Special Event – A Christmas Devotion; Brent Johnson, 12/14/25

Christmas Devotion: The Characters of Christmas - Pastor Brent Johnson
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[00:00:00] today in our Christmas devotion that we want to jump right into, uh, just wanna give you a Christmas thought, we wanna give you, thinking in the realm of Christmas, which I know you probably already are. Have you seen Christmas lights on your street and other places? So, so this year you may remember that I went to, England with my daughters and my wife and we had vacation over Thanksgiving and it was totally decorated for Christmas because they don't have to worry about Thanksgiving.

They don't do Thanksgiving. They go straight to Christmas. Everything was beautiful and we had a great time. And so while we were gone, I had some friends decorate our house with Christmas lights. Because recently my, my twin daughters, they're 22 years old, they complained about [00:01:00] how they've not had Christmas lights out in the front yard since, you know, when they were like five.

And we did those blow up things with Frosty or whatever. and so I, I got some friends to totally decorate. So we came around the corner after we flew home. You know, 10 hours on the plane, uh, dropped off. Uh, the chauffeur who, who picked us up, we drove the rest of the way home. And they were like, oh my goodness, whose house is that?

And it was our house. We were decorated flat. So Jesus is a lie of the world. And uh, so that's a great reminder if your house is not decorated with light. You have a couple of weeks, get some lights out there. Remember, Jesus is the light of the world and you wanna reflect his light. You wanna get his light out.

Uh, I highly recommend Christmas lights on your house, even if you just do a couple of trees and some bushes or whatever. Uh, be sure and do that. and, and, and then, and then give a message. So today, we got a sign to put out in the yard so it's not just Christmas light. But also a nice sign to remind everyone, uh, that Jesus came to tabernacle among us, [00:02:00] to, um, be with us, Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

And so I'm gonna put the sign out so that when they see the lights, they know what it's attached to. Uh, not Santa, but Jesus, even though I don't have any, you know, any bad words for Santa, but I'm celebrating Jesus, and I want him to be the focus of our Christmas celebration in the front yard. So, um, please do that.

And, uh,

The Christmas Story: Main Characters
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so today's Bible, Christmas devotion, it's Bibles and Breakfast and Bibles at Champion Forest Today with you and our devotion is we're going to look at the Christmas story and I'm gonna pick out the characters of the Christmas story. And make a few mentions. the, the main character, of course is Jesus.

Jesus: The Main Character
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Jesus is the main character of the Christmas story. So if in your story of Christmas, there's other things that are a bigger deal, you make a bigger deal about giving gifts or a bigger deal of other things than you're missing the point. You need to make sure that you are making a big deal of Jesus in your Christmas story.

Of course, Mary and Joseph are [00:03:00] big, uh, parts of it. So we're gonna start here and focus on Jesus first. Since he's first, and I picked this verse from Isaiah nine that says, for unto us, a child is born to us, a child is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. That's a big deal. His name will be called Wonderful counselor.

Mighty God. Everlasting Father, prince of peace. So this is the prophecy referring to Jesus as they were waiting, the advent waiting for the Messiah to come. This is who they were expecting Jesus to be as they were, as the prophets were explaining who Jesus would be. And so the the big deal now, now that Jesus has been born is for us to open up our study Bibles.

To see the way that he lived and find out if these prophecies came true in Jesus. Has anyone ever done that? Yes, of course. That's what we do every Sunday. Uh, is he the wonderful counselor? Yes or no? Is he mighty God? Yes [00:04:00] or no? Is he the everlasting father? The good father? The perfect father, regardless of how good your father was?

Uh, is he the prince of peace? Is he the prince of peace in your life? Is Jesus ringing true with these prophecies? And ultimately, does the government now rest on his shoulders? Well, not yet. You might have noticed in all the governments of the world, Jesus is not in office. people who are non Jesus acting are often in office.

Uh, there are a few Christians out there, but in the end, ultimately the government will rest on his shoulders. That's what we have hope and we are looking forward to. So all of these things are Jesus, the center of the of the story, the reason that he came, and that is why we are celebrating.

Mary: Receiving God's Message
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Next is Mary, one of the most important characters in the Christmas story.

the angel said to her, this is a big deal. This is the idea of receiving something from somebody else, an important message. And [00:05:00] um, I know I've talked about this before, but my relatively little Greek knowledge, the word an angel.

