Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is Naim, and you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content. If this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward.
[00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you. Enjoy.
[00:00:57] Well, Merry Christmas and good morning. Yeah. Glad you guys are here. Glad you're joining us online.
[00:01:04] Listen, I'm so proud of the fact that you guys are here this morning. Let me just really quick, just ask you. Okay. Be honest. Okay. I know things came up and all that anybody missed last week, you're like, you know what? I wasn't here last week. It's okay. You can say, yeah, you're like, I wasn't here last week. Okay, maybe half of us. Okay. Something like that. All right, cool. Yeah. We started this series called this is a Light of Mine and actually sang. I sang the chorus. We sang together, if you guys remember. And then I was told never to do that again.
[00:01:34] And I just feel like we should do that again. Right? No. Now, last week, I also was told I went kind of like, I went quick, jazzy. I went jazz.
[00:01:45] And I feel like we shouldn't do that. Right? Or should we?
[00:01:49] Should we? What do you like to sing? What do you want to sing? You do. You want to go classic?
[00:01:53] Classic? Jeff, you sing classic. Are you going to help us? Can you help me out?
[00:01:58] Yeah. Did you say, oh, God.
[00:02:02] Come on up here? This is like, off the cuff. No. You're like, no, I'm not going to do it. How many of you want Jeff to come on up?
[00:02:09] Hey, this is. This is what you call pressure in church.
[00:02:13] But you've been up here, bro. Give Jeff a hand.
[00:02:16] Can you do that?
[00:02:18] In fact, I should just let you sing it. I. I don't know about that.
[00:02:23] Let's do it. We can do it. Duet this duet. Yeah. How's it go? How's it. Okay. There's no, by the way, There's a little light. There's a. Okay, let's do it. Let's sing it together. Why are we doing this? I don't even. It's too much. It's too much. All right. Okay.
[00:02:35] Okay. This little light of mine I'm going to let it shine this little light of mine I'm going to let it shine Little light of mine I'm going to let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine oh, wow.
[00:02:58] Give a man.
[00:03:01] Yes.
[00:03:02] Wow. That was so much better than last week.
[00:03:06] So much. Hey, what are you doing next week?
[00:03:10] Well, you guys. Well, this has been. This was a great kickoff of the series because we talked about this idea of how it. Even though we think this little light of ours, this one's a little light of ours, even though we think that it's not making a difference, it truly is making a difference. The truth is that God has called us to be this light. And light does something profound in the world. As this world gets a little bit darker, it gets a little bit distrusting. It gets a little bit divisive, right?
[00:03:36] We need to be brighter and we need to be more confident in what God has called us.
[00:03:42] And so last week, I talked about how the light of God, God's light, actually, it disturbs darkness in our lives that Jesus came to call us to something more.
[00:03:53] And it's not a light that exposes. It's a light that invites us and illuminates. It illuminates our purpose and invites us to possibility of life. And so we jumped into the story of Mary and talked about how she was an average teenage girl engaged to be married, and then God interrupted her life, disturbed in one sense, just the normality of her life and caused her to maybe just imagine a little bit that maybe, just maybe, she could be more. And so I encouraged you guys last week to say, hey, could God be speaking to you? Would you allow God's light to illuminate a purpose for you to see more clearly and to live out more courageously? So this morning, I wanna continue that. We're gonna be in the Christmas story, the Jesus story. And this morning I wanna talk about the idea of how light, this little light of ours, diminishes the night. It diminishes the night, okay. It weakens darkness in our lives. So if we find ourselves in a place where we're like, you know, I'm not quite sure when it comes to love and relationships, man, this is. It's a dark place. I'm in a dark Place. And some of us, it's so tough to do that. I mean, I have friends who are single friends. And man, it is just so hard out there.
[00:05:09] And loneliness is such a dark place. It's a dark place because it's in broad daylight. That darkness exists in broad daylight. When someone. You feel a sense of loneliness. And I've been there before going, God, I'm just so lonely. I remember my college years, and I get that. But God's light, actually, even though it's can be so dark, just a little bit of God's light, it diminishes. Diminishes the power of darkness.
