What It Takes To Hear From God By Brian Atwood Luke 2:1-20 Series

The year 1860 found Henry Wadsworth Longfellow happy in his life, enjoying a widening recognition, and delighted over the election of Abraham Lincoln which he believed signaled the triumph of freedom and redemption for the nation.

The following year the Civil War began and on July 9, 1861 Longfellow’s wife, Fanny, was near an open window sealing locks of her daughter’s hair, using hot sealing wax. Suddenly her dress caught fire and engulfed her with flames. Her husband, sleeping in the next room, was awakened by her screams. As he desperately tried to put out the fire and save his wife, he was severely burned on his face and hands.

Fanny died the next day. Longfellow’s severe burns would not even allow him to attend Fanny’s funeral. His white beard, which so identified him, was one of the results of the tragedy – the burn scars on his face made shaving almost impossible. In his diary for Christmas day 1861 he wrote, “How inexpressibly sad are the holidays.”

In 1862 the toll of war dead began to mount and in his diary for that year Longfellow wrote of Christmas, “A merry Christmas say the children, but that is no more for me.”

In 1863 his son who had run away to join the Union army was severely wounded and returned home in December. There is no entry in Longfellow’s diary for that Christmas.

But on Christmas Day 1864 – at age 57 – Longfellow sat down to try to capture, if possible, the joy of the season. He began:

I heard the bells on Christmas day. Their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

As he came to the third stanza, he was stopped by the thought of the condition of his beloved country. The Battle of Gettysburg was not long past. Days looked dark, and he probably asked himself the question, “How can I write about peace on earth, good will to men in this war-torn country, where brother fights against brother and father against son?” But he kept writing – and what did he write?

And in despair I bowed my head: “There is no peace on earth”, I said, for hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.

It seems as if he could have been writing for our kind of day. Then, as all of us should do, he turned his thoughts to the One who gives true and perfect peace, and continued writing:

Then peeled the bells more loud and deep; “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep! The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.”

And so the world was given that marvelous Christmas carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”

You know not everyone that first Christmas heard from God like the shepherds did.

Caesar in Rome with all his power, simply made a decree and everyone had to travel to their hometowns whether or not it was convenient. But he didn't hear from God.

Herod used his power to have all of the baby boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem killed because of his fear of a Jesus becoming his rival – but he didn't hear from God either.

Likewise not everyone today is looking and listening for the right things to be able to hear from God.

Those Jewish shepherds watching their flocks on the night of Christ’s birth saw and heard from heaven in a remarkable way that first Christmas!

We need to hear from God in our lives, so what can you do to help insure that you hear from God this year?

Let’s see what these shepherds can teach us.

The shepherds just may have seen and heard what others missed because they were watching for the right thing. That is what it takes to hear from God. You need to know what to listen for.

1. If you want to hear from God you've got to seek God’s glory, not your own.

Luke 2:9

Why were the shepherds out that night guarding their sheep? Why weren't they asleep in their tents?

They were guarding their flocks because this was the time of year that the lambs were born. The reason they stayed up was to make sure the lambs entered this world safe and sound. Their night watch wasn't interrupted as much as it was fulfilled!

The Lamb of God was born on their watch so God dispatched a choir of angels with an explosion of light to let them know their watching was over!

Being a shepherd was a very humble profession. It was a rough life. If you were a shepherd you weren't a member of society’s upper class. Shepherds were considered unclean and ignorant yet God granted them the opportunity to be witnesses to the birth of Christ.