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27

Dec, 2020

All These Things

  • joy
  • hope
  • Christmas
  • treasure
  • manger
  • brisket
  • Texas tea


All These Things

Luke 2:19 | December 27, 2020

What do you treasure in life?

My wife’s grandmother lived on a few acres of land about 10 miles south of Little Rock, Arkansas.

About 100 miles south of where she lived is an area of the state that since 1920 has helped produce more than 1.8 billion barrels of oil.

Early in our marriage I used to joke with my wife that one day her parents were going to call and say that some of that oil moved underground up the state and sprung up in her grandmother’s backyard.

Well, that never happened – but that’s okay because I don’t need any oil because my in-laws are a treasure all by themselves – that sounds corny, but I mean it.

Can imagine getting a call from a geology company and they say…

“Some recent studies lead us to believe that there may be some oil on some of your family’s land and we would like your permission to perform some drilling.”

And you agree and tell them the name of the lawyer they need to call to work out the drilling permission details.

And they thank you and say, “We will be in touch and let you know what we find.”

And you say, “Naw. Don’t worry about it. You don’t need to call me back. If you find anything, you guys just do whatever you want with it.”

Of course, you wouldn’t say that.

If someone calls you and says there may be some petroleum treasure on your land, oil that is, black gold, Texas tea – then you’re going to want a call back!

That land is going to become very important to you.

Today is December 27, so, now it’s time to haul in the holly, put out the tree before those needles fall again.

In other words, this is the time when we tend to move on.

After all, it’s almost Valentine’s Day.

But before we move on, can we open one more present?

A present filled with a greater and more magnificent treasure than the richest oil land in the world.

What kind of treasure?

Let’s find out – listen to Luke 2, verse 19…

19 But Mary treasured all these things,

Why do we take pictures?

Notice I said pictures not selfies.

According to the National Institute of Sanity and Common Sense in Radiator Springs, Arizona, there is no logical reason to take selfies – or at least not 20 selfies a day.

We take pictures to keep memories.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, didn’t rush to pack up Christmas so she could go buy a heart-shaped box of chocolates and a bag of Cupid Corn.

She mentally and emotionally and spiritually slowed down and treasured what was happening around her.

She stopped to take some pictures – to keep some memories – and she had some serious memories to keep!

She was going to have the greatest baby book in the history of all baby books!

And her pictures would have been incredible to look at. 

Luke used eyewitness accounts to write this letter.

So, it’s not crazy to believe that he found Mary and was able to look in the baby book she made for Jesus. 

And what did he find there?

He found all the stuff that she had been keeping. 

And what was she keeping – what was she treasuring?

What were “all these things”?

Well, it was more than just what happened in the manger.

  • Her engagement to a carpenter
  • A visit by the angel of the Lord
  • A few months living with her cousin Elizabeth
  • Elizabeth’s husband being suddenly mute for a while
  • The birth of Elizabeth’s baby, John the Baptist
  • Oh yeah, her virgin pregnancy
  • Rejection from family and friends
  • The possibility of being divorced or stoned to death
  • Eventually being affirmed again by her fiancé
  • A hard, pregnant journey to Bethlehem
  • The pain of childbirth (with no anesthesia)
  • Strange, smelly shepherds looking for her baby
  • Strange, smelly shepherds worshipping her baby

That was just a “few” things over the last ten months of her life – and there was a lot more to come. 

So, Mary was taking all of those things in.

And you have to think that she had some sense of relief in the moments after Jesus was born.

At the very least there was the physical and emotional relief of having actually delivered a healthy, human life.

And those smelly shepherds and their kind-of-hard-to-believe story about a sky full of angels had to also bring her some spiritual relief.

Their story helped her remember and embrace what the angel said about her baby all those months ago…

Luke 1:32

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;

 

Luke 1:33

and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.

Mary had just given birth to the Messiah!

  • God was here!
  • God was here to be with us!
  • God was here to save us!

She was taking all of that in. 

So, here’s a question for your heart – are you taking it in?

Are you taking in the eternal truth about Jesus?

