Speaker 1: All right, we're going to get into the message very soon,
Speaker 1: but first an important message for you. This is our
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one year end offering. I love this time
Speaker 1: of year, an amazing time of year, because every year
Speaker 1: we end with appreciation for what God has done, expectation
Speaker 1: for what He's going to do. This has been a tradition.
Speaker 1: Like right now, they're going to put up a few
Speaker 1: graphics of all the offerings we've had through the years.
Speaker 1: I can't even remember them, all Game Change or Waymaker,
Speaker 1: beyond Life. But this year, you don't even know the
Speaker 1: word that God gave me. I don't. This is not stage.
Speaker 1: I should reveal it to me. Yeah, this is not scripted,
Speaker 1: and we're doing our own camera work, So I apologize
Speaker 1: that the angle is off. But this year the Lord
Speaker 1: led me to the word better. Everybody say better better,
Speaker 1: like put it in the chat. And we don't mean
Speaker 1: better than another person, or we don't necessarily mean that.
Speaker 1: You know, we're never content, And what we mean by
Speaker 1: that is is Hag II two nine says that the
Speaker 1: glory of this present house, what God is doing, will
Speaker 1: be greater than the glory of the former house. We
Speaker 1: believe God is always doing something greater. We just have
Speaker 1: to see it. So I want to thank you in
Speaker 1: advance for your gifts. Those of you who already support
Speaker 1: this ministry, you're the reason. You're the reason we get
Speaker 1: to preach the gospel. You're the reason that thousands of
Speaker 1: testimonies that we hear in this ministry are made possible.
Speaker 1: And for those of you who are beginning to give,
Speaker 1: either through a one time year end donation to help
Speaker 1: us with our expansion, or the best way really through
Speaker 1: recurring giving, through putting God first with the tide, or
Speaker 1: maybe an above and beyond offering to say thank you
Speaker 1: to Him and believe Him for better things in faith,
Speaker 1: we want to say thank you, and we're standing with
Speaker 1: you right now as we begin this season of giving
Speaker 1: called Better Now through the end of the year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Every time you give, it helps
Speaker 1: us to spread the Gospel to the world and beyond,
Speaker 1: and we are so thankful for your partnership with us
Speaker 1: in the gospel. It's going to be an amazing holiday
Speaker 1: season and I can't wait to hear more about better.
Speaker 1: It's going to be better, better than you ask her.
Speaker 1: Imagine if in three twenty we're believing God for you. Now,
Speaker 1: let's go go to Matthew chapter two. I didn't get
Speaker 1: to this part last week, but we're gonna pick up
Speaker 1: a verse. Well, let's review a little bit of what
Speaker 1: I did get to. We don't stand the whole time,
Speaker 1: just stay standing, know while we read the scripture. It'll
Speaker 1: help you stay awake and it will honor God. So
Speaker 1: you kill two birds with one stone the scripture in
Speaker 1: Matthew chapter two. You remember the astrologers we call the
Speaker 1: wise men, but they were considered pagans by the religious
Speaker 1: people came to worship this new king. And so they
Speaker 1: come and they bring him gifts gold. Frankensens, you know,
Speaker 1: you know this part Christmas story, but you know it's possible.
Speaker 1: You can you can have a sentimental feeling about Christmas
Speaker 1: and completely missed the significance. I've been falling in love
Speaker 1: with the Christmas story all over again this season, because
Speaker 1: really it's about faith. It's about faith, and so it's
Speaker 1: so much more than just Jesus came so you don't
Speaker 1: have to go to Hell. It's so much more than that.
Speaker 1: It's so much more than scented candles. It's so much
Speaker 1: more than that. If they sold scented candles that smelled like,
Speaker 1: really what the first Christmas smelled like? With placenta scent
Speaker 1: and barnyard scent and all that. I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: tell you the significance of Christmas is often missed by
Speaker 1: our need you just caught it, Zeke, that was like
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds late. Man, wake up. But listen, it's complete chaos.
Speaker 1: Mary and Joseph, the astrologers who aren't even religious people,
Speaker 1: they're the ones that are bringing the gifts. You know.
Speaker 1: It is a crazy story. But let's pick up right here.
Speaker 1: It says when they verse thirteen Matthew chapter to verse thirteen,
Speaker 1: when they had gone the Magi, an angel of the
Speaker 1: Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said this,
Speaker 1: get up, take the child and his mother, and escape
Speaker 1: to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod
Speaker 1: is going to search for the child to kill him.
Speaker 1: So he got up, took the child and his mother
Speaker 1: during the night, and left for Egypt, where he stayed
Speaker 1: until the death of Herod, and so was fulfilled what
Speaker 1: the Lord had said through the prophet. Out of Egypt,
Speaker 1: I called my son. Let's go. Now to verse nineteen,
Speaker 1: this is the part I didn't get to. Last week.
Speaker 1: After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in
Speaker 1: a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, get up,
Speaker 1: take the child and his mother, and go to the
Speaker 1: land of Israel, for those who were trying to take
Speaker 1: the child's life are dead. So he got up, took
Speaker 1: the child and his mother and went to the land
Speaker 1: of Israel. But when he heard that Archelais was reigning
Speaker 1: in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was
Speaker 1: afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream,
Speaker 1: he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went
Speaker 1: and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled
Speaker 1: what was said through the prophets that he would be
Speaker 1: called a Nazarene. Here's the prophetic declaration. Today. The Lord
Speaker 1: said to tell you, I don't know who you are,
Speaker 1: but God said you needed to hear this. Something good
Speaker 1: is coming from this, all right, you all ready something
Speaker 1: good is coming from this. I'm not saying it to
Speaker 1: be cute. I'm not saying it to be positive. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying it to be optimistic. I'm not saying it
Speaker 1: to hype the crowd. But if you believe this. I
Speaker 1: need you to shout at say something good is coming
Speaker 1: from this, Something good is coming from this. Who thank you?
