December 21, 2025 • 44 mins
In See God, part of the Expecting series, Tyler Lynde walks slowly through Luke 2:8–20 and invites you to recover a fresh vision of Jesus. He begins on a quiet hillside with ordinary shepherds doing ordinary work, because worship often starts in the middle of everyday life—on the night shift, at the table, in the carpool line. Into that routine, a burst of glory breaks through. Tyler reflects on the awe the shepherds felt, the kind of healthy fear that is not dread but reverence—the doorway to deep joy.
Tyler unpacks why the angel announces three titles—Savior, Christ, and Lord—and why we still need all three. Savior means rescue from sin and wrath, the exchange described in 2 Corinthians 5:21. Christ means the anointed One, carrying heaven’s authority to proclaim good news, set captives free, and heal the broken as in Luke 4:18–19. Lord means God in the flesh, sovereign over all, the One before whom every knee will bow. Worship isn’t a vague spirituality; it centers on Jesus.
He then lingers with the angels’ song: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace. The order matters—glory up, then peace down. When we lift our eyes and magnify God, we find what Romans 5:1 promises: peace with God through Jesus, which opens the way to the peace of God in daily life. The manger points to the cross; the Lamb of God does what Old Testament sacrifices could only foreshadow.
The shepherds’ response becomes a roadmap for renewal: hear, hurry, behold, and tell. They go with haste, find Jesus as promised, and spread the word so others can wonder too. Tyler shares a moving moment from early ministry when a young girl on the autism spectrum whispered, “Jesus, I see you,” and an entire room shifted from irritation to adoration—an unforgettable reminder that God loves to reveal himself to the overlooked.
If your worship has felt thin, Tyler offers a simple reset: create quiet, receive the word, go toward Jesus in prayer and community, and share what you’ve seen. Join the heavenly chorus of Revelation 5 and let glory rise so peace can descend—in your home, neighborhood, and church. Expect to see God again. If this message encouraged you, consider subscribing, sharing it with a friend who needs hope, and leaving a review to help others find it.
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Episode Transcript
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Tyler Lynde (00:02):
I'm excited about bringing this message to you
this morning.
I love Christmas, I love Easter,I love anything that is
connected to God, obviously, andalso to family, and so this is
one of those times of years.
So if you want to, you can turnin your Bibles to Luke chapter
2.
We're gonna be reading theLinus.
I'm sorry.
(00:22):
I felt I thought I thought aboutplaying the Linus thing from uh
from Snoopy, you know, the wherehe gives the story of Christmas,
but I will read it and give alittle bit more reverence to the
word this morning.
But anyway, we're gonna belooking at Luke chapter two.
We've seen so far in this seriesum called Expecting, it's all
about the importance of praiseand worship in the life of a
(00:44):
believer, especially when itcomes to our corporate meetings.
And what we just experiencedtogether is amazing.
And I hope that we continue togrow in our desire to be
expressive, to be um, to bethoughtful, to be focused, to be
worshiping together as one as wegather together on Sundays.
(01:05):
The more that we do that, themore that we're going to
experience the presence of God.
And we've been looking at someof the biblical songs that are
related to the Christmas storyand talking about worship from
the from that uh thoseperspectives.
So we've seen so far that trueworshipers can expect to hear
God like Zechariah did.
That was great, wasn't it?
(01:25):
And also we we've talked aboutknowing God like Simeon did and
feeling God like Mary, themother of Jesus, did.
I think she could honestly saythat she had the most unique
experience when it came tofeeling God as she carried Jesus
in her womb.
And today we're going to look ata group of people who came from
a lowly background and theirjourney to see Jesus as he truly
(01:47):
is.
Who do you think those peoplemight be?
Good guess.
Excellent.
Uh, my hope for all of us isthat our eyes will be freshly
opened to these truths and thatwe will see the wonder of our
Savior once again.
Are you ready for that?
Are you open to that happeningthis morning?
So the title of today's messageis Expecting to See God.
(02:10):
Expecting to see God.
Remember, we talked about thefact that worship is a
revelation of who God is.
It's where God shows Himself tous.
And as we get to know Him more,there's a response that is
fitting for such a God.
And then also what comes out ofthat relationship, it is
relationship, an ongoingrelationship with God is the
(02:33):
result of worship.
So let's again read from Lukechapter two, verses eight
through twenty.
And in the same region therewere shepherds out in the field
keeping watch over their flockby night.
And an angel of the Lordappeared to them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them,and they were filled with great
fear.
And the angels said to them,Fear not, for behold, I bring
(02:56):
you good news of great joy thatwill be for all the people.
For unto you is born this day inthe city of David a Savior who
is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a baby wrapped inswaddling cloths and lying in a
manger.
And suddenly there was with theangel a multitude of the
(03:19):
heavenly host, praising God andsaying, Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peaceamong those with whom he is
pleased.
When the angels went away fromthem into heaven, the shepherds
said to one another, Let us goover to Bethlehem and see this
thing that has happened, whichthe Lord has made known to us.
(03:40):
And they went with haste andfound Mary and Joseph and the
baby lying in a manger.
And when they saw it, they madeknown the saying that had been
told them concerning this child.
And all who heard it wondered atwhat the shepherds told them.
But Mary treasured up all thesethings, pondering them in her
heart, and the shepherdsreturned, glorifying and
(04:00):
praising God for all they hadheard and seen as it had been
told them.
Let's pray over the servicetoday.
Father, we thank you and praiseyou for your word.
Your word is matchless, yourword is perfect, and your word
is written for the people thatit was written to 2,000 years
(04:21):
ago, and yet it appliesperfectly to our day and time as
well.
And so, Father, we ask that youwould open our eyes today.
Open the eyes of our hearts,Lord, that we might see you as
you truly are.
We thank you for doing that inJesus' name.
Amen.
So when I was a young pastor inNorth Carolina, there was a
(04:42):
family that came to our church,and the gentleman played the
keyboards, and so he was part ofour worship team, which was very
small, very small room.
Think about a room about halfthe size of the community room
that was our church, and we metin a bank building.
And so the front area was not astage, it was just flat on the
ground, and we had, you know,just the a few people that think
(05:05):
it was a keyboard player and asinger, may have had one more
instrument, a guitar, orsomething like that.
And the family that thisgentleman, the piano player, his
he had a daughter, he and hiswife had a daughter who was on
the autism spectrum.
And this was many, many yearsago, and so that was kind of
something that wasn't as commonor that we that you would hear
(05:27):
about as much as you would hearabout it today.
And so, because she was on thespectrum, she was not, uh she
didn't necessarily know all thekind of social cues.
And so sometimes during theservice, while praise and
worship was going on, her dadwas playing the keyboard and she
wanted to get near her dad.
And so she would find herselfdown uh down front and uh
(05:47):
stepping on microphone cablesand you know, at times tickling
the ivory in the wrong key.
Uh and uh to be honest with you,there were quite a few people
who were who were pretty prettyover it, kind of annoyed by this
little girl, uh, not because ofher, but because of the the
behavior, if that makes sense,right?
(06:09):
Um, and uh so this that's whythe rest of what I'm gonna tell
you was such a surprise.
There was one service where hername was Jessica.
Jessica became very quiet andvery still, and she actually
turned away from her dad andfaced sort of the wall of the
church.
And she lifted up her eyes uptowards the ceiling, and she
(06:33):
began to say, Jesus, Jesus, Isee you, Jesus, I love you,
Jesus.
And here this is a ten-year-oldgirl having this experience
where the room grew silent.
(06:55):
No longer were eyes turned toher with disdain, and no longer
were the hearts that were therefilled with any form of judgment
or critique.
Now we were all being challengedby our Savior who was choosing
to reveal himself to thisprecious child.
(07:18):
God wants us to see him, hewants us to see him as he truly
is.
And I learned on that day thatwe can't judge a book by its
cover, and we can't say that oneperson is more worthy than
another.
