Shepherds | Clayton Hentzel

Oh, Crossing Nation. On behalf of Jennifer and I, our

family, the Crossing staff, Merry Christmas.

We are so glad that we get to be here.

I know you guys are trying to find kids at all of our

different locations. Some of you guys will be like,

you know what? The kids we got in our row,

we're keeping. OK, we get it.

I want to welcome you joining from all of our different

locations. Those of you watching online, we

are so thankful for the opportunity to share this moment

with you. Maybe you've noticed this

already, but Christmas has a tendency to magnify things.

Have you noticed that? If you haven't, maybe maybe

you'll see my point of view in just a second.

If things are going great for you, Christmas magnifies it,

right? Like if you're just killing it

on on every front, you're like, Christmas is awesome.

And I want, you know, we see you, we see you in your matching

PJS, everyone's smiling on your Christmas card.

And just so you know, we threw it in the trash.

I'm just telling you, I mean, wherever you got it printed

from, we're happy for you, but we're not putting you on the

fridge. We're not that close.

If you're in love, Christmas magnifies it.

You've ever seen a dating couple around Christmas?

We're going to be together forever.

We'll see those of you who are engaged.

Pro tip fellas, make up a family tradition for you and your

future wife to have. And here's the tradition you

want. When I was growing up, sweetie,

we hung a mistletoe in every room of the house.

OK? You will trust.

You will thank me later. If you made really good money

this year, Christmas magnified it right now.

You guys aren't going. Oh, that's us.

I get it. I want to know who is the target

audience for the Christmas vehicles with bows on them?

Like, who are those people? Oh, yeah, kids, you're all

getting Lexuses. Like I've never seen a car with

a bow on it. I guess they don't put those on

Honda Civics. If OK, OK.

If you're antisocial, Christmas magnifies it.

You sat down with your husband and you said, all right, I'm

looking at the month of December.

I have to go to work. I have to go to the grocery

store. We have a kids play.

We have Christmas Eve services, Your Family Christmas, and my

family Christmas. Pick one, right?

You're like, I am not leaving this house.

If you are a procrastinator, Christmas magnifies it right

now. Some of you are praying to Jeff

Bezos and the God of UPS, right? My gift for Jennifer just left

China. It's coming in.

Santa's going to pick it up mid flight.

If you're a control freak, husbands don't nudge, especially

if you're new to the crossing. OK, just be cool during this

part. If you're a control freak,

Christmas magnifies it. You decided, because you wanted

to be a Pinterest mom, to let the kids help decorate the tree,

and halfway through the decorating the tree, you realize

that your kids are idiots. So you let them go to bed, and

then you undecorated the tree, put all of their stuff facing

the wall and all of your stuff facing where people would sit if

you weren't antisocial, and you let people come over to your

house. I get you.

If you're struggling financially, Christmas magnifies

it. Why did we have so many kids and

friends this year? We're we're cutting some people

out, right? You're going out.

We we got to stop doing this. If you got a bad diagnosis,

Christmas magnifies it. You're asking a question you

never thought you'd ask. Is this my last Christmas?

If you're alone, Christmas magnifies it.

Christmas magnifies everything. There is not a part of your life

that isn't magnified during the Christmas season.

And I don't know if there is a messier season of life than

Christmas. And if Christmas magnifies

things, that means that the Christmas mess gets magnified.

I mean, think about all the messes at Christmas.

You've got relational messes, you've got to buy gifts for

people you don't like anymore. You've got kitchen messes with

flour and icing everywhere. You've got tree messes.

How many of you have a flocked tree?

And I said that very carefully. A flocked tree.

Yeah, your house is trash. That thing just sheds all the

time. Your your wife's.

Like, why do you have so much glitter on you?

Like, I honestly was just putting stuff next to the tree.

Sweetie, I promise. The Garland sheds and it's like

there's ever your. And if you get a real tree, how

many of you are real tree people?

Psychos constantly just vacuuming up dead tree.

I don't get it. You don't keep a plant any other

time of the year, but when it comes to Christmas, we want the

smell of something dying in our house.

All right, good for you. How about this mess?

The post Christmas Day mess? And how come there's only one

trash day the week after Christmas?

Like, here's the side hustle for you.

You'll work one week out of the year and it is Christmas trash

special because they know that we've been dropping off Amazon

boxes for weeks. There is, and we already fill up

the trash can that they give us every week.

