God meets us in the unconventional | Philippians 4:4; Luke 2:8–20

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. Philippians chapter 4 beginning

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

in verse 4. The Apostle Paul is writing to a

church in a city called Philippi, and he writes these

words to the church. He says, we'll read it out loud

together on 3123. Rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I will say, rejoice once again.

Let's read this out together. I think we just need to speak

this to each other. Today is rejoice in the Lord

always and again I say rejoice. Can you just say this with me

one more time? If there's one Christmas message

I want you to leave with today. It is a message of rejoicing

because God is the God of the unconventional and he's not

moving in your ways. He might not be moving in your

time. He might not be moving according

to how your was set, but he is still moving.

And thus the apostle Paul says to the church at Philippi,

rejoice in the Lord always. And again I will say rejoice, go

ahead and take a seat. And as you're taking your seat

in the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, there is a story recorded for us

Luke 2 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 8 of the Gospel of Luke.

Now, if you take note, all of the gospels were written to

specific groups to give them a specific picture of the person

of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Matthew, if you

take note, was written to a Jewish crowd, a company of

people who in the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew wants to make sure that he points out to these Jewish

people that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, He is the Son of God.

If you were to go into from Matthew into Mark, Mark is

writing to a Gentile community and he's writing to these

Gentiles, and he wants to paint the picture that Jesus Christ is

the servant of all. If you go to the Gospel of Luke,

Luke is again writing another Gentile community and he writes

the gospel painting Jesus in his humanity.

In the Gospel of John, John's writing to both Jews and Greeks,

and he is painting the picture of Jesus as deity.

The Christmas story that we are about to read and what we see

throughout the New Testament is only going to be found in two

gospels. It's going to be found in the

Gospel of Matthew and in the Gospel of Luke.

And I want you to see the unconventional way that God

desires and designs to relay the message of the birth of His Son

to the world. It is the first message that is

given in a very unconventional way to very unconventional

people. Now, here's my crime.

When it comes to Christmas time, normally as a pastor I get

filled with a lot of anxiety because you're bringing friends

and family members to Christmas services and you're saying,

Casey, you better be preaching your best Christmas message.

As I come into this place, I've realized that there is only so

much I could say about Christmas.

And I think sometimes in my mind as a pastor, I have made it more

perplexed where God has made it more plain.

And I want to just bring us back that maybe today you don't need

to be instructed about a deeper new thing about Christmas.

Maybe you just need to be reminded about some things in

the Christmas story. And in this way, God desires to

give to us this message that He gives to people who were called

in verse 8 of Luke chapter 2, shepherds.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in

the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And behold, an Angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory

of the Lord shown around them, and they were greatly afraid.

Then the Angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I

bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all

people, for there is born to you this day in the city of David a

Savior who is Christ the Lord, and this will be the sign to

you. You will find a babe wrapped in

swaddling cloth, lying in a Manger.

And immediately and suddenly there was with the Angel a

multitude of the heavenly host, praising amazing God, insane

glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill

toward men. And so it was when the angels

had gone away from them into the into heaven, that the shepherd

said to one another, Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this

thing that has come to pass which the Lord has made known to

us. And they came with haste, and

they found Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in a Manger.

And now when they had seen him, they made widely known the

saying which was told them concerning this child.

And all those who heard it marveled at those things which

were told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things,

and pondered them in her heart. But notice this Then the

shepherd's returned, glorifying and praising God for all the

things that they had heard and seen as it was told them.

Once again, that last verse. And then the shepherd's

returned, glorifying and praising God.

Notice this for all the things that they had heard and seen as

it was told them. I got a vivid picture yesterday

during the parade. As we were preparing for the

parade, we were actually trying to attach this blow up to the

top of Ron's Ford pickup truck. And as we went to the top of

this truck, we thought to ourselves, it, we, we, we need

to get this message out. And you can't see it now, nor do

you realize it now. But on this message, there's a

nativity scene and there is the word joy.

Joy. That should be the attitude of

Christmas, right? So we were stressed out.

I was probably not anybody else because the joy wasn't really

sticking that well. And because the joy wasn't

really sticking that well. We had people up on the the

Ron's truck that were tying down the word joy, but it was so

deflated that we had to have two people holding up the word joy

until we made a executive decision and moving this joy to

another spot that was closer to the cross at the parade.

