 Here we are, Luke chapter 2, verses 8 through 14. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you, this day, in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger. Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, to God in the highest and on earth, peace, good will toward men. Father I ask that you would take this passage that we have read so many times and that you would awaken it in our hearts, Lord, that you would open our eyes to see wondrous things. And that Lord we would today rejoice, even as the angels in the past called us to do, because a Savior had been born. And just speak to us now and remind us, may this Christmas season, may this Christmas day, may this never become old to us, may it always have newness of life that it brings within us. And we give you praise for this now in Jesus' name, amen. Now as we begin, let me give you an introduction by simply saying that Christmas traditionally is a time of celebration. It's a wonderful time for many people, it's a time of fellowship, it's a time when families can gather together and make great memories. And the Christmas season traditionally in the United States has been a wonderful time, a great time of the year. And that's because the birth of the Savior of the world was intended to bring great joy. That's what it says in verse 10 when it says, do not be afraid for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy. So the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is intended to bring great joy. And it's joyful because God openly demonstrated to us how deeply He loves us. The Bible makes it very clear that God loves us, He loves us deeply and this Christmas day and this celebration is a reminder to us of the depth of love that the God of this universe has for His creation. And He reveals this love in a variety of ways, but especially by sending His Son to seek and to save those who are lost. You see when the lost are found there can be a time of great joy. They may even be surprised at the joy that they can experience when they come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the thinkers that the church produced was a man by the name of C. S. Lewis. And C. S. Lewis wrote his story of his conversion in a book that is called Surprised by Joy. When I was first born again back in 1970, I began to want to grow in my understanding of the ways of the Lord and all and one of the people that actually had an impact in my early days of growth in Christ was C. S. Lewis. And so I read many of his books, especially read this book and remember this book called Surprised by Joy. And it was his testimony and it speaks of how that this man, a great thinker, a man who was a professor in one of the most prestigious universities in England, how that this man had been basically tutored by an Irish atheist. By the time C. S. Lewis was five years old, he already spoke five languages. So he's an amazing intellect. And so he was raised with this great mentoring in terms of just intellectual, but he also grew to be an atheist and was a very staunch atheist for many, many, many years. But what he did is because he was a professor and he would do a lot of historical research and things, he began to look into a variety of philosophies and all and began to very slowly move from his position of atheism and he began to move towards what he called a theistic or a belief that there must be a God position. And then in his testimony, he speaks of how he was in a taxi cab and he was going from point A to point B and it was a short ride and he says, when I entered into the taxi cab, I was a theist. But when I came out of the taxi cab, I was a Christian. And he said, and I cannot tell you how surprised I was at the joy. And that's what happens when a sinner comes to faith in Jesus Christ. There can be a surprising joy and that's what the angels were saying. This is good news of great joy. The words great joy in the original language, Megacara means amazingly great joy. It's not just a little joy. It's an immense joy and that's the whole thing about the Lord Jesus Christ is he wants to take from us our clothing of mourning and he wants to replace them with garments of praise. He wants to awaken us to the joy that a sinner can have when they come to faith in Jesus Christ. And so God's sending his Son was intended to forgive us of our sins and it produces a great joy in those who understand that their sins have been forgiven even as it says in Psalm 32 verse 2, blessed or happy is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him. And so there's a joy when I got saved. I was surprised by the joy that I experienced as a sinner who is now washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so there's joy in the heart of an individual who comes of faith in Christ. But there's joy also in God over the one who does. You know, a lot of times when you look at salvation and we think concerning the joy of salvation, we think of the sinner who's been found and how that sinner, that person who is imperfect, a lot of times people, especially in our day don't like to use the word sin because it may give them a bad sense of self-esteem and all. But the bottom line is we're all sinners, all fall short of the glory of God. There's not a single perfect person outside of Jesus Christ himself. And so we all sin, we all fall short of God's glory, none of us is perfect. And so, of course, when we hear that God forgives us, we have a tendency of saying, well, what joy I can have. But what I also like about this in salvation, it's not just the sinner that has the joy because the Bible