SPEAKER_01: When I was converted, God wasn't standing on the door knocking, going, pretty pleased with heaven on top, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: It's me.
SPEAKER_01: Would you exercise your free will?
SPEAKER_01: And uh because I'd like to come in, but there's no doorknob.
SPEAKER_01: What am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: I'm the God of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: I spoke the world into existence, and yet I somehow can't figure out a way to get into your little punky heart.
SPEAKER_01: This is how I understand the Immaculate Conception.
SPEAKER_01: Because on July 5th, 1982, when I was converted, there was no knocking.
SPEAKER_01: It was like a SWAT team showed up in my front yard with a battery ram.
SPEAKER_01: Boom! I'm in back there playing mad and smoking weed, and Jesus kicks the door down, comes down the hall, kicks my bedroom door down.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you're violating my rights, gets me by the neck, and is kicking me in the butt, walking me out the door.
SPEAKER_01: This is and you know what he's saying?
SPEAKER_01: He's going, This is all mine now, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I own you.
SPEAKER_01: You're mine.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Pray together, church.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we uh truer words have never been spoken.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing of which you are not worthy.
SPEAKER_01: And so let us uh square ourselves up today with that understanding.
SPEAKER_01: We also understand that all creation is groaning.
SPEAKER_01: So we watch the news, we're not going to be emotionally dysregulated because all creation, not just humanity, but the rocks and trees and skies and seas, and it's not climate change.
SPEAKER_01: It's creation is groaning because it's waiting for the sons of God to be revealed, for the daughters of God to be revealed, because creation knows what we need to understand today, and that is that things are not as as they were created to be.
SPEAKER_01: And it's because of sin.
SPEAKER_01: So all creation is groaning, and that's on one side of the scale.
SPEAKER_01: And on the other side, God, we have this beautiful reality that says a new creation is coming.
SPEAKER_01: An advent is a great time to remind ourselves that we're stuck between your first coming and your second coming.
SPEAKER_01: And when you come again, you're gonna you're gonna make all things new, you're gonna right every wrong.
SPEAKER_01: So we don't have to be justice warriors and scorekeepers.
SPEAKER_01: We can be the freest cat in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Winsome, liberated, full of grace and truth people.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, illuminate the word today so that we that we see in the word.
SPEAKER_01: Not on some podcast, but we see in the word.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is how you get there.
SPEAKER_01: This is how you come to peace with what God is doing in the world.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, do that in us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We pray.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_01: You could have a C if you got a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to take and open up to Matthew chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, don't sweat it.
SPEAKER_01: It'll come up on the screen here behind me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you're our guest today, let me say welcome.
SPEAKER_01: We're glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for giving us your morning.
SPEAKER_01: We pray that what you experience today will cause you to want to give us more Sunday mornings in the future.
SPEAKER_01: We are celebrating Advent here at Grand Parkway, which is the four Sundays that lead up to Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: And each Sunday there's a theme.
SPEAKER_01: Last week was hope.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about from Matthew 1 finding hope in the genealogy of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Uh long list of names.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and today uh the the theme is peace.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll talk to you about how to be at peace with what God does.
SPEAKER_01: How to be at peace with what God does.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes God does things that we do not agree with.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think you heard the question.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask it again.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God does things that we do not agree with or we were not expecting, amen?
SPEAKER_01: And you're kind of like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't see that coming.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the curse of not being sovereign, not being in charge.
SPEAKER_01: There's a look at me, there's a lot of things that are gonna happen in this life that you did not see coming.
SPEAKER_01: But there's nothing that will happen to you in this life that God did not see coming.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not saying God is morally responsible for that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying God is aware of that.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand the difference in those two?
SPEAKER_01: And so when I talk about how to be at peace with what God does, I think Mary and Joseph are a great example of that.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll show you why in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I want to start reading to Matthew chapter 1, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I my fear is that we've heard this so much that it no longer burns and jolts us like, what?