We had to move the area of this closer to the cross to

experience the joy of the cross. Not just the joy of the cross,

but the joy of the Savior who was born to die upon that cross.

On the left hand and the right hand there were two specific

people holding up joy. On the left hand I had a man

that you might know by the name of Dave O'Brien holding up with

one hand the letter J and with another the letter O.

On the other hand, there was Lindsay Gomer, who was trying to

hold up the why. And in that we thought that if

we could just hold up the word joy, everybody could experience

joy. And that's exactly what's

happened to you this Christmas. You have made it other people's

responsibility to hold your joy, which is your own

accountability. And because they can't hold up

your joy, you feel just as deflated as this.

And because of that, the world is not getting the message that

it needs to get because we're unwilling to take the

responsibility for our own message of joy to the world.

Listen, it's not your husband's responsibility or your wife's

responsibility. It's not your friend's

responsibility. It's not your coworkers

responsibility. It's not your boss's

responsibility, your grandma's responsibility.

It's not your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your best friend,

your enemy's responsibility to hold your joy up.

The Bible says you rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say rejoice. The shepherds left the place of

the Manger rejoicing and praising God, not because their

lives were necessarily good, but because they saw something that

altered their life. Now you might have walked into

this place thinking that all of Christmas is going to be about

all the things that you're going to get, all the things that you

don't have. And some So many times Christmas

comes to me. I love Christmas, but I just got

to tell you what in my life, Christmas just isn't about the

passole Ole and the tamales. It's not.

Christmas for us isn't just about the presents, it's not

just about the gifts. It's about you being able to

rejoice in Jesus Christ. Christmas for us as we celebrate

Christmas today, because we celebrate the person of Jesus

Christ today. I don't know why there's only

four people clapping about that, but it's important that we

understand that we have complicated and confused, I

believe we dismantled and we've distracted people from the point

of the story of Christmas. And the point of the story of

Christmas is the person of Jesus Christ.

And I got to come back to this point in the story where I'm

willing to bring myself back to the person of Jesus Christ.

If I don't have Jesus, I don't have peace.

If I don't have Jesus, I don't have grace.

If I don't have Jesus, I don't have mercy.

If I don't have Jesus, I don't have the saving power of the

forgiveness of my sins. If I don't have Jesus, I don't

have joy. And it's going to be vital for

us to plug ourselves in to the right source to give the right

message to the world. But God is going to do this in a

very unconventional way. He does this in an

unconventional way and you might be walking through a season of

your life that just seems unconventional.

It is at a time we didn't expect.

He gives the message to unlikely and in society unlovable and not

too good looking people. Who did the message come to

notice the Bible tells us and I'm glad you're looking and

studying your Bible verse 8 Now there was in the same country

just right before this Mary gives birth to Jesus and the 1st

place of the announcement, the first place of the announcement.

I had the privilege and the honor to set up my daughter's

baby shower with a great group of people.

We had the flowers that were being prepared and the

fellowship. We had the lattes and the love

coming. We had everything.

But they said you have to send out the announcement, the

announcement. I asked my daughter, what do you

want on it? And so I began to pick out the

announcement that she wanted. The announcement was she wanted

these little cute Tangerines with smiley faces.

And then she said, I want you to put the information, the date,

the time, and then you put the name.

So I put the name Nolan Logan, and I sent it to her.

I said, how does this look? This is the announcement.

She said, Dad, Dad, she said we don't want his name getting out

yet. Is there something?

Is something switched in like the twenty 20s or something?

You don't want his name out yet. He's the person with you that

we're celebrating. She said yeah, can you just put

baby Logan? I submitted and surrendered, but

that's not how it works in Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

It's not that we're not going to get the name in this

announcement. This comes to notice this the

Bible says in the same country it came to shepherds and they

were living out in the fields keeping watch over their flock

by night. Notice this, this message came

to good. This message came to.

Notice how many times the word shepherd it is used.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in

the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And behold, an Angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory

of the Lord shown around them, and they were greatly afraid.

And then the Angel said to them, Notice this, this is all going

to the shepherds. I bring you good tidings of

great joy, which will be for all the people, for there is born to

you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the

Lord. And notice this in verse 13.

And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of heavenly

hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and

on earth, peace, goodwill towards men.

