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So everybody's ready for Christmas. Got all your gifts bought. You're good to go, right? Awesome. You guys are champs. You're ahead of the schedule. It feels a little bit weird for my wife and I this year because we uh have kind of already done all of our extended family Christmas and now we're back here, and that's kind of flip-flop of what we normally do. Uh we went to a wedding last weekend and then had the opportunity to go and spend some time with our family. Uh my my parents live in Colorado, and so it's a little colder there. In fact, uh we went up on the mountain one day, they had a deal to ski run where um if you brought canned goods, you could ski for free. I was like, hey, we can do that. So uh we got to do a little skiing uh for free, which uh you take my family up there, it cost a lot of money to take six little bodies. Or actually, Tate didn't go skiing, but uh and he's only seven months, but you know, soon enough. Uh but we had a good time. We got up there, and but it was like six degrees when we got on top of the mountain, so it was it was super cold. And uh it was a lot of fun though to be in the snow. And I love winter time. Um, in fact, that's one thing I wish we had more of an awesome. I know y'all don't not everybody likes that, but I I like I like cold weather, I like winter and I like snow and stuff, so at least a little bit of it. But uh definitely in the Christmas mood and in Christmas spirit as we uh got to spend time with our family celebrating and and giving gifts and just loving and serving one another and and hanging out together and uh thankful that we get to be here today. So uh my name is Nick, as I said a while ago, and I'm one of the pastors here for those of you that are new. Uh I just want to ask you really quickly, if you go ahead and pull out your Bibles. And as you're doing that, a couple things I want to make mention of. Uh, first off, at the uh if you didn't get a worship guide when you came in today, anybody not get a worship guide? It's just a little um white sheet that has like a little circle on it with the logo on it. Anybody not get one? These guys in the back will hook you up. Thank you, Frank. Thank you, Rick. So those guys will get you a uh a guide, and we just encourage you to take some notes as we go. And also there's a reading plan in there. You can read the Bible daily for yourself. We always uh make that plug that we just feel like if you read the Bible personally, it will change your life. And so we encourage you daily to spend time. It doesn't have to be uh an hour or two hours, just get in the word daily, read a little bit, and ask God to show you something, and we believe He will, and it'll change your life. Um, the other thing is there, if you happen to be on the end of the row, uh at my left, your right end of the row, uh, if you would just pick up that little black pad and just uh fill that out for us and pass that down. Uh that's just so that we know who's was here with us today. And uh for those of you that are guests, we'd love to just send you a note of thanks and say thanks for coming. Um, and also have a gift for you at the connection point as you leave today, if you want to stop by and grab there's a little bag there, just to say thank you for being our guest at Point Community Church today. Have you guys ever felt like an outsider? You ever felt like you were like totally the reject in the room or you just didn't fit in? Anybody been there? I hear some some some like, oh yeah. Uh I see some head nodding, I see some hand raising because we all have been there, haven't we? We've been in situations where we just felt like we didn't fit in. Uh, you know, as I said earlier, and I mentioned on several occasions, uh, that we've had the opportunity to go to Indonesia. And one of the things we noticed when we got to Indonesia is that a lot of people like to ride scooters over there. And so we thought uh the last couple days we were in Indonesia, hey, we should join the chaos. We should become like the Indonesians. We want to we were tired of being outsiders riding around in a car. We want to be insiders. So this is what happened. Uh we decided to jump on some scooters, and man, these things were ghetto. I mean, they were like the worst scooters, they're about to fall apart. My helmet, you can't tell how gnarly it is. Um, I don't know what kind of stuff was up inside of that thing because we rented them for five bucks a day. But anyway, we got these scooters and and we started saying we decided like we're gonna be insiders here. We're gonna look like we fit in in Indonesia. But as you can tell, we didn't look like we fit in at all, you know. And uh and so we start riding these things around, and literally within two blocks of leaving the hotel, once we rented them, we had two wrecks. Uh, first, um Alan here, he's actually wearing a wrist uh guy, a wrist I don't know what you call that, but anyway, like a brace on his wrist still from this trip, uh, from his experience of going into the ditch. And then mine runs out of gas like a block and a half away, and I run out in the middle of the road and get run over by an Australian. And so it was like, it was crazy. Uh, and I felt like, okay, we we tried, but it was a very bad attempt at trying to be an insider. Okay, it was just not a good thing. That's typically what happens when we try to fit in something that we don't really fit in. Uh but as I think about that, all of us have been in