You guys can have a seat. I laughed last hour, because I just wish sometimes you guys could have the perspective that I do. There is this young teenage girl sitting on the front row, and as they took the bread, it was funny. They took it right together. And then right before they took the juice together, they like they gave it a little cheers moment together. And I was like, you know what? What better thing to cheer for? The fact that Christ has set you free. I thought it was a cool moment. I'm not sure that's really appropriate, but I liked it. It was cool at the moment. Well, I got to admit that it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, right. All around. And there's so much happening around us. There are a lot. Amen? There's a lot of parties. 

But speaking of parties, one of my favorite parties of the year just happened last Thursday night. It's when all of the Burnt Hickory team, all the Burnt Hickory staff get together. And it was a great night together. You know, most of the time they're hosting and they're doing it. But that night was just for them to be there and be together. And I'm often reminded of how special of a group of people that is. But on Thursday night, God just really just pressed in my heart a little bit of how thankful as a church that we should be for those people in the room. Let me just say this on their behalf just for a minute. I'm the one that's kind of up here a lot, Carey and I all the time. But listen, you have a group of people that serve this church, that work here, that are called that not only love Jesus, not only love the church, but they love you, they love you, they sacrifice for you. And they want nothing more than to see your life just be turned in the direction of Jesus. And can I just just this morning ask you to appreciate all of those background people, especially this week? Can we give them a hand? Real man. They are just. Just special. Special. And they're so background. Some of them may even hate it when I do that. So if you're looking at one, go, Hey, that's you. All right, Just say that because they don't like it. 

Hey, let me do this. I know if you've been here the last couple of weeks, you know, we're in our Christmas series, our Advent series. This is week three. This week. We'll finish it up, obviously, next weekend. But you know that we're walking into just what it looks like to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ. All of this is getting closer and closer to Christmas, which, by the way, for some of you might be a little bit panicky. In fact, let's do a little poll real quick before we jump into the meat of the message. How many of you by the show of hands right now are 100% there in buying all the Christmas presents you need to buy? How many of you? Where are you out there? Where are you out there? You guys, we, we hate you. The rest of us hate you. Just to let you know, I'm just kidding in the Lord. There it is. How many of you number two would just say Matt, I'm like 80% there. I'm 80%. Got some knick knacky stuff. I'm 80%. Where are you at? All right. There's a couple of you out there. How many of you are like, Matt, I'm in trouble. I'm in a lot of trouble right now for where this thing is going. How many of you. All right, That's that's that's good. I don't even know where to go. I know my wife tells me she doesn't want anything, but I don't believe her. Those kinds of people. Right. There it is. I'm with you. I'm with you. I buy, like, two gifts. That's it. All the season. That. That's so good. 

You know, here's the good news in all of that. You have time. You got time, you got all week. You're not behind. You know, you do your best job under stress and under pressure. I'm one of those people. I operate best like that. Also, Amazon Prime is next day delivery. Sometimes it's there that afternoon so you have plenty of time to get there. And then also you can remind all the people on your Christmas list that Pastor Matt said this is not the season just about giving gifts. It's the season about the coming of Jesus. Right. You can throw me under the bus if you need to. But all jokes aside, let me just say this. This is that season. It's the season that let me just give us a little warning. It's the season that we have to fight not to get swept up into what I just kind of call the Christmas intoxication, and that has nothing to do with office Christmas parties. All right. This is what I'm talking about with the Christmas intoxication, is that we have to fight the urge to get so enamored by the season, the movies, the lights, the activities, the food, the trees, the parties. We have to fight this idea to remember that that's not the reason for the season. We have to fight to do that because it's so easy to get caught up in it. 