SPEAKER_01: But just try to hear this again this morning for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 1, verse 18, the gospel says this.
SPEAKER_01: Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
SPEAKER_01: When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
SPEAKER_01: But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife.
SPEAKER_01: For what for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.
SPEAKER_01: When Joseph woke from the sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
SPEAKER_01: He took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
SPEAKER_01: And he called his name Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what do I mean how to be at peace with what God does?
SPEAKER_01: There's four uh five things in the text I want to point to.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one is a long one, but stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: And it's simply this you have to understand that life is designed to be a response to what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: You have to you have to understand that life is designed to be a response.
SPEAKER_01: It's designed by God to be a response to what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: That's verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: It says, now, now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
SPEAKER_01: Now when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, big statement there.
SPEAKER_01: Two things.
SPEAKER_01: It says that they were betrothed.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we don't have a concept for that.
SPEAKER_01: It's like they're not married.
SPEAKER_01: I remember in high school, my friends would date a girl for a while and they would give her a promise ring.
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody remember a promise ring?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: I had a friend, I bet he gave seven girls a promise ring before we graduate high school.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just like, dude, how many woman, how many promises can you make before no one believes you anymore?
SPEAKER_01: Shut up, man.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna find my wife in high school.
SPEAKER_01: That's an East Texas phrase right there.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody in the city says that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so, but betrothed, it was legally obligated.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't married, but it's like they were legally obligated.
SPEAKER_01: And if you were gonna break a betrothal, you had to give a you had to get a divorce.
SPEAKER_01: So this is serious.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says they were betrothed, and here's what's shocking in this culture, they had not yet come together.
SPEAKER_01: They had not been together physically, they were together in a relationship where there was no physical union between the two of them.
SPEAKER_01: And so Mary and Joseph had plans, and then God crashes in on it with these words before they came together.
SPEAKER_01: She was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: She was pregnant with child.
SPEAKER_01: And they said this is from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want you to understand that life is designed to be a response to what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody remember where you were in October of 1990 when this little workbook thing, kind of probably one of the first ones, I don't know if it was the first one, but really consequential ones, dropped out on us by a guy named Henry Blackaby, a little workbook called Experiencing God.
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody remember Experiencing God?
SPEAKER_01: And it was a workbook, great thing.
SPEAKER_01: October of 1990, it made its debut.
SPEAKER_01: And basically the whole premise of experiencing God, which was apparently new to all Christians in America, was this: find out where God is at work and join him there.
SPEAKER_01: Find out where God is at work.
SPEAKER_01: Now, don't you go to work and say, God, I'm over here.
SPEAKER_01: Come find me and bless me.
SPEAKER_01: You find out where God is at work and you join him there.
SPEAKER_01: Now, just get that in your mind now.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever look around and wonder if God really designed all of us to be pretty much the same, to love the same things, to have the same responses to all things, to live lives that love and value what everybody else loves and values?
SPEAKER_01: Do you think God really said two years ago, all women and girls in America should wear Lululemon shorts?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, do you really and I'm not hating on Lululemon?
SPEAKER_01: I just think it's it's just that, oh, I'm supposed to be and look like everybody else, and if I don't, I'm somehow out of sync.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm suggesting this morning.
SPEAKER_01: This happens because we've been raised to believe in a God who responds to what you're doing and which teaches you to live life backwards.
SPEAKER_01: In this setting, God is the handmaiden of your whims, as Jordan Peterson said recently.
SPEAKER_01: Again, our lives are designed to be a response to what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: And this is why so many people can be successful and dissatisfied because uh even their success is not connected to anything bigger than them.
SPEAKER_01: And I submit to you this morning that Mary and Joseph are a great picture of what life looks like when it is a response to what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you, understatement of the morning, God was doing a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just read from the last part of verse 18 again.
SPEAKER_01: And she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's establish this fact that no sexual act took place.
