Lessons from the Night Watch

Yep, it's on. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Know. Well, merry Christmas. And the reason why I'm up here today is because I was having an ordinary day the other day yesterday, and particular, well actually Thursday evening, and during my regular ordinary day that was going on. I got this text from somebody who had a little bit of authority in my life and his name is Mark Benson and he said that and I quote, can you prepare for Sunday because I have a small fever and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it on Sunday on Sunday, but I said, sure I'd be happy to do that for you. And I'm always ready to do this for him to help him out in any way that I can. So I was like, yeah, definitely. So, then later on that night, I'm just having an ordinary night with an adjusted night. Now, thinking of you have to pee For sermon and he text me back and says oh I'm fine now, you know, I'll be there, it looks like everything's going to be okay. So in my ordinary night I stop preparing for my ordinary sermon and started to having a normal ordinary night. Watching Patrick. Yes. Well, I started watching the Packers and fell asleep, cuz it was an ordinary night and then he text me again and says the papers back. It looks like we're going to need you to speak again. And so I was just having an ordinary morning doing my ordinary stuff. When somebody who had extraordinary Authority in my life called me and said, can you do this? And I said, sure, I said, how about this? Why don't you just take the day off and have a break? He said, sounds good. But the point is, we have ordinary days that go on all the time for us. We, I had another ordinary day one time and, you know, training for a half marathon by the way. And she's been doing really, really good, really proud of her. She can run and I can't actually hate to run but I was having an ordinary day and she calls me. She has a little tracker thing on the So, I can get my phone out and I can look at it and I can see how she's running she's running right around your house right now and so I can track her and it is a little dot on a map that moves around. And normally don't look at it because I'm busy doing other things, having an ordinary day and I get this phone call. And she says Dave, I just want to let you know I fell Remember this, right? She came to the church and she had two black eyes and she said well I fell, I'm okay. I said what you need me to come and get you. She said, no, I'm almost home. She was a couple blocks away and she came home and there was blood everywhere. She split her eyes, bro, and all the sudden in an ordinary day. Something somebody that had an extraordinary impact in my life. I've called me and said something that changed my day and when I looked at her, I thought a boy. Now I have to decide. Are we going to go to the hospital with this or not? Because she had a split in her eye was split open and I looked at it and thought about it, my ordinary day was not ordinary anywhere. I had to become a real doctor this day. So I pinched, it closed, and thought, and I played with us and then I thought we could get a steri-strip and we can take this thing. We could save all day going to the hospital when it be great. Sometimes, God does that to us, he'll interrupt Us in the middle of an ordinary day. You know, you know, I had an ordinary doctor's appointment in my twenties, went to the doctor. She had a physical, he said here, take this and go see this doctor, it's a great. I'll go see this doctor and so this doctor did a physical on me and I had to turn my head and cough, you know, how to do all that stuff and then he says to me, hear drop your pants, your ankles and put your elbows right here. So I'm leaning over my elbows and he's checking everything out and everything and he takes box of tissues and throws them on the bench and he walks out the door and the door is wide open. I got my elbows on the table. My pants are at my niece or ankle, I just people walking out the door. I like this supposed to be just an ordinary thing, right? An ordinary thing. So, I have to hop over to the door and close it, so they can clean everything up. When I come back in and he says to me is your wife here. And all the sudden my Ordinary Day changed. No ordinary moment with the doctor changed because the seriousness with which he said that is your wife here. I said yeah. He said go get her. It wasn't a joke, you know, I thought it was kind of hilarious him hopping around half-naked in his office, trying to close the door. So, no one sees me. He comes in and says this and he, he tells me I have cancer stick Euler cancer in my early twenties, I like when someone tells you have cancer changes your ordinary life. You go from ordinary to, this is not ordinary anymore to all the sudden. It starts to become ordinary again. and then later in life, the same thing happened again, when I had prostate cancer and then happen again, when I said it was mid static, It all of those times God was using ordinary situations in my life to speak truth into my life, about what he wanted me to do in the way he wanted me to go.

