Why Did We Just Do It?

Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Hey you guys, it's the Christmas activity, host, game, wrap-up, so to speak, right? We are in our jammies, still maybe we are taking it easy, some of you maybe having to work, but that be it as it is, we're going to talk about what is it we just went through, what was Christmas about, did we have the right focus, and a couple of challenges at the end. Let's dive into this and see what happens. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying, amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. We everybody, hope you had a great Christmas, this is coming to you obviously, right after Christmas, and I know if you're anything like our family, because we have such crazy schedules and several of us are involved in ministry, Southern California, Northern California, our Christmas is never really on Christmas day, which makes it for us even more fun, and you know, we've been in ministry for 35 plus years, and so nothing's really normal, or well, I should say our normal is different than your normal, meaning those of us in ministry work the most on weekends, and then Mondays are day off, most often, right? Schedulings the same way, where the holidays is where we work hard in like double time, while the rest of the nation may be taking family break, ours is skewed, and it's kind of cool, because when we go celebrate, the crowds have gone back from wherever they were at, and we get to go in, and it works, but for us, we're celebrating Christmas right now, and you just have, but what are we doing? What did we do? Was it relegated to one day? Is that it? Not at all, obviously not at all. I want to run through a couple of things from somewhat of a skeptics view of what we just went through, or what we're going through, really in the spirit of why should I? Why should I celebrate Christmas? What did I just do? You know, I just bought these gifts for people. Went to their house, there was a party, some people were drinking, some people were partying, some people were praying, some people were going to children's choir presentations, some, just a whole gambit of things, what did you just do? Are you just now, in fact, you say, Jack, keep it down. I have a hangover, don't talk so loud. Is that Christmas? Is that the Christmas? What in the world? Let's get down to the facts of it all, and by the way, I hope that this winds up being a blessing to you. Some of this, for some of us who have been together for a while, or we cross paths during the week or more frequently, in recent days or weeks, you may have heard me say this quite a few times, but it's a go-to moment. It's a go-to passage. So let's just start with this regarding Christmas. What did we just do? What's it? You know, what was it's drive? What was it's purpose? It's the purpose of Christmas is to acknowledge, acknowledge. It should not be a surprise to us. I'll use, I'll push it and say, acknowledgements. You and I live in a world where acknowledgements are big deal. Your kids in sports, they do this, that, the other, they get acknowledged. Your kids academically, they achieve this, that, or the other, they get acknowledged. Here in Southern California, it's kind of ridiculous because everybody, it's just wokeville. Everybody's being acknowledged every week about something to the point so often now that it's actually meaningless. There used to be a time in Southern California where in Hollywood, for example, there were the Grammys or there were the Emmys or the Golden Globe Awards. That was about it. That was about it. Now every week and there seems to be this something, something awards and so and so is acknowledged. Well, in that pathetic illustration of how the world does it, always searching for something else to celebrate. Gosh, we got to think of something else. Well, God's not like that, nor does he need that, but we are called upon to acknowledge. Now, check this out. I got to use glasses today for eye reasons. It's Micah chapter 5, verse 2. But you, this is the prophecy, Micah 5, 2, but you Bethlehem at Paphretha translation. You Bethlehem, in this particular county, at the time of Christ birth, there were two counties that happened to have the name House of Bread, which is Bethlehem. In Micah 5, 2, which was written 522 years before the birth of Jesus, I love the fact that the Bible points out that keep your eye on Bethlehem in this particular county. It's the Bethlehem that's right near Jerusalem. It's the Bethlehem, by the way, that would have a location known as the Tower of Migdal, or the Bethlehem that hosts the location of the Migdal Eder. The Migdal Eder was the Bethlehem that provided the temple lambs. And a Paphretha is that Bethlehem. It's a different House of Bread town. It's in the county nearest Jerusalem. And it's the one that would produce the lambs for the temple. And in that, Migdal Eder