Speaker 1: Well, thank you for joining us today. We've got a
Speaker 1: special gift for you. I preached a sermon last week
Speaker 1: about when the picture that you have in your mind
Speaker 1: doesn't match the reality of your life. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: called it's not what I picture. Well, this sermon is
Speaker 1: from a few years ago. It's called don't make a
Speaker 1: scene from the vault. Yeah, this is from the vault
Speaker 1: for our e fam and for all of those all
Speaker 1: over the world. You know, let's be real. This time
Speaker 1: of year can be overwhelming and your experience is probably
Speaker 1: not gonna line up exactly with your expectations. So if
Speaker 1: that's you and you got some people coming in town
Speaker 1: or leaving, and you need a message to realign your priorities,
Speaker 1: check this out. It's going to be great. Matthew, Chapter one,
Speaker 1: verse eighteen. This is how the birth of Jesus the
Speaker 1: Messiah came about. His mother, Mary was pledged to be
Speaker 1: married to Joseph. I know Mary is the headliner of Christmas,
Speaker 1: but let's give Joseph some love today, because Joseph had
Speaker 1: a lot of faith, would you agree? Look at this
Speaker 1: before they came together. You know what that means. Just
Speaker 1: ain't e kids, y'all? Before they came together, she was
Speaker 1: found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Everybody said,
Speaker 1: oh Joe, because Joseph nineteen, her husband, was faithful to
Speaker 1: the law and yet did not want to expose her
Speaker 1: to public disgrace. He had in mind to divorce her quietly.
Speaker 1: But after he had considered this, I wonder how many
Speaker 1: things in your life would have turned out different if
Speaker 1: you would have stopped and thought about him for a minute.
Speaker 1: After he had considered this, an angel of the Lord
Speaker 1: appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph's, son
Speaker 1: of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home
Speaker 1: as your wife, because what is conceived in her is
Speaker 1: from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son,
Speaker 1: and you are to give him the name Jesus, because
Speaker 1: he will save his people from their sins. And all
Speaker 1: this took place, All this took place. I don't know
Speaker 1: what all this is in your life, but all this
Speaker 1: took place in Joseph's life. All of the drama, all
Speaker 1: of the controversy, all of the confusion. Everybody show, all
Speaker 1: this took place to fulfill. I like that word fulfill, fulfill.
Speaker 1: We should do a series about that. Come on, Keith
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. Put it on the calendar, put it on
Speaker 1: my Google docs. All this took place to fulfill what
Speaker 1: the Lord had said through the prophet, the Virgin will
Speaker 1: conceive and give birth to a son, and they will
Speaker 1: call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. And when
Speaker 1: Joseph woke up, he did what the Angel of the
Speaker 1: Lord had commanded him. It doesn't say all of his
Speaker 1: questions went away, but he acted in obedience to his revelation. See,
Speaker 1: you don't have to feel something to have faith for something.
Speaker 1: When he woke up, he did what the Angel of
Speaker 1: the Lord commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I would have been able to do that.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I would have been able to get
Speaker 1: past it. But Joseph took Mary home as his wife,
Speaker 1: but he did not consummate their marriage until she gave
Speaker 1: birth to a son, and he gave them the name Jesus.
Speaker 1: Back up to verse nineteen, where it says because Joseph,
Speaker 1: her husband, was faithful to the law and yet didn't
Speaker 1: want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in
Speaker 1: mind to divorce her quietly. So I want to use
Speaker 1: as a subject for this Christmas sermon, a little instruction,
Speaker 1: a little piece of advice I have for you. Ready,
Speaker 1: you ready, you're ready, ready, ready. Don't make a scene.
Speaker 1: Don't make a scene. Touch somebody say you need to
Speaker 1: calm down, You need to calm down. Don't make a scene.
Speaker 1: A then Father, opened their eyes, and open in our hearts,
Speaker 1: and open the heavens over us, and speak a word
Speaker 1: in Jesus' name. Everybody shout a man, a man, you
Speaker 1: may be seated. Thank you, worship team. Well done. When
Speaker 1: I get to heaven, I don't want to hear him
Speaker 1: say medium rare. I want to hear well done. Anybody
Speaker 1: think Christmas is overrated? I do. I thinks over rating.
Speaker 1: I think that's a lot to say. Don't throw me
Speaker 1: out the church, don't don't disrespect me as a man
Speaker 1: of God. I love the story of Christmas. I love
Speaker 1: the message of Christmas or the meaning of Christmas. My
Speaker 1: Christmas is as a child. We're delightful. I mean, you
Speaker 1: can't have better Christmases than I had as a child
Speaker 1: in terms of just enjoying the season. It's not what
Speaker 1: I mean. What I mean is I think that we've
Speaker 1: done Christmas a disservice in the way that we present
Speaker 1: the story that actually happened. In cultural terms, I would
Speaker 1: say we have sanitized the salvation process to the point
Speaker 1: that it doesn't even resemble the revelation that we see
Speaker 1: in the scripture. You know what I'm saying, Like, there's
Speaker 1: so many ways this is reflected in our songs. Let's
Speaker 1: take the songs we sing at Christmas for example. They're beautiful.
