 Amen, so keep your place in Luke chapter two. We're going to go through with Christmas approaching. We're going to look at the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus Christ and the first part of his life this morning and see what we can't learn from this going into Christmas. So Luke chapter two, of course, is a very well-known chapter in the Bible talking about the... It actually talks about the birth of Jesus all the way up to the point where he is 12 years old. So basically, Luke chapter two is the first 12 years of Jesus' life. And there's some other detail in other Gospels and other parts of the Bible that we will look at this morning as well. But let's look at the Christmas story this morning and see what we can learn from this story, this way that God decided to bring the Messiah into the world. God could have just remember, God could have chosen any time and any place in any way to bring the Savior of the world to us. But he chose this time and this place and this way and these people that he used. And let's look at why he did that. Look at Luke chapter two in verse number one. The Bible says in it came to pass in those days that there went out at Cree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Sirius. So the idea, the story of Joseph and Mary in Luke chapter two in the birth of Jesus leads up to them heading to Bethlehem to actually pay their taxes. And you know, Joseph was not a tax protester and were not to be either. You know, the Bible addresses that in several different places. Jesus even addresses that, but they were on their way to pay their taxes in Bethlehem. And the Caesar here that is called out is Caesar Augustus. And why is that important? Caesar Augustus was actually, if you actually go and look up the history of the Roman Empire, another name for him and the name that I always heard him called was Octavian. So Octavian was the same is another name for Caesar Augustus. He was actually the first emperor of Rome. So Rome, remember, started out as a republic and, you know, they had a more republic type system. And Caesar Augustus was the first kind of the first emperor. He came in and just seized total power and then the Senate and the kind of just became just for looks. He was really a dictator is what was starting here in Rome. He was a great nephew to Julius Caesar. So Julius Caesar was, you know, considered maybe one of the greatest military commanders many people think of all time. And his great nephew, he actually adopted kind of adopted Augustus as his or Octavian as his adopted son. And that's how Augustus became emperor of Rome, but a dictator nonetheless. So this just goes to speak that during the Roman Empire, you know, we're heading into a more oppressive Roman Empire when Jesus is born at this time. You know, there's emperors like, you know, after Augustus, you see emperors like Claudius was one of the first Roman emperors to actually persecute the Christians. And then a really nice guy right after Claudius was Nero. And of course, Nero, he accused the Christians of burning Rome. And then he, you know, he, he introduced some persecution that Christians still to this day write books about. So Nero was a terrible person. But the point being is that we're entering into a dictatorship in the Roman Empire when Jesus comes on the scene. So it's a very oppressive empire. It's one of the it's it was a peaceful time for Romans at that time. But they were they were under a dictatorship is what I'm getting at. Turn to Isaiah chapter nine, turn to Isaiah chapter nine. So while there was relative peace in the empire of Rome for a couple of hundred years, there was plenty of internal oppression that was happening. There were not it was not a free country, so to speak. Look at Isaiah chapter nine and verse number six. Look what the Bible says. This is a prophecy about the coming Messiah for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. Many names for Jesus there of the increase of his government and peace. There shall be no end upon the throne of David upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Go back to Luke chapter two. So the Bible does predict that the Messiah and those that follow will be under oppression from the government. So the Bible correctly predicts that. That's a fulfillment of prophecy that Jesus came in in this type of environment. Look at verse number three. The Bible says in Luke chapter two and verse number three and all went to be taxed everyone into his own city. And Joseph went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea. Under the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. Of course, we see Joseph's lineage in Matthew chapter one talks about Abraham to Joseph, showing that he was of the lineage of David. Look at verse number five. To be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. Now that's a statement right there that you wouldn't see except for this miraculous event. Because notice, first of all, his espoused wife. So espousal in the Bible is not engagement. Okay. So today we have this meaningless thing that we call in our society or in our culture today of engagement where people get engaged to be married. It means they have the intent to be married. And it was supposed to be, I suppose 20 or 30 years ago, you would get engaged and then you would be married within a few months. Now people just get engaged and maybe they get it married in two or three years or maybe they never get married at all. The point is engagement is not marriage, but in the Bible espousal is married. So she is considered Joseph's wife, but being an espoused wife means that they have not physically come together yet. So of course in Matthew chapter one, you go ahead and turn there. We can look at how this happened. So she was his espoused wife. So she was considered married. So any physical activity outside of that espousal would be considered adultery in the Bible. And that was the problem that Joseph found himself with when his wife, his espoused wife, was with child when she was found to be pregnant. And the Bible says, look at verse number 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. And when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, that's married. That's his wife. Before they came together, that means that physical relationship between a husband and a wife, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. So of course Mary was told that she was with child of the Holy Ghost. This is where God tells Joseph this same thing. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately. And not to go into a big diatribe on divorce, but there is only, today it doesn't apply. But in the Bible it only talks about someone who is espoused or found to not be pure or not be a virgin. That is the only way that you were able to put someone away in the Bible. Look at verse number 20. So he was going to put her away. It was just for him to do that because she had committed adultery at that point. But while he thought on these things, and he didn't want to do it publicly, he didn't want to make an example of her, he wanted to do it quietly. But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth the Son, and shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, behold a virgin shall be with child more fulfilled prophecy here, and shall bring forth the Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bitten him and took unto him his wife. And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. So they're told to call him Jesus, and Joseph is led in on the plan here, and he does what he's supposed to do. I mean that's an important part of the sermon this morning, is that Joseph, he followed what the angel said on more than one occasion. So it wasn't the easiest thing for Joseph to do this, because you have to remember, Joseph knows what's going on, but now you have to remember that how would the public look at this situation? I mean here's Joseph, he's espoused to this woman, and she's pregnant. And you know that publicly that would not look great, but Joseph, he did what the Lord asked him to do, is what he did. And then it says, go back to Luke chapter two, it says of course he knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn son. So Mary had other children, this was just her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. Look at verse number six of Luke chapter two. So we see Joseph is faithful. Joseph, God lets him in on what's going on, God trusts him to do the right thing, and he does it. Look at verse number six. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. She was due, the baby was ready to come, and she brought forth, again, her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and they laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. So of course, you know, Joseph was not a rich man. Joseph was a working man, he was probably a carpenter. You know, the Bible doesn't tell us that, but he's probably a carpenter, or at least some man that had a job where he worked for a living. And you know, there was just no more room, the city was full, people were coming in to pay their taxes. And now we hear the story about the shepherds in verse number eight. And they were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their 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 this day is born in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. So the angel is letting the shepherds in on the, you know, the whole plan here, saying that, you know, the Christ has been born in Bethlehem, and you know, it will be a great joy to all people. And this shall be a sign unto you. He shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was the angel of great multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men. That's a great verse there in verse 14 talking about, this is, you know, I mean, a lot of people misinterpret this verse today. They say, oh, you know, peace on earth, meaning man should have peace. And this is all just, Christmas time should be a time of peace. But no, this was God, you know, making peace with us, is what this is talking about in verse number 14. And good will towards men, you know, yes, we should have good will towards men. But this is talking about God's good will towards us through Jesus Christ. This is God, you know, reconciling himself, as we'll look at this a little bit further this morning, to the world. And it's his peace towards us changing his wrath to peace is what Jesus is there to do. Look at verse 15. And it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them in heaven. The shepherd said to one another, let us go now even to Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger. So here, you know, it's kind of a random thing in the middle of this story. We see these shepherds, they're out watching their flocks. This angel shows up and then this whole heavenly host of angels shows up and tells them that Christ has been born. You know, he's basically saying the Messiah is here. Go see him, telling them to go, you know, telling them this great thing has happened. And then in verse 17, we see why this happened. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. So this was, you know, the reason for their visit. This is why God sent the angels to the shepherds. It's so they could go and then they could witness to everybody else. They could go tell everyone, you know, not that they saw the baby, but who the baby was. So they said, you know, it said they made known abroad the saying which was told them, which means they went and they told everyone that the Christ was born and that he was born in Bethlehem. They told them that the angels came. Look, these were the first soul winners. You could look at it that way. These were the first soul winners after the birth of Jesus. So everything has a purpose in the Bible. You know, these shepherds, they had a very specific reason. God, it right away after the birth, he's getting the word out. He's just getting the word out through the shepherds. Look at verse 18, 18. I'm having problems speaking this morning. Verse 18, look what the Bible says. And they heard and wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds and all they had heard. So all these people are, you know, okay, there's big news, right? The Christ is here. And then look at verse 19. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. So we're going to see a couple things about Mary this morning. But the first thing that we see right here is that Mary, you know, we'll see this as we go further into the sermon. But Mary didn't necessarily understand everything that was happening as far as concerning this child that was born. But the biggest thing that this shows us in verse number 19 is that Mary was a very humble person. Mary was a very humble person. I mean, the Lord God came to Mary and said, you're going to have a child. And then people are saying, this child is the Christ and is going to be the Savior of the world. And this is her son. And she just keeps these things to herself and just thinks about these things in her heart. She's not going around bragging and saying, you know, oh, you're so, oh, yeah, well, my son is the Messiah. You know, she's not going around and bragging about this. She's a very humble and quiet person. And she keeps these things to herself. Look at verse number 20. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. And when eight days were accomplished, so now eight days have passed, for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named to the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And of course, Matthew chapter one, we saw that they were told that they were to name him Jesus. Look at verse 22. So we're eight days in. And then, and when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that opened at the womb shall be called holy unto the Lord. Turn to Leviticus chapter 12. So at eight days, he was circumcised and named. And then here, after the days of her purification, which we'll see in Leviticus chapter 12, we'll see that timeframe as well. Look at Leviticus chapter 12 and verse number one. The Bible says, And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed and borne a man-child, which is, this is the case with Mary, she shall then be unclean seven days, according to the days of the separation for her infirmary shall she be unclean. And in the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. This is what we're seeing happening to Jesus. And then she shall continue in the blood of her purifying three and 30 days. She shall touch no hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying be fulfilled. So we're looking at, after the circumcision on the eighth day, we're looking at seven days, plus the eighth day, plus 33 more days. So Jesus is about 40 days old at this point in verse number 24, when he goes to Jerusalem. Look at verse number 24 of Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2, verse number 24. And to offer sacrifice according to there, to offer sacrifice according to that, which said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves and two young pigeons. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him. Now notice this man Simeon comes in the scene here. Simeon is not a priest. Simeon is not a holy man of any kind. He's just a man. He's just a man that God had made a promise to. And the first thing that is mentioned about Simeon in verse number 25 is that he's just and devout, meaning he's following the Lord with his life. And he's waiting for the consolation of Israel. The Holy Ghost is with him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So a very special promise was made to this just and devout man Simeon. He's just a guy. Okay, we don't know what he does. We don't know anything else about him. But he's just and devout. And God made him a promise. And I bet you a lot of other people knew about this promise that Simeon had received from God. He was told that he will not die. And he was obviously an old man. I'll show you that in a minute. But he was a very aged person. And God told him before the Messiah, you will not die before your eyes see the Messiah. I mean, that's quite a blessing. That's quite a blessing that God bestowed on this man Simeon. And he came by spirit into the temple. You say, why was he in the temple? Because the Holy Spirit just led him to the temple at this time. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law to make these sacrifices, then he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Now, Lord, now let us Thou, Thy servant, depart in peace according to Thy word. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou has prepared before the face of all people, a light to the light, the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people is real. Now, this is funny, this verse, this set of verses right here. Lord, now let us Thou, Thy servant, depart in peace according to Thy word. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou has prepared before the face of all people. This is called the benediction. You know, when you end a Catholic service or a Lutheran service, and you just chant this over and over and over again after the end of every church service. But this is actually Simeon, this man that received this great promise. It's not talking about you departing in peace to go home. He's literally saying, God, now that I've seen the Messiah, you can take me home now. He's like, you can, I can die in peace now that I've seen the Messiah. My eyes have seen Thy salvation, the salvation that you provide for the whole world through the Messiah. So it's a very powerful verse that, you know, in many different branches of religiosity is kind of made of vain repetition, unfortunately. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. So, you know, I'm sure they knew the story of Simeon, the story that, well, who's this guy? Why is he grabbing my child? I'm sure they knew. Well, God promised him, or he says that God promised that he would not die until he saw the Messiah. And here he is holding Jesus on day 40 of Jesus' life, saying, God, you can take me home now because he's right here, is what Simeon is saying. Go to Matthew chapter two. Go to Matthew chapter two. Let's continue and let's go and look at the wise men. The wise men. Now, this isn't really the Christmas story because I'm going to show you that the wise men, they actually came on the scene in Jesus' life, probably around the time that he was one or two years old. So look at the wise men. Look at verse number 12. So the wise men, they came to Herod. They told him about, you know, that they heard that, you know, the child was born, the Messiah was born. And Herod said, hey, go check it out and come back and tell me what's going on. But then God warns the wise men to not go back to Herod. Look at verse number 12 of Matthew chapter two. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod. So this is after they've already brought their gifts to Jesus. So this is Jesus two years old here. Okay, so the wise men were not at Jesus' birth. You know, the Christmas story itself was the shepherds, was the inn, was the manger. That's the birth of Jesus Christ. This is later on in Jesus' life. But I also want to show you some things from the wise men's story here. Look at verse number 13. And when they, so they were warned, don't go back to Herod. And when they departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, so the angel warns the wise men, don't go back to Herod. And then the angel warns Joseph, you know, the stepfather, so to speak, of Jesus in a dream saying arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt and be there until I bring the word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. So again, he's a young child. He's not an infant. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt. Again, Joseph is told something, I mean, he's told something extreme in all these cases, by the way. He's told this extreme thing. He's like, hey, get up and get out of here. I mean, Joseph has a life there. They have relatives there. They have family there. He probably has a job, a business of some kind there. And he just gets up right away in the middle of the night and he goes. He obeys. Again, look at verse 15. And he was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord of the prophets saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding Roth and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. So that right there tells you kind of the time period that we're in. So these wise men must have gone to Herod and said, two years ago or a year and a half ago, we have to assume that Herod would round up to make sure that he got the child in the orders that he gave. But he slays all the children two years old and under at that time. That's a terrible event. That's a terrible event that somebody would come in and just kill all children in this area, in this region, two years old and younger. I mean that shows you the kind of government, the kind of times, the kind of barbarism that was happening at this time. Life was very cheap at this point in history. Go back to Luke chapter two. Go back to Luke chapter two. So that's Jesus when he's about two years old. Look at verse number 34. Let's go back to the story of Simeon and just finish up Luke chapter two here. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. And for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And now we see somebody else here. And then there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Fenuel of the tribe of Acer. She was of great age and lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow of about four score and four years. She was 84 years old. Or she was a widow for four, yeah, she was 84 years old, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she, coming in an instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And when they performed all the things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city Nazareth. So that's taking Jesus of 40 days back home. Now the rest of Luke chapter two, it kind of gets into, you know, the child grew wax strong in spirit, verse number 40. And then we go into a story from verse 42 to verse 47 about how Jesus, you know, his parents lose him in Jerusalem when they went back for the Passover and he goes and he sits in the temple and he listens and everyone's kind of amazed at how old, you know, he's 12 years old, you know, after three days he was lost for three days and he goes and he sits in the temple and he's listening to all the people in the temple talk doctrines and talk about the law of God. And they're all amazed in verse number 48. And his mother said unto him, they saw him, they were amazed as he's sitting in the temple, verse 48. And his mother said unto him, son, why hast thou dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought these sorrowings. So they've been looking for him for three days and he said unto them, Jesus says to them, how is it that ye sought me? Wish