Discovering Mega Joy

, anyway, for a time of study in the word this morning, let me have you turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. Every week here at Cornerstone, we take time in our service to open up our Bibles, to read our Bibles, to let God speak to us through His, His word and reveal Himself to us. And, and then we respond to whatever he says by changing, letting him change our lives in whatever ways that would conform to what he is teaching us.

in his word. And today being the Sunday before Christmas, one of the things we do every year is we just pick a portion of the Christmas narrative that we find in Matthew and in Luke, and we take some time to look at that. And this year, we are gonna be looking at Luke chapter 2, and I want to speak to you this morning on the subject of discovering mega joy. Discovering mega.

Joy. when you think about it, Christmas and joy just seem to go together, right? we attach those ideas together in the greetings that we give during this season of the year, and also even in the songs that we sing. In fact, fill in the blank for me.

We wish you a Merry Christmas. Tis the season to be. jolly. Don, we now our Happy apparel.

Even our clothing is supposed to be happy. oh, come all ye faithful. Joyful and triumphant, good Christian men. Rejoice And the song that we sang that we often sing during this time of the year, even though it actually points forward to the millennial reign of Christ, is joy to the world.

So and even secular songs, just the notion of joy and happiness is attached to this season of the year. And yet, The Christmas season seems to do a really good job of producing other emotions beyond just the joy that we might traditionally attach to this particular holiday. In some, it produces anxiety as they think about the gifts they need to buy and getting their shopping done. In fact, how many of you are totally done with your shopping for the year?

All right. How many of you haven't even started? OK. How many of you aren't even going to shop?

No gifts for anybody. OK. All right, that's the spirit. But those that do shop, there's anxiety about, am I going to have time to get everything that I need to get, and is it the right gift for the right person.

some experience feelings of sadness during this time of year. and also this season tends to do a good job of producing the emotion of anger. we have very heavy traffic around any areas where there are shoppers. And there are crowded stores.

Even when you go to the store and you just want a non-Christmas thing, you have to deal with crowded conditions and long lines and parking lots that are full where you can't find a parking space within 1 mile of where you need to go shop, so it can produce emotions of anger and frustration. on a more profound note, this is a sad and difficult time of year for, for people. I remember one individual, her, her dad committed suicide on Christmas Day, and so every time she would come around to this time of year, she had to revisit that memory and the emotions that just became attached to this season.

of the year, unfortunately, there are people in our church body that have lost loved ones over this past year and so this Christmas, while it is a joyful occasion, it is also embodied in it is the sting of the absence of that precious loved one who passed away over the course of this past year.

And so there's a lot of emotions that we might feel attached to this season of the year on any year, but I think Christmas 2008 is an especially difficult time for many people. In fact, writers And newspapers are talking about this. This is what one journalist said. He said the hustle and the bustle of the holiday season can be a lot of fun for some people, but the season for others can be overwhelming as people stress out about holiday gift buying finances, finding the right gift, dealing with extended families, and finding the time to get it all done.

Pair that. With the faltering economy, worries about the domestic auto industry, homes in foreclosure, rising unemployment, failures in the banking industry, and it shouldn't be surprising that some people may be dealing this year with higher incidence of depression and anxiety. there's 100s of thousands of people. Going into this Christmas without jobs, who had jobs a year ago, and many more who have jobs right now but aren't sure they're going to have that job come January.

So this is a very tough time of year for many people and maybe you're sitting here today saying, what, Pastor Milton, I'm feeling a lot of things this Christmas season, and frankly joy is not at the top of the list of the emotions that I am feeling. But having said that, you might say I'd sure love to get there and I could use some help. And if that's the case, then I think the passage we're going to be looking at this morning will be of immense help. Real genuine deep seated spiritual help to you.

In fact, in the middle of the narrative that we find here in Luke chapter 2 is the words of the angel on the very first Christmas day where the angel says to the shepherds, I bring you good news of great joy. And the word that is translated great here is the Greek word we get our English word mega from. He's saying, I bring you good news of. Mega joy which shall be for all the people.

