We are one. I've got a question for you. Is this 3 through 5, 3, 4, and 5? No, 1, verse 1, and then 3 through 5. We're skipping 2. Okay. ♪ All I ask is that you please say I love you ♪ ♪ I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you ♪ ♪ I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you ♪ ♪ I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you ♪ Thank you. and and and and and Okay, all right. so Wait. so so Well, good morning. Wow, look at that jacket. Does those lights light up? Do those lights light up? Oh, there he is. When you tell him to let his little light shine, he takes it to heart. Okay, all right. Oh, you'll get a chance to see him here in a minute. Or you want to probably breathe a little bit. Chris, yeah. All right. Well, we're going to start here singing. And the first song is O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. If you want to look at your hymnal, it's 1.23. We'll sing 1 through 3, and I'll be showing them on the screen, hopefully. Well, good morning, everyone. I was impressed when Bob came in. After Pastor's comment, I thought that was an attempt at a little light humor. Please stand, and we'll Turn to your hymnals, to hymn number 123, and we'll sing verses 1 and 3. O come, O come, Emmanuel. OK, 1, 2, and 3. 1, 2, and 3. O come, O come, Emmanuel. That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel! Tell that to the old witch while Come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer Our spirits by thy heaven here. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. Verse 3 O come, thou wisdom from on high, and order all the far and nigh, to us the path of knowledge show. ♪ And cause us in her grace to go ♪ Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel ♪ Shall come to thee in Israel And if you would mind turning to hymn number 152, and we'll sing verses one, three, through five. I heard the bells on Christmas Day. The bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play. And while in sleep the words repeat, O peace on earth, good will to men. And in despair I bow my head, there is no peace on earth, I say. First four. First five. Good singing. You may be seated. All right. There are a few things you might want to pick up. or at least one on the way out if you'd like to read your Bible through. There's other things that you can get online, but this one is put out by Faith Baptist Bible College. It's something that one of the teachers through the years have put together. And it kind of spaces it out. It's not just straight through, but each day you would read some in the New Testament, some of it in the poetry section of scripture, and then something out of the Old Testament. And it's got it all marked out for you. So if you read what it says for that day and check it off, at the end of the year, you will have read through all of the scriptures, okay? And there are some of these out there on the table, okay? There may still be some daily breads out there, I'm not sure. The December through the February one, maybe a couple of the Christmas versions of the daily bread as well. I find that people seem to be receptive to that. And I think we'll just put these in the mailbox, but it's something that you might make sure you reach in there and get everything out of there. As the new missionary prayer cards has all of our current missionaries on there. And on its foreign on one side, flip it over. And you've got the United States-based missionaries and agencies that you can be praying for there. So look for that, and you can use that as a kind of a bookmark in your Bible and to remind you to pray for some of these various missionaries. I'm sure they'd appreciate that. A couple others that's not in your prayer sheet that you can be praying for here that people, I guess, don't like. How many of you prayed for this white stuff? I know some of you wanted a white Christmas. Okay, you can cut it out now, we've got it. I hear by next Saturday it's going to be in the 40s, so enjoy it while it lasts. But I'm sure there'll be more coming. But do pray for Abby as she gets on a plane here, or at least at the airport at about one o'clock here today, and heading for North Carolina. That sounds like a fun place to go to, isn't it, for Christmas? We already got Margie and Ayanna down in Tennessee. Is it Nashville or somewhere around there? Let's see, what else going on? There's something else that's not in your prayer sheet, but Lucy, Tom's wife, is going to have thyroid surgery on Friday. So he might be praying for her. So somebody else will have to hit the high notes for her next Sunday, okay, right? And you can keep praying for Allie. Houston had her tonsils out this last week. Still got a mighty sore throat, you know? So, yeah, so be praying for her that that gets better here as time goes, all right? All right, I think that's kind of the major things that you would be aware of. Okay. Yes. I just have a praise. I want to thank everyone for praying for my little granddaughter, who was two months old and she was put in a whole body brace because her steps were unaligned. And they said it was going to be a five-week minimum that she would have to have this brace on and they would do weekly adjustments and MRIs. Well, after the first week and All right, and we got little miss sunshine back here I What a way to spend your Sunday morning, huh? Now you know what dad does when he goes to work, right? Add to that. Okay. If that ever happens to me, I see all these people saying, well, let's flip a coin here. I don't want to do the mouth-to-mouth thing. Bob runs for the paddles. They should be all charged and ready to go, but I don't want to go that route if I don't have to. OK. Let's see. Am I forgetting anything else? Somebody else? How's the knees doing, Tom? Very well. Thank you. Good. All right, good. That's what we want to hear. And we got Joy back there. She probably won't be doing jumping jacks for a little while, but the backs got her up and able to be here with us today. So, Lord's answer in prayer. Praise the Lord. Okay. All right. Let's look at another couple of Christmas carols. 