Or is Jesus kind of like your elf on the shelf?

You move him around in different places at your house for a few weeks as a decoration and you drop a meme about him on social media saying he is the reason for the season, but when the season is over, he’s back in the box with the nativity set because it’s time for ski season now and New Year’s Day is right around the corner, so, it’s time to get things back to normal. 

On December 24, 1941, Bing Crosby introduced the song “White Christmas” on his Kraft Music Hall radio broadcast.

17 days earlier the attack at Pearl Harbor had brought the country to its knees and set the feet of many Americans in motion to enlist and join the war effort.

It has been said that one of the main reasons that “White Christmas” became so immediately popular is because of the second line, “Just like the ones I used to know.”

In other words, the world had just tragically and radically changed, and people everywhere were longing for something “normal” like it used to be.

But the world has never been like it used to be.

And it won’t be tomorrow either. 

That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to have nostalgia and to be sentimental – hey, I’m thinking about buying a typewriter.

But we must always balance nostalgia and normal with reality – and the reality is nothing in the world will be the same tomorrow. 

And in many ways that is good because tomorrow someone may find a new breakthrough for cancer or heart disease that nobody could find in 1941 or 1972 or 2019.

And in other ways it might be hard and difficult to wake up and realize that tomorrow nothing will be the same…well, almost nothing.   

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

That truth is why there is great treasure to be found in Mary’s baby – there is great treasure to be found in the Messiah.

  • What is the meaning of life?
  • Why am I here?
  • What happens at death?
  • How can I know God?
  • What must I do to be saved?
  • What must I do to inherit eternal life?

The ultimate answer to all of those questions was wrapped up in Mary’s arms that night. 

Have you wrapped your arms around Jesus?

If not, today can be your day of salvation.

Today can be the day that Christmas never ends and your today and even your yesterday change forever.

  • Repent and turn to Christ
  • Hold on to Christ
  • Do not let go of Christ

Why?

Because there is great treasure in knowing Jesus Christ!

Do you like brisket?

People wait in line for hours for brisket at Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas.

In an ad for his MasterClass on Texas-style barbecue Aaron Franklin says he makes about 106 briskets a day and then he said this, “I’m also still learning.”

You’d think a guy who makes more than 20,000 briskets a year wouldn’t be learning anymore, but his humility is endearing and exciting because he’s saying, “There is still so much brisket treasure to be discovered.”

John Owen

In the divine Scriptures, there are shallows and there are deeps; shallows where the lamb may wade, and deeps where the elephant may swim.

What John Owen is saying is that the youngest Christian can read and hear and understand the gospel and find joy and excitement and treasure in it. 

And, likewise, someone who has been a Christian for many years can keep reading and hearing and understanding the gospel and never even get close to touching the bottom!

In other words, go get you a Christmas elephant!

The deep joy and excitement and treasure of the gospel never ends!

Mary delivered the gospel into the stable that night.

And she was keeping and treasuring that memory.

But she wasn’t just keeping those memories in her mind.

Listen to what Luke writes next in verse 19…

19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

  • Mary was keeping those things
  • She was treasuring those things
  • And she was pondering those things

One of the greatest things that has ever been invented is the revolving dessert display.

The sweetest things in the restaurant spinning around and around for your eyes to enjoy and your stomach to desire. 

Mary kept spinning those sweet things about Jesus around in her mind.

And not just in her mind, but in her heart.

She was thinking deeply about all of the events that were surrounding her life.

And she was pondering them all as a first-time mom. 

Moms are sort of like human baby books – they have absorbed those precious moments into their very hearts.

And Mary was a mom who had a virgin pregnancy!

That’s something to ponder! 

And her child was the Son of God!

That’s something to ponder!

You have to think that somehow Mary was wondering…

  • “How do I raise God?”
  • “Do I nurse him or give him formula?”
  • “Or maybe he doesn’t need food…he’s God!”
  • “What’s he going to be like?”
  • “When is he going to become King?”
  • “When he’s young or when he is old?”

Mary had some things to ponder.