Speaker 1: Y'all be seated. Let's talk about what that means. Something
Speaker 1: good is coming from this. If anything, the Christmas story
Speaker 1: completely flips the script on what we think is and
Speaker 1: is significant. If you read the Christmas story and only
Speaker 1: see objects, you have missed the intention of Christmas. If
Speaker 1: you see the Christmas story and only think of angels, wings,
Speaker 1: you have missed the message of Christmas. If you read
Speaker 1: the Christmas story and only think about what it was
Speaker 1: like to be Joseph, you've missed the message of Christmas.
Speaker 1: Because the message is meant to go much deeper than history.
Speaker 1: It is meant to give you significance for the areas
Speaker 1: in your life that may not seem significant. I don't
Speaker 1: really know what significant is when you're in it. It's
Speaker 1: true I read this passage at least I've been a
Speaker 1: pastor sixteen years, at least sixteen times every Christmas and
Speaker 1: paid attention to everything in the passage except where stuff happened.
Speaker 1: It was only in preaching last week that I noticed
Speaker 1: this parallelism in the passage. I'm going to show to
Speaker 1: you real quick. Just let me teach for a minute.
Speaker 1: And now I'm gonna declare over your life what God said.
Speaker 1: Something good is coming from this, But first let me
Speaker 1: teach you. It said in verse one of Matthew, Chapter two,
Speaker 1: verse one, and I bet you knew this already, Jesus
Speaker 1: was born in Bethlehem. But then it said, if you
Speaker 1: go all the way to verse fifteen out of Egypt,
Speaker 1: I called my son. And then if you go even
Speaker 1: further than that, yeah, go all the way further that
Speaker 1: all the way to verse twenty three, that one says
Speaker 1: he was called a Nazarene. Now I highlighted all of
Speaker 1: those for you because I know you've got a lot
Speaker 1: on your mind, and I know you've still got a
Speaker 1: big list of things that you have to do over
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks. But I don't want you
Speaker 1: to miss this that you can read the Bible, I mean,
Speaker 1: just all your life here about the Christmas story and
Speaker 1: missed the significance of Now you probably know what happened
Speaker 1: Jesus was born. You even know what happened after that
Speaker 1: he died, even know what happened after that. He didn't
Speaker 1: stay dead very long. You can know all of that,
Speaker 1: and completely missed the significance of born in Bethlehem, out
Speaker 1: of Egypt and called inn Azarine. And maybe the reason
Speaker 1: I skipped all of this so long in reading the
Speaker 1: story is I, this confession, have no sense of direction whatsoever.
Speaker 1: I turn on my GPS to get to my mom's
Speaker 1: house for dinner on Wednesday night, and she lives in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: and just in case, just in case, I could do
Speaker 1: it without it, but it just comforts me to have
Speaker 1: the GBS. And I remember a time before christ when
Speaker 1: there was no GPS. I remember, I remember the first
Speaker 1: time that Holly and I got in a big fight
Speaker 1: in our marriage was her navigating to me over the phone.
Speaker 1: It was in that dark period right between when you
Speaker 1: had a phone in your car but you didn't have
Speaker 1: GPS in your car, and that was a very dark.
Speaker 1: It was like the Advent season for us as we
Speaker 1: were waiting for the deliver And then she bought me
Speaker 1: a tom Tom for Christmas. Not a tom Tom. We
Speaker 1: don't have time for all this historical background. The tom
Speaker 1: Tom was a GPS system, but the maps had to
Speaker 1: be manually loaded, so there were occasions where the map
Speaker 1: would not update, and you were driving according to an
Speaker 1: old map. I don't even have time to preach about that,
Speaker 1: because that is some of y'all right now, going off
Speaker 1: of an old map of who you used to be
Speaker 1: before christ and still acting like you anyway. Let's see,
Speaker 1: let's see last Christmas. This is what I was going
Speaker 1: to say. Last Christmas. We have a holleyen. I have
Speaker 1: a little tradition. We do Christmas with the kids and
Speaker 1: then we go have Christmas for ourselves, and we usually
Speaker 1: like to go to Charleston. It's close enough where I'm from.
Speaker 1: I feel the low country vibes and get some fried
Speaker 1: shrimp Hymen's. I don't order fried Trump. I just eat
Speaker 1: half of hers and order a grill Trump makes me
Speaker 1: feel like I've ordered healthy. And we spend a few
Speaker 1: days in Charston last year, and we're driving home and
Speaker 1: I set the GPS. I know I should go on
Speaker 1: my way back to Charlotte from Charleston by now, just
Speaker 1: to be sure. I set my GPS, but it has
Speaker 1: a thing on it that if you if you don't.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how this happened. It was an accident,
Speaker 1: but we told it to avoid all major highways and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm so enjoying talking to my bride about
Speaker 1: deep spiritual things and you know, contemplating the mysteries of
Speaker 1: God or whatever, that I don't even notice we are
Speaker 1: doing this whole trip on back roads, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's about twenty thirty minutes in, and I'm like, when
Speaker 1: are we getting on? I twenty six? And we figured
Speaker 1: out we had said it to no back roads, and
Speaker 1: instead of following the fact that I grew up near
Speaker 1: Charleston and I live in Charlotte for over fifteen years
Speaker 1: and I should know my way, I'm following blindly following
Speaker 1: this this God called GPS, and I'm on these back roads. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm glad it happened because while we were driving on
Speaker 1: those back roads and I just remembered this. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you remember. This is when I turned to
Speaker 1: Holly and said, you know what I'd like to write
Speaker 1: a song about, because we're driving through the country, all
Speaker 1: these little towns and little churches, and it was a
Speaker 1: thought that it had come to me, but I didn't
Speaker 1: think to say it until this moment. We're driving through
Speaker 1: these back roads, and I looked at her and said,
Speaker 1: I've been thinking I kind of want to write a
Speaker 1: song called Old Church Basement. What do you think about that?
