Skip to content From Transition to Triumph: Mary and Joseph’s Journey || Pastor Adam Mesa Dec 12 · 48 min ...more
From Transition to Triumph: Mary and Joseph’s Journey || Pastor Adam Mesa
December 12, 2024 · 48 min
Series Patria Sermons December 12, 2024 · 48 min · Patria Sermons
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492K followers
Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
492K followers
The Surge in Bible Interest 0:00 If you have your Bible today, we're about to jump into the message. You can either follow along on your phone, physical Bible, or we'll have it up in the screen in just a moment. But would you join us back in Luke0:10 chapter 19? If you were with us last week, we read this verse. We're going to re reflect on this verse, and then we're going to jump back to Luke chapter 2. Last week we were in Luke chapter 1. This week we'll be in Luke0:20 chapter 2, but we're going to reflect once again on Luke 19, because it really embodies the Christmas story, even though Jesus is an adult at that time. But before we do, I just want to share with you something that if0:31 you haven't heard yet, but as of this year, 20 24, they're in all recent known years, this is 1 of the highest selling Bible years, kind of in recent history. And so0:43 this year in 2024, more Bibles have been purchased in America than any recent year. In 2019, right before we went into COVID, at that time, in the0:55 whole year less than 10000000 people bought a new Bible. As it stands, last year 14000000 people bought a new Bible. As of October, at the beginning of October, it had already1:07 reached 13700000.0 people had bought a Bible, and they're projecting that it's going to end this year with 16000000 people purchasing a new Bible. It's1:19 so important to know for a few reasons. The first question we may ask is why are they buying Bibles? Why are people buying Bibles? Well, could be a couple reasons. The first reason could be is someone1:30 may lack hope, and so they're going to God's word to discover God's hope. Or a person could be so full of hope that they're starting to meet Jesus, they started to go church, to go to church, and they thought to1:42 themselves, I'm missing a Bible in my life, and that may be why. But a lot of these individuals are first time Bible buyers, and they're buying from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and all the publishers,1:54 whether it's Tom and Nelson, Zondervan, all the people who publish Bibles, they've said this. 1 publisher of the Bible told the Wall Street Journal it has seen a surge of interest from Gen Z and2:06 young Americans. That's the majority of who's buying new Bibles. So if you're in the room and you're about 27, 26 and younger, in your generation right now, believe it or not, there is a hunger2:18 to know more about God. And so, usually I hear at things, oh, those people in their twenties, they don't, they don't want to know about God. They're far away from God. They're far away from spiritual life. Actually, it2:30 appears as of this year, there's a large interest from the next generation who wants to know about God's purpose for their life and their plan of love. So much so, that there right now there are over 8000000 posts on2:41 TikTok about the Bible. Not about church, not sermon clips, but about the Bible itself. As well as a slew of videos about Bibles to buy, what kind to buy, what translations to buy,2:53 with some of them even having over a million likes. So what does this mean? What does it mean for you and what does it mean for me? It means that if right now this is a higher highest3:05 year of Bible interest in recent years, it means chances are someone that you know that doesn't go to church or doesn't read their Bible is interested in what God has to say about their3:17 life. They may have not taken the step to buy a new Bible yet, but if 15 to 16000000 Americans are going to be buying a new Bible this year, and majority of them being new Bible owners, then the3:29 reality is you know someone today who has not been yet met with Jesus, who is hungry to learn about who God is. You may say, well, I can't think of someone that comes to my head. Well, they3:40 don't announce themselves over their head. They don't wear a shirt that says if you're a Christian invite me to church, please. I have nobody to go to church with. They don't have those shirts. I don't think those are3:50 sold. We definitely don't have them in our bookstore. We definitely don't sell shirts that say I'm a Christian. If you want to be invited to church, just ask me. We don't have those either. So the reality is, is if4:01 people are hungry and they're wondering who God is and what he has to say about their life, you and I have a great opportunity to start inviting people to the house of God. A lot of people are not only reading4:13 God's word, but the place when we gather, it's also a place where we learn about God's word, and we discover God's purpose for our life, and we discover who God is. And so, I encourage you this holiday season and4:24 going into the new year, as you encounter people, look for opportunities to invite them to church. Did you know that 85 percent of people will not step foot