Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] In the Gospels, we learn that a large crowd gathered to hear Jesus.
[00:00:10] And they were in a wilderness place.
[00:00:15] And at the end of the day, the disciples started putting pressure on Jesus to get rid of the people.
[00:00:24] They said, you got to get these people out of here. It's a wilderness place. And. And they haven't had anything to eat.
[00:00:33] And Jesus said to them, you feed them.
[00:00:40] And one of the disciples said, you can't be serious.
[00:00:46] If we bought.
[00:00:48] If we could find the bread, we don't. We don't have near enough money to feed 3,000, 5,000 people.
[00:01:00] And Jesus said to them, well, what do you have?
[00:01:05] And they said, well, this kid's mom packed him a lunch, and there's about five little biscuits in there and a couple of dried fish.
[00:01:21] Jesus said, give it to me.
[00:01:24] And he blessed the bread and he broke it and he fed the 5,000.
[00:01:31] Why is that story in the Gospel?
[00:01:34] The story is in the Gospel because Christ wants to do the same thing generation after generation after generation.
[00:01:44] There's hungry people in the world, and he wants them fed.
[00:01:48] And every Christmas he asks us to give him our lunch.
[00:01:54] Every Christmas he says, ah, I'd like you to partner with me in feeding the hungry this year.
[00:02:02] And you say, ah, I just don't. I just don't have much.
[00:02:08] Well, if everybody is willing to share what they have, God makes it into more than. Than it would be otherwise.
[00:02:17] So this is our Christmas offering. And it goes primarily to our food banks and the program we have to feed kids on the weekends.
[00:02:28] Part of it goes to the night to shine. So that once a year, some people who have very difficult lives can have a beautiful evening.
[00:02:39] And I'm asking you to be generous.
[00:02:41] I'm asking you to do exactly what Jesus asked that day. Give what you can give. And then let's see what God does with it. In feeding the hungry and helping those in need. This year, could I remind you, it's more blessed to give than to receive.
[00:03:03] I'd rather be the one giving the food than the one having to get in line and get it. Amen.
[00:03:10] So by the grace of God, you open your heart and you let. Let God have a little influence with you. And you give what you can give, and let's see what God does. Could we do that together?
[00:03:24] Our dear Heavenly Father, I pray that your spirit would help us to connect with what you meant when you sent messengers to say, glory to God in the highest on earth, peace and good will toward men.
[00:03:49] I pray that we could hear the praise of Christmas and that it would resonate in our hearts. In Christ's name. Amen.
[00:04:02] They weren't common shepherds and they weren't common sheep.
[00:04:09] Luke tells us that there were shepherds in the hills around Bethlehem keeping watch over their flocks at night.
[00:04:22] But we have to read history to find out who these shepherds were and and what the flocks were.
[00:04:29] Turns out the flocks were owned by the chief priest and they were prepared to sell in the temple as offerings.
[00:04:44] You know that they offered sheep every day in the temple. And people would go to the temple and they could buy a lamb or a sheep and they could offer it on the altar, and that's what these sheep were.
[00:04:57] And the shepherds were employed by the chief priest to make sure that there were always sheep ready to be sold and sacrificed in the temple.
[00:05:15] They knew the hills around Bethlehem very well. They had shepherded there for years.
[00:05:23] That night they did what they did most nights. They maneuvered the sheep into an area that made it easier to keep a watch over them at night.
[00:05:38] Then the shepherds divided the night up into four watches.
[00:05:44] The first watch was six in the afternoon till nine o'clock. The second watch was nine till midnight. The third watch was midnight till three. And the fourth watch was three till six in the morning.
[00:06:01] And they each took their watch.
[00:06:05] Everybody else slept and somebody kept the watch. And that's how it went night after night after night.
[00:06:14] Except on the first Christmas night, Luke told us in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.
[00:06:32] And an angel of the Lord appeared to them. And the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear.
[00:06:42] And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.
[00:06:54] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord.
[00:07:02] And this will be a sign for you. You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
[00:07:11] If you follow the Gospel narrative, this is the third time an angel showed up with a message from God.
[00:07:19] Do you remember the first time the angel Gabriel showed up and spoke to Zechariah and said, you and your wife Elizabeth are going to have a son, and your son will be the one who goes before Messiah.
[00:07:33] And then the angel Gabriel showed up to Mary and said, you're going to conceive and you're going to give birth to the Son of God.
