[SPEAKER_00]: This is Dr. Darrell Hall, and I want to welcome you to the way community church podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining us today as we continue in Loop Chapter 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: Looking at these stories that surround the birth of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today we will be in verse 6 and verse 7 and consider how both Joseph and Mary face an obstacle they could not see, but still trust it God anyway to perform something wonderful in their midst.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's grab your bibles, let's study together.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can find these notes in the transcription of this podcast or you can find them on the buy-by-out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Starting at first number six, the word of the lawyer says in the New American Standard Bible, while they were there, the time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her first born son and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no wrong for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's read it again real quick, verse six.
[SPEAKER_01]: While they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she gave birth as her first born son.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she wrapped him in cloths, laid him in a manger.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because there was a wet church, no room for them, where a church in the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: Last week, we talked about the fact that I'm on the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, I want to consider the fact that there are obstacles
[SPEAKER_01]: turn to your neighbor's neighbor?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what obstacles are in the way, but you can produce anyhow.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're all on the way, but then there are obstacles in the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to get in your mind a time you felt like you were stopped for a reason you didn't understand trying to accomplish something you believe God told you to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to get in your mind what's stopping you, what seems to be in your way, what seems to be blocking your destiny, get it in your mind, father God and heaven we thank you for
[SPEAKER_01]: which ever speaks to us and mediates wisdom for us today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I pray for the person I'm to sound of my voice who feels like they've been stopped.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were on the way to what they believe you called them to do who you called them to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for reasons, they can't quite understand obstacles that are unforeseen, have detoured or deterred them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you encourage their hearts today?
[SPEAKER_01]: In Jesus name, we pray that if you heart-same, amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obstacles in the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever been on your way somewhere?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, as you draw near to your destination, something just randomly happens to prolong your experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like, you put in the GPS how far you were trying to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I told you what time to leave.
[SPEAKER_01]: You left early and gave yourself cushion.
[SPEAKER_01]: You knew you lived in Metro Atlanta and it was likely going to be traffic on a random Tuesday after noon.
[SPEAKER_01]: You were counted for all of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you get within a few miles of where you're trying to go and you come up on a real-world track.
[SPEAKER_01]: The real-world track drops to arm, the light star
[SPEAKER_01]: and then the longest, slowest freight train in the history of locomotives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get's in the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe you have strategized for a property you wanted to buy, perhaps a primary residence, or,
[SPEAKER_01]: an investment property and for 18 months you did your level best to make sure everything in your financial business would check out and then you get to the table, the closing table and they find one transaction from 18 months and one day ago and they got to push back the closing because of one phantom transaction.
[SPEAKER_01]: One day pass, the time you thought they would consider.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe you're like a student of mine, when I was a youth pastor, I was a young lady who's now a grown woman, who's prepared soon to be married and hurt and hurt, fiancee, had planned this destination wedding and paradise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Only to get within 60 days of the big day and for her again, to hit paradise.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'd only destroy the lives of those who live in Jamaica or to upset their daily rhythm, but also to completely change the plans of a wedding and paradise.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, close, but then all of a sudden the obstacle comes out of nowhere that you didn't expect that makes you feel so far.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you got to deal with the emotions that have you ruling and recoiling from running
[SPEAKER_01]: For some of us, you were running full speed, and what you thought would be an open door turned into a brick wall.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you didn't see it until it was too late.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I only did it knock you back and knock you down and you can look up on the proverbial forehead of your faith and you see the lump there as proof of what you think is your mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's hard for you to reconcile.
[SPEAKER_01]: While God will put you on that fast track to tell you to run on in Jesus' name but not warn you about the wall before you ran right into it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to tell you, we all face obstacles in the way, but not every obstacle is just for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had this experience in my life, a time until
[SPEAKER_01]: And I could tell the stories, if I had time, but I don't.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to go back to one of the earlier stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember an obstacle at the end, almost stopping me from something that I believe was mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was a senior in high school, in May's high school here in Atlanta, Georgia, and my counselor called me in the office and said, there are we noticed that you haven't passed algebra one.
[SPEAKER_01]: an algebra one is a required course in Georgia.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you don't take algebra one, you're not going to be able to graduate.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mind you, I had already taken algebra one and eighth grade.
