Slide 1
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
Luke 2:1-9

Slide 2
Christmas says:
You are not too ordinary, too messy, or too far away for God to notice you.

Slide 3
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Luke 2:10

Slide 4
See the order:
1. Fear
2. Then good news

Slide 5
Why would our first reaction to God be fear?
· Fear of shame
· Fear of judgment
· Fear of rejection

Slide 6
"The term εὐαγγέλιον was used at the time of the Roman Empire to herald the good news of the arrival of a kingdom - the reign of a king that brought a war to an end, so that all people of the world who surrendered and pledged allegiance to this king would be granted salvation from destruction."

Slide 7
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and 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 among those with whom he is pleased!” When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.
Luke 2:11-16

Slide 8
“Let us go… and see this thing that has happened… And they went with haste..."

Slide 9
The difference between information and transformation is response.

Slide 10
There’s a HUGE difference between knowing about Jesus and going to meet Him for yourself. 

Slide 11
And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
Luke 2:17-19

Slide 12
The shepherds move from:
“Let us go and see…” to “They made known…”

Slide 13
They simply cannot keep this to themselves.
Why?
Because real joy overflows into sharing.

Slide 14
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Luke 2:20

Slide 15
The shepherds went back to:
· The same place
· The same people
· The same work

Slide 16
But, they are:
· Full of praise
· Full of glory for God
· Full of stories of what He has done

Slide 17
God didn’t change their circumstances. God changed them instead.

Slide 18
The shepherd’s pattern:
· They come and see
· They go and tell
· They return glorifying and praising God