in a church unless a friend that they trust4:36 invited them? You can think about yourself. Many of you are here today, not because you came across 1 of our Instagram videos, which some people are sometimes, not because you saw a sermon, or not because you4:48 saw a flyer somewhere, or believe it or not, not because you saw a Hulu ad of us inviting you to church. The reason why many people are here in church today is because someone you respect or someone that you4:59 know discovered you were in a season where you were wondering what's next or you were wondering about who God is and they said, hey you should come visit my church. And you said yes. And so only 15 percent of people5:11 go to a church outside of their friend inviting them. Which means the likelihood that your community will meet Jesus, believe it or not, it kind of rests on your shoulders. Are you going to invite them to the house of5:23 God? It don't even be our church. They can live an hour away. They can live 10 minutes away. I've met someone before that lived down the street and said the church was too far. I said, well hey, there are churches5:33 between me and you, so pick 1. It just could be as simple as that. But there's always a starting point for somebody. So, just look for opportunities this new year that you could invite someone to the house of God.5:45 Because you may be the very person that God wants to use to share the love of Jesus. And that's what the Christmas message is all about. Is that if you aren't willing to be the mouthpiece for the grace of God, then God5:56 will cause something else to do that. That's where we're at in Luke chapter 19. So, if you're ready, would you stand for the honor of reading God's word. Once again, we're going to reflect until we have this etched inThe Journey of Mary and Joseph 6:07 our mind, what Jesus says. Luke 19 verse 30 to 40 says this. This is Jesus speaking. Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied,6:19 which is an unwritten donkey, on which no 1 has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you why are you untying it, you shall say this, the Lord has need of it. So those who were6:31 sent away and found it just as he had told them, and as they were untying the colt, its owner said to them, why are you untying the donkey, the colt? And they said, the Lord has need of it. And they brought6:43 it to Jesus and throwing their cloaks on the on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode, and as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near,6:55 already on the way down to Mount Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen. Saying, blessed is the7:07 King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples. They're praising you out loud.7:19 And Jesus answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. You may be seated. There is value in this passage7:31 to reflect over and over and over. The reality is that when Jesus came to this earth born of the Virgin Mary, it was, he was born with a purpose and a7:43 plan for his life. And that purpose and plan for his life was to live 33 years in which he would commit his life into the hands of the people who would cry out for Jesus to be crucified.7:56 3 days later, he'd be in a tomb, and he would resurrect to show all of humanity that his sacrifice was accepted by the Father, and truly, if we rest our faith in him, we'll be saved.8:08 The birth of Jesus started the momentum of a move of God to redeem humanity. So when we look at the birth of Jesus, it's not just the fact of this beautiful baby8:20 that was born in a miraculous moment, but it's also the fact that God's called you and I today to make a decision to follow Jesus, but not take that moment as a secret that we put in our pocket,8:32 but to share with the world what God has done in your life. That's what God's called us to do. This moment where Jesus is entering Jerusalem, when in just a few days he'd be put to death.8:44 The disciples are worshiping Jesus for all the things he had done, and when people try to silence the disciples for worshiping Jesus, His response is, is if you silence these disciples, God8:56 will cause creation to worship me. He said rock, the very rocks will cry out. So in this passage, Jesus shows us that God will use anything for His9:08 glory. He'll use some rocks for His glory. He'll use a donkey for His glory. He'll use Mary for His glory. He'll use Joseph for His glory, but He'll also use you for his glory. Amen.9:20 But he could also use your car for his glory. He could use his cat your couch for his glory. He could use your kitchen for his glory. The question is, is if9:31 Jesus needs, has need of something that you have, are you willing to open up your life? If God has need for your time, would you open up your life? If God has need for9:43 your gifts, would you open up your life? If God had needs of your treasure, would you open your life? What God not only looks for when he'd given us the gift of humanity and the gift of9:55 Jesus, God's looking to challenge us to say hey, there's going to be times in your life where you're going to be stretched and challenged to get out of your comfort zone. And so for Mary and Joseph, as we look back