WEBVTT 00:00.031 --> 00:04.576 [SPEAKER_01]: This is Dr. Darrell Hall, and I want to welcome you to the way community church podcast. 00:04.696 --> 00:09.080 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for joining us today as we begin a conversation about Advent season. 00:09.200 --> 00:14.065 [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to look at a passage in Luke chapter 2 that tells us the story of all the events that were happening. 00:14.305 --> 00:18.650 [SPEAKER_01]: Surrounding this journey that Joseph and Mary had to take together. 00:18.890 --> 00:24.075 [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to follow along the transcript of this podcast, you can or you can find these notes and the Bible app. 00:24.095 --> 00:30.021 [SPEAKER_01]: Grab your Bibles, turn to Luke chapter 2, Mr. Degaswood. 00:31.098 --> 00:33.702 [SPEAKER_01]: Luke chapter two is where we're going to be today. 00:35.866 --> 00:37.930 [SPEAKER_01]: Re-inverse three through verse number five. 00:40.234 --> 00:48.508 [SPEAKER_01]: And you should have these notes in the Bible app, and as well as on the screen behind me, if you physically able on and right you to stand. 00:49.710 --> 00:55.840 [SPEAKER_01]: As we honor God's word, Luke chapter two, verse three, three, 01:02.688 --> 01:11.657 [SPEAKER_01]: Before we read, I want to talk today to the person who is stressed out about where you're at not yet. 01:14.520 --> 01:27.353 [SPEAKER_01]: To the person who has these private moments of self-doubt, self-defeat frustration we got over what's taking longer than you had hoped or expected. 01:30.156 --> 01:30.957 [SPEAKER_01]: If that's you, 01:32.320 --> 01:35.683 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to speak to you today, a little chapter two, verse three, through five. 01:36.404 --> 01:49.438 [SPEAKER_01]: The word of the Lord says in New American Standard Bible, and all the people were on their way to register for the senses each to his own city. 01:50.819 --> 01:59.728 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, Joseph also went up from Galilee from the city of Nazareth, two today of the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. 02:00.063 --> 02:11.037 [SPEAKER_01]: because he was of the house of the family of David in order to register along with Mary who was patrol the town and was pregnant. 02:11.057 --> 02:18.126 [SPEAKER_01]: First three, again, it says, and all the people were wet church on their way. 02:18.988 --> 02:20.990 [SPEAKER_01]: I want you to turn to your neighbor, say neighbor. 02:22.352 --> 02:23.133 [SPEAKER_01]: You're not late. 02:24.735 --> 02:25.596 [SPEAKER_01]: You just home the way. 02:26.978 --> 02:29.361 [SPEAKER_01]: You may be seated in the presence. 02:29.763 --> 02:51.720 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm on the way if you have ever hosted an event or if you were waiting on a ride for somebody to pick you up 02:53.337 --> 02:59.827 [SPEAKER_01]: Or if you had a time scheduled on your calendar for a person, you know is notoriously late. 03:01.610 --> 03:19.098 [SPEAKER_01]: The last three letters you want to see in a text message is O-T. Because you already know that's alive. 03:19.118 --> 03:19.378 [UNKNOWN]: That's alive. 03:19.399 --> 03:19.859 [SPEAKER_01]: That's alive. 03:19.879 --> 03:20.340 [SPEAKER_01]: That's alive. 03:22.767 --> 03:29.293 [SPEAKER_01]: chances are the person who takes you this about the event they agreed to come to is still at home in bed. 03:31.476 --> 03:38.162 [SPEAKER_01]: They haven't even gotten out of bed, fresh enough, picked out an outfit, ate a little snack so they not too hungry on the way. 03:39.684 --> 03:43.528 [SPEAKER_01]: But you knew it, but you knew they had this tendency of being late to the party. 03:44.148 --> 03:50.935 [SPEAKER_01]: So the party started at seven, but you told them it started at six, because you know they was going to get there in seven, 30. 03:52.670 --> 03:58.057 [SPEAKER_01]: So they're hour and a half late from the time you gave them, but 30 minutes late from the real time in the story. 03:59.699 --> 04:06.368 [SPEAKER_01]: Those three letters, OTW can strike terror in the heart of a person who was waiting on a ride to get somewhere. 04:06.468 --> 04:13.958 [SPEAKER_01]: It can strike frustration in the heart of a person who had a much meeting or a business meeting set up and you got some meals to do after this. 04:14.658 --> 04:21.327 [SPEAKER_01]: But now I got a post-poll and a rear range of my whole schedule because you always own the way and never actually where you're supposed to be. 04:22.437 --> 04:26.902 [SPEAKER_01]: But then those three letters, OTW, are something we've come to expect in our culture. 04:27.643 --> 04:37.234 [SPEAKER_01]: And so because of that, we build grace into invitations so that even if somebody is late, they still write on time. 04:38.916 --> 04:47.466 [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know why it is that we are easier on others than we are on ourselves, but too many of us are frustrated about where we're not yet. 04:48.543 --> 04:53.228 [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you watched his count of the time from 11 to 12 from November to December. 04:54.029 --> 04:58.553 [SPEAKER_01]: And you want some divine acceleration in the last three Sundays of the year. 04:59.254 --> 05:03.499 [SPEAKER_01]: For God to accomplish something you set out to do two new years ago. 05:04.780 --> 05:08.884 [SPEAKER_01]: And here you are as a believer thinking, I'm practicing patience, fruit of the Spirit. 