And she wasn’t a stranger to pondering.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to her, this was her immediate response…

Luke 1:29

But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.

Mary was perplexed and troubled and was trying to figure out what was going on.

No matter how noble you may think you are, most of us would have been a lot more than perplexed – and we wouldn’t have been trying to figure anything out. 

We would have been diving behind the sofa or running and shutting ourselves in the closest as fast as we could.

But Mary was thinking.

  • She was perplexed
  • She was troubled
  • She was pondering what was really going on

Her pondering wasn’t just about Baby Jesus either.

More than a decade after Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph were on their way home from the Passover celebration.

Suddenly they looked around the large caravan of people they were traveling with and couldn’t find Jesus.

They hurried back to Jerusalem and found him in the temple engaged in some deep, theological discussion with religious scholars – he was 12 years old. 

And Jesus told his parents that the reason he was at the temple talking with the church leaders about God is because he was conducting his Father’s business.

And how did his mother respond?

Luke 2:51

…and His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

Mary was a thinker – she knew how to ponder God’s truth.

She knew how to treasure her son – her son who was also her Savior.

If you are a Christian, do you ponder your faith?

Outside of Sunday morning, do you think about your faith?

Do you have a Christmas elephant?

Do you take a few minutes to deeply ponder the reality that you have been saved by grace through faith and that faith is not of yourself but is the gift of God?

What happens when you ponder the truth about Jesus?

When the angel came to tell Mary about her supernatural pregnancy, this is what she sang after the angel left…

Luke 1:53

He has filled the hungry with good things…

A person who ponders the truth about Jesus is engaged in the process of filling their heart with good things.

Or put another way – those who ponder the truth about Jesus will be satisfied – they will be satisfied with Jesus.

  • Where’s your mind today?
  • What’s it filled with?
  • Where’s your heart today?
  • What’s it filled with?

King Solomon said…

Proverbs 12:25

Anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.

Has your heart been weighed down with anxiety over the holidays?

Has your heart been weighed down with anxiety over the state of things in the world?

Or in a similar way, has your heart been weighed down with anger over the holidays or anger over the state of things in the world?

A heavy heart will weigh you down, but a good word will make your heart glad. 

The truth about Jesus is a good word.

So, how do we ponder the truth about Jesus?

In the book of Revelation, Jesus has a message for the church at Ephesus…

Revelation 2:2

I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men,

 

Revelation 2:2

and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;

 

Revelation 2:3

and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary.

 

Revelation 2:4

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

“I know your deeds that you put up a beautiful Christmas tree and you bought some really nice gifts and you made a fantastic pound cake and you went to the Christmas Eve service and you gave some money to the missions offering and you donated some food to the shelter and you bought some clothes for that family that lost their job and those things are good and great and wonderful – keep up the good work!”

“But you just blew through Christmas without pondering me. You just blew through Christmas without treasuring the reality that in your life everything will change but me. I will be the same for you yesterday, today and forever.”

You can’t treasure Jesus and you can’t ponder Jesus if you don’t love Jesus first and most.

We don’t know for sure what happened with the shepherds and the wise men and the other people that heard about the manger and got excited about the Messiah being born, but what we do know is that generally speaking it seemed to wear off. 

Because when he was 30 there weren’t people lined up for hours waiting for his debut…but his mom knew.

  • She never stopped keeping the truth about Jesus
  • She never stopped treasuring the truth about Jesus
  • She never stopped pondering the truth about Jesus

Ray Ortlund

The truth sustained her, while others just lost their enthusiasm.

Be honest with yourself, has 2020 caused you to lose your enthusiasm about Jesus?

Then here’s a New Year’s resolution for you…

Imitate Mary.

  • Treasure the story of Jesus
  • Treasure the gospel
  • Ponder the gospel

What does that look like in real life?

From my perspective, my friend Bert Daniel is one of the finest pastors in America. 

Part of the reason he’s such a great pastor is because he has a pretty incredible wife, Nikki.

Bert and Nikki have two boys and a little girl.