in10:05 our Bible, we're going to jump back to Luke chapter 2. Last week we saw Luke chapter 1, and we reflected a little bit on Mary. Today we're going to reflect again on Mary and Joseph. Because what happens is, is God has10:16 approached Mary with a task that seems impossible, which is will you say yes to hold the child Jesus with a miracle? Would you give birth to this miracle? But also, when you10:28 say yes, will you also accept the responsibility of having culture outcast you? Will you accept the responsibility of having King Herod be jealous of your son and try to kill your son?10:40 So much so that in all of Israel, we often forget this, he killed the first born of every parent's child hoping to kill Jesus. We often overlook that. I mean, there was a lot of10:52 demonic activity happening while Jesus was coming to earth. We look at Christmas, and we see this beautiful nativity scene, and we see these little shepherds, and we see these little magis, but what we forget is11:04 there is a civil war behind the scenes of a king who's killing children trying to get rid of Jesus. And Mary and Joseph feel that on the back of their neck11:15 everywhere that they go. Is today going to be the day that the enemy might win? And sure enough, we see that even though they're headed down an impossible journey, God has them covered every11:27 step of the way. And so we're going to share a little bit today through the passage and their story, that while Joseph and Mary are in the process of transition, and you and I will always face transitional11:39 seasons, what we have to see is in transition, sometimes there's trauma, sometimes there's pain, sometimes there's difficulty, and sometimes there's uncomfortableness. But I want you to see in the11:51 first point what happens with Mary Joseph is, when God creates transition in their life, it also creates momentum, or movement. And see, this movement that happens with Mary12:02 and Joseph, in Luke chapter 2 verse 1 to 3, it says in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quenarius was governor of12:14 Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town. So here's what happens. Mary and Joseph, they say yes to the call of God, which for Joseph12:26 is to adopt Jesus into his home and continue to be married to Mary, even though Jesus is not Joseph's son. And then Mary says yes, because now in her entire culture and12:38 her society, they're going to see see her as someone who cheated on her betrothed husband. She's engaged. She's a fiancee. And she's having someone else's child. That alone is difficult. But then steps12:50 in Caesar Augustus, who's the Emperor of Rome, and he says, you know what? Across all of my land, everything that I rule, I want everyone to go back to their hometown because I want to do a head13:01 count. Because when kings want to do head counts, what they want to do is they want to compare it to other kingdoms and say, nah nah nah nah nah, I have a bigger kingdom than you. It's a sign of arrogance. If you read13:13 the Old Testament, God forbid any king to take a census, Because he didn't want any king to think that his people was the king's, but it's actually God's. So Caesar thinks himself,13:25 I want a census so that I can show off how big my kingdom is, and it's also so that I can charge the right taxes to each community the right way. Bigger cities, bigger taxes. Smaller cities, smaller taxes. And13:37 so he does this, and so now Mary and Joseph have to do multiple day journey from Nazareth all the way to Bethlehem by foot. Now, you may say okay, that's13:49 not bad by foot. Well, their version of by foot is not your version of walking down Foothill a couple miles. Their version of by foot is through mountains,14:01 valleys, deserts. There are people waiting to rob you, mug you, cheat you, swindle you, wait for you by night time. And so, it's not so easy just to be like, oh14:13 yeah, let's go on this walk. On top of this, remember, Mary is 7 to 8 months pregnant. So if you've ever been pregnant before, or fellas, you've ever been married, and your wife was14:25 pregnant, at about 7 and 8 months of pregnancy, the ankles start to swell. The toes don't look the way they once looked.14:36 The calves don't feel the way that calves have always felt. And so now Mary, at this late in her pregnancy, has to travel that far14:48 to give birth to Jesus. That's a transitional period. And a lot of times, we think to ourselves Mary and Joseph would be like, hey God, we said yes to You. How about an easier road?15:01 Like, why can't Caesar do this census after we have Jesus? God, you're all powerful. Could you make this a little easier? Could we not have15:13 Herod out here killing every first born child? Could we not have Caesar Augustus not wanting all of us to go to our hometown? Oh, and then guess what? She finally, after all of that journey, makes15:25 it to her hometown, it's so packed, no 1 has room for them for her to even give birth. So no Kaiser Permanente availability.15:38 There's no opening. Her family, they got no space in any of the houses. Cousins, no one's available. And then all there is is this room addition. It's called the inn because it's the15:49 inside of the