Do You Hear What I Hear?

Here we go. Asher, for one donut. Can you finish this lyric? It's beginning to look. Uh, I like Christmas. Awesome. Here you go. Now what does that look like to you? It looks like, it looks like people are celebrating Jesus's birthday. Awesome. Everywhere we look, the world shouts for more, more lights, more gifts, more noise. But the first Christmas began with less. And with presents, not presents Well, Merry Christmas man. We're officially in it, aren't we? It's Christmas time. And you know what? Christmas, one of those times when we, we love the sights. We love the sounds. So here's a question for you guys. What are some of your favorite sounds that remind you of Christmas? Maybe for some of you it's the sleigh bells jingling. Or maybe it's just the Christmas carols or maybe that one Christmas carol that you have been waiting all year to hear for others of us. Maybe it's not the sound, but that silence and that peacefulness of watching the snow fall outside. Maybe it's kids laughing as they tear into their presents on Christmas morning. Man, those are all sounds that we just love. And you know, those are the sounds that move, they make the movies, but you know what, if we're honest with ourselves, there's a whole nother set of sounds underneath those and that really kind of drive us the, the actual soundtrack of the season. And maybe not the sound of slay bells, but the sound of urgency. This clock tick to tick TikTok, it's only like 18, 19 more shopping days still Christmas. And I haven't even bought the Christmas cards yet. The lights aren't up yet, man, we don't have much time, man. I'm already behind. Maybe it's the sound of consumption that ding of the notifications on, on your phone of every retail app you've ever downloaded saying Ping, buy now before it's too late. Sale ending tonight. Get it, get it now. That beep of the, the card reader as you decide to spend more money than you should, that sound of another Amazon box is showing up on your doorstep. Honestly, man, these are not the sounds that we love to hear about Christmas. And it really starts off as kind of this low hum at about Halloween time and it just gets louder and louder and louder and louder to a point. Like right now it might be a, a pretty loud roar in your life. It's a noise of more that we need to do more, that we need to buy more, we need to bake more, we need to post more. We need to be more. And look, the underlying message of the noise of more is this, is that for Christmas to be good, it needs to be more, it needs to be bigger, it needs to be more extravagant, it needs to be loud, it needs to be expensive, it needs to be Instagram worthy. And this is a tension. I know we all feel this tension. We do want peace on earth. We want the, the, the version of Christmas a silent night sings about. But there are times when this noise of more just drowns everything out. So that's what we're gonna do over these next few weeks, is we're gonna try to hit the pause button on these noises that seem to drown out the, the noises we love about Christmas. We're starting brand new series called Do You Hear What I Hear? We wanna dial down some of these unwanted noises so that we can be tuned in and we could hear that one thing that our souls are really desperate for, that one thing that Christmas is really all about. And so today we're gonna start with a very familiar story and it's in Luke chapter two. And I know every single one of you have heard this, probably a thousand times. You've probably seen it performed with by kids in bath roads with towels on their heads. And uh, gosh, if you've watched the Charlie Brown Christmas, you've heard Linus recite this over and over and over again. So if you have your Bibles or on your listening guides, if you're here joining me online, you can, you can click on the online version, Luke chapter two verses eight through 16. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna just read right through this 'cause we're gonna take this apart in, uh, in a pretty good level of detail. So I'm gonna read straight through this because I know you've heard this before. But here's the thing. I want you to hear this like you're hearing this and seeing this for the very first time, because I think we're gonna take a different look at it than what you're used to. So Luke chapter two verses eight through 16. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord and shown around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He's the messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company, the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. When the angels had left them 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. I know this is a familiar story, right? We've seen this on greeting cards, we sing about this in Christmas, but there's a lot we can learn from this story. The first thing, the first thing we can learn is this, don't let the noise define your value. Know your true worth. And let me unpack that a bit here. One of the keys, one of the keys to understanding what this and to hearing really what this passage is really talking about here is we need to take a a really close look at who is involved, who God chooses to speak to first. 'cause the recipients of this message tell us just as much as the message itself. So if you look way back in verse eight, we rewind back to verse eight, here's what it says. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. You wanna underline something there, underline shepherds 'cause shepherds, shepherds are key. Our view of shepherds, the view of shepherds we have has been sanitized. We see them on, on greeting cards, right? There's always these shepherds and they're, they're nicely dressed in these pretty robes and always holding a cute little lamb in their, in their arms. But you know, the real version, what shepherds would've been in the first century is very, very different. Your mom would've told you to cross the street to avoid the shepherds. They were outcasts. They're at the very bottom of the social ladder. I mean, consider this, the Pharisees had basically designated their trade shepherding as a despised trade. They were nomadic, they were constantly being accused of grazing on on other people's lands. They were stereotypes as thieves. And swindlers don't do business with these people. They, in fact, they were not even allowed to testify in a court of law because their word was considered worthless. And the irony is this, these very shepherds are probably shepherding the sheep that will be used in the temple warship as a sacrifice. Yet they would not be allowed in the temple. 