The Birth of a King: Exalted and Meek

Well, good morning. Good morning. Open your Bibles to Luke chapter 2, please. The second chapter of Luke. We set up things last week for our Advent study this month. If you remember last week, we looked at how the scriptures pointed to Jesus, and we looked at it in the framework of revealing him as prophet and as priest and as king.

And so what we're going to do, Lord willing, these next three weeks, is we're going to see how this plays out in Luke chapter 2, how starting with his role as king being revealed and then as priest and then as prophet. So we can look at that more closely. So let's read the text for this morning as we see the role of king being displayed here from Luke in chapter 2, verses 1 through 20.

Let me read and we'll go to the Lord in prayer. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room, no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there was shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there were with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest. and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see the thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known to the saying that had been told them concerning this child.

And all who heard it wondered, marveled at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it had been told them. Let us pray. Oh God, we thank you for this time of year. It is truly such a wonderful time of festivities. a time in which we have many gatherings and feasting.

Lord, I pray that we would most of all be thankful because it is a time in which we focus our hearts and minds upon a wonderful truth that true God took on true flesh with all the glory that came with being in the heavenlies. Our dear Lord Jesus Christ was a babe in a manger in swallowing cloths. Help us not to miss that. Help us, Lord, to rejoice in that.

Let us understand the marvel that it is that you would send us a peace offering when we were yet sinners. So help us, Lord, to enjoy this time of year. Let it be a joy to our hearts and let it find its rest and meaning and foundation and the fact that Jesus Christ is King and has done the work of salvation. We thank you for this great truth. And may we enjoy that even now as we open up your word.

May we receive it by the work of the Spirit in our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. So France in the early 1600s was in a very precarious position that affected both rich and poor, everyone around in the kingdom of France, high and low classes alike. In 1615, King Louis XIII and Anne of Austria were married, and by the start of the year 1628, which is 23 years later, there was no heir to the throne, and no heir had come from their marriage.

No heir to the throne at this time meant that the kingdom itself was in jeopardy, and any time a king died without an heir, there was always a strong possibility of a civil war and instability throughout the land. So imagine being around the table as a peasant family and looking at your family looking at your sons and knowing that perhaps they might be called up to war in some civil war to fight over the crown It would be a time in which everyone was on edge They would need a proper heir for the stability of the kingdom. It'd be like for us if the president were to announce that there will not be a free and fair election in a couple years.

It'd be a time of weirdness. It would be a time of instability, of fear all around. For the sake of prosperity and life, you, along with everyone in the kingdom, would be praying for a legitimate heir to be born to the kingdom. So when Anne was approaching 40 and was pregnant with a child, all arrangements were made for the baby to be born with all the dignity of royalty and with the best physicians taking care of her and the baby.

The baby was born in one of the finest castles in France, a chateau, with the best doctors the French kingdom could bring in. And when a baby boy was born healthy, there was great rejoicing in the castle and throughout the land as the heralds and courtiers proclaimed the good news across the land. Louis XIV was the new heir of France. This baby would grow up to be the king of France for over 70 years, and he ushered in the age of absolute rule for the king in France.

His reign would bring a centralization or a centralizing power to the king, great advancement in French culture, great military expansion, and needed administration reform to make France a modern state. Despite this success, though, it came with a shadow. That is his reign. His absolute power caused him to crush any dissension and brought the nation to serious debt, which many contribute to the horrors of the French Revolution that came after. a great reaction against absolute monarchy in France.

I bring this up, King Louis XIV, because there are a lot of comparisons, a lot of contrasts we can make with Jesus as king in Luke 2. There is a main comparison in which both King Louis XIV and King Jesus brought in a monarchy that is absolute in authority and power. King Louis XIV brought in the age of absolutism for the king of France, claiming divine right to power.

That is that his right to rule was from God himself. And Jesus came to be an absolute king over his kingdom, claiming a royal power from God himself and not man. And we see this great absolutism from Jesus in Luke chapter 1. and we already read it, whenever the angel tells Mary in verse 32 of chapter 1, he will be great. And he'll be called the son of the Most High.

The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom and its power and authority, there will be no end. and we will see aspects of his greatness even in this christmas story here we'll see aspects of that come out but a major contrast that we're also going to highlight here is between between jesus and absolute kings like king lewis the 14th is that his birth story is marked by humility that is jesus's humility lowliness despite his awesome eternal greatness and this is because where the absolute king era in France brought in an age of revolution after it because it really worked against the people as they saw it and it was for the power of the king only. Jesus uses his role as king in humility to serve his people.