Here we go. Uh, two gammas. These are G sounds. So, looks like you would pronounce this word a loss, which is incorrect because two gammas together makes an NG sound. So this word is angel. So the word angel is translated messenger. So when an ancient Greek coin, a Greek, when you heard that word, you didn't, weren't necessarily thinking about an angel with the fluffy wings on the clouds, but of a messenger.

And how many times were angels used as messengers in the story of God through the Bible? A lot, a lot. The angels weren't just the people out here, you know, looking out for you [00:06:00] and taking care of you. The angels were the ones that were bringing the messages of God firsthand messages to the people. And so here we have, uh, an angel, which is a messenger coming to Mary to give her a very special message.

Uh, and this is the message that said, the angel told her the message to Mary is, don't be afraid. Which do not fear is the most often commanded commandment in scripture. I think someone said there's 365 do not fears or fear not so it's the most prevalent. That should probably mean we need to pay attention to it.

It also means that we spend a lot of time in fear. We're worrying about stuff. Uh, we're concerned, we're afraid of what might happen or what is happening. Um, and that's what Mary was doing. Some things were going on that. Uh, she was not expecting and she was not, cool with, comfortable with not what she was prepared for.

Uh, so the angel [00:07:00] starts off as saying, don't be afraid. Do not fear. If you believe in God and you believe that God is the hope of the future, the government will one day be on his shoulders. But even then, until then, he's still the prince of peace. You have no reason to fear. He is a sovereign God. He's in control.

Which means he doesn't control every little thing that goes on, but in the end, everything's gonna wrap up the way that he is expecting it to. We'll say it that way. So he says to Mary, do not be afraid. God has shown you his grace. God has been gracious to you, uh, in a very special way, and she's gonna find out more.

It says, listen, some translations say, behold, that just means pay attention. Listen up. So when the messenger comes to you. You need to behold the message. You need to pay attention to what God is speaking to you in your heart from your study Bible. Okay, listen, you'll become pregnant and give birth to a son and you'll call his name Jesus.

That's uh, Hebrew, [00:08:00] Yeshua. God saves. So that's all wrapped up when she heard that she was hearing all of that. We miss most of it 'cause we don't get those, uh, translations. Uh, you'll call his name. God saves and he will be great. And he will be called the son of the most high. All of this was incredible news to Mary, an incredible message.

And if sometimes we hear messages that we don't like to hear, we don't want to hear, it doesn't make sense to us. What do we do? Usually we just set it aside. Uh, I'll deal with that later. this was not something that Mary could deal with later. She had to come to grips immediately, and she did. She took advantage of the message she obeyed by listening to the message given to her by God.

And she, uh, was taking it all in. It says that, uh, she's gonna have a baby. It'll be the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give him the throne of King David Again, this is huge information. King David was one of the greatest kings in Israel. Uh, Solomon came [00:09:00] after a son of the son of David Solomon, another great king Saul, a bad king, not a great king.

And then, uh, my goodness, all the other kings and. Israel and Judo in the divided Kingdom. more times than not, it said they did evil in the side of the Lord. So a lot of bad kings going on, a lot of bad things happening. David was a good king. Not perfect, but still good. And so she's, she who is a, a, a relative of King David.

So was Joseph. The lineages bring up to, to, to King David. Um, that this ruler that's gonna be born from Mary will be on the throne of King David, his ancestor. So lineage was very important. Back in those days. This was a really big deal. He will rule over the people of Jacob. What was Jacob's name changed to Biblical literacy class.

Israel, you're absolutely right. Y'all are the smartest class in the church. That's because you're the biblical literacy. That's awesome. So Israel, the, the, the children of God, the, the [00:10:00] nation of Israel, Jacob, uh, is one of the progenitors. So, um, he will rule over the people of Israel forever and his kingdom will never end.

This is amazing news and a lot to process and grapple with, and Mary is receiving all of that. She listened to the message of God even when it didn't make sense. So kudos to Mary. Huge part. And most of the things that we know about Mary and Joseph, we get from Luke some and Matthew, but these guys probably interviewed Mary.

Hey Jesus, can we talk to your mom for a little bit? We just want to find out what all went on. And she would tell the story. She probably didn't mention it much until she was asked maybe, I don't know. I wasn't there. But they, they, they wrote down these, these notes of the things that she said happened, and this is where we get, uh, the, the narrative story of Jesus, the birth story in Matthew and Luke, probably from interviews with Mary.

