Expecting - Song Of Simeon

In Song Of Simeon, part two of the Expecting series, Mark Medley opens Luke 2:21–35 and shows why one elderly worshiper could hear God in a long silence, recognize the Messiah at first sight, and die satisfied. When Simeon lifts the infant Jesus and sings of a salvation prepared “in the presence of all peoples,” he also names the tension at the center of worship: this child will be a cornerstone for some and a stumbling stone for others. Mark frames that paradox honestly—Jesus is a sure foundation to those who trust him and an offense to those who resist his way.

Mark traces Simeon’s life of devotion—righteous, Spirit-led, grounded in Scripture—and honors Anna, the prophetess whose perseverance kept her near the presence of God. Their quiet faithfulness far from the spotlight is a template for us: corporate worship overflows with strength when private worship has already done its deep work. Simeon didn’t come to the temple to “get” the Spirit; he came in the Spirit. That posture still opens doors.

The message also names a thief of worship: offense. Unmet expectations, confusing seasons, and delayed promises can cool our praise. Mark walks through the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 to show what persistent faith looks like when faced with a hard word—she climbs over the stumbling stone and finds mercy on the other side. God is not cruel; he is revealing what rules our hearts so he can heal it.

To help us bring a true sacrifice of praise, Mark offers a simple framework he calls PRIME. Prepare throughout the week so Sunday isn’t culture shock. Repent quickly, standing in the cleansing of 1 John 1:9, so accusation can’t mute your voice. Invest your whole self—voice, body, attention, encouragement, even your broken heart. Minister to God by fixing your attention on Jesus and starving audience distraction. Enter in quickly from the first note; don’t wait for your favorite song.

Mark closes with the deepest contrast of all: Lucifer grasping upward—“I will ascend”—and Jesus pouring himself out in humility to death on a cross. That is the heartbeat of Christmas and the reason heaven exalts the Lamb. We don’t bring sacrifices to earn acceptance; we bring them because we are already accepted in Christ. If you’re ready to move from spectator to participant and guard your praise from distraction and offense, watch and step in with courage and joy.

We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Subscribe to our Podcast & YouTube channel to find past sermons, classes, interviews, and more!
Find us on Facebook & Instagram

Chapters

• 0:00 Expecting: Setting The Christmas Series
• 1:47 Reading Luke 2 And Simeon’s Song
• 3:47 Simeon And Anna: Honoring Faithful Saints
• 6:34 Worship As Revelation, Response, Relationship
• 9:19 Simeon’s Walk: Hearing God In Silence
• 12:28 Timing, Obedience, And Expectation
• 15:11 Stumbling Stone Or Sure Foundation
• 18:24 Testing Our Hearts: The Canaanite Woman
• 21:26 Offense Steals Worship
• 24:06 Satan’s Fall And The Theft Of Worship
• 27:06 Bring A Sacrifice: PRIME Framework
• 29:22 Prepare: Live Devoted All Week
• 32:18 Repent: Clear The Accusation
• 34:18 Invest: Body, Voice, And Service
• 37:04 Minister To God: Fight Distraction
• 40:00 Enter In Quickly: Start At First Note
• 43:05 Why Simeon’s Devotion Made Sense
• 45:20 Lucifer’s Pride Versus Jesus’ Humility
• 48:05 The Christmas Paradox: Lowly And Exalted
• 50:20 Are You Satisfied? Invitation And Prayer

Transcript

Mark Medley: 0:05

This is our second uh sermon in our Christmas series, which is called Expecting. I thought it was just kind of a little bit funny this morning because Brooke was playing the guitar. You know, Brooke is expecting. And uh in just a few weeks, and it was just funny that she was playing the guitar off to her side like this because she couldn't play it like this. That was beautiful, actually. Um but this this series is about uh Christmas, but it's really about growing to uh growing in our on our journey of learning how to worship Jesus better and become a better, better worshiper of Jesus. So we're learning through the songs of the Christmas story how to expect Jesus to speak to us. And whether we're in our family in worship uh at home or individual worship in home or a corporate gathering here. So last week we learned from Zechariah's song, how we can enter into worship and hear God. Zechariah heard the voice of God. Um and this week we're studying a different, another uh kind of a character that gets overlooked sometimes, but he has a song too. His name is Simeon, and he's a man who knew God and he heard the voice of God, and he dedicated himself to the service of God and to the temple and had a lifestyle of worship, and out of that came this song that brought glory to God. So if you'll read with me in Luke in chapter 2, starting verse 21, let's read Simeon's song and the story around it. And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves, or two pigeons, two young pigeons. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of Allah, he took him up in his arms, and he blessed God and said, Lord, now you're letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples. A light for the revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel. And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed. And a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. Father, this morning we thank you for your word, and we pray that through your holy son Jesus, the thoughts of all of us would be revealed. That you would go into the depths of our hearts, the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Let your word divide, and you would speak to us, Lord, as you want to this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so here in the midst of the Christmas story, we see uh this song rising out of the heart of this servant of God, a man who devoted himself to God, devoted himself to the temple, who leaned in close to Jesus to hear the heartbeat of Jesus, and who even was given a promise by the Holy Spirit. And you know that's that happens when you're that kind of a person, when you're a person who leans in, who is devoted to the Lord, God gives promises to those people. He gives privileges to such a person. Even today he does. Simeon was a man who knew God in his daily life and even knew him further in his worship in the temple. So he's not the only one, though, in the story. If we read a little further, we'd also see that Anna was involved in this. She didn't have a song, or at least she didn't have a song that Luke recorded for us, but she was just as devoted as Simeon was. And she was a widow, advanced in years, a prophetess, it says, who apparently lived in the temple, it says, and worshiped the Lord with fasting and praying. And she also came into the scene at the exact same time that Joseph and Mary brought Jesus in. Here comes Simeon, here comes Anna, here comes uh the parents of Jesus all into the temple. First of all, I'm really grateful for the seasoned saints of God, older people who are faithful to come to church to serve in the church. And um, we have some Annas and Simeons here today. You know that? We've got some really faithful people, and the scripture says to give honor to whom honor is due. And so um, we're not gonna call you up, but uh we want to honor you. We want to thank you for everything that you do, your service, your faithful service through the years, and you know who you are, and uh if you don't feel old enough, just ignore that. But if you feel old enough, then we want to honor you. We thank you for valuing the church, valuing the kingdom of God. And you know how to worship your Lord with your entire lives, with all of who you are. And so thank you for being dedicated to him and to his church. But everyone in the story is gathered around the temple. Everyone in the story had a custom of going to church. They attended church. And so this morning, uh, as because they valued the gathering of the saints together, we're gonna talk about gathering together in worship. We're gonna talk about worship this morning, but specifically when we gather here in corporate worship together. And um, so let's see what the Lord can speak to us out of this verse, this passage concerning that. So you know that worship, as we said last week, is a revelation. It's a response, and it's a relationship. God, in his kindness, opens our hearts to see him, opens our eyes to see him in different ways, and that causes response to come from us. It's a response from our soul, our spirit, our minds, our bodies. We respond in some way as we see him, and that response eventually it leaks out into our entire life. And so it's really a relationship. The whole point of it all, of worship, is relationship with God. Right? And God revealed himself to Simon, to Simeon. We see him as God revealed himself as a God of purpose because he said he has a mission not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles. And we see that God revealed himself even, he revealed a little secret to Simeon. Right? You're not gonna die until you see uh the Christ. And the response of Simeon was a lifestyle of worship that he brought into the temple, and um he was moved by the Spirit. It says, moved by the Spirit, he went to the temple. So this was his pattern. His pattern of living was being faithful to attend church. We could say it that way. And his relationship was that he was devoted to God. So Simeon means the one who hears and obeys. That's what his word, his name means. One who hears and obeys. So when we say that he has a relationship with God, we mean a few things. First, we mean that he had a walk with God. A walk with God, scripture from the beginning of Genesis all the way through the end of the Bible, there's this word in there, walk, which which has uh is application toward our relationship with God. It's a walk. It's and a walk is, as you all know, because you walked in here today, is a step and a step and a step, right? It is taking steps day by day. It is making decisions day by day, little decisions on a journey with Christ. Little decisions that are that are consistent with your commitment to God, and more than that, consistent grounded in his commitment to you. Because he's committed to you, you commit to him. That's a walk. We take step, step, step, taking steps of obedience, um, honoring the Lord day by day. And this is what we see in Simeon. He was full of the Spirit, it says, He was full of the word because when he when he spoke and his prayer and his prophecy to Mary was uh from scripture. He's quoting the Old Testament even while he's speaking. So his relationship means that he had a walk with God, but also his relationship means that he attended church. He went to church regularly, he knew where to find God. You can find God among his people. His life was grounded in fellowship with other people. And also his relationship means that he heard God. And he heard God when God was mostly silent. Because there had been 400 years of silence between the last time a prophet spoke from God and the time that Jesus