Psalm 110, as we also read, verse 3, your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power. So as opposed to the power of the king on earth in which there is revolution, so the people of the king Jesus see his power and authority as something to marvel in. Whereas earthly kings gain more power at the expense of their people, Jesus receives glory and power which enables and empowers his people.

And this key feature of his kingship is revealed here in Luke 2, as Jesus, the eternal, glorious, awesome one, comes in humility to serve. Humility is not weakness, but power used for your good. And that's what we see in Matthew 11, 28 through 30. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me, for I am gentle, he says, Jesus, and lowly in heart.

And you will find rest for your souls. for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You see, Jesus used his humility to serve you goodness. And so the same, the narrative of Jesus' birth and birth announcement here in Luke 2 is a story full of revealing the exalted Christ as well as the humble Jesus who is both highly exalted and yet uses his exaltation and humility to serve his people of the kingdom.

This will challenge us in our view of King Jesus. Do we have an awe of his infinitely glorious throne? And do we hold this with this seemingly impossible contrast with his reign reaches down even to you and I to have a deep and abiding relationship with this awesome king? I think it's so important because we live in an age in which we have fallen on the ditch with this evangelism where Jesus is not highly exalted. he's our friend and he's my best friend and he is my home dog.

And that kind of filth of that ditch. And of course there the ditch on the other side of Roman Catholicism in the medieval age in which Jesus is so high and lifted up we can possibly think that we could be close to him And so here in Luke 2 we have a great and wonderful teaching from Luke that Jesus is both exalted and high up in ways that we cannot fully imagine yet he came humble as a babe to draw near and to actually give us of his goodness. And this is what we're going to see today in Luke 2.

I want to start by noticing another comparison between King Louis on the eve of his birth and Jesus on the eve of his. As we're looking at Luke 2, I want you to keep in mind the fact that there was great longing for one to come and to fulfill the scriptures as we talked about last week. All the scriptures pointed to someone who would come, who would do this work a prophet, priest, and king.

And there was longing, oh, that he would come and rescue his people now. And just like there was a longing in the French kingdom that there would be an heir to be born so that there would not be instability in the land, there's great longing, oh, that an heir would come. There's great longing here in Luke 2 that an heir, that a king, that one would come to do the work that is needed that every heart longs for.

And it's a longing that never goes away because it's a longing that's found in every sinful breast. This is why as the nation goes further and further away from Jesus, there is presidents during the election cycle that promises to be a Jesus to us. If you notice that, that only gets amped up over the years. That as we fall away from Christ as a culture we have people that come up and say i will be christ i will be that i will be that fulfillment to the longing in your heart it is a longing in every breath that we need someone to come and fulfill the needs that we have and so we see this in jesus so let's look at that let's see this power and humility for our good here in luke 2 let's look at the birth of jesus in light of this reality.

Look at Luke 2, verses 1 through 7 again. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all should be registered. And we see, really, what happens in this section is we have a story of a young couple with a woman being pregnant and being close to her due date, having to travel very far distances. And if you've ever been, if you've ever either as a father or a mother and expecting a child soon, the last thing you want to happen is that you have to travel on foot hundreds of miles away.

You like your birth to be in complete control, and you like to be in complete control of it. You want every single circumstance to be accounted for. And you certainly would not want to be away from home where you know no one. And you certainly wouldn't want to find yourself in a small town that has an influx of people because people have to be there by mandate of the emperor, in which there's no room for you to find a room to stay in.

And in fact, we see here the humility of Jesus revealed in the fact that his parents didn't even have control over the circumstances of his birth. They were at the whim of an emperor. even as they are given birth to the kings of kings. They are at the whim of Caesar Augustus, who wants to register the people, and so it forces them far from their home and into a town that could not receive them.

So notice, and behold, the humility of Jesus and his birth, the coming of the birth at the whim of an emperor higher, so to speak, of him, forcing his parents to have to travel far and wide. and what an image it would be in verse 7 she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there's no place for them in the end it would be you got to imagine that even the lowest of peasants wouldn't have to endure this kind of humiliating birth story even peasants get to have their children in their own homes and even peasants don't have to put their own children in feeding troughs of animals. And yet here is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the very God of very God, and he's in a feeding trough in swaddling cloths. Yes, the God of God, Lord of Lord, is in swaddling cloths.

You ever seen a baby swaddled up? They are the most vulnerable they could ever be. And they are the most reliant that they could ever be. And here is the exalted Christ in such a humble state to be swaddled up, and he's in the same vessel that animals use to eat from. I have vessels that chickens eat out of, and they drink water out of, and no matter how much bleach I put in that sucker, I would not want to put a baby in afterwards.