SPEAKER_01: Now that may seem obvious to us, but it's important to state that explicitly because it's exactly what Muslims and Mormons believe, okay?
SPEAKER_01: To them, the title Son of God means a physical union took place between God the Father and Mary.
SPEAKER_01: This is one of the reasons that uh that our belief of the deity and the sonship of Christ is a stumbling block to Muslims because they're like, hey, your God slept with Mary, and that's how baby Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: How can it be the Son of God if this didn't happen?
SPEAKER_01: Because he does not understand, they do not understand the immaculate, it's called the Immaculate Conception.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're like, I I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh Luke 1 gives us a lot more granularity, so I want to read from it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I don't want to read all that I have because the beautiful Fleming family read it earlier, but I just want to jump in.
SPEAKER_01: Come on on the screen a little past halfway in verse 35.
SPEAKER_01: It says this.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary said to the angel, How will this be?
SPEAKER_01: Because the angel said to her, Hey, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.
SPEAKER_01: Because but let me back up a little higher.
SPEAKER_01: The angel said to Mary, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.
SPEAKER_01: You shall call his name Jesus, he will be great, and we'll be called the Son of the Most High.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord God will give to 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: And like, if you I mean, I love that the Bible is just like, hey, this is the way humans respond to this.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, God, we're doing this, we're betrothed, we're abstaining from sex, we're saving ourselves for marriage, kooky biblical idea.
SPEAKER_01: And you're telling me that I'm c I have a child in me?
SPEAKER_01: And Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin?
SPEAKER_01: And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary said, How will this be since I am a virgin?
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're sitting here today and you're like, this whole virgin birth thing, you Christians, I don't know where you get that from.
SPEAKER_01: This is where we get this from.
SPEAKER_01: And I talked about it last week, so I won't I won't go into much detail other than just to say again, the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
SPEAKER_01: You have a frame of reference for this.
SPEAKER_01: You just don't, you just don't realize it.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
SPEAKER_01: The power of the Most High will overshadow you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Mary's conception, here's what I'm getting at, okay, was totally an act of God and did not involve Joseph, watch me, or Mary.
SPEAKER_01: Was totally an act of God, did not involve Joseph or Mary, which is why verse 35 is so essential to our understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Now you may be thinking, ah, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a Christian, you have a frame of reference for the Immaculate Conception.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: Because the same thing happened to you at conversion.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this language again.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit came upon you, the power of the Most High overshadowed you, and you were born again, called holy, a child of God.
SPEAKER_01: You did not play a role in that.
SPEAKER_01: I sat recently and listened to a man just try to explain to people the gospel, and I was like, this is not true.
SPEAKER_01: And I just felt sad.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't angry, I was just sad.
SPEAKER_01: He said, you know, Jesus is standing on the door and knocking, and there's not a doorknob on the outside.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus can't get in.
SPEAKER_01: You got to get up and exercise your free will and open, turn the doorknob and let Jesus in.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, please don't let people believe this, God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm praying against this.
SPEAKER_01: Here, because here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Conversion.
SPEAKER_01: When I was converted, God wasn't standing on the door knocking, going, pretty pleased with heaven on top, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: It's me.
SPEAKER_01: Would you exercise your free will?
SPEAKER_01: And uh because I'd like to come in, but there's no doorknob.
SPEAKER_01: What am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: I'm the God of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: I spoke the world into existence, and yet I somehow can't figure out a way to get into your little punky heart.
SPEAKER_01: This is how I understand the Immaculate Conception.
SPEAKER_01: Because on July 5th, 1982, when I was converted, there was no knocking.
SPEAKER_01: It was like a SWAT team showed up in my front yard with a battering round.
SPEAKER_01: Boom! I'm in back there playing Madden and smoking weed, and Jesus kicks the door down, comes down the hall, kicks my bedroom door down.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, You're violating my rights, gets me by the neck, and is kicking me in the butt, walking me out the door.
SPEAKER_01: This and you know what he's saying?
