Okay, open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1 this morning, and we will begin our reading at verse number 20. Matthew chapter 1, and we will begin reading this morning at verse number 20. Now, there are going to be other passages we're going to be looking at this morning, but this is the one that I want us to begin with. 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 sins. Let us pray. Dear, kind, and gracious Heavenly Father, as we come in thy presence this morning, Lord, we're just thankful for thy blessings to us. Lord, we thank you for a time of the year, Lord, though you did not command that we observe, but Lord, we're thankful for a time that we have set aside to just remember the giving of thy son to this earth on our behalf. Dear Lord, I pray that you'd speak to our hearts. Dear Father, that you'd enable us to understand some facts about this time of the year, Lord, perhaps we've not thought on before. And dear Lord, if there's one loss, I pray this will be the time that you speak to the hearts and draw them unto yourself. Dear Lord, what you do for us, we'll thank you and praise you for all these things we do ask in Jesus' name, amen. The subject that I'd like to draw our attentions to this morning is a little different, perhaps, than what we normally do here. Like today, the day before Christmas, the last Lord's Day before Christmas, And yet, I think it says a lot about what it is that we should be doing. And the subject I'd like to draw our thoughts to today is the real message of Christmas, fear not. The real message of Christmas, fear not. Now, that's not something we usually think about. But yet, I believe, as we'll see, it is something that's vitally important. And it's a part of what we celebrate when we celebrate the birth of our Lord that we often just don't ever think about. It just kind of gets passed over. And that is, we are, in fact, because of what happened, we are to fear not. Now, as we begin this morning, I want to begin by asking a question. Can you count in your life the number of times, the number of instances that fear has totally and completely gripped you, has taken hold of you, has wrapped its icy fingers around you, if you will? It may have been something that you could pinpoint, something that you could name, something that you could most certainly identify, or it may have been what is commonly called a nameless fear. You ever be overcome with a sense of dread, a sense of worry, a sense of concern, and you really don't know why, but yet it's there, and it starts to weigh on your mind, and you begin to analyze everything, trying to think what's going on, what am I fearful of? Nameless fears, yes, my friends, they are quite real. If you've never experienced it, count yourself quite fortunate. because it is very, very, very real. This is a type of fear that you don't know why you're afraid of, what it is you're afraid of. You don't know what is it causing it, but yet you're very much aware of the fact that you are fearful, concerned, worried about some matter. That fear, whatever it may have been, that's the kind of thing that will keep you awake at night. The kind of things that you thought about all day, it hits your mind as soon as you get up. That feeling, if you will, of dread. The thing that affects everything you did because you can't get it off of your mind. And it takes many, many forms in our lives. It's just something that will not leave. People today are afraid of a lot of things. They come under the heading of phobias, right? Those who are fearful of spiders, arachnophobia. Those that are fearful of closed spaces, claustrophobia. And that's just to mention a couple that are common that people deal with. There's the fear of height. I can't remember what phobia that is. But there are some who are afraid, they just get paralyzed when they get up high and begin to look down. And as you look at this, There is even an official name for folks who suffer from the fear of Christmas trees. I'm not making this up, this is true. This is a real phobia that is a subset of dendrophobia, which is simply the fear of trees in general. Now that sounds a might silly, I understand, but it's very real and there's people that suffer with it. There are websites on the internet that are dedicated to exploring the various kinds and types of fears that people deal with every day of their lives. And folks, really, we shouldn't make light of it. You know, I ride Mike relentlessly over his fear of spiders. I have a lot of fun with that. But yet at the same time, I'm a very real claustrophobic. So I don't have any room to say anything to do it. What I'm saying is we shouldn't really make light of somebody that has something like that because deep down most of us have something anyway. And one's no different, no worse than the other thing. Fear is something that can control a person's life. You know, as we look at this today, as we look at this in the light of things today, it may well seem rather odd to be talking about fear here at Christmastime. It seems kind of odd to be dealing with this thought at this time of the year. However, there was a message spoken by the angel of the Lord in the events that were surrounding the birth of Jesus. In fact, it was such an important