And I didn't have a choice about it. And I had to think differently about my life, and many of you have had similar situations all of us in here. Old enough to have had some kind of a thing. We're in an ordinary day, you get a phone call or somebody says something to you. Anorexia ordinary life and Wreck-It, but if it changes your ordinary life into something that is more extraordinary, if I can say that. Then it was before, right? Will this Christmas season? We're going to be up for this particular message. We're going to be looking at at the Shepherds in, Luke Chapter 2 and and Luke Chapter 2. We see that the shepherds are out there doing their ordinary thing, right? You're out there doing ordinary stuff, they weren't doing anything, extraordinary, they're having an ordinary night taking care of their ordinary sheep. And then all the sudden to get interrupted by this Angel and we're going to talk about how this happens in this Angel interrupts them and what happens? As a result of that changes their lives forever. But it doesn't just change their lives forever. That the very story of the birth of Christ changes are stories, forever. So whatever your ordinary life looks like right now will be extraordinary because of who God is and the birth of his son. Jesus Christ is pretty awesome. So Luke Chapter 2 reminds us that when God speaks ordinary life is never quite the same again. If you have your Bibles want to open up the Luke Chapter 2, I'm really starting verse 8. I'm just going to read through this and you've heard this a hundred times, but it in if you don't do this in your family, this is a good thing to do to try and get it going in our family, but on Christmas tree to the Christmas story before you open presents. You get The Ultimate Gift by doing that for his right. So here it is. And there was Shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over the flocks By Night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord Shone around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people today in the town of David. A savior has been born to you. He is Christ the lord This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a Manger. suddenly a great company of heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and I'm peace to Men on whom his favor rests

When the angels have left and gone into heaven, the shepherd said to one another. Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which our Lord has told us about So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who is lying in the manger. When they seen him they spread the word concerning. What had been told them about this child and all who heard it were amazed. It was a Shepherd said to them. But Merry Chrysler it up, all these things and pondered them in her heart, the Shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things which which they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. This is the greatest thing that ever happened in human history. God becomes a man. says, I'm going to send my son to die for the sins of the world because you can't pay for your own sins because the penalty for sin is death, And somebody or something has to die or you have to die, eternally and physically. Please says, I'm going to send a savior, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And this is his Advent. This is his birth. And it's the greatest thing that has ever happened on planet Earth. Awesome. So there's some lessons here from these guys, that who are out in the watch of the night and there's four lessons specifically. And the first lesson here is Number one, got off and reveals himself in ordinary places, right? So if you look at verses 8 and 9 again, it says the number Shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel, Lord appeared to them. These guys were doing the normal thing, be like your work, 3rd Shift, anybody ever third shift? I did at the beginning and I couldn't, I couldn't keep working third shift because I just got married. When you get married, third shift really is bad. It's just doesn't work for your marriage at the beginning. It off all night long and, you know, I mean, it was a blessing for her, but I'm working at night time. Work around the clock was just third shift and 3rd Shift doesn't ruin anything other than they were out at night time. But they were tending their sheep doing their ordinary thing. It wasn't anything extraordinary. They're doing the ordinary stuff is in this Angel appears They were seeking a revelation, they weren't working for anything extraordinary. They weren't expecting. They didn't have an expectation that angel was going to come and speak to them. They were just there doing nothing.