SPEAKER_01: He's going, This is all mine now, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I own you, you're mine.
SPEAKER_01: Get out of the front yard.
SPEAKER_01: Then he got to Madden and wrapped the cords up and threw it in the bathtub and ran water on it.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna need this anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so much more fascinating than fantasy, son.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: As a result of that, because the power of the Most High overshadowed me, I was born again, called holy, and a child of God.
SPEAKER_01: I am a product of immaculate conception.
SPEAKER_01: Spread the word.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, there was no.
SPEAKER_01: Guess who it is?
SPEAKER_01: Because look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Your free will loves you too much to subject you to this.
SPEAKER_01: Your flesh?
SPEAKER_01: Whoo! Oh, are you serious?
SPEAKER_01: Do you not know yourself that well?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing I want you to understand is that who you are informs your response.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean, who you are informs your response?
SPEAKER_01: Uh so here's the the easy part of this.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't like who you are, or excuse me, if you don't like how you respond, change who you are.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta confess that I always thought that these experiences uh made them into these kind of people.
SPEAKER_01: But as I read over this and kind of immersed myself in it, the Bible's very clear that that how they were, this is who they were and how they were before this happened, before the angel, before the dream, all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And this is why God involved them on such a grand scale.
SPEAKER_01: So we gotta be asking ourselves, why does not God involve me more?
SPEAKER_01: It's not because God's not on the move.
SPEAKER_01: It's because who we are could not contain all that God wanted to do.
SPEAKER_01: And there's not a sadder statement in the world, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: You just gotta could all of us tonight before you go to bed just say, Lord, I don't want to miss out, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to worship a Jesus that knocks on my door, the door of my heart and asks me for permission.
SPEAKER_01: I want the Jesus that kicks the door down and takes me and says, I you belong to me, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This this is as as miraculous as the Immaculate Conception, because you by nature could not get this on your own.
SPEAKER_01: You don't even desire this on your own.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's two things that should strike you about Mary and Joseph, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Number one, how heaven talks about these people of earth.
SPEAKER_01: How heaven talks about these people of earth.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that Joseph being a just man.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph being he didn't become a just man, he was being a just man when this happened.
SPEAKER_01: And Joseph, Joseph being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
SPEAKER_01: No, why is that such a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: Because just men act justly.
SPEAKER_01: Just men, fellas, we don't re-in-the-they don't reinvent themselves in every ethical dilemma.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us are good.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, I want to talk to you about vertical righteousness and horizontal righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us are good at vertical righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Vertical righteousness is what you understand, no believe in practice between you and God.
SPEAKER_01: We got that.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in God.
SPEAKER_01: I love God.
SPEAKER_01: I believe Jesus was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in the virgin birth.
SPEAKER_01: All that's vertical righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Horizontal righteousness is the way you treat other people.
SPEAKER_01: And Joseph was just horizontally in the way he treated Mary.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: Vertical righteousness, that is great.
SPEAKER_01: Let me confess my horizontal righteousness and how every once in a while I gotta, I think God puts me in situations like at Costco the other day.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm coming down the aisle because I start in the very front row because I think the Lord, I'm his favorite, he's gonna open up a parking space for me.
SPEAKER_01: And lo and behold, I saw some white reverse lights.
SPEAKER_01: I slammed all my brakes and I kind of did, and the person, but they backed out and they backed out towards me.
SPEAKER_01: And I backed up a little bit and they backed out, they backed out too much.
SPEAKER_01: And a little MG midget, whatever, Mini Cooper, shot in there.
SPEAKER_01: And my first thought was, oh no, you didn't.
SPEAKER_01: And then the person in front of me waved and then pulled off, and I was like, You ain't gotta back up 40 feet, lady, just get out of the way.
SPEAKER_01: So I had to park in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: I had to stop for a snack on my way to the front door.