143, infant holy, infant lowly. So please rise and we'll turn to hymn number 143 in your books. I'll need a little help on this because I'm not familiar with this one. So sing out loud. Hopefully it'll be correct. Both verses. What do you want? It's my fault. Here we go. How did you get lost on the mountain? Infant holy, infant lowly, for his bed the cattle saw. Clocks are mowing, little lowing, Christ the Babe is Lord of all. Strip the ringing, angels singing, the world's ringing, night is bringing, Christ the Babe is Lord of all. Christ the Lord is Lord of all. Clocks are sleeping, shepherds keeping, angels till the morning noon. And if you'd like to turn, let's see, back to hymn number 137. and we'll sing all three verses of What Child is This. A child is this who lay to rest on Mary's lap, and sleeping, angels greet him with handsome, sweet shepherds watch are keeping. This is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing. He speaks to bring Him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary. What lies he in such mean estate, Where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christian fear, for sinners here, The silent word is pleading. This is our Christ the King, Whom shepherds guard and angels sing. Haste, haste to bring him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary. So bring him this his folk and myrtle, pheasant keep to owe him. The King of kings, patient brings, let loving hearts enthrone him. Good singing, all of God's people said. Good morning. Good morning. Okay. th th th Which side do I want? This side? Well, I see half the church got the memo on the red. I guess the green one didn't come through. We're glad you're here, no matter what color you're wearing, okay? So, all right. Hopefully I won't forget any ones that we talked about here. I don't write these down, so let's pray, though, before we get started. Heavenly Father, we thank you for once again we come to you knowing that you know our needs. We do bring special ones to you here today. Think of Abby as she flies out today. You give her a safe Enjoyable trip to there, to North Carolina. We thank you, Lord, for good news from Olivia, that there's no big problem there. And we just praise you for bringing that good health. We think of this little one that we sent out a text on here last night, this little, used to be a neighbor girl, little two-year-old girl up in Children's Hospital right now. Dealing with cancer, going to be there for the week, not doing so good. Looking at a 18-month treatment series and pray that you might uplift the mom and dad and little Tess and her sisters to you. Encourage them through all of this. We do pray for Lucy as she goes in on Friday for this thyroid surgery. We pray that you give the doctors the wisdom and skill They need to do this surgery and she'll have a good recovery from that. Thank you that Joy's back's been getting better here and able to be with us today. And for Tom's knees working better, hopefully a little less pain. And Lord, hopefully you didn't forget anybody here, but we pray you'll continue to watch over those that are away from us. And maybe some still traveling, think of Lindsay's sister and family coming in from Michigan tomorrow. Pray you give them journey mercies. And for Chris and Patty, if they're heading out to Michigan, that you give them safety as well. Thank you now for your word. Thank you for telling us what happened some over 2000 years ago. And even though it's a familiar story, pray that we can see some modern day application to that. And we'll thank you in Jesus name. All right, so we're looking at the night of the Incarnation here today. And if you want to look in your Bibles there, we'll be looking at Luke 2. Some of you have been through that a few times. It's been a few years for some of you since you were in a Christmas program, but you might have read some verses back then, sometimes over and over again, and studied this passage. The verses themselves won't be new to you, but hopefully, again, we can make some practical application to all of this. So we think of that night, some 2000 years ago, that the light of the world was born. Physically, spiritually, the world was in darkness, and that babe was born. And he came as a light, not lightning, but a light. And he didn't just show up, you know, like some politicians today, they come in, well, they call them holy pictures, but just come in for a photo op, and whether it's, well, I don't want to get into that, but anyway, they do different things just to make it look good, something that they can stick on an ad or something. And then they're on their way. Well, we see here that Jesus came to meet our greatest need. Now, if you were to interview people out on the street, what's your greatest need? You'd probably get quite a variety of different responses. But whether we realize it or not, our greatest need is forgiveness of sin. The Bible tells we're all sinners. We're all in the same boat and there's nothing we can do to get rid of it, okay? And even though they advertise ACE is the place, you