Hope is Born | Part 1

Yeah. A little smooth Christmas jazz there. How's it going? Hey. It's good to be here. It's that time of the year. The busy time of the year. The exhausting, the expensive time of the year. It's Christmas season, And, hey, I don't know about you, but how many of travel on Christmas?

Yeah. I always travel too, but this year we went out of town for Thanksgiving, which I don't normally do. So I I don't like not knowing what the patterns are like. If you've heard me share it all, know that I like I like being places. I don't like getting places. And so,

I was a little bit, you know, we're gonna drive, but I don't know when the traffic's bad or not. So I just knew that coming home, we went out early because I go, I'm not driving back to Arizona on Sunday,

on on when everyone else is gonna be driving. So we left on Friday, and I thought this would be great. Friday afternoon, even if people are black, Friday shopping should be fine. We get onto the freeway. We're not like ten minutes from my in laws house, and we're on the ten coming home,

and also the traffic starts getting bad, like pretty thick, and and it's in the spot that my wife says, calm yourself. It's always bad through here, which is always weird. Have you ever noticed that if you have a drive somewhere, there's parts of freeways that it doesn't matter what time of the day, there's always lots of cars there, and it could be a time of day that once you're past it before there's you don't see a car. What are these people doing? Just getting off on a on a and going around in a circle on off ramps? I I don't know. But anyways, that's out of the that's squirrel.

And so I'm sitting there, and then it gets thick, and then all of sudden it stops completely. And I'm like, that's not normal. And and is there anything more just soul crushing and making you lose the desire to even go on in life than being in stopped traffic on a freeway?

Like, not even moving? Because that makes no sense to me. This this this freeway doesn't have lights. There's no stop signs. It goes all the way to Florida. I mean, is is it backed up all the way to Florida? I mean, what's going on? I I I don't get it. And I and and I started to grumble.

I don't know about you, but I get grumbly when I do not like this this because it's all the unknowns. How long is this gonna be? This is normally a five hour drive anyways. How much more is this gonna be? I have a tiny bladder. How much more is this gonna be? I I I don't have any idea. I'm gonna have to ration my intake of fluid.

I I I don't know what's going on. I mean, how much longer am gonna be stuck in a car with my family? I mean, this is all these things you fear. And and as I was sitting there starting to grumble, which, you know, where does grumbling come from? Fear.

When we grumble, it's fear. We're fear frustrated. Usually, frustrations is coming from the fear of I'm stuck. I don't like being stuck. I don't want to be here. I want to be there. How long will I be here and will I ever get over there? And as I sat there, my my my the thing that brought hope was technology.

Was was my wife got on Google Maps

and she looked and you could see, okay, it's red here, then it becomes blue again up the road. And and I was like, yeah, but where are we at? She goes, we're at the back end of the red. And I go, but is the whole red gonna just travel with us all the way to Arizona? Because there's no back roads to Arizona. It's

the Interstate 10 or you die in the desert. That's it.

And and so she goes, no. It looks like it clears up, and then we discovered why. Because she could look where it's at. We used to live out there. She's like, it's by these outlet malls marts at Cabazon out there. I don't know if you've ever driven past them. But apparently at 02:00 in the afternoon, people are still trying to get there. I figured if you're gonna try to get there, you're already there blowing all your money. How why is it backing up traffic for 12 miles?

That's the thing. The red line was for 12 miles. So that 12 miles took over an hour.

I was averaging like nine miles an hour. You know, you'd everyone would move and everyone would get up to 30 and then slam the brakes and sit. You know, it was terrible. But as as we got but that was the hope. At least I sat there. And even though I wasn't happy about being stuck, I knew there was hope ahead.

I knew there was freedom ahead. And I knew that what would happen when we got there, we'd make up some of the time. Because anytime you've been in stop traffic and all of a sudden it opens up wide open, everybody tests that accelerator and goes like 95 miles. I mean, I had highway patrol. Get out of my way. I wanna go faster. You know, it's like we we we made up some of the time, but there was hope.

Well, some of us are sitting here as we go into the Christmas season. They say this is the time that can actually exasperate and have more depression because you see all what's supposed to be joy, but you feel like you're stuck in traffic in life.