[SPEAKER_01]: But for whatever reason, when I came from the middle school up the street, my records didn't make it from the middle school up the street.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here I was a senior in high school, and out of my seven classes, three of them were AP courses.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was in advance, placement, lit in language.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was in advance, placement, chemistry.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was in advance, placement, calculus, and algebra one.
[SPEAKER_01]: My teacher for algebra one had taught me Euclidean geometry in ninth grade.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was my second time around with Dr. D on assignment and what she decided to do was to make the obstacle in my way and opportunity for those who were in the room with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I was the only senior in the room and she knew of my aptitude in this particular area, she decided to use me as a peer tutor and assistant teacher.
[SPEAKER_01]: So whatever lesson she felt like I had to band with to teach, she would put me up at 17 years old in front of her room for the 14-year-olds, and I'm teaching them one plus X equals four, so far for X.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I realized in that moment, is the obstacle in my way wasn't about me, but how I navigated it, gave me the opportunity to help somebody else learn a lesson they probably wouldn't have learned if I didn't have the obstacle.
[SPEAKER_01]: For me, I want to talk to the person.
[SPEAKER_01]: You love the Lord, He heard your cry.
[SPEAKER_01]: But ever since you ran into that wall, you're trying to navigate your feelings and your emotions around that failure that set back that issue or that obstacle.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't want you to get so lost in your emotions that you think everything that happens to you is all about you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes, the Lord and let you face an obstacle that you didn't see coming so that the way you navigate it leaves breadcrumbs for people who are coming behind you who may not have the wisdom, ingenuity and faith or story that you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all like ribs, you making this up, am I?
[SPEAKER_01]: It was for B.C.
[SPEAKER_01]: in Palestine and Territory, where there's young but trolled couple was on the way to Bethlehem, ready to give birth, and as soon as they get where they're supposed to be, they walk into an end, expecting reservations, but they run into an obstacle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you see them as they go up to the counter?
[SPEAKER_01]: And the endkeeper acts for their ID and says, can you give me your ID?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, what's your name, sir?
[SPEAKER_01]: Joseph, what's your last name?
[SPEAKER_01]: So we don't see a Joseph of Nazareth and I compute a tribe of the family of David.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I'm in town.
[SPEAKER_01]: I came to visit my family for the senses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: So we don't have a Joseph of the family of David.
[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, we don't have a reservation for you and also all the rooms are full for tonight.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they've come all this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: turning governmental force into godly faithfulness and as soon as they get close to their destination and obstacle at the 11th hour keeps them from the comfort they rightly deserve.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yet how they handle it, how they navigated, wasn't just about them, it leaves wisdom for people like you and me.
[SPEAKER_01]: This concept obstacles in the way is a play on words.
[SPEAKER_01]: I, in, in reflects this place in the text that should have been opened, but turned out to be closed.
[SPEAKER_01]: This end is a gathering place.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a place where you rest on a journey to break up a long journey into smaller, more manageable legs.
[SPEAKER_01]: We understand what an end is.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a hotel, it's a motel, it's a holiday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry if I offended you or your Christian values.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just remember trouble in my way.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to alienate nobody, I'm trying to bring the room together.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they get to the end and what they thought would be open becomes an obstacle.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you do when a brick wall meets you where you just knew and open door would greet you?
[SPEAKER_01]: The truth is, we're all on our way somewhere and on our way to there, we'll face obstacles that aren't for saying what you're me around.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're all on our way to moral purity, but we're gonna run into the obstacle of our own immoral depravity.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're all on our way to complete Christ's likeness, but my own eniquity will get in the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're all on our way to God's great purpose for our lives, but feeling helplessly lost will get in the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've talked about finances for two months, and we're all on our way to financial freedom, but the commodification and commercialism of Christmas might try to get in the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're all on our way to eternal security.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is our promise as God's daughters and God's sons, but a few things might get in your way before you get to eternal security, which are mean rare of things like sickness, pain, trauma, grief, death.