[00:05:39] Let me ask you this. How many of you just love to sleep? You love it. You love sleep. Anybody love sleep? Come on, be honest. I know you're 930 people, 930 service. You're like, nah, we're up, we're up, we're up. Okay, so I expected just a few of you, right? Okay, I love sleep. But here's the problem. I have trouble sleeping. How many of you have trouble sleeping?
[00:05:58] We have trouble sleeping, right? And I don't know what it is, though. I don't know what it is. As I age, I have more. I have different issues. Like, back in the day, I could sleep anywhere, anytime. Like, I came from the Middle east and I came here after the Gulf War in 1992, I came here. But when I was in the war as a teenager, I was like. I slept through the war, you know what I'm saying? Like, I could sleep through anything. But now I need all kinds of things. I feel like.
[00:06:24] Like I need a sound machine. Anybody?
[00:06:27] Right? Can I get it? Okay. Okay. Also, I need it to be pitch dark. Anybody else?
[00:06:33] Pitch dark? I need it to be pitch dark. Sometimes I go. When I travel, I go to hotels and all that, and I'm trying to fall asleep, and all of a sudden there's this. There's this light, this lamp light, and this is one little, little light. Just. It could be this small. And it's like, oh, my gosh, it's so bright. And like, shut it off. I've covered it with stuff. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, I. I need to be pitch. Pitch darkness. Why? Because that little light, it messes up. It messes up the darkness. And so I wonder. I wonder if for some of us, maybe if we allow God in a dark place in our life, maybe it's not loneliness, maybe it's just major anxiety, maybe major worry, or possibly it's a tragic thing.
[00:07:16] It's a loss. It's a trauma.
[00:07:18] It's a trauma. It's. It's something that happened. And honest, you're not really over it. And it's. It's dark. It's a dark place. And sometimes you don't, you know, you don't want to be there and you don't want to hang out there, but it is, it is affecting your life a little bit. Could. Could God be inviting you out of that? And could God's light diminish the. The night? Could. It could diminish the night.
[00:07:44] I believe it's really possible.
[00:07:46] In fact, I believe that God does something that's really profound. And so I wanna take you to the story. And we know the story because we're gonna continue it, but I wanna give you a different perspective on the story. So just, let's jump right in. Okay, so jumping in. And we're gonna go into. Let's see here. Let me get my notes here.
[00:08:08] Let's see. Let's put up the verse, the first one in Luke. Let's put that up. Let's put that up. Let's do that. Let' Luke. It says here Luke 2. So let me pick it up. It says here, while they were there, there came a time for the baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger because there was no, what, guest room available for them. Now, let me give you the context of this passage. What happens is there was a census. And so Jacob, sorry, Joseph. Joseph and Mary head to their hometown, and everybody's going back there. So they're with family because families would travel together. And so they show up to Bethlehem and they're there and they're living there. I want you to know that they were there for a decent time because when they got there, they were all there. But as the passage says, when it was ready for the baby to be born. Baby to be born, all of a sudden, there was no room for them. There was no room for them. And in the other translations, we say, we read there's no room in the inn.
[00:09:20] Now, here's what you need to know.
[00:09:22] The word inn is used in Greek. They're two different words. So when Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan and he talked about this Good Samaritan, you know, put this guy in an inn, he used the word actual inn, as in not connected to a family, an establishment. That's what was part of his story. This word right here, that's Used here is actually the word guest room. So this translation here is accurate. It's not. There was no. It's not like there was no room in the inn because they went to town and there was no place. There was no, you know, there was no Holiday Inn. No, that's not the thing. It's not. The rooms were all booked.
[00:10:00] I want you to know they were among family, which. It changes the whole dynamic of the story. So what happened here, I just want you to know what happened here is that they lived in this house, I'm pretty sure.
[00:10:13] But when the time came for the baby to be born, somehow, somehow, because other family members were coming in or whatever, there was no more room.
[00:10:23] The guest room was not available.