know, and they do have some people that know what they're talking about over there. It's not the cheapest place in town, but you usually can find somebody that knows what they're talking about. But if you, you try that next time you go in there. What do I do to wash away my sin? How do I get rid of that? Let's see what aisle they take you down. Well, we know that there isn't an aisle in Ace or Menards or any place else cleaning supplies that can get rid of that, but Lord Jesus shed blood is able to do that. And so we want to notice seven things here today about his coming. And we see here the, first of all, the preparation just as Many of you prepare for a trip. I don't know how much preparation Lizzie's mom and dad made before they jumped in, I don't know, driving trucks or cars or, okay. Drive in from Wyoming. They had a little more relaxed trip this time. I get nervous just hearing about these people doing that straight through thing. Driving to Florida nonstop. They got a car coming alongside of us to fill us up with gas so we don't have to stop. But yeah, anyway, yeah, there's some preparation. We go on vacation, you know, it's, you've heard it, it's kind of like everything but the kitchen sink. Yeah, I remember one of the times we were going to California and had a little van, had two car top carriers on top. probably to give them a little more room inside, surfboard hanging off there. I don't remember if we had the bikes on the back or not. Pulling the trailer, and that was stuff full. But yeah, we take a lot with us. Well, they didn't have that ability back then, but we see that there was some preparation on God's part, as well as that of Joseph and Mary. It says there in Luke chapter two, verses one to five, it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, and all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, and all went to be taxed, every one to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth unto Judea, and into the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child." So we see here, Mary and Joseph are brought to Bethlehem by God, and they're both of the house and lineage of David. And we saw that last week as we looked at some of the prophecies about this night. But it told us back in Micah, Chapter five, verse two, it says, but thou Bethlehem Ephrathah. And again, if you weren't here with us last week, he gets specific because apparently there were two Bethlehems. One was up in Galilee, the other one was down by Jerusalem and want to make sure we're in up at the right one. But Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting. And so Christ is coming into this world ultimately to be the King of Israel, to be born in Bethlehem. And it's kind of interesting to see how far God will go to make his plans work out like he planned them to begin with. God had to arrange some way to get Mary and Joseph from up in the North of Israel down towards the Southern end of things. They had to be at the right place at the right time. And God arranged for a pagan ruler of much of the known world at that time to decide to take a census, and wouldn't you know it, taxing, okay? You can't get away from it. They had it back then too. And so he did all that though to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem because that was to fulfill prophecy. That's where the baby was going to be born. And so, He's moving an awful lot of people. He got all of Israel moving around just to get Mary and Joseph at the right place at the right time there in Bethlehem. And so it's all very important that God's plan, when he puts a plan together, it's gonna happen, folks. And it wasn't too early, wasn't too late. And we need to see here again, the circumstances. that are in God's hand. Yours and mine are in God's hand as well, not just Mary and Joseph, not just certain ones throughout scripture, but God's got control. If you're a true believer, you've trusted Christ as your personal savior, you're a part of God's family. And he's in control, whether you realize it or not, of your life. Your life isn't full of good luck, bad luck, accidents, so on and so forth. And so he's gonna accomplish his plans and he's ready, willing, and able to change whatever circumstances he needs to change to move people and to move people's hearts in the direction he wants them to go. Now, Bob and Michelle, you might be wondering for a little while, what was that morning all about? Wouldn't we have to go to children's work? That's kind of the long way around to get to First Baptist New Berlin. But there was a reason behind that. God wasn't sleeping at the switch. Maybe you said something to somebody there, nurses or somebody else. Bob, do you wear that to ER? Oh, I was going to say, there's probably a lot of questions about that. But anyway, God's in charge, all right? And so he's preparing the way for Joseph and Mary, just as he prepares your way and mine. Sometimes things happen, you just kind of go, what was that all about? And I won't start telling the examples, Had kind of a crazy week here this last week. I mean, it all kind of worked out, but it was like, what was that all about? But he prepares the way in your life and mine day by day. And just for curiosity, how many of you grew up outside of the Milwaukee area? Okay, about half of you, okay. So was it just lucky that you ended up being in this area and this church? No. God worked it out some way or another to shift you around where you're at. So it's not just lucky that you live in the neighborhood you live in, or work where you work, or go to church where you go to