[SPEAKER_01]: These obstacles get in the way on our way to where we're going.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as we look at this text, we'll appreciate while Luke chose these stories for his Greek audience.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a two-part book, Luke and Acts are two parts together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're written by the same man who was a physician by trade, but he decides to become an investigative journalist so that he can take the stories of Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Them down in sequential or linear or logical order, so that the awfulness or this Greek man who reads it,
[SPEAKER_01]: with read these stories about Jesus, then place his faith in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: These stories are gathered and given to a group that wasn't born and raised in the territory where it happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what happened in this territory of fix, what happens all over the world?
[SPEAKER_01]: So the office opens this scroll and he starts in chapter one and he reads all of this stuff about John the Baptist and his parents, then he gets to chapter two where we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he sees that these stories are situated in a real historical window of time.
[SPEAKER_01]: verse one says that the first emperor of Rome, Caesar Augustus, is in power.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then it says that Quarinius is the governor of a place called Syria.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you do just a little bit of investigative study, you'll understand that Caesar Augustus and Quarinius have overlapping times of leadership that is within the same window that Jesus was born.
[SPEAKER_01]: History believes that Jesus was born around four BC.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this story is set in a certain time, it's also set in a certain place, Palestinian territory.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's this man and his fiance, who are traveling from the north to the south.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when they get what they're supposed to be, they face obstacles that they could not foresee.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's my argument, I believe that the same divine hand
[SPEAKER_01]: Behind the Emperor's decree is the same divine hand behind the innkeeper's denial.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do I do when the same hand that told me to run is the same hand that told me to stop?
[SPEAKER_01]: What do I do when I had to muster up the courage to believe God enough the star running?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when I get full speed, he throws an obstacle in the way that we didn't have a conversation about before I set out on my way.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a few things in this text.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna share from my heart that I hope can encourage yours and that's this, the first thing, number one, unforeseen obstacles cannot stop God's timing in my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: unforeseen obstacles cannot stop God's timing in my life, which I mean rare, that presupposes that God has a time for everything for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It clearly says that he's three is one of the most notable poems in the history of literature, religious or not, and it gives us the appreciation that for everything under the Son of
[SPEAKER_01]: time to be born in the time to die.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a time to mourn in the time to dance.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a time for this and there's a time for that God has timing set up in my story that even when I face obstacles out in sea coming, those obstacles can't get in the way of his time and for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so I'm y'all looking at me like a rev.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna believe it, but it hurts so bad that it's hard to plus I'm really seeing this story where you got that from.
[SPEAKER_01]: Too shy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse number six.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you read the two facts, you will miss it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says, wow, they were there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Watch all the.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't you wanna see that coming to pass in your life and in the lives of the people you love?
[SPEAKER_01]: Which I mean, you remember, after Simba came back from that faraway place, playing around with Tomone and Pumbum, and he had to come fight scar, and they had to defeat all the bad lions, and then after they defeated all the lions, his star, Raynan, and then Rafiki looked at him and said,
[SPEAKER_01]: and all the lion star roaring, and he started walking up prior rock, and then when he got to the top of the rock, he started roaring too, and then the heavens opened in the grass grew back in the animals appear.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I'm trying to tell you is you need some people in your pride who can be happy about the fact that even when I was lost, now I'm found, and I'm right all the time with where I'm supposed to.
[SPEAKER_01]: that phrase, the time came, done just mean chronologically.
[SPEAKER_01]: It implies that, but what it really means is, the days were completed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: To me, Rav, that phrase, the time came what the day was completed.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's mentioned eight times in these first two chapters.
[SPEAKER_01]: Half the time is mentioned, it's translated as the word fulfilled or to be field.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it talks about those in this story who were field with the Holy Spirit, saying Greek, I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: feel with the spirit, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: John the Baptist says a man would be feel with the spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elizabeth, when Mary greeted her, was feel with the spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Zachariah, after his song was born, was feel with the spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, in this context, it's not talking about feel, it's talking about fulfilled.
[SPEAKER_01]: That you have fulfilled your required time.
[SPEAKER_01]: So now God is going step in and work a miracle on your behalf that you couldn't do for yourself if you tried.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, before God performed the most miraculous birth in human history, Mary had the wobble for 40 weeks.
[SPEAKER_01]: She had the wobble for nine months.
[SPEAKER_01]: She had to carry that embryo all the way to full maturity.
