SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast.
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SPEAKER_00: We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To find out how to connect with us, keep listening after the message ends.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, CCW.
SPEAKER_01: It's exciting to be a part of the Miracle of Christmas series that we are in right now.
SPEAKER_01: Today we're going to talk about the miracle of the message of Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: So one bit of housekeeping.
SPEAKER_01: If you have notes, it should say the miraculous message of Christmas, not the miraculous miracle of Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry about that.
SPEAKER_01: So that is the first thing.
SPEAKER_01: And the second thing I want you guys to turn in your Bible to Luke chapter 1 and find verse 26 and then Matthew chapter 1 and find verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: So Luke 1.26 and Matthew 1.18.
SPEAKER_01: The way we're going to do it today, I'm going to read these passages and then make some comments about them and maybe fill in a few gaps that I feel like are there so that we can look at this miraculous message that God sent to Mary and Joseph, the earthly parents of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So, Luke chapter 1, verse 26, we're going to read through 38.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.
SPEAKER_01: The virgin's name was Mary, and having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are you among women.
SPEAKER_01: But when she saw him, she was troubled at this saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
SPEAKER_01: Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
SPEAKER_01: Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man?
SPEAKER_01: And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore also the Holy One who is born to you will be called the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month, for her who was called barren, for with God nothing will be impossible.
SPEAKER_01: Then Mary said, Behold the maidservant of the Lord, let it be according to your word.
SPEAKER_01: And the angel departed from her, Luke chapter one, verses twenty-six through thirty-eight.
SPEAKER_01: That is Mary's story.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter one, verse eighteen through twenty-five.
SPEAKER_01: This is Joseph's story.
SPEAKER_01: Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.
SPEAKER_01: After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with the child of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.
SPEAKER_01: But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she will bring forth a son.
SPEAKER_01: You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: So all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophets, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel, which is translated God with us.
SPEAKER_01: Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took to him his wife, and did not know her until she had brought forth her firstborn son, and called his name Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, I thank you, God, that you gave us the perfect gift, your son Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I thank you for the miraculous way in which he came to this earth to be a message, to deliver the message.
SPEAKER_01: And God, that that we have a Savior who is relatable to us.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, today I just pray that you will speak to us in the same way that you spoke so many years ago, God.
SPEAKER_01: Just let us hear your voice and let us celebrate your son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The reason for this season.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So as I was putting this together and thinking about the message of Christmas, I couldn't help but think about a hot summer day in 2022 in East Tennessee when I was about to lead the church on my first whitewater rafting adventure.
SPEAKER_01: We go whitewater rafting every summer, and in 2022 was the first time I'd ever led the church, and it was also the first time that I myself had ever been.
SPEAKER_01: And when I do things like that, I always try to maybe see, you know, what I should be scared of.
SPEAKER_01: And so we ate at this restaurant, and they just showed these boats flipping over and over and over and over.
SPEAKER_01: And I was worried I wasn't gonna get out of there alive.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, we wanted to stack a couple of experiences together.
SPEAKER_01: So Amanda and I went up a day early and we went zip lining.
SPEAKER_01: I had never been ziplining before either, except at Chaco Springs, where I can see exactly where I start and exactly where I end.
SPEAKER_01: We were about to go zip through trees, like eight or nine of them, and so I was super vigilant.
SPEAKER_01: So we were at the uh at the zip lining place and we checked in and we're sitting on the porch waiting for the guide to come and make sure that I don't die on this zip line, and I see these kids throwing a football in the front yard.
SPEAKER_01: Except one of them is throwing a football.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking like 40-yard B lines that are bouncing off the other kids' hands.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a couple sitting beside us who I thought were the kids' parents, and I asked, I said, hey, where does the kid play?
SPEAKER_01: And the dad told me that he had just finished his freshman year at Duke, and he was gonna be the quarterback maybe the next year.
SPEAKER_01: So for the next two hours, we ziplined with the Leonard family and their son Riley Leonard.
SPEAKER_01: And I go home and we uh look up his profile on on like all you do, and he was actually the starter for Duke in 2022, and he went out and Duke went nine and four that year, and we kept up.
SPEAKER_01: I told Luke he wasn't there, so we're like watching.
SPEAKER_01: Nine and four, really, really good year for Duke University.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the next year, on the first game of the season, Duke is set to play Clemson, and nobody in their right mind thought Duke had a chance against Clemson.
