondering, I mean, I do. I'm wondering how am I going to navigate through life. How am I going to do this?

24:41 Should I do that? Should I do this? Should should this happen? Should that happen? Right?

24:45 Am I right or am I wrong? Everybody's doing this. I don't care how old you are. If you got kids or you're the kids. You know, it doesn't matter.

24:53 Everyone of us sitting here today are wondering how to do it. Why not as my friend did who led me to Christ? He figured out. He says, I need to know how to live. I don't know what to do.

25:06 So, he read everybody every biography he could possibly read and then finally, he said, if is any biography I haven't read? I mean, you know, Schweitzer, Tom, Dooley, I mean, everybody he could read to try to make his life count. So what did he do? He says, is there anybody I've missed? He goes, I haven't read the biography of Jesus.

25:25 Where do I find that? So he started in the New Testament. By the time he got to the book of Romans, he got out of his bed, nailed next to his, kneeled next to his bed and received Jesus as his savior. You know why? Because he figured this out.

25:39 That I can't run my own life. I want him to run my life. Counselor You seek his face. You seek his face. He he will guide you.

26:01 Ain't that incredible? I mean, what kind of god is that when you that will come and say to you, seek you my face and and the Psalm has says, that's in Psalm 27 verse eight. Lord, thy face will I seek. Now, that's wisdom. You want to be a wise individual?

26:27 Seek him. You know, that's the whole thing. Wise men still seek him, right? I want to I want to live my life that would be wise. I've made some really bad mistakes in my life.

26:41 I really have. I've made mistakes in my life. I'm I'm through with it. I want to seek him. He's the counselor.

26:53 And that's what he's been he promises this to us. He wants you to come to him. He wants you to be yielded to him and to do what he would have you to do. And I I mean, this is amazing. And then notice what it says, wonderful counselor, the mighty god.

27:20 Some some people say, well, he's like a strong hero. Some people will say, well, this this El Gabor in the Hebrew should be translated great hero. No, it shouldn't. Where do you get that? I don't know where anybody gets that.

27:35 That's where they don't want to make em god. El is god. Gabor is a modifier of it. Mighty god. And that's exactly, El is god.

27:45 It's everywhere else. Emmanuel, god with us. El, Emmanuel with, right? That's what the two words linked together. Gabor, El Gabor, mighty god.

28:03 There's the deity verse for you right here for the Messiah. Is Messiah god El Gabor without a doubt? Because this Gabor is modifying El. The mighty god. El is god and so this is this is the beautiful thing.

28:25 This is not some great hero. He's just not some great person that just went around and hopefully, he was going to be really tremendous. No, no. He is god in the flesh. Unto us, a child is born and his name is going to be called wonderful counselor, the mighty god.

29:08 And so some people will get all confused with this is that you're saying that Jesus in in terms of the trinity, Jesus is the father. See what it says here and some cults will actually say that. But they're not getting the language. They're not getting the Hebrew on this one. It's father of eternity.

29:28 He authored eternity. Now, wrap your mind around that one. Try to think that one through. We're finite. He is eternity.

29:38 He is eternal and it speaks really of his eternalness. I mean, him being eternal but he is the author of eternity. The father of eternity. He generated it. I I I I can't take it all in.

29:55 Sorry. I just take what it says. I mean, I'm not that smart. I'm a simple man. Some people thought I was a simple tongue but I mean, I just, that's just what it is.

30:08 I'm just going to believe what it says but he's not god the father. He's not saying that. This is not saying that at all. It's the father of eternity. And then he is the prince of peace.

30:21 And there is no peace apart from Jesus Christ. There is none. A person without Jesus Christ has no peace. Why? Because of the sin nature and because of the sins, because of that sin nature that are produced in our lives.

30:38 We talk about our estrangement from god. We have no peace. The only peace that we could possibly gain would be from him. There is no other peace. Look for it.

30:54 It's not going to be in an Acura. It's not going to be in a in a Lexus. It's not going to be in even time management. It's not going to be in, you know, a productive life. It's not going to be in any.

31:08 It's going to be in Jesus Christ. There is nothing. It's not money. It's not in, I mean, the peace that we seek The peace that we want only comes through Jesus Christ. Ain't that a kicker?

31:24 I love this. It only comes in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, we might have heard all this. We I I've heard that. That's really good.