05:09.645 --> 05:12.508 [SPEAKER_01]: And the Lord has taken the Lord's precious time. 05:13.012 --> 05:25.953 [SPEAKER_01]: All I've come to day to remind you is those same three letters you hate to see in the text message, how the same three letters you need to put somewhere this week to remind yourself that until I arrive, I'm still on the way. 05:27.836 --> 05:30.100 [SPEAKER_01]: I probably can't clock it, I probably can't measure it. 05:30.280 --> 05:36.370 [SPEAKER_01]: I probably don't know exactly when, on the way we're turning into do-season, but that ain't not a my business anyway. 05:36.772 --> 05:40.617 [SPEAKER_01]: God never told me to figure out the winds and the wares and the house and the ifs. 05:40.997 --> 05:52.552 [SPEAKER_01]: God never told me to schedule his divine movement in my life God just either told me to move by faith or set up circumstances against my will to force me to move by faith. 05:53.633 --> 06:02.965 [SPEAKER_01]: And so here I am in a process of moving, needing to remind myself until I get where God said God is taking me is O.T.W. 06:04.649 --> 06:12.820 [SPEAKER_01]: So if you've got a journal, I want you to write three letters, and that journal, if you've got lipstick ladies on the mirror in the morning, I need you to write three letters. 06:13.741 --> 06:23.173 [SPEAKER_01]: On that lipstick, if you've got a note in your phone that you'd like to revisit for your prayer request at the top of that note for this week, I need you to put three letters, O.T.W. 06:23.193 --> 06:32.766 [SPEAKER_01]: because when you get impatient with God and mad at yourself, you need to remember, I'm on the way and said that with me, say I'm on the way. 06:34.467 --> 06:50.066 [SPEAKER_01]: This text is the opening story or part of the opening story and looks to part book to a man named Theophilus, where Luke says out to give these details about the life of Christ and then the mission of Christ after he's going back to heaven. 06:50.627 --> 06:59.277 [SPEAKER_01]: And he opens his book describing the governmental context in which these divine stories happen. 06:59.257 --> 07:05.208 [SPEAKER_01]: He tells us, tells us in the first couple of verses of chapter two, who is who's came in the land. 07:05.268 --> 07:23.340 [SPEAKER_01]: He tells us who's governor in the land, and he tells us what legal or governmental decrees they have, levied on the land, and it gives us a chance to mark time to understand that what we're reading about is not a fatal, it's a real historical event. 07:23.978 --> 07:40.457 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus' birth is not a family, it's not a made up story, it's not a tall tale, it's a real historical event that happens while Caesar Augustus is the first emperor alone and Quirinius is the governor of Syria. 07:41.358 --> 07:46.324 [SPEAKER_01]: If you go back into a lower research, this is the one time I'll let Google count as research. 07:48.177 --> 07:54.045 [SPEAKER_01]: You would find that their 10 years over a lap with the time Jesus was born. 07:55.327 --> 08:02.396 [SPEAKER_01]: And so Luke gives us this definite window of time in which to situate this story. 08:02.817 --> 08:15.113 [SPEAKER_01]: And what he helps us appreciate is this, even if somebody in government don't believe in God or like to act like their God, God will use them to get God's people where God wants God's people to be. 08:17.692 --> 08:23.321 [SPEAKER_01]: I ain't come this morning to get political with your own care if you'd like to digest your news from CNN or TikTok. 08:23.341 --> 08:28.470 [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter to me if you prefer Fox News or MSNBC air about in line sometime. 08:28.770 --> 08:35.481 [SPEAKER_01]: All I'll come to tell you is if you're stressed out about what's happening in 1,600 Pennsylvania and how what happens. 08:35.461 --> 08:37.647 [SPEAKER_01]: They are a fix what happens at your house. 08:37.667 --> 08:46.652 [SPEAKER_01]: All I've come to tell you is the only thing government can do is where God lets government do in the midst of everything God is doing on top of what government can do. 08:46.873 --> 08:50.483 [SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody who can give God praise for the fact that the King can do it? 08:50.463 --> 08:53.749 [SPEAKER_01]: can't give a decree, but it's God who moves my journey. 08:54.009 --> 08:59.740 [SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody thankful for the fact that somebody above me can make a decision that impacts me? 08:59.760 --> 09:02.204 [SPEAKER_01]: But God is still sovereign over my situation. 09:02.425 --> 09:07.474 [SPEAKER_01]: You're looking at me like you can't appreciate the fact that God has power over who has power over you. 09:07.534 --> 09:13.264 [SPEAKER_01]: Is there any kings kidding this house who can praise God for the fact that God alone is sovereign? 09:17.210 --> 09:18.071 [SPEAKER_01]: God is sovereign. 09:18.813 --> 09:22.238 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why Caesar Augustus thought he was doing this sentence. 09:24.181 --> 09:35.740 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know where his motive was, but I know God used this, this King's decree to move his people where they were prophesied to be. 09:36.942 --> 09:41.850 [SPEAKER_01]: That's why sometimes when you feel like you're being moved by force, you got to just move by faith. 