God chooses to show himself inwhatever way he chooses to do
(07:38):
so.
And she the veil between heavenand earth became very thin that
day.
And all of us were crying, andall of us, or most of us, found
our our way to the ground withour knees bent as we experienced
with her what it must feel liketo see Jesus.
(08:10):
And we all know the story.
Joseph and Mary have made theirway to Bethlehem, and there were
so many people that were therethat there was no room in the
end, and so they were put into astable that was meant for
animals, and we know that Marygave birth to Jesus, and she
wrapped him in swaddling clothsand laid him in a manger that
was meant for animals.
(08:31):
And as that story, that part ofthe story is coming to a
conclusion, we move to thesecond part, which we're going
to talk about this morning.
It's interesting to me that thefirst knowledge about the birth
of Jesus wasn't given to thereligious leaders of Jerusalem.
Wouldn't you think that if youwanted to make a big splash, if
you wanted to make somethingreally apparent, if you wanted
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to broadcast something to uh tomany, many people, that you
would choose people who havesome form of authority or some
form of influence in the culturearound.
Uh, but God, in his wisdom,didn't choose to do that.
He didn't choose to uh speak tothose who were in Jerusalem, but
he spoke instead to a group ofshepherds on the hills outside
(09:17):
of Bethlehem.
Now you have to understand thatshepherds were looked down upon
in this culture.
They were looked down upon andthey were considered to be the
outcasts of Israel by some.
Why was that?
Because there were weeks at atime where they would not be
able to get to uh synagogues orto uh you know to the temple in
order to uh to do the thingsthat would cause them to be
(09:39):
ceremonially clean, and so theywere considered to be
ceremonially unclean, and sothey were looked down upon by
many people within the culture.
But how many of you know there'sanother side to this, and that
is that God loves shepherds?
All you have to do is remindyourself of the patriarchs of
the Jewish nation.
Moses was a shepherd, and Godrevealed himself to him in a
(10:02):
burning bush.
And what did he ask him to do?
To go and set the people ofIsrael free from Egyptian
bondage.
Excuse me.
We know that David also was ashepherd, and God anointed him
and called him to be the kingover Israel, right?
And so we have all of theseexamples, and David himself
(10:23):
wrote a beautiful song that manyof us can quote, and it starts
out, The Lord is my I shall notwant.
So David himself referred to ourSavior as a shepherd.
And Jesus in John, and we weread about this in John, Jesus
said, I am the good shepherd,and I know my sheep, and they
(10:46):
know me, and they will listen tomy voice, and the voice of a
stranger they will not follow.
So Jesus himself is a goodshepherd, right?
Amen.
So let's talk about theseshepherds.
Are you ready?
Number one, the shepherds werebusy living their everyday
lives.
This was not, there was nothingextraordinary.
They weren't like, it doesn'tsay that they were necessarily
(11:08):
praying or that they were havinga spiritual moment.
It says that they were takingcare of the sheep at night.
So to picture this in your mind,try to get that image in your
head.
It's nighttime, they're takingcare of their sheep.
We know that Mark from uh his,thank you, from his talking
about shepherds.
We know that they sing overthem.
We know that there's a lot ofyou know different uh, you know,
(11:30):
vocal things that they'll say tothe sheep to calm them.
I'm sure there was some of thatthat was going on.
Some of the shepherds may havebeen resting, leaning against
olive trees or something likethat.
Just try to paint that picturein your head if you can.
Some historians even point tothe fact that these shepherds
may have been the very shepherdswho were caring for the flocks
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that would provide sacrifices inthe temple.
That would be interesting,wouldn't it?
We don't know for sure, butthere there is some historosity
to that idea that it's possiblethat these shepherds were taking
care of the sheep that weremeant for sacrifice in the
temple.
It is in this simple settingthat they first were given the
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opportunity to experience God,these shepherds.
You see, we encounter God in ourfamilies, in our jobs, in our
schools, at church.
This is where worship begins.
It doesn't necessarily begin,like I said, with some kind of
uh, you know, big thing that'shappening.
Sometimes it happens in verysmall ways, but it begins in
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everyday life.
Everyday life.
Our relationship with Jesus andthe way that we experience him
should come out of a normativeportion of our lives.
So not only were the shepherdsliving their everyday lives, but
the shepherds saw the light.
Now picture this with me.
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There are no, there's noelectricity.
There are no jets in the sky,there are no satellites, there
are no screens that they'relighting their faces with,
right?
There's none of that.
They had oil lamps, possibly,and and and a fire.
But beyond that, the skiesbesides stars and moon were
(13:17):
completely dark, right?
Can you picture that with me?
I'm hoping that you're able to,those of you who are visual
people, can can allow yourselvesto sort of enter this scene as
we talk about this.
And all of a sudden, an angel ofthe Lord appears, and the glory
of the Lord, which is theessence of God's character and
nature, the glory of the Lordlights up the night, making it
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appear like it's day.
Can you picture this?
What do you think their eyeslooked like?
Biggest saucers, and probablysome of this going on, right?
Who knows what that experiencemust have been like?
They had no clue.
They had never experiencedanything like this in their
entire lives.
(14:00):
There were no UFOs, there wasnothing that was lighting up the
sky.
It was just them and theheavens, and all of a sudden,
heaven began to reveal itself inthe earth.
In a very real sense, this was aliving example of what was
happening in the spiritual realmas well.
The earth was covered withdarkness at this time, spiritual
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darkness.
It had been 400 years since Godhad spoken through a prophet, a
major prophet, to the nation ofIsrael.
And so all of a sudden, we havethis angel appearing, the glory
of the Lord coming with him,lights up the night sky, and
this is an example or asomething that symbolizes what
God is doing in the spiritualrealm as well.
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We can read about the prophetIsaiah, who had his own
experience with seeing God.
You remember that story?
Where he saw God, and what didhe do?
He ran and jumped up in his lapand cuddled with him and gave
him some cookies.
What love, Yosana?
I mean, I mean, God?
No.
No, he didn't do that.
He fell on his face.
(15:06):
He said, I am unclean.
I'm a man undone.
And God touched the coal to hislips and made him made him
whole.
And then he commissioned him tospeak words that are so
powerful.
And even what we're readingabout today, Isaiah was allowed
to prophesy about.
(15:28):
And in Isaiah chapter 9, verse2, it says this the people who
walked in darkness have seen agreat light.
Those who dwelt in a land ofdeep darkness, on them has light
shone.
How many of you have seen thegreat light of Jesus Christ?
And the darkness of your lifehas disappeared.
That is our story.
(15:49):
That is our testimony.
So God begins to reveal hisglory, and the shepherds feel
the weight of it.
There was a holy fear that cameover them.
There's a holy fear, and again,we talked about this last week.
The fear of the Lord needs toreturn to the church of Jesus
Christ.
It is something that isessential.
It is the beginning of wisdomand the beginning of knowledge.
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The fear of the Lord isessential.
The presence of the Lord shouldbe awe-inspiring and humbling.
His majesty should evoke ahealthy fear.
A healthy fear, not a fear ofdestruction or a fear of
punishment, but a fear that is areverence and respect for the
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holiness of God.
He is truly other.
He is other, and yet he choosesto love us.
The shepherds also saw the plan.
They saw the light, and they sawthe plan, and it says, And the
angel said to them, Fear not,for behold, I bring you good
news of great joy that will befor all the people.
(16:54):
For unto you is born this day inthe city of David a Savior who
is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a baby wrapped inswaddling cloths and lying in a
manger.
The angel quickly quenches theirfear by telling them that
there's a plan that's beentalked about before, and it is
coming to pass before their veryeyes.
(17:15):
This plan is about the good newsfor them and for all people.
The good news of God for allpeople.
So let's talk about that plan.
The plan is good news of greatjoy.
Great joy.
The message of the gospel ofJesus Christ is literally good
news.
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How many of you know where tofind bad news?
Where are some places you canfind bad news?
