200. Make Room For Him

Hope doesn’t live behind us; it’s being prepared ahead. We dive into Advent as a season of patient, forward-looking formation, pushing back on the rush to celebrate early and the nostalgia that quietly tells us the best days are gone. From Mary’s courageous yes to the early church’s costly love, we trace a simple thread: God meets us in the middle of ordinary life, and hospitality is how hope takes shape.

We unpack Luke 2 with cultural clarity: the “no room” moment likely refers to a full guest room, not a failed inn, placing Jesus’ birth inside a bustling home where animals warmed the night. That shift changes everything. The manger sits in the center of human life, not on the edges, and the incarnation becomes a model for how we welcome Christ now—by welcoming people whose presence may complicate our schedules and challenge our assumptions. Mary’s forward-looking faith counters the despair of longing for rooms we can’t return to; Advent trains us to prepare a place while Christ prepares one for us.

From there, we connect the dots to the early church’s witness. The gospel spread less through polished arguments and more through embodied compassion—tables set for strangers, care for the vulnerable, and courage to love beyond convenience.  As we move toward Christmas, we name the most sacred work many of us will do: set the family table, slow down enough to notice the lonely, and make room for God in the mess, the noise, and the real. If Jesus was born in a house, then our homes can become holy ground today.

My hope is that this podcast helps grow your faith and equips you to accomplish your dreams and goals!

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Chapters

• 0:06 Setting The Advent Frame
• 2:24 Waiting Vs. Instant Culture
• 5:10 Nostalgia’s Trap And True Longing
• 10:02 Reading Luke 2 Anew
• 16:23 The “Inn” Myth And Home Layout
• 20:36 Judges 11 And Cultural Context
• 23:22 Unclean Mary And Radical Welcome
• 26:40 Hospitality As Kingdom Strategy
• 29:15 Loving People Over Winning Arguments
• 31:20 Family Tables And Making Room

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:06

Welcome to another episode of the podcast. Today I'm going to be sharing a teaching that I recently did at our staff chapel. My hope is that this encourages you and that your love for God's word deepens. Okay, today we are continuing our Advent little series that we've been in, if you will. I don't know if you can call it that. It's a staff chapel series. Um, only I would do that. Um silly, but I guess it's a series within a series because we're still seriesing Philippians. That's coming back. We gotta finish. We're like right there. So we're gonna be in Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two. And um, I kind of touched on this a little bit on Sunday, but um, it's just like in me. I could talk so many things about Advent and this Christmas season. I feel like I'm like full and overflowing. Um, have you has uh talking about last week, candle miss and all of those things? Are you seeing things different in the world around you? I pray that you are. Um, keeping in mind that for us, whenever we're thinking about Advent and the purpose of Advent is the this entire Advent season, what it's about is preparing our hearts. It's about waiting for Christ. It's that's what the whole purpose is. And I'm not saying this any kind of way, so just hear my heart. But even when you look at culture, we're so immediate with everything, you know. And I talked about several staff chapels back about how even as culture accelerates, the formation of our souls will not accelerate. So there's no fast track to like getting to the spot where you want to be. Now, I can put myself into rooms, I can open myself to the work of the spirit, but the spirit only does what the spirit wills. And so even when you think about Advent, again, like I said, love me, I hear my heart. We are so expressed in our society that like even when stores roll out Christmas keeps getting earlier and earlier and earlier. And used to, it would be like you never saw anything till after Thanksgiving. And now it's like the minute October 31st is over, it's deemed like Christmas time, November 1st. And everybody immediately is thrust into celebration, like thrust into like we're in Christmas mode, it's go time. And I'm not saying that's bad, but I want you to understand what the whole purpose of Advent was originally was that we were preparing our hearts to for God, that we're preparing our hearts to celebrate. The Advent season, we think we're celebrating Christmas up till December 25th. The early church didn't see it that way. This time of Advent was preparing so that we can celebrate. The 12 days of Christmas is not the 12 days before Christmas. And I know that your Instagram influencer is doing their 12 days of giveaway leading up to Christmas, and they're correlating that with the 12 days of Christmas. That's not what it is. Um, actually, we don't start celebrating till December 25th, and then 12 days after. And that is so countercultural to what we see happening. And when we see Mary, um, Mary prays this prayer and she says, Lord, like not basically be unto me what you will. I want what you want. And Mary for us is what she's there for and and as a reminder of, is she was looking forward in hope, in hope of what God said is surely going to come to pass. And that's what Advent is about. And even um, I posted this on my Instagram stories, but I think it's good to belabor it because we never learn something by hearing it once or like um consuming it quickly on a 15-second story that we viewed. Um, but even like Christmas time, think about how much nostalgia is tied up into Christmas. We're so nostalgic at Christmas time, and that's that's good. It's not bad. Um, we want to play songs