situations where we felt like outsiders. I remember moving uh when I was a freshman in high school to Jayton, Texas. Anyone know where Jayton, Texas is? Exactly. Uh my wife, that's it, right? Um, and it's a little pothole in the road. In fact, if you blink, you'll miss it. Uh we had to drive 45 minutes to drive through a stoplight whenever we were doing uh driver's ed so we could say we'd gone through a stoplight. Like that's how small this little community was, right? And and so we we were there, I was living in Jayton, and uh we moved there, and and I remember like my first week there was like total culture shock. Um I had been in a not a big town, but a little bit larger town, and all of a sudden I find out, you know, we moved to Jayden, everybody's in FFA, future farm of America. I'm like, I don't even know what that's all about. And then and I go to my first ag class. I've never had ag before, but everybody's an ag. And so you go to ag class and they're they're pulling pigs. I'm not even gonna go into explanation of what that means, but they're helping the mama pig have her piglets, and I'm like, what in the world just happened? What am I doing here? And I went home that day and said, Dad, we gotta move, man. What you've done to us. You brought us here to this place. And I feel like a total outsider. I got invited to my first stock show, and I was like, You actually show pigs? Like you actually like take them out and like show them and we make them, yeah. And so I go to a stock show, I feel like a fish out of water, you know? And I don't know, so I feel like that I can totally resonate with this idea of feeling like an outsider. But here's the thing many of us in this room, we spend our whole lives trying to fit in, trying to become insiders. We try to we try to find a way to be accepted. I mean, even people who try to put on this hard front and say, I'm not, I don't want to be accepted, I don't need to be accepted. Like they have their own group of people who don't want to be accepted that they've are accepted with. Right? I mean, seriously, I don't care if you're wearing the baggy pants or if you're wearing a coat and tie, everybody has to, they're a little tribe they run in. They're a little group of people that they they connect with and they feel like they identify with and they're accepted by. The things we say, the things we do, the clothes we wear, the houses we live in, the cars we drive, a lot of it is tied to what other people think about us. How do they accept us? And people's lives rise and fall based on how much people either esteem them or don't esteem them, don't like them, reject them or accept them. But it's not just with people that we feel this idea of acceptance, it's it's even with God. Even in our understanding of who God is, many people can feel like God has rejected them. Like that they're a misfit, that they're an outsider to the things of God. You ever been there? You ever felt like I just don't belong? Maybe even this morning you're sitting here in this church service and you're gathered with us and you're thinking, I don't really belong here. I don't really fit here. Well, I just want you to know that's not true. That all of us are here, and all of us are gathered together, not as people who have it all together or have it all figured out, or know everything about the Bible, or know God like we're buddies like this tight, but that we all are in process. We're all works in progress, and that we we do have a place here. And I want to make that case this morning as we continue our series on hope, knowing that hope is not found, it's not found in the temporary or the conditional acceptance of others, but it's found in the gracious inclusion of God. So I want you to say that with me this morning. Hope isn't found in the conditional acceptance of others, but the gracious inclusion of God. Now we're gonna unpack what that means, but that's our phrase that I want you to walk away with today and know that if you put your hope in that other people will accept you or that they will like you, you will find yourself constantly in a state of desperation, in a state of depression and struggling, fighting your way up a hill. And even when you get the acceptance of some people, there's other people who are still not gonna like you, right? It's just part of life. And so we don't put our hope in that. And I want to come back to explain why. So if you have your Bible, go ahead and open up to Luke chapter 2, and we're gonna start in verse 8. If you don't have a Bible, there's actually some Bibles under the chairs around you, so feel free to grab one of those. If you don't own a Bible, come find me afterwards and I'll get you one. I want to make sure everybody has their own copy of the Bible. Okay? It's powerful, it's life-changing. So I'm gonna read this section to us. We're gonna unpack it together, and then we're gonna make some observations that are take-home points for us today. Verse 8, chapter 2, Luke. In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Don't be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today a Savior who is the Messiah, the Lord, has been born for you in the city of David, and this will be the sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a feeding trough. Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly hosts with the angel praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors. When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the feeding trough, and after seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary was treasuring all these things in her heart and meditating on them. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard, just as they had been told. You guys read this passage of scripture before? It's a common one, isn't it? This is Christmas season. This is a verse, a section of verses that we read around the Christmas season every year. Now I want to make some observations from this passage today that I think will help make this point that hope isn't found in the conditional acceptance of others, but actually in the gracious inclusion of God. And here's why. First, when it says, in the same region, these shepherds were there. Um, the last few weeks we've talked through this hope series, we've talked about some characters in the Nativity story, in the birth of Christ story. And we talked about Zechariah and Elizabeth. And Zachariah and Elizabeth, they were both preachers' kids. They were both kids in the that they'd grown up in the priestly line. They both were involved in the in the acts of worship in the temple. And so God comes on the scene through the through an angel, gives them a message that they're gonna have a son. This son's gonna be John the Baptist, who's gonna be the one who goes out and declares that the Jesus is coming, the Messiah is coming. So he's kind of the precursor to Jesus, and he's gonna set the way the way, establish uh the way for Jesus. And so we see that happening in the Zachariah Elizabeth story. And it says in the passage that they were upright, righteous people. Okay, that's what it says about Zachariah and Elizabeth. That's pretty awesome to be said of you by God in his word. Okay? Next story we came to was a story of Mary. Hose taught about Mary and how Mary was this teenager, uh, young teenager, from what we can tell. We don't really know exactly her age, but we do know that she was young and she was betrothed to be married to this man named Joseph. And an angel comes to her and says, You're gonna bear the son of God. And she's like, What? Are you kidding me? You know? But she accepts it because she she says, I'm um, she it says again in the scripture she was upright, she was righteous, she was she was a godly young woman. Okay? And then we get to Joseph. And last week Matt talked about Joseph and how he had to deal with the uncertainty that was in front of him, and and and how he had to deal with the reality that he couldn't control all of his circumstances and all of his situations. All of a sudden, God says, Hey, you're this lady that you're betrothed to, this girl, she's gonna have a baby. And he's like, What? We haven't been together. But he says, No, it's it's because I have put a baby in her womb, and that baby is the son of God. Can you imagine? And so, again, it says there about Joseph that he was upright, he did what was right, he was he was a good man. Well, in this story today, we've now crossed over the fact that the baby, Jesus, has arrived and he has been born. And so we're jumping ahead, kind of fast forward in the story a little bit, and we get to the post-birth part of the story, where God decides he's gonna declare to people that his son has been born. He's gonna make a birth announcement, you know? Rather than put a stork in the yard, he's gonna send some angels out there, okay? And so what happens is these these shepherds are out in the field watching sheep. And the shepherd, this angel shows up on the scene. Now it says in the same region. This is an interesting thought because shepherds, first off, they were uh given a lowly task to go and to watch these gnarly sheep. And here these shepherds were out in this region which is around Bethlehem, which is actually but somewhere but probably between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. And these sheep that these shepherds are watching, from what we can understand, may very well have been the sheep that were going to be used for sacrifice for the Passover that was to come. Not only the Passover, but other temple uh acts of worship through sacrificing lambs. Now think about that for just a second, because these shepherds who are getting this message about who? About Jesus, who is the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate lamb of God, who will lay down his life so that we could have life, they hear this message that he's come as they are watching these sheep that are the temporary sacrifices, pointing to a greater sacrifice. Pretty awesome thought, isn't it? But it says that they're shepherds. And you don't know, you may not know much about shepherds. I don't really know much about shepherds, but even this week, as I studied and read about them, shepherds were socially, they were looked down upon in Jesus' day. Their work, working with sheep, it made them ceremonially unclean, and they had a reputation for being untrustworthy. Now that's an interesting thought because when you go back to the Old Testament, there's one of the greatest kings that ever existed. In fact, the one who followed Saul, his name was David. And what was he before he became the king? He was a shepherd. In these same fields around Bethlehem, David had been watching sheep. He'd actually killed a bear and a lion as they tried to come after his sheep, and he had been watching sheep in these same fields. And now here these shepherds are out in there, in these fields, watching sheep. And they were viewed as these kind of outcasts, and that even working with sheep had made them ceremonially unclean. The