The World's Greatest Birth Announcements

Thank you, Kayleigh, for reminding us of the servant king, the son of God. Here with us, that's what Christmas is all about. That's the real message of this season of the year. And yet the script which the Gospels have recorded for us of the birth of Christ is not the script we would have written if we were charged with that responsibility ourselves. We looked at that last week and Luke 2 when we saw the circumstances surrounding the birth of Christ, a little backwater town, Bethlehem, really. But that was infulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. An inn, and even worse than that, no rooms, or a stable, a feeding trough, rudely cut out of stone for animals, will be his manger. That's not the script we would have written. The poverty, obscurity of the birth of Christ is amazing. But scene 2 of the story is indeed spectacular. We find scene 2 as we return to Luke 2 this morning in the birth announcement of the Savior. Now, many of us in this room could tell interesting stories about how we announce the birth of our children to our parents. I can remember when this would be 40 years ago now that we were announcing the birth of our first born to our parents when Amy, we knew we were going to have Amy. And I remember calling mom and dad, mom answers the phone and I said, hello grandma. I thought that was really clever. Seems so lame now. Why with the technology we have in the social media today, people come up with really clever birth announcements. We're going to show you a few of those this morning. These are actually announcements to parents that babies are coming. Here's one I really like. You may not be able to read from the back especially, but this is an eviction notice. Please note that you're required to vacate the premises within 27 weeks as the new tenant is expect to move in on March 10, 2014. She looks a little happy about that, doesn't she? Here's one I love. Dogs, a dog catching up on the reading, no doubt the family dog. How to still get treats when the humans are having a baby. And this one would be great if you have a little boy first. Every superhero needs a sidekick arriving January 2015. And I love this next one. You can tell that big sister is not very happy about this news. Not again. I love those. But nobody, none of the ones I searched on the web can top the birth announcement we're going to look at this morning because nobody I saw recruited real live angels to announce the birth of their child. And yet that's exactly the story we find in Luke chapter 2. As we move into scene 2 of the birth of Christ, the announcement of his birth is absolutely spectacular. But what Luke describes first of all is the recipients of that announcement and that kind of lowers it down a little. The recipients of the announcement, let's look at Luke chapter 2 verse 8. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were terrified. We know the story so well that sometimes I think we forget that this is not the group of people that you would expect to receive this kind of amazing announcement. This is a spectacular announcement, angels announcing the fact that Jesus is born but for shepherds. Now we, you know, we dress it up so well on our Christmas cards and our Christmas plays and the shepherds are so sanitized. They were a rough group in the first century. They are not the class of people that we might expect this announcement to come to. Now as a class, they were looked down on. They had a bad reputation. Their occupation for one thing kept them from the temple. They were not able to observe the religious observances there. But they also had a very unfortunate habit as they roamed around the countryside of confusing what was mine and what was theirs. And they had a reputation for stealing. And so as a class of people, they were not very highly regarded. In fact, shepherds in the first century were considered so unreliable. They were not allowed to give testimony in a court of law. Now I don't know about the character of these particular shepherds. I don't want to group them all by class, if you will. I don't know about these guys. These may have been the top of the line shepherds. But you would think, couldn't God have chosen someone else to make this announcement to? What about the priests? After all, the priests who are responsible for the death of hundreds and thousands of animals in the temple in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy looking forward to the Messiah, wouldn't these be the legitimate people to receive this announcement? Or what about the scribes? Old Testament scholars who know inside and out those Old Testament prophecies and if they had been sensitive to what they really said would have been looking for the Messiah, wouldn't they be the ones? Or maybe Herod's palace or even Caesar's court in Rome. Now we're talking. That's where the announcement should go to the high and mighty. But the shepherds? What we see once again is that God is not concerned about impressing people with big names. He's not concerned about impressing people by dropping names. Oh, by the way, I want Herod to know. I want Caesar to be the first to hear that my son is being born. You see, God does not favor the wealthy. God does not favor the highly educated. God does not favor the higher social standing of people. All those things are fine. Nothing wrong with that. But God doesn't favor those who come from that background. That does not earn you brownie points with God. In fact, if anything, those very privileges in life may keep you from seeing your need of a savior and may keep you from understanding the fact that you are a sinner in need of help, drastically in need of a savior. Paul reminds the Corinthians of this. A Corinthian church that had become quite proud, even arrogant. Paul reminds them in 1 Corinthians 1. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many of you were influential. Not many of you were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not. Are you reading shepherds into that? To nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him. This is all a part of the humiliation of Christ, his coming in humble form. In the way that he came, he is lowering himself, humbling himself, Philippians 2. He is becoming one of us and he is laying aside all the perks of heaven to come to this earth in a lowly form just to become man is lowering himself infinitely. But he does so in a cow stall feeding from a feeding or lying in a feeding trough for the animals. And so it is kind of fitting that the announcement goes to shepherds. But if the recipients of the announcement may surprise us a little bit, wow the content of the announcement is amazing. The shepherds here, the announcement of the angels, and this is what they hear. They hear four different things. Notice verse 10, they first of all hear that this is a message of joy, verse 10. But the angel said to them, here comes the message, do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Good news of great joy. This is a joyful message. This is an announcement of joy because it is good news. Now don't misunderstand that good news is not the opposite of bad news. It's not just like, okay, we got something good to tell you. First good news than bad news. It's not that kind of deal. The word good news is the word which will later be used throughout the New Testament for the gospel. This is the gospel that is being announced here. And the gospel is that God has looked down upon mankind with grace and mercy and love and sent his son to be our savior. That's the gospel that Jesus would die for us, that he would be buried, that he would be raised again the third day. That's the gospel. That is a message of joy. That's good news. That is the gospel. The awaited Messiah is here. The coming Savior has arrived. The gospel is being unfolded before your eyes in Bethlehem. That's good news. And that brings joy. The message of Christmas should infuse our hearts and lives with joy. But the content of the message goes further. It is a message of joy. It's also a message of salvation. Verse 11. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. That's the reason why this is such good news. That's the reason why this brings such joy. It's because the one who is born is a Savior. The Savior has been born. What does that mean? Well, the word Savior means deliverer. And salvation means deliverance. So what are we being delivered from? What do we need deliverance from? Sometimes we have some really shabby ideas about what salvation really is. We think of salvation just as kind of a train ticket to heaven. An escape plan from hell. And it includes that. But there's a lot more that we're being delivered from and delivered to. I don't think there's any place that better explains the kind of deliverance we have in salvation than Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Let me just read. Listen to this. What Paul says in Ephesians 2. He says, as for you, describing what you were before Christ saved you, before you received the salvation, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. So the first thing we're delivered from is spiritual death. You see, we come into this world separated from God. Death simply means separation. Physical death means the spirit separates from the body or the soul separates from the body. Death is all about separation. And so spiritual death means that we are separated from God. That's what spiritual death is. We all come into this world alive physically but dead spiritually because we enter this world separated from God. That's spiritual death. So that's part of our condition before salvation that salvation delivers us out of. So this is deliverance from spiritual death into spiritual life. Secondly, it's a deliverance from spiritual bondage. Paul goes on to say in which transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air. The spirit is now at work and those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. In other words, we were in bondage to this nature of ours that drags us, pulls us towards sin all the time, toward following the gratifying, the cravings of our sinful mind and heart. That's bondage. Being pulled that direction inevitably, naturally all the time, that's bondage. Paul speaks of it as being in servitude to sin in Romans chapter 6. And that's where we were before salvation. Salvation delivers us from that bondage. And whatever bondage you may be struggling with today, whatever habits you may have in your life that you're struggling with, whatever you feel bound to that you can't shake, the issue is that Christ came to deliver you from that. He came to deliver you from the cravings of our sinful nature, following its desires and its thoughts, its impulses, it dragging us that direction. He came to deliver you from that. Salvation is deliverance. And my friend, what you need more than anything in your life, if you are struggling with bondage, with addiction, is first of all salvation through Christ. And then you need to walk in the freedom that he gives you. That's where it all begins. That's the theological underpinning must be for any kind of recovery program. If