My name is Ana Garcia and I've been attending One and All since August of 2023.

At that time, my husband started withdrawing from me.

He just didn't want to put the work into the relationship.

So that's why I wanted to go to church because I felt like, okay, maybe I need to work on myself.

And that's how I started wanting to look into different churches in the area, but One and All was just one that just called to me.

I'd wanted to go, but I always felt intimidated.

I was embarrassed and I just didn't know if I would be judged because I didn't have my husband with me at the time.

Then on Thanksgiving, he wasn't spending it with us.

He said that he was no longer picking us over his mom and that he did not love me and he left.

Then came that December when he was moving out.

We went to Chili's and he was very happy because he was moving into a new place, starting his new life.

We got in the car and we went to...

To Barnes & Noble and he got off and he says, I'm gonna go get something.

I said, okay.

There was a group of people, I think it was like five of them, and they had their Bibles out.

I didn't know what religion, I didn't know what it was.

But I wrote quickly on a piece of paper that I found like in the back of an envelope.

My name is Anna.

My family and I are going through a very tough time.

My husband is leaving us.

We're gonna be alone for the holidays.

Please pray for me.

Please pray for my son.

And please pray for our marriage.

I handed the paper.

And he said, we can pray for you right now.

And I said, I can't.

He's coming.

And I jumped in the car.

He got in the car and we left.

And then that weekend, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.

And as I was coming back, this woman stepped out from the crowd and said, you're Anna.

She says, we were at Barnes & Noble.

We've all been praying for you.

She stepped out of one of the aisles and hugged me.

And I just cried so hard.

I couldn't believe it.

Who would have thought that?

That was a group from one and all.

I have no clue who those people were, but they prayed for us, and the church has prayed for us.

I connected with Pastor Drew.

I started to cry, and I said, Pastor Drew, everything has fallen apart.

And he was just so understanding and listening and said, what happens when things fall apart?

He says, what's left?

And I said, nothing.

And he said, that's when God does his best work, because he can do it.

build it.

I was really nervous putting my son in kids ministry just because I wasn't familiar with it.

He's been embraced by everybody there.

The people that volunteer they're just amazing.

They see him they say hi Joseph how are you and I'll go to an extra service on Saturday and Sunday just because he loves it so much and he wants to go back.

And my son now that we drive down to my parents house and there's the one and all West Covina it feels so great.

When we're driving by he says, Mom, that's our church.

So we have a home there.

So I want to say thank you to everybody for all that they've done for us.

And for embracing my son.

We are so grateful.

I can't even tell you.

What do we say, son?

Thank you!

Stay strong.

Strong in your faith.

Surround yourself with people who are positive, who are going to build you up.

And find a church like Woodinall, because there, they welcome you with open arms, and you just feel the love.

I love Christmas.

Here we are.

It's Christmas season, and you're ready for it.

Okay, Luke chapters 1 and 2 and Matthew 1 and 2, but I'm going to start with Luke chapter 1, verse 26.

The scriptures will also be on the screen.

You can follow along there as well.

Every year that I've been here, I think this is my, this is 16th or 17th year, I can't remember when you get this old, but it's somewhere around, thank you very much, 15th or 16th.

So, every year I come out, it's so different.

This is the big culture shock I had in coming from the South, where Christmas, I mean, you start November 1st, I mean, it's huge.

And then coming to Southern California, it's always been difficult for me to get you motivated.

I'm not sure why, never have figured that out.

Maybe it's because your life is good all the other 11 months.

I don't know, but Christmas time in the South, man, we really look forward to it every year.

And I love it as a pastor, not because of the marketing, not because of all the pressure to buy things.

Maybe that's why some people don't enjoy it that much.

Maybe.

Maybe it's all the commercialism that goes along with it, but I love it because every year we come to a season where we're reminded of something that's so wonderful and so profound and so beautiful and so transformational.

I need to be forced to think about it.

And so I know there are people now that they think, well, you know, Jesus wasn't born December 25th anyway.

Well, that's probably true, but does it really matter?