SPEAKER_01: And don't think as I was walking, I didn't see the person driving the Mini Cooper who got out and was looking for her Costco card.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, mm-hmm, yeah, how you feeling now?
SPEAKER_01: I got the stink eye on you, lady.
SPEAKER_01: And we just so both told me happened to be in the Coke Zero aisle five minutes later.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's following the dialogue.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody out here went, uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: That little voice in my head said, This is where we practice our horizontal righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: You mean I get to tell her how right I was and how wrong she was for taking my parking space?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, and she's like, ha ha ha ha ha.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hey, I needed to walk anyway, it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, I felt kind of bad.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I feel bad.
SPEAKER_01: I needed to walk.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I wonder if you remembered.
SPEAKER_01: No, I didn't remember, I just guessed.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have opportunities this week to practice your horizontal righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's not enough to say vertically, I'm I'm good, I'm righteous.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph, being a just man, he didn't become some of you are waiting to become what you should already be.
SPEAKER_01: He being a just man, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Most of us, again, are good at uh when our righteousness is vertical, but when it's horizontal, I remember years ago meeting with a couple in counseling.
SPEAKER_01: Um the woman had been unfaithful, and the man was like, and and and and we were like six sessions in, and and I it something got named for me.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, man, you are very self-righteous.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Can I ask a question?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Do you think your wife being unfaithful made you more righteous?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Because you are very self-righteous, very noble.
SPEAKER_01: You you almost you might as well come out and say, I mean, she ought to be glad that I chose to forgive her.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, I think that.
SPEAKER_01: I think that I said, You're just holding this over her head, like, hey, you cheated, and now I get to be in charge of the relationship.
SPEAKER_01: You think your wife's infidelity gives you power?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know about that language, but I I do think I'm a good man.
SPEAKER_01: I said, not about being a good man.
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference in good and self-righteous.
SPEAKER_01: I said, your vertical righteousness is one thing, your horror, your horizontal righteousness stinks.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I said, here's how your wife will know you've forgiven her.
SPEAKER_01: You stop relating to her, like, eh, you and I both know.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you glad I forgave you?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You ever read the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm not much.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Are you familiar with the story of Hosea and Gomer?
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hosea was a guy that married to a woman named Gomer.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, that name that should have been a bad sign right there.
SPEAKER_01: None of you named your daughters Gomer, and you will not after this.
SPEAKER_01: And so Gomer was she was unfaithful.
SPEAKER_01: She was cheated on him multiple times.
SPEAKER_01: And then he's back at home just chilling, and he gets word, by the way, she has been unfaithful multiple times, and now no one wants her.
SPEAKER_01: They're selling her down there at the slave market.
SPEAKER_01: And God told Hosea, you go down there and buy her back.
SPEAKER_01: Now this guy is like, Are you serious?
SPEAKER_01: That's in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes down there, and if you read it, it's Hosea chapter 3, it's only like six or seven verses.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that long, but basically it lists out all her sins, and then he says, and so I bought her.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, So what do you say?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Physically, you're Hosea, and your wife is Gomer.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just take the obvious.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Okay, yeah?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh man, your nobility loves that.
SPEAKER_01: But look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritually, you're Gomer.
SPEAKER_01: You hoard around on God, and you're down there being sold to the highest bidder of the slave market, and God went down there and raised his paddle and said, I want that one.
SPEAKER_01: Unless you can, this is where you get the capacity to be gracious to your wife.
SPEAKER_01: You embrace that you're Gomer.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, the wife is bawling.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_01: That's because you're self-righteous.
SPEAKER_01: Your righteousness doesn't come from God, it comes from yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I wasn't expecting this today.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what to expect in every encounter you have?
SPEAKER_01: If you do, you don't need counseling.
SPEAKER_01: Just stay home and look in the mirror and talk to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: I'm available this week, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting.
SPEAKER_01: And his wife holding on to the arms of the chair, sobbing.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she's deep into the ugly cry.
