A Christmas Spirit – 3: A Spirit of the Shepherds

O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

God, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here once again and to celebrate Christmas as it comes so quickly this week.

Father, one of the cries of our church is that we always want to be pleasing and honoring to you.

And Lord, I know that there are a lot of thoughts and opinions on what church should be and what it should look like and things that should happen.

But Father God, we're here simply to just please you.

And Lord, I pray this morning that you would speak to the very depths of who we are.

God, that you would help us to seek your face, to listen to your voice, and God to be open to the moving, speaking of your spirit within our hearts.

And Lord, as we gather today, we pray for all of our shut-ins, we pray for all of our physical needs.

And Lord, we pray especially for the families who's lost loved ones this week.

But I know there's a pastor from one of our sister churches in North Carolina, the Seeger family, and Lord, just pray for them as he lost his wife this week.

They're doing the funeral today.

God, we are very blessed to be here and to be able to celebrate you, but we know that this time of year can be hard for many reasons.

So Lord, we pray that you would help us to focus on you, to make you the reason and the thing that we live for, for Christmas and every other day that follows.

Father, help us to give ourselves to you.

But we love you, and we thank you, and we ask all this in Jesus' precious and holy name, all God's people said, Amen. You may be seated.

So the old song goes, have yourself a merry little Christmas. Let your heart be light.

From now on, our troubles will be out of sight.

And if you're an adult, you know that that is not true.

It seems like whenever Christmas rolls around or the holiday season comes, that it seems like a lot of times the troubles and the frustrations and the problems get magnified for various different reasons.

It's a lot of time with family. So if you're having family problems, it gets magnified. It's an expensive time of year. So if you're having financial problems, that gets magnified.

If you are mourning the loss of someone or, you know, if a relationship has ended, that makes it even more difficult for that time of year.

And so one of the things that we've been talking about if you're joining us today for the first time is having a spirit of Christmas.

And the spirit of Christmas is not based off of what the world calls us to be or have for Christmas.

Every song that I've led the sermon off with for the past three weeks has been a song that is telling us how we should feel.

And it's great. Like I love Christmas music. I'm not throwing shade on Christmas music this morning.

When November comes, I turn my radio to Christmas music and I listen to that until they literally stop playing at some time in January, love Christmas music.

But it typically goes, this is how you should feel. This is what Christmas should be. This is what it's all about.

And as much as I love Christmas and as much as I love the lights and the decorations and everything, I really believe that the world's view of Christmas

and all things is skewed because they are focused on so many more things than what we should be focused on as believers in Jesus Christ.

So Christ has called us to live for Him, to have joy, to have peace, to have purpose in the midst of life despite the trials and the tribulations and the heartaches and pains that's going on.

And that is also for Christmas. And if we're not careful, we could sing all the songs, we could wrap all the presents, we could open up a million presents and still not be joyful this time of year because of the situation and circumstances of life.

But God has called us to move beyond the situation and the circumstances and the mornings and the problems and the difficulties so that we are joyful in Him at all times, especially at Christmas whenever we're celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior.

So the past few weeks, in order to have a Christmas spirit, we've been talking about how we need to have the same spirit of the people who helped usher Christmas into existence.

So you have Mary, who had a spirit of willingness. Last week we talked about Joseph, who had a spirit of obedience. And today we're going to talk about the angels and we'll talk about their spirit here in a minute.

So let's read Luke chapter 2 verses 8 through 20 and we'll get going.

Luke 2:8–20

It says, that night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby guarding their flocks of sheep.

Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared among them and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified.

But the angel reassured them, don't be afraid. He said, I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.

The Savior, yes, the Messiah of the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David. And you will recognize Him by this sign.

You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth lying in a manger.

Suddenly the angel was joined by a vast host of others, the armies of heaven, praising God and saying glory to God in highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.

When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, let's go to Bethlehem. Let's see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.

They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph, and there was the baby lying in the manger. After seeing Him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child.

All who heard the shepherd's story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.

The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

So point number one this morning as we talk about the shepherds is that we need to see the Lord is still communicating.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but one of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome, especially when I first got saved and started reading Scripture, is that everything in the Bible seems so condensed like it's just happening.

Time is just rolling along, the story just rolls, and there's no time in between. But that is not what's happening in the story.

So since we started talking three weeks ago, there's been a time period of about 18 months that at least 18 months that has passed since God first began speaking.

