← ArchiveSunday, December 29, 2019DateDecember 29, 2019SpeakerBrad TollisonText—Passages in this sermonLuke 2:15–201:55TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Thank you for joining us. Thank you for joining us.0:30Usually opening or closing one, so this time I'm closing one.1:00And this time is a little special because this is the last time that I will be preaching here as a staff person. And so anyway, I hope you guys eventually circle around and maybe have me back sometimes. But I would love for that invitation to come. This is a very special sermon because it really hits home. It was very unique that as I'm thinking about what would my last sermon be, this one couldn't be any closer.1:25And so it's very unique because we're talking about the Christmas story, but we're talking about a part of the Christmas story that I think that we kind of skip over. And we kind of kind of zoom over it. We don't we don't king in on a particular group of people. And that is the shepherds. We really don't talk a lot about them. We kind of just kind of skip over a little bit. So they're just shepherds.1:54So turn with me to Luke chapter 2, verses 15 through 20 is where we're going to kind of hang out. I'm going to read it and then we're going to dissect this and break it apart. Luke chapter 2, verses 15 through 20, it says, When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another,2:18Let 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 laying in a manger. 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 had told them.2:44But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, as we open your word up, Lord, I pray, Lord, that we would know, one, Lord, who you are as our Lord and Savior. But, Lord, we would understand that we have a responsibility as believers and followers of Christ.3:13And we thank you, Lord, what you're going to do. Amen. Shepherds in this period of time were nomads. They were kind of this separate group of thugs and thieves. That we don't realize that until we really get into the scripture and the history behind who they were. And so they're universally known as thieves and you couldn't trust them.3:40They would not be hired on at a Fortune 500 company. As a matter of fact, if they walk into Walmart, security might be called. They're that kind of people. Okay, they would steal your stuff. And so here they are. They're out here in this field. And so I just want to set the scene here. It was commonplace in the first century when you had a firstborn son to hire a herald. To hire someone to kind of announce this is the firstborn.4:10Because the firstborn son is very, very important. Because the culture viewed the firstborn son as a blessing to pass on the name. To pass on the lineage. And so if they only had a little bit of money, guess what? You didn't have a big herald. If you had a whole lot of money, they did it big. Okay, they probably brought the camels in. Had trumpets. And said, this is our firstborn son.4:39But if you didn't have much, you really just didn't, you probably didn't have that big of a herald. In today's culture, some of you, when you have a child, you go all out. And you buy the pictures and you send them out and everything. But if you don't have a whole lot of money, you post it on Facebook. Hashtag firstborn. And that's kind of what we did. Whenever we've had a kid, it's like, you know, this is it. You know, this is Facebook. And so, or Twitter, whatever you would decide to do.5:07And so, but other people might do a full-blown mail-out and make a big deal about it. Well, Mary and Joseph, guess what? They're broke. They're not even in their hometown. And they're having to stay in someone's manger in the back. And so, God heralds, and he heralds this like you would expect God to. The angels line up.5:36And they light the sky up. And I don't think we realize how big this was. How awesome that it must have been for these shepherds to be standing there. And all of a sudden, the sky just explodes. And you've got to realize, they didn't have things like airplanes that we see in the sky. It was not common for things to be up in the sky other than the stars. And so, when they experienced this, it was a very big deal.6:03Now, if you're a shepherd, a known thief, a nomad, a thug, living the thug life, what do you think happens when angels show up in the sky? You're probably hiding behind a rock with your cigarettes, counting all the stuff you've stolen in the hood. Okay? And so, they're scared to death. As a matter of fact, it says that they have fear. And that's one reason why they had this fear is because these angels showed up.6:33I mean, what do you think? The reason the Bible says that they felt great fear is because you wasn't expecting this to happen. Especially these guys, to show up. And all of a sudden, they hear something that says good news. Good news. So, society has a way of doing things right and good. God is doing the opposite way of operating in order to bring glory to himself.7:01If you're building a staff on a church, you wouldn't hire the shepherds. As a matter of fact, if you're building a company, you probably wouldn't hire these guys. But God does it different. He does it different. In his kingdom economy, he chooses these guys to be the heralds, to be the announcers.7:25And no one in the business world would hire this group. And then you have Mary, Joseph, and these thugs, these thieves, to herald the good news. And this is why I love this. This is why I love this part here. When God calls, redeems, he