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[0:00] Good morning. The scripture reading today comes from the book of Isaiah chapter 50, verse 1 to 11. You can follow along on the screen or your Bible.

[0:17] Thus says the Lord, where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?

[0:30] Behold, for your inequities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away. Why, when I came, was there no man?

[0:43] Why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that is, cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?

[0:55] Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a desert. The fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.

[1:07] I cloth the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word.

[1:23] Him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious.

[1:40] I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

[1:53] But the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

[2:08] He who predicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.

[2:19] Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up.

[2:32] Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

[2:44] Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches. Walk by the lights of your fire and by the torches that you have kindled.

[2:57] This you have from my hand. You shall lie down in torment. Amen. Amen.

[3:07] Thank you so much, Soda. For those of you who don't know, and I was just wondering about that reference at the end, Soda is Dan's wife. So in case you're worrying about any kind of flirting going on there, it's perfectly okay.

[3:24] You can talk with Dan and Soda afterwards. One of the great things that we want to do as a church is we want to be able to raise up other people to lead within the church.

[3:39] We're always wanting to raise up people who can be preaching because we believe God wants us to be a church which multiplies and which raises up others in this process.

[3:50] And so one of the things we're going to be doing now is we're going to actually have a different kind of sermon. We're going to tag team a sermon now with both Alan, who is overseeing the youth at Watermark.

[4:03] He is going to start us off on our third in the sermon series. And then we're going to, I'm going to close it afterwards. So without further ado, I want to just pray and then welcome Alan to come and bring God's word to us.

[4:20] So let me pray. Father, thank you that even as we celebrate Advent in what is just totally crazy times where we have no idea what's going to be coming up in the future.

[4:33] And yet we have an utter certainty in you. I pray, Lord, as we come and hear your word that our hearts would not be focused on everything that's around us, but our hearts would be attentive to your voice.

[4:44] I pray that we'd hear what you want us to say, not just to hear, but to go out and live in the light of who you are and what you've called us to be as a church during this Advent and Christmas season.

[4:56] Pray for Alan as he brings your word. Pray that you'd really anoint his lips as well. And Father, just get all the glory this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. So over to Alan.

[5:09] Awesome. Thank you, Chris, for that introduction. So I am Alan, overseeing the youth here at Watermark Church. And it's such a joy to be able to minister the word of God today.

[5:23] Many years back when I was about 17 years old, okay, a few years back when I was 17 years old, I was back in India. My cousin and I, we were taking a walk down this road.

[5:34] It was very dark in India, so there was no electricity at that moment. So as we were walking down the street, we came across these two drunk people, and they were fighting dead right in the center of the street.

[5:47] And my cousin, being a teenager, he thought that was great entertainment. Two drunk people fighting, that's great. But I, on the other hand, I told him, like, hey, we should get out of here. We're going to get in trouble. But then he insisted.

[5:59] We said, I told him many times, but he thought, like, no, no, we should watch. And soon enough, we had these people rushing in into that scene. And it was actually the police who were coming in.

[6:10] And since it was so dark, that they just went around beating anyone they could get their hands on. They started arresting people, and it was just chaos in that place. If my cousin had just listened to me, we would not have been in that darkness and chaos.

[6:27] So, as we head towards Christmas, we're actually going through the four servant songs that are found in the book of Isaiah. And what we find in the book of Isaiah is a very similar situation to that of my cousin and I.

[6:42] We see, we find a people of Israel that has not really listened, that have become rebellious and disrespectful. And in fact, we even find that actually, while animals were honoring God, that while animals could honor and worship their creator, while the people were not really doing it.

[7:00] So basically, even the human beings were like, they were just worse than the animals. And that has actually put them into a place of darkness and chaos. And so much so that they actually start saying that God has rejected our cause, that God has disregarded our cause, that God has forgotten our cause, and He just abandoned us.

[7:21] But actually, when we come to today's chapter, we find that actually God telling them that, no, no, no, it is actually your sin and your transgressions that has put you in that situation.

[7:34] But why don't we just stop there and just think about it. You see, this is a God who is a father speaking out to His child. Now, I'm sure many of you are a father who's watching over.

[7:46] Now, just imagine this is a God who's a father speaking out to His child. He's telling them, hey, was I too weak to save you? Is my hand too short that I cannot redeem you?