Slide 19
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Today is December 21st, which has a few different meanings that go with it. One is, it's the, the winter Equinox. Today's the shortest day of the year. The winter solstice shortest day of the year. Interesting. It's also the day that my parents got married. So my, my parents' wedding anniversary, it's today, which one? I was about 15 years old. I figured that out. And, and all the jokes about you got married on the darkest day of the year. That seems like a bad choice. And then my dad, who clearly had had 20 years to practice this line, immediately responded back. He said, it's because once I married your mother, every day going forward was just a little bit brighter. And I was like, Hey, that's, that's not bad. That's not bad at all. Now, it, it's also interesting, if you look at every year's calendar, they can predict the busiest shopping days of the year. So, so if you were gonna guess where today ranks in the top five busiest shopping days of the year, the Sunday before Christmas, where do you think it ranks? Just yell out your answer. What do you think it ranks? It's number two. It's number two. So always it's the Saturday before Christmas. That is the busiest shopping day of the year. It was yesterday. They call that Super Saturday. How many of you shopped yesterday? How many of you shopped? All right. Some people enjoy it. Some people are like, I love being out there with all the people. And some people like you are getting anxiety just thinking about the people next to you that shopped yesterday. And typically the people that hate shopping on busy days, and the people that, that don't wanna be around people on busy days, they marry each other. That's how that works. So Saturday's always the busiest day. Sunday is super Sunday. This is the second busiest day. The third busiest day is for all the procrastinators. It's December 23rd, so it's Tuesday. So if you really just, here's why the 23rd probably is so busy. It's because you go online and it says, arrives after Christmas, and you say, guess I'm going in person today. That's what's happening this year. And then the next busiest is actually last Friday. So we've already passed that as well. No, but no, no matter where you shop or how you shop or when you shop, there is something about this moment in the season that just feels a little bit busy. It's a little bit crazy. And so, so here's my challenge, even if it's just for the next 30 minutes, my challenge for us is what does it look like if we slow down, breathe and allow God to interrupt us, right? Where we are? The, the story we're gonna look at in a moment in Luke chapter two, if you wanna start turning there, it's the shepherds. And, and here's what's interesting about the shepherds is, is God shows up in a moment where they are completely still, it's a nighttime, they're not very busy. They're just hanging out. And, and I think sometimes in a culture and a world that is just so busy and moving so, so fast, but we can oftentimes get so Busy That we miss out on the still quiet moments where God Wants to Speak. If you've got a Bible, Luke chapter two, we're gonna look At the Christmas story. We're gonna go all nine verses and then we'll keep going Verse by verse after that, Luke chapter Two, sermon in verse one. It says, in those days, the decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first Registration when Quin Corin, that's a tough Word. Corus Was governor of Syria and all went to be registered Each To his own town. And Joseph Also Went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because He Was of the house and lineage of David to be Registered with Mary, His betrothed, who was With child. And while they were there, the time came for her To give birth. And she gave birth to her first B son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the end. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over Their Flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of The Lord Shown around them, and they were filled With great fear. And now it, it's this interesting thing that happens. And If, if we're Familiar with the Christmas story, we can just kinda fly on past it because it's just become so normal to us. But you have this amazing moment that happens in circumstances that, that sound a little bit bizarre, Emmanuel, God With us, the the creator Of the universe becomes incarnate, becomes human flesh. And when big things happen, there tends to be a celebration. There tends to be a party, there tends to be an announcement of that thing. And we see that in the Christmas story, except There's a lot of details that Just seem odd, that, that God, the creator of the universe shows up and he's not in a castle and he's not in a, a rich, famous place. Instead, he's in very, very humble beginnings. And then there's an announcement that comes from angels. And instead of going to the most important people in the world at the time, they, they show up To shepherds That are nearby in shepherds. If you know anything about the first century, they, they weren't considered Really Esteemed people, esteemed profession that, That they were day laborers. And, and not just that the, These day laborers in Particular, they had the night shift. That, that oftentimes you had people that, that were maybe teenagers that were Doing this role. They had a couple of adults that were Watching the teenagers. But, but some young guys, some of 'em had probably gotten into trouble. And that's how they ended up in this Life. In the first century, if you were Jewish and you were a shepherd, that means that you were ceremonially unclean. You could not go to the temple and worship with anybody Else. And that is the Group that God chooses over everybody else. He could Have chosen the entire world. I mean, it's angels that are showing up. Can we All agree that an angel could Have showed up Wherever they wanted And they chose the shepherds to be the First ones to hear this announcement, to tell them that God is here And and my encouragement to All of us this morning, I think the point of that is that God wants us to know that, that maybe you're here today and, and you feel unseen. Maybe you're here Today and you feel marginalized. You feel Like you're not a part of the group. And I know that that's an emotion that every human at some point or another feels That At some point you were a kid and, and you had