Untitled Sermon (2)

Rewrite this sermon in the style of Craig Groeschel do you see what i see if you happen to have a wrong perspective it can lead to terrible misunderstandings um there was a man on his deathbed in the last hours of his life and his precious wife of over 50 years was sitting there beside his bed holding his hand for much of the day well in a moment of clarity the man said sweetheart he said over these last several days and weeks i've been reflecting on my life and how you've always been there when i fell out of college you were there when i uh when i lost my job

you were there when when we had to file for bankruptcy and lost most everything that we had you were there then when i when i received this awful diagnosis you were there and now here at the end you are still here right by my side it was a moving moment for his precious wife so holding his hand with tears welling up in her eyes she said sweetheart i hope you know what that means and he said yeah i think i do you bring me bad luck you bring me bad luck a wrong perspective can lead to terrible conclusions you can see things

completely wrong if you happen to be looking at it from a wrong incorrect perspective unfortunately the same is true about christmas if we look at christmas from a wrong perspective we can miss what christmas is really all about unfortunately secularism and commercialism and all the rest have blurred our perspective of christmas so that christmas has become what it was never intended to be so here's what we're doing in these weeks leading up to christmas we are we're observing christmas from the

perspective of those who were there we're doing what any truth seeker would do we're getting eyewitness accounts of the very first christmas for example last week we considered how the angels saw christmas their perspective of that christmas event today we're going to look at christmas from the perspective of the shepherds because i mean you know this we've sung about it we've talked about it we've read about it already this morning uh shepherds happened to have a starring role

in the cast of the very first christmas uh it's almost as if god wrote into the christmas story the truth that jesus came for everybody the highest of the high yes but also the lowest of the low the influential powerful ones yes but also those who culture sets aside shepherds how did this humble group of social outcasts how did these shepherds how did they see christmas what was it to them if you have your bibles we're going to read from the same passage we read from last week luke chapter 2. in

fact i'm going to re-read last week's sermon text and then we're going to continue the account out of luke chapter 2 beginning with verse 8. would you all please stand with me as we honor the reading of god's holy word luke chapter 2 beginning in verse 8. 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 shone around them they were terrified but the angel said to them do not be afraid i bring you good news

that will cause great joy for all the people today in the town of david a savior has been born to you he's the messiah the lord this will be assigned to you you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger and suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising god and saying glory to god in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests verse 15 when the angels had left them and gone into heaven the shepherds said to one another

let us 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 when they had seen them 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 shepherds said to them but mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart the shepherds returned glorifying and praising god for all the

things they had heard and seen which were just as they had been told you may be seated the christmas story from the perspective of the shepherds who were there what can we learn from the shepherd's perspective i don't think you can read this passage and miss this very important message according to the shepherds faith is accompanied by action did you notice this okay the shepherds are keeping watch over their flock an angel appears to them and tells them about jesus obviously the shepherds believed what

the angel told them about jesus but they didn't after they heard the message after they believed the message they didn't just sit around the campfire and say wow isn't it neat to have that information i mean is it isn't it awesome that we can understand something about jesus and know what that's all about no they didn't do that they weren't content to do that you know what they did they left where they were and they did something they went aft they went to find this christ

child you see faith real faith is always accompanied by action james the half-brother of jesus said it this way faith by itself if it is not accompanied by action is dead faith it's not real faith if it is not also accompanied by action okay let me clarification here you are not saved by good works but you are saved for good works and real faith is always accompanied by action now here's what i want to share with you about this interestingly this truth helps to explain why so many fall away from the

faith so many has so many have a a crisis of faith because they misunderstand it's what they think many christians many professing believers believe that faith should work without works okay let me give you a picture faith is somewhat like a bicycle a bicycle is meant to balance itself on two tires bicycle two tires it's meant to balance itself on two tires however a bicycle will not operate properly unless it is moving somewhere unless it is moving forward if you buy a brand new bicycle

and you say boy i'm going to enjoy this bicycle because i know it can balance on two wheels and you get that bicycle and you get on it and you try to balance without moving forward that bible sickle is never going to work and in fact if you stay with it long enough you're going to become frustrated you're going to become disappointed and before long you might even conclude there's something wrong with this bicycle because this bicycle doesn't work like it's supposed to be working

