Luke chapter two, verse 16, the word of God says, and they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. Now let's pray. Father, help us to learn some vital truths about how you entered the world and about this manger. What does the manger tell us about Christmas? I pray that we would be filled with thanks and gratitude, praise and worship for the simple truths we'll be reminded of this evening. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. We've talked a lot about the Christmas story the last six weeks, especially if you've been coming to Sunday school. We did an entire series on Christmas from God's point of view and looked at several different angles of the Christmas story. Last Sunday morning, I spent some time talking about these shepherds and the message, goodwill toward men. I told my wife after the message that that message really helped me. I just, I enjoyed the truth. And that message is full of truths that I've known for a long time but never really processed in the way that we talked about. The fact that God has always had our best interests at heart. And how much he loves us and cares for us. A lot of wonderful truths here in the Christmas story. But as I was thinking about tonight and the message that God wanted us to look at from his word this evening, I couldn't get past the manger. The word we use a lot in the Christmas season, the manger. Does anyone know what a manger is? You'd be willing to tell us what a manger is. Anybody? Eli, you know? That's right, an animal feeding trough. And so think about that. Jesus was born in a barn. But his first bed was an animal feeding trough. How many of you had animals growing up? All right. How many of you had dogs? Would you consider a dog bowl to be clean? No. How many of you had animals other than dogs, like farm animals? Anybody here have, like, farm animals growing up? Ethan, what'd you have? Pigs, chickens, turkeys for the past? Cows, yep, good Midwestern cows. Anybody else? Yes, ma'am? Horses, good. I saw a hand over here. Yes, ma'am? Awesome, wow. Farm animals are different than regular animals. There's a reason why the average vet doesn't do cows and pigs and all that. It's a whole different ball game. If you have a horse, you don't take it down to the dog vet. Usually, there's a whole different vet for that. We grew up in the country, and there were animals all around us. There was a turkey barn about four miles away, but boy, during the summer, it smelled like it was right there in your back lawn. and if the wind was blowing just right. We had pig farms. You'd be driving along with your windows down during the summer, and just all of a sudden, these smells would come into the car, and my dad would always just go, smells like money. And I'd be like, that's not what it smells like to me. It smells like anything but money. If that's money, I don't want any. And we had cows near us. So some of you have seen the house where I spent my teenage years. If you went on a youth road trip, we've gone probably three times over the last 20 years and showed you the places where I grew up and the town where I grew up and things like that. And where we spent my teenage years, we had about six acres of land and massive front yard, big backyard. Used to take me six hours every week just to mow and trim the lawn. And there was a bit of a long lane that came in from the side road. We lived right on the highway. The highway ran right in front of the house, Highway 59. There was a big water tower in the corner of our property. We didn't own that, but it was there, standing very tall. There was a little side road, a county road right there, and you came down that road, and we were the first left. and we would go down this kind of winding gravel road. Well, right as you turned into our property, there was a barn. Now, the first several years we owned there, or we lived there, the neighbors owned the barn. After we lived there for some time, the neighbors came to my family and said, I'm willing to sell you the barn and 10 more acres that wrapped around the back of the house. Now, around here, 10 acres would be an astronomical price. But in the country, it's not so expensive. And so the family was able to stretch, and we were able to buy that barn, and then the 10 acres that kind of wrapped around. And we always had animals of some kind. Usually we had a cow or two. The neighbor had many cows. Back behind our 10 acres was another pasture with a big lake. And the neighbor, who was pretty wealthy, the dad was part owner in a coal mine. And they had a very large brick home built by the Amish, 30-foot vaulted ceilings, massive oak stairway. They had a son my age, and so I would always go over. Our teenage years, I would spend a lot of time at his house, because he had all the toys. Motorcycles and four-wheelers and lots of property. But boy, those cows. And I tell you, cows are cute from a distance. But they are dirty animals. And boy, you get up close to