They live in Augusta, Georgia, the home of the Masters, a tradition unlike any other.

A few years ago, Nikki wrote an article about moms and social media and the internet and she said this…

Nikki Daniel

I often ponder life before the internet came along. Moms prayed for the sweet life they cradled instead of Facebook stalking people they would never meet. They hummed lullabies and hymns to soothe those lovely eyes to sleep rather than zoning out into cyberspace.

Nikki Daniel

They learned every detail of their little ones’ face and observed the wonders of their motions rather than learning the latest celebrity gossip. They let their baby hold their fingers instead of gripping their phones. They connected with their baby deeply while praising God for their life instead of typing out messages one finger at a time.

She goes on…

Nikki Daniel

Does this contrast mean that moms should never use social media? Absolutely not! Facebook often lights up my bedroom during my daughter’s 4 a.m. feeding.

So, if social media isn’t evil, what’s her point?

Her point is focus.

Nikki Daniel

Let this be an encouragement to take some time to focus on your sweet baby, because simply put, babies don’t keep.

She’s right, babies don’t keep – they grow up.

The baby in the manger grew up and got taller and strong.

  • His mom watched him heal people
  • His mom listened to him preach
  • His mom heard him suffer
  • His mom saw him die on a cross for the sin of the world

Someone said Mary’s life was never the same because of her association with Jesus. 

It was never the same because she never stopped.

  • She never stopped keeping
  • She never stopped treasuring
  • She never stopped pondering

Don’t wait for the new year, start imitating Mary today.

Take some time to focus on and treasure all of these things because babies may not keep and Christmas may not keep, but…

  • The message from the manger keeps
  • The message from the cross keeps
  • The message from the empty tomb keeps

Because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Treasure all these things.

Treasure all these things.

