Experiencing God's Light: The Story of the Shepherds || Pastor Adam Mesa

If you're ready for God's word, would if you have

a Bible you could turn to Luke nineteen. If you don't,

I'll have it up on the screen, and so we

could read that way in general as well.

But if you'd like to follow along with me when

Luke nineteen.

We've shared this passage for about three weeks now, this

will be our fourth week that we've shared this particular passage.

I've cut it in half for the sake of time

so that we could just read the second half of

what we've been reading. And so, if you're ready for

God's word, would you just stand so that we just

give God our full attention as we hear from the

Bible today, here's what God's Word says. He says, as

he was drawing near, speaking of Jesus already on the

way down on the Mount Olives, the whole multitude of

his disciples began rejoicing and praising God with a loud

voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying,

bless is the King who comes in the name of

the Lord, Peace in heaven and glory in the highest

in Some of the pharisees in the crowd send to

him teacher, rebuke your disciples, Jesus answered, I tell you,

if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

You may be seated on Tuesday for our Christmas Eve services.

We'll conclude this series with also kind of a music

experience and an artistic experience, but will continue to kind

of share about this theme that I believe in the

Word of God. Not only do we see that all

of creation glorifies God, but Jesus says that if humanity

would be quiet in terms of praising God, God would

cause an eruption of creation to praise him. And we

know as a matter of fact that if you would

get a microphone that has enough power, that every single

thing God has created actually emits a sound. And so

if you ever go online and just type what is

the sound that rocks maker, what is the sound that

space makes? They all have a noise, they all have

a frequency, they all make a praise. That's because God

caused everything under his creation and everything under his hand

to make noise and worship him. In fact, you and

I are created that way. And the theme of Christmas

isn't just a theme where we look at this beautiful

baby in a manger it's actually meant for you to receive,

but not just receive, respond to it, to make.

A joyful noise.

When the Pharisees look at Jesus say hey, Jesus, your

disciples are making way too much noise for you. Quiet down,

Jesus says, if I told them to be quiet, everything

else would just erupt because humanity was created to praise God.

And a few moments, we're gonna see how there's a

moment where Jesus is born and God makes an invitation

to these shepherds that are out in the field caring

for their sheep, and the Angel of the Lord through

God invites the shepherds to make noise and follow Jesus

to respond to a moment of celebration that Jesus is born.

But earlier this week, I was at home and my

youngest son, Thomas, was with me and Ashley, my oldest son,

had gone away for the night with my mother in law,

and so we just had my three year old Thomas,

and he was in preschool and he had a book

exchange and he got this book talking about God, and

it was all about how God's created us for a purpose,

how God has a purpose in our.

Life and God loves us.

And so Thomas, when we picked him up from school,

he said, will you guys read me this book?

Will you guys read me this book?

Well, we had a long day and so we didn't

make it home until the evening. And when we get home,

Thomas once again says, Mommy, can you read me this

book before bed? Ashley says, yeah, Thomas, let's go upstairs.

Let's get in bed, and I'll read you the book.

He said, okay, great. So I'm downstairs taking care of

some things. I hear upstairs Ashley reading this book to Thomas.

And what happens is is I start walking upstairs. I

forgot and I didn't realize about three years prior, when

I changed a bunch of light bulbs in our house,

I had bought those smart light bulbs, you know, the

ones were like it connects to your phone and you

could tell Siri or Alexa whether you want it on

or off or whatever.

I didn't realize I had those, and I.

Guess with Apple's new update, it just kind of automatically

connected it all into my phone.

So I'm walking upstairs and I noticed.

On my phone for the first time, I hadn't seen

it before. It says, you can control it says, Ashley's

light is on, and I was like, Ashley's lighted on.

I forgot that I had that, I had set that

up a long time ago. Ashley's lights off. And it says,

would you like to dim Ashley's lights? And I was like,

I don't know. And so I'm walking upstairs and I

stop at the stair and I see Ashley h reading

this book to Thomas. And she's reading it and she's

she's in the moment telling Thomas and God always has

a purpose for our life. And at that point I

dimmed the light. I didn't think it would work, Honest

to God, I hadn't seen this before on my phone,

and I dimmed the light.

