Holy Night - Week 2

Holy Night : The Chosen  Series - Week 2

By Pastor Travis Young | Frontier Church | Aledo, TX


For All the People: When God Shows Up in the Margins

Week 2 of Holy Night: An Advent Series on Peace

We've domesticated shepherds over the centuries—turned them into felt-board figures and bathrobe-wearing kids in Christmas pageants. But in first-century Israel, shepherds were the overlooked. The dismissed. They worked a job nobody wanted, lived on the literal margins of society, and couldn't participate in temple worship because their work made them ceremonially unclean. No voice. No influence. No status.

In other words, they were exactly where many of us feel sometimes.

The Weight of Being Unseen

Maybe you know what it feels like to be a shepherd—to feel worthless, like what you do doesn't really matter. To feel unwanted, excluded from the places where people seem to belong. To feel unclean, carrying the weight of mistakes or shame that whispers, You're too broken. There's no coming back from this.

The shepherds knew that battle intimately. And it's in that exact place—in the middle of their ordinary, marginalized existence—that God chose to make His greatest announcement.

The God Who Shows Up

Luke 2:9 tells us, "An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them."

Not to the palace. Not to the priests. To shepherds.

The angel's first words? "Do not be afraid." God knows we feel unqualified, unworthy, unseen.

Then comes the announcement: "I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you."

For all people.
Not just the elite. Not just the qualified. All people. Including shepherds. Including you.

And more than that—"A Savior has been born to you." This isn't abstract. This is personal.
The shepherds didn't earn this moment. They simply received it. And that's the invitation extended to every single one of us today.

Craig Groeschel puts it beautifully: "God meets you in your weakness, not in your strength. His grace fills the gaps where you feel most unqualified."

Christmas is God's declaration that no one is outside the reach of His love. We simply must receive His love and walk in His light.

When Heaven Explodes

One angel wasn't enough. Suddenly "a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace.'"

The message they proclaimed? Peace. Not peace as the world gives it, but peace with God and peace within ourselves, even when life is hard.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "Peace is not the absence of struggle but the presence of God amid the struggle."

I've known people with everything the world offers but no peace. And I've known people who've lost nearly everything, yet carry deep peace because they have Jesus. That's the peace the angels announced. The peace we all need.

David Platt reminds us: "No one is beyond the reach of God's grace. The gospel is not exclusive to the privileged; it is extended to the broken, the forgotten, the unreached, and the overlooked."

The Invitation

This Advent season, as we light the candle of Peace, hear what those shepherds heard:
"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy. A Savior has been born to you."
You don't have to earn Him. You simply receive Him.

Jesus has come to bring peace to ALL people—especially the overlooked, unworthy, and unqualified.

Your Challenge

Here's my challenge to you as we move deeper into Advent:

First, ask yourself where you're still believing lies. What voices say you're unworthy, unseen, or not enough? Bring those places before God and ask Him to show you where you need to receive the peace Jesus came to give.

Second, look around for the shepherds in your life. Who feels overlooked, hurting, or far from peace? Ask God to give you His eyes to see them and boldness to share the good news that Jesus came for all people—including them.

Because if there's one thing the shepherds teach us, it's this: God doesn't show up where we expect Him to. He shows up in the margins. In the mess. In the middle of our most ordinary, overlooked moments.

And when He shows up, everything changes.

Merry Christmas, Frontier Church. May you know the peace that only Jesus can bring.


With love and joy in Christ,
Pastor Travis Young
Frontier Church