only other people really who were cast out of the city, and they said, You can't come in here, right, were the thieves and the beggars who would sit us on set along the roads hoping that God would bless them through somebody, that somebody would give to them or take care of them, but also uh those who were sick. We know from scripture that they would literally have colonies of people who were sick, and they were sent out of the city away from everyone else because they were unclean and they were not to get near anyone else. In fact, they were actually even supposed to say unclean as they came near the crowds of people in the city. And shepherds were kind of lumped into that, that they were ceremonially unclean people. I'm sure they didn't smell great, I'm sure they didn't look real nice and clean and cut. And I think if we saw them today, we'd say, like, wow, like they're a pretty rough bunch of guys. And yet, think about this. Who did God choose to give the message of the arrival of his son? Shepherds. Shepherds of sheep. Shepherds of lowly sheep, outsiders. It says they were outside, outside of the town, watching sheep. It goes on to say that the angel of the Lord came and stood before them, and that the glory shone around them, and they were terrified. In fact, the word there, uh, it's the idea that they were afraid, full of fear. I mean, in the Greek, it literally means they were afraid, afraid, afraid. They were freaked out. That they were literally out, you know, their minds are blown when this angel shows up on the scene in the middle of the dark night as they're watching their sheep. And the message that he says, he says that they were told that the Savior had come. The word that he uses in verse 10, I think, is really powerful. He says, Don't be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Just a note here, when that word proclaim, I don't know what your version says, if the translation, if you're looking at NIV, uh, I remember as a kid, it was always like, I bring you tidings of great joy. That's kind of how I remember it as a kid growing up. And this this version actually uses the word proclaim. And if you were actually go to the literal language there, it's that I evangelize you with the gospel. That the angel says, I evangelize you with the gospel. The good news that Jesus the Christ has been born. Isn't that an awesome thought? That the angels proclaimed the gospel message, the good news about Jesus. When we say the word gospel and you hear that in church all the time, you're like, what does that mean? It means that Jesus has come to rescue us from our sin. And these angels declared that. This angel tells these shepherds, I proclaim that message to you. And that Jesus has come. And note again, he says, all people. That Jesus hasn't just come for some people, he's come for all the people. Which sounds very similar to John 3.16, where it says God loves the whole world. That God came for all. And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly hosts. Can you imagine they're sitting there? The word, the word there again is this idea that there was an army of angels that showed up. You think they were freaked out before, and now all of a sudden they're like really freaked out, right? That this host of angels show up. This army of angels fill the sky, but they're singing, Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth and goodwill to all men. What a powerful, powerful moment. And what's beautiful is that in their fear, what brought them the ability to overcome their fear was the good news. And I think there's a connection there even in our own life today. That what helps us overcome the fears of our lives and the fears in our hearts and the fears of rejection from people is the good news about Jesus. The good news that Jesus accepts us even when others don't. The good news that Jesus and God is for us. They are for us, but not against us, even when others are against us. And as it goes on in the passage, he says that when the angels left, they went to Bethlehem. They saw this baby. And I love how he uses the language that they found him, and he was he was snugly wrapped. The first snuggie, right? Jesus is snugly wrapped in the manger. Not in a an elaborate crib like you would expect the Son of God to be in, but in this lowly manger, he's wrapped up in strips of cloth with the cows mooing, sheep bang, probably nasty smells of other things on the ground. And yet the Son of God comes into the world in this place, and these shepherds go and they find him there and they see him there. And I love how it kind of closes out this section that after they've hurried off to go tell others about this message, because they've seen that it was true to what the angels told them, Mary treasures it all in her heart. She's just trying to take it all in. She'd been told that you were going to bear the Son of God, and now she just sits there as this mama, just thinking, wow. Wow. What an awesome thing that God would use me to see his son come into the world, the Savior, the Messiah. So I want to make some observations and give us some takeaways this morning from this passage that maybe will encourage your heart as we think that hope doesn't come from the conditional acceptance of others, but it comes from the gracious inclusion of God. The first one is this God doesn't choose people the same way that we choose people. Aren't you glad? I mean, I don't know if you fully understand that this morning, but God doesn't choose people the