Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] I see a lot of ugly sweaters here today.
[00:00:08] Evidently, I got the wrong message. They told me it was ugly hair day, so I tried to.
[00:00:20] We do our very best to have the sheriff here to help you get out of the parking lot, and we pay for that. But if they don't come, we can't do anything about it. Do you understand that? It's not that we said last Sunday, eh, Let them worry about getting out themselves.
[00:00:41] We are dependent on them to sign up to come, and sometimes nobody signs up to come, and then we have a parking jam like we did last week.
[00:00:52] So I want to ask two things. If there's not a cop here, be ye kind, one to another, let somebody in. This is not Mario Andretti in the Indianapolis 500.
[00:01:08] And if you know anything about the traffic laws and some option we might have that we haven't found, let me know and we'll explore it.
[00:01:18] I want to make it easy to get you in and out of church.
[00:01:22] And when it isn't easy, it's not because we're not trying our best. Do we have a deal?
[00:01:33] Our dear Heavenly Father, Christmas is your good idea.
[00:01:43] When we.
[00:01:47] When we were hopeless, you gave us a child who grew in to be a man and offered himself that we could be acceptable to you.
[00:02:01] And we are so very thankful.
[00:02:05] I pray that we could see from the scriptures this morning that even when Christmas creates problems, you are capable of turning our problems into your eternal purposes.
[00:02:23] So I ask this in Jesus name, amen.
[00:02:31] We're always hoping for a perfect Christmas, and that means something different to everybody.
[00:02:42] But it is not uncommon for the days after Christmas to be a little disappointing because things didn't work out the way we want them to be. Has anybody ever felt that, okay, that little letdown after Christmas because you had hoped to see somebody you didn't get to see, or you had to see somebody you didn't want to see.
[00:03:11] Ah, ah, ah. Or something didn't go the way you wish you would, it would have. All right.
[00:03:20] But it turns out the very first Christmas was full of problems.
[00:03:28] It was not easy for Mary and Joseph to go through the first Christmas.
[00:03:37] Matthew tells us now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph.
[00:03:49] Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit and Joseph, her husband, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
[00:04:07] But as he considered these things, behold the 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.
[00:04:26] And she will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
[00:04:39] If you read that the way it wants to be read.
[00:04:48] There was a crisis of trust.
[00:04:52] And Joseph was seriously contemplating divorcing Mary just before Christmas.
[00:05:08] They weren't planning how they were going to enjoy Christmas together.
[00:05:17] They weren't thinking about how delightful it would be to spend Christmas together.
[00:05:25] They weren't talking about whose house they would have dinner at.
[00:05:32] There was a crisis of trust.
[00:05:37] You see, after the angel announced to Mary that she was going to give birth to the Son of God, she went and visited her Aunt Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist.
[00:05:52] And when she went to see her aunt, she did not look pregnant.
[00:05:58] But three months later when she came home, she did look pregnant.
[00:06:03] And then she had to have a conversation with Joseph.
[00:06:10] And she told Joseph that an angel had appeared to her and that the angel had promised her that she was going to give birth to Messiah.
[00:06:21] And it went through Joseph's heart like a sword.
[00:06:26] The woman he thought he could trust in his heart had betrayed him.
[00:06:38] And he wasn't a man to make a scene. He just wasn't the kind of guy who said, I'll get even with you, I'll shame you in front of everyone.
[00:06:51] He wasn't that kind of guy.
[00:06:54] But he did have his pride and it was more than he could take.
[00:07:01] And it created a terrible crisis of trust in him.
[00:07:09] I know that Christmas creates a crisis of trust in many of you.
[00:07:18] When you think about Christmas, you have, ah, you have memories that push your trust issues.
[00:07:35] Maybe they go back to the your family of origin. And there was broken promises and broken relationships and Christmas stopped being a family thing and it became, ah, who can come to the Christmas and who can't come to the Christmas?
