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So, of course, Micah, kind of a heavy chapter there, especially with an ending like that, but chapter 2, or verse 2, excuse me, is probably a familiar verse to us. It's one that's referenced there in, of course, the birth story of Jesus Christ, where it says in chapter 5, verse 2, But thou, Bethlehem, Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, that out of thee shall come forth unto me he that is going to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old even from everlasting. So if we notice here, of course, he's saying, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah. So we have to understand something that what I want to preach to you about this morning is the fact that Jesus Christ was born a very humble birth, and that's the title of this message this morning, is the humble birth of Christ. And I know it's not a new thing to us, it's not something that we probably are unfamiliar with, but it's something that I always think about this time of year, it's something that we need to be reminded of, is just how far our Lord condescended to man, and the conditions in which he was born, the place he was born. And what we're going to look at here is the people that he chose to reveal his birth to, those that were the many characters in the story of his birth. What type of people were they? What were some of the attributes that they shared? And there's going to be one particular attribute that we'll look at. But one of the first things we see here, of course, in the humble birth of Christ is the humility of its location. So again, he says there, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah. So this place, Bethlehem, this was not a prominent place. This wasn't a great big city, this wasn't one of the destination cities that you would probably go to back then. This was a very humble place that he was born. Well, I mean, they say, well, it's the Savior, it's the Lord, well, doesn't it make more sense that he'd be born in Jerusalem? Well, no, because the point is that he came meekly, and he wanted to come in a humble manner to set an example for us. So of course, one of the first things that we could notice here is the humility of Christ's location. So it says Bethlehem was little among the thousands. Now, if you would, turn over to Luke chapter 2, Luke chapter 2, and we'll learn a little bit more about this humble location where Christ was born. Not just the humility of the town that he was born in, not just the fact that he was born in a town that maybe nobody paid attention to, maybe it was a town that was just kind of off the beaten path, that wasn't one of the main centers of commerce, but it was just a small, humble town. It says here in Luke chapter 2, we'll begin in verse 1, and it says in verse 1, And it came to pass in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, and this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And it all went to be taxed everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth unto Judea unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary as a spouse wife, being great with child. And so it was while they were there, the days were accomplished that he should, that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Again, a very familiar story. We all know the birth story of Christ, that they go to Bethlehem to, you know, do their civic duty here, as it were, and in the process of doing that, you know, Mary gives birth to the Lord. And she wraps him, and of course, they can't find, everybody's there, everyone's going this time of year to get this taken care of. This is kind of like our equivalent of, you know, going down to the DMV, and it's just always packed, right? So this is what's going on then, and they can't find any place to stay. I mean, everything's booked out, they can't find anywhere to stay, and you know, she's about to give birth. And you know, babies have a way that when it's their time, they're going to show up whether you're ready or not. So that's how it was, and you know, it's no coincidence that this is when it happened. I think the Lord allowed this to happen in order to, again, show the humility that he had, even in his birth, not just in the fact that he was born in a town that was not prominent, not in Jerusalem. You know, he was born in Bethlehem, that was little among the thousands, it was just lost in a sea of humanity, and he gets born there, and of course he comes, and what happens to him? He's not, no one rolls out the red carpet, oh you're Mary, you're the mother of our Lord, you know, right this way, we've got a special room for you, we've got everything cleaned up, and we're going to go ahead and just, you know, this is going to be a very comfortable birth, no, it was done a very meager, humble, and quite frankly, inconvenient, and probably to some degree, unsanitary conditions. Anybody who's gone through this process knows that, you know, this is not something that's taken lightly. You know, we've had several children now, we've done three out of four kids have all been home births. It's a very emotionally strenuous time, it's a very physically strenuous time, and it's something that's not taken lightly. So she gives birth, she goes through all this, and we just think about the inconvenience of it, of being born in this manger. Now what is a manger? A