But let me remind you something. On December 26, for normal people and on New Year's Day for really normal people, all of the rest of that stuff is coming down. But here's why we do what we do here. We're celebrating the Advent season to remind us it's not those gifts that stick, it's the gifts that Christ has given us. It's the fact that Christ has given us hope that he's come to this world to save us. It's the fact that Christ has given us all. We looked at it last week. He's given us love. And the idea that we can be loved and that we are to love other people. What we saw through the eyes of Mary last week, and it's the idea that we can have joy. That's what we're going to look at today. We're going to look at the fact that we can have joy through the glory of God. Church, that's why we're doing this. That's what the Advent season is all about. That's why these words stick out so much year after year. It's to kind of remove our focus from the stuff. Right. I love the stuff. I love the food. I love the fact that other people have lights on their house. I love that. But listen, that's not what this thing's about. The Advent season is us looking back at what Christ has done and what he's doing in us right now and is looking forward to the return of who Jesus is and that brings life. 

If you've got a copy of Scripture this morning. I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter two. That is where we're going to be today and where we will be next weekend too, just kind of let the cat out of the bag. And we're going to walk through the narrative of the shepherds this morning, and we're going to watch the shepherds experience the glory of God and watch what happens in our lives when we experience the glory of God, because the byproduct of us experiencing the glory of God is always joy. It's always joy. And I want to show you something through the life of the shepherds. This morning by just walking through this narrative. In fact, I want to read the whole narrative to you. I don't often do this all at once. I kind of chopped it up, but I just feel like getting a whole picture of it. I want to read it all to you first. Luke chapter two verse eight. Here we go. It says this. It says And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping the watch over the flocks at night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were terrified. 

But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people today in the town of David, A savior has been born to you. And he is the Messiah, the Lord. Verse 12 and this will be a sign to you. You will find the baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. Suddenly, a great company of heavenly hosts appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about, verse 16. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in a manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what they had been told about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. Verse 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen. Watch this, which was just as they had been told. Now, look, there is a lot going on in this text, so we're just going to dive in. And I want to point something out to you that kind of sets the tone. 

And that is the first thing that I want to point out is that it is true mendacity, scandalous. If you wanted people in this mindset in this day to involve the shepherds in the story in any way. You say Matt, what big deal is that to involve the shepherds? Why, Matt? I mean, Abraham was a shepherd. Moses was a shepherd. David was a shepherd. In fact, what's the big deal with the shepherds? The Lord even says in Psalm 23 that the Lord is our shepherd. You see, the Bible speaks pretty highly of shepherds. But if you were around first century Palestine and actually the first century world, you would know that it doesn't get much lower than this Shepherds. Let me tell you about them a little bit that we know from history. Shepherds were looked upon as the lowest of low. They couldn't hold public office. Their testimony was not admissible in the court of law. People wouldn't even purchase goods and services from them because they believed that they were so scandalous that everything that they had, they probably just stole. 

And the reason for that is, is because a lot of them did. A lot of them stole. They would go off on these trips to search for pastures for the sheep or the lambs. And as a result, they would have babies, have maybe more babies than they should have had, according to the owner. And the shepherds would just skim off the top. And it was commonly known that they were thieves. So they were conniving, they were just downright like criminals in a lot of ways. And it was possibly even worse than that, because a lot of times they would only receive payment in milk and in wool or in sheep, and they couldn't even sell it to support their families because everyone thought that they just stole it. One of the big philosophical geniuses of the day from Alexandria has this quote. There's a famous quote about shepherds, and he says, There is no more disreputable occupation than a shepherd. And that's strong, right? Nobody says that about anybody anymore. That will get you canceled quickly. Right. If you look at it from culture, you'll see that shepherds couldn't be trusted. 

They were brutal, thieving, conniving. They preferred the company of animals and their little small group of friends. Then they had a community life. But even that, it gets even worse. If you were a Jewish shepherd, and that is that you couldn't even go to the temple because you were considered unclean. So now culture sees you as evil, culture sees you as conniving in the bottom of the bottom, and you can't even bring your prayers and bring your offerings to the Lord because the Jewish people looked at you as an unclean person. You were despised and rejected by culture and by your religion, but yet follow this in the story. But yet, moments after the birth of Jesus, catch this. They announce the good news of the Gospel. It didn't come to the ruling elite. It didn't come to the righteous and pious religious people. No. As a sign of what Jesus is all about, catch this church, the announcement of the coming Messiah came to those who could not come to God. Listen to me. That's the Gospel. That's what He's done for us. That's what Jesus Emmanuel has done. You might even be sitting here this morning with the mindset of Matt, you don't even understand who I am. You don't understand what I've done. 