You feel like you're just you're stuck in this place that you're like, I don't like where I'm at. I don't want to be here, but it seems like I can't get out of here, and and it you feel like there's no hope. Well, Christmas is supposed to be

that there is hope. There was hope. Where we look ahead to hope, we get to look back to when hope was born. That's the story of Christmas, and that's what we're gonna talk about for the next few weeks.

And and we're gonna look at this idea of what do I do today is what do I do when I feel stuck? What do I do when when God's news for my life doesn't feel like good news? What do I do when the news of my life doesn't feel good? What am I supposed to do about that? And here's the big idea. It's super deep. Alright. You you might need me to explain it for you for a while. You're not gonna understand it. It's don't grumble, be humble. There you go. If you're new, I'm sorry. That's about as deep as it gets. So,

no. You're gonna see from the Christmas story, this comes right out of the story of this first Christmas. This idea that whenever life seems to be the news doesn't feel good, we have a tendency we wanna grumble. Grumbling comes from fear.

Being humble comes from faith. And we're gonna see what that means. What what do I mean by humble as we look at the story? Now if you look first, kind of the theme verse for this little short series is found in Luke chapter two

and verse nine and ten. And what's happening is an angel has come and is sharing the announcement of the birth of Jesus to some shepherds. And and what he says is kind of the definition of what Christmas is all about.

Is when it says here in verse nine, suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them, don't be afraid, he said, I bring to you good news that will bring great joy to all people.

There there there's the Christmas story. What he's saying is the news is it's good news that's to bring great joy, and it's for everyone. Christmas is for everyone. And so it's good news, great joy for everyone. Well, here's the problem. What if God's good news to you doesn't feel like good news? So you don't feel great joy.

You sit at Christmas time looking at all happening, and you go, well, maybe it's not for me. Maybe it isn't for everyone. Maybe I'm left out. What do I do in that moment? Don't grumble. Be humble. Because if you are in one of those moments where God's news, the good news,

doesn't seem to bring joy into your life right now because the news doesn't seem good to you, you're in good company. Because the very first Christmas, God's news of Jesus coming didn't feel or on the surface looked like good news to two particular people in this story. Joseph and Mary.

The news of Jesus coming on the surface was not good news. I'll show you. Let's look. If you look first, we're gonna look at Mary of what happened when when when when the story what what was gonna happen with her was revealed.

In Luke chapter one, starting in verse 26, it says this. In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.

Gabriel appeared to her and said, greetings, favored woman. The Lord is with you. Verse 28. Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean, because she's she's she's engaged to be married. She's a virgin. She's in this culture, she's probably 14 to 16 years old,

and in living in Nazareth, a backwater little village outside of Jerusalem. And we know from later on offerings they brought, she's not that rich, they're kind of poor. So she's like this poor teenager from this backwater little village, and an angel shows up and says, you are favored, and she's confused. So

then the angel says, don't be afraid, Mary, the angel told her, for you have found favor with God. So twice it says favor. Now here's what you understand. Favor doesn't mean you are a favorite and you've earned what's about to happen. The Greek word there for favor is the Greek word for grace.

So what he's saying is greetings, God's grace is upon you. And grace means something you don't deserve. So she didn't get picked to be the mother of Jesus because she's better than everyone else. She got picked because of God's grace.

And God's grace wherever God's grace lands, God's power and providence rely, and then his he will provide wherever he guides, he provides. So he's saying, hey, it's by God's grace. You're about to have something God's grace, he's about to give you something you don't deserve. He's about to give you something you didn't earn. And then what he gives her starts to go, wait, that's grace? That's good news? That doesn't sound like good news to me. You know, you'll you'll see. Starts off good. Sounds good at first, because he explains.

He says,

you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the son of the most high. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David, and he will reign over Israel forever. His kingdom will never end. So in other words, he's saying, you are gonna be the mother to the Messiah,

which if you were with us in our last series, we're going through the prophets of the Old Testament. Every prophecy in Old Testament was pointing to Jesus.