I know there are other people who think, well, that coincides with a pagan holiday.

That doesn't matter either.

Or people think we shouldn't celebrate Santa Claus.

It's not about Santa Claus.

Well, I've been to St. Nicholas's actual church building in Turkey, so I know he's real.

Well, at least the figure Santa Claus evolved from a very benevolent priest that actually did live.

And so on and on it goes.

And wherever your stance on all of that is, the birth of Christ is the most amazing thing ever to happen in human history.

God becomes an embryo?

Have you ever thought about that?

God?

The implications are staggering, so I don't really care when you celebrate it.

It just should be celebrated at some point, probably all year round.

But Christmas almost forces us to remember, and that's a good thing.

And here's why.

And this is why I'm glad you're here.

And this is why I hope that you come every weekend in the month of December to let me take you through this.

Because when you really understand what Christmas is about, it will give you, when you really understand it, it will give you the ability to endure the most difficult seasons of your life, like nothing else can.

So before I can take you into unknown territory, I want to make sure this Christmas that you understand what the narrative actually teaches, that in simplicity, these events occur and we can read them and understand them, but there's so much surrounding every event, so much history, so much going on at the same time.

And I'm hoping that by reminding you of things you know, that I can take you on a journey toward discovery of things you may have never even considered that can transform you.

It's Christmas, Christmas time.

So let's start in Luke chapter one, verse 26.

Here's how the story begins.

And you know what, if you're new here, and maybe you're a new believer, Maybe this is the first year you're going to get to hear the Christmas story.

Here's how it starts, or at least a major part of it.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, Elizabeth, by the way, is going to bear the son, John the Baptist, okay?

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.

The virgin's name was Mary.

The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored.

The Lord is with you.

Mary, look at verse 29, was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

Now, if you've been around one and all for a long time, you'll remember why it was that Mary was greatly troubled.

Because as we're going to see later, when she writes the Magnificat, Mary's song recorded in the book of Luke, there are over 30 references to the Old Testament.

She's very familiar with the Old Testament.

Therefore, she knows what this kind of greeting means.

When you hear the words, greetings, you are highly favored, the Lord is with you, your life's about to get bad.

And she knows it.

Abraham, greetings, you are highly favored.

And the next words he heard?

I want you to pack up all your stuff, travel to a new home.

The journey will be long and difficult.

There'll be no golden arches or Taco Bell.

The journey will be fraught with danger and peril.

You'll not know where you're going.

You'll not know the plan when you get there.

Just go, oh favored one.

You with me?

Moses, greetings you who are highly favored.

I want you to leave this wilderness where you're safe and secure and go into the mouth of the lion and lead people out of bondage.

You may not like the journey.

People may try to kill you.

You're going to have to eat manna all the time.

It's going to be a hard life.

Pharaoh will try to kill you.

The Israelites are all people will try to kill you, but go in peace.

Oh, highly favored one.

When Gideon heard the greeting, he was smart, young, smart.

Well, not real smart, but he talked back to God and he said, whoa, no, no, no.

Don't give me that greeting.

Don't call me valiant warrior.

Don't tell me the Lord is with me.

Please, no, no, no.

Where have you been for the last seven years?

The Midianites have been slaughtering our herds and burning our crops.

Where have you been, God?

Why'd you let the Midianites get away with this?

Don't call me a valiant warrior.

Don't give me that greeting.

I'm a farmer, man.

I know this greeting.

Choose somebody else.

So Mary knew all of these stories and knew what this greeting meant for her.

And that's why she's greatly troubled.

She knew that God was saying, Mary, you're not going to have a safe and secure and quiet and respectable life.

God requires you to do something far more demanding.

Now, because we know a little bit of what's going on in the narrative, historians tell us this could not have come at a worse time for young Mary.

Because she was part of what was known as the Anoim community.

Can you say that?

Anoim community.

This is a group of people that goes all the way back before the Hebrew exile.

So they get their name from the plural form of the Hebrew word for poverty.