came was 400 years. No official word through a major prophet is recorded there. And yet this man was tuned in to the Holy Spirit. When there was a famine of the word of God in the land, he still heard the voice of God. He heard the promise that was spoken to him. So Simeon knew the voice of God speaking from the scriptures, and he knew the voice of God speaking to his own heart, his own spirit. And he responded. He kept the light, the lamp of prophecy burning even when there was no prophecy in the land. It was almost snuffed out, but it wasn't. And those who are devoted to God can hear his voice. And then he responded to God immediately. This is interesting. God spoke to him and he responded right away. As he walked with God, he looked for the fulfillment of that prophecy. It says he was expecting the consolation of Israel. So he was expecting, just like we're expecting, he had a promise from God, as all as did all the Jews, that there would be a Messiah who would come, who would save them. And so he was expecting that prophecy to come to pass, especially because God said, You're not going to die until you see this. He had a little incentive to go to the temple. So God moves in timing. God has perfect timing for his purposes. And this is why it's important for us to, when we hear him, to respond immediately. Anna came to the temple, Simeon came to the temple. Joseph and Mary came to the temple, and there's where this whole story converges. But they're responding to God. First time obedience is really important. Okay? And those of you who have children and you're trying your best to get your kids to obey you the first time, there's this principle of obedience, right? It's not obedience unless you actually do what's told. So do what I say, do all that I say, do it when I say it, do it with a happy spirit. This is this is our goal, okay? This is what we're going for. You don't have doesn't happen immediately, but this is what we're going for. And we train our children to do this because we want them to also respond to God that way. When they learn to hear God's voice, they do it completely, immediately with a happy spirit. So what you're doing in uh in training your children to obedience is you're training them to obey God. If you don't train them to obedience, you're training them to disobey God. Because God says to them, the only real commandment that He gives to them is honor your father and mother. So we have to hold the standard of obedience to teach them to honor their parents so they're obeying God and that they hear God's voice later on. And then Simeon's relationship with God, his being faithful to God, led him to the point where his faith became sight. He saw and he held the promised Messiah in his arms. I don't know what that was like. It must have been must have been beautiful. Must have been beautiful. But he held the promise in his hand. We don't always get to hold the promise in our arms. Sometimes God moves a little different way, or sometimes we're praying for something that's going to come up, come to pass in a time later, you know. But sometimes we do get to hold the promise of God in our arms. And Simeon did. And as he held the Messiah, his heart just burst out into this song. And his song tells us a lot about him. His song says that he understood that God is in control. God is sovereign, he keeps his promise, and that he understood mission. God has got a big plan. God is not only concerned with the Jews, but also with all the nations, including us today. He was praising God, and his praise turned into prophecy. Remember, last week we talked about, we talked about how as we praise, the voice of God begins sometimes to move prophetically. And this is what happened. He's just focused on God and what God has done. And then he turns and has this prophecy to Mary. He turns to Mary and he says, This child is for the rising and the falling of many in Israel, so that the hearts of many would be revealed. So, a lifestyle of worship with God, one of the things that happens is God begins to reveal our hearts. As we love him, he loves us, and he wants to turn our hearts more toward him so that we live the blessed life he wants us to live. So Simeon was quoting a prophecy here. I don't know if you caught that, but he was quoting from Isaiah chapter 8, the Messiah would be a stumbling stone, a rock of offense. But Isaiah also prophesied that the Messiah was going to be a foundation. I lay in Zion, this is in chapter 28, I lay in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. So the Messiah was going to be a sure foundation and a stone of stumbling. Wow, how does that work? It sounds a little strange to us, doesn't it? That the rock that is our foundation is also a stone of stumbling for others. And it depends on your heart. The state of your heart. So I'm I would say 100% sure that everyone here has been offended by a person. Is that right? Is anybody not? I'm looking. Okay. Never been offended by a person. Okay. All right. Okay. Well, I know that's not true. Yeah, it's yeah, you have. But have you been offended by God? Have you ever faced a circumstance in your life that you could not reconcile with the concept of a loving and sovereign God? He's full of love, He's full of, He's in control, and yet this is happening. Have you ever been offended by God? Have you ever experienced things that have shaken your faith? If not, I think maybe you haven't followed very far. Because this is the way of things. It's the normal way of things. Jesus is a sure foundation, but he is also a stumbling