you're in any kind of program that does not start with the fact that Jesus came to deliver you and you can live in his freedom, then you're in the wrong program. Thank God, celebrate recovery is based on that foundation that Jesus Christ is the deliverer. He came to deliver us from the bondage that we have to sin, but he also came to deliver us thirdly from the wrath of God. Paul goes on to say like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath, by nature, by the fact that we are born into this world with a sinful nature that we find ourselves in bondage to, by virtue of that fact for all of us. We are already under God's wrath, which means God's judgment, God's condemnation. In other words, if that's where we stay, we will never be able to be in heaven with them someday. We will spend an eternity separated from him being punished for our own sin in the lake of fire. But salvation delivers us from that. Delivers us from God's wrath. So that's what salvation is. It is deliverance. It is deliverance from spiritual death, from spiritual bondage, and from the wrath of God, the judgment of God. Jesus came to be the savior, the deliverer. That is the message of Christmas. That's the announcement that the angels gave to the shepherds. So it's a message of joy and announcement of joy. It's an announcement of salvation, but thirdly, it's an announcement of praise. Notice what happens next, verse 12. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. In other words, the sign that gives the credentials behind what we're saying is angels, that will tell you what we're saying is really true. We'll give you a sign. Go into Bethlehem and you'll find a baby wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger. That's a sign to you that we're saying is true. Now look at verse 13. Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest. This is an announcement worthy of our praise. This is an announcement that is worthy of us stopping whatever we're doing and praising him like we have this morning and shouting, Glory to God in the highest. An army of angels cannot contain themselves at this message. This announcement is an announcement that brings forth praise, but it's also an announcement of peace. Verse 14 says, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. This is not like our Christmas card you'd see tell us from the King James peace, goodwill to men. That's not that's not an action that we take. It's not us expressing peace to other people and doing acts of good deeds and having goodwill toward other people. That's wonderful. That's great, but that's not what this verse is talking about. This is talking about God's peace communicated to those on whom his favor rests, to those who are the recipients of his grace, to those who have realized that they're sinners and they've come to Jesus as their Savior, they are the ones that have peace. It is only Christ who is able to bring peace and he begins bringing peace in the heart individually. When you trust Jesus as you're saved, you have peace with God. You're no longer his enemy, you're no longer warfare with God, you're now in his family. You'll share heaven with him forever so you have peace with God. That is the foundation for having peace with yourself for peace inwardly coming to terms with yourself, who you are, what you've done, your past, whatever is all wrapped up in the fact you have peace with God, your relationship with him. So if you have peace with God and peace with yourself, then you can have peace with others. That begins with the peace with God that comes through Christ. In 2001, there was an interesting book written simply entitled Silent Night. It was written by a military historian by the name of Stanley Wyntraub. And in the book, he tells the amazing and improbable story of the Christmas truce of 1914. It happened five months into World War I. On the front lines of the battlefield between France and Germany, with French and German or French and English troops fighting the Germans along that line separating France and Germany. Amazingly something happened on Christmas Eve. Nobody knows exactly what started it, although the supposition is that possibly it was started by the German troops in the trenches starting to sing Christmas carols. And the English and French troops recognized the tunes. And so they started singing Christmas carols. And it was a shock to both sides because the English troops and French troops viewed the Germans as barbarians and wondered what in the world did they even know about Christmas. And the German troops regarded the English troops, whichever the main ones they were facing at that point, regarded them as soulless and materialistic and thought they would have no use for Christmas. And so they're hearing each other sing Christmas songs. Before long, some troops very guardedly got up out of the trenches and started walking toward each other. They met in the middle on the battlefield, start shaking hands. Before long, it spilled out along the front. And as the story is told, went through the whole front for miles. This happened on Christmas Eve. It took place all through Christmas day and all through the next day. They were singing Christmas songs together. They tasted each other's food. They traded tobacco. They even set up soccer matches on the battlefield. The generals who heard about this were absolutely a gas. And by the time it got to the third day, they quickly got their troops back to the trenches as they left each other. They shook hands. Went back to the trenches. And as the story is told, those troops had to be moved