The Promise of the First Christmas - Bro. Wade Jackson
First Sunday of Advent
Communion Fellowship Church Podcast
Genesis 3:15 (December 1, 2024)
So real quick I do have an admission to make this morning for many years of my life. I did not adequately rejoice at Christmas. I just I knew all the things I knew what we were celebrating. I had a as Charles was talking about a mental knowledge of all of those things but I just I did not adequately rejoice at the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. Later on in my life Christmas started to to mean so much more to me this season was was just a different feeling and and so I mean that begs the question this morning you know why why was that you know you said early on in your Christian walk you didn't rejoice like you should at Christmas time. Why was that? And the reason is that you know I was thankful I didn't understand it but the reason is that something was missing in my understanding of this Advent season. Something was missing in my knowledge of what is going on and what that was was I did not understand the true nature of the predicament that I was in that you are in that we are all in. I did not fully understand my need I did not fully understand our need as all of mankind and to fully grasp our predicament this morning to fully grasp our need we must go all the way back to the beginning and that's what we're going to do we're going to go all the way back to Genesis 3 under the heading the first promise of the first Christmas with a specific focus on Genesis 3 15 I am going to read the full chapter of Genesis 3 I think it's important for our context this morning. God's Word says now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden and the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden that God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden neither shall you touch it lest you die but the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate then the eyes of both were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden but the Lord God called to the man and said to him where are you and he said I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself he said who told you that you were naked have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat the man said the woman whom you gave to be with me she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate then the Lord God said to the woman what is this that you have done the woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate the Lord God said to the serpent because you have done this cursed are you above all lives talking above all beasts of the field on your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life verse 15 our verse this morning I will put in the tea between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel to the woman he said I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing in pain you shall bring forth the children your desire shall be contrary to your husband but he shall rule over you and to add him he said because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you you shall not eat of it cursed is the ground because of you in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life thorns and thistles is shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return the man caught his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them in the Lord God said behold the man has become like one of us and knowing good and evil now lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken he drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed a chair of him and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life this is the word of God and man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God let us pray Father God thank you for your word I pray God that you will help us to have ears to hear this morning have hearts to receive your word it is so good Lord I pray God as we come upon this Advent season that you will reveal to us our need our predicament that you will reveal it to us so that we may have a greater worship of you that we may glorify you all the more that we may have a greater sense of who we are so that you may be lifted up all the more God and it's in Jesus name that I pray Amen maybe see to me in just 24 days we will be celebrating a birth that happened 2,000 years ago that was the first Christmas this morning as we have stated we're going to focus on verse 15 of Genesis 3 in which we see in this verse what we call the proto-imangelium you may have never heard of that word before I just learned it a couple of years ago but it simply means that this is the first form from which we see the gospel this is the first form in which the gospel appears to us in scripture as we have mentioned this morning I've already stated about how this message was teed up so beautifully in this series that we're going to be going through here this Advent series is just this has just been a great kickoff for that and I love to see that I love to see all of the things that are going on I know our school the kids is in axle and the Harmon's kids they have different events going on at school they have different programs celebrating this Advent season just the last time we were here we had Thanksgiving Thanksgiving feast and Charles had us each go around the table and talk about some of our favorite traditions for this season some of the things that we like to do it was just wonderful to hear out how each home and church sort of celebrates this this season this coming this Advent of our Lord and I love that and I want us to keep all of that in our minds this morning all of that in our minds all the things that we do to celebrate all those wonderful things of the Savior coming is Advent but I do want us to go a little further back this