So you have the Old Testament, the last book of the Old Testament is Malachi. And then what we believe is Protestants and Christians is that there was this 400 years of silence where God didn't speak or if He did, we don't know about it.

It's the first time the people of Israel have heard a message from the Lord in 400 years. And so that marks God speaking. Boom. His plan is beginning. Christmas is coming.

He says, Zachariah, your wife, Elizabeth, she's going to conceive. So that takes a little bit of time. She gets pregnant.

And she's six months pregnant when the angel Gabriel visits Mary to say, you're going to conceive a child. So there's been six months between Zachariah, at least six months between Zachariah and Elizabeth to Mary.

Then Mary was already pregnant when God came to Joseph in his dream because remember, he discovered she was pregnant. He was going to divorce her quietly because he was a righteous man.

And the angel appeared to him in a dream and says, Joseph, this is my plan. It's okay. Come on board. Let's do this together. So six months had passed or at least a little bit of time has passed.

And then right here, from whatever time God had spoken to Joseph, we see that Jesus is born. He is come in the flesh. He's in a manger. The angel tells the shepherds.

And so more time has passed. And so when we read the Christmas story, we love to just assume like this is all happening at one time. It's this great just like whirlwind of this event and moment. This is at least a year and a half in the making.

And so God is still communicating. And one of the things as Christians that we need to be aware of is that God does not communicate the way that we would like for him to.

So it would be great, right? I don't know about y'all. I kind of I love football. It would be great if God was like, all right, guys, huddle up.

Everybody, let's let's huddle up. Let's get together. Let's listen. Hush. Quiet. Nobody talks in the huddle but the quarterback. God's a quarterback.

Hush. This is the play. This is what we're going to do. It's on two. Ready. And we go do what we're supposed to do. That's not typically how God does things.

He spread it out over at least 18 months. People are not up to speed on this. Zachariah and Elizabeth are excited. Mary is willing and she's pondering on all these things.

Joseph is probably a little upset and not really understanding everything. And the shepherds are just out doing their thing. And they get this really cool news and they have no skin in the game.

They just get the benefit from Mary and Joseph being willing and obedient. And it's 18 months that God's been communicating.

In Isaiah chapter 55 verse 11, Isaiah writes as the Lord is speaking through him and he's speaking. He's writing on behalf of the Lord.

Isaiah 55:11

In verse 11 it says, it is the same with my word. I send it out and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

And I think as believers this morning as we talk about having like the spirit of the shepherds, it's just understanding of we may not always be in on the know.

But God definitely has a purpose and a plan. And when God speaks, we need to be ready to hear and listen and go and do everything that God is telling us to do.

Because there's going to be times where God speaks to other people before he may speak to you. And there may be times where God speaks to you before he speaks to other people.

And that's more complicated. You think, oh, it'd be great to be on the know. But there's been times in my life where God has like revealed something to me. He hasn't revealed it to everybody else yet.

And it's like, what do you do with that? How do you convince everybody else? What God has told you specifically that this is the Lord's plan.

It's not just some magical plan that you developed in your mind and you're trying to convince everybody else to come along with it.

So there's a lot of prayer. There's a lot of pondering. There's a lot of patience. There's a lot of asking and communicating in this to make sure that we're all being obedient to what God is telling us to do.

To know that God speaks and works and moves in many times ways that we're not expecting and timings that are not convenient.

And we have to be okay with that. Because God's plan, one of the things that we should believe as Christians, is that God's plan is perfect.

His messages are perfect. His timing is perfect. And we have to be okay with that.

So point number two, when the shepherds hear the message, they went. The shepherds went.

They wanted to see for themselves, and this is one of the greatest things about the shepherds that you see, is that they're doing their jobs.

They're out in the field. They're not close to what's going on. They're out doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing.

But they went to see for themselves because they wanted to see if what the Lord had said was true.

And one of the things we have to remember is that the Lord always gives us everything we need if we will simply listen and be obedient in that.

And he tells the shepherds, he says, look, tonight a Savior has been born. This is one of the greatest things that has ever happened in the world.

And you will recognize this baby because it will be wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.

And he tells them exactly what they should be looking for. And so the shepherds decide in their minds and their hearts that we're going to go see for ourselves.

If what we have just experienced, if we're crazy or if this is actually true and they go seeking.

And I think it's really important as believers that we step out in faith and that we're willing to test God.