some other kids that they Got Together and they had a party, Or they had A gathering or they had a sleepover and you found out about it and you were not included, Then you can probably still feel that, That feeling right now of wanting to be apart but not being apart. And the poor kids grown up today. It's, It's Like that, but the multiplied times a hundred because they see it on social media and they see it All over. Like it used To be growing up, people Would have parties or Get togethers and I wouldn't be invited. But I never knew about it. I mean, occasionally I knew about it, and when I knew about it, I Felt really Bad about myself. But now, teenagers, they know about it all the time. Like they know all the people That are Getting together all the time without them being a apart. And, and what does that feeling feel like? It feels small. And I think one of the things that Christmas is trying to tell us Is that You are not too ordinary or too messy Or too far away for God to notice you. And that's what the Shepherds had to have felt, that they felt like they were Too ordinary and, and too messy and too far Away. They couldn't even worship at the temple. And yet God shows up To them. And that's one of the points of Christmas. Let's keep going. Look What it Says in verse 10. It says, in the angel said to them, fear not For behold. I bring you good news of Great joy that will be for all the People. Now notice the order Of what Happens. The angels show up. And the immediate response to the angels Is what we see all through scripture. It's fear, like they're terrified. Like they're looking at each other like, This is the moment. This is how We die. Like that. This wasn't on my bingo card. If I was gonna choose all The ways I might die out Here as a shepherd, the angel showing up That was not Expected. They like, that's what they're thinking at first. And then that's not what the angel brings. Instead Of Being scary, the angel actually brings the opposite. The angel brings good news. And, and it makes me wonder Of this question, why is it so Often that our initial reaction to God is similar to that? It's fear That God shows up or, or God wants To know us. And most of the time A common Response Around the World that people have towards God is fear. And why would that be our First Response to God? I think it's because sometimes there's this fear of shame that God, the creator of universe, if he really does know everything about me, if he really does know every thought that I have, he's seen every action that I've ever done. He knows the things that I think, things that I do when no one else is around. He knows every peeled back layer of my heart. And so if that God shows up I'm a little bit worried about what he might think of me, there's, there's a shame component, or maybe it's a fear of judgment that if, if God really knows all this stuff that I've done, that then he knows what I deserve. And I, I don't know that I wanna talk to that God. I'm scared of that God. Or maybe it's fear of rejection that God's gonna show up and he's gonna get to know me and decide, eh, I'm gonna pass. Like I'm not good enough for him. And so there's this natural fear that happens as a result of it. And, and yet the angels show up and there's this instant fear. And immediately in response to this fear, they say, no, instead we bring good news. Now. Now that phrase good news is an interesting one. It, it's a word that now in, in 2025, we just think of that Greek word and we think of the gospel or good news. Gospel and good news are the, the same Greek word translated different ways. So gospel or good news. But we think of that we, we associate it with Christianity. But in the first century, that's not what they would've done. It's interesting what happens with the author of Luke. So, so the author of Luke is tying in some cultural things from the first century, some terminology that people would've been familiar with. But he's, he's using this different angle, this different perspective to make it look different at that time. The, the word evangelism is, is that Greek word. It's, it's where we get gospel or good news from. At that time when, when a gospel announcement or a good news announcement went out, it always was the Caesar that made that pronouncement, that the Caesar would, would extend this gospel message, this good news to all the world. And typically it was about how awesome they were, or it was about how awesome Rome was. And now, now for us to fully unpack the layers and understand what that means, in the first century, they saw Caesar as a deity. Now they believed in lots of different gods. But Caesar was one of those gods that started under Julius Caesar. He was seen as a God. And then Caesar Augustus, if you, we can find coins from Rome from the first century where underneath the picture of Caesar Augustus, it would say, son of God. So Caesar Augustus use this phrase about himself calling himself the son of God. There's this interesting inscription that we found. It's from about 10 years before Jesus BC before Jesus, they found this inscription that's on a tablet describing Caesar Augustus. And here's what it says. It says, the beginning of the good tidings. That's that word, that good news for the world that came by reason of him. So, so in the first century, if you heard gospel or good news, you associated that with Rome. You associated that with Caesar. Here's how one historian writes and describes this term. The term e angel was used at the time of the Roman Empire to Harold, the good news of the arrival of a kingdom, the reign of a king that brought a war to an end so that all people of the world who surrendered and pledged allegiance to this king would be granted salvation from destruction. And so largely what what Rome did is they used this as pr. They were brilliant at pr. So they have this huge army, they're slowly taking over the world, but they would send out these messengers to proclaim the glory, the greatness of Rome, so that when every time they had a victory, every time they defeated some city or some nation, they would make proclamations all over Rome in order to let other nations hear about it. And, and history would tell us that there were certain cities that Rome would arrive to, they would march up to. And instead of that city fighting back, they would just lay down their arms. They, they would say, Hey, we want to be a part of Rome. We've heard