So how quick a thinker are you? Do you think quick? Can you think quick on your feet? There was a lady who decided to go to the grocery store to get her big christmas dinner together? And she's walking around getting all the things ready for this big meal on christmas day and then suddenly she said you know what I think I'm going to make a salad. She didn't have a whole lot of people coming over for the day but she thought yeah I think I'm just going to make a salad. So she went over to the produce section and she asked the man in produce, she said hey, she said I've got a small gathering, I don't want a whole let a whole head of lettuce, can I just have a half of one? Can you just sell me a half of one? Well the man said well ma'am sorry these these come in whole heads, they don't they don't come in half and she goes all these years I've been shopping here and you won't sell me a half a head of lettuce. And he said well ma'am I tell you what, let me let me go ask the manager. So he went up to the front, got up to the manager, he said look some crazy woman back there wants a half a head of lettuce. The manager just slightly nodded his head to the right and the man turned around to see the woman standing right behind him. He turned back to the manager and he said and this nice woman wants to buy the other half quick thinking quick thinking. Quick thinking is really helpful in life, isn't it? Especially if if things are difficult and hard. So what is it that you think of when you're not really thinking of anything? What is it when you don't really have anything on your mind and your your mind kind of runs to something. What what's that thought that you have in your mind? What is it when when the stress and the business of life kind of calmed down that you begin to think about what what exit, what you what brings you a sense of peace and calm. Even right now today is christmas day, tomorrow is december 26th when when all of the fanfare christmas is over. What will you quickly begin to think about? What will excite you, what will bring you peace and calm on a night long long ago, a night that ended up being anything but peaceful and calm. God did something in the lives of some completely unlikely people, some people that that nobody ever thought that anybody would do something amazing in their life. God did something. And what God did was create a moment for them, A memory that they would never ever forget. And it was a moment that excited them and it was a moment that at any time in life they could quickly think, oh yeah, this happened to me. So what did God do? Let's find out. Listen to the truth of God's word in luke's gospel luke. Chapter two verse eight in the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock at night. In the same region, in the same area where mary and joseph and baby jesus were actually historically sitting after birth. They they were there there were some shepherds out there too. Now most of us we we see pictures of shepherds, right? They seem like these nice calm guys and the nativity scene, you know, they have nice clean robes and and they look calm and smiling and they're holding the staff. But in the time that jesus was born, shepherds were not so calm and clean as we see them in the nativity scene. In fact, shepherds were usually uneducated, couldn't read, couldn't write. They were also unchurched. They weren't the kind of people that went to church. I mean, they couldn't leave the sheep. First of all, they couldn't leave the flock and they were kind of dirty, you know, they smelled like sheep, so they really weren't clean enough to go to church either. And so they were the kind of people that people kind of avoided, you didn't really talk to shepherds, the jewish collection of writings known as The Mission, it actually says that you shouldn't buy anything from a shepherd because the shepherds were known to be selling things that were stolen. In other words, if you bought something from a shepherd, you were always going to have stolen goods, they were crooks, they were thieves. That's what people knew them as they couldn't testify in court because nobody would trust them. So they are unclean, uneducated, unchurched, untrustworthy. People would have nothing to do with them. Now, there's nothing dangerous about what I'm about to do. But since we have some kids here this morning, I thought I'd take a shot. Any kids wanna tell me what you want to be when you grow up. I mean, I'm still trying to grow up so I don't know what I'm going to be either A fairy, that's great Camden, that's great. Candy wants to be a fairy Connor, a veterinarian. Very good an art too. And art art And why don't you just be an art fairy Camden, that'd be great and you can take your art fairy cats and dogs to your sister at the vet. You know, if you were to ask a kid in Bethlehem, around the time that jesus was born hey, what do you want to be when you grow up? They wouldn't have said shepherd, that wouldn't have been on the list. See the shepherds just were not the kind of people that you really wanted to be around and yet here we are in the christmas story, the shepherds are the ones that are going to get the announcement first, but then that sound crazy, it sounds a little bit off and yet when you think of who God is, it's right on because the reality is God is the kind of God who always puts the cookies on the bottom shelf. He makes his truth accessible. God makes his truth accessible to anyone and he makes his son accessible to anyone. Even rejected social outcast, like the shepherds. So what happened to him? Verse nine continues and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood near them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terribly frightened or the king James says sore, afraid, I think is how it goes. Right, sore, sore, afraid they were frightened. My oldest daughter bailey was born at 3 15 in the morning, like middle of the night. Okay, so my mom and dad and my mother in law were down the hall and one of the little waiting rooms and so after everything got a little settled, I went down there and busted in the room, hey, she's here, she's here. And then some people were like, what are you doing? Stop it, slow down. I just busted in with this great announcement, That's what happened on this night, the shepherds and the sheep. They were probably all trying to catch a little bit of shuteye and and then that the night just lit up and and and there's this angel with this message, they were blinded