The Grace of God Extended to Us — Luke 2

0:00 Alright. Well, I'm excited to get into this passage with you guys today, but let's begin with a word of prayer. Dear heavenly father, lord, we thank you for how much you have blessed us. That lord, we can come together, gather together in your name, proclaim you, proclaim your son, and marvel at your grace. So Lord, that is what we will consider.

0:23 That is what we will fix our minds upon. Lord, fill us... Fill our hearts with praise for you, for what you have done. Bring us to remember your son, his life, his death, his resurrection, and now that he pleads for us. So, Lord, we fix our eyes on you today.

0:44 We consider you. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, guys. So the passage that we have to consider before us today is is Luke two eight through 20. So I would ask you guys to move there.

1:00 So I've titled this message, The Grace That God Extends For Us, and we'll see why that is pretty soon. Mr. Boss gave us a faithful representation of the author of Luke and some of the key ideas of what the book is concerned about and what Luke is concerned about. But two points I'd like to add on to that is there is an emphasis on the Gospel, message of salvation in the book of Luke. We know that Luke, he was a physician, but he was also an evangelist as well.

1:36 So we also see a specific emphasis that the Gospel is proclaimed to the poor and the outcasts. You see many instances in Luke where Christ is meeting people that are undesired by the world, that are undesired by society. So you see an emphasis of the Gospel is given to all. So that is something that the author Luke clearly cares about and another thing you see is the humanity of Christ. You see Christ as the Son of Man in the book of Luke.

2:07 And if I could offer a key verse for the entire book, I would say it's probably Luke nineteen twenty, which says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And I believe that is the message that burdens Luke as an author as he is impressed by the Holy Spirit to write the book. That is the verse that we will be focused on today. Well, not that verse, but it will be important. Alright, so the word for today is grace and I think it is helpful looking at the Greek and Hebrew for this particular word.

2:44 So the Greek word is charis, Hebrew is kana. I've never said that before out loud, but I think that's right. But the main point of that is you see the grace being an extension of God. You see the Lord's favor extending to his people. So the reason why I bring that up is that the definitions that we see here show that it is God in his grace and favor reaching out and extending himself to his people, and it's because that he is disposed in his nature to do so.

3:15 It is in his nature to show grace. So because of his nature, he's compelled to extend that to us. So that is why I've titled this message, the grace of God extended to us. And some common definitions that we might know of grace is that it is receiving what we do not deserve. I think that is a helpful definition.

3:34 And the $5 definition by $10 with inflation is the unmerited favor of God, the unmerited favor of God. So it is the freely given gift of God extended to us, It's only for us to be accepted. We only have to receive and accept it. So in this in this chapter itself, we are going to consider the grace of God in the revelation of the gospel to the shepherds and in the incarnation of Christ. So we have a lot of verses ahead of us, let's go into it.

4:04 So I'm going to start reading from verse eight. 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 shown around them, and 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.

4:38 And this will be the sign to you, and you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has has made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child.

5:21 And after those who heard it, marveled at those things which are told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them. So if I can offer some divisions for this for these verses, first we see the message that's presented to the shepherds. We see, okay, who is the audience?

5:47 Who's receiving this message? That we would see in verse eight. And then going on in verse nine and ten, we see the glory of the Lord revealed before the shepherds, and the response being that they are brought to a place of fear. And then in the following verses, we see we see the angels presenting what this message is, that it is Christ the Lord who has come down to earth, and we see glory the glory of the Lord being praised afterwards. And then the response of the shepherds is they want to go see for themselves what they've heard.

6:21 They want to see that it's true, so they do so. They see that it's true and we see the glory of the Lord being presented and the Gospel being shared and praised. So let's go to verse eight. So in verse eight we see, Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night. So we see that God is meeting shepherds, and this is not the first time this has happened in the scriptures.