And as she goes.

And she looks up to heaven, and at the same

moment that she does that, I also changed the color

from obviously white but to red.

Boom, and then she drops the books. Oh, Thomas, she loves.

She says, God's talking to us, and I'm looking at her.

I'm like, no, you dummy, it's me. It's the fuck.

And she looks at me and her face goes so rare,

and she goes, I said, God, what's talking to me?

And I said, and saying, what what is he saying?

In that moment, he's been trying.

I looked at her. I said, he's been.

Trying to talk to you for a long time, so

I guess it is believable that he wouldn't do that

with the lights. And she starts laughing and she's completely embarrassed.

And in the moment she goes, you're not gonna use

that in a sermon, ever, are you?

And I said, no, I don't plan to.

Maybe one day and then sure enough, I'm studying for

this weekend.

And the word says that.

A light appeared to the shepherds, and I said, there

we go. That here's the story, believe it or not,

that all happened for a reason this week. And so

in Luke two eight to fourteen, as as crazy as

that would seem, that God would mess with Ashley's lights

to get her attention, appearingly, in Luke chapter two, God

does come through an angel. The Angel of the Lord

speaks to some shepherds in light. He comes as light,

says that light shone all around him. Other translations and

other passages would use this and use this name as

like a star. So they see this beautiful star. We

know that in the wise men they give Jesus three

types of gifts.

And they followed a star to Jesus.

And so this star appears to shepherds. And here's what

the star says, which is actually an angel that they see,

And it says in the same region, speaking of Bethlehem,

there were shepherds out in the field. They were keep

keeping watch over their flock by night. And an Angel

of the Lord appeared to them, and glory of the

Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold,

I bring you good news of great joy that will

be for all people. For unto you is born this

day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ,

for Christ the Lord. And there will be a sign

for you. You'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths

and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with

an angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and

saying glory to God in the highest and on earth,

peace among those.

Whom He is. Please you see.

So there's a moment and one of the questions we

have to ask ourselves, and if you study the Bible,

there's always moments that you want to ask questions, and

God's completely okay many times.

With asking questions.

One of the questions that would be asked in this

story is God, when Jesus is born and you're inviting

people to your son's birthday, what type of people would

you invite or who would you invite? And God appears

to shepherds that are in the middle of a job.

They're looking after their sheep in Jesus's day, and their

culture shepherds were, especially Rabbis consider them to be fairly

dirty individuals because they were kind of nomadic, and so

they would travel where with their sheep, wherever there was

fresh grass, and so shepherds kind of rarely took showers,

their clothes were often kind of dirty and smelly, and

it was just work where for him. They often slept

by tent out with their sheep, and so normally if

a shepherd came into the city, it's like you could

smell him before you see him, you know. And so

if you were going to invite someone to your birthday,

you wouldn't necessarily invite shepherds that are in the middle

of their job.

It would be for you.

Let's just say, for instance, you know, we got some

Hispanics in the room and some of Latinos in the room,

and so imagine your daughter's having a king signetta, okay,

Or for those non Hispanics, let's just say your daughter's

having a sixteenth birthday, but a king signette is a

little bit more appropriate because sixteenth birthday.

They're nice.

But if you ever get invited to a king signetta,

I mean, it's just it's just chaos packed in one.

There's dancing, there's a priest, there's drinking, there's celebration, there's food.

It's just pure chaos. But it's very formal at the

same time. So I want you to imagine you're on

the way to this party and you pass by a

bunch of construction were or you passed by some people

that are working for Cowtrans and they have worked all day,

all day, they have grinded this thing out. I got

friends that are construction workers and contractors, and I'll see

them throughout the week and I'll go to give them

a hug and they'll be like, no, just shake my hand.

I'm smelling, I'm stinky, and I'm like, no, it's it's

all good.

But imagine these individuals. You see them in.

The job on the way and you say, hey, come

to my child's wedding, come to my daughter's King Ciannetta,

come celebrate with us. They would look and they would

be like, are you sure us? First of all, we're

in the middle of a job. Second of all, we've

been working all day, and so we're dirty, we're smelly.

We don't we don't. I don't have it.