that invoke an emotion in us. We're trying to relive childhood memories. We're playing movies that we watched as children that we want to remember. And even like we tell stories and we relive moments from our past. And all those things are good. I'm not demonizing any of them, but the point of Advent is not nostalgia. The point of Advent is longing for a place that we've never been. That's the point of Advent. And nostalgia often leads to despair because there's not hope in our past. Hope only exists in our future. And culture is literally centered around reverse living at Christmas time. It wants us to look over our shoulder. All the marketing that's done to you around Christmas season is to invoke an emotion to make you long for the past as though it's better than the present. There's a song, I don't know who it's by. Bear, bear and brand probably will know because they're good at knowing songs, but it's like um it goes, uh, talk about the good old days, about how it used to be. Clint Black. I was gonna say Clay Walker Clay Walker. Um he says, we've worn out the same old lines, and and it's true, like we relive when gas prices were lower, when that family member was here, when grandma used to make her fill in the blank, when we had this, when Christmas looked like this, and all those things, what it's doing is it's pulling us back and it's affirming an internal belief that the hope that we have, we've already passed it. The exit ramp already happened and we missed it. It's gone. Like our children, it's gone. Like they used to be little, it was so good back then. Now I have them here. Like it's it's this exit ramp that we feel like we've missed, and it's this longing. That's why people are depressed at Christmas time. Why? Because we're wanting to go back. But Mary's prayer was forward focus. It was, God, I believe that what you have ahead is better than what I'm presently experiencing. And the point of Advent is not preparing that our houses are Instagram worthy or that we make the best, fill in the blank, the cookies, or whatever. Like Matt said, it's not a competition. Um, it's it's not a competition, Matt. It's not. Um anyways, uh, but it's not, it's not all those things. The point of Advent is that I look forward and hope that God, what you I'm I'm longing. There's this TikTok trend, and it's like I long, I'm longing for a room I can never go back to. And it's talking about I pull up to the house and I'm at grandma's house, and this is I can hear her voice from the other room. And that trend is really strong right now in my TikTok feed. And what is it doing? It's telling you that the longing in your heart is for a place you can never go back to. It's gone, it's done. That season, it's over. And there's what does that make you feel? Total despair. Like that sucks. But the point of Advent is longing for a place that's being prepared right now for us. And the point of Advent is the same way that Christ is preparing a place for us, we're preparing our place for him. Does this make sense? So we're saying, Christ, what we're presently experiencing, what you have is so much better. What is in my future, my future with you, is better than my past that I've known. It's I don't have to look at TikTok in despair, but I'm looking ahead in hope. And that was Mary's prayer. She was it was her Advent season, her pregnancy season, her advent season preparing that what God's promised will surely come to pass. And in Advent, we are to remind ourselves that the things that God's promised us, we haven't missed it. Like you haven't missed it. Like quit buying into that lie. You're not too old, you're not too young, you're not too far gone, you're not too whatever you're to is that you're filling in the blank. This this year wasn't a missed opportunity. You haven't gone too far. Like, that's not it. Advent is about God, everything you promised, I'm gonna see it come to pass. And so I'm preparing my heart for what you've already prepared. I'm preparing my heart. I'm I'm working with the spirit, and starting December 25th, I celebrate for 12 days because you're worthy to be celebrated, not just one day, but 12 days. And so I don't, I'm not quick to move past December 25th. Okay, that's over. New Year's goals, New Year's resolutions. No, I'm lingering, I'm letting my heart then celebrate. This is when, Lord, I can celebrate in faith for all that you've done. So um, Luke chapter two, Luke chapter two. Um, I read this on Sunday, um, but I believe that it's worth reading again. And so, verse chapter verse four, Joseph uh also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he um was of the house and the lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was that while they were there the days were completed for her to be delivered, and she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn. And there was in the same country shepherds living out in their fields, uh fields, keeping watch over their flock by night, and behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. And the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord, and this will be a sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger, and suddenly there was with an angel a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger, and when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told to them concerning this child, and all those who heard it marveled at the things which were told to him by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart, and the shepherds returned, glorifying and play praising God for the things which they had heard and seen it told to them. You know, um we love made-up stories. Um I I like to make up stories sometimes. Um I it's one of my gifts. I sometimes reality isn't as fun, so I just like I live um in a fictitious reality. Um, and my counselor tells me that