09:44.446 --> 10:00.663 [SPEAKER_01]: When you don't understand why situation is happening in a while, way has closed before you, while my hopes have been dashed in dreams have been unrealized, while what you fought for sings to be fighting against you, and you feel overpowered by what's happening around you. 10:00.983 --> 10:11.854 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you gotta appreciate the fact that when it feels like I'm being moved by force, I really just gotta make the choice, the move on faith. 10:13.927 --> 10:19.033 [SPEAKER_01]: And to tell myself, regardless of how it feels, I'm on the way. 10:21.016 --> 10:30.287 [SPEAKER_01]: If you can accept that as a plausibility for your journey, that you'll own the way they're four things, I wanna lay at your feet, that I hope can encourage a heart this week. 10:30.307 --> 10:31.028 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the first thing. 10:31.509 --> 10:39.158 [SPEAKER_01]: Since I'm on the way, I trust that number one, where our comfort is no indication of where I'm going. 10:43.795 --> 10:45.799 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm surprised 70 y'all didn't shout right there. 10:47.903 --> 10:51.751 [SPEAKER_01]: You sent me a hit looking at me with your colors and matching your outfit coordinate. 10:52.933 --> 11:02.732 [SPEAKER_01]: You got to shake about on your skin and your hair, D. You got glasses with medicine in them that actually thinks what's going on with your eyes. 11:02.965 --> 11:04.586 [SPEAKER_01]: You got a car in the parking line. 11:04.606 --> 11:06.108 [SPEAKER_01]: You can go get in and crank up. 11:06.889 --> 11:10.131 [SPEAKER_01]: We can't look at you and tell where you come from. 11:10.151 --> 11:16.117 [SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody who was born in a shot girl house or a shot anybody from the wrong side of the tracks? 11:16.437 --> 11:18.619 [SPEAKER_01]: Anybody from ATL shot it like me? 11:18.819 --> 11:19.800 [SPEAKER_01]: Who can testify? 11:19.820 --> 11:22.382 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't let these subjects and verbs fool you. 11:22.643 --> 11:26.266 [SPEAKER_01]: You can't tell by looking at me where I come from. 11:26.506 --> 11:28.708 [SPEAKER_01]: Because God can reach out in the trash can. 11:28.908 --> 11:32.972 [SPEAKER_01]: And by some treasure, you want to get by a place 11:32.952 --> 12:02.436 [SPEAKER_01]: don't count against you because every journey includes that I'm coming from somewhere I'm going to somewhere and I gotta go through somewhere 12:02.602 --> 12:04.484 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to somewhere. 12:05.145 --> 12:07.548 [SPEAKER_01]: So that means I gotta go with through somewhere. 12:07.768 --> 12:11.653 [SPEAKER_01]: The text says that Joseph and Mary are coming from Nazareth. 12:12.534 --> 12:19.282 [SPEAKER_01]: They're going to Bethlehem, which means if you look at a map, they had to go through Samaria. 12:20.824 --> 12:24.269 [SPEAKER_01]: They're coming from Galilee, that's the region in the north. 12:24.749 --> 12:27.953 [SPEAKER_01]: Going to Judea, that's the region in the south. 12:28.313 --> 12:32.018 [SPEAKER_01]: So they gotta go through Samaria, that's the region in the middle. 12:32.420 --> 12:39.891 [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know how they felt as they were going through somewhere, as they were going to somewhere. 12:40.171 --> 12:46.280 [SPEAKER_01]: But I know sometimes it's more difficult to believe where you're going because all you can't remember is when you come from. 12:51.087 --> 12:53.871 [SPEAKER_01]: Your faith is more attached to the past than the future. 12:55.235 --> 12:59.341 [SPEAKER_01]: Because for whatever reason, you think you gotta have facts in order to act the main thing. 12:59.601 --> 13:03.447 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't you know you don't have to have no facts when you're fake to be activated? 13:03.487 --> 13:07.853 [SPEAKER_01]: I know you know more about the past, but you gotta believe more about the future. 13:11.478 --> 13:11.578 [UNKNOWN]: Yeah. 13:11.598 --> 13:11.698 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. 13:11.718 --> 13:14.222 [SPEAKER_01]: You know Nazareth's blood is somewhere good to be from. 13:15.637 --> 13:23.992 [SPEAKER_01]: Matter of fact, when he heard that Jesus this Messiah had come from Nazareth, the question somebody asked, Turing and cheek is, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? 13:24.012 --> 13:24.112 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. 13:24.132 --> 13:25.655 [SPEAKER_01]: What you mean from Nazareth? 13:25.675 --> 13:27.979 [SPEAKER_01]: Ain't nobody from there and if they ought to be in proud of it. 13:30.343 --> 13:37.155 [SPEAKER_01]: But Joseph and Mary are leaving Nazareth going to Bethlehem. 13:37.658 --> 13:46.689 [SPEAKER_01]: And even though Bethlehem is an inconsequential village on the backside of a major city called Jerusalem, it is a place that is attached to a royal lineage. 13:47.630 --> 13:56.500 [SPEAKER_01]: So the question you've got to ask yourself is, do I believe more about the nowhere I come from or the warrior place God has sent them into? 13:58.282 --> 14:03.789 [SPEAKER_01]: Which convicts me most at the depths of my belief of who I am? 14:03.809 --> 14:07.513 [SPEAKER_01]: And some of us are looking at me right now and all you can think about is the places you come from. 14:08.253 --> 14:11.296 [SPEAKER_01]: You've come from pain and you've come from problems. 14:12.257 --> 14:14.920 [SPEAKER_01]: You've come from dysfunction and you've come from disaster. 14:15.681 --> 14:18.283 [SPEAKER_01]: You've come from rejection and you've come from restriction. 