to other parts of the front lines or other parts of the war effort because they would not fire on each other. Now only Christ can do that. Only Christ can bring international peace. I, as well as all of us, should applaud any efforts at world peace. But there will be no world peace until the world recognizes the Prince of Peace. That's why Jesus came to give peace, but it starts with a relationship with him. Peace within spreads to peace with others. So the message, the announcement of Christ's coming is a message of joy and a deliverance of salvation of praise and of peace. But I'm interested to see what the shepherds did with that. How did they respond? What did they do? Did they applaud? Did they just say, wow, nice job, angels. That's really beautiful. That's really a fantastic message. Thank you. And go on about their shepherding. No. I want you to see how they responded because their response, I think, sets a template for us to respond in the same way to the Christmas story. Response number one was immediate action. Look at verse 15, when the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. We read this so many times. It just kind of slides over our minds and through our lips and we don't really get what's being said here. Their immediate response was action. Let's do something. Let's go to Bethlehem. It wasn't, let's form a committee to explore all the options here and make sure we know what is our right course of action. Let's go. Let's do something. Let's go to Bethlehem. Now committees are fine, but that's not the response they had. You see the word in verse 16, they hurried off. The root meaning of that word is to cut across. And the idea is quite literally, they did not follow the well-known, well-worn paths and roads into Bethlehem. They cut across the field. They were going to get there as quick as they could. They went as the crow flies. They went directly as quickly as they could. They did something. If I were in their place, if you were in their place, we might have had some excuses. We might have said, well, you know, it's dark. Here, it's nighttime. We'd have a trouble fine in the night. Let's wait till tomorrow. Or maybe the weekend. We get a little time off for the weekend. Or we might have said, you know, we can't really leave our sheep here. We've got responsibilities here. We can't really leave our sheep. Or we don't want to go to the trouble of having someone, even the junior shepherds that we're training, take care of them. We better stay here. Or if it were me, I would have said, you know, that's a wonderful announcement. I'm going to put that on my to-do list. I'm a list kind of person. And that's wonderful at times, but it is also an albatross around my neck at times, you know? Because I'm reminded of something that needs to be done. And my first response is, okay, let's find the right list for it to be on. So I have to sort through all my lists first. And then I find the right list. And I've got to categorize it correctly and sync it with all the other lists. And by the time I'm done with that, I could have done it twice. That's why I'm challenged by the response of these shepherds. Let's not organize it, plan it. Let's just go. Let's do something. And you know, sometimes we need a little bit of that. Sometimes we need a little kick in the pants to say, get up and do something. And the response to Christmas is not, wow, what a nice little story. The response is do something. Seek the Lord. Find where he's working. Join him in his work. Find something to do in ministry. Get involved. If we really believe this message and we're excited about it, it will motivate us to do something. A immediate action was their response. But the second response was faithful witnessing, just as challenging. Faithful witnessing. Look at verse 17. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherd said to them. And again, look at this carefully. Don't rely upon your familiarity with the story. The Bible says, when they saw Jesus in the manger, what did they do? They spread the word. What word? Concerning what had been told them about the child. Notice carefully, it's not like they're starting to tell people, wow, you know what we saw last night? It was always a little, it was a baby. Oh, he's so cute. But he was in a manger of smell. It was awful. They didn't tell what they had experienced. They told what they had been told by the angels. They shared the message as to who he was. And they faithfully spread that message to everybody they could. So you see, when we have something to tell, obviously our testimony is important. Our testimony about what happened to us. But if our testimony doesn't jive with the word, with the message, then we're off base. We need to be sharing the message of the gospel with people. The message that the angels told is what they shared. Not the goose bumps. They may have felt when they looked at the baby. They shared what the angel told them about the baby. So let's take the gospel to people. If you do share your testimony and tell your story, don't leave it there. Your testimony is an entrance into the Word of God. It is the Word of the testimony. It is the Word that comes through the testimony. That is the important message. God's message is the one that needs to be heard. But notice also that they were not hesitant to speak about what they had heard about this baby. To everybody they could. They spread the Word. All who heard it were amazed. Who did they tell? You ever wondered about that? You know, I'm thinking they probably started with Mary and Joseph. Really, I think they did. I