that's a trauma response and how I dealt with abuse. But you know, here we are. Um so yeah, I'll just let you process that. Um, but I like I sometimes like will pretend like if work's really overwhelming, um, I'll just pretend that I am a like trad wife and I'm stay at home and I have no like major decisions and my biggest choice is like what to make dinner that night. And so then I will just like leave. I leave the office and I go and pretend that I don't have a job and that um there's no payroll waiting to be processed or answers to our lawyer, and I'll go walk the aisles of a store for a little while, and then I come to my senses and realize, which is also called Ashley calling me, and um then I come back to the office and I resume normal life. But for those few moments, it allows me to like live in this fictitious reality. Um, so uh sometimes I make up stories. Do y'all make up stories about how things started? Like you walk in places and you're like, let's tell a story. Or do you ever go on a date night and you see like another couple or another like person and you make up this whole like story about them? You're like, so they met online and uh they never had met each other before. They were online and they're hanging out, and this is their first time. He flew in from Seattle and she didn't know. And she came to the coffee shop, and like this whole story, which you know it's like way better than reality, right? Like, but it's not real. So I had this with Bucky's. Um, I had this whole fake story with Bucky's. My grandpa was a truck driver, and um he drove a night shift because he wanted to be home during the day. And so I made up this whole story about Bucky's, that it was a retired uh truck driver, and he got a great settlement when he was done a driving truck, and they like wanted to bless him because he was such a great employee. And he decided, you know what? Years of driving across the country, I want a good place to like buy great snacks. Like snacks at all these truck stops suck so bad, and I'm sick of like dirty bathrooms, and so I'm gonna start this thing called Bucky's where people can come from all over the world and like take pictures with this beaver, and it'll make them so happy. Well, the way to enforce a lie is to tell it again and again and again, and so I would tell people the story. I would like be like, Yeah, I like to think it's like a truck driver, and da-da-da and I would go. So I was telling the story for like probably the 20th time, and C Fig was there, and her eyes like welled up, and she was like, That is the sweetest story. Like, how have I lived? And I did not know that this sweet old man like started Buckies, and I go, It's not even true. I just made it up, and she's like, No trucks are a lot of Bucky's, he's hating his own kind, and she was like, I've never researched this. I was like, Yeah, me neither. Like, it's a fake story, it's not even real, and um, so, anyways, so she was like, Yeah, it is an it is an Aggie that started it, but there's no sentimental, like he's trying to restore for all mankind anything. Like, he's just trying to make money, and you know what? Praise God for that. It's my favorite gas station. And so, and all of us can just rejoice in the fact that HEB and Bucky's will be next to each other in Royce City, Texas. And by this, we know that the Lord loves us, and so I'm so grateful I'll be able to get gas at my favorite gas station and then go get groceries. So sometimes, yeah, y'all got Walmart and sulfur 100%. So sometimes like the story isn't as good as real life, right? And so I will say that in this story there is a lie that we've believed, and the lie is the word in. It's actually transliterated. I have beef with um the Bible translators here, because the word for in that's later used in Luke in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, uh 25 through 27, the Greek word is cataluma, cataluma. So whenever it's an in, uh Luke specifies cataluma, which would have been the word for hotel, motel, holiday in, okay? And so he doesn't use that word here in um verse 7. The word is pandochilion, pandochilion. And so that word in the Greek literally means guest room, guest room at a house. So it's a completely different Greek word, and so just that shift of the word changes the entire story. And so you will hear every Christmas season about the innkeeper who doesn't exist, it's not a real thing, the hotel that doesn't exist, and even the whole picture you have of them being in this stable that's like far out in the middle of a field, and the stars sitting over the stable were just Mary and Joseph and a few little animals, depending upon your nativity scene, like are sitting. That's that's not true. Now remember, there was a census in the land, and Jews everywhere were returning from uh to their villages of family of origin. So, therefore, it's possible that Bethlehem was swelling with extra people, and guest rooms and homes were limited. Jewish people were obligated to receive strangers into their homes under the law. And so the couple, whenever they come, they were asking to stay in the guest room. And so they're asking for this place, but it was already occupied. And so Luke then tells us that after the birth, Mary places the baby into the animal trough, uh, the manger. And so the implication here is that Jesus, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the maker of heaven and earth, was born in the animal room. Okay, there was like separate sections in a Jewish person's home. So keeping in mind, as I said before, um, they did not have central heat in the air. So you brought your animals in and you would want to bring in big animals because they emitted the most heat. Um, if you ever you don't need an electric blanket if you have a weenie dog because they're like a furnace, they're so