The Gift Shared

The speaker expresses gratitude for prayers and discusses the theme of the holiday season: the gift of Jesus Christ. They explain that God sent His son as a gift to bring redemption and adoption into His family. The gift is received by believing in Jesus. Once received, the speaker emphasizes the importance of sharing the gift with others. They use the example of the shepherds in Luke 2 who shared the news of Jesus' birth. The speaker concludes by discussing the significance of Jesus' names, emphasizing His role as Savior who rescues us from sin and offers eternal life. Amen. Hopefully, if our prayer is that all is well with you today, if not, then you're in the right place to get things well. So we are glad to have each and every one of you this morning. If you have your Bibles, turn to Luke 2. Luke 2. I want to thank those that reached out to me this week and stuff. I feel much better today than I did last week. I thank Dad for filling in for me and Brother Rene preaching Sunday night. And I hope you all received a blessing by them. But thank you so much for your prayers. It was not planned for me to not be here. But I am glad to be here this morning. We've been looking and studying this month, and kind of our theme text is 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 15. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. And we started this holy day season, this holiday season, with thanksgiving unto God for giving us this indescribable, unspeakable gift. And there's so much about Jesus Christ that until we see Him, we will never fully realize or understand because it is just incomprehensible what He has done for us. But as we left from thanksgiving and looking, thanking God for all that He's done, we saw that God has offered a gift to us. He gave us a gift. And a gift, if you know, means that it's for everyone. Whosoever will. And that's exciting. It's exciting to get gifts. We all like to get gifts. We all like to give gifts. And just anything that has to do with gifts is fun and exciting. But what is the gift that we're talking about? What is the gift that God gives us to this earth? It says in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4, "...but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son." That was the gift. God sent forth His Son. And He made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And you know, unfortunately, it will always just remain a gift. God gave the gift to us. It's out there. It's for anyone. It's for everyone. It's to bring redemption. It adopts us into His family. But it is just a gift until you actually receive it. And so the next thing that we looked at is the gift is actually received. And so it was a gift, but when you receive it, it becomes the gift. Because it's not just one gift among many, but it's a very certain gift that we are receiving this morning. And then John 3.16 says, "...For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And so man, how do we receive the gift? How do we receive Jesus Christ? By simply believing in our heart. It's that simple. It's that easy as we go there. Now that we have received the gift of God, the next thing God expects from us, and we are so blessed that we are to bless others. To whom much grace is given, much grace is expected. To whom much mercy is given, much mercy is expected. To whom much is forgiven, much is to be forgiven. And so God has given us this tremendous redemption. And because of that, we ought to share it. And so gifts are not meant to be hoarded. Gifts are not meant to be hidden and never experienced, never done. Nobody gets a gift and locks it up somewhere and hides it, right? No, gifts are to be used. They're to be enjoyed. They're to be shared with other people. As a matter of fact, I got some coffee this week as a gift for Christmas. And I brought it to our Sunday school class this morning. So everybody can share. And everybody can experience maple bacon coffee. Have you ever heard of such? It's pretty good coffee. But gifts are meant to be used, not to be hoarded. And so this morning, that's what we're going to talk about. And see, once we take a gift and we receive it, it becomes the gift. But then it becomes our gift to share. It's something to be given away to be experienced by others. And in Romans 10 and verse 14, Paul explains this concept. He says, "...how then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe on Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring good tidings of good things that are there." And so as we look at this passage of Scripture, it's up to us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as Brother Morris mentioned this morning, we're going to go and focus in on Luke chapter 2 at them shepherds. The first evangelists, when all of a sudden they heard the news, what did they do? We're going to see over and over they shared what was shared with them. And our Christmas story in Luke chapter 2, it says, "...and it came to pass in those days that there went out a degree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over the flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. Father, we just thank You so much this morning for the reading of Scripture. We thank You so much for the gift that You gave us of Your Son Jesus Christ to come and to take upon Himself flesh, to go and die on the cross of Calvary for our sins. And Father, we just thank You so very much that this gift was offered to each and every one of us. And I thank You today that as a young boy of age nine, I accepted Your gift. And it became my gift. And Father, then You called me into the ministry to proclaim the gift that You have given to me. And Father, it's free to anybody that will be willing to receive