6:49 There is a repeated theme of of shepherds either bearing a message of the Lord or God meeting and giving them a message. We would consider Abel, who we don't see God actually meeting him and talking to him, but his... He was a shepherd that that gave the lamb and that was the accepted sacrifice before God. When we read in Hebrews, we see that his death speaks that a sacrifice is needed for sins. We see that he bore a message from God that sin deserves a sacrifice.

7:19 There is punishment for sin. We also see Moses, who was tending to the flock of his father-in-law, and God met Moses there and said, I want you to proclaim salvation to the people of Israel that are in Egypt. I want you to carry them out of Egypt. We see David, who was a shepherd boy, boy shepherd, and he was called by God to be king over God's people. We see Amos, who was a shepherd when he was called to prophesy the coming judgment of God for how the people of God has strayed away from him.

7:54 And now we see in Luke two, we see the message that's being shared to the shepherds that the Savior has come. And God revealing these messages to shepherds is a very important thing because we see that these messages image and point to Jesus, who is the good shepherd. We see the fulfillment in Christ in Abel. In Hebrews, we would see that Christ was the better and final sacrifice. We see that Abel presented the message of God and Christ fulfilled it in the final sacrifice.

8:26 We see Moses who pictures the salvation of God to the people of Israel, and now we see Christ who is our salvation from sin and death if we call upon his name. We see David who was the the king that was over Israel and we see that in his kingship, God said, I will I'll bring a second king. I'll bring a better king and this king, he will reign forever. There won't be any imperfection in him and he will establish his people. And we see Christ being the promised king.

8:55 And in Amos, we see the the revelation of the judgment of God being proclaimed over Israel for how they have walked away and disobeyed God. And now we see in Christ that he has satisfied the righteous judgment of God. In Luke two, we see a pretty fast fulfillment. We see that Christ has proclaimed, the Savior has come, and now that's immediately fulfilled that he is here. So we see that it is for a purpose that God is sending these messages to shepherds.

9:48 But now I want us to consider what is the dwelling place of our God? God says that his dwelling place is in the heavens, right? His dwelling place is in the heavens, yet he purposes that he wants to dwell with his people, his flock. Second Corinthians six sixteen says, As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people.

10:13 So in this very verse, considering the dwelling place of the shepherds, we see the very grace of God that he isn't he doesn't have to show his grace to us. He doesn't have to come and meet us. Yet he does because of his nature, because of his love. The God of the heavens says that, you know what? I'm gonna become a man and meet my people.

10:36 I will become a man and bring my salvation to them. So we see the fulfillment of this in the incarnation. Emmanuel, God with us. We see the redemption of God. We see the promise of eternal dwelling that we see in second Corinthians six sixteen.

10:51 He did dwell with his people. Christ did come down to earth, but now we have our hope in a future promise of dwelling with our savior. And I think another fair question is why was this message revealed to shepherds? It doesn't seem like they're the right audience. It seems misplaced.

11:11 It it seems like, God, why are you talking to them? There's kings on the earth. There's more important people out there. But we see that this was what God did. And what I want us to remember is that God does not do things thoughtlessly.

11:24 He does not do things without purpose. God presented his message to the shepherds purposefully. In this, we see that God is showing his love and grace for the lowly. We see a picture of ourselves in the shepherds, that God would extend himself to show compassion to those who are undeserving and unfitting. We see this was in the ministry of Christ himself and even when he's born before he's even beginning his ministry, you see this happening which is just amazing, amazing picture.

11:58 And we also see the lowly, these shepherds, being the recipients and proclaimers of the grace of God. So we did talk a little bit about this, but I want us to consider more how are we like the shepherds. The gospel is for lowly sinners. I want us to consider that. It is for lowly sinners.

12:21 And thank God it is, right? Thank God the gospel is for lowly sinners. That the grace of God meets us. Right? That we are in that place of undeserving.