Television, Facebook, Instagram,you know, all uh TikTok, all
these places you can find badnews, but where are you gonna
find truly good news?
(17:59):
In the Word of God.
Jesus Himself, the gospel ofJesus, is good news for everyone
who hears it and believes it.
We must believe it.
Joy is produced by those whohear the good news of Jesus
Christ and believe it.
And this joy is unspeakable andfull of glory.
(18:22):
Again, my hope for you this weekand every week is that you
experience an outpouring of thejoy of the Lord like you've
never experienced before.
I feel like we need it.
The second part of this plan isthe plan is found only in the
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person of Jesus.
How many of you have found thatyou can talk about God with
almost everybody and be fine?
But if you mention the name ofJesus, something changes.
Why is that?
Because Jesus is the only way tothe Father, and Satan will do
anything he can to distractpeople from the truth.
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It's interesting how the angelstrategically uses three
different names for Jesus inthis passage.
And if you take them alltogether, it really gives us a
full picture of the person andministry of Jesus.
So let's look at these quickly.
First of all, he said Jesus isSavior.
He is our Savior.
How many of you are glad forthat part?
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Come on.
He is Jesus, the name Jesusliterally means Savior.
That's what it means.
He came to save us from our sinsand the just punishment that we
deserve because of the sins thatwe have committed.
Do you guys realize that becauseof the sins that we have
committed in our lives, wedeserve the wrath of God, which
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causes us to be separated fromHim forever in a place called
hell.
That is the truth, and that'swhat we deserve.
And yet, God, in his mercy,instituted and initiated this
plan that gave us a chance tonot have to live out that
destiny.
That's good news, friends.
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What a wonderful plan.
So Jesus is Savior.
He would do this, Jesus would dothis by becoming sin for us and
taking our punishment on thecross.
2 Corinthians 5.21 says it forour sake he made him to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in himwe might become the
righteousness of God.
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This is the plan, and this isthe good news of Jesus Christ.
We are able to be made rightwith God.
We can have right standing withGod, and we can be called
children of God.
What a powerful truth and what apowerful reality.
So Jesus is Savior.
Second of all, in this, theangel says that Jesus is Christ.
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Now, how many of you know Christis not Jesus' last name?
Like Lind is my last name.
Christ is not Jesus.
Maybe you didn't know that, andthat's okay.
I want you to know today thatthe name Christ means anointed
one or Messiah.
Christ means anointed one.
It means that Jesus wasauthorized and deputized by all
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of heaven's authority to carryout the plan of the Father here
in this earth.
He was authorized, he wasanointed, he was appointed, he
was deputized, he was sent.
All of those words that youcould use to describe Jesus, he
came bearing with him allauthority in heaven and on earth
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to fulfill the task that he wasat.
So not only is his name nice,like Savior, but also he has the
authority and the ability to doit, to save us from our sins.
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Luke 4.18, Jesus comes on thescene, and how does he describe
himself in his first churchservice?
And he did so well at thischurch service, they didn't
applaud at the end, they triedto stone him to death.
I'm praying and begging, and mywife is praying also that that
is not the outcome of thismessage this morning.
But if it is, he'll protect melike you protected Jesus, right?
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The Spirit of the Lord is uponme.
Jesus is speaking, because hehas anointed me to proclaim good
news to the poor.
He has anointed me, anointed meto proclaim good news to the
poor.
He has sent me to proclaimliberty to the captives and
recovering of sight to theblind, to set at liberty those
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who are oppressed, and toproclaim the year of the Lord's
favor.
How many of you can say thismorning that you have
experienced some of that?
Some of that freedom, some ofthat healing, some of that
restoration.
Jesus was anointed and sent fromheaven to do that.
Jesus is the Christ.
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And finally, it says that Jesusis Lord.
Jesus is Lord.
He is God manifest in the flesh.
And he is King of kings and Lordof lords.
He is sovereign above allthings.
And just like the song that wesang this morning, every knee
will bow and every tongue willconfess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord.
And why will they do that?
To the glory of God the Father.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
He's our friend.
Absolutely.
He's our guide and comforterthrough the Holy Spirit.
Absolutely.
But he's also sovereign and he'sin charge.
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And let's not get that out oforder.
Amen?
This is all part of the greatplan that God was revealing to
the shepherds.
So the shepherds saw a greatplan, but they also saw an open
heaven.
An open heaven, it says, andsuddenly, how many of you know
whenever you see the wordsuddenly in the Bible, something
good is about ready to happen?
(24:17):
And suddenly there was with theangel a multitude of the
heavenly host praising God andsaying, Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth, peaceamong those with whom he is
pleased.
Picture this again.
We have this one angel in theglory of the Lord and the light
that was shining around him.
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And now all of the heavens arefilled with angels singing this
angelic song.
Imagine.
And these are just poor littleshepherd boys taking care of
some sheep, experiencing heavencoming to work.
Amen.
(24:58):
That's right.
So again, suddenly it couldn'tbe it couldn't be held in any
longer.
A multitude, thousands ofheavenly hosts appeared.
It wasn't a choir of five or sixor ten or twenty.
There were thousands of angels.
That root word there formultitudes means thousands.
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Many, many, many angels filledthat night, become day sky.
The supernatural realm is justas real, or dare I say, even
more real, than the naturalworld that we see around us.
Because the spiritual world iseternal.
Right?
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It's forever.
Now we tend to concentrate whenwe think about the spiritual
world, we tend to concentrate onthe dark side of it.
Evil, Satan, demonic activity,what's going on in the world in
that way.
But I want to remind you thatwhen Satan fell from heaven, he
took one-third of the angelswith him.
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I'm not a great mathematician,but if you do the math, what's
left?
Two-thirds of the angels remain,and Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
And by the way, if you didn'tknow this, I'm gonna spoiler
alert.
Jesus defeated Satan at thecross of Calvary.
And he no longer has power orauthority over us.
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He is a defeated foe.
Right?
But we know he's a defeated foe,and one day he will be locked up
forever and ever.
So when we think about thespiritual world, we are to be
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aware.
We shouldn't be unaware ofSatan's devices.
The Bible teaches us that.
But let's not forget, God issovereign and his forces are
larger than Satan's by a lot.
So let's look at the angel'ssong for a minute.
The angel's song shows theproper heart posture of worship.
So beautiful the way that thisall unfolds.
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It says, Glory to God in thehighest.
That's the first part of this.
Glory to God in the highest.
Now I know this as the eggshellsong.
You know what I'm talking about?
In eggshell sees deo.
(27:29):
Right?
Miss Heather, is that the wayyou pronounce it?
Here's our choir teacher.
She's affirming.
Sorry, I worked one joke intoit, guys.
I know we've been real serious.
But that is the title that'sbeen given to this song, Gloria
in Excelsius Deo.
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So here's the thing we need toknow about this.
Worship is not about me.
I'm so sorry that the worshipculture, especially in America,
has become largely about me.
All my stuff and all of that.
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It's not wrong to sing aboutwhat God's done for us, but when
it becomes like a consumer list,like a shopping guide for God,
it bothers me.
Does it bother you?
Kind of gets to me a little bit.
Worship is not about me.
We are to bring glory and honorto God.
As the West Minister Catechismsays, the chief end of man
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should be to glorify God and toenjoy him forever.
Worship, the posture of worshipis not about me.
It's about glorifying him.
It's about exalting him, it'sabout lifting him up and
praising him and adoring him.
That is literally our highestcalling and what every aspect of
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our life should be centrallyfocused on to bring glory to
God.
Listen to this.
Every time we worship God, wejoin in with the heavenly choir.
Every time we open our mouths topraise and worship God, we're
joining in with the heavenlychoir.
And if you want some more oftheir music, you can find their
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their their uh what's the wordfor playlist?
Thank you, in the book ofRevelation.
So let's look at Revelationchapter 5, verse 9, and look at
one of their top hits.
Is this on the top of yourplaylist?