I don't have time to get a gift. I don't

even have a gift. And then the angels like, oh,

who cares? Your presence is his gift?

Come visit him. It'd be like why, why mean why us?

Well, immediately, what God is trying to communicate to us

is the people that are normally on the outskirts of society,

the people that you would normally not think, I mean

construction and contracting it's a great living, but for a

shepherd back then.

It wasn't necessarily a great living.

And so God immediately visits people that are on the

edges of society, showing people that his son's birth is

for everybody. He didn't show up to a local politician

and be like, hey, come pay your respects.

He didn't show up to the local.

Business owner and say, hey, come love on Jesus. He

showed up to men who were in the middle of

a job, who are in the middle of doing something,

and said, hey, why don't you come and visit the

Savior of the world. And so in that moment, what

happens is is they see a light and so I

got my little light right here, and so these shepherds,

this light appears to them and tells them, hey, I

got good.

News for you.

The Savior of the world is born in you. Guy,

can go visit him. Here's an invitation that the light

is coming to you, and you could go visit him

in his home where if you're taking notes, what happens

is is they don't just go, oh.

Wow, this is beautiful, what a great light.

Most of us, if we saw an angel, we would

be more consumed with people, with people knowing that we

saw an angel than sharing with what the angel said.

So if you're on your way home or you.

Were laying in bed and a light comes in your

room and God starts talking to you, would immediately go

on Facebook and you'd be like, yeah, I just saw

an angel.

How do I know that? Because people do that with

aliens all the time.

I saw an alien tonight and it's like, no, it's

just a family member who you know. But like, I

saw an alien tonight. But the reality is the angel.

It's not just about appearing to the shepherds. It's about

giving them a message, come.

And visit Jesus.

And so what we see in the second point, if

you're taking notes, what happens is is when you hear

from heaven, it'll hurry your heart and it'll create haste

in your life. God wants to create a hastiness in

your life, it says in Luke two sixteen. And they

went out with haste and found Mary and Joseph and

the baby lying in a manger. And so this light

appears to them and this angel starts speaking to them.

Well, when they hear the good news, they're quick to

visit Jesus.

And a lot of times we're looking for more of

these miracles of God without the message of God. We

want this miraculous moments rather than just God, What are

you trying to get me to do?

Where are you trying to get me to go.

When I was seventeen years old, it was the first

time that I truly saw God's light.

I grew up in a Christian home.

I grew up with Christian parents, grew up with parents

that were pastors, and so for much of my life,

I figure that one day I would go to heaven

and I'd be like, God, you gave me a Christian home.

I had this like really sweet.

Cross necklist that I would wear, and I would go

to church on Sundays, and I was pretty nice to

every person I met.

In theory, you know, me and God are good.

But when I was seventeen, there was a moment where

I had to make a decision whether Jesus was gonna

be my personal Lord and savior or not, whether I

was gonna allow him to radically transform my life or not.

So when I'm seventeen, first time I truly.

Saw God's light in HD four K, I'm at my house,

I come home. I had a girlfriend at the time,

even though I wasn't allowed to have girlfriends at the time,

and so I had a girlfriend at the time, and

she was three months late on her period, and so

I had figured in my head because I have parents

that are in ministry. That what I'm gonna do is

I'm gonna pack a bag and I'm gonna run away,

because I'd rather than be able to say I ran

away than shame them with whatever is going to be

the outcome. That was the theory that I had in

my head. So I go to my room and I

get ready to pull a Duffel bag out. I'm gonna

go to my girlfriend's house. We're gonna take a pregnancy test.

We're gonna figure this whole thing out. But I'm gonna

do it without embarrassing my family.

That was my thought.

So before I go in my room, my brother Caleb,

who's my middle brother, he says, Adam, why don't you

come into my room real quick? I said, Caleb, I

don't have time. I gotta go somewhere real quick. And

he said, just give me ten minutes. I said fine.

He hands me his bible and he has me open

up the Bible to Romans chapter two. He has me

read all of Romans chapter two, and then he begins

to share the gospel with me.

The only thing this.

Time is he said something that stuck in my heart

that changed my life forever because as I was reading

Romans too, who Jesus is and what Jesus did for

me began to be very clear. For me, the message

was clear, and so I begin to see the light.