morning I want us to go all the way back to the beginning I want us to see this morning Christmas in Genesis I kind of think of it as I thought about this it's kind of like a movie Kaley will tell you that one of the things that I despise is coming into a movie after it's been on for 15 or 20 minutes I come in the kids are interested and she's interested in it I sit down and you know it draws me right in and then here come the questions well who's this guy you know what did that happen you know I've missed the first 15 minutes of the movie I watched the rest of the thing you know they're annoyed with me because I asked questions the whole time but I watched the whole thing and I see the ending and I'm like wow that that was really good like I love that movie but then it hits me well there were certain things in it that loose ends that I just didn't catch right little things that I thought should be tied up that I didn't catch because I didn't see the beginning of the movie he was great he was wonderful it was a great ending but how much better would it have been if I had caught the beginning of the movie and that's how I feel this morning that's how I was in my Christian life with Christmas I knew the ending I knew certain things I knew certain truths about Jesus his admin his coming his life his ministry his death his resurrection his ascension I knew those things but I had never went all the way back to the beginning and caught the first 15 minutes of it and it is so worth it and I pray this morning that we get to do that as we look at this text keeping in mind all of those wonderful things that we already know just going back a little bit further I want to look at this in three parts this morning so if you're a note taker these are not points these are just three parts the first is the scene this is what we're going to be looking at we're going to be looking at the scene then secondly we're going to be looking at the predicament and then lastly we're going to be looking at the remedy so first let's look at the scene here we have God has created the world I'm sure you've all read Genesis one and two you've probably studied it you probably been you know talked about those first seven days of creation through Sunday school and children's church and and different things and all the like it's a wonderful account the first two chapters of Genesis of God creating the world his pinnacle of his creation being Adam and Eve God created man in his image from dust of the earth and then created Eve from the rib of Adam and they were created by him for his glory as we are today there was no sin during this time there was no death that we've talked about this morning there was no hardship there was no heartache there was no things going on in life that is caused by sin that we all come face to face with every single day of our lives it was not like that it was not so it was good God said it was good six times after he created and then the seventh time he said after he created man in his image he said it was very good that's what it was like in the garden for Adam and Eve it was very good I think we can all imagine what it may have been like not having sin not being corrupted by sin this is what it was like it was good God gave Adam and Eve an explicit command to obey in that garden we see that in Genesis 2 verses 16 and 17 it says and the Lord God commanded the man saying you may surely eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die this is an explicit command God gave them abundantly more than enough there were many trees in the garden he told them not to eat of one of them he gave them plenty it was a sort of paradise that they had they were just given one explicit command stay away from this tree this one and only tree essentially it was Adam and Eve will you believe me will you believe what I have said to you will you obey what I have given you will you trust me will you trust me when I say you don't want that tree you do not want to eat of that I'm telling you don't do it will you trust that what I'm telling you is good that is what God is saying and if we think about our own life is this not exactly what we are faced with every single day of our lives will we believe God will we trust him do we believe that his plan and his word is good do we believe that his law that his statutes are actually good for us do we believe that do we believe that or do we believe that we have a better way do we believe that our way may be better than he is even though he's told us that his way is perfect his way is good do we believe that I can just partake in a little bit of this or a little bit of that because I don't trust him for what he said that is good for me we look at our lives in the world and think I know you have given me all of this remember Adam and Eve could eat of every tree in the garden except for one it's exactly what we do we look at our lives and we think about the blessings the goodness the mercy the grace that God has shown us over and over again undeserved grace and mercy and we want more we want something else we want to do it our way he says these things I have forbidden you and we just simply say God I know you have told us that it is good to stay away from those things that your law your statutes is good but I think I want that thing we do that so often don't we we think I believe I want that sin I believe I want that fruit on that tree that you have forbidden me either I think I want that lifestyle that you have forbidden me to have I think I want that sin that you have told me will destroy me it will destroy my family it will destroy my marriage it will destroy my testimony I think that I want that I think my way is actually better than your way will we believe and obey God and trust that his word is good for us will we do