house, and oftentimes what would happen for farmers is, because people could steal your animals, or the cold could kill your animals, and so in the summer sometimes you left your animals16:01 out. But in the winter, you actually had to bring your animals inside your home so that they could stay warm. And so there is all of a sudden a person in Bethlehem who says, you know what? There's not really room for16:13 you to give birth. It's not that there was no space, it's the fact that to give birth to a child in that day, it's very messy, and it's very loud, and it takes multiple people to give birth because of how dangerous it16:25 is. So there was no space for all the chaos of birth to happen. So he says, I got this place where we put my animals at night. We could, you could give birth there. We'll make some room for you there.16:38 Now in transition, if you said yes to God, you would think to yourself Jesus, you would think to yourself God, I'm okay with my friends not liking me. I'm okay with my family questioning whether God's16:50 really active in my life. And I think I'm okay with the government coming after me. But now, you got me out here walking with these pregnancy ankles. Now you17:02 got me in a city that I've never been before. Reminder, it's Joseph's city of his birth, not hers. So she don't know nobody in that city. And so she go, you you have me out here in17:14 all this difficulty, where are you? Because a lot of times, we'll start to say yes to the things of God, but there are moments we start to say, where is God in this?17:26 I've got government over here, I've got friends over here, I've got my job over here. Where is God in this? And the beauty is what happens is God is getting Mary and Joseph to somewhere. And what17:38 often happens is when God gets you through a transitional moment in your life, the reality is more than likely, God is trying to create movement in your life. He's trying to propel you somewhere forward.17:50 The problem is when we're in the moment of transition, we're trying to make sense of where God has us. But Mary and Joseph, they didn't stop in the middle of tracks and say, God, we're not going anywhere18:02 more until you tell us there's blessing on the other side of this yes. No, every day, they woke up and they kept walking. They got in that city, and they just kept knocking on doors.Lessons in Humility and Obedience 18:14 They just kept looking for who was available. A lot of times in transition, that's where we give up the most. That's where we walk away from God the most. There was a time when I was 18 years old.18:26 I had just graduated high school, and I had planned to do an internship for my mentor, Pastor Gerald Brooks. And still to this day, Pastor Gerald's 1 of our overseers, he's 1 of our board members. He18:38 speaks here at our church twice a year. And when I was 17, he had invited me, hey, we have this internship program when you graduate high school, because I wanted to go to full time ministry by then. He said, come to my18:49 church and do an internship in Dallas, Texas. It's in Plano, so it's about 30 minutes north of Dallas. And so I said, okay. So so my thinking was, alright, I'm going to go to this internship,19:02 and relatively in a few weeks, they're gonna notice how gifted your boy is. And so, they're gonna start asking me like, hey, can you start preaching our, our youth sermons? Hey, you know,19:14 Pastor Gerald isn't feeling good this Wednesday. You think you could get up there and share a sermon? Hey, can you take over, look at my sermon notes and make them better, Adam? Like that just, you know, like this is19:24 just my thought. You know, you ever have a dream and you think, oh, if I just get the front door and then you create in your head, this is how all the pieces are going to come together. Well, that's my expectation.19:36 I show up to the internship and 1 of the first jobs they have me to do, and I signed up for 2 years to do this internship. 1 of my first tasks, there was about 18 of us in the internship, and every person got divvied19:48 different responsibilities. My responsibility was 1 of the worst responsibilities that the interns got. Here was my job on Monday. Normally took me about 6 hours to do this job. I was in20:00 charge of the children's church wing, and so not only kind of tidying the children's church wing up, which had about 14 to 15 classrooms, I was to make sure that everything, you know, bookshelves didn't get moved or20:11 anything from Sunday or whatever. But also, you know, this is in the late 2 thousands, so we didn't really use technology for the children's classrooms. So back then, every classroom had a bunch of tables20:23 where kids would get crafts, they would get scissors, and they would get glue, and they would get markers and crayons, and they would learn Bible lessons through that interaction. And so it was my job on Mondays that20:35 every classroom had 2 big buckets. 