church. You know, God's got this all figured out. He knows where we need to be, and he can make things happen to put us in the right place, all right? Well, we noticed their arrival. It was just at the right time. Jesus wasn't born along the way to Bethlehem. Boy, wouldn't that have been fun, huh? but it happened once they arrived. And we see this in verse six and seven. It says, 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 clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Now, again, we remember they arrived and the no vacancy sign was up on the end, okay? No place to stay. That wasn't bad luck. That wasn't an oops on God's part saying, oh man, I knew I was gonna mess up somewhere. No, if, you know, because sometimes we make mistakes, but God doesn't make mistakes. It happened for a reason. And sometimes we wonder about some of these things, and I don't even remember where I read it. I'm assuming what they're telling me is true, but there was a reason why they didn't stay in the inn, and they ended up, whether you call it the cave or the stable, it's where the animals were at anyway, okay? Was again, that God's plan was for the angels to appear, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here, to the shepherds. Okay, and the shepherds are supposed to come in and see the baby. Well, if they were in the inn, they wouldn't have gotten in because the shepherds were way down the list on people that you were best friends with, okay? They didn't have a very good reputation. They often were smelly and dirty, and they wouldn't have wanted them in if the place was packed. but they could come into this, that stable or that cave, whatever you call it. And again, that makes sense to me. I mean, it's not here in scripture, but there was a reason behind that. Whether that was the reason or there was something else. But it also showed the humble beginnings of the Lord Jesus. Again, you've heard that before. He wasn't born in a palace, but he was born, as we think of it, in a stable. But you know, that end, the fact that there was no room at the end, that ought to be something we think about as well. You know, because sometimes we allow things, people, other people, other things to come between us and the Lord. And sometimes there's no room in our life for the Lord. Our schedules, our priorities, our goals, Some of those things tend to kind of push the Lord Jesus out and he ends up kind of in the shed out back. We can do better than that, but we have to be alert so that we don't let that happen. No room at the inn. Well, is there no room in our hearts and lives for Christ? Oh, we tend to make room at Christmas, but what about the whole new year coming up ahead of us? Do we kind of push him back into the stables? We tend to come down hard on the innkeeper, but he had a legitimate excuse. I mean, the rooms are full, you know. If you were in a motel and you had your family all ready for bed and there's a knock on the door and it's a guy downstairs at the registration desk and saying, would you mind if we let in another six people into your room for the night? Probably, no, I don't think so, no. And so that's kind of, he had a legitimate excuse. No reservations. You couldn't call ahead back in those days. I'm not sure how they did. If you write a letter and hope that somehow it gets there in time, save me a room. There may not have been that many rooms anyway. And so sometimes again, things come into our lives that kind of push the Lord out of the way. You know, we try to squeeze in and give Him an hour a week, but the Lord really wants more than that out of our lives. So what place does Jesus Christ have in our lives today? And again, He wants to have influence on our lives every day of the week. A few things to consider, you know, in different areas of our life. How does He impact our day-to-day life and living? In our business, are we honest? Are we trusted by others? Is our work dependable? You know? How about we just kind of went through this, but in our politics, who do we vote for? Do we just look and see who's going to promise the most money in my pockets when it's all over with? Or do we have a few things that we're concerned about? We're going to stand for those principles? We're going to stand up for abortion. We're going to stand up for Israel. Few things like that. How about society? You know, do we seek to be salt and light in the lost world? Or we kind of, one of those chameleon Christians, we just kind of blend in with whatever group that we're with. How about in our homes? Does Christ come first in our giving, our time, our plans? Our goals, does He enter into those? So like that little inn in Bethlehem, our lives can be full to overflowing, and so we have to be careful that the affairs of day-to-day life and living don't crowd out the Lord Jesus so that we don't have room for Him. So we get busy taking care of our business, and we can be in danger of forgetting about the Lord's business. and allow him to be a part of our everyday lives. Well, we see later on in life that it said of the Lord Jesus that the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head. He didn't have a couple of houses stashed around Israel somewhere so that he had a nice, warm, comfortable place to be when he would be in that area. It's evident that he didn't spend a lot of time in any one place. He didn't spend a lot of energy and time going through the shops and picking up stuff. Rather, he sought to do his Father's will. Now that doesn't mean everybody's supposed to travel quite like that, but at the same time, his main goal was to do