It's it's pointing us to this Jesus because we you know, ever since Adam and Eve, we've fallen into a broken world, and and we're all hurt and broken, and hurt people hurt people, which causes we have problems that we created ourselves. We have problems that are caused by other people. There's hurt. There's pain. We're separated from God. We don't run towards God. We run away from God. It's a dark world

filled with sin. But the the the the Jews were promised that there would be a Messiah that would come. Now even the Old Testament said would bless the whole world. It would be good news for everyone, not just for the Jews. And it predicted and predicted and talked about and talked about and kept telling God's people to trust me, to trust me, be on mission with me, trust me. And then finally, the last book of the Old Testament, the last prophet, we actually looked at it a couple weeks ago, was Malachi

where it ends with saying, hey, I'm gonna send someone to declare the way for me. That's John the Baptist,

who Elizabeth, as it says, you'll see in a minute. She's already pregnant with him, and he'll declare the way to the Lord, and then this this this Messiah, the savior, this king of kings, the one that'll come and right the wrongs, fix the pain, create us to be able to have go from darkness to light, from death to life, the the king of kings, the lord of lords, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the the the the god who created us, the god who loves us is gonna come and be our king.

And and they've been waiting for that, and after Malachi predicted it, there's four hundred years of silence. And then the silence breaks, and this angel comes to Mary. This poor little teenager from this sick little town, and says, you have got God's grace upon you, because that promised one from the line of David,

you're gonna give birth to him. So that sounds pretty good so far. Because what he said so far is basically, Mary is the only mom who can accurately and truthfully say, my son is God's gift to the world. She's the only one who can slap that bumper sticker on the back of her chariot.

And and and that sounds good. But then, you know what happens when you hear God's grace on paper? Sometimes when God says, I have a plan for you. God says, I have a life for you. I have, I have a I love you, and I care about you, and I will provide for you. And I have that you have a mission that's gonna give you purpose beyond anything you could possibly imagine. When you hear it that way, you're all in.

But then when you start thinking about it and life gets in the way, you start thinking about what we call our everyday practical life, we start to have questions. Oh, okay. Wait. Wait. I love that idea, but how is that supposed to work? And she asked the question. She asked the angel, how can this happen? I'm a virgin.

She's wanting to know the particulars of this because does that mean it's gonna be me and Joseph are gonna have a kid? Because I'm engaged to be married, and I've never slept with anyone. So what are you exactly saying? Because that could have some implications upon my everyday life here.

And and the angel gives an answer that should be assuring, but with everyday life, it doesn't sound assuring. We all get there. We hear God says, hey, I got my power. I'm there for you. Yeah. That sounds great, but I still gotta get up tomorrow and live this out. Because look what he says. The angel replied,

the holy spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he'll be called the son of God. What's more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age. People used to say she's barren, but she has conceived a son, is now in her sixth month. Then verse 37, for the word of God will never fail.

God's word will never fail. Well, what was God's word? What was the answer? How's this gonna work? I'm a virgin. He goes, don't worry. You'll still be a virgin. You're just gonna get pregnant. God's gonna make it happen. It's gonna be the supernatural thing. Okay.

How is that conversation gonna go over with her family? How about her fiance? How is that gonna land? How many of have like a 15 year old daughter? Especially you dads. Your 15 year old daughter came on and says, I gotta tell you something. I'm pregnant. But don't worry. I didn't actually have sex with anybody.

You see, this angel came to me and told me that God's power will come upon me and create this baby supernaturally in my womb. How many of are gonna say, I think we need to call the counselor again. Have you stopped the crazy pills? Imagine what it would sound like to her fiance. So when she asked how's this gonna work,

here's the problem. God's grace and good news was in inviting her into something that was going to legitimately challenge her security. It was gonna challenge her everyday life. It didn't feel good or look good for her to accept this mission.

Because what you have to understand is in this culture, when you're engaged to be married, it's not like today. It's not like, hey, you you got the last rose, and then you you can get married, then you realize why am I getting married to you? All we did was reality TV.

I can break it off and walk away, and and do the smart thing, run after one of the other people on the show because that makes a lot of sense. And and and something like that. It's like, you don't just say, I'm done. Give the ring back. Okay. We canceled a few plans, maybe lost a few deposits, and that's it.

In this culture, when you're engaged, you're basically by our what we would describe, you're already married.

You're already in the covenantal. Really, the agreement has already been made. And getting married wasn't just two people deciding to get married. It was two families that had negotiated and come together to make this deal. And so what they did is they negotiate, they make a covenant,

and you would be engaged, but you're basically you're already bound. You're for our terminology, you're already married.