So it was when the Angel had gone away from them into heaven

that the shepherds notice this said to one another, Let us now

go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass.

And they came with haste, the shepherds.

And when they verse 17 had found, they made widely known

the same 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.

Look at verse 20. Then the shepherds.

The Bible says that the the shepherds.

Now I want you to understand this.

The first announcement of the birth of Jesus.

Who, who we know Christmas has a name and the name is not Santa

Claus. The name is not Buddy the Elf

that the name is not going to be found in in in Jingle all the

way that the name of Christmas is Jesus.

And this announcement came to the shepherds.

Now, now, if I had it my way, I would do it a little bit more

conventionally. If I was God.

And if I could, I would have brought this to royalty in Rome.

Announcement, a king has been born.

I would have gone to the high priest in Jerusalem and told

them the announcement that the shepherd was born.

I would have gone a little bit further.

I would have at least gone to King Herod in his palace.

Listen, Herod, you're not the king, buddy.

There's one who is greater than you.

If I was God, I, I would have gone to the Pharisees and the

scribes, the religious elite that were waiting for the

fulfillment of this prophecy. I would have went to those who

are praying and fasting for this moment that they were all

waiting for, for the Messiah to come into the world.

But God, he moves in an unconventional way and he goes

directly to the shepherds. Now, this doesn't really jolt us

in 2025 when I tell you that God came to the shepherds because we

don't know much about shepherds. Shepherds were on the lowest

rung of the ladder in the society.

They were so low, their testimony was not viable in the

court system. The shepherds were so at the

bottom of the barrel that they wouldn't be the people that you

were inviting over for dinner. Shepherds were considered

unclean. Unclean.

And in this moment is God bringing the message of

Christmas to those who are the marginalized and the outcast.

Amen. That is the message of

Christmas. A crying baby in the Manger and

the shepherd's receive this announcement.

The people who are at the lowest now understand shepherds smelled

like sheep. They didn't have the Gucci

Cologne, they didn't have the Ralph Lauren, they didn't have

the Estee Lauder Lauder Louder. They smelled like they're sheep.

Can I just give you, wherever you go in your life, just a word

for ministry? If your pastor doesn't smell

like they're sheep, they're probably not in close proximity

to them. Your pastor doesn't need another

bodyguard or armor bearer. We need we're, we're amongst the

sheep and we're in this moment where the shepherds are the

outcast and stained of their society.

They couldn't even go into the temple and worship.

But God came to them in the fields.

So you might be asking, and I'm glad you are, not just to whom

this was given, but notice where they are.

Notice the Bible says in verse 8 that these shepherds were living

out in the fields. Notice that the shepherd was not

this nine to five job. And then they would go home.

The shepherd was not someone who posted himself up out on the

outside of his sheep necessarily.

They were actually living, notice this, out in the fields.

Now notice this, they were keeping watch over their flock

by night. So they live there 24/7.

And I want you to get this because this is important.

We're coming to shepherds who live in a field, and the field

is filled with sheep. Don't miss us.

The shepherds are living in the field, and the field is filled

with sheep. Normally when you're in the

field that's filled with sheep, it's also filled with other

stuff. Can I push it?

Can I push it a little bit? They're living in a field that's

filled with sheep and some other stuff.

Sheep don't go shepherd. Can I use the restroom right

now? I'll, I'll go out into the porta

potty for lambs. No, they just drop it like it's

hot. Right where they're at.

They're right in the middle of that.

And listen to where the shepherds are living.

They're living right in the middle of all of this.

To whom is given the shepherds? Why?

Because every shepherd is worthy of the gift of Jesus.

And you might have come in here thinking I don't know if I'm

really worthy of this. I'm really saying that I really

smell. I have this, this about myself.

But but notice this, they're coming to the shepherds who are

in a field filled with sheep and they're also in that field.

It's filled with stuff that it just might smell Where, where

you're at today. It doesn't smell pretty.

It doesn't smell attractive. It doesn't smell like something

where you are going, praise God, this Christmas, I'm here.

Anybody. No, you don't have to raise your

hand. Anybody find themselves this

season where you're wondering why am I here in that spot?

This is exactly the unconventional people and

unconventional place that God meets the shepherds at.

Now notice this, they get a message and behold, an Angel of

the Lord stood before them. Can you imagine out?