[00:07:44] And now an angel shows up to speak to the shepherds.
[00:07:50] Isn't it interesting of all the people on the earth that God could have sent an angel to give a message, he chose shepherds.
[00:08:02] He didn't go to the temple and send a message to the chief priest.
[00:08:08] He didn't go to Herod's palace and send a message to King Herod.
[00:08:14] He didn't show up at the Roman garrison Fort Antonia in Jerusalem and give the message to the Roman tribune.
[00:08:23] He gave his world changing message to common, middle class, hardworking shepherds.
[00:08:33] Church.
[00:08:35] It has always been God's plan for good, hardworking, average people to be the people through whom God does incredible things in the world.
[00:08:51] The apostle tells us that God does not choose the slickest of the slick, the coolest of the cool.
[00:09:03] He chooses common people. And through common people he does uncommon things to make his purpose in the world be fulfilled.
[00:09:14] I wonder if you're willing to look in the mirror. I wonder if you're willing to whisper a prayer to God and say, if you're looking for a common person to be your partner in the good work you wanna do this year, I'd like to be on your team this year.
[00:09:38] I commonly say to God, if you need Mr. GQ, I'm sorry I missed that train.
[00:09:48] I commonly say to God, if you need the smartest kid on the block, that's not going to happen.
[00:09:58] But if you're looking for a 71 year old middle class guy, I'm your guy.
[00:10:07] It is God's great delight to find people like you and like me and say I can do more through this person than anyone would ever imagine and my name can be glorified through them.
[00:10:26] You don't have to be a king to be on God's team.
[00:10:33] And then the glory of the Lord shone around them.
[00:10:38] This is a image that comes from the Old Testament.
[00:10:45] In the Old Testament, the glory of the Lord was called the Shekinah.
[00:10:50] It was a shining radiance of God.
[00:10:54] And when people saw the Shekinah, they had a sense that God was present.
[00:11:01] But the Shekinah had not been seen. Not for years, not for decades, but but for centuries.
[00:11:11] The glory of the Lord had not been seen by anyone for centuries.
[00:11:18] And now in his own good time, the glory of the Lord appears again. And it appears to shepherds out on the hill country near Bethlehem.
[00:11:30] And God says, as I glorified myself in the Old Testament, I will glorify myself in the New Testament. And he shines his glory around them.
[00:11:44] I wonder, is there any place in your heart that's open for the glory of the Lord to shine in.
[00:11:54] I wonder if God wanted to shine his glory in your soul. Is there any place in you that's open and receptive, or do you have things worked out?
[00:12:07] Do you have everything in its nice little place?
[00:12:11] Do you have everything?
[00:12:14] I just. I got a good routine in my life and I don't like to have it messed up.
[00:12:23] When the glory of the Lord shines in our life, it's never business as usual again. The glory of the Lord changes things and it can be intimidating because the Luke tells us that the shepherds feared with a great fear. When the glory of the Lord shined around them, it was intimidating.
[00:12:55] Ah, wouldn't it be beautiful to be close enough to God to feel intimidated?
[00:13:04] Church Would it not be. Would it not be a beautiful experience to be close enough to the presence of God to feel really uncomfortable?
[00:13:19] Wouldn't it be nice to break through the distance, the safe distance we keep between ourself and God and to draw so near to God that our souls actually trembled in his presence?
[00:13:37] Can you hear me? Church?
[00:13:43] And God's first message to the shepherds is one we know very well.
[00:13:50] Do not be afraid.
[00:13:52] Here we are again. Church don't we encounter this again and again 66 times in the Bible? It says, do not be afraid.
[00:14:02] I don't know what you're facing, I don't know what you're looking at, I don't know what you're anticipating. I don't know the problems that you have to encounter. But I can tell you the message of Christmas begins with do not be afraid.
[00:14:22] The. The challenges of the new year.
[00:14:26] Maybe you have health challenges, maybe you have work challenges, maybe you have family challenges. Maybe you have heart, soul issues.
[00:14:37] Whatever the challenges of the new year are, the first message of Christmas is do not be afraid. God is greater than you think.
[00:14:49] And then he says, ah, My message is a message of good news.
[00:14:59] This is the word gets translated throughout the New Testament gospel.
[00:15:04] The message of Christmas is. Is the gospel who Jesus Christ is and what he came to do.
