Listen to these scriptures. It's something that people have heard, they've read. But I'm afraid a lot of people don't truly believe it. Because when you listen to it, it sounds almost impossible. But anybody that's ever been born again, you've got to have faith in us to believe this. And if you've been born again, the spiritual connection that you get, then you know that it's all true. All right, start in Matthew, the first chapter in the 18th verse. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was mine to put her away privately. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. for he shall save his people from their sin. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, now this in Isaiah, the seventh chapter and the 14th verse, 742 years before this event, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us. And Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bid him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. Then if you'll turn over with us into Luke, the second chapter, and we're gonna start with the third verse. And all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, onto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because He was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary, his spouse's wife, being great with child." Now this fourth verse there, if you'll find the reference to that back in Micah, the fifth chapter and the second verse, this is predicted 710 years before. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Now, all of this, I was reading this to you because, you know, a lot of times people, we think that God don't know everything, but you'll find here that God predicted all of this would happen in excess of 700 years before, and there's other references even that. But you and I today, when we read this, I realized today, I heard a song this morning, earlier, on who could believe that it was about these same things, and who could believe that something like this would happen, and then it brings it right down to I hope that you do. Why? Because if you can't believe this, you can't make heaven your home. You and I today, all of you, just go back here and look to the first chapter, and there about the 42nd verse. It talked about when Mary went and she called on Elizabeth. And Elizabeth, she said, the pain began to If we only reach out unto the Lord and call upon him, you know, To be born again, you must believe that Jesus Christ come, bled, and died, and rose again for me and for you. And I'm afraid today, too many people, they think, well, that is a myth. That's a story. Well, you can run into a lot of stories. even on Christian radio, and it's such a shame. You'll hear songs about Santa Claus and the reindeer and all of this, and that are all stories, but they mean absolutely nothing. But this story I read to you, it means something. It can change your life. You and I today, it don't make any difference what you get for Christmas. It's what God gave you. It might not even be the 25th when Christ comes, but we all know that he comes. There's been nobody that changed this world like Christ changed it. Today there's all kinds of people. They want to know. We need to put our faith and trust in God and know that he's real. all of the predictions in the Old Testament of Christ coming and then them being fulfilled exactly as it was predicted here. I give you two incidents here of 700 years between when it was predicted and when it come about. And you take all of that, I, some man that's into these odds kind of thing. He said for Christ to come and fulfill all of the predictions and the prophecies pertaining to his life, said for that to happen the very way that God said, and it not be any kind of a prediction of God, just be an accident. He said you could cover the state of Texas with silver dollars. And the chances of you walking out in the middle of that state and picking up one particular silver dollar that somebody told you to get, he said the chances of you doing that is greater The odds of it would be so far-fetched, but yet God fulfilled every one of the things that was said that he would do. You and I today, we read this. As I was reading this this morning and thinking about it, the angels there, oh, What it must have been like there to be no shepherds that night, the angel talking to them. But then if that wasn't enough, here come a heavenly host. And we don't know how many was in it. But they begin to sing and praise God. And these shepherds, when they went to Bethlehem, they felt Christ just the way the angel said he would be. You and I today. Oh, I read these things and I say God's word is true. We need to get our eyes off of the things of this world. and get it upon God because, you know, these things didn't come about by accident. It was every bit being done so that the people alive in those days and even today, when they see that it was being fulfilled, they would know this is of God. It isn't just some kind of a accident, but God had something to do with it. And you know, it was fulfilled Right to the point. And me and you, you know, Mary and them didn't even live in Bethlehem. But God said that's where you could be born. So if they hadn't had the law that they had to go to the city of basically their family origin to pay their taxes, it wouldn't have been fulfilled. But it was, because God foreseen even that. You and I today, there's nothing about my life or your life that God don't already know. And he knows when it's our appointed time to die. So, you know, the main thing is to make sure that our heart is right with God, because our life here, it's such a vapor. And you know, here, Mary, As she went there in that first chapter of Luke, I think I said it was the 42nd verse, but it was the 41st