Message by Dow Welsh

December 27, 2020

© Holland Avenue Baptist Church

Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

Nikki Daniel article > click HERE



So what do you treasure in life? My wife's grandmother grew up about 10 miles outside of Little Rock, Arkansas, on a few acres of land and about 100 miles south of where her land waas, is an area of Arkansas that since 1920 has participated in more than 1.8 billion barrels of oil. That's a lot of oil. I remember early on in our marriage, I used to tell my wife, You know what's going to happen? One day, your parents you're going to call and we're going to find out that that oil, just like, kind of moved its way up the state and all of a sudden just sprung up in your grandmother's backyard. It's great. We're going to be rich. Fantastic. God, that never happened. That's okay, because I don't need any oil. You know what? My in laws are treasure all by themselves. That that sounds corny, but I mean history. Can you imagine they're getting a call from some geology company and they're like, Hey, we've done some research on the area where you have some land and and we feel strongly there could be some oil on your hands, so we'd like permission to do some exploratory drilling and you say, Well, sure, you give in the name of the lawyer that they need to call toe, work out the permission details and then the company says back to you. So So we'll do what we're going to do and we'll call you and let you know if we find something and you respond, you have to call me back. It's good. You just do. What you going to do if you find something, you all do whatever you want to with No, that's not what you're going to do. If there's if there's any notion that there is potential petroleum, you know, oil that ISS Black gold Texas tea. If that's on your land, you're going to wanna call back. You want someone calling back because your land just became potential treasure. Tiu. Today's December 27th, two days after Christmas, you know, Hall in the holly. Put out the tree before those needles fall again. You know we're done. It's over. Supposed supposed to be moving on. I mean, after all, it's almost Valentine's Day. But before we move on, can we open up? Just just one more present. Just just one more gift. A gift, a present that is a greater and more magnificent treasure. Been the richest oil land in the world. What kind of treasure we're talking about? Let's find out. We're looking at Luke. Chapter two, Verse 19. But Mary treasured all these things while we take pictures. Now I said Pictures, not selfies. Okay, there's difference. National Institute of Sanity and Common Sense and Radiator Springs, Arizona has said there is no logical reason to take a selfie. None, at least not 20 a day. So not Selfies. But why don't we take pictures? We take pictures because we want to keep some memories. Mary, the mother of Jesus. She wasn't packing Christmas up, trying toe. Hurry out to buy a box of heart shaped chocolates. Now she was on purpose, slowing down. She was spiritually, emotionally, mentally slowing down to consider what was happening around her. She was stopping to take some pictures. She was stopping Thio. Keep some memories and, boy, does she have some memories. May Mary's Baby book was like the greatest baby book in the history of the world Now Luke wrote this letter based on eyewitness accounts, and so it's not crazy to think that Luke found Mary and that Mary pulled out that baby book and they flipped through it. And Luke got to see those pictures. And what did he see in that book? Well, he saw what she kept. The things that she was keeping, the things that she was treasured, all these things. And what were all those things? Well, it was more than just what happened in the stable. There were a lot of other things to consider. First, there was her engagement to Carpenter. Then there was this visit by an angel of God. Then there was going to stay with her cousin Elizabeth for a few months. Then there was Elizabeth's husband suddenly being mute for a few months. Then there was the birth of Elizabeth's baby, John the Baptist. There was something else. Oh, yeah, her virgin pregnancy. That was something to think about her family and friends rejecting her and hating her because of this mysterious pregnancy. The possibility of being divorced are stoned to death, you know, she was struggling with which one she wanted more. Then there was the eventual affirming again by her fiance. Then there was this hard journey to Bethlehem while being pregnant. Then there was the actual delivery of the baby with no anesthesia, no medicine note, midwife, no one toe help. Then there were these smelly shepherds that came looking for her baby. Then the same smelly shepherds worshiped her baby. That's just a few of the things that happened to her over the course of 10 months and a lot Mawr was going to happen. So she's taking all of these things in. She has some memories she's working through, and you have to think that at this point after Jesus was born, there had to be a sense of relief, right? E. She had to have a little bit of relief, at the very least, the relief of delivering a healthy human baby, right that that emotional and physical relief was there. And then this strange, hard to believe story from these shepherds it had to give her a little bit of spiritual relief because their story reminded her of her story. They reminded her of of what the angel said when he came to all those months ago to talk about her baby. And what did the Angel say? Luke, Chapter one, Verse 32 he will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord. God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. Mary had just given birth to the Messiah. God was here. God was with us. God was here to save us and she's taking all of that. She's keeping Treasury. Mask a question for your heart. Have you taken it