Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be. I'm your host, Chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right, fellas, this is our Christmas meat episode. Let's get into it, okay? So this the uh scripture of the week this week is Isaiah 7 14. It says, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign, behold the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name him Emmanuel. So I took some time in the spiritual kickoff episode for this week to unpack that verse, just try to give you a little bit of encouragement and ultimately just share the gospel. That's what it's all about. So hopefully you enjoyed that. As a reminder, we do them Monday through Friday. It's called a daily spiritual kickoff. Okay, you can find all that stuff, anything we do, guys, the Lion Within. That's thelionwithin.us. But for this episode, we're gonna do something a little bit different, okay? I just want to read the Christmas story from God's word for you. Okay, so we're gonna look at Matthew 1 and 2, and we're also gonna look at the version Luke together. And my simple hope during this is uh this is a busy time of year. It's a crazy busy time of year for lots of us, right? And cool part about podcasts, you consume them while you're on the go. So maybe during the next few minutes, uh you can just my hope is that you simply soak in God's word. And there's so many distractions pulling at us right now. Uh, and I pray this just gives you encouragement and the hope that he desires for you this time of year. And really hope you just enjoy this time together. There's nothing like his word. So I'm not gonna really add anything or reflections to it. We're just gonna read this together. And uh, if you want to, you can always use this podcast with your kids and with your family. If you just want to throw this on and just let it play in the background and have God's word uh just be a reminder of what we truly are celebrating this year, okay? All right. So in Matthew chapter one, starting in verse uh eighteen, it says now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you will shook and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now all of this took place to fulfill what was written or was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. That sound familiar? That's our scripture we guess, which is translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Now chapter two verse one says, Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah, of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, a Magi from the east arrived from Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we shall saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born, and they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judah, of Judah, for this is where what this is what has been written by the prophet, and you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are to by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will be a shepherd, who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Hera secretly called the Magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the child, and when you have found him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship him. Mm-hmm. That wasn't in the scripture. But anyway, we'll keep going. After hearing the king, they went their way, and the star which they had seen in the east, went on before them, until it came and stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. After coming into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell on the ground and worshipped him. Then opening their treasures they presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another way. Now when the Lord when they had gone, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said, Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. So Joseph got up, took the child, his mother while he was still at night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod, which is which was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through his prophet, out of Egypt I called my son. And all then Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, became very enraged, and he sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all the in and all its fixed vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which it determined from the Magi. Then what has been spoken through to Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. A voice was heard in Rama, weeping in great mourning, racial Rachel weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted because there were no more. But when Herod died, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in the drink to Joseph in Egypt, and said, Get up, take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For those who sought to who sought the child's life are dead. So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and came to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archileus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and came to and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what spoken through the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene. Alright, now so that is the Christmas account in the gospel of Matthew. Now, if we flip over to Luke, we're going to start at verse 26. Okay, verse 26 in Luke. And this is going to sound very familiar and familiar. We're going to go through 240. Okay. So it says, now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man who was whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for ye have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. Mary said to the angel, How can this be? Since I'm a virgin? The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you, and for that reason the holy child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, the bond slave of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to the city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she cried out with a loud voice and said, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how it had happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me. For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy, and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment, and would have been spoken to her by the Lord. And Mary said, My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in my in God, my Savior, for he has had regard for the humble state of his bond slave. For behold, from this time on all generations will count on me blessed, for the mighty one has done great things for me, and holy is his name, and his mercy is up is upon generation after generation toward those who fear him. He has done mighty deeds with his arm, he has scattered those who were proud to the thoughts of their hearts, he has brought down the rulers from the thrones, and has exalted those who were humble, he has filled the hungry with good things, and has sent the rich sent away the rich empty handed. He has given help to Israel, his servant, in remembrance remembrance of his mercy, and