And then the engagement process was just a time where you wouldn't sleep together. You would you're still married. You're betrothed to one another, and then the husband to be the groom would spend the engagement period building onto the family house the quarters that you're gonna live in. And then you would move in together when that's done. It's a very big process, and and so the idea of her saying I'm a virgin who's engaged to be married says, you know what? If I go back

and I'm just pregnant,

it's gonna look like I actually committed adultery. And in this culture, if you are a pregnant teenager, you don't get a reality show. You could get put to death for violating the covenant. Best case scenario, her family is shamed. She's shamed. She's probably not gonna have anyone wanna marry her.

Worst case scenario, if Joseph gets really mad and makes it a public case, goes public with the disgrace, the villagers could drag her out in into the courtyard and throw rocks at her and kill her. So what this angel said is the grace of God puts her very life at danger. Best case scenario puts

the fact that she might never be married on the line. The good news to Mary this first Christmas was your security is at risk.

And that's good news of God's grace.

See, think we struggle when we come to church because I think God's definition of good news and our definition of good news is different. See, God's good news is, by my power, I invite you into my story to be who I made you to be. And it may be tough, but I'll empower you and you'll get to a blessing

that's beyond anything you can imagine, but it's not anything like what you imagine. And you need to trust me. You need to be humble. Our definition of good news is grumble to God, we call that prayer, until our news becomes his news. When God's news becomes the news I want from God, then that's good.

It doesn't work that way. And if we grumble instead of being humble, you're gonna miss it. We'll just miss it. Because when you grumble out of fear, you can't see anything but what's bothering you.

You ever noticed that? It starts when we're kids. If you have kids, once they get into that loop, I call it a loop. They get into those loops that they just cannot get past the thing they're fixated on, and you can't get them out of it. And we think, oh man, being a parent is hard. Well, imagine being God.

All of us do the same thing to Him all the time. And when we grumble, we get caught in a loop. We can't see past that thing that you wished wasn't happening to you. You can't see past that thing you wished was happening to you. You can't see past this broken relationship, or the relationship you wish you had, or or the job you wish you had, or the or the thing you wish you hadn't lost. You just get fixated on it, and you can't see past that's what grumbling does.

And Mary was in this moment where her very security was on the line if she says yes to what God wanted her to do. But if she says yes, because that could be very, very challenging. So God, on paper, this sounds like a great blessing. But in my everyday life, I don't see how I can do that.

You know, we get there all the time. A lot of us are there. We struggle with this all the time. I'll give you a real practical example that's not even as extreme. Our security in a sense of our actual physical

security is not on the line, but some of our everyday kind of feelings of security is on the line with this. Like in the video announcements, we announced how we're having 10 Christmas Eve services. 10. It's one the reason I want to build the building, because I want to live to an older age. And but

last year in our ten, four hundred and fifty two people said yes to Jesus for the first time. That's amazing. Right? You know the only reason that works? Because of my incredible preaching abilities. It's all on me. No. None of this happens without all the volunteers, without the children, without the without everything else.

None of it happens. In our church, even the size of our staff, 98% of the man hours it takes to do anything is volunteers. Staff people are just paid because they have to spend full time helping coordinate all the volunteers. So if people don't serve, we can't do that.

So I can as your pastor, if this is your church, I can confidently say that I know God's will is that if this is your church, if you're gonna come to one of the Christmas Eve services, you also need to sign up to serve at least one of them. That's that's there's no arguing that.

That's what God would want because he made me the leader and I know what we need to make this happen. And and so unless you're gonna be out of town for Christmas, you get a pass, but you gotta serve double at Easter. Okay?

But what I'm saying is is is we need to sign up. We need to do it. And I know some of you now, I just created the tension that Mary feels. I just created the grumbling desire because you have a reason why, but that doesn't work for me.

Even though you're gonna be here. And it's usually because, well, my family's going to be here. I got all this. That's inconvenient. That's going to cost me. What am I going to do with that? There you go. The grumbling starts.

And you know what? It's so funny because you get mad at me, but man, you're just doing what your kids do to you, and you're like, why why do you have to clean your room? Because you're part of this family. That's why you have to clean your room. Don't you hate that argument?

Well, children.

You're making the argument yourself. That's I'm not saying this to throw a point a little bit. I just want you to sign up and serve, but because I want you to have the joy. Because everyone who served last year was probably the ones clapping the most. You know why? You were part of that.