[SPEAKER_01]: before God could do God's part, Mary had to do Mary's part, but after Mary got done doing all that, Mary could do the Bible says, don't worry about it, God got it from here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause you did your part, now I'm gonna do for you, what you can need to do if you try on your own.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, for some of us, this is a hard truth, because we so used to preaching, that makes us think faith is magic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Faith is not magic, you can't just be unfaithful, disobey God, not be into the Holy Spirit and show up at a time in place entitled to God's best for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's called entitlement and entitlement is demonic.
[SPEAKER_01]: So faith is not magic, you're on show up in the season and say Lord, because I'm here, you're welcome.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, that's not how that work.
[SPEAKER_01]: How it works is the Lord says you want me to do this I'm calling you to do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I chose you to do this, but I got a part and you got a part And here's how this gonna go because I am God and besides me there is none other you're gonna do your part first And when you get done doing your part when you fulfill time I'm gonna show you I'm God over time and whatever felt like a long time I'm gonna make it feel like no time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody who can give God praise for the fact that after I've done my part
[SPEAKER_01]: What you mean, Reverend, I couldn't go into the reservoirs office and say, oh, I need algebra one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't worry about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: God don't fix it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The counselor would look at me and say, yeah, God is a fixer.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you don't go to algebra one, you can't graduate.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'll tell you what, if you go to algebra one and fulfill the time that is required of you, when you get to that graduation stage, what you don't know is the door's God going open for a little boy from the backside of nowhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the future that awaits you if you do your part.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't expect God to perform a miraculous birth if you not will in the wobble.
[SPEAKER_01]: The text says, the time that comes, she fulfilled her part, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And now God is going to do what only God can do, obstacle or no obstacle.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, we think once we've done our part, we should have an obstacle-free delivery.
[SPEAKER_01]: The faithful have grown to understand that obstacles are not really issues.
[SPEAKER_01]: They become platforms for God's glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: is not until I'm a tour in the things of God that I start to expect something going to get in my way.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I get close to where I'm going, but it's fine, I'm used to this.
[SPEAKER_01]: That ain't really a problem, that's just a platform for God to show His glory on a higher stage than it would have been if I didn't have the problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like Israel had a problem when they got to the walls of Jericho, this place that was supposed to be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a part of the land that was there destiny, except it was walled in.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, God said, I'll tell you what, for seven days you're going to walk around this wall.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first six days you're going to walk around once a day in complete silence.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the seven days you're going to walk around seven times in complete silence.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then on the seven times when you finish it, shout.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you shout, I'm gonna do it only, I can do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the story goes that as they walked around one, once a day from six days, complete silence.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the seven days, seven times, on the seven times, they shouted, then the wall that was the obstacle to what was rightfully there, destiny came down because I can walk and I can shout.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I can't bring down the walls that MP my progress is that anybody thankful for the fact that you serve a God who can bring down any wall, remove any article.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you meet him with your faithfulness, he's gonna bless you with his favor.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ought to have five young neighbors say neighbor, keep your head up and do what you know you're supposed to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, unforeseen obstacles cannot stop God's timing in my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't know what it would look like, but when it was time, God deal with only God can do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number two, here's the next thing we'll see, unforeseen obstacles might be able to keep me out, but God won't let me keep it in.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking to the person who's ever felt excluded from a circle you know you should have been included in.
[SPEAKER_01]: talking to a person who went this long journey of preparing yourself for what you believe God called you to and you got to the end and realized it was some red tape there to make your reality all of a sudden an impossibility.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking to the person who got everything squared around on the front end and then when you did everything
[SPEAKER_01]: So some fine print that one clear on the front end when you charge your best, they get everything clear on the front end.
[SPEAKER_01]: So now here you are outside of what you thought you should be inside.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking to the woman who walked into a room more qualified than every other human being in the room, but because they were all men and you would only woman, what you thought will be an open space, just turn out to be another boy's club.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking to the person with melanated skin in this room who did your level best to adhere to the unfair but real requirement of black exceptionalism that I got to be twice as good to get half as much and instead of complaining, you booking up your bootstraps, you pulled on the strength of your ancestors and those who came before you, got into the room and those of a lot of you said not you.
