WEBVTT - You Don't Have To 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:04.080 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:06.560 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.920 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:11.959 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.680 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:26.439 God is Great, which you turn to the person next 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.000 to you and tell them God is with you today. 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:33.720 Look at him again and say I can tell and 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:38.159 ask them would you like a hug? And if they 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.960 don't cuss at you, give them a big hug. I 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.239 want you to turn around and give about four or 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:49.600 five hugs all over the room. Hey, congratulations Elevation Columbia 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.920 on your new building. Congratulations to all of our locations. 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:58.400 You made it to church. Congratulations to you. You made 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:03.080 it through another week, You made it to another day. 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.480 Come on, how many are grateful to be in the 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:11.360 number one more day? That's my section right there. I 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:20.360 found my section right there. Who better be glad they're 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:22.440 not on the front row. We would never get out 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.080 of worship. I saw some rowdiness over and here too. 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:31.520 It was weird because you know, Christmas season is supposed 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:36.040 to get stuffy everybody gets real busy and hateful. No 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.319 greater way to tell Jesus Happy Birthday than to run 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:41.640 up our credit cards, get stressed out and hate everything. 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.080 So we kind of try to make it countercultural. And 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:48.720 I like to take a little extra time during worship 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:51.560 before I preach as we lead to the holidays, just 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.680 because the seed of the Word of God is always pure. 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.360 But if the soil of your heart is not plowed, 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.000 you can't receive it. And one thing that I do 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.120 understand is that sometimes it takes us a lot to 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.360 get to church. And you know, if you're watching online, 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.120 Oh man, you've already had three distractions, haven't you. You 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.440 already had a virus pop up on your PC? And 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:17.679 what are you gonna do about that? Well, let's just 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.600 block it all out, because all the hell that you 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.480 have to go through when you get home doesn't stand 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:26.480 a chance. In this place. For the next few minutes, 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:31.160 while we preach God's words, I want to bring Heaven 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:35.760 down to your heart for a few minutes. So just 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.600 for the next half hour or so, half hour or so, 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.280 I want to preach a thought to your heart today 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.120 from the Christmas story. And I do also want to 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.000 say what JJ said, I assume all of the campus 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:53.080 pastors and our online team thank you for your remarkable generosity. 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.040 Of course, our year end offering comes all the way 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:57.239 to the end of the year, but I want to 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.480 thank all of you who already stepped up and gave 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.240 artrificially faithfully. Man, God's gonna use that in a great way. 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:09.640 Thank you. Thank you. Always feels weird saying thank you 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:11.680 because I know you didn't give it to me or 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.320 for me. You gave it to God. And one thing 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.360 I know about God, he will not be outgiven. So 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:19.680 be expectant for Him to do things in your life 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.880 over the next few weeks. I don't know who this 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:24.680 is for, man, I got to get to my scripture. 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.240 I'm just taking so much time doing this. But God 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:33.080 can do something at the end of this year that 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.480 will make all the hell you went through all year 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:41.360 long irrelevant in the scope of it. And I don't 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.200 even know what it's gonna be. It could be a perspective. 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:46.760 I noticed that God has been blessing me with better 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.600 perspective the last few days. I can't explain it, just 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:52.240 been opening my eyes, like look at that. Woke up 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:56.720 this morning super early to pray for you, humble brag, 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.760 and saw both of the boys vehicles still in the 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.880 driveway and thought, thank you Lord for bringing them home 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:10.880 safe again. Another day, another night, and you have to 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.800 stand next to my daughter during worship today. Y'all don't 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:15.600 know this, but Abby was a co writer on that song, 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:21.000 same God. I'm not giving her any royalties. Here's our contribution. 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.159 When we wrote the song, Originally it was I'm calling 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:24.920 on the God of David, I'm calling on the God 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:27.400 of Jacob, I'm calling on the God of Moses. And 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:29.120 I always wanted to put a woman in the song, 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.039 but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.040 thought it was kind of, you know, kind of lopsided 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.279 to just have all men in the song. And I 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:39.880 showed Abby the demo and she said, I love that song. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.120 Why isn't there a woman? And it was a confirmation. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.480 I didn't even tell her that I'd felt bad about 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.840 it too. And I called my buddy Pat Barrett, and 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:50.120 we had already recorded the song that was the bad 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.839 part about it, and we decided we needed a verse 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.520 about I'm calling on the God of Mary, whose favor 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.520 rests upon the low ly, and I love what it says. 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:06.680 I know with you, all things are possible, big things, 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:10.960 little things, pretty things, ugly things, things seen, things unseen. 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.000 All things are possible. And we're going to share from 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:18.160 a scripture that coincides with that. In Luke chapter one, 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.480 I'm going to read a very lengthy part of this 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.200 Verses twenty six through forty one, but you can handle it. 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:28.800 I also leaned over to Abby and said, next year, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:30.760 me and you were singing O Holy Night together as 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:38.920 a duet. Get ready, She rolled her eyes. We'll see, 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.800 we'll see. It's a voluntary offer. Pray about it. Wasn't 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:48.960 the music beautiful? Today? We got the best. Oh, we 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.400 got singers that sing so good. You can't even tell 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.760 if they prayed or not. They just sound so good. 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.440 I think that's the Holy Spirit, or it was the 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.960 vocal chords or both. But I thank God for our team. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.920 I'm excited about the Christmas services December twenty second through 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:07.960 twenty four. That's Christmas at Elevation dot Com. Now it's 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:13.279 time for the scripture. Luke chapter one, verse twenty six. 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:17.200 In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:22.159 angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee. I'm gonna 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.120 come back to that. You'll forget it because I'm gonna 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.039 read so much, but that verse is coming back. He 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:30.520 sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, the town in Galilee, 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.160 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:37.640 named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:40.600 The angel went to her and said, greetings, you who 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.400 are highly favored. The Lord is with you. That's why 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.080 I had you tell your neighbor the Lord is with you. 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.440 I want you to see how it felt to talk 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.920 to an angel. And verse twenty nine says I could 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.960 preach that goodn't I? Mary was greatly troubled. Whoa, whoa, whoa. 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:59.120 I thought he said something that was nice. In a 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.840 compliment with the abill says Mary was greatly troubled. Did 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.200 you know you can be highly favored and greatly troubled 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.800 at the same time. Come on, not let you know 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.240 what I'm talking about her. I'm gonna start citing specific 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.680 things in this room. You can be anointed and addicted. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:25.080 You can be saved and struggling. Yeah, you can be 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:30.680 grateful and a gossip. You can be favored and afraid, 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.160 and just because you feel afraid sometimes doesn't cancel out 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.480 the favor in your life. I want to tell somebody today, 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:42.480 the favor doesn't care about your feelings. When God has 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.320 a purpose for your life, He's going to do his 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.680 work what he's gonna do, no matter how you feel 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:48.960 about it, no matter you're mood about it. But you 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.800 get to decide if you want to be a willing participant. 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.880 So Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.560 what kind of greeting this might be. But the Angel 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.240 said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, you have 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.480 found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.400 to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:14.200 You are to call him Jesus. He will be great 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:16.720 and will be called the son of the Most High. 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:18.440 The Lord God will give him the throne of his 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.280 father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:28.560 His kingdom will never end. What an interesting beginning for 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.840 a kingdom that will never end. The virgin womb of 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:36.400 a woman change the world. Now watch this, she hears 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:38.800 all that. In Verse thirty four says, how will this be, 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.080 Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin, and 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.720 the Angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you. 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.839 The power of the most High will overshadow you. So 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:51.880 the holy one to be born will be called the 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.840 Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.600 have a child in her old age, And she who 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.679 was said to be unable to con is in her 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.400 six month. Watch God do stuff that people said he 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.680 couldn't do. Watch God do stuff that people said he 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.400 couldn't do, she who was said to be unable to 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.600 conceive his in her six month. For no word from 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:19.160 God will ever fail. Well, since you put it like that, 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.080 I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered, may your word 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:26.240 to me be fulfilled. Then the Angel left her, and 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.280 at that time Mary got ready and hurried to a 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.560 town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:37.319 Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth less verse. When Elizabeth heard 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:44.360 Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.920 was filled with the Holy Spirit. All right, now, I'm 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.240 gonna give your title. I got good news for you today. 