manger, you know, it's not just where they keep cattle, it's actually where they feed cattle. I didn't do any of this until I'd begun working on a dairy farm when I lived back in Michigan, that a manger, I used to always think growing up was just where, you know, the sheep were or something, that's just like a little pen, that they had the hay and everything, and that's certainly part of it, but a manger is actually where we would go feed the cows that we were taking care of. You know, that's where they would actually eat, so there's not even room enough for them in the barn, really, when you think about it, you know, with all the animals are there, they can't make room for them, so where do they have to go? They have to go out to where the animals would normally be feeding. You know, perhaps it wasn't feeding time, they wrap up, and that's where this is all taking place. I mean, I don't know, I'm sure I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands, but I don't think there's a lady in here that would volunteer for that, and would say, that sounds like a good idea, you know, I'll pass on the climate controlled room, I'll pass on the comfort of my own home, or the security of a hospital room, or anything like that, and I'll just go ahead and have this child out in a barnyard, and that's really where he was born, and really this story really starts to set in with me when, like I said, when I worked in that dairy farm, and I started to, I remember I was working there on Christmas Eve service, you know, right before the Christmas Eve service, you know, I was with my friend from that church, and we were working, you know, right up to that service, we had to get everything done and get over there, and I remember cleaning out the stalls, and I remember, you know, moving a tractor, you know, bucket loads of manure out of this place, you know, not sanitary, and I just remember that was one of the first times it really sank into me just how humble of a birth our Lord had, that it was something that was not ideal, far from it, I mean, you'd be hard pressed to think of a less ideal location, I mean, to be, you know, we'd probably have to consider maybe going into a cave, or getting on a boat, or something like that, I mean, it would have to be something extreme to be more, less ideal than his birth here. So we see, first of all, when it comes to this subject of Christ's humble birth, it's the location alone is one that is very humble. We see that he was born in a town that, again, was not well known, and in that town he was born in a manger, he was born in less than ideal conditions. Not only that, but we see the humility of those that were told about his birth. Now you'd think if Jesus Christ, if the King of Kings and Lord of Lords were going to come and be born, that everybody would know about it, that it would be a big deal. I mean, we think about the fact that even in our own lives, you know, when we're about to, when ladies become pregnant, you know, there's a big to do about it, and rightly so. You know, we have the gender reveal, we have the baby shower, we have the maternity shower, we have, you know, family comes around, everybody knows about it, you know, we're putting it out on social media, we want everyone to know why, because it's a very joyous occasion. We want people to rejoice with us, we want people to be happy with us about this blessing that we're about to receive. But that's not what we really see here with Jesus, we don't see, you know, the multitudes being told, we don't see a great deal of people thronging Mary and congratulating her. It was a very unknown thing that took place, it was done almost in secret. Now if you would, let's turn over, stay in Luke, go over to Luke chapter 1, we're going to look here at verse 26, but consider the humility of those that were told about Jesus' birth. I mean, Mary, the mother of our Lord herself, was a very humble person. If you look here in Luke chapter 1, we'll begin reading in verse 26, we'll see, it says here, and in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And again, we could even further talk about locality at this point, because if we recall, Nazareth had a reputation. We recall the Pharisees when they said, you know, they were confused about where Jesus had come from, you know, because it said that the Savior was to be born out of Bethlehem, and indeed He was, but they lived in Nazareth, so they didn't understand this, and they thought, well, He's from Nazareth, He can't be the Lord, and they said, well, does any good thing come out of Nazareth? You know, it was kind of a knock even on the place where Jesus resided. Of course, we know He was born in Bethlehem. So again, very humble, very meager, not a well-known place, not even a very desired place from what we see. He says in verse 27, he came to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin name was Mary. And then the angel of the Lord came unto her and said, hail, hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. So he's coming to this Mary, and you know, he's hailing her, and it says in verse 29, and when she saw him, she was troubled at this saying. You know, she didn't say, well, it's about time. You know, I've been waiting for you. You know, well, who else would you have gone to? You know, of course it's me. You know, she's a very humble person. She's troubled by the saying that