[00:07:59] Maybe there was a crisis of trust because someone in your family had an addiction, and every Christmas that addiction expressed itself.
[00:08:10] But I would say it is not uncommon in a congregation this large that some of you approach Christmas and it triggers your trust issues.
[00:08:23] I'd like to ask you, this year, instead of just repeating Christmases of the past, what if this year you take a moment and you confront your own trust issues?
[00:08:39] And instead of focusing your trust issues on others and what they have done and have not done, how about if you refocus your trust issues on yourself?
[00:08:54] You say, well, Doc, how would I do that?
[00:08:58] The first step you could take Is you can acknowledge that people have broken your trust and then forgive them.
[00:09:06] Do you hear that?
[00:09:09] You can say this, parent, that still I have all these trust issues with what they did wasn't right and it hurt me. Listen, listen.
[00:09:23] But I'm forgiving it because I want a different life. I want to learn to trust in a healthy way again and to do that for my own well being, I'm going to forgive what I have held in my heart and it made it difficult for me to trust.
[00:09:47] A second thing you might do is you might reinterpret.
[00:09:52] When I think about the people who have disappointed me and broken my trust, I have to admit that I make assumptions about what they did and why they did it.
[00:10:10] One way you deal with your trust issues is you reinterpret and you say, yes, this person broke my trust.
[00:10:20] Yes, they made it hard for me to trust them.
[00:10:24] But is it possible that I can look at them and reinterpret what happened and say it really wasn't about me at all, it was about something tragically gone wrong in them.
[00:10:41] And instead of me holding that against them, I develop an inner sense of I haven't been perfect either and I've disappointed people and I've broken their trust.
[00:10:55] Church, is it possible that you might have a softer spirit toward other people if you remember that you haven't been perfect either and people counted on you and you let them down and you feel bad about it and you would fix it if you could.
[00:11:17] It's the human condition.
[00:11:20] Perhaps you can reinterpret your trust issues this Christmas and say, I've disappointed people too.
[00:11:33] And this year, instead of focusing on how I have been disappointed, I'm going to let that go and I'm going to focus on how can I make things right with the people I disappointed.
[00:11:50] A third way we can deal with our trust issues is have a new have a different conversation with myself.
[00:11:59] Do you know at some point in life you got to move on, Church.
[00:12:04] You got to move on.
[00:12:07] I mean, how many years is enough?
[00:12:16] Even criminals get a sentence that has an end to it.
[00:12:21] You're getting five years for this. You're getting 10 years for this. Okay, some of you have an open ended sentence. There is no end date for the issue.
[00:12:39] You gave them life. Plus, perhaps this is the Christmas where you simply say to yourself, it's been enough. I'm moving on.
[00:12:53] I'm having a different conversation. I'm thinking about this in a different way. I'm moving on. This is no longer going to be an issue. In my life. Christmas after Christmas after Christmas.
[00:13:09] And I suppose the best way to deal with your trust issues is you have a heavenly father who's altogether trustworthy.
[00:13:18] And I believe. I believe if you would create a few quiet moments, and if you'd seek the Lord with all your heart and you would express your disappointment to him, you would cast all your cares upon him, believing that he cares for you, you might feel differently about your trust issues. Do you see?
[00:13:43] Instead of you carrying it all yourself, you cast all your care upon him and you say, I know you care for me. Help me to put this in a proper place in my life.
[00:13:59] Something I like about Joseph shows up in verse 20.
[00:14:07] But as he considered these things, Joseph was a wise man. He didn't react too quickly.
[00:14:18] One thing about trust issues is one thing about disappointment is it can cause us to act too quickly and improperly.
[00:14:28] We overreact and we act too soon. And Joseph did just the opposite this Christmas. If someone disappoints you this Christmas, if somebody presses on your trust issues, follow Joseph's example and simply say, I'm not reacting too quickly and I'm not gonna overreact.