stone. And sometimes, sometimes God will throw down a little rock, a little stumbling stone to test our hearts. It's not cruel. It's wise. And it's good. It's out of the goodness of his heart. He wants to reveal our own hearts to ourselves, to us. He wants us to mature. He wants to move us further into his purposes, but it doesn't feel like that when it's happening. It just feels like I'm offended with God. The religious leaders who were opposing Jesus and the common people who heard Jesus gladly were oftentimes in the same crowd as Jesus was talking. And one group was deeply offended by his words. And the other group were filled with hope and joy and wonder at his words. And Simeon says, Behold, this child is appointed for the rising and the falling of many in Israel, that the hearts of many would be revealed. The word of God divides asunder even the soul and spirit and the thoughts and intents of our hearts. So I was thinking about that this week, and I thought about the story that Matthew told us in Matthew 15. Do you remember it was a Canaanite woman, a Syropharenician woman who came to Jesus, and she had a daughter who was being oppressed severely by the devil, and she came to Jesus because she believed Jesus could do something about it. And she said, Jesus, would you please heal my daughter? And Jesus said, I was only sent to the house of Israel. And it's not good to take the bread that belongs to the children and give it to the dogs. Okay, what is he saying? Is he calling her a dog? Is he being racist, the Jews versus the Gentiles? What's he doing here? What is that? It's like if we if we call people up for prayer at the end of the service, you know, we have a whole line of people, and it's like, okay, we're we're gonna pray for healing. Whoever needs healing, come forward. And so we're praying. Oh Lord, thank you. Bring your healing completely, Lord. We lay hands on this one. Would you just please heal this one? We come to you and we go, uh, it's not for the dogs. And we come over here to this next one. Well, what would you do? Well, what you do reveals your heart. What did she do? She said, Yes, but Lord, even the dogs get the crumbs from the table. Something falls to the ground, and the dogs get the That. And you know what Jesus did? This I'm paraphrasing. Okay. He said, Well done. Well done. I see your heart. You stepped past that stone of stumbling. You went with your faith over the top of that stumbling stone. And what you want, you're gonna get. And her daughter was made whole from that hour. Okay. Okay, why does God do this? Because God knows our hearts. He knows where we're at, he knows what it takes to get us from here to there, to the next place, to the next level of maturity and knowledge of Him and ability to bless other people. So if there are things in your life this morning that are confusing or causing you to be offended, take a pause and ask God, what is it? Is there something in my heart that you need to show me? Do I need to change? Is there something of my action or my attitude or my thoughts or the way I'm thinking about you? Or is there something you want to change in me? Is God getting your attention because there needs to be correction? Could be. Simeon could have been offended because it had been years and years since he had this promise. He's never seen the Messiah yet. And Anna could have been offended because she was a widow. Her husband died. And for many, many years. She's by herself. She could have been offended, but she came to church. And she saw the Savior. Offense. They were in the temple, they're pushing past their offense, and they're not letting it steal their worship. And this is the thing this morning. Offenses, it's one of the major things that steal our worship to God. We get offended at God or at people, and we let that get in the way of our worship. And Satan is a thief of worship. He's a thief. If you look at the origin of Satan in the scripture, there's some passages in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 that talk about Lucifer, about how he fell, how what he was before, and how he fell. And apparently, there's a little bit of mystery here, but apparently there's an indication that he was like an anointed archangel that covered the throne of God and was was um part of his job was taking the worship of all creation and reflecting it back down to God until he decided to take a little bit of that for himself. He was exalted in his own beauty and in his own eyes, and he he was lifted up. And the scripture says, You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven above the stars of God, I will set my throne on high, I will sit on the mount of the assembly, I will ascend above the heights in the clouds, I will make myself like the most high. But you are brought down, brought down to hell, to the far reaches of the pit. You see, his heart was, I will, I think I deserve a little bit of this credit. I mean, look at me. I'm pretty special. I'm an angel over the throne of God. So he was lifted up in his beauty. He decided to reach out and steal some of that, which was only deservedly goes to God. And he wanted to take some for himself. And that is the reason that he fell. And so that's not that's what he still does. He still does this thing trying to steal worship. He tries to steal our worship now. And he has many tactics he tries to do to steal what rightfully belongs to God. And remember the story that we read this morning takes place in the temple where we gather together and worship like a church building. So, how can