[00:10:26] Back in those days, the room, the houses were three tiered. The bottom was where the stable was. The middle section was where all the family lived. And the top floor, the upper room, they would call it, was the guest room. Now we know about the upper room because Jesus spent his last night in the upper room. But the day of his birth, the upper room was not available, which is really interesting. So this was actually a part of.
[00:10:53] They were among relatives. So when we read the story again, it says there's no room for them, available for them. What was happening?
[00:11:00] Let me tell you what was happening.
[00:11:02] Family dynamics were happening. I recently went to a Pakistani church, spoke there, and I got reminded of my culture and my culture, and I grew up Muslim, but this was interesting because now they're Christians. And it was fascinating. But I was quickly reminded about how. How dysfunctional my culture is. Really. It's so dysfunctional. Right? And we talk about racism and all that. You have no idea how racist Pakistanis are. We are so racist among everybody. Like, you know, especially Indians.
[00:11:39] Yeah, we got all kinds of views. But. So what's so interesting, though, is that when I was preaching there and I spent some time there, there's always a meal after the church service, which is okay, all right, great. Pakistan food, great. Love it. But I've met so many of my aunties and they're like, you know, and now the dynamic was interesting because everybody knew everybody's business.
[00:12:01] And, and, and there are certain people who would tell me some other people's business, like, I'm getting information. Like, pastor, I'm, I'm just a guest pastor. They telling me, hey, can you pray for so and so. Yeah, they haven't found a husband.
[00:12:14] I'm like, are you gossiping right now?
[00:12:17] Are you doing that? But it's, it's. Hey, I'm just. I'm just concerned. I'm just worried. I'm just worried. I have. This one woman came up to me and she gave me a holy handshake. You know what that is? Anybody know a holy handshake is in the hand? There is money.
[00:12:33] Oh, yeah. By the way, I'm expecting that from you guys. From now on. I don't want no high fives, no hugs. Give me, just give me a hug. Okay? So she said, call me Beta. This is. Beta means son. Beta.
[00:12:46] I'm like, oh, okay. I didn't know what she was. Gimme. It was money. I was like, she's just putting in your pocket. Put it in your. Put it. I was like, okay. And then she gave me her prayer request and it was like, my daughter, you know, she's. And it was always relationships. It was always relationships. And I remember leaving there thinking, oh my gosh, I'm so glad I'm not in that culture anymore because it's just.
[00:13:10] It's beautiful.
[00:13:12] But there's so many family dynamics, even talking to my mom, that when I read this story, because this is not a Western story, this is an Eastern story.
[00:13:22] When I read this, I know exactly.
[00:13:25] I like to think I know what happened here. What happened here is this.
[00:13:29] Is that when they came to Bethlehem, there was place for them, but then other people came or whatever. But when the time came for that baby, that illegitimate baby to be born, someone in that family said, not in my house.
[00:13:48] Not in my house.
[00:13:49] We can't have this. Because guess who did not believe any of the story.
[00:13:55] Family doesn't believe any of your story.
[00:13:58] They don't. They're like, God did it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. You know what? You can stay here. But as soon as that, if. As soon as you give birth, that baby's coming out, it's not going to happen here. You can go to the stable.
[00:14:15] You can go there. I think that's really what happened because Mary was beginning the story was like, I'm favored. God's giving me like this.
[00:14:27] God's given me this purpose. Oh my God, it's bigger than I am. And don't you know that when you hear God speak to you, you. And I think that now because we have purpose, because we are given something, it's going to just all work out and it doesn't. It never really works out. Like people who are favored by God go through so much fire and you wonder, you're like, why am I being burnt here?
[00:14:51] Have you ever thought I'm trying to do the right thing.
[00:14:54] Like when I was a terrible person, no one cared.
[00:14:58] Now everybody has an opinion, like, what's going on here? I'm being more rejected now because I'm trying to live a certain kind of life, trying to have certain kind of values.
[00:15:08] Why is it not working?