he has spoken to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever. And Mary stayed with her about three months and then returned to her home. Verse fifty seven says, Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she gave birth to her son, her neighbors and her relatives heard that her the Lord had displayed his great mercy toward her, and they were rejoicing with her. And it happened on the eighth day that they came to circumcise a child, and after they were going to call him Zacharius, uh Zacharias, after his father, but his mother answered and said, No, indeed he shall be called John. They said to her, There is no one among your relatives that's called by that name. And they made signs for to his father as to what he wanted him called, and asked for and he asked for a tablet to write as follows, His name is John. And they all were astonished, and at once his mouth was open and his tongue loose, and he began to speak praise to God. Fear came all over all over those living around them, all over the matters were being talked about in the hill country of Judea, and who heard them kept coming to mind saying, What then will this child turn out to be? For his hand of the Lord was certainly with him. And this f follows Zacharias. Zacharias has been filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord our God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant, as he has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets from the old, salvation from our enemies, and from the land of the hand of all who will hate us, to show mercy toward up towards our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, those which he swore to Abraham, our father, to grant us, that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, and holiness and righteousness before him in our days, and you, child, be called the prophet of the most high, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people the knowledge of salvation, by the forgiveness of their sins, because their tender mercy of our God with which the sunrise from the high on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness in the shadows of death, and to guide our feet in the way of peace. And the child continued to grow and become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts unto the day of his public appearance in Israel. Now chapter two. Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census shall be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken by Cornerius the governor of Syria, and everyone was on his way to register for the census each to his own city. Joseph went up from Galilee, Galilee, to the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping over their watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone over them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which is for all people. For today in the city of David, there is been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there were appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased. When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, Let's go straight to Bethlehem then, and see first thing what has happened, which which the Lord has made known to us. So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in a manger. When they had seen this, they may have they made known the statement which had been told to them about the child, and they and all who heard it wondered at these things, which they were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just that has been told to them. Now verse 21. Okay, so twenty-one says, Let's see, and when eight days had passed before his circumcision, his name was then called Jesus, the name given to him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days for the purification according to the law of Moses were complete, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it was written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn mare male that opens the womb shall be called hol shall be called holy to the Lord, and offer a sacrifice according to what was said of the Lord in the land of land of the Lord, the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons. And there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for consolation on Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him, and he had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. How about that? Verse 27. And he came into this he came into the spirit of the temple, and when the young parents brought the child brought in the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law, then he took him into his arms and blessed God and said, Now, Lord, you are releasing your bondservant to depart in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of the revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people in Israel, and his father and his mother were amazed at the things which were being said about him, and Simeon blessed him, and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is anointed, is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a good for a sign to be opposed, and a sword will pierce even your own soul, to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. And there was a prophetess, Anna, that the daughter of Fano and the tribe of the tribe of Asher. She advanced she was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow, at the age of eighty-four, she never left the temple, serving night and day with fasting and prayers. At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God and continued to speak to him, to all those who were looking for redemption of Jerusalem. All right, yeah. Let's shout out verse 39 and 40. It says, When they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. The child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. So that's it, fellas. That's that's your scripture that really points to everything what this season is all about. And the question of the week was how will you share the true meaning of Christmas this year? My encouragement to you is maybe just share this podcast or take the verses that we just went through there in Matthew and Luke and read them. Read them out loud, read them to your family instead of the night before Christmas. Maybe actually just read God's word and let that just just resonate and just and just be what your home, your home, chooses to focus on this year. So Merry Christmas from me, from my family, from every all of us here at Delion Within Us. Uh again, you can connect with us to LionWithin.us for all our fun stuff there. We are going to have a fun Friday episode. So hopefully you'll come back and hang out with us there. So have a great day. Merry Christmas again. And keep on leashing the life within. If you're tired of going at it alone, we understand every man needs wise counsel, but finding it can be quite the challenge. That's why we build our leadership masterminds. This isn't just more content, guys. It's real discipleship with a consistent rhythm. 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