Sometimes you could be minding your own business, doing what you do, everyday, and Authority, greater than you steps into that very moment. And then what happens right after that, it doesn't matter what you were doing, five minutes ago now, everything revolves around, who just spoke to you. Notice, I said, who just spoke to you, not about what? Who spoke to you? Somebody greater than the authority of the shepherd's. Spoke to them was an angel and it changed their lives. At that particular moment, the Shepherds were not looking for heaven. Heaven was looking for them. So we got is he seeks you out? It's kind of cool. So here's the application to this, don't assume that God is absent because he life feels uneventful. When life is uneventful, and you ever have a time where you just life is going along, it just seems like nothing, nothing serious is it? Don't let that bother you and God comes to in those times. Sometimes the to do things will change your life. I'm just ordinary life. God, often speaks to those who are simply doing the basic things that he gave them to do. It's not this great Revelation, it's normal life. And in normal life, we get a great Revelation from the great Revelator himself. Many of us here, have lived long enough to know, the routine in the repetition in the weariness that comes along with life, right? I mean, a lot of you have lived a long life and you have a lot of life left to live, you know, we never really know how much life we have left of it. It's in God's hands, right? But we don't assume that God has finished speaking because life feels settled for slow. God still speaking to us in those moments. Faithfulness is ordinary faithfulness in ordinary days. Still places you on God's path and God's work. So just because life has been steady and and going along as you're getting older and you you see life-changing doesn't mean. God has finished with you. Quite the opposite. God is using you in ways, you're not even expecting that. We're going to see that as we move on. Forgot often speaks in the middle of ordinary life. Lesson number two. God's word, confronts fear with truth, never been afraid of something. Some of us are like, no, I never been afraid of anything in some way. The shepherd's experience. They were terrified it says versus 9. Halfway through verse 9 through 14. It says, and the glory of the Lord Shone around them and they were terrified. Why would you be terrified when the glory of the Lord changed out with us? You think of you like God's glory. Thank you know, they were terrified and everywhere in the Bible where you see the glory of God coming around people, they fall down like they're dead. And the reason they do is because they have sinned, and they're in front of a perfect God who has no sin and they are judged, just pay their conscious of being with them in front of him. If God appeared to us right now, we would all fall down, like we were dead.

That's how great God is.

We talked about God's love often times, but we don't talk about how perfect and great and awesome that he is how potent an impotent. You can say, either way, I mean, he's all knowing he's all-powerful. He's everything, he's truth, he's life.

Without him we are dead. In fact, the greatest miracle that ever happened to you, was the fact that you were born. Did you know that? That's the greatest Miracle. You didn't have a choice in your birth. You were just born. But anyway, the glory of the Lord Shone around them and they were terrified but the angel said to them, don't be afraid. I bring you good news of great. Joy for all the people, Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to his Christ. The Lord, this will be a sign to you. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a Manger. Suddenly a great company of heavenly hosts appeared with the angels, think about this. There were beings with the angels that appeared at that moment and they're called hosts. They're called Heavenly Host part of the spiritual realm that's going on there. Be a little peek into it here. And they appeared with the angels praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and peace on Earth. To Men on whom his favor rests.

The shepherd's first response to the angels Was Fear. They were trembling. But God didn't deny Their Fear. God didn't say, let's just deal with your fear. You got some fear going on there, we need to deal with it. You're going on with me deal with that, but that's not what I did hear. He didn't deny Their Fear and he didn't explain it away. Instead, he addressed it by proclaiming what he had done.

That's what he did. The Angels did not begin by addressing that how the shepherd's felt about what was going on in that situation. But did they announce the birth of the Savior, which is a reality that was greater than their fear?

Think about this way. A lot of people believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. Because they don't want to go through the tribulation. That's the reason. I never thought about a pre-trib Rapture. For those reasons, I have other reasons but there's a lot of people to do. So if I want to just text you right now, let's say for a moment that we don't know for certain that the right directions, going to happen before the tribulation. I was just assuming for a moment that we think, oh, we're going to have to go through the entire tribulation. Who is that? Doo doo.

Fear. Right here. Why?

Cuz it's going to be bad right now. Let me ask you a question. When Israel was enslaved in Egypt. And all the plugs were going on around them where they afraid.