hot. And so Charlie is our electric blanket in the winter, and she wants to be right up against you the entire night. And so, but that's what they wanted. So they would bring these animals in, and on the left side of the picture, you can see that there was like that's where the animals would be. There would literally be a hole in the wall where they could poke their head in where the manger was. So even the picture that you have where Jesus is like surrounded by the animals, possibly not, unless he was in the animal room. And so they would put their heads through the hole in the wall that would have the manger in the center. Now, all the family lived in this middle portion together. And so, under Jewish law, you could not turn down strangers. You had to welcome them in. And so when he's saying there's no room for them in the guest room, he's like, guys, everybody's rolling through to pay their taxes. My house is completely full, meaning my religious requirements have been fulfilled, but I'll let you in anyways. That to me is like way more mind blowing. But as culture and society has progressed, we have this visual of. Jesus being like separated from the house, Mary and Joseph being separated from the house, and the innkeeper almost like our faith, I want you to see it like our faith is so removed from the heart of what's happening in our lives. Because even thinking about an animal coming into your living room, I don't know, Tara, that you're gonna have anybody for the video for one church to say, like Courtney's like, yeah, I'm good. Bring in the oxen, bring in the sheep, let them be in the living room, and we will reenact like modern day. Nobody's doing that. I think it's actually the original story is better than the one that we've met up. Like in our culture society, we think when we embellish a story, it's better than what really happened. But I think in the Bible, it's actually better that we see it in this way. And so, and so Jesus was literally born in the midst, in the middle of a family happening. Now, in the Bible, um, there's a story in Judges chapter 11, and uh, I'm gonna be shredding in January. Any shredders in January? Yeah, what's up? Let's go. Um, uh, it's a great way to start your year, just going for it. So um in Judges chapter 11, it's one of those stories that I hate it every time I get to it. And the story goes like this This man, he's coming home, and he uh tells the Lord, whoever, um, whatever comes out of my house first, um, I'm gonna give it to as a sacrifice to you. And he had uh just defeated the Ammonites and he was excited, he's coming home. He says, Lord, whatever comes out of my house first. Now keep in mind that the animals were pent up in the house all night long. So the minute the doors would open, the first thing to run out was the animals. They they are bursting out of the house. So understanding this changes the way you see Judges 11. The man 100% expected the first thing to run out of his house to be an ox, a sheep, a ram. Well, the story doesn't go that way. It was his daughter that runs out. And it's awful. I hate Judges 11 every time. And yeah, it's just it's a bad story. It's in the Bible, it's there. But what I want you to see is how this makes sense to how even Jesus was born. And it solidifies to us about him being inside a home, him being with the animals. The cultural that it changes your understanding of even the man making that vow, he was never expecting one of his children to run out. He was 100% expecting an animal to run out. And again, because we are in a different culture, because we're a different society, we see this verse different. But when you understand the cultural context, how they lived inside their home, it changes how you approach the text. So Judges 11 still is desperately sad. Um, but uh, however, it does bring more light to the situation. So then even with Mary, she would have been deemed unclean in the culture. So the village of Bethlehem would have been uh small, uh numbering only a few hundred people in population. And because they were just a few minutes from Jerusalem, the villagers uh would observe the religious laws. And so here you have a woman who is not married, she's betrothed to be married, but she is not married and she's pregnant. Just her coming into your home is harboring an unclean person. But yet the innkeeper who didn't exist, the house owner, he's willing to do it anyways. And I just think this is so beautiful because again, like a lot of times the walls that we build, like I just want you to think about how many cultural things this like undoes for us of like, it's too messy. I've I've already done what, I already fulfilled my roster requests, I already did the tithe, I already, does this make sense? Um, that person, they're just too messed up, they're too far gone. No, like this man let in all of these things. He had space for all of it. And so um here we see a radical welcome will often come at a price. Jesus welcomed sinners and he was criticized, criticized for it. He healed on the Sabbath outside of the religious law, and he was threatened by the very religious leaders that he came to save. He ate in the homes of sinners and was slandered. Jesus sat with the adulterous woman at a well in Samaria and was um criticized by his disciples. They were like, What are you doing? Why are you doing this? And think about the radical welcome often comes with a price. Even the disciples on the walk to Emmaus have their eyes opened, not when they were on the road, but when they let Christ into their home. And it's when we welcome him in, not allow him to be in a barn at the back of our property so our life can stay clean and sanitized. Not welcoming, or let me just say this to Paul, I can't know Jesus without knowing you. I don't, I don't know Jesus without Zach. That's that's Paul's