31:32 I've I've I've heard this a long time but listen, how's your peace doing? How's it going with you? And it doesn't matter where you're sitting right now. It doesn't matter. Without Jesus Christ, you have no peace.

31:51 I love that bumper sticker. Remember, you see that bumper sticker? I I forget how it goes. It says, how's it go? No Jesus, no peace.

32:00 Right. No, K N O W, Jesus, and then K N O W, peace. If you, if you're without Jesus, no peace. Knowing him, you have it. But it's clever.

32:15 It's a clever bumper sticker. That's true too. It is very true. Like we said before, the more you get to know him, the greater peace you have. The greater and why would the Christian have this lack of peace?

32:39 Because we're stupid Sorry, we are. We're stupid. Because we have not followed what he has told us to do. We have not sought his face. It's the craziest thing going.

33:00 It's the craziest thing going. Really is. Oh, I know we all got problems and all that kind of stuff. But you'll find every problem that you have, every situation that you face, the answer ultimately is in him. Leaning on him, giving him, and following his wisdom, having him show you what to do through his word, incredible peace.

33:30 Incredible. And it always revolves around him because why? He is the prince of peace. Nothing greater. Nothing greater than him.

33:42 I get choked up when I think of these names. I get choked up and then think of these names and what it means to me because I'm such a such a, you know, jerk face. You know, I I mean, the description of me, I'm a sinner but I'm a sinner saved by grace and I, you know, and I don't want to live my life as a Christian. I don't wanna live my life that would be a waste. It's just a pure waste without him.

34:11 It really is. The prince of peace We looked at that passage earlier in the breaking of bread, but in Luke chapter two verse 14, you know, and and everybody talks about this issue of peace. The worst day, my understanding, for suicides is tomorrow, the day after Christmas. Because everybody wants this peace and everything's predicated off of this. You know, we think, well, hey, peace, goodwill, and to men.

34:51 Right? We look at this and it says goodwill towards men. Glory to god in the highest and earth on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Right? It's an interesting thing.

35:03 It... This is not talking about if I have goodwill toward men, I'll have peace. No. It's not talking about that at all. It's talking about if I know Jesus Christ, I'll have peace.

35:14 That's exactly what that is talking about. The NIV renders it this way, and I I like the rendering of the NIV. When when you look at the different translations and how people have translated this section, they... We just read the King James to you, but the NIV renders it somewhat differently and gives it its real real meaning on this. On earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.

35:48 On earth... On on earth peace among men with whom he is well well pleased, men of goodwill of his favor. And Ryrie makes Charles Ryrie, a theologian makes a great point. He says, more accurately, the phrase reads, among men with whom he is pleased, the peace promised is not given unreservedly to men who praise good, who possess goodwill toward god but individually to men are recipients of his favor and grace. In other words, have they received Christ as their savior?

36:27 You'll have peace when you receive him as your savior because he is the prince of peace. You're not going to find, you'll never find anywhere in all of human history, you'll not find a greater person than Jesus Christ. That... You won't find it. And you'll be reading a lot about different guys who are great men.

36:51 I've read Winston Churchill's biography, oh, about four times, you know, great guy. In fact, the end of the end of the the author who did his biography says, you listen, I used to think that Winston Churchill was kind of like a like a blowhard type of a guy and not that good. But he said I think that Winston Churchill was the finest, aside from William Pitt, one of the greatest prime ministers England's ever had. But yet he doesn't even come close to Jesus. Doesn't even come close.

37:24 I did a story one time on the sketch board at Rutgers University comparing Gandhi to Jesus. This is when the movie was gone. Gandhi came out, you know? So, I I took off on that and I said, okay, he wanted peace for India. I said, Jesus is the prince of peace.

37:45 He didn't want any war. Jesus Christ settles the war in your heart. Ain't it amazing? There's nobody better. Gandhi, nobody better.

38:22 Notice what he'll do. He died on the cross, rose again, and the increase of his government, and the peace shall be... There there shall be no end upon the throne of David. Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order and to establish it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even forever. And the zeal of the lord of hosts will perform this.

38:43 He is going to come again. He is going to rule the world. He is going to settle all accounts. He is going to come again. He's going to rapture the church and then we're going to have seven years of tribulation and then his second coming.

38:57 That's really the second coming. When he comes and sets down on the Mount Of Olives, that's what he's going to do. This is what the Bible has to say. The explanation of it, we'd be here for months talking about the explanation of that from what the word of god has to say. I mean, nonstop.