we guard ourselves against our worship being stolen when we're together? How can we bring an acceptable sacrifice to worship God together? I'm glad you asked. A lot of people fail to experience the fullness of what God wants them to have in worship because they fail to prepare and bring a sacrifice. You know, in the Old Testament, nobody ever came to worship God without bringing something. There were offerings they were supposed to bring. So they brought the offering that was prescribed. They brought it the best they could afford. Sometimes you have provisions for people who are poorer. You can bring this or you can bring this, whichever one you can do. And so they're bringing whatever's specifically prescribed, the best they can afford. Like David said, I will not offer to God something that costs me nothing. This is the attitude of a worshiper. I want to bring something. How can we worship him in that same spirit? How can we have that attitude? I want to bring something to God. For all that God has done for me, I will come not only to receive, I will come to give. I'll bring something, bring a sacrifice. Now, we know we don't bring a sacrifice to God, excuse me, to be right with God. There's already a sacrifice for that. It's Jesus Christ, the righteous one, who was offered for us the perfect sacrifice that makes us acceptable to God. So we don't come with a sacrifice so that God would accept us. We come because God has already accepted us in Christ, and we bring something out of a pure heart of motivation, of love. So, but you but we are called upon to bring something when we come to worship. So I want to give you some practical steps this morning about how to prepare yourself, how to bring a sacrifice when we're worshiping together. Okay. So I may try to make it easy for you. So I made it into an acronym acronym. And it's in the letters spell out the word prime, P-R-I-M-E, prime, as if you were going to prime your praise pump. Okay. So we're going to prime our praise pump this morning or learn how to do it. You know what a pump is, right? You remember the old, is anybody anybody used an old pump? I mean, now we just turn the faucet on, right? This is like that's not really much. But but it, you know, if you have a pump and a well and there's there's water under the ground and you got to get it up, and you have to prime the pump a few pumps so the water comes up. Then the water's there and it's ready and it's flowing, right? But you got to do a little bit of work to get that water up here. Okay, so we're gonna talk about priming your praise pump this morning. So P is for prepare. Prepare. Now it says of Simeon, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devoted. Devoted or devout. He was devout. So that means if you're devoted to something, it means you, your, you, your life revolves around that something. Whatever it is. There's some people who are so devoted to their own hobby, whatever the hobby is, that like their whole life is focused on that. All of their time, all of their energy, much of their money, it's poured into whatever they're devoted to. He was devoted to God. He was not just coming to the temple out of habit, he brought his habit to the temple. Okay, that's that's good. You guys, yeah, I'll leave that up there a minute. Maybe you want to take a picture of that. That's good. He wasn't coming to church out of habit, he was bringing his habit to the temple. He came by the spirit into the temple. He was doing, he, what he already was, he brought there. He didn't come there to get the spirit, he lived in the spirit and he came to the temple. That's that's called preparing. That's called your lifestyle day by day makes you into the person that you are, and you bring that person into church. And together, it's powerful when you do that. He was already ready before he came. So, how can we prepare? All week long, stay in an attitude of worship. Play some worship music during the day. Worship the Lord. Um, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Be sensitive to the mind of the Lord. Walk with God. And this way you come into the service with an idea of what God is already speaking. You'll never get the most out of your Sunday corporate worship experience if you're not living day by day in worship. So, and can I ask you, can I ask you to adjust your schedule? I know a lot of us are here on time, a lot of us can't be, a lot of us have you know kids, it's kind of hard to get here, those kind of things. But you can adjust your schedule. I mean, there's there's grace, but but you can adjust your schedule. Some of us go to bed really late on a Saturday night because there's some kind of ballgame on or something. I don't know. And we get up really late Sunday morning, and like, oh my gosh, we're running through the shower, we're grabbing something to eat or not eat, just grab a cup of coffee or something, and maybe get the kids together and like in the car, and you're driving slightly over the speed limit to get here, and you get here and you're a little bit late, so you gotta park up there, and then you gotta walk in. You slide in the back door back here, uh, and the during the third song of worship, and yeah, and then you're okay. Oh, what is this I'm feeling? Oh, yeah, it's the presence of God. I felt this last week. I remember last week, last Sunday. This is so good. Oh, it's over now. It's over. The last song is over. Oh, you what if you came early? I'm just uh it's just a little suggestion. What if you came early? So I was talking to my son-in-law Evan, who's from