And then what happens is he makes a statement and

he says, Adam, for every day that you sin, you're

wasting a drop of Jesus's blood.

And so in that moment, my heart broke. I felt wasteful.

I felt like my life was wasting away, felt like

I wasn't doing things fully the way that God had

created me to live and living the way God created

me to live. And so in that moment, I received

Jesus as my Lord and savior. And what happens is,

I said, this is what's gonna happen.

I'm gonna call my girlfriend.

I'm gonna tell her, hey, I'm not gonna come pick

you up. Whatever the outcome is. I'm gonna talk to

my parents. I'm gonna own up to whatever I did.

So that was my thought. I said, I'm gonna.

Call her, I'm gonna tell her that, I'm gonna tell

her I just received Jesus as my Lord and savior.

I go in the other room and I call her.

I said, hey, do you have a second She said yes,

But before you say anything, I just want to let

you know that I just had my period right now.

First of all, in that moment, I was like, whoo, okay,

all right, so but but second of all, what I

did was I number one first thing I did.

I said, man, that's great. I'm so excited. Here's the thing.

I don't feel like I'm making wise decisions. I think

we should break up. So I broke up with her

in that moment. But then I said, but I'm gonna

be a friend, and I shared the Gospel with her.

She received Jesus in that moment herself. She started coming

to church here for a couple of years after that,

and then today she's married to a pastor and they

live in Arizona, and so she fully committed her life.

To Jesus as well.

But here was the reality for me, is when I

saw the light, it wasn't just about being aware that

I needed a relationship with God. It was taking the

steps that I needed to take in haste, in a hurry.

Not well, I was in the middle of something or oh,

that's what happened with the shepherds when they were met

with God's grace to say, hey, comep is it Jesus?

They were like, well, let me go take a shower

real quick, or who's gonna take care of the sheep.

They didn't start trying to figure things. It said, they

hurried with haste to meet Jesus. And when God begins

to speak to you, we need to begin to have

a hastiness to meet God where he's at, because God's

making an invitation to you every single day, not only

to know Him, but to live to your highest capacity

that God has created and called you to be. And

so there's a rush, and there's a hastiness that's created

within their walk and within their life. And then what

happens is is as they begin to hurry and pursue

to meet Jesus.

The third point is this.

What happens is their faith begins to be anchored by hope.

And so they meet Jesus and they begin to be

anchored by seeing Jesus. And there are moments in your

faith where God is trying to anchor you. To chapter

twenty or chapter two, Verse twenty says and the Shepherd's returned,

glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and

all that they had heard as it had been told

to them. So what happens is is God begins to

manifest himself to the shepherds.

And invite them to meet Jesus.

They walk away encouraged to continue to live their life

knowing that Jesus is alive, their Messiah is alive. And

they went back, and it says they went praising God.

And so they're more than likely the next day they

would have been in the town village and someone would

have said, how was your guys' day last night? They

wouldn't have gone, you know, same old Samul, just a

normal night. No, they would have said, let me tell

you what happened. It would have built their faith in

their trust up with God. And there are moments in

our life that if we would step out in faith,

and you would choose to hope in God and allow

trust in God, what God will begin to do is

he will give you moments.

That will anchor you where you will see God faithful.

You will see Him real if you would move with haste.

But a lot of times we have an alternate story

of the shepherds, and we'll be in.

The field and we'll be like God, bring Jesus to me.

If he's real, have him come to the field. I

got things going on. Or God, let me figure some

things out and then I'll go visit Jesus. Let me

get clean first, let me get washed up first. Let

me tell you, that's what we want to do a

lot of times. Rather God the story of the Shepherds.

God wants you exactly the way you are, but he

loves you too much to keep you the way that

you are. And so what we see is the shepherds

leave as they are to visit Jesus. But it says

when they come back, they're praising God for everything that

they've seen her. In other words, they're changed because they

met Jesus.

And you and I are called by God.

Jesus literally says that you and I are the light

of this world.

We are called to meet people.

Where they are at, like God met the shepherds where

they are at. You know, it's an incredible thing when

you read the Gospels and you see moments in Jesus's ministry.