14:18.303 --> 14:21.747 [SPEAKER_01]: Some of us have come from abuse and others of us from assault. 14:22.067 --> 14:33.619 [SPEAKER_01]: Some of us have come from ignorance and others of us have come from instability and because of all of the issues surrounding the nature of where you come from is hard, sometimes they get a grasp of where you go in. 14:34.831 --> 14:39.296 [SPEAKER_01]: But when you're on a journey, you've got to trust the way I come from. 14:39.357 --> 14:40.598 [SPEAKER_01]: There's no indication of where I'm going. 14:40.778 --> 14:51.471 [SPEAKER_01]: But then number two, because I'm on the way, I won't critique what God is doing until I get where He is taking me. 14:51.491 --> 14:52.252 [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you like me. 14:53.153 --> 14:54.014 [SPEAKER_01]: You think too much. 14:57.318 --> 14:58.019 [SPEAKER_01]: You know what we do? 14:58.560 --> 15:04.467 [SPEAKER_01]: God will tell us to do something. 15:08.294 --> 15:17.308 [SPEAKER_01]: And we think that a command is a conversation. 15:17.328 --> 15:19.751 [SPEAKER_01]: So let me say, I told you to do this. 15:20.332 --> 15:21.033 [SPEAKER_01]: You're a critique it. 15:21.053 --> 15:28.364 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, the feasibility and plausibility of the dynamics working out when you consider my issues and what I don't have. 15:28.384 --> 15:30.167 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, when you consider where I'm from. 15:32.881 --> 15:35.844 [SPEAKER_01]: That one, the conversation, that was a command. 15:36.864 --> 15:45.572 [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes we critique before we obey, and what that means is we never get to see what God was going to do, because we don't see it through to the end. 15:47.654 --> 16:02.787 [SPEAKER_01]: So if you're going to accept that it's highly possible that you are on your way, you want to appreciate this truth that I'm not going to critique what God is doing until, I get what he's taking me. 16:03.610 --> 16:18.025 [SPEAKER_01]: And then God was patient with you and then you got to the end of something you looked back and you was like I'm sorry My bad 16:19.760 --> 16:31.169 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, if that happened in a season before, where you got mad at God about something got allowed, something got disallowed, and you critiqued the hand of the Lord, but you still moved anyway. 16:31.450 --> 16:36.182 [SPEAKER_01]: If you got to the end of that leg of the journey and you can look back and see the goodness of the Lord, 16:36.162 --> 17:05.325 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't you know that you ought to take that faith and parlay that forward and understand that goodness and mercy Angels follow me goodness and mercy is also guiding me is there anybody with a little faith who can testify Wherever you ain't the only one who's trying to hold on in the middle of a journey Lord give me the faith not to critique what you're doing till you're done Till you're done doing it and I think what make tip us to critique is that doubt that creeps in on the back of this comfort 17:06.875 --> 17:13.184 [SPEAKER_01]: We get mad at God when God makes us uncomfortable. 17:13.204 --> 17:20.194 [SPEAKER_01]: When the Lord forces us to sit in a filling that we think we wouldn't wish on our worst enemy. 17:21.336 --> 17:22.738 [SPEAKER_01]: Which you may wrap you making this up. 17:22.798 --> 17:29.026 [SPEAKER_01]: Now the text says that David and Mary go down to Bethlehem and the text says they were patrolled to each other. 17:29.387 --> 17:33.493 [SPEAKER_01]: Meaning they were, they were, they were fiancians, they were engaged. 17:33.713 --> 17:36.477 [SPEAKER_01]: And it also says she was pregnant. 17:38.161 --> 17:44.067 [SPEAKER_01]: We don't know how far along pregnant she is, but we know when she's going to have the baby. 17:44.908 --> 17:59.302 [SPEAKER_01]: Which means this journey is probably going to force her to walk that baby down, which means she's probably closer to 40 weeks that she is to 20 weeks when this success moves them to take a journey. 18:00.463 --> 18:01.705 [SPEAKER_01]: And I ain't never been pregnant. 18:04.447 --> 18:06.970 [SPEAKER_01]: But I got somebody pregnant three times. 18:08.890 --> 18:12.133 [SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, that was not in my notes, that was yikes. 18:16.538 --> 18:26.928 [SPEAKER_01]: And every time Avenue got pregnant, what we discovered was the ninth month is like his own trimester. 18:26.948 --> 18:31.393 [SPEAKER_01]: The ninth month feels like his own trimester. 18:32.414 --> 18:32.694 [SPEAKER_01]: Why? 18:32.895 --> 18:35.337 [SPEAKER_01]: Because the baby's so big and can't get no bigger. 18:36.920 --> 18:39.743 [SPEAKER_01]: The baby standing on her wheel, she can't get comfortable. 18:40.484 --> 18:42.666 [SPEAKER_01]: She can't lay it in its way, can't lay that way. 18:42.686 --> 18:45.369 [SPEAKER_01]: Everything that used to make our comfortable don't work no more. 18:45.990 --> 18:55.200 [SPEAKER_01]: Then you got Braxton hits contractions, which are contractions that hurt for real, but don't mean nothing for real. 18:55.220 --> 19:00.666 [SPEAKER_01]: Then you got false alarms, where you like, it's a big company, no big company, or the big company, the big company, the big company. 19:01.574 --> 19:07.342 [SPEAKER_01]: But the real issue of the ninth month is not just everything she feels, it's the calendar watch. 19:08.644 --> 19:11.087 [SPEAKER_01]: Because you feel you're getting close. 