this angel's coming to her and saying, thou art highly favored. You know, she's very bashful about this. She's saying, no, no, not me. And when she saw him, she was troubled at the saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. She's like, why are you coming to me? Why would you, you know, I live in Nazareth. Why would you come to someone like me? And he said, and the angel said unto her, fear not Mary. Now we're going to look at fear here towards the end, but this would show us here that Mary was one that feared. And I want us to keep that in mind because you'll see that come up over and over again throughout the Christmas story. The people that were, the ones that were told that did get to participate in the birth story of Christ were fearful people. They were humble people. We're talking about the humility of Christ's birth. And he said unto her, fear not Mary, for thou has found favor with God and behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth the son and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great and he shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord shall give unto him the throne of his father, David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end. I mean, how would you, how do you like that? Go get a sonogram like that. You know, we just want to know, is it a boy or a girl? Well, she's going, Hey, not only is it going to be a boy, but he's going to be the king of the whole earth. He's going to be the Messiah, the savior, the Lord. I mean, that's, that's quite the, uh, the announcement there. And then Mary said unto the angel of the Lord, that's right. All right. She's really thinking that she's something. No, she says, how shall this be thing being a seeing? I know not a man. And the angel answered, uh, and said unto her, the Holy ghost shall come upon me and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. There are also, uh, therefore also that Holy thing that should be born of thee shall be called the son of God and behold thy cousin Elizabeth that she also conceived. And look at verse 38, this is her reaction. And Mary said, behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. So she just accepts this news. You know, she probably understood the potential danger that was going to come from this, not just of birth itself, but of the fact that she's going to be with child having not known a man. She realized that this is, you know, this isn't going to look good. This isn't good. You know, people aren't going to understand, you know, particularly Joseph. Right. And that's why later here we know the story. The angel has to come back and says, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived of hers of the Holy ghost. And then, and then he went and took her as a wife and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son. So we see here the humility of, of, of, of not only the place where Joyce was born, but those that were involved in his birth. Mary being of course that key figure where she's a very humble person. She's a very fearful person. She's not somebody who's brash and lifted up and, and, and just assuming that of course, you know, it should just be this way. But also look at the people that, that she shared the news with. Even the people that did have the privilege of hearing of this birth. Who were they? What kind of people were they? Did she go into the metropolis of you know, Jerusalem and, and, and try to spread the news abroad that the savior was coming and let everybody know what a great blessing was on their way. No, it says here in Luke chapter one, look again at verse 39 and Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country. You know, she goes, she's maybe a little bit of a redneck. She's going out into the hill countries. He's going to go get with some country folks. And that's what she goes to tell. And she goes there with haste into a city of Judah. So she goes in there and you know, the same element is found again over in verse 59 where you see, where you see the birth of and it came to pass in the eighth day. Of course, this is, this is when John the Baptist is being born and Zacharias you know, he, if you recall the story when he had first received the news, he was the high priest. He goes into the holy place. The angel appears unto him and says, Hey, you're, you know, you're going to have, your son's going to be born unto you. And it was one, they were, they were past in years, you know, past the time that that such a thing should be. And he doubts, right. He says, you know, how can this, how could this possibly be? And the angel rebukes him and says, you know, because you doubted, you're not, of course I'm paraphrasing. He says, you're, you're going to be dumb. You're not going to speak until the child should be born. So we catch up here in the story in verse 59. It came to pass on the eighth day when they came to circumcise the child that they called his name Zacharias after the name of his father and his mother answered and said, not so, but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, there is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. And he asked for a writing table and wrote saying his name is John. And they marveled all. And he, and his mouth was opened immediately and his tongue loose and he spake and praise God and fear came on all them that dwelt round about. And all those