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:53.320 This is gonna be the best holiday message you've ever 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.000 heard in your life. Look at your neighbor and tell 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:01.200 him my title. You don't have to. Didn't that feel 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.560 good to hear that? All the stuff you gotta do 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:08.040 between now and December twenty fifth. Look at your other neighbor, 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.120 the one you really wanted to talk to all along, 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.200 but you were just being nice to that guy, and 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:16.360 tell them you don't have to. Let's give God praise 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.080 in the place. Come on, if you want to, you 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:25.240 don't have to. You may be seated if I start 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:26.760 preaching in a minute. You want to stand back up, 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:32.480 you can, but you don't have to. Now. The Lord 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:35.199 was convicting me recently because I was going through a 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:40.560 list of responsibilities. And the responsibilities I was listing were 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:47.120 formerly prayer requests that I had prayed. It was little 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:51.320 baby prayers that I prayed that were now full grown jobs. 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.120 And I noticed something in my language, and the Lord 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:59.120 really checked me on it. Everything had got to in 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:04.520 front of it, everything everything, And I would love to 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:05.959 tell you that it was just the things that I 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.840 didn't want to do. You know, I've got to and 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:11.240 I'm not going to say something I don't want to 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.560 do because it might offend somebody in the room. You know, 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.240 I would never say I've got to preach, but well, 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:21.880 sometimes it does feel like that. You know the people 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.559 are coming, and as you know, I gotta, I gotta 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:28.080 get ready, I got to. And sometimes I want to 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:33.760 go watch my kids play volleyball or wrestle and and 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:35.800 I say I got to go to Grandstattional. I don't 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:39.600 think there's anything you know wrong about that the semantics 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.120 of stating things. I don't ever want to be one 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:47.480 of these vocabulary police Christians that when you say I 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.640 got lucky, I got a parking space, they say there's 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.120 no such thing as luck. You're blessed in highly favored. 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:57.080 It's like, no, listen, Actually, if God probably wants me 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.160 to get some extra walking, so he probably did not 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.400 give me the parkings base close to the front door 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:03.560 at the gym, that doesn't even logically make sense. It 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:08.480 was just luck. But in all of the got tos, 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:16.079 I realized, sometimes I lose my get to spirit. Okay, 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.760 And I don't know if the season and the pressures 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:23.480 and demands thereof have stripped some of the delights for you, 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:28.400 But I just found recently that everything felt like a 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.600 got to, even stuff that I love preaching to you 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.640 supporting my kids. I even said to my barber, I 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.480 gotta go uh, because I got date night with Holly, 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:40.439 and I got to go on this date night. Got 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:42.800 to go on date night with Holly. I would have 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.280 killed seventeen men to go on a date with her 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.280 when we were in college. I would have slipped their 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:53.400 throats and prayed for resurrection. But you like that? Why 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.880 did you like that? That's the loudest applause We've got 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.480 all days for throats slitting imagery. Well, maybe you need 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.560 this message too, because there can come a point in 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:08.479 all of our lives where the God, who has graciously 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:12.040 given us so many good gifts, begins to feel to 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.080 us either like a silent benefactor that we forget to think, 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.600 or an obligator rather than a bringer of the good 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.079 news of the Gospel, who has set us free from 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.199 the law of sin and death, and has graciously given 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.000 us all things richly to enjoy. For if He gave 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:29.920 his own son for us, and did not spare him, 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.480 but gave him up for us, how will he not 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.559 much more give us all things? But a lot of 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:40.240 the gifts that God gives us become prisons. Because our 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:46.160 perspective is so overwhelmed by the pressure. Everybody say pressure, 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.320 because I know you got some pressure. I got some pressure. 