You helped lead four hundred and fifty two people out of death into life. Because you were humble. So thank you. I want us all to have that experience. But the reason I'm bringing up is when you feel that tension. That's a common tension we get all the time.

Because God says my word never fails, and it comes down to this point that he's gonna ask us to do stuff that you have to trust. His good news is when it's God's news. And if I embrace God's news with humility,

then it does become good news. And then I can have the joy at the end of it, and it will be for me. But if I fight that and grumble, I will never embrace God's news. I will not be able to have the joy, and then I'll feel like I'm the one that's left out. So what does Mary do in this moment?

A teenager. That's a pretty big deal to land on a teenager. And and and and here's how she responds. Mary responded, I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true. Wow. That convicts me. You know how many times I wouldn't say that in scenarios that I struggle with when God says I want you to

to trust me on this? But that's the humility. That's what it means to be humble, not to grumble. Basically, you know what she said? She basically said to God, God, I want you to do whatever you're gonna do in my life. Do it. No matter how that looks, and no matter what that cost me. That's what it means to be humble.

Is can I look to God and say, Lord, I wanna allow you to do whatever you're gonna do in my life no matter what it looks like and no matter what it costs me?

Can you say that to God?

Or do we grumble? We focus on the what ifs, the why nots, the fears.

That's what she chose to do. She didn't grumble. She was humble. So now what about this Joseph guy? What what what happened to him in this story? Well, if you go back to Matthew chapter one, we get his point of view of what happened with him.

And it says in in verse 18 of chapter one, this is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit, just like what the angel said. Now,

stop. There's a huge gap here between eighteen and nineteen, because we know by what said that Joseph does in verse 19, we know the conversation happened between these two verses, basically. So this says what happened.

She had to go I don't know if her whole family was with her or whatever, but she had to talk to her family, and she had to go to Joseph and say, hey, honey, I I'm glad we're getting married. I love you. I gotta tell you something.

I didn't sleep with anyone else. He's like, oh, good. I'm glad. That makes sense. He goes, I need to tell you that because I'm pregnant.

How do you think that went over? That that that went over as well as a pregnant pole vaulter, basically. That's how it went over. Small town humor. There you go. Think about this. But for Joseph, this first Christmas story

was this this woman that his family negotiated. He was in love with her, wanted to be with her, was probably building onto the house, making plans for her life. And then his good news from God was, oh, by the way, I know we're engaged, but I'm pregnant. But it wasn't me.

It was the triune God. You know, it wasn't like I didn't do it. I didn't sleep with somebody. Well, we know that he he we know two things by what happens in next verse.

He didn't believe it, and he's brokenhearted. How do I know this? Because it says this, Joseph to whom she was engaged was a righteous man, and he's a good hearted man, and he did not want to disgrace her publicly. So he didn't want to be bitter.

He didn't want to do the the public remember I said there's three things if he he could have done the public thing that would put her very life on the line, but definitely just trash her whole family standing in the community.

Says, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. You see, that was the that that was the other couple of ways. He could have like, you know, disgraced her publicly. He could have shotgun married her.

That would have been the other extreme. I'm gonna marry you anyways. Let's just do it fast, and hopefully people don't have really good math skills. And we'll say it's our baby. That would have been the easiest, but he didn't do that. So it proves his heart was broke, and he probably didn't believe her. Because he's like, I he couldn't marry he didn't wanna marry her. But he also didn't want to destroy her, which shows that he did care about her.

So think about it, guys. Think about this. He he was absolutely in love and looking forward to this relationship.

He feels totally betrayed, doesn't want to destroy her, but he's now all mixed up, because he's like, wow, but I can't marry you, so I'm just gonna quietly let the family take you. The quiet thing is break it without telling anyone they can take her out of town, get her off to a relative somewhere, have the kid, and no one will know.

That's what he was gonna do. That was the good news to bring great joy to all people that Joseph got. And and it was think about that. Could you imagine being in that scenario?

It's a painful scenario. But then it says this, as he considered this this is the other reason why I think he was broken hearted. Consider consider what? He had already said he's a righteous man. He wasn't gonna publicly destroy her. What's he considering? I think he's decided maybe I should just marry her anyways.

But he couldn't get past the hurt.

It says, so then it said, an angel appeared to him in a dream. Ain't it funny? The angel talked to Mary when she's awake, talked to him in a dream. I don't know if that means anything, but when I think about the difference between men and women, it

makes sense. The woman he'll talk to her while she's awake, the guy you better wait till he's asleep because he never pays attention to anything anyways.