sayings were noise about throughout all where the hill country of Judea. So it's these people that are just, you know, living on this rural areas, just these humble country folks. It's not the big wigs, you know, down in, you know, at city hall, it's not the movers and shakers in Jerusalem. It's the Hill. It's people are living out in Hill country, the simple people, the common man, that's who got to learn about this great birth, got to see some of these things that were taking place during this birth story of Christ. And recall, this is a theme that we see throughout Jesus's ministry, you know, in Mark where Jesus is trying to, it says that the common people hurt him gladly. Who was it that had a problem with the Lord? You know, it was the people who were something in the world. Some people that had things to lose perhaps, but it was the common people that hurt him gladly. One of my favorite characters in the birth story, of course, you know, and it's a multitude of people is the shepherds. You know, I asked my wife and I was writing this and said, Hey, if you could be anybody in the, the, the birth story of Christ, you know, who would you be? You know, who, what, what role would you want to play? And her response was, and I didn't ask to share this, so hopefully I'm not getting myself in hot water, but she said, Oh, I'd like to be the angel that announced to the shepherds. I said, you can't be the angel. What do you think you are? That's not fair. I didn't think of that one, you know, but here's the thing. She already is an angel, right? Smooth that over nicely. But I said, I want to be, I've always thought, man, to be the shepherds. I mean, to be the shepherds would have been the people to be. I mean, they got to see this great sight and who were they? They were just these lowly shepherds. Now, today in our modern culture, we kind of romanticize this idea of being a shepherd, but back then this was not a desirable occupation. This was very hard work. You know, we take our trips up to the, the Navajo reservations when we go soul winning and, and we'll see, they have shepherds up there. You know, a lot of them are on four wheelers and I remember just driving by thinking, Oh man, that'd be so cool. You know, go do it for a day. Go do for a week, go do it for a month and then see how cool it is. It's a lot of hard work, you know, keeping track of a lot of, you know, stubborn animals. They get dirty and get themselves in troubles. You know, who was it that was a shepherd? Who do we see being a shepherd in scripture? Well, that was King David, right? But he was the, he was the youngest of all his brethren. You know, it's no coincidence and what was the knock on him when he went down to, to, to see how his brethren fared when they were, you know, going up against the Philistines. The knock on him from his older brother was, with whom has thou left those few sheep? You know, when he gets mad at David for, for saying, you know, is there not a cause? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that defies the armies of the Lord? His brother gets all mad and says, you know, are you supposed to be with those few sheep? You know, who are you? You shepherd? You know, that, that's kind of the knock. And we, we had this idea today that, you know, being a shepherd just must be this, just this romantic, you know, just out there just walking on these beautiful green pastures with all these just snow white sheep following us around. And it was actually a lot of hard work and was not, and back then it was, it was usually an occupation that was given to people that you didn't want around very much, right? It was, you were away from your family a lot of the time. They just said, hey, you know what? You're, I'm sorry, but this is your bird and a bear. You have to go out for weeks at a time and, and, and go watch these animals. It'd be a very lonely job if you think about it. I mean, you're, you're away from people quite a bit. That's not always a bad thing, but I mean, too much of a good thing is, is not good, right? But that's who got to see the birth of Christ. That's who got to not see necessarily the birth of Christ, but got to hear the announcement of the birth of Christ. Who was it that was told about the humble birth of Jesus Christ? It wasn't all the people you would suspect. It wasn't all the people you would say, well, these are the people that ought to have known. It should have been the religious leaders of their day. It should have been, you know, all the important people that could have spread the news abroad to everywhere. But who is it? It was a humble handmade of the Lord Mary. It was, you know, the hill people that are in the hill people, the country folk in the hill, in the hill, in the hills round about them, right? It was country folk. It was simple folk. It was the common man. It was the shepherds. And if we look here in Luke chapter two, of course, we're familiar with the story, but it's probably my favorite portion. So let's go ahead and read it. It says in there in verse four, it says, and Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea. Well, let's just jump ahead here to verse eight. And it says, and they were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. So again, you know, they're watching this flock by night. You know, they recall a story of, you know, Jacob, you know, what was one of his