SPEAKER_01: Riley Leonard and the Duke Blue Devils beat down Clemson 28 to 7 that night.
SPEAKER_01: And it put him on the map.
SPEAKER_01: He was on a trajectory.
SPEAKER_01: He was getting ESPN, news interviews, all this kind of stuff, and I was like a little bit of a fanboy.
SPEAKER_01: So a couple of days after the Clemson game, I decided I was gonna take a shot.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's a picture here of us zip lining, carefully cropped.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been zipling, you know what I mean there.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a picture here of us zip lining, and at the end of ziplining, Riley Leonard took this picture of me and Amanda, and he got my phone number and he sent it to me.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm sitting here, this guy that has just beat Clemson, and I got his phone number.
SPEAKER_01: And I took a deep breath.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm gonna try.
SPEAKER_01: This is probably creepy, but I don't think it's exactly to the level of stalking him.
SPEAKER_01: And I sent a message, I said, Hey Riley, I met you and your family zip lining last summer, and I've been following your football ever since.
SPEAKER_01: You have a great spirit, and God is going to use you in mighty ways.
SPEAKER_01: He already is.
SPEAKER_01: You have my prayers up here in Birmingham, Dave Roper.
SPEAKER_01: I expected absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I had no idea how many people were trying to get in this guy's ear.
SPEAKER_01: He was becoming kind of like a superstar, and I just said, I'm gonna take my shot.
SPEAKER_01: Two days later, I got a message back from Riley Leonard, and it said, I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01: Exclamation point.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you, exclamation point.
SPEAKER_01: That was a lot of fun that day.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for keeping up with me.
SPEAKER_01: It means a lot.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of all he was doing, this quarterback who was getting famous and still is, he might play today in the NFL.
SPEAKER_01: He remembered me and sent me a message.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell you all of that to tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: As we talk about the miracle of the message of Christmas, the blank in your introduction line is God sent me a message.
SPEAKER_01: The God of all creation, whose spirit was hovering over the face of the waters when the earth was without form and void.
SPEAKER_01: The one who laid the foundations of the earth and took its measurements, stretched a line across it.
SPEAKER_01: He can shut in the sea with doors and commands the morning and causes the dawn.
SPEAKER_01: God who's entered the treasury of the snow and the hail, who has power to bind the clusters of the Pleiades, loosen the belt of Orion.
SPEAKER_01: He who knows the ordinances of heaven and sets dominion over the earth, can lift his voice and make it rain, sends lightning where he wants to, and numbers the clouds.
SPEAKER_01: The one by whom all things in heaven and earth were created, all visible, invisible thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, whose glory the heavens proclaim, who saw my substance before I was born, who knew me in my mother's womb, formed my inward parts, knows every word on my tongue and every thought I have from afar off.
SPEAKER_01: God who knows my sitting down and standing up, who has searched me and knows all about me, the all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing, ever-present, self-existent, self-sufficient, infinite, eternal God of all creation, sent me a message.
SPEAKER_01: Not just all of humanity.
SPEAKER_01: He sent me a message.
SPEAKER_01: Every me in here, God has a message for you.
SPEAKER_01: And that's blank one.
SPEAKER_01: God sent me a message.
SPEAKER_01: God has always been talking to his people, though.
SPEAKER_01: As Eli said in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1, God has been speaking in various ways.
SPEAKER_01: In the times past, he spoke by the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Now he's spoken to us through his son.
SPEAKER_01: God's been speaking since the days of Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_01: He was walking around the garden speaking with them, but things went haywire there because God's not the only one who wants to speak to you.
SPEAKER_01: God spoke to Abraham and said, Go to the place I'll show you.
SPEAKER_01: He spoke to Moses through a burning bush.
SPEAKER_01: That was fun when you think about it.
SPEAKER_01: God said, Moses, I'm going to use you to speak to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a 0% chance that he says yes.
SPEAKER_01: God spoke to Joseph and he ended up, well, God spoke to Jacob and he got a new name in a wrestling match.
SPEAKER_01: God sent the angel of the Lord to Joshua and Gideon and Samson's parents.
SPEAKER_01: He spoke to a guy through a donkey in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Balaam, I think I pronounced that right.
SPEAKER_01: And Balaam talked back to the donkey.