[7:57] You see, He's telling them like, look, I want to save you, but you have put yourself in that situation. In fact, He's kind of telling them like, hey, you got to trust me, I can't save you.

[8:10] And what we have here now is a people who is rebelling against God, disobedient, they're not listening, they have unbelief, and because of that, they are suffering and they're actually exiled from their own place.

[8:26] Now, does that sound familiar? Well, it should sound familiar because that is actually our natural state towards God. You see, our natural state is against God, that our sin would be against God, that we would listen to anyone or anything except God, that we would worship anyone or even anything except God, that we would give priority to anyone, anything else except God.

[8:53] But what we find here now is that, yeah, but your exile and your suffering is not the final act. And last week, we were just looking at this thing that, Israel was supposed to be the light for the nation, to draw all the nation towards God, but Israel themselves have become so lost, they have become lost as the other nation.

[9:16] And here we have God telling them, I'm going to save you, that I'm going to redeem you, but not just you, Israel, but I'm going to redeem and save the whole world. And the way God is going to do that is going to do through this agent, through this mysterious figure that we find in the book of Isaiah called the servant.

[9:34] Now, from today's passage, we're going to, we'll be learning three things about this servant, the obedience of the servant, the suffering of the servant, and finally, the vindication of the servant.

[9:47] So let's just dive into today's first point, the obedience of the servant. So now what we find here is, that we have a servant that receives the tongue of those who are taught from God, that sustains the weary, who is woken up every morning by God, so that his ear is opened by God, to hear as one who are taught.

[10:08] Now, can you tell me what is the phrase that I used the most in that sentence? It was by God. You see, we see that it was God who initiates this relationship with this servant.

[10:20] It was actually God who starts this relationship that he has with the servant, and he's the one who begins that. It was God who began that relationship. And that seems to be a pattern we find throughout the Bible.

[10:32] You see, God chose the nation of Israel. It was God who chose Abraham. It was God who chose Moses, Joseph, Abel. And it was God who starts everything. And let's stop there.

[10:44] Do you see the beauty in that? Do you see the beauty when God starts something? Now, let's just look at it. You see, we have here a God who is moving, who is working first for the salvation of his people.

[10:58] He's starting something to redeem his people. He's starting something to actually save not just the people of Israel, but actually to save the whole world. Now, the question is, what did the people of the whole world deserve to get this?

[11:16] What did the people of Israel do to deserve this salvation? Nothing. And it's so beautiful that we see here that it was God, even though the people were undeserving, it was God who initiates the relationship with the servants to save his people, to save the whole world.

[11:34] Now, looking at the obedience here, whenever we talk about obedience, we always have a person who's receiving instructions, who's receiving words, and that person actually doing it.

[11:46] I mean, that is the essence of obedience, right? I mean, if you have someone listening and not doing it, that's actually called disobedience. So, yeah, that's clear. So, here we have a servant who is receiving words from God, whose ears awaken to hear.

[12:01] Now, I want us to just think about it. This servant is listening. This servant is hearing from God, and he's actually doing this before he does any work. You see, before the servant is doing any work, before the servant is doing anything, we find him being filled and being like those who are taught.

[12:19] He's listening before anything else. And that is the thing about obedience, right? You listen first, and then you do it. But what happens when you do first, and then you listen?

[12:32] Does that make sense? Because many times that's what we do. That we would go out and do something, we would do whatever we want, and then later on we come and try to see what God would say about that. And that's what we do.

[12:44] Now, how does that look like? Let me give an example of that. Okay. God, I have invested my finance in this. I want you to bless it. God, I'm dating this girl, and I want you to bless it.

[12:57] God, I'm making this life decision right now, and I want you to bless it. You see, we would actually do the thing first and actually ask God later about what he thinks about it.

[13:09] And actually, Israel was in the same situation where God was speaking to them, but they were just not listening. So this servant, but what we find here is that this servant was not just listening, but he was actually being awakened morning by morning.

[13:27] So this listening that the servant was doing is not just a one-time incident, not just a one-time thing, but it's actually a continuous thing that is happening. You see, this is not just a once-a-week Sunday preaching that he's listening to.

[13:40] This is not just a once-a-week listening to Word of God in your community group kind of thing. It's actually something that's happening morning by morning, every day. I mean, I can push it to every moment too.

