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Well, we are in week two of the Christmas series. Couple of weeks, I'm gonna be preaching week two and week three, campus pastors, we'll do Christmas Eve and love that Pastor Kirk kicked us off last week with the glory foretold. And I get to do the glory proclaimed this weekend. But before I get in, I just wanna say I've been traveling quite a bit lately, doing a lot of Kingdom Builder sermons, preaching plan, vision, dream at a bunch of churches. One church just texted me the other day and they said our giving doubled for our Kingdom Builders. Praise God for that. And then we did accelerators. I don't know if you know this, but the team flew to Kenya and did a generosity accelerator where we taught em everything we do here at River Valley and we taught it in Kenya. I think we have a picture of that if they could show that up. Yeah, so I was teaching pastors in Kenya, then we flew from there and went over to Manchester, England, taught them there. And so Kingdom Builders is going global and I get to brag on you and all the good that you're doing. If you're wondering if that's biblical, it is. Like the apostle Paul bragged on the Thessalonians. He's like, these guys are so obedient. And I'm bragging on em. So I'm bragging on your generosity around the world. And so can we just thank God that he's using this church to inspire other churches. It's been incredible. And then I just have one other update announcement. I wanna let all the campuses. No, Our son Logan, his wife Mack recently adopted their son Enzo. Here's a picture of him. So we now have a third grandchild and we love this little guy. We were there this weekend just staring at him, just staring. And I was just like, it's so amazing. You know what I love when your kids have kids is they realize how much you love them. You know, I said, now you know how much I love you. See, you know, but. Oh, we just love this little guy. And so excited to see the family expanding now today. His glory proclaimed. His glory. I love the song that we have with this, with our Christmas series. Absolutely love what our team has written and I love that we get to jump into his glory proclaimed. And I want to let you know that we're going to look at Isaiah 62 today, which by the way, was part of our soap reading, scripture observation application, prayer. And if you're not doing that with us, please, we want you to do that. You say, well, I'll do it as a New Year's resolution. That's great. You could get something out of it from now to the end of the year. But please, please, please. We want everybody reading two chapters a day. The whole church does it. It's just a way for us to get into God's word and it changes us. So you're gonna notice, like, hey, I think I read that in my soap. You did? Earlier this month. So as we look at being proclaimed, have you ever noticed there are some things that are just. They don't need to be explained. They're just proclaimed. Like the sun coming up every day, just. It's like, ta da, here it is. It's like, proclaimed. The headline proclaims the news. It doesn't have to be explained. It proclaims a birth announcement. Like, just announcing Enzo. Like, Enzo's here. There's something about it that is just proclaimed. Well, God's glory is the same way. God's glory is just proclaimed. The Bible, it's just proclaimed. It's like, it's out there. It's for all of us to see. The heavens don't suggest God's glory. They proclaim it. And it makes people stop and wonder. We're gonna look at this and say, like, the big question today is if God has always been proclaiming his glory through creation, through the scripture, through Christ, where does that proclamation land today for us today? So we're gonna look at that and we're gonna get there. But the heavens proclaim the glory of God. They don't just suggest it, they proclaim it. I was reading this week and I saw an article about Elon Musk. And it said, former atheist is saying, like, he started to think, like, there is a God out there. And I was like, I love it. He's getting one step closer. And he said this. He said, I believe this universe came from something. And then the article said he looked up to the maker of the universe and said, God is the Creator. So he's kind of like, something's going on. See, because the heavens declare his glory. They proclaim it for everyone to see. And so I wanna jump into Psalm 19, verse 1. It says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. And Christmas is the moment that God just interrupts all of history. He said, this is it. This is the declaration of my glory. Let me continue. In verse two, it says, day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out to all the earth, and their words to the end of the world is in them. He has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber. And like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the ends of them. And there is nothing hidden from its heat. God is proclaiming his glory. Creation is proclaiming his glory. And so, before we ever knew that there were gonna be angels proclaiming his glory, God's like, creation is proclaiming my glory. And I put it in motion. So all of humanity is wondering, like, what's going on here? Where did this come from? What's going on? What's the bigger picture? And God's like, the creation is gonna say, there is a God, and he's glorious. And here's the thing. When. When God declares something and proclaims something, silence is never an option. When. When God proclaims, silence is never an option. So when we come and we