what God wanted him to do. So he wasn't traveling around in an RV. He didn't have a donkey with a wagon on behind to haul around all his stuff that he'd picked up. And thinking, oh, that'll look nice on the shelf, you know, when we get back to the house. All right, so let's think about the announcement. Again, different times, but same God. There's no internet, no email. No Facebook, tweets, X, whatever else is out there, you know, to communicate with people. It was tell a person, tell somebody. Well, we see there in verses eight through 12, and there were in that same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over the flock by night, and lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone around about them, and they were so afraid. And angels 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, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you, that you shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." So here's God's divine plan fitting together. And that was a part of that was for Christ the Lord should be proclaimed by the angels. And he wasn't going to have a great earthly reception. They weren't rolling out the bands and the red carpet and all the rest of that stuff. But God planned a heavenly announcement. And so here we have the beginnings kind of of the gospel, the good news. of the incarnation, that God becomes man. And we hear the angels proclaiming the tidings of great joy, and we ought to be doing that as well. And how many people do we know that are, maybe even this time of the year, down and out, discouraged for one reason or another, the weight of the world seems to be upon their shoulders? They're worried about a lot of different things, finances, health, family, job, children, habits, all kinds of things. And many times they're trying to handle that in their own strength and not doing very well at it. And many of them don't know the Savior. They don't know that there's help and hope available to them and direction and wisdom that can be theirs if they talk to the Lord about it. And we, again, we don't know all the struggles that the shepherds are going through either. Long cold nights. They didn't have that electric blanket. Central heating system and everything else that we kind of enjoy in the wintertime. Out there when they're watching the sheep. Maybe they needed a warmer coat. Teeth chattering and then there's the the wolves out there howling away wanting to get a hold of one of those nice little lambs And so they had They had their own issues. They had their own struggles and yet they're about to hear joy to the world and And we see there in verse 10, and the angel said unto them, fear not for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy and 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 that you shall find a babe wrapped in swelling clothes, lying in a manger. Now I'm sure it wouldn't be convenient. It probably may not have been approved by their owners unless these shepherds owned the sheep. Probably wasn't the safest thing to do. We don't know all the details to go off and leave the sheep. Maybe they left grandpa watching the sheep or something. But some of them bailed out and left. Okay. They went to town to find that babe. And they did it, whether it made an awful lot of sense or not. And we see the grace of God in action. We don't deserve what he's done for us, okay? There's nothing that we could have done or will do in the rest of our lives that somehow is gonna impress God enough to say, I know you're a sinner, but come on in anyway. The sin problem is still there and it needs to be dealt with. And we needed a savior and God knew that. And so that's why he sent his son, the Lord Jesus, to come and to be that sacrifice, to be our substitute there on the cross and to bear our sins, the sins of the whole world placed upon the Lord Jesus. He took our punishment upon himself. and to die for our sins, to provide salvation for all who choose to believe. And died and rose again that third day. We're told there in 2 Corinthians 8, 9, he says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. And yet through his poverty, we might be rich. Stop and think about what Jesus left behind, what he gave up to come to this earth, ultimately to die on a cross for us. The Bible talks about it in different terms. It says he emptied himself. He voluntarily gave up his glory of heaven. He humbled himself. He lowered himself down to become man. And he experienced poverty on this earth. Again, he wasn't born into a palace situation. And, Yet he came so that we ultimately might be rich, not necessarily monetarily, but spiritually, and to be righteous. We think about all that he's given up for us. What have we given up for Christ lately? And I'm not talking about Lent sort of thing, but maybe put it in a different perspective. Who, Do you know that you would be willing to pretty much give up everything for? Give up your job, your security, your finances, reputation, and just be kind of out in the street for their benefit. Maybe it's a loved one, maybe, but how about somebody you didn't know? Probably a little less possibility there. How about somebody that hated you or despised you? You know, we might be willing to give up a lot for our families, our loved ones, but how about for those who despise you? Whom you, as God knows, would be one of those standing out there saying, crucify him, crucify him. Thing is, Jesus came as much for them as he did for you and I. He died for the sins of the world. And he's done his part. What we need to do is our part, and that is to believe, to