[SPEAKER_01]: talking to the person who, no, I was qualified to be included, but for some reason, I don't understand how I'm excluded.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all had revved, where's it said in the text?
[SPEAKER_01]: If you read it too fast, you'll miss it.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was kept out of the end, but what was in her God when let her keep it in?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the reservations didn't work.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was no room for them there, and they were left out.
[SPEAKER_01]: But just because they were left out, don't mean what God was doing in her was going to be stopped because they were left out.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you read it too fast, you'll miss it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse number seven.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says, and she watt church.
[SPEAKER_01]: She gave birth.
[SPEAKER_01]: The men in the room like a rave, how did I plow to me, I'm a man?
[SPEAKER_01]: I am a man.
[SPEAKER_01]: That term, give birth, it really means to bring forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: To bear fruit, hear me, to produce.
[SPEAKER_01]: The idea is that whatever God puts in you and see form, when it comes to form authority, and is ready to be produced or to come forth, it don't matter who wanna leave you out of what room, what God put in you, God ain't gonna let stay in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody grateful for the fact that if God started a good work in me?
[SPEAKER_01]: So then the question is, what are some of the obstacles in this story that kept them from a place of comfort, that kept them out of this end?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are there at least two?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes obstacles can be people, but more often than I could be predicaments.
[SPEAKER_01]: What you mean people, I mean the end keeper.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, no one verse six or seven, do we see that there's an end keeper?
[SPEAKER_01]: But because we know there's an end with no room in it for them,
[SPEAKER_01]: If you flip over a few pages to Luke Chapter 10, you'll see a story about a good Samaritan.
[SPEAKER_01]: Found a man by the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: The man was hurting and left for dead.
[SPEAKER_01]: The good Samaritan picked him up, bandaged his wounds, nursed him back to health, and took him to an end.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they got to the end, the good Samaritan stayed there with him, and the next day when he had to leave, he went to the in-keeper, and gave money to the in-keeper for the bill of the man, and said, use this to cover his state, and if it costs more than what I gave you, when I come back through, I'll pay it off.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if there's an end, it stands to reason there's an in-keeper.
[SPEAKER_01]: And some of us ran thinking the gate would be open, not knowing we would run into a gate
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody who could have let us in, they just didn't want us to have a part of the wind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody who could have easily turned the door before whatever jealous India's reason at the ninth hour, they wanted to become a roll block.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us know what it feels like to see the gate open, but the gate keeper standing in front of the gate.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because when they go low, we go high, I just decided not to scrub the ground with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't mean I forgot how to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just didn't want to drag nobody to date because I am God's daughter.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am God's son and the Lord is going to work this out.
[SPEAKER_01]: God going to have to remove you and keep my hands clean.
[SPEAKER_01]: But to be fair to the Nkeeper who was under this text, even though they're not mentioned in the text, to be fair to the Nkeeper.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think the Nkeeper was mad at Joseph and Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think the Nkeeper was hating on Joseph and Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: This Nkeeper had no idea that the baby in this woman's stomach was the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Nkeeper was a person in a predicament.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the predicament was, is when he tried to pull up the reservation number.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't see no reservation.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had to see if there was any rooms available, no rooms available.
[SPEAKER_01]: The predicament was above the person.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the person who said, no, really just gave voice to a predicament that was turning them in another direction.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do I do, Ralph, when I'm left out of a situation and I want to find somebody to blame, but nobody is really at fault.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just the situation, the predicament.
[SPEAKER_01]: The circumstances, kind of above everybody's head.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I'm fighting the fire, somebody would be mad at, but the truth is it just is what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: In that moment, I have to wrestle with the fact that the same divine hand that moved me might be the same divine hand that is stopping me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in that moment, I gotta ask myself this question, when I feel left out, is it follow?
[SPEAKER_01]: When I feel left out is the truth that I'm too reliant on the in crowd.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my too reliant on the I in in crowd.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who are in the place I wanna be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who have access to the resources I thought I would be able to share in in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I can't get in, does that mean I feel left?
