And as we look at Luke chapter 2 verse 1 through 4, of course, around this time of year, very familiar passage. And we should never lose sight of the fact that the Lord came to this earth and he did not come riding in some chariot. He didn't come to be born in a palace. He came to be born in a manger there in a stable. And here in Bethlehem, a little place, but yet God did a great work through that. And since the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came, Bethlehem, you could say, was put on the map, amen? And many times when you look at a little town and you'll see that something great happened there or some person that got their call to fame, if you will, from that place, you would say, well, that little town, they were put on the map. Well there is no place that has been put on the map in a greater way than the little town of Bethlehem and that is where the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came to this earth. Of course we know that He died upon the cross of Calvary. And praise the Lord that he shed his blood for each and every one of us. He's alive forevermore. Amen. This one that we're talking about this evening is not the little what we would call a helpless baby in a manger. That's not the king that we're talking about tonight. He is alive forevermore. And praise the Lord for that. But I want to preach to you a message tonight that I've entitled this little old Bethlehem. Look at Luke 2, verse 1-4, notice what the Bible says here, And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, and all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea under the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David. Let's go to Lord in prayer. We'll get started here tonight. Dear heavenly father, we come before you tonight and Lord, we're just so thankful for the opportunity that we have a Lord to just own a copy of your word. And Lord, you've told us exactly how things transpired there, Lord, how these things came to pass. And Lord, You've taught us about this place called Bethlehem. There's much of it throughout Your Word. Lord, You speak highly of this place. Lord, I pray that when we read of this place through our Bible reading, through our Bible study, through messages that are being preached, I pray that it would not register in our minds as just some little town over in the Middle East, but Lord, that it would register as a wonderful place in which You were born. And Lord, we know that you were born to die upon Calvary. Lord, I pray that you'd speak to our hearts tonight. Give us a glimpse into what Bethlehem means in the scriptures. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as we look at this little town of Bethlehem, and of course, we just sang about this little town there, and we see that this town, it had much, much significance in the Bible. As you travel through the Middle East, you're going to find that there is Africa and Asia and Europe, and these three are connected by this little piece of land, and that land is called Israel. This is a piece of land there that each and every one of these countries, they want that little piece of land. It's a major trade route that runs through there. And the Lord has protected that piece of land. There's mountains around there. It's a very great spot as far as geographically speaking would go. And this nation of Israel is considered to be the holy land. This was not just some insignificant place or insignificant name that was given to this place. It's called that because thousands of years ago there was a man named Jesus. that was born there to Mary and Joseph, of course. And there was the angels that sang of His birth. There was a baby that leapt in the womb when it heard about this coming Messiah. There were wise men that came from afar. There were shepherds that left their flocks there. And a great study that can be done in that. And they came down to this little place called Bethlehem there. And as they came there, they found exactly what the angels told them that they would find. They found this baby lying in a manger, of course, wrapped in swaddling clothes there. And this baby was going to be the one who would save the world from their sins. This little baby there in Bethlehem. This was the one who would grow up there and there in the holy land, if you will. And this one would grow up and at 30 years of age, he would step on the scene, if you will, with his earthly ministry. And the Lord would do wonderful things all throughout his life. And those three and a half years, we're studying a little bit about that in the book of John on Sunday mornings. And what you find is that the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was busy. He was not wasting time. during his earthly ministry and he was doing things to point people to the cross, to point them to what he had came here to do, to point them to the Father's will. He said, I must be about my Father's business. Well, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came to this place in Bethlehem and God had told the world before it ever happened through the mouth of the prophets that this is where his son would come. He told him that. Throughout the Holy land, there's places that you would consider to have, to be great in significance, maybe greater than others because how they are connected to Christ. And right in the middle of the story of Christmas, we find what is arguably the most significant place here. And that's Bethlehem. every year on Christmas morning before any gift is ever open before anything is is ever given we we sit down and we read this passage of scripture here we read about this baby that was being born we read down through many verses here I believe the whole chapter We read down through that and we split it up between me and my wife and my kids and all that. We go through there and we read about this