SPEAKER_01: God spoken through dreams too.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph, who we're going to be studying in January, God spoke to him in a dream, and that didn't really work out for him, right?
SPEAKER_01: He got sold into slavery when he told his brothers.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it did work out because then he got in charge of the food when they needed food.
SPEAKER_01: We'll let Pastor Rick go through that in January.
SPEAKER_01: God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar in dreams, and Daniel interpreted them.
SPEAKER_01: He spoke to Samuel and woke him up in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_01: And he spoke through prophets.
SPEAKER_01: And like Eli said, one prophecy is Isaiah 7.14.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, The Lord himself will give you a sign, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and call his name Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we're going to be talking about today.
SPEAKER_01: This prophecy was 700 years before Jesus was born.
SPEAKER_01: Over 700 years.
SPEAKER_01: Generations came and went.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord kept speaking to the people for a while, but then he went silent for a little while.
SPEAKER_01: 400 years of a little while.
SPEAKER_01: It's like we haven't gotten a new word from the Lord since 1625.
SPEAKER_01: That's how long it had been.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the intertestamental period in between the Old and New Testament in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: 400 years of silence.
SPEAKER_01: And then in Luke chapter 1, after 400 years, when I'm sure that there were just a very few people who were still faithful, when many had drifted away and thought that the prophecy never would be fulfilled, in Luke chapter 1, we see a message to Mary.
SPEAKER_01: And the message to Mary is this: a miracle will occur.
SPEAKER_01: As we read in Luke 1, 26, the angel Gabriel visited Mary in her house at Nazareth, and he said, Rejoice, highly favored one.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are you among women.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary was troubled.
SPEAKER_01: And the angel Gabriel says, Fear not, Mary, thou hast found favor with God.
SPEAKER_01: I want to tell you this: favor can look very funny sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Mary was troubled, the angel told her, Don't be scared.
SPEAKER_01: And then here's the message in Luke 131.
SPEAKER_01: Gabriel says, You will conceive in your womb, bring forth a son, and call his name Jesus, and he will be great, the Son of the highest.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, he'll reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
SPEAKER_01: Mary had to say, Excuse me?
SPEAKER_01: Like, this is a whole lot you've just laid on me right here with these two sentences.
SPEAKER_01: Like, there's a lot of things that are kind of need to be considered further in this.
SPEAKER_01: The least, no, the most of which is, I do not know a man.
SPEAKER_01: There's a miracle that's going to occur, Mary.
SPEAKER_01: And Gabriel explains, as we've heard and sing about, that Mary's baby is going to be the son of God.
SPEAKER_01: She is going to be the living fulfillment of this 700-year-old prophecy that the virgin shall conceive, bear a son, and call him Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: She's highly favored.
SPEAKER_01: Gabriel then tells her about Elizabeth and says that even though Elizabeth is in her old age and has been considered barren, she's going to have a baby too.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary heads off to the hill country to see Elizabeth.
SPEAKER_01: I've surveyed several of you in the church with this question.
SPEAKER_01: And what the Bible, I think, is unclear, we read Mary's story, we read Joseph's story.
SPEAKER_01: Did Mary tell Joseph that she was going to have a baby before she went to the hill country to see Elizabeth?
SPEAKER_01: I've gotten a different, several different answers.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to present the argument that she did not.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you why.
SPEAKER_01: In Luke chapter 1, verse 39, if you're there, you can look.
SPEAKER_01: Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste.
SPEAKER_01: That means fast.
SPEAKER_01: And that's right after Gabriel told her that a miracle was going to occur.
SPEAKER_01: If you have an NIV, the Bible says she got ready and hurried.
SPEAKER_01: So, then Matthew 1.18, which we read, says Mary was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say that there was any telling going on at all.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how many of you guys know this, but there is someone in this room who has been to Australia.
SPEAKER_01: Her name is Amanda Roper.
SPEAKER_01: It happened in 2007.
SPEAKER_01: We had been married about three, a little over three years, and I was setting up my law practice, and she was working at a computer company, and over the summer we got word that a customer in Australia was going to pay several of them to come down there and do business or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And it was like a little bit horrifying to me.
SPEAKER_01: Like she had traveled before, but never across the whole planet.
SPEAKER_01: So at the courthouse, some of the guys, we used to, while we were waiting on justice to get served up, we would keep up with each other's families and kids and all that kind of stuff and just, you know, talk.