same way that we choose people. In fact, when you look at the Bible, you see a consistent pattern throughout the entire Bible. How God uses people who are unlikely, who are outsiders, who don't have it all together, who don't have it all figured out. God uses people that are like that. In fact, I want you to know that I hope and pray that Point Community Church is the kind of church where people from all walks of life and from all sorts of dysfunctions show up as a group of misfits to worship God, knowing that He's better than we are. He is greater than our greatest failures, He is gracious even in our greatest faults and issues and our struggles. Because we don't have it all together. We don't have it all figured out, but we have a God who loves us even in the midst of that. You see, God doesn't choose people in the same way that we choose people, He doesn't see people in the same way that we see people. First Samuel 16 7 is a verse that used to be on my wall until it fell off and broke. Not gonna tell you how that happened, but it did, and it was one of my favorite verses in scripture where it says, God looks what? Not at outward appearance, but at the heart. The context of that verse, do you know where that is? It's in the context of God using Samuel to choose a new king for Israel, and he's there. With Jesse, and Jesse says to Jesse, he says, Bring out your sons. We're going to pick a new king. God has called me to come here. I want to anoint a new king for Israel. And Jesse's like, Okay, this is kind of cool when you bring. So he brings his biggest, strongest sons, and he lays them out there in front of him and lines them up across and says, Okay, Samuel, which one? Samuel starts to go through this line of sons. He says, It's none of these. Do you have any more sons? He says, Well, I've got one. He's out in the pasture. He's a little runt. He's out watching sheep. Brings David up there, and this little teenage boy says he's ruddy. I don't know what ruddy means. It just sounds like he's just kind of this little runt, right? He's just like this little teenage boy. It says that he comes up and Samuel, God says to Samuel, that's the one. He may not look like it on the outside, but that's the one that I want to anoint king. You see, God doesn't choose people the way that we choose people. We want people that are the most talented, the most gifted, the most beautiful, the most whatever, the most likable, the ones we like. God chooses people in a completely different way because he sees the heart. He sees what's going on under the surface. He sees what's happening below that facade that we can all put on, that performance that we can all put on for others. He sees what's really going on. And he's looking for a humble, a willing heart. He's looking beyond the skin to what's going on in our souls. And I love that. And you see the pattern throughout scripture. Think about it. Moses, he couldn't really speak very good. And God yet used him to go to Pharaoh, stand before him, and to see the people of Israel set free from captivity, to walk across dry land as they're being chased by Pharaoh's army. Unlikely leader. And God says, I'm going to use you, Moses. Think about the disciples in Scripture. Maybe you don't know much about the disciples, but it says in Scripture in Acts that they were unlearned, uneducated men, unmen, right? That they were just these ordinary Joes. In fact, the scripture we know, they were some of them were fishermen, which probably would have been classified somewhere along with the with the shepherds, right? Out doing a dirty job. In fact, Mike Rowe, if he was here today, if he was there back then, he'd probably do a. Y'all don't even know who Mike Rowe is, do you? Okay, that's what I can see. A few of you guys, okay. Have you ever watched the show Dirty Job? He'd probably go check in on the fishermen, right? Show them how dirty their job was. Here's the thing. What we do know is that God chooses people who are unlikely. Because he sees what's going on in the heart and he knows. Not only that, but the second thing I want us to take away today is that the invitation of God is not just for our benefit, but for others. The invitation of God is not just for our benefit, but for others. Every time God calls someone or he gives them a message, it's not just so that they know the message, but so that they go and take it to others. Right? Think about it. Going back to Moses, what happens? He does that and who benefits? The people of Israel were able to escape captivity. Think about Noah. God gave them that message, but his family was able to escape the flood. Think about Daniel. Think about Joseph. Think about Esther. Think about the prophets. Think about how God speaks to men, He speaks to women, He gives them a message, He gives them a task, He gives them a calling. And it's not just so that they can benefit, it's so that the what? That all the people around them can benefit from that message. And in this passage, even with the shepherds, we see that as they heard the message that the Messiah has been born, they go and declare this message, and people were amazed. You see, this Christmas season in our lives, the message and the hope of Jesus is not just for us. It's for the whole world. It's not just for us to celebrate, and it's not just for us to have a holy huddle here at Point Community Church, and it's not just for us to get with our family and say, Oh, I'm so thankful we have life in Jesus. It's to take the light and the hope and