Sermon
Miracles in the Margins: The Shepherds (Christmas 2025 - Part 2)
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Thank you, Pastor Drew for asking me to pinch hint.
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Yes, I do have had a few Christmas sermons.
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So but I did spend a lot of time yesterday praying and preparing
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for this. So we're talking about miracle
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in the margins, the shepherds today and we're in Luke chapter
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2 verses 8 through 20. You know, the last six months
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I've had the opportunity to be a lot of different pulpits and a
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lot of different places, but it's good to preach right from
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this pulpit as well. Luke chapter 2, Let's stand
Luke 2 chapter mention
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together as we as I read and you follow along.
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Luke chapter 2, verse 8 through 14.
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And in the same reason there were shepherds out in the field
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keeping watch over their flock by night.
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And the Angel of and glory and Angel said that fear not, for
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the good news of great joy it will be for all the people is
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born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ
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the Lord. And this will be a sign for you.
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You will find a baby wrapped in swallowing claws and lying in a
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Manger. And suddenly there was with the
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Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and
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saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace
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among those with whom he is pleased.
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And when the angels went away from them into heaven, the
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shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and
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see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has
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made known to us. Verse 16.
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And they went with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph and
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the baby lying in a Manger. And when they saw it, they made
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known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
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And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
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Verse 19 is very interesting. But Mary treasured up all these
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things, pondering them in their heart.
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And the shepherd's return, glorifying and praising God for
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all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.
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You may be seated, and May God, it is blessing at the reading of
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His word. And let's pray together.
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Father, we come to you in the second week of Advent, and we
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pause. And we just thank you for this
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beautiful season. May we see Jesus in a fresh and
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new way as we go through for some of us, eighty 7550 years of
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Christmas seasons. May it not be stale.
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May it be fresh to us. And Lord, help us, help us to
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make our hearts and our lives available for you to have room
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in our hearts to do what you want and Your will and Your way.
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Help us to be open to what You have for us today as we open
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Your word and be able to receive it.
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We pray and ask in Jesus name, Amen.
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Well, God loves to put the extra into the word ordinary who?
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Who the world thinks are significant or don't fit into
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the mold of extraordinary. God grins and continually proves
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the world wrong. There are no little people in
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God's eyes. He loves to take the underdog
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and use him or her for His glory.
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Think on these verses. In first Corinthians chapter one
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verse 26, Paul said For consider your calling brothers.
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Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.
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Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth.
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But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
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God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
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God chose what is low and despising the world, even things
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that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that
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no human being might boast in the presence of God.
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It's counterintuitive how God does His Kingdom work.
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God is continually looking for the available humble hearts, not
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people with tremendous human ability.
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Think about some of the people that God used in the Bible.
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I was reading for my devotions this week in Genesis where it
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talked about Hagar. And of course Hagar and Abraham
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had a son, Ishmael. And we know that Sarah begin to
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despise Hagar because she was waiting for the promised one and
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she couldn't have it. But she forced the situation
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with Abraham and Hagar and Ishmael was born.
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And so Sarah gets Hagar and Ishmael to leave, to go away.
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And they go out into the desert and their water dries up and
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she's weeping in the little baby is a distance of way.
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And God comes and provides water for her, meets her at her point
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of need. And she's uses the word God who
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sees God saw me and saw my need. Rahab was a Gentile prostitute
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who decided to place her faith in the God of Israel.
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God then used her to help the Israelites capture Jericho.
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She later became part of the lineage of Jesus.
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Read Matthew 1, you'll see her name in there.
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Gideon was an insignificant man from the humble tribe of
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Manasseh and yet God used him to defeat the Midianite army with
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300 men. He eventually became a judge of
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the nation of Israel. And we know David, he was young,
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he was a very insignificant shepherd boy.
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When Samuel came and talked to Jesse, went through all the
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brothers to see who he thought God wanted to be the next king
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and ended up being the youngest 1 David, who was out in the
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field taking care of the sheep. He would go on to slay Goliath
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and rule as king of Israel and had a significant role in the
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lineage of Jesus. Think about those disciples.
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They were just young men, maybe late in their teenage years,
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early 20s, seemingly insignificant.
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They were a ragtag group of ordinary men.
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And yet God used them to share his love with others and
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ultimately they changed the course of history.