message that it is repeated several times. It's almost as if God wanted to emphasize the message to us. You know, if God says it one time, it makes it important, right? If he says it more than one time, we better take note. We better look at it closely. We better do everything that we can to understand what it is that God is trying to say to us and to hear His words. This can be seen from the fact that He says the exact same thing over and over to us. Now, what is it? No, it's not that He shall save His people from their sins, although that is indeed an important message, isn't it? That is a message that should gladden our hearts. That is a message that is missed by the vast majority of people that even say they know the Lord. He shall save His people. Particular, right? He shall save His own. He shall save His people from their sins. It wasn't the statement that was made. Where is he who has been born to be king of the Jews? That is also a very important question, indicating the fact of the position that Jesus holds as the eternal king. It wasn't even glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. But that is the good news of great joy that Jesus has come, a Savior has been born. We have one that we can look to for the remission of our sins. This message that God emphasized to those present at the time around the birth of Jesus, whether it was the proclamation that he was conceived or whether it was a proclamation that was made at his birth, was fear not. Fear not. That to me is something that is extremely interesting. Four times in the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, God spoke through his angel and said, fear not. Just as simple as that. I also believe that this is the same message that God has for you and I today. This is the same message that God has for his people today. Fear not. We've skimmed over that message many times. We find ourselves caught up in everything else that we do and hear and take part of, that we just don't hear those words anymore. However, if you will look into the passage of scripture in Matthew and also in Luke, you will find that the angel that God sent spoke to everyone to whom he appeared and told them, fear not. That was the simple message that he had. Fear not. Don't that tell us that we should take heed of it? Doesn't that indicate that it's something that is important to us? Now, what is there? What could there possibly be connected about the birth of Jesus into our world that chases away the fear? that is in our lives, in our personal worlds, if you will, what we have to deal with. If the message, fear not, was so important that God would have his angels say it four times, then, beloved, perhaps it's important enough for us to look at just a little bit closer. So that is the thought behind the subject that we're going to be looking at this morning, the real message of Christmas Fear not. So how can that be? Number one, because the birth of Jesus shows us God's purpose. That was in the text that we read in Matthew chapter one, verse 20 and 21. Now, what was going on at that particular time? In Matthew, we find that Mary has been betrothed to Joseph. Now, unlike today, in the ancient times, Jewish marriages consisted of three separate stages, engagement, betrothal, and marriage. Now, ours consists of two, engagement and marriage. And perhaps in some instances, just simply marriage. But in Jewish culture, there was three. The engagement was one that was usually arranged by the parents while the children were very young. Now let me ask you a question here. Anybody here besides me been forced to endure the musical Fiddler on the Roof? Anybody else sat through that? Okay. Ah, what a blessing. I've got to say the night I was forced to watch it, those who forced me to watch it went to sleep. But anyway, if those of you that if you ever saw that, you remember there was a character, there was an older lady in there who was the matchmaker. That's not something that they just made up. There were in fact professional matchmakers. And they did exactly what you would think they would do. They would pair young people up. So the engagement was something that was usually taken care of when the children were very, very young, certainly not old enough to even know what was going on. Next came the betrothal period. And it usually lasted for one year. During that time, the girl lived with her parents. But the couple, was looked upon and considered and thought of as being husband and wife. During the stage of the betrothal, unfaithfulness was regarded the exact same way as was adultery, because they were married in every sense of the way, except they were not living together. That was how legally and that they were looked at. After one year was over, The marriage then was completed and the bride went to live with her husband. Now, looking at Mary's life, it was during this period of betrothal that the scriptures tell us that she was found to be with child. She was found to be expecting. What a shock that would have had to have been to Joseph. He knew the child wasn't his. He knew that something had to happen because she was expecting. So what a shock that would have had to have been to him. He had to look to him that she had been unfaithful to him. There was no two ways about