You don't understand where I've been. To which I would say I don't understand. But God does. And God is the one who comes and God is the one who forgives and God is the one who invades our life with His glory. We see this happening in the text. What do we see? We see these scandalous guys in a field outside of the town, and all of a sudden the glory of God shines around them. Now that we're glory is a hard one to translate, but let's just look at it as though the weight of God, the message of God, the glory of God, or the weightiness of God shines around these people. And when the glory of God shines around, what are we seeing? It pushes things out. It reorders our lives, it changes everything, and joy begins to take over in our lives. You see, I love this story because the glory didn't shine around the religious people, it showed around those that needed it. It didn't shine around the Pharisees that had their Torah out in the morning washing their hands 17 times, walking into the temple, behaving. No, the glory was shown around the shepherds, those that society and culture said nobody wants. 

So here's what I want to do this morning. I just want us to realize that we're all shepherds. That we're all people who need a savior. But I want us to see what happens when the glory of the Lord shows up. What happens? Now, before we get to the real practical stuff, let me just set the scene just for a minute of what's going on. It's important in my mind to have a mental picture of what's happening. The shepherds would have taken the sheep away from town. They would have been outside of the town of Bethlehem. If you go to Israel with us, we visit the Shepherds field. There's a cave there. There's a historical spot that is known to be the shepherd's location. It's a pretty cool place to be. They would have been out of town. It would have been nighttime. They would have been sitting together watching the sheep, kind of all corralled up together. And then all of a sudden, in that moment in the middle of the night with a heightened sense of awareness, because if you're out in the middle of the night, your senses are up, then automatically, bam, the glory out of nowhere, the glory and the Angel of the Lord showed up in an incredibly special way. 

Now was the glory of the Lord before. Was it already there before then? Yes, it was there. Why? Because there's stars, their breathing, their hearts are beating. All of that is only because of the glory of God. But in this moment, it's a special way. It's a special moment. And the weightiness of the Lord rested on them because of this encounter with God. Now, that's my prayer for us this morning, is that we walk away from here with a weightiness and a special moment. So what happens when the glory of God shows up? Let me show you in verse nine here. Watch this. It says this An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. Write this down when the glory of the gods shows up, number one, it exposes us for who we really are. That's what it does first. It exposes us for who we really are. Now, here's what I mean by that. The most consistent thing that people say in conversations about religion, in conversations and counseling, is that almost everyone thinks that they are a good person and they really have no concept of the fact that they've ever frustrated God or that God has ever been upset with them. 

But when you look at the text here, when the glory of God shows up, what did it do in these shepherds' lives? It exposed them. It showed them who they really were and that they were terrified. It really showed them that they really probably weren't as good a people as they thought that they were. Now, let me explain what I mean by this. You see, everybody thinks they're a good person because we have, for some reason, slid into a culture that has a moving scale of good. Does that make sense a little bit? We have a relative scale of good. Most of us, when we define good, we define good in the mindset of Am I better than someone? You say no, no, no, we don't. Yeah, yeah. That's all we do. Right? Let me give you an example of how I know we do this. Let's say most of you are young parents or you've had kids before, and I want you to set the scene in your mind that you're outside, you're on the driveway, you're playing basketball with your little seven year old son or daughter. Are you playing basketball on an eight foot goal? You know, that makes us all feel big about ourselves on an eight foot goal, All right. You're out there with your seven year old. Here's what I know you could say in that moment with authority, you can look at your seven year old and you can say, I'm powerful, I'm fast, I'm strong, I'm unstoppable, I'm wealthy, and I'm brilliant. Right? You can say that to your seven year old at that moment, because you are. Why? Because you give me a basketball and I will dunk over that little seven year old. I will dribble them out. I will steal the ball with them. I will make them cry. And I'm a whole lot richer than I am. Right? So that's it. 