follow this story of proclamation from creation and through the prophetic things and to the people in the story that proclaim it, and when it gets to us, silence is never an option. Something has to happen. Something has to come out of you, and we'll get there in just a minute. God is always the first proclaimer of truth, of judgment, of hope. And in Psalm 19, we. When he's saying that creation pours forth his glory, the word that is there in Psalm 19, where it says it pours forth his glory, it means to gush. Creation is gushing forth that there is a God. There's a bigger story than just what we're living on this earth. There's something bigger, and it's gushing out, it's pouring forth. It's like out of the overflow. Creation is saying, there's a God. He's glorious God. These things take your breath away. You should pause. You should look at the universe. Something bigger than you is happening. And in Psalm 19, it says, Creation is proclaiming like it's a universal thing. In verse three, there's something that's going. Every sunrise is speaking to people where they don't even have the words, there's a God. Every constellation is saying, there's a God, and he's glorious. Every wave that hits the beach is really proclaiming, there's a God, and he's amazing. Creation is proclaiming like there's a bigger story at work. Next time you're at the ocean, listen to every wave that Just crashes and realize each one's going, there's a God, there's a God. That's what creation is doing. And so there's this proclaiming like started way through creation. And it's absolutely beautiful. Beautiful. Now this is what Paul says in Romans. He said, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Paul is saying that creation is proclaiming that something bigger is here, something is there. God is letting creation be the intro and saying there's something bigger. And Paul's saying when they look at it, they're just not. It's not just like it's merely available, but something is happening. They're not just going, wow, that's a pretty cool mountain. Something is happening in that. It's proclaiming there's a God and you're actually feeling it. Those awe moments. That's actually a supernatural, spiritual thing of creation, proclaiming there's a God and there's something that he has for you. It's like intro to faith in God. It's an amazing thing. And people don't even realize it when they're talking about like, you know, the universe is kind of spoken or, you know, for me, churches in the woods, they don't even realize that they're kind of proclaiming that creation is speaking something about God. Creation is speaking something about God. It's interesting. Creation just declares his glory by design. It just happens. But we have to declare his glory once we have an encounter with him. Takes an encounter. All of a sudden we have an encounter with God and it's a response to how good he is. And then we start proclaiming it. See, there's so much in Psalm 19, but I wanna just move on to the second thing. So we have creation proclaims. You're like, how's this gonna get to Christmas? Trust me, we're gonna get there. Creation proclaims. And then I wanna say this. The second thing is the heavens proclaim the glory. What's the difference? God is speaking from the heavens and he's declaring. He's proclaiming his glory. He's proclaiming what's coming. He's like, salvation is coming. There's something. Creation is showing that it's bigger. Now the heavens, I'm speaking to you and I'm saying that something is bigger. I'm proclaiming this to you, that what we're celebrating right now is bigger than us. Isaiah 62:11. Behold the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. God's proclaiming his salvation from the heavens. And what's interesting is when Isaiah says this, There's a Hebrew nuance to this when it says that God's proclaiming his salvation to the world. It's not like he's just saying it. He's saying it and everybody's hearing it. He's saying, I'm making this heard what is going on? I just love that all around the world, they're celebrating Christmas right now. I mean, all around the world. And I don't know about you, but, like, whenever I've been on a global team and we've been to a communist country, and I'm like, they have Christmas trees set up and they have Christmas lights set up, and then you go to the mall and it says Merry Christmas and. And maybe a little capitalistic flare on it, but I'm like, look at that. Even the communists are talking about Christmas. It's happening. And the Hebrew nuance is like, God's not just speaking and proclaiming that he's sending a savior. He's making it heard, he's making it known, even in communist countries. I was in a Muslim country and I was around Christmas, and I couldn't believe I'm in a Muslim country. And there's the Christmas trees, and there's the Merry Christmas and there's the Christmas cookies, and. And I was just like, wow, this is amazing. Like, God is proclaiming something is bigger than you, and it's all leading to what we're celebrating. Jesus Christ has been born, and he's ensuring that the world hears it. God ensures this man has no choice. God's announced it through creation, and God has announced it through the scriptures, and God has announced it all. You don't have a choice. It's been announced. Now you have a choice what you're gonna do with it, but you don't have a choice. God has announced and proclaimed, and we pretty much could go almost anywhere in the world and they're celebrating Christmas. It's incredible because God is proclaiming this. They might be missing the point