because I don't want at all for any of us to skip over why we're celebrating that day. It's not because of the tree that's set up. Those things are going to drop needles everywhere, amen? It's not because of the lights that are on the house. Every guy in here, nobody loves putting up Christmas lights. Trust me, we don't celebrate that. Amen. I heard a from all the men in here. Amen. It's not because of stockings that may be hung on the mantle. It's not because of gifts that may be under the tree. It's not because of of the the ornaments that have been passed down, maybe for generations that are hanging on the tree. That's not why we celebrate Christmas. It's because of this one that came. to die for our sins. That's why We celebrate it. This place is so significant because it is the place that God specifically chose to be where his son would be born. And this was not a place in which kings were to be born. It wasn't a place in which people would travel in an attempt to arrive at the right time to see this royal birth, the son of God being born of this virgin into this world. And yet no one around there knew about it. There was no fanfare. Oh, there were wise men that came afterwards. There were shepherds that came afterwards. But you would think if the savior of the world was being born, it would be circulated everywhere. But it wasn't. Little old Bethlehem. In Bethlehem today, you will find a church that is named the Church of the Nativity. This is a church that was constructed over the site that is traditionally held as the birthplace of Christ. This church was constructed in 325 AD by the mother of Constantine. Many different groups and religions have profited off these types of places. But it's an amazing thing that this site has been preserved. But as great as that site is, as great as the place of the Savior's birth, is understand that at the end of the day that is just a place. It's about the Savior that was born there. We're going to learn about this Bethlehem tonight. What can we learn from little old Bethlehem? We'll look at Luke chapter 2 and verse 4 and notice the Bible says this and Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea unto the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David. You know what we find here in little old Bethlehem? You find this first of all that God's hand is in control of everything. You know, you would think in man's mind and man's wisdom and man's knowledge, you would think that if the savior of the world was going to be born, That they would choose the nicest hospital, the greatest place with the greatest doctors and make sure that everything was there at their disposal to ensure a seamless birth, to ensure that this baby was well taken care of, to ensure that everything humanly possible would go well. That's what you would think of in the mind of man. Well, the Savior of the world is coming. Let's give everything that we have towards this birth here. And no doubt there would be many different news stations and all of that that would be there. And they'd be standing outside saying, we're waiting for news that the Savior has been born. But you know what you heard in Bethlehem that night right there at the stable? That's exactly what you heard. Nothing. Oh, it was a busy town. People were coming in for the census. But there was no fanfare for the Savior of the world coming. Nothing at all. This place called Bethlehem was a birthplace of Christ, but it wasn't just because that's where Mary and Joseph were when she went into labor. It's because it was all in God's plan. Can I help you here tonight? Ladies don't choose when they go into labor. We have four children. The only one that we were at the hospital for to be induced was with Paisley. The boys decided when they were going to come and where they were going to try to come. Two of our children, my wife's water broke when we were leaving a restaurant. Two of them. I said, we're not going back to that restaurant. Amen. Expensive things happen when we go to that restaurant. But the reality is this. It wasn't just because Mary said, I can't wait to have this baby in Bethlehem. That's not why. It's because God was in control of everything, and God is working that plan, and that plan is going to come to fruition. In the book of Genesis, we read of this place called Bethlehem. It's where Jacob and his wife traveled to when she was expecting a child. They traveled to a place called Ephrath, which means fruitful. Look at Genesis chapter 35, if you will. Genesis chapter 35 some of these things may be things that we know but it's a good reminder for us to see that God had his plan and that plan was being worked all along here look at Genesis 35 and verse 16 through 19. Notice here in Genesis 35, 16 through 19, it says, And they journeyed from Bethel, and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not, thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, for she died, that she called his name Benani, but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. All the way back in the first book of the Bible here, all the way in the book of beginnings, that's what the word Genesis means, beginnings. And all the way back then we read of this little town of Bethlehem. Now we know this town was already there at least in some part. I'm sure some things had been built up to this point here. Maybe it was just a few buildings at that point, just a pass through area if you will. But it was a place place that was called Bethlehem. That's what the Bible tells us here. We know that this woman, Rachel, she died there and she was buried outside about a mile outside of Bethlehem. And before she passed away, she named this child Benani, which means the son of my sorrow. But Jacob called him Benjamin, which means the son of my right hand but what we see here is that this same town which was which was there the