He's not gonna listen to directions. Let's wait till he's knocked out cold, and then you can talk to him. He can't, you know, be distracted or I don't know. Who knows? It says he appeared and it says, the angel said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.

For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and she will have a son. And you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So he says, take her as the wife because God has a plan for Joseph.

He's gonna care for Jesus. He didn't produce Jesus. He didn't get but he's gonna care. He's gonna love Mary. He's gonna protect. He's gonna God has a mission for him.

He says all this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message to the prophet. Look, the virgin will conceive a child. She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. Now here's the thing.

He heard okay. He got past the point. Okay. The angel talked to me. So now I know she was telling the truth. That doesn't mean that what he's gonna have to go forward with didn't put something on the line for him. Because you realize Mary and Joseph had something they put on the line that never came back.

The part of being in part of God's plan, you know what Joseph had to put on the You know he struggled with this? Where Mary, her security was risked. Guys worry about security, but not as much as women. It's weird. And if you don't believe me, just go to the website, why women live longer.

Guys will do stupid things because we just don't think about security sometimes. But you know what guys do worry about? That sometimes confuses the the ladies? Respect.

We want to be respected. We want to be that's why when we're hurting financially and the wife says, hey, just ask my dad. He can help us out. No way. There is no way you want to ask father-in-law

for money. You just don't you don't you're like, no. He then it just proves I'm the idiot he thought I was when he didn't want me to marry you in the first place. Because he didn't think I was good enough for you. You know, it's guys are that way. My wife doesn't did never understands about half of the arguments, half the fights I get in with my son. Because half the fights we get in, it has nothing to do with anything except this.

And this little actually, he's bigger than me now. But but it's this this respect thing. It's like he says something. He's like, why do you react to that? You didn't see how disrespectful that was? She doesn't even notice that the reason I get really mad is if he disrespects her, I even get more mad.

And then she's like, you didn't see that? No. No. No. No. No. No.

It's a guy thing. We wanna be seen. We wanna know that we took care of our family. We wanna look like we're we're proud. We wanna have this effect. Well, you realize what was on the line for Joseph to marry her never got taken off. Joseph had to accept the fact that unless you believe Jesus was the son of God, which was fewer people believed than rejected,

Joseph lived the last of his life looking like a total schmuck would be the the original Hebrew word there. Because he had his wife completely betray him, and he's like, whatever, honey. He would have looked like an idiot in his culture, and that would have been the talk. You realize the rest of their lives,

the talk behind the back was, he's an idiot and she's kind of a floozy, basically. That was the talk that most people believed. And that never went away.

To accept God's good news with humility meant there were certain things you were going to have to give up. And from our human point of view, some of us think that's too much to give up. And and Joseph had to give up even something I think in some ways is worse.

Verse 25, but he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. Are you kidding me? He got married, went on the honeymoon, then for nine months, nothing. I think I can handle the lack of respect, but the lack of sex, no. I'd be like, god, why?

I waited till I got married, and I'm still waiting. That would be terrible. But it's true. And then after that, when the baby was born, you think, okay, they he he chose humble. You know what he did when he said I'll do it? When he when he agreed, he did the same thing that that that Mary did.

He says, I'm gonna allow God to do what he's gonna do in my life no matter what it looks like and no matter what it costs.

And it didn't just get easy. They had to flee to Egypt after the visit because King Herod, we'll talk about that next week, tried to kill the baby. And I don't know if you know the history of the Bible, but the the Jews didn't do well in Egypt. They had to live in a foreign land, but God's word always prevails.

And God took care of them all along the way because they chose to be humble and not to grumble.

How about you? What are you grumbling about in your soul right now? What is it that God's saying, why don't here here's what I got for you. I have good news of grace. Where is God's grace trying to come into your life and say trust me? And you're coming. Don't miss it. What would it look like

instead of grumbling if you do what I do when I'm feel stuck in traffic? I surrender to the process. What if you just surrendered to the process? What would that look like? How could that change stuff for you?

You see, so many times our prayers to God is when we don't like the news, we pray address prayers instead of attitude prayers.