SPEAKER_01: She just said, I'm Gomber, I'm Gomber.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Not in God's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: No, he bought you back.
SPEAKER_01: He got he ain't got a list of all your transgressions.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Why are you telling me that?
SPEAKER_01: It's easy to be righteous vertically.
SPEAKER_01: It's quite another thing to be righteous horizontally.
SPEAKER_01: Especially to those who've sinned against you or wronged you or violated you.
SPEAKER_01: The gaping need in the church today is not for more people.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: The church today does not need more people, contrary to popular opinion.
SPEAKER_01: We need just and righteous people.
SPEAKER_01: And to be just is to be righteous.
SPEAKER_01: And it describes a person whose way of thinking and feeling and acting is wholly conformed to the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: To Mary, the angel says, Greetings, O favored One.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you found favor with God.
SPEAKER_01: If an angel greeted you today, what do you think they'd say?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, let's cut back to one pack a day.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: This is beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Greetings, O favored One.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you want to hear that once before you die?
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second thing.
SPEAKER_01: I told you there's two things should strike us about Mary and Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, how heaven talks about these people of earth.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, how they respond.
SPEAKER_01: Especially Mary.
SPEAKER_01: Think about this just for a minute, ladies.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're you're you're you're you're doing everything right.
SPEAKER_01: You're betrothed, you're not sleeping with your boyfriend, saying we love each other, we're gonna get married, so it's okay.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's like, hey, we're we're we're we're doing the deal here.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: What Mary doesn't say is, hey, this is all well and good and everything, but God didn't consult me before he knocked me up.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have to work out some kind of settlement because my bodily autonomy has been violated, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about anybody else, but I got boundaries, and now mama can't get a drink on for nine months and watch land man when it comes on tonight.
SPEAKER_01: No, she doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, can you imagine this happened in 2025?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, a woman would be like, Are you serious?
SPEAKER_01: My bodily autonomy.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it means, but I heard it on CNN.
SPEAKER_01: It's got to be important.
SPEAKER_01: No, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: God didn't knock on the door of her heart either.
SPEAKER_01: And he ain't knocking on the door of yours.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever chicken breath preacher told you that lied to you.
SPEAKER_01: That's sentiment.
SPEAKER_01: That's not theology, it's not at all.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, she simply says, Behold, I'm the servant of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this.
SPEAKER_01: Let it be to me according to your word.
SPEAKER_01: I am the servant of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to finish this sentence before you go to bed tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I am the servant of blank.
SPEAKER_01: Whose servant are you?
SPEAKER_01: I am the servant of blank.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, if you're honest, you have to say, I'm the servant of money.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: I crave it.
SPEAKER_01: I leverage it.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, I'm the servant of whatever your favorite bourbon is.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the servant of blank.
SPEAKER_01: Whose servant are you?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the third thing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh if you want to be more peaceful at God's doing, you got to be responsible with the revelation that you receive.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta be responsible with the revelation you receive.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20 says, but as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: She'll bear a son.
SPEAKER_01: She will you will call his name Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what do you mean, be responsible with the revelation?
SPEAKER_01: Notice that the dream he has was in response to what he was considering.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph has a dream, and it's it's in response to what he's considering.
SPEAKER_01: He's not told anybody, he didn't put it out there on Reddit and say, What do you guys think?
SPEAKER_01: My girlfriend says that the Holy Spirit got her pregnant.
SPEAKER_01: I think she's a phandering scamp, and I want to get rid of her.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all tell me what to do.
SPEAKER_01: No, he's just thinking in his mind, I'm a just man.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to embarrass her.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna put her away quietly.
SPEAKER_01: And God speaks to him through a dream.
SPEAKER_01: And again, the dream was a response to what he was considering.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, God knows your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Now, for most people, acknowledging that God already knows their thoughts brings offense, not intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: I hear this all the time.
SPEAKER_01: People say, Well, if God already knows, why even pray?