Speaker 1: She said, I think that would be awesome. She said,
Speaker 1: you mean like describing Yeah. I said, yeah, like going
Speaker 1: back to the roots of worship. Like I don't know
Speaker 1: how the song would go yet. I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: get Chris to help me and Brandon to help me,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna have to figure out how to write it.
Speaker 1: But it's gonna say something like the lights and stages.
Speaker 1: I know they're all great, but I remember when we
Speaker 1: used to praise God in the old church basement. That's
Speaker 1: why I told her I was gonna I said, I
Speaker 1: have an idea, and she said, I love it. She
Speaker 1: said I can smell it because before we pastored a
Speaker 1: global Etham, we traveled around on a little ministry team
Speaker 1: all over little towns like we were driving through in
Speaker 1: South Carolina, and so while we were driving, we talked
Speaker 1: about all the things in the old church base, folding
Speaker 1: metal chairs, watered down punch stale zebra cookies, and things
Speaker 1: like this. A few weeks later, the idea would become
Speaker 1: a song. The song would become the title of an
Speaker 1: album that we recorded with our friends from Maverick City
Speaker 1: Music in this room where I'm preaching today, which at
Speaker 1: the time was empty because we were still in the
Speaker 1: stages of the pandemic when we couldn't have people in
Speaker 1: the church regularly, and back in that corner of the
Speaker 1: room we recorded an entire album that just a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago was nominated for a Grammy. But when I
Speaker 1: was on the back roads talking to Holly about a
Speaker 1: song I hadn't written, not even knowing who would help
Speaker 1: me write it or what we would use it for,
Speaker 1: I was not thinking about a Grammy. I was not
Speaker 1: thinking about an album. I wasn't really thinking about a
Speaker 1: song at first. I was just thinking, how could you
Speaker 1: be so stupid to follow a GPS down these back roads.
Speaker 1: But it serves as a lesson, and I'm kind of
Speaker 1: glad that it malfunctioned or whatever she did to it
Speaker 1: while I wasn't looking to make it go down the
Speaker 1: back roads. I'm kind of glad because it taught me
Speaker 1: there are blessings on the back roads. There are blessings
Speaker 1: on the back roads. There are blessings in Bethlehem that
Speaker 1: you don't get in Jerusalem. There are blessings and obscurity
Speaker 1: that you don't get in popularity. There are blessings in
Speaker 1: the old church basement. There are blessings and empty rooms.
Speaker 1: There are blessings in seasons of uncertainty. There are blessings
Speaker 1: in times of your life that you're characterized by darkness,
Speaker 1: and you don't always get in the bright lights. Back
Speaker 1: roads blessings. They come all the way to Jerusalem following
Speaker 1: a star. They have traveled for months, these wise men,
Speaker 1: and they get there just to be told, you're five
Speaker 1: miles from Bethlehem. You gotta take the back roads. You've
Speaker 1: been on the back roads this year, hadn't you the
Speaker 1: back roads where you don't know any of the good restaurants,
Speaker 1: The back roads where all of your cliches don't work,
Speaker 1: and all of your conventional wisdom has been proven to
Speaker 1: be subject to the sovereignty of God. The back roads.
Speaker 1: My mom loves this message because she only drives the
Speaker 1: back roads. This is her favorite sermon that I've ever
Speaker 1: preached before in my life. Merry Christmas. Bethlehem was not
Speaker 1: only on the back roads, but it wasn't big enough
Speaker 1: to contain the savior of the world. But listen, listen
Speaker 1: to me. Bigger isn't always better. When I got up
Speaker 1: and announced we're offering this year, called better, a lot
Speaker 1: of us immediately thought bigger, more followers, more infant. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I didn't say bigger. I purposely didn't say bigger, because
Speaker 1: God didn't tell me to call the offering bigger. That's
Speaker 1: what got the Israelites in trouble. When they were building
Speaker 1: the temple again in ha God, they thought, because it
Speaker 1: wasn't bigger, it couldn't be better. And so then when
Speaker 1: you go through a downsize in any area of your life,
Speaker 1: you give credit to the devil for that because you
Speaker 1: think that Jesus should be in Jerusalem, where the temple is,
Speaker 1: where the chief priest are, where the center of religious
Speaker 1: life is happening. I mean, that would be the obvious
Speaker 1: place to go. But they said to the magi, you
Speaker 1: gotta go five more miles. Some preacher watching this preach
Speaker 1: a whole sermon called five more miles. I want you
Speaker 1: to do it, because sometimes we get so close to
Speaker 1: the place, but because we won't go from the place
Speaker 1: that we thought was the place. This is what I'm learning.