And they sang a new song saying,Worthy are you to take the
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scroll and to open its seals,for you were slain, and by your
blood you ransomed people forGod from every tribe and
language and people and nation,and you have made them a kingdom
and priest to our God, and theyshall reign on the earth.
Then I looked and I heard aroundthe throne and the living
creatures and the elders thevoice of many angels, numbering
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myriads of myriads and thousandsof thousands, saying with a loud
voice, Worthy is the Lamb whowas slain to receive power and
wealth and wisdom and might andhonor and glory and blessing.
And I heard every creature inheaven and on earth and under
the earth and in the sea and allthat is in them, saying, To him
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who sits on the throne and tothe Lamb be blessing and honor
and glory and might forever andever.
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Right?
Our interest should be his, andhis interest is ours.
He desires good things for us.
God's heart has always been tohave a great relationship with
his children.
He doesn't want to have brokenrelationships.
He doesn't want to have uh, youknow, cold shoulders and
non-communicative uh, you know,stories about his kids.
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He wants to have a greatrelationship with his family.
The problem is, it's athree-letter word.
What is it?
Sin.
Sin has caused there to beenmity between God and man.
And a holy God must punish sinin order to remain holy.
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The sacrificial system in theOld Testament was put in place
to cover over the sins of thepeople.
It could not remove the sins,but it could cover over.
So there could be some semblanceof right relationship with God,
even through the old covenant inthe Old Testament.
But now, through Jesus Christ,there will be, there was, there,
there would be, a once and forall sacrifice that would open
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the door for us to be able torepent of our sins and to put
our faith, hope, and trust inJesus Christ so that we might be
saved and restored to rightrelationship with God.
This is the story of Christmasand Easter and Thanksgiving.
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We should be thankful for this,in other words.
You see, the Messiah came to beboth the good shepherd and the
Lamb of God, sacrificed for thesins of the world.
The story of Christmas does notend in a manger.
The story of Christmas ends on across.
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Jesus' life and ministry wouldfulfill the song of the angels
as he would live himself tobring glory to God in the
highest.
That was his utmost aim, toglorify his heavenly father, to
do anything that his fatherasked of him.
And also that there would bepeace on earth toward those with
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whom he is pleased.
And who are those with whom heis pleased?
He is well pleased with those,again, who have repented of
their sins and put their faithin Jesus Christ as Savior and
Lord.
Romans 5, verse 1 says,Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith, we havepeace with God through our Lord
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Jesus Christ.
We have peace with God becauseof the, and then we also can
experience the peace of God,which is the tangible presence
of peace in our lives.
But that we can't have the peaceof God until we experience peace
with God.
Amen.
Now, how many of you know wecan't earn this peace and we
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don't deserve it?
And like the song says, He givesit anyway, freely.
And finally, the shepherds sawGod.
The shepherds saw God.
That's enough.
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I've seen enough, I've heardenough.
This is all of God that I need.
But how many of you know theshepherds were not content to
remain in an experience withGod?
They wanted God Himself.
Let's not settle for anexperience when we can have Him
for ourselves.
I'll take a relationship over anexperience every day of the
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week.
But I'd like the experience aswell.
We can have both, right?
When the angels went away fromthem into heaven, the shepherds
said to one another, Let us goover to Bethlehem and see this
thing that has happened, whichthe Lord has made known to us.
And they went with haste andfound Mary and Joseph and the
baby lying in a manger.
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They must see Jesus.
Imagine what it must have beenlike to enter that stable.
Go over to the manger that hadbeen spoken of to them by the
angel to look down.
Jesus must have been cooing,right?
Or cuddly, you know, just verysweet.
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I don't know, whatever image youwant to get.
But they stare into the eyes oftheir savior, Jesus.
I can't even imagine what thatmust have been like.
What an honor and privilege.
And because they experiencedthis, they were so transformed
(36:00):
by seeing God that they couldn'tstop talking about it.
It says, and when they saw it,they made known the saying that
had been told them concerningthis child, and all who heard it
wondered at what the shepherdstold them.
This is the passion of a newconvert, somebody who has
experienced God for themselvesand is now wanting to pursue him
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even further and to pursue himto the point where they're
sharing the message that they'vereceived with everyone else
around them.
And that was only the job of theshepherds, right?
No.
That's the job of the sheep.
Just like us.
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We get the chance.
Like a new convert, likesomebody who's passionate about
salvation because they've justexperienced being ripped away
from the kingdom of darkness andbeing brought into the kingdom
of light.
Let us return to our first loveand share that love with those
around us at this Christmasseason and always.
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Can we do that?
You see, I have a question.
Is it enough to see Jesus forourselves?
Or do we long for others to seehim?
Let's not let Thursday be justabout the giving of gifts and
the eating of pork and chickenand beef, whatever it is.
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Let's speak the name of Jesus.
Let's speak the name of Jesus inour homes, around the table, in
our neighborhoods.
And it finishes by saying thatthey couldn't uh they they
couldn't stop praising God forall he had done.
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It says, and the shepherdsreturned, glorifying and
praising God for all that theyhad heard and seen as it had
been told them.
They were so impacted by seeingGod that their whole lives were
transformed.
And they couldn't and wouldn'tremain silent.
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They were gossiping the gospelof Jesus Christ, and they also
continued to sing the songs ofheaven as they lifted up their
voices to praise and honor theKing.
Here's the reality for us today.
When we are struggling withworship, the reality is that our
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view of our Savior has becomeskewed, shaded, or hindered in
some way.
An encouragement to all of us.
Lift up your eyes.
Lift up your heads.
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And let's look upon Jesus again.
The Bible says that when Christreturns, those are the ones he's
going to be looking for.
Those who have their eyes peeledand ready, looking for him.
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This verse that I'm going tofinish with was also sung this
morning.
It's almost like God had a plan.
Isaiah 9, 6.
Maybe this was the song of theshepherds.
Maybe they recalled their livesas young people and children
going to the synagogue or to thetemple and hearing the book of
Isaiah read.
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For unto us a child is born.
To us a son is given, and thegovernment shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall becalled.
Mighty God, everlasting Father,Prince of Peace.
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Amen.
Amen.
Would you stand with me andlet's close this morning?
Thank you, Lord.
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Thank you, Lord.
My prayer for us is that a holydesperation comes over us,
including myself.
For more of God, for more ofJesus.
I want to hear him.
I want to know him.
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I want to feel him.
And I want to see him.
Because when I experience God inthose ways, this life becomes so
much better.
And I became become so much lessconcerned about my own self and
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so much more concerned about himand his kingdom and the
spreading of that kingdom.
Let's pray.
Father, in the name of Jesus, Ithank you for the powerful words
that you've spoken to us andthrough us this morning.
And Lord, I ask in Jesus' namethat those who are here that
have never experienced the peaceof God or peace with God because
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they are not yet born again.
I pray in the name of Jesus thatyou would cause them to see you.
Open the eyes of their hearts.
Lord, help them to see you forthe first time as you truly are.
Not a religious symbol or a youknow something that they think
about at Christmas and Easter.
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But Lord, we ask that you wouldhelp them to see you as Savior
and Christ and Lord.
And Father, I ask that as theysee you, that they would cry out
to you from their hearts andthat they would ask you to
forgive them of their sins andthat they would put their faith,
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hope, and trust in you.
And if that's you this morning,I just encourage you in this
very moment, you don't have towait.
You don't have to wait tillChristmas.
You're here this morning for areason.
God brought you here.
Call out to him right now inyour own voice, in your own
words, just some sentiment that,like I just prayed, just
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acknowledge to him your need forhim.
And I promise you, he will meetyou right where you're at.
We're gonna have people downhere in just a minute that would
love to pray with you, and we'dhave a Bible that we'd want to
give you and encourage you inyour in your walk with the Lord.
Father, I pray also for the restof us who, for whatever reason,
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we've stopped looking up andwe're looking around, and we're
looking down, we're looking atour circumstances, we're looking
at what's going on in thisworld, and Father, we need to
see you again.