[00:14:49] This is just one moment. It doesn't have to define my whole Christmas.
[00:14:56] Can you hear this?
[00:14:58] So and so says that obnoxious thing they always say, and it triggers you.
[00:15:05] You can just take a moment and say, I'm doing it Joseph's way.
[00:15:11] I'm not going to act, react too soon, and I'm not going to overreact.
[00:15:17] Don't decide too soon. Don't overreact.
[00:15:23] Don't say, this is the way this person always is.
[00:15:30] Church.
[00:15:33] They're not always that way. They are that way sometimes. Church.
[00:15:42] A second thing about this is God acts in our problems for his glory and his eternal purpose.
[00:15:51] Joseph had a real problem. This was going to change his life.
[00:15:57] He was going to walk away from the woman he loved more than any woman in the world.
[00:16:03] It was a real crisis. It was such a crisis that God himself had to act.
[00:16:11] And behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
[00:16:32] In that moment that Joseph took to wait, God said to Joseph, joseph, this problem that seems insurmountable to you, it's part of something really big that I'm doing.
[00:16:48] And I'm asking you, I'm asking you if you can't trust Mary to trust me because I'm at work in this in a powerful way.
[00:17:01] I wonder if you would look at the problems of Christmas in that way.
[00:17:06] The problems that arise this Christmas. If you just took a moment and said, I wonder if God's trying to work in a special way in my life through this problem.
[00:17:20] I wonder if God is going to do something beautiful in my life through this problem.
[00:17:26] Is this problem really an opportunity for God to do something in my life he would not otherwise have done?
[00:17:39] Is God inviting me to be his partner in doing good by making me part of this problem?
[00:17:48] You see, what God said to Joseph was, joseph, this is a problem to you, but I want you to be my partner in this problem.
[00:17:56] I'm going to use this problem in a way that you can't imagine, and I want you to be my partner in this problem.
[00:18:05] Is it possible that the difficulties you faced this Christmas, God wants to whisper to your heart, you're my partner in this.
[00:18:15] I want you to treat this problem exactly the way you think I would treat it. I want you to treat these people exactly the way you think I would treat them.
[00:18:25] I want you to have the same grace toward this unpleasant person that you know I would have.
[00:18:33] And our problems become opportunities for us to be partners with God in doing something that is part of his eternal purpose.
[00:18:47] It turns out that Joseph's trust problems were more about Joseph than they were about Mary. Mary was absolutely trustworthy. Church she had not betrayed him in any way.
[00:19:02] In fact, she had accepted the challenge of God to be his partner in doing something very, very difficult.
[00:19:14] Church Mary trusted God, and God sent his son into the world through Mary, the one that we trust for our eternal salvation.
[00:19:32] Do you see how that works? God is sending Christ into the world so we can trust in him.
[00:19:40] And he sends him into the world. And he says to Joseph, I want you to trust me. This child is the Messiah.
[00:19:50] God said to Mary, you're going to have to trust me on this, Mary. Your son is going to save his people from their sins.
[00:19:59] So the trust issues of Christmas look up to a bigger trust. And that's not really the trust we put in each other. That is the trust we put in God.
[00:20:11] Christmas is a call for you and I to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not lean on our own understanding.
[00:20:21] Christmas is a call to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
[00:20:29] Christmas is part of God's plan to forgive sin.
[00:20:38] We find a second problem in Christmas in Luke, chapter two.
[00:20:43] In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered this was first the registration which Quirinius, the governor of Syria.
[00:20:58] I didn't read that very well. Let's do it again.
[00:21:02] This was the first registration when Quirinius was the governor of Syria and all went to be registered each to his own town.
[00:21:14] And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judah, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child on the first Christmas. They didn't get to spend Christmas where they wanted to spend Christmas.
[00:21:43] You ever been there?
[00:21:45] Do you have to spend Christmas where you do not want to spend Christmas?
[00:21:51] No.