that not because we are adding some merit to anything by obeying him we're not we talked about that this morning Charles just mentioned it or excuse me I believe we sung it in one of the hymns not adding any merit to anything will we obey simply because he is God that he is the creator and we are the creature and he demands of us obedience to his law this is what he is commanded of us will Adam and Eve do what he says will we do what he says what he asked of us that's our question each time we're faced with temptation that is what we are faced with the question will we believe God or do we believe that our way is better than his I can admit so oftentimes I feel and so many times I say yes I'm going to obey God I want to obey God I'm going to obey God I'm just going to do it I know I'm being tempted here but I'm going to obey God and then what happens enter in the serpent Genesis 3 1 and 2 says now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made he said to the woman did God actually say you shall not eat any tree in the garden and of course we've already read it this morning God did not say that we just read it in verse 16 of Genesis 2 that in fact God said you may surely eat of every tree of the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Eve acknowledges this to the serpent that notice how she adds to what God said notice how she adds to it here Genesis 3 verse 3 but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden listen neither shall you touch it lest you die God did not say that she's already making the command God gave Adam stronger and harsher than what it really is you see where this is going we do the same thing do we not we do the very same thing Genesis 3 4 but the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil what we see going on here it brings back to the exact same thing where we were just a minute ago will Adam and Eve trust God will they believe him will we believe him God says this is not good for you have actually not to do it Satan the serpent the world our flesh says God is so restrictive not letting me have that God is so restrictive he's so unreasonable he is depriving me of the life that I was meant to live he is depriving you of the life that you were meant to live that's what the world tells you over and over again that's what your flesh tells you over and over again when we are trying to obey God's commandments that's what the devil tells you over and over again that you are being deprived that he is so harsh and then we think well you know what maybe he is that may actually be good for me if I partake in that I may actually feel better if I partake in that sin and when we let ourselves get to this point we're in dangerous ground we're very dangerous ground this is the point we no longer trust God just as Adam and Eve did as we see in verse 6 so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate she saw that the tree was good for food it was appealing to her to her belly it was appealing to her hunger it was a delight to the eyes it was appealing to her her vision her sight it could make one wise appealing well if I eat this I'll have more knowledge I have more wisdom it appealed to her senses it appealed to her flesh so much so that she decided what she would want that what her flesh wanted was better than what God had commanded her not to do she trusted herself and her emotions and no longer trusted God and Adam was with her the whole time we read it this morning he was with her the whole time partaking in it with her and I would just say think back to the sin in your life as I think back to the sin in my life I believe we can pretty much sum it up in the same way in the seeing this morning that we have set forth we know the truth we are christian we know we know the truth it's written on our hearts we know what is right we know what is good we know his law is good and yet we are tempted it appeals to our emotions it appeals to our side it appeals to our hunger it appeals to our flesh we are attacked from the devil we are attacked from the world and we think well that is a little harsh that I'm not allowed to partake in that I think I will indulge myself I think this is good for me we trust in our plan we believe our way is better and we indulge ourselves in that sin instead of trusting God's good and perfect plan and his perfect way and this is the scene it is now said and now let's look at the predicament that it causes sin has now entered the world Adam and ease eyes have been opened although not like the serpent said they would in that they would be like God rather their eyes are opened in now that they know that they are naked they have shame and guilt they were naked before mind you remember this they were naked before but now it is different they have sin they are aware of it they do just like you and I have done many times in our lives just like my children do when we have sin when we have done something wrong they want to hide I can remember about it's probably being a year and a half ago now I was working upstairs in my office and Axel was there with me um I don't know where Kay and the kids were but he was there with me working that day normally he just sits there in my office when I work and he plays and he interacts with me and sometimes he'll go watch TV or play a game or whatever and he'll come he's always around that excuse me always stays right there with me and well we've been downstairs I don't remember if we were eating lunch or whatever but he had something caught his eye on the island and it was uh it was ice breakers gun is those little cubes uh if you know what I'm talking about and he asked when I said no we're not going to do that he was young in the end it's been a while ago he's probably just learning maybe how to chew on but I said no we're not