think they described them. Can't you imagine? Imagine the scene. These three guys show up. And their shepherds, you know, shepherds don't have the best reputation. So Joseph is probably wondering, what are you guys doing here? And so they've got a message to tell. Hey, we saw an angel. And this is what the angel told us. That baby right there is the savior. Can you imagine how confirming that must have been for Mary and Joseph? You know, they already know because they've had a couple of encounters with angels themselves nine months ago. And I'm sure they thought a lot about this. But now this is like God saying, you see what I told you nine months ago. I'm telling other people now. This is true. This is the savior. Must have been tremendously confirming to them. I expect maybe they told other people in Bethlehem. I'm almost certain they would have told other shepherds, you know, shepherds conventions. When they'd go to the convention and they'd see other shepherds, you know what we saw? You know what we heard? This angel, you know what the angel told us sitting around a campfire at night. They're telling other shepherds. You know, most students of the Bible believe that the sheep that were tended in the fields at Bethlehem were the sacrificial lambs that were used in the temple in Jerusalem. You're just five miles south of Jerusalem. These fields are neighboring fields to Jerusalem. And it is quite possible. These sheep were the sheep that were intentionally raised for use in the temple. It's quite possible these shepherds would deliver those sheep at some point. To the priests in the temple for use, I expect maybe they told folks in the temple. Do you think maybe that's why Simeon and Anna were so excited about seeing Jesus at any time? Now maybe let's give them credit. Maybe they understood their Old Testament prophecies a lot better than the scribes did. But I think that may have heard something from the shepherds as well. Because the shepherds are telling everybody they can find in the temple when they deliver their sheep. You never know what the sharing of the Word of God through your testimony, what God has said about his son, you'll never know who that will touch. You'll never know how that ripple effect will spread. Faithful witnessing is what God requires of us, a faithful sharing of the message, and then let God do with it what He will do with it. I would love someday to know the network of people that were touched by the the shepherd's faithful witnessing. Wow, faithful witnessing. There is a third response to the message, this time not on the part of the shepherds, this is on the part of Mary. In verse 19, her response is quiet reflection. Look at verse 19. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Now ladies, you can identify with this, if you've had children, you can identify with the awesome feelings that come over you. I mean, fathers get a little bit of this when they see the baby for the first time. But you moms have carried them for nine months and you bring them into this world and there's a kind of bonding that you have with them that that's dads just kind of are clueless about. And you can imagine what she's feeling anyway, just on a purely natural level of seeing this little baby that she's brought into the world. And no doubt she's also thinking back in addition to all of that, thinking back to the message of the angel to her. Now what the shepherds have said, and it's all kind of working together in her mind, the pieces of the puzzle, this mystery of who this little baby is. She's pondering, thinking through, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she's involved in this greatest story of history. And so she's thinking about it, reflecting on it, pondering it in her heart. I think she was so overwhelmed with feeling that she couldn't have explained to you if you asked what all she's thinking. Now later I believe she probably is the one who told Luke the story and that's how Luke got the information to put in the gospel. But on that night she so overwhelmed she can't talk. She's just pondering, thinking, gazing at this little baby. I want to suggest as a counterbalance to what I said earlier about immediate action. There is also much room in the Christian life for the balance to that and that is quiet reflection on the message of the word of God. Yes, we need action. We need to be busy. We need to be doing for our Lord. But there is a balance to that that will inform and enrich the doing. And that is quiet reflection on the scriptures. Time in the word. Time to get to know the God about whom you're going to tell and who you're serving. There is a need for a balance not only in action and activity but also to balance that with reflection in the word. You see it is time in the word that God uses to shape and mold us. Renew our minds. Romans 12, 2 says that we are transformed, changed from the inside out by the renewing of our mind. The mind is renewed when the old ways of thinking, the old attitudes, the old ways of responding which are so natural to us are replaced by new biblical ways of thinking, of acting, of responding, of thinking through things. And beliefs that inform what we do that only comes through time in the word as you allow the word to renew your mind and so attitudes are changed, thought processes are changed. And you begin to think like God wants you to think and thus live like God wants you to live. So there is a beautiful balance here that must be in all of our lives of quiet reflection in the scriptures allowing God to shape and mold and renew us and then thrust us