Speaker 1: This is what I'm learning. Okay, you have to have
Speaker 1: flexible expectations in order to have strong faith. If you
Speaker 1: don't have flexible expectations, your faith will break the first
Speaker 1: time that you carry a load that you weren't expecting
Speaker 1: to carry. I mean, think about how flexible Mary had
Speaker 1: to be to give birth in Bethlehem. She didn't go
Speaker 1: to Bethlehem because there was a good birthing center in
Speaker 1: Belin with essential oils in Bethlehem and Adulah in Bethlehem.
Speaker 1: She wasn't going to Bethlehem because she had heard about
Speaker 1: the spas in Bethlehem. She was going to Bethlehem because
Speaker 1: they had to go because Caesar Augustus, who ruled the
Speaker 1: Roman Empire, had called for a census so they could
Speaker 1: have higher taxes and more military support. That's why they
Speaker 1: went to Bethlehem. And yet even the decree of Caesar
Speaker 1: was subject to the sovereignty of God, because it really
Speaker 1: was in Caesar's decreed that they be registered in the
Speaker 1: census that brought him to Bethlehem. It was the sovereignty
Speaker 1: of God because that's where the Savior had to be born.
Speaker 1: When you understand this, you can trust a little bit
Speaker 1: better that God is working all things together in your
Speaker 1: life for the good of those who love him. And
Speaker 1: are called according to His purpose, so subtraction is not
Speaker 1: always bad. We chose our word for this year, called fruitful,
Speaker 1: And the next day the Lord spoke to me about pruning.
Speaker 1: I said, oh Lord, I didn't say pruning. I said fruitful, oranges,
Speaker 1: apples come quots kiwi's fruitful, banana's great. But he said,
Speaker 1: the root to fruit is pruning. R O U t
Speaker 1: e root the root like the route the root the
Speaker 1: root rerouting, rerouting, rerouting, rerouting. That's all God is doing
Speaker 1: when he's pruning your life. He is rerouting. Not the
Speaker 1: place you expected anyway. I don't want to preach about Bethlehem.
Speaker 1: I don't talk a little bit about Egypt because for
Speaker 1: Jesus to have to go to Egypt to escape Herod
Speaker 1: would have to a Hebrew audience. At least maybe not
Speaker 1: to ospital to a Hebrew audience. Have been the last
Speaker 1: place that we expected God to keep his son safe,
Speaker 1: because it was the place that they spent four hundred
Speaker 1: years as slaves. Now Jesus is going back to the
Speaker 1: place that God brought them out of to fulfill the
Speaker 1: prophecy in Hoseiah eleven, verse one, Do you like all
Speaker 1: this stuff from the Bible. Out of Egypt, I called
Speaker 1: my son. Out of Egypt. Give me verse fifteen one
Speaker 1: more time. Out of Egypt, I called my son. Jesus
Speaker 1: had to go through Egypt because the prophet Hosea said,
Speaker 1: out of Egypt, I have called my son. So on
Speaker 1: one hand, it looks like Jesus is going to Egypt
Speaker 1: to escape hero it. But on the other hand, it
Speaker 1: looks like Jesus is going through Egypt to fulfill prophecy.
Speaker 1: And it's really both. It's really both. It's not one
Speaker 1: or the other. You know how we try to figure
Speaker 1: out in our lives. Is this random? Is this God?
Speaker 1: Is this the devil? Is this me? What if it's
Speaker 1: all of the above, And what if God is bigger
Speaker 1: than all of it? And see, not only did I
Speaker 1: want to preach the Christmas Sermon early this year in
Speaker 1: case we have another strain of something that comes through
Speaker 1: and I can't preach anything. I'm just getting ahead on everything,
Speaker 1: all right. I'm just making sure if something bad happens,
Speaker 1: you got the word that you need to get through it,
Speaker 1: because I love you that much and I don't want
Speaker 1: you to have to fight mountain nourished. So now I
Speaker 1: want to give you your New Year's message. Just in
Speaker 1: case anything bad happens. I'm planning to preach more in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. I'm planning to be here, but just
Speaker 1: in case something bad happens to either one of us,
Speaker 1: I want to give you. I want to give you
Speaker 1: this message. Don't leave Egypt without first exiting through the
Speaker 1: gift shop. You know, when you go visit somewhere, they
Speaker 1: put the gift shop where you have to walk through
Speaker 1: it before you leave, so that if the admission price
Speaker 1: wasn't enough, that they can shake you down for a
Speaker 1: little bit more on the way out. You'll notice where
Speaker 1: I'm preaching right now, so they can shake you down
Speaker 1: for a little bit more, because God knows you need
Speaker 1: another coffee mug. Okay, love your baby. That's my back
Speaker 1: robe girl right there. Don't worry about it. In twenty years,
Speaker 1: when the Bible says out of Egypt I have called
Speaker 1: my son is speaking to you too. It's letting you
Speaker 1: know that from the place I didn't pay attention to
Speaker 1: any of this. All I thought about when I felt
Speaker 1: Christmas was Bethlehem, Oh little town of Bethlehem, Oh evil
Speaker 1: land of Egypt, the place that God delivered his people
Speaker 1: from with plagues. He sent his son to to protect him.
Speaker 1: Why why did Jesus go to Egypt because Herod was
Speaker 1: trying to kill him. That's not what I'm asking, that's
Speaker 1: the human perspective. See, we get stuck on the level
Speaker 1: of our minds. We're trying to figure out, well, why
Speaker 1: did they leave me, Why did they say that, Why
Speaker 1: did they do that? Why am I sick? Why is
Speaker 1: this happening? Why didn't it work? Why did it fail?