SPEAKER_01: Here's a real simple reason: prayer is not where God demonstrates what he knows.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is where you and I demonstrate what we know.
SPEAKER_01: God has demonstrated what he knows in the revealed word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is where you and I demonstrate.
SPEAKER_01: I remember years ago I was a discipline of a younger man, and I said, Hey, I want you to pray out loud.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Oh, I like it when you pray.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, I pray a lot.
SPEAKER_01: I want to hear you pray.
SPEAKER_01: And he got done, he goes, Why do you want to hear me pray?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I just want to hear you pray.
SPEAKER_01: I'll make sure you pray.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that you pray.
SPEAKER_01: I hear you, amen, and agreeing stuff that I say, but I want to hear you talk to God publicly.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is awkward.
SPEAKER_01: Shouldn't be awkward to talk to someone you know and love.
SPEAKER_01: And so he prayed.
SPEAKER_01: And I took notes.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm a jerk.
SPEAKER_01: No, he says, I want you to mentor me.
SPEAKER_01: I'll mentor you.
SPEAKER_01: When he got done, he goes, Were you writing stuff down?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Were you writing down what I said?
SPEAKER_01: No, I wouldn't write down what you said because you didn't say much of nothing.
SPEAKER_01: You said a bunch of borrowed phrases you've heard other people pray before.
SPEAKER_01: You said, in the prophecy of my office, Lord lead God in direct Pastor Neil.
SPEAKER_01: That's like 1970 praying there.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I know this is awkward.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are coming like, oh, you evaluate me.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and when he was done, I held it up.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'll give that a five-five from the East German judge.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I looked at him and I said, I said, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not evaluating your prayers, believe it or not.
SPEAKER_01: I'm listening for where are you in these prayers?
SPEAKER_01: And I experienced you as a young man who does not know much about God.
SPEAKER_01: You know a lot about religious subculture.
SPEAKER_01: You got a lot of phrases in your pockets, but you don't know much about God.
SPEAKER_01: And that kid looked at me and he said, You're exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, I'm not trying to hate on this.
SPEAKER_01: This just tells me, hey, this is where we can start.
SPEAKER_01: We can start here.
SPEAKER_01: Because I want you to know and understand things about God.
SPEAKER_01: And then what you pray, it's just it's like knocking the cap off.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it just comes gushing out.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Yeah, I hate when people call on me to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: See, again, be responsible with the revelation that you received.
SPEAKER_01: God already knows our thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you pray, you're not enlightening God.
SPEAKER_01: He already knows.
SPEAKER_01: He understands.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, everybody, you read about God speaking in a dream, and some of you may be like, does God still speak through dreams?
SPEAKER_01: I believe he does.
SPEAKER_01: But I do not believe that every dream you have is God speaking.
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear the difference in those two?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, God speaks through dreams.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you some guidelines from the book of Daniel just about how to interpret dreams.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta, there's four things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, does it align with scripture?
SPEAKER_01: Does it align with scripture?
SPEAKER_01: Number two, does understanding a dream requires prayer and wise counsel?
SPEAKER_01: Understanding a dream requires prayer and wise.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody stopped me yesterday at the Christmas festival and said, Hey, I had a dream about you.
SPEAKER_01: And I just told me I was like, ah, I got nothing.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, should be interpreted with humility.
SPEAKER_01: Should be interpreted with humility.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: I know churches where the pastor resigned and somebody that no one no one in the church was thinking went to the elders and said, I had a dream and God told me I'm gonna be the next pastor.
SPEAKER_01: I want to start on Monday.
SPEAKER_01: He was a youth pastor.
SPEAKER_01: You know how they are.
SPEAKER_01: Where's he in?
SPEAKER_01: There he is.
SPEAKER_01: Ambitious little Aggie.
SPEAKER_01: So I get a call from this church and they said, Hey, can you help us with this?
SPEAKER_01: We like our youth pastor.
