Tonight we've taken as our theme for our Christmas worship, this idea, this concept of the ancient future king.

Now ancient future seems like it's pretty juxtaposed like an oxymoron.

You know, an oxymoron is where two things are standing together that don't seem like they should be there.

Like tiny elephant, jumbo shrimp, Microsoft works.

It's an oxymoron.

But when we talk about Jesus, we cannot help but to use those two words, ancient and future.

Because that is exactly how the prophet Micah described his coming and who he would be.

We already read it once, but look at it once more.

This is 700 years. Think about that before Jesus was born.

And all that time past, he looked into the future and through the Holy Spirit, Micah wrote,

but you, Bethlehem and Fratha, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me,

the one to be ruler in Israel.

Who is this ruler? The one who's going forth are from of old, from everlasting.

He says that this king has a lot in his future and we'll get to that in a minute.

But we have to start by recognizing that when Mary and Joseph laid baby Jesus into the manger,

that Christmas day, 2000 years ago, that that baby had some serious history.

That baby had a serious backstory.

There's a lot of questions we ask kids, but we don't often ask them, what were you doing 10 in 15 in 20 years before you were born?

We don't often, right? Like, hey, what were you doing 100 years ago?

It's generally speaking not like a thing.

You and I don't have a lot of history prior to our birth, but this baby, this Christmas baby, the reason all around the world,

there are people even at this moment doing what we're doing, acknowledging, honoring, giving our adoration to Jesus, acknowledging him as the king.

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