And she was retelling all those things that had happened. Uh, so we probably got [00:11:00] the story of Joseph from Mary as well. Um,

Joseph: Obedience and Trust
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so here's in Matthew one Matthew's account. It says, in considering these things that Joseph was, uh, finding out when Mary came to him and said, what, Hey, by the way, I'm pregnant. He says, wait, what?

Yeah. Uh, long story. Uh, and then she starts telling the story and he's like, okay. This is not good. This is not right in Israel. Um, this is, you know, bad mojo. We gotta stay away from this. Um, I'm probably gonna divorce you quietly. I'm gonna try to, uh, you know, keep, keep, keep things okay with you, but I don't wanna give you a bad name, but I can't stay with you.

This is absolutely wrong. So, in considering these things, behold an angel, a messenger of the Lord came to Joseph and he said Joseph, son of David. Do not fear. Take Mary as your wife Again, here's that command not to fear. These are things you don't expect. This is not what you're ready for. This is not [00:12:00] how you thought things would go, but I'm God and I've got another plan.

I need you to follow me and not you. That's true for all of us. And he says, don't fear take Mary as your wife because that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Her, she will bear a son. You'll call his name Jesus. You see, this is the same story from two different messengers to two different people.

It's all aligning. Um, so it's good for us to hear from God and to talk to other people about what God is telling you. And the other person may say, you know, that's funny because God is telling me something similar. Or they may say, you know what? That sounds perfect for you. It sounds like God is really active in your life.

We need to be encouraging each other when we talk about what God is doing. But how often do you talk to other people about what God is, is messaging you? How often do you do that? Probably not very often. We don't really have time and space set aside for that. And so it does make it hard, but that's what you should be doing during the week.

You [00:13:00] know, come to church, celebrate, sing, pray, praise during the week, uh, while you're working and doing your hobby, and, you know, fixing your car that breaks down and all the other things that go on. You need to be looking for opportunities. Who, who can I tell about what God's doing in my life? Now, if you're gonna tell about what God's doing in your life, what has to happen first?

God has to be doing something in your life and you have to be aware of it, and you have to be doing it. Otherwise you have nothing to talk about. That might be the other reason we don't talk about it much because we're not engaging in the things of God. We love God and we want God to do stuff for us.

That's why we keep praying for him to do this and that. But rarely are we saying, okay, God, what do you want me to do? How can I serve you? And how can I talk about that to my friends? That's what we should be doing. That's exactly what's happening in the Christmas story. So, uh, she says she'll bear a son.

We'll call his name Jesus, and he will, because he will save his people from their sins. So this is all great news aligning with Mary. So when Jesus woke up from the sleep, 'cause the, the angel was [00:14:00] in the dream. Uh, he did as the angel Lord, as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He obeyed. That is the best way to worship God.

You can come and sing all the songs that you want, raise your hands, close your eyes, tell God how much you love him, and he loves that. But true worship is obedience, is doing what he says, listening to what he listen to the message, and then doing what he says with boldness in front of other people, it says that Joseph knew Mary not.

Until they gave birth to a, until she gave birth to a son and they called his name Jesus. They obeyed. They did exactly what they were supposed to do. Boom. And there were a lot of other things wrapped up in that part, you know, um, the, the census and trying to find a place and stuff that just did not work out.

But they still stayed to the course. They still did the, what God had called them to do. Um, I do not have time to get into the angels and shepherds. These are very important characters in the Christmas story. So just as a couple of points, the angels, they praised God in front of other people. [00:15:00] They did it in front of others unashamed.

They praised God. They made God a big deal. They conveyed the messages of God, we should be doing that as well. The shepherds on the other hand, they listened to the messages and they determined to go check it out and find out what it's about. They determined to take the next step, and they did it with haste.

That's an important word that's included in scripture. They made haste. They didn't wait around and be like, well, let's you know, sleep on this and find out how we feel about it tomorrow. They heard the message and they went and did what was necessary. So we should follow the Angel's Lead and the Shepherd's lead.

That is good advice. Study them on your own. I do wanna focus on the bad job. This is important. Because this group came a little bit later, so they're number six in our Christmas story. They're found in Matthew two. It says, now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold Magi, um, Magos is the Greek there from the east.

Uh, they were magi or some translation, say [00:16:00] wise men, which may not be the best, but they came from the east and they came to Jerusalem. So the, the Magi, you can see where this word comes from. Magi, if I add the letter, what do you have? So these, these were magicians, uh, of some sort that, some magi or wise men, they learned these things to either impress other people to gain a hearing of what they were, what, what they were trying to communicate, their messages or whatever.