19:11.107 --> 19:23.844 [SPEAKER_01]: All of a sudden it feels like you were yet so far and because you're watching the calendar and you know that it's been a mighty long time now, you get more impatient sooner because the calendar now becomes an issue. 19:23.864 --> 19:30.433 [SPEAKER_01]: Come here, somebody in this room is 37 weeks with destiny and you're frustrated because you know you feel yourself wobbling. 19:30.413 --> 19:32.837 [SPEAKER_01]: with a level of weight you ain't never carried before. 19:33.077 --> 19:35.060 [SPEAKER_01]: And the issue ain't the two ain't got patience. 19:35.260 --> 19:37.003 [SPEAKER_01]: The issue is out on being patient. 19:37.243 --> 19:39.847 [SPEAKER_01]: But now I think the Lord is going to bring the past with God. 19:39.867 --> 19:41.189 [SPEAKER_01]: Tell me God would do. 19:41.209 --> 19:44.994 [SPEAKER_01]: And don't you know that's all this comfort just ain't because you don't feel good. 19:45.014 --> 19:45.976 [SPEAKER_01]: You're this comfort. 19:45.996 --> 19:49.701 [SPEAKER_01]: It's because you're watching the calendar waiting for God to come through. 19:53.587 --> 19:57.973 [SPEAKER_01]: So what do I do when I'm uncomfortable? 19:59.270 --> 20:10.686 [SPEAKER_01]: I still move by faith, wire-ev, because I may not know if God's hand is behind was moving me until I moved. 20:14.150 --> 20:27.268 [SPEAKER_01]: If you stay still, because you don't want to wobble the Jerusalem, you will not get to see on the back end, three wise men in an angelic choir. 20:27.552 --> 20:29.054 [SPEAKER_01]: and God give you comfort. 20:29.816 --> 20:36.266 [SPEAKER_01]: If you critique it too soon because you aren't comfortable right now, you'll never see glory be born in your life. 20:37.969 --> 20:44.800 [SPEAKER_01]: And you'll be mad, still pregnant until you do with the Lord as cause you do do. 20:44.820 --> 20:47.765 [SPEAKER_01]: I won't critique what the Lord is doing in me until the Lord is finished. 20:47.805 --> 20:48.466 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm almost done. 20:48.646 --> 20:53.374 [SPEAKER_01]: Number three, because I'm on the way, I believe what I'm carrying. 20:54.147 --> 20:56.149 [SPEAKER_01]: is more valuable than what's carryin me. 20:57.150 --> 21:11.226 [SPEAKER_01]: We don't know what mode of transportation they took on this trip, but we can survive there are not in a chair yet. 21:11.246 --> 21:12.928 [SPEAKER_01]: They're not right on the cars deal. 21:14.190 --> 21:17.033 [SPEAKER_01]: There's not a stallion or a seat in his tanks. 21:17.722 --> 21:28.293 [SPEAKER_01]: Most nativity scenes, if it shows any kind of travel component, has Mary on the donkey in Joseph walking beside the donkey. 21:28.313 --> 21:39.524 [SPEAKER_01]: That means she's being carried to Bethlehem in the least most comfortable way. 21:39.544 --> 21:47.172 [SPEAKER_01]: Of order resources available, they could have got a wagon, they could have got a cherry, they could have got a horse, 21:47.810 --> 21:54.636 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking to the bougie person in his room who who's taste won't let you move my faith. 21:58.079 --> 22:01.542 [SPEAKER_01]: Because you would rather obey your appetite than the Almighty. 22:04.424 --> 22:08.928 [SPEAKER_01]: And if he don't do it the way you like it done, you're not going to agree with God in this season. 22:09.108 --> 22:12.731 [SPEAKER_01]: And God says, no, you missed this whole season as a paradox anyway. 22:13.032 --> 22:16.855 [SPEAKER_01]: If God come and come flesh, who are you not the right or don't keep? 22:20.699 --> 22:28.789 [SPEAKER_01]: If the king of all kings could be born in a stable who are you to thank you too good for the way I chose to provide for you in this season. 22:28.809 --> 22:36.818 [SPEAKER_01]: In other words, don't let your pride keep you from God's best because he don't taste like look like feel like how you wanted to be. 22:38.821 --> 22:48.833 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I know you feel judged, just because you don't know I'm bougie too. 22:50.213 --> 22:52.015 [SPEAKER_01]: All right, I try to keep my feet on the ground. 22:52.155 --> 22:55.420 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to be a person we range, right? 22:55.440 --> 22:56.481 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to be that kind of person. 22:56.521 --> 23:02.188 [SPEAKER_01]: You can tell me to a hole in the wall and we can chill, open, go to a white table call, and we can do the dog on a thing. 23:02.288 --> 23:03.590 [SPEAKER_01]: I like their range, right? 23:04.251 --> 23:09.638 [SPEAKER_01]: But in some areas in my life, I can't do it. 23:11.400 --> 23:11.961 [SPEAKER_01]: I can't go back. 23:14.164 --> 23:16.727 [SPEAKER_01]: One of the ways I'm bougie is I'm airline bougie. 23:18.985 --> 23:20.546 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't judge me, judge yourself. 23:24.290 --> 23:30.035 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my name is Darrah Hall, and I'm from Atlanta, and I am airline bougie. 23:31.456 --> 23:47.271 [SPEAKER_01]: It don't help that I was born 10 minutes from the most wonderful airport on earth, and it don't help that they got the most awesome airline on earth that's housed right there. 23:49.833 --> 23:57.266 [SPEAKER_01]: In a minute, if I get off the train by my state on the wrong current course, I start it, it's you. 23:57.346 --> 24:00.612 [SPEAKER_01]: I be like, take me to eat, take me to eat! 24:07.283 --> 24:10.509 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm airline boozy. 