ye not that I must be about my father's business? Capital F there, he's talking about God the Father. Now this is Jesus who's 12 years old in verse number 50. It says they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them. But his mother again kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. So here they lost him for three days. He was 12 years old. They were all amazed at his understanding. Of course, he's the son of God, which explains that we're like, we're not amazed, but they were amazed. They're seeing this 12-year-old kid who just has this amazing understanding of the Bible. It's because, you know, he is the word of God. So it makes perfect sense that Jesus would have, you know, a great understanding of the Bible even at 12 years old. And remember, he is a man. He's a child. He's also a man. He's God. He's the word of God. But he's also a child who's growing up and gaining understanding. But obviously he has a big advantage considering he is the actual word, become flesh. Okay, so what can we learn from this? I mean, what can we learn from this Christmas story? The shepherds, the birth of Jesus and the manger. The first thing that we can look at this morning is that the coming of the Messiah was forged in struggle, if you want to think about it that way. It was a very hard time in history. The Jews were not free during this time. The Jews were there. You know, they had religious Jews. They had the religion of Judaism at that time. We know that it wasn't the religion of the Old Testament as everyone likes to think that it was. But Jesus came into the world at a very difficult time is the point that I'm trying to make. And the Jews and many of the people of his lineage thought that he was there to free them. That he was there to free them from the Romans. Now, you know, that shows that they did not know the law or the Bible itself at all. It turned to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. They did not know their own law. And if they would have known this, if they would have known the law and believed the law, they would have believed Jesus. And he said that himself. Look at Isaiah chapter 53 and look at verse number three. The Bible says he is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid it as it were our faith. We hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. This is a prophecy about the coming Messiah saying that, look, men are not going to accept him. You know, the Jews are not going to accept him. He's going to be despised. He's going to be a man of sorrows. He's going to be rejected by men. But go back to Matthew chapter two and look at verse number one. This idea that he was to be a great ruler and a great king, a great political leader that would lead the Jews out of, you know, oppression and would take, you know, would actually take power, take an actual physical throne when he came to this earth. You know, this was why Herod feared him as well. Look at Matthew chapter one or chapter two and verse number one. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod, the king, Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen the star in the east and are come to worship him. So Herod, you know, he knows that a king was born and he thinks this king is a threat to me. Herod's a king serving under Roman rule. And he's saying, he's thinking that this king, this is why he killed all those children because he didn't want some king that the people were going to follow. And obviously Herod did not know what the Bible said in Isaiah 53 about what kind of king this would be. But he was not there to physically free them from the Romans. You know, he was there, he was there to spiritually free everyone, not just the Jews from the Romans, but he was there to physically or spiritually free everyone from the wrath of God is what he was there to do. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter five. 2 Corinthians chapter five. I mean, this was a hard time for some new idea to come on the scene for sure. But yes, Jesus was there to free people, but just not in the sense that everyone at that time was looking for it. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter five in verse number 17. Verse number 18. The Bible says, and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that was God that to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed us unto the word of reconciliation. Turn to John chapter three. John chapter three. And look at verse number 36. John chapter three. Look at verse number 36. So yes, Jesus was there to free mankind, but he is to free mankind from John chapter three in verse number 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. But then look at the second part of this verse. But he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Jesus was there to free us from the wrath of God. That's why God sent him to reconcile us from that wrath to himself. It was not to free the Jews from the Romans. He was not to become, he will become a king that rules and reigns for a thousand years. But that was not the main purpose of this first visit. It was to free us from our sins. So what can we take away from this? What can we take away from the Christmas story this morning? First of all, this story, and don't ever forget this, this story, other than the creation in Genesis. This story is the most important thing that God has ever done for mankind. You know, he created the universe, the world, everybody in it, you know, all the animals, everything. But aside from that, the most important thing God has ever done for mankind is the Christmas story. Is sending his son to reconcile himself, reconcile the world to himself. So the interesting thing that I want to point out this morning is that while he did this, while