Maybe at the beginning, they were right. At first, but what happened to experience the first two plagues, which were minor as the plagues got worse and worse, it gets to the end and now there's the death of the firstborn son in each household, to anyone who didn't do what God Said, which was put the blood on the door light. Right and door post. By that time there was no more fear in Israel. Egyptians were scared out of their minds. Israel had something Egyptian have The head God. And when you're dealing with fear and this is, this is what happens when we think about a pre-trib Rapture and we could become afraid when we take that out of the mix, then all the sudden, our hope is no longer in Christ. Titus 2:13 talks about the Blessed, hope of the return of Christ, which is a present, hope for us. In each day of life. And when were afraid, what we need to do is recognize the fact that our hope needs to be in Christ, not in the events that in a timeline, not in a Rapture, not in a millennium, none of that stuff. Eschatology is bigger than the events. Eschatology is bigger than the Rapture eschatology is about Jesus Christ and his hope that he has it, in the hope that he has And hope that he has for you and your life right now today. In the point that Jesus makes over and over, when it comes eschatology, in the end days, is that you know what? It doesn't matter when the stuff is going to happen, you just need to be prepared. And you can't be prepared if you're not drilling down in your relationship with Christ, you can't. If there is something greater than Christ in your life, it's an idol in your life. If the fear of having to go through the tribulation, which may or may not happen. I'm upset if you icing it does, or doesn't? I just wanted. I want you to think about this. If that fear is there. There's something greater than that fear, that you have to drill into. It happens through the word of God and happens by you having this relationship with him. The causes us to be reborn or is John says born again. When Jesus talks to Nicodemus, Regeneration, that happens to your heart with God's word and God's spirit come together and then mix inside the heart. And now the second greatest Miracle ever happens to you, which is greater than the first is New Birth. You're born again into the family of God. And you know did you ever try when you were at some point in your life, try not to be born.

Anybody ever wish that they were born? Don't answer that out loud. There's been times in my life. I wish you just wasn't even born. That's tragic. But but I had those times. But you know what, no matter how hard I might try, I can't do that. I can't be Unborn. When you're born again, you still can't be Unborn.

but when it comes to the spear, the first response that they had,

the angel Was Fear. Who what God did was? He was pointing to something that he had done, but it was by him. It was pointing to Christ. and if you went away,

a doctor might have difficult news. Calmly and clearly.

Not to frighten the patient, but to Anchor them in. What is true? First time I was diagnosed with cancer. Doctor Jansen said to me, very calmly, and very clearly in front of yet. We think you have cancer and we need to operate on you this week to, which I said, no, I'm in a rock band. We have a concert this weekend, so I'm going to have to wait. I did that. I went there and I was sick as a dog, be able to operate anyway, cuz I was running a fever all the way to one back, but the next week they said, they operated on me and I was sick as a dog. His mom had to come and help her take care of me because I was throwing up all over the place. Never forget that. But who he was in The Authority that he had, when I wasn't just going to have that operation to have an operation. If I met with anyone of you guys, he said, I need to cut your right arm off, make it feel better, take care of your problem with say, I don't think so I can take care of you. But I mean, you don't have any authority to say that in my life, but when this doctor said, I want to take a part of your body off because we you have cancer, he was calm, he was deliberate. And he knew I needed my wife there with me at that moment. Now, I was young, I was in my early twenties and I was like, cancer, right? Until the second time was diagnosed with cancer. What was really happening with me? And I started to think differently about it. But sometimes you get that everyday, life thing going and somebody with authority comes and says something something to you. That can cause panic and fear the way you get past that panic and fear is by going to something greater than that. And it's actually not something it's someone. And that someone is Jesus Christ.

If our faith in him is as great, as we say it is, then there isn't anything that we wouldn't do for him, I'm right.

and if it were scared of something and we're going to do it, then we would trust him to get through it when we

That's what's happening to me to the shepherd tears in it. They're terrified. play the same way, the Angels didn't explain the shepherd's fear, they had announced the reality that defined it We're not going to talk about your fears because you could go to Modern psychiatrist or psychologist counseling or whatever. They say, let's deal with it with your emotions, you know, right? So I'm going to do this little test. I've done this before but haven't heard this. So right now what I want you to do is I want you to be so angry. You going to kill somebody. Go do it.