12:35 We don't we don't deserve anything that God gives us. We don't deserve his love. Yet the gospel is for us. It's for the sick. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

12:49 And as we remembered on Wednesday, all of us have a personal testimony, if we are believers, of how God extended his grace to us personally. We understand, we know that we've been saved, but we can point to something and say, this is how God showed that to me. So like the shepherds, we don't receive the grace because of who we are, but it's because of God and his love and grace. So now let's consider the glory of God as best as we can. So verse nine and ten, I'll read I'll read verse nine.

13:22 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. So I think it is clear that angels are fearful sight. But what I want us to realize it is the glory of the Lord that really brought the fear there. I'm sure they were afraid of the angels, but the glory of God vastly outweighs what a created being can bring fear in. So we see that even the angel that was revealing the message to Mary and Elizabeth, it says, he said that I stand before the Lord.

13:58 I minister before him. So this angel is is a is a servant towards God. So if the servant brings fear, of course, the master is gonna be bringing way more fear. So we see that the glory of the Lord shown around them and that is truly what brought that response of fear. So I want us to consider what is the glory of the Lord?

14:18 What is the radiant glory of the Lord? So that word glory, we sing that song the Doxology. Doxology is the knowledge of the glory of God, the understanding of the glory of God. That word glory means the substance, the weight, the measure, the worth of who God is. I want to focus on that word the weight.

14:38 So it's us seeing the attributes of God, his revealed nature, and feeling the weight of it. It's a response to who God has revealed himself to be. So the glory of God is the weight of his attributes is the weight of who he is. We also see that it is shining, it is radiant. It says that the glory of God, it's shown around them.

15:04 So what is the significance of this? We see that if something is shining, it's calling for our attention. At least it should. I've ran some stoplights, but if something's shining, it should it should be calling for your attention. Also, we see that if something is shining and radiating on you, it affects those in its presence.

15:24 You have to bring your attention to it. It causes change. Another thing that we see is when something is shining, it reveals what is hidden and concealed, and we see two things that are revealed. We see the revelation of the attributes of God in his manifest glory, and we also see his light shining on us, on who we are, and we are bare before God. There's nothing hidden before his glory.

15:53 That is a sobering thought, and I think both of those thoughts brought the shepherds to a place of immense fear where they understood who they were and who they were in the presence of the glory of God. And what was the response of the shepherds? It says the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Is this the right response? Why are we commanded to fear the Lord?

16:19 We see that God tells us that we should fear him. And I want us to consider why is it not only not wrong, but good and right to fear him. So firstly, it is the right response. We consider Mount Sinai in Exodus 20 when we see God presenting his commandments to his people, to Moses being the mediator, And when God is is showing his glory, the thunder and lightning, the fire, the smoke on this mountain, the people are saying, we can't stand in his presence. We don't belong here.

16:52 Moses, you have to be... You have to go before us. We need someone to be in the middle. And God said the people are right. The fact that they're calling for a mediator, they are right.

17:03 They're not wrong in responding in fear. So in that passage, in that in that visual description, we see that it is the right response to fear the Lord. And why is this? It is because he is the one worthy of it. We're not giving our fear to someone that isn't isn't worthy of it, but when God commands to fear him, it is because he is actually worthy of being feared.

17:45 I I see his holiness, his sovereignty, his greatness, his justice, and I have to respect that. I can't live in opposition to that. I must respond accordingly to that. I must be changed by it. And we also understand that the fear of the Lord is directly proportional to the knowledge of his glory.

18:07 So when we come to understand and see the glory of God shown to us and shown in scriptures, we grow in our fear of the Lord. It causes us to have more reverence and respect for who he is. But I don't want us to just consider the theology of this even though we must understand and know what is good, but what does this look like practically speaking? How does the rubber hit the road? Is I think how it goes.

18:34 So we see in Proverbs, it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Most of us know that verse. But if we consider it, we think that if we truly know God, if we've experienced and if we appreciate his glory, it will change our lives. We understand wisdom being the practicality of our knowledge, the practice of our understanding and knowledge. So if we have a fear of the Lord, it has to cause change.

19:00 We would live rightly. I'm gonna read these verses from James three verses 13 to 17 if you want to jot it down, you don't you don't have to turn the pages. It says, who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.