this is the most important thing that God did in the history of the world aside from the creation, he relied on man to help him do it. Isn't that interesting? God did not just come and just magically make all these things happen. He relied on people. He relied on men and women to physically carry this plan out, to be faithful to carry this plan out. Think of Mary and Joseph. Think of Mary and Joseph. He relied on Mary and Joseph to basically do what they were told to be faithful. I mean, Mary believed God and she raised this child. She went forth and raised this child. And look, the Bible says, go back to Luke chapter 2 and look at verse 33. The Bible says in many places, verse 33 is of Luke chapter 2. And the Christmas story is a perfect example where the Bible says, and Joseph and his mother marveled at those things, which were spoken of him. Look, they did not always understand everything. They did not understand this whole plan of what God was doing. They just went on faith. They just went on what God told them to do. Look at Luke chapter 2 and verse 48. It says that when they saw him, they were amazed. This is when Jesus was 12 and sitting in the temple and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is that you sought me? Wish ye not that I must be about my father's business? And they understood not the saying which he spoke unto them. Look, Mary just quietly obeyed even though that she didn't understand everything that was going on at every moment. She just did it. She just did what she was supposed to do. Think about Joseph. Just the two main players in the Christmas story. Think about all the things. Look, you don't really hear much about Joseph in the Bible. But just think about the amazing things that Joseph actually did. Joseph, I mean, he didn't put away his wife. I mean, he's got a wife who's with child that he's not been with this woman and he's walking around in public with his relatives and everybody that ever knows, that's ever known Joseph. I mean, just because the Lord asked him to just follow this plan and he just did it, I mean, he faithfully moved his family to Egypt in the middle of the night, just dropping everything, just going just on what God told him to do. No thought for his business, for his personal connections, for people's opinions on anything. They just went. They just went. Look, God clearly knew that he could trust these people in his life. And, you know, a point is, God works the greatest miracles. You'll see this in the Bible. He works the greatest works and the greatest miracles through people that he can trust, through people that are loyal to him. We must remember this, this Christmas. This is how the Lord works, folks. He works through people. Look, he has plans. He has, you know, he answers prayers. But he works with and through us. Turn to Mark 16. Turn to Mark 16. Look at Mark 16 in verse number 20. Look at the disciples. He worked with and through the disciples. Look at Mark 16. And they went forth, the disciples, and preached everywhere. Then what? The Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. See, these guys, the disciples, they went forth. They went out. They preached the word everywhere. And then the Lord worked with them. He worked through them. Look, he confirmed their efforts, but they made effort. They made effort. If you want the Lord to intervene in your life, you need to remember this. You need to remember this because He will work with you, the Bible says in Mark 16, 20. This implies that you are working. And the greatest interventions will be with the people that are working the hardest that are the loyalists. Go back to verse 25 and look at Simeon. What are the first two words that the Bible says about Simeon? Just this man. The first two words that the Bible says about this man is that he was just and he was devout. And God made him this great promise. He's another witness. He's another witness, but he was just and he was devout. So God used him and God used him in a great way. God used him to carry out His will. And look, people get this wrong all the time. People get this wrong all the time, but this is a huge, this is a huge characteristics of God that we cannot miss today. Think about on the national level, people miss this. You know, how many times have you heard? Let me look. I mean, we all know, we talk about it all the time. This nation is going to hell in a handbasket. And how many times have you heard Christians say, oh, you know, you know, we, you know, we should all just move to Florida or whatever. I'll address that in next week. But the point is, you know, people say all that. This nation needs a revival. How many times have you heard that? This nation needs a revival. Look, we can have a revival in this country any time. We can have a revival in this country any time. If enough Christians went out and preached the gospel, we'd have a revival. Why? Because God would work with us and through us. That's why. Look, if we started more churches that were preaching the Bible, there'd be a revival. Why? How do I know that? Because God would work with us and through us. Look, that's how, that's how you start the revival, but you need faithful what? Faithful men to go out and do that. You need faithful people that God can work through. It's not just going to magically just like, here's a nation that's doing it. It's always the people that say, this country needs a revival, that all they do is sit around and watch the news and just get, you know, mad and angry and everything. And they do nothing. They do nothing in their Christian life. I mean, you sit here and you cry and you whine and you yell about revival and then you do nothing and say we should move away or run away. I mean, this is not how God works. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of God. Look, God is not a welfare provider. Does that make sense? God is going to, when he sees your work, he's going to confirm your work. That's what he's looking for. He expects us to work and then he will work with us. But we have to be working. So that, I mean, we could have a revival in this country anytime a bunch of men want to get faithful, a bunch of saved men want to not just sit around and do nothing in their Christian lives, but actually get out and do something that the Bible tells them to do. We could have a revival if enough men did that. Because God, look, God is faithful. God will work through us. What about on an individual level? What can we take from this on an individual level? We do the same thing. We do the same thing individually that we see on the national level. We pray for things, right? Don't we pray for things and we want God to just step in and just magically fix everything for us? Yeah, we're not loyal. We're not trustworthy. We're not devout. We're not just as Simeon was. You know, we won't change anything in our lives. People have such a hard time changing. It's just the hardest thing for people to change. We do nothing that God tells us we should do and then we pray and we want him to just come in and just step in and just fix everything. It doesn't work that way. I mean, that's what the Bible is showing us. This is not how God operates. He will work with us. You need to be someone that God looks at and says, you know what? I can work with that. Like, you know what? That guy's working. I can work with that. I can work through that. Look, God doesn't waste time with people. The guy that had one talent and buried it in the dirt, he's like, I'm wasting time giving you a talent. Give it to me and I'm going to give it to the guy that made five more. This is how God works. God looks at us and he's like, can I work with that? Is this person just and devout? So when you have prayers for your family, you have prayers for your marriage, you have prayers for your life, turn to Psalm 18. You have to get this. This is what Mary and Joseph did. God works through people. He didn't just go poof! Jesus! No, he worked through. He was born of a woman. He was raised by faithful people. They took care of him, protected him, all on just the command. Yeah, but God, but God went and he told them what to do. Hello! It's the same thing for us. It's exactly the same. Look at Psalm 18. Look at verse 25. Bible says, with the merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful. With an upright man, thou wilt show thyself upright. With the pure, thou wilt show thyself pure. Are we seeing a pattern here? It's saying with a pure man, God will be pure. With a merciful man, God will be merciful. With an upright man, God will be upright. But then look at the last one. And with the froward, thou wilt show thyself froward. You know what froward means? Froward means difficult. Froward means like, you're just hard to, you ever have like somebody you work with that just everything, every even the small things are just difficult. You know, how about you tell somebody something again and again and again and they just never do it. That's God with the Bible, with us. He tells us all the answers and we just don't do it. We get ourselves in a bunch of trouble. We don't do it. We don't listen to the Bible. Then we pray. We still don't do it. And he's just like, you're froward. You're froward. He's like, but be upright and I'll be upright to you. Be merciful and I'll be merciful to you. God reciprocates. To us. You see, if we're difficult with him, if we're stubborn with him, if we're unmerciful, that's how he's going to be towards us. This is how God works. And this is what we should take from the Christmas story. Joseph and Mary are extreme examples of this. Just how faithful. God trusted, just think about these two people. God trusted these two people with the most important thing that he allowed man to be part of in the acts that he did on this earth. Look, he needed the Messiah to come in in a time of struggle. And then he needed faithful men and women, Joseph, Mary, all the disciples. He needed all those people to be faithful through all that. But then he worked with them. Look at the successes that they had in these times of trouble. He worked with them. He worked through them. And he'll do the same for you. He'll do the same for you. Think about that. Think about that. This Christmas. Think about that. You know, what are we doing? We're going where? We're going into a new year. Think about that. Where do you want the Lord to work in your life? I mean, what are you asking God for? I mean, think about it. I mean, hopefully you're asking God for something. Hopefully everybody in this room is asking God for something. You're like, I don't know why I don't have anything. Well, you're not asking, apparently. If, look, you should be asking God for things, but then you should be praying. You should be working. You should be committing your life to show yourself just and loyal and devout to Him. And then maybe God will say, look, here's what will happen. If you do that, God will say, here's somebody I can work with. Here's somebody I can work through. And that's just how prayers just start getting answered, just like that. I mean, it sounds like a New Year's resolution to me. Not to wrap up two sermons in one, but just think about it. This is how God operates. He works through us. Think about those things. Think about the things that you're praying for. Come up with some things to pray for for the New Year. And then show God that you're somebody that He can work through. And He'll do it. That's who He is. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.