You laughing? That's a Niger. Right now, it's listening. I want you to be so depressed to go to commit suicide. Do It Go.

No, that's my point. You can't just change your emotions because you don't like your emotions right now. Do this race right here. Hey, if you're not raising right, hand Simon Says, raise right hand.

I'm try, I'm proving a point here. I put it down so I'm going insane. Right. So here's my point. You can control your actions? If you want to turn, right? And you think about it, you want to turn left, you're going to go left, instead of right? You can change. You, can you have those thoughts, right? You can change that. You can change your actions, you can let you know where your left hand, you raise your rate for it. You can't resolve for at the same time, unless you're sitting on something. But if you stand up and try and do that, that would be kind of funny. I mean, we like to have it on video, right? You can't change your emotions but you can change your actions. How about this one? I want you to think about your favorite food right now. What is it? Say it out loud. I heard coffee and heard a car birthday cake right here in a bit and all that, but not heavy thinking about food. Right? When you come here and we have our food set out there. What's your favorite food?

If Mark was here, he would say it's this dessert table right here. And Mark at all, he goes here first. He takes all this stuff and goes up back over here. He does, right? Then he saw this stuff and he goes back to get the real food and hands up. We're right back here, right? What would your favorite food? What's your favorite food? When you come here? Fried Chicken. My favorite food is everything that you guys make. I've never had anything bad here right now. I want you to imagine how you say this. When I was a youth pastor, I want you to imagine the kit and I are going to have you over and pretend you're a teenager right now, okay? And if you're married your, your your spouse is your date, right on. For some of you soaking are inviting you over in. By the way, I dressed up today. Did you notice? I said, yes. Don't get used to it so your house and we can make our best. Italian meal for you. It's our pasta. It is the best in our kids, loved it but they're they're out of the house and I'm a youth. Pastor and took it and I want to have you and your spouse come over. Instead of other things you might be doing and you're going to come over and we have a candle-lit meal for you. For the two of you were going to be dressed up in our best lights are going to be dim. There's going to be Candlelight, is it be nice music playing made? It sounds kind of fun, doesn't it? And so, I go over to the refrigerator and I take out the Ragu. This is our bestest of the best Italian meal, come on. Take off to put in the microwave turned on. Its on Kik, goes over to the refrigerator and she takes out a bucket of noodles and she brings them over and she put them on the plate. Can I go over pppppp? And I poured the Ragu. I'ma noodles. And we serve it to you. Went to you and went to you. And you're looking at this great meal. You looking lovingly at your spouse? When can I when our honeymoon? There was a couple in there like this. He was like this. She was like this in her face, is like this far apart.

So you looking at each other, you thinking this is really nice and it really nice thing for us, right? And all the son of the corner of your eye, you noticed, that one of your noodles is moving.

You look a little closer?

Nightcrawlers. We pulled nightcrawlers out of the refrigerator and we're serving them to you is our best Italian food in nobody thinking about right now. Throwing up because we have an Italian, we have an Italian and normal. At this point, you can control your actions, you can control your thinking, cuz now I don't you to think about that anymore. You not to be able to know right now, I want you to focus back in Christ.

Greater than all the goofiness. What I just said and that is, who is Jesus, it's bigger. It's greater its peace. Giving its life-giving It also causes you to do things. You wouldn't otherwise do. You can control your actions, you can control your thoughts, but you cannot control your emotions. You can just manage your emotions. Your emotions are like light on a dashboard when that light flashes with anger, anger, anger, anger. Some people would say, while I feel angry. So now I'm going to have to Angry Dog on it and I'm going to go and now I'm going to change what I do because I'm thinking angry thoughts. And I'm going to go do this thing's this person because I don't like them. And that starts the cycle and that's how people kill people.