Speaker 1: You are stuck trying to answer level questions at the
Speaker 1: level of Harod that can only be answered at the
Speaker 1: level of Heaven. So before this year ends, Oh man,
Speaker 1: I'm excited for a new year. I just can't wait
Speaker 1: for the old year to be. It's been such a
Speaker 1: hard year. As if I don't know what's wrong with us,
Speaker 1: as if we think somehow it's like the new iPhone
Speaker 1: is gonna make life better, the new year is gonna
Speaker 1: make life better. You are gonna have the same stupid
Speaker 1: people in your iPhone thirteen that you had in your
Speaker 1: iPhone ten. Nothing about the number changing changes you. Twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. I'm just ready for a new York. I
Speaker 1: tell you, mil who I'm ready for it, like the
Speaker 1: Lord is waiting on a calendar. So that's why I'm
Speaker 1: getting near you think early, to let you know you
Speaker 1: don't have to be in a certain place for God
Speaker 1: to fulfill his promise over your life. And I'm going
Speaker 1: to break that down. When my kid starts acting right,
Speaker 1: I'll be happy. No, I'm saying no. The Lord spoke
Speaker 1: in Egypt. He brought his son out of Egypt. He
Speaker 1: spoke to Joseph in Egypt. You still missed it. You
Speaker 1: think that God is waiting for stuff to change. You
Speaker 1: think that joy is going to be when things change,
Speaker 1: by won't You have got to get it out of Egypt.
Speaker 1: You have got to learn how to be in a
Speaker 1: bound place, a broke place, a hard place, a tricky place,
Speaker 1: a sticky place. Now, when the people of God left
Speaker 1: Egypt under Moses, the Bible says in Exodus chapter twelve
Speaker 1: that they didn't just leave Egypt with their heads spelled look. Oh,
Speaker 1: we're just so ready to get out of here. It
Speaker 1: says that they asked the Egyptians give me Exitus twelve.
Speaker 1: Y'all pay aten, you payten, you give me Exitu twelve.
Speaker 1: Exitus twelve Exitus twelve. The Lord made the Egyptians favorably
Speaker 1: disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they
Speaker 1: asked for. And so listen to what God's people did.
Speaker 1: They plundered the Egyptians, and they left Egypt with treasure.
Speaker 1: They left captivity with treasures. They left darkness with treasures.
Speaker 1: Did you know that you need to plunder your depression?
Speaker 1: Did you know that you need to plunder your anxiety?
Speaker 1: Did you know that you need to plunder your addiction?
Speaker 1: Here's what I mean. The same thing that drove you
Speaker 1: to be such an addict is the same drive by
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit that God is going to use to
Speaker 1: make you ferociously committed to his purpose. I am so
Speaker 1: don't just get the message. He was born in Bethlehem.
Speaker 1: Get the message. He was called out of Egypt. Jesus
Speaker 1: went back to the place. Jesus went back to the
Speaker 1: place that represented captivity, and he declared to the place
Speaker 1: that represented captivity to the people of God, if the
Speaker 1: Sun makes you free, you will be free in deep Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm leaving this year with stronger character. Something good is
Speaker 1: coming from this. I'm not leaving Egypt until I learn
Speaker 1: what God mustn't teach me. I'm not leaving twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one empty hair that I leaving ten people throw your
Speaker 1: hands up and say something good is coming from this.
Speaker 1: Come on, you gotta do the hand motions. Say something
Speaker 1: good is coming from this. Give me my camera had
Speaker 1: line online, don't do it. Something boy, it's coming from this. Now.
Speaker 1: Watch watch, watch, watch, watch, watch. Don't get ahead of me.
Speaker 1: I didn't teach the hand motions yet. Something God Lord said,
Speaker 1: you gotta say it like that, and something good. I
Speaker 1: don't know what something I had. Something hit my life
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, and this is where the confession
Speaker 1: came from. I didn't get this message for you. I
Speaker 1: got it for me. Something happened a few weeks ago
Speaker 1: to me, and I was like, oh God, you need
Speaker 1: a little sick feeling in your stomach, and then you
Speaker 1: have a choice whether you're just gonna give into that.
Speaker 1: And then for me, it's like Netflix, I'll spend two
Speaker 1: hours shopping and not watch anything. So this thing and
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily a good thing or a bad thing.
Speaker 1: It just scared me that I heard about and it
Speaker 1: was a personal thing, and I thought, well, you could
Speaker 1: sit there and play this out on a hundred different
Speaker 1: ways it could go wrong. Or and this is the
Speaker 1: thought that came to me, what if it works out
Speaker 1: for your good? What if the devil's a liar and
Speaker 1: God is true? What if he really does take what
Speaker 1: the enemy meant for evil and turn it for good.
Speaker 1: What if that's not just an anthem? What if that
Speaker 1: is an actual fact about God's purpose. Now, if you're
Speaker 1: not carrying Jesus, you can't receive this message, because if
Speaker 1: you're not carrying Jesus, then you don't know about the
Speaker 1: purpose of God. And if you don't know about the
Speaker 1: purpose purpose of God, you will shout over something good
Speaker 1: to think that it is going to match your exact
Speaker 1: preference for your life. Where did the shouting go? Y'all
Speaker 1: need the organ, You need the organ. So what happened
Speaker 1: when the news came? I started walking around the house
Speaker 1: and I just started saying, what I just told you,
Speaker 1: something good is coming from this. Well, actually I said
Speaker 1: it different the first time than the Lord corrected me.
