Humble Hearts & Heavenly Joy: Embracing Gods Call This Christmas

In this message, Pastor Chris reflects on the significance of the Christmas story, highlighting how each of us can play a part in God's narrative. He explores the importance of embracing God’s call, sharing joy, acting on His word, and the power of worship and testimony. Drawing from Luke 2:8-20, we journey with the shepherds as they receive the angelic announcement of Jesus' birth. Their story shows how God’s joy meets us in humility, moves us to worship, and calls us to share His hope with others. Join us as we discover how God’s message of hope brings joy that lasts beyond the season.

NOTE SHEET
Rockwell Church     Dec 15, 2024     Pastor Chris Teien
Humble Hearts, Heavenly Joy Luke 2:8-20

1. EMBRACE God’s Call, No Matter Who You Are (Luke 2:8-9)

2. Receive and SHARE the Joy of Jesus (Luke 2:10-12)

3. Take ACTION When God Speaks (Luke 2:15-16)

4. Lift Your HEART in Praise and Worship (Luke 2:13-14)

5. Tell Others About the JOY You’ve Found (Luke 2:17-20)

Takeaways:

• The Christmas story is timeless and relevant to our lives.
• Everyone has a role in God's story, just like the characters in the Christmas narrative.
• Embracing God's call is essential, regardless of one's status or background.
• The shepherds were chosen to receive the good news, highlighting God's view of significance.
• Sharing joy and good news about Jesus is a natural response to faith.
• Taking action when God speaks is crucial for spiritual growth.
• Worship can be expressed in many forms, including singing and living out one's faith.
• Personal testimonies can powerfully impact others and share the joy found in Christ.
• Our stories can influence others' journeys toward faith.
• Discipleship is a key aspect of the Christian faith, encouraging us to teach and share with others.

Keywords: Christmas, Jesus, shepherds, angels, faith, joy, testimony, worship, discipleship, God's call