But what God has given us is the ability to control our actions. Inner thoughts. When our emotions are not tied in there. So, when you thinking angry thoughts, you think Godly things? And you do Godly things.

And it's with the Angels were doing here. They weren't concentrating on their fear. You're concentrating on the source. Of that fear which was God himself. But he is bigger than the fear, he produced and their lives.

When we were afraid about our health or future or loss, we don't begin to try and calm emotions down because it doesn't work that way. Change your attitude. We say what's that smile off your face?

Doesn't change on the inside. Can't just do that. By running to what God has done and what he has promised. It's how we deal with it. Fear loses its power when it's confronted by the reality of Jesus. That is how it's dealt with. When I was a kid, I used to have to go back and forth, we lived in the desert and it was about fifty yards to the next house and they were the closest people to us and it was in the middle of the night and are coyotes and all that kind of stuff Deming. New Mexico. And I used to skip Jesus with me all the time, Jesus is with me and I would say that because I was afraid going back and forth. I didn't want to be eaten by a coyote. I didn't want to have anything bad happen, and that's how I did it as a kid, but it's not much different than how we do it. Now difference now, is that, we pick up the God's word and we read God's word. We find out who he is. We find out who he is. It changes? It changes us from the inside because of strength we don't have strength, right? We all can improve in that area, every one of us. So, fear doesn't Disappear With A teether. It's because you get older, right? Sometimes fear gets stronger, you start to realize the Frailty of life as you get older. Declining separation uncertainty about what lies ahead is it all different things that we start to deal with as we get older cuz we start to understand these things on another level. But God is Not silence. He's been he's not silenced by fear. He speaks through the fear about who he is to you and to that fear. so that no matter what you're going through,

announcing something that's greater than that fear, which is Jesus Christ. And what he does for you and where you're going to end up, which is that blessed, Hope on and Titus applied to your life, in the moment is Hope. So you don't have to be afraid. Now, you might feel afraid anyway but it's as you begin to change what you think and what you do and that is focused on Christ. And what Christ says about the situation, the fear of begins to go away. The gospel doesn't merely Comfort us, get reorders, our fears by declaring what God has done in Christ at every stage of Our Lives.

What's the number three? Obedient Faith responds without the way. Obedient faith. And I'm sorry about the littleness of this. That when I was working on this I tried to make it bigger and then you start adding extra slides and stuff and I couldn't find out. There's a glitch in it night so I just left it but you got to know so you can see it. So the blank is responds. If you can't see it obediently Faith, responds without delay. So, first 15. When the Angels had left and gone into heaven, the shepherd said, one another. Hey, let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing has happened. Which the Lord has told us about a road trip in A hurried off Moses's, hurried didn't delay, the hurry. Hurry. When I heard it to hurry and found Joseph Mary and Joseph and the baby who is laying in the major. Who won the shepherd's cane there in that moment. They found all the stuff out, they didn't delay. It didn't debate, they didn't delegate this to somebody else didn't have a committee conference. They didn't, they just went List. The great thing about faith, right? Because, you know, faith is what? It's two things. Biblical faith is always when God speaks and you respond. That's why James says faith without works is dead. It's not just about believing, you can't just make something up and say, will I'm going to turn these worms on my plate into spaghetti noodles by willing it to happen. Right? You can will it to happen as much as you want and you're not going to make that happen, just by willing it to happen. But if God told you, Pray over those worms and make them become noodles, gots, what's going to happen. We're going to become noodles. Now, why would I say that? It sounds really stupid, doesn't it? But didn't Jesus say the disciples, if you have faith, the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this tree get up and jump into the sea and it will obey you or say to this mountain get up and jump into a c and it'll pay you. I think about Moses.

God told Moses to move a mountain. Moses didn't want to move the mountain, he asked for Aaron and ended up going. And a little bit of faith.