all in? Are you taking in all of the truth about Jesus? Or is Jesus kind of like your elf on the shelf? You know, I mean, you take him out and move him around the house for decoration for a few weeks. Maybe you go on social media and post to meme about him being the reason for the season. But then the Christmas season's over, and it's time for ski season. Time to move on. It's almost New Year's day, so it's timeto put Jesus back away with the rest of the Nativity set and let's move on. We got to get through the holidays and get things back to normal. On December 24th, 1941 Bing Crosby introduced the song White Christmas to the World. It was on his radio broadcast known as the Craft Music Hall. 17 days before that, the attack on Pearl Harbor had had brought the country to its knees and had set in motion the feet of many Americans to dio and enlist in the war effort. It's been said that part of the reason that White Christmas, which has been known as the greatest singing, song selling song of all time, that one of the reasons it immediately called on that it was immediately popular was because of the second line of the song. Yeah, right. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know for soldiers going off to war, for families staying at home, that that was a lie. See, the whole world had just tragically and radically changed, and this desire for normal, this desire for how things used to be was very, very really. But, you know, the world has never been the way it used to be. Never has the world will not be the same tomorrow as it is today. That doesn't mean it's wrong toe have nostalgia doesn't mean it's wrong to be sentimental. I've been thinking about buying a typewriter, you know? I mean, it's OK. Look backwards, Okay, But we always have to take normal and nostalgia and balance them out with reality. And the reality is, the world will not be the same tomorrow as it is today. And in some ways that is great news. That's fantastic news, because tomorrow someone might have a breakthrough with cancer or heart disease that they couldn't have in 1941 or 1972 or 2000 and 19. So it could be a great thing that nothing will be the same tomorrow. But it could also be a hard thing that tomorrow things will not be like they are today. Well, almost everything. Almost everything will be different. Almost everything will change. But one thing won't The Bible describes it this way. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever, forever. That truth is why there is great treasure in the manger. That truth is why there's great treasure in the Messiah. Great and unending treasure in Jesus. You think about some of the biggest questions in your life in anyone's life. What's the meaning of life? Why doe I exist? What is my purpose in being here? What happens at death is God. Really? What is God like? How do I get safe? How can I inherit eternal life? The ultimate answer to all of those questions was wrapped up in Mary's arms in Bethlehem that night. So another hard question. Have you wrapped your arms around Jesus? Have you engaged in the truth of how Jesus If you haven't, then today can be your day of salvation. Today can be the day where Christmas never ends. Today can be today where today and even your yesterday can change forever. Repent and turn to Christ Hold on to Christ and keep holding onto Christ. Don't let go. Why? Because there is great and unending treasure in Jesus. Do you like brisket? It is said that people wait in line for hours and hours for brisket. Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas Aaron Franklin has a master class. You may have seen some of those ads out there in the commercyal for his masterclass on teaching you how to make Texas style barbecue. He talks about how he makes 106 briskets a day, and then he says this. I'm also still learning. You think a guy that's making more than 20,000 briskets a year would not still be learning? But his humility is endearing and exciting, because what he's saying is this. Oh, there's so much treasure and brisket that hasn't even been discovered. It's good stuff. John Owen said this In the divine scriptures, there are shallows, and there are deeps shallows where the lamb may wade and deeps where the Elefant may swim. What he's saying is this that the smallest child can see and hear and understand the gospel and get excitement and joy from the gospel. They can wade in the truth and get excitement and joy. But likewise, the person who has been a Christian for many years could see and hear and understand the gospel and never get close to the bottom of the ocean of the treasure of Jesus. In other words, go get you a Christmas elefant. We need one. We need to be engaged in the deep things of Jesus. The deep joy, the deep excitement, the deep treasure of the gospel. It never ends. It never. Yes, Mary delivered the gospel into the world that night and boy then she was keeping the memory of that moment. But she wasn't just keeping it. She wasn't just adding some pictures to the baby book. Now there was something mawr that she was doing. Listen to the rest of Verse 19, but Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. She was keeping those things. She was treasuring those things. She was pondering those things. You know, one of the greatest inventions that has ever been invented is the spinning dessert display. Incredible. I've never seen one of these in the restaurant. It's like like 77 shelves and this little tower and all the sweetest things in the restaurant, just just spinning around for you to look at and for your stomach to desire. Mary has taken all the sweetest things about Jesus and those things, air spinning around in her mind. She can't take the eyes of her heart off of these things about Jesus. It's not just in her mind, it's captivating her heart. She's thinking deeply about what was happening. She's looking deeply about