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And the other one that's really amazing is the Apostle Paul, who
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referred to himself in First Timothy 115 as the worst, the
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chiefest of all sinners. He went on to proclaim the
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gospel around the ancient world and wrote nearly half of the
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books in the New Testament. It's absolutely incredible how
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God uses the least of us to accomplish his plans for his
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glory. How about you?
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Have you ever felt just ordinary?
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Have you felt like your days have just been mundane routines?
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You feel like you're maybe insignificant sometimes it's so
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great. That means you're in the place
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where God wants to use you, where you're humble, you're
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open, you're faithful, you're doing what He wants, and He may
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choose you to do great things. So as we begin, we think about
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the story here of the shepherds and the background of the
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shepherds. Many of you know you've studied
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it or you've heard it and other sermons as well.
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They were nomads who lived in caves.
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They were, in most cases, social illiterates.
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They were mangy. They rarely took showers, so
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nobody wanted to be around them. They're removed from human
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relationships. I mean, they were the poor of
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society and their profession was deemed the lowest of the low.
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Can you imagine? They wouldn't even take their
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money for taxes? Wow, that's pretty low.
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And then you think about the priests wouldn't let them into
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the temple in Jerusalem because he considered them ceremonial,
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ceremonially unclean. They were Wanderers,
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marginalized by the society they lived in.
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They lived on the outer edges of civilization.
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In fact, Randy Alcorn in his article shepherd status, he said
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in Christ day shepherds stood on the bottom rung of the
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Palestinian social ladder. They shared the same an enviable
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status as tax collectors and dung sweepers.
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So they were the most improbable people to have the message of
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Christ birth given to them by an Angel.
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But nonetheless, the first point on your outline, the shepherds
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were at the right place at the right time.
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They were in the right place at the right time.
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And it says in verse 8 and in the same region, there were
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shepherds out in the field keeping watch of their flock by
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night. And even though these shepherds
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were ignored by society, they were obedient.
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They were responsible and caring for their sheep.
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We don't know for sure, but it appears it's kind of assumed.
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The shepherds may have been faithful followers of the Lord,
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but it might be a fair assumption.
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And the shepherds were simply fulfilling their
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responsibilities. Think about they were doing what
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they had been doing for 100 days before.
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They were about the business of what they believed was their
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purpose in life, to be a successful and profitable
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sheepherder. They were out there day and
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night looking after the best interests of the sheep they were
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tending and taking care of their assets of investment.
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The sheep they've been tending were sheep who may eventually be
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used for sacrifice in the temple, which was merely 3 miles
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away. There was nothing special about
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the shepherd's lives and the world.
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And that night we're going on as 100 nights before and more than
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just before, but just at the right moment in God's timetable.
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The unimaginable happened in Galatians 4, it says.
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But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his
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Son, born of a woman under the law, to redeem those who were
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under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
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And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son
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into our hearts, crying ABBA Father, so you're no longer a
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slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir
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through God. So you imagine that God sent
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Jesus at the precise time on his timetable into the world so that
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you and I could be children of God, that we could be heirs with
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Christ. What an amazing thought from our
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human perspective. We don't know why God sent Jesus
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to earth when he did, but he arrived right on time.
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God's schedule, God's timing is never, is never.
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I don't know what I wrote here. God's timing because he's in a
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hurry. He's never late God's time, He's
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never hurry in a hurry, but he's never late.
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And second Peter 3/8 it says. But do not overlook this one
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fact, beloved with the Lord, one day is is 1000 years and 1000
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years, as is one day. So God sees the beginning of the
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world to the end of the world. God sees the beginning of your
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life to the end of your life. He knows what we will be facing,
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and He's gone ahead of us to prepare the way for us.
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So God doesn't fill us in on what he's about to do in
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advance. We have to take it one day at a
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time. I look at it like on rolling the
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scroll one section at a time, God reveals his plan for our
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lives. But we as humans, we want to
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know what the future is. We want to know way down the
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road, don't we? And Ecclesiastes 311 says God
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has given them a desire to know the future.
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He does everything just right and on time, but people can
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never completely understand what He is doing.
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So we have to keep listening to His word, listening to the Holy
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Spirit, stay dependent on Him. We must continue to wait and
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trust His timing. How many of you struggle with
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waiting? I can't raise my hand high
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enough. Man.