going to get that and well you know maybe 30 minutes an hour later we're upstairs and he's in my office and he kind of goes goes off and I noticed that I haven't seen him about 10 or 15 minutes and so I stopped working I'm like okay I'm gonna go check on him so I went out into the upstairs we have this big room where the kids like to play and you know I call for him axle where are you you know look around all this stuff looking to in the bedroom upstairs he's not there I go downstairs I check all the bedrooms all the rooms everywhere downstairs I'm looking for him I'm calling out his name you know axle where are you and try not to you know get worried and I think okay well sometimes he'll get on the couch upstairs and he'll fall asleep that's that's probably where he's at so I went back upstairs and went to the couch and I look not there so now I'm getting worried like he has decided to go outside by himself he didn't tell me he's he's went outside I know he has so I hurriedly got hurriedly go downstairs and I'm calling his name the whole time axle you know axle you know just making sure I didn't miss him anywhere and I grabbed my jacket and as I'm getting ready to walk out the door something catches my and it's him right under our kitchen table and I turn over and he's hidden under there what does he have he has those icebreakers gum eating them just as fast as he could eat them not chewing them eating them swallowing just as fast as he could what did he do he knew that he was doing wrong he disobeyed his dad and what did he try to do he tried to hide he was hiding me he heard me the whole time he was there the whole time I was looking for him looking at every room downstairs I was like axle where are you you know he's getting worried never said a word he was right there the whole time that's exactly what we do the scene that we had here this morning in the garden was that of beauty perfection and goodness as God created he said it was good but with the entry of sin by Adam and Eve's own doing by their own rebellion they now feel the need to hide from God they need they feel the need to sow fig leaves excuse me on themselves to cover themselves up they're aware of their shame and their guilt just like axle was he was aware he knew what was coming as soon as he saw me the look on his face he knew I'm in trouble now I just did what dad commanded me or told me not to do and just like Adam and Eve and in Genesis chapter 3 verse 7 in the eyes of both were open and they knew that they were naked and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths their guilt could not be hidden with loincloths axles guilt was not going to be hidden forever as he hid from dad their nakedness in the garden was a symbol of their guilt and shame and most obviously it was a symbol of their sin they had sin now sin that could not be hidden from God our sin will not be hidden from God I love what Alistair Begg says on this he says all of the transcendent beauty and holiness and loveliness that is represented in God's creative handiwork in the garden and in their lives has now been besmirched it has now been soiled it has now been depleted the tragedy of man is not simply that we break the law of God but that we are now spoiled from all that God created us in the first instance to be it's all gone it's spoiled it's depleted it's ruined and what do we do what did axle do what do we all do our first instinct a lot of times is I want to fix it I got I got to fix this I got to cover it up now I got to sew fig leaves to cover up my shame and my guilt I don't want to feel this anymore which usually leads to more sinning just as Adam and Eve they sewed these fig leaves together to cover up their nakedness and verses eight and nine tells us and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden but the Lord God called to the man and said to him where are you because of sin they went from being in God's presence being an almighty God's presence to have it to feeling the need to have themselves from him I love verse nine I love this verse it says but the Lord called to the man and said where are you I love that because do you think that God didn't know where they are of course he knew where they are do you think that God didn't know what they had done of course he knew what they had done they were hiding from God from an omniscient omnipotent omnipresent holy almighty God he knew can we hide from God can we hide our sin from God absolutely not he knows everything that we have ever done and I love this quote from rc sprawl goes something like this to know that God knows everything about me and still loves me is my greatest or my ultimate consolation I think is the way he puts it I love that God knows every single thing every single wicked thing that I have ever done in my life and yet he loves me that is wonderful I think we see this here God wasn't coming to them for information where are you what have you done how do you know this body you naked how did you know that you were naked he's not coming to them for information but he is coming to them in justice and in love at this point in the narrative did Adam and Eve have any right to be asked the simple question where are you did they have any right to that was God obligated to seek them out and say to them where are you was he obligated to ask them in verse 11 who told you that you were naked no for God to be just and righteous did he have to ask them if they had eaten of the tree he could commanded them not to eat up did he need that absolutely not he told them that when it when you eat of it you shall surely die God would have been perfect he would have been just he would have been righteous for them to have fallen dead as soon as it touched their lives the the moment that we believe that God owes us mercy the