complaints to Laban was that, you know, he was there, that a sleep escape from his eyes, you know, when he was watching the herds of his father-in-law, that he was with them in the drought, that he was with them in the frost, that he was with them in the night and the day. And so we see again, they're watching them by night when everybody else is asleep, when everybody else is getting a full night's rest. Here are these men out here with this tough occupation, this quite frankly, undesirable occupation. And it says that that's who they came. It came and said in verse nine, and lo, the angel Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone around about them. And what was their reaction? Well, it's about time somebody acknowledged us. It's about time we got, you know, a little piece of the pie. It's about time we got to share a little bit of this glory. No, it says, and they were sore afraid. And it says, and the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be the sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will toward men. So, I mean, what a sight that they got to behold. I mean, out of every character that you read about in this story, I'd say that they probably got the best of it. They got to see, you know, then they go on, of course we know, and they go and they find the babe. They find him, you know, in the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes and they worship him. But prior to that, I mean, talk about that for a birth announcement. You know, not everybody got to see that, but it was these fearful, humble people that were just doing what they were supposed to be doing. They got to behold this sight. I mean, we can't even imagine. We think, oh, that must have been real interesting. It must have been frightening to see heaven open and all the hosts of heaven praising God. What a magnificent sight that must have been. So, let's go on here. It says there, who else? Who else were some of these folks that got to participate in the birth of Christ that we find in this birth story? Well, it was humble people. Now, again, you know, it wasn't the people that you would think. It wasn't the people that you would expect to have been there. You would have thought that, you know, all Jerusalem would have turned out for this, that all Judea, that all Israel would have been there to worship the Lord. This is the Christ. But, of course, we understand that that wasn't the case. And, in fact, who we do see showing up were strangers to Israel. They were foreigners. And we know the story. Let's go back over to Matthew chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2. Who was it that showed up? It was strangers. It was foreigners. It wasn't the people that were his own. It says there in chapter 2 verse 1 of Matthew, Matthew chapter 2 verse 1, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. So it's these wise men from the east, you know, these guys that are not native to this land. They are strangers to this land. They were the ones that came, you know. And really, we don't know anything else about them. We just know that it doesn't give us their name. It really doesn't even tell us how many there were. You know, we all know the song, We Three Kings of Orion Are. And the reason why they get that is because they brought gold, frankincense and myrrh. So we assume that there must have been three. There might have been more. There might have been, you know, there was at least two, right, because it's a plurality. But there might have been less than three. There might have been more than three. We don't really know. But what we do know about them is that they were not from Israel. They were from the east. They had seen his star. That was what drew them. So again, the humility of Christ's birth. You know, it was strangers that came to worship. It was the common man that heard about it. It was people of lowly position in the world that got to participate in this humble birth of Christ. And this is what it says in John 1. It says, He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. And, you know, we could apply that to today. You know, the world was made by him. And we, you know, we are all his own. You know, we've all been, every person alive has been created in the image of God. And even today, it's the same way. They receive him not just as then. His own receive him not just as then. They don't receive him. They reject him. They reject Christ. And why is that? Why is it that people today do as they did back then? That they, that it's only the stranger. It's the ones that you would, it's very few that are coming to Christ. Well, the real reason is, is because they do not fear. They do not fear. That's the element that we see in so many of these characters of the birth story is the fear. Mary feared. You know, Zacharias feared. You know, all these, all these characters had fear. The shepherds greatly feared when the angel came and told them these things. And that's why we see people rejecting Christ today because they lack fear. They have no fear of God. So we understand, of course, you know, why be afraid? This is the Christmas story. We shouldn't, you know, this isn't, this isn't, this isn't the Halloween story of Jesus. This isn't about being afraid. This is supposed to be a joyous occasion. And it is. And we understand that the message of Christ's birth is peace on earth and goodwill toward