I want to be really careful in this and make sure you're listening because I don't want you to get like a part of this and then say, well, Pastor James said this because this is this is there's a big difference between the two.

There's lots of scripture that commands us not to test the Lord.

OK, so I want to be really specific in that. But the testing that that scripture is talking about is always devoted to portions of scripture where God is telling the people of Israel what not to do.

OK, when he said don't do this abstain from these things, stay away from these things, don't test me.

And so just kind of give you a little bit of an example. My kids test me.

I love them very much, but they test me, right? And they don't test me in good ways.

They test me in immature, childlike ways because they just.

That's what kids do. I tested my parents. Now I'm getting paid back.

And they test us so you can test the Lord by being disobedient.

All right, he is faithful, he is merciful, he is loving. You can live in sin and you can deny him.

You can deny the spirit speaking into your life and the conviction he puts on your heart and you can test him in that way.

But eventually you'll pay the piper.

He will come calling and he will hold us accountable. And the Lord tells us, do not test me in that way.

But the Lord does invite us to test him in obedience. And I think that's the more important thing.

And I looked and I looked and I looked and this is the only passage of scripture I could find that calls us to test the Lord through obedience.

I do not like talking about financial giving and things like that because if the Lord leads you to give, he'll lead you to give.

So this is not apply for you to give. We're talking about testing the Lord. So this is Malachi chapter 3 verse 10.

Malachi 3:10

And the passage says, bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple.

If you do says the Lord of heaven's armies, I will open up the windows of heaven for you.

I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in. Try it. Put me to the test.

And so this is one of those fun, fun things about scripture is it says, don't test me. And then it says, test me.

But he's saying, don't test me with disobedience. Test me with obedience. Don't test me with fickleness. Test me with faithfulness.

And if you will test me and be in obedience, step out in faith. If you don't believe, if you can't truly grasp what it is that I'm telling you of abstaining from this and living for me and honoring me

and trying to the world and doing all these things that we talk about in Christianity so much. If you can't comprehend that, step out in faith and do it and watch me uphold my end of the bargain.

That's the testing that God's talking about. And so as we talk this morning, when you look at the shepherds who are out in this field, part of them going to see what God is talking about was a little bit of a test.

They were testing to see if what God had said was true because they had to move. They had to go. They went to see for themselves if what was going on had actually happened.

So many times, so many times, I believe with all my heart that God knows that what he asked us to do is hard for us to understand and comprehend.

It's hard for us to rationalize it because it doesn't make sense from a worldly human perspective. And God's ways never do.

But when you look at the Lord, he calls us to so much. He calls us to die to so many things. He calls us to do so many things.

And a lot of times those things seem impossible and they seem like they're unattainable. But God says, look, if you will just step out in faith and you will do these things,

watch me uphold my end of the deal for you. I'm not asking you to do this for nothing like the offering of eternal life, the presence of his spirit, for joy, peace,

everything that we want in life that we truly desire, that we're trying to get through all these other things. God's saying, look, if you'll trust me and follow me and be obedient to me, test me in this and watch me be faithful on my end of the deal.

The only way we'll ever find out if God is truly faithful in this is to test him in it. And the shepherds go.

They went to go see if what they had heard was true. They saw the messenger of the Lord. They saw the angel of God. They had this wonderful experience.

But it needed to be solidified in their life that this is real. And because of that, they went for themselves to see for themselves that it was actually real. That's important.

It's not just enough for us to sit here on a Sunday morning and to feel tingles of our heart when God's speaking and moving like we know like, yeah, I need to do something about that.

Yeah, I need to address that in my life. Yeah, I need to do better in that area of my life and do all these things.

We have to leave here and move and go and do what we feel God is leading us to do.

We have to have that experience for ourselves. It's not enough to just hear it. It's not enough to see someone else experience it or talk about we have to experience it for ourselves.

It's the point number three. After they saw it, the shepherds told. They talked about it.

And when the shepherds affirmed what they had been told, it was not just enough to say what they had heard. They had to talk about what they had seen and experienced for themselves. And that's the biggest difference.

You know, if you get around somebody, you find out really quick what's important to them because they typically talk about it, right?

Like I've been around some people who are really passionate about some really weird stuff.

Like we'll talk to you. Man, I sit and I like cast iron pans. I think they're cool. We got some.

You know, like we've re-seasoned them. We went through the process. It's fun. It's cool. It's a neat thing.

I sit and listen to a guy talk about cast iron pans for like two hours. It was really important to him.