Uh, from the east, maybe Persia, the Meads, not Israelites necessarily. Um, further. East, um, for, for the, the Magi, they were, they were also astronomers. They studied the stars. Have you ever been camping and you're away from the, the lights of Houston and other big cities and you just are amazed at the stars.

So I went camping in October to Enchanted Rock. Great place to go camping. We might need to do a bib lit camp trip sometime. And, uh, go out there. And, uh, I was just struck by how [00:17:00] bright the stars are. And in scripture you see, uh, people studying the stars, trying to interpret messages from the stars, trying to get meaning.

Um, other, other gods, or I should say, other, other nations and other groups of people. Would, uh, see their gods in the stars and try to hear messages about them. And I was struck why that was true, because it's amazing to see those stars. And you gotta think something's trying to tell me something.

Something's trying to give me a message. I need to figure out what it is. And, and as they would study them, they would realize some similarities, some movements, you know, the moon, it's always moving around. The sun's always the same. And so you start noticing trends. And, uh, and then you study what other people are saying.

That's what these magi were doing. Not only were they magicians or maybe sorcerers, some were also predictors of events. So they would foretell events and maybe they would, you know, pick some stuff out from the stars in the sky, um, [00:18:00] but also from ancient writings that they would accumulate and read and study.

And

The Magi: Seeking and Worshiping
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so this particular group was aware. Of the prophecies of Jesus and astronomy. The star was a part of that that was right up their alley and they were interested in that. And so when things began to take shape, they were aware that something that they were had studied about an event that was prophesied was probably coming to pass, and they were willing to take the time to check it out.

That's exactly what we're talking about in the Christmas story. You hear the message and even if you have to wait three, four, or 500 years, some of you might have to wait 400 years before your message is is finished. So just be patient then or, or at least pass it down to your children and their children because you know mean the wise men might have been several generations of studying and trying to understand this, and at some point they start seeing things happening and they take action, they say.

they, they get to Jerusalem where they were traveling and they say, [00:19:00] Hey, where is he? Who has been born King of the Jews for, we saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship him. Apparently they lost track of the star for whatever reason. Maybe that was God's will. Um, maybe they were just looking at the stars too long and they were going blind, but they, they had lost track and so what did they do?

Oh, let's go home. We don't see the star anymore. No, they were sticking to the message that they had heard they were gonna fulfill it. They were gonna take it to the end. So they started asking around. I always say this, ask the locals, uh, you go to somewhere, you pull into the gas station. You don't ask the gas station attendant.

You look for other shoppers around. Those are the locals. And you say, Hey, where's such and such place? Where's a good place to eat barbecue? Where is this? Where's that? Ask the locals. Eat with the locals. Commune with the locals. They get to the locals and they say, Hey. You guys, surely you're aware of the king of the Jews that was prophesied to be born right here in this area.

I know y'all are tracking things. Y'all must know what's going on. Help us to fill in the gaps to get to the end. And what do they say? What, wait. We're not paying [00:20:00] attention. We don't know. What are you talking about? You came so far because you're paying attention. We're not even in the midst of things with the Wiseman said, we've come to worship him.

We're prepared to do that. We just need to know where he is. So that brings us to King Herod and the chief priest and the scribes. So, king Herod says that when King Herod heard this news, there's a king being born, that he was troubled in all of Israel with him. Why is that? When the king's unhappy, everyone's unhappy.

So the king says, what another king? I have a competition. Let's see if we can fix this. Uh, hey, chief priests. The guys, you're supposed to know what's going on. Could you please tell me what's happening? They called in the scribes. Scribes are the guys that are making copies of the Bible. You know, they didn't have copy machines.

They just would copy 'em over and over, so the scribes would know the scriptures almost better than anyone because they're copying them over and over and over. Are you a scribe of the Lord? Have you ever taken [00:21:00] your study Bible and just started writing out the Bible word for word? If you did, what would that do to you and your knowledge of God?

It's gotta increase. It sounds a little monotonous. I mean, when I was in the fifth grade, miss Drew made us write the dictionary whenever we were me mean to the sub, which every time we had a sub, apparently we were mean, not me, but the other children. And so I was so mad that Miss Drew, who lived on my street, she just lived down the street from me.