What that means is that the Christmas event that we celebrate the birth of Christ, is actually intended by God to produce in us joy and not just joy, but mega joy. God wants you to experience extreme joy in the midst of whatever difficult circumstances you find yourself, joy over what he did on that first Christmas Day. And as we look at this passage, I'm going to show you as we look at the example of the shepherds, 5 activities that you can engage in this Christmas season, which will bring you mega joy this Christmas.

In fact, in a way that I would suggest is very real and deep.

And in a way that will make the joy not just one emotion amongst many, but the predominant emotion. That you experience this Christmas and beyond. Fortunately, you don't even have to wait until I'm done with my sermon to do these activities. 3 of the 5 you can be doing right now as you're seated here listening to me.

And then the other 2, please don't start doing them until I'm done with the message. You can go forth from here and do activity 4 and 5. And the first activity. is this, and that is to hear the good news about the Savior, who is Christ the Lord, to hear the good news about the Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

I don't know what you've been listening to, what you've been paying attention to, what you've been watching, but we, we hear a lot of stuff in the news media. And the music that we might listen to, and I would just challenge you that, that among all the things that you listen to, make sure that this season, and even this morning, that you let yourself hear the good news about the Savior, who is Christ the Lord. That's what the shepherds did. And we're going to observe that.

Now, we get into what the shepherds do by way of hearing this good news beginning in verse 8, but let's just quickly go through verses 1 through 7. And then we'll pick up the story of this Christmas narrative in verse 8. Luke says now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited Earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

Obviously there were two censuses taken while this guy was governor. This is the first of the two that took place around 4 BC. Verse 3, and everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. So throughout the entirety of the Roman Empire, there's a mass movement.

going on as people are leaving where they're dwelling right now to go back to their hometown in order to register because the Roman emperor wanted to know how much taxes to levy against cities and against provinces in his empire and I think we can all identify with this New York City. I think the state of New York actually and even California, there's a lot of talk that's going on right now as states are in financial trouble. They're trying to figure out ways that they can tax us.

Fortunately, they won't be sending us to our home or place of birth.

But anyway, this is what Caesar Augustus was doing. And so everyone is moving at this point in time, going back to their hometown to register verse 4 in this massive humanity, the camera focuses on one guy, Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea. To the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and the family of David. Now, as you see on the map behind me, Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth, which was in northern Israel in the region of Galilee, are making a 90 mile journey from there down to Bethlehem, which was just a short distance south of the city.

Of Jerusalem and they're going there because Joseph was of the house and the family of David. Verse 5, they're going there in order to register. It says along with Mary. Joseph has Mary with him who was engaged to him and who was with child.

And so we observe that Joseph has a woman with him. He is engaged to this woman, technically married in the eyes of the law, but Joseph, we know from Matthew 1, kept her a virgin until she gave birth to the child in her womb who is Jesus Christ. And so Luke trying to describe that says that they were engaged at this point, but she is pregnant, and the indications are that she was not just pregnant but very pregnant at this point in time. In fact, ancient church tradition, which is not authoritative but sometimes it can be a little suggestive of maybe some truth, indicates that Mary.

began her labor pangs on the journey towards Bethlehem. So we don't know if that's true. She may have started her labor pangs once she got there, but it's also possible that that ancient tradition is accurate, that her labor pangs began on the journey. And you can imagine if you're very pregnant, and you're on a 90 mile journey, I'm sure Joseph did not have her walk a lot, but she would have ridden on a pack animal.

And if you're not in labor when you start a 90 mile journey like that, that's a great way to induce labor. but anyway, they get to Bethlehem, and it says that while they were there, the days were accomplished for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the end. It's in verse 7 that the narrative begins to take a few twists that are odd to our senses.