moment that we believe that God owes us grace that God has to be gracious to us is the moment that we portray a humanized version of God onto the real God it's not true he does not owe us grace the fact that God is reaching out to them is by pure grace it is the unmerited favor of God on them they did not deserve that they did not deserve anything after the the fruit of the tree touched their lips God would have been just to do exactly what he said he would do which is that they would die and again if you if you think for a second that God owes you mercy and grace that he's obligated to this then i pray this this morning that you change your view of that right now the good news is that he is gracious that he is merciful but he does not owe it to sinful man he does not owe it praise him that he did show them grace and mercy in this moment and praise him that he has done so many times in my life and in your life praise God that he is the one that shows that unmerited favor of love toward his people that we do not deserve and as we continue with the predicament let's skip on down to verse 16 and here we see this curse that was caused by this sin verse 16 says to the woman he said i will surely multiply your pain and childbearing in pain you shall bring forth children your desire shall be contrary to your husband that he shall rule over you certainly it is true that child birth can be excruciating painful for the mother i you know it was there with calia she gave birth to two children and one of them was not so bad the other one was it can absolutely be excruciating pain but what God is saying here is so much more than just the simple fact that childbearing is is going to be painful it extends well beyond that the true pain and childbearing bearing is that because of this fall because of this sin of adam and e we now bring our children into a sinful world where there is death that we've talked about this morning where there is dee disease that we've talked about this morning heartache and so on it was not so in the beginning but now it is and we see this in marriage to selfishness from both the men and the women what should be perfection is now desires being contrary to one another we see ruling over one another we see all these things this is the effect of sin i think it was votey bacham don't quote me on that who who mentioned something about marriage is we think it's going to be happily ever after and i have a great marriage and i believe it is happily ever after i thank god for my marriage but he said something along the lines of it's actually better called repentance ever after um and i believe that's true i believe both can be true happily ever after and repentance ever after but it's so true there's so many times that i'm sure that you have experienced this as well that i've had to ask for forgiveness of of my self-centeredness of my selfishness of my pride and so on this was not to be the case this is the effects of sin this is the effects of the fall to add in the curses thorns and thistles now spring up from the ground you away from the ground but it won't be easy you will eat of it by the sweat of your face just this past week i spit time in the woods hunting and and there's this one place that i like to go and i kind of got a little path cut out but it's hard to see that path when you've got a dim headlight at you know 430 in the morning it's hard to find the path that's cut out and so if you'll see my hands they're tore out of pieces because i couldn't find the right path and i knew i had to get up that view on so i i just had to go through those thorns and thistles those briars they cut me everywhere and i know that that god is speaking about growing his vegetation and they're being weeds and things like that but i was reminded of that this week as i went through this is not so not the way it should be and he tells that and you get to return to the very ground you are working for you are dust and dust you sow return in verse 19 this is death this is part of the curse this is the predicament that we've talked about this morning we are fallen and we live in a sinkers world with absolutely no hope except jesus crossed let us understand let us have a better understanding of why things are the way they are let us have a better understanding of our predicament this morning and how we got here we we must understand this if we want to truly understand the remedy which is our last part this morning as we know that is jesus cross and i want to focus on that first promise that first form of the gospel in verse 15 i will put in the tea between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel the verse the first part of verse 15 describes the mighty conflict between us and the devil that is ongoing today we've talked about childbearing this morning we've talked about bringing forth our children into a sinkers world we talked about the ground now having thorns and thistles disease heartache cancer death all of these things all because of the fall we know that the entire creation grounds because of the falls paul tells us in romans chapter eight that it longs to be escaped from this bondage to corruption the entire world is cursed because of this but what is this in the tea between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent what is that this is the battle this is the mighty conflict between us the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent we find this throughout the entire bible good versus evil the kingdom of god and the kingdom of darkness in fact the next account if you flip the page to genesis chapter four you're going to see the very effects of the fall the very effects of this first sin come to play out you're going to see it all throughout scripture but it's painfully obvious in the next account of Cain