Anoim means poor ones, pious ones, faithful poor.

And the Anoim are characterized by five primary features.

One, they are financially deprived.

They are poor, which explains why when Mary and Joseph took Jesus to dedicate him at the temple, rather than bringing a lamb like you're supposed to, they brought two pigeons.

That's only allowed in the temple in cases of extreme poverty.

Second, they're separated from their family at a young age by death, they are orphaned, may be in slavery.

And have you ever noticed?

Nowhere in the Bible are Mary's parents mentioned.

It's like she's parentless, like she has no mother, no father.

That's a pretty big deal in the first century when a person's identity is always tied to the family name.

And who did Mary run to tell as soon as she was visited by the angel and told she was going to bear the son of God?

She doesn't go to mom or dad or siblings, she goes to Elizabeth.

Moreover, the Anoim typically spend much of their time around the temple.

Why?

Because they need the benevolence to survive.

They depended on the priests for their food and their clothing and their shelter.

It was really a first century house, soup kitchen kind of way.

Without the temple, she would not survive.

And she's very young.

Did you know scholars believe somewhere between the age of 13 and 15?

13 and 15.

So because she spent all of her time around the temple, depending on the benevolence of the temple to survive, she heard all the messages.

She knows all the stories.

She knows all the Torah.

She knows the Old Testament passages.

So that when she sings her song of joy, the Magnificat in Luke 1, 46 through 55, it's filled with Anoim language directly from the Psalms.

Psalm 149 says, the Lord crowns the humble with salvation.

Luke 148, Mary's song says, for God has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

That is pure Anoim terminology.

And I want you just to understand that Mary is poor, hungry, parentless, alone.

The temple becomes her refuge.

And the words of hope ingrained in her come from the temple because of her proximity to it.

And then...

the story happens where something spectacular happens.

Mary, and this is uncanny, gets engaged.

How is that possible?

Who's going to marry a poor young girl who has no parents and no future?

We don't know what happened and we're not told.

Maybe Joseph made his way to the temple and here's this gorgeous girl and they lock eyes.

And something very special happens.

Maybe it was love at first sight.

Who knows really?

Everything is conjecture.

But what we do know is this.

This is the difference between life and death for Mary.

Because the life expectancy for the Annaween, of which Mary is a part, is very, very young.

Poverty, hunger, and finally death.

But now she meets a God named Joseph.

And now as a 13, 14, 15 year old, she's dreaming of a wedding.

Someone to take care of her, to put food on the table, a warm bed in which to sleep, children, a family.

These are all the things that little Jewish girls dream about.

Now it's true, Joseph is not rich.

He's respectable though.

He's got a good job.

He's a carpenter, owns his own job.

He's highly respected in the community.

So Mary will not only have her own home, she will be welcomed into the home of everyone who knows Joseph.

So for the first time, listen, for the first time in Mary's life, her life is looking up and then this happens.

Just when she's about to get her head above water, just when she can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's not an oncoming train.

Just when everything looks good, the angel shows up and says, greetings favored one, the Lord is with you.

Now, we're not told in scripture, but we can successfully determine that most probably Mary in the beginning would have been thinking this.

No, no, no, no.

Everything is good.

My life is finally beginning to come together after years and years of hardship.

No, no, please, please.

I don't need a Red Sea or the walls of Jericho or a Midianite army.

I don't want to be Moses, Joshua, or Gideon.

I just want to get married.

I want to have enough food to eat.

I want to sleep in a warm bed, and I want to have some children.

But then the angel drops the bomb.

Verse 30, but the angel said to her, don't be afraid, Mary.

You have found favor with God.

You will conceive and give birth to a son.

And you are to call him Jesus.

How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I'm a virgin?

Fair question, isn't it?

Fair question.

The angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Now that's something she would not have known in the Old Testament.

You think about this.

We always put Mary in this category of a super saint.

sees a young, young girl trying to discover everything just like every other young girl.

And now she's visited by an angel that tells her she's going to have a child and the child belongs to God and the spirit of God is going to overshadow her.