men. But if we really, I know I've only recently kind of understood what it meant by that is that we, we, we've heard that so often peace on earth and goodwill toward men. And I've always kind of misunderstood that thinking, well, that means, you know, goodwill towards me and you. That you and I are going to have a good will toward men meet between you and I. But the goodwill toward men is goodwill from God toward men. That was the message of Jesus Christ's birth, meaning that God has provided a way for you to escape his wrath, that he has good will toward you. Meaning that you need that, that without God's good will, you don't have it. That God had to prove that was what Christ came to do to provide a way for you to have peace with God. And people reject that because they do not fear God. They don't know well enough to fear God. You see, that's God's good will toward us, not amongst ourselves. The Bible says the way of peace they have not known, speaking of the unsaved. You know, it's the message is peace on earth, but there's so many out there that they don't know the way of peace and they don't understand it. Why is that? Because there is no fear of God before their eyes. That's what it says in Romans chapter three. They will never know the way of peace. They will never know the prince of peace. They will never know the good will that God has toward them because they reject Christ because they have no fear. They say, I don't need it. I don't need Christ. I'm a good person. And I understand when you use that term, I'm a good person. And you know, I know everybody in this room is a good person, humanly speaking. And that's great between me and you, but let's not forget that all our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. That Bible says there is none good. No, not one, because the standard to go to heaven is not the one that you and I determine. It's what he determines, which is why the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've all fallen short, every single one of us. And the Bible says the wages of sin is death. You know, and we understand that part of that death is an eternal punishment in the lake of fire, which is called the second death. You say, well, that sounds scary. It's supposed to be. It's supposed to frighten you. It's supposed to scare you towards a loving savior who has come and was born a humble birth, lived a humble life, and died a humiliating death and was rose again. So just as back then he was rejected of his own, even today people reject him too. They refuse to fear God. They don't understand the humility of Christ's life. We need to understand that. That's really what I wanted to kind of drive in on this Christmas message is the fact that Christ lived a very humble life. And he did that as an example for us. The humility of Christ's life, from his birth all the way to his death. We need to understand that. We need to understand. And when we begin to understand that, when we understand the humility that Christ had being come and not being proclaimed to all the world for who he was, and only a handful of people even knowing anything about him, people who do not have high stature in society, people who were just blessed enough by God to be able to participate in this birth story. We need to understand the humility there. When we begin to understand that he was born in a manger, the lowliness of his birth, when we understand that, then we'll begin to understand what an insult it is to God to reject him. When he's sending his only begotten son down to this earth to not be lifted up and praised for who he is, to be born in a manger, to live the life that he lived, and to see mankind reject him, that's an insult to God. I think about it with my own children. I did that for my own kid. If I sent my son to die for you, if you were in some burning building somewhere and I said, son, go pull that person out, and he runs in there and gets you out and the process dies, and you just didn't bother to thank me or shake my hand or just took it for granted, I'd be insulted. That's nothing compared to what Jesus Christ says. That's nothing what the father did when he sent his son from glory to come down here and to be born in such a meager and humble way. Then for people to reject him, it's an insult to God. The Bible says, and I'll just read it to you from 2 Corinthians chapter 8, it says, for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be made rich. Now, it's interesting here because he says, for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. But do we? Paul's assuming that about these Corinthians. Of course, he knew them. He could probably say that with confidence. Hey, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. But I would ask us that question. Do we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do we understand just how far he came when he left heaven to be born here? Do we understand his grace? I want us to notice also in this verse the purpose of his poverty. It wasn't just that he became poor just so that he could appear to be this humble person, and he was. He didn't just do it so he could say, oh, what a humble person. Oh, he became poor. That was so nice of him. It says he became poor that ye through his poverty might be made rich. That was the purpose of it. It wasn't just to earn some badge that he could wear and say, well, I became poor. Do like