it. She had to have been unfaithful to him. Now, in an instance such as that during the betrothal, he had two options that was open to him. There was two things that he could do to not marry her. One was he could make her a public example. However, in doing so, the law said that she would die by stoning. That was how she would be dealt with if she was made a public example. Now, it is evident that Joseph loved Mary too much to do that. In spite of everything that happened, Because of his deep feelings for her, that was not even an option that he considered, having her stoned. So he was going to choose the second option, which was to divorce her quietly, secretly, and to just let her go away, rather than have her killed for what she had done. So, as Joseph was pondering these things in his mind, apparently it was something that he had been thinking about as he went to bed one evening, God sent an angel to speak to Joseph in the form of a dream. Now, dreams are something that is an interesting study in and of themselves. In fact, there are 122 times in the scriptures when God directly spoke to people through dreams. And that's what he does to Joseph. Now, can we trust dreams today? If so, I can fly wherever I want to do because I've dreamed before I can fly. I don't think I want to try it. And there's some dreams that are downright silly, aren't they? But at the same time, God did use them. And I'm not condoning it, please don't think I am, but the Bible does say in the New Testament that the young men shall dream dreams, right? So I'm not just going to slam the door all together. But I will say this, any message given by God will be straight in alignment with the Scripture. That we do know. But this is what happened to Joseph. Now what was revealed, the angel told Joseph what? Fear not. Don't worry about it. Don't be afraid to take her to be your wife. The angel went on to explain to Joseph that he would not be afraid because God had a direct purpose in everything that had gone on. In other words, God was behind it. God was causing it. God was directing it. So therefore, he didn't have anything to worry about. He did not have anything to fear. Mary in fact had not been unfaithful to him in any way. But rather she had been chosen by God to be the mother of the Messiah. Now there are those today who take Mary so far as to say, to make her something she was not. She was not sinless. She was not perfect. And Jesus was not the only child that she bore. But She was living righteously enough that God chose her. Now, let me throw this out to you. Did God see how Mary had lived through her life and then chose her? No. He chose her long before she was ever born. In fact, in the eternal plan and purpose of God, she was chosen before the foundation of the world to be the one who had birthed the Savior. and the way she lived was enabled by God to fulfill that particular purpose. Not only this, but God also had a purpose in causing Joseph and Mary all this turmoil in their lives as to what should they do. You know, there's a lot of times that the purpose of God in our lives causes some dust-ups, doesn't it? It causes people to get upset with us. It causes us to maybe get in problems with our work or whatever it might be. But there's sometimes that the purpose of God in our life doesn't always go along with what we think it ought to or what the world thinks it should. And therefore, it does cause us a little turmoil. God had a purpose in causing them to literally risk their reputations this way. You know, the Bible does not speak of it. This was a cloud that hung over Joseph and Mary their entire life. How do we know that? Because the accusation that was later on made against Jesus when he said, we were not born of fornication. And you know exactly what they were calling him. So the stigma was something that would stay with them their entire lives. The angel reveals God's purpose to Joseph, and that is, that she shall bring forth the Son. And not only will she bring forth the Son, but you're going to call His name Jesus. Emmanuel, if you will. God with us. And His purpose is, for He shall save His people from their sins. That's the purpose behind what's going on. Now, keep this in mind. At this particular time, nobody else knew this purpose, not even Mary. Joseph was the only man on this earth that knew the purpose behind what was going on and what God was doing. That was his purpose in knowing God's purpose, that is, in understanding what was behind it, It's still the fear and doubt inside Joseph's heart and you won't find it in scripture where he ever feared again in regard to taking Mary to be his wife. That settled it. Beloved, the messages that God leaves for us in his word should still our fear, shouldn't it? It should settle the fears in our heart and cause us to move forward. What kind of promises? Well, he says, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." So we should never ever have to worry about is the Lord with me or not. That I will not put more on you than He promised. He'll not put more on us than we're able to bear. Now sometimes we feel like we're collapsing under the load. We've all been there, haven't we? And guess what happens? We find out just how strong we are. We find out we're actually stronger