But let's say this. You're out there playing basketball, it's nighttime. All of a sudden, some lights pull into the driveway right? A Rolls Royce pulls up and none other than LeBron James gets out of the car. Right? Gets out of the car. Now, at that moment, he gets out of the car. All right. Now, let me ask you this. Are you fast anymore? No. Are you strong anymore? No. Are you unstoppable anymore? Are you going to dunk over anybody anymore? No. You see, in fact, how quickly when one person showed up on the scene, did you turn into a seven year old boy? Right. Just a second ago, you were the king, but now the king just showed up. All it took was for one person to walk in the situation. And now you're broke. You're easy to dominate. And now, in every miserable way, you are the little boy, right? Same thing with God. You see, the thing is, when we recognize the glory of God, when it shows up, when the King of kings, here it is. I'm tiny together. 

When the king of kings shows up in our life, it exposes us. Every bit of swagger, every bit of confidence, every bit of self-justification. It begins to melt in the light of the king. So church, what I'm saying is, let's quit comparing ourselves to the people in the streets beside us and let's begin to look at the glory of God, to begin to see my walking in the light and the love of God. That's how it exposes us. The glory of God exposes us. These brothers in the field were terrified. I mean, yeah, you can make the case that it was the middle of the night and an angel busted on the scene. I mean, that might have a little bit to do with it, but on the other side, it showed them who they were. And listen, I've been in enough locker rooms to know what sinful men in a simple circle in the simple middle of the night are probably talking about. And I guarantee you, they probably weren't studying the Torah and memorizing Deuteronomy. Right. The glory of God shows up on the scene in the middle of the night and God shows them who they are. You know, oftentimes we can justify that we're doing good and doing great, but it's only in the light of the holiness of God that we just have to look at God, and say it's only by your grace that I'm able to go here. And all of a sudden all that false confidence walks away. I love the fact that we see this all over scripture. We see it in Isaiah six five, right? When Isaiah sees the Lord, what does he do? Woe is me, I cried, for I am ruined. I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty. What does John, the disciple, say of Jesus when He sees Him in Revelation? When he gets his revelation, Revelation 1:17 John said, When I saw him, I fell at his feet, though dead. There's so many more examples. But listen, Church, a true example with the glory of God, it always exposes what is in my heart that I am so good at hiding from everybody else. 

And at that moment we are made acutely aware of our need for a savior. And we should be thankful that when God pours His life into us, He shows us who we are. But that's not all it does. Keep reading. Verse ten says this, but the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah the Lord. Not only does it expose us, but number two, write this down. When the glory of God shows up, it drives out fear and it gives us joy. It drives out fear. There's two steps and it gives us joy. But wait a minute, Matt, You just said that it exposes me and now you're saying there's joy in that. How could there ever be joy in the fact that my broken heart is exposed? Here's why. The glory of God exposes where we've fallen short, how our minds have been fallen into evil thoughts. It shows us deep secrets. And in that moment, it's almost as if it's like the deep level spiritual MRI that shows me and you my need for a savior, but also how loving God is in giving me one. 

You see, here's the deal. Until we realize who we really are, we never realize how much we need a savior. And we're never able to be thankful to God for sending. Who? Emmanuel. That's why it's good news when God exposes your heart. Is it going to sting a little bit? Yeah, probably. But on the backside it shows you how much you need a savior. This is the purpose of us experiencing God's discipline, seeing God's judgment is to lay before us an even better perspective of the good news that God has given us Emmanuel. That's what's happening to these shepherds in the field. That's why they're terrified. In fact, look at these declarations again in verse ten. It says this, but the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I mean, how is that possible? There's a holy God who's righteous, who hates sin, rages against injustice. How am I not to have any fear? Look at the rest of the Declaration in verse ten. But the Angel of the Lord said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 