birthplace of the son of my sorrow where this boy was born is the same place that we read of Christ being born in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 3 turn back there if you will Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 3 we'll look at some scriptures tonight Isaiah chapter 53 in verse 3. Notice here, let's read verse one through three. Notice there, remember the son of my sorrows? Notice, he's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows. and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. This son of our sorrows or son of my sorrow and this man, this Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that the that the Bible calls there a man of sorrows, understand this is how Bethlehem is introduced to us. Little old Bethlehem. introduced this way in the word of God. But then we what we find is as we come to the book of Ruth there's a couple of women that are returning from the land of Moab. These these women had left this land with their with their husbands and all and they had traveled out of this area and they went to Moab and the husbands had passed away and and there was the mother-in-law and the two daughter-in-laws, of course, one which was Ruth, and the one daughter-in-law left, and Ruth stayed with Naomi there, and they decided, you know what, we're going to return to our homeland. We're going to cross the Jordan River and return to Bethlehem from the land of Moab. Look at Ruth chapter one. Ruth chapter one. You say, well, where's Ruth at? Well, you find Joshua. Joshua judges Ruth. I heard one man say, I don't know who gave Joshua the okay to judge Ruth, but that's what he did. Amen. Joshua judges Ruth. Ruth chapter one and verse 19. Notice what the Bible says here. So they too went until they came to Bethlehem and it came to pass when they were come to Bethlehem that all the city was moved about them. And they said, is this Naomi? Notice they returned to Bethlehem. Let's read down through the end of this chapter. It says, And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara. For the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. When then call ye me Naomi, seeing that the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me. So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem, in the beginning of barley harvest. So notice these two women as they travel back there, they come into this place and everyone's so happy to see them. And everyone is asking themselves, is that Naomi? And that must be the daughter-in-law. And they're coming back here. and they go up to them and no doubt they're trying to welcome them back and they call her Naomi and she says, do not call me Naomi as they're coming into Bethlehem. She says, call me Mara, which means bitter. Think about the place that she was coming into here. Little did she know what was going to happen in that place in the future. Boy, she comes there and she's all about herself, is she not? About how bad she has it. And she had gone through some things. She had lost her husband. She had lost her sons. And she had gone through some struggles. But she comes into this town and she's got Ruth with her and Naomi is there in the home and Ruth goes out, as we read there, it's at the beginning of the harvest season and Naomi and Elimelech had lived and Ruth came back to Bethlehem and she met this man while she was out gleaning in the fields. The man who owned the fields name was Boaz. As we read about this man Boaz, you find that he was a great man. You find that he was a man who cared for Ruth. He loved Ruth and Ruth and Boaz, long story short, they ended up getting married. And they had a son whose name was Obed. Now remember, we're still in Bethlehem here. Naomi and Ruth had traveled from Moab and they had came down to Bethlehem and that's where they are at this point. And Ruth and Boaz, they were living in Bethlehem and they had this son named Obed. And Obed had a son whose name was Jesse. Jesse had some sons and one of whom he named David. We're connecting some dots for this little old Bethlehem, are we not? Continuing through the Bible, God tells us more and more about Bethlehem. Look at 1 Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16. Remember, as we went through that study on how to study the Bible, I told you if you do word studies, things will come to life, amen? And that's exactly what this is. You look up Bethlehem and you start finding how all of these things are connected. And boy, it makes it come to life. It makes it to where you can't wait to open up the word of God and say, Lord, what are you going to show me today? First Samuel chapter 16 verse 1, I'll get it out eventually. It says this, And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing that I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go. I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite. Notice, For I have provided me a king among his sons. Jesse's sons were brought before Samuel there and Samuel the prophet, he's got his horn of oil and no doubt he's waiting there and as one son, as the oldest would be brought in, he would see the oldest son brought in and he would take that horn of oil and he would not open that up and pour it out until it was the one that God told him, this is him. So you would think the oldest son, probably the biggest of the group, and he's coming in there, and no doubt he had been able, had been very influential in leading his brothers and teaching them different tricks of the trade, if you will, around the sheep and everything that was going on there on the farm. And he walks in there thinking, it's probably going to be me. And Samuel says, it's not you. Well then you've got this next son that walks in and Samuel's sitting there and you've got this son that comes up to him and Samuel says, it's not you. And as they worked their way down the line, no