If you had to pick your favorite quality or characteristic about
God, which one would you choose? I'm guessing that there will be
some of you who would pick His Holiness.
You grew up in church. You know that the holiness of
God is a really big deal, and no doubt that is a good choice.
He is, after all, all together different than us.
Maybe some of you you would go. You know what, I think I'm going
to go with His might. I mean, no one is as mighty as
He is. He simply spoke our universe
into existence. The Bible says He holds all
things together with His hand. It would be a good choice.
Some of you, you might go, well, I'm going to elevate it.
I'm going to take it up one more notch.
If I was going to pick my favorite quality about God, it
would be His power. There is indeed no enemy that
can stand against Him. He can do all things.
Some of you, you've got a past and you'd go, my favorite
quality about God has got to be His grace.
There is no end to the about amount of grace that He was
willing to give His people and you're going, I'm a grace kid.
That's how I got in. I am all about the grace of God
and no doubt about it, that would be a good choice.
There will be some of you though, who would go.
You know what I think I would say my favorite quality about
God is His mercy and the Bible would, you know, say you've got
good proof for that. The Bible does say after all his
mercies are new every morning. God never runs out of mercy.
Some of you, you could make a really strong argument for his
goodness. There truly is no one like him,
righteous in every single way. My gut tells me that when I
said, what's your favorite quality about God?
Most of you thought of His love. Psalm 1:30 or Psalm 36 verse 7
says how priceless is your unfailing love?
Oh God. I mean, I think God would even
say one of His biggest characteristics would be how
loving He is. However, what if the
characteristic you didn't think of is the one you need the most?
I want to welcome all of our different locations, those of
you watching online and inside. We are so glad to be with you
this weekend. I also want to wish a very
special welcome to those of you who this is your first time or
your first time in a long time, and I want to encourage you
before you leave today, swing up by the concrete lobby or say
something in the chat because we have an incredible group of
people that would love to connect with you and help you
take your next step. Last week I talked about four
questions I would love for you to consider deeply during this
Christmas season. The first one is who are you
going to bring to our Christmas Eve services?
Here at The Crossing, We desperately believe that Jesus
is the answer to every major question in life, and we want
people to find and experience and discover what we have found
in an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And so our Christmas Eve services are going to be an
incredible opportunity for them to hear about Jesus.
So take the bold fate filled risk and invite them and
hopefully they'll come and sit with you.
The second question I asked you to deeply consider is how are
you going to serve during this Christmas season?
I don't want you to watch others make a difference in this
region. I want you to be part of it.
Pay attention to the team at your different location and say,
hey, let them know I want to be a part of what God is doing.
I don't want to watch it. I want to be in the middle of
it. The third question I asked you
to deeply consider is how are you going to focus your family
on the real reason for the season behind all the presents
and all the parties and all the fun and all the travel and all
the wrapping paper? Our how are you going to make
sure that your kids understand that all of this is because
Jesus came to us and myself and a lot of our other high level
leaders at our church we're how we're doing that is through a
family discovery Bible study. I did mine this week.
It was a great time. It will take about 30 minutes
each week, but what I can promise you is that it will make
a difference in the spiritual temperature of your home.
And I'm willing to wager that no matter where you are on the
spiritual growth spectrum, your house could probably use a
little bit more of an increase of the Holy Spirit, especially
as stress increases, so must the Spirit.
And if you want to be a part of that, you can leverage the QR
code on the back of the seat at every single one of our
locations and we'll send you all the stuff you need to be
successful at leading your home spiritually.
The fourth thing is how will you participate in our In Your
Corner year end giving? Last week we announced that
we're going to be using our year end giving for the next two
years to finish out the multi site project.
And then to make sure that we fully put everything in place
for the production house that we'll be putting in there to
digitally reach our kids and our grandkids.
And hopefully say yes to each of our major capital projects that
our mission partners have submitted to us.
And I am blown away by how many of you have already started to
give and make a difference in this way.
And hear me, no matter what, where you are financially or
where you are spiritually, I believe that if we all partner
together, we could make a difference that would be
incredible to watch in front of us.
Now last week we started a new sermon series called Behold.
What happens when you claim the promises of God?
And if you missed it last week, let me catch you up quickly.
The word behold means on the count of three for those of you
here last week. We'll see if you guys remembered
anything or if you just did your online shopping while I was
talking. Behold means 123.
It means it means look. And a couple of you said it the
right way. The way you're supposed to say
behold is like you are woman in the car with your husband and
you are about to hit a deer. OK, so let's try it again.