So we're not to be afraid. Why? Because of the good news. You see, this message to these people in this field is a good news message. It's a great news message. And that when you begin to look at it even closer, you'll see that the good news is the gospel of Jesus. We all know John 3:16, But John 3:17 says God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. But what? But to save the world through him. You see, the good news is that Christ shows up, that Christ is coming into the world, that Christ is here, and Jesus, man change the mental image please. Jesus wasn't born with this little sword in his hand, ready to kill everybody that just walks away from him. Jesus was born as the life raft in a sea of death and desperation for all of us who have been exposed to now know that he is king, that he is Emmanuel, and that he is offering life. That's the good news. And listen, that's the foundation for joy. So when God shows up, let's look at it. He exposes us for who we are. He drives out fear, He gives me joy. And then here's number three. When this happens, it creates trust and confidence in the promises of God. It creates this trust and promise. 

Are you seeing what God's doing here? He's just laying out the gospel. He's laying out his salvation plan through these men in this field. And really, when the trust level is communicated, this is really the key to living the Christ filled life. It's us deciding that God, I trust you more than I trust myself. I trust you more than I trust my situation. I trust you more than I trust those around me. And God, now that you've shown me my heart, now you've driven out fear. You've given me joy. Now I am all yours. Watch these guys in verse 15. Watch what happens. It says when the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. 

You know what kind of struck me the most as I've been studying this over these last couple of weeks, getting ready to preach this? If I'm not careful now, I'm not saying this is you, this is me, okay. If I'm not careful, I can kind of develop these crusty edges to my faith. Now, let me describe that to you a little bit, because this is probably not you. This is me. This is me. Right? I can develop these areas where man, I know I love God. I know that God is in my life. I know that God is in control. But there are some areas around the peripherals of my faith that kind of just get a little bit crusty. You tacking with me on that? Here's one of them, my childlike wonderment in my childlike obedience to God can sometimes be replaced. But yeah, God, I know that. But what about this? Anybody else feeling that a little bit? But I love what the shepherds are showing me right here about confidence. They look at their lives upon appearing and hearing from the Lord. What are the shepherds not doing? The shepherds didn't weigh the consequences. They didn't kind of go, Hey, did that really happen? How is this going to happen? How is this true? Let's theorize about this. No, what did they do? They did this. They literally said, hey, the Lord revealed it, let's go see it. And that's a message for all of us, is it not? 

The Lord revealed it. Let's go see it. And there is a childlike wonderment and obedience in these guy's lives that I want as part of my life, if the Lord so chooses to let me be 80, 90 years old. One day I want to look back at my life and I want that to be the banner of my life. The Lord set it and I went and did it. The Lord proclaimed it, and I jumped into it. The Lord said, Jump. And I said, Yes, I want to be the person that when God says, Be generous, that I'm just generous, I don't weigh the consequence is I don't look at the numbers. I'm just generous. I want to be the person that when God says, Hey, go serve your wife, then I serve her like Christ served the church. I want to be the person that looks at my boys and goes, This is what a man of God looks like and this is how we're going to live. I want to be the person that when God says to love him beyond everything else, that there is no question. When God says it, just do it. 

I love these shepherds. The glory of God builds this confidence. And when you see it, when you experience it, when you spend time in it every day, the weight of God, the splendor of God, it will drive you to a confidence that you have never had before. It's what we're seeing in their lives. But Matt, you don't even know what all I got going on. That's right. You don't know how busy I am, how hard this is, what my kids look like. That's great. But look at the shepherds. They had some stuff going on. You know what I thought this week about the shepherds who watched the sheep when they left? I know you don't ask questions like this, but I do, right? I don't. I don't think they cared. Does that make sense? Why? Because the Lord said, Go do it. The Lord said, You'll find it. That's confidence. You see, when the glory of God shows up in our life, it exposes us for who we are. It drives out fear, gives joy, creates trust and confidence. And let me show you the last thing it does. I love this. It changes our priorities. Number four, It changes our priorities and the routines of day to day living. It just changes my priorities. Let me let me show you how this is lived out in the shepherds. And I love this. So after the shepherds heard the message, what did they do? We just read it. They go to Bethlehem, right? They go. They see Jesus. They experience Jesus. They walk with Jesus, Right? I mean, he was well, he was a baby. But you know what I'm saying there right? And after they experience Jesus, look at verse 20 and watch this. It says this: The shepherds, what did they do? Returned. I want you to circle that word return, because I think it's a word that we look over a whole lot. The shepherds returned. Watch this. Glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, And were just as they had been told. Can I tell you why I like this event? I mean, other than it's Jesus, I mean, you get that right when you look at the big picture here, that the shepherds, having shown up, they found baby Jesus. Right? 