tells us in the Gospel of Luke chapter 15, according to verse 10, I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Not only does the sinner have joy, but God rejoices over the person who God saved. And often when we give invitations and people come forward to give their hearts to Christ, our congregation will applaud because we as sinners understand what it means to come and give ourselves to the Lord. And many times I've heard, well, there's joy that the angels are rejoicing. Well, in reality, it's not the angels who are rejoicing, it's God himself who's rejoicing when someone comes to faith in him through his son Jesus Christ. And so the Christmas season is above all things a time to receive forgiveness. It's a time that we might experience joy because Christmas is a celebration. It's a celebration of God invading human history that he might provide for sinful man salvation. It's a celebration of the incarnation, the fact that God is with us. Incarnation is a Latin word and it means to become flesh in flesh. And the incarnation is God coming into human flesh, God becoming human flesh and taken upon himself human flesh. Isaiah 9, verse 6 says, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. The government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. God with us, Emmanuel, God taken upon himself human flesh. And so we celebrate Christmas. We celebrate Christmas as the giving of the gift of God's own Son to us. And in the giving of the Son, we see God's great love. God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, the Bible says Christ died for us. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And so God has dwelt amongst us. God took upon himself human flesh. And that's what we're seeing here in the story of Christmas. In verse 8 it says, there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. So these shepherds, as you see them introduced to us here in Luke chapter 2, are performing the ordinary task of watching over sheep. And they're keeping an eye on them and the shepherds would have what you call three-hour shifts. And they were there to protect these sheep against predators as well as to protect them against the thieves. These sheep that these shepherds are watching over there in the fields outside of Bethlehem were intended for sacrifice in the temple. And so they're watching over the temple sacrifices and they're watching over these sacrificial sheep. But now they're going to hear of something else. They're going to hear of the Lamb, the Lamb of God. And to these simple shepherds that good news is first given. You see in the midst of their ordinary duties, God is about to do something extraordinary. You know salvation can occur anywhere and at any time. It can occur like to these shepherds, it can occur as they're going about the job. There are people who have gotten saved at times you wouldn't even think. Like I remember speaking to a man for example who was sharing with me that he is an atheist. He said I was an atheist. He said and I was also as a salesman representing my company. I was in the car making trips and all to appointments at the same time all the time. And he said and I'm one who likes to listen to talk radio. He said so I put on the radio and as I'm listening to the radio I thought I was listening to a talk radio program and I heard this guy talking about God and I began to argue with him. And I made note of what time it was because I arrived at my appointment. I had to turn off my car and go in. He said but the next day I went back and I remembered the time that I had been listening to this guy and I turned it back on and I began to argue with him again. He said I kept doing that for several days. He said I didn't even know I was listening to a Christian radio station. I didn't even know that it was a teaching program. I just thought it was a talk program because I was only getting sound bites. But every day I was arguing as an atheist with the guy who was speaking. He said finally at the end I realized it was a Christian radio program and he said he says I want you to know that I came to faith in Jesus Christ by arguing with the speaker. He said and you were the speaker. So I wanted to meet you and say I gave my heart to Christ and I'm serving the Lord. You know God can meet you in the most remarkable ways. I was in Chicago and I had a radio program there and a woman approaches me as I had just finished the study and she's speaking to me and she says I want to share with you about my husband but he's standing next to me. I'd rather he speak to you. And so as I began to speak to him he said I want to share with you something. He says I was so depressed that I was going to kill myself. He said so I made a determination. My wife was gone. I was at home. I was alone. He said I decided I'm going to kill myself. And he said for some reason I decided I was going to take a bath before I did it. So he says I put the water in the tub. He said I began to climb into the tub when I realized that a friend of mine had given to me a tape and had asked me to please listen to it. He said so for some reason I thought I'm going to listen to the tape. Maybe when they find my body they'll see that I had listened to it. Let him know that I had heard it because he had asked me to do that. He says I don't know. All I know is I went and I got my player. I put this tape in it. He said and I played it. Climbed into the tub. Fully convinced that at the conclusion of my bath I was going to kill myself. He says I began to listen to the tape. And as I listened to the tape he said it told me how I