1 big bucket had a bunch of crayons, like hundreds of crayons, and another big bucket had hundreds of markers. It was my job every Monday to go to all20:47 of those 15 classrooms, and I had to get the bucket of crayons out, and I had to pull out every crayon, and if a crayon was missing the tip or broken in half, I had to throw it away.20:59 And so, I'd go through, and I'd, 1 crayon after another. Go, because those little pieces of crayons that are broken, they don't announce themselves. So, you you gotta get in there, and and you gotta you gotta clear it21:09 out. So sometimes I would just get annoyed. I'd dump it on the table and just try to, you know, boom boom boom boom. Put it back in. And then my second job with that was then to pull out the marker bucket, and they gave21:21 me a little stack of computer paper. And I was supposed to take that little stack of computer paper, and I would take each marker, I would uncap it, and I had to draw a line in the computer paper. If the21:33 if the marker was fresh, and it and it drew a very clear and bright line, then that was a keeper. If it drew a faint line or it was dried out, I had to throw it away. And so21:45 I had to go to every single classroom, and I had to check every marker every week. I had to check every crayon, and it took me about 6 hours. And I thought to myself, they are drastically21:57 misusing the good potential talent that they have in this internship. I genuinely thought that. I thought, I thought, I thought what happened is, is, because I was a big deal at my22:09 church that I came from, because I was the pastor's son, so therefore, they're going to recognize that, and it's almost going to be like when you guys transfer in the same company to just a different location, it's like,22:20 oh, the same standard of prestige I had there, I'm going to have it here. And sure enough, oh, bottom of the totem pole at that point. And so my thinking is, they just don't reco so I need to create22:31 value. That's what I got to do. If all of a sudden they recognize my potential, then they'll promote me. Then I'll start preaching the youth sermons. Then I'll start doing teaching in children's church. Then I'll start22:42 doing x y and z. So I think to myself, oh, I gotta solve problems. If I solve problems and I create value, then they'll move me up. And I don't have to do this dumb thing anymore. And so I go to Pastor Jesse, who now is22:54 the lead pastor of that church today, who's Pastor Gerald's son-in-law, and I said Pastor Jesse, I have a great idea for for for the children's church classrooms. As you know, I have to check every marker and I have to23:06 check every crayon, and it's very tedious and it's very time consuming. Here's my idea. On Sundays, when the children's church workers are having the kids do things, when they notice a crayon is broken23:18 or when they notice a marker's dried out, they should just throw it away themselves. You should tell them don't put it back in the bucket. And by doing that, it'll like cut my work23:30 in half, and also, it'll just, you could use me for other more valuable things to do. And so, I think to myself, he's gonna say Adam, this is genius. I've been thinking about it23:41 and I need you to preach this weekend. We really need you to run, we need you to run up here and and handle things. And instead, Pastor Jesse looks at me and he says the reason why Pastor Gerald, and my thinking23:53 too was like everyone else, they're like done within an hour with their task. Mine takes like 6 hours. So, like you you have your best guy on the worst job. You know, that's my thinking. So, Pastor Jesse says this. He24:04 says, you know, Adam, Pastor Gerald does this on purpose, because what happens is, is if we teach you the excellence for markers and crayons, and the value of markers and crayons, then when you get24:16 the opportunity to care for the children, that if you exercised care for crayons and markers, you will even more so care for the children that God has placed you in. And if you care about the24:28 excellence of a dried out marker, then if you meet a child or a person that's dry of God's Spirit, then you will understand how much care God takes. If as humans we care for markers, you can know God cares for24:40 people. Now, I'd love to say that is genius. I'm on board. Instead, I said, that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I could care about children without having24:52 to care about markers. And so you want to know what I did in response to that, is I quit the journey 6 months into the internship. I thought, they're not utilizing me the way that they should have.25:04 And so 6 months in, I called my parents, I said, hey, I don't want to be in this program anymore. I don't want to do these things that they have me doing. They're tedious, they're boring, and I don't think it has25:13 anything to do with ministry as a whole. You know? And so I said, I don't want to do it anymore. So my parents said, okay. We talked after weeks and weeks and weeks, so I flew back out and I joined Bible school. I went25:23 to Life Pacific University. At that time, when I quit, for years I was not good with Pastor Gerald and Pastor Jesse. When I would see them, they were extremely disappointed with me. They25:35 were extremely discouraged by when I quit, because I even affected the attitude of other kids that were there, that they then started showing them, oh yeah, I think we're all better than this. I think we all shouldn't