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It seems like I picked. I could go in a store and there
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could be 3 lines and I could pick the shortest line, but I'll
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be the last one out. It doesn't matter, you know.
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And so patience and perseverance are so important as we wait on
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God and if we are faithful with our daily responsibilities in
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doing what we know God wants us to do, even if we're unnoticed,
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there are times that God will take the ordinary and make it
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extraordinary when we least expect it.
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Dan Dirks is not here today. He was supposed to be here.
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I don't think he's here, but I was sitting in his room at the
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Lutheran home on Monday and I was recounting about he was
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telling me stories about all the people he had shared Christ with
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at Argo. Argo Corners.
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How many been to Argo Corners? Very few people know that place
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exists, but Dan is the missionary.
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He is the missionary when he walks in.
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They know what he believes and he shares the gospel and so he
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just does the normal routine things in his life.
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And I believe when you do that, God puts the extraordinary end
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to your life. So as a result, the shepherd's
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faithfulness to the Lord God chose to reveal his most
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precious revelation to the lowliest of mankind, the
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shepherds. And it's humbling to think that
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the King of Kings grand entrance was in a stable, not in with the
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King of Kings or in great shepherds.
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I'm sorry, not with religious leaders or with the kings or
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governmental authorities, but he was there for the humblest
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people in society. And so are we faithfully
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fulfilling the duties and the roles of our lives.
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The application here is be faithful.
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Be faithful in the normal rhythms of your life.
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And if you do that, God will do some amazing things and bless
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you for your faithfulness. Only eternity will reveal how
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our faithfulness has impacted other people.
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Well, the second point on your outline is the shepherds
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received. They received the heavenly
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message. It was given to them and they
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received it. Look at verse 9 of Luke 2.
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And an Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory
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of the Lord shown around them, and they were filled with great
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fear. And the Angel said to them, Fear
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not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will
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be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in
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the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord, the Messiah.
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And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in
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swaddling claws and lying in a Manger.
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And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the
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heavenly host praising God and saying Glory to God in the
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highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is well
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pleased. Notice how the shepherds
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received the message from God with great fear, with reverence,
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with awe, with humility, and also with great distress.
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It came from an Angel. An Angel literally means a
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messenger from God. And you think about where he
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says in this, in this verse, verse 10, the Angel says, I
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bring this message came from the very throne room of God, from
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God himself. And the Angel said, fear not,
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listen to what I'm about to say. What do you and I do when God
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speaks to us? How do we respond?
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Do we take time to ask God for things and then wait for him to
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respond? Are we listening for His voice
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throughout our daily lives? How good are we at active
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listening skills with God and people?
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James 119 said this. Know this my beloved brothers,
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let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to
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anger. You've heard me talk about this
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verse before. I think that God has a sense of
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humor. He gives us 2 ears and one
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mouth, right? He's emphasizing the listening.
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We need to be good listeners. We need to be active listeners.
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And how do we do that when it comes to God?
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It's through meditating on God's Word.
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And I've been listening to Carl Clawson from Moody Radio, and
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he's talked about this word, meditation.
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I never heard this before, but it not only means to continue to
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bring it up in your mind, but it means to say it back to God, to
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put it on your lips, to repeat it to God.
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Meditate. Meditate on God's word.
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We also can listen through prayer.
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You know, I spent a lot of time talking about adoration,
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confession, Thanksgiving, supplication.
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But do I take time to sit and listen to what God wants to say
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to me through the Holy Spirit? Do we take time to ask God to
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reveal through His Holy Spirit an affirmation of a decision
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that we need to make, or wait till we have peace in our heart,
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or obeying God when He says no? Or wait and just do the things
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that are in front of us do? Are we good listeners waiting
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for God's still small voice? How about when it comes to
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people's interactions with us, either directly when we go to
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someone and we ask for advice or we want counsel, or indirectly
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when we have a conversation and God brings something into your
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heart and your mind through that conversation?
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Are you listening for what God wants to say to you?
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Toby Mac has a great song that I love.
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It's called Edge of My Seat. Are we leaning forward in our
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seats, figuratively speaking, when God or godly counsel is
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coming our way? Or two, we try to do it on our
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own, and if all else fails, then we go to God.
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President Franklin D Roosevelt got tired of smiling that big
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smile and saying the usual things at those White House
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receptions. So one evening he decided to see
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whether anyone was paying attention to what he was saying.