There's no St. lights, there's no field lights, there's no

lights for them. It's pitch black, dark, and all

of a sudden an Angel of the Lord appears to them.

Now, when we think of angels, we often think of chubby, naked

little babies with wings. That's not a biblical account

for angels. Angels are warriors for God.

They're strong. They do spiritual battle for

God. Can you imagine this Angel in

the darkness of night comes and all of a sudden the glory of the

Lord shone around them. Notice the Bible doesn't say

that the glory of the Lord shone on them.

The glory of the Lord shone around them.

Because sometimes we need the glory of the Lord to cause us to

look around and see what He's doing and what the glory of the

Lord is highlighting is everything that's happening

around them now. Sometimes we're like glory of

God. Let your glory shine on me.

The Bible says that God's glory is in you.

The the kabad of God is the temple.

But in this moment, the glory of the Lord shown around them.

How many times do we need the light of God to determine the

lens of our life, to see and be thankful for everything that's

happening around us? Sometimes we're such in the

thick of it, in a field that's filled with sheep and some other

stuff, that we forget to notice what God is doing all around us.

Notice it's the glory of God that's shown around them and I

believe it is the glory of God that shines around you in your

life with this message, the Angel said to them, do not be

afraid. Notice the first mention in this

area of the gospel is that you would not fear at all.

No noticing in your Bible right now recorded for us right now

where we're at, the word joy is used 139 times.

The word encouraged is used 145 times.

The word peace is used 134 times, but the words fear not

are used 365 times in your Bible.

That is one fear not for every day that you choose to live and

this is the message to God that he would give to the the

shepherds as do not be afraid for behold that this is I want

you to pay attention. That's what the word behold

means. I bring you notice this good

tidings of great joy which will be to all people, for there is

born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ

the Lord. In some of your Bible versions

it says unto you this day, but what the Bible is literally

saying is this is for you. Come, I want you to see this is

for you. This is for you.

This is not just unto you. This is actually God is for you.

No, no notice if you would the the angels message for there is

born to you this day. This is for you today.

This is for you today in the city of David.

We just learned about David, Saul.

King Saul, the first king of Israel pointed to another king

by the name of David. David became in the city of

David as Jerusalem. David pointed to a greater king

who is Jesus. Do you see all of that coming

together from first Samuel into Luke chapter 2?

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And all of this is happening at a spot in a time.

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a

Savior. Notice this, who is Christ the

Lord. Now I know sometimes you, you

might take that the name of Jesus is Jesus Christ.

Jesus is his first name and Christ is his last name.

That's not that's not right. We will correct that in our

thinking. Jesus is Yahweh, God is

salvation. The word Christ is meaning.

He's the anointed one. The word Lord is meaning for us,

the one who is the curious, if I say that right, Dora, curious.

Thank you for correcting my Greek Curious.

The one who has absolute authority, the one who has

supreme strength, and the one who's in complete control.

Now notice this. For unto you in the city of

David, there's a Savior, who is Christ, the Anointed One, the

one who has absolute authority, supreme strength, and complete

control. Interesting enough, during this

time Caesar was called Lord. That's why the Apostle Paul

would say in Philippians chapter 3 that one day every knee will

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord. When the new believers became

born again by the Spirit of God and they began to follow the

way, which was Jesus's way, they stopped telling Caesar that he

is Lord. That's why they lost their heads

and they were thrown into the with the lions because they

would no longer confess that Caesar is Lord in this dark

time. That's unconventional in this

moment. Now the shepherd's

unconventional people here for the very first time that God is

on their side. I don't know if you've ever

experienced that as a parent. My, my daughter, she came into

our room and if you know me, I'm a very light sleeper.

So I get up real quick, like, what's wrong?

What's going on? She said, Daddy, I, I had a

nightmare. She said, do you need to get you

a glass of water? Do you want me to turn the light

on for you? She said no daddy, I just need

to sleep on your side and I'll be OK.

The shepherds for the very first time would hear that God is on

their side. Real joy and real rest comes

from believing that God is still on my side.

Did you? Are you getting this?

Am I running out of time just yet?

Not yet. God is on your side.

And it comes to such a place where they said to them, the

Angel said there is a savior. Not another businessman, not

another salesman, not another ruler or dictator, not just

another educator. There's a savior.