Address prayers is, God, change my address. Change my address. Change my I don't wanna be in this moment. Change where I'm at. And God says, I don't wanna change where you're at. I wanna change who you are. And that's why you are where you're at. What if you surrendered to that? What if you were humble in that moment?

What would that look like? Because it's only then does God's news become good news of great joy for me. Because think about it. In the end, all these tough things they went through, that one of my favorite things to think about with Christmas is what must it have been like on that dark night

where the where the the ox and lamb are not keeping time because they're not musicians. But as as they sit there, and Jesus was born.

What was that like? Could you imagine that God's grace, the good news of great joy for everyone, was talking about Jesus. He is the good news. He is the great joy. He is for everyone.

And imagine they they knew for a millennia their people, they are Jews. They knew the stories of the Messiah coming. They knew what they were expecting. They knew what they they knew there was four hundred years of silence and wondering, is God still got this plan? What is happening? They also knew it's why it says that Joseph was a descendant of King David. Actually, Mary was too. But they were both really indirect far descends, but they were both related all the way back to King David. And in the prophecy always said, this king is gonna come in the line of David. He's gonna be out of the family of David. So it's gonna come through a descendant of king David. And as they sat there from this poor little village, really, really, really distant relatives,

never in a million years, all those prophecies that said this Messiah, the king of kings, the lord of lords, the only hope for life, not a hope of life, the only hope in life. The one who would bring life back and and victory back and hope back and and and all of this. He would come through the line of David. They would have never dreamt that they were

the line of David that the old testament was prophesying. Could you imagine getting to sit there and hold the the baby? If you've ever had a child, there's something that changes when you look at a kid.

I mean, I'm I I got with this grandson. I'm looking at him, like, It's just something. Because imagine when you're holding a child of yours, and this child you're staring at is is is is your child, but it's the king of kings and lord of lords. It's god the son. God trusted you with baby god,

And you were the first people to ever hear his voice.

To hear him cry. They got to behold the glory of the Messiah by holding the Messiah of glory. Literally. Think about the power of that moment. Also, weirdness.

You're like, what does this mean? Joseph's probably wondering, will I ever be able teach him anything, or does he already know everything? Mary's like, will I have to say no to him, or is he gonna say no to me?

Is is it what's he gonna is he gonna baby yo to me? Is he gonna be like reaching up and changing things in my life? How does this even work? You never know.

But imagine that missing that moment. See, when it says good news, a lot of times we think that Christmas time believing in Jesus is all about Jesus will come because he'll give me a hope. He'll he'll he'll give me some truth that'll help me have the life I want. He'll bring me good things. No. Jesus came and said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. He didn't say I am a way. I am a truth to give you a life that you want. He says there is only one way. There's only one truth, and there's only one life, and it's him.

Good news of great joy is any news, anything God brings into your life that says I'm bringing you to my son. I'm bringing you to Jesus. Anything that takes you to Jesus, that's good news that should bring great joy, and that's for everyone. What are you grumbling about? If we can be humble, we won't miss Jesus.

How many times are we gonna miss Jesus at Christmas? You're like, I'm just sad. I I spoke to the young adults. A lot of them gets really sad like, it's Christmas and everyone's coupled up but me. But guess what you have at Christmas? Jesus. Which is better than that?

If you're sitting here, I'm I'm in a broken relationship or I'm I'm struggling with my kids. You got Jesus. And anything that takes you to Jesus is good news of great joy. Imagine just being in that moment, and imagine if they had said no.

What they missed out on?

What are you grumbling about and saying no to God? And you're missing out on good news of great joy.

You have to be humble. Don't miss it. Best way I can say it is simply this. Back when my my my oldest daughter, my favorite child right now because she produced the only begotten grandson.

When she just graduated from high school, we had an opportunity to go on a family vacation. It was way better than our normal family vacation. Most of our normal family vacations is we've saved enough money so we can buy pizza and watch movies in the living room instead of the family room. But, I'm I'm exaggerating. We would go places lonely involving camping.

And but we had a chance to go up to New York for two weeks. And the reason we were able to go for a full two weeks is is for a couple reasons. One, friends of ours gave us plane tickets.

So so they worked for the airlines. They got us free flights. And then the second thing is my in laws had rented a house on a lake in Upstate New York, and they got a big one because they said, well, family, I just want you guys to come. And different family members came throughout the whole time they were there, so we went for ten days. So that was free for ten days. So what we did with all the money we saved for our vacations,

it gave us enough money that we could take a train from Buffalo into New York City and spend four days in Manhattan.