of it, but I'm telling you what, it has been proclaimed. You don't have a choice. It's kinda. Have you ever got an AMBER Alert on your phone? You got your phone also. You're just sitting there and you're, like, enjoying dinner. Everybody's phone's going off. You don't have a choice. Like, it interrupts this dinner, it interrupts this moment, it interrupts this movie interrupts. And as soon as you get it, you have a choice of what you're gonna do with it. But it interrupts. And God's saying, I make my salvation heard to the world. I make my salvation. I bring it out there, I put it out there. It interrupts this broadcast. Now, you have a choice of what you're gonna do with it. But I'm gonna let the world know and proclaim that I'm sending my son, Jesus. I'm letting the world know that salvation is available and it demands a response. I'll give you another proclamation. As much as I fly, a few times I've heard my name over the intercom. It's usually like final boarding. Rob Ketterling, we're waiting on you. And I'm usually running. It demands a response. I don't go like, huh, wonder what that's about. You know, I'm like, I know what that means. That door is closing, and I'm not getting home. I gotta get there. And I'm running. It demands a response. And so when God declares, like, I'm sending my son. I have made a way for you. He's saying, I've got a plan of salvation. And he announced it for the world to hear. And he's not whispering it, he's shouting it to the world. And it demands a response. Demands a response. See, because proclamation always calls for action. And God has been proclaiming from the heavens, he's been saying, like, I'm sending my son. There's a plan for you. There's a plan of salvation. And it's interesting, he was proclaiming it through the prophets in Amos 9, 11, God's proclaiming. He's saying, I'm gonna save the nation. In Isaiah 62, he's saying, there's salvation for the world. To Zachariah, he says, salvation is coming. I want you to prophesy this. I've got a plan. You, you're gonna have. John needs to be the forerunner. But I'm prophetically speaking to you, to Mary. He says it, salvation is coming. To Joseph, salvation is coming. To the shepherds, salvation is coming. He's proclaiming it and proclaiming it. And there's always a response that is required out of this. So all of these things have been going on, and we see this progression, that creation is proclaiming. There's something bigger than us. There's a bigger plan. There's something. We just start there like, what is it? It gets us curious. But then God's like, I'm proclaiming from the heavens. I've given you my word. I've given you prophetic things. I've let you know that I'm involved in this. And there's something bigger. And that's what we're celebrating with Christmas. And then the third thing is, though we proclaim his glory, see, we're not done. So God's been proclaiming it through creation. God is proclaiming it through the word of God and through the prophetic moments and the interruptions that have been happening throughout history. And now we proclaim his glory. See, we're part of this pattern and part of this progression, if you will. In 2nd Corinthians 4, 5, 6, the apostle Paul is saying, for what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord, with ourselves as your servants, for Jesus sake. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness and has shown in our hearts to give the light to the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we proclaim because we've been saved. We've been saved. And so we need to become proclaimers. You know, we don't have a choice. We're part of the. God's, like, creation has been proclaiming it. I proclaimed it, the prophets proclaimed it. And now that you know it, you know what I need you to do? I need you to proclaim it. I need you to proclaim it, and it should be as easy as possible at Christmas. You think, like, we give you these little Christmas invites and it's like, huh, cool thing. I'll use it as a bookmark. No, this is for you to keep it going in the proclamation. All of us are part of this to proclaim what God has done. And it's as easy as it can be with Christmas. Most people would come to church with you at Christmas and Easter. Like, it's interesting. Becca and I had an opportunity this summer. We had an opportunity to go to Wimbledon. We did not get tickets in advance. We did it the English way. We stood in line. We were there at before 7am in the pouring rain, waiting. We waited in line till noon. So five hours. We did the English thing, you know, and tickets were £40. And so everybody's like, you stood in the queue. We. We did it. Okay, we did it. We're kind of British, you know, and so we were there. And as we're there, we're talking with these people, and there's a group of young people there. We Started talking to them, and we said, do you go to church? No. Do you go to weddings at church? No, not really. Do you go to Christmas? No. Do you go to Easter? No. I mean, they zero. I was like, would you go Saturday? Sure. We'd give it a try. I mean. And then I played some of our worship music for them. We're sitting there just waiting to go into Wimbledon. So I play. They're like, that's worship music. I'd listen to that. And so River Valley has new fans in England, you know, but they were like, I just. Everything within, I was just like, you don't even go at Christmas, but would you go? We would go easy. I wanna be part of the proclaiming. Do you understand? Creation has been proclaiming it. God's been proclaiming. All the prophets have been proclaiming