theology. The way I love Zach is the way I love Christ. So all of us would say, of course we'd let Jesus into our home. Like, of course we would. But would you let the person that you have a vendetta against? Would you welcome the person that you've deemed unclean because they're more sinful than you? Are we okay? And if my picture of the story is welcoming them in means they're in a barn at the back of the land, then the answer is yes. But I think God's like imploring us through this story to say, Will I let him in the heart of everything? Will I let him in the midst of exactly where I am? Welcome him into my home. Radical welcome is costly. This is even true today, but it's the way of the kingdom. The greatest evangelistic strategy of the church of the early church was not the community's ability to transmit theological convictions, truthful as they were. Rather, it was the community's willingness to embody compassion. Hospitality changes the world. Radical welcome, not violence, eventually brought the Roman world to its knees before King Jesus. This is how the kingdom works. Even in the New Testament, decades after Jesus' resurrection, the writer of Hebrews encourages us to not forget to allow to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so, some have shown hospitality to angels without knowing. That's in Hebrews 13, verse 2. The practice of welcoming strangers changes the world. The early church rescued discarded babies who were usually girls from trash heaps. They were the ones who started orphanages. The early church was the ones who cared for elderly before there was social security. The early church was the ones who fed and clothed prisoners before tax-funded state penitentiaries. The early church was the one who paid for the burial of all the congregants. The early church was the one who maintained the streets. And it was the radical welcome that opened people's eyes of there's something different about these people. And I believe that as our church, as our society has grown increasingly more secularized, the problem is not us being better apologists, although I think it's good to be well versed in apologetics. I think actually it's just loving people well, like taking on the approach of the early church that you may not know every scripture, you may not know every theological term, but I can love the person in front of me. I can display radical gener uh radical hospitality. And the expansion of the church is not going to be through well-argumented uh theological um debates. It's gonna be shown in intentional invitations to meal sharing with grace, orphan care, uh, looking for the homeless, the ones that are destitute. I believe the blessings of God on our church is the way that we love the ones no one else would love, that we see the unseen. May we never stop doing that. Because by doing so, we've unknowingly entertained angels. And so our convictions and positions is not what we need to be better at, but we need to have more compassion in our posture towards others. Truly, how we hold our positions is as important as the position that we hold. So you can be right, but being combative and argumentative, you've now become wrong. And the innkeeper that doesn't exist shows us how radical hospitality changes not just his home, but changes the world. When I think about this Christmas season, um, I think it's so beautiful when you know the real story and that Jesus was born into a home surrounded by the humanity he came to save. It makes it a lot more beautiful. The book of Genesis is a book of family. God is so passionate about family. Hear me, my church staff. God's so passionate about your family. The most holy thing you do in this next week is not the services we'll conduct. It's the table you set for your family. It's how we show up, and may we not be more present for the people here in this room that will come in and go out, that we forget to welcome Jesus into our homes. Let him be there in the midst of the mess, in the midst of our disappointments, in the midst of our nostalgia that we are trying to pull back into. And may our hearts recalibrate and look to him, because that's what Christ came to do. He didn't come to be separated from the humanity, he came to save. He wanted to be born right inside of our homes. He wants to be present around every tree, around every table. And in doing so, may we find him to be wonderful. Can I pray for you right where you're at? Uh Jesus, we just make room for you. Lord, we make room for you. Lord, we declutter our life of these religious expectations. Lord, nostalgia that's trying to pull us backward. May Advent make us look ahead with hope. That God, we welcome you into our homes. We welcome you into every table that we set. We welcome you in and we say, God, do what only you can do. May our hearts be flooded again with hope. Lord, where there's despair or sadness. God, we welcome you into those places. We don't ignore that they are there. But Lord, we're so grateful that we have a God who's willing to sit with us in the midst of our sadness, in the midst of our disappointment. And God, I thank you that our eyes be open to our children. May our eyes be open to the family members that you send to us, to the strangers that we might entertain. That God, I just thank you that may our home be a place where there's room for you. In Jesus' name. Amen. I love you guys. Have a great uh Christmas. Thanks so much for hanging out here on my podcast. Do me a favor and hit the subscribe button if you haven't done so already, so you never miss out on anything here on my podcast. Also, one of the best ways for us to begin to reach other people is by you sharing. So if you can do me a favor and share this podcast with a friend, family member, or maybe on your social media, help us get the word out so we can help others.