be25:45 cleaning out closets or cleaning out refrigerators. And so, it kind of started this coup that affected the whole internship. So when I got to my early twenties and I actually started doing ministry now full time, I25:57 started realizing how much value Pastor Gerald was trying to place in my life. I started realizing, oh my goodness. I remember, because now I'm a youth pastor, and then I walk around and26:09 I see some of my team, they're just leaving stuff that's broken. There's staplers that don't have staples in it. There's papers that that are bent and and and not presentable nice. And I'm thinking to26:20 myself, if you guys knew the crayons that I had to search for, but then I thought to myself 1 day, but Adam, you quit. You keep referencing the discipline that you had in Texas,26:33 but you quit it. You didn't finish the 2 years. So, I remember 1 year I called Pastor Gerald, and I said Pastor Gerald, I just want to say, I'm so sorry for quitting early. I made a 2 year commitment, and I didn't26:45 stay true to that. And I hope that you can forgive me, because what you did teach me has been invaluable now that I'm in ministry. And Pastor Gerald's response was, Adam, I've always loved you and I've always26:56 believed in you. The reason why I had you doing the worst job was because I believed you had the most potential. And if I could take a person who has the most potential and I can give them the worst job and they can27:07 obediently do it, then God will trust you with where he wants to take you.27:13 And he27:13 said, that moment I learned, I thought they made an error asking me to do what they did, but they knew exactly what they were doing. And guess what? That quitting took me on a journey where God27:25 humbled me for years. God put me in my place so hard. Many times I thought I belonged. Many times I thought, oh, I'll be a shoo in. And I was overlooked. I was told, hey, no, this isn't for you. I would try to go to a27:37 new church and serve, and they'd be like, no. You've heard it before that I was at a church for 2 years and my job was to watch the doughnuts and make sure no 1 stole them. That was God taking me through a wilderness27:47 experience. That was God sending me to Bethlehem. That was God saying Adam, there's a little bit too much pride in you, a little too much arrogance in you. You're not recognizing that I gave you gifts. You think you27:57 earned these gifts. And a lot of times transition will be moments that God is making us more humble. Good. I don't look at my wife and think, oh, she she she did the best28:08 marrying me. She could get no 1 better. I slightly believe that, but at the same time, I also recognize how blessed I am. I also recognize how blessed I am to be a28:20 father and a husband. Why do I know that? Because I don't deserve anything that I have. It's God's grace that he allows us to have the things that we have and to do the things that we do. Even on the toughest days. Even28:32 on hard days. Like Mary and Joseph. Even when you're on your way to Bethlehem. God's creating movement in your life. And what happens is when movement happens, here's the second point, we'll do these fasts, is28:44 momentum is created. Not only does God want you to get moving, he also wants you to continue to move. Not to stop. Luke chapter 2 verse 4 to 528:56 says this. And Joseph also went up to Galilee and from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his29:07 betrothed and who was with child. So what happens is is in this moment, Caesar is the 1 who wants everyone to go to their hometown. But there's a prophetic verse in the Old Testament29:19 that says the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. And so even in a moment that doesn't make sense, God is creating movement and momentum, because God is even using an unrighteous ruler named29:31 Caesar to get Jesus to Bethlehem, to fulfill a prophecy. And there will be times, and even in unrighteous motives, unrighteous people, unrighteous places, that God29:43 will use that to get you to somewhere that He's trying to get you to. And this is what exemplifies, is that God is sovereign over all creation and all rulers. God doesn't just operate29:55 within the confines of believers and his church, God also operates in areas and corners that are dark. Areas and corners that are far from Him. God is in those things. And30:07 God is orchestrating moments that will bring Him glory. You think about moments that you and I were far away from God. God used those moments to bring us closer to Him. God will use any moment to draw30:19 people close to him. He uses Caesar to draw Jesus to Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph are part of God's plan, and their yes starts the transitional period. And you and I, we often30:30 come to church because we're in transitional periods of our life. It's very common that people first start to come to church because they're in tough transitions in their life. They're experiencing aShow more In this video 0:00 The Surge in Bible Interest6:06 The Journey of Mary and Joseph18:05 Lessons in Humility and Obedience30:33 God's Sovereign Plan42:49 The Call to Salvation
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