could give my heart to Jesus Christ. He said there in the bathtub just before I killed myself listening to that tape. He says I want you to know I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. He said in the tape that I listened to was a message you had given on the radio that my friend had gotten to give to me. He says I literally am alive today because of the radio ministry and because of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God can meet you in the most remarkable way, in the most remarkable places, in the most ordinary circumstances of your heart. I've been in the ministry a long time and I can tell you I have heard so many different stories of people who have gotten saved outside of church. They haven't been in the home. They've been in a car or they've been in a cabin or they've been on a boat. They've been in various places and God meets them. God will meet you in the ordinary circumstances of your life and these shepherds are on the job. That's what they're doing when the Holy Spirit begins to do a work and when the revelation of who Jesus is given to them. Now in context we need to remember that here in the gospel of Luke you know God has been silent. God had been silent up to this point for some four centuries. When you read your Old Testament, the last Old Testament book that is given to us is the book of Malachi and when Malachi was closed, the last Old Testament book, there were four centuries where God was silent and now God is speaking again and this is how he's speaking. He's beginning to speak at precisely the right time and he's revealing himself in the most personal way. God is going to be with man. The silence is now broken. The ladder from heaven to earth has been lowered and he's about to reveal salvation in the most personal way possible. He's going to reveal it through the incarnation. It says in verse nine, behold. The word behold obviously draws our attention to this, that this is something unusual. Behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them. The glory of the Lord shone around them and they were greatly afraid. An angel of the Lord stood before him. Literally that means stood in place above them. Now as this is taking place, we need to remember that Mary and Joseph had traveled from the northern city of Nazareth south to a little bit south of the city of Jerusalem to a place called Bethlehem. According to verse seven, they had tried to secure a room in a home or a hotel but there was nothing available. And Luke made it very clear that there wasn't even room for them in what was called the inn. And very often when we see dramatizations of this particular event, we think of an inn as being a hotel or a hostel. And in the Greek language, when speaking of an inn, there are actually two different words that are used. One would speak of a hotel. But this particular word that is used in Luke chapter two verse seven where it says there was no room for them in the inn is not speaking of a hostel or a hotel, and speaking of an enclosure where travelers would drive the cattle for the night. It wasn't a hotel with a stable outside, it was a stable. And so Luke's point is there's not even room for Mary in a stable. So that gives us insight into what had taken place and what has taken place. Mary gave birth in the open and there was no one there to help her. There was no one there to attend to her. When she gave birth, there was no woman, there was no midwife there to help her. She was alone. And yet in this moment, and it's very, it's impossible for me as a man to get this, but I rather doubt that even women themselves could really get this. I mean, because this is a woman who was a virgin giving birth, what an extremely unusual experience for her. Because in many ways, Mary was very alone. And yet she's not alone, because Emmanuel, because God was with her. And when she gave birth to Jesus Christ, verse seven tells us that she wrapped him in swaddling cloths and she laid him in a manger and she did that by herself. In the midst of her pain, there was great joy. She'd given birth to Messiah and heaven is about to explode with joy. Now it's interesting, and I'll point this out, notice how it says in verse seven, she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths. Swaddling cloths, those are strips of cloth and people at this time were wrapped in strips of cloth twice. They would be wrapped in strips of cloth when they were born. The child when it was born would be washed with salted water, would be wrapped from head to foot. A portion of their face would be left uncovered so they could breathe. And the body would be held very straight with the hope that he would grow up to be free from crookedness of the heart, that he would walk tall before the people. And when the baby was born and when the baby was wrapped with the swaddling cloths, the parents would spend time in prayer and they would commit their son to God as they unwrapped him. It was a very powerful, powerful thing. So when the baby was born, the baby was wrapped in swaddling cloths. But there was a second time that they were wrapped in swaddling cloths and that was for burial. So even in the birth of Christ, we see a prophecy of his death for us. Because when Jesus died, they wrapped him in cloths. So his birth is a picture of his death. And it reminds us that he was born to die. It reminds us that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And all of this is taking place, and again in verse 9, the angel of the Lord stood there and the glory of the Lord shone. And as they see the glory of God, their