Behold means look. That's exactly right.
And we say look. When we see a shooting star in
the night sky, we say look. When a baby begins to take its
very first steps, we say, look when there's something that we
know will be meaningful for you and we would hate for you to
miss it. And that is why I'm excited
about the sermon series because I believe that there are
tremendous promises in the Word of God and I would hate for you
to miss it. Last week we unpacked that Jesus
is not just a savior, but a king and kings come to rule.
Remember Luke chapter 1, verses 31 through 33?
It said when we're let me read that real quick, you will
conceive and give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus.
He will be great and be called Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of David and he will
reign over Jacob's descendants forever.
His Kingdom will never end. Hear me crossing family.
There is not a place in your life that Jesus does not deserve
to rule over, and there is not a part of your life that He does
not want to rule over. For the people of Israel, they
waited years for the King to arrive, and even though they
were unfaithful in their waiting for him to come, God was still
faithful in his coming through Jesus.
And when you make Jesus the King of your life, you get to be in
His Kingdom. And His Kingdom is a Kingdom of
victory, a Kingdom of life, a Kingdom of joy, a Kingdom of
hope, and a Kingdom of peace. And you can step into that
Kingdom when you begin an intimate personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. Today we move into the second
promise that you can claim. Now this promise shows up 700
years before the arrival of Jesus.
This promise is given by the prophet Isaiah.
Now you may remember Israel had a bunch of kings and then after
King Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel was divided into a
northern Kingdom and a southern Kingdom.
And Isaiah was a prophet, a truth teller to the people and
to the kings primarily in the southern Kingdom.
And Isaiah Chapter 7, verse 14, we find these words.
Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.
A virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and we'll call
him Emmanuel. Fast forward 700 years and an
Angel appears to a virgin girl named Mary and the Angel tells
Mary you are going to be with child through the power of the
Holy Spirit. Small problem, she's engaged to
be married to a man named Joseph.
Don't miss the drama here. What would happen in your family
if somebody who was engaged to a member of your family showed up
pregnant and then when you said who's the baby daddy, her
response? It's God's.
I've been completely faithful to you.
I haven't cheated. I'm still a virgin.
Moms, what would you be saying to your son about the girl that
he's engaged to? She Cray, Cray.
OK, there is no less drama today than there would have been back
then. In fact, there would have been
more. So how bad is it?
Well, it takes an Angel to step in.
Matthew, fortunately zooms in and gives us the rest of the
story. Look what it says.
Matthew chapter 1, verses 19 through 24, and her husband
Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly. Listen, nobody else has to know
how crazy you are. We're just going to end this
marriage quietly. But as he considered these
things, behold, look, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
dream. Check out what the the Angel
said in his dream. Joseph, son of David.
Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is
conceived in her is indeed from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for
He will save his people from their sins.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the
prophet. Behold, the Virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and they will call his, shall call
his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.
When Jesus or when Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the Angel
of the Lord commanded him. The apostle John, he tells the
whole story a whole lot more poetically.
He says it like this in John chapter one verse 14.
And the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
That word dwelling means he set up a tent, He tented with the
people. Jesus is showing up and he is
coming alongside of us, living alongside of us.
Jesus is Cousin Eddie moving into the neighborhood with the
RV. But to understand the
significance of this God with us of this word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us, we have to go back.
When I say back, I mean way, way, way back to when God tented
with his people in the desert, in the Tabernacle, in the big
tent. Later God does the same thing
again, only this time he dwells with them in the center of the
people. His presence is with them in the
construction of the temple. Fast forward 300 years from the
prophecy of Isaiah, that He will come and be with us, and the
mate or the virgin shall give birth to a child, and they shall
call Him Emmanuel. Fast forward 400 or 300 years
and the people begin 400 years of silence between the end of
the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.
And what would be the question rattling around?
Where is God? And the Angel tells Joseph they
shall call him Emmanuel, which means God is with them.
Don't miss the goodness of our God in this.
Don't miss the mercy of God in this.
Don't miss the grace of God in this moment.
God sees the broken world. He sees the sickness of sin and
our situation and he doesn't send a message as if we needed
to know that we had messed up. We can look around, we could
come to the messed up conclusion on our own.
He looks down and he sees the situation and he doesn't send us
a manual, as if we could open up the manual, go through it, read
it and fix it. He does not send a ladder and
say it looks like you have dug yourself a really big hole,
climb the ladder, get out of there.