And here is the exalted Christ showing his humility that he would be swaddled up in a feeding trough. but I want you to notice in the middle of this section there's also the exaltedness of Christ being revealed as well too there's also the exaltedness of Christ being revealed too if you look at verse four you'll see it Joseph went with Mary to the town of Nazareth or Judea to the city of David which is called Bethlehem because it was of the house and lineage of David so even there and you can almost miss it but but Luke is revealing the exaltedness of this Jesus because he was born in the city of David, that is Bethlehem, and who would come from that little town? Well, we remember Micah 5.2, but you, O Bethlehem, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth from me the one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient of days. The highest kingdom you can imagine, that's what he would have.

And so there we see an exalted Christ being born in a place of where the Messiah where the King of Kings would be born and yet surrounded by such humble circumstances it boggles the mind We're setting up a beautiful contrast there to reveal this exalted yet humble King. And then we move on to further see this play out in the proclamation of this birth. Look at verse 8 through 14 with the proclamation of this birth.

We see in verse 8, in the same region there were shepherds out in the field. You see, whenever a king is born, whenever King Louis XIV was born, certainly you would proclaim it to all the people, but the people you'd want most to know about it are the nobles, are the lesser authorities, are the higher up in societies. There is a king who is born who has authority.

Listen to him. And here we see that the proclamation of this birth of king Jesus comes to an unexpected people. That is, shepherds. Shepherds were just the everyday Joes. Your white-collar, blue-collar workers. I almost got that backwards.

There are people that you would not expect the proclamation to come to. We see the humility of Jesus there. and the fact that the proclamation came to shepherds out on the field who were keeping watch over their flock by night. But yet then the exaltation of Christ comes forth again in that heavy contrast in verse 9, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them to give them this proclamation.

Now, I don't care no matter how many kings you've seen or heard about with their proclamation that they've been born, none of them ever had an angel do it. There were heralds, there were servants, but you never had an angel proclaim the birth of a king. And here the exalted Christ is revealed in the fact that an angel proclaimed his birth. In fact, more than that, we see it moving on.

We see, and the glory of the Lord shone around this angel, and so therefore they were filled with great fear. we talked about how that's a common reality in the bible that whenever the the glory of god is revealed to man man in this sinful condition always improperly responds with utter fear and in fact going on with this kind of theme that we're looking at think of the exultantness of god being the glory revealed, and then think about man as being in complete and cringing fear of the separation there. There is a rightful response to the glory of God to be in fear when you come toe-to-toe with that glory. If you remember, we talked about that last week in Genesis 3, 9-10, when God came to Adam in the garden and because Adam sinned, he was afraid.

And so he hid himself. And this becomes a reality throughout the scriptures of the glory of God revealing in the earth and there is a response of great fear in light of that glory. There is the exaltation of God and there is a response of great fear in light of that that we are going to see Jesus kind of undo. Let's just take a quick look at that to set this up.

Remember the giving of the law to Israel in Exodus 19, 16 through 20. Remember the giving of the law to Israel. This came with the great cloud or glory of God around in which there was a response of fear. On the morning of the third day, there was thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled.

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.

The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses to the top of it. And Moses went up. And the writer of the Hebrews in Hebrews 12 quotes Moses as saying, I, let me make sure I read it so I don't, even this, it was so terrifying to Moses that he said, I tremble with fear. And we see the same, the same thing play out with the glory of the Lord showing around or the glory cloud and the response and fear with the construction of the tabernacle and God dwelling in a cloud on it.

In Exodus 40, 35, Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the same thing happened in the tabernacle. And the same thing happened with the temple. They were not able to actually work in the temple because the cloud had settled on it. The glory of God had settled on it and it created such a fear, such an atmosphere of fear that they were not able to do their duties.

And even in this new covenant era with Jesus coming, there is still the same thing playing out with the cloud coming and great fear in light of it. We think of when Jesus was transfigured on the mountain. You remember the cloud comes and says, this is my son, respect him. And when that cloud came, there was great fear from the disciples. And then all of a sudden, only Jesus was there.

And there doesn't seem to be that same kind of fear. In fact, in Revelation 1, 12 through 18, You remember, John sees Jesus fully glorious. And you remember, he was in great fear. And what does Jesus say to him in verse 17? When I saw him, I felt I had his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not, for I am the first and the last and the living one.

I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. So a common theme throughout the scriptures is that man has a natural fear of God as he draws near. But the working of the kingdom of Christ, him being eternally king and glorious, is that he has brought for the people in his kingdom that we would boldly approach the throne instead of cringing in fear.