Well, this is a bombshell to her because she's engaged to Joseph.

And when Joseph finds out, the Bible tells us what Joseph plans on doing.

Matthew 1.19, and Joseph, her husband, that is to be, Being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

So there's a New Testament scholar by the name of Scott McKnight.

And he reminds us that the Hebrew word used to describe Joseph here is the word tzaddik.

Now you said anawim, now say tzaddik.

Tzaddik.

Tzaddik means righteous one.

But it also means Joseph has a reputation.

He's known for his uncompromising obedience to the Torah, the law of Moses.

He did not eat unclean foods.

He did not mix with the wrong kinds of people.

He did not keep his carpentry shop open on the Sabbath to make a few extra dollars.

Nobody invited Joseph over for ham sandwiches with tax collectors and prostitutes.

McKnight goes on to say, It would have taken a lot of hard work, commitment, and dedication to get where Joseph is at this point.

Being a Tzaddik is what every Jewish male ultimately wanted to be.

It's like a businessman in our day wanting to be a CEO.

It's like an athlete wanting to be an all-star.

It's like Rick Reed wanting to beat Jeff Vines in golf.

It's like people in Seattle want to live someplace else.

It's like Raider fans who want to win.

at anything really.

So Joseph has reached the pinnacle.

He is a tzaddik, but now he's a tzaddik with a problem.

The young woman to whom he's engaged tells him that she's pregnant.

Joseph knows there's no way he's the father.

He knows what people are going to assume.

He knows his whole reputation is on the line and that everything he's worked so hard for...

Hangs in the balance.

In modern day terms, folks, this would be like finding out that your pastor has been cheating on his wife.

His career and ministry would be over.

I'm not cheating on my wife.

This is just an illustration.

Now here's what is worse.

Joseph knows what the Torah says he's supposed to do with Mary.

Deuteronomy 22, 21, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death.

She has done an outrageous thing in Israel.

by being promiscuous while still in her father's house.

But Joseph, the Bible tells us, loved Mary and refused to disgrace her.

So he decides to divorce her, but he does not do it publicly.

He does it quietly because he's a kind Sadiq.

And the angel visits Joseph then and tells him as far-fetched as it might seem, Mary is actually telling the truth.

Look at verse 20.

back in Matthew 1.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

Now, once again, why would Joseph be afraid?

Well, because if he takes Mary as his wife right now, people are going to know something's up.

He could lose everything.

His reputation, his status, his position in the community would be gone in a flash.

There's no way people in his village are going to believe that this whole virgin birth thing is real.

No way.

Could you imagine Joseph going, hey, nope, Mary and I are only betrothed.

We're not married.

She's pregnant, but it's God's.

Now you think about that for a second.

No one's going to believe that.

You know, when I read this story, and every year I read it again and again, I always learn something new.

I want to ask God, God, couldn't you have made it just a little easier on Joseph?

Why not make the announcement to everyone?

Why not just go into the temple while everybody's there worshiping and say, hey, newsflash, Mary's going to have a child, not Joseph's, mine.

Wouldn't that be cool?

Tell everybody.

Why just tell Joseph?

You know, I've been watching the series, The House of David.

Man, I love it.

Have you been watching that?

If you haven't seen that, go to Amazon Prime.

Is it Prime?

Yeah.

Watch it.

House of David.

Very well done.

Two seasons.

But I just finished the second season.

And as I finished it, I'm sitting there thinking, wow, Saul, King Saul knew.

He knew that God had anointed David and he still tries to kill him.

He knew.

Samuel told him.

The same prophet that anointed Saul and made him king has now anointed David.

And it just reminds me that it really doesn't matter who visits you.

If you are intent on rejecting the news, you'll explain it away somehow.

Joseph now, he knows that God is involved, but that doesn't change the fact that if he commits to this baby, he's going to do so an enormous sacrifice.

His life as a Sadiq will be over.

He's no longer going to be welcomed, admired, and respected in the community.

His life is going to take an abrupt left turn.

