Christmas at CCW

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The Bible says in Luke chapter 2, verse 15.

Luke 2:15

You see, Benji shared about the innkeeper's message, and Pastor Dave shared about the angel's message.

And I want you to see the shepherd's message.

And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.

Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told to them concerning this child.

And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told to them by the shepherds.

Mary kept those things and pondered them in her heart.

Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen and was told to them.

When I think about this story and the story of the shepherds, you have to understand shepherds to get the full picture.

And the thing about shepherds was they were doing a lowly job in a lowly place.

And most of the good people had a problem with shepherds.

If you're around good people very long, you'll find that they mostly have a problem.

The good people of the temple didn't like the shepherds because they couldn't follow Jewish ceremonial laws because they were always tending to and cleaning dirty sheep.

But it's interesting that Jesus' message that came from the angels wasn't chosen to first be told to Caesar Augustus.

It wasn't chosen to first be told to King Herod.

It wasn't even chosen to be told to a high priest.

The very first message of the birth of Jesus was given to lowly shepherds.

Well, let's break down the message a little bit.

In verse 15 and 16, they said to each other, they confirmed, let's go see about this thing that we've been told.

That first message is come and see.

And they followed that message.

I thought and thought about that come and see.

My son Weston is in sixth grade, and just the other week we were doing a youth Christmas party in here.

My wife was doing the food and I was doing the games, and I had an interview with a fellow at church for a class project that he was going through, so I had to sit with him.

And on the ride to church, Weston says, Dad, I got to build a boat.

I'm like, You got a what?

First of all, do you know who you're talking to?

He's like, I gotta build a boat.

And so I'm quickly calculating how this is gonna take place.

I've got 45 minutes until my interview with Kyle.

And his mom's doing this, and I get into church and I just start pulling together cardboard and duct tape.

I'm like, I gotta build a boat.

The boy's gotten, and he's telling me the people chose him for this part of his school project that they're filming a movie.

And I'm like, okay, we can build a little boat.

He's like, well, we gotta be able to have two people fit in the boat.

I'm like, what are you saying?

So in 45 minutes, I'm undoing car.

I don't really have a plan.

I'm just trying to make something square and I get the thing together, and then piece by piece.

When we were done with that boat, Weston was never more proud of something.

And he went and ran to mom.

He said, Mom, come and see the boat.

He ran to Wyatt and he said, Wyatt, come and see the boat.

Callie, come and see the boat.

He texted his group that was on the project, said, You guys gotta see the boat.

And he's texting pictures.

I promise, I'm thinking, how are we gonna get this thing into school?

How did they let something so big?

I don't know if I've been, you know, uh bamboozled into something that was supposed to be much smaller.

We're getting in out, and I'm like, I'm gonna have to carry this into school.

We're in the car rider line.

And I promise you, God sent a little friend of Weston's just that time, and he goes, Yo, Weston, W boat.

If you don't know parents, W means win.

Win or boat, and so he carries this thing in, but the whole message for him was, I want everybody to come and see my boat.

Come and see.

You know, in John 4 29, the message from the woman at the well, after she met with Jesus, she told the whole town, you gotta come and see about a man who told me everything that there ever was in my life.

Do you know that John the Baptist's message when he foreran, when he went before Jesus, was Behold the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world.

His message was, You gotta come and see this.

The shepherd's message was from the angels, come and see.

I want to tell you today that that is the Christmas message that we're to be reminded of year after year.

Forget about all of this stuff.

Come and see.

And I want to ask you just to bow for a moment.

Maybe you're here this morning.

I want to tell you the heartbeat of this church.

If you've never come and see about Jesus, if you don't have a real relationship with him, the Bible says in Romans 3.23, our big problem is this that everyone, everyone has this plight.

Every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, we all have sin and fallen short of the glory of God.

And Romans 6.23 said, For the wages of that sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

He said, Here's the come and see part.

If you will believe in your heart, if you meet with that message, if you believe it and see it and feel it that it's true, if you'll believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, then you can be saved.

And by the way, Romans 5.8 says that God commended his love toward us, not that we did something good while we were yet sinners.

He will meet you in that shepherd's field.

He'll meet you in a strange place, like Dave said, He'll meet you in a low place.

He just wants to meet you.

But you gotta come and see.

So if you've never done that, I want to lead you in what we call the sinner's prayer.

If the Holy Spirit's already working in your heart, it's already happening.

But you can cement it by saying a prayer like this, dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner.

I believe that Jesus Christ was born, that he came and he lived a perfect life and died on a cross, that he was buried and rose again for me.

I want to place my faith and trust in Jesus.

I'm coming today and I'm coming to see.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, just one more moment, and I'll finish up on this shepherd's message.

Is there anybody here that would say by uplifted hand, Pastor?

I just prayed that prayer and I've accepted Jesus as my Savior.

Anybody at all?

If that's you, would you raise your hand up?

Amen.

Well, the second part of that message is this.

Look at verse 17 and 18.

We know this from Christmas time.

Now, when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying.

That second part is to go and tell.

He said, Come and see, and then go and tell.

Immediately, the shepherd spread the word.

Have you ever tried to keep good news quiet?

Some of y'all have already told somebody about a Christmas present.

Anyone guilty?

You just couldn't help it.

It's so good.

The good news is good.

And I want to tell you, once those shepherds saw that baby, they couldn't help it.

They had to go and tell.

The story's captured in a Christmas hymn that we sing.

Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere.

Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ was born.

But I want to tell you, the story didn't end right there in that manger.

The gospel story continued, and Jesus Christ, listen to me, the shepherd's story, what took them over, and we got further was that the glory of God was pushed aside for Jesus.

Jesus came and pushed aside all of his divinity to come and be born on this earth, and he lived a holy and blameless life.

And Jesus would go on in ministry to heal, blind and heal, deaf and heal the mute and heal, demon-possessed, and he would do amazing things out of a no-name, nothing down.

And then Jesus would be falsely condemned, falsely convicted.

He would be berated and beaten and mocked, and ultimately he'd be tortured on a sinner's cross.

Jesus was born not just to be born, but born to die, to become the propitiation of my and your debt.

Well, I want you to take the Lord's Supper.

Because Jesus would gather the disciples together in the upper room to discuss those things that were going to happen, and he let them know that there was coming a day that this body, this temple of his, was going to be broken.

And he wanted them to come together and have a memorial.

And this is something that touches me every time that we have the Lord's Supper.

Church, for centuries, people that have gone before you, generations, great-grandparents, and people beyond have done this sacrament before their family members and before their church family.

For centuries, this has been observed.

And it started with Jesus here.

And I'm going to read the latter part of the scripture because we're going to take a time just for prayer and examination.

In 1 Corinthians 11, it says, Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks of this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

But let a man so examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For who he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment, not discerning the Lord's body.

And so we're going to take a moment, a few moments, silently, if you would bow your head.

And I want to ask you the point of this remembrance is one to remember all that he's done, not let it become elevator music in our life that Jesus died for us.

But then if there's anything in your heart, any awe, any wrong, it's a reminder to take this time and fix it.

Ask him for forgiveness, get cleansing.

We're going to take just a few moments in prayer.

We're excited you joined us for today's message.

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