trust to Him alone for our salvation. But Jesus did all this. He gave up heaven. The Bible tells us to come to this earth to seek and to save those that were lost. And folks, we're all lost, all right? People also that, again, He came and would die ultimately for. People that despised him, Herod. The one who tried to have him killed when he had all those babies there in Bethlehem killed, trying to stomp out Jesus. Can't have any other little king popping up. How about Nero who persecuted the Christians and the Jews? Or Saul of Tarsus who sought to put the Christians in jail or have them killed. Folks, we were on that list too. And yet he came to save us. He knew who we were. And he knew, again, our great need of a savior. He knew that not everybody was going to accept him, even though it was offered to them. And so we see the angels proclaiming the birth of the Messiah to come to seek and to save those that were lost. Some that would not see that they were lost, refused to believe that. And so the end result, they would not be saved. But for those who would believe on Him as Savior, they were saved. They were able to have their sins forgiven and given that gift of eternal life. Where does that leave you this morning? Do you know for sure if you were to die today, you'd be headed for heaven? Or is it one of these hope so kind of things? You can know, folks. We'd love to show you from God's word how you can know for sure your sins are forgiven and headed for heaven. We go on here and we see the accompaniment that comes along there in verse 13 and 14. It tells us, and then suddenly there was with an angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. And, Their world was really kind of turned upside down about that time. Not everybody, as we see, would be excited about Jesus coming, but the heavenly hosts were excited, and they were praising the Lord about it, and that ought to cause some excitement on our part too. To many, Jesus is just a swear word. You know, I sometimes wonder about that, you know? Somebody hits their finger with a hammer or something, it's Jesus, it's God, it's all this that is, you know, why isn't it Satan, the devil, Lucifer, the liar, whatever? No, you didn't get blamed for any of this stuff, does he? But how long has it been since you shared with somebody else how, when you were saved, what's happened in your life since then? See, we need to be ready to share the joy of our salvation. to give the Lord opportunity to work through us into the hearts and lives of other people. Other people are hurting. They need to hear that, that there's hope. And as believers, we ought to be the happiest group of people on this earth. But unfortunately, sometimes you look around and the Christians look like they lost their best friend. They just bit into a lemon. You know, we get sour about one thing or another. Luke tells us in Luke 15, seven, I say unto you that likewise, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over the 99 just persons that need no repentance. Joy in heaven over one person coming to know Jesus Christ. There ought to be joy on earth as well. Well, we see their inquiry as we look into verse 15 and 16, it says, and it came to pass the angels were gone away from them into heaven, and the shepherds said one to another, let us now even go even into Bethlehem and see this thing, which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger." And so we see here, the shepherds, they said, let's go check this out. They believe the word of God. They believed the messengers, the angels, what they had been told, they acted on it. And they went to go find Jesus just like they were told to do. And we see here, like when Joseph heard God's word and responded, they didn't have to take a vote. And it may have sounded like it was too good to be true and kind of wondering why are they telling us instead of the big shots in Bethlehem or something. But they heard the word and they said, let's go check it out. They did what God wanted them to do. And later on, we know that Herod finds out about this. This is some time later that there's a baby that's born, but he wasn't bothered enough to even go check it out. He said, you check it out and get back to me, okay? Well, these wise men told him about this new king being born, but we need to have that same kind of wisdom ourselves as the humble shepherds. When we hear God's word, we need to believe God's word and then to be obedient to God's word. God's never going to lead us astray. There's all kinds of things out there that sometimes misdirect us. And I experienced this the other day. Okay, I've got pictures on my phone, you know. Every time I got a different phone, when one would break, I'd have, it was still working enough, they'd load all the pictures onto the next one. So I got like four phones, same stuff, you know, just multiple pictures of the same thing. I thought, wow, it'd sure be nice to get that organized. there was something that was popping up on Facebook, you know, one of these ads. And this one, yeah, plug this thing in, just like a little memory stick, you know, and it'll help you to organize all your, it'll find all the pictures on the computer or on your phone, and it will put them together and organize them. Wow, this is awesome, you know. Well, they, 35 bucks, that would be worth it. But I don't really want to do this on Facebook. I'll go to Best Buy. Then maybe I can talk to somebody, because I don't know. And I showed this to the guy. He says, I think it's fake. And I'd never heard of such a thing. And the camera guy wasn't there. So I thought, well, I