You see the first people that he invites to his

birthday the day he's born is shepherds. That's the outcast,

that's the outsider. That's the person that you would never

think God would invite to his birthday. And then what

happens is is when Jesus starts his ministry at age thirty,

who does he invite to be part of his disciples. Well,

primarily he chooses fishermen, men who are good at farming,

men that are good at cultivating, men that are good

at working hard and being disciplined. And so he calls

and even brings women that are disciples around them, and

regardless of their past, he.

Brings them in. And so you see.

All types of people that become disciples, broken people, sinful people,

hurting people.

You have a tax collector.

You have a man that's made with greed, you have

a zealot, a guy who hates the government is and

they're all on Jesus's squad. And so he's got if

you ever remember the movie Goonies, like that is Jesus's disciples,

all of them. And so he invites these shepherds, these outcasts,

He brings Goonies onto his team. And then in the

very last moments when he's on the cross, who's the

last person that he invites to heaven with him?

A thief?

A criminal, someone that's done time, someone that would be like, oh, man,

they need to pay for their sins, and Jesus looks

at him. When the man says he asks for forgiveness,

he asks to believe in Jesus. Jesus says, you will

be with me in paradise. And so you see what

type of people does God want to love? What type

of people does God want to say? Well, if you

look at these moments in his ministry, it's all kinds

of people, and it's you and it's me.

That's who he wants to save. You want shepherds.

You want people in the middle of the job who

know some one would invite to a party.

You want to make disciples.

All individuals who are looney and crazy and have quirks

and have broken things. Some people have mental illnesses, some

people have greed, some of them have broken it.

They all get invited to be disciples with Jesus.

And then at the end of his moments in life,

there's a criminal, someone who's paying for their sins on

a cross, and he says, Jesus, can I be with you?

Majority of us would be like, nah, not you. Everyone

else is welcome.

But you know, but instead Jesus says, of course, you'll

be with me in paradise. He even looks at the

people who are crucifying them and says, Father, forgive them, for.

They don't know what they are doing.

It continually shows that Jesus' heart is to save those

that you and I would normally think would have no.

Interest in coming.

Whoever you think that would never be interested to meet

Jesus or to I'm the church, or receive prayer, those

are the individuals that God cares about.

The story of the shepherd.

Is that person that you think would never receive Jesus.

That's the one God wants. Jesus puts it this way.

He says, I will leave the ninety nine sheep to

go after one, the one lost, and he calls us

to do the same. He calls us to be light

and to bring light into dark paces so that people

can find hope. You know, there was a moment a

couple of weeks ago that we had an opportunity as

a church where we went to one of the largest

street where conventions, and I was a little bit out

of my comfort zone because maybe like you, but as

a Christian and someone who's been a Christian for a

very long time. I tend to like environments that I

can somewhat either control or I'm aware of however it's

gonna go okay, And so I like to be around

stuff that doesn't make me uncomfortable.

I don't know if that's like you.

And what happens is we go to something that I

didn't know what was going to happen, but ultimately what

happens is we went to talk about Jesus, but we

didn't know exactly what God would do at this convention,

and so we had the opportunity to share Jesus legitimately

with hundreds of people over a weekend, and God did

incredible things and so we got some of it on video.

And I want to share with you where God has

called us outside the church and it's you and me

called the same way. Hey, with some Patriot here we

are special announcement. We teamed up with a brand called

Jesus Loves You. They were invited to the largest streetwear

convention in America called Complex Con, and we worked together

to do a Patriot church shirt collapse. But also why

we've been here. This is a place where some of

the most secular artists do hip hop and entertainment.

This is where some of the largest streetwear brands.

Do exhibitions, and so it's a really chaotic place. There's

sixty thousand people here, and so the fact that we

popped up a booth that says Jesus Loves you. One

of the things we did as some of us pastors.

I brought some of our pastoral team, is we started

going through while people would come visit the booth and

we would share about Jesus. You know, we've seen some

really wild things while we've been here. Yesterday there was

a brand walking through the halls here and they had

fake nuns and they were walking around with communion cups

with free condoms that anyone could take. There's a booth

right next door to us that their entire collection has

demonic signs and if the shirts say Antichrist on top

of it. And here we are in the middle of

that and people have been walking.