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.600 And what we're trying to establish in our time together 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:55.920 today in my sermon, and what I thought I would 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:57.960 try to help you to do before you go into 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.720 the next few weeks, this YEurope, and see what God 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:05.160 has for you in twenty twenty five, look alive in 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:09.400 twenty five, before you get all that going, I thought 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.400 I would try to get you back to realizing that 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:19.640 you've got a God who didn't have to give you 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:24.760 anything that he gave you. And it's not good to 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:28.360 have a god to spirit when you serve a get 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:33.560 to God. One of the things I love about the 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:38.720 passage that we read today was the sense of privilege 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.080 that Mary seemed to receive this invitation to carry the 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.480 Son of God with And I know that it must 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.360 have also felt like pressure, But somehow she was able 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:53.600 to view the pressure of carrying the sinless son of 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:58.480 God in her virgin womb as a privilege, and so 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:01.600 she accepted that assignment. But one of the things that 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.360 pressure will do in your life is not only turn 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.040 things that you used to delight in into things that 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.440 you actually dread, which I could preach a whole sermon 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:14.680 about that, but it could also if you're not careful, 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.240 it can turn things that you ought to praise God 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:23.880 for into things that you feel pride about. That is 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.960 often when we feel the heaviness of our responsibility. You know, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.120 somebody's got to put these Christmas lights up, somebody's got 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.640 to make all the plans. Somebody's got to decide whose 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:34.920 house we're going to eat at. Somebody's got to figure 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.640 out who's going to bring the macaroni. And I don't 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:39.400 really want Susan to bring it because I don't like 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.440 her macaroni, and I think it's kind of dirty and 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.520 it's kind of a little too cheesy. Somebody has to 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.800 keep the cheese ratio in the macaroni together. I mean, 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:50.160 the whole universe is kind of hinging on it, isn't it. 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:54.000 And then we come to something like this And it 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:59.080 only takes one sentence to shift Mary from how in 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:04.200 the world to let it be? And I thought that 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.480 was so powerful when I read it. I thought it 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:11.400 was it was so amazing and so admirable of Mary 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.560 to go from how are we going to do this? 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.560 To let it be just like you said. And I 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:22.280 think there is something powerful about when you get a 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.560 real word from God that you can't explain it. It's subtle, 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:31.480 it's usually not visible to other people's eyes, but something 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:35.000 shifts in a moment when God speaks and you go 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:39.400 from I've got to to He's got this, and you 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:44.600 can't even explain how you got there. It's an invisible 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.200 path you take, and you've been there before. You've gone 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.000 from there's no way I'm going to do this to 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.400 I don't really know how I did it, but it's done. 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:57.080 You've been in seasons of your life where you've looked 0:16:57.080 --> 0:16:58.920 at your schedule and thought, I'll be dead at the 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:03.440 end of this. Breathe in, breathe out in the devil's face, 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:06.760 just to let him know he was a liar for 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:09.399 everything he said. You weren't gonna make it through. In 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.400 twenty twenty four, there were some things, Oh, I feel 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:16.320 like preach him that you look got out in front 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:18.680 of you, and when they were in front of you, 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.240 you were afraid. But now they're behind you. If you 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.920 were afraid when they were in front of you, shouldn't 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:28.399 you give God praise now that they're behind you. And 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.280 the truth is, you wouldn't believe what I'm standing on 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:35.440 today because I could have tripped over it. But somehow 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.960 God turned what I could have tripped on into something 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:43.240 that I'm standing on and I have a testimony. Free 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:50.719 Pentecostal people give God a tambourine praise because I'm saying. 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.920 I'm saying that if Jesus came into the world through 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:04.280 a virgin wound, there's nothing he can't do. Now, it's 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.719 important theologically speaking for Jesus to be born of a virgin, 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:10.600 first of all. And you want to take down notes 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:12.880 to show your friends that you actually came to church 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:17.240 like a doctor's excuse or something, write down this. He 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.359 came through a virgin because he had to be clean. 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.720 He had to be clean, and if he were born 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.000 with a human father, he would carry the seed of 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:30.520 the sin of Adam. So it had to be a virgin. 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.000 That's not just a Catholic thing, that's a clean thing. 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:40.840 The unclean cannot be redeemed by the unclean. The only 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:44.800 thing that can redeem the unclean, that's me, that's you, 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:49.080 is a clean thing that's not me, that's not you. 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.160 So in order for God to redeem you. He had 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.320 to send a clean thing into the earth, and the 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.320 only way for it to be a clean thing was 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.199 for it to not come from Joseph. It had to 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.600 come from God. Jesus, if he had been born through 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.320 Joseph in Mary's womb, would not have been able to 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:12.000 pay the price on the cross. So he had to 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:17.800 be clean. And then he also had to be born 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:19.920 of a virgin, not only because it was prophesied that 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:25.240 he would be, but because he wanted to come close. 