I did. He did that so that we could be made rich, that we could know the riches that are in Christ Jesus by means of salvation, that we could be made. He became sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He took our place. Instead of having to pay for our sins ourselves, now we can go to heaven and glory and behold all the riches that are there. He did not come here and go through all this just for the sake of sympathy so that we could say, you poor thing. He did it for the sake of enriching us, that we might be made rich through him. Again, we see this element, and the reason why people will never understand this is because they lack fear of God. There is no fear of God before their eyes. You don't have to look very far in our world today, in this culture today, to see a country, a nation, yet even a world that has cast off the fear of God, that just consider this some old Stone Age book that has no bearing on our life anymore, that it's just a good moral guide. The Bible says every word of God is pure. The Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. You know, the statutes of the Lord are right, the Bible says. These are things that we should be looking to to guide our lives, to guide the way we live as individuals and societies, as families. But people cast that off because why? Because there's no fear. They're not afraid of a wrathful and vengeful God whose name is Jealous. That's what he says. That's what he calls himself. And as a result, they miss out on the grace of God. They miss out on the good will that God has given toward us through the poverty of Jesus Christ, through his humility. And the people that do receive it, the people that are going to partake in that good will that God has towards men are like the people in our story. They all share one common thing. What is it? Fear. We talked about that earlier. The common element of fear among those in the story of Jesus' birth. That's what I want us to look at next. You know, we talked about Zacharias, how the Bible says fear fell upon him in Luke chapter 1. Mary was troubled at his saying of the angel, and she had to tell her, fear not Mary. You know, he had to reassure her not to be afraid. Those present at the birth of John, you know, they feared and they went and told all the folks in the hill country. The shepherds were what? Soar afraid. This is a common element that we see in the birth story of Christ. We could talk about, you know, well, for the sake of time we'll move on here, but each of these people that we've mentioned here, and there are others we could talk about, each of these witnessed to some degree the greatest birth, the manifestation of God in the flesh. I mean, people, you know, they get all excited when a new baby comes into the world. You know, and especially if they're related or it's a friend or somebody they know. I mean, there's a lot of excitement. You know, they got to see the baby, right? Everyone's got to go see the baby. And everyone's always showing off the baby. And that's great. I'm all for that. But it pales in comparison to this birth. I mean, the Bible says God was manifest in the flesh. This wasn't just a good person. Like, he wasn't just a good teacher like the world likes to say of Jesus. Oh, he taught some good things. Oh, he was a good teacher. I think there's a lot we can learn from the man Jesus Christ. Well, that's true. But let's not forget the fact that the Bible says that it was God manifest in the flesh. The Bible says great is the mystery of godliness. You know, we can't even begin to wrap our heads around what it would have been like to be in the presence of Christ on this earth and it's in the flesh. That was what was taking place here. And each one of these people, they got to behold this to some degree, whether it was the angels, whether it was they came and worshiped him after he'd been born, whether it was they just heard about it from a neighbor up in the rural parts of Judea. They got to participate this in this in his birth to some degree. And they all shared an element of fear of just being humble, simple, common folks. That's who got to hear about the birth of Christ. And I believe that's because God would only allow humble, fearful people such a privilege. I mean, that is a privilege. I mean, wouldn't you have liked to have been one of those shepherds there that night? Just behold that sight and to hear that great news of glad tidings of great joy, of peace on earth and goodwill toward men, and to be able to go and behold the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, we think about that story and we sing those songs and quite often it brings us to the point of tears. I'm not saying I missed up on it completely, but we get goosebumps when we think about this. And who is it that God allows to participate in such a magnificent event? It's humble people. It's fearful people. It's common people that get to take part in such a privilege. And again, this is in a very long sermon because we all understand the Christmas story. And there's just this one great truth that I want us to understand this morning is that if we want to see great things from God, we have to be humble people. We have to be fearful people. And it starts with salvation. If you want to be saved, you're going to have to admit not by our own works, but by His grace He saved us. Not by our works of righteousness. If