Up to us.

We have a sign over here that says free prayer.

They've been come in and saying can you pray for me?

Vice presidents and presidents of big companies that you would

know of if I said, have come up and said

I'm a Christian, I don't always publicize it. Would you

pray for me while I'm here? And so we're seeing

God do some incredible things. So we wonder what you

do when you go to dark places. Our job is

to share the light, and that's what we've been doing here.

We've been sharing the light of Jesus and it has

been impacting people's lives. So far, we have had hundreds

of interactions with people where we've preached the hope of Jesus,

and so many people have committed their life to Christ,

even in a place like this.

I'll give you an example.

Sammy just yesterday with sharing the gospel with two young

men and he made an invitation of faith to them.

At that moment, he said, I would love to accept Jesus,

but I feel like there's some things in my life

that are a little contrary to that.

And he's like, what do you mean.

He's like, well, tonight, because this is in Las Vegas,

he said, we're going to a Playboy thing tonight, and

if I accept Jesus, I don't know that I could

go to the Playboy thing. And Sammy encouraged him and said, hey,

Jesus is intensely concerned with your heart. Right now, all

your habits will change if you give Jesus your heart.

And right there he said, I want to accept.

Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior. And he

led him through a prayer.

This is what we're doing as a church is we

believe that Jesus has commanded us to go in the

highways and the byways.

And preach the love of Jesus. So I got great

news for you.

We have some shirts that we brought back that I'm

wearing called Jesus Loves You. It's got our patriot Church

love in the back. This is something that you could

share with friends that your church went out to the

edges of culture and society and.

Shared the love and hope of Jesus.

So at all of our campuses today, feel free to

go out the courtyard, grab one today and know that

we're preaching Jesus and you could do.

The same thing in your own community.

Love y'all, see you out there. Praise done. Well.

I'm gonna share with you a few more stories, but

let me say this first. And we have a great

church and our church loves representing Patria. And here's what

I'll say First Service those shirts completely sold out, and

so I'm sorry. Not only not even First Service got

the shirts by half the line.

It sold out, so some people.

We probably should have put a limit short order, but

some people were buying ten twelve fifteen shirt. They're like,

it's an easy Christmas gift. And so here's what happened. Okay,

within hopefully a week or longest week and a half,

Jermaine has already messaged our supplier, we're gonna restock. Okay,

so I know people were gonna try to get in line.

I just want to tell you ahead of time it's

not gonna be there.

But we love our We never know, you know how.

Much the church is gonna jump onto something or not.

So we're gonna we're making more.

But I will say there were some moments that one

in particular was I had already gone to bed because

I may look young, but I feel old, and so

around eight or nine o'clock, I had already headed back

to my hotel. But there's an artist named Travis Scott,

and he was about he was gonna do a concert

that night at the venue. His entire team came up.

Travis did it, but his entire team who was about

to go up and perform, went up to the booth,

went and sought it out and said, hey, we heard

that you guys are giving out free prayer.

Can we get in on some of that?

And so they prayed for the entire concert staff that

was gonna go and perform in that moment. And that's

oftentimes a first step for people. But one of the

things we would do is we would boldly.

Talk about Jesus.

And there were many moments like I shared that one

in particular, young man saying I want this, I need this,

I see the light.

I want to make that decision.

But I got a Playboy party I'm going to tonight

that I was invited to, and it was, Hey, do.

You want to move with haste or not? What do

you want to do in your life?

Do you do you want to stand before God and

do you want to say but God, that Playboy party

was amazing? Or do you want to stand before God

and say God? When I met you, I ran towards

you with haste. I hurried towards you.

There were.

There were incredible moments like I have a video on

Pastor Heron's praying for a young man, and you'll notice

that as.

He's praying, there's a there's a there's two guys.

He turned around and they look and they notice them

praying at that moment, and they watch.

What often would happen is people would.