19:26 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. So I think we can draw some principles from these verses. So practically speaking, the wisdom of God teaches us to live humbly submitted to his authority in everything.

20:02 I think alliteration sounds kind of funny in messages, but what the heck we're gonna use it. So the three words I want us to consider is holy, humble and honoring. Holy, humble and honoring. So first holy, the fear of the Lord should cause us to see His holiness and say, I will set myself apart from the wickedness of the world and I will set myself apart to God. Holiness being sanctified, set apart.

20:29 So we are setting apart ourselves from sin and setting apart ourselves to God. We see it in two directions. And practically speaking, this means that when we experience temptation, we run and flee from it. We go in the opposite direction, meaning we run to our father. We don't stay there.

20:49 We deny the flesh. We understand it's... It can be a powerful thing, but we know that the spirit living in us is exceedingly more powerful, and we respond in obedience as well. If we see God in his holiness, if we see how he truly is, that he is God, truly is God, what does that mean? He is God.

21:13 That we must respond in obedience. We have to obey because he is worthy of it. The second word is humble. So we see that that means to live in accordance with the grace of God. And what this means is that we we don't leave any room for pride.

21:32 We recognize that everything we have, everything that we are, is because of the grace of God. It's not because of my own strength that I can muster. My strength is from God. How can I boast about that? But I see the grace of God in my life.

21:46 I see the cross. I see what he's given me, the life that I have, the breath that I have, and I can't boast and stand before God and say, you know what? I... I'm deserving of this. It's because of me that I've gotten this far.

21:59 That does not fit. That is so unfitting before how... Before who God is. That is not the right response. The correct response is seeing who God is and saying, Lord, everything I have, everything I am is from you.

22:15 It is because of your grace. I must respond in humility. I must live in accordance to understanding his grace. The third thing we see is honoring, to live honoring. And how I define this is we are seeking his will above our own.

22:33 That means that I'm acknowledging him in all of my ways. I don't want to take a step. I don't want to make a decision. I don't wanna go this way if, Lord, you don't want me to go that way. Because God, I see that your way is best and you know what is good and I can trust you.

22:49 So, Lord, I wanna follow you where you're going. So let us be honoring to him as well. But as we understand, we fail in these categories. We we we don't always do these things. So if we fail in seeking holiness, do you count the cost of following Christ?

23:11 Christ says that it is daily dying to self. He calls for our whole life to be given to him. So if you're not seeking holiness, do you see what Christ has said for the Christian life? That it is daily dying to self. We are living for somebody else.

23:32 We have a new master. We don't listen to our flesh. We don't listen to the enemy of the world, but we listen to our God. Also, do you have an understanding of how God views sin? And if that is foggy, look to the cross.

23:48 That is how God views sin. He sent his son to bear the sin of the world, and we see that he was... The son of God was separated from his presence, was crucified on a cross, and this picture shows us this is how God treats sin. This is how God views sin. So if that is fuzzy to us, we must understand the holiness of God in the revelation of the cross.

24:14 And if we find ourselves not being humble, if I find myself not being humble, do we truly appreciate the gospel? Do we appreciate the glory of God? Romans three twenty three to 24 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Guys, the only reason why we can have a relationship with God, the only reason why we can call him father, the only reason why we can have permission into his presence is because it is God's grace. It is because it is Christ.

24:53 It's not anything that we have done or anything that we can do. Teach yourself the gospel daily. Remind yourself the grace of God, how he has revealed it to us, and see the glory of God and how we can't measure up, but Christ, he reaches down and extends his grace to us. He says, I will put my righteousness on you and now you have access to the presence of God. And it even says we can have confidence and boldness, which is a crazy thing.

25:22 We're not going to talk about that today. And the third thing is, if we are not being honoring in the way that we live, I want you to ask yourself, do you trust God? Do you trust God? That isn't just like a thing that we say, it's not like a... It is a thing we say.