Speaker 1: I sing them too. I love them, They're wonderful, sing
Speaker 1: them all, love them all. They're great. But Jesus cried
Speaker 1: in the manger, all right, I know that it says
Speaker 1: away in a manger, no crip for a bed, little lord,
Speaker 1: Jesus laid down his sweethead. But I've had three babies
Speaker 1: and they were born in hospitals, in good conditions, and
Speaker 1: they screamed their heads off. So you're not gonna get
Speaker 1: it past me that Jesus, who was fully God and
Speaker 1: fully manned, wasn't screaming in a barn having to sleep
Speaker 1: next to animals. Don't even try to tell me that
Speaker 1: he laid on the straw comfortable and didn't scream. Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: the Son of God, was screaming his head off and
Speaker 1: Mary was screaming too, screaming at Joseph for making her
Speaker 1: ride on that donkey to take the census and not
Speaker 1: having the foresight the book the hotel I had to
Speaker 1: talk one day. I'm a city, a whole city called
Speaker 1: Christmas got real, and it's gonna have Christmas carols like
Speaker 1: they really happen. And in my Christmas carols, Jesus, the
Speaker 1: Little Lord Jesus is gonna be asleep on that. She's
Speaker 1: gonna be collicky. Jesus is gonna be screaming. All is calm?
Speaker 1: What Christmas planet are you from? All is calm? All
Speaker 1: is calm? Again. It just shows me that the one
Speaker 1: who wrote that him had a different frame of reference
Speaker 1: than my frame of reference. Again, I had a good family,
Speaker 1: but it extended family. That's you know, that's a whole different.
Speaker 1: My mom is here, she will back me out. My
Speaker 1: uncles would bring so many girlfriends through. I didn't know
Speaker 1: what to call these. Do I call her aunt too?
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. My mom looked at me and said,
Speaker 1: don't you call her your aunt. That's not your aunt.
Speaker 1: That's that's everybody say. Real real Christmas, Real Christmas, Real Christmas.
Speaker 1: Where your expectations collide with your reality. And that's really
Speaker 1: the problem, isn't it. The problem is that all the
Speaker 1: people in our lives don't read the script for how
Speaker 1: they're supposed to act to make our Christmas what we
Speaker 1: expected it would be. I mean, if they would all
Speaker 1: just get on the same page and all take their
Speaker 1: places and fall in on their mark, we could have
Speaker 1: a good Christmas. Touch somebody say, Christmas could be perfect
Speaker 1: if you would do it my way, and most of
Speaker 1: us would make a scene in our minds that we
Speaker 1: want Christmas to look like not just Christmas, that we
Speaker 1: want Monday to look like that. And so we get
Speaker 1: this imagination. But what do you do when the ideal
Speaker 1: collides with the real and what you pictured Christmas would
Speaker 1: be like memories of how it was collide with the
Speaker 1: reality of how it now is. This could be empty
Speaker 1: seats at the table, This could be strained relationships that
Speaker 1: won't resolve. And so I'm not saying that Christmas is
Speaker 1: overrated in the spirit that it really exists. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying that I think we have downplayed the drama of
Speaker 1: what really happened to create the first Christmas to the
Speaker 1: extent that we are disappointed in ourselves that we can't
Speaker 1: create perfect major scenes because we're all trying to manage
Speaker 1: the scene of reality that exists in real life. And
Speaker 1: when we compare that to all is calm, and you
Speaker 1: look in your life and you see that all is chaotic,
Speaker 1: what do you do? So I want to talk about
Speaker 1: these elements real briefly today. I want to talk first
Speaker 1: of all, about the chaos of Christmas. The chaos of Christmas.
Speaker 1: And I made a note to myself. I don't ever
Speaker 1: look at my notes. I don't know why I bring
Speaker 1: them up here, but I said, hurry on this point,
Speaker 1: because this isn't really the point I want to make. This.
Speaker 1: Don't get all bogged down at this point and use
Speaker 1: up all your clock. But because the chaos, what I
Speaker 1: want to say about it is really really simple. Embrace it.
Speaker 1: Embrace it. I didn't say create it. I said embrace it.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that chaos should be a lifestyle, but
Speaker 1: in certain seasons of your life, chaos is inevitable, and
Speaker 1: in those seasons, embrace it. The Bible says that after
Speaker 1: Joseph had considered this, he took Mary home to be
Speaker 1: his wife. And when he took her home. He took
Speaker 1: along with her all of the circulating chaos, all of
Speaker 1: the scandal, all of the criticism that would accompany his
Speaker 1: decision to be with a woman who had apparently been
Speaker 1: unfaithful to him, a woman who, during the time of betrothal,
Speaker 1: had all of a sudden shown up pregnant. And Matthew
Speaker 1: does something interesting to help us with this, because in
Speaker 1: order to embrace the chaos, you always need the context.
