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Well, it's a wonderful privilege to be a preacher, a minister of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, on a time like this season where we remember the wonder of the incarnation of God and Christ came to earth because he came to save sinners like you and me. To know that that message of the Gospel is perfectly sufficient for the spiritual needs of everyone who is under a crushing load, as we just sang, knowing the circumstances of many of you are difficult and there are immediate pressing challenges in what you are facing day by day as you come in here today, to know that we don't have to pretend with a pretense that everything is great simply because it's Christmas season and get swept up in the hypocrisy that that generates. But at the same time, not to simply bend under the crushing load as we just sang and give way to the fears and the sorrows of this life, but to be able to put Jesus Christ central in the midst of all of that and say, "Here is the sufficiency for your spiritual need. Here in Christ is the sufficiency that answers the guilt of your sin. Here in Christ is the sufficiency that answers your daily circumstances. Here in Christ is your hope for eternal life." Yeah, to be able to stand and proclaim that is a great, great privilege for us collectively to be able to know that, to know Christ, to receive him, to own him as our all in all, is a blessing beyond description.
So as we come to God's word here today, we can set aside, trusting in Christ, we can set aside the distractions of the day, the burdens of life, and just focus on Christ, focus on his word, and know that we have in Christ that which satisfies our every need. That's true. Christ said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." Everything about life and godliness is given to us in our Lord Jesus Christ; is revealed to us in Scripture. If you have Christ, you have all that you need. Period. End of sentence. End of paragraph. And I encourage you to rest in that and to rejoice in Christ as we enter into God's word this morning...