SPEAKER_01: And I told a lot of my friends at the courthouse that Amanda was going to Australia, and they were about as concerned as I was.
SPEAKER_01: Like my 26-year-old bride going thousands of miles away with three dudes that she worked with.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know you know this, and kids, you need to know this, but if you've been dating a year or maybe two, the questions will start coming about when you're going to get married.
SPEAKER_01: And then when you do get married, right after the vow, sometimes while you're trying to cut the cake, everybody gets concerned about whether or not you're going to help repopulate.
SPEAKER_01: When is the baby going to be here?
SPEAKER_01: Or when are you going to have me some grandchildren?
SPEAKER_01: So Amanda and I had been dating, we dated for like almost four years, and then we were married for a little over three years, and the baby questions were pervasive.
SPEAKER_01: And I dodged and deflected and stalled and drug it out because I'm gonna be honest, I like being the baby.
SPEAKER_01: But Amanda was ready, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I was I was about to be 29 years old, and I started adding 18 years to the 29 that I had, and I said, man, 47.
SPEAKER_01: That's old.
SPEAKER_01: That's ancient to be having a kid run around.
SPEAKER_01: And who knew how long it could take to have a baby?
SPEAKER_01: We had some friends at church at the time who were not being able to have a baby, so Amanda told me it could take six months to a year to have a baby.
SPEAKER_01: So I took six months to a year and I added nine months to it, and I said, man, that's like a year and a half, maybe two, before this even matters.
SPEAKER_01: So, September of 2007, we start trying to have a baby.
SPEAKER_01: Amanda's gonna fly out to Australia on October the 30th.
SPEAKER_01: I remember it well.
SPEAKER_01: These are the kind of things you remember.
SPEAKER_01: I think she was gonna be gone 20 days.
SPEAKER_01: She's packing all of her suitcases and everything on October 29th the night before, and she calls me into the bathroom and says, I have something to show you.
SPEAKER_01: And she had one of those little sticks, capital yes, exclamation point, and I said, I did not say yes.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna tell you what I said because it probably wouldn't preach too well.
SPEAKER_01: But the next day she flew off to Australia and we decided we weren't gonna tell anybody about the baby until the doctor confirmed it really was gonna be a baby.
SPEAKER_01: So I think she scheduled a doctor's appointment for right after she came back and all that.
SPEAKER_01: And we went on and we had to like it was like 15 hours of difference, and then they sprang forward and we fell back, and I it was a nightmare.
SPEAKER_01: So all the people at work were keeping up with Amanda in Australia.
SPEAKER_01: How's Amanda doing?
SPEAKER_01: Asking all the questions when's she gonna get back and all that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, she gets back and we go and the doctor confirms uh that she's gonna have the baby.
SPEAKER_01: And I was sitting with a judge friend of mine who's kind of like just straight down the middle of the road.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he doesn't fool around a lot, and he said, Hey, did your bride get back from Australia?
SPEAKER_01: And I just couldn't resist.
SPEAKER_01: I said, She's back home fine, but she came home pregnant.
SPEAKER_01: He checked his watch, he was looking around.
SPEAKER_01: He needed something to do very quickly.
SPEAKER_01: The conversation got very uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I just wonder if Mary went to see Elizabeth and then she came back pregnant, and they had to figure all this out.
SPEAKER_01: And I bet it was just as uncomfortable as it was for him when I told him about Amanda coming back from Australia.
SPEAKER_01: Man, this was a huge deal.
SPEAKER_01: Don't just gloss this over.
SPEAKER_01: This is massive.
SPEAKER_01: The message to Mary: a miracle will occur.
SPEAKER_01: The message to Joseph is a little different.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph gets the message that a miracle has occurred.
SPEAKER_01: After Mary is found with the child of the Holy Spirit, Joseph is confused.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says he's a just man and he didn't want to make a public example out of her.
SPEAKER_01: He would have been within his rights to have called on Deuteronomy 22 to have her stoned publicly.
SPEAKER_01: But he decided that he wasn't going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible tells us in Matthew he was thinking about putting her away secretly.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds like something from a mafia movie to me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to make a public example out of her.
SPEAKER_01: I think we'll just put her away secretly.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean, I can see Marlon Brando or somebody calling this order.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, but what it means is he's going to divorce her quietly.