was where they would examine the lambs for their perfection or rejection, prior to going to the temple. If they were accepted by the priest at Migdal Eder, which is in Bethlehem, the Paphretha, then they would go to the temple. So the Bible says 522 years before Jesus is born, but you Bethlehem, the Paphretha, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, there's tons of little villages. Yet out of you shall come forth to me. Capital Me is God, the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth, listen to this, are from of old, from everlasting. That final portion of that verse from old to everlasting is someone's going to be born in Bethlehem. Someone is going to be born in that location of Migdal Eder. And whoever's going to be born in Bethlehem, he's going to be the ruler of Israel. And he's going to be eternally, he's going to be forever. So this is going to be a brief podcast, but I hope it's dynamic. And I'm going to give you something. You guys, everybody's got access to this, by the way, this is my little cheat sheet. And it can be your cheat sheet also. You can simply go to jackkibs.com and download the PDF. That's what this is. It's a PDF downloaded. Okay. And print it out and use it. It's a cheat sheet regarding the deity of Jesus Christ. So for example, let's add to Micah 5.2. The Bible says in Proverbs 30 verse 4, who has ascended into heaven or descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fist? And who has bound the waters in his garment? Who establishes all the ends of the earth? What is his name? And what is his son's name if you know? So now you got Micah 5.2 in Proverbs 30 verse 4. Check this out. The Bible tells us that in Psalm chapter 2 verse 11, it says, serve the Lord with fear or with reverential awe is the meaning of that. And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, S-O-N, less TB angry and you perish in the way. When his wrath is kindled, but a little, blessed are all those who put their trust in him. Notice in Psalm 2 11, it says that you're to put your trust in him, him who is the Son, he's the one who you ought to be in awe of. And he is the one that you ought to be worshiping. That's Christmas. Just streams line all of the tinsel in the red and the green and the lights. It just streamlines straight to the fact and to the reality that all that stuff means nothing compared to the actual reality of who Jesus Christ is. Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14, you saw this, you guys, so on so many of the Christmas cards that arrived at your house during this Christmas season. Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the Virgin. Some cults will tell you, a young maiden. Yeah, good luck. It's the Virgin. She'll conceive and bear a son, S-O-N capital S. We're talking about deity here and that goes on to define who the Son is. And she'll call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God among us. This is the Jesus of Christmas. This is the Jesus of every day. This is the Jesus of eternity. Check this out. The Bible tells us that in Psalm, excuse me, in Luke chapter 1 beginning at verse 30, it says, for the angel of the Lord said to her that is Mary, do not be afraid, Mary, for you will be found, or for you have found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, capital S-O-N, and she'll call his name Jesus, which is awesome because we say Jesus, but the Jews would say Yehosh-Shawah, Yehosh-Shawah, or Yehosh-Shawah, is YAH saves YAH. Y-E-H is our savior. Jesus, we say the name Jesus in Greek or in the English we would say. I think Greek it's Jesus, which is very similar to other. I'm thinking now Korean, Chinese, Jesus, Yehosh-Shawah, it's Jesus. The Jesus you know from the Scriptures. He will be great and we be called the son of the highest. Awesome. That's Christmas. These are the Christmas facts that you and I can revel in. And so John chapter 8 verse 58 says, Jesus said to them, scribes and Pharisees he's speaking to, most assuredly I say to you before Abraham was, I am, and that's capital I, space, capital A, capital M, I am. When Jesus said that, they picked up stones to kill him because they recognized that he just declared himself to be God. That's in John chapter 8. Check it out later if you want to know more. John chapter 8 verse 24, therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins for if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. This is the Christmas Christ. This is the ever eternal Jesus Christ. This is the eternal son of God who came into this world. You know, some people say, well, where did Jesus get his start? Well, he doesn't have a start. He's eternal. If you're asking the question, when did God become flesh? Okay, now we can talk about that. That was in Bethlehem. That was 2000 years ago, which is birthing, of course, change the calendar today. The world is way older than 2025, you know, 2025 