really great things. We've heard good news. And so this concept, this gospel concept, this proclamation of good news, if you heard that in the first century, you would assume this is Rome proclaiming how great you are. And yet, for a first century shepherd who is Jewish, who lived in Rome, they would say, Hey, we, we've heard the good news. We've heard the proclamation, but but actually our experience is not that at all our experience is oppression. Our experience is really negative and bad. And if that's the glory of Rome, we're not all for it. And so the author of Luke, he, he turns this concept on its head and he says, okay, Rome is proclaiming one good news, but but instead I'm proclaiming something that looks totally, radically different. Look at verse 11. It says, four unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. Now, I wanna point out a few phrases that, that they have this angel, they bring this good news, this message that a savior has been born. And what do they do? It says, they say, let us go. And then they say, and see this thing that has happened. And it says, and they went With haste. They, they hear The good news and they don't just sit around and chat about it. They, they don't just sit around and have a conversation that they don't debate theology. No, they respond. It says that they go With haste. That Information causes them to, to make a change. And I want us to understand this 'cause. 'cause I think there's a big difference that the difference between information and transformation is response. You see, oftentimes what happens in church is we get a lot of information. We hear things, we learn things. And those are wonderful things. But for transformation to happen, there needs to be A Response to that information. And that's what we see With the shepherds, that They hear the information and then they respond to that information, that there is a transformation that happens as a result of it. There's a Huge difference between knowing about Jesus and actually going to meet him for yourself. That, that we see that throughout scripture, that, that this idea Of, okay, I know about Jesus. Well, no, there, there's a difference between knowing about him and actually knowing Christmas is meant to show us that God, the Creator of The universe, wants a personal relationship With you And with me. And then pick up in verse 17, it says, and then when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. So this transformation that happens in the shepherd, What we See, this movement that happens with them, that The shepherds that they go From, let us go and see To They made known like under understand what happens. They, They go, they experience Jesus In a manger wrapped in cloths. They, they worship Him, they talk to Mary and Joseph, they Leave that place. And what happens? They go and tell, they made no, they wanna share With everybody what Has happened to them. Well, why is that? When we have things that are good things that happen to us, our natural overflow to those things is that we wanna tell other people about it. I'm on a text thread with, with Gary Thomas or teaching pastor, and then one of our elders Andy Todd and Andy, Todd's a huge Indiana fan. If you see him anytime for the last three months, he's wearing an Indiana hat or an Indiana shirt, Indiana pants that he's got, which is a little much in my opinion, but they're undefeated. So He's very loud, like Way more, I, I've known him five years. I have not heard any Indiana until this year, But this year, very, very Loud. So Gary did not go to Notre Dame, but he's a huge fan of Notre Dame. He paid for his son to go to Notre Dame, and he says that makes him a bigger fan than if he went there himself, . And early on he was really loud about Notre Dame, not as loud recently. And, and Notre Dame had a pretty Good year Until they didn't. And then they complained about it a lot At the end, if you watch college Football at all. But it's Interesting in the text, like when one of their teams did well, They were loud, like lots of Messaging, lots of text messages, and then when their team wasn't like, complete silence, nothing, no smack talk At all. How does this work? Because the way That human nature works is that when we are excited about something, when when something brings us Joy, We naturally Share those Things. And so when we look at the Shepherds, the Bible tells us they simply Cannot keep this to themselves. Like they experience Jesus. And it says that they're Telling everybody about Him. Why? Because Real joy overflows Into sharing every single time Christmas this Year, We've got a 7-year-old and 11-year-old, 13-year-old, which is still kinda a fun, magical time of Christmas. But we're starting to see, Especially With a 13-year-old where, where some of the, Like the Excitement of Christmas just starts to change. Like Every gift That he wants costs a thousand dollars. You're like, Hey, I don't know that at 13 you should be asking for a car. Alright, Let's, let's lower the Expectations in life. And that's Very different than I I remember one of the first Christmases when he was two years Old. So at that point, either we, we had akin or second, she was either a baby or, or maybe in the wound. And, and bra was just A little kid, but, But he was old enough to start to understand it. And if you were a parent that then, you know that feeling when your kid is just old enough to start to get it, like not old enough to really, Really get it, but You think they can get it. And so you've got all these presents and, and you're trying to explain to them how rapping works. And and I remember when he's about two years old and, and he opens up the stalking and he, he finds a whole bag of m and ms and Like his eyes are like huge. And then for the next 30 minutes, We Could hardly get him to open any present. 