His carpenter shop will suffer, might even have to close it down.

Have you noticed?

You never hear of Joseph after this story.

He'd gone.

He paid a heavy price.

Heavy price for doing the right thing.

Okay.

Let me tell you something about God's divine interventions and interruptions in your life.

God, very rarely in the Bible, is there a major movement of God where it starts with the human agenda, where God says to the angels, Let's go down there and see how we can make this person's life much easier.

It's all about convenience.

We aim to please.

Wouldn't that be great?

Wouldn't it be great?

All right.

We need to do something very special in Jeff Vine's life.

Let's go down and make his life easier.

Man, that would be so much better.

It never works like that.

How often in the Bible does an angel interrupt somebody and say, the Lord is with you and now your life is going to get easier and more comfortable?

I don't even know of one illustration.

When God is going to work in someone's life, it usually means an interruption of the norm.

Things will change.

It's inconvenient.

You're going to hurt.

Your world might be turned upside down.

All because God wants to do something fantastic, something eternal, something that really matters.

Man, I thank God for my wife.

I thank God for all pastor's wives.

Michael, you thank God for your wife?

Because they're the real wisdom in the household.

Behind every successful man, man is a surprised woman.

I know that's a reality.

But a few years ago, man, I was on my knees praying.

I felt like our church had just become stagnant.

And even though people were coming, I just felt like, where's the spirit of the living God?

I just felt like nothing was happening.

And I was starting to ask God, is it me?

Was there something in my life?

So I started praying and fasting.

I did so for over a year.

I'm not saying I didn't eat for a year.

But I fasted and prayed in seasons throughout that year.

And I asked God a simple prayer, and Robin was praying this with me.

God, do whatever you have to do.

If I'm the problem, remove me.

Do whatever you have to do to do something immeasurably more than I could ever ask or imagine.

Please.

And finally, after a year, he started moving.

And it hurt.

And I started complaining.

And Robin said this to me.

Don't ask God to do something amazing and then complain about the way he goes about it.

And man, how true is that?

You lose a job and you think it's the end of the world.

You've been praying that God would prosper you.

Then you get another one six months later that opens up the world to you.

What do you do during that six months?

But after, look at verse 20 in Matthew 1, but after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

My goodness, every time I read that, I feel for Joseph, because the key word there is after.

All God had to do was to send the angel to Joseph first.

Mary's going to come to you, Joseph, and she's going to tell you that she's pregnant, and she's going to say it's the Lord's, and she's telling the truth.

Then he wouldn't have all the tension in his life.

He would have known it before it happened.

It's almost like sometimes God likes to see me struggle.

Here's what this tells me about your life.

Anxiety removal is not God's number one goal for you.

Tension is his number one goal.

To force you into situations where you're pressed and you got to really figure out what it is you really believe.

If everything is random or if God, the grand designer, the grand weaver is in your life.

Anxiety removal.

Not God's number one goal.

Joseph, by having his world turned upside down, he's going to have to reconsider what real tzaddik, what real righteousness is.

Is it law keeping or grace?

Do I put her away and send her back out on the streets like the law suggests?

Or do I love her and forgive her like I know the law would have me do?

You don't learn something like that in theory.

You learn it when the situation is real.

You don't learn faith and trusting God by reading in a book somewhere.

You learn it by having the rug pulled out from under you, and you're forced to trust God and to be patient and to allow him to do his work.

You know, is it possible?

that there's kind of a ministry of disequilibrium that God allows to take place in Joseph's life so that he will encounter an entirely new area of growth.

Favorite story in the Old Testament, one of my favorite, Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

They refused to bow down and worship the false god.

Nebuchadnezzar gets so mad, he heats the furnace seven times over, right?

Seven times hotter.

And then in verse 20 of chapter three, and then he commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace.

So these men wearing their robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace.

The king's command was so urgent.

and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And these three men firmly tied fell into the blazing furnace.

So King Nebuchadnezzar leaps to his feet when he sees that the fire's not burning these men.