years, but his birthing into the world changed the calendar. Why? Because that's when God veiled himself. You never think about God being veiled, right? Luckily for you and happily for me, my flesh right now is predominantly veiled in clothing. That's very good news. It is an external item that is veiling. Can I put it this way? somewhat of the reality of me. Well, when Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, came into this world, he was veiled. He was draped in human skin. I want you to think about that for a moment. I want you to think about the psychological ramifications of that. I want you to think about the spiritual ramifications of that. I want you to think about the redemptive ramifications of that. I want you to think about the relational ramifications of that, that when God wanted to take his word, the Bible, and show it to us physically, that happened when Jesus was born and when Jesus lived in the flesh and when Jesus was being betrayed and spit upon and beaten and crucified and buried and resurrected from the dead, that's what God was doing. None of that was an accident to God. You understand that? Jesus didn't, you know, mald off and speak all these deep truths that man couldn't handle, and so got himself killed. You know, the Bible makes it very clear that this happened by the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God. In other words, it was written in advance that Jesus would lay down his life and then raise it up again. That said, God communicated to you and I, we call it Christmas, which is fun, by the way, if you dissect it, Christ. I think you guys know what Christ means, Messiah, that to gather is mass. We might use in the west to a mass. Catholic's right will call it mass, but the meaning is to gather or to gather around or to gather together. Christmas, Christ, mass is us gathering around the Christ. And so in the beautiful simplistic artisan way, we have an activity manger and there's a camel which we have no idea was there or not. It doesn't matter. There's a donkey. We have no idea if it was really there or not. They could have been. Probably there were certainly some farm animals of some type, no doubt, because of how the in and in Bethlehem, how that was set up, makes total sense if you study that. That's a fun study, by the way. Go figure out why and how they lived in those days. When the Bible says there was no room for them in the inn, don't think of the holiday inn, don't think of the Hyatt, don't think that God had his son born at the Waldorf Astoria or at the Ritz Carlton or the Four Seasons. God didn't have, don't you? If you were writing this book, the Bible, wouldn't you've had your son born at the Jerusalem, King David Hotel? Jesus was born in the hill country of Bethlehem just outside of Jerusalem in a cave slash stable setting, a place of poverty, by the way. But some people lived in settings like that. We're a section of the houses where the family lived. It was like a one-room thing. You slept in the same room that you ate in and you cooked in the same room that you ate in. But what you would do because animals were valuable, you didn't want them stolen or killed by wild animals, the animals would be brought in and then the family would bed down for the night and, isn't that wild to think in a Bethlehem cave-type dwelling? Because that's what we're talking about. I've been to Bethlehem. It's crazy. I've been there numerous times. There's all kinds of so many caves. You can't even number them all. Jesus was probably housed in a little cave and it makes more sense because he was laid in a manger. A manger is a word for feeding trough and they were always made out of sandstone. They were always hollowed out of stone. Jesus was not laid in a wooden manger. He was laid in a feeding trough called a manger and so they probably put straw or hay in it to protect it from against the saliva stains of the animals, either drinking water or eating food. They would have lined it and no doubt the good parents protecting the kid from snot and stuff from cows and sheep and all that makes total sense. But this is how God comes into the world about His homeless and porous possible. Is that amazing? When you read the scriptures, the glorification of who Jesus Christ is, we glance over it so much and so many of you atheists that are watching this right now. Your guilty like we believers are. We read it so fast. We celebrate it so fast and we move on with the businesses of life that we forget that the manifestation of God to humanity came in extremely humble ways. If you were writing this book, you would have written in your son being born in a palatial setting. I find it awesome that the God of all creation. None of that stuff impresses him. Right? He could snap his finger right now and turn Jupiter into a chunk of gold. What does he care about that stuff? He did all that to communicate to us and to