• All the good, huge, epic stories hit you don’t they? Why? What are some of them you love?

• In most, there are 3 common themes:– Things are not what they seem;

– A battle is under way;

– An unlikely hero has a crucial role to play

• This week’s epic story is no different!!

Disclaimer:• God loves us – His creation!

– His creation is good,

– but a rebellion took place that changed God’s original direction

– An enemy emerges and seeks to destroy all that is good – constantly wars with God…

• The Creator God thought there was some good in this world worth fighting for…so…let’s start at the beginning…

In the Beginning

• Setting the stage– Humans created for fellowship &

relationship with the Lord God Almighty

– God put His spirit in theminitially.

• There was connection!

• The relationship was unbroken!

– Just One Rule: Don’t eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil (Genesis 2:16-17)

• Was a created being – an angel named Lucifer.

• Was beautiful & fearsome creature –thought so highly of himself that he decided to assume command.

– Led a rebellion in heaven, trying to overthrow God & His armies. FAIL. Cast out. He and 1/3 of angels (now demons) wander the earth…

• AKA – father of lies; devil; enemy; evil one; ruler of darkness; the god of this age; thief; Satan

• His mission: The thief comes only to steal & kill & destroy

• His limitations: Still has to report to God; not omnipresent

• Satan hates God, God’s creation & everything God loves

– God loves us– Therefore, Satan hates us.

• How does he fight against us?– Darkness, destruction, deception, division,

distraction

• Satan twisted God’s words…

• Got Eve to believe the lie…

• Adam, silent, stood idly by

• As a result, all descendents are “in Adam”, and in Adam all die.

Slithering into the Garden…

• Adam & Eve “Did evil in the sight of the Lord”

• The price/punishment for disobedience = death…physical & spiritual– God took His life out of

them– Banished from the Garden– You were born enslaved/in

bondage thanks to this event• You are born dead

(spiritually)

• God started to work behind the scenes then to redeem/rescue mankind…

The Curse

Now What?? The Task At Hand - The Chasm• God longs for the intimate relationship with mankind that He had in the

Garden of Eden.

• The Problem: We can’t have that relationship in our current sinful state…we are broken; the relationship is fractured by sin…

– Sinful mankind can’t re-enter perfect & holy relationship with God (certainly not on their own), unless a blood ransom is paid to “buy back” the relationship.

• God’s love for us motivates Him to radical action!

• “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

• He was in the beginning with God.

• All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being…

• …And (then) the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”

WHAT? WHY????

The Wild Plan…

• Jesus EMPTIED Himself (Phil 2:7); • then does time as a man/creature

– (Creator becomes creature);

• so that He could rescue us; • so that we could be FILLED with the Holy

Spirit

• and have our relationship restored.• …so, Jesus is sent >>>>>>

The Nativity Story(in the seen…) Luke 2:1-40

• “Christmas is full of cozy thoughts: a sleeping Jesus, wide-eyed shepherds, a soft-faced Mary. The nativity sentiment is warm, the emotion is joy, and the feeling is peace. Such is the picture in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke…”

• “In John’s book of Revelation, however, he offers another perspective. From his perspective, the birth of Jesus stirs more excitement; it stirs evil.

• Pulling back the curtain of the skies, he reveals a bloody war in the heavens. John sees a woman, ready to give birth. He sees a dragon, ready to bring death.

• The woman is beautiful and the dragon ugly. The dragon lunges at the newborn child, but he is too late. The child and the mother are granted safety and then “there is a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.”

• WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN???– The enemy didn’t want this to happen b/c he knew that it was

SO out of the box, that it might just work…– SO HE WAS FIGHTING HARD TO FOIL GOD’S AWESOME

PLAN!

• The Secret Mission – John Eldredge– “The coming of Jesus of Nazareth was far more like the

opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan. A dangerous mission, a great invasion, a daring raid into enemy territory, to save the free world, but also to save one man.”

– God Himself – the King of all creation – takes on human flesh and enters our Story as one of us. He sets aside His glory, clothes Himself with humility, and sneaks into the enemy camp, under cover of night, to whisper words of love to his own:

• THE greatest journey ever made (and greatest story ever told) was the journey God took in becoming man for our salvation. – All great stories borrow from this one!!

• Jesus emptied Himself; put on an “earth suit”(became a man) – why?

• To repair the relationship and enable us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.