And so the exalted king of Christ would come humbly so that we would no longer cringe in fear, but instead boldly come to the throne of Christ. I think it's important to look as we see this play out I think it's important to know that with Christ it is not as though he causes us not to have such an awe and respectful fear of God so we're talking about the fear is gone we can boldly approach him but it's not as if Jesus takes away that fear total we still are to live in the fear of the Lord we are still to have an awe and respect of him But it's that he causes us to go from fear-feeding dread to fear-feeding joy and happiness and blissfulness. This is why in our text right here, this is what we see the message or the proclamation be to the disciples.

If we go back to chapter 2, the angel said to them in verse 10, Fear not. Fear not. And this is the testimony of the New Testament. the testimony of the royalty of Christ, is that he came humbly. And so now, with the fear of being in the glory of God, it can be said, you no longer have to fear. And we see this. If you notice, this is a common theme in Luke up to this point.

Remember when Gabriel goes to Mary, and she's filled with fear. And what does Gabriel say to her? Fear not. Or we think of Zechariah, the same thing. Angel goes to Zechariah. He's full of fear with the presence of God.

And what is he told by Gabriel? Fear not. And here we see the same message from the angel. They are fearful as they see the glory cloud, the shone of God's glory around them. And they're in fear. And they are told in verse 10, fear not.

Why? For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be, in verse 10, for all the people. You see, up to that point, what people were used to is to be in fear because there is bad news, because there's great dread for all the people. Because in our sin, whenever we get close to God's glory, the only thing that we can respond with is utter and total dread because of our sin.

But here we see that the message has flipped with the coming of Christ the King and the fact that there is good news now for great joy, not dread. and it's for all the people, even the shepherds they're talking to. And what is that in verse 11? For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. So look at that contrast of exaltedness and humbleness coming together to provide this no longer fear, but rather to enjoy the presence of God.

Look at verse 11 again. Unto you is born this day in the city of David. Think of exaltation, as we already talked about, right? This is a place where the King of Kings would be born, as we saw in Scripture. And look at after Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Christ is Messiah, the Anointed One, the King, the Lord, the Authority, the God Himself.

Exaltedness. But yet in the midst of that, in the middle of that, is humility. That is, He is a Savior for His people. That is this high and exalted One would come in humility to save His people so that we would no longer be in fear when we approach the glory of God but instead we would be without that fear There's a, I was trying to think of an analogy for this, that this is the work of our king. what he does for us is that we do not have to fear in this way anymore, but yet there's still a fear to be had because he's still the exalted one.

And it got me thinking of going to Cedar Point as a kid. And my brothers always liked to go. I had several older brothers. And so we would go to Cedar Point a lot. And I tried to be cool like my brothers, so I had to like the rides. But to be honest with you, I realized I hated Cedar Point with everything within me.

I hated the rides. They were huge and massive, and they were terrifying, fearful, as I looked at them. And the thing about Cedar Point is you go there, and you wait seven hours for one ride. You ride it, and then you go home. But that whole time, I was just petrified by this ride. And I remember this happened for a few years where I would go, and I would be so nervous and fearful over these rides, fearful the whole time, in which then when we finally got on it, I just shut my eyes as tight as I could and just prayed for it to end.

And that's how it was the whole time. But then I remember when that changed, when that changed. I remember the time, I think it was sixth or seventh grade where I went to Cedar Point and I was fearful, the rides, scary, but then I went on it and I had a blast. And what was amazing about that is it's not like the fear thing went away. In fact, the fear thing was still there.

But the fear thing fed in a joy and happiness, and this is exciting. And so that thing that turned into dread and wanted to melt into the earth turned into something that caused it to be a joy of mine, a happiness of mine. So again, it's not like all of a sudden the coasters got smaller and less fearsome, but it's like that fear then drove a certain, again, pleasurable feeling. and I think this is exactly what happens with us and God the glory of God his exaltedness is still there but yet it's brought to us in a humbled way in which we can then receive that fear and that awesome and glory of God and it can result in joy and happiness and gladness that same awesomeness of God can then result in a joy within our lives to go from dread and misery and sin but because of the humility of the Savior, can turn to joy and happiness as we enjoy this awesome God all the more.