calls among the weak. He calls among the broken.7:56So, he is most glorified. And God oftentimes calls people that are undesirable. He often calls people that we wouldn't expect for him to use. You'd never think that God would call that brother to go. And so, he glorifies himself in the weakest of men. So, what does that mean for me and you? What does that mean for us? And here's where it gets interesting to me is, I don't know if it's society or just human nature.8:25We know bad people. Okay, if you can think, you know some bad people out there. You probably have family members that are bad people. You know them, but we're never them. We're never the bad people. At least we don't think that we are. I mean, we watch shows like Cops and Live PD to make our selves feel better.8:53At least we're not that. You know, at least we're not that bad. At least we're not like those people. And so, we do this all the time. And it makes your heart, for some of us, it makes your heart angry when good things happen to people who you don't think good things should happen to. We do this. And then, when bad people have good things happen to them, we're like, well, how in the world did that happen? What did that happen for?9:24And so, every one of us in this room are wicked and depraved. Every single one of us. And so, when the angel shows up and says, good news, joy to all people, he means your enemies. He means the people that you don't like. He means the bad folks. This was news for everyone. Everyone. And so, some of you need to know.9:53And some of you need, some of you are convinced that you're wicked. Some of you are convinced of that. Some of you walked in here today and said, you know, I know I'm messed up. I know I'm bad. There's hope for you. There's hope for you. You've got a chance. But for the person that has the pridefulness that walks in here and goes, you know what? I'm pretty good. One day you'll be sorely surprised. Now, it's interesting to note that this is the message given to shepherds, a group of thugs.10:23Look with us in verse 15. It says, I mean, the sky goes black again. You have this explosion. The angels are gone. And guess what these cats do? Let's go see. Let's go see.10:55And, you know, they sit there and they get to the manger. They worship and then they immediately become heralds. The very first evangelists, listen to me. The very first evangelist was a group of thugs. Think about that for a second. Isn't God great? The first group of evangelists was a group of thieves. Only God could do that. You and I fill the role of those shepherds.11:22We fill that role now. Sinners saved by grace and now become in our, we go into our neighborhoods and our workplaces and our families and we herald the good news of joy to all people. Now, if you have any kind of church background, you know this. This is no good. This is no new news to you. That we have a responsibility as believers to go out and tell.11:51And share the good news of Jesus. And so you've heard it over and over and over again. So now we have to do something with the fact that we know this to be true. But we struggle so much as a church. I'm not talking about just Bethel. I'm talking about churches all over this country. With just sharing it. Individually sharing it. The good news of who Jesus Christ is.12:20So I'm going to give you four reasons. Yes, I have points. I wouldn't be a good Baptist if I didn't have points. And so we have four reasons that stop us really from actively sharing our faith. From actively sharing our faith. So I have to search my heart with this and everything. So the first one is we have lost our confidence in the glory of the gospel. We've lost our confidence in the glory of the gospel. I don't think we need a new training seminar.12:50Those of you that have been through all those training seminars. I've been through faith and several others. I don't think we need a new one. I just think that you need to share what's in your heart. What has God done in your heart is share that with someone else. So why don't we do that? What I found in my heart is as I was studying and getting ready to preach this message. Is that if I'm not careful, my faith will become stale over a period of time.13:16I'm just being honest with you. My faith will become stale over a period of time. My childlike wonderment. My childlike wonderment of the glory of God can fade. And be replaced with a kind of routine of going through the motions. I didn't know what that was when I first got saved. Someone will say, well, you know, just hold on. You know, you one day you'll just go through the motions. I'm not going to be that guy. I don't want to be that guy.13:46And then as I get older, and man, this has been a 25-year journey for me. I have found myself at different points and stages of my life going, you know what? Am I going through the motions right now? Have I lost that childlike wonderment of when I first got saved? And so what do these shepherds do? What I love about the shepherds, upon hearing the word of the Lord, they didn't stop and go, did that really happen?14:10They didn't go, man, let's create a Bible study about what just happened. They didn't try to theorize it. They didn't try to figure it out. No, guess what they did? They went. They dropped what they were doing. And this is a big deal. Because you didn't leave sheep. Because guess what sheep do if you leave them alone?14:41They wander. So these guys were hired to keep the sheep. And so guess what they did? Forget them. Uh-uh. We're