Moses lead an entire people group out of a country. Because he was obedient to God. He started to make excuses and I wouldn't let him make excuses when God tells you to do something and you didn't and you go to do it, it will happen. It doesn't matter what it is, but you have to hear from God and have that happened. You can't will it out of nowhere for it to happen. You can't say, I'm going to believe this chair is going to turn red. I'm going to believe. I'm going to leave in. This is going to turn red. I'm going to believe in the belief doesn't work that way. But if God tells you to look at the chair until to turn red, it'll turn red because he told you to do it. God doesn't play games with us like that. When God says to repent of your sins and Trust in the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and you do that, you're safe. Your eternity is not with God, you've been born again on the inside. When an alarm sounds like the fire alarm, fire alarm this morning, we have a light back there. That turns on when the fire alarm goes off the fire alarm went off.

It was really loud with the fire thing across the street, right? Sometimes during the sermon is like

but if that happened, we're not going to sit here and have a debate about where there's a fire. And I are we I don't think that that's the alarm. Everybody sit down, relax but I smell smoke.

The alarm goes off. We got from go.

The shepherd's responded, like that and Faith. Let's go see this thing. They hurried didn't delay at all. He just got up and they went Obedience might look different now than it did when you were younger. But it still matters. I was talking to me about this and in real help me, understand this one time but he said to me one time, something about I can't evangelize like I used to when I was younger. And they said it's okay, right? We're all getting older and things change as we get older. It's all right. Faithfulness. Today, make me in prayer. It might be an encouragement. Might mean patience or perseverance when it used to look like visible activity. Maybe evangelism. Now when you're slowing down later in life is Lord, I'm going to pray for these five people to be safe and I'm going to pray that you'll bring somebody across their path to do that.

But it doesn't change because you're getting older, the fact it matures and it gets deeper as we get older. God Baal use obedience That Shaped by endurance. Not by speed of his ability, Endurance is what it's about. We're running the race. It's a long race. We run the race with endurance. Who win the race.

God doesn't measure. How much we do for him? What God is honored by is our faithfulness to him? Without faith. It's impossible to please God. If you don't listen to God, if you're not reading his word and you're not putting into practice, what God's word says, you're not acting in faith. And when you do that, you said.

Without faith. It's impossible to please. God, we show God. We love him by our faith. Recording John Wright. So our faith. Determines the fruit in our life. Love joy. Peace. Patience, kindness, goodness. Faithful shall self-control. We know that Mark says it all the time, it's fruit singular headlight, a different parts of it but we don't get that unless we're in the word of God studying it getting to know. Jesus because one day we're all going to die our days are numbered. And we need to act out in faith like you Shepherd's did without delay. But what does it look like for today? You might be saying, well, you know what? It's not like it used to be. I can't move around. I can't, I can't go to the store. I can't knock on people's doors. I can't you let you have all these things that you can't do, but there are other things that you can do. You can pray, you can pour yourself into somebody else's younger than you. You can teach them to do some things. You can certainly pray. There's a lot of things that you can do now that you couldn't do before because you're older and wiser and more mature than you were. Those of us who are younger. And this is what I tell people when I'm doing pretty, marital counseling all the time. Make for sure. You find a church of older people Because you can be just as dumb as everyone else around you. If you don't you need people that are mature in your life, right? And for those of you that I hear that it do that. It's awesome. There's maturity that happens. There anyway, that can't happen in any other way. But God is Not measuring how much we do for him. He's measuring our faithfulness to him. When I say faithfulness, I'm talking about faith. Without faith. It's impossible to please. God, I believe that the shepherd and Faith because they did what God told him to do. Did any did it immediately? They didn't hesitate didn't have a debate about it. They just did it. What's the number for?