Before we get all the Amazon boxes, where are we supposed to

put it? So then you're driving around

late at night trying to find people's dumpsters.

I get it. I'm not saying we do it.

I'm saying, I know people who've done it.

Those of you who live in the country, like, I don't

understand. We keep burning everything.

Like, come on, America, all right, If your life or your

Christmas is a little messy right now, I have good news for

you. The first Christmas was messy,

too. It was a far cry from the

Christmas card Hallmark Hobby Lobby Nativity that we've seen

on Christmas Cards and In Your Yards and Inflatables and on

Fireplace Mantels. In 2014, an artist by the name

of Everett Patterson, who's incredibly gifted, made a

personalized greeting card to send to his friends and his

family. And when you see it, it

immediately evokes a ton of emotion and intrigue.

It forces you to go on an immediate hunt for all of the

hidden messages inside of the picture.

It pauses you. It slows you down to make you

think, What would the first Christmas have looked like if it

happened this year? I'm going to have them put the

picture on the screen and I'm going to give you a moment.

See how many of the references you can find.

Now, those of you who are sitting in the back at many of

our different locations, I apologize.

There's no way to blow the thing up any bigger.

But you can go home and you can find it.

It is called Jose E Maria and you can look at it a little bit

more for yourself. This is my favorite Christmas

picture. I have had it since 2015 and I

have already spent the hard work and energy to find as many of

the Easter eggs as I think can possibly be found.

How many have you found? He's clever in how he does it.

Let's start with the easy one that most of you probably got.

Dave's City Motel. Today in the town of David,

Bethlehem, a savior has been born on the hotel or motel.

More appropriately, it says no vacancy.

There was no room in the end. Mary is not sitting on a donkey,

she's sitting on a coin operated horse.

Some of the fellows already noticed Star beer.

Like I didn't even know they made that anymore.

But yeah, there's the star. How about Wiseman smokes the

Good News banner? Then there's the white dove.

For those of you who are Bible nerds, he calls him Jose instead

of Joseph. He's there, turning through the

Yellow Pages, looking for a place to stay.

For those of you who don't understand Yellow Pages, you

were driven by somebody here who does.

There's Gloria on the telephone stand.

This is where it gets to maybe a little bit more controversial.

Mary is wearing a Nazareth High School hoodie.

It captures the scandal of the circumstances.

There's the makeshift Halos around Mary and Joseph, and

Mary's is carefully crafted. Instead of saying save money, it

almost hints at Ave. Maria for those of you who have

a Catholic heritage on the in instead of a new manager.

Like most motels, the words are not or the letters are not all

there. And it says Manger.

If you look around Joseph's hip, you'll see a political sign

which, just so you know, next year we're going to be electing

a president. So buckle up.

But there's a political sign promoting Herod.

This one might be a bit of a stretch.

Down in the lower left hand corner, you're going to see a

beer bottle that looks like it, says Gabe.

Male. Gabriel the Angel was the one

who told Mary that she was going to be with child.

Perhaps some of you, with really, really good eyesight,

you were able to make out the tag at the base of the horse

word on one side, flesh on the other.

It points to John Chapter one, verse 14.

Many of you probably know this John 114 The Word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us. In the ancient text, it's

basically he built or He put his tent next to our tents.

He brought EU Haul into your neighborhood.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son.

That's Jesus who came from the Father.

That's God, full of grace and truth.

There's this tender shoot coming up out of the concrete, pointing

to the fact that even in the darkest of night and a gloomy

evening, there is the hope of life.

It points all the way back to Isaiah 53, verse two.

He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out

of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to

attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should

desire him. The riding on the side of the

payphone. Everyone used to go places and

they'd have somebody's number on the side, and usually not some

really good stuff around That phone number it on the picture

it says Zeke and then it makes it look like a phone number

341516. That's supposed to queue you in

to look at Ezekiel. Chapter 34.

Ezekiel 34 · chapter mention

And this is what it says. I myself will tend my sheep and

and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord.

I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.

I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the

sleek and the strong I will destroy.

I will shepherd the flock with justice.

On the newspaper laying on the ground, there's an

advertisement. There's an advertisement for

GLAAD and there's an advertisement for tide.

Glad tidings we bring. And then right above that,

there's an advertisement for a brand of watches.