In verse 7, it says she gave birth. Nothing unusual about that, but then it says, and she wrapped him in cloths and she laid him in a manger. Normally when a woman gave birth she had midwives. She had attendants who would receive the child and then they would rub the child down with a salt solution, then wrap the child in swaddling cloths, and then set the child.

either give the child to the mother or set the child somewhere. but we see in verse seven that Mary gave birth, she wrapped him, she laid him in a manger. The picture is that of aloneness. There's no attendance to help her, with these kinds of things.

My question is, where was Joseph?, couldn't he have helped wrap the child and set the child down and I don't know where he was. Maybe trying to find better accommodation somewhere, or maybe he was there, but at the very least, commentators suggest that they don't have people helping them with these kinds of things, so they're left to themselves. And another interesting twist is found in this statement where it says that she laid him in a manger. Now the word manger, we often sometimes use that word manger.

to just speak of the stable scene, like a manger scene, and, and we think manger means stable. No. A manger is something that was in the stable. The manger itself was the feeding trough that the animals were, would normally eat out of.

So they're in a stable somewhere. She gives birth to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. She wraps him, and then she lays him in a feeding trough for animals. Why would she do this?

Why would she lay him there instead of somewhere nicer? Luke knew you would ask this, so he says, because there was no room for them in the inn. Conditions were so crowded in Bethlehem at this time that, in the public shelters and whatever motels they may have had, whatever guest rooms that people who lived in Bethlehem would have had available, all of those were jam packed and full at this time. And so the only place that was available to them was a stable for animals where Mary gave birth, and then she laid her baby in the feeding trough that the animals of that stable would normally eat out of.

That's an amazing thing about the humility. Of the birth of the Messiah, how God contradicts our normal sensibilities and does the opposite of what we would expect. My son Benjamin and I in our homeschooling we're reading through King Arthur, Howard Pyle's story of King Arthur and his knights. And in the birth of King Arthur, as he narrates that, it describes him as being wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a crib of gold.

That's the way the world would write something like that, and Jesus, the ultimate king, was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a feeding trough for animals. Well, that's the gospel event, but now God, when he does something amazing, wants that to be known. And so he arranges to have this great deed that God has accomplished announced to some select individuals who are nearby Bethlehem and obviously whose hearts were ready for this announcement. It says in verse 8 that in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.

So from all indications this is a totally normal evening. just doing what they've always done, staying up late and watching their flock of sheep. Verse 9, and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them. as you read through the scripture, it's a wonder that angels don't get a complex because whenever they appear, they always freak people out.

they really do to where everyone's terrified to see them. Imagine everywhere you go, people are just shrieking in terror at the sight of you. Whenever an angel appears in Scripture, especially in the New Testament, people freak out and the first words out of the angel's mouth is stop being afraid. That's, that's how they have to introduce, what it is that they're going to say.

And that's exactly what happens here. It says an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them. And I'm sure angels were like, How do I make my appearance? Do I do it gradually or not?

No matter what I do, they're going to freak out. So I know I'll just do it suddenly. And so the angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. Literally in the Greek text, they feared a mega fear.

All right, they feared a great fear. They're out of their minds with fear at this point. The angels don't or the shepherds don't respond by saying, OK, this is the angel of the Lord. He's going to announce the birth of the Messiah, and this beautiful narrative is going to be in Luke chapter 21 day.

They're not thinking that. They're watching their sheep. They're in their normal occupation, and boom, suddenly here is an angel of the Lord standing in front of them, and there is light all over around this angel, and they're encompassed in this light to where it's as bright as the day. And their first thought is, we are so dead.

We're dead. And I think we can identify with this. if you have a conscience that is mindful of the sins that you've committed throughout your life, all the deeds that you have done in darkness that no one knows about, sins you've committed against God, if you have any awareness of your sin, in any way, shape or form, Then if suddenly you're by yourself and an angel of the Lord appears, your first thought would be that of the shepherds. You would think you're a dead man, or a dead woman, that the angel is there to do you harm to execute God's judgment.

