{"id":12150,"date":"2013-12-18T10:53:57","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T10:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=12150"},"modified":"2019-07-23T12:54:14","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T12:54:14","slug":"advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent worship team devotional. Part 4 – God entered our mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

This worship team devotional is part of a four-week series that takes excerpts from The Taming of Christmas written by Jon Nicol. Each devotional contains a brief scripture reading and discussion questions and is designed for use during the Advent season.<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

The gospel\u2014the good news\u2014of the Christmas story, isn\u2019t JUST that God became man. But that he entered our mess. He waded and swam in the pool of our sin and our filth in order to rescue us, to pull us out of the mess that we\u2019re in.<\/p>\n

And thirty-some years after this messy entrance into a messy world, Jesus hung on a cross and took upon him all that is wrong with us. He took our sin, our sickness, our filth, and paid the price that it required. He cleaned up our mess. He made us beautiful. If we should tame this holiday, if we should sanitize the story of His birth, we will miss whole point of Christmas.<\/p>\n

Most Christmas messages preach \u201cit\u2019s better to give than receive.\u201d And that\u2019s true. But each Christmas, I think we\u2019re asked to receive\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026the truth that God is wild and beyond anything we can imagine.<\/p>\n

\u2026the truth that he cannot be tamed, nor should His story be tamed.<\/p>\n

And receive the truth that He is good. He calls to himself hurting people–people bruised by world, marginalized by society. He has no time for those who think they\u2019ve got it all together.<\/p>\n

But He has time for smelly shepherds, for beggars, for prostitutes, for bastard children just like he was perceived to be. He has time for messy people who recognize their messiness. That\u2019s what he came here for. That\u2019s why the perfect and the holy entered into our grime and depravity.<\/p>\n

Receive the truth that you are loved by a God who did not require you to pay for your mess. But He came Himself, in Jesus Christ, to clean the dirt and wipe the tears and lift you out of the mess and into His arms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let that truth be tamed.<\/p>\n

Read:<\/strong> Romans 5:6-8<\/p>\n

Discuss:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is it so easy to forget that God is \u201cwild and beyond anything we can imagine\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe has no time for those who think they have it all together.\u201d What is it about our \u201cindependence\u201d and \u201cself-reliance\u201d that moves us away from the rescuing arms of Jesus?<\/em><\/p>\n

What are some actions in worship that move us away from \u201chaving it all together\u201d to being people who \u201crecognize our messiness\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we were yet sinners\u201d \u2013 we\u2019ve heard that phrase over and over. What does it really mean, and why is it so amazing that God would \u201cdemonstrate his love\u201d for us?<\/em><\/p>\n

Jon Nicol is a worship pastor in Ohio. Jon\u2019s ebook, The Taming of Christmas, is available as a single-copy or as church-licensed copy, which allows you to distribute copies to your local church.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other posts you might like:<\/h2>\n

Part one of this devotional series –\u00a0The reality of the nativity<\/a><\/p>\n

Part two of this devotional series –\u00a0Messy People\/ Messy Faith<\/a><\/p>\n

Part three of this devotional series –\u00a0An unsafe God<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This worship team devotional is part of a four-week series that takes excerpts from The Taming of Christmas written by Jon Nicol. Each devotional contains a brief scripture reading and discussion questions and is designed for use during the Advent season. The gospel\u2014the good news\u2014of the Christmas story, isn\u2019t JUST that God became man. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5303,"featured_media":12154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,309],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAdvent worship team devotional. Part 4 - God Entered Our Mess<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The gospel - the good news - of the Christmas story, isn\u2019t JUST that God became man. But that he entered our mess. He waded and swam in the pool of our sin and our filth in order to rescue us, to pull us out of the mess that we\u2019re in.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent worship team devotional. Part 4 - God Entered Our Mess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The gospel - the good news - of the Christmas story, isn\u2019t JUST that God became man. But that he entered our mess. He waded and swam in the pool of our sin and our filth in order to rescue us, to pull us out of the mess that we\u2019re in.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-18T10:53:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-23T12:54:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/drc0fhsrp02et.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/dirty-shepherd_1200x627_opt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Blogger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@musicademy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@musicademy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Blogger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/\",\"name\":\"Advent worship team devotional. Part 4 - God Entered Our Mess\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-18T10:53:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-23T12:54:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2e11130a6d8cefd1340009119102a557\"},\"description\":\"The gospel - the good news - of the Christmas story, isn\u2019t JUST that God became man. But that he entered our mess. He waded and swam in the pool of our sin and our filth in order to rescue us, to pull us out of the mess that we\u2019re in.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Musicademy\",\"description\":\"Award-winning training resources for church based musicians\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2e11130a6d8cefd1340009119102a557\",\"name\":\"Guest Blogger\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Advent worship team devotional. Part 4 - God Entered Our Mess","description":"The gospel - the good news - of the Christmas story, isn\u2019t JUST that God became man. But that he entered our mess. He waded and swam in the pool of our sin and our filth in order to rescue us, to pull us out of the mess that we\u2019re in.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Advent worship team devotional. Part 4 - God Entered Our Mess","og_description":"The gospel - the good news - of the Christmas story, isn\u2019t JUST that God became man. But that he entered our mess. He waded and swam in the pool of our sin and our filth in order to rescue us, to pull us out of the mess that we\u2019re in.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/","og_site_name":"Musicademy","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Musicademy","article_published_time":"2013-12-18T10:53:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-07-23T12:54:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"1200","height":"627","url":"https:\/\/drc0fhsrp02et.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/dirty-shepherd_1200x627_opt.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Guest Blogger","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@musicademy","twitter_site":"@musicademy","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Blogger","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/","url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/","name":"Advent worship team devotional. Part 4 - God Entered Our Mess","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-12-18T10:53:57+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-23T12:54:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2e11130a6d8cefd1340009119102a557"},"description":"The gospel - the good news - of the Christmas story, isn\u2019t JUST that God became man. But that he entered our mess. He waded and swam in the pool of our sin and our filth in order to rescue us, to pull us out of the mess that we\u2019re in.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-devotional-god-entered-our-mess\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/","name":"Musicademy","description":"Award-winning training resources for church based musicians","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2e11130a6d8cefd1340009119102a557","name":"Guest Blogger","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.musicademy.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21533,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12150\/revisions\/21533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}