She would make us write the dictionary. But I learned about those definitions that I was writing. So I guess it had some benefit if we were to ascribe the Bible to be a scribe. You would learn and grow in the things of God that is beneficial. Maybe don't write the whole Bible, but maybe there's a couple of passages that would be interesting to you.

Uh, maybe the first step you read it. Second step, just write it out longhand. And then third step, make your own notes and, and go from there. Uh, that's what the scribes do, they should have known. And so they, and the chief priest came and they said, we're gonna find out. Just give us a minute. So, uh, they did, they came [00:22:00] back and, uh, filled in the gaps for.

The Magi. So when King Herod heard this, he was troubled all of Jerusalem with him and assembling all the chief priests and scribes. This is in Matthew two for the of the people, the scribes of the people. He inquired of them. Where Christ, where the Christ. So this is interesting. He didn't call the Christ Jesus, even though his name is Jesus Christ.

Y'all know Jesus'. Last name is Christ. Okay. No, that's really just a title and it means Messiah, the chosen one. Uh, so they understood. They didn't yet know that his name would be called Jesus. They didn't find that, and Mary and Joseph had probably just named him Jesus. They hadn't heard about it, but they knew that he was the chosen one, the Christ, the king.

And so, um, they were looking for this Christ, this messiah, this chosen one. So they had a proper understanding of him, just didn't wanna take that message and, and live it out. Uh, so they, they found out where he was born, and so they told him. They would be, he would be born [00:23:00] in Bethlehem of Judea, which is a very insignificant city, and that's a big deal.

Uh, for, so it is written by the prophet Isaiah. These are things that you should have already known, so sometimes we have to catch up with what we should already know. How many of you have been saved just within the past 10 years? You got saved within between 20, 20 15 and 2025. A few of you. Okay. How many of you in the two thousands you just got saved since the year 2000?

So some of you. Okay. And how many of you have been saved in the nineties? Since the nineties? How many? Since the eighties? Since the seventies, sixties? You guys are old. Oh, sorry, what? What I mean is you guys have had a long time to say the scriptures, praise the Lord. And then how many before that? Any before that?

Yeah. Okay. So very good. Alright, well praise the Lord. Thank you for your longevity and faith. Um, most of you have probably been tracking things along. That's awesome. if you've just recently been [00:24:00] saved, more or less, you probably have a little bit of catching up to do. That's not a bad thing. It's a good thing, but guess what?

It takes time. It takes time. It was when I was in college, uh, my junior year. Is when a church that I was going to, they said, we're, as a church, we're gonna read through the whole Bible. And I thought, oh, that's a good idea. I've never done that. Got saved as a high schooler, in Dallas. But I'd never read the whole bible, never had read through the whole Bible.

No one encouraged me to do that. I hadn't got to that, hadn't thought of it on my own. When they said that, I thought that's a really good idea. So they were selling these one year bibles where they had a, a reading from the New Testament, from the Old Testament, from the psalm and Proverb every day. And I thought, I can do this.

So I read through, uh, this was early nineties. I read through the whole Bible with my church and then after that, for the next 10 years, I read through the Bible again, but I used a different color ink. Uh, so like the first year was red. You always use red on your first year. But then, uh, the next year I used blue, uh, to [00:25:00] mark and underline.

And then the next year I used a different color so I could track what colors, uh, or, or what year I'd read different things. And that, that it made. A message to me that I understood a message. And so I've been reading the Bible. So those 10 years of reading the Bible through, and I, I'd admit some years I just read the Psalms and into the Proverbs, so I kind of mix it up.

Some years were just the New Testament. Some years were just the Old Testament. But in that 10 year period, I spent a lot of time in God's word, and that has helped me now. So now I can go and do a lot of good cross references, which I think Mark Lanier is a master at. He can cross reference better than anybody I know pull things out.

From we talk about this, he said, well, this, this, and this, you know, speaks to that. That's great. And the only way you get that is to be in your study Bibles be reading it. It's not just listening to what other people say, which is also good, but you need to be reading. And that is helpful for cross-referencing and putting things together and making you think about what God's word to sing.

So, um, we have, uh, Herod, he's filling in the blanks. He tells the, the [00:26:00] wise men, he summoned the wise men, the Magi together secretly, and he said. Um, he, he ascertained from them. When did this star appear? He is trying to set up the timeline and then he sent them onto Bethlehem saying, Hey, go search diligently.