[00:21:56] Where you spend Christmas can be a problem.
[00:22:01] When Sharon and I were going to college, we wanted to drive home for college, for Christmas.
[00:22:12] And we went to college in Springfield, Missouri.
[00:22:19] And we got in a snowstorm that went from Springfield all the way to Cleveland. That's. It was snowing hard when we left Springfield, and it was still snowing hard when we got in Cleveland.
[00:22:34] We were dirt poor and couldn't afford to stop.
[00:22:38] And we drove 22 hours.
[00:22:41] That is not the way I would choose to take my Christmas break. Anyone?
[00:22:52] I followed a bus that had big red lights. And I said to Shea, if that bus goes in the ditch, we're going in right behind them.
[00:23:02] Because I have no clue where I am or where the road is, but that guy's a pro. So Mary and Joseph would have preferred to stay home, to be in Nazareth, to be around Mary's family and friends and extended family and Joseph's family and the people they worked with. That's where they wanted to be.
[00:23:34] But because of the Roman occupation, they were torn out of the comfort of their home. And they had to go from Nazareth all the way to Bethlehem.
[00:23:54] And when they got there, they were all alone.
[00:24:01] They didn't have family there, they didn't have friends there.
[00:24:07] It was a lonely Christmas for them.
[00:24:12] Can you remember being newlyweds and not being able to go home for Christmas?
[00:24:22] Anyone? I can remember we were working our way through college. Sometimes we just couldn't afford to go.
[00:24:30] We'd set up our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
[00:24:38] I have a sympathy in my heart for what it must have been the loneliness they must have felt.
[00:24:45] No family support, no community support.
[00:24:50] Here's a lady nine months pregnant and there's no room in the inn. I mean, and there's no one who says, oh, hon, I feel so sorry for you. Come over.
[00:25:03] I know some of you feel loneliness every Christmas.
[00:25:09] You're in a place very different from where you want to be.
[00:25:15] I want to offer you hope.
[00:25:19] When Mary and Joseph were all alone at Christmas, God found a way to send shepherds to them and to encourage them and to give them hope.
[00:25:37] If you feel loneliness this Christmas, whisper a prayer to God.
[00:25:44] See if he can't find a way to send some shepherds into your life and to tell you that God is good and that he wants to bless you and that he has favor for you in the coming year.
[00:25:58] I believe God finds a way to send people into our lives when we are open to it. Church, it may not be the people you would pick. If Mary could have picked, she'd have said, send my mom, I got a new baby here.
[00:26:17] If Joseph could have found, he'd have said, send my sister, I need help with my wife.
[00:26:26] We don't always get to pick, but I believe if we have an open heart, God will find ways to send people to us. And if we're open hearted, he'll find ways to speak encouragement and blessing to us through those people.
[00:26:46] You should also know that the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem was a four or five day walk.
[00:26:57] Now I know a thing or two about pregnancy. Not that I've ever been pregnant, but my wife gave birth to five kids. And I know the closer you are to giving birth, the more uncomfortable you are. Ladies, it's almost the pre birth waddle. It's even hard to walk, right?
[00:27:27] Mary walked four or five days that pregnant, okay?
[00:27:39] I call that a Christmas problem.
[00:27:42] Look, I'm not pregnant and I don't want to walk four or five days anywhere.
[00:27:47] I don't want to walk one day anywhere.
[00:27:52] All right?
[00:27:58] On top of walking for four or five days, that also meant that they had to camp out three or four days, right? You walk a day, you camp out, you walk another day.
[00:28:13] All right?
[00:28:16] You want to lay on the ground nine months pregnant?
[00:28:21] No, that's the time for a nice comfy warm bread with some nice comforters.
[00:28:30] The first Christmas was not easy for Mary and Joseph.
[00:28:39] I imagine that Mary was as weary and hurting as she could possibly be.