[00:15:11] Because people who are favored go through fire. And so Mary gets to a point where she goes, hold on, this was a God thing. And now I can't even. I can't have my baby in a house.
[00:15:22] I gotta go with the animals.
[00:15:24] What is it saying?
[00:15:26] What are my relatives saying to me?
[00:15:30] What is it? And what's amazing about this, how God works, because he knows. And I can't relate to a mom giving birth, but I know it's beyond special.
[00:15:43] And you really want to. You want the right people in the room, right? Some of you is like, I know we want the right people in the room. And some people you did not want in the room.
[00:15:52] But there are certain people, you want them to come visit. You want them because why are you going to celebrate with them? But she, Mary, who was favored by God, is in a stable and now she's going to give birth to the Messiah of the world, all alone, just with her husband.
[00:16:08] So that's the context.
[00:16:10] Wow.
[00:16:11] It's a dark space.
[00:16:13] And then the story continues, but now it seems like God's doing something else. When we leave the stable now, we go outside and. And outside. What's happening in the fields? Well, it says here that there were shepherds. There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over the flocks. At night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were what?
[00:16:38] They were terrified. Why? They just beheld something that was so magical, so out of this world. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause what?
[00:16:50] Great joy. Good news that will cause great joy for all the people today. And we know this. We love this. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. And this will be assigned to you. You will find. Help me out. You will find a what? A baby wrapped in cloth lying in a manger.
[00:17:14] Classic Christmas story, right?
[00:17:17] But do you see what's happening here? You got Mary and Joseph trying to figure out, why do we just give birth all alone when my sister in law and my mother in law is upstairs? Why are they not down here?
[00:17:33] They're up there and they're in a dark night of the Soul, they're, they're. They're just. They're like, what's happening?
[00:17:43] And then all the while. And I want you to know, this is what God does. While you're going through something, and you are. Right now, God is talking to other people about you.
[00:17:54] So he goes, God goes and shows up among shepherds and says, hey, there's someone you need to go see.
[00:18:03] Could it be possible that as you're praying about something, could God be talking to someone else about you?
[00:18:10] How encouraging would that be?
[00:18:12] And I just. I want you to know this. God is. God is talking to someone else about you. How to be there for you, how to show up for you. And what the flip side of it is, is that you and I need to be. People, need to be people who want to show up for other people.
[00:18:32] So if God's talking to you, then God's talking to you right now about someone else as well.
[00:18:40] Maybe, just maybe, in the midst of all that you're going through, you're not the Mary in the story and Joseph. You're the shepherds. God is saying, I need you to show up for someone.
[00:18:51] You don't know them. I just want you to show up.
[00:18:54] I want you to show up. Because when you show up, it's going to change everything you see, because you don't know this, but their family rejected them. But I'm going to send friends who will celebrate with them.
[00:19:07] Friends you don't even know.
[00:19:09] So he sends shepherds. The question is, why shepherds right now, when we know the story, we've seen the manjocenes, we know, right? In all the manger scenes, the shepherds are all men.
[00:19:20] Have you noticed that?
[00:19:22] Okay. And depending on which way you shop, it's either all white men, you know what I'm saying? It could be brown. They're always black. Brown, whatever. Here's the issue with that.
[00:19:31] They weren't necessarily men.
[00:19:33] You're like, what?
[00:19:35] Yeah, not necessarily men. You see, if you trace shepherds in the Old Testament, it was a family business.
[00:19:43] And the night shift were always given to younger girls.
[00:19:49] Younger girls in the family because it was a family business. There were women shepherds.
[00:19:53] In fact, some of the stuff that they were supposed to do, the men didn't want to do it, the sons didn't want to do it, whatever. But in the Old Testament, even Moses, when he goes to Jethro, his uncle, he finds sisters. What are they doing? Tending the flock.