Well, look what the angel does. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. Or literally stop being afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be for all the people.

imagine, imagine this in one moment, they're experiencing abject terror, and the angels like, stop being afraid. I've got good news of great joy, which shall be for all the people. Not only do you have no cause to fear, But you have great cause to be extremely happy right now, happier than you've ever been. You can go from mega fear to mega joy, the angel is saying.

I bring you good news of great joy, mega joy, which shall be for all the people. I love how the angel says this to the shepherds. This news is for all the people, not just for the religious, not just for the high, but also for the low. Not just for men, but also for women, not just for adults, but also for children, not just for the rich, but also for the poor, not just for those who have white collar jobs, but also those that have blue collar jobs and those that have no jobs at all.

Every person of every tongue, of every tribe, of every ethnicity, this good news is for them. It's for all the people, including Shepherds It would be helpful to understand that. That in later Judaism, which is often a reflection of how it was during Bible times, the occupation of shepherd was a very lowly esteemed occupation. Shepherds, I don't know if they earned this reputation or not, but they had a reputation for stealing and for not being trustworthy.

In fact, they were so lowly esteemed that their testimony, the testimony of a shepherd, was not even admitted in a court of law. So if someone committed a crime against you and the only witness was a shepherd, Then you would actually have no viable witnesses at the trial because that shepherd's testimony would not be admitted. Now again, that was in later Judaism in recorded history, but often it does reveal that there's some likelihood that at least some elements of that low esteem.

was in place even at the time of this, this occurrence.

And so these shepherds perhaps that are used to being viewed in this way and treated in this way, and not trusted, they have an angel of the Lord coming to them and making this announcement saying the good news I'm giving you, it's for everybody, the high and for the low, and for you also. Verse 11 for today, here's the announcement today in the city of David, there has been born for you. And you might want to underline those words for you in your text, there has been born, not just a Savior who's Christ the Lord, but there's been born for you, a savior, who is Christ the Lord.

This Savior is for you, shepherds, to whom I am speaking right now.

In referring to Christ as a savior, the angel is saying that he will be the one who will save us from our sin, from the guilt of our sins, from the power of our sins, from the punishment that we deserve eternally for our sins under the wrath of Almighty God. Jesus also will be the deliverer, in the sense that he will save us from the enemy that holds us captive from the devil, from the evil one who oppresses us. Christ came as a savior for us to deliver us from the oppressor.

And also there are many people in the world today that are enslaved to their various lust and desires that run rampant inside of them.

They're slaves of these lusts and Christ came to be a savior for such people to deliver them from these things, from sin. And from the evil one who oppresses those that are under him. There has been born in the city of David, for you, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And I, I, my prayer is that every one of us in this room would just that those words for you that they would resonate with you, and you would be like, Jesus is a savior for me.

He came to be a savior for me. A lot of times it's easy to believe the gospel for other people. Yeah, I believe the gospel. And and we can believe it for other people, but Not for ourselves, quite as much, but embrace this and hear God say there has been born for you, a savior, who is Christ the Lord.

And then in verse 12, the angel says something that's not really surprising. But it's just interesting to note that, that the angel nowhere commands the shepherds to go look for the child. He doesn't say, and now I command you, go find the child. He never commands them to go.

But the angel obviously assumes that they're going to get up and go try to find the child. All right. So the angel just tells them how to find him. Verse 12, and this, the angel says, will be a sign for you.

you will find the baby wrapped in cloths. That's not unusual. Every baby would be wrapped in cloths, but here's the sign and lying in a feeding trough. Now the shepherds know.

All right, we gotta, we gotta check out the stables in Bethlehem. It's inside Bethlehem. We got to go to the stables because he's somewhere in a stable in Bethlehem, and we need to just go from stable to stable. He's not telling us which one and look for one that has a human baby lying wrapped in cloths in a feeding trough for the animals of that stable.

All right. So right after the angel says this, it says, and suddenly there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among men with whom he is pleased. This word peace means spiritual prosperity, tranquility. Peace of heart, peace of mind, peace with God.