[00:28:46] And I imagine that Joseph was anxious for how he was taking care of his new wife as he carried whatever supplies they had day after day and created little camps at night, just trying to get them from Nazareth to Bethlehem in the most doable way.
[00:29:12] Could I tell you, whatever your challenges are this Christmas, remember that other good people have struggled also. You're not alone.
[00:29:20] The problem is problems want to isolate you. They want to say to you Nobody's ever had it as bad as this. You're the only one who's ever had to do this. You're all alone in this.
[00:29:35] I'm willing to bet that none of us will have the struggles this Christmas that Mary and Joseph had, the first Christmas church.
[00:29:47] You're not alone.
[00:29:50] Whatever you have this Christmas that is a problem and is difficult and challenges you, say to yourself, you're not alone.
[00:30:01] And then say to yourself, in this problem, I'm going to struggle toward Christ, not away from Christ.
[00:30:12] Luke went on to say, and while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
[00:30:21] And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them. In the end, Christmas often triggers problems of timing. It's just not the right time.
[00:30:45] Or how do we figure out, how do we do this and that and how do we fit this in and what excuse can we make so we don't have to do this?
[00:30:54] Anyone?
[00:30:57] Come on, I can't be the only sinner left in this church.
[00:31:05] Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem at a difficult time. You see, they weren't the only one who had to register. The Romans said everybody had to register. And this little village of Bethlehem wasn't big enough for everybody who had to come there and register. It wasn't a good time.
[00:31:26] The village was full of people.
[00:31:35] On top of that, the city of Bethlehem is on high ground and then it slopes down as you look south. And then from Bethlehem you can see what's called the Herodian.
[00:31:56] It is a palace that Herod the Great built. This is an artist's reconstruction of what it looked like.
[00:32:03] Do you see there at the top of the hill?
[00:32:07] There was a huge palace up there. And Herod felt safe up there because it would be hard to attack. I actually visited this when I was in Israel and they were excavating it and I watched as a lady archaeologist cleaned away a mosaic.
[00:32:32] Also interesting. Brothers, you'd find this interesting. They have these round stone, like bowling ball sized stones.
[00:32:42] And I said to the guide, what are those? He goes, they roll those downhill. If somebody attacked the fort, you could from Bethlehem and the little stable that Mary and Joseph were staying in, you could look across the plain and you could see Herodians, Herod's palace.
[00:33:03] All right, now if I'm Mary and Joseph, and I said yes to this hard thing with God, we're going to bring the Son of God into the world.
[00:33:14] And I'm looking at I'm in a barn and Herod's up there. I'm going to have an issue with God.
[00:33:23] I'm going to say Herod is an evil man and he's sleeping in a comfortable bed in a palace tonight.
[00:33:32] We have said yes to giving, to nurturing the Son of God.
[00:33:40] And we're not even in a Motel 8.
[00:33:48] It is.
[00:33:53] We mustn't judge God's good intentions by the situations that we find ourselves in at any one time.
[00:34:04] Church.
[00:34:06] I guarantee you you would rather be Mary and Joseph today than Herod.
[00:34:13] In that moment, it looked like Herod had everything going for him and Mary and Joseph had nothing going for them. But in God's eternal plan, that was all a misjudgment because Mary and Joseph were exactly where God wanted them to be, and Herod was far, far from God.
[00:34:35] This Christmas is not the time for you to look around and say, this shouldn't be like that, and this shouldn't be like this. And why are those. Why do those people who are bad have all this? And we're good and we're struggling with this. This is not the time to try to evaluate that.
[00:34:52] There will be a time when the Christ that we worship at Christmas, he will evaluate all things, and he will evaluate them in wisdom and injustice.
[00:35:07] But this Christmas is not that time.
[00:35:10] This Christmas is a time where, by faith, we say to God, I trust in you.
[00:35:19] This is not the way I would have picked, and this is not what I had hoped for. But you are still my God, and I'm still going to walk with you through this. Whether I understand it or not.