25:40 It can be a thing that we say, but it shouldn't be. We shouldn't say that if... Unless we truly mean it. Do you trust God? And if you don't, bring to memory how he has been good and faithful in the past.

25:53 Practice thankfulness. Trust him. He's worthy of it. We see it in his word, but God wants us to know, to understand, and to know him, to have experience of his grace. And if we are saved, we do have experience of it.

26:11 And it doesn't just stop at the cross, it goes for the rest of our life. We see the grace of God throughout our entire life and we can point to this and say, you know what? God has showed himself here and because of that, I can trust him. I can honor him going forward. I can rely on his wisdom.

26:29 And I've already said this before, but do you recognize that he is God? That he made the universe, that he made you with purpose, and that he is deserving of our whole life. Everything that we have to offer, every decision that we make, it goes before him. He is God. Let's go to verse 10.

27:14 I think a helpful illustration is considering how we should have a right fear in how our dealings are with fire, yet we are brought comfort and blessing from its warmth. In the light, we desire to have its blessing. We desire to see what it what it offers. In a similar sense, but in a greater sense, the gospel magnifies the justice of God, that we must approach him rightly, that before him with apart from Christ, stand condemned, but the gospel also magnifies the grace of God, that we have nowhere else to go to. Yes, we stand condemned before him, but he is our only source of peace.

27:55 He is the only one we can go to. In Hebrews 12 verses 18 to 24, I'll read these. It says, For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burn with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling, but you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

28:58 So we see that the reason why we can approach God without fear is because of the gospel. The answer is given to us in that verse. Verse 10, it says, do not be afraid, and the reason is, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. So because of the gospel, which is the good tidings, the good news, we can have joy before God. We see that the savior has come.

29:27 We have an opportunity to be reconciled with our God, peace with our God, and we also see it's for all people. In Romans ten thirteen, it says, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So it is the gospel through which that we can say, I don't have to have fear. But I want us to realize it is a place of fear and not fear. It is one of those things that we want to live in accordance to both truths of the scripture.

29:54 Just like the fire, we don't approach God in an undue manner. We approach him with reverence, knowing that he is holy, knowing that he is sovereign. But also, we can have joy and confidence and peace in the presence of God, knowing that he loves his people, knowing that he invites us into his presence in the name of Christ. So it is the gospel that it is the pivotal point between fearing God and not fearing God. And in order for us to have a complete understanding of the fear of the Lord, what does it not mean?

30:30 What does the fear of the Lord not mean? I want us to consider Adam and Jonah. So we see that Adam, he, and his wife Eve sinned in the garden, and their response was to make fig leave clothing for themselves, garments, and hide from God. It saw that we see them trying to hide from his presence. We see Jonah receiving the command, hey, I want you to go share this message that I will destroy Nineveh so that they can turn away and repent, but Jonah was like, no, I don't want to do that.

31:06 So he tries to leave God's presence and if we just look at those two stories with just one glance and not intentfully, we might think that these people fear God, that Adam and Jonah fear God, but I want you guys to understand that this is not the fear of the Lord. They don't understand God. They think they understand God. That's what leaves them... That's that's what moves them away, But the fear of the Lord does not drive us from his presence.

31:33 If Adam understood God, he would recognize, hey, I can only go to God. I have sinned, but there's nowhere else that I can go. He is our only source of peace. If Jonah feared God, he would say, can't go anywhere and leave God's presence. So these are not pictures of fearing the Lord.

31:54 The fear of the Lord brings us to his presence, recognizing him as our only source of comfort, our only source of peace. And we can truly appreciate the grace of God more when we fear God. That holy, holy, holy God loves us. To know the wrath of God against our sin, look no further than the cross of Christ. To know the love and grace of God towards sinners, look no further than the cross of Christ.

32:49 We see that he is Messiah. It says that he is Savior. His name Jesus, Yeshua, meaning Yahweh is salvation. He is bringing salvation to his people. We see he is the Christ, the Messiah, the chosen anointed one of God, and we see that he is Lord.