Because this Savior has been born, there is now the possibility of peace with God and genuine peace in one's heart, regardless of their circumstances. And this peace will be given to those upon whom God has set his good pleasure. The angels say. If you want to experience mega joy this Christmas, then first of all, here, take time to not even just in this message, but even tomorrow, get up, read your Bible, read this story, read Matthew, take some time to really ponder these events that are being described here and hear the good news about the Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

But there's a second activity. that you should engage in if you want to experience mega joy, and that is believe. Don't just hear but believe the good news about the Savior, who is Christ the Lord, you must believe it, or this news will be unprofitable to you. But if you hear it, and if you believe it, then it will yield up eternal profit to you.

Look how the shepherds manifested their faith. In believing the message that was given to them. Verse 15, and when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, Let us go straight to Bethlehem, then, let us go straight to Bethlehem, then, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. They're not saying let's go to Bethlehem and find out if this really took place.

This is pretty startling. It's hard to believe, but let's go and at least check it out. We acknowledge the possibility that it may have happened, and we'll go find out for ourselves. That's not what they're saying.

Let's go to Bethlehem and let's see this thing that has past tense happened. They believe the message that has been given to them, as startling as it is, they're watching sheep. And suddenly, an angel shows up in front of them. And that angel tells them that the Messiah that you have been longing for, and Israel has been longing for for hundreds of years, has been born.

Wow, that's amazing. And he's been born in Bethlehem within walking distance of you. And he's a savior, and he's for you. And you will find him.

You will find this baby tonight, and you will find him in a stable, you will find him lying in a feeding trough. These are startling things that would defy belief. The belief of someone whose heart is not in tune with God and ready to hear this news and even desperate for it, but the angel or the shepherds hear this news, and they believe it. God has made it known to us.

And if God says to the angel that it happened, it happened, and let's go see this thing that has happened. This challenges us and our faith as believers. We need to have the same mindset that when we read our New Testaments, whatever God makes known to us, Whatever God says has happened, that we just embrace it. It happened.

If God says it happened, then it happened. Here's some things that have happened to those that have believed in Jesus. And that is, number one, your sins are forgiven. All of your sins, all of them.

have been forgiven. Do you believe that there are Christian people, sometimes in our church body that, that struggle to believe this and actually began to believe on a gut level that there are some sins that they have committed that God has not forgiven. And would to God that we would say, hey, if God says they're forgiven, then it's happened. You are accepted in Christ.

God tells you in his word that he loves you. Do you believe that? There have been times I've counseled believers, who have believed in Jesus, and they're struggling, saying, I'm not sure God loves me. When our mindset should be, hey, if God says he loves me and he reveals that in the New Testament, which he does over and over and over again, then it's happened, and it's real, and I believe it.

We learned in the New Testament that in believing in Jesus, we're always under God's favor all day, every day, regardless of our performance on our good days and our bad days, Jesus purchased for us God's eternal favor that remains unchanged every single day and throughout eternity. Do we believe this? The Bible also tells us that if we believed in Jesus, the power of sin has been broken in our lives. We are free from sin's guilt, and also from sin's power, we no longer have to sin again.

Do we believe this? Do we say, hey, God has made it known? I read it right here, that I no longer have to sin again because sin's power over me has been broken. I am freed from sin.

Apparently, God has made this happen. So it's happened. I believe what he's made known to me. God's wrath has been fully borne by Christ.

We read that in the New Testament as believers. Do you believe that that's actually happened, or do you believe you must punish yourself and you must, God's got a little bit of anger left over that He wants you to bear each day, especially on your bad days. God in His word tells believers that he's always working all things together for your good. Do you believe that in every hardship and every trial, on and on the list can go, but I think the example of the shepherds is a wonderful example of just no matter how amazing it is, how startling it is what God says he's done, if he says he's done it, then it's happened, and we need to embrace that.