[00:15:13] And this gospel is supposed to have an effect upon us. And the effect is supposed to be when I really think of how good God is, when I really think of how much he loves me, how desperately he desires to bless me, the good plans that he has for me. When, when I really sense the good news of God, it fills me with joy.
[00:15:40] Joy displaces the fear. Ah, the presence of God can be intimidating. But the message of God is not intimidating. It is a message that inspires within each of us. A deep sense of well being. God really likes me.
[00:16:00] God loves me with the love I can't understand.
[00:16:03] God is rich in forgiveness and grace. And when I hear that message, and I hear it the way I'm supposed to hear it, that which is ugly in my soul is displaced. And I have a sense of the joy of the Lord.
[00:16:21] Some of you say, yeah, I believe that for other people. But you. You don't know what's going on inside of me.
[00:16:31] I believe that could be true for other people, but I don't know how that could be true for me. Listen, what the angel said. This is a. This is good news and it's for all people.
[00:16:44] I don't know where you are in your life. I don't know what mistakes you've made. I don't know what regrets you harbor. But I know none of those things disqualify you from the message of great joy. The message of the gospel, whatever haunts you in your inner self, the forgiveness and the grace of Jesus Christ is greater than that.
[00:17:14] And then the angel said, this message of great joy is connected to a baby.
[00:17:26] What kind of baby?
[00:17:28] He is the Savior, Christ the Lord.
[00:17:33] The baby that looks so insignificant.
[00:17:37] The baby that was born in a stable.
[00:17:40] The baby that was wrapped in blankets and laid in a stable, in a feeding trough in a stable. That baby's not who you think he is. That baby is the Savior, Christ the Lord.
[00:17:55] Can I remind you something about Christ Church? He does not need Las Vegas placards to announce himself.
[00:18:05] He doesn't need the bright lights, the spotlight doesn't have to always be on him. He doesn't parade himself. He doesn't pander to humanity.
[00:18:17] The richness of his character, the dignity of his soul is so great that he can present himself as the Savior and Lord in the form of a baby.
[00:18:30] He doesn't need an army. He doesn't need a press corps.
[00:18:37] He doesn't have to have the camera on his face. His greatness, his glory, his wonder. His majesty is self approving.
[00:18:50] And he can present himself to the world as a small child, a baby rolled up in blankets and laid in a manger.
[00:19:04] I wonder who is Christ to you.
[00:19:08] I wonder who is Christ to you.
[00:19:11] When you look at your Christmas cards and you see a manger scene, who is Christ to you?
[00:19:19] I wonder. When you look at your Christmas decorations that you have in your house, I wonder who Christ is to you.
[00:19:31] Shay and I have a manger scene that we bought some years ago and. And I look at the figures in that manger scene, and it's got a strange way of being lit and the whole thing kind of glows blue.
[00:19:47] And I look at all of that manger scene and I say to myself, christmas has to be more than a plastic Jesus, a plastic Joseph and Mary, a plastic wise man and a couple of plastic shepherds.
[00:20:10] It has to be more than that.
[00:20:14] Christmas has to be more than a little Christmas scene. We break out every year, set up, and in January we put it all back in a box and it sets there to next Christmas.
[00:20:28] Who is Jesus Christ to you?
[00:20:33] How compelling is he to you?
[00:20:36] What influence does he have in your life?
[00:20:40] Surely you can't be content with a plastic manger scene that you drag out once a year. Surely something in your heart aches or something richer, more true, more compelling, more authentic.
[00:21:02] He came to be your Savior and your Lord.
[00:21:06] And Christmas is a time for us to challenge ourself and say, am I living like Christ is my Savior? And am I living like Christ as my Lord?
[00:21:20] Or is my religion?
[00:21:23] The convenient decorations of Christmas that I pack away and break out and pack away and break out.
[00:21:35] And the angel said to the shepherds, this is a sign.
[00:21:44] You'll find the Savior, Christ, the Lord, wrapped up in blankets and laying in a manger.
[00:21:53] What an unusual sign.
[00:21:56] God said, I'm doing something special in the world. And this is how you know I'm doing something special. You'll find a baby wrapped up in blankets, laying in a manger.
[00:22:07] Ah, that sign won't make the evening news church.
[00:22:15] That sign won't make the headlines of the local paper, but it's not supposed to. It's supposed to be a quiet, personal sign.
[00:22:27] It's supposed to be God whispering to your heart and saying, when this baby came into the world, I changed everything.
[00:22:36] And if I can change the world through this baby, I can change you through this baby church.
[00:22:47] Are you open to an unusual sign this Christmas? If God wanted to prove himself to you, would you be open to an unusual sign?
[00:23:03] Or have you already made up your mind what it should look like? If God wants to prove himself to me, it should look like this and this and this and this church.
[00:23:13] I promise you it's not going to look like that.
[00:23:16] That's not how God does his most awesome work.
[00:23:25] The angel said, he's a savior, but you're going to see your savior in the form of a child wrapped up in blankets and laying in a manger.
[00:23:40] The angel said, he is the Christ, the anointed one of God, but you're going to see him as a baby, a drooling baby.
[00:23:52] The angel said, he is the Lord of all.
[00:23:56] But his throne is not a great throne on the top of a palace. His throne is a manger in a stable.
[00:24:09] Can you hear this?
[00:24:11] God wants to show you the wonder of who he is, but he doesn't do it. And it isn't packaged the way you expect it.
[00:24:21] What do you expect?
[00:24:24] What do you expect from Christ this Christmas?
[00:24:27] If Christ wanted to bless you, if Christ wanted to reveal himself to you, if Christ wanted to change your life, what would you expect?
[00:24:39] What would you demand?
[00:24:42] What would you be open to?
[00:24:45] Christ comes to us in rare and beautiful ways, but they're rarely what we expect.
[00:24:55] And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest on earth. Peace among those with whom he is pleased.
[00:25:09] Here's another shocking thing.
[00:25:12] All the angels you see on Christmas cards, they're wearing white uniforms. They got big white wings, they got long shiny hair.
[00:25:26] That's a cartoon church. That's not the angels in the Bible. In fact, the word that's used for the angels is it. It's an army.
[00:25:42] Suddenly, with the angel who had spoken, there was an army of angels.
[00:25:50] They're not wearing white uniforms, they're wearing. They're wearing chest protectors and they're wearing the uniform of the army of heaven.
[00:26:08] Maybe they're wearing navy white, I'm not sure. But even the angels shock me as not being packaged the way we would expect.
[00:26:21] This heavenly army shows up and they're chanting to the shepherds.
[00:26:29] It's soldiers chanting together.
[00:26:32] And this is what they chanted.
[00:26:40] Glory to God in the highest.
[00:26:43] Peace on earth among men of good will or peace on earth and goodwill among men.
[00:26:53] The message of Christmas asks us to raise our head above all that is temporary in this world.
[00:27:04] And it asks us to get a glimpse of the most beautiful thing, the glory of the Lord.
[00:27:12] God is altogether glorious.
[00:27:16] God is altogether beautiful. He's altogether wonderful. There's no flaw in Him.
[00:27:23] There's nothing about him that doesn't draw the human soul.
[00:27:29] And the, and the, and the angels who lived in his presence. The army of angels that lived in his presence, they stood out that night on the Bethlehem hills and they said to all of humanity, glory to God in the highest.
[00:27:49] I wonder if you have a glory to God in the highest in you this year.
[00:27:54] I wonder, as you think about Christmas, has it passed through your mind to say glory to God in the highest, or have you been more worried about, well, I gotta get this present and I gotta get that present, and we gotta get the house ready because these people are coming over and I hope this. Okay, we make Christmas something it was never meant to be, and then we lose what it was meant to be. Something about Christmas was supposed to make the human soul say, glory to God in the highest. God is truly awesome and beautiful and wonderful.
[00:28:37] But it's not just glory to God in the highest. It's also peace on earth.
[00:28:44] When I look around at humanity, when I look around at the world and the shape we're in, I lament.
[00:28:59] I lament that we are so incapable of peace.
[00:29:07] I don't. I have no memory in my whole life of there being a Christmas where there wasn't conflict somewhere in the world.
[00:29:16] I have no memory.
[00:29:19] In fact, I can look at the phases of my life and say, when I was in elementary school, it was Korea.
[00:29:28] When I was in high school, it was Vietnam.
[00:29:32] After Vietnam, it was the Middle East.
[00:29:39] We are fundamentally incapable of peace. I'm not even talking about international peace. What about just peace at home?
[00:29:53] Every Christmas, we have the Washington trauma. What trauma are they going to produce this Christmas? Well, maybe we can shut down the government just to keep everybody unhappy at Christmas time, okay? It's always something church.
[00:30:09] And it's not just international, it's not just national. In our own families, we find ways to make it hard and unpleasant with each other. And God said Christmas is supposed to be very different than that. It's supposed to be glory to God in the highest and peace on earth church.
[00:30:32] And that peace on earth is connected with good will toward men.
[00:30:39] I might translate this. Instead of goodwill, good thoughts toward men, there will be more peace on earth when there are more good thoughts toward each other.
[00:30:52] We lose peace on earth because of the way we think about each other.
[00:30:59] When there is more good thoughts in your heart toward others, there'll be more peace in your life with others.
[00:31:09] The Roman Stoic wrote, while the emperor may give you peace from war on land and sea, he's unable to give peace from passion, grief and envy.
[00:31:27] He cannot give peace of heart for which mankind yearns.
[00:31:34] The source of peace on earth can never be separated from glory to God in the highest. There is one source of peace, and that is the prince of peace, our Lord Jesus Christ himself.
[00:31:51] Are you seeking peace this Christmas?
[00:31:54] Is it something that you would like?
[00:31:57] Do you have it on your list?
[00:31:59] Dear Father, this year I would like to have more inner peace than I've ever had.
[00:32:06] Dear Father, this year I would like to share more peace with my family than I've ever shared.
[00:32:14] Dear God, I would like to be a peacemaker in the place I work this year.
[00:32:21] Are you seeking the peace that God promises us in Christmas?
[00:32:28] When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us. And they went and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger.
[00:32:47] They had to change their plans for the night. Remember, they had planned on a relatively peaceful night. We've got these sheep. They're all bedded down. We all have our watch. We'll all take our watch.
[00:32:59] We have a pretty easy night ahead of us.
[00:33:04] Ah, but then came the Christmas message, and they had to change their plans.
[00:33:11] They had to change and get up from their camp and their warm fire, and they had to make their way into Bethlehem.
[00:33:19] They had to find where the baby was.
[00:33:23] We read over the Bible and we miss all these nuances. All right? It's probably midnight, and the town is full of people for the text and the registration. Remember last week and the town is packed full, and now you got a half a dozen shepherds. They're tramping through the town and calling out, was there a baby born here tonight?
[00:33:52] They're. They're knocking on doors and saying, hey, do you know anything about a baby being born?
[00:34:00] Wouldn't be very comfortable doing that, would you?
[00:34:03] But they were compelled. They changed their plan. They did what was uncomfortable because God had called them to see something beautiful and unique.
[00:34:16] I wonder if you're open to God changing your Christmas plans.
[00:34:24] Wonder if it'd be worth it to you to seek Christ with the same diligence that those shepherds sought him that night.
[00:34:36] And they came and they found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.
[00:34:45] Seeking Christ became more important than watching sheep.
[00:34:51] I wonder what you're doing that is not as important as seeking Christ.
[00:34:57] I wonder what you're filling your time up with.
[00:35:00] I wonder what you're giving your energy to.
[00:35:03] I wonder what you're focusing on that isn't nearly as important as seeking Christ.
[00:35:12] And then Luke ended it by saying, and when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning the child.
[00:35:23] And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
[00:35:33] And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told Them.
[00:35:43] The first proclaimers of Christ were the shepherds.
[00:35:49] Before Peter ever preached one sermon, the shepherds had told people about the Savior who was born in Bethlehem.
[00:36:01] Before John the Baptist baptized anybody, the shepherds had told other people that God was doing something new and beautiful and. And a savior had been born in Bethlehem.
[00:36:21] When was the last time you talked to anybody about the wonder and the majesty of Jesus Christ?
[00:36:32] Can you remember the last time you spoke to someone and said, I've been thinking about Christ?
[00:36:43] Can you remember the last time you said to someone, I was reading in the Gospels and I read this story about Christ and how he healed a man who had been born blind.
[00:37:01] The shepherds felt compelled to tell other people what they knew about Jesus Christ.
[00:37:10] Is there anything about Christ that is so compelling to you that you find you want to talk to him about him to someone else?
[00:37:20] Church?
[00:37:23] I mean, it doesn't have to be hard. You can start easy.
[00:37:29] Talk to somebody in your family about Jesus Christ.
[00:37:34] Ah, ah. Talk to a friend about Jesus Christ.
[00:37:41] Christmas is supposed to be talked about.
[00:37:45] I know you're going to talk about Christmas. You're gonna talk about how hard it was to get this present and are you gonna talk about the food was good or.
[00:38:01] I know you're going to talk about many, many things.
[00:38:05] But at the core of Christmas are not all these peripheral things that we, we find it so easy to talk about. At the core of Christmas is God became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. Glory as the only begotten of God, full of grace and truth.
[00:38:29] Who did they tell?
[00:38:34] Very interesting.
[00:38:36] The story right after this story in Luke's Gospel is Jesus is taken to the temple for the dedication. Every firstborn son in Israel, a sacrifice had to be made to redeem that son. The every firstborn son belonged to God. And for the family, they redeemed him by making a sacrifice in the temple.
[00:39:04] When Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple for that sacrifice, they were met by two remarkable people.
[00:39:13] One man's name was Simeon and the other and the lady's name was Anna.
[00:39:18] How did they know to go up to the temple?
[00:39:22] Is it possible that they had talked to the shepherds?
[00:39:27] And the shepherd said, angels showed up and talked to us and we went to Bethlehem and we found it exactly the way he said. They said, is it possible that the shepherds shared the message with the prophet and the prophetess, Simeon and Anna, and they had a chance to meet Christ also because the shepherds had told the story?
[00:39:55] I wonder who's out there that you might share the story of Christ with and Christ might do something significant in their life.
[00:40:06] I wonder who needs to hear from you the wonder of Jesus Christ. So something can be triggered in them and they can be drawn to him also.
[00:40:26] And then we have Mary, the model of Christianity.
[00:40:31] Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. Have I told you on many occasions Christianity is a thinking religion?
[00:40:40] Mary listened to everything that the shepherd said. She considered everything that had happened, and she thought about it in her heart.
[00:40:52] For Mary, Christmas included meditating on who God is and what he's doing.
[00:41:01] Could I ask you again this Christmas? Would you create some quiet time and sit in the presence of God and meditate on who is God to you?
[00:41:14] What does he mean to you?
[00:41:17] Who is Christ to you? What does he mean to you?
[00:41:21] What place does Christ have in your daily life?
[00:41:25] Take some quiet time and do exactly what Mary did on that first Christmas. She quieted herself in an absolutely hectic world and she thought about what God was doing and what God was saying.
[00:41:44] And then verse 20 says, the shepherds had to go back to their normal life.
[00:41:49] And the shepherds returned.
[00:41:52] Christmas will be over soon and we'll all go back to our normal life.
[00:41:58] New Year's Day will pass. We'll all have to go back to work.
[00:42:03] We'll all be busy again, and Christmas goes in the books.
[00:42:11] And we face another year of challenges.
[00:42:15] Church, we have to return to the normal rhythms of life, but we don't have to be the same people when we return to them.
[00:42:25] Church, you gotta go back to work.
[00:42:29] Those paychecks come in real handy, don't they?
[00:42:32] You gotta go back to work. But you don't have to be the same person when you go back to work.
[00:42:39] Can you hear me, Church? Christmas can make you a different person, or you can race through Christmas and miss the richness and the meaning of it and be right back at work like nothing ever happened.
[00:42:59] The shepherds were different when they went back to work. They were glorifying and praising God.
[00:43:09] If Christmas has its proper effect on us, when we go back to work, we're going to go back to work with a different quality of soul.
[00:43:17] We're going to work for a different reason. We're going to have higher motives and something of the glory of God is going to matter to us in our daily life.
[00:43:27] Our dear Heavenly Father, thank you for Luke and thank you for these. This. This beautiful history he shared with us.
[00:43:39] I pray that something of the truth of this would wash over our souls.
[00:43:46] I pray for myself and for everyone who's here this morning.
[00:43:50] I pray for whatever it is that draws us away from you, that your spirit might draw us more powerfully.
[00:43:59] And even in this moment, we might find in ourselves a new longing for Christ.
[00:44:05] A new hope in Christ, a freshness of faith, hope and love.
[00:44:14] I pray that Christmas would not pass us by without enriching us and changing us in some meaningful ways.
[00:44:22] And I pray that the same glory of the Lord that affected the shepherds could affect us. In Christ's name, amen.