Lord, we cry out to you, we askthat you'd cause the scales to
fall from our eyes.
And like Paul, that we would befilled with the Holy Spirit and
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that we would see you, Lord,like we did when we first fell
in love with you.
Father, restore unto us the joyof our salvation.
Let this Christmas season be oneof remembrance, where we look
back on what you have done inour lives and help us, Father,
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to change our perspective justlike you did with the shepherds.
Lord, we know that you can dothat with us.
We ask you for these things.
We ask that you would affect ourfamilies, our friends, our
enemies, whoever it is, Lord.
We ask that this would be aseason of just an outpouring of
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your spirit where many men andwomen and children would come to
the saving knowledge of JesusChrist.
We thank you for it, Father, inJesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
I'm excited about bringing this message to you
this morning.
I love Christmas, I love Easter,I love anything that is
connected to God, obviously, andalso to family, and so this is
one of those times of years.
So if you want to, you can turnin your Bibles to Luke chapter
2.
We're gonna be reading theLinus.
I'm sorry.
(00:22):
I felt I thought I thought aboutplaying the Linus thing from uh
from Snoopy, you know, the wherehe gives the story of Christmas,
but I will read it and give alittle bit more reverence to the
word this morning.
But anyway, we're gonna belooking at Luke chapter two.
We've seen so far in this seriesum called Expecting, it's all
about the importance of praiseand worship in the life of a
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believer, especially when itcomes to our corporate meetings.
And what we just experiencedtogether is amazing.
And I hope that we continue togrow in our desire to be
expressive, to be um, to bethoughtful, to be focused, to be
worshiping together as one as wegather together on Sundays.
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The more that we do that, themore that we're going to
experience the presence of God.
And we've been looking at someof the biblical songs that are
related to the Christmas storyand talking about worship from
the from that uh thoseperspectives.
So we've seen so far that trueworshipers can expect to hear
God like Zechariah did.
That was great, wasn't it?
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And also we we've talked aboutknowing God like Simeon did and
feeling God like Mary, themother of Jesus, did.
I think she could honestly saythat she had the most unique
experience when it came tofeeling God as she carried Jesus
in her womb.
And today we're going to look ata group of people who came from
a lowly background and theirjourney to see Jesus as he truly
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is.
Who do you think those peoplemight be?
Good guess.
Excellent.
Uh, my hope for all of us isthat our eyes will be freshly
opened to these truths and thatwe will see the wonder of our
Savior once again.
Are you ready for that?
Are you open to that happeningthis morning?
So the title of today's messageis Expecting to See God.
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Expecting to see God.
Remember, we talked about thefact that worship is a
revelation of who God is.
It's where God shows Himself tous.
And as we get to know Him more,there's a response that is
fitting for such a God.
And then also what comes out ofthat relationship, it is
relationship, an ongoingrelationship with God is the
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result of worship.
So let's again read from Lukechapter two, verses eight
through twenty.
And in the same region therewere shepherds out in the field
keeping watch over their flockby night.
And an angel of the Lordappeared to them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them,and they were filled with great
fear.
And the angels said to them,Fear not, for behold, I bring
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you good news of great joy thatwill be for all the people.
For unto you is born this day inthe city of David a Savior who
is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a baby wrapped inswaddling cloths and lying in a
manger.
And suddenly there was with theangel a multitude of the
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heavenly host, praising God andsaying, Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peaceamong those with whom he is
pleased.
When the angels went away fromthem into heaven, the shepherds
said to one another, Let us goover to Bethlehem and see this
thing that has happened, whichthe Lord has made known to us.
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And they went with haste andfound Mary and Joseph and the
baby lying in a manger.
And when they saw it, they madeknown the saying that had been
told them concerning this child.
And all who heard it wondered atwhat the shepherds told them.
But Mary treasured up all thesethings, pondering them in her
heart, and the shepherdsreturned, glorifying and
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praising God for all they hadheard and seen as it had been
told them.
Let's pray over the servicetoday.
Father, we thank you and praiseyou for your word.
Your word is matchless, yourword is perfect, and your word
is written for the people thatit was written to 2,000 years
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ago, and yet it appliesperfectly to our day and time as
well.
And so, Father, we ask that youwould open our eyes today.
Open the eyes of our hearts,Lord, that we might see you as
you truly are.
We thank you for doing that inJesus' name.
Amen.
So when I was a young pastor inNorth Carolina, there was a
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family that came to our church,and the gentleman played the
keyboards, and so he was part ofour worship team, which was very
small, very small room.
Think about a room about halfthe size of the community room
that was our church, and we metin a bank building.
And so the front area was not astage, it was just flat on the
ground, and we had, you know,just the a few people that think
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it was a keyboard player and asinger, may have had one more
instrument, a guitar, orsomething like that.
And the family that thisgentleman, the piano player, his
he had a daughter, he and hiswife had a daughter who was on
the autism spectrum.
And this was many, many yearsago, and so that was kind of
something that wasn't as commonor that we that you would hear
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about as much as you would hearabout it today.
And so, because she was on thespectrum, she was not, uh she
didn't necessarily know all thekind of social cues.
And so sometimes during theservice, while praise and
worship was going on, her dadwas playing the keyboard and she
wanted to get near her dad.
And so she would find herselfdown uh down front and uh
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stepping on microphone cablesand you know, at times tickling
the ivory in the wrong key.
Uh and uh to be honest with you,there were quite a few people
who were who were pretty prettyover it, kind of annoyed by this
little girl, uh, not because ofher, but because of the the
behavior, if that makes sense,right?
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Um, and uh so this that's whythe rest of what I'm gonna tell
you was such a surprise.
There was one service where hername was Jessica.
Jessica became very quiet andvery still, and she actually
turned away from her dad andfaced sort of the wall of the
church.
And she lifted up her eyes uptowards the ceiling, and she
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began to say, Jesus, Jesus, Isee you, Jesus, I love you,
Jesus.
And here this is a ten-year-oldgirl having this experience
where the room grew silent.
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No longer were eyes turned toher with disdain, and no longer
were the hearts that were therefilled with any form of judgment
or critique.
Now we were all being challengedby our Savior who was choosing
to reveal himself to thisprecious child.
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God wants us to see him, hewants us to see him as he truly
is.
And I learned on that day thatwe can't judge a book by its
cover, and we can't say that oneperson is more worthy than
another.
God chooses to show himself inwhatever way he chooses to do
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so.
And she the veil between heavenand earth became very thin that
day.
And all of us were crying, andall of us, or most of us, found
our our way to the ground withour knees bent as we experienced
with her what it must feel liketo see Jesus.
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And we all know the story.
Joseph and Mary have made theirway to Bethlehem, and there were
so many people that were therethat there was no room in the
end, and so they were put into astable that was meant for
animals, and we know that Marygave birth to Jesus, and she
wrapped him in swaddling clothsand laid him in a manger that
was meant for animals.
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And as that story, that part ofthe story is coming to a
conclusion, we move to thesecond part, which we're going
to talk about this morning.
It's interesting to me that thefirst knowledge about the birth
of Jesus wasn't given to thereligious leaders of Jerusalem.
Wouldn't you think that if youwanted to make a big splash, if
you wanted to make somethingreally apparent, if you wanted
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to broadcast something to uh tomany, many people, that you
would choose people who havesome form of authority or some
form of influence in the culturearound.
Uh, but God, in his wisdom,didn't choose to do that.
He didn't choose to uh speak tothose who were in Jerusalem, but
he spoke instead to a group ofshepherds on the hills outside
(09:17):
of Bethlehem.
Now you have to understand thatshepherds were looked down upon
in this culture.
They were looked down upon andthey were considered to be the
outcasts of Israel by some.
Why was that?