relate to us who are poor. And oh, by the way, yes, are you a billionaire right now? You're poor without Jesus. I know a billionaire who knows Jesus and that makes her super rich. But there's billionaires in this world that we think are super rich and they don't know Christ. Then that makes them super poor. One of them, their wealth will last forever and it's not gold and it's not dollars. Think of it. You have two billionaires because you know, we think, well, that's it. What do you need? You've arrived. You got a lot of stuff to worry about. That's for sure. You got a lot of stuff to manage. That's for sure. One person doesn't know Christ. The other person does. Which one's richer? Let's say they're both worth 10 billion each. Which one's richer? It's easy. If you read your Bible, whichever one has the sun is the wealthiest. In fact, God's economy is not our economy. God doesn't move in dollars. He's not subject to gold. He doesn't use euros. He uses none of the currency of this world to estimate wealth. There's only one thing that estimates your wealth from our value to reality. In fact, I don't even like the word estimate when it comes to Christ. You can be as poor as dirt right now and have the Lord Jesus Christ living inside of your life by the person of the Holy Spirit. Read John chapter 14, 15 and 16. You'll see what that means. And be wealthier than any person on earth. So the cool thing about what we're talking about is you can be middle class, you can be poor, you can be upper class, you can be the 0.5% in the world, millionaire. If you don't have Jesus Christ for your eternal wealth, you're completely poor. And how you're living right now is as close to heaven as you'll ever get. This is the best life you'll ever have. But for the billionaire or for the person who has no money at all, who has Jesus Christ, this is as close as the hell as you'll ever get. Because the economy that you really traffic in is the economy of God. And that's a great way to live. So I may be speaking to some of you who you woke up this morning, the day after, Christmas, and you didn't get the Ferrari you wanted. You got a Honda instead. Or you woke up this morning and your wife or your husband didn't get you that thing that you were dropping a thousand hints to them about. So you're all kind of bummed out. Or you could wake up this morning saying, yeah, that makes sense what you're talking about. I got disappointed. I didn't get the dress or the tools or the scope or the, you know, a knife or the map or the fill in the blank. I didn't get it. So I'm all bummed down. Or you could say, wow, I get it. Jesus Christ was the gift God gave. And we are to Christ mass around him. Because he's the one that was foreordained from the scriptures to come and to wash away our sins at the cross. But the gift like any gift is only, only experienced if I accept it. You've got to receive the gift. You have to take it. And so the question is, as I end right now, did you take it? Did you receive it? You dove under your Christmas tree, you unwrapped all these gifts. You know what you're doing? You were receiving gifts from family, from friends, from coworkers or whatever the case might be. You were receiving gifts and you got them. Do you have salvation? I want to end right here. Let's pretend for a moment and say that somebody got you your Jack Kibz podcast mug. And you opened it up. You unwrapped it. And you're drinking coffee out of it right now. Right. Are you experiencing the gift? Yep. Are you in a sense of a relationship with the gift? You can sit and you can hold it and you can carry it. Yep. It's a gift. Did somebody pay for it? And yet you got it free. It's a gift. All gifts are free if they're truly a gift. But somebody had to pay. God paid the price for your sin and debt and he gave you Jesus. But you have to accept him. I love it. The Psalmist says, I will lift up the cup of salvation. You have to accept the gift he gives. It's Jesus. And you have to hold him and he holds you and you have to walk with him. You have to follow him the rest of your life. So Merry Christmas. As we head into the new year to come, may God watch over us. May God's will be done in and through us. May we live this year that's ahead of us like never before. Listen for all of us. I'm speaking to you right now. We are one year older and we're one year closer to eternity. So let's live it for Jesus all out. Full steam ahead. God bless you guys. We're going to have a trust in Christ that we're going to have an awesome, awesome 20, 25. And it's already busy on the calendar, right? The calendar is already filled up for 2025. Wow. Let's do it. Until then, it's time for us to live out. What we believe in, it's time for us to live out real life. God bless you guys. Until next time. This Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listed or supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.