hearts begin to tremble in fear. Undoubtedly these men were aware of the stories of God and how he has dealt with the nation Israel. They knew of the miracles recorded in the Bible. They had heard of angels visiting men, legendary leaders from Abraham to Malachi. But now an angel is standing over them. And as this is taking place, they fear for their lives. And that's why in verse 10, we read, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. Listen, you live in a world that lacks joy. You live in a world that is under oppression. Even at this time, the Romans have been dominating the nation of Israel. And you've had a history of oppression for so long. But with that said, I'm bringing you good news. And this news isn't for Israel alone. This news is for all people. The joy of salvation is not just for the Jews. It is for everybody. Like it says in Isaiah 5210, the Lord has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations. All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. So this is great joy. Not only for you Jews here in Israel, but it'll spread throughout the entire world and people will be saved. Verse 11 says to us, for there's born to you this day. In the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord, a Savior has been born. Only sinners need Saviors and all men need salvation. Romans 3.23 again says to us, all have sinned, fall short of the glory of God. Ecclesiastes 7.20 says, there's not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. Ecclesiastes 3.22 says the Scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. We're all in bondage before we come to faith in Christ. We are in sin and lost in sin, addicted to a variety of expressions of sin. That's from our nature. We don't become sinners when we sin. We sin because we are by nature sinners and we simply express our sinfulness. Anybody who disagrees with that is not a parent because your wife gives birth to a baby and that baby is just laying there and that baby is a monster just waiting to grow up and show you what they can do. My babies, one of my babies was born mad, I can tell you stories, I won't go there, but you have theories. I was in college, one of my majors was psychology and especially had a great interest in child development and all and the arguments that they were having then are the same kinds of arguments they've had before and they still have to this day whether or not somebody is born with the capacity to do things or they learn to do things whether you're a clear slate or an empty chalkboard that is written on or whether there's something within you that is erupting and all of that. The argument's been going for a long time and in the secular studies of human nature and all there is a constant disavowal of a human nature that is prone to sin. It's just a constant disavowal of that. No, they learn to be bad and the question of origins comes in, okay, then who was the first one who was bad and how did it happen? That bad was passed from all people. How did that, one person to another, how does that happen? If we were all born good, shouldn't we have remained good? Where did the origin of evil, how did that occur? Where did bad things happen? The Bible tells us all the way back in the Garden of Eden, man was created perfect, man fell and has a sin nature and so by nature we sin. You know, we lie when we're little because it benefits us. We don't even see it as a lie, we just see it as, I'm getting what I want. We had Christmas Eve service, not service, what am I saying? Christmas Eve celebration with my family yesterday and I have a four-year-old little granddaughter who if mama says no, she just comes to papa and she'll say, can I have this? And I have to say, did you ask your mom? If mom's in the room, she cops real quick. Yeah, yeah, no, I didn't but if mom's not in the room, no holds barred, man, I want that candy and I'll say, you know, and I have another one, it's the same way, it's human nature. You know, they are the fulfillment of my prayers for their parents where I said, God, give them a child as bad as they have been to me. It's human nature. And you begin small and you begin, I want this, I need this, I desire this and you learn that you can't always get what you want and so you begin to grow up and without the Lord and without any morals. Sometimes what happens is you begin to just always desire that and find ways to get it and that's human nature, that's what we do. It's always us first, it's my desires first. That's why the Lord said, great love has no man than this and a man laid down his life for his friends because human inclination is always me first. You'll see this today. If you have grandchildren or children, you'll see it, you've seen it. You give them all the presence that you could afford to buy them or they should have and they open them up one at a time but it's, you know, it's just so fast. You see just mm, mm, mm, and then they stop and they look and what? Anything else? I mean, go look in the closet. Surely you have more than one gift hiding from me. It's never enough. That's just human nature. I want a little bit more and one of the things that you discover when the kids are actually maturing is they begin to learn that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Then they begin at a certain point if they're being raised in things of the Lord and learning the value of sacrifice and giving, they begin to learn that there's a joy in actually giving to somebody else and watching the eyes of that person light up as they receive something that brings them pleasure. That happens