guess we'll scratch that one off the list. But yeah, I mean, there's a lot of fake stuff out there, but this is for real. God's word is real. We can believe it. It stood the test of time. And when God said it, we need to believe it and respond to it. So their response was, let's go and see and put it to the test. And so they went and they found the Lord Jesus. the one that would ultimately take away their sins when they trusted in him. So what did they do though with what they learned? You know, it's one thing to be like a sponge and we just kind of soak up all this stuff. You know, you sat in church and you're in Sunday school and you listen to guys on TV and the radio and you just keep soaking up, soaking up. What's a sponge for anyway? You just keep soaking it up. When it's all full, you set it off to the side, get another one. No, you ring that thing out. God wants us to kind of ring out the things that we've learned in the hearts and lives of other people. And so that's their testimony. We see this in verse 17. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the sayings which was told to them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told to them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Again, it's similar to a witness of, say, a car accident. Person gives a testimony. They tell you what they saw, what they heard. Well, here's a testimony about the Lord Jesus. And we too need to testify what we've seen, what we've heard, what we've observed in God's word, what's happened in our own life. And they made known abroad. They told other people about it. Mary kind of kept it to herself. She must have shared it with them though to start with. But now they're passing it on. And they believed what they had heard. And they shared that good news along the way back to the fields where their sheep were at. Telling their friends and neighbors and strangers and anybody else that they come across. It's good advertising, folks, okay? They believed in the product that they had been told about. And if you don't believe in your product, you usually don't say too much about it. But we see here they believed and they spoke of the, and that's the power of God. These guys hadn't been off to Bible college. They hadn't went to some seminar or anything else or taken something online, learned how to do public speaking or anything else. They just went out and told people what they knew about. And that's what God wants us to do too. And we experienced God working in our hearts and lives, Holy Spirit working in us, answering prayer. Man, that's a good one to tell people about. You know, this was going on in my life. We prayed about it. Other people prayed. This is how God answered. And they're thinking, wow, wish I had something like that going on for me. You know, all they can do is wish upon a star or something, you know. But they spoke good tidings of great joy. The Savior's born. They made known what they had heard about. And so we need to be like those shepherds, passing it on. But you know, like they say, it's only good news, what? If it gets to them in time. Okay, we don't know how much time we have. We don't know how much time somebody else has. So we need to tell them while we can. I was thinking about that. There ought to be a bit of a trail behind us. You know, sometimes you go into the doctor's office and, you know, you wind down this hallway and that hallway and, you know, and I'm saying, I should have brought some flour with me so I know how to get out of this place, you know. But, yeah, there ought to be a bit of a trail behind us of people that we've talked to. I think there was a trail between where they met Mary and Joseph and saw Jesus and heard this, and they may not have taken a straight line back to the sheep. They may have weaved around a little bit, but other people along the way heard about what they had seen and saw. There ought to be a little bit like that in our own lives. You know, you go to the same gas station, you get gas or place, you grab a cup of coffee or something in the morning. Do any of these people ever hear us say anything about the Lord? Do we ever give them a track? Man, Christmas time's an awesome time to share that with people. And they're more willing to receive it then than sometimes otherwise. And, But they had this message and they were busy about telling other people because it was important. We see they're rejoicing as you look there in verse 20. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen and was told unto them. They returned glorifying and praising God. It had an impact on their life. And folks at Iowa. The birth of Lord Jesus Christ ought to have an impact on our lives as well. There ought to be joy in our hearts and lives. Doesn't mean that you don't have any problems. You know, that the bills are all paid, there's extra money in the bank, and the car's running great, and you know, everything, you know, kids are all healthy, you know, just can't ask for anything more. Now we're still gonna have some potholes out there as we go through life, all right? But that just keeps us looking to the Lord, keeps us dependent on Him. But our hearts ought to be full to overflowing. We've got the good news that can change people's hearts and lives. We can change their destiny from hell to heaven. Maureen and I were having a bite to eat here the other night. which once in a while we'll go out on Friday night and get something to eat. And I could hear this guy, I couldn't hear everything he was saying and I didn't want to be just eavesdropping, but I could hear him talking to