Speaker 1: That's my second point. I'm flying, you better write this down,
Speaker 1: or's gonna be over and you're gonna be home. You're
Speaker 1: not gonna have anything. Christmas is gonna suck because you
Speaker 1: can't pay attention to the preacher. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about the context. Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience,
Speaker 1: and he knows that their interest will be in discovering
Speaker 1: the lineage of Jesus Christ. They would have been familiar
Speaker 1: with this lineage through which the Messiah came, and those
Speaker 1: first seventeen verses that I did not read to you
Speaker 1: because I didn't think you would enjoy hearing about them,
Speaker 1: would actually be interesting for you to look at, because
Speaker 1: if you read the lineage that Jesus came through, that
Speaker 1: Matthew takes the time to establish before he gets to
Speaker 1: the actual story about what happened when he was born,
Speaker 1: or the miracles that he worked when he was a
Speaker 1: grown man, or the price that he paid as he
Speaker 1: gave his life. Matthew starts his gospel establishing context. Everybody
Speaker 1: shout context. Context is so important. You know, we're in
Speaker 1: a political season right now, and I don't pay much
Speaker 1: attention to the rhetoric because all they're doing in presenting
Speaker 1: news to us is taking things out of context to
Speaker 1: present them to us in the most bombastic fashion. And
Speaker 1: so they've got they take this thing and this thing,
Speaker 1: and they put it all out of so that the
Speaker 1: person actually said the words. Now, there are some candidates
Speaker 1: you don't even have to take them out of context.
Speaker 1: They're crazy in context. But generally speaking, the way that
Speaker 1: they attract attention is to take things out of context.
Speaker 1: This is how the enemy, by the way, introduced deception
Speaker 1: and sin into the world. If you want to study
Speaker 1: at it, it was a case of context. Because God
Speaker 1: told Adam and Eve, of all the trees in this garden,
Speaker 1: you may freely eat, that's permission, but don't touch this one,
Speaker 1: or you're gonna die, and so there's a there's a
Speaker 1: permission given, and then there's a consequence established. And so
Speaker 1: when the snake comes slithering up to even the third
Speaker 1: chapter of the Book of Genesis, he takes God's words
Speaker 1: out of context. He says, did God really say you
Speaker 1: can't eat off of any of these trees? In fact,
Speaker 1: that's nothing like what God said. What God in fact
Speaker 1: said is you can eat from any tree, but if
Speaker 1: you eat from this tree, it's going to be harmful
Speaker 1: to you. But the enemy knows he can always divorce
Speaker 1: you from your destiny if he can get you out
Speaker 1: of context. I almost called this whole message. Let's keep
Speaker 1: Christmas in context. You know, Let's remember that Herod was
Speaker 1: trying to kill all the baby boys under the age
Speaker 1: of two at the time when Jesus was born. Let's
Speaker 1: remember that we're not living in the first day in
Speaker 1: time or the age or the epoch where there has
Speaker 1: been violence in the world. Let's remember that Christ, who
Speaker 1: was born, Oh Holy Knight, was born into a violent world.
Speaker 1: Keep it in context. If you ever go to visit
Speaker 1: the Holy Land and you ask them, oh, can I
Speaker 1: see Bethlehem, They'll probably tell you don't want to go there.
Speaker 1: It's a ghetto. Now it's a beautiful place, but it's
Speaker 1: no place that you would want to visit on your
Speaker 1: itinerary for a vacation. Because God is born into contexts
Speaker 1: that people reject. Jesus was born to a virgin, to
Speaker 1: a Palestinian girl. That is the context of your faith.
Speaker 1: And so when Matthew says, Abraham, that got Isaac, who
Speaker 1: begot Jacob, who begot Joseph, you might want to skip
Speaker 1: over that stuff, but go back and read it because
Speaker 1: if you read that whole lineage, it'll give you a
Speaker 1: context for the message of Christmas. That Jesus came through
Speaker 1: a lineage of murderers, and Jesus came through a lineage
Speaker 1: of fugitives, and Jesus came through a lineage of liars,
Speaker 1: and Jesus came through a lineage of backstabbers. One woman
Speaker 1: who's mentioned in the context of Christmas is a prostitute.
Speaker 1: So before you look down your nose this Christmas on
Speaker 1: people who don't have their act together, you better remember
Speaker 1: the context of Christmas is that Christ came into the
Speaker 1: world through sinners for sinners, and you're one of them.
Speaker 1: Let somebody say you're one of them. Context, context is everything.
Speaker 1: Don't you think context context is so helpful for determining
Speaker 1: why someone is committed. If you meet someone who's really committed,
Speaker 1: I bet you they went through a season of struggle.