Because there were weeks at atime where they would not be
able to get to uh synagogues orto uh you know to the temple in
order to uh to do the thingsthat would cause them to be
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ceremonially clean, and so theywere considered to be
ceremonially unclean, and sothey were looked down upon by
many people within the culture.
But how many of you know there'sanother side to this, and that
is that God loves shepherds?
All you have to do is remindyourself of the patriarchs of
the Jewish nation.
Moses was a shepherd, and Godrevealed himself to him in a
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burning bush.
And what did he ask him to do?
To go and set the people ofIsrael free from Egyptian
bondage.
Excuse me.
We know that David also was ashepherd, and God anointed him
and called him to be the kingover Israel, right?
And so we have all of theseexamples, and David himself
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wrote a beautiful song that manyof us can quote, and it starts
out, The Lord is my I shall notwant.
So David himself referred to ourSavior as a shepherd.
And Jesus in John, and we weread about this in John, Jesus
said, I am the good shepherd,and I know my sheep, and they
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know me, and they will listen tomy voice, and the voice of a
stranger they will not follow.
So Jesus himself is a goodshepherd, right?
Amen.
So let's talk about theseshepherds.
Are you ready?
Number one, the shepherds werebusy living their everyday
lives.
This was not, there was nothingextraordinary.
They weren't like, it doesn'tsay that they were necessarily
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praying or that they were havinga spiritual moment.
It says that they were takingcare of the sheep at night.
So to picture this in your mind,try to get that image in your
head.
It's nighttime, they're takingcare of their sheep.
We know that Mark from uh his,thank you, from his talking
about shepherds.
We know that they sing overthem.
We know that there's a lot ofyou know different uh, you know,
(11:30):
vocal things that they'll say tothe sheep to calm them.
I'm sure there was some of thatthat was going on.
Some of the shepherds may havebeen resting, leaning against
olive trees or something likethat.
Just try to paint that picturein your head if you can.
Some historians even point tothe fact that these shepherds
may have been the very shepherdswho were caring for the flocks
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that would provide sacrifices inthe temple.
That would be interesting,wouldn't it?
We don't know for sure, butthere there is some historosity
to that idea that it's possiblethat these shepherds were taking
care of the sheep that weremeant for sacrifice in the
temple.
It is in this simple settingthat they first were given the
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opportunity to experience God,these shepherds.
You see, we encounter God in ourfamilies, in our jobs, in our
schools, at church.
This is where worship begins.
It doesn't necessarily begin,like I said, with some kind of
uh, you know, big thing that'shappening.
Sometimes it happens in verysmall ways, but it begins in
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everyday life.
Everyday life.
Our relationship with Jesus andthe way that we experience him
should come out of a normativeportion of our lives.
So not only were the shepherdsliving their everyday lives, but
the shepherds saw the light.
Now picture this with me.
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There are no, there's noelectricity.
There are no jets in the sky,there are no satellites, there
are no screens that they'relighting their faces with,
right?
There's none of that.
They had oil lamps, possibly,and and and a fire.
But beyond that, the skiesbesides stars and moon were
(13:17):
completely dark, right?
Can you picture that with me?
I'm hoping that you're able to,those of you who are visual
people, can can allow yourselvesto sort of enter this scene as
we talk about this.
And all of a sudden, an angel ofthe Lord appears, and the glory
of the Lord, which is theessence of God's character and
nature, the glory of the Lordlights up the night, making it
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appear like it's day.
Can you picture this?
What do you think their eyeslooked like?
Biggest saucers, and probablysome of this going on, right?
Who knows what that experiencemust have been like?
They had no clue.
They had never experiencedanything like this in their
entire lives.
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There were no UFOs, there wasnothing that was lighting up the
sky.
It was just them and theheavens, and all of a sudden,
heaven began to reveal itself inthe earth.
In a very real sense, this was aliving example of what was
happening in the spiritual realmas well.
The earth was covered withdarkness at this time, spiritual
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darkness.
It had been 400 years since Godhad spoken through a prophet, a
major prophet, to the nation ofIsrael.
And so all of a sudden, we havethis angel appearing, the glory
of the Lord coming with him,lights up the night sky, and
this is an example or asomething that symbolizes what
God is doing in the spiritualrealm as well.
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We can read about the prophetIsaiah, who had his own
experience with seeing God.
You remember that story?
Where he saw God, and what didhe do?
He ran and jumped up in his lapand cuddled with him and gave
him some cookies.
What love, Yosana?
I mean, I mean, God?
No.
No, he didn't do that.
He fell on his face.
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He said, I am unclean.
I'm a man undone.
And God touched the coal to hislips and made him made him
whole.
And then he commissioned him tospeak words that are so
powerful.
And even what we're readingabout today, Isaiah was allowed
to prophesy about.
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And in Isaiah chapter 9, verse2, it says this the people who
walked in darkness have seen agreat light.
Those who dwelt in a land ofdeep darkness, on them has light
shone.
How many of you have seen thegreat light of Jesus Christ?
And the darkness of your lifehas disappeared.
That is our story.
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That is our testimony.
So God begins to reveal hisglory, and the shepherds feel
the weight of it.
There was a holy fear that cameover them.
There's a holy fear, and again,we talked about this last week.
The fear of the Lord needs toreturn to the church of Jesus
Christ.
It is something that isessential.
It is the beginning of wisdomand the beginning of knowledge.
(16:11):
The fear of the Lord isessential.
The presence of the Lord shouldbe awe-inspiring and humbling.
His majesty should evoke ahealthy fear.
A healthy fear, not a fear ofdestruction or a fear of
punishment, but a fear that is areverence and respect for the
(16:32):
holiness of God.
He is truly other.
He is other, and yet he choosesto love us.
The shepherds also saw the plan.
They saw the light, and they sawthe plan, and it says, And the
angel said to them, Fear not,for behold, I bring you good
news of great joy that will befor all the people.
(16:54):
For unto you is born this day inthe city of David a Savior who
is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a baby wrapped inswaddling cloths and lying in a
manger.
The angel quickly quenches theirfear by telling them that
there's a plan that's beentalked about before, and it is
coming to pass before their veryeyes.
(17:15):
This plan is about the good newsfor them and for all people.
The good news of God for allpeople.
So let's talk about that plan.
The plan is good news of greatjoy.
Great joy.
The message of the gospel ofJesus Christ is literally good
news.
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How many of you know where tofind bad news?
Where are some places you canfind bad news?
Television, Facebook, Instagram,you know, all uh TikTok, all
these places you can find badnews, but where are you gonna
find truly good news?
(17:59):
In the Word of God.
Jesus Himself, the gospel ofJesus, is good news for everyone
who hears it and believes it.
We must believe it.
Joy is produced by those whohear the good news of Jesus
Christ and believe it.
And this joy is unspeakable andfull of glory.
(18:22):
Again, my hope for you this weekand every week is that you
experience an outpouring of thejoy of the Lord like you've
never experienced before.
I feel like we need it.
The second part of this plan isthe plan is found only in the
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person of Jesus.
How many of you have found thatyou can talk about God with
almost everybody and be fine?
But if you mention the name ofJesus, something changes.
Why is that?
Because Jesus is the only way tothe Father, and Satan will do
anything he can to distractpeople from the truth.
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It's interesting how the angelstrategically uses three
different names for Jesus inthis passage.
And if you take them alltogether, it really gives us a
full picture of the person andministry of Jesus.
So let's look at these quickly.
First of all, he said Jesus isSavior.
He is our Savior.
How many of you are glad forthat part?
(19:30):
Come on.
He is Jesus, the name Jesusliterally means Savior.
That's what it means.
He came to save us from our sinsand the just punishment that we
deserve because of the sins thatwe have committed.
Do you guys realize that becauseof the sins that we have
committed in our lives, wedeserve the wrath of God, which
(19:53):
causes us to be separated fromHim forever in a place called
hell.
That is the truth, and that'swhat we deserve.
And yet, God, in his mercy,instituted and initiated this
plan that gave us a chance tonot have to live out that
destiny.