SPEAKER_01: We don't think he's ready to take the mantle of leadership.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Who said he should take the mantle of leadership?
SPEAKER_01: Well, God told him in a dream.
SPEAKER_01: God told him.
SPEAKER_01: Has God told anybody else?
SPEAKER_01: Is that confirmed by two or three witnesses?
SPEAKER_01: They said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I said, in the book of Acts, they made decisions like this.
SPEAKER_01: They said, It seemed pleasing to the Holy Spirit and to us.
SPEAKER_01: Where's the us in this decision?
SPEAKER_01: I just hear an I, not an us.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Yeah, but we don't have a pastor, and he seemed, he's very certain about this dream he had.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was very certain in the eighth grade I was going to marry Debbie Anders, too.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last one.
SPEAKER_01: Who does this invite me to trust?
SPEAKER_01: Who does this dream invite me to trust?
SPEAKER_01: And this is the church said, This is very helpful.
SPEAKER_01: I said, this kid is asking y'all to trust him.
SPEAKER_01: Do you trust him?
SPEAKER_01: They said, Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01: He's a good guy.
SPEAKER_01: He needs more experience and more seasoning.
SPEAKER_01: Then just tell him that.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it like this, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Never elevate an experience above the authority of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Dreams are secondary, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The word is primary.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just read to you from Jeremiah 23.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God says about it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I've heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
SPEAKER_01: How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prof who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams, that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.
SPEAKER_01: Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.
SPEAKER_01: What has straw in common with wheat, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah 25, verses 23, verses 25 to 29.
SPEAKER_01: There are churches.
SPEAKER_01: There's one very popular in California that have the Dream Academy, where you can go and learn, and I'm just like, hey folks, let's make sure the word is primary and everything else is secondary.
SPEAKER_01: There's a power in God's word that you never find in your experiences.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last thing from this morning.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last thing.
SPEAKER_01: Learn to glorify God in what you don't do.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: After it says, He did uh when the angel, verse 24, when Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
SPEAKER_01: He took his wife.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how you glorify God in what you don't do.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph doesn't want there to be any confusion as to who the origin of Jesus, who's the father of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He marries this woman he was betrothed to, and he didn't have intimate relations with her for almost a year.
SPEAKER_01: Men?
SPEAKER_01: Are you listening?
SPEAKER_01: He says, I don't want to be there any confusion.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm not gonna put my needs above God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, man's got needs.
SPEAKER_01: I married you to meet my needs.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says we're one flesh.
SPEAKER_01: You feel how awkward it is in here right now?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just let it hang in the air.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, I've heard it all in counseling.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And Joseph said, Hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna glorify God by what I don't do.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, she's my wife.
SPEAKER_01: I could probably be with her if I wanted to.
SPEAKER_01: But then if I did that, for the rest of history, people go, yeah, well, how do we know that her Joseph after they got married to have sex and boom, Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: I'm in.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph chose to glorify God by what he didn't do.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me and we're done.
SPEAKER_01: What could you not do this week that would glorify God?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: We like to teach the Bible, then we give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Some questions come on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: That's for your consideration.
SPEAKER_01: Let me voice a prayer and let's just spend the next couple of minutes just thinking and listening.
SPEAKER_01: Ask the Lord, hey, what'd you say to me today?
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, thanks for your truth of your word.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks that it invites us.
SPEAKER_01: You're not harsh or heavy, you're just honest.
SPEAKER_01: And in a world full of so much lies and fake people, to worship a God that tells the truth all the time is super refreshing.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, refresh us now with your presence.
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: You were not designed to live life backwards, to have ideas that you ask God to bless.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, you were designed to find out where God's at work and join him there.
SPEAKER_01: Figure out where God's at work, what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Give your life to the furtherance and the enjoyment of that.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to this message.
SPEAKER_00: Be sure to give us a five star rating and review and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to go deeper with our sermon content, you can hear more on our Circling Back with Neil McClendon Podcast at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.