it. The word of God proclaims it. And he's like, now that it's got to you, I want you to become a proclaimer. It's not just about that the angels proclaimed it. It's not just that the prophets proclaimed it. It's not just that Mary proclaimed, which she did in Luke. She gives the first Christmas carol. She goes to Elizabeth, and she's proclaiming it. All these people are proclaiming it. And now it's up to us. Does the proclamation continue or does it stay with us? We're part of this whole story. It's a beautiful thing. Descartes was famous for saying, I think, therefore I am. Paul says in verse 13 of 2 Corinthians, I believed and so I spoke. He said, you know, Descartes, I think, therefore I am. Paul, I believed and so I spoke. So if you're a believer this Christmas, we should be proclaiming the greatest message ever known to man, the way of salvation. That God loves them so much. The. The thing that they're feeling when they look at the ocean, but they don't know how to explain it. The bits and pieces they get when they go to the mall or when they hear things or they see the Salvation army bucket or something, something's happening. And then we get the opportunity to continue the story and to be proclaimers. We are the light of the world. Do you know it's the only shared title that we have with Jesus? Jesus said, I'm the light of the world. But then he said, you're the light of the world. He was saying, like, you're not the source, but your mini lamps, your repeater lamps all around. And he's like, I want you to go out and proclaim. I was just thinking. It's in my head. It's bouncing around. I gotta say it. One if by land, two if. I see. No, no, it's not. You know, the lamps, you know. Anyways, okay. He's like, I want you to be proclaimers. You're little lamps. You're little lamps out there. And you're out proclaiming and letting people know that God's always had a plan. God's always had a plan. And now that you know him, you must declare his goodness. And the thing is, it's gotta flow out of you. It's not forced. Creation was designed to declare and proclaim his glory. Son doesn't have any choice. It gets up and it goes up and it proclaims his glory. It was created for that. We, again, after having an experience with God, we are transformed. And then we have a choice. And we can be the that proclaim it, or we can just claim it. Let me illustrate this. I have this cup's over here in this picture. Some of you have been wondering if you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but you don't proclaim Him. You know, what you've done is you just claim and contain him. You get a little excited and almost talk about him. Oh, maybe once you drop a track in a bathroom or something. I don't know. You did something like, I'm gonna lead you. Four spiritual laws for somebody doing their work. All right, yeah. But no, you just. Oh, you claim and contain them. No, that's not what we do. You know, when we follow Jesus, we don't claim and contain him. This is saying, we proclaim him out of the overflow. And we love God so much, it just spills out of us. We can't help but talk about him. And even if you give us a little opening, we're gonna take it. I think about again. I've used him so many times. But I'm telling you what, if I had a message to get out, I'd give it to Sarge at Shakopee Campus. That man is just talking. He's just. You can't contain it. And that's what we're supposed to do. Paul's saying this like, we have it. We're the light. We're supposed to go out there. We're part of this proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ. And once you've experienced it, you can't just contain it. You gotta talk about it. We should be looking forward to Christmas Eve services. Not like, all right, I got that card. I gotta give it to somebody. You should be fighting for the extras on all the chairs around you and trying to think like, this is the greatest story in the world. This is the great. This is the way that mankind is saved by knowing Jesus as their Lord. And I'm part of the greatest story in the world. And I just don't have to contain it and claim it. I get to proclaim it out of the overflow of the joy of what God's put in into my heart. Because silence is never an option for a believer. We have to proclaim. So I'll give you very quickly five different ways to proclaim his glory this Christmas. Because the New Testament gives five different words for proclaiming. Five different words for proclaiming the goodness of God, for proclaiming the message that we're supposed to go out and proclaim to this world. Especially now, the whole world is saying, what's going on? What's happening right now? It's not about 20% off, 40% off. It's about Jesus. It's about God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That's what it's about. And so we get to proclaim. And there's five different types of proclaiming his glory in the New Testament. The first one is to herald it. H E R A L D Herald. And that means to announce it, to preach it, to speak it. In today's day and age, it could involve this too, to write it. Some of you are blogging and you're creating videos and you have followers on TikTok. You're a herald. It's not just about the products you buy or the funny things you do or the experiences you have. You're allowed to herald through, through the technology of preaching, leading, speaking, writing, and boldly naming Jesus as Lord. Will you be a herald? Cause remember, creation has been proclaiming something bigger. Heavens. God's like something bigger. There's salvation. There's the scriptures, there's the