Shepherd watches Luke Chapter 2, verses 8 through 20, and there

Luke 2:8–20

were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch

over their flocks. At night an Angel of the Lord

appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

And they were terrified, which is relatable, because if an

Angel appeared to you tonight, some of you, most of you, would

have to change your drawers. But the Angel said to them, do

not be afraid. I bring you good news that will

cause great joy for all people. Today in the town of David, a

Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in

clothes and lying in a Manger. Suddenly a great company of the

heavenly hosts appeared, with the Angel, praising God and

saying, glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth,

peace to those on whom his favor rests.

When the angels left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds

said to one another, Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing

that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.

So they hurried off, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby

who was lying in a Manger. And when they had seen him, they

spread word concerning what had been told them about this child,

and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherd said to

them. But Mary treasured up all these

things, and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherd's returned, glorifying and praising God for

all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as

they had been told. The shepherds hold a special

place in my heart, and I think they should hold a special place

in your heart, too. You want to know why I think the

shepherds are the most relatable people in this story?

How many of you have been pregnant while you were still a

virgin? So that rules Mary out.

How many of you have been engaged to a woman who was a

virgin? That rules most of us out.

How many of you are a donkey? That rules most of us out.

How many of you have been known as being a wise man?

That rules most of you out. Some of you been known as a wise

donkey, but that is not in the story.

So I think that kind of just leaves us with the shepherds.

It seems a whole lot easier to put ourselves in their shoes

than any of the others. And it's interesting that when

the angels came to announce the birth of King Jesus, they didn't

announce it to kings, to elected officials, to those who were

socially connected. Now he chose shepherds who were

social outcasts who occupied the lowest rung of the social

structure. Good people, good Jewish people,

when they saw a shepherd would walk on the other side of the

street, so that way they didn't have to bump into him and get

pickpocketed. However, God sends the heavenly

hosts to these unpolished, unremarkable, uneducated

shepherds to declare the greatest news in the history of

the world. And what is this great news I

already told you, Luke, Chapter 2, verse 11.

Luke 2:11

Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you.

He is the Messiah, the Lord Messiah.

That means promised One, the one the entire Old Testament has

been pointing to, the anointed one specifically put together

for this task. What task, you might ask, to

save people. There might be some of you in

one of the rooms where you're watching this service and you're

thinking to yourself, I don't fit in here.

You're looking around at all the couples holding hands, kids

wearing matching outfits, people smiling, people who look like

their lives are all neat and tidy and put together, and

you're going. I don't think I fit in a person

with my story. A person with my life

experiences probably isn't going to make a great Christian.

Probably not going to make a great follower of Jesus,

however, and my staff will back me up on this.

One of the privileges of being around this church is we

actually know these people, and if you knew what we know about

the people that you're sitting next to, you wouldn't sit so

close to them. If I were to pass the microphone

around any of the rooms in any of the rows, you would be amazed

at the people who call this church home.

You would be amazed at the people who call themselves

Christians. Some of the people sitting next

to you have had affairs, multiple marriages.

Some of the people sitting next to you.

There is not a single thing that they haven't watched on the

Internet. There's not a substance that

they haven't smoked, snorted, swallowed or injected.

Some of them were kicked out of school.

Some of them have been arrested, others have served time, and

that's just the testimony of the people we employ.

I haven't even got to the people.

That's just who works here. The reason you can sit by them

is because there's a savior, and this savior changes people.

And they allowed Jesus into their life, and he changed them.

And just like the shepherds, God gives people like you and like

me a new purpose to seek after Jesus and to tell other people

about him. And God, all throughout

Scripture has chosen the unlikely to do the extraordinary

to carry the beautiful message that a savior is here.

Someone who doesn't just save us from our sins, handle our

failures, deal with our mistakes.

But a Messiah who is not afraid of your mess?

Who's this message for? Who is this savior?

Come for? Well, for all people, for

everyone, for all time. That means this savior is for

you. If you have a past.

A savior has been born. If you have an addiction.

A savior has been born. If you have parenting problems,

marriage problems, financial problems, a savior has been

born. If you're sad, there's a savior.

If you're alone, there's a savior.

If you're hurt, there's a savior.

If you're in sin, there's a savior.

If you're depressed, there's a savior.

If you're worried, there's a savior.

If you're suicidal, A savior is here.

No matter what you've done, no matter what you've gone through.

The good news is for all people, no matter where you're at, no

matter what you've done, a Savior has come into the world

to move into your neighborhood, your mess.