than we thought we were because of the grace of God. That He will meet our needs. You don't have to worry. Now, this sounds funny. This may even sound hypocritical because I've done it myself. But we really shouldn't need about how we're going to pay those bills to live God will provide for us, won't he? Some way, somehow. Now, it don't mean you're going to get a check in the mail, but he might give you an opportunity how you can get out and earn it, right? He'll provide a way. Now, he may impress somebody to help you, but if somewhere or another, that need can be taken care of. This is exactly what the birth of Jesus means to us today. Because God had a purpose when he sent his son. We can have our fears calmed. We don't have to worry about those things anymore. We're reminded of God's purpose every single year at Christmastime. It's something that comes to our minds as we look upon the event. From the very beginning, God's purpose in sending his son was to provide salvation for his people. That's why he was here. not just to heal people, not to just cast out demons, not just to raise the dead, but his purpose was to save his people from their sins. And that is exactly what he did. Beloved, we must not forget that, and this is a quote that I read from somebody, that the cross always stands near the manger. In other words, the manger is always in the shadow of the cross. if you look at it truthfully. Unless we see the cross overshadowing the cradle, we have lost the real meaning of Jesus' birth. This is another person that I read, what he had to say about it. Jesus, in fact, was not born to live. He was born to die and then to live again for us. That's why he came. That's the only way that he could save his people from their sins. And there's many scriptures it has to say to us back up about God's purpose. I'm not going to take the time to read them right now. Secondly, we can fear not because the birth of Jesus shows us God's promise. Turn over now to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. and come down please to verse 29. Luke 1 and coming down to verse 29. And when she saw him, this is speaking of the angel whom she saw, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, And of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall these things be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her who is called barren. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. Now we look now a little deeper into the message that was given to Mary. We're all familiar with the way that the angel appeared to Mary, how she came to Mary. And it's interesting to see that right after the appearance of the angel, after he had finished initially speaking to her, we find in the next verse that we're told that she was troubled in her heart. She was worried. She was afraid deep within at what the angel had told her. The angel's next words to her is what is so important to you and I today. Don't be afraid. Fear not. Don't worry. Because she had found favor with God. She was not being punished. She was not going to be dealt with harshly. Because again, just as the angel had told Joseph, God was behind it. God was directing it. God was in it. Everything that was taking place. Next, the angel went on to explain to Mary that God promised that he would one day send a Messiah, and that day was about to be fulfilled. This was something that the Jewish people had looked for from generations to generations, the coming of the Messiah. And not only that, but she was the one chosen to give birth to the Messiah. Not only was the Messiah coming, she was the one who was born to birth the Messiah. As the angel told this to Mary, the promise that he had consisted of three parts. One, that she shall conceive and bear a son. His name is to be Jesus, which is exactly what was told to Joseph, right? Secondly, he shall be great. and shall be called the Son of the Most High." God in the flesh, God incarnate, if you will. And thirdly, as king on David's throne, he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. Now, what was it that had been going on? For centuries, not just for a little while, but for centuries, the Jewish people have been waiting for the birth of the Messiah. They long for the birth of the Messiah. They long for the deliverance of the birth of the Messiah. You see that in the fact, in the way that they missed what they had in Jesus in as much as, you know, even before the Lord, right before He ascended back, they ask Him, won't Thou at this time restore the kingdom? They thought that the coming of the Messiah would essentially crush the Romans, that the kingdom would be established, and they wouldn't have to worry about anything like that ever again. It would all be taken care of. They missed the point of why he was coming. Because of how much they longed for it, every Jewish mother hoped and prayed that her son would be the Messiah. Now, as we say that, it's not in a way that they were selfish. It's not that they were wanting glory unto themselves. It was just that they understood the importance and the necessity of the Messiah coming because of what he said or was promised that he would do. The entire Old Testament Every bit of it was written with the preparation in mind with the birth of the coming of