Not only that, there's more than three people in there now.

Verse 25, he said, look, I see four men walking around in the fire notice unbound and unharmed Three times we were told that they were tied.

Now we're told they're unbound and unharmed.

And the fourth looks like a son of the gods.

Nebuchadnezzar gets over.

Now he's got to be careful how close he gets.

He saw what happened to his guards.

And he looks over and he sees Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And suddenly he gets all spiritual on everybody.

He says, most high God, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And then he says, they saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies.

Nor was a hair of their head singed, their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

What is the writer trying to tell us?

He's trying to tell you there's only one thing that the fire touched.

The ropes that were binding them.

The only thing that burned in this fire.

were the ropes that were binding them.

Here's what we know for certain about God.

He knows he has an objective for your life.

He knows what he has to do in you to achieve it.

He wants to burn all the ropes that are binding you at all ages.

No matter how old or young you are, he never gives up on you.

He's creating a grand masterpiece.

And divine in a row, listen.

Divine interruptions are incredibly inconvenient, but incredibly freeing at the same time.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Mary and Joseph had to trust God that something miraculous was happening.

They also had to trust that his divine intervention would not destroy them.

That's the hard part.

Listen, far too many of us stop short of prosperity because we don't really believe God is doing something amazing.

And you tuck your tail and run.

Is it possible, maybe right now, some of you are confused and disoriented and uncertain about something that maybe it's not because you've done anything wrong.

It's God is giving you a wonderful indescribable gift.

Maybe you need, what you need to do is just wait on God and keep trusting and praying.

Trust that God is going to do something special in your life, even when you don't know what it is yet.

Keep moving, keep trusting, remain faithful.

Because God did something astounding in Joseph's life because of this interruption.

Verse 24, in Matthew 1, when Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son.

And he gave him the name Jesus.

It meant that he was publicly claiming Mary as his wife.

It meant that he was legally adopting the child.

Joseph now has his destiny tied to the lives of two stained reputations.

And from now on, when Joseph looked into the people's eyes, after he had obeyed God, things would never be the same.

That's why we never hear of him again.

They never looked at him with the same respect or adoration.

He lost a lot.

However, when he looked into the eyes of a child, he looked into the face of God.

Think about this now.

Come with me on this little journey quickly.

Maybe God decided that Jesus, who would be called a friend of sinners, Should be raised in a family that knew firsthand what it felt like to be regarded as second-class citizens.

Maybe that was part of his upbringing.

Maybe part of why Jesus had such a heart for unrespectable people is because he was raised in a family by a father who sacrificed his respectability for his son.

Maybe one reason Jesus had so much compassion for women who were walking scandals is that he knew how much it meant to his mom that his father stuck by her side when she was single and pregnant, when all the righteous folks turned their nose up and walked away.

Do you see what Jesus was doing?

He was molding and shaping Joseph for greatness through pain and difficulty.

Friends, after Joseph was long gone, do you know Jesus stood up and taught these words in the temple?

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

I wonder if Jesus was thinking inside, I've seen a better kind of righteousness firsthand than this.

My father was the real righteous man.

Is all of this the reason, real reason God gave this family a sad and painful, lonely start?

And if so, Would God do that in your life?

Would God send or allow or create or orchestrate events in your life where there's such a tension that is created, even stress, even downright worry, in order to shape and mold you into greatness?

When I was a young preacher, one of the elders who first ordained me, I must have been maybe 25, 26, came up to me and handed me this, and I've read it numerous times.

It was anonymous.

No one knows who really wrote it, but it goes like this.

Now, it's not on the screen.

I want you to listen to it.

Just listen to it.

When God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and skill a man, when God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part, when he yearns with all his heart to create so great and bold a man That all the world shall be amazed, watch his method, watch his ways.

How he ruthlessly, ruthlessly perfects whom he royally elects.

How he hammers him and hurts him with mighty blows converts him into trial shapes of clay which only God understands.

How he bends but never breaks when his goodness he undertakes.

How he uses whom he chooses and with every purpose fuses him.