Well, there's a 3rd activity. That I would suggest that you must do if you want to, Experience mega joy, and that is that you need to make haste to experience firsthand the Savior who is Christ the Lord. All right, hear the good news about Christ, believe the good news about Christ, but then get up from where you are and make haste and going to this Christ to experience firsthand this Savior who is Christ the Lord. Look at how the shepherds did this.

And when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, Let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And so they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. They got up, they left, whatever they were doing. And they hurried to Jesus.

They didn't say, Well, that's good to know. I'm happy to know that. And maybe one day we'll see this Messiah, and he may come to us. No, they, they were like, if this Messiah has been born, who is a savior for us, then we will do everything we can as quickly as possible to make haste to get to him.

So that we can see with our own eyes and experience this one firsthand. in our culture, every year the day after Thanksgiving, we're like pumped with all these advertisements on Thanksgiving Day in the newspaper and all these incredible steals and deals that stores are offering to get shoppers into their store the next day and then there are people I've seen this who in front of Best Buy or Circuit City or wherever they'll camp out. At like 9 o'clock the night before on Thanksgiving Day so that they can be the first one or one of the first ones inside the door the next morning when the store opens and then good grief when the door finally does open it is just absolute craziness as people just plunge through the front door of the store and race to be the first one to get to that material item that they can get for such a great deal.

There's nothing at all necessarily wrong with doing that.

I'm not criticizing that, but is it interesting that we have a culture where people make such haste with such devotion to get to material things, but how many are making haste to get to Jesus? How many are as passionate as the shepherds were, and saying, I want to get to Jesus, I want to experience this one firsthand. there are people who say, Yeah, I believe in Jesus, and I'm a Christian, but man, they've never come to a point in their life where they've heard the good news and believed it.

And then said, I will get up from where I am, and I will make haste to go to this one who is to be my savior.

And the shepherds did this. They resolved, Let's go straight to Bethlehem. Let's not meander around. Verse 16.

They came in a hurry, and then it says they found their way to Mary, which implies that they went from stable to stable looking for the baby Jesus, and they didn't find him in the first one. They're going to one stable and they're looking for a human child in a feeding trough, not there. And so they go to the next one, they go to the next one, they go to the next one, and eventually they find their way to this particular stable. And they never gave up, and they were in a hurry.

As soon as they saw that this stable doesn't have a human child in a feeding trough, they immediately took off. They didn't linger there. And they raced to the next stable until they came to where Mary and Joseph and Christ, the Messiah, the savior, was lying in a manger. Oh, what a great example.

This is, there are many people today who are unwilling to make haste to go to Jesus because they don't want to get up and leave where they are right now. But whatever sin it might be or relationship it might be, or whatever, whatever it is in your life right now that you're like, So latched on to that you don't want to let that go and leave it and go to Jesus. I'm telling you that Christ is worth so much more. And Christ has come to bring you mega joy that is far infinitely greater than any joy.

that whatever sin or thing it is that you're holding onto and refusing to leave could ever bring you. There's 1/4 activity as we move along here. We'll go through these quickly. If you want to experience mega joy this Christmas, activity 4, tell others about the Savior who is Christ the Lord.

Tell others about the Savior who is Christ the Lord. It says in verse 17 that when they, the shepherds, when they got to the stable where Jesus was, when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this child. In other words, they talked to Joseph and Mary and said, You're not going to believe why we're here. We were watching the sheep.

An angel appeared. He told us that that baby right there is the Savior who is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the Lord.

And he told us, the angel told us where to find him. And so they make known to Mary and Joseph, this statement that had been made to them about the identity of this child that was in the stable that Mary had given birth to. So they made it known to Joseph and Mary, and then there's every indication in verses 18 and 19 that they made it known everywhere they went as they went abroad. It says, and all who heard it, meaning more than just Mary and Joseph, heard this, many others, and all who heard it, they wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them, thinking about them, literally putting the pieces together. In her heart. I'm struck by The people of Israel who heard the shepherds tell them about what had transpired that night, you would think that that stable scene would be packed with people racing. To visit the Christ, but all we see in verse 18 is that everyone who heard it was amazed.