'cause they were considered ceremonially unclean. They were unseen, they were unappreciated, they were told by society, you don't matter. You aren't welcome. And you know what? That's, that's that noise of more. What does that sound like today? If you don't get that expensive gift, man, you're not gonna matter If your house is not perfectly decorated, man, you're a, you're a bad host man. If you're, if you're not successful, you have no value. The noise of more, it defines you not by who you are, but it defines you by what you have or what you do. And if we're defined by that, we're always gonna have to do more or get more. But you want, I want you to see something. Here's what God does. So shepherds are there and in Luke chapter two, verse nine, he says this, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were terrified. Wow, God's messenger show up to them. There's about to be something said to them. And this is so huge that they were chosen for this privilege. Because you gotta understand this is about to break 400 years of silence, 400 years where God did not speak well, 400 years of the prophets, the Pharisees, the religious leaders didn't hear from God. And the first people he's gonna talk to are these shepherds. Not the emperor of Rome, not the Pharisees in Jerusalem, but the guys sleeping in the dirt. The guys that weren't trustworthy enough to testify, not clean enough to even be in the temple. Why does God do this? God is sending us a message about worth. God's gonna entrust his most valuable news in the history of the world to people in society who had no value at all, or society really said, had no value at all. So here's the thing, don't let the noise determine who you're worth know your true worth. Worth is not found in your bank account. It's not found in your job title. It's not found in the perfect Christmas tree, the perfect gift. Now, make sure you hear me correctly here. I'm not saying there's anything bad about any of those things, but if you are chasing your worth, if you define your worth based on those things, and you are in dangerous territory here and the message of Christmases, those, those things don't define who you are. They don't define your worth. Your worth is found in the God of the universe who decide to interrupt history to come for you. Look, if you're feeling less than this Christmas, you know what you've fallen into. You've fallen into the lie of the noise of more. The angel brings truth that you are worth coming for. So God shows up to the shepherds in the field. He interrupts their night and he wants to tell them that they matter. But man, we're just at the beginning 'cause he has something great to say. And what he's about to say is gonna confront the second biggest lie about the noise of war. And that lies is this. It's where we can find our joy. And so here's the second thing. We need to quit shopping for joy and we need to start believing the message. We pick up our story again. The glory shines. The shepherds are are terrified. Then an angel appears to deliver this all important message. In verse 10 of Luke chapter two, he says, if the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people I want you to underline. Great joy, great joy. Isn't that what we're all chasing? You know what? I've got this shocking statistic for you. You know how much the United States spends on Christmas or is projected to spend on Christmas this year? $994 billion. That is just short of a trillion dollars. A trillion with a T. That is $1,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country. It's not per family. If you have a family of four, that means your average. If you're spending $4,000 on Christmas, you know what that tells me? Many of us are trying to buy joy. The perfect gift is gonna bring joy. The perfect decorations are gonna bring joy. The perfect memories are gonna bring joy. And again, I'll say it again. There's nothing wrong with those things. But if we're looking to find joy in that, we're gonna be disappointed. 'cause here's the problem with us trying to manufacture joy by buying it, creating it that joy has a shelf life. That joy has a shelf life. I looked in a drawer at home and sitting in that drawer was a Sony PS two. Gosh, that thing's worthless. Now I remember getting that thing. I brought so much joy, but now it's worthless. And that's the point. Manufactured joy will have a shelf life. The toy will break. It'll go outta style. That dopamine hit will wear off. I had to show you, let me, let me, let me point out something that Angel says, man is he's not bringing us a product. He says, I'm bringing you news. And what is that news? You'll find it in verse 11 says this, today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the messiah, the Lord. The world is telling us joy is something you can get. And the angels, the gospel that the angels are speaking here says, joy is found in a person. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? And I want you to see something. Notice that it says it's born to you. It doesn't say it's born to the world. It doesn't say it's born to mankind, it's born to you. It's personal. It's here for you and it's here for me. It's here for my specific fears and your specific fears for my failures and your failures, for my anxieties and your anxieties. So let's make this shift. If you're looking for joy in the things, let's shift this to stop shopping for joy and start believing the message. I mean, joy is sitting right in front of us. That's what Christmas is about. It's there for the taking. Look, real joy doesn't come under the tree. It comes from realizing Who is on the throne. And it comes from believing that God is for you. So how do we respond to this? And then we can go back to the scriptures. 