Speaker 1: I said something good can come from this, and the
Speaker 1: Lord was like, that's a good start. That's a good
Speaker 1: first draft, all right. So that's my first draft of faith.
Speaker 1: Something good can come from this. They could never know
Speaker 1: when life ends. Your lemons somewhere saying that, and the
Speaker 1: Lord's like, that's not faith. Something good can come from this,
Speaker 1: that's just like statistical probability. That's like, is it gonna
Speaker 1: be a boy or a girl? That's just like flip
Speaker 1: a coin. Man, it good, it goes something good to
Speaker 1: come from this, or it could be the end of you.
Speaker 1: You just leave that open ended like that. So I
Speaker 1: revised it. I was like, all right, something good we'll
Speaker 1: come from this. That better, Lord, like that better, Lord.
Speaker 1: It's not an out loud conversation. This is just in
Speaker 1: my heart. I'm acting it out for you how I
Speaker 1: felt it inside. Okay, And the Lord was like, that's better.
Speaker 1: But it's not the bull's eye because when you say
Speaker 1: put this in the chat, something good will come from this,
Speaker 1: you've still got it out there in the future. So
Speaker 1: you're still thinking when I get there, I'll praise God.
Speaker 1: You're still thinking one day I'll have a story to
Speaker 1: tell about the goodness of God. You're still thinking one
Speaker 1: day I'll see it. It'll all makes sense in the
Speaker 1: sweet bye and bye, and we'll understand it better. Bye
Speaker 1: and bye. The Lord said, put it on here and
Speaker 1: now and have the faith to say something good is
Speaker 1: coming from this now. Fredick, you said your word was
Speaker 1: fruitful for twenty twenty two. How does God produce fruit? Well,
Speaker 1: it often involves soil, which is dirty and dark. And
Speaker 1: the fruit of the spirit is not money and cars
Speaker 1: and stuff, which is all fine, all right. I like
Speaker 1: my car. I like having something to drive that is
Speaker 1: fast and that starts, because I've had stuff that didn't
Speaker 1: and I'm glad when mine does. And I don't apologize
Speaker 1: about any of that. But that's not the fruit of
Speaker 1: the spirit, snuck of best stuff. The fruit of the
Speaker 1: spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
Speaker 1: and self control. So how is God gonna bring forth
Speaker 1: that kind of fruit self control to put me in
Speaker 1: a situation where I have to control myself? How's he
Speaker 1: gonna give me peace by putting me in situations that
Speaker 1: don't feel peaceful? O, little town of bath Lovehem. No
Speaker 1: wonder we don't put Egypt at the Manger scene? Why
Speaker 1: would we want to remind ourself that Jesus was called
Speaker 1: out of Egypt. Really, it helps me to know that,
Speaker 1: because when I find myself in Egypt. I can have
Speaker 1: an eager expectation. That's something good. And this is where
Speaker 1: I know enough to know that I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know what. I don't know what. Keep telling God like,
Speaker 1: we want to have a great Christmas, we want to
Speaker 1: have a great this, a great that, But we don't
Speaker 1: even know what great should look like, not in the
Speaker 1: context of the bigger picture of our life. So we
Speaker 1: think we know when we think we know where. Jesus
Speaker 1: was born in Bethlehem, an unexpected place. Oh, I mean
Speaker 1: even the pregnancy was unplanned. Mary is explaining biology to
Speaker 1: the Angel. I have not been with the man. How
Speaker 1: is this possible? The entire context of this Christmas story
Speaker 1: is God doesn't ask you, He doesn't need you to
Speaker 1: tell him about the birds and the bees. Well, Lord,
Speaker 1: here's how this works. See, this house supposed to be
Speaker 1: in my life. This all my kids are supposed This
Speaker 1: is all my family's supposed turn out, This house supposed
Speaker 1: to be, This is where supposed to work. This is
Speaker 1: what I'm called to do, This is my ministry, this
Speaker 1: is my gift. But sometimes stuff in your life is
Speaker 1: born in Bethlehem. Sometimes gifts are brought out of Egypt.
Speaker 1: Let's let's let's do our let's do our title altogether now,
Speaker 1: little more humble this time. Something good. Now, you see
Speaker 1: how your hands are right there. That's how you need
Speaker 1: to approach the next two weeks around all these relatives.
Speaker 1: Y'all make a meme of me on the youth account
Speaker 1: doing this. This is your this is your holiday season
Speaker 1: survival guide. Right here. Something good. I don't know what.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to predict it. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: control it. I'm not trying to manipulate it. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to script it. Just something good. You know, Adam
Speaker 1: and Eves got in trouble when they ate from the
Speaker 1: tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It's when
Speaker 1: they thought they were God and knew what was good
Speaker 1: and what wasn't. That's when sin entered. That's when they
Speaker 1: lost access to the garden. That's when we lose our
Speaker 1: peace and our joy and our connection with God. But
Speaker 1: if you can make this confession, let's do it again.
Speaker 1: Your hands got tired, get them back up. Something good
Speaker 1: is coming from this, not that. That's what the Jewish
Speaker 1: rulers were looking for, a different kind of Messiah. When
Speaker 1: Messiah comes, when Messiah comes, he'll do this, and he'll
Speaker 1: do that. But no, no no, no, no no no, you will
Speaker 1: find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
Speaker 1: Something good. It's been a hard year. It's been ups
Speaker 1: and downs. And you know what, We'll be sitting here
Speaker 1: at the end of twenty two and I'll say the
Speaker 1: same thing, and you'll say, a man, again, it's been
Speaker 1: a hard We'd be up here in twenty fifty seven.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be up here in an over bahar year,
Speaker 1: leaning on the pulpit and you're saying amen. But something
Speaker 1: going is coming from this. When Joseph left Egypt, he
Speaker 1: did not go back to Bethlehem. He couldn't. He wanted to.