doubt they got to the last son that was there at the house. And he walks in, he says, well, if God told Samuel that it was going to be one of Jesse's boys, we know it's not going to be little old David who's out there caring for the sheep. So can you see as the second to youngest son walks in there? He says, I'm going to be the next king of Israel. We know it's not little old David and all my other brothers have been cast to the side and they've been denied. So it's got to be me. He walks in there and Samuel says, it's not you. It's not you. Samuel continued down through all of these sons there, and notice verse 11, and Samuel says unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? Here's, in our words, here's what Samuel said to him. Is this all you have? Is this the best you have to offer? Is this it? The Lord told me to come here. Is this all you have for me to see? Because there in verse 10, notice, again, Jesse made seven of his sons. to pass before Samuel. Isn't that just how we act as well? We think we know God's will better than he does. As Jesse knew that the prophet was coming, Jesse knew that God had told this prophet that he was going to choose a king from Jesse's sons and no doubt Jesse's all excited about that. This prophet knocks on his door, tells him the news and he tells him, all of his sons, sons, come in here. The prophet is here. He wants to choose a king from one of you. And then Samuel says, are here all thy children? He said, there remaineth yet the youngest and behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, send. and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent and brought him in, now he was ready. And with all of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to, and the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. God had a plan, did he not? He knew exactly what he was doing. As we continue through this, the story of the life of David, you find that God worked all throughout his life. And this is when the prophet heard the voice of God declaring, this is the king, this is the one, this is who you need to anoint. And David was anointed king over Israel in Bethlehem at the house of Jesse. Now, Bethlehem is one of the oldest cities in the Bible. about six miles away from Jerusalem. And they say that if you stand on top of the of the hill in Bethlehem, you look to the north and you would see Jerusalem. You look to the south and you would see the fields of Boaz. You look to the east and you can see across the Dead Sea into the mountains of Moab and to the west off in the distance, you'll see the Mediterranean Sea. And David grew up in this place called little old Bethlehem. It had been the place where Ruth and Boaz had called home. It was a place in which Obed had Jesse and of course left as an inheritance to King David. And when David was the king of Israel, remember he had a rebellion in his kingdom. Remember when his own son came up against him, the son Absalom sought to overthrow him and David fled to escape the wrath of Absalom. And after Absalom was put to death, David returned to Jerusalem. When he returned, or before he returned, there was a man by the name of Barzillai who was kind to David, and David asked Barzillai if he would allow, if he would come back to Jerusalem with him, and Barzillai said this, I'm not going to go. Barzillai didn't want to leave his homeland. He wanted to stay right there. This was a place in which he had lived no doubt his whole life. But he told King David that he could take his son Chimham. Look at 1 Kings 2. 1 Kings 2. 1 Kings 2. And notice verse 7. Notice it says here in 1st Kings chapter 2 and verse 7 but show kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite and let them be of one that eat at thy table for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother. So here we have this Barzillai we have this one that cared for King David as he was running for his life from his own son. And what we find is is that David remembered how this man and his son had cared for him while he was escaping the wrath of Absalom and the most precious place on earth to David was the land where he lived while he was growing up. I can remember my my great grandfather he he owned a nine hundred and seventy six acres that were right there along the same piece of land where where my parents are living today. And if you were to sit in my parents' house, there in the living room, and you look across the street, you see this old farmhouse up there. The state had condemned the house, and it's not in great shape at all. Of course, the whole thing is filled with lead paint, of course. And my great-grandfather, when they condemned the place, the state told him it's condemned because of the amount of lead paint that was there. And he asked them, he said, well, lead paint hurts you. And they said, yeah, it'll cause you to get these sicknesses. And it's been known to to make people die prematurely and all that because of these things. And he told he told them this as they came to condemn that house. He looked at them and he said, you see that handrail going up the the stairway there? And they said, yeah, we see that. He said, you see how that's painted? They said, yeah, we see that. He said, you see how it's painted with lead paint? Yeah, we see that. And that's one of the reasons we're condemning this place. He said, you see those marks out at the bottom? Yeah. He said, I cut my teeth on that rail right there and I'm 80 some years old. You're telling me you're condemning it because of that. Amen. But he owned that place all the way to his death. This was a place where he was raised. His parents had bought that place and they had bought some land around there and then he had bought across the street. And for a mile and a half you drive and all you see is land that belonged to Ralph Jackson. And what you find there