All right, let's just look real quickly at Luke chapter 2 this evening, and I think we're going to do really good this morning. The message is 12 minutes, and so tonight it should be less than that, so we'll combine both for less than one regular service. I just want to give you a little thought on these performances. What a blessing it is to see young people get up, and it's often said that the average American would rather die than stand before a crowd or do public speaking. It's a scary thing for many people to do that. And I was thinking about this. Miss Nikki, and correct me if I'm wrong, these kids try out for this, right? They try out for this play. And we live, this church doesn't believe that everybody gets a trophy. I know that's not politically correct, but it's morally correct. When you lose, you lose. When you win, you win. And every year, Miss Nick has a tough decision to choose different kids to be different parts and all that stuff. And tonight, I want to talk about another play that took place many years ago. And, you know, there's three main things that every performance, every play needs to have. You have to have a stage, that's important. You have to have a script, that's important. And you always have to have a star or a few stars. And when I say star, I mean obviously I'm talking about the people that are involved. I've already mentioned the whole Hallmark movie ministry that's going on out there. And I call it a ministry because it seems almost like it is. And how many of you have already watched at least one Hallmark Christmas movie this year? All right. Men, don't lie. Some of you have seen it with your family. Raise your hand, men. All right. I'll admit I've seen some with my wife and girls because I try to do that. Of course, all those stories are very similar. We've already gone over that. You know, a boy and a girl accidentally meet each other. And it's funny, they always bump into each other, too. And then somehow along the line, the future in-laws get involved, and they start to fall for each other. And then somewhere down near the end, with 15, 20 minutes left in the movie, something happens that causes them to get angry. They leave each other, and then they meet at an airport or a bus stop, kiss, and then the movie's over. And this happens every time, right? That's the script. And it's successful. And every year, people watch it. And by the way, it's really the same script Disney's used for such a long time. It's the same script almost every Hollywood movie has used. Good guy shows up, we get to know that person. Bad guy shows up, we get to know that person. Bad guy looks like he's winning. In the end, good guy wins and gets the girl and the end, right? But this story, didn't have any tryouts, because only one person could show up on this particular stage. In Luke chapter 2, I want you to look at this verse here. I love verse number 8. The Bible says, And there were in the same country shepherds. Same country. You see, Jesus was not from this same country that the shepherds lived in. He was from another place. But Jesus was willing, willing to come to this stage. He came to this stage, and this stage was a stage of imperfection it was a stage of hatred and cruelty and yet Jesus knew the script and this time it was gonna really take a turn because the course in all the other movies that we've watched the heroes can't come back to life if they die and there are some out there my wife never likes the ones where the hero dies in the end she likes the one where the hero gets the girl in the end they live happily ever after right that's how most people are but there have been some stories and A lot of them are war movies and they're true stories about where the hero does not necessarily make it out alive. And in this particular case, Jesus doesn't make it out alive at first. You see Jesus came to this stage for you and for me we saw this stage and we see the script and what an amazing testimony to the willingness of two of our young people who stepped up last minute and boy they did a great job. Evan and Chelsea and all the kids did a great job but two of them didn't even know they were doing this till like 24 hours ago I think. You get to see him step up and just be involved with the play for the willingness and their willingness to please the Lord and just to be involved is a blessing. And listen, that willingness is something we learn from the first person who ever really put on a huge, huge production. And I don't mean to take the Christmas story, biblically speaking, and call it a production, but the fact is God did produce this story. When Adam and Eve sinned, God went immediately into production for this beautiful story. God promised it, and He chose even a nation, and He went out of His way, and He wrote the script that His Son would be born of a virgin, and His Son knew the script ahead of time. His son read the script and knew what was going to happen, and he knew that there was going to be a point when the whole world would forsake him, and even his father would forsake him, and Jesus still willingly memorized the script, and didn't just memorize it and say it. He lived, died, and lived again the script. So tonight I want us to remember that the true star of any stage, in any script, in any production, any time in the history of mankind is the story of Jesus Christ. It's the true, original Christmas program. You see, Jesus was willing in Luke chapter two, verse number eight, to come to the same country as the shepherds. He also came to the same country where they were abiding in this field we call, this field of life, this field of sin, this field of cruelty, and yet Jesus was willing to come. And then the Bible says this beautiful statement in verse number 11, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ, The Lord. So there was really no tryout for this program. There was one stage, one script, and one star. And his name was Jesus Christ. And he willingly came, he willingly entered stage right, and he exited stage left, and he left this planet with hope, salvation, joy, and peace. And 2,000 years later, whether it's little kids getting up here and singing and telling the story, quote versus, or teenagers sitting up here acting like real life brothers and sisters, man, Wesley and Jada reminded me of my own kids at home, that was just awesome. All the name calling and insults, it's a blessing, man. I mean, I enjoy that. I feel like, whoa, that sounds like my family, man. But when it's all said and done, Jesus Christ was willing to come to this stage, live out this script, and become the star for all mankind. Tonight, I thank the Savior for putting on the best Christmas program ever so that we could take it a little bit and tell the whole world about this amazing Savior named Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes. Thank you for listening so well tonight.