The heart of the matter was the matter of my heart that God

would ransom by his own blood plainly through the baby that

would be lying in the Manger. And he comes to this

unconventional people of shepherds.

He comes to this unconventional place in the field that's filled

with sheep, and the sheep are leaving some other stuff, and he

gives them this unconventional message.

This is not a normal message that shepherds would hear.

And I think a lot of our problems in life are the

narratives that we've created in our own head that have not come

from this book. We're believing a message that's

not true. And in that moment, the

shepherds hear that Jesus has come.

And in this place, the Bible gives us these words.

Verse 12, this will be assigned to you.

You'll find a babe wrapped in swallowing cloth lying in a

Manger. Did you get that?

The angels didn't just say you need to go.

You see all of this and you hear all of this.

The angels didn't say you need to go.

All they said is this will be assigned to you.

You're going to find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloth lying

in a Manger because the evidence of seeing all of this is going

to where Jesus is at. Now notice this, that this is

important. All of the sudden, the Angel now

breaks out into a multitude of heavenly host who are praising

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

and goodwill toward men. Notice that one Angel now turns

into hundreds of angels out in the field.

They're they're having worship in a field that's filled with

sheep, that's filled with some other stuff.

And the angels break out in song.

They begin to proclaim something that they don't even gain from,

and we're silent about how God has purchased us.

You get that? The angels, they know God, but

they weren't ransomed by God. And they in the night sky

lighted up for the glory of God. But we who have been redeemed

and ransomed find it very hard to get in life to talk about the

one who's ransomed us. Why is that?

I believe it's not because you have fear.

It's because maybe we don't have a big enough view of Jesus.

The angels know God, and in this moment we can be so distracted

in the season by some things that don't even matter.

And you all are about to go into houses and invite people into

your house that are offensive, that are rebellious, that don't

know Jesus. And you have an opportunity like

the angels to bring the glory of God into that table.

I was at a graduation party and I was in line and I, I looked

over at this lady and I said, Oh, are you, are you a born

again Christian? Because she was connected to

this family. And so I was just out of the

blue. I was talking to her and then it

got into the Christianity and, and then she started, I asked

her another question because I wanted to kind of poke the bear.

I said, oh, who did you vote for the last election?

I wanted to stir up some type of conversation that that does, so

listen, she told me in line she saw there's two things I don't

talk about, religion and politics.

I said, I just want to talk about your eternity.

Don't ask that question. That's probably not the best

question I could have asked her. But can I encourage you this

Christmas? Ask questions, ask some

questions. If you were to die today, do you

know if you'd spend eternity in heaven?

Do you have any spiritual beliefs?

Do you believe in a heaven? Do you believe in a hell?

If you were wrong about your beliefs, because there's a big

thing going around right now that people are saying they're

spiritual, what does that even mean?

I'm just spiritual. That means they believe in

rocks, they believe in leaves, they believe in trees, they

believe in Allah, who is not God.

They believe in Buddha, who's not God.

But they immediately when you bring up the name of Jesus, it's

like all the hairs on the back just go up.

You know why? Because Christmas and preaching

Christ is an act of spiritual warfare.

The angels came in the darkness of night.

That's when they came. And I wonder if you find

yourself in that same darkness even now, in the darkness of

this night, that all of a sudden the angels are now surrounding.

And all of the sudden, notice this happened when at night God

takes his direct GPS and he knows exactly where the

shepherds are. They're not in the temple.

They're not making sacrifices. They're out of in the field

filled with sheep and some other stuff, and God knows exactly

where they're at. I've been so moved recently by

the story of Hagar. The promised son was coming

through a woman by the name of Sarah and Abraham.

Hagar was the woman that Sarah said.

Hey, let's have a quick a response to this.

We do need children. And here's my maidservant and I

want you to have a baby with her.

So the baby is born by the name of Ishmael.

Sarah treats Hagar in a in a way of provoking her and it says

that Hagar is out running away. She's hungry.

And the Bible gives God a name in that story, El Roy, the God

who sees the God saw Hagar. God saw the shepherds.

God saw where they were at. God saw that they were outcast

and marginalized. God saw the dirt.

And all the sudden the Lord says you're going to find a babe

wrapped in swaddling cloth lying in a Manger.

And all of a sudden this praising breaks forth.