[13:53] Because for this servant, listening to God's Word is not just a duty that he fulfills once in a while. It's not just a duty that he wakes up in the morning and just to listen to God's Word. Because for this servant, he actually needs God's Word every morning.

[14:07] For him, he's utterly dependent on God's Word. And what I mean by that is he actually needs God's Word. So the question is, do you?

[14:18] Do I? Do I live my life as if I need God's Word every morning, every day? Or is it something I keep it once a week on a Sunday or in our CG groups? Do I need God's Word morning by morning?

[14:33] And that's what we see here. A servant who's listening to God's Word morning by morning. And this is happening before he's going out and doing anything. So in obedience, we have, that was the listening part of the servant.

[14:47] That's the receiving part of the servant. But this servant is not just listening, but he's actually obeying. We see that he's actually given the Word to sustain the wearing.

[14:58] Now, that is a powerful thing, to sustain the wear, to receive a word to sustain the wear. I remember in 2019, in July, in the month of July, I was sitting in this coffee shop with my mentor, Martin.

[15:14] And I remember being broken down at that moment because my life's one purpose, my one dream had been just shattered. And I could not understand why. And I broke down.

[15:25] I was crying in that coffee shop because I was feeling so hopeless, so discouraged, and so weary at that moment. And I remember that Martin, he spoke words in Christ that actually sustained me, that actually encouraged me, uplifted me as I was discouraged, as I was broken and weary.

[15:45] You see, the promise of this servant is that he comes with the words to sustain the wear. Now, imagine Israel who is suffering. Imagine Israel who is exiled from their home place and to have a promise that this servant is bringing the words that will sustain them as they are weary and discouraged and suffering.

[16:05] Now, that's just beautiful. And that's just powerful. Now, this servant is not just, he's just receiving these words and he's actually speaking this out from what he heard from God.

[16:18] Now, if you go up to verse 5, it actually tells us that he has not been rebellious, that he has not turned backward. So, you see, he has not just listened, but he has actually gone forward and actually he's doing what he has been told to do.

[16:33] Now, that is obedience, right? Obedience requires one to do what he has heard. And here is a servant that is listening. Here is a servant that is listening and then you have his people of Israel who is not listening at all.

[16:48] Here is a servant who is not just listening, but he's also called to speak out the words, words that sustain the weary, who is not rebellious, who has not turned backward. While we have a people of Israel that are rebellious, that are not listening, that have turned backwards, that are worshipping anything but God, who are just disobedient.

[17:09] And we would actually think that obedience, when one person is obedient, that would actually lead them to blessings, that would actually lead them to have blessings in their life, that would actually lead them to have a comfortable life.

[17:24] But that's not really the case here. You see, the servant's obedience actually leads him to shame and suffering, which leads us to the second point today, the suffering of the servant.

[17:38] When I was back in India, in my high school, I was, in our high school, we had this senior wing and a junior wing and we were kind of separated and we were not encouraged to interact with each other.

[17:51] So one of this evening, my cousin brother, little cousin brother, he was quite sick, so I had gone down to give him some medicine and just give him, just take care of him.

[18:02] And as I was coming back up, I was met by a teacher who saw me and what he did was he came up to me and he straight up slapped me across the face. So, like, okay, hitting was allowed in India, is allowed in India, was allowed in India.

[18:18] Let me make it that clear. So I was there, coming back and I just got slapped across my face and I was so angry and there were people around and I was so humiliated.

[18:30] And I tried to tell him that, hey, I did not do anything wrong, I was just taking care of my brother but he would just not listen. And I was not even allowed to justify myself and I was so angry at this injustice that I was on the verge of hitting this teacher back.

[18:46] And I was just that angry. And yeah, I looked like that. And I was just so angry and I hated, I hated that I did the right thing but I was met with slaps and shame in that time.

[19:00] I hated that. It was just so, angry. And I'm sure many of you have a similar story to that. And the anger we feel when we do something right and get back what we feel like we don't deserve is just so infuriating.

[19:18] And we want to react to that many times in anger and violence. But hey, coming back to the scriptures, coming back to the servant, we have a servant that is listening, that is obeying, he's obedient.

[19:31] But in verse 6, when we come down to verse 6, what we see is that he's actually beaten up and that he has his beard pulled out, that he was actually spitted on and he was actually disgraced.