[SPEAKER_01]: or am I able in that moment to decide, you know what, I ain't gonna take it personal, I ain't gonna blame nobody, the situation is what the situation is, even though y'all left me out, God ain't gonna let me keep in with God, put in me, I tell you what, this baby's coming forth one way or another.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether you let me in or leave me out ain't gonna stop, what God is gonna produce through me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's why, because nobody,
[SPEAKER_01]: and nothing can keep God's will from being produced.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody, and nothing can get in your way at any moment and stop what God wants to bring forth through you, or infusing obstacles are a part of the journey.
[SPEAKER_01]: but they cannot stop God's timing in my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Unforeseen obstacles may keep me out but God won't let me keep it in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number three, and I'll bid you a do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Unforeseen obstacles force me to do the best I can with the resources God redeems.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, you can imagine Mary is ready to give birth and in her mind, she imagined,
[SPEAKER_01]: a room in the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if we can't get a king sweet without on dining room and a little fridge and a walk in shower, at least just that it's going to a little a little room with two twin beds in it that we can push together.
[SPEAKER_01]: In her mind while they clipped coffin on a donkey from Galilee to Judea, all she's thinking about is I can't wait to put my feet up when I get to the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: They get to the end, Joseph's saying, baby, just chill for a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got this, rush yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: He get up there, he talking.
[SPEAKER_01]: She could start to tell about his mannerisms that some is wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: She come up and stand next to him, Joseph, I think, who?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, baby, everything cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just don't know if they got me in here as of Nazareth or from the family of David, but I'm trying to get him my last night.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, so we don't have a Joseph of Nazareth, Joseph of the family of Chameleon.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have a Mary of Nazareth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then she realizes that the ideal setting she thought this was going to happen in is the exact opposite of where it's really going to take place.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she has to decide in that moment the do the best she can with whatever resources God redeems, which I mean, right, the issue with us not being invited in is that we thought everything we needed was in.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I'm left out, I immediately start to feel like, I'm not enough and now I don't have enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: So since I didn't get into the circle, I thought I would be in or into the space, I thought I deserved to be in.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel left out and so I feel less than.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you know you got something great God wants to produce, but the question you're asking is, but what resources am I gonna do this?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean in the end I got a bad, you know, bad out here.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the end I got somewhere to bathe.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have no way to bathe out here.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the end you got a warm fire.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have nothing warm.
[SPEAKER_01]: You start to look at what you don't have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of realizing that whatever you do have is enough because they ain't about watching God It's about who you're God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not anybody who's little long enough to testify Wherever you ain't the only one who realized that when I was down to my last God still have my back You ought to give up praise on a fact that he's always there with you Now when you read in a story in the Bible God is the hero of every story
[SPEAKER_01]: But we can learn from the mistakes or the traits of the people in the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two people in the story, Joseph and Mary are both got one trait that I simply adore.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope to be true about me.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I love about Joseph is Joseph has courage.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let the church encourage.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joseph has the courage to obey God, knowing everybody in town knows that Mary was pregnant before they got together.
[SPEAKER_01]: But his courage makes him ignore the shame around the scandal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he rather be right in private with God than improved in public by people.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's courage.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what I love about Mary is her humility.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let the church say humility.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary was so humble that when the angel first came to announce her that she was going to be pregnant, she was startled by the honorable title he gave her.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, blessed to you, highly in favor once you were.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who me?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just Mary from Nazareth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just Jenny from the bot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a nobody from nowhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was so humble by the greeting that she couldn't even fathom how somebody would talk to her so honorably.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that humility that she has is palpable in this text because nowhere do we see sister girl, Roha Nek and Snapper Fingers.
[SPEAKER_01]: She had every right to then she thought we had reservations and we don't have no reservations.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may not be mad at the endkeeper Joseph, but I'm mad at you.
[SPEAKER_01]: She got every right to be mad, don't she?
[SPEAKER_01]: For the simple fact that she non-months pregnant and she feel these contractions getting closer and stronger and she knows that what she's been carrying is about to come to pass, but nowhere do we see her trip out.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what we see her do?
[SPEAKER_01]: We see her look around to stuff that was left as nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's starting to say, I'm gonna make this something.
[SPEAKER_01]: But to me, Mary, I didn't get no baby shower, so I don't have no baby bag.