And when it was when the angels had gone away that they stayed

in the fields marveling at what God had done.

Nope. They stayed in the sanctuary.

And they said that was great to do outreach at the parade.

We stayed in the sanctuary and said, oh man, we've experienced

Jesus today. You know what they did when they

saw the angels and the angels left?

The Bible says that they said this.

Let us now go to Bethlehem. Why?

Because we need to see this thing that's come to pass that

the Lord has made known to us. What the religious elite missed,

the shepherds found because God found them.

And in that moment, notice what happens.

The Lord comes directly to where they're at, and they go from

where they're at and they go directly to Bethlehem.

Now. Now, here's the irony of the

story. Are you ready?

They didn't even take a shower. They didn't get cleaned up.

Now, if I'm invited to go see President Trump or Marco Rubio

or. An official at Glendora, you're

going to be sure that I'm going to wash up and get clean because

the last thing that I want to smell like when I see Jesus is

dirty. They didn't take a shower.

The Bible says that when they heard these things, they said to

each other, let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing and

they came with haste. It doesn't say that they clean

themselves up. They just came.

And guess what they smelled like?

They smelled like other stuff. They smelled like sheep.

But where was Jesus born? In a Manger filled with animals,

possibly even sheep? And could it be them even coming

into this place at that place also smelled like sheep and some

other stuff. God's not saying I want you just

to clean everything up real quick and come.

He's just saying just just come, just come, just come and, and I

want you to come. So, so where, where does all of

this lead me? Because it's so important in in

my life that that I understand where, where did all of this

take the shepherds in this unconventional way?

Here's where it took the shepherds.

They begin a journey towards Jesus.

Even though God calls us in the field, he calls us to go to the

Manger. I got to say that again because

I think that just flew over your head like a like like a rocket.

Even though God calls us in a field, he calls us to go to the

Manger. And the shepherds had the

audacity to go and see Jesus dirty.

Isn't that the way of the Good Shepherd?

He calls us in all of our dirt and he washes us with all of his

grace. So unconventional.

And here Jesus moves them from the field to the Manger.

And as they go to the Manger, they journey, notice this, to

Jesus. Can I just submit this to you?

God's not looking for your perfection, but he is looking

for your progress. They journeyed to Jesus and they

came to Jesus. And then all those who heard it,

they marveled at the things which the shepherds told them.

So not only did they begin this journey to Jesus, they, they

began to, if you're taking note, they share what they saw.

They share what they saw and the people are marvelling.

And then when the shepherds returned, they returned

rejoicing and praising God. But notice this, although they

journey to Jesus and they share what they saw.

I want you to write this down. They returned rejoicing.

Where did they return back to? They returned back to that same

field, filled with the same sheep and filled with the same

other stuff. They returned back to the same

exact place. Just because they experienced

Jesus did not mean that the place that they went back to

changed, but their perspective changed in the place they were

going back to. So in a world that is waiting

for some people to hold up your joy and it feels so deflated

today, the only way joy can be really experienced is to be

grounded and founded in the person of Jesus Christ.

I was reading the story of a man by the name of William Cowper.

He lived at a time that he was working with a man by the name

of John Wesley. William Calper lost his mom at

six years old. Severely bullied.

Severely bullied in his 20s. He was placed in an insane

asylum because he attempted suicide three times with his

life. He met Jesus in that insane

asylum the very first time, and he wrote this hymn that John

Wesley made very popular. It begins like this, that God

moves in mysterious ways. He was saved.

He was delivered. He wrote worship songs.

He came out of this insane asylum. 10 years later, he's

still battling depression severely.

He tried to commit suicide another 10 times.

He ended up drowning. And what I want you to know in

all of this from the testimony of his life, is that God still

moves in mysterious ways. And if you want to read the

words of that hymn, look it up, do some homework.

But even in depression and panic and anxiety, God receives your

praise. And so we come into this

Christmas season, for some of us a bit deflated, for some of us a

bit dirty, for some of us even a bit depressed.

And in that moment, God saying, I want to meet you there because

I am the God of the unconventional and I am still

moving, even though you don't see it at all.

We hope you enjoyed this message and we'd love for you to join us

in person every Sunday at 10:30 AM.

For more information and updates, visit

wearebridgetown.com. Thanks for tuning in and we'll

see you next week.