the life of Jesus to every person around us. To celebrate it, to declare it, to do what the angel did to evangelize with the gospel, the good news that Jesus has come. And that's what God wants to do with us, just as he did with these shepherds who were unlikely. The third thing is this: the only way that we miss out on the invitation of God is to reject it. God is gracious and he includes people. I mean, I hear people all the time say, well, isn't Christianity very exclusive? Isn't Christianity this thing about trying to keep people out rather than help people come in? You totally misunderstand Christianity if that's what you think it is, because it says in Scripture that God loves the whole world. And he said, whoever would receive the gift of life can have it. Whoever would put their trust in him, whoever would believe the message that Jesus is the Son of God who came and laid down his life for us so that we could have life, forgiveness, eternal life. Whoever, it's not an exclusive, it's an inclusive thing that God says, I want to include anybody. In fact, it even says in scripture that it's his desire that no one would perish, that no one would spend eternity separated from him. But you know how you you miss out on that invitation? You reject him. You reject the invitation. In fact, Jesus gave a parable in Luke chapter 14. In verse 15, it tells us that he was at the table with some of those, some of those who were kind of lawmakers and rule followers, people who thought they had it all together, had it all figured out. They were pretty proud of themselves and pretty arrogant in their ways. And as he's telling the story to them, he says this, because he's trying to get to the heart issue, that they were so arrogant, so prideful, they didn't want to receive the gift of salvation through Jesus. They wanted to earn it. They wanted to say, I we're worthy of it. We've got it all figured out. We can do this. We don't need Jesus. We've got these laws, we're following them well, we're good. But it says there that Jesus told us this story, and he says, I want you to, there was a man and he was holding a large banquet, and he invited many people. And at the time of the banquet, he sent his slave to tell those who were invited, Come because everything is now ready. But without explanation, or with but without exception, not explanation, without exception, they all began to make excuses. The first one said, I've bought a field and I must go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me. And another one said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I'm going to try them out, and I ask you to excuse me. And another said, I just got married and therefore I'm unable to come. You see the pattern? They've all got this stuff going on. They got these things in their life. They're too busy for God. They're too busy for this banquet, right? This man who's invited them. So the slave came back and said, Here's what's going on. All these people, they're not coming. They've got stuff going on in their life. They're too busy. It says, then that the master, he said, Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city. Not just the main streets, but like the back alleys. And what did he say? He says, Ask, bring in here the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame. Anyone ever felt that way? He says, Master, the slave said, What you have ordered has already been done, and there's still room. And the master said, Well, go out into the highways and the lanes and make them come in so that my house may be filled. See, that's the God that we serve. He wants everybody to be a part of the party, the feast. We were on their way home yesterday and uh driving back from Colorado, and my son, they got this little fake uh smartphone. I'm like, great, we're already practicing, you know, using a smartphone. We got this fake smartphone. He's back in the backseat of the car and he's calling people, you know. He's calling, they're calling each other, which gets annoying after a little while. And um, just being honest, just being honest, keeping real. And uh, and but all of a sudden I'm hearing like, hey Jesus. So now he's having a phone conversation with Jesus in the backseat. I'm like, oh, this is great, this will be interesting. So I'm kind of listening in. He says, Hey Jesus, he says, What's going on? Different kind of prayer. And uh he says, What you been doing? Oh, you're partying. That's right. That's what that's all you do in heaven is party, right? I started laughing. I was thinking to myself, you know, we tell our kids all the time, heaven's a giant party. It's a giant feast. Not because we made that up, it's actually because the scripture says that it'll be a feast, it'll be a giant party, a giant celebration. And that when we get to heaven, we're gonna we're gonna party with Jesus. Some of you are like, oh, that's so like, well, I don't know if I could say that. That's what the scripture says. It's gonna be a giant feast. I don't know what we're eating, but it's gonna be good. I don't know what we're drinking, but it's gonna be good. I know that when we get to heaven, those who've accepted the invitation will get to celebrate with the master, with the Lord. But those who've rejected it, they're gonna miss out. And I say that this morning just as a sober reminder that some of you in this room are still like, I don't know, I don't know. Listen, it's not about how you perform, it's not about how good you are, it's not about how religious you