it. Help us today as we look at this passage of Scripture to understand it is our job, it is our responsibility, it is our duty to share the good news that You came for everybody, that everybody has a gift if they'll just simply come and receive it. We thank You and love You. In Your name we pray. Amen. If we look at this passage of Scripture this morning, we focus in on the shepherds. And we notice the first thing is the shepherds, what they reveal about Jesus Christ. It says in Luke 2, verse 17, And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And so what in the world was said to these shepherds that made such an impact on their life? You see, for the preaching of the Word of God, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And so they had to have heard something. Something had to entreat them. Something had to be different that changed their life as they were in the field that day. Scripture tells us that the saying that was told to them. Now in order to understand that, we need to back up to verse 11. Because what was the message that was given to these shepherds? The message was for unto you, the shepherds, as Brother Morris mentioned this morning, the lowlifes, the out of touch, the unable to worship, the scum of society. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. It gives us three different names for Jesus Christ. And as we look at these names, he lifts them there because each one of them is important in their own way. Each one of them is significant with uniqueness that helps us get a glimpse into this indescribable gift of Jesus Christ that was given to us in Bethlehem in the city of David. And notice, first of all, he calls Him Savior. What does it mean to be a Savior? A Savior is someone who rescues someone or something from danger or violence. You see, every one of us, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What is that gift? That gift is God gave us Himself. He is the Savior of the world. This is the One that can take us from danger, can remove us out of the violence and the wickedness. It is the One who rescues His people from their sins and results through the danger of judgment. You see, the other hand is because God is holy, when we sin, the wages of that is death. Every one of us is going to die. But God doesn't want us to face judgment. God wants to give us eternal life. And that's exactly why we call Him Jesus. When we say, you know, why do you call Him Jesus? Why use that name? Well, in Matthew 1 and verse 21, we find that the angel from God told Mary and Joseph, "...and she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus." And then he defines it. What does Jesus mean? For He shall save His people from their sins. Every time Mary hollered, Jesus, you need to come in and eat, immediately what everybody heard being interpreted as this guy is going to save us from our sins. Every time she called His name, all of them brothers that Jesus ended up having, every one of them, He's the One that is going to save us from our sins. That's what Savior is. The One that's going to rescue us from the penalty of sin. As a matter of fact, Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 4 gives us a prophecy into this saving aspect. It says, "...surely He, Jesus Christ our Savior, hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity, the sin of us all." Jesus Christ took our sin. He took it and He got it there and He nailed it on the cross of Calvary. See, Jesus Christ is my Savior. He's the One that rescued me from the wages of death. God came into this world and gave me eternal life. The question then becomes, is He your Savior? Is He your Savior? Because He can't be your Savior through me. It's not by proxy, it's not by birth, but it's by acceptance. And so you have to make that decision to make Him your Savior. But the angels also call Him the Christ. When we think about the Christ, the word literally means the Anointed One, which is kind of a fascinating thing because it identifies this Child. It separates Him from all the other babies that was born on that particular night. This is the Child that was the long-awaited Messiah that would come. All of the prophecies in the Old Testament was going to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. It is this babe that was anointed to be the Savior. It was this Jesus, this Child, who would reconcile men to God. It was this Child, Jesus the Savior, the One that is lying in a manger there in Bethlehem, who would take all of the sacrifices, all of the types, all of the pictures in the Old Testament, and He would fulfill each and every one of them. All their life, they looked through these pictures to looking for that Savior, that Anointed One. And the angels tell the shepherd, guess what? He is here. He is in a manger. He's in Bethlehem. He is the Christ, the Anointed One. And then lastly, he uses the word Lord. He uses the word Lord. And notice what he says, the shepherds are told about a baby in a manger, and that this baby would be identified as Lord. And the name here, when we think about Lord, is it portrays the idea of One who is in control. See, God is sovereign. God created this world. God created man. The psalmist says that He took you and He fashioned you in His mother's womb. He made you who you are, and guess what? He is the One that controls the ins and outs of our life. He is the One that marches the orders. He is the One that gives us what we are supposed to be doing, the purpose in our life. So yes, He is a Savior. He is the One that rescues us. He is also sovereign. He is also the ruler. He is also the One that we must obey, for He is the One that has all of the answers. You see, this baby that was lying in a manger is no ordinary baby. The baby was