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So as each person came up to him with an extended hand, he
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flashed his big smile. And he says, I murdered my
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grandmother this morning. And people would automatically
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respond with comments. Well, that's just lovely.
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Nobody listened to what he was saying except one foreign
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diplomat. When the president said I
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murdered my grandmother this morning, the diplomat responded
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softly. I'm sure she had it coming to
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her. The problem today is not the God
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is not speaking, but rather we are not listening for him.
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It's not the Lord who is not speaking, but it's us who are
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not hearing what he has to say. So our application is be
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receptive to God's voice, be in God's word, pray, ask the Holy
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Spirit to put impressions on your heart.
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Do you and I take the time to pray 1st and then go out and do?
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Do you and I take the time to listen for God's still small
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voice as we wait on him and His timing?
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Good things to reflect on for that point.
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And then thirdly, the shepherd's belief is measured by their
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reaction. The shepherd's belief is
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measured by their reaction. Look at verse 15 of chapter 2
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and Luke, when the angels went away from them into heaven, the
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shepherd said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and
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see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to
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us. The shepherds took what they
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believed and put it into action. Your actions reveal what you
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believe and what faith you have. Let me say that again.
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Your actions reveal what you believe and what faith you have,
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James. 1A familiar section of Scripture to most of us, James
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says in verse 22. But be doers of the word and not
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hearers only deceiving yourselves.
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For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a
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man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
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Frazee looks at himself and goes away, and it once forgets what
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he was like. But the one who looks into the
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perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer
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who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his
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doing. When my I was growing up I was
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just a young guy and my grandfather was electrical
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engineer for union switch and signal.
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He used to design signals that you would see that we see on the
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side of the railroad tracks for all over the country.
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And I remember him telling me one day that he got up and took
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a shower and looked in the mirror and shaved and everything
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and put on his clothes and he went to work.
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And then he realized he spun his pajamas on under his clothes.
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He looked in the mirror, but he didn't do anything to adapt or
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change. He just put his clothes over his
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pajamas. When you and I, when we look
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into the law of liberty, the Word of God, we're to see what
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things are out of line in our life and where to measure up to
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the Word of God, to adjust, to adapt, to make changes.
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That's what being a doer of the Word is all about.
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Well, the shepherds acted on their faith.
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There's an illustration someone shared about a wooden well
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bucket that he came upon, and he thought it was worthless because
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it was sitting next to a barn in the sun.
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They'd been there for years. It was unused for a long time.
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He could see daylight between the wooden slats of the bucket.
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Certainly this thing couldn't hold water again, could it?
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But an older man who was wise tied the bucket to the well rope
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and let it drop into the water below.
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In a couple days they came back and turned the crank to draw the
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bucket up and it was full of clear cool well water and was
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not leaking a drop. The water had rehydrated the
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wooden slats until they fit together as originally designed
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and the bucket was useful again. God wants to use you, even if
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you think maybe you're like that bucket, you're useless, that you
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don't have anything to offer to God, that you've done these
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things and God can't take and make a new bucket and re
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establish it and use it for His glory.
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The shepherds acted on their faith.
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They saw how little they were in society, but they went out and
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did what God told them to do. The shepherds went and they
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observed that baby first hand. They hiked into town.
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I assume they left their sheep behind them.
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They were led by the supernatural after God invaded
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their ordinary lives. The application?
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Be willing to act on what God tells you to do.
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Be willing to act when God tells you what to do.
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Be obedience is doing immediately what you're asked to
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do with the right heart attitude.
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That's something I've always worked at in my life.
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It's a challenge, but being willing to do immediately what
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you're told to do with the right heart attitude.
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And remember that God is at work all around you.
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Just ask Him how you can help join Him in the Kingdom.
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Work right where you work, or live with your neighbors.
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And then the shepherds recognized the Christ, and the
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shepherds recognized the Christ. Look at verse 16.
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And they went with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph and
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the baby lying in a Manger. The shepherds saw the Savior
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with their own eyes. They saw along with Mary and
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Joseph, the very face of God. I like that song, You know, Mark
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Lowry talks about Mary. Did you know?
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And in it she's it says you kissed the very face of God.