going to go see what's going on here. Because did you see what just happened? And we just heard from the Lord. Let's go. Let's go. So the Lord revealed it. Let's go see it. There is this childlike wonderment that builds a confidence in what God says.15:08And now it's driving them to see what God has said would be waiting for them. And in my life, if I get to be 90 years old, 80 years old, man, I want that childlike wonderment. I want that fire to keep building me up. And that builds up that confidence in sharing Christ with others. So when I read the word that generously changes the inner man and that generosity pleases the heart of God, I want to say, Lord said it.15:38Let me go. See it. The Lord said it. Let me go. The glory of God builds our confidence in being heralds of this good news. We've lost our confidence. We kind of shy down. We don't really, I wonder what they might say. And so we don't. When you see the weight of God, the splendor of God, the might of God, you're driven into confidence that what the word of God says is true.16:07What the word of God says is true. My hope is that rather than being stale, is that you would, like a child in awe, say, the Lord said it. Let's go see it. The Lord said it. Let's go see it. Verse 16 says, and when they went with haste. And guess what? They didn't just slowly go. These cats are running.16:37Let's go. They're getting after it. They're getting busy. They went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And so they find this baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. We have no idea how long this takes. Just think about it. They probably had to go to stable after stable after stable looking for what had happened. And they apparently just wander through the stables in Bethlehem until they find the one that Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus are in.17:04Now, if you're reading this like a newspaper, you miss this. You miss the fact that they were in awe. You miss the fact that they just dropped everything and went. You miss the fact that they didn't go slowly. They went quickly. They got after it. And so there was a sacrifice there.17:32There was a risk they were taking. There was faith that wasn't stale. It was fresh. And it was rewarded. The second reason. The second reason. I think it's very important is we complicate the simple message of the gospel. We complicate it. This is what we will say. We don't want to herald the good news because I don't have all the answers. I don't have all the answers.18:01What if they ask me? What if they ask me some crazy question? Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? Think about that one for a minute. What if they ask me something crazy like that? Let me tell you the power of saying this. I don't know. Guess what that does? It lets their guard down a little bit. And they go, man, that's God. He's being honest with me. He's just not coming up with something.18:30Because that's oftentimes what we try to do. We try to act all spiritual and try to come up with some answer. So what if they bring up something in the Bible that I don't know? What if they bring up about some other religion? So we become paralyzed in sharing our faith because we feel we don't have enough of the answers. How many of you in this room would say that's me? Probably a lot of us in here. We get stuck in this trap. Let me encourage you this way.18:59There is a place to argue about the efficiency of Scripture. There's a place to argue about the historical facts in Scripture. There's places for that. There's venues for that. But those things only remove hurdles. They don't save souls. They don't save souls. We've gotten so wrapped up19:28and try to systematically theorize everything that we do is that we've forgotten the simple message of the gospel. It's to just go and tell. The best results that I have personally seen as an evangelist, listen to me, were not about things I had learned or have knowledge about theology, but as a young man freshly saved from my sins with little to no knowledge19:57about what had happened to me. man, if I could go back and if you knew me shortly after I'd gotten saved. Some of you were there. Some of you were in this room and you knew Brad before and what had happened to my life. My high school yearbook became a hit list. It really did.20:27I had marked out people. I mean, I was track bombing everybody. Bam! There's a track. I got in trouble with the post office because I had track bombed an entire neighborhood. So you can't do that. But why? Because you got to pay for postage. What I have to give is free. No, you can't do that. I walked into Lifeway and was like, load me up. I'm new at this thing. I was a former agnostic. Load me up with some swag. I want some Christian swag. I want some of those tracks.20:57I mean, load me up. Man, I was on fire. I just wanted to share it with everybody. I didn't even, I didn't know what the Romans road was. I didn't know anything about Arminianism or Calvinism or any of those things. I just read my word. I said, man, something changed in my heart. Something fueled this inside of me. And I've got to go tell folks about it. The first two people that I told,21:26I went home. My mom's right there. She can tell you. Got saved, mom. Don't know what happened. Got saved. Second person, my biological dad. Hey, dad. Something happened to me. I got saved. And then it became a process of just telling people about who Jesus is. God doesn't need you to answer all the questions. He just needs you to