actually God in human flesh. John explains this to us. He says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And so He came in flesh, and then he tells us down in verse 14, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld whose glory? God's glory. The glory that nobody could look upon, that nobody could see. The glory as of the only begotten Father, full of grace and truth. He is Christ. He is our Savior. He is our Lord. And then in Philippians 2, in verse 5, Paul lays it out for us so very eloquently here by telling us that we ought to be thinking like Christ, but in the thinking of Christ, he gives the physical attributes of Christ. He said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. He says, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The Creator, the God of glory, has now become a man. He has now placed himself into a body, into a tent, into a tabernacle. This eternal God, this eternal Spirit, has now stepped out of the eternity of time and has come into our dimension in our life. And guess what? You can find Him lying in a manger there in Bethlehem. It tells us in Romans 10, verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth... And notice the two words that he mentions there. He mentions, first of all, confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. There's a lot of people that understand that Jesus was God in the flesh. There's a lot of people that understand that Jesus came to save the world. But the problem is, is they don't recognize Him as Lord. They don't recognize Him as the boss and the authority of their life. And listen, salvation is not just accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior, but it's also being willing to obey Him as your Lord. And so he says here, that if we will confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and that we should believe in our heart that God had raised Him from the dead. And part of the Christmas story is God could not raise Him from the dead if we do not believe that He was God in the flesh when He was born. And so it goes back, in order to be saved, you have to go back to that birth. You have to realize that this was not just any baby that was born there in Bethlehem that night. He wasn't just a good man or a good teacher or any of these things that a lot of people say. But this is Jesus, the Christ, the Savior, and our Lord. You don't have a gospel without having a Savior. There can be no gospel without someone or something to rescue us. There is no gospel without having a Christ. One that was anointed and appointed to be the sacrifice, to be the redemption for our sins. That's why Galatians 4 said He was made of a woman under the law, because He had to be God, but He also had to be man. He had to be subjected to our laws to go without any sin. But thirdly, you don't have a gospel without having Him as Lord, without accepting Him in His sacrifice and obeying Him as such. And so that was what was heard by them. But notice what was seen by them. Because the Scripture here in our text tells us, and when they had seen it, not only did they hear about Jesus Christ, but when they heard about Him, what did they do? There was a sense of urgency in their life. There was a sense of desire to not only hear about Jesus Christ, but to experience Jesus Christ. It's the same thing that I preach every single Sunday. You don't just come to church to hear about Jesus Christ. When you come to church, my job is to not only present Jesus Christ, but hopefully present it in such a way that you want to walk out of here and experience Jesus Christ. That's the key. That's the goal. The goal is not to tick off, well, I went to church and heard about Jesus Christ. The goal is to experience Jesus Christ. And that's what we're trying to do, and that's what the angels did, and that's what the shepherds responded. If you look in verse 16, it says, And they came with what? Haste! Haste! And what did they do? They found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. Notice they acted immediately. There was no wasting time. There was no deliberating. There was no thinking and weighing and looking at all of this. No, it says what? They made haste and they found. And look at verse 17. It says, And when they had seen Him, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. Now, this is where the Scripture gets exciting. This is where it gets to be really, really fun because here's what was happening. They heard a message and they said, guess what? Here is Jesus, the Christ, the Savior, the Lord. You will find Him in a manger in Bethlehem. And so what did they do? They made haste and they took off heading to Bethlehem. And when they got there, what happened? They saw Him. Everything that they heard was confirmed. You know, sometimes what we want is we want confirmation before we have faith. Before we respond, if I talk to people that claim to be atheists and everything, and they say, well, you prove to me that there's a God and then I'll be willing to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. He proved to you that there's a God. You don't get the confirmation until you react. See, the shepherds had to do what? They made haste, they went to Bethlehem, and then what? The message was confirmed there in the manger. Their eagerness in response to the message was met with fulfillment. They found what and who they were looking for. I don't know how many people that down through my years of ministry and pastoring that I've told, when it comes time for salvation or that God's dealing with them, and we've prayed together, and I tell them, if you will just make that first step down the altar, you won't remember any of the rest of them. You know, because once you act in faith, then what