'cause All he cared about was the m and ms. Like he, he gets that thing open and I mean, he's two years Old. It's not like he gets to eat whole bags Of m and ms on the regular. And so, so this day it's like more, more And he's Just, He's just throwing them in his mouth. And then he's so excited. Like He's walking over to me and he's handing me an Eminem, And he is walking over to his mom and he's, he's saying, and Lauren Eminem, and like, he's just so Enthralled with the Eminem, so he doesn't Care about the Presence under the tree. He And his mind, it's like this, he's amazing, amazing. And can I tell you that as a 13-year-old, like if we put a bag of m and ms in a stalking now, like he's not going to eat them three months from now, I'll eat those m and ms is what's gonna happen. Like, like some part of the joy just, Just tends to change. And and I think sometimes that same thing is true If you're A Christian, when it comes to our relationship with God, The Early on, when we have The joy of Christmas, when we have The joy Of our relationship with Jesus, When we have the joy, like, like that Season when you are a new Christian, it's like You've got a bag of m and ms and you just wanna share it with everybody. Hey, This is amazing, this thing, it's called Chocolate. Like I, I, I had no Idea, but I, you should try Wine and you should Try Wine and you should try one. And then the longer we're a Christian, I think the danger is that we can lose some of that joy. Well, We can lose some of the excitement about sharing what God Has done in our life. The shepherds, they had this joy, they, they'd Experienced Their savior, they experienced God, the creator of The universe coming as A baby, And they left That Place and they were so excited. I can just envision them. They running up and down the streets, especially Since likely it was a bunch of teenage boys. Well, like they were probably loud or probably people irritated And annoyed, and they did not care. Why? Because they had Just met Jesus. Look At verse 20. Verse 20 says this. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all That they Had heard and seen as it had been told to them. And now I wanna unpack two different pieces to this Because it says that the shepherds Returned and then they were glorifying and praising God. And now I think one of the things that gets lost on us about the Story is the fact that the shepherds returned. Like what? We, we hear the story and we kind of leave it at the Shepherds, bowing down and worship in Jesus. But Scripture says that they returned, well, what did they Return to? It says that They went back, they went back to the same place that they Were before. It doesn't say that they quit being shepherds. No, It says That they returned to the same place With The same people doing the same work. Now, here Is how We tend to think. When we think about our relationship with God, we, we tend to think, okay, God, here's my circumstances. And now in order for me to have joy, I need you to change the circumstances. Like, God, I I will be joyful as soon As you change my job, or, or as soon as you change this Relationship, Or as you, as soon as you fix my health, God, As soon as you give me some money and fix my filing, it says, then I can. Right? I mean, that's an easy game that we play with God. Hey, God, I will be really sacrificially Giving to you If you help Me to win this Powerball. Like I promise If I give That 1.6, Like the 0.6, I'm giving away, I've giving every bit Of it away. God, if you would just help me out, Like That's How we tend to work with God, God change my circumstances and then I will have joy. And that's not what happens with the shepherds. The shepherds go To the same job with the same people and the same place. And yet They are full of praise, full of glory for God, full of stories of what he has Done. And, and I think what the Christmas story wants us to understand, what, what it's trying to point out to us Is that We think that we will be happy once God Changes our circumstances. And God says, no, I I want to come and be in the midst of your circumstances and instead of changing our circumstances, what does God wanna change? He wants to change us. God did not change the circumstances of The shepherds. He did transform the shepherds in your life. In my life. We beg God, God change these things. And what God is saying is God saying, no, I'm gonna change you. If You'll let me, if You'll allow me to, God is saying, I will come into your heart, transform who you are, and you'll have a whole new perspective about everything around you. I want you to notice the pattern that, that we see in scripture around the shepherds. That that First They come and see, then they go and tell, and then they return glorifying and praising God. That there's this Pattern of, of we need to first go and see experience God for Ourself. There's A response to the information. That's where the Holy Spirit Transforms us, does a transformative work. Then when that is Real, The natural Overflow of that Is to go and tell And to tell Everybody around me, let me tell you about the joy of my life. Let me tell you about What God Has done. Let me naturally invite you to come with me to Experience this Jesus Whom I Love. And then They Return To Their same life and their same world, their same circumstances, but nothing is the same Because of what Jesus Has done in their life. There's This interesting thing about the Christmas Story because it's all backwards. Like We're so familiar with it that we don't think of it as being backwards, but it's All backwards compared to what you or I Would think is the natural thing to do. Like the natural thing for God to come on this earth is to come into a position Of power and Prestige and then send the angels. Like what if the angels just Show up to, to the 50 biggest Influencers in the world, and they just make the proclamation, Hey, God Showed up. But that's not what God does. God does the total opposite of that. Now, Paul, in one Corinthians, he writes about this concept, this understanding. In one Corinthians chapter one, verse 26, He Says, for consider your calling brothers, not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish In the world to shame the wise. God chose what Is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose What is low And des sp in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing, things that Are So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Now, there, there's a part of you that kind of chuckles when you read that because like imagine being the person that Paul wrote that letter to, like, Hey, you're not wise, you're not important, you're not strong. You are the worst. And that's why God chose you to use. And yet that's, that's what Paul is saying. Paul's saying is, Hey, God doesn't need the powerful, the influencer, the important in order to change the world. And said God intentionally chooses to use very regular, very ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Why? Because he's God like we can create a movement with powerful people. But what's really remarkable is for a movement to exist with very normal, ordinary people. Why was that movement successful? Because of God? 