Jesus. You can find that beginning in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. The first prophecy, if you will, given of the coming of Jesus. When we talked about the serpent, how the serpent would bruise his heel and Jesus would bruise his head. And that's exactly what he had and what happened. But it was the first prophecy. What God's message to Mary was this. That He had given His people a promise that a Savior was to be born of a virgin. That she was to be the one who would give birth to the Savior. Not only is this going to be the plan, guess what Mary, you're Her. You're the one. You're the one that's going to cause this to come to pass. It has been promised that He will reign on David's throne forever. Has that happened yet? Has Jesus ever sat on the throne of David? No. But He will. That doesn't change the fact that it's going to happen. It's something that's yet to happen in the future. Now, how about us? What is it that this means to us? How does Christmas show us God's promise in regard to this? Beloved, the reason that it's important is that Jesus came and fulfilled these promises with the one yet to come from reigning upon David's throne. The reason that Jesus was born, the coming of Jesus was fulfilled. We all know people in our lives who have broken promises, don't we? And sadly, we probably have broken a few promises ourselves. Sometimes circumstances just don't allow us to do what we promised that we would do. Things that are beyond our control. However, God made a promise that one day he would send a savior into the world, and that he did. You will not find one promise in scripture that either God has not fulfilled or he shall fulfill in the future. This is because Jesus is the only one. There was no substitute. Jesus was the only one who could provide us with salvation. It was not possible in ourselves to do so. Brother Dale dealt with that so well this morning in our Sunday School lesson. Now, what we find in His Word. In the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 43 and verse 1 says, But now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine." We find in the Old Testament the first hint that we would not have to be fearful anymore because of the Redeemer that the Lord would send. He, Jesus, came to save us from our sins. As we turn to the New Testament, in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 20, the Bible says, For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, unto the glory of God by us. Every promise that God made converges on the person of Jesus. They all come together with and for Him. You know, we don't have to worry at all. And the last of the promises here in the New Testament I want to look at is in 1 John 2 and verse 25. And this is a promise that He has promised us, even eternal life. So, if God cannot lie, And if all the promises that God has made either have or shall come to pass, then beloved, does that not assure you and I of the fact that through Jesus, we have eternal life because he came. And that is the reason, my friends, why we, as has been echoed in the passages that we've seen, can honestly fear not. Thirdly, we are to fear not because the birth of Jesus shows us God's presence. Let's turn over to Luke 2. Luke 2, and beginning with verse 9. 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. He shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and singing. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. The promise of his presence. Now this was a sudden appearing. Think about the shepherds, the Bible tells us they were out in the field watching their flocks by night. Out in those fields, they didn't have street lights, they didn't have any. The only light they would have had would have been the light that a fire would have produced, if they even had one kindled. And suddenly there was the angel. Now I don't know about you, but I'd have jumped through myself if something like that suddenly appeared in front of me. But yet God appeared right there with them. They were suddenly confronted by the angel of the Lord who simply told them, fear not. Don't worry. Don't be frightened. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. which shall be not only to them, but to us. Because he said, shall be to all people. This message that he gave them was the same message that was sent to us. He told them not to be afraid because God was coming to be with them. For unto you, the you there is to all of his people, isn't it? For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Now, no doubt at the very outset, those shepherds were terrified at the presence of the angel. They may well have thought that he had come to bring judgment upon them because, you know, you get around... Let me look at it this way. Have you ever seen somebody that is extremely wicked, extremely vile, and when somebody knows the Lord gets around them, they get so nervous they can't hardly stand it? They get so nervous they can't talk. They just stutter and they carry on. They can't wait for you to leave their presence. You ever see that? Why? Because the presence of somebody that served God makes them very well aware of their sin and what they don't have. So the presence of this angel no doubt brought to the shepherds' minds things in their lives