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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

Let It Be According to Your Word

Well, in 1996, astronomers did something never done before.

They decided to take a risk and point the most sought after telescope, the Hubble telescope, up in space at nothing for 10 days.

I mean with so many people wanting to look at so many things in space, why point this telescope for 10 full days at nothing?

It was close to the Big Dipper and you can see this little L shape in the middle.

It was void of any stars or planets or galaxies.

It was just black and it was the size of a grain of sand held out at arm's length.

Imagine the scope of the sky, but we're going to focus for 10 days now at this dark little speck the size of a grain of sand.

Well, the longer you stare at a single patch of sky with the telescope, the more light you allowed to be collected and to be brought in to reveal perhaps something, or perhaps a big nothing.

If it failed, it would have been a waste of over a week of observing time on this Hubble Space Telescope.

But if it succeeded, perhaps it could reveal a glimpse of the universe in a way we've never seen it before.

So as the time passed, all of these feeble signals collected, having been emitted who knows how long ago and as they traveled, even though it was the speed of light, traveling, traveling, traveling, and now for these 10 days it was all being gathered together and when the images were processed They found 1 of the most profound and most humbling images.

They found that over 3, 000 galaxies were part of that little speck, that black grain of sand in the sky.

And each 1 of these 3, 000 galaxies contained in and of each of themselves billions of stars.

This time, they pointed the telescope to black near the constellation Orion.

They opened the shutter for 11 days with 4 complete orbits around the Earth using detectors of increased sensitivity now in 2004 and using filters that allowed more light through than ever before with updated technology, they were able to put together this 3D type image that you can see progressing on your screen.

This time over 10, 000 galaxies appeared in what has become known as the Ultra Deep Field.

This was the furthest we ever seen into the universe before.

And by taking what they found and then applying it to the rest of the sky.

You mathematicians out there, okay, if that's what's here in this spec, if we were to assume that all around us we have something similar to this, their conclusion was an estimate of over a hundred billion galaxies in the heavens.

You see, we used to think the universe meant everything, all that there was, but now they're telling us that there are billions and billions of galaxies with billions and billions of stars.

So the human race took the most powerful telescope ever made and pointed at absolutely nothing, simply because we were curious.

And what we found was that in this space of nothing was a whole lot more than we ever would have expected.

Then God made 2 great lights, the greater day to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.

It ends with a complete end of the sentence, the lesser light to rule the night, period.

But then there's a new sentence and it's almost as if it's a parentheses.

Almost a, by the way, and what does it say?

Can you imagine the Lord who called into being everything?

And then can you imagine this same God willing to humiliate himself and be born in a stable, in a stinky cattle shed.

We sung this morning, O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.

You know, there's a super giant star named Antares, 390 times the size of our sun.

390 times the size of our sun, which is 1.25 million times the size of Earth.

You can see it in the constellation Scorpio but if you took a hollow rubber ball, so if we had a rubber ball here and we could just slice it in half and there was a thin layer but the majority of the whole thing was hollow.

If you took a rubber ball and you cut it in half and this ball represented this star, Antares, do you know what would fit inside of this 1 star?

Well, let me try and outline it this way for you.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars could all fit inside and rotate around their orbit, including the Sun itself, all within the inside of this 1 star.

Here's another depiction of Antares there.

You see the orbit of Mars, the dotted line, but then you see up there in the top, that little speck, that's what we call the Sun.

Antares is 390 times larger than the sun, but here there's another star, I'm told, that's 2, 700 times larger than our sun.

And then in the biblical account, it's just, oh, and he made the stars too.

This time of the year, we remember the 1 who humbled himself and came as a baby in this cold and smelly stable.

Oh, little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie above the deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars that he made with his own hands go by.

Yet in the dark streets shineth the everlasting light.

Our hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight, Jesus Christ, Lord of the vast universe and beyond and beyond and beyond.

It almost sounds like an echo, echo, echo, echo, maker of those billions and billions of stars.

And with such ease, and to think that this same God would humble himself.

You would think pomp and circumstance and all the rest, but no, he comes in the form of a helpless baby.

You've seen other things be born before, I would imagine.

I remember as a young man seeing goats being born and how they just kind of plop out there and within just a few minutes you start your stopwatch and they're up there and they're walking and before they're even trotting around within like 5 minutes.

Anybody seen that happen with a human baby?

I know of some mothers that would like for that crying baby to hop out of the crib and trot over to her bed.

No, babies are helpless, extremely helpless.

And this was the plan, to be Emmanuel, God with us.

I invite you to turn with me to these well-known verses.

Luke, the first chapter, Luke chapter 1, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

It says, Now in the sixth month, we'll see later, this is really in reference to Elizabeth, but now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.

Last week, we talked about the 2300-day prophecy given to Daniel by another angel, who you will recall was Gabriel.

I imagine he's been anxious to bring this message as well.

And so Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, verse 27, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

Marriage consisted of 2 distinct stages, engagement followed by the marriage itself.

And engagement involved a formal agreement initiated by a father seeking a wife for his son.

Upon payment of a purchase price to the bride's father, which you say, what's that about?

Well, you know, he's gaining a daughter, her father's losing a daughter, and so there's this bride price to be negotiated.

And so upon payment of the purchase price and a written agreement and oath by the son, the couple was then engaged.

Any sexual conduct by the daughter with another person was considered adultery and it couldn't be broken for any other reason but through divorce.

And so the parties during this period were considered husband and wife even though they had not yet consummated the marriage.

At this time Mary was likely no more than 15 years old.

So continuing on, Verse 27, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, the virgin's name was Mary.

And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored 1, the Lord is with you.

Verse 29, but when she saw him she was troubled.

Another word or translation for that could be was reasoning, was deliberating, she was pondering how can this be and she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.

Then the angel said to her, verse 30, don't be afraid Mary, I like how he calls her by name, Mary don't be afraid, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end." And then Mary responds to this angel and says, how can this be?

And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

Therefore also that Holy 1 who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this now the sixth month of her who was called barren.

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Let It Be According to Your Word

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