[00:20:08] Proverbs 31. Woman. When it talks about the description of a woman, it talks about her taking care of the flock when you. There are other stories as well, about how there were women who were shepherds. So what's interesting about this. I'll tell you what's interesting about this. What's interesting is, is God doesn't just talk to people about how. About your situation, how he wants them to be there for them for you. He talks to the right people, because I don't know about you. But here's what happened right after they had this moment, right? It keeps on going. Luke says, suddenly a great company of heavenly hosts appeared with the angels, praising God and saying what? Saying what?
[00:20:54] Glory to God in the heavens and on earth. Peace to those on whom his favor rests.
[00:21:03] When the angel left, it says, when the angel left them and gone to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, what do they say? Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. So they what? They what?
[00:21:20] They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was laying in a manger when they saw him. They spread the word concerning what they'd been told about this child. And all who had heard were amazed of what the shepherd said to them. Let me tell you why I'm convinced these were women.
[00:21:39] Because, I mean, I'm just saying that I don't want to generalize, okay?
[00:21:44] But guys are not like, hey, oh my gosh, we just saw a birth.
[00:21:50] Let's just tell everybody. Let's go.
[00:21:53] They're like, dude, I mean, okay, what? Like, could you imagine the heavens opened up all. If they were just dudes. Heaven opened up. And the angel says, hey, there's a birth. And then they go away. And the guy's like, what are we supposed to do? Like, what are we gonna do?
[00:22:12] Do you want to give birth? I don't want to do that. I mean, some of you guys are like, I want to be in the. Like, you guys. Some of you dads, you're like, I want to be in the room. I want to hold. I want to cut the umbilical cord. I want to do all of that. Do the whole bare chest baby thing.
[00:22:28] Not this guy. Nope. They tried it. They tried it with my kids. They're like, you want to cut the cord? I was like, listen, do your job.
[00:22:34] Do.
[00:22:36] Why?
[00:22:38] Why do I need to do that?
[00:22:40] Also, clean. Clean it up, man. Clean up, like, what? What's bloody and all that.
[00:22:45] I'm about to. Whoa, I'm gonna pass out. I need to sit down. Breathe. So glad we do those classes I'm breathing.
[00:22:53] Yes. I mean, I don't want to do that. I mean, maybe it's just me, but I'm like, okay, great. You opened up the heavens just to tell me about a birth?
[00:23:02] No, but if. I'm just saying if you're a shepherd girl, you're like, what?
[00:23:08] Yes, let's go. And they're the only ones who would go and spread the word. You see what God is doing?
[00:23:16] See, to me, to me. And if you're. I mean, to me, it's not far fetched to go. God says, hey, I know your sisters won't be here, but I will send you other friends who will be your sisters who will be so excited to come there, see your baby, and spread the word about it.
[00:23:37] See, that's what God does.
[00:23:40] God, in the midst of you going through something, he says, hey, I'm going to send you people. I know you've been rejected by family. I'm going to send you friends who will become family.
[00:23:51] I know that, you know, I know something great has happened. And, you know it's hard. No, what's interesting about success is. And accomplishment is it's great when you achieve it, but you really want other people to celebrate.
[00:24:03] It's no fun when you got everything and you can't tell anybody about it or you get excited about something and then you look around and you go, I have no one in my life who will celebrate this moment with me.
[00:24:14] That is the saddest thing. And God says, I'm gonna get you.
[00:24:20] I'm gonna, like, I'm gonna get you more people. And guess what happened, right? It went from a Joseph and Mary and baby and some sheep or whatever to all of a sudden, shepherds and their flocks. There's no. There was no room in the inn, right? Or no room in the guest room. Now there's no room in the stable because there's so many people.
[00:24:43] There's so many of them. I mean, I wonder if the family's like, what is going down? What's happening down there? Because God's took a tragic moment and man changed it, replaced it with a treasured memory. And here's why we know this, because the story ends. And Mary, right here, Mary, because all of this is not far fetched because of this.
[00:25:13] But Mary, it says here, but Mary did what? Mary looked around the room, it says, but Mary, like, it was all amazing. But Mary just took a moment and she did what?
[00:25:24] She treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
[00:25:30] Like she took a moment and just looked around and went, wow. And I thought I was all alone in this.