Speaker 1: And if you meet someone who's committed to their job,
Speaker 1: or committed to their calling, or committed to their ideals.
Speaker 1: The most successful people I've ever met, if you get
Speaker 1: a little bit of backstory, and see, you need a
Speaker 1: little bit of backstory to understand the baby in the manger,
Speaker 1: because if you go straight to the baby, you miss it.
Speaker 1: But Matthew says in verse eighteen, this is how the
Speaker 1: birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. This is how
Speaker 1: how did he do it? Did God drop him down
Speaker 1: out of heaven in a handcrafted box? Did God put
Speaker 1: him behind glass and send him through the clouds and
Speaker 1: drop him into palatial spaces? We're royalty resided? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: This is how in chaos and confusion through the lineage
Speaker 1: of sinners. So the most successful people I've ever met
Speaker 1: went through a season that was so difficult that now
Speaker 1: they are driven by their desire to never have to
Speaker 1: go back there. And so that's why they stay up late,
Speaker 1: and that's why they work hard. But you'll never understand
Speaker 1: their commitment until you've understood their context. Some of you
Speaker 1: haven't struggled enough, and you will never be successful until
Speaker 1: you struggle because you don't have the context yet that
Speaker 1: can contain success. So why would God give it to you?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna come over here and preach, I said, God
Speaker 1: is not going to drop blessing into somebody who's never
Speaker 1: been in a bar. I'm gonna try the C intersection.
Speaker 1: Everything's falling apart now I might have to move to
Speaker 1: the overflow Before us all said and done, I set
Speaker 1: your struggle today is a setup for your success tomorrow.
Speaker 1: There it is, but you have to go through some
Speaker 1: stuff in the cradle before you can get to the cross.
Speaker 1: You've got to establish a context. Context context. A context
Speaker 1: can also help you understand someone's celebration. You know, there
Speaker 1: are people who will be really happy this Christmas getting
Speaker 1: less than you got because their context is they've never
Speaker 1: had it before. They'll take shoe boxes through Operation Christmas Child,
Speaker 1: which we've supported Samaritans perse for years, and when they
Speaker 1: drop them off to the kids, toys that your kids
Speaker 1: would walk past these kids will cry over context context.
Speaker 1: The person say next to you might be a little
Speaker 1: more exuberant than you that when we were worshiping, they
Speaker 1: might have been kind of loud, and you might not
Speaker 1: understand that. But if you understood their context, you might
Speaker 1: understand that the person next to you didn't even think
Speaker 1: they'd see their thirtieth birthday, but God stepped in some
Speaker 1: kind of way and delivered them from all their fears.
Speaker 1: And so when I start preaching and when we start praising,
Speaker 1: there's a celebration. Do me a favor. Touch somebody say,
Speaker 1: you don't know what it's like to be me. You
Speaker 1: don't even know all the fights I had to fight.
Speaker 1: You don't even know the wars that God won on
Speaker 1: my behalf. You don't even know what I stepped across
Speaker 1: to get the church. You don't know what it cost
Speaker 1: me to raise my kids. Context context. We went to
Speaker 1: a baseball game a year ago that Graham was playing
Speaker 1: in and the kid on the other team hit the
Speaker 1: ball and the ball dribbled the pitcher, and the kid
Speaker 1: got on first base, and the whole other side, the
Speaker 1: kid was on the other team, and the whole other
Speaker 1: side starts cheering like the boy had hit a home run,
Speaker 1: like he around at home plate, like he hit a
Speaker 1: grand slam, won the World Series. All these parents going wild,
Speaker 1: which I thought was ridiculous, till one of the parents
Speaker 1: told me that the kid. The reason they're cheering is
Speaker 1: because the kid had never played sports before, and when
Speaker 1: he came out there, he didn't even know how to
Speaker 1: hold the baseball back because there was no dad in
Speaker 1: the family, and it was his grandma that brought him out.
Speaker 1: And so to just see him hit that, just to
Speaker 1: see him make contact, that's the context to understand that
Speaker 1: somebody's small step is a big success. Maybe there's some
Speaker 1: things that's Christmas that you need to put in context,
Speaker 1: because if you would put it in context, you would
Speaker 1: celebrate your crazy kids. If you put it in the
Speaker 1: context of somebody's kid isn't with them this Christmas, somebody's
Speaker 1: kid is in prison, somebody's kid is in the hospital,
Speaker 1: somebody's kid is dead, it would help you appreciate your
Speaker 1: living parents. To understand that somebody has no living parent
Speaker 1: to visit, even though your mom has dementia. It might
Speaker 1: help you to see a little bit of joy in
Speaker 1: a hopeless situation. If you could ask God to give
Speaker 1: you a context. Context. I'm going to say something else
Speaker 1: about context. Can I preach? I'm gonna say something else
Speaker 1: about context. The reason some of us don't have compassion
Speaker 1: is because we don't have context for other people's conflict.