and Abel where we see envy we see jealousy we see anger which ultimately ends up in murder it is everywhere you turn it is everywhere today we see it there is no escaping this reality of the fall but praise god there is a remedy there is a remedy there is and was a plan we call this god's plan of redemption that he made before the foundation of the world and this morning we get to see that first glimpse of it that first hope of what is coming that first proto-evangelium that first gospel promise in genesis 315 in such a tumultuous chapter you've got the first two chapters of genesis that are beautiful creation account and then we get to this chapter and it's the fall it's the first sin of man and nestled right in the middle of it in verse 15 we see these words i will put unity between you and the woman in between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel this is a picture of man versus satan got to say yes satan shall bruise his heel but in the death of him in the death of jesus christ he shall bruise your head or as some translations say i love this is he shall crush your head i prefer that what this means is he will have victory over you devil he will ultimately have victory over you there may be entity between you and my people between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of god but jesus christ will have victory over you the only way for what adam and eve have done to be remedied is for this promised seed jesus christ to bear this curse that adam and eve and all humanity deserved he bruise 214 so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil the curse is death and damnation adam and eve rebelled against god they were banished from the garden we read about it they were banished from paradise as part of the judgment of god sin and death and all the terrible things that we know today came into the world through this sin this fall but while god was pronouncing his judgment while god was pronouncing his judgment on the serpent and his judgment on mankind in his graciousness in his love in his mercy mercy he says i'm going to send my son for you this curse that you deserve i'm going to have him bear it jesus christ being perfect god in the flesh who doesn't deserve any of this he is going to bear it he is going to rescue you and defeat satan and you who deserve all the punishment and judgment guess what you get you get the blessings that he alone deserves that is the beauty of it that is the first promise of the first christmas i love what richard barcelo says he says jesus christ the eternal son of god become man is god's remedy for adam's failure jesus christ takes his seed for adam failed to take his salvation in christ is better than creation in the image of god and citizenship in the garden of eden god does not place believers in christ back at the starting line in the same position in which adam was created he grants irrevocable eternal life based on the doing and dying of jesus to all who believe the gospel the end is the beginning glorified it is better than the beginning christ takes all sinners who believe the gospel to his land his eschatological temple his paradise the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwells only righteousness praise god father son and holy ghost amen end quote in the garden adam and even adam and eve had the ability to sin or the ability to not sin we know that whereas in eternity in the new heavens and the new earth we will not have the ability to sin i can't wait for that day to not have those temptations anymore to sin there will be no sin there will be no death there will be no cancer there will be no destruction there will be no mental illness all of those things is where we are going it is going to be better than the beginning we talked about the beginning being paradise but the new heavens and the new earth is going to be so much better than that and praise god for that i pray this morning that being reminded of these things probably for most of you but maybe this is the first time you've really heard about the true predicament that all of mankind is in that all of us were in and i pray that you just have a renewed sense of of rejoicing of of joy and knowing what we were born into and that the remedy has came jesus christ and he has died for all of those who would repent and believe in him that is beautiful that is what should spark our worship as we begin this advent season i pray that it will never that will never be bored with it uh like i once was or that it won't ever be mundane but instead we come to it with this ultimate sense of all because it is so deserving of that and i'll close with this uh a hymn that i'm sure you all saying at christmas time by as a quads i got to study some of as a quads hymns in uh in one of my seminary classes and i love this one i ended up writing a little piece on it for a for a grade um but it's joy to the world as we've all heard as a quads wrote this hymn as he read jenesis three this is what he says in in this hymn no more let sins and sorrows grow north thorns impest the ground he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found far as the curse is found far as far as the curse is found praise god let's pray father god thank you for your word this morning i pray that we take your word we understand the beginning of this we understand the first promise of the first christmas the first glimpse of the gospel in your word god that you had a plan before the foundation of the world that when we fail that when our first parents fail and to sin that you had a plan you had a remedy in place help us to be reminded of that help us to think upon that through this advent season as we celebrate christmas we praise you for it god we thank you for it lord we have no hope without it it's in jesus thing we pray amen