[00:25:40] Wow, God, you would do this?
[00:25:43] Like God says, I'm not. I'm gonna. I'm gonna make sure you remember that I took a moment and changed it.
[00:25:51] I want you to know that.
[00:25:54] So what does it say to us?
[00:25:56] I think what says to us is that you find yourself overlooked, maybe ignored, marginalized, kind of invisible, unnoticed. You find yourself in a place that you feel like you're always over.
[00:26:11] I don't know, you're always dismissed, maybe slightly abandoned, just rejected, not really quite fit in.
[00:26:20] Find yourself going, I'm not quite sure. Maybe I'm just all alone in this world. I want you to know that God is talking to someone.
[00:26:30] Talking to someone about you.
[00:26:33] The right people about you.
[00:26:37] And what's interesting about the shepherds is that they were first. They were the ones who beheld the light, right? They beheld the glory. They were like. They were the ones who saw it.
[00:26:46] And then when they acted on it, when they acted in obedience, when they were like, let's go and see. Let's do this. Let's fully engage. The ones who beheld the light became the light.
[00:27:02] To Mary.
[00:27:04] So many today.
[00:27:06] For us, you need to be the light of the world for someone else.
[00:27:11] For someone else, you're like, ah, hey, nae. I don't have a. I have this man. I have this light. It's been. You know, this is so small. Yeah, I get it. I get it. But just your itty bitty light, you know what it does?
[00:27:25] It diminishes the night for someone else.
[00:27:30] It diminishes the darkness for someone else.
[00:27:33] So what are we.
[00:27:35] What are we supposed to do?
[00:27:37] What are we supposed to do? As you're going through this? Well, there's one thing you need to know, and that is what I've already told you before, that God is working on your behalf. He is replacing God. Replacing? Replaces. He replaces tragic moments with treasured memories. He does it all the time, and he wants to do it in your life. You need to know that. You need to believe that. You need to believe that.
[00:28:07] See, my dad is interesting because he.
[00:28:11] He was overwhelmed with just dark thoughts to a point where he didn't believe that he wanted to live anymore.
[00:28:22] And I recently wrote a book called Tomorrow needs you. And the book was dedicated to my dad because he believed that no one needed him.
[00:28:30] And you know what's interesting about that book is, like, I was talking. I wanted to write that book about giving people hope, that when you are filled with darkness, and you're filled with just loss. You just feel all alone. No one to celebrate you. No one to celebrate with.
[00:28:44] You cannot believe that you're. You cannot. You cannot give yourself to that darkness. You can't do that. And in the book, I wanted to write the story of Van Gogh. So I want to say I dabble in the arts, but that means something else.
[00:29:01] I draw and I paint, but I love Van Gogh.
[00:29:06] You know, I studied him and all that. And one of the quotes of Van Gogh, it was just so heartbreaking. So I put it in the book and I was like, oh, man. I told the story of Van Gogh because, you know, how he faced darkness and he was creating beauty and all that. And. And so there's a quote in there that he says, and it says he was writing to his brother and he said he was in a dark place. He says he wrote to his brother and he said, there is a fire in my soul. There's such a fire in my soul, but no one wants to warm itself by it.
[00:29:39] I was like, oh, my gosh, it's such. It's beautiful. It's so sad. But I was like, ah, I want to put that in the book, you know, and my editor rejected it.
[00:29:49] They were like, no.
[00:29:51] I'm like, why? They're like, because Van Gogh doesn't survive. Like, he.
[00:29:58] He ends his life. And I was like, yeah. He was like, we can't do have that.
[00:30:03] I was like, but that's real.
[00:30:06] That's real. We argued so much, I lost the argument. So if you read my book, Van Gogh's not mentioned. And I was like, no, no.
[00:30:16] You know why? Because sometimes. Sometimes we like life to be just Disney.
[00:30:22] You know what I'm saying?
[00:30:24] We just want a happy ending.
[00:30:27] When you even read the classic stories of Disney that we. They don't end with happy endings.
[00:30:33] We've changed it to make it happy endings because of kids like, oh, and they lived happily ever after.