That's an important thing to do for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. Isn't that, isn't that great? King Herod wanted to worship the. He was being a little tongue in cheek. Uh, he was not being forthwith, uh, he was not being truthful. This, he did wanna worship, but his worship was to worship.

Jesus in his own personal way, which, was still the purpose of Jesus, to die for our sins, but he wanted to kill him before the cross. And so his idea of worship was very different. And it, this occurred to me because, yeah, the chief priests, the scribes, they should have been doing more and having a better, quicker understanding.

And they weren't, they had kind of let that lag. Uh, king Herod, when he found out what was going on, he said, you guys [00:27:00] go and search and then just give me the information. Herod was wanting you to do the hard work, and he would just reap the benefits, and for him, he said, I wanna worship the king. How many times do we come to church and we're, we're dressed and ready and we wanna worship the king, and yet our real intentions are to do other things than worship the king.

We have other intentions, we have other desires that God is just maybe a, a part or a sub part of it. Uh, we call that a hypocrite. So when I was at Baylor, I went to church on Sunday. I was a church boy. I'd grown up in the church, loved going to church. I still do. Uh, Jared and I, pastor Jared and I are church rats.

Uh, love, love, love, love the church. That's why I love to be with you and I love this opportunity to teach. Thank you, mark, for this opportunity as we wrap this up. So, um, I went to church when I was in college, and then I would come back to Penland Hall. That's where the cafeteria was. That's where I was at Baylor.

And I would have lunch, and sometimes you would see people in Penland Hall at lunch on Sunday [00:28:00] that, you know, didn't go to church. I mean, we knew who went to church, who didn't go to church. It was pretty obvious. But they would come down and they would dress in khakis in a blue blazer, and they would eat lunch.

And why would they do that? To give the impression that they too had been to church, that no one would be giving 'em a hard time about, Hey, why didn't you go to church? They're like, Hey, of course I probably went to church. See how I'm dressed. It is just an interesting story of how we can be hypocrites. We can, we can go and do things and try to act like we're something that we are not, which is what Herod was trying to do.

Hey, I, I, I wanna do this great thing with the king when really I had other intentions, even though maybe our intentions are not as dark and terrible as Herod. Sometimes we have bad intentions, is what we try to make ourselves out to be. And so just be careful not to be a hypocrite. Um, we're all hypocrites to some degree at different times, and God will forgive you of that and work with you on that.

But my encouragement is as we look at Herod. Don't be a hypocrite. Try to be truthful with the way that you deal [00:29:00] with Jesus, with God, and when you come to church, uh, the things that you do and say that they would be true and in, uh, a, a, a good desire to follow the things of God. So the Magi, as we move on from Herod now and the scribes, we're gonna finish up number six with Ma the Magi.

And it says that when the star, when they saw the star, so they caught reference of the star again. They rejoiced exceedingly. They were so excited about what they were doing. They lost track. They got back on track, and they were very excited about it. Man, they even stopped and rejoiced exceedingly because they're back on track.

Sometimes we get off track, that's okay, but when you get back on track, make a big deal out of it. 'cause number one, that helps with accountability. Tell some friends, guess what? I've been off in, in, in Persia. I've been off in, uh. Babylon for a while. I'm getting back on track with God. Would you hold me accountable?

We need that in our lives, and so hopefully you have some accountability. They rejoice exceedingly with great joy and going into the house, they saw the child, the Christ child [00:30:00] with Mary, his mother. They fell down and worshiped him opening their treasures. Now, this is interesting because where did they come from?

A long way. It says a far, far away. They came from afar, which some make the joke about, it's a fire or something. They came from afar. Um, so they had to, they they had to travel. And what did they bring? Gold, frankincense, and myr. These are just three of the things that we know about. Does anyone know how heavy gold is?

If you're gonna bring gold on a long journey, you're not just gonna put it in your backpack. You're gonna have to plan ahead on how you're gonna move these things. And this was important enough for them to gather these things. And maybe they were gathering them for for generations, and they were like, Hey, in this hut, don't take anything outta there.

When the Christ child is born. One day a group of us are gonna go whoever you are, and maybe I'm too old and I can't go, but we're saving this stuff up because we wanna worship the king appropriately. So they had the appropriate things to worship the king, and they made a plan to travel and to get [00:31:00] all of that stuff.

Where they were going. I mean, that's huge in preparation and we don't do that. I mean, we get up in the morning and we're like, I hope someone has a good word from God today 'cause I got nothing. And you come to church and you're, oh, praise the Lord. I'm so glad to hear that. What are you doing? What are we doing?