are, it's not about how much money you have, it's not about how talented you are, it's not how about how you feel about yourself. It's about the invitation that has been given by Jesus Christ, the host of the banquet, who says, I've made a way for you to come, will you come? And the truth is, is that for some of us in this room, our pride gets in the way. We'd rather earn our way there than to receive it by faith. Knowing that it's God's gracious inclusion, not our works that gets us into heaven. That's why I love the story that God chose to tell the shepherds. Because I want a group of people who collect weekly at Point Community Church from drug addictions, from broken homes, from messed up situations, and from good situations, and from no drug addictions, and people who wear suit and tie, and people who wear baggy jeans, and people who wear whatever it is. It doesn't matter because the exterior is not what our God is all about. He's about what's going on in our hearts. And we don't have to earn his acceptance. We have it in Christ. I don't care what your story is, there's a place at the table for you. The invitation has been given to you. I don't know how rough you are, how gruff you are, how outsider you want to reject God before he can reject you. Like in middle school, you know, when the boy says, Hey, well, you go out with me, and then he starts to realize that they don't really like him. He's like, I'm gonna reject you before you can reject me, kind of thing, right? None of y'all have never experienced that. I know that, but here's the thing: God, his invitation is open to us today to receive and to come. God is very intentional with what he does. And there is no question in my mind that he chose these lowly shepherds, he's making a point. Because throughout scripture, God consistently says, every person is welcome. And that's why this church is welcome to every person. Because we're following Jesus. These last four weeks we've talked about hope. We've said hope is not found in the gifts, but the giver. We've said hope is not found in possibilities, but God's promises. We've said hope isn't found in control but surrender to God's plan. And this week we've said hope isn't found in conditional acceptance of others, but the gracious inclusion of God. If you haven't noticed, there's a theme. There's a theme in those four things. And it's this that if you put your ultimate desire on the things that are temporary, you will find yourself hopeless. But if you put your ultimate desire on the things that last forever, God, his love, his grace, the eternal home we have with him, if you put your desires into that, then even in this life you can live with hope. You can live, as we said first week, with the definition of confident anticipation that changes the way we live now. Confident anticipation that God is for me and he is going to take care of me. And no matter what storms come, and no matter what sickness comes, and what suffering comes, and what hardships come, I know that I have a Father who loves me. I know that. And so I'm filled with hope today. Yeah, my situation may seem hopeless, but you know what? I have hope. There's a rock that is stronger than my situation. There are certain circumstances that I'm dealing with that are hard and they're difficult, and I don't know how I can go on, but I put my trust, I put my hope in Jesus because I know he's greater. I know that this life is a vapor. I know my hardship is temporary, but I know he is eternal. I know that Psalms tells me that his love endures forever. That's the God we worship. That's the reason we celebrate Christmas. That's why we have hope as we come to Christmas. Because we know that everything in this world will change on us, it will shift on us, it will disappoint us, it will discourage us. Even the people that we put on a pedestal and say, Man, I want to be like them, and they disappoint us. Even when we see things in our life and we're like, if I could just get that, I'd be happy, and we get it, and we're not happy. Whatever it is in your life, there is nothing that will satisfy you like Jesus. You can go looking and searching, and you can try to find this, this, or if I can just get these circumstances right in my life, our marriage will be better. Or I can get this situation right, then our parenting, it'll be okay, and I can survive. Or if I could just get this job, we could get through this thing. Guess what? There's always going to be another issue you're gonna face in this life. Is the point clear yet? Because these things in this world are not meant to satisfy and to completely bring us hope. They're to point us to the fact that we need something greater, and that greater is Jesus. And he's come. Hope is here, hope is arrived. The shepherds heard it that night in the fields as they watched their lowly sheep, and today I declare it to you from this stage at Point Community Church in South Austin that hope is here. His name is Jesus. Romans 15, 13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him. You gotta believe, you gotta accept it, you gotta receive it. As you believe in him, why? So you may overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit that's in you. That's our prayer. That's my hope for you this Christmas season. Don't celebrate Christmas devoid of Jesus, because if you do, you're gonna find yourself disappointed. And when you celebrate Christ this Christmas, that Christmas will be filled with meaning and purpose in life. There is hope. Let's pray.