24:10.529 --> 24:12.212 [SPEAKER_01]: If it ain't deal to, I ain't gonna do it. 24:15.854 --> 24:20.241 [SPEAKER_01]: It's like one or two others I might do, it's like eight, never, I'll walk. 24:24.087 --> 24:27.452 [SPEAKER_01]: We're in a week on the Africa, let's go, I'll be there in two months, I'm gonna walk. 24:33.843 --> 24:42.857 [SPEAKER_01]: Two weeks ago, Ebony and I went down to New Orleans, unfortunately, to watch the Saints, unfortunately, lose to the Falcons, 14. 24:44.643 --> 24:47.991 [SPEAKER_01]: And we had to fly to New Orleans after church. 24:49.113 --> 24:53.905 [SPEAKER_01]: Because we were in the finance series, I didn't want to miss a Sunday, and because of the kickoff time, it seemed to work. 24:53.985 --> 24:58.315 [SPEAKER_01]: I just needed to make sure everything, you know, more please let everything leave on time. 24:58.413 --> 25:02.237 [SPEAKER_01]: So, because we were in the finance series, we didn't want to be hypocritical. 25:02.898 --> 25:11.287 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna put it to my investments, paying down your dead, living on the budget, and then I can chance to go to the game out of nowhere, and I spent money out in budget to spend. 25:11.948 --> 25:12.909 [SPEAKER_01]: So, man, you're excited? 25:12.929 --> 25:13.629 [SPEAKER_01]: This is what we're gonna do. 25:13.770 --> 25:18.615 [SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna use any of our sky miles and airline points to get tickets. 25:18.635 --> 25:25.522 [SPEAKER_01]: So, we go on Delta, and we got a lot of miles, but not enough miles for the round trip. 25:25.542 --> 25:28.065 [SPEAKER_01]: That means, we get only go Delta one way. 25:31.927 --> 25:47.531 [SPEAKER_01]: We're going south west, and we had enough points on south west to fly back on south west. 25:47.551 --> 25:53.700 [SPEAKER_01]: So we fly there on Delta, we fly back on south west. 25:53.720 --> 25:57.847 [SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't just going to New Orleans to see the Falcons beat up the Saints. 25:58.688 --> 26:00.651 [SPEAKER_01]: I was invited by my father. 26:01.711 --> 26:05.536 [SPEAKER_01]: My dad and my bonus mom has sweet tickets for us. 26:06.918 --> 26:11.905 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, all the food you can eat, all the drinks you can drink, and all the drinks you can drink. 26:16.411 --> 26:18.073 [SPEAKER_01]: They have sweet tickets. 26:19.114 --> 26:21.257 [SPEAKER_01]: All we had to do was get there. 26:22.099 --> 26:23.480 [SPEAKER_01]: So I had a decision to make. 26:25.123 --> 26:26.925 [SPEAKER_01]: And my soul bougie. 26:27.935 --> 26:41.137 [SPEAKER_01]: that I will miss a chance to fellowship in a sweet with my father or can I humble myself enough where it don't matter how I get there, how I get back. 26:41.758 --> 26:46.787 [SPEAKER_01]: As long as I can see the father and the father can see me, I'm gonna be happy in it, how. 26:47.459 --> 26:58.437 [SPEAKER_01]: The problem with some of us is, you can't get to where God is calling you to, not cause a Lord and give you tickets to give you access, it's because you too proud for to take a don't get to destiny. 26:58.777 --> 27:12.319 [SPEAKER_01]: Is that anybody who can test if I love to give me from my pride and my arrogance, which makes me not appreciate your provision? 27:14.932 --> 27:17.997 [SPEAKER_01]: I ain't gonna be so powerful that I don't eat cause I don't like what's on the plate. 27:19.018 --> 27:20.220 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Lord, for this food. 27:21.502 --> 27:21.602 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. 27:21.622 --> 27:26.169 [SPEAKER_01]: I ain't gonna be so powerful that I don't step out in my best because I can't wear the labels I'm used to. 27:26.290 --> 27:27.832 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for these clothes on my back. 27:29.034 --> 27:29.134 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. 27:29.154 --> 27:33.180 [SPEAKER_01]: I ain't gonna be so powerful that I don't marry the right person cause I can't afford a wedding. 27:33.220 --> 27:35.504 [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody gonna forget about it five years anyway. 27:35.644 --> 27:41.513 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for companionship. 27:41.678 --> 27:46.542 [SPEAKER_01]: Lord, forgive me for the pride of not wanting to ride the donkey, because I thought I was only worthy of a chariot. 27:48.749 --> 27:54.137 [SPEAKER_01]: I forgot my bad what I'm carrying is more valuable than what's carrying me. 27:54.437 --> 28:00.426 [SPEAKER_01]: This is why you came to determine your value by the things that are around you, but by what God has put in you. 28:00.727 --> 28:05.193 [SPEAKER_01]: It don't matter if Mary was on a donkey because Mary was carrying glory. 28:05.413 --> 28:07.116 [SPEAKER_01]: Mary was carrying deliverance. 28:07.136 --> 28:09.579 [SPEAKER_01]: Mary was carrying God's baby. 28:09.840 --> 28:12.223 [SPEAKER_01]: Is that anybody who knows about faith? 28:12.384 --> 28:15.448 [SPEAKER_01]: What I'm carrying is valuable. 28:18.820 --> 28:20.442 [SPEAKER_01]: This was in you, not what's on you. 28:23.405 --> 28:24.926 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the fourth thing that I'm gonna be doing. 28:25.827 --> 28:34.096 [SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm on the way, number four, I will celebrate their journey without covering their destiny. 