but they have to be raised and trained to do that because by nature we don't do that. And so this joy that God gives to us is a joy that comes because God gave to us but the result of that is a transformed life so that we begin to give to others and especially as we've given our hearts to Christ we give of ourselves to him. The Bible tells us he is Christ the Lord. The word Christ speaks of the anointed one. So that points out that the Savior of the world is royal, that he has a prophetic and priestly office because he's the anointed one and prophets, priests and kings would be anointed with oil when they were installed in their offices. So Jesus was born Savior and he is born as the Christ, the anointed one of God. And so this is the one, he's the Savior. He's come to save us from our sin. He is the Christ, the anointed one. He is the Lord. And this verse 12 will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. Before they could react, the choir bursts out in praise. I want you to notice how it speaks of in verse 14 first, glory to God. Glory to God in the highest is what they're saying and then peace on earth to men. To the glory of God, Christ who is our peace has been given to us. The Bible teaches us that Jesus is not simply one who brings peace, but that he is our peace. Ephesians 2 14 simply says this of Jesus, he is our peace. And so man needs peace. On earth, peace does not come naturally. Normally what we have would be negotiated peace. If there's hostility between two people, they normally will negotiate a peace in order to bring reconciliation. And what God is saying is he's saying that you have been at war with me. There has been a cessation of peace between us because you are in hostile opposition to me. You don't desire the things of God. The Bible teaches us by nature. You actually resist the things of God. And so you're in constant hostility. That's why we'll say things like I can't understand why God and how come God doesn't? We are in argument with him constantly. The Bible says that God is on our for us has brought to us peace. And the way that works is he has overcome. You see this baby that was born there in Bethlehem and placed in that manger where those cattle and all would slobber their saliva on this unclean thing. The Lord was placed in the midst of that. And Jesus Christ, the Bible teaches us, grew into manhood. And as he grew when he was 30, he began his ministry and he began to teach concerning how man could be reconciled to God. And he spoke concerning the things that made separation. And as you read the gospel and you see the different events and how he says, I came to seek and say that which was lost. How you see the Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ took upon himself human flesh and dwelt amongst us. And how John was saying, we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of God. When you begin to look and see that God took upon himself flesh, dwelt amongst us, ministered to people, would spend time with the outcast, would actually rebuke the religious. And you see the way Christ was and the message that he gave. It all hinged on one thing and it all hinged on the fact that he one day would be taken placed on a cross as the Lamb of God. And he would take upon himself the sin of the entire world. And as God, he would provide for us forgiveness and God gave to us a message, a message of peace. It's called the gospel of reconciliation. God was in Christ reconciling men to God. And in this gospel of reconciliation, the way that we have peace with God is we give up to him. It's an unconditional surrender of ourselves to the Lord. Not a negotiated peace, but an unconditional surrender. When the United States was signing terms of peace with Japan, it was an unconditional surrender. It wasn't a negotiated peace whatsoever. Japan surrendered to the United States. When I came to faith in Christ, I didn't try to negotiate with God, saying, listen, I'm gonna give you this much of my life, but I'm gonna retain this much for myself. When I came to faith in Christ, it was I give up, I surrender, I'm asking for your forgiveness. I'm asking for your mercy. I'm asking you to forgive me of my sins because I have sinned and thought word and deed. And it is my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault. It is me, I did it. There's nothing wrong with you, you're perfect. There's everything wrong with me and I need your help. That's how you get saved. I did that. This upcoming Tuesday, in two days, I celebrate my 46th anniversary of coming to faith in Jesus Christ, 46 years. And I've been saying, and I've been saying that He is good. He is so good. I mean, I walked into church, I had been invited by a friend of mine to go to church, Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, 1970. I walked in barefooted, I was a hippie, I smoked pot, I drank beer, and I went to church for the first time. I hadn't been in church since I was a young teen. I expected to be kicked out. I expected them, see, the church I grew up in was in Santa Fe Springs, I grew up in Norwalk. I went to church in Santa Fe Springs to a church, some of you are familiar with it, so I'll use the name St. Pius X Church. And that's where I went, that's where I received my communion, that's where I received my confirmation, that's where I went to church, see. So I knew that if I walked into St. Pius the way I was, barefoot, long hair, ragged t-shirt, jeans, loaded with alcohol on my breath, I knew I'd get kicked out, I knew I would. And that's what I was expecting when I walked into Calvary Chapel. When I walked