'cause we respond in the same way the shepherds did. And that's this. We need to trade extravagance for presence. We need to find the treasure in humility. It's back to our story. There's this choir of angels. There's the greatest light show ever. And then it's gone. And these shepherds are standing there. Knight returns to normal. But what did the shepherds do? Did they hang around and talk about it? Man, that was so crazy, right? No, here's what they did. Take a look in Luke chapter two verses 15 and 16, when the angels had left them 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 hur off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. Wow, let's go. Let's go. What did they find? They find some palace. Did they find some VIP room, luxury suite at Texas Stadium. What did they find? They didn't find any of that. There's no extravagance here. They found a young hell, frightened couple. They were in some type of stable or barn or at the very best, some modest house. They, they didn't even have a crib or bassinet for this. The king of kings and the Lord of Lords. He was in a feeding trough. What they found was humility. The very definition of humility. And when we hear that word, humility, we think unfortunate. We think poor. But you know what? Here's what we learned from this. Humility brings treasure 'cause that's what the shepherds found in the midst of this. Humility is treasure. And why is humility so important? Why is humility a treasure? Lemme give you a couple of reasons. Humility brings accessibility. 'cause imagine if they, if if Jesus was born in a palace or in a VIP suite, were these shepherds the bottom of the social ladder, dressed in probably dirty clothes, probably haven't shaved in years. Would they have been allowed into this palace? They wouldn't have got past the front gate, The bouncer, the velvet road. They're not gonna be on the VIP list. Look, humility in this, in this humble, stable, they could walk right in. They were at home. Humility, tears down the walls. That extravagance builds up. God is reachable. Here's the second thing, humility does. Humility creates authenticity. Look, you walk into a black tie dinner where in your rented tuxedo or your evening gown. And gosh, you're gonna have to straighten your tie. You're gonna have to check your posture. Make sure your hair's in the right place. You're gonna have to put on an act like you belong there. It becomes a performance, doesn't it? Walking into the stable shepherds didn't even have to change clothes. They didn't have to get cleaned up. They could just be who they are and they could just be there. Humility creates accessibility. Humility creates authenticity. Look, God wrapped the greatest treasure the world has ever seen in the humblest and most humility filled packages. Why? So you and I can unwrap it. The true message of Christmas is that it's not about the spectacle, it's not about the extravagance, it's about the presents. And it's all about the fact that God is here and is here for all people. And the true treasure, the true treasure in all of this is his presence. He showed up in humility to invite us into his presence. So I, I wanna stress this. Don't miss him because you're too busy trying to be impressive treasure extravagance for his presence and find that treasure in humility. So here's the question. Do you hear what I hear? I know that roar of more is really, really loud. Is that what's drowning everything out? Or can you hear God whispering the message of Christmas? Look that roar is gonna tell you something. It's gonna tell you you're not good enough unless you do more. God is whispering to you. You're worth dying for that. Roars gonna tell you, you can buy your joy. God is whispering. Believe the good news the world is telling you, you gotta make it more extravagant. God's just saying, I just want you in my presence. So how do we do this? How do we do this? Let me give you your next step. You need to turn down the noise a more and turn up your gratitude attitude. And here's the reason. If we turn up the gratitude, the noise of moral will automatically go down. 'cause you can't be envious and grateful at the same time. You can't be stressed out about what you don't have while you're thanking God for what you do have. It's impossible. You just can't do it. So here's what I want you to do this week when that noise of more starts rising and drowning everything out, when you feel guilt into buying that one more thing, I just need you to stop. Just Replace that sound that of consumption, that sound of urgency, the sound of gratitude. Just Say, God, thank you. Thank you for this family, as messed up as it may be. Thank you for this family. Thank you for this home. Yeah, I know it's not my dream home, but thank you for providing it. Thank you. Thank you for sending a savior to me. Look, if we do that, if you're able to stop and just give thanks for what you have, I'm gonna tell you something. This might be the most joyful Christmas ever. You may finally start hearing what God has been saying all along that I'm here, that I'm with you and that I love you. Let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, gosh, the noise is loud. We feel it. We feel the pressure to perform. We feel the pressure to provide. We feel the pressure to be perfect. And Lord, would you help us hit the pause button on that just this week and help us hear that message that the angels brought so long ago. Lord, remind us of what of of our worth. Help us find the joy in believing in, in not buying. And give us the courage to trade the stress of extravagance and spectacle for the peace of your presence. And Father, Lord, just I wanna pray very specifically right now for that person here who feels so far from you, and maybe the noise of this world has been so loud that you've missed the message that a savior has been born to you. You've heard about Jesus, but you've never known him, you've never accepted that invitation to come into his presence. And if that is you in the quiet of this moment, you can settle that right now. I want you to do this if that's you, I want you to pray this prayer to yourself as sincerely as you can. God, I need a savior. I know I've been trying to chase joy in everything else. I've done things that haven't been pleasing to you. I know that and I'm empty. But I believe this. I believe you sent Jesus to be the savior of the world. And today I'm asking him to be the savior of my world. I know he died. Jesus died on a cross from my sins and he restores my relationship with you that he rose from the grave three days later proving that he is God. That that baby in a manger was God in the flesh that he's present. So Lord, forgive me and cleanse me. I wanna know you and I wanna follow you. If you just prayed that prayer, I just wanna just congratulating, making the most eternal decision of your life and for all of us as we enter this Christmas season. God, I thank you that because of Christmas, because of Jesus, that we can be your children. We love you. You're such a great God. In Jesus Christ's name. I pray all these things. Amen.