They found what the angel said right. Then after that, the shepherds leave. And what do the shepherds go back to? Anybody. Shepherding, right. It's not hard shepherding. That's what they go back to. Right. And here's what's important to note in the shepherd's life. Nothing changed in their life of being shepherds. Nothing changed. Remember how I started this whole message telling you about the shepherds? Listen to this. Nothing changed about their status. Nothing changed about their cultural situation. Nothing changed to make them a more looked upon, honest person by culture or by society. Their testimony couldn't be accepted. They still couldn't hold office. None of that was fixed. But Church Listen, they left glorifying the Lord. What does that mean? That means the joy of the Lord is not dependent upon our situations, and our struggles, and the events of our life. It's dependent upon God's glory shining in our lives. That's the point. Joy is not situational. Joy is directional. Joy is when God's presence reigns in our lives. What does it do? When the glory of God hits us, It gives us a new focus that no matter what is going on in our lives, praise Jesus. It's not going to end that way. We've read the end of the book. We know how this thing ends, and it ends with us bowing at the feet of King Jesus and spending eternity with Him. All the shepherds have shown us is the Gospel. The fact that God showed us that we were broken, that we needed him as a savior, that He replaced all of our old stuff with new stuff. 

He gave us a new direction. And now our life is not dependent upon the situations around us, the people around us, the money around us, the accolades around us, the Christmas stuff around us. It is all dependent on God's glory being inside of us. Because of why? Because of Emmanuel, that's the Christmas message. So here's a question as we close this morning. Do you know this Jesus? Have you given your lives to this Jesus? Have you had a moment in your life where you have surrendered to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and said, Yes, Lord, move in me. Be mine. Because If you have the glory of the Lord is in you. Now your job is to walk in it. Do you need Jesus today? Is today the day that you need to say, Lord, come into my life and give me hope? Give me a promise I'm yours. Maybe today you are a believer and your joy meter is just absolutely flatlined. Can I give you something to look at this week? Ask yourself, am I finding joy in the situations I'm walking in, or am I finding joy because Emmanuel God with us, is in me? 

Lord today, Jesus, as we walk into this invitation moment, can I just pray that you move in hearts and lives. God, that you just show some people that they need you today. That they need to surrender their hearts to you today. God, I pray for others today. That God, you're just beginning to expose their hearts for what they really are. But God, you don't leave them there. You begin to walk with them and fill it back with your love and exchange that hard heart for a heart of flesh. God, I pray for those in the room that are just struggling with joy today. God, would you show them that you are the hope of the world? That no matter what is happening, no matter what sickness, no matter what situation, no matter what the marriage looks like, no matter what the kids are doing, no matter what the school is doing, God, at the end of the day, our joy comes from you and you alone in knowing that we are yours. God, may we walk from this place as the shepherds walked, rejoicing, praising God as we go back to what we do in our lives. Lord Jesus, God walk with us in this time of invitation. It's in your name. 

Amen. Amen. 

Let's stand together and let me encourage you today, I'm going to be standing by the Next Steps Banner. I'd love to walk with you. I'd love to pray with you. I love to pray over you. I'd love to speak the gospel over you. Give you the opportunity to trust Christ today. Man, do us a favor and just let us minister to you in these next couple of minutes. Let's sing together.