Speaker 1: Compassion is a result of context. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: easy for a white man in America to say that
Speaker 1: racism doesn't exist anymore and see things on TV and say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: they're always complaining about black people. Because you have no
Speaker 1: context for the conflict, you have no compassion. You've never
Speaker 1: had some follow you around the store because of the
Speaker 1: color of your skin. I'm not gonna talk about this
Speaker 1: if y'all uncle help me. You never had to have
Speaker 1: a talk with your kid about how to deal with
Speaker 1: the police officer on that level. So now when you
Speaker 1: hear somebody else's conflict, you don't have any compassion because
Speaker 1: you don't have any context. Christmas is God stepping into
Speaker 1: humanity and giving us a context for compassion. That he
Speaker 1: would breathe your air, that he would take your sin,
Speaker 1: that he would take your shame, that he would walk
Speaker 1: your earth, that he would walk your crown, that he
Speaker 1: would take your struggle. It's easy to criticize somebody who's
Speaker 1: context you've never experienced. I'll tell you if I heard
Speaker 1: the pastor of that church you don't know, we'll start one.
Speaker 1: Then he's a little Christmas devotion. Come on, smile, y'all, smile, smile, smiles,
Speaker 1: moll context. It's really easy for a straight person to
Speaker 1: talk about what a gay person ought to do until
Speaker 1: you've spent a day in their context. You never understand
Speaker 1: the feelings that they have associated with the church because
Speaker 1: of people who quoted Scripture at them. But they quoted
Speaker 1: it out of Please, please, please, please, don't use the
Speaker 1: Gospel as a context for hate. Please don't use the
Speaker 1: Gospel as the context for judgment. Please don't call yourself
Speaker 1: a Christian until you're willing to be like the one
Speaker 1: who carried your cross A text? Got if I'm preaching
Speaker 1: rite got if I'm preaching right? Yeah, I put it
Speaker 1: in context, put it in context. We'll treat people better
Speaker 1: when we put their conflict in context. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what it's like to be a single mom.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's like to raise teenagers. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna do a parenting series till all mine are
Speaker 1: gone out of the house. I don't know how he's
Speaker 1: gonna act at age sixteen. I don't know, So I
Speaker 1: don't want the measure of judgment I use to come
Speaker 1: back on me because I preached it out of So
Speaker 1: I'm just hanging on man. You know what I'm saying, Well,
Speaker 1: if I had their money, you don't, and you will
Speaker 1: make some of the worst relational decisions of your life
Speaker 1: when you take things out of context. You know, when
Speaker 1: somebody has been good to you for ten years and
Speaker 1: they do one thing that makes you mad and you
Speaker 1: write them off. You mean, you're gonna take the ten
Speaker 1: years that they were good to you and one thing
Speaker 1: they said is going to make you cut the relationship off.
Speaker 1: You're going to take one thing out of the context
Speaker 1: of the whole relationship now and be done with the person.
Speaker 1: What if God did that with you? Bubbaloo? Anyway, I'm
Speaker 1: boring some of y'all, so I'm a rush to the
Speaker 1: conclusion here. I'm just saying, you know, maybe you need
Speaker 1: to put your current situation in context because the enemy
Speaker 1: would like you to think that there's nothing to your
Speaker 1: life and it doesn't matter, and you know, it doesn't
Speaker 1: make a difference and all this, and you got to
Speaker 1: remember that the hope of the world was born in
Speaker 1: a barn. That is the context of Christmas is that
Speaker 1: God saved the world from a stable. So the next
Speaker 1: time the enemy tries to tell you it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: and it's not worth it and you're not much, just
Speaker 1: remember the context of your faith is that your savior
Speaker 1: came from a stall. I wonder what little thing there
Speaker 1: is in your life, I said, I wonder what little
Speaker 1: thing there is in your life. It just looks like
Speaker 1: a seed right now. But every oak tree you drive
Speaker 1: past was a seed at first. The context of the
Speaker 1: tree is that its started as a seed. The context
Speaker 1: of salvation is that it's started in a staple. The
Speaker 1: context of every big thing that God's gonna do in
Speaker 1: your life is that you're faithful in a small things.
Speaker 1: Keep it in context. Come on high five five people
Speaker 1: tell them keep it in context. Keep it in context,
Speaker 1: keep it in context, keep it. Don't get discouraged in
Speaker 1: the day of small beginnings. Keep it in context. Keep
Speaker 1: your failure in context. Your failure is a portal to
Speaker 1: your future. Keep it in context. The empty tomb was
Speaker 1: made possible by the bloody cross, keep it in context.
Speaker 1: Hope came to humanity. I can't preach this. I don't
Speaker 1: have a church. I gotta find me a new church.
Speaker 1: I can preach it. Maybe I'll preach it to the wall.