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

The message, the message time. So I mentioned before that it's tough as a pastor to come to Christmas and Easter because the story is so well known. So you can't add anything to it to make it more interesting. It is a story that I'm pretty sure that you all know very well. But it is also a time to remember everything that God did to bring about this wonderful news of Jesus and to think about how it applies to our life. To think about, okay, what how should I respond? What am I to do? What can I do? And sometimes it's even interesting to think about if you had an opportunity to begin the Christmas story, what role would you like to play? So, what role would you like to play? Would you like to bend the shepherds that heard the good news and saw the heavenly hosts and then were faithful to go spread that news to anybody who would listen to our young, stinky shepherd? Wouldn't it be cool to be one of the angels and be part of the heavenly host and proclaim the good news of Jesus? And on the flip side of that, if you were an angel, wouldn't it be frustrating as can be to look around at people and go, why do they not get it? It is so clear and so simple who Jesus is, and they just don't understand, or they don't want to understand. Would you want to be Mary and bring the Savior of the world into the world to give birth and to raise that child? And can you imagine the pressure of not messing that kid up? I just had to do everything perfect. I'm sure God helped in every way, but to be Mary. So one of my in Luke chapter two, one of maybe we'll read this today too. One of my favorite verses is that Mary treasured or Mary pondered or Mary thought about all of these things that she was seeing. Oh, she just took it all in. And so now I have these the two older girls who are my granddaughter. So the younger one, that's not mine. That's so, but nonetheless, I do have a granddaughter about that age. But sometimes I just take things in nowadays. I've realized now, and maybe if you're young, get this. You may be able to watch things and witness things and be part of things that are just kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime or once in a season kind of thing, that those days won't come again. So whether it's your kid in sports or your kid being baptized, or you know, just all of these different things as you go through life, you might just just take it in and enjoy it because you might not you might not see that or have that opportunity again, because that's just the life, the way life goes. It just kind of rolls on. And every day we have choices that we can make. In the Christmas story, as you think about who you would like to be, would you have liked to have been Joseph, the provider, the stepfather to Jesus? Try to teach him everything he needs to know as a man. No, you've got a perfect kid, so that's all good. But to try to teach him things, probably teach you a lot of things too, but uh just try to know your place, to have to flee to Egypt to escape persecution, to escape crazy Herod, to escape all of the difficulty of that. Many different roles in the Christmas story. Think about what your role is, though. So you're not in the Christmas story, so that's not for you. That's not that's not where God has you, but God has you in history, in his story, in your story, and in other people's stories. So I don't know who you connect with in your neighborhood, who you connect with in your families, in your extended get-togethers. I knew one family that uh they both had parents from multiple marriages. So I think they had to travel to like four different places for Christmas time to visit the parents and the stepparents and all that stuff. And so I don't know what your Christmas looks like, but when you're there, you can influence them, you can tell them about your faith in Christ. At your work or at your school, what is it that God has for you to do? Whatever condition you're in, just sit there, think for a second and say, okay, this is where God has me. This is the time in God's story that He has me. What can I do to be faithful, to serve, to be faithful, to proclaim Jesus, to be faithful to help other people? Those are all good things. Okay, so we're just gonna look at the shepherds and the angels. I know that you're very familiar with it, but just in this period of time that we have, let's just think about some of these things. Number one, embrace God's call no matter who you are. Embrace God's call no matter who you are. So some people they spend their lives and they don't really think they matter. They don't have a job that is high esteem, they don't think they really amounted to much, they just don't feel like they were very successful, they don't think anybody would want to listen to them. There's other people who are extremely successful, and they're very prominent leaders, they're well respected, and so they know exactly who they are, and they don't want to lose that. They don't want to lose that respect, they don't want to lose what people think of them, so they don't want to say anything about Jesus because that might cause people to push back or to cancel them or whatever, but to embrace God's call no matter who you are, and that's what the shepherds did. The shepherds, as I mentioned before in scripture, the shepherds basically took care of sheep. That was their job, that's what they did, and it was not a high esteem job, so they watched sheep, they protected sheep from wild animals. Even in the Old Testament, you see, David kept sheep. Sheep were a big deal. Sheep were kept uh for to raise up lambs for sacrifice in the temple and also just for the wool and the meat and everything else. But so it was a need in their society, but they stunk. No one really respected them, no one really cared about them. Some writings show that shepherds weren't trusted in court cases, as you couldn't you couldn't trust a shepherd's testimony, and so they weren't really seen as significant. Yet somehow God saw them as significant, so sent the heavenly host to announce their birth to the shepherds, as you know. So in Luke chapter 2, verse 8, there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping walk, watch, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. So, again, angel sightings are unexpected and terrifying. So, why is the angel here? What does the angel want? Are we in trouble? Did we do something wrong? This doesn't happen all the time. Numerous times when angels show up, first thought is people are terrified. And so, these shepherds, these shepherds, I don't know why God chose them. So I've talked about shepherds before, and I do have some ideas on why God chose them. And it's also interesting that while it's not in the Bible, it's possible that the shepherds were keeping the sheep that needed to be sacrificed