but the truth is a bicycle only works when the person on the bicycle pedals it and moves and does something and moves that bicycle forward moving forward the bicycle does balance as it's supposed to the same is true about faith if we think f if we think we can just believe in jesus and faith in jesus is just all about standing still we're going to get frustrated with our faith we're going to become disappointed by our faith and before long we might even conclude there's something wrong

with that faith because that faith doesn't work like it's supposed to now let me just give you a real life example of how this often looks in real life okay pastor jeff i am waiting on god to show me what he would have me to do and that is wonderful listen christian a vitally important part of the christian experience is learning patience learning to wait on god if i can turn that around and say it from a different direction if you want to make a mess if you want to make a mess pursue presume on or assume what god's will for

you is and charge off in a different in a direction before he leads you there i have i know from personal experience that will make a mess almost every single time so it's important to win a god but here's what happens sometimes pastor jeff i'm waiting on god to show me what to do and they put their spiritual journey on paul's they just stop they just you know they don't do anything listen you may not ultimately know ultimately where god is leading you but we do know where god has

already led us while you may be waiting on further instructions or our direction from god god has given us enough direction to keep us busy in the meantime so faith is accompanied by action doing what we know to do while waiting on god for direction in what we don't yet know to do so the shepherds built into the christmas story is this picture of a real faith that does something there is action associated with real faith number two according to the shepherds pursuing jesus should be our priority

in fact according to the shepherds pursuing jesus should be our number one priority remember what luke's account says all right after they heard from the angel they hurried off and found mary and joseph and the baby okay just so you're with me let me remind you of something important here when the shepherds hurried off they were not taking a personal day they were not on vacation no they were at work what were they doing they were keeping watch over their flock a shepherd's livelihood

depended upon his keeping watch over his flock so when the angels came to tell them about jesus and when they believed what the angels told them about jesus scripture does not record that they gathered up their entire flock and took them into bethlehem to find no the bible says they hurried off they left their livelihood behind in search of jesus the shepherds teach us that pursuing jesus should be our number one priority okay here's a statement let me just make a statement here whatever is most important to you

is what you will spend most of your life in pursuit of whatever is most important to you is what you will spend most of your life in pursuit of examples if your career is most important to you you will spend most of your life in pursuit of your career even if it costs you other things like relationships like involvement in god's kingdom if a relationship is most important to you there's a person in your life and your relationship with that person is the most important thing in your life then

you will you spend most of your life pursuing that relationship even if it costs you money even if it cost you your dreams even if it costs you your innocence we pursue those things that are most important to us sometimes at all costs if money is most important to you then you will for you will spend most of your life in pursuit of money even if it cost you your family even if it cost you your reputation even if it cost you your integrity whatever is most important to us that is what we pursue often at great

cost okay the shepherds show us what it is like to pursue jesus as our number one priority in that moment there was nothing more important to these shepherds than pursuing jesus okay i would like to pause here just for a moment and speak to parents there were a lot of parents in the first service or maybe parents here in the second service uh let me speak to parents one of the things that makes parenting a challenge is that our children are learning when we don't even know we're teaching

let me so you know we know those times when we sit down with their children and we teach them a truth or something about life we know those moments okay listen your children are learning 24 7. your children are learning even when you don't know your teaching and here's here's the corollary to that some of the most some of the most unfortunate damaging lessons that we teach our children we teach them unintentionally we don't mean to teach them those things but they are learning even when we don't

think we're teaching uh for example parents um if if your child has an event a sporting event concert whatever if your child has an event and it conflicts with the gathering of god's people in his house for worship please see that as a teachable moment because i can assure you of something i've seen this so many times your children are learning even though you don't know you're teaching i've seen many children for example who grew up in church they go off to college and they find other things that are more

important than church before long they drop out of church all together and they never come back do you know why many times that takes place because unintentionally parents have taught children that there are some things more important than church there are some and i've heard all of the the rationale well pastor jeff my child is the only christian on their sports team my child deal and it's very important for my child to be a good witness to those on their team and that's true but the way to be the best witness to