[SPEAKER_01]: She didn't have her hospital bag pre-packed, so she can go to the hospital and give birth.
[SPEAKER_01]: She won't go back with it, make it over to Gradio.
[SPEAKER_01]: She won't go back with it, make it over to Crawford Long, while I was born.
[SPEAKER_01]: Woo, woo.
[SPEAKER_01]: Northside where the sedites are born.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll just play it, I'll just play it.
[SPEAKER_01]: She went on making the north side with a good folk with a good money to get to how they babies.
[SPEAKER_01]: So now she got to make do with what's around her and humility gives you a perspective that sees value and with other people think it's nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: What you mean, Ralph, in other words, humility helps you understand that everything that's glamorous is not necessarily glorious.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what our problem is?
[SPEAKER_01]: Our problem is we don't have no humility because we don't know the difference between grammar and glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: You think that just because his grammar is just because he glistens, that must mean it has some value.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary said, you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: This may not be a grammar is birth, but it's still by God gonna be a glorious birth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody who can give God a praise for the fact that he can redeem the resources around you?
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can still see glory even when you see no grammar.
[SPEAKER_01]: So she says, I don't have a baby bag, but I got these scraps.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't have a basket, but I got this feeding trough to animals eat out of.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't have a comfortable bed, the lady in, but I got this, hey.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't have, when I thought I would have, but when I do have, God gonna make it do what it do.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, I'm gonna do the best I can with what I have, with what God gave me.
[SPEAKER_01]: because God can redeem resources and have value when people thought it was no value.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what's interesting?
[SPEAKER_01]: The way this story happens, it happened like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: They left, Galilee, they get the Bethlehem.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they get the Bethlehem, they go to the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they go to the end, they find out it's no room.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they go with the animals are, and she gives birth to Jesus among animals.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how it unfold, but that's not how it's told.
[SPEAKER_01]: The story is told, they leave, they arrive, she gives birth, she uses what she has because it was no room for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: What you mean, Ralph?
[SPEAKER_01]: If you read the story, and if you allow your emotions to take over, you'll be like, ooh, they made it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who I'm glad they made it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, she gave birth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we was waiting on this baby.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: She wrapped them in scraps.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why should I do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: She put them in a manger.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had that way animals eat out of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the last thing you learn is, oh, she had to do that because they didn't have no room in the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: which you mean, the way they live the story is not the same way the story is told.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we get frustrated because we're living the story and we can see the block before we see the fruit that's gonna come after the block, but I can tell you after God brings through your life where God is gonna do the issues you face gonna be the last thing we talk about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody who can thank God for the fact that you can still produce even when they make no room for you?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm dying y'all, if I see myself in this story anywhere, I see myself in the swatling clothes and the manger.
[SPEAKER_01]: Show me you wrapped them.
[SPEAKER_01]: The swatling cloths were just scraps.
[SPEAKER_01]: That manger animals ate out of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that night, those scraps and that manger came in contact with Jesus and immediately
[SPEAKER_01]: If you were to look in my life, you would see the scraps of my sand and circumstance.
[SPEAKER_01]: You would see the manger of my mistakes, my miscues.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when I come in contact with Jesus, he can take what was not and make it something.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can take what was thrown away and redeem it and make it holy.
[SPEAKER_01]: and keep their little ones is in little booties.
[SPEAKER_01]: Could you imagine being that scrap that night?
[SPEAKER_01]: You've been left on the ground all these days, finally this little girl comes and picks you up, wraps you around her baby, and soon as you touch the baby skin, you tell this, they ain't just no normal baby.
[SPEAKER_01]: And here I am, just a scrap, laying on her baby.
[SPEAKER_01]: And these three wives, me, and coming to worship.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the stars, the heavens, are telling of his glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you start immediately realize, yeah, I may have been cast away by somebody else, but tonight, my value has been changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've come to offer somebody this opportunity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take the scraps of your life, give them to Jesus, and watch him take the scraps of your sin and create a cough to cover you, mercy to uphold
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know the Lord Jesus is your personal Lord of Saviour, let's stand on our feet as we're preparing to beat this miss.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know Jesus has your personal Lord in Saviour.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to offer him to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or if you hear today and you know