And this Savior came to save Jesus, put on our sin so that

you and I could be made holy. He gives us this message, and

guess who he gives it to? Messy shepherds to remind you

and me that no one is too far from God's reach, no one is too

low for God's love, and no sin is too great for God's grace.

No matter how big and wide and deep your mess, it is not

greater than this Messiah who has been born to you and to me.

And I hope you'll ask yourself this question.

What am I supposed to do with this Savior?

We're moving to a time of decision.

The angel's final word in the story was peace on earth to

those on whom his favor rests. I don't care who you are.

You could use some peace. I don't care how good your year

was. You could use some peace.

And maybe the greatest peace you need is a spiritual peace

answering the biggest questions of life.

Why do I exist? Why am I here?

What is my purpose? What happens after I die?

If you don't have questions to those, or if you don't have

answers to those questions, how could you possibly have peace?

The good news is, I know where to find it.

Listen, if you could buy it, you would already have peace.

But this piece isn't for sale. If you could earn it, you would

already have two, and it'd be collecting dust somewhere.

But you can't earn it. The only way to get God's peace

in your life is to have the favor of God.

Rest on you. The peace comes because of God's

favor. And some of you are going, OK,

I'm interested. So how do I get God's favor to

rest on me? Oh, if you want to know, we get

together like 52 times every year to talk about how to get

God's favor in your life. And we make it clear every

single week that God's favor rests on you when you begin an

intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

And hear me, this is not just the message of Christmas.

This is the offer of Christmas. That Jesus came down to purchase

something on your behalf that you cannot buy, that you cannot

earn, that you have been disqualified from.

But he purchased it for you on your behalf, and he holds it out

to you and says, do you want it? Do you want my favor?

So you want my peace. And if you haven't started an

intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it is the

greatest gift that God could give.

And those of us who have it have been transformed by it and those

of us who have it. And if you don't have to believe

me, you can ask them on out in the lobby or when you're driving

home. But I'll just tell you, those of

us who have it would tell you this.

It's the greatest gift that you could ever give your family.

It's the knowledge of where you will be when you die.

And they're not asking us. So where's mom or where's Dad or

where's Grandma or where's Grandpa?

They'll know that you surrendered your life to Jesus

and said, you give me the peace, you give me the favor and I'll

give you me. As busted up and broken as it

is. And hear hear me.

It gets better. When you come into an intimate,

personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

He gives you His Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit comes into

your life and He guides you. He directs you, He shapes you

and He empowers you. How many of you are excellent

decision makers? Don't raise your hand.

We see you. We see you dress.

We see you drive. We see you.

Parents, you suck at making decisions.

You're like, I didn't know that that church was like this.

It will be for the rest of the night.

I'll change it by Sunday. But when?

How many of you could use a better decision maker, a better

guide? How many of you are going?

I don't have the energy to get through what I'm going through.

Well, what? How many of you could use the

Holy Spirit to empower you to do the thing that you didn't think

you could do? He gives you that.

Hear me? You want to give your family a

gift this Christmas? You know what your wife needs.

You know what your husband needs.

You know what your kid needs? A spirit filled Father.

A spirit filled mother, a spirit filled child.

A spirit filled husband. A spirit filled wife.

Somebody who's been transformed by the grace of God that was

sent to us in Jesus. And if you don't have that

relationship, it's just a moment.

People around you can do something a little silly.

They're going to start praying. They're going to maybe come up

to the steps and get down their knees.

They're going to start worshipping.

But you can do something different.

You can turn to one of them, or you can come up here by the

baptistry right over there. I'm actually pointing to it, and

me and somebody else will be there.

And we would love to talk to you about how to start the

relationship with Jesus Christ that changes and transforms

everything. And to those of you who already

have a relationship, God doesn't just give you a new life.

He has given us His new spirit, but He's given us a purpose to

fulfill. And our purpose is the same as

the shepherd's to seek after Jesus and to tell everybody

about it. And would you join me in that

sacred mission? Would you stand, Heavenly

Father, bring about a change in every single one of us?

There's not a single person listening to my voice who

doesn't need to be more like you and God.

There's people in here right now that are asking questions.

I mean, God's got to be good for some people, but there's no way

that he's good for me and God. I pray that you would just quiet

the lies of the enemy, give them the courage to take the next

step that they need to take to begin the relationship that

changes at all. And God, for those of us who've

been following you for a while, rekindle in us a fire, a passion

to point people to you so they can be changed too.

And you know my pray. Amen.