them, they flies buzzing around, all kinds of things. Every time I think about the Christmas story, I remember that before we owned the barn, the neighbor would sometimes pay me and his son to go muck out the barn. And they had stalls in the barn where the cows would live. They had a place in the back that was kind of open on both ends where the cows could go inside for weather. But they had stalls, too, where if they wanted to stall the animals. And so they would feed the animals there. And they would just keep throwing hay on top of everything else. So the floor of the barn would get, let's say, dirty. uh... the cows would dirty the floor of the barn and then they just throw hay on top of it and then the cows would dirty it again they'd throw hay on top of it and they'd dirty it again this would happen for i can't remember the frequency just over and over and over just dirt, hey, dirt, hey, dirt, hey, and it kept getting stomped on and stomped on until eventually you had a layer about this thick of just dirt, let's say, and hay. That's one thing that pitchforks are for. You know, some of you have seen pitchforks in movies. The pitchfork is where you'd actually go in there and get the pitchfork, and you'd muck out the barn. You'd get in there and break up all that nasty stuff on the floor, and you'd break it up with that pitchfork and put it in a wheelbarrow and wheel it off. And there were wonderful aromas as you were mucking out the barn, deep aromas that had been covered for a long time. You say, preacher, it's Christmas. What are you talking about this for? Jesus was born in a barn. What do you picture a barn to be? Is this like a barn where you picture like a photo shoot? You know, and there's like, there's like beautiful decorations hanging from the ceiling and this beautifully clean barn that's never been used. No, this was a place where animals lived. You understand when the, when the son of God came into this world, he was greeted first. with moose of cows and nays of animals. It was not a sterile place, not a clean place. I'm sure they did the best they could. They cleaned out a spot. And they did the best they could, just like any of us would, with blankets and other things. But then think about that manger, a feeding trough. I've seen cows eat. It's not pretty. They'll chew their cud. You know, you see them out in the field. Boy, you get that feeding trough. And when you feed a cow, sometimes it's hay, sometimes it's grain. Horses, the same thing. Pigs, they're a whole other story. Boy, my dad had pigs growing up. He only ever had one pig at a time, and he always named him Charlie. Charlie I, Charlie II, Charlie III. We'd have Charlie around for about three years. And then we'd have a freezer full of lard and ham. And then Charlie II would show up. And boy, the pigs just ate whatever was left over for dinner. They would eat you if they got hungry enough. But the cows, they're sweet animals. And remember feeding them in that trough, sometimes you'd put the feed in the trough. It was not a clean place. Think about camels. There's a lot of camels in the area of the world where Jesus lived. What are camels famous for doing to people? Spitting. Camels will spit at you. I'm just trying to bring us down to reality, folks, that Jesus was born in a barn. He was laid in a manger. I'm sure they took that wooden trough, that wooden box. I'm sure they cleaned it out the best they could. I'm sure they put blankets in there and made it as nice and sweet as they could. But I wanna give you three quick thoughts tonight about Jesus being born in a manger. What does that mean? And what truths can we learn from that today? Number one, the manger reminds us of God's sacrifice. Of God's sacrifice. I want you to remember tonight on this Christmas Eve that God gave the very best he had to save you. It was anything but easy. And he didn't do it in a way where, yes, Jesus came, but he was born in a palace, and he had the best of the doctors of the time, and the finest of sheets, and the wooliest of blankets. No, he was born in a barn. Jesus was born in a barn. And I just want you to know that the manger reminds us that that is the smallest of the sacrifices of God. It's a stark reminder, but dear friend, God gave more than we could possibly imagine to save our souls. The fact that the father would allow the son, the fact that the son would volunteer, the fact that the gospel plan was put in practice at all. As all this was devised and every sacrifice that would have to be made along the way, there was one driving force behind every sacrifice of God, every sacrifice of the Father, every sacrifice of the Son, and that driving force was you. The love of God. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. You know, that verse naturally leads us to the cross, but it doesn't just talk about the cross. The Son was given to us. You understand that for thousands of years, God tried to reveal himself for mankind, and no matter how many prophets he gave, no matter how many books were written and inspired and preserved, mankind still couldn't get what God was trying to tell them. That's why when Jesus came, the religious leaders of the day had it all wrong. In Jesus's first sermon, he said several times, you think the law says, but here's what it really means. You think the law says, but here's what it really means. You think the law says, but here's what it really means. And there was just, mankind wasn't getting it. So God sent the ultimate communication from himself to mankind, the word, the Logos. In the beginning was, the Word. What's a Word? I'm using words to communicate to you right now. Words are the way we communicate. Jesus Christ was the ultimate communication from God to man about who God is and what He wants us to do. Imagine the sacrifices of God. From the manger to the tomb. Every sacrifice God made, when we look at the Christmas story, the manger reminds us of God's sacrifice. Number two, when we look at the Christmas story, the manger reminds us of Christ's humility. Christ's humility. It's unthinkable that God would find a way to wrap himself in human flesh and become a man for any amount of time. The God who lives outside of time became, in a way that you and I can't understand, partially anchored in time. Not just living in human flesh, but living out a linear existence one day after another. The Creator becoming servant to the very laws of physics that He Himself created. Tasting the dust that He made. living as a man, knowing what it's like to get hot and cold and tired and hungry. The first humiliation was he was born in a barn and he was laid in a manger. I wonder how many rich men there were born or rich children, children born to rich families in the land of promise during those years. Wonder how many children of kings and queens were born in palaces while Jesus roamed the earth. Jesus was content to be born in a barn and laid in a manger. Why? No sacrifice was too great. No price was too high. Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. We see God's sacrifice. We see Christ's humility. And lastly, we see man's opportunity. Man's opportunity. We have a Savior that'll save anybody, don't we? We have a Savior that's available and accessible. You know what's interesting about a barn? Just about everybody at that time had a place to keep their animals. Everybody had a barn. If you had animals, you had a manger. The manger reminds us that Jesus came for everybody. And he's accessible. There were no security guards. There were no fences. There were no layers of security. There was no palace guards. Anybody could have walked up to the Christ child. A matter of fact, they did. Just a little bit away, angels came and announced that holy child had come to shepherds. And what happens? The shepherds walked over there and walked right up. And they saw Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. Jesus is accessible. He's available. Sometime later, Jesus probably between a year old and two years old, the wise men come traveling from afar. And you know what happened? The Bible seems to say they just walked right up and knocked on the door. And they got right in to see Jesus. You know, you don't have to wait in line to see Jesus. You don't have to have a special pass. You don't need to go to some special place. Aren't you glad that you don't have to travel up some mountain in Tibet to get to some secret monastery to find Jesus? You don't have to be of a certain bloodline to get saved. You don't have to have enough money to pay somebody off. Jesus is right there. Available. Accessible. man's opportunity. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Have you ever heard words so beautiful? That means you can be saved, I can be saved, your children, my children. Every creed and color and language and tongue of people are going to be in heaven, worshiping the Lord, because Jesus will save anybody, anytime, anywhere, because he's available. Revelation 22 ends with the last invitation in the Bible, whosoever will may come. Jesus was born in a manger. What's that tell us? Reminds us of God's sacrifice. The manger reminds us of Christ's humility. And the manger reminds us of man's opportunity. If you're saved, would you thank God? If you're not saved, Christmas time is a wonderful time to get saved. Dear friend, let's remember. Doesn't matter how far someone seems away from Jesus. He's right there available. To all who will believe. This is the essence of the Christmas story. Let's bow for prayer. Father, thank you for the time that we've been able to be reminded of this little manger. More barns are dirty places. Nobody would think, if they had the choice, nobody would think to lay their baby in a manger, an animal feeding trough. And yet that's how you chose to cave into the world. Thank you for the beauty of these deep and glorious truths that were taught by the manger. I pray that you'd draw