happens? The very next step that takes place, God is already affirming Himself to you. And man, by the time you get down to the altar, you don't even realize what has happened or what is going on. There is absolutely no doubt in these shepherds' minds that they had found the Savior, the Christ, the Lord. So what did they do? What do you do when you find Jesus Christ? Notice what happened. They repeated Jesus Christ. Now this is the cool part of the story, and I love to be reminded of this every year at Christmastime, because sometimes we complicate the Gospel message. Sometimes we think, man, you've got to memorize this Roman road. You've got to be ready to answer every single question that everybody asks you, right? When you're witnessing, when you're sharing about Jesus Christ, you probably have to go to seminary and take some classes, or you have to sit through some class at church, right? But notice what the shepherds did. They did absolutely none of this. It says simply in verse 17, and when they had seen it, when they'd seen Jesus Christ, look at what they said, they made known abroad. What in the world did they make known abroad? It says, the same which was told them concerning the child. You see the simplicity of evangelism? The simplicity of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ? All they did, these very first evangelists that we find after the birth of Jesus Christ, all they did was repeated what they heard and what they experienced. Is not that what the perfect example and the perfect job description of a witness is? A witness, if you go to court, if you've ever been a witness in court or sat through a court trial or whatever, or you've watched them on TV like I have, what is the one thing that a witness can only do? They can only testify to what they have seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted. They can't explain what they can. They can't try to explain what they saw. They can't interpret the information. That's for the jury and the judge to interpret. All they can do is tell what they experienced. Do you realize this morning that's all Jesus Christ is asking you to do? To be an evangelist, to be a sharer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, all God is asking you to do is to simply go and repeat what you have heard and what you experienced when you responded to it. Every single one of us, if you are a Christian, if you are a child of God, you know what it was that you heard when God convicted you that you was a sinner and on your way to a devil's hell. You also know what you had to do to be forgiven. You know how you responded. And that's all He wants us to do. They simply repeated and repeated and repeated. Everybody that they came in contact, they said, listen, the angel said we will find the Savior, the Christ, the Lord, in a manger in Bethlehem. And guess what? We went to Bethlehem and guess who was there in a manger? A babe that was wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And man, they were telling everybody. They were excited. They were excited what was going on. But notice, and because of this excitement and because of this continuous repetition of just sharing what they had seen, what they had heard, and what they had experienced, notice what happened. There was two different responses. And you'll have the two same responses in your life. It says that all they that heard it wondered. Wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But then look at verse 19. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. The two results of hearing the message of Jesus Christ will either cause wondering or it will cause pondering. One of the two. And you know, when we look at the world today and we see this word wondering, there are so many people when they hear about Jesus Christ, they are left wondering. You know, even right now at Christmas time, everybody loves Christmas. Everybody loves the little manger scene. Everybody loves talking about Jesus Christ and that first Christmas and singing Christmas songs about the birth. And there's a lot of people that go through this holiday season and they will get stirred up on the inside. Man, this is great. I mean, there's just something about singing Silent Night and rounding your virgin, the young children that are so innocent and don't even understand their sins or the destruction that's upon their life and taking them and sharing with them the words of Jesus Christ. And there's a lot of people that even get all amazed at the stories. Man, they love to hear about the miracles of Jesus Christ, right? How He healed people. How He fed the multitudes. And how He made the lepers come clean. And there's a lot of people that even admire Jesus Christ. You'll read in books, man, He was a great man. Man, He was an awesome teacher. Man, He was an amazing prophet. He was all of these things. And so there's people that wonder. They're amazed. They're intrigued. They're excited. But admittingly, there's a certain amount of limitations when it comes to wondering about Jesus Christ. You can get excited about Jesus Christ. You can get all of these, and especially during the Christmas season, it's easy to get overwhelmed by this little babe that we have in front of us lying in a manger. And people wonder about this whole nativity situation. And there's so many questions, you know. Why in a stable? And all of these different things. And there's so much attreatment around Christian. But there's also a certain amount of respect given to Jesus Christ in regard to that. But understand very carefully this morning, that is not salvation. Just because you get excited about Jesus Christ, just because you are intrigued about Jesus Christ, it does not bring salvation. And so a