You as people, you will talk about what's important to you. One of the things that you see about people who have truly had an experience with Jesus Christ is they cannot help but talk about it.

And the people who genuinely have these salvation moments, these God moments in their life, it's like vomit.

It's like you could try to hold it back, but you cannot hold it back. It's part of who you are.

And it's just replicating. It's constantly producing these things out of your mouth because what's inside, what's in your heart is what comes out.

And people who have this true experience with Christ, they talk about it. You look at these shepherds. It wasn't just enough for them to say, hey, guess what I got to see?

And it was like, nah, that's really cool. And they just walked together back to their fox. No, they went and they told everybody who would listen what they had seen and experienced for themselves.

I believe one of the biggest problems we have in America with Christianity is that we have a lot of people who profess faith in Jesus Christ.

And we've heard other people talk about experiences. We've seen other people testify and do things and have these moments with God.

And we can talk about it. We can carry on maybe some spiritual conversations, but a lot of people have never had the experience in their own lives.

It's so powerful. It's like you can't help but talk about it. And what you see in this moment is these shepherds have this amazing experience and they can't help but tell others.

It is such great, wonderful, amazing news. It does not matter how crazy everyone else probably thought they were. Because that's the thing, right?

People are going to think I'm crazy. People are going to think I'm crazy talking about Jesus or talking about what he's done in my heart.

I can't articulate what has happened in my life. And people are going to think I'm nuts talking about this. It doesn't matter.

The gift to the shepherds was not that they just got to be a part of it. It wasn't that they just got to see Jesus for themselves.

The greatest gift to the shepherds was that they got to be the first people to tell the world about Jesus Christ.

You know that? That's the most wonderful gift. It wasn't that they got to see him for themselves. They got to be the first people to tell others about Jesus.

Psalm 66 verses 16-20. We don't know who the psalmist is, but I think it's fascinating because this is Old Testament scripture. This is pre-Christ being born.

Psalms 66:16–20

But he gives us great theological explanation of what it means to be forgiven and have this moment with God.

And he says, come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me.

We can talk about God, we can talk about Jesus, and we can talk about what you're supposed to do, and we can talk about what's right and what's wrong and what this person should do and that person should do.

Very few people can sit down and tell you, this is what Jesus Christ did for me. There's a big difference between the two.

He says, I will tell you what he did for me. For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke. If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened, but God did listen.

He paid attention to my prayer, praised God, who did not ignore my prayer, who withdraw his unfailing love from me.

There is a big difference between people who just talk about God and people who have experienced God. Massive difference.

And the joy and the word vomit from it is undeniable. It is one of the most distinct things about people who have truly had encounters with the Lord.

Point four, last one. The shepherds were faithful. When we talk about having a spirit of the shepherds, the spirit of the shepherds was that they were faithful.

And it's important to realize tonight, or this morning, that as the shepherds got included in this, that they were where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there.

As Christians, you heard the kids. They knew the story, like children's ministry has been doing a great job with them.

They knew the story of the shepherds. They do all this stuff. As Christians, we glorify the role of shepherds.

If you've been in church any amount of time, you've probably heard at some point, being a shepherd was not a glorious role.

If you were a shepherd, it meant you were either the least one in your family, or you were one of the least ones in the employment of that family watching over their flocks.

It was a terrible job. It was hot. It was cold. You did swing shifts. You did day shifts. You did third shifts. You did everything.

And sheep are not one of those animals that's like, oh, I just love little sheep. They're the most annoying animals that you could possibly imagine.

They get themselves in trouble. You constantly have to rescue them. There's a reason why they had a walking stick that had a crook in it so they could literally reach out and grab them because they had to take them everywhere they were supposed to go.

And then you have to rescue them from the predators. You read about King David, who was a shepherd before he was a king. He was the lowliest person in his family, and he had to fight off lions and bears.

I don't know about you, but I'm not fighting the lion or bear for your sheep. I'll just buy you another one. It is a terrible job.

And I guarantee you, the shepherds didn't sit around their campfire that evening, and they weren't having the conversations. Man, we got it made. This is awesome.

Love staying up all night. Love sitting out here in the dark. Love fighting off wild animals that might eat us as much as they eat the sheep.

We get paid so much money. People really respect us around here. You're probably covered in manure. You already probably don't smell very good because you're just out in the wilderness most of the time.