Speaker 1: He intended to go stay where Jesus was born, but
Speaker 1: he couldn't go back to Bethlehem. All over this Christmas
Speaker 1: story that we love in Jerish so much is people
Speaker 1: having to take directions they never planned on. Every blessing
Speaker 1: we celebrate this season was on a back road. Happy
Speaker 1: about it because it means if I don't feel on
Speaker 1: schedule and I didn't plan for this, something goodness coming
Speaker 1: from this. Now, can I show you one more thing?
Speaker 1: Do you know Isaiah nine to six. He shall be
Speaker 1: called wonderful counselor Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Speaker 1: If you heard that scripture, that's an awesome scripture. It's
Speaker 1: about Jesus. He will be called wonderful. Everybody say, wonderful
Speaker 1: counselor Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of peace. All right,
Speaker 1: let's add one more to it. Matthew chapter two, verse
Speaker 1: twenty three says he was called a Nazarene. Not only
Speaker 1: did he find his beginnings in Bethlehem, not only did
Speaker 1: he escape to Egypt, where he was kept by the
Speaker 1: providence of God until the time that those who sought
Speaker 1: his life were dead. How God has been keeping you
Speaker 1: in this season. But he went back to Nazareth, where
Speaker 1: Joseph was from Nazareth. If you think Monk's corner was small,
Speaker 1: you had never been to Nazareth. They don't even have
Speaker 1: back roads in Nazareth. They don't even have a Nazareth.
Speaker 1: There's not even evidence in Nazareth in the Old Testament
Speaker 1: that it existed. You can't find it. Send it to
Speaker 1: me this week when you find it in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: I wait, not there, not really on the map Is
Speaker 1: it where Jesus grew up? Not really on the map?
Speaker 1: Was it what you're going through? You got a Tom
Speaker 1: Tom faith. You're trying to navigate your life how to
Speaker 1: do stuff that you've never seen done. That's hard. How
Speaker 1: did I read the Christmas story so long and not
Speaker 1: noticed that he was called not only all those beautiful things,
Speaker 1: wonderful counselor right he God ever lesson fought principice, but
Speaker 1: he was called a Nazarene, which was not a compliment.
Speaker 1: Thank God for Nathaniel. He said something that gives us
Speaker 1: an insight into why Jesus had to be called a Nazarene.
Speaker 1: And I think the Lord is going to use this
Speaker 1: to speak to you. Something good was coming from this,
Speaker 1: because when one of the disciples named Philip met Jesus,
Speaker 1: he came back to Nathaniel and he said, we found him.
Speaker 1: Now he didn't have a star to guide him like
Speaker 1: the magi. And Jesus is now at thirty years old
Speaker 1: and he's starting to he's starting to operate in his gift,
Speaker 1: and they recognized him. Watch what Nathaniel said in John
Speaker 1: chapter one, verse forty five, when he said he's Jesus
Speaker 1: of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Look at Nathaniel's response
Speaker 1: to that verse forty six, Nazareth, Can anything good come
Speaker 1: from Nazareth? I like what Philip said, come and see.
Speaker 1: Can anything I don't know. I'm not trying to tell you. Look,
Speaker 1: there's people in this church that lost to their mom
Speaker 1: this year. What kind of malpractice would it be for
Speaker 1: me to preach a message called It's all good when
Speaker 1: you lost your mom. There's people who spent two months
Speaker 1: in the hospital this year, and so for me to
Speaker 1: say it was, you know, is all good that you
Speaker 1: were hooked up to a ventilator. There's people that are
Speaker 1: watching this message in a hospital or a prison right now,
Speaker 1: and a lot of them don't have the luxury of
Speaker 1: trying to decide you want panera after lunch, or you
Speaker 1: got time to sit down somewhere a little nicer. They
Speaker 1: don't have the luxury of checking their text in the
Speaker 1: middle of the sermon. They don't have the luxury. They
Speaker 1: need this word as a lifeline. They need this word
Speaker 1: as a lifeline. They come here just to get a
Speaker 1: little They didn't come here because Mom made them. They
Speaker 1: ain't come here for any of that. They didn't come
Speaker 1: here because they got a new outfit. They didn't come
Speaker 1: here to beat the crowd for the Christmas Eves service.
Speaker 1: They didn't come for that. They came because they need
Speaker 1: a savior, which is Christ, the Lord who was born
Speaker 1: in Bethlehem, who escaped to Egypt and was raised in Nazareth.
Speaker 1: A place with no reputation, a place that was known
Speaker 1: for immorality, a place that was own for its obscurity,
Speaker 1: a place that you couldn't even find on the GPS,
Speaker 1: a place that you would never expect to see royalty,
Speaker 1: a place that you would never search for greatness, a
Speaker 1: place that was not associated with great people and great
Speaker 1: sages and great profits. But something good came from Nazareth.
Speaker 1: And I'm making a prophetic declaration over your life today.
Speaker 1: Something good is coming from this. If something good, if
Speaker 1: the Son of God, hallelujah, can't come from Nazareth, something
Speaker 1: good is coming from this. I give you twenty two
Speaker 1: seconds to declare it into the new year. Something good,
Speaker 1: something good, something great, something lasting, something ruthful, something fresh,
Speaker 1: something favored, something bless. Something good is coming from this
Speaker 1: and he self, big Gop, wonderful, nascary Gop sulor nacary body.