what's happening, and she's doing all of this as a first time mom. You know Mom's air like human baby books, right? E. My wife can remember things about our kids when they were babies that I cannot. I can't remember much of what happened 30 minutes ago, but she remembers the details of things that happened when they were babies. Moms are like human baby books. They remember those moments. They're not just moments in their mind. Those moments get into their heart. Mary had some things that have gotten into her heart. She was pondering some deep treasures about those days of her life. I mean, she had a virgin pregnancy. That's something to ponder. Her baby was the son of God. That's something to ponder. She's pondering. She's engaging, and you have to think at some point varies thinking. So how how do I raise God? I mean, do I nurse him? Do I give him formula? I mean, don't getting food. I mean, he's got Maybe you don't need it. What's going to happen? What What's he going to be like? Is he grows up? When's he going to become king? He's going to be when he's young or when he's old. She had a lot of things to ponder. She had a lot of things to engage with, and she wasn't a stranger to pondering. When the Angel of God showed up, toe greet her. This was her immediate response, Luke, Chapter one, Verse 29. But she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this Waas. She was perplexed. She was troubled. She didn't know exactly why this angel was greeting her with this message. She was thinking she was pondering what was going on. Look, no matter how noble you may think you are, most of us, we wouldn't have been perplexed. We wouldn't have been troubled, and we sure would have been trying to figure anything out. In that moment, we'd be diving behind the so far, running the lock ourselves in the closet. We'd be afraid. But I'm married. Maybe she's thinking, she's she's engaging. She's trying to figure out what's happening. What's going on? What is this message And what does this message mean for her life? She was perplexed. She was troubled, but she was pondering, and she didn't just ponder about the Baby Jesus, either. About a decade after Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph were coming back from the Passover celebration. They were in a big caravan of people. They're cruising along and talking and they look around. They realized where Jesus, God, I can find him. So they looked everywhere and they turned and they went back to Jerusalem. When they got back, they found him at the church, and he was at the church with all of the smart, educated religious scholars. And he was in a deep theological conversation with them. And by the way, he was 12. Yeah, for you, 12 year olds watching. No, no pressure, no pressure. 12 years old. And he told his parents. He said, Look, the reason I'm here in the church is because I have to be about my father's business. So how do you think his mom responded? Get yourself in that camera right now. No, this is what she said, and his mother treasured all these things in her heart. This is married Mary's thinking. She's keeping. She's treasuring, she's pondering. She's good at pondering the truth about God, and she's good at treasuring her son, her son, who is also her savior. Treasury keeping pondering. Let me ask you a question If you're a Christian, do you ponder your faith outside of Sunday morning? Outside of just stream time? Do you ponder your faith? Do you think about your faith? Do you have a Christmas elephants? Do you take a few minutes? Maybe just a few seconds every day just to stop and engage with the reality that you have been saved by grace through faith and that faith is not of yourself. It is the gift I've got. Do you ever just ponder that? Do you ever just sit in traffic and go? I can't believe I'm saved. Do you ever just sit at work? And I can't believe I'm saying when you're sick, when you're at home in the bed and you're flipping through every Hallmark movie in the world, can you just mute for a second and just say I can't believe I'm saying Do you ponder your faith? Do you treasure your faith? What happens when you ponder your faith? When the angel came the first time and gave Mary the message about what was going to happen to her, she sang a song. And this is part of what she's saying. Look, 1 53 God has filled the hungry with good thanks. A person who ponders the truth about Jesus, what they're doing. They're engaged in the process of filling up their heart with good thanks. Or maybe put another way. When we ponder the truth about Jesus, what will happen? The math, the way God works the map is that we will be satisfied, satisfied with Jesus, not just mentally, but in our heart. Sure, Where's your mind today? What's filling your mind this Sunday morning, December 27? What about your heart? Where's your heart today? What's what's filling your heart today? What was happening in your heart? King Solomon said. This Proverbs 12 25 Anxiety and a man's heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glass. Has your heart been weighed down this holiday season, weighed down with anxiety over Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's. Is your heart been weighed down with anxiety over the state of the things in the world? Or maybe it's not anxiety. Maybe it's anger. Maybe your heart's been weighed down with anger over the holidays or are weighed down with anger over the state of things in the world. Heavy heart. We'll weigh you down, but a good word will make your heart glad and listen. Truth about Jesus. It's a good word. It just is. It's It's the definition of what it iss. The character of the Gospel is good news. It's a good word, so ponder it. Ponder truth about Jesus. Ponder gossip. How do you do that? Well, here's a really good tip. Jesus has a message for the church and ethicists in Revelation, Chapter two And this is how the message