'cause Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the truth of what God had done explodes to the world around the shepherds. It's interesting God's given our church some amazing, amazing opportunities in the last few years. One of those is through one of our elders named Dale Zwart. So, so Dale really just has this pattern over the last few years of just saying yes to God. That's how he became an elder. Church was going through a challenging time and, and some people put his name in and he said yes to God. And then after he became an elder there was this opportunity that came our way with, with prison ministry, specifically the Women's Correctional Facility down near Denver. And we've been in, in works for the last five years of, of trying to build a chapel. It's an idea that the warden had a warden what was on a walker's place from our church and, and pointed to this place in the Women's Correctional Facility and said, man, there's this big open field, and what if we built a chapel? They're now, now fascinating warden's not a Christian, but the warden recognizes the data. And the data would say that the recidivism rate is improved with faith, faith-based programs. And so, so people in prison who are participating in faith-based programs when they get out of prison, are less likely to end up back in prison if faith is a part of that story. So, so, because he knows the data, he says, wouldn't it be cool if we had a chapel right there? And so, so Dale gets plugged in involved, he's leading that chapel committee and does so much for the prison ministry. And someday the, the goal is to build a chapel. Now, now, it's crazy. You'd think that a prison wouldn't have to go through the same zoning as everybody else. Their zoning's like 10 times worse. And so it's taken a long time, but we're gonna get there eventually. But in the meantime, it's been really neat over these last four or five years to, to watch Dale just say yes and, and multitude of different ways. And we do a lot of things inside the prison. We do bible studies, we do chapel services. We do a, a big event called Winter Fest. We do a big event called Gospel Fest. We do a big event called Summer Fest. They've also recently invited our church to participate in a softball team and go play softball with them. And so some really cool opportunities that, that are coming our way. And, and I wanna share this story of four specific ladies, Damika, Donna, Lacey, and Luz. Each one of these ladies is serving a life sentence. They'll never get out. Each one of these ladies is also a mother. And each one of these ladies, God has gotten a hold of while they are in prison. Each one has pursued a, a, a college degree. They've all gone into seminary and started, started pursuing that. And it is just really neat to, to see them. They serve on this chapel committee and, and God is using them in the place that they are. And what's what's remarkable is each one of these ladies has financially given to our church and, and, and partly towards the chapel bill, partly towards our church, partly towards our man and ministries. And when they, they said that they wanted to give to the church, Dale immediately was like, Hey, no, no, no, you, you don't need to give anything. This is all our gift to you. And they pushed back and they said, no, no, we want to respond to what God is doing in our lives. Now, I wanna read a letter that, that one of 'em wrote to Dale. They write, Papa Dale, here's my small contribution to the Man of Ministries. It has been a year since I met you. All the wonderful volunteers from Cherry Hills community, I'm very blessed to be able to be a part of Base Camp. That's the Bible study they do. And be a servant of the Lord. Now I know all the hard work that goes behind the services, and I am much more grateful for all that you willingly share your valuable time with all of us behind bars. I pray, may the Lord multiply this offering to help others. She goes on to say, thank you for being a faithful servant of the most high. May the Lord bless you and your family, and every member of the Cherry Hills Church. And now I I want to put in perspective that in Women's Correctional Facility, they, they work and for a day's labor, they are paid $1 37 cents. Like that's how much money they make in a day. And one of the ladies, Dale gave her the address to the church and she sent a gift to the church of $900. Now, now, I wanna put it in perspective. $900 is about 650 days of labor. Like that's how much that gift is. And normally, we, we don't share what, what anybody gives normally. I don't know what anybody gives, but that one in particular, I, I wanted to track down because it reminds me so much of the story of the widows might that, that Jesus is watching these people give huge sums of money. And then this widow gives hardly anything. And Jesus points around and says, Hey, she has given far more than everybody else because she gave not just out of abundance, but out of sacrifice. Why? Why, why does someone send 650 days of work to our man of ministries? It's because God has gotten a hold of something inside of her life. And the overflow of that is a natural joy. And, and here's my challenge for us. What would it look like this Christmas if God doesn't change my circumstances at all, but instead God changes me? And what would it look like if the joy of God overflows in such a way? It overflows in such a way that I can't help but sharing that with other people, sharing it through invitation, sharing it through giving, sharing it through just the giving of who I am to the world around me. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, God, we thank you so much that, that you are a God. That in the middle of the Christmas story is, is wanting us to know that you love each and every one of us, that you want a personal relationship with each and every one of us. And God, so often churches, informational that we hear, we learn, we go out and we're the same God, I pray that through the power of your Holy Spirit, that the message of Christmas would be transformational, God, that we would respond to it, that the joy of Christmas would overflow in every area of our life. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.