that shouldn't have been there. And they were wondering, was God going to send judgment? Was their lives going to be called into account at this particular time? When the glory of the Lord shone on them, they were very much afraid. That is why, simply put, the angel said, fear not. You don't have to worry. We're not bringing judgment upon you. However, their reaction is similar to the way many of us would react today. Well, I fear that the presence of the Lord would strike fear in all of our hearts, because the thing is not there. And we talked about it in Sunday school. You know, Adam, what happened to him, him and Eve? They fled after they sinned, after Adam sinned, didn't they? They fled from his presence. Now, what was it that this message is to do? When the angel told them to stop being afraid, not only was their terror soothed, but the angel's words also had a deeper meaning. And we already touched on that. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. Now, what was the good tidings? There is born to you this day a Savior, a Redeemer, a one who will give you life. The Lord had come among them, and because of this, everything now was going to be different. It was not going to be as it had been before. Everything that they had done before was picturing the Lord. Now He's here. He was going to be the literal fulfillment of things that they had heard about and served. Your lives are going to be different, and all this is because you have the presence of God with you. Now, you might be fearful about a lot of things, and a lot of things that you would not do naturally. But when you are very much aware of the presence of the Lord, you can go ahead and do whatever you're supposed to do, right? because you have confidence in his presence, and this confidence, and this assurance, and this knowledge of his presence enables you to very much fear not. If we remember the angel's words to Joseph in Matthew chapter one, we recall that Joseph was told the baby's name was to be Jesus, Emmanuel, which means what? God with us. No way to miss it. No way to misunderstand what was about what was going to happen. When Jesus was born, that is exactly what happened. Think about the very event of his birth. He could have rightly been born in the palace, couldn't he? He could have rightly been born in the temple for that matter. He could have been born among the rich and the powerful and the famous. But he come with as lowly a birth as anybody could ever have. He came as just an average common individual. What am I saying? He came like one of us. He came as one of us. And that is why we can go to Him whenever we feel led to do so without fear and without dread because of His presence. We're not going to anybody who is, though He is mighty and high and lifted above, He is one of us in so many ways. Not sinful, but in a lot of other ways. Even though Jesus was crucified and rose again, and then ascended to the Father. We still have His presence with us each and every day. How? Through the Holy Spirit. So therefore, because of the fact that God is with us, beloved, we can do what? Fear not and go forward. It's something that is true all the time. Jesus spoke about this when He said, For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them. Or as is common today, wherever two or three bandits gather together, a chicken must die. That is a truism. In some of the last words that Jesus spoke to his disciples, he assured them, and lo, I am with you always, even into the end of the age. What a promise. I am here with you through it all. Because Jesus was born, because He came, beloved, we have the presence of God with us. The Bible promises us, so therefore we do not have to worry, that because Jesus was born, all those who are saved will one day be in the presence of God the Father. What a promise. Look at what he told his disciples in John chapter 14. Let not your heart be troubled. Don't be worried. Don't be afraid. Everything is taken care of. Have you ever been in a situation in your life, maybe financially, maybe material or whatever, Have you ever been in a situation in your life where everything was collapsing around you and there wasn't a thing in the world that you could do about it to stop it or even slow it down for that matter? And a friend or a loved one or a family member, somebody steps in and looks you dead in the eyes and says, don't worry about it. I'm going to take care of it. Have you ever had that experience? What a blessing it is. How much greater is this promise, is this blessing that we have in Jesus Christ that He is taking care of. Don't be afraid because Jesus was going back to the Father and things were going to be prepared and ready for us. Don't be afraid because beloved one day we're going to be together in heaven. So beloved this Christmas season At this time, as we come together to remember the birth of our Lord, beloved, do not let the problems, all the distractions that we have, some of them are actually good things, and some of them not so much. Beloved, do not let those things sidetrack us. Let us not forget that the central message that you and I have as believers through and because and by the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, is that we should do what? Fear not. Let us pray.