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Can you imagine that in Isaiah 9 it says in verse 2, the people
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who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who dwelt
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in the land of deep darkness, On them His light has shown in
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verse 6. For to us a child is born, to us
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a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
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shoulder, and his name shall be called.
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Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, the Prince
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of Peace. The shepherd saw a human baby.
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He was God, but he was mad. And so as a baby he cried when
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he was hungry. Mary and Joseph had to change
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his diapers. I bet when he was a young boy he
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ran and skinned his knee. He had to go to school.
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He did all the things that a normal boy would do in that
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society. He was much a man as he was God.
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In Philippians 2 it says who though he, God Jesus was in the
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form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
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grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.
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Being born in the likeness of man and being found in human
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form, he humbled himself, but become obedient to the point of
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death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly
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exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every
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name. Jesus was 100% God, 100% man.
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The God man was born a virgin. In our Adult Connect group,
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we've been looking at different heresies, different false
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teachings. One of them we talked about was
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Gnosticism, and the early Gnostics tried to say that
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anything material, even your body, was evil.
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So Jesus could not have had a human body.
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But Jesus had to be human because he had to be the
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substitute for our sin to take our place on the cross.
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So debunking the Gnostics thoughts.
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So our application be willing this Christmas to reflect on who
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the child in the Manger is. Take some time to sit and
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reflect on all the attributes of Christ of God of God in in
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Christ. You know they're one in the same
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and who they are. I think it's great to ponder
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that, especially this Christmas season.
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So if you have a biblical view of who Christ is, the way you
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view yourself in Christ will be accurate and give you confidence
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in following Him. The last point today is the
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shepherds responded to what they witnessed.
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The shepherds responded to what they witnessed.
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Let's finish out the chapter, chapter 2, verse 17 through 20.
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And when the shepherds saw the baby Jesus, they made known to
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say that he had been told them concerning the child, and all
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who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
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But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her
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heart. And the shepherds returned,
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glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as
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it had been told them, the shepherds were changed in an
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instant. They were filled with joy.
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I don't know about you, but I've never gotten over the night that
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I became a believer in Christ. Have you ever gotten over your
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salvation? I hope not because it literally
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transformed my life. I was a 14 year old, very
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rebellious child toward my parents.
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I had a foul mouth and when I became a believer in Christ, I
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began to read this word like it was going out of style.
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I began sharing Christ with my friends.
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The foul language cleaned up pretty quickly.
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The Holy Spirit convicted me of that and it transformed my life
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and I can look back. And God reached down and saved
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our family. There was nobody in our
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immediate family who was a Christian until my dad became a
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believer in Christ. And so I never get over that.
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And I never get tired of spreading the good news of what
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it is of the gospel as I have opportunities.
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Since I've been retired, I've had time to share Christ in the
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gospel with large crowds and individuals.
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It's what gets me up in the morning.
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And I ask God each morning give me an opportunity to have a
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spiritual conversation with someone.
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And most of the days he answers that prayer.
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But these shepherds, they spread the good news.
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They couldn't wait to tell everyone what God had done in
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their midst. They returned to their sheep.
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It says rejoicing and worshiping.
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It says glorifying and praising God.
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They were filled with awe. How could this happen?
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How could this be in such an obscure place?
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The natural response to God revealing himself to you is
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worship is worship. Several years ago I read an
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article about Queen Mary, who made a practice to visit
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Scotland every year. She was loved by the people
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there and she often mingled with them freely, even stepping away
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from her protective escort. One afternoon she was just
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walking down the street in Scotland with some children.
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Her escort wasn't around and she went out further than she
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planned and the clouds darkened and she saw a storm coming in
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the horizon. So she went to this house and
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knocked on the door and she asked this lady for an umbrella
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and she says I'll bring it back tomorrow.
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Well, the woman didn't recognize the queen and was reluctant to
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give the stranger her best umbrella, so she handed her one
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that she intended to throw away. The fabric was torn in several
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places and one of the ribs was broken.
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The next day, another knock was heard at the door, and when the
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lady opened it, she was greeted by a royal guard who was holding
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in his hand her old tattered umbrella.
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The queen sent me, he said. She asked me to thank you for
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loaning her this. And for a moment, the woman was
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stunned. Then she burst into tears.
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Oh, what an opportunity I missed.
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I didn't give the queen my very best.
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Are we giving God our very best when we come to worship, to come
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and worship Him? Not the leftovers, but to come
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prepared and giving of ourselves.