He does something that we weren't expecting.
He looks down and sees the broken world and he sends
himself to the broken world. And inside of that move is the
problem. But if you look carefully, it's
not just the problem. It's also the promise.
If you pay attention, you see the problem that the people in
the Old Testament had is they kept forgetting that God was
always with them. You can see it from beginning to
end. If you show up in Genesis
chapter 3, you see that it was God walking in the very cool of
the day with Adam and Eve. He was with them in the garden.
It was God who spoke to Moses out of the burning Bush in
Exodus chapter 3 saying go and deliver my people from slavery.
It was God Himself who is dwelling in the pillar of cloud
by day and dwelling in the pillar of fire by night to guide
and protect the people of Israel on their journey to the Promised
Land. In Exodus chapter 13, it was God
who was with them in the Tabernacle.
It was God who was with Joshua in the battle of Jericho.
It was God who was with Gideon when they fought the of the
Midianites in Judges chapter 6. It was God who was with
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace.
He was with them all along. No wonder David cries out in the
Old Testament. You have searched me, Lord, and
you know me. You know when I sit and when I
rise. You perceive my thoughts from
afar. You discern my going out and my
lying down. You are familiar with all my
ways before a word is on my tongue.
Oh Lord, you know it completely. God saw the cuss word before you
had the cuss word. He saw it coming and went.
You hem me in behind me, and before you lay your hand upon
me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your
presence? If I go up to the heavens,
You're there. If I make my bed in the depths,
you are there. If I rise on the wings of dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand
will guide me. Your right hand will hold me
fast. If I say, surely darkness will
hide me, or surely the darkness will hide me, and then the light
will become night around me. Even the darkness will not be
dark to you. The night will shine like day,
for darkness is as light to you. David's going everywhere I go.
You're there. And you might be thinking, well,
Clayton, that's just the Old Testament.
Nope, it only gets better. God's presence shows up over and
over and over again in the Old Testament.
When you read the Gospels, God's presence was in Jesus.
And when you read everything else in the New Testament, you
find out that God has made himself a new temple, and his
new temple is in the heart of the saved.
God, through Jesus, gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit to watch
this dwell with us, to be with us.
But watch it gets better because Jesus did not just come to be
with us, He came to be with us so that we could be with him.
Turn your neighbor and say with him, Can I borrow a Bible word
for just a second? Crossing family.
Behold, in Romans 6 verse 6, the Bible says that we are crucified
with him. In Colossians chapter 2, verse
12, we are buried with him. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 5,
we are made alive with him. If you're to read in Colossians
chapter 3 verse 1, you would find out that we will be raised
with him. In Romans chapter 6 verse 8, we
live with him. In Ephesians 26, we sit with
him. In Romans chapter 8, verse 17,
we will be glorified with him and we will inherit with him.
And in Second Timothy chapter 2, verse 12, the Bible says we will
reign with. Him.
He did not just show up to be with us, He showed up so we
could be with Him. And wherever he is, we get to
be. So when they lay him down and
they kill him, when we are baptized into Christ, we die
with Him. But three days later, when he
rose, we rise. And when he sits, we sit.
And where he goes, we go. And when he reigns, we reign.
And when he walks in victory, we walk in victory.
And when he overcomes death, we overcome death.
And we walk in the newness of life.
We walk in the newness of life because not only did he just
come to be with us, he made it so that way we could be with him
so that where he goes, we go. I received an e-mail this week
from a woman named Sue talking about her experience at the
crossing. I'm paraphrasing a majority of
her words because I don't want to give too much away, but this
is what she said to our team. I want to thank you for praying
with me on Sunday. While you were praying, I could
feel a peace come over me. I took that to be God's way to
let me know that I didn't need to worry because He already knew
what was going on. I'm so happy to have found a
church and a church family that has helped me to learn and
follow and love God. You've opened my eyes to
understanding things in the Bible that I never understood.
I've been baptized several months back.
I was asked to share my testimony.
I started writing it. When I got done, I realized it
was probably too long. I have looked back on my life
and I saw where God was with me all my life, but because I
didn't think that I was good enough for Him, I refused him.
He was there for me in every wrong turn I made, and I see
that now, and He's still with me because I can feel and see where
he is. It's an awesome feeling,
crossing family. Like I said.