One of the things that I think about regularly is what would have happened if the shepherds would have just like, or if one of the shepherds would have just been like, you know, this job stinks.

I'm not going in tonight. I'm not pulling my shift. I'm not going. I'm calling out. They can fire me if they want to. If they would have just not showed up.

I don't know if you've ever done that before. You just not been where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there. And then you miss something really cool or significant.

There's been a couple of times in my life where that's happening where I just like, nah, it's the worst. Nothing great is going to happen. And then something amazing happens and you miss it.

It doesn't always happen. Most of the time it doesn't happen that way. But every once in a while it happens. And what would have happened if the shepherds would have just been like, I'm not going today.

And the angels show up and they get to see Jesus and they realize in their hearts and lives, this is the most significant thing we've ever got to experience in our life. And the one who didn't show up that night missed it.

Or all of them would have missed it. There's something really special about people who are faithful.

And Jesus talks about this in Luke 16 verses 10 to 11 when he talks to the disciples. Because even the disciples had this mindset of we want to be the greatest.

Luke 16:10–11

We want to sit in places of honor. We want to rule over other people. And Jesus told them if you are faithful in the little things, you will be faithful in large ones.

But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?

Every one of us in this room and every one of you kids, the older you get, there will be a desire in your heart and life to do something significant and meaningful in this life.

And I think as time goes on, the more people are determined if this isn't significant and this isn't important, I'm not wasting my time or life with it.

And I'm a little old school. I believe when you look at scripture and you look at things like this, that God expects us to be humble, to be faithful, to put the time, the blood, the sweat, the tears in, to earn our stripes.

And then as we are faithful in the little things, He will entrust us with greater things. I believe that with all my heart. I've seen it over and over and over again.

And yes, there's been times in my life where I've wanted to bypass the little annoying little task to move up the ladder or move beyond or go experience the better things.

But God's plan is right and it's good. And every time that I've been faithful in little things, God has always been faithful in the other things. I can testify to that personally.

Guys, if you're sitting here this morning, you feel like man, my job stinks, my life stinks, my relationship stinks. I'm not doing anything that I feel like is important.

I feel like my life is just being wasted and you don't feel like you're accomplishing anything significant. Be faithful, be patient, be faithful in the little things because the shepherds could have sat there and they could have said, this is all meaningless.

I'm not going. And they would have missed the greatest news ever given to mankind. And then they would have missed the greatest calling of all time to be the first people to present the message of the gospel to the world.

They were the first people to tell the world about Jesus the Messiah has come to save us all from our sins. They would have missed it.

And this morning, if you're sitting here and you're like, I just am sick and tired of not having much purpose, not having much meaning, be faithful.

Trust in God, test him in your obedience to continue to be faithful and in his timing when he's ready to speak, when he's ready to move, when he's ready to work.

It's amazing at what he will trust you with. It's amazing what God will give you the opportunity to do in his name when we've been faithful in the little things.

And you may say, man, it's not even that. It's just like this meaningless task of the world. It's not spiritual. It's not anything. What were the shepherds doing?

The lowliest job in that society, the least important, the least respected. And yet he entrusted them with the first message presentation of the gospel to the people of Israel.

Be faithful in the little things. As Christmas comes in the next few days, if you feel like you're not feeling it this year, if you feel like you're struggling and different things this year, ask yourself, am I like Mary?

Do I have a spirit of willingness to do whatever God calls me to do? To say, God, I'm your servant. Let it be as you've said it should be.

To be like Joseph and say, I don't understand this and I don't like this, but I'll be obedient to you in spite of it. And to be the shepherds and say,

this isn't the greatest thing I've ever dreamed of. But Lord, if this is what you want me to do, I'll do it and I'll be faithful in it.

I'll test you in this, in my faithfulness, so that you can use me to do something great and amazing later on.

That I'll be faithful in the things of the world so that you will trust me to be faithful with the true riches of heaven that's to come. Let's pray together.

Father God, thank you again for this time to meet together.

Lord, as we celebrate Christmas this week, I pray that you would be with our hearts from the youngest to the oldest in this room, help us to truly honor Jesus Christ.

Thank you for the parents who have endured having to wrangle kids over the past few minutes. And Lord, I pray that you would give them a special blessing for it.

Help us all to honor you and serve you and be with us as we leave this place. Help us to be faithful in the little things so that you can entrust us with the greater things.

Lord, we love you and we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. You are dismissed. Merry Christmas.