bunch of people wondered. If you'll notice something about this that's amazing about all these that wondered, not one single one of them is mentioned to return to go find Jesus Christ. Every one of them, the shepherds were saying, hey, there's a babe lying in a manger. They told us, we went and saw it, but not one single person. It says all they did was wonder. I wonder if Jesus is really there. I wonder if He is really capable of saving me. I wonder if this is really the Messiah. And all of these questions and all of these thoughts go through their mind, but they don't even have enough gumption to go down to Bethlehem and to see. They're just filled with excitement. How many people today will have nativity scenes and stuff in their yard, but they don't even go to church? They don't even know that Jesus Christ. They don't read their Bible. They don't pray, but man, it's a part of Christmas, so we're going to get us a nativity scene. And we're going to set it there in our yard. There's one thing that's missing. See, it's one thing to wonder, but notice the next thing. Some people were left pondering. Notice the response of Mary here. It says, and Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Can you just imagine, what in the world is He talking about by this pondering in your heart? I looked up the word pondering and it literally means to converse, to consider, to think deeply and seriously about. It has this idea of reflecting deeply to bring together. You can get emotionally worked up about a gift. Man, you see all these presents under the Christmas tree and my grandkids come in and say, can we open a present yet, you know? Or can I open this one and find one with my name? Can I have it now? There's all this excitement in everything that is there. But the excitement is not all that there is to salvation. And notice Mary, she ponders it. She thinks about it. She weighs her options. All of this excitement, all of this joy for something that is unknown. But it has to be proved. It has to be experienced. It has to be understood. And notice what happened. The shepherds, they took of their time and their energy and they went to what? To check out this gift. To see what the angels told them was really true or not. Mary, simply sitting there, holding the baby child or looking at the baby child there in the manger, adoring God and quietly pondering and trusting God. Can you imagine? The angels had already talked to Mary. She already knew that this child that was going to be born was going to be God. It was going to have no father. The Holy Spirit was going to be the Father. She already experienced all of that. But here's these loaves, here's these shepherds that all of a sudden come to her and say, guess what? God's messengers, the angels met us out there in the field. And they told us that the Christ, the Savior, the Lord would be born in Bethlehem. And they told us when we get to Bethlehem, we would know which baby it was because this baby would be lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes. And we came and we saw, and guess what? Everything the angels told us is exactly how it turned out to be. And Mary's sitting there, how in the world did God work all this out? You think about it. Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, right? But Scriptures prophesied that Jesus would be born where? In Bethlehem. Now how do you get a pregnant woman from Nazareth to Bethlehem at exactly the right time when she's supposed to deliver? Notice this is like a three day's journey traveling to get there. How do you get that woman there? Well, guess what? God, in the fullness of time, He said, guess what? Caesar, it's about time we collect some taxes. You know, I need Mary and Joseph down here. So He used the government. He used taxes. What we hate, right? What we despise. But God used it to do what? To bring a man and woman to Bethlehem. And then what happened? The Scriptures prophesied that He would be humble, that He wouldn't be like a king, that they wouldn't recognize Him. And lo and behold, He's not even born in a house or a hospital. He's born in a stable. And so many Scriptures were just fulfilled. So much in that. And Mary, can you imagine? You know, I can imagine for them nine months her spending a little bit of time in Old Testament looking at the Scriptures, right? If God came to you and said, you're fixing to be the mother of God, don't you think that you would review just a little bit about what God is about and everything in your life? And so I can imagine all of these Scriptures, everything that she has been told her entire life, the word from the angels, the word from the shepherds, all of this is now coming to her mind and she is pondering. She is weighing the evidence. You see, there comes a point in the Gospel message that it turns over to you. You have to be the one to make the decision. It's our job as Christians to just repeat what's happened to us. But that individual has to make the decision. And some will wonder, some will be excited, but you want those that are going to ponder, that are going to weigh the cost, that are going to look at it. Can this Jesus really do what He promises? Can I really have eternal life? Can my sins really be forgiven and taken away? And so as she bows in humble adoration to God, what she is doing is she is entrusting everything into God's keeping. If God has fulfilled everything perfectly up until this point, don't you think God's going to be able to handle everything in this child's life from this point forward? I don't know what He's going to do. I don't know how He's going to do it, but guess what? I trust God. And what's the next thing that we see with Jesus Christ and His mother? You remember they're at a wedding