By every act induces him to try his splendor out.

God knows what he's all about.

Let me tell you the difference between people who get angry and run versus those who embrace and thrive in times of tension.

One group magnifies the problem.

The other group magnifies God.

Now it's NFL season, so time for an NFL illustration.

I don't know how many of you are going to remember, it's going back a few years now, I think 2010.

Stephen Johnson, he was a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills and they were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And Stephen Johnson became famous for all the wrong reasons.

So they were in a game that had playoff implications and the Bills were facing off against a tough Steeler defense.

And Stevie or Stephen Johnson dropped the game-winning touchdown pass in a 1916 overtime loss to the Steelers.

The pass was well thrown right into the receiver's hands.

He was pretty much wide open.

Buffalo quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick watched in disbelief, but Johnson did not accept responsibility for the dropped pass.

Instead, he became famous because he blamed God.

In fact, he put this on his, I think, Instagram or Twitter, whatever's available.

He said, and I quote, I praise you 24 seven.

And this is how you do me.

You expect me to learn from this.

I'll never forget this ever.

Now I've often thought about what God would say to Stevie Johnson.

I think he may say, I love you.

You're my son, but do you think it's my job to make sure you catch a touchdown pass?

By the way, the safety who was guarding you also worships me 24-7.

and he was praying you would not catch it so that he would win the Super Bowl.

Which prayer should I have answered?

I think he would have gone on to say, whose kingdom are you most concerned about, yours or mine?

Do you think this relationship you have with me is tit for tat?

You help me and I help you?

Do you praise me 24-7 for my name's sake, or do you praise me for your sake?

Do you praise me because you love me and are grateful for the gifts I've given you, or because you hope that by doing so I will bless you with money and success?

Because Job said, shall we accept good from God and not trouble?

Here is the truth of the matter.

The entire simple Christmas story forces us to deal with an overarching reality, an unexpected reality.

God reserves the right to allow or even bring unfortunate circumstances into our lives to achieve his purposes in us and in the world.

Your response to the trials of your life will be determined by your faith and trust in that reality.

I go back to a book that sold 50 million copies.

Did you know that, Michael?

I'm talking to Michael today for some reason, but Michael.

Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, 50 million copies.

First line of the book.

It's not about you.

It's not about you.

The amazing part of Mary, this young girl, this amazing part of her story happens in Luke chapter one, verse 46, when she says, my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on, all generations will call me blessed for the mighty one has done great things for me.

Holy is his name.

Folks.

She was 13 to 15 years old.

The expression of joy, this unstoppable joy occurs before anything happens.

She sings this song before she's a single unwed mother, before the culture promises to stone her, before Joseph and not knowing how he's going to respond, before not knowing what this kind of scandal will produce.

And she's still before all of this.

because she believes that even as difficult as this might be, that God will do immeasurably more than she could ever imagine.

And so she sings, I am the Lord's servant.

May your word be to me, or to me, be fulfilled.

Okay.

I got five minutes and I got three truths, quick truths I learned from this, from the Christmas narrative that will set the stage in the coming weeks.

Number one, whatever problem you're facing.

Mary's little boy can handle it.

Unexpected to you, not unexpected to him.

He grew up real good, as we say down in the sound.

He took leisurely walks in the midst of the storm.

He slept through one storm that threatened the lives of everybody else.

He calmed storms as if he had the power over them, because of course he does.

He can handle whatever problem you got, whatever you're facing.

No pit is so deep that his love is not deeper still, said Corrie Ten Boom.

No obstacle is so great that he can't overcome it.

No obstacle.

How many of you are showing your age now?

Remember Stephen Curtis Chapman.

Stephen Curtis Chapman.

Contemporary Christian music, the good old days, in the 80s when music mattered.

Stephen Curtis Chapman.

25 albums released.

25 albums.

My favorite, well, two of them, The Great Adventure and Heaven in the Real World.

But the album that had the greatest impact was an album called Beauty Will Rise.

Beauty Will Rise.