What if the characteristic you didn't think of is the one you
needed the most? No matter what problem, what
hardship, what heartache, what promise yet fulfilled in light
of all of His might and His power and His grace and His
mercy and His love, What if what you needed the most was to know
that He is with you, and if He is with you, you get to be with
Him. And they shall call him
Emmanuel, which means God with us.
We're moving to a time of decision.
To those of you who are here today or watching online, you
have never started an intimate, personal relationship today.
To all the women in our church who have a story like Sue, and
to all of those who don't yet have a story like Sue, I have
good news for you. You can start a relationship
with Jesus Christ today and He will be with you.
To all the men in our church, specifically to all the men
named Sue. And I know what you might be
thinking. There's not a lot of guys named
Sue, but I know that there was 1.
Johnny Cash sang about him. Well, listen to me.
Even if your name isn't Sue, no matter where you are on your
spiritual journey, you can be in a spiritual journey with him and
it can happen. Today.
It is on the other side of you starting an intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. He's been watching you, he's
seen every step, he's seen every wrong turn.
He's been with you every step of the way.
But he has been following you where you go.
And maybe it's time for you to start following him where he
wants to go because his his path leads to glory and life and
righteousness and peace and hope.
And so in just a few moments, the people around you are going
to stand and sing. Some of them are going to come
to the steps and pray. And what I want to encourage you
is to walk right over there underneath that screen next to
the baptistry, and talk to somebody about what it means to
start an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Now, to the rest of you, to those of you who already have an
intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ, can I just
remind you of a couple things? God is with you.
And maybe that's just the thing we forget the most.
And because we forget it the most, it messes with us the
most. Let me punch you for a little
bit. Husbands, how would you treat
your wife this week if you knew that God was in the house with
you? Wives, how would you speak to
your husband this week if you knew that God was watching the
words formed in the back of your throat?
What would happen to the amount of sin in your life if you knew
that as you were getting ready to commit that sin, you knew
that He was with you? Leaders, as you step into your
business, how would you lead or change or operate in your
business if you knew that as you walked through the doors, you
knew that He was with you? Because His present doesn't just
comfort us, His presence should convict us because there is
nothing that escapes His vision. There is no place for you to
hide what you and I do. Now the good news is, is he
doesn't just see what we're doing.
He died for it and he promises to redeem it.
And so maybe today there's some things that you just need to get
down on your knees and say, God, turn this around, change this.
Make me never forget that you were with me in every single one
of those situations. But I want to leave with this.
I want to give a final little gift this week as I was doing my
family DBS with my family. We were reading Luke chapter 1
verses 5 through 20 and it starts off by telling the story
of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth.
And the Bible gives a really cool.
I wanted to preach it like I wanted to can this sermon and
preach this little thing. So I just have to get it out of
my system, otherwise it's going to mess up the whole, you know,
the rest of the Behold series, it gives this description about
Zechariah and Elizabeth. It said that they were righteous
in God's sight and they clung to the Lord's commands where it
followed them. So what you have is you have
really good people. And then it goes on to say that
they have, they're walking with a limp, They're walking with
God, but they're walking with a limp.
They are old in age and they are childless, really good people
doing all the things right, but not everything is going right.
They're walking with a limp. And there might be some of you
right now you're thinking, man, I'm praying is more than I've
ever prayed. I'm reading my Bible more than
I've ever read my Bible. I'm showing up for church more
than I've ever shown up. I feel like I'm doing everything
right. Why am I still walking with a
limp? I just am telling you, you're
not alone. And the Angel shows up and he
tells Zechariah that his wife is going to be with child.
So this story ends up great. Your story might not.
Here's what the Angel said to him.
The Lord has heard your prayers, crossing family.
He hears every prayer. You might be a really good
person who's following Jesus in all the right ways, and you may
still have to walk with a limp, but God hears every prayer that
you pray. And when God shows up to the
prophet Elijah, he doesn't show up in the thunderstorm or in the
strong wind. He shows up in the whisper.
How close do you have to be for God to whisper?
So as you get ready to go through whatever it is you're
going through, navigate whatever it is that you are navigating?
What would change about your prayer life if you believed that
He was close and that He heard every single prayer?
Would you stand with me, God? I'm praying that what was just
spoken over our people would be a blessing.
God that in the areas where somebody needs hope, that God,
you gave them hope. In the places where we needed
conviction or nudged or moved, God that you would accomplish
that. God that you would begin to
divinely direct our steps and draws close to you.
God, that you would seal and cement in our minds that you are
with us and that that truth would transform us.
Your name I pray. Amen.