those on your team is to show them that it's most important to be in worship when they're playing a game you see so parents i encoura now is not the time for ambiguity and confusion when it comes to how we should pursue jesus as a priority demonstrate this role model this with crystal clarity for your children pursuing jesus the shepherds teach us pursuing jesus should be our life's number one priority nothing should come before that and then finally according to the shepherds experiencing jesus

is something to be shared it's something no when they had seen him they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child now i want you to notice two things here the shepherds did not tell people about jesus because they were qualified in fact it there's probably not a lesser qualified group of people anywhere than the shepherds they didn't have they i can imagine that these shepherds were particularly articulate or well educated no they didn't share jesus because they were qualified

and neither did they share jesus now watch this neither did they share jesus because they were commanded to now i know we're commanded to but i can't find anything in scripture where the shepherds were commanded to go out and tell people about jesus no you know why they did it they didn't do it because they were qualified or because they were commanded the shepherds shared jesus because they wanted to it was a natural next step for them they couldn't they couldn't not tell people

what they had experienced many years ago now it's been a long time ago mercedes-benz came up with a with a new uh safety technology for their automobiles it's been a while back now and um it was a revolutionary safety enhancement to their vehicles their engineers in fact demonstrated the effectiveness of this new technology by ramming mercedes-benz into cement block walls and showing how the driver and passenger weren't harmed in the car uh dummies the dummies weren't harmed in the collision

well it gave as you might expect it gave mercedes-benz a huge competitive advantage but shortly after discovering and executing this safety feature mercedes-benz made a shocking announcement they said instead of using this technological innovation for competitive advantage we're going to share it with all other automakers including its own direct competitors so there was an engineer for mercedes-benz interviewed and the reporter asked the engineer why on earth would you give away something that could

be leveraged for a competitive advantage like this and the engineers replied because some things are too important not to share i'm speaking to a room full of people and you have been radically changed by jesus god has turned a baby has changed everything for you jesus has turned your life around some things are too important not to share don't we want everybody to know what jesus has done for us and that he wants to do the very same thing for them sometimes don't we it's just natural

and here's here's the other part of this sometimes i think we we underestimate the gravity the importance of the message we bear christians you and i have been entrusted with a message that is a matter of life and death eternally that that co-worker at work that neighbor who you say hello to at the mailbox that cashier that checks you out at the grocery store if those people in your sphere die without knowing jesus they will spend eternity separated from the god who created and loves them and

spend an eternity in a place the bible calls hell there is much there is much gravity there is much weight placed on the message that we bear some things are simply too important not to share that's why we as believers we don't tell people about jesus because we have to we don't tell people about jesus because we're qualified or articular to know all the answers no we tell people about jesus because we want to we want them to know what he's done for us and what he can do for them

the shepherds heard about jesus they believed in jesus then they did something about it they put faith to their faith and they pursued jesus above all else and then after they had experienced him they told everybody about it as i close let me ask you a question have you responded to the message of jesus by faith that is marked by action have you responded to the message of jesus by faith that is marked by action pastor jeff i have been going to church practically all my life i know just about all there is to know

about jesus and that's wonderful but have you done anything about that knowledge it's one thing to know about jesus it is an entirely different thing to know him to put your faith in him by taking action on your belief pastor jeff what are you talking about the bible says that whoever believes in his heart that jesus is who he said he was and confesses with their mouth that truth that person will be saved that person will become a christian you see it's not enough just to know about jesus

to be one of his to have heaven as our eternal home to be one of god's adopted children we have to do something with that knowledge we have to place our faith in what jesus did for us when he died to pay the penalty for your sin and for mine on the roman cross question have you ever placed your faith in jesus if you haven't i would love to lead you in a very simple prayer would you bow your heads with me and close your eyes if you've never placed your faith in jesus your heartfelt prayer to god the father

might sound like this dear god i recognize that i have sinned i've blown it and i needed your forgiveness and i believe jesus your son died on a cross to pay for my sin then three days later he rose again and in this sacred quiet moment i'm confessing to you my absolute trust in what jesus did for me to rescue me from my sin so that heaven can be mine in jesus name i pray amen