tell the good news. And we're,21:56And we're, churches across the country are dying today because we have people sitting in pews that have never shared their faith. Never. Number three. We don't engage the culture. Verse 17, it says, and when they saw it, they made known. They made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.22:24So your intellectual answer will do nothing to save a soul. It just won't. Our confidence is in the message of the gospel itself. And I don't think it's very complex. Let's get practical here. Let's get really practical. We had a Sunday school lesson this morning and I'm telling you the Sunday school lesson and the youth group just kind of fueled my fire a little bit. So if I seem a little excited it's because they just kind of got me excited.22:54Let's get practical. One of the best ways that I have personally been able to share my faith is really simple. How can I pray for you? How can I just ask the question? How can I pray for you? I've had no one lose their grits. I've had no one tell me, no! I don't know that Jesus stuff. I don't want that. I've had no one23:24do that. As a matter of fact, they may go, I'm not too sure. I'm not religious. I don't care. I always ask you, how can I pray for you? And this is what I do. They may tell me, hey, you know what? I just need to, there's this thing going on in my heart I'm just not too sure about. And guess what? I'll pray for them right then. Right there. And then I'll circle up the next day or the next week. Hey, how's that going?23:54How's that going with you? Guess what I'm doing? I'm showing them that they care. I'm showing them that I'm caring for them and that opens up a dialogue. If they don't know who Jesus is, guess what? They're going to see him through my actions. That's just a very simple way that I've learned just to open up and share my faith. You don't have to have all the answers. You don't have to walk up to them and slap them over the head with your Bible and say, hey, you're going to go to hell.24:24When's the last time that got anybody saved? And so for years I think that we've stood on the street corners with our bullhorns and what we need to do is get back to the simplicity of the gospel and we need to look to Jesus and how he did that and how he used these shepherds, these thugs. One of the things24:56that Jesus was accused of often is hanging out with sinners. The people Jesus would hang out with were men and women that were outcast. They were either diseased and they worked jobs that were not viewed as unclean. In our day and age this is what this would look like. If Jesus was here in our day and age if you can think of strippers, drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes that's who he was having over at his house at the table. That's who he was25:27hanging out with. Think about that for a second. I think we've lost the art of hospitality. We've lost this art of hospitality. When is the last time you had company over to your house? And I'm not talking about church folks. I'm not talking about your Sunday school class. I'm talking about someone that don't know who Jesus is. When is the last time you had company over? I can remember when I was a kid25:57we had company over. We just would have company and we would sit and we would talk for hours. And I'm not talking about Chick-fil-A yelling at the glass playground. Don't lick the glass. Stop pulling her hair. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about inviting someone in and going, hey, you know what? let's have dinner. We've lost the art of house hospitality. This is a slow meal26:28in your house for the next three, four hours. You're going to eat slowly, drink slowly and get to know one another deeply. Jesus spent time with people. He spent time with people. That's just what he did. Jesus would gather people to himself just like you and I weak, wounded with our own baggage and he would profoundly use us for his glory drawing others to himself.26:57That's what he does. He uses us. You know how counter-cultural that is? When's the last time you know anybody that spent a lot of money on their front porch? We're a back porch society. Some of you I know in this room you've spent tons. Some of the contractors go, shh, stop. Nobody spends time on their front porch. We're a back porch society. We don't want anybody to see us.27:32Verse 20. And I love this. This is one of my favorite verses here of this passage. And the shepherds. I want you to read it. And the shepherds. What'd they do? What'd they do? Returned. Returned. Glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as that had been told them. The shepherds left and returned to what? What'd they do?28:02Shepherding. They didn't become preachers. They didn't become theologians. As a matter of fact they didn't get hired at some Fortune 500 company. Nothing changed for them socially. They went back to being shepherds. None of that was fixed28:33yet they left rejoicing. This is very important. Here's what the glory of God does. Here's the world your neighbors your family they should see you rejoicing because of what the Lord has done. He may not fix your circumstances. He may not change a lot of things for you. But what happens is the glory of God29:02injects gratitude in the highs and the lows of our lives so that joy becomes the foundational element of the Christian experience regardless of life's circumstances. Joy. Joy. The shepherds leave rejoicing. The shepherds leave praising God but what were they going to do? Back to being