Monday, January 08, 2018

Why a baby? - Christmas Eve 2017



PRAYER coming out of worship…
·      Eliana Deckelmann baby at 9:15am
·      Lydia Lytel baby at 11:00am

Open
WHY A BABY?
·      I’ve been wrestling with this idea for awhile now.
·      I know all the “church” answers…
o   To show his humanity
o   To give us an example
o   To teach humility
·      But, for me, all of these ideas rang hollow to the struggle I was having…
o   I’ve experienced “baby life” 5 different times (slide?) and I couldn’t figure out why the Kingdom had to Break In in that way?
o   Take a look at this baby here (living example) … why would Jesus have to come this way? Not just as a human… not just as an example…
o   But WHY A BABY?!

Word
As I began to ask the Lord for His reasoning, the Holy Spirit led me to a very strange place… to a place I wasn’t ready for… back to the beginning:
·      Genesis 2:7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature
·      In the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2, we hear about the Father creating his favorite creation. He makes the man (woman comes later) to co-create, name, and work alongside Him.
·      We read this and we realize just how much the Father loves and wants to partner with man… that in and of itself is an amazing revelation… but I began to press a little deeper in my thoughts and prayers.

And then it hit me, I’d made a bad assumption about the Scriptures… I assumed that when God made “man” that He’d made a MAN… and not a baby.

I’d missed the whole point of the intimate relationship between a Father and a son…
·      I’d missed that after He created the little baby He cared for it Himself
·      I’d missed that as the child grew, the Father wanted to create an amazing playground for Adam, so He made this beautiful garden
·      I’d missed that as he became a young man, the Father wanted to pass along teaching and work, so they named the animals together, tilled the ground together, harvested the fruit of the trees together.
·      I’d missed that the Father wanted to teach Adam how to love, so He formed a young woman for Adam to express compassion, affection and partnership with.
·      I’d missed that God is Father because that was His original design… to be a parent to a little baby!

New Creation
So “WHY A BABY?”
·      How could He come any other way?!
·      Jesus was coming to show us the InBreaking of the NEW CREATION
·      He was coming to restore relationship with His kids
·      He was coming to get His family back!

He came as a baby to completely UnMake the idea we have of how the universe works.

1 Corinthians 15 (ESV) puts it this way:
 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

He came as a baby to show you that His family can be reborn… not just of dust, but of the things of heaven!

With the coming of the baby, everything is turned upside down… the last become first, the least become the greatest, the servants become the leaders… the Father becomes the Son…

Paul tells us that we don’t even have to look at people the same way...
·      2Corinthains 5:16-17
·      16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
·      Because of this New Family Dynamic, we can see people according to their destiny and purpose and not due to their past hurts and mistakes.
·      Because of the NFD, we can find ourselves in an unhindered relationship with the King of the Universe.
·      Because of this NFD, everyone can find themselves on the INSIDE and not the OUTSIDE of the family… we are all welcome at the family table.
God is with us.
God is amongst us.
God is around us.
God wants to change the world through us!
The old way of relating to the Father is gone… a new day has come!

What better way could He show this, but through a baby!

Ministry/Action

Healing the broken – (2) Prayers for your family – (3) Loving those not yet in the family

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