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.000 I mean, you do understand that Jesus could have come 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:35.879 repelling from the staircase of Heaven, gone straight to the cross, 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.880 and skipped all the storms on the Sea of Galilee. 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:43.640 There was no rule that said God had to send 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.000 Jesus as a baby. But I think one of the 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.840 reasons that he sent Jesus as a baby to a 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.119 virgin womb is not only because Jesus had to be 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.560 clean and because Jesus wanted to be close, but because 0:19:55.600 --> 0:20:02.639 He also wanted Jesus to get credit clean close credit 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:07.160 the Three Seeds of Christmas. That Jesus was clean, born 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:09.000 of a virgin, not of the seed of a man, 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.919 but the seed of God. The perfect, spotless lamb of 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.800 God who takes away the sin of the world. The 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.560 lion of the tribe of Judah, who rolled back the 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.760 stone and stood up with the keys of death, hell 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:28.080 and the grave. He was clean, he was close. And 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:32.399 the thing about a virgin having a baby is she 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:37.200 can't take any credit, and neither can the man. Why 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.639 ain't taking time to explain about a virgin having a baby? 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:42.760 Pastor Stephen on Christmas? Because obviously God thought it important 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:47.000 enough that he started the entire Gospel story with it. 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:50.520 And I wonder if it's because he wants you to 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:55.159 realize that this thing did not start with you, so 0:20:55.280 --> 0:21:00.199 this thing doesn't have to be sustained by you. I 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.439 wonder if why you feel so much unnecessary pressure is 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:07.639 because you're trying to sustain something that you didn't even start. 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:11.359 I mean, how much did you have with being born 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:15.640 the first time? Not too much. I mean, you came 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:19.399 on out eventually, but you didn't take much credit, did you. 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:22.040 I don't even know why we're singing happy birthday to you. 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:25.640 We'll I'll be singing happy birthday to the one who 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.280 pushed you out. But see, we like to take credit 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:33.040 for stuff and then that spills over into our Christianity 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:35.920 because we didn't have anything to do with being born 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:37.679 again either. If you want to get down to it, 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.600 I mean most of us in here we tried so 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:45.359 hard to push God away. It's not like we had 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:49.680 some awesome resume to present to the redeemer of the universe, 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:53.800 all the reasons why he should recruit us for his service. 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:57.439 Now that's not your story. The matter of the fact 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:02.040 is you were dead in your sin, but God. And 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:06.320 so we come to the Cradle of Christmas realizing that 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.720 the reason Jesus was born as a baby from the 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:12.520 womb of a virgin and a place called Galilee of 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:16.200 the Gentiles, was so that when God got done doing 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:19.800 what he was going to do through Jesus, nobody else 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:23.240 would get the glory, and nobody else would get the praise, 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:26.679 and nobody else would get the credit. Because I'm not 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:32.560 clean and I wasn't close. But here came Jesus and 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:36.520 just the right God. This is my Christmas devotion. Let 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.560 me preach it like I feel it. I was lost 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:43.840 without anyone to guide me. I was blind and couldn't see. 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:47.840 I was nobody. I had nothing to bring to the 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:50.679 king that was of word. I had no crown to 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:53.119 place on his head, and he took a crown of 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:58.639 thorns for me. For you see, he deserves all the credit, 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:08.600 all the credit. By the way, if you start giving 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.200 God all the credit, he'll start taking more of the stress. 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.240 All right, let me really preach to y'all. Now. There 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:19.399 was a group of preachers who came to visit us 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:21.880 about a year ago, and one of them wanted to know, 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:24.800 what do I do about critics? What do I do 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:27.280 about critics? What do I do about critics? I said, 0:23:27.320 --> 0:23:29.840 I have no idea, I've never had one. What are 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:33.320 you speaking of these critics? I find people loving and 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:36.720 generous in their interpretation of all of your No, actually, 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:45.040 what I said is if you want to survive criticism, 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:52.200 you have to change your relationship with praise. He said, No, 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:56.720 I'm not asking about praise. I'm asking about critics. I said, yeah. 0:23:56.760 --> 0:24:01.120 But if they have the power to praise you, then 0:24:01.160 --> 0:24:05.000 they also have the power to pull you down. So 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:08.560 when people praise you, don't take it too seriously. They 0:24:08.640 --> 0:24:17.600 just hadn't got close enough yet. When people criticize you, 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:20.320 don't take it too personally. They just don't want you 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:22.440 to see that big old plank sticking out of their 0:24:22.520 --> 0:24:25.119 right eye. So they're talking about a speck in yours. 0:24:25.119 --> 0:24:29.159 And either way you slice it, it's the same principle. 0:24:31.200 --> 0:24:34.800 I thought we were talking about Christmas. We are. Remember 0:24:34.840 --> 0:24:38.199