[00:35:33] Life situations may be difficult, but Christmas comes anyway.
[00:35:38] Friday, Shay and I did a funeral of a man I've known since I was a teenager.
[00:35:49] Christmas will not be for that family what it has been for all the years they've had.
[00:36:01] I did the mom's funeral about six months ago, and I did the dad's funeral Friday. This will be the first year that in that family's existence that there wasn't a mom and dad at the Christmas.
[00:36:16] It's not the situation that they want.
[00:36:20] Some of you know what I'm talking about. Some of you understand perfectly well what I'm talking about.
[00:36:28] We cannot control the situations of our life this Christmas. But guess what? We can control. We can control ourselves.
[00:36:37] Although I cannot control the situation. I can control who I am. I can control how I treat people. I can control what I say. I can control my intentions.
[00:36:55] Mary gave birth to Jesus in a place she would not have Picked.
[00:36:59] Nobody signs up to give birth to their first child in the stall of a barn.
[00:37:05] It is not what Mary would have picked.
[00:37:11] But God's greatest blessings sometimes come in unexpected times and unexpected ways.
[00:37:20] Are you expecting a blessing this Christmas?
[00:37:24] Could you accept a blessing if it doesn't come to you wrapped up the way you think it should?
[00:37:32] Mary received a great blessing. She gave birth to Jesus Christ that day. It didn't happen the way she had hoped it would, but it was still an awesome thing from God.
[00:37:51] Mary and Joseph just made the first Christmas work.
[00:37:54] They had as many problems as you can imagine, but they made it work.
[00:38:01] Not the time Mary had hoped for to give birth. Not the place Mary had hoped for to give birth.
[00:38:08] Not the baby clothes she had hoped for. I know a thing or two about baby clothes.
[00:38:16] When my son. When we found out Sharon was going to have my son, one of the first things I did is I went to this place and bought a little Indians onesie.
[00:38:32] Baby clothes matter, mom and dad.
[00:38:45] Mary wrapped the baby up in a blanket.
[00:38:50] Swaddling clothes. Sounds designer.
[00:38:55] You know what it was? She wrapped the baby up in a couple blankets.
[00:39:00] Not what a first time mother would pick.
[00:39:06] And then Mary laid that baby in a cradle she would not have picked.
[00:39:11] It wasn't a beautiful cradle. It didn't have a soft mattress.
[00:39:16] There were no toys in that cradle.
[00:39:20] It was a feeding trough that Joseph had stuffed straw in and Mary had laid a blanket in.
[00:39:27] It wasn't the time she would have picked. It was not the place she would have picked. They weren't the clothes that she wanted. It wasn't the cradle that she had dreamed of, but they made it work.
[00:39:40] Church Christmas doesn't have to be perfect. And you can make it work.
[00:39:47] You see, love makes Christmas in a stable better than Herod living in a palace.
[00:40:00] When we let the love of Jesus Christ have its proper place in our life, regardless of the challenges we face at Christmas, we can make it work.
[00:40:14] If you will let Christ have His place in your heart, if you will let him influence your thinking, if you let him nurture what is best in you and call out his good work in you, you will be his partner this Christmas in accomplishing things that he's wanted to accomplish from all eternity, you will be the partner of God in making Christmas this year what he wants it to be.
[00:40:45] Our dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the scriptures, thank you for the Holy family, thank you for Mary and what a beautiful soul she was.
[00:41:04] Thank you for Joseph and how he was willing to put aside his ego and trust in you.
[00:41:19] But thank you most of all for Jesus Christ.
[00:41:23] Thank you that because of Jesus Christ, we're capable of being your partners this Christmas.
[00:41:31] Thank you. Because of Jesus Christ, we're capable of loving the way you want us to love.
[00:41:37] And I pray that the life of Christ would be expressed and evident in each one of us all who are in this building and those who are watching online this Christmas. In Christ's name, amen.