Ghana this week, and he said he was because he was an usher in a church there, and in the churches in the villages in Ghana, what they'll do is when the worship starts, they lock the door. And if you come late, you you have you're outside. You're standing outside. Now, when it's over, because they don't want anybody to like distract in worship, and then the worship is over, they'll unlock the door, you can come in and hear the preaching, but you have to stand outside. It's a little bit awkward. So we're gonna institute policy next week. I think if it's good enough for Africa, it's good for here, man. So it's gonna be our little counter's gonna go five, four, three, two, one, click. And if you're not in, you're out. And you have to be out there in the cold, and then after the worship's over, we'll we might let you in. No, we're not gonna do that. We we're not gonna do that, but what if you came early? That's all I'm really saying. What if you came early and ready? What if you brought your habit to the temple? Once you're prepared, your whole sacrifice is already prepared, your mind is in the spirit before you come. What if you live it all week long? What if you're accustomed to it when you walk in? Yeah, there's no culture shock. This is what preparing does. It saves you, prevents us from Sunday morning culture shock. Oh, oh, this is the spirit of God. This is the presence of God. I love it. You can have that all week long, by the way. It keeps culture shock from stealing our worship. Okay, P. R is for repent. Repent. It's now again, it says of Simeon. There was a right there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout. Righteous. Righteous and devout. Simeon was right with God. He came in right with God. And a lot of us are hindered from the presence of God because of a guilty conscience. You know, we do have an accuser. And he talks a lot. And even if we didn't, some of us have our own little thoughts in our head. We're accusing, we get accusation from both sides. And we're all feeling a little bit guilty. We have a guilty conscience, or maybe we have a maybe I'm possibly guilty conscious. You know, I can't think of anything I've done, but I just surely there's something, and I I don't, I just somehow feel like I'm I'm guilty all the time. Some people sort of live that way. So what's the answer? 1 John 1 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He is faithful. Oh, but I haven't been faithful. But he is faithful. And we try to, we walk in the light, but if we sin, we repent quickly. And he's faithful and just to forgive us for our sins and cleanse us. He wipes it clean. He wipes it clean. You can you can live in the cleanness of God. This is what Jesus has done for us. We're grounded in the grace of God. We approach his throne through the blood of Christ. This is it. We restore our relationship with God quickly, or our relationship with our brother or sister, or wife quickly. We do it quickly so that this accusation of the enemy is not stealing our worship. So repentance prevents accusation from stealing your worship. So I is invest, P-R-I, invest. Look what it says about Jesus' parents. They brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, to offer the sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, two pair turtle doves or two young pigeons. Okay, they didn't come empty-handed. The law required them to bring a sacrifice. And so they did. They did. Now we understand Jesus is our sacrifice, but I want to ask you, what sacrifice did you bring here this morning? Or did you come with a mindset of bringing something this morning? I'm going to invest in this service. I'm not just coming to receive, I'm coming to invest. When you invest, you have an interest in what you invest in. And you're looking for a return on your investment. And so when you invest in the service by preparing beforehand, by coming in with an attitude of bringing something to the Lord. What did you bring this morning? Maybe you brought the fruit of your lips to give thanks. Maybe it's your words. Maybe it is your heart of service to help your brothers or your sisters or encourage them. You invest with your body. You know it's scriptural. What we do, uh there's scriptural forms of worship. When you're clapping, this is in the Bible. Oh, clap your hands, all you people. Clap to the Lord. When you're singing, when you are lifting your hands, this is in the Bible. When we're kneeling, it's in the Bible. When there's times of silence, all of these are forms of worship. And we are investing with our body. You know, sometimes because some of you probably don't think you sing real well, and so you just don't sing. This is a sacrifice that you can bring to God. You can sing. And I'll I'll just tell you probably the people around you are gonna be okay if you don't sing good. They'll probably be okay. They'll be all right. They'll just say, Bless his heart. What a joyful noise he's making. So invest with your body. Go ahead and open up and invest in this service. Don't just don't just spectate and watch people up here singing. Sing! Man, open up your mouth, let her rip, man. Let's go. One person is at I sing by letter. Open my mouth and let her fly. Go for it, man. Go for it. What do you bring? What about your broken heart? You can bring a broken heart and a contrite spirit. You can lift your hands when you can hardly lift them, but you do anyway. Man, it's a beautiful form of worship. It's a beautiful sacrifice. Maybe it's the most beautiful kind of sacrifice. First Corinthians 14 says, when you