the guy across the table from him. And he was talking about, you know, I know not everybody believes it, but I believe that there's a heaven and there's a hell. And I believe that. You know, and anyway, he was talking to him. I thought, well, this guy must be a believer. He's talking to this guy. And so we got up about the same time as I did. And so I had one of those little, those daily bread things about Christmas, and I had track stuff in there. I had a couple of them, you know. And so I went over and I said, this might be of some help to you, you know. Hey, I'm a believer. He says, are you a believer too? Yeah, you know. And this other guy's not, you know, and he's just kind of watching us. You know, so he started talking to him a little bit. I didn't, I figured he'd done the majority of it. I didn't, he'd say an awful lot, but he says, yeah, you got to make that decision while you're still alive. You know, none of this decide later on stuff, you know? And so I gave him one of these, you might look at this, you know, but yeah, there ought to be joy in our hearts. We can't solve all the problems of the world. You know, as much as we think, boy, if I were in Washington, I could solve some of these problems, but we're not. And, but we can change people. We can't have the power to do it, but God does. And we can pray and ask God to give us an open door, an opportunity to talk to somebody that they might be open and receptive to it. And they may not give you a big hug and jump up and down for joy when you give them a track. No, it's this, you know. And some people are, I think they're hesitant to give you a green light, because look at what's going to come next. But give it to them. They got something to look at later. They can read that thing over and over again. They're not going to remember all the verses you quoted or scripture references you gave them. You know, they're probably have trouble trying to find Matthew or anything else, you know, without looking in the index. Give them something they can read over and over again. And the Lord can work in their hearts and lives when you're long gone and you don't have to know these people But the Lord can take over Holy Spirit work in their hearts rattle it around in their heads Having my sins forgiven, wouldn't that be awesome? Knowing I'm going to heaven, that would be awesome. You know, as I shared in Sunday school this morning. You got some people that have made a big name for themselves. I just happened to see the headline and I, maybe I'll go back and look and see what the rest of the article said, but it was talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, the big, well, his muscles are probably down here now, but he's looking a little older like the rest of us. But he was saying something about, you know, he was struggling a little bit with this idea of death. Ah, heaven, that's just a fantasy. You got a lot of people that think like that, you know, but as they get closer and closer to reality and death, or maybe it's a friend or family, loved one, that dies and they start thinking, wow. I might be next, you know, and they start thinking about it, you know, and hopefully somebody close enough to them can tell them the truth, you know. You might be the one that can make a difference in somebody else's life. Lord can use each and every, He's using shepherds, folks, okay? And He could use us, but we have to be willing to let Him lead us and give us courage to stand up and speak up. So now's your opportunity. Christmas is coming. Best time of the year to tell people about Christ. Don't be bashful about it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for loving us. Thank you for the salvation that you provide through your son, the Lord Jesus. Thank you that he was able to accomplish everything that was needed there on the cross. He died in our place. He shed his blood to provide forgiveness of sins. Not just automatic, but for all those who choose to believe in him alone for their salvation. Not in their baptism, not in their membership of a church or anything else they're going to do. Those are good things, but that's not how we get into heaven. So Lord, we pray that if there be any here today that have never trusted Christ, that they'd seriously think about this. Again, none of us know how long we've got. in this old world and there's no opportunity to make a decision after we leave this life. Decisions that we make here and now are gonna determine where we spend eternity. And eternity is a long, long time. Heaven or hell, there's nothing in between. So Lord, we pray that you give us boldness to tell other people about Christ and that they might be open and receptive to receiving it, to think about it and respond. And we praise you for the results, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, I would like for us to sing a closing hymn, if you would, please. We don't have any mountains around, but we're supposed to go tell it on a mountain. 138, 138. You can find that in your hymno. We'll sing that first. I'm a person who does it first. Okay, 138. ♪ Jesus Christ is born ♪ ♪ Who takes away our sin ♪ ♪ And sets us free ♪ ♪ He will rule over us ♪ ♪ And show us the way ♪ ♪ He will take away our sin ♪ ♪ And set us free ♪ ♪ He will rule over us ♪ Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem. All right. Happy flight. I've been told that's old-fashioned stuff. My kids tell me that. You know, let us know when you get there, okay? Well, we didn't get there, okay. Lord bless you, have a Merry Christmas. If you come here on Wednesday night, enjoy yourself. you