now is all of that land is still in the family. Why? Because it means something to them. He's got my father, which was a grandchild. His dad had left at a very young age. My dad was only eight years old and my grandparents got divorced. And because my grandfather was not around, my great-grandfather gifted some land to my father. And then my uncles all have land and it's land that is special to the family. There's been a lot of work done on that land. There's a couple of different farmhouses. People have lived there. There's different names of the farms as you go down through there, and you can call out these names. You can think of memories that had happened there. You've got the home place, which is all the way at the end. And my dad will oftentimes talk of memories about running around that place. It's a place that is special to them. That's what Bethlehem was to King David. You know, oftentimes we think of King David and we think of a palace in Jerusalem, do we not? We think of this king. We think of the one who had everything at his disposal. We think of someone that was a man after God's own heart. We think of someone that would have been riding in a chariot. We think of a great warrior for God. We think of this man who was used by God in a great way. But there was a place that was special in the heart of David. And that was a place called Bethlehem. this place there in Bethlehem as David was living there as he was a little boy of course it had belonged to Boaz his grandfather and it belonged to Obed his father Jesse and Chimham came to acquire some of this property there in Bethlehem through David caring for that family through being the king there and all and the Bible tells us that Chimham did something very special with that property. Look at the book of Jeremiah, if you will, Jeremiah chapter 41, Jeremiah chapter 41 and verse 17. See the Lord puts all these pieces together. We just have to read his word. Amen. Jeremiah chapter 41 and verse 17. Notice here, it's speaking of course, Jeremiah's prophecies here, and there's people that are traveling. Let's look at verse 16 and verse 17. It says, then took Johan and the sons of Korea and all the captains of the forces that were with him and the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael. of Nethaniah and Mizpah after he had slain Gedaliah and the son of Ahicham even mighty men of war and the women and the children in the eunuchs whom he had brought again from Gibeon and they departed notice and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham which is by Bethlehem to go to enter into Egypt. Now notice here, Chimham, he had used this place, this land that he was given there, he had used this obviously for people to come through and for people to stay there. He was using it to house people as they came through. Different scholars have read these passages. Different ones have said many things about this place called Bethlehem. But it's not outside the realm of possibility that this place that we read of here was made into an inn where people would stay. It's not outside the realm of possibility that the only one in Bethlehem that was converted from into an inn may have been the house of Jesse. There's many different things that you could say about Bethlehem. You say, well, how do we know for sure? Well, we get to heaven. If it pops into our mind, we can ask. Amen. But either way, this place of Bethlehem, it was used in a great way. The house of Jesse, whether this is it being changed or whether it was something that was built later on in Bethlehem, the things that we just read about, they took place over a thousand years before Christ was born. Over a thousand years. People would be traveling and there were roads that led to Egypt and not far from Bethlehem is a place called Hebron on the east side of the road to Hebron is the city of Bethlehem. It was a place in which people would stop on a long journey to Hebron. They were on their way down to Egypt and 580 years later from that point there were two travelers that had traveled over 80 miles from the city of Galilee. called Nazareth and they made their way to Bethlehem and when they came to Bethlehem they sought for a place to stay and when they arrived they were told there's no room. Think about this place as it had been passed down from generation to generation. I have no doubts that when Boaz owned the land if someone would have told him The son of God is going to be born right there on your land. He would have said this, build the best place that you can possibly build. I want to be ready for when he comes. When Boaz had Obed, no doubt Obed would have said the same thing. Can you see Jesse as he inherits this land? And Jesse is no doubt building the business if you will. They were shepherds and David of course was out there tending to the sheep. And no doubt if you would have told Jesse that the Son of God is going to be born right here, he would have done anything that he could. to ensure that everything was prepared and that there was a place for the Son of God to lay His head when He was born into this world. He would have made sure that something was prepared. Oh, then you've got David, and of course David, a man after God's own heart. He was the king. He had the means to do anything that he wanted to do. He could have built a palace there for the coming of the Messiah. He could have done that. then you've got all of these different pieces that are falling into place and after all of those things that had happened when the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is finally coming into this world they had room for everyone else but they didn't have room for Jesus. In Bethlehem, all of this history and no room for Jesus. You know that describes a lot of people's hearts today. Boy we've got room for everything don't we? Especially this time of year where we