[19:45] One commentator actually says, he suffered the deepest humiliation for to pluck out the hair of the beard and to cover someone's face with spit was, according to Near Eastern concepts, the most humiliating suffering that could be inflicted upon a man.

[20:02] So you see, this servant is not just going through pain. This servant is not just going through suffering and shame. He's actually going through a humiliating suffering and humiliating shame.

[20:16] It was just downright bad. Now, in fact, if you look at, if you go back to the verse, the servant actually says that I gave my back to the beatings.

[20:28] that he was actually not, he was not actually just being beaten because of obedience. He was actually, he was giving himself to the beating. In other words, he was actually voluntarily, obediently, willingly giving himself to the suffering and humiliation.

[20:45] Now, look, this servant is not just another nice guy. This servant is not just a nice, obedient guy who is like a good guy. No, no, no. He is a servant who is actually following God, who is really obeying God.

[20:58] You see, while you and I, we would react very differently to this, we would react in a very angry way, we would react with violence, but this servant is reacting in a totally opposite way.

[21:10] You see, he is willingly giving himself to that. He actually is reacting in submission to God's will for his life. And he's not just that.

[21:21] This servant is actually honoring God even when he's humiliated and beaten unjustly, and he's not actually angrily seeking out revenge. He's not planning revenge behind the back. He's not like, I don't care about the world.

[21:33] He actually doesn't give in and he does not let the shame win in his life. Just moving ahead to verse 7, you see that for the servant, the shame actually bounces off.

[21:47] He says that, I have not been disgraced. It's as if, like, have you seen the movie Superman? Like, the people would shoot bullets to Superman and the bullets would just bounce off?

[21:58] It's pretty similar. The shame would come to him but it just does not, it just bounces off. He's saying, I have not been disgraced. No, I'm not unworthy. In fact, in the future, I shall not be put to shame.

[22:11] So thank you, Alan, for just sharing right at the end there how this servant who's just depending on God, listening to him, he's willingly, obediently following the call that God has on his life and yet he's getting shame and suffering instead but he's fixed his eyes on the call that God has for him and he's obedient to him, not hating on anything else.

[22:33] How can he do that? How can he persevere when he tells us in verse 7? He says, the Lord God helps me. The Lord God helps me. And he says, in all of these things, verse 7, verse 9, the Lord God, that means the sovereign God of the universe, the personal God of Israel is with me, is helping me.

[22:57] It doesn't look like he's helping him because he's getting beaten but he's going to go and say, no, no, I've got a different perspective on this thing. You see, I can see verse 8, he says, I'm not going to be put to shame because he who vindicates me is near, is on my side, is with me.

[23:16] That word, vindicate, that's courtroom language. That's the language of someone who has been wrongfully accused and then been acquitted of their crime.

[23:26] It's the verdict of not guilty. In the right, you are righteous. Everyone else may give the verdict of guilty, not worthy, not respectable, shamed. But God says, verdict of vindicated.

[23:41] You see, he says, who matters most, whose verdict matters most, is not everybody else's, is what God says. That's where my vindication is. And God has his stamp of approval on me.

[23:53] You know, this is the same word in the New Testament, which is the word for justified. Declared right in God's sight. I'm justified before him. You know, it's like a whistleblower who has exposed the abuses or corruption in a company and gets just run out and outcast from the company for his daring to speak the truth.

[24:18] And then, years later, everything gets exposed for what's happened. Another person who is shamed and humiliated is now vindicated, is now seen as a hero for not giving in because they stood for the truth.

[24:32] That's what's going on here. The servant right now is declared in the wrong by everybody else. But he looks ahead and says, no, my vindication is with God, with the ultimate judge.

[24:44] And in his eyes, I know that his judgment is the one that's going to quash every other judgment. And so that's where I'm fixing my eyes. And I'm going to be declared right.

[24:55] And I know even now that I will be vindicated. And he knows that when you are vindicated than those who've accused you will, in his words, wear out.

[25:05] They will disappear. They will walk away. They will be the ones in shame. And you've got to think, how can this guy, how can this servant live with this perspective of God's voice above all others?

[25:19] Well, it's because morning by morning he's listening to his voice. He's utterly dependent on his word. servant. And so, we go, okay, who is this servant?

[25:30] The original readers would spend a long time thinking, pondering who this servant was. Well, we know as Christians, it is Jesus Christ. It is the true, obedient, faithful Israel.