28:40.583 --> 28:46.549 [SPEAKER_01]: When you know you're on the way somewhere, especially when you get frustrated that you're not there yet, 28:47.795 --> 28:53.083 [SPEAKER_01]: The temptation is to look out of what you don't want to see with other people doing. 28:54.905 --> 29:16.637 [SPEAKER_01]: And you see them get off the highway with Joe GPSA's another father. 29:23.182 --> 29:25.605 [SPEAKER_01]: Y'all was friends, both talking about y'all business, I did. 29:27.087 --> 29:29.330 [SPEAKER_01]: And you see them without dead. 29:30.171 --> 29:33.475 [SPEAKER_01]: Launch, go viral, and start a Turner Profit. 29:34.076 --> 29:40.524 [SPEAKER_01]: And here you are, four years in, with your head, bailing it on water. 29:40.544 --> 29:44.970 [SPEAKER_01]: The temptation when you own the way is journey in V. 29:52.409 --> 29:59.595 [SPEAKER_01]: If you read the text too fast, you omiss that yes, Marion Joseph are on the way, but they not the only ones on the way. 30:01.257 --> 30:02.037 [SPEAKER_01]: Look at first number three. 30:02.217 --> 30:11.085 [SPEAKER_01]: First number three says, and we're at what church to register for the senses. 30:11.305 --> 30:12.967 [SPEAKER_01]: Watch all each two his. 30:16.990 --> 30:21.454 [SPEAKER_01]: What that means is everybody out here together. 30:21.907 --> 30:25.272 [SPEAKER_01]: But we all came from somewhere different and we all go on somewhere new. 30:29.098 --> 30:33.946 [SPEAKER_01]: So what do I do when I realize I'm not the only traveler on the road? 30:36.891 --> 30:40.997 [SPEAKER_01]: The temptation is to become arrogant or feel insignificant. 30:41.097 --> 30:42.419 [SPEAKER_01]: Both are the same thing. 30:42.459 --> 30:46.125 [SPEAKER_01]: They're proud, disguised in two different ways. 30:48.620 --> 30:56.014 [SPEAKER_01]: If I'm on a road with other travelers, I can become arrogant by thinking, my journey to only one that matters. 30:56.034 --> 31:06.814 [SPEAKER_01]: All right, that's why God makes us share a time and space with people in community, to humble us, to let you know you ain't the only thing that got some popping. 31:08.330 --> 31:13.117 [SPEAKER_01]: wherever our man is popping, and I'm everywhere at the same time, you're gonna leave you one place at one time. 31:13.437 --> 31:34.708 [SPEAKER_01]: You share time and space with people to understand, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I 31:36.055 --> 31:37.937 [SPEAKER_01]: go to the airport one day before Christmas. 31:39.058 --> 31:41.300 [SPEAKER_01]: And you're realized we all on our way. 31:42.301 --> 31:50.870 [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody came from somewhere different, everybody's going to somewhere unique, but we got a few minutes to share time and space. 31:51.731 --> 31:56.336 [SPEAKER_01]: Let me not be so arrogant to think, my journey, the only journey that matter. 31:57.898 --> 32:00.801 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, an arrogant person because they drive on the highway in two lanes. 32:02.302 --> 32:05.185 [SPEAKER_01]: They park in the parking lot and take up two parking spots. 32:07.055 --> 32:12.321 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, a arrogant person they run in through security and the airport light late, they don't only want who got a flight to catch. 32:13.963 --> 32:19.089 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't you know, yours is not the only journey in this room that matters to the vine destiny. 32:19.109 --> 32:27.178 [SPEAKER_01]: How many of yourself and be grateful that God lets you rob shoulders with other people who like that for you? 32:27.198 --> 32:32.404 [SPEAKER_01]: The other temptation, when you're on the journey with other child, this is not just to be arrogant, but then also to feel insignificant. 32:34.072 --> 32:40.243 [SPEAKER_01]: because you can think because I'm in a crowd I'm lost in the sauce. 32:40.263 --> 32:46.033 [SPEAKER_01]: But all the people traveling at the same time didn't stop God's hand on two little people. 32:47.836 --> 32:49.038 [SPEAKER_01]: Click clap on the donkey. 32:50.100 --> 32:52.744 [SPEAKER_01]: From Nazareth down to Bethlehem. 32:53.666 --> 32:57.733 [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody is moving at the same time, but God got his hands on two. 32:58.726 --> 32:59.367 [SPEAKER_01]: moving him. 32:59.467 --> 33:08.578 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's why, because God can move everybody and you at the same time, but I'll lose nobody. 33:08.598 --> 33:12.683 [SPEAKER_01]: God can feed everybody and you at the same time without starving nobody. 33:12.723 --> 33:16.868 [SPEAKER_01]: God can bless everybody and you without running out of blessings for nobody. 33:17.088 --> 33:22.675 [SPEAKER_01]: He's at anybody grateful for the fact that even though I'm in a crowd, what I'm doing to significantly 33:26.840 --> 33:30.324 [SPEAKER_01]: I can't prove this, but I think it's true. 33:30.344 --> 33:32.025 [SPEAKER_01]: Joseph and Mary are good Jews. 33:32.085 --> 33:35.629 [SPEAKER_01]: What that means is they study the Torah. 33:35.649 --> 33:37.111 [SPEAKER_01]: They know the Old Testament long. 33:37.771 --> 33:41.976 [SPEAKER_01]: And it would, the average Jew knew that a Messiah was coming one day. 33:43.177 --> 33:48.883 [SPEAKER_01]: The average Jew could read Michael 5, 2, and Zef and Ayah 9, Genesis 3, 15. 33:49.123 --> 33:52.607 [SPEAKER_01]: The average Jew didn't even have to be a rabbi or some special teacher. 33:52.627 --> 33:55.750 [SPEAKER_01]: Every Jew knew the Messiah's coming soon. 33:56.523 --> 34:01.796 [SPEAKER_01]: What that tells me then is, is that Joseph and Mary knew that the Messiah was coming? 