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These shepherds went away glorifying and praising God
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because they had seen the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.
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We worship and then we share what we experienced in worship
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and the joy of being with our Creator, the love of our lives.
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We see a pattern through these verses that we should emulate.
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God was doing a work in the midst of the people of
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Bethlehem. God revealed the Messiah first
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to the humblest of people in society at that time, the
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shepherds. They acted on faith-based on
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what was told to them. The shepherds went out and they
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found the baby in a Manger. They worshipped and found true
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joy. And then what did they do?
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Because that joy overflowed. They went out and told as many
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as we believe and listen that Jesus had come and he was the
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Messiah. The application is be passionate
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in the spreading of the good news of Christmas.
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Be passionate in sharing and spreading the good news of
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Christmas. May you and I be so filled with
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joy that it overflows into the lives of others by how we live
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and by what we say. Here's our key thought,
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Something to take away. May we always be reminded that
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God chooses people not by their ability, but by their
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availability. Not by their ability, but by
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their availability. Are we making ourselves
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available to God, giving him a blank check on our life, to
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saying, Lord, whatever you want, fill me with your spirit and
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help me to do what you want me to do?
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There's a few questions there to ponder for you this week.
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I hope you'll think about those. But I want to close with this
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illustration. The late Peter Marshall was an
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eloquent preacher, and for several years he was the
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chaplain of the United States Senate.
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He loved to tell this one story called the Keeper of the Spring,
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a quiet forest dweller who lived to himself, who lived high above
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an Austrian village along the eastern slopes of the Alps.
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The old gentleman. He'd been hired many years ago
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by a young town council to clear away the debris from the pools
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of water up on the top of the mountain where the crevices
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were. But they fed into the lovely
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spring down in their town, and so with faithful, silent
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regularity, he patrolled the hills and removed the leaves and
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branches and wiped away the silt that would otherwise choke and
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contaminate the fresh flow of water.
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By and by the village became a popular attraction for
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vacationers. Graceful Swans floated along the
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crystal clear spring. The mill wheels of various
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businesses located near the water turned day and night.
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Farm lands were naturally irrigated, making this view from
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restaurants picturesque beyond description.
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Years passed and one evening the town council met for their semi
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annual meeting and someone looked over the budget and they
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saw this budget line item for this gentleman who is lipping up
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on the top of the hill. And nobody hardly ever saw him
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and nobody knew what he did and so he got the council to vote
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and take out his salary. For several weeks nothing
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changed. By early autumn the trees began
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to shed their leaves. Small branches snapped off and
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fell into the pools, hindering the rushing flow of sparkling
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water. One afternoon someone noticed a
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slight yellowish brown tint in the spring.
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A couple days later that water was much darker, and within
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another week a slimy film covered sections of the water
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along the banks and a foul odor was soon detected.
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The mill wheels move more slowly and some ground to a halt.
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Swans left, as did the tourists, and clammy fingers of disease
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and sickness reach deep into the village.
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They caught a quick business meeting with the City Council
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and realizing their gross Aaron judgment, they hired back this
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lowly little man up at the top of the mountain.
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And all of a sudden, within a few weeks, the river of life
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began to clear up, the wheels start to turn, and new life
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returned to the hamlet and the Alps once again.
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What the keeper of the spring meant to the village, Christmas
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means to the world. Jesus called you and I to be
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salt, which is to say that we're to be the preservers of what is
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good and true in the world. Just like the old man in the
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mountain, we are called to serve.
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And in a very real sense, the well-being of the whole world is
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dependent upon us. We do make a difference.
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There are no little people, There are no little jobs.
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There are no little responsibilities.
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Everything we do is significant and interlinks with what others
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do. That's why the story of that
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great Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life.
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It's so important. Each life touches another life.
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Let us share the good news, as the shepherds did so very long
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ago, to people in our sphere of influence.
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This Christmas season, let's pray.
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Father, as we come before you, Lord, help us to ponder the
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little baby in the Manger that we celebrate during the season
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and think about all the things of who he is and what he does,
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but ultimately going to the cross for us.
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So we asked Lord that you would work in our lives.
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Help us make ourselves available available to You Lord, so that
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we can be used as your servant and however you deem possible.
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And we pray and ask in Jesus name, Amen.