SPEAKER_01: And just think about this conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Mary's found with child.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph, it's the child of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph says, Mary, how do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: And she says, That's what the angel told me when he came to see me at the house.
SPEAKER_01: This is a really tough sell, guys.
SPEAKER_01: And Joseph is a man of great, great faith.
SPEAKER_01: But since Mary went to Elizabeth, she got more information.
SPEAKER_01: And that information is this.
SPEAKER_01: If you read the story carefully, in Luke 1:42, when Mary walked into Elizabeth's house before she said a word, Elizabeth said, Blessed is the fruit of your womb.
SPEAKER_01: Elizabeth knew that Mary was pregnant, even though she wasn't supposed to be, before Mary said a word.
SPEAKER_01: So she has that to tell Joseph, too.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe it's at this point that the angel appears to Joseph and tells him, Don't be afraid to take Mary, your wife.
SPEAKER_01: That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: She'll bring forth a son.
SPEAKER_01: You'll call his name Jesus, and he will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: A miracle will occur.
SPEAKER_01: That's Joseph's message, and that's your next blank in your outlines.
SPEAKER_01: No, not a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: A miracle has occurred.
SPEAKER_01: Pardon me.
SPEAKER_01: A miracle has occurred.
SPEAKER_01: So Joseph wakes up, and the Bible makes it sound like if you read it carefully, Joseph being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
SPEAKER_01: Like, was it right then?
SPEAKER_01: Like, did Joseph hop up, run over to Mary's house, throw a rock?
SPEAKER_01: Mary, wake up, I believe you.
SPEAKER_01: Let's get married, let's do it right now.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it happened exactly like that, but it seems like it doesn't say that he talked to the preacher or that he asked his parents or that he sought counsel for what he should do.
SPEAKER_01: He got a word from the Lord and he was obedient.
SPEAKER_01: And it seems like it was immediate obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And I think there's something that we can pick up there about when we hear what God has for us to do.
SPEAKER_01: So we got Mary and Joseph, and they've both received a message from the angel.
SPEAKER_01: They've acted in faith.
SPEAKER_01: God is with us.
SPEAKER_01: Mary's going to be the fulfillment of Isaiah 7 14.
SPEAKER_01: And they had to be a couple of scared kids.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they were living on a word.
SPEAKER_01: Walking in a promise, and there just wasn't a whole lot else, I don't think.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible doesn't tell us that Mary's mama or Joseph's dad or the folks over at the temple or any of the townspeople got this word.
SPEAKER_01: We've got a couple of teenagers, a pregnant young girl, and her husband who's bought in, trying to convince everybody that they're not lying and that she's not crazy.
SPEAKER_01: I bet they were criticized, and I bet they were ostracized.
SPEAKER_01: And I bet some people might have thought they needed to be exercised.
SPEAKER_01: I can just see a lady saying, Well, she's got a spirit, but it ain't the Holy Spirit, you know?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's I believe that's what happened.
SPEAKER_01: People are people.
SPEAKER_01: Favor sure can look funny sometimes, can it?
SPEAKER_01: And then, and then I wonder if anybody came up and said, guys, I hate to be the fly in the ointment.
SPEAKER_01: If anybody ever says they hate to be the fly in the ointment, you better believe they love being the fly and the ointment.
SPEAKER_01: But I wonder if anybody came up and said, guys, I hear what you're saying about all the Isaiah 7.14 and the virgins going to conceive and bear a child.
SPEAKER_01: But what about Micah 5-2?
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't Micah 5-2 say, Bethlehem, Ephraith, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be the ruler in Israel?
SPEAKER_01: And Mary, you and Joseph are in Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: And Nazareth is 70 miles away from Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: So I get it, you're the virgin, according to what you say, but what about this Bethlehem business?
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if this happened, but I just wonder if somebody said, Mary, why don't you come clean?
SPEAKER_01: Joseph is, he's not gonna kill you, he's not gonna divorce you, he's gonna marry you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to build your life on this.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're in Nazareth and it's 70 miles to Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that conversation happened.
SPEAKER_01: But I do know this.
SPEAKER_01: The unlikeliest of Christmas miracle messages then came down from the most unlikely of sources, the Roman government.
SPEAKER_01: Blank four in your notes is the entire prophecy will be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: In Luke chapter 2, verse 1, we read it like this, and I don't know exactly when this happened, but I kind of believe it was after Mary and Joseph had walked in faith.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 2, verse 1 says, It came to pass in those days, at just the right time, after Mary and Joseph got their messages, and after Joseph decided he wasn't gonna kill Mary, in those days a Christmas message was issued from Caesar Augustus.