34:01.816 --> 34:04.883 [SPEAKER_01]: What they didn't know is the Messiah was gonna come through to him. 34:07.008 --> 34:11.359 [SPEAKER_01]: When you're on a journey and you struggle with journey, journey envy, 34:11.693 --> 34:18.142 [SPEAKER_01]: You gotta remember God's word and then realize sometimes the word you thought was for somebody else. 34:18.642 --> 34:20.505 [SPEAKER_01]: My actually be the word that's just for you. 34:21.446 --> 34:29.136 [SPEAKER_01]: And you can't get jealous of their journey because you don't know how what you carry and goblins them and you don't know how what they carry and it's going to bless you. 34:29.396 --> 34:31.339 [SPEAKER_01]: So the question is, Reverend? 34:32.315 --> 34:39.482 [SPEAKER_01]: If we share a time in space, we all in here on a journey together coming from somewhere different going to somewhere unique. 34:39.502 --> 34:44.907 [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't want me to be jealous of my neighbor's journey, what then shall I do with all this energy in me? 34:44.927 --> 34:52.415 [SPEAKER_01]: What you should do with all that energy in you is turn to your neighbor and say neighbor, whatever you do don't stop to you get what God is taking you. 34:52.435 --> 34:56.418 [SPEAKER_01]: Because I don't know how your destiny is going to impact mine. 34:56.699 --> 35:01.123 [SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody grateful for the people in your life who really want to see you in? 35:01.103 --> 35:06.010 [SPEAKER_01]: Is there anybody thankful for the people in your life who beat you up and never put two down? 35:09.354 --> 35:12.659 [SPEAKER_01]: Y'all have done Texas. 35:13.680 --> 35:20.369 [SPEAKER_01]: They are going to their own city. 35:20.389 --> 35:26.217 [SPEAKER_01]: What this means is Marion Joseph could get on the highway. 35:28.601 --> 35:30.283 [SPEAKER_01]: See somebody else journey. 35:30.601 --> 35:36.629 [SPEAKER_01]: And besides, we're just going to go over here. 35:36.649 --> 35:43.618 [SPEAKER_01]: It was already prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. 35:43.638 --> 35:53.451 [SPEAKER_01]: So, in Mary, in the somebody else's journey, and decides, have way, she want to go this way instead of that way. 35:55.033 --> 35:59.359 [SPEAKER_01]: Mary would have got to another city and stay pregnant. 36:03.355 --> 36:04.998 [SPEAKER_01]: What you mean, Ralph, she fought it weeks, yeah. 36:05.038 --> 36:08.884 [SPEAKER_01]: But the worst said that baby was going to come in Bethlehem, 10 months. 36:10.586 --> 36:13.230 [SPEAKER_01]: Ralph, can't know him being pregnant for 10 months, 11 months. 36:15.574 --> 36:18.358 [SPEAKER_01]: God, I thought you said I was going to only 13 months. 36:19.881 --> 36:20.742 [SPEAKER_01]: Lord, what's the problem? 36:20.762 --> 36:22.645 [SPEAKER_01]: This baby kickin' this ain't good, this ain't healthy. 36:22.665 --> 36:24.047 [SPEAKER_01]: 15 months. 36:24.736 --> 36:26.457 [SPEAKER_01]: No, why am I still pregnant? 36:26.638 --> 36:28.019 [SPEAKER_01]: Why hasn't it come to pass? 36:28.299 --> 36:32.543 [SPEAKER_01]: Cause you got journey envy and trying to go to somebody else destiny. 36:32.803 --> 36:35.125 [SPEAKER_01]: Halfway on the way to where I was taking you. 36:35.545 --> 36:39.569 [SPEAKER_01]: I just showed you their story to encourage you, not to make you jealous. 36:39.769 --> 36:42.932 [SPEAKER_01]: Now get your butt back on the road and go, I told you to go. 36:42.952 --> 36:47.296 [SPEAKER_01]: Cause until you get where I told you to go, glory can't be revealed. 36:47.316 --> 36:48.497 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to eat up CC. 36:48.737 --> 36:53.261 [SPEAKER_01]: Is that anybody who can give God praise, what a fact that I got to decen it? 36:53.281 --> 36:54.642 [SPEAKER_01]: And you got one. 37:07.480 --> 37:12.826 [SPEAKER_01]: So state of course, whatever you do, state of course. 37:15.909 --> 37:17.391 [SPEAKER_01]: Keep playing one foot in front of the other. 37:19.293 --> 37:20.475 [SPEAKER_01]: I ain't jealous of your destiny. 37:20.755 --> 37:23.338 [SPEAKER_01]: I might need what's gonna be born when you get there. 37:27.342 --> 37:29.765 [SPEAKER_01]: None of them travels home, she was pregnant with a save out of the world. 37:31.807 --> 37:34.230 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if it's a person in this room who gon' cure cancer. 37:37.636 --> 37:45.466 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if the greatest preacher of the 21st century is a member of this church, but they three years all right now. 37:50.452 --> 38:01.787 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, you may have a business idea that takes you from the way community charge for reposition, you will go out with you to meet, and we may all need that business idea to survive in next hundred years, whatever you do. 38:04.850 --> 38:05.331 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't stop. 38:08.686 --> 38:11.309 [SPEAKER_01]: You're one footer front of your own. 38:11.329 --> 38:14.874 [SPEAKER_01]: Keep getting up every day and lifting up hold of hands. 38:14.894 --> 38:17.617 [SPEAKER_01]: Even if you ain't gotten all every day, every day, give it all you got. 38:17.738 --> 38:18.859 [SPEAKER_01]: Every let me run that back. 38:19.019 --> 38:20.621 [SPEAKER_01]: Even if you ain't got it all. 38:22.303 --> 38:24.747 [SPEAKER_01]: Every day, every day, give it all you got. 38:24.767 --> 38:32.837 [SPEAKER_01]: Cause you're journey matters.