We need to be prepared. And that's one of the great things about the Magi. They were prepared. They had a plan. They were hearing the infor, the messages, and they were acting on it. And then they finally get there and they make their presentation. And then in the end it says they were warned in a dream.

Another message from God. Not to return to Herod because he didn't wanna worship the right way, and so they departed in another way. Once again, they were obedience. They heard the message, and I don't know, it might've been more convenient for them to go back that way, but they made a new plan to get home a different way because they were gonna obey God.

Key Takeaways: How to Celebrate Christmas
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Listen to the message of God and do it. Do it in front of people. Praise the Lord when you get off track, get back on and and be excited about it. Bring in other [00:32:00] people. Let 'em know what God's doing in your life and obey him to the ultimate. Your points for nativity. That's your points for home only. It's nativity 'cause it's Christmas.

Okay, number one, take time to listen to God. That should be fairly evident from this message. Um, through his messengers. The people that are giving God's message, pay attention to them. Don't. Don't listen to and, and do everything they say just because they say it. We need to check those things out. In fact, pastor Jarret today in the eight o'clock service said, to make notes and if, and if he says something that might be a little off, come and talk to him about it.

So you need to be checking us as messengers out to make sure that what we're saying is what your study Bible is saying, right? Um, and that's God's word and the messengers. We need to be in both of those things as we listen and then obey. Just do what he says. And you don't just need to do it. You need to do it quickly.

Make haste the shepherds. They weren't waiting around. They took action quickly. That's what we need to do. God [00:33:00] answers our prayers quickly. We need to follow him quickly. Do what he says. Don't wait until I, I, I'm gonna get around to that. I'm gonna read my Bible through in a year. I'm just not ready to do that.

Okay. And the last thing, keep track of God. Uh, I love what was said about Mary and Luke two 19 that Mary kept these things in her heart. She pondered these things in her heart. She meditated. She kept track of what God is doing, which as the mother of God of Jesus, it was a big deal that she would do that.

Um, she had a lot of responsibility there. Her and so she kept tracking God following him and I bet God gave her a lot of messages through that young Jesus stage. When we don't know much about, there were probably a lot of dreams and angels coming to marry you. Like now be sure when, when Jesus does this, you need to be sure to do that or, or, or whatever.

Um, I'm just guessing. I don't know. It doesn't say that in your study Bible, but that's what, that's what I think probably happened. She probably got a lot of messages. Regardless. I know that God deals with us. End messages, he's always wanting us to hear, [00:34:00] and that is the best way to adore and worship the Lord.

So if you're gonna worship, the characters of Christmas will guide you in your journey. So in January, maybe even epiphany will may remind you to think back on the characters of Christmas and make sure that when you worship the Lord, you're doing it with your whole heart. You're doing it with a desire to do more, always amping up, trying to do more and not less.

And then to. To disciple someone to follow in your footsteps, you're leaving a legacy. The question is, what kind of legacy are you leaving? I hope it's a great one, but if it's not, it's not too late to turn and change and start leaving a good legacy to those whom you have influence under. You are influencing people and they need to be hearing the message of God.

Do it like the angel. Boldly. So that's our message today, our Christmas devotional. Um, as we leave today, if you did not get a Bible and you're a part of the Biblical literacy class, we're gonna have the Bibles that are coming out now. Uh, we just have a, a, a small wagon full. We don't [00:35:00] have one for everyone to get another one in case you've already lost yours or whatever.

Uh, you gotta keep track of God and your. So we're gonna pray, and then if you already had your Bible head over the worship service, the few of you who have not yet gotten your Bible, please come up here and we're gonna take a blood test and then a couple other things to make sure, and then we'll be set.

Closing Prayer
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So thank you again for being a part of the Biblical Literacy class, our Heavenly Father. Today. We wanna say thank you to you because you're the one that wrote the Bible. You're the one that's giving us messages probably more than we want to handle. So we're thankful for the way that you are involved with us.

You tabernacle amongst us, you, you dwell with us, even still. Thank you for being a personal God. Thank you for allowing your Holy Spirit to teach us. As we seek to do your will because we get it wrong sometimes, but you are quick to correct us and to forgive us and to be gracious to us. Just as Mary full of grace.

You have given us your grace as well. We wanna be good responsible people as we hold your grace to receive it and to give it away to others. We [00:36:00] do it always in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.