So it's not like the exaltedness of God goes away, but it's just received in a different way because of the humbleness of the King to bring salvation to us. And this is what I think is being said here. for unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord don't lose the exaltedness in that verse don't lose the majesty of this baby who has been born but notice that both exaltedness but also humility in the fact that he is born a savior for us to bring about salvation so that we would approach this awesome God with joy and thanksgiving because of how awesome he is. And then we see this continue on with the whole host of heaven in verse 13.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he has pleased Glory to God in the highest This whole army of angels singing out Can you imagine for a moment being a shepherd doing your thing like normal in the middle of the night or whatever it was, nothing going on, and all of a sudden an angel comes with all the glory of the Lord right there, tells you of this good news, which you go from fear, and he tells you not to be fearful, and then all of a sudden a whole army of angels praising out this great song of worship to what Jesus, the King, is set to do. And that would wake you up. And this song is glory to God in the highest.

Look at the exaltation. The glory, the royalty, the kingdom of Christ is one of great glory and power and awesomeness. But yet then it comes forth in a package of peace to the earth, of humility and mercy and grace for the people. So this is not a kingdom like King Louis that wanted all the glory and power at the expense of the people. This is a great and exalted kingdom, no doubt, but it comes in a package of mercy and grace and peace and humility for the people.

And so, with the last section as a way of conclusion, Let's look at the proclamation of the proclamation. That is, let's see what the shepherds do with this proclamation to Mary and Joseph and those who are around the newborn babe. In verse 15, when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.

They were told, you will see a babe wrapped in cloths in a manger. So they say, let's go and see this. Let's go and see, go to Bethlehem and see this thing that had happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And so they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger, just like what was said. Again, imagine in their mind, they're told that this is the Messiah, this is the Christ, this is the Lord, this is the glorious glory and the highest.

And yet here he is in a manger as a babe. And so when they saw this spectacle, right, It'd be crazy enough to see a baby in a manger, but whenever they know that this is the exalted Christ himself, a baby in a manger, because there's no room for them in the end, when they saw this, they made known to them the saying that had been told them concerning this child, this humbled child, this little baby, is king of kings, Messiah himself, the promise of old, the exalted one. And so what's the only response that can be had when you hear this?

Well, in verse 18, all who heard it wondered. That is marveled. That word wondered is marveled. They were probably wondering, like, how in the world is this baby in a manger going to be this great exalted one that was promised of old? It's a marveling, right? When they heard it, they marveled at what was said about this baby in a feeding trough. in verse 19 Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart so there is a response of marveling wondering and treasuring what is said about this exalted yet humbled king and so what kind of response are we to have to this exalted yet humbled king we do not want to fall on either ditch where we look at Jesus as simply just a humbled creature in which he is my best friend and something to be pitied But we are to see that in Christ Jesus there is an exalted one There is a glorious righteous and holy royal throne Yet packaged humbly to us as a savior.

And so we are to be marvelers at this contrast that we see in scripture. That such an awesome and holy God could do such a wonderful, merciful thing for us sinners. that the authority and power of Christ could be used as a way to give us mercy and grace. That the power of Christ and his royal throne would be used for our good. In fact, we are to go further in which Mary, she treasures it in her heart.

Not just wondering at it and marveling at it, but we are to even treasure it within our heart. You see, Mary is the very mother of this baby, seeing him in the trough, the feeding trough. And she's treasuring, it's like a deeper abiding, treasuring and delighting even further in her heart. And as people who know Jesus Christ and his authority and power and his grace and mercy, We are to treasure this great contrast within our heart of the powerful king who brings about such great mercy and grace for his people.

And then we have the response of the shepherds after this in verse 20. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it had been told them. So what kind of response do we have to the king of kings and lord of lords? We are so used to seeing people in authority and power to use it against people, to get something from them, and we see that the exalted Christ here in Luke 2 is one in which he came in humility so that he would serve his people.

Let us be marvelers at this contrast. Let us be people who consider this and treasure it up in our hearts that this is the Christ of the Scriptures, the one who is high and lifted up yet for you and I. Let us pray. Oh God, thank you so much for Christ Jesus the Lord. I thank you, God, that without him, we would still be in fear today. We wouldn't be able to draw near to you.

We wouldn't be able to be close to you. But because Christ came fully exalted, yet a savior, we can draw near. God, I pray that we would be marvelers of this reality, that this Christ came not to, in judgment, but he came in grace. That he came not in palaces and with all power to use against the people around him but instead he came humbly to show that he came to serve the people that came under his reign.

So Lord, I pray that as we look to this Christmas season now, as we look to the story of Jesus, we would marvel at the story of Christ. let us Lord see his power and glory and let us see his humility as well and let us know that this is all for our good that we would respond in faith to this glorious God and spend our lives praising you you are worthy of it you are glorious and awesome in power and how good it is that we can live our life because of his grace and mercy and live our life Lord serving you so let us do so now let us do so this Christmas season and let us be truly thankful for your mercies and grace revealed in Jesus Christ the Lord and it's his name we pray Amen