in Cana and Jesus performs His first miracle? And what happened? They ran out of wine. And what does Mary do? Mary goes to her son Jesus. He's just a guest. He has nothing to do with this wedding. Probably mama may have forced Him to come or whatever. I don't know. But here He's at this wedding and Mary goes to Him because she knew that He was God. He was Christ. He was the Savior. And she said, man, we've got a problem. And I'm embarrassed for these people. I love these people. But they've given a wedding feast and guess what? They've run out of wine. And this is something that you don't do. This will tarnish their family history, their name, everything about them. This is going to hurt. And she said, Jesus, can You make this right? Can You help us out? Why? Because she knew He was God. She trusted God. And everything in her life, she just trusted God that He would take care of it. And so then what happened? So some people are left wondering. Some people are left pondering. But notice what the shepherds do. And this is part of the part of evangelism is sometimes when we share what Jesus Christ has spoke to us and what Jesus Christ has done and what we have experienced, then sometimes we just need to walk away and let God deal with it. Sometimes, you know, we need to just let God and go to our knees and pray and say, hey God, they have heard the Gospel. They know. Help them to quit wondering and help them to start pondering. Notice what they did. It says, and the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. I can remember the night that I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. There was glorifying. There was praising. There was excitement. There was joy. Because I had heard for all these years that man, if you will just give your life, if you will just admit that you're a sinner and confess to Jesus Christ and believe that He is the Messiah, He is the Lord, and He is your Savior, that you can be saved. And when I finally did it, all of a sudden that confirmation of the Holy Spirit come into my life and I knew there was a difference. I knew there was a change. And so man, I wanted to glorify and praise God. Notice the first half of this is glorifying God. What does it mean to glorify God? What it means is to positively acknowledge or recognize or esteem one's character, nature, and attributes. In other words, notice the glory that was repeated by the angels is repeated by the shepherds. This is God. This is the Great One. This is our Creator. This is the One that is there. Glory to God in the highest. We're not talking about Baal. We're not talking about Muhammad. We're not talking about Buddha. We're not talking about Confucius. Every one of these so-called gods have all died. They've all been placed in the ground and they're all rotting there. But guess what? We're talking about the eternal God. We're talking about the God that died on the cross, but guess what? Three days later, He arose. He came forth from the grave. See, that's the glory. That's the God that we're talking about. And we're glorifying Him. Look at v. 14 what the shepherds said. Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. How does man have peace? We've got to get God involved. We've got to get God down here on our side. And guess what? He did that. God became flesh to bring us peace. But the second half of that is praising God. Look at how they praised God. And again, this is the repetition of the angels. See, this message started with the angels. It was given to the shepherds. The shepherds went and confirmed it. And then after they confirmed it, what did they do? They repeated everything that they heard the angels say and what they did and how they responded. And so it says, and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. You realize this same pair of words, glorifying and praising, is found also in Acts. In the book of Acts 4, verse 20. Peter and John were arrested, if you know the context of chapter 4. They were taken before the court for preaching Jesus Christ. And here's what they said. It says, We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. In other words, we are eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ. This is what we have seen. This is what we have heard. This is not a feeling. This is not hearsay. This is not secondhand knowledge. This is what we have seen and what we have heard. And what are they doing? We've told about the glory of God, and so we're praising God. We've seen God, and so we praise God. That's what witnessing is all about. Witnesses, you don't have to have the Scripture and know the Roman road and know all the right verses. And guess what? If you're a pastor, and you may want to fire me tomorrow because I'm going to admit something. When you come to me and ask me questions, I don't always know every answer. I'm learning and growing, and God reveals things to me just like He does to you through His Word. I don't know everything. And there are sometimes questions that get asked to me that I don't know. But guess what? It's not necessarily my job to explain them. It's my job to declare what I've experienced, what I know. What are the facts? Not hearsay. Not what someone else says. I could go to a commentary and I could say so-and-so says this, but guess what? It doesn't matter what so-and-so says, because what do I believe? What has God spoke to me and done? And so, man, when you think about my testimony, it's simply that as a 9-year-old boy, I was a sinner. And I recognized that I was a sinner, but I also heard a great message that God became flesh. And He came and He died on the cross for my sins. And if I would believe in Him and put my trust in Him and obey Him, guess what? I wouldn't have to suffer the penalties