39:15 We might have a break for the potty or something like that but we we can we could talk about it for a long time. How great this god is and what he is going to do and this is going to happen. I love it what what Paul writes in Thessalonians. I love it what he says this and this is so cool because people go, well, that's your opinion, Chris. And, you know, there are various opinions on this issue.

39:47 I like how they talk like that. But notice what Paul writes to the Thessalonians. Now, this is a very familiar passage, but in first Thessalonians, he said, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, You catch that? For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again.

40:21 Question, do you believe that? Same way I believe that to be a historical fact is the same way I know he's coming again. The same way. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will god bring with him. For if we believe that Jesus or excuse me, for this we say unto you by the word of the lord, That we who are alive and remain shall be unto the coming of the lord shall not go before or perceive them who are asleep.

41:02 For the lord himself shall descend with a shout... From heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the trump of god, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. You know who I miss? I miss Susan. I do.

41:20 We got to visit her last time we were here and had a great time. But I miss her. There's a lot of people I miss. This is the bottom line, isn't it? It really is.

41:42 This is really the bottom line. There is no hope apart from this hope. Some guys are going to promise us hope and change. He promises it and will come through with it. We shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.

42:02 This is the hope. And he's going to rule the world with a rod of iron. He is going to a thousand year reign of Christ. The government shall be upon his shoulder. He is going to run it.

42:15 And it's going to be run right. There's going to be no open rebellion according to this book against him. None for a thousand years and then after that, we know that Satan is loosed for a little while and then he's vanquished and all those who followed him are vanquished and they're going to spend eternity in the lake of fire and the Bible says that we will be with him forever and ever and ever. Now, wrap your mind around that one. But I want to ask you a question, a question I ask people in Wall Street.

42:47 I asked them this in Wall... This very question on Wall Street. You got anything better than this? You got it. And I did that.

42:56 I asked them. You got anything better than this? And you wanna know something in typical Wall Street fashion. I mean, you know, they they heckle you like you can't believe. This was in the eighties.

43:10 They would heckle you like you can't believe. Right? Not a word. Not a word. I mean, that was really strange.

43:19 I thought it was strange at the moment. Not a word. Nobody got up, hey, you're an idiot. You know, I mean, they... Nothing.

43:26 They just If you didn't have so much ambient noise with buses, you could hear crickets. You know, you could hear that. I can't even do a good cricket. But you would have heard the crickets because they didn't have anything and it was empty. I wanna know what's better than this.

43:44 The thing about it is... It's true. It's true. And we look at this and he is going to run it. He is going to do it.

44:35 He makes that point. And he gives good reason for it too. It wasn't just like, I I just wanna say I believe it's twenty fifth and I like it. You know? He talks about the Hebrew calendar and all that kind of stuff, you know?

44:49 I like that. But he also makes an incredible point. That when the angel came and ministered and told those shepherds of whom many of you have played in the past. When he told those shepherds of Messiah, who were those shepherds? And Edersheim makes the point that these shepherds were raising sheep for temple slaughter.

45:25 Temple sacrifice and I thought, wow. Why go to the shepherds? Because these guys were raising sheep as an illustration that the lamb of god, Messiah, would come and give his life and these were just illustrations and they would raise these sheep and the angels came and said, here is the fulfillment right over here. Fantastic. Unto us a child is born.

45:59 What a great savior we have. Amen? Amen. And I tell you, the longer I live and I hope it's longer, the longer I live, the more I start to appreciate. It's not the junk we possess and definitely it's not how we look now because that changes.

46:22 Trust me. And I have our wedding pictures on and a friend of mine looked at me and goes, that's not you. I said, that's us. No way. That's not you.

46:36 I go, that is us. Looked a little different. A lot different. But his love never changes. And the older I get, the closer we are.

46:59 Amen? Amen. That's wisdom for you young whippersnappers who thinks that this is going to stay this way for a long time. Wrong. The only thing that stays the same is change.

47:42 We use words like that to describe your temperament towards us, and it's really indescribable. Thank you. Thank you for the hope, the sure hope. And we yield ourselves to you afresh this morning. And we ask these...

48:08 Ask you to bless the rest of this day as we get the gifts that we maybe already got them. I don't know. But the greatest gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ our lord. Thank you. In Jesus's name, amen.