by the light and yet the angel came to give them a message. Now when we think of angels, sometimes we, you know, think of cute little fluffy people with harps and they're always floating on clouds. But when we look in the pages of the bible, we see a different picture when an actual angel shows up. In fact, almost every time in the bible that you see an angel showing up to talk to somebody. One of the first things the angel says is what, Hey, do not be afraid why? Because people were terrified when the angels showed up, it wasn't like, hey, fluffy angel, it was like they got low, what in the world is happening to me in this moment? I mean these shepherds, they, they thought it was the end of the world as we know it and they were not feeling fine, there was something wrong. They, they knew it, but then they also knew there was something right. There was something about this moment, this experience that they immediately knew, okay, this is different, this is something we haven't experienced before and what they were experiencing was the glory of God, something they couldn't explain something that they would never forget and they would never get over. I mean, can you imagine three or four weeks later, you know, they're back out in the fields and, and one of them is like, I remember what happened the other night and one of them said, yeah, that was pretty cool. Hey past the Pringles, Come on, I'm hungry. You know? No, no, they they had to never be different this one night, this, this amazing experience. It changed their life forever. They didn't go back to life as normal. See tomorrow in some respect, some of us will go back to life is normal, the holiday will be over. But the magnitude of what the christmas story is all about should never leave us going back to anything normal. What transpired, What tammy spoke over earlier? God breaking the silence. This is the most amazing thing that has happened in the world. This is God intervening God showing up in the world. And somebody might say, well, gosh, I believe in jesus too. If an angel showed up. But would we, because you know what? It didn't happen again the next night for the shepherds, it didn't happen again a few weeks for the shepherds, they didn't have this amazing blinding light show up every single night to remind them oh yeah, this story is still true. But they did get the message, the message they got that night was that a savior had been born to them. And and right now even as we gather here together, we're getting the exact same message. So in a sense, if we can't respond to the same message that they responded to, will we really respond if an angel comes and tells us that jesus is real. And even if we did respond if an angel showed up, wouldn't we expect an angel again the next night and the next night or, or hey man, that was a great sermon last sunday. I'll only believe he'd give me another good one next sunday. See the message is what changed their lives. Yes, they had this amazing experience, but they didn't have it every night, but the one time was enough because it was the message that was brought to them. In other words, the message of jesus is not just good for christmas eve and christmas day, it's good for every single day. The king of all kings was in that manger that night and the only people that knew about it were mary and joseph and the social outcast. These shepherds. It all seems illogical. It seems like it wouldn't be right because think about the shepherds, the shepherds would have been the kind of guys that when the angel turned to them and said behold a savior has been born for you, they would have been like, I don't need a savior, I'm good, I don't need to be saved. I'm I'm a shepherd, I work hard. Everything I have, I've earned on my own. I don't need anybody coming to save me. And yet the message was a savior has been born for you before a person comes to christ, they think just like those shepherds say that I don't need to be saved. I'm not on the news for doing something bad, I'm I'm a pretty good person, I'm I'm not that bad. I really don't even think I need anything to do with jesus. And yet right now in this moment and in every moment leading up since the first time you heard anything about God, God is coming to you with the same exact message. A savior has been born for you. It seems like the shepherds were the last people that would have been the first responders to the birth of jesus. They're the last people that you think would get the message, these poor lowly outcast. But if you think about the character of God, maybe it makes sense. What did King David say about God? He said the Lord is my shepherd. Maybe it was a shepherd going to shepherds and jesus, he said this one day, I am the good shepherd and the good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep. Jesus christ is the good and perfect shepherd. He has laid his life down for you. You know, the greatest message of christmas is the greatest news that you could possibly hear. It's this a savior has been born for you. Yes, the savior was born for the world. But but own it, A savior has been born for you. A savior has been born for for Darryl. Welch, a savior has been born for for bailey. Welch, a savior has been born for tammy Adams. A savior has been born for terry broom. A savior has been born for Logan, wearing a savior has been born for you. This is the most exciting news that we could ever quickly think about when when everything is falling apart, when the stress and the worry and the business or the fear or the despair or the anger, anything else is happening in our life. The best thing that we can quickly think about is oh yeah, A savior has been born for me. That's the most exciting news in the universe. And those shepherds would have never gotten over it. They would have kept saying wow this, this happened for us and that's why the old christmas carol has those somewhat mesmerizing words, the words of that him, it says this this is christ the king whom shepherds guard and angels sing and then it says this haste haste on christmas morning to bring him Lord the babe the son of mary three. This story, this light, this piece, this joy, it is for you. It's for you to quickly think about, it's for you and when you're not really thinking about anything, this is the best place for your mind to run. And not just on this fabulously beautiful christmas morning, but tomorrow morning this this will still be for you. A Savior was born to bring you joy joy that will never end