SPEAKER_01: And that Christmas message was that all the world had to go and be registered.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone had to go to their hometown, and it just so happened, strangely enough, that Mary and Joseph had to go 70 miles to a little town called Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: Not because they wanted to, but because Joseph was of the lineage of David, and the government insisted.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you guys know that the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Like rivers of the water, he turns it however he will.
SPEAKER_01: Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God, like them or not.
SPEAKER_01: Mary and Joseph heard from the angel that she was going to be the virgin to have the child, but it was the oppressive Roman government that sent them to Bethlehem to fulfill the whole prophecy at just the right time, at just the right moment.
SPEAKER_01: This wasn't a popular decision.
SPEAKER_01: It led to many revolts, I think, if you read biblical history.
SPEAKER_01: And just think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Like if I have to go 70 miles to register right now and pay taxes, I'm gonna be mad about that.
SPEAKER_01: And I've got a pickup truck in the interstate.
SPEAKER_01: If I have to walk, it's gonna be a bigger problem.
SPEAKER_01: If I have to carry my pregnant wife over mountains, I mean, backs are gonna hurt, feet are gonna hurt, we're gonna have to stop all the time to be using the bathroom, and that's not even considering what she might need.
SPEAKER_01: But Mary and Joseph, I think, were probably elated.
SPEAKER_01: They walked in faith, and God finished fulfilling the whole prophecy from the strangest of places just at the right time.
SPEAKER_01: The entire prophecy will be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: The next blank on your outline, the last one.
SPEAKER_01: The message is for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: This message is for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Another message Joseph and Mary got, alright, and if we recount, Mary heard from an angel that a miracle will occur.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph heard that a miracle has occurred.
SPEAKER_01: The Roman government said the entire prophecy will be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: And then they get over to Bethlehem and there is no room for them on the end.
SPEAKER_01: And I just have to kind of go with the herdman kids in the best Christmas pageant ever on this.
SPEAKER_01: Like, did they have no decency?
SPEAKER_01: No room for a pregnant woman about to give birth?
SPEAKER_01: Like, did the innkeeper even ask around?
SPEAKER_01: Did the people in the inn know that there was a pregnant woman about to give birth?
SPEAKER_01: What about the innkeeper?
SPEAKER_01: Did he have a room he could have given up?
SPEAKER_01: All these questions swirl in my mind.
SPEAKER_01: If you call me crazy, but I like staying at hotels.
SPEAKER_01: Um I don't go like four to six months a year or nothing, but three or four weeks a year, we like to go and stay at hotels.
SPEAKER_01: And the way that we travel, I booked the flight and the hotel, and then Amanda does the food and the activities.
SPEAKER_01: So a few years ago, we went to New England, and I decided, for reasons that I still don't know, that our trip through New England would start and end in Hartford, Connecticut.
SPEAKER_01: Never heard of Hartford?
SPEAKER_01: I really hadn't either.
SPEAKER_01: We decided we were gonna go check it out.
SPEAKER_01: So it's the capital of Connecticut, and we were gonna stay in this old hotel, like historic hotel downtown on the first night.
SPEAKER_01: And then we were gonna head up to New York and New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, all that, drive back to Hartford and fly home.
SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to make sure that we had a different experience each night.
SPEAKER_01: So I didn't book the same hotel twice.
SPEAKER_01: The first night we get there, and the old historic hotel is very cool, all right?
SPEAKER_01: And so then we go on our trips, and as we're coming in on day 13 or something, um, I wanted to make sure that we had like a room to spread out because we had been clamped up together.
SPEAKER_01: So I booked us a suite, and it was not downtown, and we drove around and boy, it was a different experience.
SPEAKER_01: Way out past the tracks, vacant, overgrown lots, empty buildings, graffiti, not much traffic.
SPEAKER_01: And just when I was sure that we were going the wrong way, we took a turn and there was our extended stay suite, something or another.
SPEAKER_01: And we pulled up close to the front door, and it was still daylight, and you could see in the parking lot there was a group of guys over here, looked like they had been working, but they were around the bed of a pickup truck, and they had some liquor bottles, and they had a cooler, and they had a speaker going, and a few parking spots down, there was another guy who looked like he had been working, and he had a bottle, and there was a girl with him who did not have on enough shirt for me to feel good about the situation.