at the temple. And so part of me is like, maybe the shepherd showed up and said, Hear ye shepherds, Jesus the Savior, the sacrificial lamb, the ultimate sacrifice for sin has arrived. And I just want to give you a heads up because by the time Jesus dies and is resurrected again, we are not going to need as many sheep. So uh he might want to think about a different career choice. So maybe that was it. Or maybe it's because shepherds were good storytellers. So my guess is that shepherds spend a long time, night and day, hanging out with the sheep, swapping stories. And I think that as you continue to become a better storyteller, as you uh work on your craft and get really good at it, God can use you to do significant things. So I think it was last year when I first came to this church. I didn't have a master's degree. I um I always thought about getting one, but I didn't need one where I was at. And then when I got into Converge, it was kind of the standard, so I got one. So I did the classes and I got one. And I had to take these classes. I could test out of some of them, I couldn't test out of others, and so I had to fill these classes. I had a fill, I had a class I had to, I needed to, I needed a credit, three credits actually. And I took this class and it was called storytelling. And that's like, oh, I would like to be a better storyteller. That would be great. I'll take storytelling, that'll be that'll be fun. And so it turned out it wasn't really storytelling, it was telling the grand narrative. What missionaries do in third world countries to people that can't read, people that don't, they're not extremely literate. So some people are very well crafted, almost basically professional storytellers that can tell you in story form the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And as they unwrap it, they apply it to the people, and the people respond, and all they're doing, they're not reading scripture line by line. They're just out there in a field or wherever they're at, just sharing the grand narrative, sharing the story. And so I got to experience that and I got to be part of that. And I had to write or had to make videos actually. I had to make videos uh that other students and the teacher professor would watch telling stories in the grand narrative. And you had to pick a people group. And since I had been on a missions trip to the slums of Santiago, Chile before, I picked that as a people group, the outcast Indians in that area. And I made up this kid named Mateo. And so I would I made up the story about Mateo, this poor kid that played soccer really great, and he got uh excited. I looked online, whoa, prestigious universities in Santiago. So anyway, he got a soccer scholarship to this prestigious university, and he tried to hide his identity. And so it was me telling him the story about the gospel. And so the other students were like, oh my goodness, we are praying for Mateo. And I'm like, people, Mateo is not real. I had to make him up for this class. He's a fiction, he's not, he's not, he's not a real person. But yeah, I think shepherds were awesome storytellers, and they would be faithful to tell the story to whoever would listen. Maybe that's why God chose the shepherds. And my last idea on this I shouldn't say last, because I got a lot of ideas. Maybe it's because they had the time. Maybe it's because they had the time to listen and the time to respond. You couldn't tell the Pharisees and the Sadducees because that would like upset their whole religious system and that that wouldn't work. So no one's gonna make that change. Probably not gonna tell that story, plus you'd get persecuted for that. They didn't have the time. Um, many people are too busy to hear from and be used by God. But maybe God took these shepherds who did a good job caring for and protecting sheep, who were just faithful servants out in the field living a simple and rugged lifestyle. They didn't have much, they didn't have a lot of social functions to go to, they were just shepherds out in the field tending sheep. And I guess I do have another idea too, is that Jesus is the good shepherd, and maybe because the shepherds are good shepherds and Jesus was the good shepherd and everything. But in Ezekiel, it says, For this is what the Lord, the sovereign Lord, says I myself will search and find my sheep. And we are sheep, we act like sheep, we're considered sheep. Uh, and Jesus is the good shepherd. Again, Ezekiel 34, 11, I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. Psalm 23 says, The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. And Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. So to think about how God uses the shepherds is an awesome thing. And to think about how we as sheep can help influence other people is good too. So let me continue on. Okay, number two, receive and share the joy of Jesus. Receive and share the joy of Jesus. Did you ever have some things that happen that are so good you just want to share with others? Now it's so easy. You can just take your phone and you can you can like share, you can send out messages, you can post things about, oh, this great thing that I found, or uh I gotta I found a coupon. You can get a big discount on this, or people want to hear what the good things are, what the good deals are, what the good opportunities are, what the good music is, what movies are worth watching, and all of those things. So years ago, I read when Pinterest first came out that pastors should use Pinterest to reach people. And it was a cold winter, and I'm like, okay, I'll do that. In the darkness of the night, I started to pin Christian movies worth watching on Netflix. And so I would like to watch movies, and oh, that's a good one to put that out there. And so pretty soon I amassed 7,000 followers on Pinterest. And I pinned some other things too. Actually, I don't use Pinterest a whole lot now, but those 7,000 followers are still there. And pretty much what they wanted from me is they wanted to know what good movies there were to watch on Netflix, what good Christian movies there were to watch on Netflix. And I'd have to tell you now, there aren't really any. There's hardly any good Christian movies to watch on Netflix. Because now there's different, there's different, there's pure flicks and there's other streaming channels that have more Christian movies. But people want to know what good news you have. They want to hear the good news about Jesus, they want to hear the good news about how you're growing in your faith, they want to hear the good news about good, godly Christian resources and entertainment, and it's all good. So, Luke chapter 2, verse 10. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. I bring you great news, great news about Jesus. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. And this will be a sign to you, you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. So the angels had this message to share. So it's so strange to think about the whole spiritual realm and the heavenly hosts and everything. And so, my from what I understand, most likely, there's angels all around, but we're not able to perceive them, we're not able to see them. I mean, our eyes can only see in a certain spectrum, and maybe they're in a different spectrum. But you just kind of wonder, as you entertain angels, unawares, angels are around, if they applaud you when you're faithful, and if they shake their head when you fail, when they're like, darn, he blew that one. Oh, he couldn't. He'll do better next time. But they just they watch and they know they angels were created to glorify God and they continually worship him in heaven. Their worship reflects the majesty and holiness of God. In Isaiah 6 3, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory, they say. Second Kings, angels worship the Lamb and sing his praises. So singing glory to God in the highest. Angels are messengers in Hebrews 4. No, Hebrews 1 14. Therefore, angels are only servants, spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation. So some people get the idea that everybody hasn't has a guardian angel. Some people realize it would take more than one angel to keep you out of trouble. So maybe a team of angels, but nonetheless, angels. We when we die, we do not become angels. So actually, the scripture says that someday we will judge the angels. So we are above the angels. So when people die, they do not become an angel. Though every parent loves to see their kid in an angel costume on Christmas. That's my little angel up there. Oh, I gotta get a picture. So angels do carry out God's will. Angels do what they're told, and they don't do any more than that. So angels get excited when lost people get found, when unsaved people get saved. Luke 15, 10. In the same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. So the angels get excited when people come to Jesus. So I'm sure the angels were excited to see this story unfold. So I don't think that everything was revealed. The whole plan was revealed to the angels. They longed to look into the things, these things. Scripture says, number three, take action when God speaks. Take action when God's when God speaks. In James it says, do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. So as you look into God's word, as God speaks to you through his word, what is it that you need to take action on? What is it that you need to change? When you look into God's word, you think about what I'm reading here, especially in the Old Testament, is this for just the people at that time, or is it for all people of all time? Is there something in here that I can learn, something that I need to stop doing, something I need to start doing? How can I apply this message to my life? How can it change me? The Holy Spirit will help you to know what it is that you need to stop doing and start doing. He empowers you to do works of service, he comforts, he guides, he helps, and it is a good thing. So, chapter two, verse 15. When the angels had left the shepherds and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. So the angels gave them an invitation and told them that they could go see this, that they were invited to go see that this thing, this thing that was going on, this thing, the Savior lying in a manger who was born. They were invited to go. And there was every excuse for them not to go. We can't go, we have to watch the sheep. We can't go because we should probably take showers. We can't go because we might get in trouble from upper management. We can't go because they probably don't want to see us. We'll probably be an interruption. It's it's late. Baby probably needs its mother, probably needs her sleep. But no, they heard from the angels and they're said, okay, we got the invitation. Let's go, let's do it. So I heard that as not as just a hey, if you want to, I heard that as uh you better go, we're angels, and uh, don't make us come back and scare you some more. So get it done, and they did. They did, they obeyed what they were told. How many times do we know what we're supposed to do and we don't follow through? How many times do we know how we're supposed to live or the things that we're supposed to carry out or the things, the action steps, or those things, and we don't get it done? And we have so many excuses of why we don't get it done. Day turns to week, turns to month, and it just never gets done. So I'm guilty of that. Numerous times I have taught people how to prepare to end their lives, how to write wills and everything like that. New Year's resolution, I guess. My wife and I probably should do this. I currently don't have a will. I haven't written anything down. I've told people repeatedly and given them resources on how to do it, but I just I don't know. It's not anything I'm too excited to think about. Besides that, I don't have much, but I maybe I do, I don't know. But nonetheless, there are things that you should do, and maybe in the coming new year, you should write those things down as goals. Say, I think that God wants me to, and then write those things down. So the first series in the beginning of the year is going to be called Chase What Matters. And it's gonna focus on being a disciple and making a disciple and good time management in the beginning of the year. So as we think about what it is that God tells us to do, pray about that. Even ask the Lord in this coming new year, Lord, what is it that I can do to better serve you? What is it that I can do to glorify you? What is it that I can do to have my life matter, to make an eternal difference? What is it that I'm doing right now that's not a really great use of my time? What is it that maybe I need to give up because it's gotten in the way of our relationship? And then to make those changes, to make those changes. Number four, lift your heart in praise and worship. To lift your heart in praise and worship. That's what the angels did. Verse 13. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. So it was a worship, it was a big worship time, a big praise time. Can you imagine what that sounded like? How wonderful that sounded like. I remember many, many years ago, Promise Keepers men's event at the Metrodome. I'm not sure what year that was. I'm not, was that like 1996 or something like that? Hearing all of those men in the Metrodome praise God together was pretty uh pretty amazing. So just the sound of it was pretty amazing. But to hear the heavenly host, to hear We can worship as a group. We can worship in the car. We can worship at home. Worship is singing. Worship is also proclaiming God's word. Worship can be done through the choices that we make and the actions that we make, but we can lift our hearts in praise and worship. Sometimes that praise and worship is a song that draws us closer to the Lord, that allows us to use someone else's words and praise God. And sometimes, sometimes it's just a stream of just thank yous. Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to live at this time and to be able to have readily, ready access to your word and print and and on my phone and through audio sources. And I just thank you for the freedom that I have to live for you at this time. And thank you for the people that told me about Jesus. And thank you for what you've been doing in my life to help me to grow as a man or woman or child of God. And just thank you. And you know, just keep going. Do it out loud. You can walk. You don't have to be on your knees. You can you can praise God in the car. You can worship and just be thankful and glorify God. And sometimes you read scripture back, sometimes you take the Psalms, the creation psalms, and you read back and you pray that back to God as a form of worship. The angels proclaimed, angels worshiped. We should find joy in knowing Jesus personally and let that joy overflow to those around us. So we should remember what we would be like if Christ hadn't come into our life and how he's changed us. Remember what that person would look like and look around and go try to tell that kind of person about Christ in your life and how he's changed you. So the angels wanted to glorify God because they love him and care for him. Worship is more than just a Sunday activity. Revelation 5:11, I looked again and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne of the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Number five. That's the last one. Number five. Come back here. There it goes. Okay. Tell others about the joy you found. To tell others about the joy you found. So your testimony is what your life was like before you came to Christ, how you came to Christ, and what your life has been like since. Sometimes your testimony can include things like how God got you out of a mess, how God helped give you direction and purpose in your life, how God sent someone into your life to help you start a new skill or new opportunity or a new ministry or things like that. Sometimes your testimony revolves around how you went through a really hard thing and God didn't change it or fix it. You just went through a really hard thing and you still have faith. You still trust God, even though that day, that section, that chapter, that person in your life didn't, it didn't work as you had hoped. Sometimes broken people have the best testimonies to broken people. Sometimes when divorced people tell of how God got them through and help them, that can be a great, great blessing to another divorced person. On the flip side of that, sometimes divorced people are quick to tell other people they get divorced. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about two broken people following Jesus who share how they got through the pain and are serving Jesus. Sometimes you share how your dreams and expectations, what you thought you were going to become when you were young, didn't actually materialize, but you're still content because you trust God's plan and you know that God has you where he wants you to be. But you tell others about the joy you found because joy isn't just happiness. Joy is a confident assurance that it's gonna be okay. Joy is a confident assurance that the difficulty that you're going through is is it's gonna be okay. Verse 17. When they had seen him, the shepherds, when this when they had seen Jesus, when the the shepherds had seen Jesus, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. And so what did they tell? They just told what they had experienced, they told what they knew. They weren't theologians, they didn't say, Well, you know, this was prophesied back in Malachi and Isaiah, and they didn't probably go into details on that. They're probably like, dude, we're like out in the fields with the sheep, and these angels showed up and said, We should go see this kid who was just born who's the savior. And so, and they just shared that, what they saw, what they knew. Uh, the people that they were, and maybe they're a really good storyteller, so maybe they were able to like recall everything that had happened just the way that God wanted them to, and they spread the message among who? Among whoever would listen, whoever would listen to a dirty, stinky shepherd that had been out in the field. And all this is going down, and then here's my favorite verse that I mentioned already. Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. And so I think that God created people because he loves stories. And I think that we are all living a story, our story that affects other people's stories around us. And in this coming year, think about what is it that God wants you to do to help other people grow closer to the Lord as you are, you know, basically writing your stories together. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Just as they had been told. We're told to go make disciples. I say that when we baptize people, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And that's what we're supposed to be doing. And that's why in January we're gonna start a four-week series on Chase What Matters on making disciples, so that we will be, verse 20, teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the end of the age. So we're gonna show you a movie uh clip, and then the worship team is gonna come up and sing. Next time, when you come back for church, we're gonna talk about Jesus. Love, love that moves Jesus in action. But we're gonna watch this and then uh the worship team is gonna come back up. So let me just pray real quick, though. Lord, if there's anybody here that doesn't know you as our Lord and Savior, I pray that they would think about that, that they would grab one of those How to Find God New Testaments and look in there and see what it says about how our sin separates us from you, how we need a savior to cover our sins, how we need to be forgiven and made right with you, God, so that we can be adopted as children of God and assured heaven, and that um that we can receive at least one spiritual gift to serve you in the church. God, we just thank you for everything. And we pray that if anybody is struggling with knowing for sure if they're saved or not, that they would grab somebody today, that they would call me, that they would ask, and we could have a conversation about that. Or maybe even today they would just cry out, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. Please forgive me of my sin and come into my life and save me. I want to follow you. Teach me what that means. Help me to live as you've created me to be. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's watch this video clip.