goes. I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance and that you cannot tolerate evil men. And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they're not. And you found them to be false. And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. But I have this against you that you have left your first love. If we were to update that for today, we could say Jesus is speaking to us ***. Look, I know your deeds. I know you put up a fantastic Christmas tree. I know you. You got some great presence for others. I know you gave some money toe missions. I know you gave some food to the shelter. I know that you gave some close to that family that lost their job. I know you made that great strawberry poundcake. Great job. Keep up the good work. Good things. Wonderful. Don't stop. But you just blew through Christmas and ignored me. You just blew through Christmas and I was barely elf on the shelf. You just blew through Christmas and didn't ponder me and didn't treasure me and didn't consider the reality that tomorrow everything in your life will change. But May yesterday and today and forever. Jesus says I will be the same free. You can't treasure Jesus. You can't ponder Jesus if you don't love Jesus first and most that z the way you get into the pondering. That's the way you start discovering the treasure. You must love him first and most, and one of the most beautiful and practical ways to ponder truth about Jesus is to spend time in God's word. Bible is this unbelievable gift to our hearts and our minds. It's not fantasy. It's not make believe. It's not a fairy tale. It's truth that keeps standing up year after year after year through wars and pandemics and trials and troubles and tragedies. The truth of God's word has never not been standing. Ponder Truth of Jesus and ponder Truth of Jesus in God's word. You know, we don't know what happened with the wise men and shepherds and all those other people that were kind of excited about the Messiah. There's there's some legends out there, but we don't know for sure. But what we do know is undoubtedly the excitement of the Christmas story seem to wear off. How do we know that? Well, because when he was about 30 years old and he was starting his ministry, there weren't people lined up around the building for his debut. But his mom knew something was up. His mom. She knew something was happened because she had never stopped keeping, and she had never stopped treasuring. And she had never stopped pondering Ray Dorland said This truth sustained her, while others just lost their enthusiasm. May I ask you a question? Be honest with yourself. Doesn't matter if you're honest with me, be honest with yourself. Has 2020 caused your enthusiasm for Jesus to suffer? Have the events of this year taken away your enthusiasm about Jesus. If so, but here's a super crazy, easy New Year's resolution. Imitate me, Imitate Mayor. Treasure, gospel treasure. The good news. Keep the truth of the good news around your heart and your mind. Ponder it over and over and over again. And what does that look like in real life? Well, in my perspective, my friend Burt Daniel is one of the greatest passers in America. Part of the reason he's such a great pastor is because he has a pretty incredible wife named Nicky. Bert, Nikki have two boys and a little girl, and they live in Augusta, Georgia, the home of the Masters, a tradition unlike any other. A few years ago, Nicky wrote an article about moms and social media and the Internet. She has some really good thoughts. Let me just hear a couple with you. Things is what she wrote. I often ponder life Before the Internet came along. Mom's prayed for the sweet life they cradled instead of Facebook, stalking people they would never meet. They hummed lullabies and hymns to soothe those lovely eyes to sleep. Rather than zoning out into cyberspace, they learned every detail of their little ones face and observe the wonders of their motions. Rather than learning the latest celebrity gossip, they let their baby hold their fingers instead of gripping their funds. They connected with their baby deeply while praising God for their life instead of typing out messages, one finger at a time. And then she goes on. Does this contrast mean that mom should never use social media? Absolutely not. Facebook often lights up my bedroom during my daughter's for AM feeding. That's really right. She's there. She gets it. So it's not evil. Then what's your point? Her point is focus. This is what she says. Let this be an encouragement to take some time to focus on your sweet baby because simply put, babies don't key. She's right. Babies don't keep they grow up. The baby in the manger didn't keep. He grew up. He got taller, got stronger. His mom. She watched him heal people. His mom listened to him preach. His mom heard suffer, and his mom saw him die on a cross From my sins and your someone said this, that Mary's life was never the same because of her association with Jesus, her life was never the same because on December 27th she didn't quit keeping. She didn't quit treasury and she didn't quit pondering. She stayed engaged with the truth about Jesus. She didn't pack up the gospel Try to get things back to normal Gospel Waas Norm she couldn't shake it Listen, don't wait for the new year to start imitating Mary. Start today. Start today. Take some time today The minute to minutes, 30 minutes an hour. Whatever. Take some time to data to just focus on the treasure of all of these things Because it's true Babies don't keep and Christmas doesn't keep But the message from the manger Oh, it keeps And the message from the cross Oh, it keeps And the message from the empty tomb friend it keeps. So let us follow the mother of Jesus and let us treasure all these things Treasure Oh, these things let us treasure. Oh, these things

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