prophets, there's the whole story. And now it's up to us. We've had that, we've experienced it. But now will we be a herald? There's another one. Good news messengers. Okay, so there's a herald. But another word for proclaiming his glory in the New Testament is to be a good news messenger that you literally tell people about the salvation that is available to them. You bring hope to hopeless places. You are part of this. And when I'm just thinking about broken places, when you go into the shelter, when you go into the food shelf, Area. When you go in and you go to the street ministry and you're doing the. You're being a good news messenger. You're out there sharing the message, and you're doing that. And it's part of the proclamation that we're supposed to do. Because this whole story is all about proclamation from beginning to end, and we're part of this story right now. There's another way. So it's herald and then good news messengers, and then there's those that make the message public. All right, I know they sound similar, but there's different words in the New Testament. And rather than say the word, I'm just giving you the definition of it. But it's making the message public. Now, there's a lot of different ways that you can make the message public. You can broadcast it, you can spread it, you can support it. Okay, so those of you that are volunteering, do you know what? Everybody that volunteers at the church, you are actually making the message public. Did you know that? You're supporting it. You're doing that. Another way in this one would be in the category of funding it. When we're doing Kingdom Builders, and we're doing this right now, we're funding the proclamation. Some of us are like, I'm not very good at talking, but I can make a lot of money. All right, give to Kingdom Builders. You got it. You could be part of this process right here and. And then amplifying it and repeating it. The things that you learn, the things that you hear at church, and you're amplifying it. You're getting out there, and you're making sure that more people hear the message that needs to be proclaimed. So you're making the message public. And there's another one. So we got three. Here's the fourth one to witness. You're part of the proclamation of the greatest story that man needs to hear. When you witness, what do I mean? Not just sharing your faith. I'm talking about when. When you share what God has done for you, when you share the witness of, I used to be this, but then Jesus and now this. How simple is that? I used to be addicted to drugs or this or that. I used to live for myself. I used to be whatever. But then Jesus found me, and I said yes to Jesus, and now I'm living for God. And when you witness, you're part of the proclamation of the greatest story. Just sharing your testimony is part of the proclamation that we're supposed to do. And then the last one would be this of the Five, teaching. Teaching. When you're part of the teaching, okay, you're leading a small group, you're teaching the kids, you're teaching in church. You understand teaching. That's part of the proclamation. Because you're actually forming people into truth and obedience. And as you do that, it's part of this whole thing that we're going out and proclaiming. It's a new way to look at this. I always looked at proclaiming as like the proclaiming from the angels, the proclaiming from Mary, the proclaiming from Zachariah, proclaiming from the shepherds. But it's up to us. We're part of the story. It's not done. It's not done. We get to go proclaim this. And I'm praying that we would have this, this way of proclaiming. Listen. Different voices, same message, different ways to do it. Same message, same glory that we're presenting to the world. See, because a follower of Jesus is not exempt from proclaiming. We are supposed to be proclaimers of the same thing that's been proclaimed since creation. And the story that we're celebrating now is saying, God, I desire to be a proclaimer. Because for a believer, silence is never an option. So this Christmas, let's enjoy Silent Night. I love that song. I love that we end with that one. And we have the candles. That's like a holy moment. All right. Awesome. For Christmas Eve, Silent Night. Not the way we need to live. Leading up to it, on the way up to it, we need to be proclaimers in whatever category and whatever way we can do it, because silence is not an option. This message has been proclaimed from creation, from the heavens, from the prophets, from the story that we celebrate. And now it's in our hands. Proclaimers. Proclaimers. So, Lord, I just pray right now for all of us that we would be proclaimers. You have been proclaiming it. Creation has been proclaiming it. The Scriptures have proclaimed it. The prophets have proclaimed it, Lord, and now it's up to us. Somebody proclaimed it to us, and then we got in on it. Lord, don't let us just claim and contain this great message. Let us proclaim it now so the whole world can know God loves them. Their sins separated them from God, but he made a way, because God sent his son, Jesus. Let the whole world know that what we're stopping to celebrate now is not about buying gifts, but. But about the greatest gift. The greatest gift. Jesus Christ. So, God, for those of us that have claimed the salvation now, may it not be contained. But may it be proclaimed from us for your glory and for your honor. The glory proclaimed and it continues. And God, I pray this year like no other year, we will proclaim your glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen and amen.