It's funny how fast all of your vacation money goes if you go to a city like New York. But we we saved it up, and I was so pumped. My kids had never done this, a trip like this. I'd never been in New York City. My wife had. I'd never actually been in. I've seen it in TV shows and movies. I watched the Avengers save it and almost destroy it. I watched Hulk smash it. But I'd never actually seen it in real life. My wife says, you have to see it. And so we were so excited to tell our kids, and I thought my oldest daughter would love this adventure.

And her answer did it it it it confused and disturbed me in the words of Mary. I go, hey, we're all going. She goes, do I have to go? And she's, do I have to go?

Kinda like that. And I'm like, yeah, why wouldn't you wanna go? And she's like, well, it's two weeks. I'm graduated from when we're going, I'm graduated from high school, and I don't really

I I I'll just be graduated, I wanna hang out with my friends, and there's some parties that are happening. They're all gonna get together and celebrate. And I'm like, woah. Woah. Woah. So let me get this You wanna miss the trip of a lifetime

so you can do stuff with your friends that you've pretty much done every Friday night for the last four years. She goes, yeah, dad. Thanks. That's why you're cool. I totally knew you would understand me. I'm like, I don't understand you. I'm just reflecting your stupidity back at you.

And I'm like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You're coming with us. We're going as a family, and you're going. She grumbled and grumbled and grumbled. We go. She's grumbling. We get there. She's grumbling. Then she tried to reposition. She goes, she knew the one party, the one thing she really didn't wanna miss was gonna happen while we were in New York, Manhattan

for those last four days. So she goes, hey. When we hit get to Buffalo to get on the train, can I get on a plane and just go home? And we're like, what? You're gonna you get lost in our neighborhood.

How are you gonna get on a plane, get back to Phoenix, and get yourself home? That's no. You're being dumb. And I forced her, and she got mad, grumbled on the train. And and it's like almost making me frustrated. It's not too bad because every family vacation has grumbling. That's just called family vacation. But but we're driving a train. This is long train ride, but as you take this train in an area, at some point, you actually go underground.

Becomes like a subway. So your your last moments going into New York City is is a dark tunnel. You're just in the darkness. Then we pull in. We get out at Penn Station. You're still underground. It's crowded and smelly. And and and so you're still kinda grumbly.

But then we started walking up the stairs to the street level, and you could see the light up ahead. And then as we got to the top of the stairs and went out into the light, I remember my first reaction was I just dropped my bags and I went, wow. I mean, I've heard about it,

but when you pop from darkness into the middle of Manhattan, especially if you've never been in a city that that large with buildings, it's impressive. It is it is a sight to behold. And I'm sitting going, woah. But the best part was I turn and I look over and I see my whole family in awe.

I and then I see my daughter, Micah. And I look at her and she looks at me and the look on her face, we didn't even have to say the words. I could tell from the look on her face what she was saying to me was thank you because I can't believe I almost missed this.

I can't even believe I almost missed this. What I wanted to do does pales in comparison to this moment, and we had just started.

We we are just there. We had a ball. We had so much fun that after this trip, we're talking about trying to go back next year, and then she found out she has a little baby. She wants to go anyways. Rose was like, how are we gonna do this? We have a baby. She's like, I don't care. I'll stick him in the overhead bin. We're going back to New York. And and and she wants to go because she understands now that she's got a taste of beholding the glory of what that was, all the other stuff she wanted to do and grumbled about meant nothing.

And that's just a dumb trip to a city. Imagine what it's like to behold Jesus in your life, to behold what Jesus has come to do, to see the hope that was born. That's Christmas. That's what Christmas time is.

It's a chance for us to humbly behold Jesus in our life. It's a chance for you and I to celebrate and see that the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, has stepped out of heaven and came into this world because he loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves us all, and he came here to die. He chose to be born as a little baby and grow through this life, this dark world. And he said, I know that you've sinned against me. You've ran from me, but I'm running to you because I love you, and I want you to see me. I want you to know me. That's Christmas.

That's what we get to celebrate. That's what we get to embrace. That's what should encourage us. That's what you should look for. That's what you're That's

doing.

That's That's

Shout to that. Worship that. Because that's what Christmas is.