shepherds. See when the glory of God invades our space we have this experience29:32that takes place and the gratitude shaped by the glory of God begins to reshape every aspect of our relationship with others and we develop a burden for the souls of people because of the joy and the gratitude that is placed in our heart. You may ask well how do I get there? How do I get to that point where I'm telling people about Jesus? How do I get to that point where I'm sharing30:01about who Jesus is? One step at a time. One step at a time. The reason why it's so important for us to come together and gather in this space with the people of God with the church. The reason why it's so important for us to get into the word of God. The reason why it's so important for us to do life in Christian community is that's just one step of our growth30:30and following Jesus. That's just one step. It's not angels exploding in the sky. It's not some miraculous thing taking place. It's one step at a time. You may ask someone hey how can I pray for you? That may be your first step. 2020 will make 25 years of following Jesus for me. It's always been31:00one step at a time for me. One step at a time. I feel like I shouldn't even be here right now. I tell people I really should not be standing here because I feel like I've just scratched the surface of my journey. I feel like I'm just at the tip of the iceberg. If you would have told me 25 years ago that I would have be who I am today that you would have told me that31:29Brad you're going to be a minister you're going to have a family you're going to have three boys I would have told you you've lost your mind. you have lost your mind. There's no way I could be a minister at a church because the bondage that I wrestled with the sins that I tripped over the rage that was in my heart the weakness of my imagination if you'd have told me31:59that I would have said you've lost your mind. There's no way that people are going to feel awkward around you sometimes because of the truth that comes out of your mouth that they're going to avoid you in some cases you've lost your mind. There's no way. It's been one step at a time. One step at a time. For 25 years as a former agnostic that hated the church I've been watching you.32:28I've been observing the church and I've experienced some glorious moments wonderful moments but I've also experienced some pretty devastating moments in my walk with Jesus in my experience with the church.32:58Let me encourage you those of you that are trying to follow Jesus the best way you know how. Don't neglect the word. Stay in it. Every step of the way. Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus. Because guess what? Men of God will let you down. The church33:27The church sometimes will disappoint you. You've got to follow Jesus. You've got to look to him in everything that you do. Everything that you do. This church can't save a soul. It can't. But the people in it that have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them the true followers of Jesus they33:54they can change a world. I know I said there was four points here's the last one. The reason why some people never share their faith is because maybe they're not followers. Maybe they're not followers. And if that's you maybe you need to examine your heart and your motives. So here's what I'm going to leave you with as my34:23as my last sermon here. I want you guys to grab the green connect card in the back of your queue. Every one of you.34:47Here's your first 2020 New Year's resolution. I want you to actively begin to pray specifically for certain people and look for opportunities to share the good news of the joy of Christ with them. You didn't hear me say invite them to church because that's easy. I said pray for opportunities to share your faith with them. So here's35:20So here's what I want you to write down the names of three people who are in and around your life. Either co-workers, family members, neighbors, someone you know. And here's what I want you to commit to. I want you to commit to just pray for them daily and pray that God would afford you the opportunity to share your faith and watch what happens. One of my prayers for this past35:50this past year 2019 was to be able to share my faith more. And guess what I found out? I have to get outside the walls of this church to do that. I have to hang out with people that are different than me. I have to hang out with people that are lost. That maybe they act different than me. Because guess what? That's what Jesus did. That's what he did. The angels36:20The angels cracked open the sky onto a group of thugs and said good news joy to all people. And now we find ourselves a few thousand years later as recipients of that good news being placed in neighborhoods being placed in workplaces among our family members to herald the good news to pray God would move on their behalf and to speak the good news to where36:49to where opportunity presents itself. May we not waste another day not sharing about who Jesus is. So in a moment I'm going to ask you to stand up in just a moment. And here's what I want you to do. I said to start praying for those three people that you wrote down. Maybe they haven't wrote it down. Maybe they're in your mind. And I37:21And I want to challenge you to right now take a step and come to these steps. There's nothing magical about these steps. But come here and start praying for that person. Maybe it's somebody in this room. Say can I pray for you? Let's Let's pray, Lord Jesus.