want this and I want that and I want to get this and acquire this and I'm working hard to get this and boy this world that we live in they are chasing after everything they can but they're leaving out the most important piece. There's room for everything we want, but no room left for what we need in an area where the shepherds, of course, were abiding in the fields. And as we read through this story here in Luke, we, the, we, we came across, we, we come across the word watch and there were four different watches during the night. And these watches had to do with keeping the sheep and they were designed to be given as a sacrifice. These, these, these sheep were, and. And the one watch was coming to an end, and it's believed that these angels would have appeared to the shepherds at the end of their watch, and they they rushed to the manger. They found baby Jesus, just as the angels said that they would find him. And this is where they finally saw they laid their eyes upon the lamb that was slain. This little baby. They're looking at him. This is the Messiah. And here's the Lamb of God that was slain from the foundations of the world. You see, all of these things are what we would consider minute details. They were all part of God's plan. And God's hand is in control of all of this. And you find that as you study this little place. called Bethlehem. Two thousand years before the birth of Christ God recorded for us where Christ would be born. Four hundred years later we find these two women crossing the Jordan into Bethlehem and we meet Boaz and Obed and Jesse and David and this property that was precious to David was given to this man Barzillai, given to his son Chimham. and we find that this was the place where the Lord Jesus would be born. This whole world, everything that's going on, understand it's in control by God. And if you think that things are out of control, can I help you here tonight? If God can control everything from 2,000 years before to the very manger where the Lord Jesus Christ would be born, He can control the outcome of your life as well. He didn't just say that he would be born in Bethlehem. God knew exactly where he would be born. You know, God knew that there would be no room in that inn. God knew where those shepherds would be. God knew where those wise men were going to be. God knew that there was going to be a Joseph and Mary. And as they're coming across there, He knew that Mary was going to be great with child. He knew that they needed to find a room and they needed to find it quick because she was going to give birth. God knew all of those things. And yet He still chose little old Bethlehem. God is in control of everything, even the smallest details. We also need to remember in little old Bethlehem that all of this history played into one important thing and that is the birth God has a purpose for everything. As we look at these, what we would consider these small details, God sees them in the grand scheme of things. And while we're here on earth, we are to do what God has called us to do. As we run this race, we, we must see that we are not waiting for the baton to be handed to us. No, as we, as we've studied through these things, we've saw a progression that has gone from, you know, from Ruth and Boaz to Obed and to Jesse and to David and on and on and on all the way to Christ but understand as we saw those things were happening all along the way God was preparing them for that moment God has prepared you for this moment we're not waiting for a baton to be passed to us in the Christian life it's already been passed to us the issue is we're not running with it with the each and every one of us. We need to be going for God, doing things for God. We need to be busy because God has a plan and we only have so much time to fulfill that. We can look at this place and say, well, that's just little old Bethlehem and boy, God did a great work there. But can I encourage you tonight to look at yourself? Because in the grand scheme of things, it's just little old me. But you know what's encouraging tonight? God has a plan for little old me. God has something for me to do. The God of heaven has something that he has assigned to me and to you. All of these things are important. Are we running the way that God wants us to run with our life? All of history is leading us to that point. He takes all this and he puts them together just like he did in the town of Bethlehem. We can clearly see that God had a plan. These people were a part of that, but we need to see it in our life. People come and people go, but God remains the same. Things change. But God does not. We should be placing our trust in Him. He's trustworthy. He's not the God of accidents or just the God of emergencies. Understand, He knows the end from the beginning. He used little old Bethlehem for the Son of God to be born there. And He put all of these pieces together to get there. Little old Bethlehem teaches us something, and that's this, that all people are the object of the love that we find in Bethlehem. It's not hard to understand, but it is hard to accept what we find in Luke chapter 2 and verse 10. Luke chapter 2 and verse 10. Notice here in Luke chapter 2 and verse 10, And the angel said unto them, Fear not, For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, notice, which shall be to all people. You know, joy is something that there is a dearth of today. But the Bible says here, the angel told them, told the shepherds that they came to bring good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. This was not a place that was great in size, but it was a place that was great. Uh, in, in, in the eyes of God, he had, he had a special plan, uh, for that place. We read of in Micah chapter five in verse two, uh, let's go ahead and turn there. If you will, Micah chapter five, uh, in verse two, Micah chapter