come together, everyone has everyone, every one of you has a psalm or a scripture or an encouragement. So let everything be done decently in order. Okay, so we've got if we've got 250 or 300 people here, we can't let everybody sing a song one by one. They were doing it in smaller groups. But you do have something to bring, you have something to invest in. What he was saying was, you have a part. It's not just coming to watch other people do it. So when you want to invest your body and your prayer time and your and for the kingdom of God and to see his will be done, give yourself to the body of believers that you're a part of, commit to this church. This is all this is all investing. And it prevents apathy and laziness from stealing your worship. M is minister to God. Minister to God. Simeon took him up in his arms and he blessed God. He took the Messiah, the Savior, the promise he was given, you won't die till you see this child. He took the child in his arms and he gave thanks to God. He focused on God. When we talk about minister to God, we're saying, we're saying our focus is on Jesus when we worship. The glory and the pleasure of God is our only focus here. Do you remember last week we we talked about uh Exodus 15, the very first song in the Bible? And the very first words of the very first song is I will sing to the Lord. This is the focus. The focus is to the Lord. It's about all that He has done. It's all of us together. That's what it was there. But it was I will sing to the Lord, fixing our eyes on Jesus, ministering to him and worship. And I'll just say this. Um of us here suffer from ADD, and not the kind of ADD that you're thinking about. I'm talking about audience distraction disorder. You know, because you especially if you're not, you know, if it's one reason sitting in the front is great because you don't get so distracted, but you're back there, it's like you're looking around and you're like, well, there's brother so-and-so now. I wonder how it's going on. I need to talk to them afterwards, and it's just it's you're it's audience distraction disorder, right? Can't seem to keep from looking around at what's going on around you. If you need to, move up front. There's some seats. It's okay. This is it's a good thing where there are fewer distractions. And don't worry about what people are thinking about you because they probably aren't. I hate to break it to you, but they probably aren't. One time we had this uh uh this is many, many years ago back on Dedrick Avenue, Jack. We had this great service one Sunday night, and I mean. The worship just took over, and the presence of God was so strong, and we worshiped for over two hours. It was just nothing but worship the whole night. It was, it was powerful and thick, and the presence of God was so beautiful. And I was in the middle of the stage, you know, because I was leading from a guitar, and for two hours plus, and right over the top of me was the words. And so it looks like the strange things is when you're here on stage and everybody's reading the words, it looks like they're looking right at you. Yeah. They're not, but it looks like they are. And it's like, so I'm right there. And I'm leading worship, and this is such a powerful thing. And for so long, it was like impactful. And then the next morning, I remember we came into the office, and somebody said, Oh, we had such a great service last night. Were you here? And it was beautiful because it like set me free. You know, because you think, oh, they're all looking at me for two hours. It's like, Were you even here? Oh, this is great. Probably people aren't really thinking that much about you as much as you think. Okay. So raise your hands. Sing. Minister to God. Okay. This prevents distractions from the service itself from stealing your worship. Okay, last one, E. Enter in quickly. Jump right in. It says of Simeon, he came in the spirit into the temple. Okay, as we said before, he didn't come to the temple to experience the spirit. He came in the spirit to the temple. He was already there, guys. He was already worshiping before he even got here. You know, worship is, you know, worship is about spirit and truth. It's about the heart, right? You carry this around in your heart. It's not about the location or the style of music or anything, but we come together, we carry this worship in our heart. Don't wait until your favorite song is played. Because what if they don't play it this week? What are you gonna do? Not worship? And what is God's favorite song? Of course, he likes the one I like. My favorite song is his favorite song, of course, right? And so we all just, oh, just not gonna we'll just tolerate all those other songs, and we'll get to the one I like, and then I'm gonna go for it. Come on. Enter in quickly, jump in, go for it. Right from the first song, no, right from the first verse, first word, first chord, boom. I'm here. I'm here in worship right now. You don't have to warm me up. It doesn't take three songs. I'm gonna do it right from the start. Let her rip. Let's do it. Do whatever you do, do it heartily unto the Lord, right? Okay. This sets you in a place to interact with God and other people here right from the very beginning. Okay, so, all right, prime, your praise pump. Prepare, repent, invest, minister to God, enter in quickly. This helps us to bring something to the Lord, and it helps, it prepares our hearts and our bodies, and we guard against Satan stealing our worship. He can't steal it unless you let him have it. He doesn't have any authority, and he doesn't