Speaker 1: If you're feeling depressed and discouraged and defeeding, is because
Speaker 1: the enemy has gotten your hope out of context. But
Speaker 1: I came to tell you that everything that happens in
Speaker 1: your life happens for a reason. Give context, the gift
Speaker 1: of context. Those of y'all that don't want to stand
Speaker 1: when I preach, would y'all start sitting in overflow? Because
Speaker 1: I need some people in church who know how to
Speaker 1: praise Him, who know how to celebrate, who know how
Speaker 1: to clap your hands. Come on, this is a worshipful atmosphere.
Speaker 1: This is a victorious atmosphere. The context. We'll watch this.
Speaker 1: I want to teach now, y'all, calm down. I want
Speaker 1: to teach now. I want to teach now. I'm almost done.
Speaker 1: Joseph came to a conclusion based on a context, and
Speaker 1: when the Angel showed up, watch this. You're gonna love this.
Speaker 1: The Angel didn't change the circumstance. The Angel gave a
Speaker 1: context to the circumstance that Joseph wasn't aware of. Wow, Wow,
Speaker 1: well say it Verdick. All right. The Angel gave a
Speaker 1: context that led Joseph to a new conclusion. Oh my God,
Speaker 1: did you hear me? And we know that all things
Speaker 1: work together for the good of those who love God
Speaker 1: and are called according all you missed him? My calling
Speaker 1: is my context. And if all things work together for
Speaker 1: my good, whatever conclusion I come to means I win.
Speaker 1: So I start with the fact that I win, and
Speaker 1: I work my way backwards. Okay, after he had considered this,
Speaker 1: he thought about it, and he thought it over. Touch
Speaker 1: somebody say think it over. No, no, no, no, you
Speaker 1: know you know. No. I'm not saying think it over again.
Speaker 1: I'm saying think it over. I'm saying, God said, my
Speaker 1: thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and my ways are
Speaker 1: higher than your ways. So what are you doing up
Speaker 1: under the circumstances when I've given you a context of
Speaker 1: a conqueror? I am the hand and not the tale,
Speaker 1: only above and never beneath. I got a new context,
Speaker 1: and all things work together for the good of those
Speaker 1: who love God and our call. So the conclusions that
Speaker 1: I come to in my mind are a result of
Speaker 1: the context that I have created in my heart. If
Speaker 1: I create a context in my heart where I expect
Speaker 1: perfection from the people around me, when they disappoint my expectation,
Speaker 1: I want to dismiss them from the stage. But you
Speaker 1: aren't the centerpiece of this manger seeing baby girl and
Speaker 1: my context. If my context is you know Jesus be
Speaker 1: the center this Christmas and would you work in my
Speaker 1: life in all the ways that you're working? The context
Speaker 1: is God. I don't want perfection. I just want purpose,
Speaker 1: purpose and are called according to His purpose. When your
Speaker 1: context is created by your preference, you'll always be disappointed.
Speaker 1: When your context is created by God's purpose, You'll never
Speaker 1: be put to shame. When your context is created by
Speaker 1: your pain, you'll always carry with you a sense of
Speaker 1: sorrow and regret. But if you frame your pain in
Speaker 1: the context of purpose, you'll realize there's a reason for
Speaker 1: everything I went through, the good, the bad, the ugly.
Speaker 1: I wonder what conclusions you've been jumping to in your
Speaker 1: mind because you've allowed the wrong context in your heart.
Speaker 1: I wonder it's so easy to do. Man, me and Holly,
Speaker 1: you can sit down for a minute. I'd like to
Speaker 1: chat another ten if you're good, and then we got
Speaker 1: a giant to slay. But the context of Christmas, and
Speaker 1: the context of my life life and the context of
Speaker 1: your life is the framework by which we make decisions. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna holler anymore. I'm gonna just tell you
Speaker 1: a little story. Me and Holly were coming back. I
Speaker 1: ap preached in Dallas a few weeks ago. We're coming
Speaker 1: back home. Wasn't that the trip? And it's embarrassing story
Speaker 1: to tell. I'm humiliated about it. I got that out
Speaker 1: the way. So we're about to get on the plane
Speaker 1: and they're boarding, and we can't hear because the speaker
Speaker 1: system is from nineteen twenty in the airport apparently, and
Speaker 1: over the last peakle weekend here is very crowded at
Speaker 1: the gate. Apparently the airlines no longer believe that it
Speaker 1: is important to corral the customers. Just let it turn
Speaker 1: into total anarchy, Lord of the flies, and see if
Speaker 1: anybody comes out alive. Just very fight fear spot God forbid.
Speaker 1: We have a system of order to the boarding process.
