#3 - What We Can Learn From The Shepherds Series

Lessons of the Christmas Story

#3 – What We Can Learn from the Shepherds

Luke 2:8-20

December 24, 2006

(Idea for this message from AboutSunday.com)

The most overheard comments regarding bad Christmas gifts. So here they are, the top five most overheard comments regarding bad Christmas gifts…

5. Hey, now there’s a gift.

4. If the dog buries this, I’ll be furious.

3. I love it – but I fear the jealousy it will inspire.

2. To think – I get this on the year that I vowed to give all my gifts to charity.

And the #1 comment regarding a bad Christmas gift…

1. This is a perfect gift, for wearing around the basement.

So if you’ve heard any of those comments about a gift that you gave, now you know what they really meant.

(SermonCentral.com. Contributed by: Andrew Hoover)

Has anyone here ever wished they were famous at one time or another?

You know, being known all around the country or even the world for something, with people doing anything they could to be your friend.

Growing up, I had a couple of those episodes.

The first one I can remember is wanting to be a rock star. I had a cool stage name picked out, and had dreams of selling out concerts as we sang the biggest hits of the time.

I grew up mainly in the 70’s and 80’s during a time of loud guitars and big hair…

Even in college I had dreams of being big in the music business.

How many of you here aren’t afraid to admit that you know who Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass are?

Well, my dream in college was to have a band called, Brian La Croix and the “We-all-juana” Brass.

Unfortunately, that didn’t catch on all that well…

Another dream I had was to be a world-famous conductor like Leonard Bernstein, conducting Beethoven symphonies with the greatest orchestras in the world.

Bernstein had big hair, too…

Well, I’ve never been famous. No one from any of the major networks calls me to get my opinions about issues affecting our world, and there’ll never be a movie made about me.

I don’t get calls from anyone like Billy Graham or Chuck Swindoll or Rick Warren to come and preach for them.

I’ve yet to receive an e-mail from them saying they want to borrow one of my sermons for a massive outreach they’re doing.

I can only thank God that I’ve never been invited to be on “Oprah.”

God has pretty much changed my focus since those early days, and truth be told, I’ve actually had occasions on the other side of the spectrum, wondering if God could ever use me in any fashion whatsoever.

I mentioned those struggles a couple weeks ago.

I also mentioned past how sometimes we can start to wonder if God has anything has anything significant planned for us.

We can look at our circumstances and begin to think that our main purpose in life is just to suck up oxygen and try not to eat too much.

Forget about being famous, we just want to be recognized when we’re at the grocery store or McDonald’s or Cabella’s.

We like the feeling when someone calls to us from across the street just to wave and say hi. Or stops us in the soup aisle just to chat.

For a moment, we can feel special, even if it’s in a small way.

One of the greatest aspects of the Christmas story is how God used ordinary people, and even some who, according to their own social definitions would never be called on by God to do anything of any importance.

People that we can identify with. People like you and me. The shepherds in today’s passage are no different.

And today I want you to notice something that has the potential to change your life as we see God dealing with another bunch of ordinary yahoos like you and me.

We looked at a portion of this passage a few weeks ago, but wanted to revisit it for the purpose of this message.

Luke 2:8-20 (P. 725) –

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."