They were like, Wow, that's amazing. What an amazing story. And in a feeding trough, the angel said that The Messiah is in a feeding trough. That's amazing, but it doesn't seem like anyone got up from where they were and went to go see as the shepherds did.

But nonetheless, the shepherds set a great example for us. They were excited about this man. They found Jesus. They experienced him firsthand, and now they're going around telling everybody what it was that was said about the identity of this one in the manger.

And a 5th activity, as we wrap this up, if you want to experience mega joy this Christmas season, praise God in your circumstances for the Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Praise God in your circumstances for the Savior, who is Christ the Lord, verse 20, the last verse here, and the shepherds went back. They went back to their same old job, watching the same old sheep. On that same old hillside.

And when they got back, they looked around, there's no angels there anymore. There's no bright glory of God shining on that hillside anymore. It looks like it always looked before those events transpired. But nonetheless, they are not discouraged.

They go right back into their former occupation, former circumstances. glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them that they would see. See, their circumstances that they go back into are the same, but they, the shepherds, are forever changed. And what, even if your circumstances can never change, if you change, you're a part of your circumstances.

If you change your circumstances have changed by virtue of the transformation in you. And if we could just, man, not, not just during the season, but as we go into our occupations, as we interact with people, that wherever we go, just in our hearts, and even in our voices, we are glorifying, we are praising God for this Christ who is our Savior, as we experience Him. Hi and learn more and more about him. I'm amazed at how eager the shepherds were to speak about this Christ and to praise and glorify God and worship Him in the midst of their circumstances, how passionate they obviously were when, frankly, they knew far less about the Savior than we know today, having our completed New Testament.

They had no idea that the Savior would actually end up being crucified and buried and then raised from the dead on the 3rd day and then ascended to the right hand of God and all the gospel blessings that belong to us. Man, if the shepherds looked at us, sometimes they'd go, What is wrong with you? We knew this much compared to what, and we were way more excited and eager to speak to others about him than we see that you are. But what, as we speak to others about the Savior who is Christ the Lord, as we praise God for the Savior who is Christ the Lord, we hear the good news about Him, we believe it, we make haste to experience Him, and then we speak to others and praise God.

All of that completes our joy, genuine, lasting, real, mega joy from God. Let me ask you to bow your heads this morning. In this passage, we learn about Christ, who is a savior, who is the Christ, who is the Lord. He came for us.

He came to give us peace. He came to give us favor. He came to bring us mega joy. What a savior is he.

And we're not saved by his birth. We're not saved by that manger scene. We're saved by the fact that this one who came and was born, lived a life of perfection. And was utterly righteous in every way, but he died on a cross and shed His blood as a payment, as a sacrifice.

For our sins, not his. And God raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand. Christ right now as I speak, is at the right hand of God. And Christ speaks to everyone in this room and says, believe in me as the ultimate Lord and Savior.

And as your Savior, I have been born, I have died, I've been raised, I've been ascended for you. It's that I might be your savior. If you've never believed in Christ, you've never experienced the joy that he can give, if you've never experienced the forgiveness of your sins, My challenge to you is to make haste to get up from where you are right now in your life. And make haste to get to Jesus, who is for you and came to be your Savior.

Let's pray, Lord, thank you for. For this event that we gather around and celebrate at Christmas. It deserves a more eloquent tongue then Then mine And more exalted language than I am able to give it. And I am humbled.

Over how puny my words and my efforts are to fully describe The glory of what you've done. But open our hearts, Lord, to see the beauty and the glory of this, the condescension of this. And that as we look into that. That stable scene that We realized this, this baby, this one who was willing to become a baby, the God of the universe has come for me.

To be my Savior, my Messiah, my Lord. I will make haste to go to this one and experience all that he wants to give me. Thank you for the joy that this brings. Deepen.

Our experience of this joy. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.