of my sin, which is death. I will live forever in eternity. And so guess what? I believed what the preacher said. I believed what my Sunday school teachers had taught me. I believed what my grandmother had shared with me. All these witnesses that had told me about Jesus Christ, I believed all of them. And what did I do? I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart. I asked Jesus Christ to save me. And guess what? He came into my life. And He's made a difference. He's made a difference in my life. And for these last 45 years, the relationship and the walk that I have had with God has not always been perfect on my behalf. I've not always been good. I've not always been obedient. But guess what? God has always been faithful. And He's always there to stand by my side. He's always there no matter what happens in my life. No matter when I think there may not even be a tomorrow, Jesus Christ is there. And I know with all of my heart that the day that I draw my last breath, Jesus Christ is going to be right there to take my hand and usher me into His presence. And I will live and dwell with Him forever. That's what I know. That's what I've experienced. So the question I ask you this morning is have you accepted the gift of Christmas? The indescribable gift that Jesus Christ is Lord. There's only two decisions you have to make this morning. Yes or no. If you say no, then today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to receive your gift. Right now, it is a gift that God has given you that whosoever, but it cannot become the gift or your gift until you accept it. Until you receive it. So today is the day. We're not promised tomorrow. It says it is appointed unto man once to die. And after that, judgment. You're going to face God one of these days. It's not the time to put it off and wait until then to accept God. Today is the day of salvation. You say, Brother Donnie, I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I've listened. I've heard the message. I've accepted the message. Then today is the day to reveal Jesus Christ. Today is the day for you to return with Jesus Christ. To reminisce. To think back over your life. You know, what is a Christian supposed to do when it comes invitation time? You know, we give an invitation, and what is the invitation primarily for? Y'all been in church long enough. When we think of an invitation, we primarily think, well, this is an opportunity for somebody to come forward and be saved, right? But guess what? The majority of everybody here is already saved. So I might as well start packing up. I might as well start getting ready, right? Church is over, and this is for somebody else. And I know I'm saved, so this invitation is not for me. But let me tell you a little bit of secret this morning. This invitation is for you also. Because see, it's an opportunity for you to reflect. It's an opportunity for you to look back on the Jesus that you love. The Jesus that you accepted. The Jesus that has walked with you and stayed with you. It's an opportunity. Am I serving Him? Is He really my Savior? Am I really trusting in God that He's going to take care of everything? That He's going to rescue me from all of my problems? Or am I constantly on the other side trying to solve everything, right? I'm trying to fix things. I'm trying to make things right, right? I'm trying to do this. Or is He really your Lord? Are you really listening to Him? Are you really following Him and doing what He says? Or are you trying to be Lord and the boss of yourself? I know what God says. I know what the Bible says, but... How many times have I heard that phrase, right? I know what the Bible says, but... There is no but. If He is Lord and He said it, then guess what? We have to obey it. And so this invitation is an opportunity because guess what? If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, and you have not made Him Lord, you are in absolutely no position to walk out of this church and glorify and praise Jesus Christ with anybody else because you haven't even done it with yourself. And so the invitation for Christians is an opportunity to look. Am I glorifying God? Am I praising God? If people know that I glorify God, and people know that I'm praising God, see, that's what a witness is. God made a difference in my life, and I want you to know it. God made a difference in my life, and I want somebody else to know it. When I'm smiling, when I'm happy, and in things right now, Christmas, I despise Christmas crowds and the greediness and the hatred in people's hearts. It seems like during Christmas, I get more and more where I just want to stay at home. I don't want to go nowhere. I don't want to do anything. But guess what? Jesus Christ also says I'm to be a light. I'm to go to these dark places. But the problem is, man, a lot of times their darkness affects me, right? I come home mad because I had to wait in line for 30 minutes to check out. I got something the other day. I had one item. It was less than $5. I headed up to the cash register. I looked. There was 20 people in line and one checker. What I did with my one little $5 item, I set it back down on the shelf and I said, I don't need it that bad. And I left. And I had two more stops I needed to make for Christmas presents. And after that, I said, you know what? It's not worth it. I'll give them an IOU or a card. And I left. See how it makes us? But you know what? That one smile, that one light when everybody else is the deal is going to show that guess what? God is the reason. It's not about the greed. It's not about the gift. It's not about the present. It's about God became flesh and died for me. And that's what we are to be sharing. And as we stand, I have a verse of invitation.