That's good news, friends.
(20:15):
What a wonderful plan.
So Jesus is Savior.
He would do this, Jesus would dothis by becoming sin for us and
taking our punishment on thecross.
2 Corinthians 5.21 says it forour sake he made him to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in himwe might become the
righteousness of God.
(20:38):
This is the plan, and this isthe good news of Jesus Christ.
We are able to be made rightwith God.
We can have right standing withGod, and we can be called
children of God.
What a powerful truth and what apowerful reality.
So Jesus is Savior.
Second of all, in this, theangel says that Jesus is Christ.
(21:01):
Now, how many of you know Christis not Jesus' last name?
Like Lind is my last name.
Christ is not Jesus.
Maybe you didn't know that, andthat's okay.
I want you to know today thatthe name Christ means anointed
one or Messiah.
Christ means anointed one.
It means that Jesus wasauthorized and deputized by all
(21:24):
of heaven's authority to carryout the plan of the Father here
in this earth.
He was authorized, he wasanointed, he was appointed, he
was deputized, he was sent.
All of those words that youcould use to describe Jesus, he
came bearing with him allauthority in heaven and on earth
(21:46):
to fulfill the task that he wasat.
So not only is his name nice,like Savior, but also he has the
authority and the ability to doit, to save us from our sins.
(22:06):
Luke 4.18, Jesus comes on thescene, and how does he describe
himself in his first churchservice?
And he did so well at thischurch service, they didn't
applaud at the end, they triedto stone him to death.
I'm praying and begging, and mywife is praying also that that
is not the outcome of thismessage this morning.
But if it is, he'll protect melike you protected Jesus, right?
(22:30):
The Spirit of the Lord is uponme.
Jesus is speaking, because hehas anointed me to proclaim good
news to the poor.
He has anointed me, anointed meto proclaim good news to the
poor.
He has sent me to proclaimliberty to the captives and
recovering of sight to theblind, to set at liberty those
(22:50):
who are oppressed, and toproclaim the year of the Lord's
favor.
How many of you can say thismorning that you have
experienced some of that?
Some of that freedom, some ofthat healing, some of that
restoration.
Jesus was anointed and sent fromheaven to do that.
Jesus is the Christ.
(23:13):
And finally, it says that Jesusis Lord.
Jesus is Lord.
He is God manifest in the flesh.
And he is King of kings and Lordof lords.
He is sovereign above allthings.
And just like the song that wesang this morning, every knee
will bow and every tongue willconfess that Jesus Christ is
(23:36):
Lord.
And why will they do that?
To the glory of God the Father.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
He's our friend.
Absolutely.
He's our guide and comforterthrough the Holy Spirit.
Absolutely.
But he's also sovereign and he'sin charge.
(23:56):
And let's not get that out oforder.
Amen?
This is all part of the greatplan that God was revealing to
the shepherds.
So the shepherds saw a greatplan, but they also saw an open
heaven.
An open heaven, it says, andsuddenly, how many of you know
whenever you see the wordsuddenly in the Bible, something
good is about ready to happen?
(24:17):
And suddenly there was with theangel a multitude of the
heavenly host praising God andsaying, Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth, peaceamong those with whom he is
pleased.
Picture this again.
We have this one angel in theglory of the Lord and the light
that was shining around him.
(24:37):
And now all of the heavens arefilled with angels singing this
angelic song.
Imagine.
And these are just poor littleshepherd boys taking care of
some sheep, experiencing heavencoming to work.
Amen.
(24:58):
That's right.
So again, suddenly it couldn'tbe it couldn't be held in any
longer.
A multitude, thousands ofheavenly hosts appeared.
It wasn't a choir of five or sixor ten or twenty.
There were thousands of angels.
That root word there formultitudes means thousands.
(25:19):
Many, many, many angels filledthat night, become day sky.
The supernatural realm is justas real, or dare I say, even
more real, than the naturalworld that we see around us.
Because the spiritual world iseternal.
Right?
(25:40):
It's forever.
Now we tend to concentrate whenwe think about the spiritual
world, we tend to concentrate onthe dark side of it.
Evil, Satan, demonic activity,what's going on in the world in
that way.
But I want to remind you thatwhen Satan fell from heaven, he
took one-third of the angelswith him.
(26:00):
I'm not a great mathematician,but if you do the math, what's
left?
Two-thirds of the angels remain,and Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
And by the way, if you didn'tknow this, I'm gonna spoiler
alert.
Jesus defeated Satan at thecross of Calvary.
And he no longer has power orauthority over us.
(26:25):
He is a defeated foe.
Right?
But we know he's a defeated foe,and one day he will be locked up
forever and ever.
So when we think about thespiritual world, we are to be
(26:46):
aware.
We shouldn't be unaware ofSatan's devices.
The Bible teaches us that.
But let's not forget, God issovereign and his forces are
larger than Satan's by a lot.
So let's look at the angel'ssong for a minute.
The angel's song shows theproper heart posture of worship.
So beautiful the way that thisall unfolds.
(27:07):
It says, Glory to God in thehighest.
That's the first part of this.
Glory to God in the highest.
Now I know this as the eggshellsong.
You know what I'm talking about?
In eggshell sees deo.
(27:29):
Right?
Miss Heather, is that the wayyou pronounce it?
Here's our choir teacher.
She's affirming.
Sorry, I worked one joke intoit, guys.
I know we've been real serious.
But that is the title that'sbeen given to this song, Gloria
in Excelsius Deo.
(27:50):
So here's the thing we need toknow about this.
Worship is not about me.
I'm so sorry that the worshipculture, especially in America,
has become largely about me.
All my stuff and all of that.
(28:11):
It's not wrong to sing aboutwhat God's done for us, but when
it becomes like a consumer list,like a shopping guide for God,
it bothers me.
Does it bother you?
Kind of gets to me a little bit.
Worship is not about me.
We are to bring glory and honorto God.
As the West Minister Catechismsays, the chief end of man
(28:36):
should be to glorify God and toenjoy him forever.
Worship, the posture of worshipis not about me.
It's about glorifying him.
It's about exalting him, it'sabout lifting him up and
praising him and adoring him.
That is literally our highestcalling and what every aspect of
(28:57):
our life should be centrallyfocused on to bring glory to
God.
Listen to this.
Every time we worship God, wejoin in with the heavenly choir.
Every time we open our mouths topraise and worship God, we're
joining in with the heavenlychoir.
And if you want some more oftheir music, you can find their
(29:18):
their their uh what's the wordfor playlist?
Thank you, in the book ofRevelation.
So let's look at Revelationchapter 5, verse 9, and look at
one of their top hits.
Is this on the top of yourplaylist?
And they sang a new song saying,Worthy are you to take the
(29:38):
scroll and to open its seals,for you were slain, and by your
blood you ransomed people forGod from every tribe and
language and people and nation,and you have made them a kingdom
and priest to our God, and theyshall reign on the earth.
Then I looked and I heard aroundthe throne and the living
creatures and the elders thevoice of many angels, numbering
(30:01):
myriads of myriads and thousandsof thousands, saying with a loud
voice, Worthy is the Lamb whowas slain to receive power and
wealth and wisdom and might andhonor and glory and blessing.
And I heard every creature inheaven and on earth and under
the earth and in the sea and allthat is in them, saying, To him
(30:23):
who sits on the throne and tothe Lamb be blessing and honor
and glory and might forever andever.
(31:07):
Right?
Our interest should be his, andhis interest is ours.
He desires good things for us.
God's heart has always been tohave a great relationship with
his children.
He doesn't want to have brokenrelationships.
He doesn't want to have uh, youknow, cold shoulders and
non-communicative uh, you know,stories about his kids.
(31:30):
He wants to have a greatrelationship with his family.
The problem is, it's athree-letter word.
What is it?
Sin.
Sin has caused there to beenmity between God and man.
And a holy God must punish sinin order to remain holy.