we're counting on working our way into heaven this morning, you're going to come up short. It's going to take some humility to get there. It's going to take some fear of understanding that you have to put all your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we're saved this morning and we want to do greater things from God, we want God to speak to us from His Word. We want to open up the Bible and behold wondrous things out of Thy law. We want God to open our eyes. Is there any humility there? Is there any fear? It needs to be there. Otherwise we're not going to see those things. Otherwise God will just keep those things from us and say, well, you know, it's a privilege to be able to behold these things out of the Word of God. And, you know, the application really is this. And if you would, let's turn over to Psalms chapter 25. We'll end there. Because the birth of Christ, again, it was very humble. It was very meager. It was not announced to the whole world. It was something that only a small handful of people got to really even know or understand. And it was very common people. You could say, in a way, it was kind of kept secret, wasn't it? I mean, could God not have made it known to the whole world that this was the Christ? Sure, he could have. I mean, he could have sent those angels down to Jerusalem and he could have had them, you know, right over the temple. He could have showed everybody where that star was, not just those wise men from the east. He could have let the whole world know. But he kind of, it seems to me like he kept it secret. He only let some privileged people get to see that. And that wasn't because of their station in life. It wasn't because of anything that they had done. It was simply because they were humble and because they feared God. The Bible says in Psalms chapter 25 verse 14, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show them his covenant. That's, you know, that's a perfect summation of the birth story of Christ. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. This quiet, unheard of birth that just took place back then, that just went under the radar, that was the most magnificent, miraculous birth that ever took place was only showed to a few people in secret because they feared him. They got to behold his covenant in the flesh. And, you know, it's the same way for us today. You know, the world out there, they still need Christ. They still need someone to come and knock on their door and say, do you know for sure that if you died today, you'd go to heaven? Can I show you the simple plan of salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ from God's word? They need to be presented with that. They need to be told that there is a hell to escape and a heaven to gain. They need to be told, Hey, you know, the wages of sin is death, but Hey, the good news is that God loves you, that he died for, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And he was buried and rose again. And the Bible says that whosoever shall believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That it's simply by belief, whether we're trusting in what Christ has already done for us or what we're trusting in our own works. Someone needs to go and tell them that. Someone needs to go and herald the good news. You know, maybe we should be more like, have that, the perspective that my wife has. Maybe we should be more like those angels. Maybe we should go out there and say, you know, behold unto you as born this day in the city of Bethlehem, a savior who was Christ's Lord. Maybe we should be more like that and go out there and tell people about the news of Jesus Christ, that they might fear him, fear the message and receive it in humility and peace and faith. And they would know, you know, the mercy of God, the goodwill that God has towards them. That's the application this morning for us to, that's not, you know, if we've been privileged enough to understand the gospel, let's not keep it to ourselves. That's not, that's not what God wants. God says, you know, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And those that will fear, you know, they will receive the knowledge of the truth. And I understand there's going to be people, we see, we meet them all the time. They mock, they scoff, they give you that fake smile and say, I'm good, but I appreciate you coming by. And this world, it's becoming less and less Christian all the time. And they, and they, and they, you know, they're not, there's no fear of God anymore before their eyes, but that's not going to stop us from going out and sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you can be saved by grace through faith. Let's do that. You know, we're coming into another year. This church is over a year old. You know, we've done, we've done great things. You know, we've knocked a lot of doors in the community here in Tucson. We've seen a lot of people pray and receive Christ as Savior. We've seen this church grow. I'm excited about, you know, what, what lies ahead for us, what this next year is going to be, want to bring. But in every single one of us, there has to be this element of humility. If we want to do great things for God, we're going to have to be like these people in this birth story. We're going to have to be humble people and to allow God to use us and to show us these great things. Let's go ahead and pray.