Because in May of 2008, his youngest daughter, Maria Sue Chapman, died at the age of five.

On May 21st, Maria was playing outside with her siblings, her older brother, Will Franklin Chapman.

was driving into the driveway and Maria ran toward him to meet him.

Will didn't see her in time, struck her, and she died.

Can you imagine the grief?

When I was reading this story again, I just can't imagine what I would feel if something like that happened to one of my grandchildren.

Stephen and his wife, Mary Beth, they chose to speak openly about their grief and they shared out loud how they were able to navigate this grief without staying in a deep and dark depression.

In fact, Mary Beth wrote a book called Choosing to See, describing their family's healing process.

Stephen Curtis Chapman, his music changed dramatically as he began reflecting on themes like grief and hope and faith, most notably in the album called Beauty Will Rise.

As a result of Maria's death, there is now a place called Maria's Big House of Hope that operates in China, taking in orphans.

helping young orphans find homes and love and care.

So many children finding love, so many being saved.

Now, listen, but make no mistake.

First of all, some of you are enduring things right now that are just not on the same level of losing a five-year-old daughter.

That doesn't mean it's not real.

And there will be months and months of struggling and heartache in us because all of us All of us, when we go through something like this, we automatically say, why did God allow this to happen?

Why did God not step in and do something?

Why does God heal some and not others?

Why does he save some and not others?

And that was the question of Job through the entire book of Job until finally he gets to the end of the book and he makes two conclusions.

Number one, before this happened in my life, I had heard about you with my ears, but now I see you with my eyes.

There's something about the tension that gives you a vision of God that you've never had before.

And then his conclusion is basically, I know that my Redeemer lives and in the end he will stand up on the earth.

That's Job's way of saying, I may not know it now, but one day my Redeemer will stand and everything sad will become untrue.

Two, knowing that our tragedies are always known and seen by God who promises to work everything out for his good can and will sustain us.

Aren't we more than conquerors, folks?

Whatever God allows, whatever he throws at us, Does he not promise to take it and shape it and mold it into us to change us and transform us into the people that we're called to be?

Isn't it true that it's not about us, it's about God, but isn't it true that it's also about God working in us to achieve his purposes in the world, which means that God can do whatever he wants to do in us and through us to accomplish the ultimate goal?

Isn't it true?

That you either believe life is random or that there is indeed a cause, a designer, a grand weaver.

And if you really believe in a grand designer and grand weaver, would you not also believe that not only is he capable, but he's given you a promise to take everything that ever happens to you, no matter what it is, and work it together for good.

And then three, embrace the divine interventions of your life.

They are the fields in which God plants greatness in you.

See, the Christmas story...

Reminds us that Jesus was born into immediate hardship.

But the message is don't worry.

He overcame the world.

And so will you.

This is the overarching message of Christmas.

That God, the sovereignty of God, mind-boggling thing.

And if you try to go down the road of trying to figure out, did God cause this?

Did God allow this?

You will go into a place where your brain is spinning.

And you will never figure it out because there's a place at which you stop and God's wisdom begins.

It's a matter of trusting God for the things you do not understand on the basis of the things you do understand.

He is large and in charge and will work everything together for his goodwill and purpose.

And in the end, your Redeemer will stand on the earth.

Father, I once again pray the prayer that everything that I've said that's consistent with your word would drive down deep into our hearts, would change us.

That anything I've said that is not consistent with your word would be just forgotten, never be remembered.

I pray for those who are hurting this Christmas.

I pray that perhaps this would be the beginning of encouragement to know this is not unexpected by God.

He saw this coming a long time ago, and he has been shaping and orchestrating events around this unfortunate series of events, whereby he will bring beauty and pattern and design out of all the chaos.

He will take what the world means for evil, and he will use it for good.

And he will take this tension that we have in our lives where we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day, and he will build the top of faith in us and trust in us.

We're in the future.

We will know that even though we don't understand everything that might happen, we know who holds the future in his hands, and we can trust him for all good things in Christ's name.

Amen.