out to do what He wants us to do. Mary is the beautiful example of the quiet reflection, the shepherds of the response in action. But there is one other response. Again back to the shepherds, it is pervasive joy. The response of pervasive joy, I mean joy that literally pervades every part of their lives. Look at verse 20, the shepherds returned. Again we kind of gloss over that because we are so familiar with the story, okay they returned. I know, think about it. They returned. What did they return to? Their job, those stinkin' sheep, those dumb animals that have to be led to water and don't know what's the right clump of grass and what's not and are wondering off all the time. We got to go back to work with that. Yeah. Some of you are thinking that way, right? Going back to work tomorrow? About your job? All those papers, all those government forms, all those people, all that hard work. You got to go back. You got to return. But notice, they returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they'd been told. There is a sense in which when you go back, when you return to whatever it is you return to tomorrow morning. You can, if you really understand on a deep level the Christmas story and the message that they've heard and we've heard from the angels. If you really understand that, if you really embrace that, there is a sense in which you can return glorifying and praising God. Now, I understand the ruts and routines of life. We all struggle with them. We all fight them. I imagine if you had gone back to the shepherds a year later, you'd find maybe they were starting to complain a little bit again and grouse about the sheep and the hot days and the cool nights and all that. But it is possible as they experienced for every part of our lives, including the drudgery routine. Of whatever you do for a living, it is possible for that to be infused with joy if you revisit the message of Christmas. Why did they praise God because of all the things they'd just heard and seen which were just as they'd been told? It was the message they were told. What message today is born a savior? Now, when it gets tough at work tomorrow, remember, I have a savior. Thank God Jesus came to die for me. Thank God I know him. And you know what? You might find a little bit of joy being infused into your returning to your day in day out job and responsibilities. The response to this great announcement is to do something, to tell others about it, to reflect upon what God's told you. And to experience joy because of it. The year was 1809, it was in a small little back town in Kentucky. Billy Graham tells this story in one of his Christmas letters which he sends out every year about the birth of Abraham Lincoln. The former and whom most consider the greatest president we have ever had was born way out on the Kentucky frontier in a little log cabin out in the middle of nowhere. The next day, a couple of local guys were talking around the wood stove about what's going on. One of them asked the other, you heard anything? Anything going on around here? Oh, no, nothing. Nothing ever happens around here. I heard there was a little baby born up at Tom Lincoln's cabin last night, but nothing goes on around here. How could they have possibly known what the birth of that little baby would mean to this country? Put yourself in Bethlehem, whatever year it was, the night after this story, the day after this story. Two people gathered down at the town square, talking about all the influx of travelers and all the people registering for the census and out crowd it is. Anything happening around here? Besides all these folks in town, same old, same old. I heard it was a little baby born. I'm a stable somewhere around here, I believe, but nothing happens around here, Bethlehem. Yet the most history transforming event of all had just happened. And for those of us who know him, the most life-transforming event of all had just happened. The Savior had come. I want to ask you, my friend, have you heard that announcement of the angels? Have you really understood it? That message of good news, the gospel, the message it brings joy, the message of a deliverer, a Savior who came to deliver you from spiritual death and bondage to sin and the judgment of God and deliver you into his family and into heaven. Have you ever, have you really grasped that story? Have you heard that announcement and embraced it by faith for yourself? And if you have, has it made any difference in your life? Are you telling anybody about it? Are you doing something in response to the great God who's given you all this life? Are you soberly reflecting on his word so that he can change you from the inside out? Are you recapturing that message so that it brings joy to your heart in the monotonous routine of life? As it changed your life, does it make any difference? Father, thank you that you sent your son. No, it is so much more than beautiful Christmas cards with all of their glitter and all the tensile. Thank you for the enjoyment of this time of year, but most of all, thank you, Lord, for our Savior. That you send him to die for us, to deliver us from sin and from your judgment. Thank you for sending Jesus. Lord, help us to respond correctly to that. May it change our lives like it did to Shepherds, and if it's been so long that we can hardly remember how it changed our lives in the beginning, help us to come back, a fresh and anew to that old old story, and find once again that joy and that desire to tell others and to desire to serve you that has grown so cold in our hearts. In Jesus' name we ask this, amen.