[25:44] Everything Israel wasn't, he was. He's the one who listened to God's voice and said, I only do the will of my father. In temptation, he brought God's word and would not back down or give in.

[25:58] He's the one who, when he, he says he knew his time was there, it was up, that he set his face towards Jerusalem, towards the cross, and Peter and none of the other disciples who tried to dissuade him could get in the way.

[26:14] He rebuked them because he had his face set on Jerusalem. He's rejected by the very people that he is seeking to sustain with a word of liberation and a word of hope.

[26:26] And he then is unjustly tried. He's brought with false witnesses a declaration of guilt. He is brought against him even though everyone knew that it was wrong.

[26:36] Everyone knew he was innocent. He is mocked, he is beaten, he is spat on, he is humiliated. And yet he doesn't go, I don't deserve this. He doesn't get bitter but he says, Father, forgive.

[26:48] He doesn't choose to back down and get for his own comfort. He says, I lay down my life of my own accord, not my will but yours be done, Father. He looks death and shame in the eye and says, my vindicator is near.

[27:05] Into your hands, Father, I commit my spirit. And at that moment it looked like death had won. The religious leaders thought it was over. The disciples thought it was over.

[27:16] The Romans thought it was over. Death seemed to have had the final word. But Jesus' vindicator was near. On the third day he rose again, triumphant.

[27:29] It says he was declared the son of God with power, exalted to the right hand of the Father and he will come again to return as the one who is now seated as the highest judge of all before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess.

[27:44] Amen. And this servant is vindicated before the eyes of the watching world. And at the end of the day he will bring judgment on all of us and it's only his verdict, it's only his word, it's only his opinion that really counts.

[28:06] And the amazing thing in the gospel message is this. It says that people who follow this servant Jesus, who trust him, they actually, his mission becomes their mission.

[28:21] What God says about him, God says about them. What that Jesus gets, we get. We depend day by day on God's word. We're called to sustain the weary and the broken and the hurting and the struggling and the marginalized in Hong Kong with the gospel word of hope and of life.

[28:40] and we may experience rejection, we may experience shame, we may experience all those things that may increase in the next few years. We do not know. But where does our confidence to not back down come from?

[28:55] The Apostle Paul, he read this passage and he comments on it and applies it to his life and those he's talking to in the book of Romans chapter 8.

[29:06] Here's what he says. He says, If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

[29:23] Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? And it may look like a lot of people. Your mom. It may look like your relatives, your colleagues. But he says it's God who justifies, God who vindicates, who's going to condemn you.

[29:39] You may have voices in your own head that condemn you. You may have other people's voices that condemn you. But he says the only one who's really matters Christ Jesus is the one who's died. More than that, who was raised and who is exalted at the right hand of God.

[29:55] Who indeed is interceding for us watermarkers right now in December 2020. Who's going to separate any of us in watermark from the love of Christ?

[30:08] Shall COVID-19? Shall economic hardship? Shall family trials? Shall ill health? Shall people mocking you or outcasting you?

[30:18] Shall any of these things? And Paul says, no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through the servant who loved us even to the point of death. You see, his resurrection, his exaltation means our resurrection, our exaltation, his vindication is our vindication.

[30:38] And that means on that final day, that means actually right now, there is a verdict over us who believe in Christ and that is justified in the right, righteous before God.

[30:50] And that also means on the final day of judgment. We don't have to wonder what the verdict is going to be. If we are trusting in Jesus, he says, our vindicator is near.

[31:02] We have one who is in the seating for us and we come before that judge and we can have confidence before him because of Jesus. Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing?

[31:14] This is the good news. The verdict is settled. And so, with that, the light of this, that those who trust in the servant have this, then the passage calls us to respond to the servant.

[31:32] It turns the spotlight onto us and it goes, okay, in the light of this, how are you responding to Jesus right now? How are you responding? He says, who among you, verse 10, who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant?

[31:50] You know, where does your vindication come from? Where, whose voice really matters in your life? Is it your own voice? Is it the voice of everybody else or is it the voice of the servant, Jesus?

[32:03] You see, this Christmas time, just like the people of Israel, many of us feel like we're in darkness. Times are not easy. COVID, emotions can be challenging, relationships can be challenging, politics can be challenging, the economy can be challenging, all these different things can be challenging.