Speaker 1: Who would want that? And so it's chaos if I
Speaker 1: say chaos context conclusion, So chaos at the gate, Holly
Speaker 1: walks over. There's a woman kind of blocked in the
Speaker 1: whole way, and Holly ask her nicely. Now, Holly is
Speaker 1: not an edgy person. Holly's a nice person. Holly doesn't
Speaker 1: say things offense. Hollyes the people pleaser. So she walks
Speaker 1: up to the woman and she says in a very
Speaker 1: nice tone, very very nice tone, because I'm watching the
Speaker 1: whole thing from a distance. And she said, excuse me,
Speaker 1: did they call zon wine? And the lady looks back
Speaker 1: at her. I'm watching from a distance. And the lady goes, now,
Speaker 1: I need to make a few observations here about my
Speaker 1: own nature that I've learned over the years. Whenever someone
Speaker 1: disrespects me, I don't do well when they disrespect my wife,
Speaker 1: I go, BC, you understand, you got the picture. So
Speaker 1: the woman does made this face, this whole face. So
Speaker 1: I slid over to the scene. Everybody said, don't make
Speaker 1: a scene, all right, I slid over just to let
Speaker 1: the woman know that Holly wasn't a solo traveler to us.
Speaker 1: Stablished the context, you understand. And I said to the woman,
Speaker 1: not real loud, not real forceful, just said, what's your problem?
Speaker 1: And the traveling companion with her said she can't hear.
Speaker 1: She was hearing impaired. How many relationships have you ruined
Speaker 1: because you came to a conclusion without understanding the context.
Speaker 1: I was so embarrassed. I was so embarrassed. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know how to apologize. That's one of those where
Speaker 1: you just drop your head and start over, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: But we do it all the time, you know, we
Speaker 1: do it all the time. We get mad at for
Speaker 1: what they say that really isn't an indication of how
Speaker 1: they feel about us, is what they're going through within themselves.
Speaker 1: And so a question Christian would be, if the cross
Speaker 1: is our context for how we relate to God, shouldn't
Speaker 1: it be the conclusion we come to and how we
Speaker 1: relate to others. If the basis of my relationship with
Speaker 1: God is that He had to die for my sins,
Speaker 1: that he had to shed his blood for my sins,
Speaker 1: If that's what it took for me to be right
Speaker 1: with God, shouldn't it be enough for me to be
Speaker 1: right with others in the chaos of Christmas? Keep your
Speaker 1: context of compassion and you will come to a new conclusion.
Speaker 1: And my conclusion is exactly what the Angel said to Joseph,
Speaker 1: It's one thing that I know, no matter what I
Speaker 1: go through, no matter how it feels, is that he's
Speaker 1: with me. I think if I could just put the
Speaker 1: Christmas message in a single three word phrase, I would say,
Speaker 1: You're not alone. You're not alone. It's amazing how lonely
Speaker 1: you can feel this time of year with a crowd around.
Speaker 1: It's amazing how lonely you can feel, even with people
Speaker 1: you love gathered around. But the Angel showed up to Joseph,
Speaker 1: who was dealing with all of this in his heart. Remember,
Speaker 1: he was making a decision do I send Mary away
Speaker 1: or do I bring her home? And when the Angel said,
Speaker 1: you shall call his name Emmanuel, and he shall be
Speaker 1: called Jesus, he was telling Joseph, watch this. Your dilemma
Speaker 1: is going to be your deliverance. Your dilemma is going
Speaker 1: to become your deliverance. Jesus came to deliver his people
Speaker 1: from their sins. And so the Angel says to Joseph.
Speaker 1: And the Angel says to you this Christmas, take Mary home.
Speaker 1: Embrace the chaos and the craziness. Embrace all of it. Man.
Speaker 1: Just you know it's not perfect. Neither are you. And
Speaker 1: establish a context in your heart this Christmas. I'm just
Speaker 1: glad to be here. I'm just glad to be here.
Speaker 1: And my favorite thing he told me that I want
Speaker 1: to tell you, is this time for you to jump
Speaker 1: to a new conclusion. Time for you to jump to
Speaker 1: a new You know this phrase, stop jumping to conclusions. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's time we started jumping a little higher,
Speaker 1: jumping past all the junk and the anxiety and the worry.
Speaker 1: You know how some of y'all are. You worry about everything, everything,
Speaker 1: stomach hurts, it's pancreatic cancer. Within three minutes, a feeling
Speaker 1: in my pancreas. You know how some of you are,
Speaker 1: they're five minutes late. You got them in a car wreck.
Speaker 1: They're through the windshield. But by the time you don't
Speaker 1: get a text message. You know how some of you are.
Speaker 1: Somebody looks at you one way, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Now you see how they looked at me. They better
Speaker 1: not ever look at me like that again. I knew
Speaker 1: they had some against me. That's just proof right there.
Speaker 1: You build out a whole conclusion based on an inaccurate context.
Speaker 1: What if they looked at you funny because their stomach hurt.
Speaker 1: What if they have pancreatic cancer, what if they just
Speaker 1: got bad news? What if they're lonely? And I wonder
Speaker 1: could you go into Christmas like this? He took Mary home?
Speaker 1: Do you know what that cost him? Do you know
Speaker 1: what people said about him? Do you know what people
Speaker 1: thought about him? To be the baby daddy but not really?