Encountering Christ. Leads to witness and worship. Convert 17 says, when they had seen him they spread the word concerning, what had been told them about the child and all heard. It were amazed at what the shepherd said to them and Mary treasured up all these things, and pondered them in her heart, the Shepherds returned glorifying and praising God with for all the things that they had heard and seen, which were just as they've been told. Wow, it's pretty cool, isn't it? We need to get to go over there and they get to see this miracle in real life. We we we look at this Nativity up here and we say yes clay stuff and yes there's problems with this and it was probably more than three wise men and you know we three kings of Orient Are and all that stuff and but but but we look at this, this is representation of the greatest thing that ever has happened to us in human history. God became a man. Think about it before the world was created. God knew you, he knew you would send that I would send. He knew there had to be a way to fix that, and before we were even created before the creation ever even happened, Got it. Set it up.

So, you can be safe. Wow. Mind blowing stuff. We think well it's just a baby in a Manger. No it's not a baby in a major, it's God who became man, that doesn't just happen by the way. That is intentional. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend. When Jesus died on the cross, he took that penalty of death and died in our place, we deserve to die for our sins.

But he did it in our place. And he says, all you have to do is believe me, believe me. Act out in faith. Believe what I'm telling you, I will save you. You must be born again. Nicodemus said that Jesus said that to Nicodemus and John chapter 3 verse people in again what do you mean I have to be born again? I can't fit that really sucks that to her to him. It meant to say that Jesus says you got to be born again. You thinking. I can't. Look at me. You want me to go back in there, and he literally says this to her, or to Jesus, and he's thinking this about his mother. He says, no as flesh gives birth the flesh, the spirit gives birth to Spirit, so you shouldn't be surprised that my saying You must be born again. You're Israel's teacher and you don't know these things. Kind of rhetorical?

The Shepherds returned to the same fields. The same jobs, the same work that they had before but they returned with a different heart. It's in this. And they went back and they were changed and they were changed from the inside out. Didn't have to work up that change. They were changed because of the encounter they were in change because of the experience, they were change because when they were afraid God said no I'm bigger than your fear.

How God does? It doesn't matter who you are or what you do, or what your experience is life is been, God is greater than it all. With a meeting at our house on Monday nights for about five years started to 7 in. The morning went to about 2 or 3 in the morning, 7 at night. Thank you the two or three in the morning and the rule was when your pre-meeting you can't talk to each other. You talked to guy. So bring a pillow, bring a Bible. Whatever. You might fall asleep since those happened but bring your stuff. And if you want to know what's going on in my life and listen to be free, And this went on and one of my friends who came, there was a youth pastor and he had cheated on his wife and she divorced him make a long story short. You got in his life right with Christ. And he wanted his wife back and she didn't want to have him back anymore. And he was angry. He was swearing at God and His prayer. God, you break like you did this to me. I told her.

What would you do? He's just all, he's this wide, he's an actor, his voice projects, like this. All the time. Because he, he he does stage acting and stuff like that and he's angry at God and his anger gets even louder and more aggressive. And I finally said to him time, you got to calm down and listen to cut my family sleeping over here. He said, I'm sorry.

I was so uncomfortable by that. Would you be uncomfortable? You want to learn about that? Tom is a man of God and today he loves God with all of his heart, he's not mad at God anymore. What I learned from that experience is that it doesn't matter if you're angry at God or not, he wants you to come to him and he's bigger than your anchor. God is bigger than your anger and I'm not suggesting you always swear to God has consequences, right? Jobe found that out. Joe? Wanted to plead his case with God and he's going to die. I'm going to plead my case. You already knows he's going to lose the argument. Basically says the guy, what's going on and goddesses. Who are you? Oh man to question me. Where were you when I built this that stands and wait him in the scales and all the things that he says, that I can't remember exactly where they're making up his paraphrasing. Where were you old, man? And who are you to talk to me like that? And he gets all done. Any places job? And God is honored by the fact that job came to him even though he was angry and confused and hurt and depressed. And he says, you're going to pray for the Forgiveness of your sins. Are your friends sins because of what they have done. They said you must have done something wrong so because I didn't do anything wrong.