[32:21] But he says, for people who are in darkness, we have two choices. And this is actually a really powerful image he gives. He says, you can get light by listening and trusting the voice of the servant or you can kindle your own fire.

[32:38] Kindle your own fire, walk by the light of your own fire. And he says, if you do that, you're going to get what you don't want. You're going to get something else.

[32:51] You're going to lie down in torment. You see, what he says is, you can listen to the voice of unfairness.

[33:01] You know, there are Christians around the world who are being falsely accused for being faithful to Jesus. There are many of us who feel the voice of unfairness in our lives when we step up to love and serve and lead other people.

[33:18] And then other people turn around and criticize you or just ungrateful. And you feel like, what's the point? Why do I bother to serve them? Why do I bother to speak the gospel to them? Why do I bother to love them?

[33:29] You just want to give up stuff then, forget them. That's the voice of self. That's the voice of kindling your own light. But maybe there's the voice of self-justifying which comes to us.

[33:45] Another kind of way you can light your own fire. You know, I have relatives who think that success is going to all the most expensive restaurants, living in a certain area, having a certain lifestyle, having a certain career position, a certain amount of money in your bank account.

[34:04] And they'll comment on all the kind of gospel-shaped decisions that me and my wife have made in our lives. And they'll go to things like, when are you going to get a proper job? Or, why are you living there?

[34:16] Why are you hanging around those kind of people? Why can't you be like so-and-so? And then they rattle off all the success of certain other relatives. And as you hear those, a little voice inside of you goes, yeah, maybe we should chase after those other things too.

[34:32] You could impress people. You could prove yourself as acceptable. You could justify yourself. You could light your own fire. The voice of self-justifying is very powerful.

[34:49] And many of us, I think, listen to that voice day in, day out. Which voice are you listening to?

[35:00] You know, there's another voice which actually is the voice of shame which comes to you and you make me think about sharing the gospel with other people and you go, yeah, but what if I get rejected? What if I get shamed by somebody else?

[35:11] What if I don't know what to say? God says, yeah, you probably will get shamed. You probably will get rejected at some point. But whose voice matters to you most? Is it the verdict of everybody else or will you look up and see the verdict of the servant?

[35:26] The one who says, you in my eyes are vindicated. You know, who are you listening to? Who are you listening to?

[35:39] What I need, what we need as a community is people day by day encouraging us. We ourselves need to be in God's word morning by morning remembering what the voice of the servant says to us.

[35:55] We need to set our faces like Flint to continue on the mission that God has called us to share his word with others. And this Christmas time, this battle is not just for pastors, it's for everybody who follows Jesus.

[36:09] So that you look in the mirror every morning and you preach the gospel of his verdict over us. We are righteous, we are holy, we are declared loved in his sight. Our confidence and our vindication is not from what anyone else says.

[36:22] There's no condemnation in Christ. Jesus has won the victory and we are his. That's what we need to be reminding each other every day. And if you are not getting God's word, if you're not speaking God's word over you day in, day out, then let me tell you everybody else's verdict, even your own verdict on you, is going to be the loudest voice in your heart and in your head.

[36:43] And what that will do, it will leave you in shame, in fear, in anger. But the servant wants to set us free. Let me close with just a story that is very close to my heart.

[37:01] Some of you may not be football fans, but forgive me for just indulging just for a second. 2005, my team, Liverpool, played in one of the greatest matches in history where they played in the Champions League final against AC Milan and at half time they were being utterly destroyed.

[37:23] Three nil down, they were being mocked by all the fans of the AC Milan. It looked like complete ruin. It looked horrific. The shame was unbearable.

[37:34] Second half, six minutes, within six minutes Liverpool scored three goals. They went to extra time, they went to penalties and Liverpool won. And you see, when Liverpool won the trophy, it didn't matter what the half-time result was or the half-time score was.

[37:52] You see, what matters is the final result. And you see, if I had known and we had known at half-time what the final result was going to be, then the shame would have been hard.

[38:03] It would have been difficult. But actually, we could have kept going with our faces like Flint because we knew what the end of the day was going to be. As Christians, that's what the Gospel says.

[38:15] We know what the end result is. We've read this book. We know that Jesus wins. And when we're with him, we win too. We're more than conquerors.

[38:27]  So let's follow the sermon with whatever he has for us this Christmas time. And let's trust him.