33:07 And something really cool is this word Lord is the same word that was given in verse nine describing the glory of the Lord. So it's saying that he is God. This... The very glory that they're experiencing in this moment, they're saying, hey, I'm... There's a baby that I'm ascribing the same name to.

33:25 We see this is the identity of our Savior. In verse 12, it says, And this will be a sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. Now we see the identity of humility of Christ, the Son of Man. So the significance of the swaddling clothes in the manger so I didn't know this, I looked it up swaddling is used for infants and not infants newborns, I don't know the difference and it provides comfort and warmth and protection due to their frailty.

33:56 So we see three truths from this. We see the Son of God took the needs of a baby. He was cold and needed to be warmed. He was discomforted and needed to be comforted. He was frail and needed protection.

34:11 The third thing we see is this is a picture of incarnation, the glory of God bound, wrapped in human flesh. And thirdly, we see a picture of his death. He was wrapped in linen clothes in his birth, and laid in a tomb likewise wrapped in linen garments and clothes. He was born to die. So what is this gospel that we're talking about?

34:34 What is the gospel? It is that we stand as sinners before God, guilty before him because of his just command, because of his holiness. And as such, we need a savior. We need Jesus to come down and say, I will take my sins upon... I will take your sins upon myself.

34:53 Go to the cross and pay for them. God will look to Christ and say, I will put Jeremy's sins on Christ. He will pay for them that if Jeremy calls on the name of Christ that he will be saved, that we can put our trust in Christ, that we can have peace with God. And we see another message by an angel. Matthew 28, but the angel answered and said to the woman, do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified.

35:22 He is not here for he is risen as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. Christ did not remain in that grave. He rose again, so now we can know that our salvation is sealed with the stamp of God. He rose Christ from the dead by the power of God.

35:45 So we know that our salvation is true and real. And when we put our trust in Christ, when we stake our eternity in Christ, it is not a misplaced trust. It is the very source of our hope. It is the very source of our eternal life, Christ Jesus. That is the gospel.

36:03 In verse thirteen and fourteen, it says, and suddenly there was the angel... There was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. In these verses, see that the praise of God follows the declaration of the gospel. One phrase that says, glory to God in the highest. We see that the wisdom and grace of God is glorified in the gospel.

36:29 That we see that this was the plan of God in salvation to make us right with him, and that astounds our mind. And we see that what's offered to us is peace and goodwill, that Christ has reconciled us to God, that the love of God, the goodwill of God is made to abound to us. In verse fifteen and sixteen it says, So it was when the angel had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said to one another, Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. In these verses, we are taught that god does not want us to simply have an understanding of who he is but the very experience of his salvation.

37:43 I... When I read the scriptures, it's so incomprehensible sometimes, but if you seek God, he will be found. He wants you to know him. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So if you seek God, he will honor that.

37:58 And this personal experience is bound to the idea of relationship. You can... I'm not married, but if I had a wife, I would say I can state facts about her, but that's not a relationship. You have to have an understanding experience with the person. So we see that in a relationship, you both have an understanding of the other person, but also you can you have shared experience as well.

38:22 In the same sense, God wants us to have an understanding of who he is, and he wants to show himself as God in our life. So that means that when we are in places of desperation, God says, you know what? I will meet you in that place. Last semester, I had... I was anxious for one week, really it was a bad week.

38:43 I had three exams set before me, pretty hard classes, and I was like, God, this seems like too much. And I prayed and cried out to God and said, Lord, I... There's nothing I can do. I can study, but it's gonna be really hard. Lord, please help me do something.

38:58 And God responded and said, I will meet you in that place. My research got canceled for the week. My club meeting got canceled for the week. One exam got moved to the following week. And immediately, my stress and anxiety was removed because God said, I will meet you in that place.

39:14 I want you to know and understand me, but I want you to experience my salvation. I want you to experience my faithfulness. I want you to call upon my name and I will answer. I will incline my ear. I will extend myself to you to show to show my grace to you.