deserve it. So don't let him. So when we glorify God and we become part of what he's doing right now, how he's moving among us today, we're participators, not spectators. This is great. Okay. So let me end by this. Because a question came to me as I was studying this this week, and I thought, why, what is it, what is it about about Simeon's understanding of God? Why did Simeon think God was worth devoting his life to? Outside the temple and inside the temple. This is a man righteous and devout, and he came and he lived this lifestyle of worship. Why did he think it was worth it? And I think he thought it was worth it because he knew there was a Messiah coming. As we talked last week, all the Jewish people had their own advent going on. They were waiting for the coming of a Messiah. This was in their psyche. Expecting was part of their living. They were ready, or they were looking for this Messiah. And so Simeon saw that God had a purpose in making his salvation known, not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles, to us here today. And Simeon waited for this Messiah who would deliver his people from their sins and build a living temple, a holy dwelling place, like the prophets had spoken of. Gathering called out ones into this Messiah, a dwelling place for God. So let me tell you why the focus of heaven is on a lamb and what the lamb has done. I read a passage to you before from Isaiah about the rebellion of Lucifer against God. And let me finish today by reading this other passage, which is actually a song that the early church sang. It's in Philippians chapter 2, starting at verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Simeon's song was so full of glory to God because he understood the significance of this Messiah who was coming, who he would hold in his arms. And the heart of Jesus could not be more opposite than the heart of Lucifer. They're totally poles apart. Lucifer said, I will be like God. Jesus said, I will let go of my equality with God. Lucifer said, I will ascend to heaven. And Jesus said, I will leave heaven. I will take the throne. I will take the form of a man. I will take on the likeness of God. I will take on the likeness of a man. I will be Lord of all. I will be servant of all. I will exalt myself. I will humble myself. Pour myself out. I will impose my will. I will surrender to the will of my father. And this is the message of Christmas. God has come to earth as a baby. This man, Jesus Christ, is both the stone of stumbling and the sure foundation. God does things differently. He does things sometimes backwards in the way we think because he's wise. And he sent Christ to humble himself, to take on himself the form of man. Christ humbled himself so that we could be lifted into fellowship with God. And this is why God has exalted him and given him a name above every name. And every knee will bow in heaven and earth and under the earth. And every tongue confessed that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And Simeon understood this. This is why his song out of his life became a praise. And Simeon died as a satisfied man. Because he saw and he held the promise of God. So this morning, come on, come on up, guys. This morning, are you are you satisfied? Could you die a satisfied person right now? I think there's a difference between contentment and satisfied. Sometimes we can be content in our hearts and yet not quite satisfied because we believe God is pulling us into something more than we are. But I want to tell you this morning, there's a promised Messiah that you can not only hold in your hands, you can hold him in your heart. You can have him in your heart. And you can live and die eventually as a satisfied person because this Messiah is in your heart. This is the message of Christmas. You can see his salvation in your life today. Right now. You don't need to go further. You don't need one more day. You don't need one more day to be satisfied. Today, right now. Today's the day of salvation. Right now. If you hear the Lord calling out to you, it's not hard. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. I surrender. I surrender. Your lives can change. So I want to end since we're talking about corporate worship by worshiping. But I want to pray for you first. You can stand with me. Lord, thank you for this Messiah. Thank you that we don't have to attend church to be accepted. We don't have to worship a certain way to appease you or so you'll love us more. We love you because you first love us. But Lord, we want to refresh our commitment to you this morning. We want to say yes to you. For those who are hearing your voice calling them, Lord, I'm asking that you would draw them into a place of repentance and salvation to you. If they would just say, Yes, Lord, I believe in you, I receive you. Jesus, you are Lord. I see. You died for me. You rose again for me, and I believe in you. For those of us who believe that, Lord, we want to turn from any offense that steals our worship, turn from any excuses, turn from our pride, turn from our good works. We want to ask you to receive this worship that we have in our hearts for you. Lord, we want to pray that you would make us worshipers that are just day-by-day worshipers, Lord. So when we come together, it explodes because we've had it all week long. We've lived in it. And we just lift our offering of praise up to you. As we end this morning, Lord, we just end with our focus on you. We minister to you. We look to Jesus. We glorify Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen.