Atlanta Bible Baptist Church

Guest (Male): Good morning. Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter two. We'll be reading from verse 8 to 17. That's Luke chapter two, verses 8 through 17. And it reads, now there were in the same country shepherds, living out in the fields, keeping their watch over the flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were greatly afraid.

Then an angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day, in the city of David, a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. For you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in the manger. And suddenly, there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill toward men.'"

So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that was come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us." And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger. Now, when they had seen him, they made widely known the same which was told them concerning the child. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and the hearing of his word.

Host (Male): I invite you to take your copy of the scriptures. Turn with me to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2 and we will look at this second snippet in our series. Our Christmas series this year. We're only going to cover Luke chapter 2 and last week we covered 1 through 7. Today we'll do 8 through 20 and next week 21 through 33. But as the text was already read, I'm going to pray and then we'll start.

Father, thank you so much again for this day. Thank you for sending your son, the all-lovely one. And of course, we celebrate his arrival, his coming, invading our planet as it were, because we were so needy, so trafficked by sin and Satan, shackled, bound up under judgment. Christ, you, you didn't leave us, though we deserved the fate. You cared enough to make a difference. Thank you for coming. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are the gift of Christmas. We celebrate you.

Speak to our hearts for the next few minutes as we think about the response of the shepherds. And of course, as your spirit drives your word into our hearts, the applications as he, as he knows each heart needs. Bind the evil one that your word may have free course and that he will have no part in anything that takes place. Father, we will be careful to give you the praise and the honor and the thanksgiving. We ask all of these things in Jesus's name and for his sake.

Well, this morning I want us to think about this particular passage and every year I find something that I think of as of interest and I was surprised to find, though not entirely surprised, to find out that Santa Claus, Santa Claus, yes, finally moved into the 21st century and Santa Claus, you know, he has email now. And you can email Santa at emailsanta.com.

And there have been children who have done that. They get over a million a year. And some of them have been somewhat novel. And so I pulled out six of the emails that were sent to him. First, there was this one from John. It says, "I'm sorry but I don't have a chimney. But I'll leave the cat flap unlocked for you. But please watch out for the litter box." I mean, you know. Santa doesn't need to make a mess.

Alex, who is eight says, "Thank you for the remote control car last year, even though it broke the day after." Apparently, Santa shops at the dollar store. He said, "I know you tried and that's what counts." That's that's pretty cool. Very thoughtful kid. Good parenting. Art says, "Uh, I'm I'm sorry for putting all that X-Lax in your milk last year. But I wanted to be sure if you were real." And then he asked, "For some reason, my dad was really mad." I just. I couldn't put two and two together, apparently.

Then there was this kid Christian, he says, "Mommy and daddy say I have not been very good these past few days. Now, now, how bad can I be before I lose my presents? I mean, how close can I get to the flame before it catches my clothes?" I just want to know. Some of us live our lives like that but we that's a digression.

Kayla says, "Please, please, please. Don't bring me any new clothes." You can't play with clothes unless they're doll clothes, right? She says, "I need some toys, man. Come on, Santa. You know, get with it." While I love Ann the best, which is why I saved her for last. She said, "Do you know that Jesus is the real reason of Christmas? I mean, not to be mean, but he is. You know, just Santa, just so you know, you know, it's not about you. It's it's about him." And I like that. And that reminds me that I need to push this button. So that I'll know when my 30 minutes are up. Amen.

Well, we've been going through this section talking about the arrival of the Lord. Last week we talked about God's coming being so inconvenient for Mary and for Joseph. And we looked at these points, what God has planned often seems inconvenient. But it shows that he has full control. He's worked everything out. And that knowledge should cause me to trust him fully and comply with his will for my life without complaining. And then to make the choice to to have joy.

This morning I want us to look at verses 8 through 20 and think about Christmas as an unexpected intrusion, an unexpected intrusion. That's exactly what we see as we look into this particular passage. Verse 8. It says, "Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night and behold an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, they were greatly afraid and the angel says, don't be afraid. Because I'm bringing you good news."

When God announced his plan to the shepherd, I'm going to give you how many points, Albert? Three points. Amen. Amen. The first point, when God announced his plan to shepherds, you know what, they were outside. And I put the word available. I said, "Well, yeah, they were outside. What's the big deal?" Well, that is kind of a big deal. And I'll tell you why. Let me give you three thoughts on that first thought.

Number one, they were outside. They would it was doing the right season. Now, I you know, not to make any kind of political statement or anything. But you know, the fact that they will keep being watched over their flock by night tells me that they they had the sheep out, which means it wasn't wintertime. You know, they they keep the sheep out at night in the spring and summer and early fall. So, that tells us that again, you know, Christmas, Jesus wasn't born in December. But that's that's okay. I know we sing that song, the first Noel. I I get it, you know. You know, I didn't bite my tongue when we got to that part about the cold winter's night, but that's okay. But just so we get to know that it's right.

They're outside, it's doing the right season. But you know, they were they were in the right place. They were where they were supposed to be. They were doing their job. They were busy being about their business. And then this third thing, I said, they had a fat chance. Fat chance. And of course, I don't mean that in a derogatory sense. But you know the acronym fat stands for okay, it stands for faithful and available, which is why I put that word up there in red, and then teachable.

They were the, they were right out there where they should have been, you know, and I I put that because I just want to make this very simple statement. You know, some some people, you know, they they don't find the blessing of God. Or they don't find the God is doing anything marvelous and intervening in their lives because, you know, they aren't where they should be. They aren't doing what they should be doing. And they find it that God is nowhere around because listen, you're not in the right place and you're not about the right business. And but you expect God to somehow show up and make a difference in your life. And when it doesn't happen, you may not stop to say, "Well, why isn't God doing anything in my life?" Well, it may be because these three things are are not true.

The shepherds, they were positioned to receive the message simply because they were where they should have been. And so God spoke to their hearts. I like John Maxwell in his book on attitude. He says, "You know, the wrong decision at the wrong time, well, that equals disaster. Wrong decision at the right time, that means you made a mistake because the timing isn't right. The right decision at the wrong time isn't accepted. But the right decision at the right time, that brings success." You know, I used to talk to college students when I was working in the secular realm. And I would say to them, "Listen, success follows a formula. And success is what happens when desire plus preparation meets opportunity. And if either one of those three is missing, there's no success."

If if there's no desire on your part to to do or be that what you should do or be, well, you won't. Of course. But if desire is there and opportunity is there, but you haven't prepared yourself for it, it's not going to happen. So preparation is very important. But then desire and preparation has to run into an opportunity. And when the three come together and see God is the one who arranges the circumstances so that all three can take place. And then you will find God's success.

These men, they were out there where they should have been, doing what they should have been doing. And you know what, God stepped in and gave them this most wonderful, wonderful message. The second thing, we see find in verses 9 through 14. And I put the the salient part there, "For there was born to you this day in the city of David, a savior." Who is Christ Messiah the Lord. And of course, it wouldn't be me if there weren't a few sub-points. You know, when I was teaching the the, well, actually, Dwight Stroser was teaching the class, but I was sitting in and overseeing the class and my wife's nephew Tony was he was always talking about the fact that, "Yeah, Ray has three points, but then each of his three points has three points." And then, you know, this was you know, good thing he's not here today. No, I'm just kidding. He's he's home recovering. So, praise the Lord for that.

Well, why? Why is it important that they were outcasts? Well, just a couple of things. You know, people didn't really care much for shepherds. In fact, they didn't trust him at all. Do you know that if there was testimony to be given in a court of law, the testimony of shepherds was not considered reliable? Nobody wanted their daughter to come home and say, "I met Joseph." You know, he's a shepherd. You know. They they just they were just kind of sorted people. People thought they were spiritual because, you know, shepherds, they they, well, you know, they they kept sheep. And they spent all the time with the sheep.

And sometimes people would come in and say, "That smells kind of men." And then they would see a shepherd. Okay. Cuz the shepherd smelled like sheep. And you know, sheep, they they don't take baths. Shepherds they were with sheep out there in the fields and then there was no bathtubs out there either. And so the shepherds, they they could be a a little ripe. As they say and people didn't like that. And you know, shepherds because they were gone for long periods of time, taking the sheep, feeding the sheep, watching over the sheep. You know, they weren't always there at the temple.

In fact, they could go a long time and not be in the temple. You know, it's just like sometimes, you know, you keep attendance and then you see some names. You you know, we we check the boxes off when you come, you know. And then you see a name and you see a bunch of blank spaces. You say, "Well, so-and-so hasn't been there in a minute, you know." And you know, that's what that's shepherds were like that. Shepherds, they didn't show up much, so people thought they're not that spiritual. They don't really care about the things of God. That wasn't true. It's just a job it called them away. They were faithful to the task, but there were consequences that went along with the task.

People tended to look down on shepherds. They were treated like the dregs of the earth. And I I find that important interesting and important because of all the people that the message came to. It came to the people who are outcast. It came to the people who are not considered worthy of their time or their attention. They were they were out there and despised people.

There was an unknown Christmas card, it says, "If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. Or or Joshua maybe an engineer. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us a financial planner. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, you know, God sent us, he sent us a savior. He sent us exactly what we needed. And these these men, they were very needy, but they were the very ones because of the way they had been mistreated and perhaps thinking that that they weren't worthy of God's love and favor. How welcoming it would have been for them to receive the message that, "To you this day is born in the city of David, a savior, Messiah, Lord." What a wonderful message.

You know, I saw this Peanuts cartoon and I I had to put it up there because that's what I do. Charlie Brown and Suzy are having this conversation. Suzy's out there in the outfield. Lucy, I said Suzy, I don't know who Suzy is. But Lucy's out there and she she missed the ball. Nothing new, she always misses the ball. But then she says, "Sorry, I missed that easy fly ball, manager." She says, "I thought I had it." But suddenly, I remembered all the others I missed. And then she says, "The past got in my eyes." You know, the past got in her eyes. And so she missed it. She she's thinking about all the time she she didn't get it right.

And you know, you know, when I was a teenager, a long time ago, you know. I mean a very long time ago. Back in the '70s. All right. When I was a teenager and you know, I was playing playing baseball in the city league. And I was playing center field. And we had a pretty good team, actually. In fact, it was us and this other team that we were playing that were tied for first place.

And the coach, he told us, "Okay, when this guy comes up, this guy, he's going to put it out there. He's he's going to put it goes in it all your way. So, I want you to back up and I want you to play just inside the fence, you know, be ready for him." And um, so I was. In fact, you know, usually, as soon as someone would swing, you know, I would I would start moving because I want to anticipate where the ball was going. And so he swung and he hit it out my way and I'm running. And I looked up and the sun was right in my eyes. I couldn't see a thing.

And so I I just kind of pulled up and then I saw a shadow. I reached for it. It hit the heel of my glove and it bounced away. And of course, two runs scored. There were two outs, but two runs scored. We lost by a run. And I remember we were coming in at first, they were saying, "Yeah, it's all right, it's all right." And then we lost, my friend Jeeber, that that's what we called him. I don't even know his real name is. In the hood, everybody has nicknames. Nobody has a real name. His nickname is Jeeber. And Jeeber says, we were going to get on the bus. "Ray calls us to lose the game."

You know, whenever you replay something in your mind and you're emotionally invested in it, all of the old the emotions they all come back. I was I was, you know, I was I was, all the feelings came. And even now, I got a press in the back of my head. But you know, I mean, I I I held my head. I already felt bad because I missed the ball. I didn't feel it was my fault, but I still missed the ball. I felt bad that we lost, and I felt really bad that the team blamed me for the loss. Because when Jeeber said that, "Well, yeah, he did." You know, and I had to ride back with them, you know.

And so, you know, the the thing is, I I mentioned that because, you know, that's that's what sin is like. You know, sin just kind of all those past sins that they they press in on you. They crop up, Satan makes sure you remember them. He brings them all back and he just snaps you around with all the failures, all the times you missed it, all the times you didn't do what you were supposed to do, and it crushes you and you can feel despair. That's how it was. And then I read the scriptures and I read about Jesus. And Jesus, he came and, you know what, he he died for all of that stuff that I did. He died for all the failures. He died for all the times I didn't get it right. He he covered all of my failures, all of my foolishness, all of my faux pas and all the other Fs that I made, he paid the price for all of them and he took it all away with his blood. He wiped the slate clean.

And instead of me beating myself up with guilt, I have peace. Peace with God. Peace with people. You know, I can forgive Jeeber for being stupid. I for the things that he said about me and other people as well. You know, I can I can walk in freedom and liberty because Jesus set me free. And that's that's what these shepherds were experiencing. It's really alive. This message and and not only did the angel tell them that, but after he told them, the heavenly crowd broke out. And they were all saying, didn't say they were singing.

It says they were saying, "Glory to God in the highest and and on earth, what? Peace. Peace. Goodwill toward men." God's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. As I said last week, the thing that made the difference was when Warner Mathers said, "Jesus, I mean, he says, Ray," he said, "Jesus came for you." You know, he he came, he died for everybody. He died for you. I'm like, "Oh." That made all the difference in the world. He said, "You need to give your life to him." And I said, "Okay." I'm glad to. And I did. Now I have peace with God.

God knew that these men had genuine faith to believe. He knew that they had genuine faith. And that's why, that's why he had the angel appear to them and tell them, "Listen, you're you're feeling on the outside right now." But you know, Christ came so that you could be ushered into the inside. And to the very presence of the God who created you on purpose with a purpose to accomplish his purpose. And that's what he wants. He wants you to know him. He wants you to link up with him. He wants you to believe him. He wants you to trust him. He wants you to submit to him and follow him. For your benefit.

You know, nothing is added to God by my obedience. Everything is added to me because of it. That's why God rewards obedience. They had genuine faith. I put down in my notes, you know, outcasts are sensitive to both their needs and the needs of others. Jesus, he talked about that when he gave the story of the Good Samaritan, chapter 17, right? Of all the people, when the man got beat up and thrown into a ditch, or on the side, anyway. Beaten up and robbed, then when the only people came by, the the priest and and the Levite, they saw him and they went by on the other side. But a Samaritan, someone despised by all the Jews, but he saw the man, he stopped. And he took him in, he cared for him, he nursed him. And he when he took him to the inn, he said, "Take care of this guy. And if he, if he, if the if the the cost goes over, he said, "Listen, I'll pick up the tab when I come back." He had compassion. He he cared. See?

Genuine faith is is like that. You know, it changes it changes us. Well, the third thing. See, the final thing, the final thing, Albert, the third thing, when God announced his plan to the shepherds, he said, "They were outgoing." They were outgoing. Why do I say they were outgoing? Because they were, well, four things under these three things, under this third thing. Okay. Number one, they made a decision. I like that. They said, they said, "Okay, now, boy, this is kind of exciting what the shepherd, I mean, what the angel said, right? And all those other angels, seeing the Amen." You know, one of these days, we should, we should go check that out. You know, as soon as our shift is over, right? They didn't say any of that.

They said, "Let us," see I wrote down the line. "Now go and see." You know, I like in in John chapter 1, when John the Baptist, he points to Jesus, he says, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." And the two disciples who were with John, they heard him and they followed Jesus and Jesus says, "What are you looking for?" They said, "Rabbi, we want to know where you're staying." You know he said, he said, "Come and see." Come and see. "Come, check it out." He said, "Listen, we we need to go and we need to see this thing. Right now."

You know, sometimes, sometimes we mentioned this last week, didn't we? How that everybody's favorite word or Satan's favorite word is mañana, right? Tomorrow, right? It says, "You know, you don't you don't do it now? Just just do it tomorrow. Or do it later." You know, we had something happen with an appliance in our home. And I had to get a replacement. And so my wife says, "Are you going to are you going to do that tonight?" Like, "Well," She says, "You know, if you don't feel like doing it." You know, that's that's her way of saying, you better do it now. "If you don't feel like doing it, you don't have to." You know, shame, shame. I'm like, "Okay, all right, let me go change clothes and get out here and fix this thing." But she knows. She says, I mean, she knows for some reason that if I put it off, it it might be a minute. So, she said, "You need you need to go and knock that out right now." So, even though it was late, it had been a long day. I was dog-tired. I was hungry. But no, not really. But she said, you know, I'm like, all right, let me go do it.

So I, you know, went on and and got it done. You know, praise the Lord. Satan traffics in in you putting it off. Some of you, you you say to yourself for a minute now, "You know, I know I I need to I need to give my life to Jesus. I know. I know." "I'm not ready yet." I'm not ready yet. You know, you know, my brother who's closest to me, he's three years older than me, but he's the closest of the three brothers that I have. Um, I was talking to him years ago, probably he got I got home from the military. This was in the '70s too. He says, "Uh, well, you know, I shared the gospel with him and and he he said, "Well," he said, "I'm not ready to do that yet. I got some other things I I I need to do."

I I said, "Wesley, what is one thing you have in your life that's working out for?" One of them? Anything in your life? He says, "No, not really." I said, "Okay," he said, "Then why won't you give your life to Jesus?" He said, "Well, the truth of the matter is I'm not ready to give up my sin." I mean, he was honest about it. He counted the cost. I mean, eventually he did it years later, but it was just one of those things. Some of us, we've been we've been putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. And Satan keeps giving us excuses. "Well, you know, I mean, you got stuff coming up. You know, you got an exam coming up, or you got this promotion coming up, or you got this decision you got to make, or you got this financial condition, you need to get settled." And all these things, something always crawls into the picture. And I say, "Well, I'm I'm going to yeah, let me take care of this."

You put it off. Why? Because the enemy of your soul knows that each day that you put it off, it gets a little bit easier the next day and the next day and the next day. It's like when the spirit of God convicts your heart about anything, and you don't respond to him right then, the next time it comes, the the conviction is not as strong. And the next time it's it's not as strong. And it gets more faint and more faint until eventually, he speaks and you don't hear him at all. You've hardened your heart to it. And that hardness, it doesn't come right away. It comes gradually. But it does come. And he he knows that it comes.

I mean, if I wanted to illustrate that, I would just say, "How many of you ever needed to to exercise to lose weight?" And I would be the end of it, right? Because you say, "Well, yeah, I need to." And you know, you may get all the information and all that stuff and let me move on. I'm going to I'm going to leave that alone because I need to lose weight too. Verse 16, it says, they they were determined. They were determined. And I I like that because it's it says they they got up, they left the sheep and it says they came with haste and and then it says they they found Mary and Joseph.

Now, that's a simple word, but don't miss that. Because what that means is that when they came down to the city, I mean, you know, it's more than one house in Bethlehem. And the angel didn't say, "Third house on the left." He said, "You're finding the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, strips of clothing, lying in the manger." So, where are we going to go? So, you know, you. "Hi, um, you know, we were up there with the sheep and uh, you know, an angel came and said that there was a baby born. You wouldn't happen to have a newborn babe which that you just wrapped in some swaddling clothes." "No." "Okay, sorry, wrong house." Right? You know, they had to keep going until they found him.

Now, what if they said, "You know what? I mean, we've already been to three houses, man, I'm tired. I'll try this again tomorrow." They never would have found him. But they said, "Listen, this this is too good to put off." They mean, make the decision right now. "Let us make the decision. We're going to find them." And they kept looking until they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger.

Some of us, we've been ganged up by the evil one. Because, you know, something says it's too hard. It's just too hard. I'm you know, I'm not going to go through all of that. I was uh, talking to uh, well, this is uh, buddy, this is this is Brittany, this is uh, his uh, daughter, his um, Peggy's daughter. And we were talking about, you know, she's in her first year at pharmacy school. And you know, I've been praying for her and I sent her a text. She was having her finals and I texted her and said, "You know, this is I'm praying for you. I know, you know, your place is busy and you got a lot on your mind. You're worried about it, but I'm praying for you. That God will give you peace and give you victory." So she called me and she said, "Pastor Ray," she said, "I just called you, let you know I passed all my tests and thank you for praying for me." You know, thank you.

And you know, the I mean, it's not easy. And I told her this, I said, "You know, when I was in school, this was way back in the day, but you know, my um, counselor told me, he said, "Listen, the first year of pharmacy school is the hardest. Because they use those hard courses to weed out the pretenders." I said, "Listen, you really know more than you think you know. And over time, it's going to come out. This is going to get easier and easier for you because you didn't give up."

And I know that for some of us, you know, we just say, "Well, I I didn't want to go through all of this." And so we give up. We're not like the little engine that could. I don't think I can, I don't think. Oh, that's not what he says, is it? I think I can. Okay. Number three, let us see, uh they made declarations. They made declarations. Look at verses 17 and and 18 here. It says, "Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the things which were told concerning this child." They just they just kept telling everybody that they went to you, "I'm not believe what happened while we were up there with the sheep." They kept telling the story over and over, they never got tired of telling it.

You know, back in the day, when we used to meet on Wednesday nights in person for prayer meeting, and, you know, I'm rolling that over and I think, you know, we're going to get back to that. We're making a lot of changes, right? But anyway, um, one of the things that I enjoyed most about prayer meeting was testimony time. And I remember this one time, Alice Robinson stood up. And Alice said, "I went to the gas station to fill up my car." And she said, "I was going to put five dollars in." And so I was waiting for the thing to get to five dollars and to shut off. And she said, "It it it wouldn't shut off."

Because what she found out later was that the lever inside was broken. And so she filled the car for five dollars. And so she gave her testimony. And everybody was like, "Where's that gas station?" You know, "What street was it?" She told everybody about that story. Some some things are just too good to keep to yourself, right? And of course, salvation's like that. When this thing occurred to them, they told everybody about it. And it just just makes common sense that if you're excited about what God has done for you, if you're excited about what God has sent to you, if you're excited about what God has rescued you from, you can't keep it to yourself.

Psalm 107:2 says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." Say it. Tell it. Because there's somebody always listening. Then finally, their lives were different. Look at verse 20. It says, "The shepherds returned glorifying God, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and that they had seen." Listen, they weren't the same guys. You know, now I I don't know what they were doing out there before the angel showed up. You know, maybe they were out there, Albert, and the um, you know, guys sit around and bored and watching the sheep and and one guy starts saying, "You know, I know you want to leave me. But I refuse to let you go."

You know, and then they then by the time they got to the Christ, all the guys are too proud to beg. They out there and then the angel shows up. And now, they're not singing about the temptations no more. They're singing about what God has done. They're giving him praise. They're lifting up their voices to him for what he's done. It changed. Listen, God God changed me. He he sent me free. I used to be bound to sin and I was afraid. I was afraid to even, well, I wasn't really afraid to come to church. I mean, I did come twice a year. Easter, Christmas, you know. And the building never caved in when I went.

But you know, the other times, you know, the thought of talking about God, thinking about God, I was tortured because I didn't know him. But I knew enough to know that I was not on good terms with him because I remembered all those things I had done. Oh, but when I heard that Jesus died for me, when I heard that that he came for me, every Christmas after that, I thought about the baby in the manger grew up to be my savior. And that makes all the difference in the world. And I can't stop talking about it.

Well, we're at the bottom of the hours. I'm going to stop. One of the stories that I I read pretty much every Christmas because I love this little story. I'll end with this. Um, Stan Cobb told a story about a missionary team that had been invited to Russia to teach Christianity. It was Christmas time and as they taught the story of Christ's birth at an orphanage, everyone listened in amazement. None of the kids or the staff had ever heard it before. While the missionaries wrote this.

He said, "We gave the children some material and instructed them to create the manger scene that they had just heard about. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat. He looked to be about six years old and he had finished his project. As I looked at the little boy's manger, I was startled to see not one but two babies in the manger. I called for a translator to ask why." Looking at his completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story accurately, until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.

Then Misha started to ad lib his own ending to the story. He said, "And and when Mary laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay." I told him, "I got no mama and no papa, so I don't have any place to stay." Then Jesus told me, "I could stay with him." I climbed into the manger and then Jesus looked at me and he told me, "I could stay with him forever." That little boy like my eyes watering up. Began to sob. He began to cry at the thought that he would someone who came for him, who loved him, and who says, "You can stay with me forever." That's the Christmas story.

God taking on flesh coming for you that you might spend eternity with him. Father, thank you again for this day. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your mercies. Thank you for the Christmas message, a simple message. But oh, Father, so profound. Like the shepherds, we were just out and about. Weighed down, outcast. In fact, Paul says in Ephesians that we have made ourselves the enemies of God. We were under your just, righteous judgment. If we had closed our eyes in death, we would have awakened under the punishment, the deserved punishment for our sin.

But Lord Jesus, you came to rescue us. You were born to grow up and accomplish all of the righteousness that I never could. And then you went to the cross to pay that awesome penalty for all of the sins that I committed. You covered them and you took them all away. Your coming that first Christmas morning, the only real Christmas morning was for me. Was for us. Was for salvation.

And I pray, I pray, Father, that today, our hearts might be warmed by the message of Christmas. There's born a savior, Christ the Lord. He came in humility so that no one could feel outcast and unappreciated by him. He didn't come to the big shots. He came to the no-shots. Father, thank you for that included us. Lord Jesus, thank you for your love. I pray that if there's anyone here today who has never received Christ and the pardoning of their sins, if they're still making excuses as to why they're trying to live life on their own terms, making a mess of things, going from consequence to consequence. When they could just come to you, bow the knee, receive your forgiveness and your strength to walk anew, right, overcoming that which dragged them down in the first place.

Help them. Help them, Lord, to say yes to you and no to the evil one who has deceived them. Now, I pray for those of us who have received Christ, perhaps long ago even. Still rejoicing in the message. May it never get old and stale. May it always be fresh and precious. You came for us. Thank you for salvation offered so freely, Lord Jesus. Thank you for your great love. We ask these things in your name and for your glory. Amen.