Speaker 1: Do you know what it would have felt like to
Speaker 1: wake up next to her and wonder did an angel
Speaker 1: really show up? Because she was kind of friendly with Mark?
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, y'all, come on, y'all. To embrace
Speaker 1: a life of faith means that you need a new frame.
Speaker 1: And so I go into it knowing that God has
Speaker 1: a purpose in all of this. Did you hear it?
Speaker 1: It said all this took place to fulfill what the
Speaker 1: Lord spoke through the prophet. And I want to declare
Speaker 1: to you today that everything in your life happened for
Speaker 1: a reason. I'm not saying God did it, but I'm
Speaker 1: saying that within the context of redemption, there is nothing
Speaker 1: that you've been through, there is nothing that you'll go through.
Speaker 1: There is nothing that people will do to you that
Speaker 1: God will not somehow get hold of. And the God
Speaker 1: who brought hope out of a barn can bring hope
Speaker 1: out of broken situations in your life. This Christmas, if
Speaker 1: you believe it, get up on your feet right now
Speaker 1: and let God know I'm in it for purpose. This Christmas. God,
Speaker 1: I want to see your purpose come to pass. I
Speaker 1: got a new conclusion is that whatever happens to me
Speaker 1: and whatever doesn't happen for me, that God is overseeing
Speaker 1: the whole thing. And I'm not gonna make a sea
Speaker 1: in my mind, because you know what, sometimes what you
Speaker 1: have in mind isn't what God has in store. Joseph
Speaker 1: had it in his mind. I'm telling you there are
Speaker 1: some of you you are about to divorce your destiny
Speaker 1: because of a disappointment. Joseph was going to divorce Mary,
Speaker 1: the very one that he was called to assist in
Speaker 1: bringing Jesus into the world. He was about to divorce.
Speaker 1: And this message is strong if you can get it,
Speaker 1: if you can get it, if you can get it,
Speaker 1: he said. He said, he took Mary home to be
Speaker 1: his wife. He said, come on, girl, we're gonna do
Speaker 1: this together. Come on, we're gonna do this together. He
Speaker 1: took Mary home, and he said, I got a new context.
Speaker 1: The Angel has been See, you don't need the angel
Speaker 1: to show up tonight and tell you all this that
Speaker 1: I'm telling you. Okay, God already told you he knows
Speaker 1: the plans he has for you. I said, God already
Speaker 1: told you he's got plans for a hope and a future.
Speaker 1: You better listen to this. Forriecher, that's your context. So
Speaker 1: take Mary home, whatever the hard thing is. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying she's a hard thing to take home. I'd like
Speaker 1: take her home. I'll take her home in a minute.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be great. But I'm saying, whatever thing, I
Speaker 1: want to clarify the illustrations so she doesn't take it
Speaker 1: out of Have you been pushing away the very thing
Speaker 1: that God brought into your life to produce your purpose
Speaker 1: at a new level, Because see, the way you deal
Speaker 1: with disappointments in your life determines how you experience your destiny.
Speaker 1: And it may be the thing that's bringing you the
Speaker 1: greatest pain and confusion right now, maybe the thing that
Speaker 1: releases the greatest glory in your life. If you take
Speaker 1: Mary home, every hardship in your life is headed somewhere.
Speaker 1: Is headed somewhere? Touch somebody say it's headed somewhere he's
Speaker 1: headed somewhere. I feel the spirit of God in this place.
Speaker 1: Lift your hands, Lift your hands. Don't be in a
Speaker 1: hurry to rush out. You don't need your person. Nobody
Speaker 1: gonna take it. If you're a little twenty dollars in
Speaker 1: there anyway, Lift your hands. Lord. We thank you for
Speaker 1: your presence in this place. Hallelujah. God. We thank you
Speaker 1: for your provision and your purpose prevailing in our lives.
Speaker 1: We even want to take a minute to thank you
Speaker 1: for all the things we don't understand. That's what creates
Speaker 1: our faith. Yes, Lord, the thing that I don't understand
Speaker 1: is the breeding ground of faith in my heart. Lift
Speaker 1: your hands, stretch him high. Come on, This is the
Speaker 1: season where God came near. This is a season where
Speaker 1: he wanted you to know he's with you. This is
Speaker 1: the season where he wanted you to know he's for you.
Speaker 1: Shout it out. Say God is with me, Say God
Speaker 1: is for me, Say God is in me. Now I
Speaker 1: want to ask you a question. If he's with you,
Speaker 1: if he's for you, if he's in you, who can
Speaker 1: be against you? You got a new context, give it
Speaker 1: a context. Come on, lift your hands and worship there.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us special thanks to those of
Speaker 1: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 1: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description to give now or visit Elevation
Speaker 1: Church dot org slash podcast for more information and if
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share
Speaker 1: it with your friends. You can click the share button,
Speaker 1: take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
Speaker 1: and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you.