SPEAKER_01: And so we go in and check in at the hotel, and then I sent Amanda back out to park the car.
SPEAKER_01: I no, I went with Amanda to park the car.
SPEAKER_01: I sent Amanda back out to park the car, and we decide we're gonna stay there.
SPEAKER_01: But when you go in this hotel lobby, there was like a glass door that was locked.
SPEAKER_01: You had to unlock it with your key.
SPEAKER_01: And they had a sign on there, and it said, only registered guests admitted beyond this point, no exceptions.
SPEAKER_01: Like, we're not gonna be doing any partying in the extended stay rooms, only registered guests.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know exactly what the ends were like back in Bethlehem, but I just got to imagine the last thing that an innkeeper would want to tolerate will be a bunch of people roaming up and down the halls of his inn, especially if those people were shepherds.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want a bunch of shepherds roaming up and down the hall, especially shepherds who have been looking for a baby because they say they saw something in the sky.
SPEAKER_01: Just think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we get a bad view of shepherds, kind of skewed, because shepherds are not three and four-year-old little boys with a pillowcase hat and a bathrobe and their granddaddy's cane.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, these were fierce warriors.
SPEAKER_01: They took care of sheep, and sheep stink.
SPEAKER_01: And their job is to lead and guide and chase down predators.
SPEAKER_01: They have to mend the sheep, they have to drag the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: They live with the sheep, and they have to protect the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: From what I've read, there's like always a wolf that's about to get the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: Like, gotta get a wolf here, chase off a wolf there.
SPEAKER_01: All day on a wolf.
SPEAKER_01: But then sometimes bigger things come after the sheep too.
SPEAKER_01: If you're reading 1 Samuel, King David, when he was about to go fight Goliath, said, I have listen to the chased down a bear and a lion, chased them down, struck them, delivered the lamb from their mouth, grabbed them by the beard, and killed them.
SPEAKER_01: And he said it kind of nonchalantly, like this was, you know, a couple times a week.
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, if you're talking, I'm not chasing a lion or a bear with any gun of any kind.
SPEAKER_01: And these guys didn't have guns, they had slings and maybe a spear or something.
SPEAKER_01: But when you talk about grabbing a bear by the beard, you're talking about killing this thing with your bare hands.
SPEAKER_01: Big, burly, rowdy guys.
SPEAKER_01: Not the kind of guys you want in your inn.
SPEAKER_01: I kind of think maybe the closest image we might have is a group of cowboys driving a herd through the Old West.
SPEAKER_01: And we all know about the Old West towns.
SPEAKER_01: These particular shepherds, the Bible tells us, were living out in the fields.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna tell you they didn't bathe while they were in the fields, but I bet it wasn't high priority.
SPEAKER_01: They were kind of social outcast.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think they got to the temple very much at all.
SPEAKER_01: Not really the guys you want in the house or the lobby of your hotel or going up and down in the hallways saying that they just saw an angel and they gotta find the baby.
SPEAKER_01: So the fact that there was no room in the inn for Mary and Joseph, that meant that there was room for the shepherds out back by the manger, right in line with God's perfect will.
SPEAKER_01: God said yes to the shepherds when he said there's no room in the inn.
SPEAKER_01: Yes to the uncouth, yes to the outcast, yes to those who aren't reformed.
SPEAKER_01: All are welcome to come and see the newborn king.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone can come see the Savior, and you can come just like you are.
SPEAKER_01: You can bring your sheep and your lowing cattle, and you can bring your heavy burdens and your baggage with you.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's plenty of room for all to see the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that Jesus was for the shepherds, the fact that this rough group was the first evangelist, that tells me that Jesus is for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: That's the last blank.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: He's not just for the people who can afford a room at the hotel, he's not for the people who can get dressed up and smell nice, he's not for the people who sleep in a house every night or bathe every day.
SPEAKER_01: Because this message of Christmas is that unto you and you, and you and you and you, and me, there's born this day that we celebrate this Christmas day.
SPEAKER_01: A Savior who is Christ the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Just like God has been saying would happen since the beginning of all of it.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the miraculous message of Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: We're excited you joined us for today's message.
SPEAKER_00: Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another, and build a bigger kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.
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SPEAKER_00: Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.