Speaker 1: God prodacires something good is coming from this, something good,
Speaker 1: something good, something good, something good, something good, something good.
Speaker 1: Touch at least twelve people and tell something good, something good,
Speaker 1: something good, something good before the end of the year.
Speaker 1: Expect something good before the end of the year. Expect
Speaker 1: something good before the end of the year. Expect something God,
Speaker 1: something good. I know I know you, I know you.
Speaker 1: You're playing me off. This is that helped and well prosperity.
Speaker 1: Name it and claiming no no no no no no
Speaker 1: no no no no no no no no, you hurt
Speaker 1: me wrong. God gets to call it good. So my
Speaker 1: expectation is flexible, more flexible than my hamstrings. That's as
Speaker 1: far as I can go, because I'm leaving God room
Speaker 1: to decide what he calls good. I'm walking in the
Speaker 1: new year with a flexible faith. Devil. Uh huh. Something good.
Speaker 1: Got my hands open, got my heart open, got my
Speaker 1: mind open. Something good. Joseph understood the assignment. All I
Speaker 1: gotta do, come on, ten more seconds, ten more second,
Speaker 1: two more seconds. All I gotta do is take his work.
Speaker 1: I'm fixed. All I gotta do is own thing. All
Speaker 1: I gotta do it trust them. Something good. It's coming
Speaker 1: from this carn't anything because I'm from past youth. It
Speaker 1: can jsus caay from taser, the save your cave. Well,
Speaker 1: something good. I don't know how, I don't know where,
Speaker 1: but I believe it. It's coming. It's coming right now,
Speaker 1: It's coming. It's coming. God is not amazon this sackage.
Speaker 1: Will not be delighted. Something good. There no shipping delays
Speaker 1: in heaven, baby, and no shipping delays in heaven. He
Speaker 1: is able to do exceeding abundantly. Oh bah, something good.
Speaker 1: Teach me Lauren, You'll give you take away. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be good. Something good. I walked around my house. I
Speaker 1: said it for an hour the other day. Something good
Speaker 1: is coming from this, from this, from this, from this.
Speaker 1: Devil tried to get me back there to pass stuff.
Speaker 1: I said, no, not that, this this. Then the devil
Speaker 1: tried to take me to the hypothetical. Well what if
Speaker 1: I say no, not out there, not there here this
Speaker 1: something good. He was a beautiful baby, but he was
Speaker 1: despised and rejected. A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
Speaker 1: He was called wonderful counsel Mighty God. Everless than Father,
Speaker 1: Prince of peace. But he was born in Bethlehem. He
Speaker 1: escaped to Egypt, and he was called a Nazarene. Stop
Speaker 1: calling it what people call it, Start calling it what
Speaker 1: God calls it. Wonderful, something good, something good. There's about
Speaker 1: five thousand of y'all that are going to receive this
Speaker 1: by faith. Put it in the chat. I'm the one.
Speaker 1: I'm the one. I'm the one. I'm the one who's
Speaker 1: believing this message for my household. I'm believing this message
Speaker 1: for my community, for those I love, for those I
Speaker 1: care about, for those who I have no hope, for
Speaker 1: the broken. I'm believing this message for you as your
Speaker 1: pastor on this year end offering weekend. I know many
Speaker 1: people are giving many different amounts of money, but can
Speaker 1: we all just give God the same thing our worship?
Speaker 1: Can Can anything good come from what you've been going through?
Speaker 1: Is there a blessing on the back roads? Is there
Speaker 1: a faith for the blank spaces? God told Joseph stay
Speaker 1: in Egypt till I tell you all right, Lord, Well
Speaker 1: what's the date? No? No, no, no, no no. I
Speaker 1: want you to have faith for back roads and blank space.
Speaker 1: Something good It's coming. He makes all things beautiful and
Speaker 1: it's time. Something good. Oh God, Oh God. If it
Speaker 1: comes from his hand, it is good. If it's not
Speaker 1: good when it passes through his hand, it will be
Speaker 1: good when he's done with it. Something good. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad I obeyed the Lord. I argued with him. I said,
Speaker 1: that's a broad message. I can't tell him something good's
Speaker 1: coming from this. They might have had a miscarriage, they
Speaker 1: might be going through a divorce. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: tell God. I'm not just trying to sugarcoat the struggles
Speaker 1: of people. He said, it's not teaching them to deny reality.
Speaker 1: It's teaching them to exercise faith. You don't move enough
Speaker 1: in church. Uncross your arms and do the motions. Come on.
Speaker 1: Something good is coming from this. Look at somebody else
Speaker 1: and tell them, just declare it over their life. Let's
Speaker 1: prophesy to each other. Something good is coming from this,
Speaker 1: from this, from Nazareth. Yeah, from sadness, something good, something good,
Speaker 1: something good. I'm looking for. Surely goodness and mercide will
Speaker 1: follow me. Something good born in Bethlehem, out of Egypt,
Speaker 1: called a Nazareth. This is the significance of Christmas. You
Speaker 1: better look for God in dirty places. This Christmas. You
Speaker 1: better look for God in annoying people this Christmas. You
Speaker 1: better look for God in simple moments this Christmas. Thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus. If you received this word, hid in praise.
Speaker 1: Enjoy today's podcast. There are a couple of things I'd
Speaker 1: love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate,
Speaker 1: and review this podcast. You can also help us reach
Speaker 1: others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash give
Speaker 1: and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.