Turn around and get in line and be like, can

I pray after you pray for them? Can you pray

for me? And there were moments that people would be

so shocked. The founder of that convention, he had happened

to mention. He came to the founder of the brand

Jesus Loves You, and he said, I've invited a lot

of Christians to share their lines. They were either Christian,

you know, out loud, or they weren't.

And he said, you.

Guys are the first ones that ever one offered prayer

to people and number two actually made invitations of faith.

To people to follow Jesus.

And he said, I'm gonna do whatever I can to

make sure that you guys come back because more people

need to be met where they're at on who Jesus is.

And there was one other thing that really encouraged me.

I could honestly talk for an hour of everything that happened.

There's not enough time right now to share. But there

was a moment there was a big brand representing wehere.

What they do is they take technology and they do

certain stuff. And there was like a forty minute line

for people to buy. Everything that's released there is exclusive.

It's kind of one of five hundred or whatever. And

so you'll see our shirt is far in the background. Well,

that's the owner of the company. The day before he

bought the shirt and then he wore it all day

and so that's him actually signing autographs for people of

what he makes.

And so he saw it and he was.

Like, I boldly want to talk about Jesus when people

are waiting in line for my company. And so then

he immediately wears it the next day and he's immediately

in that moment sharing the gospel with people who are

there to buy something. But God met them in an

unexpected way. And so when I look at this story

of these shepherds, what you see as you see an angel,

and you see our Lord who is willing to go

to people where they're at. And you and I, if

you and I carry the message of Jesus, if you

and I actually fully recognize and we do what this

major in this birth story of Christmas means God wants

us not to just keep it in the four walls,

but to share the hope of God with other people.

You say, oh, well, I would love a light and

angel experience. But when you read the rest of.

The gospels, God met the shepherds through a light. But

then God says, other people are gonna meet Jesus through

your light, and so you're the very angel that people

are looking for. You're meant to go somewhere, be different,

talk different, act different, and show them. Don't matter how

much of an outcast you feel. Don't matter how dirty

you think you are. It doesn't mean how unclean or

unworthy you think of you are. Of God's grace, it's

available to you. That's the message of the Shepherds. When

you read it, it's not just all how nice. Jesus

is the great shepherd and so he met mess shepherds.

It's like, no, you're supposed to read it.

And when we see how outcasts they were, we go, oh,

that's me.

I need Jesus. If he could love them, he could

love me.

And if he can invite them into his home for

his birth, then God will invite me into his home

and welcome me into his place, and so I just

want to make an invitation of faith for you here

today is that if you've never made Jesus Christ your

personal Lord and savior, and you feel that you see

the light of God right now, you feel that God

has been speaking to you, and there's a moment that

God is calling you to receive him.

I want to make an invitation today that you receive.

Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior. We see

that the shepherds moved with haste when they heard the

message of Jesus. Let today and right now be the

moment that you move with haste towards God. You may

be telling yourself and asking yourself saying but if I

say yes, I don't know what the next steps are.

I don't know what happens after that. I don't know this.

I don't know that that comes after.

You don't have to worry about that right now.

What you have to worry about is one day you'll

stand before God, and you will stand before God and

you'll either give an account for your life or you

will stand there and Jesus will say, I know who

this is.

They receive me on earth. So therefore I receive them

in heaven.

Jesus also says, if you reject me on earth, I'll

reject you in not because he desires that, but because

if we reject God on earth, then we will be

rejected in heaven.

So you and I have an opportunity here on earth.

Then when we hear the message of God's grace, that

we respond to it, I say yes God, I need Jesus,

and Jesus when he captures your heart, all of your

habits and everything else that will begin to change.

You can't do it alone. You need God's spirit.

And the only way you can have God's spirit is

by receiving God's son. And So, as you're here today,

whether you're in the courtyard, cafe air, in this room,

if you'd like to bow your heads at this moment,

we're going to say a prayer together. And by no

means the prayer is not the thing that saves you.

We're affirming what God is already doing. But this prayer

does symbolize a moment that you say yes to Jesus.

So would you join me right now in this moment

as many people will be saying it for the first

time or rededicating their life would you.

Say, dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I repent to

my sins. I confess with my mouth that Jesus Lord,

and he rose from the grave.

And from this stay forward, I commit my life to

you in Jesus' name.

Amen.