(31:51):
The sacrificial system in theOld Testament was put in place
to cover over the sins of thepeople.
It could not remove the sins,but it could cover over.
So there could be some semblanceof right relationship with God,
even through the old covenant inthe Old Testament.
But now, through Jesus Christ,there will be, there was, there,
there would be, a once and forall sacrifice that would open
(32:15):
the door for us to be able torepent of our sins and to put
our faith, hope, and trust inJesus Christ so that we might be
saved and restored to rightrelationship with God.
This is the story of Christmasand Easter and Thanksgiving.
(32:37):
We should be thankful for this,in other words.
You see, the Messiah came to beboth the good shepherd and the
Lamb of God, sacrificed for thesins of the world.
The story of Christmas does notend in a manger.
The story of Christmas ends on across.
(32:59):
Jesus' life and ministry wouldfulfill the song of the angels
as he would live himself tobring glory to God in the
highest.
That was his utmost aim, toglorify his heavenly father, to
do anything that his fatherasked of him.
And also that there would bepeace on earth toward those with
(33:19):
whom he is pleased.
And who are those with whom heis pleased?
He is well pleased with those,again, who have repented of
their sins and put their faithin Jesus Christ as Savior and
Lord.
Romans 5, verse 1 says,Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith, we havepeace with God through our Lord
(33:42):
Jesus Christ.
We have peace with God becauseof the, and then we also can
experience the peace of God,which is the tangible presence
of peace in our lives.
But that we can't have the peaceof God until we experience peace
with God.
Amen.
Now, how many of you know wecan't earn this peace and we
(34:06):
don't deserve it?
And like the song says, He givesit anyway, freely.
And finally, the shepherds sawGod.
The shepherds saw God.
That's enough.
(34:26):
I've seen enough, I've heardenough.
This is all of God that I need.
But how many of you know theshepherds were not content to
remain in an experience withGod?
They wanted God Himself.
Let's not settle for anexperience when we can have Him
for ourselves.
I'll take a relationship over anexperience every day of the
(34:49):
week.
But I'd like the experience aswell.
We can have both, right?
When the angels went away fromthem into heaven, the shepherds
said to one another, Let us goover to Bethlehem and see this
thing that has happened, whichthe Lord has made known to us.
And they went with haste andfound Mary and Joseph and the
baby lying in a manger.
(35:16):
They must see Jesus.
Imagine what it must have beenlike to enter that stable.
Go over to the manger that hadbeen spoken of to them by the
angel to look down.
Jesus must have been cooing,right?
Or cuddly, you know, just verysweet.
(35:39):
I don't know, whatever image youwant to get.
But they stare into the eyes oftheir savior, Jesus.
I can't even imagine what thatmust have been like.
What an honor and privilege.
And because they experiencedthis, they were so transformed
(36:00):
by seeing God that they couldn'tstop talking about it.
It says, and when they saw it,they made known the saying that
had been told them concerningthis child, and all who heard it
wondered at what the shepherdstold them.
This is the passion of a newconvert, somebody who has
experienced God for themselvesand is now wanting to pursue him
(36:22):
even further and to pursue himto the point where they're
sharing the message that they'vereceived with everyone else
around them.
And that was only the job of theshepherds, right?
No.
That's the job of the sheep.
Just like us.
(36:44):
We get the chance.
Like a new convert, likesomebody who's passionate about
salvation because they've justexperienced being ripped away
from the kingdom of darkness andbeing brought into the kingdom
of light.
Let us return to our first loveand share that love with those
around us at this Christmasseason and always.
(37:07):
Can we do that?
You see, I have a question.
Is it enough to see Jesus forourselves?
Or do we long for others to seehim?
Let's not let Thursday be justabout the giving of gifts and
the eating of pork and chickenand beef, whatever it is.
(37:34):
Let's speak the name of Jesus.
Let's speak the name of Jesus inour homes, around the table, in
our neighborhoods.
And it finishes by saying thatthey couldn't uh they they
couldn't stop praising God forall he had done.
(37:54):
It says, and the shepherdsreturned, glorifying and
praising God for all that theyhad heard and seen as it had
been told them.
They were so impacted by seeingGod that their whole lives were
transformed.
And they couldn't and wouldn'tremain silent.
(38:16):
They were gossiping the gospelof Jesus Christ, and they also
continued to sing the songs ofheaven as they lifted up their
voices to praise and honor theKing.
Here's the reality for us today.
When we are struggling withworship, the reality is that our
(38:38):
view of our Savior has becomeskewed, shaded, or hindered in
some way.
An encouragement to all of us.
Lift up your eyes.
Lift up your heads.
(38:59):
And let's look upon Jesus again.
The Bible says that when Christreturns, those are the ones he's
going to be looking for.
Those who have their eyes peeledand ready, looking for him.
(39:23):
This verse that I'm going tofinish with was also sung this
morning.
It's almost like God had a plan.
Isaiah 9, 6.
Maybe this was the song of theshepherds.
Maybe they recalled their livesas young people and children
going to the synagogue or to thetemple and hearing the book of
Isaiah read.
(39:45):
For unto us a child is born.
To us a son is given, and thegovernment shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall becalled.
Mighty God, everlasting Father,Prince of Peace.
(40:07):
Amen.
Amen.
Would you stand with me andlet's close this morning?
Thank you, Lord.
(40:28):
Thank you, Lord.
My prayer for us is that a holydesperation comes over us,
including myself.
For more of God, for more ofJesus.
I want to hear him.
I want to know him.
(40:49):
I want to feel him.
And I want to see him.
Because when I experience God inthose ways, this life becomes so
much better.
And I became become so much lessconcerned about my own self and
(41:10):
so much more concerned about himand his kingdom and the
spreading of that kingdom.
Let's pray.
Father, in the name of Jesus, Ithank you for the powerful words
that you've spoken to us andthrough us this morning.
And Lord, I ask in Jesus' namethat those who are here that
have never experienced the peaceof God or peace with God because
(41:35):
they are not yet born again.
I pray in the name of Jesus thatyou would cause them to see you.
Open the eyes of their hearts.
Lord, help them to see you forthe first time as you truly are.
Not a religious symbol or a youknow something that they think
about at Christmas and Easter.
(41:55):
But Lord, we ask that you wouldhelp them to see you as Savior
and Christ and Lord.
And Father, I ask that as theysee you, that they would cry out
to you from their hearts andthat they would ask you to
forgive them of their sins andthat they would put their faith,
(42:17):
hope, and trust in you.
And if that's you this morning,I just encourage you in this
very moment, you don't have towait.
You don't have to wait tillChristmas.
You're here this morning for areason.
God brought you here.
Call out to him right now inyour own voice, in your own
words, just some sentiment that,like I just prayed, just
(42:39):
acknowledge to him your need forhim.
And I promise you, he will meetyou right where you're at.
We're gonna have people downhere in just a minute that would
love to pray with you, and we'dhave a Bible that we'd want to
give you and encourage you inyour in your walk with the Lord.
Father, I pray also for the restof us who, for whatever reason,
(43:01):
we've stopped looking up andwe're looking around, and we're
looking down, we're looking atour circumstances, we're looking
at what's going on in thisworld, and Father, we need to
see you again.
Lord, we cry out to you, we askthat you'd cause the scales to
fall from our eyes.
And like Paul, that we would befilled with the Holy Spirit and
(43:22):
that we would see you, Lord,like we did when we first fell
in love with you.
Father, restore unto us the joyof our salvation.
Let this Christmas season be oneof remembrance, where we look
back on what you have done inour lives and help us, Father,
(43:45):
to change our perspective justlike you did with the shepherds.
Lord, we know that you can dothat with us.
We ask you for these things.
We ask that you would affect ourfamilies, our friends, our
enemies, whoever it is, Lord.
We ask that this would be aseason of just an outpouring of
(44:06):
your spirit where many men andwomen and children would come to
the saving knowledge of JesusChrist.
We thank you for it, Father, inJesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
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