one, where Elizabeth, as soon as she heard Mary call for her, she said, the babe leaped for joy in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to praise God, you and I today, It is something that we can't imagine, we can't say here, John the Baptist. You know, there when God told his dad that he was gonna have a son, he didn't quite believe, I guess. So he said, until he's born, you're not gonna be able to speak. When that child was born and they brought it in to give it a name, he said he shall be called John. They didn't know anybody that friendly been called John, but that was what the angel told him. You and I today, Obedience, oh what a blessing it brings, not only to them, And you and I, God's got a plan for our life if we'll only surrender unto him and let him have full control of our life. If Mary had been disobedient, or if Joseph had been disobedient, you know, you read that about Joseph. That was one terrific good man. To take the word of the angel and be obedient unto it. I don't know how many months it was from the time the angel met with him to Christ was born, but Christ is still born of a virgin because Joseph did what he was supposed to do. You and I today, we look at the Bible and every page has something on it for us if we'll just read it and... Try to understand what God would have us to receive from it. You know, each and every one of us, our life is so short. Look at that, 700 years. That's a long time between God predicting it. How many people read that prediction and wonder what on earth is that talking about? but it come and will fulfill the very way God said. You'll find in Revelation, there's all kinds of things predicted that's yet to come to pass, but you can take God's word, it's gonna come to pass the very way that he said. Me and you, it's a short time here in this life that we have to make a difference, to witness to our people, to be a light to those that we come in contact with, to make a difference. You know, there's so many people that comes into this life and dies, goes out, and don't do one thing that's lasting. But you and I, God tells us, what we do for God, it's gonna last for all of eternity. And anything that we do here in this life outside of that amounts to very little. I know we gotta work at things to make a living, but I've worked at things, building buildings and stuff when I was in construction that I thought the way we were building them, they'll be here, time stand, 100, 150 years. Because we had built them out of concrete with plenty of steel in it and everything. But the companies, they folded up. And rather than use those buildings for something else, I don't understand it, they tore them down. Big old wrecking balls come in and just busted all the pieces. You and I, we might think we're doing something that's gonna last. I thought when I was building that when I was in my 20s, it's gonna last way beyond my lifetime, and yet it's already gone. You and I today, we might think what we're doing's gonna last, but if you want to have anything that's gonna last, lay your treasures up on the other side where you can go where they are. You know, there's people that's laid up money in banks, all kinds of things like that, and the bank folded, or they died and left it. You know, I used to work for a lady, and they was wealthy. And her thing was, when I die, I want all of my furs and my jewelry piled on me on my bed and set the house on fire, because I don't want nobody else to have it. I thought, how selfish. want everything that you've got destroyed rather than leave it to anybody to say, well, this was something that she had. I treasure it because she was a good friend. You and I today. God's given me so much. that I treasure because I found out he is exactly what he said in the Bible. He'd be a friend that sticks closer than a brother. You and I today, why don't we get some song to sing? Please, I beg you, we're coming here in the Christmas season. Don't lose sight of what Christmas really means. You know, I don't know what time of the year God's gonna call it in This old world, where it's gonna be spring, summer, fall, winter, nobody knows. But you and I, he made it possible that we could be ready to go to meet him, no matter what the time was. So please, I beg you, as we sing some verse of a song, will you come, if your heart's not right with God, now's the time to do something about it. Realize his word is true. And it makes a difference. You know that there at Elizabeth? I could not tell you how many times I've read that in my life. And every time I cry, it just stirs my heart. The scriptures I read to you today about the birth of Christ and the angel coming to the shepherds, it stirs my heart. I find myself crying. Oh, I would have loved to have been there and seen that. But that's something that's past. He's promised me much better things that's out ahead. So we need to get our eyes upon what's ahead. That of the Lord and the things of God and on the life after this life here. If your heart's right with God, you got a much better future than this world can ever imagine. But if your heart is not right with God, you got such a bad future ahead of you that you don't want anything to do with it, but there's no way to avoid it except being bored again. Why don't we sing? Truly, Christ come and died. What I read to you was just the start. But that start was to be fulfilled 33 years and a half later when he was crucified for my sin and for your sin. God's seen every bit of that. And for 33 years and a half, Christ could have said, Father, they're not worth it. I'm not willing to do it. But that wasn't what he said. He said, not my will, thy will be done. You and I, he's proved his love for us. Will we prove we love him by living for him?