in there, I sat amongst, it was a church that would seat around 300, there were about 500 kids in there. And I was surprised by something, and I didn't know what it was when I first encountered it, and I started thinking about it, what is this that I'm feeling in this place, and what it was, was love. And the amazing thing, and I say this to my friends on occasion, the amazing thing is, is I had never felt love in a church before, in that interesting. Of all places where you should feel love, shouldn't it be a church? Shouldn't it be in a church? And I had never felt love in a church. I felt more love when I was partying with my friends, smoking dope and drinking. I felt more love and acceptance there than I ever did in a church, and there I am in a church, experiencing something that I can't even put my finger on. There's something going on in this place, something different, I don't know what it is. And then the message came out, and they began to speak concerning God's love. I knew human love to some degree, and in my mind, human love is simply, you tell a girl you love her, and she basically may do some things for you. That was love to me. That was it. Love is a word you use to manipulate somebody to do something you want. It's a word that you use at a moment when they're vulnerable, hopefully they'll do something that you desire. So love is just a word. It doesn't mean anything. I didn't experience it. As I grew up, unfortunately, my pop was an absent dad emotionally. He just was. My mom went through fits of rage and could be abusive to the family and all. I heard the word hate more than love. For certain periods of time, my mom would say that I hate you more often than she said I love you. So I was raised in this mindset that there's no such thing as love. There's nothing like that on planet Earth. I don't even know what it means. And that's why I was so attracted to the hippie movement. That's why I liked the love generation. That's why I liked it. It's because they spoke about things that I didn't have, things that I really wanted. And the songs that would be sung and all of that and the philosophy of just living at peace and we're all brothers, that was very, very attractive to me. And yet when I got into that, I discovered that though we said I love you, bro, we would rip each other off at the drop of a hat. We would lie to one another and steal each other's girlfriends. There was no real love. We just used the word. So when I went to church and I experienced this thing, I didn't even know what it was. There's something different in this place. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's real. And then I found out it's the love of God. And then I found out how the love of God was demonstrated. It was demonstrated because I'm a miserable wretch. I'm a sinful man. And that's not bad self-esteem. Paul said, oh, miserable man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? It's just a biblical reality that without Christ I am most miserable. I have nothing. No one. I'm empty, aimless, meandering through life with no purpose. I've got nothing going on. I don't know what's gonna happen in the future. I don't even know what's going on right now. And then the gospel is presented. You're at war with God, but God has given you terms of peace. The terms of peace are found in what is called the good news or the gospel of Jesus Christ. That God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whoever believes in Him shouldn't perish but have everlasting life. God didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. And so when I heard this and I said, you mean the way that I can have peace with God and learn to give glory to God is to come to faith in Him and do I have to change anything? What you do is you need to receive Him. You need to turn from your wicked ways, turn to Him. He'll clean you. A lot of times we think that people are so messed up we need to clean them up first. But God has a way of catching that fish and then cleaning the fish. You never clean a fish until you catch the fish and what God does is God catches you. And then by His love and by His grace, by His power, by His word, by the fellowship of those who love Him, you begin to learn a different life and before you know it, your friends who knew you and knew you best will say something happened to you. What is it? And you can't even sometimes even put it into words. I don't know. I was lost and now I'm found. I was blind, now I see. I was unloved and now I know I'm loved. You know, God who knows my name, He called me by name. God has a relationship with me. Oh, you're a Jesus freak. Absolutely, absolutely. That's exactly what I am. Oh, you and your religion, you need a crutch. And that's where you're religious. No, I didn't need a crutch. I needed a stretcher. I couldn't even walk. But when I was placed on that stretcher, I discovered that the Spirit of God could carry me through life. Well, yeah, yeah. The church isn't a perfect place, but it is. It's a hospital where God makes us well. And I am so grateful for a God who heals broken hearts, aren't you? I am so grateful for a God who forgives sins. And you learn to give glory to God and you have peace with God. And God indwells us. And so Christmas, I love the celebration, the smell of the pine trees and the traditions, the lights, the great food and the gifts, the great food and having the grandkids come over and having them go away. I love it all. But I especially love Jesus. I especially love Jesus who was given to us as the greatest gift, the Savior of the world. Praise the Lord.