five in verse two. Notice here it says, but thou Bethlehem Ephrata though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of these shall he come forth unto me that is to be a ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting. This is in the minor prophets. It says here, "...though thou be little among the thousands of Judah." If you look at everything surrounding Judah, he says, Bethlehem, you may look small, you may seem insignificant, but it's from you that my Son is going to come. Help us here tonight and encourage us with this fact that In this world, with everything going on, with the access to information, with the population that is ever growing in this world, all of these things, the busyness, it's easy for us to feel insignificant. And understand, we're not something great outside of what God can do through us. It's only through the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His mercy that we're here today. But just as God told this little town of Bethlehem, though you're little, though you're small, though in comparison to everything else, you may feel insignificant, great things are going to happen. Can I encourage us with this tonight that if you allow the Lord to work through your life, it doesn't matter what your past is, It doesn't matter how small you seem. It doesn't matter how insignificant you may think that people think that you are or that you think that you are. God has a plan for you and he will work that plan to its fullest extent exceeding abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think. But you know what we have to do? We have to give our life to him. We have to be willing to allow him to work through us. We have to be willing to stand up in our workplace. We have to be willing to stand up in our schools. We have to be willing to be the one who's different. We have to be willing to put God first. In this world, there are people who are convinced that they are nothing, but they're treasured. They're worth something to God. In Matthew chapter 2, the wise men that we read about there, they knew the scriptures. They were very wise. They were very smart men. These were the ones that people would go to and ask for advice. And they knew what had happened. They inquired where the child was. They knew he was to be born down there in Bethlehem, not because man had told them, but because God had prophesied it. And when they saw the star, they knew that it was proclaiming the birth of Christ. And here was the wisest men known to man at that time. And what you find is they came there bearing gifts to give to the son of God. They were wise, but it wasn't because of the knowledge of man. It was because they heard that the Savior of the world came and that's where they went. That's where true wisdom is found. You can't find wisdom in the books of this world. You find the wisdom in what God has given us. Even though Bethlehem was a place chosen by God as the birthplace of the Savior, this in no way is to tell us that there is some special power to be found in Bethlehem or that only people from Bethlehem are going to have this joy because we found there in the book of Luke it says, all people we mentioned this morning for all of sin and come short of the glory of God we know that death is passed upon or yeah death is passed upon all men death by sin we know that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved we also know here that this joy is available for all people Everything that we've witnessed in and through the town of Bethlehem was for the purpose of God making his son known to the world. He wants all people to know his son. He wants all people to accept him as their personal savior. You see the object of God's love is not some geographical place. It's not some city or some nation. It isn't even some significant group of people. The object of God's love is every individual that's ever been born into this world because the Bible says, For God so loved the world, every one of us are loved by God. What an amazing truth that is. The object of God's love is all people. He sent his son to be born in Bethlehem, to die upon Calvary, to taste death for every man, to be placed into a borrowed tomb and to rise again on the third day. That's why Christ came. And as we look at Bethlehem, may we never forget that through Bethlehem, we learned that God is in control and his hand is in control of everything. That it's all pointing us to Christ and that all people are the object of God's love. There are many truths that are skipped over when we just read through a story. When you look at all of these things together, you see how God was working through all of these details. Many of us, and we could go around and no doubt give many testimonies on how we look back through our life, and to get to the point where we are now, we can look back and say, I see where God worked there, and God worked there, and God worked there, and He moved me here, and He changed my job here, and He brought this person into my life. We can see all of those ways in which God was working through our life to bring us to the point that we're at today. But may God help us to see that just as he was working back then, he desires to work today as well. Many truths are skipped over. God has a plan for you, though. He can do great and mighty things. There's much to be said about little old Bethlehem. Oh, God worked through it. That was in a time in the past and we're still reading about it today. What impact do you want to have for Christ in this world? You want to bring a joy to the people around you? Tell them about Jesus. You want to do something significant for God? Be available for God to use. And when God says go here, then go there. When God says do this, then do that. Allow the Lord to work through your life and my life, little old me, as He worked through little old Bethlehem. Amen.