39:33 And now we see the responses. Verse seventeen and eighteen, it says, Now when they had seen him, Jesus, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. When we experience the grace of God, our response is to proclaim the grace of God to others. In the Great Commission in Matthew 28 we're told, Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.

40:10 When we receive the grace of God and and experience it in our lives, we are compelled by that grace to share it and proclaim it to others that haven't experienced it yet, saying, this is the God that I serve. He is worth serving. He is good and loving, and this is how I've seen it. I want you to see that yourself. And this is the command of the savior towards us.

40:33 We also see in these verses, the message shines, not us. What does that verse say? It says, And those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. If we feel unable, unequipped to follow God's command to share the gospel, if we feel that I just I don't know enough, I feel like I stumble my words, it always is awkward and difficult, realize that God is working in you. He calls you to obey him.

41:10 He simply calls you to follow him, and he will show his strength working in you, and that will be enough. If you feel unequipped, you are right. It is sinners sharing the gospel. It is sinners proclaiming the grace of God. You are right.

41:27 You are unable, unequipped, but listen to the grace of God, the strength of God able to work in us and take sinners and make them proclaimers of the gospel and grace of God. When God uses us, when he uses me, he is manifesting the glory of God when someone is saying, what? How is he using this guy? And all the glory goes to God because it is so evident that it is God working. It is only God able to do that.

41:56 It is only through God's strength that he can allow us and enable us to preach his gospel for the praise and glory of his name. And the other response we see is, but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. So we proclaim the the gospel to others, but we also proclaim it to ourself. What did God tell the people of Israel? Repeatedly, you are forgetting the salvation of the Lord, leading them to go astray.

43:21 It's so easy. Don't forget to praise the Lord. It is right and good to see the grace of God in our lives and say, Lord, you are so good. I lift up my voice to you in song and praise because you are worthy of it. Just like the angels, the shepherds were able to glorify God for what was revealed to them.

43:41 We have that opportunity now to glorify God for what was revealed to us. They got to see the promised savior. We got to hear about the promised savior. We have a lot to be thankful for. We have a lot to praise for, and we are able to praise him as the recipients of his grace and the first fruits of his redemption.

44:18 But that is the grace of God. That he looks to us that are undeserving of love, undeserving of of life and saying, you know what, I will send my holy righteous son and he will die. He was good. He was perfect. He's deserving of everything and I will put your sin on him.

44:37 You can be made right with God. If it was deserved, we wouldn't need it. But it is it is needed. Do you think you heard it here by by mistake? It was purposeful.

44:51 It was purposeful. Just like God revealed his message to the shepherds by purpose. God is reeling his gospel to you right now by purpose. And if you have received it, will you respond with praise, glorifying God with your life, Living in holiness and humility, seeking to honor him in all your ways, would you respond with your voice? I don't care what it sounds like.

45:14 God doesn't... God loves to hear your voice. God loves to hear the praise of his people, proclaiming it to yourself and others. And if it seems impossible to walk in holiness and humility, remember, you have already received the ultimate grace of God. He will listen.

45:32 He will provide his grace so that you can do what you're unable to do. By his power working in your life for his glory, all we have to do is walk in faith, trust him. The grace of God starts at the cross, but it lasts for eternity as we praise him today. Alright, let's close in prayer. Dear heavenly Father, Lord, you are so good to us.

46:01 Your love was so clearly manifest to us in the person of Christ. And Lord, we look to the cross and Lord, we marvel that you love us that much. That Lord, you care for us. That Lord when we say, God, I'm feeling overwhelmed, that Lord you care about our needs, you listen to our needs and say, I will meet you there. I will listen, incline my ear to you and provide grace.

46:30 God, this is who you are. This is your nature. So God help us to respond and to trust you. Lord, we have hearts seeking to live holy lives, Lord. That Lord, we would find no place for pride.

46:47 That we would honor you in all our ways and exalt your name. In Jesus name, amen.