[00:30:43] And that is not necessarily the story of life, but.
[00:30:48] But God does.
[00:30:50] And God will replace.
[00:30:53] And God can replace.
[00:30:56] Replace something tragic, a moment that's so tragic when. With a treasured. A beautiful, beautiful memory. So know that.
[00:31:07] Okay, so what are we supposed to do?
[00:31:10] What are we supposed to do?
[00:31:12] When I find myself in places like this, I go back to the one psalm that I have loved for so long. I mean, it's my lifelong psalm. I've got. And you probably got a favorite passage as well. Mine is Psalm 27, and it's speaks to me in so Many different ways and. But let me read you part of it, because it tells us what to do now that we've talked about what we should know and what we should believe. Here's what it's. Let me read you this part. It says here, this is. Starts verse seven. It says, hear me. Hear me as I pray.
[00:31:43] Lord, be merciful and answer me.
[00:31:47] And it stops right there because time has passed now.
[00:31:51] And then he says, oh, my heart, My heart has heard you.
[00:31:56] My heart has heard you.
[00:32:00] Come and talk with me.
[00:32:03] Do you see what's happening here? He's like, oh, God, you're telling me you're talking to me.
[00:32:07] And he says, and my heart responds by saying, what, Lord?
[00:32:14] I'm coming.
[00:32:15] I'm coming.
[00:32:17] I wonder if God's speaking to you. And he says, hey, come talk to me about this. And you're like, ah, I don't wanna.
[00:32:24] I don't wanna talk about this. I just want it to be fixed. Can you just take a nap?
[00:32:30] Can't just wake up to everything being okay. Wouldn't that be awesome?
[00:32:35] He says, I'm coming. I'm coming.
[00:32:39] And then he says, you've always been my helper. Don't leave me now. Don't abandon me. Can you sense his worry and anxiety here?
[00:32:47] He's lost so much.
[00:32:49] He's like, not you.
[00:32:51] He says, don't abandon me, oh, God of my salvation. And then he says this. He says, even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me. What?
[00:33:04] Close.
[00:33:05] See, some of us have been.
[00:33:07] You've been abandoned and rejected by family members because of the life you're living right now.
[00:33:14] And it is hard and it's so painful, and it's not right.
[00:33:20] It's not right.
[00:33:22] It's.
[00:33:25] It's tough. They've abandoned you.
[00:33:28] But here, he says, the Lord will hold me close. And then he says, I am confident that I will see the Lord's goodness while I'm here in the land of the living. And then he says to himself, he says, wait patiently for the Lord. And then what did he say?
[00:33:48] He says, what?
[00:33:49] Be brave and courageous. Yes. Wait patiently for the Lord. So here's what we do.
[00:33:58] We be brave.
[00:34:00] We choose to be brave.
[00:34:03] We choose to open our eyes. We choose to lift up our heads in the midst of what we're going through.
[00:34:08] We wait patiently and we see the goodness of God. So here's what you need to do.
[00:34:16] You need to be brave. Don't give in to the darkness. Don't give in to loss. Don't Give in to rejection. Don't give in to guilt and shame. No, no. Be brave enough and be confident enough and just wait.
[00:34:27] Wait and say, and hold on. For some of you, you're like, I don't want to hold on anymore. Just. Just hold on. You have no idea what shepherds God is talking to.
[00:34:39] You have no idea what night that he's going to break out. You have no idea all of a sudden who's going to be knocking on your stable. You have no idea. Just wait and then see the goodness of God in your life.
[00:34:52] So can I pray for you?
[00:34:53] Can we pray that we would be people who will, number one, not just behold the light, and that would be great, but also we would become the light. Because it doesn't matter how big the light is, it always diminishes the darkness. It always diminishes, always affects it. It weakens the darkness in other people's lives. So let's pray together.
[00:35:16] Lord God, we just thank you so much for this morning. We thank you, God. In this season, we find ourselves around family members. We are reminded, God, of all the dynamics, some of which are. Is. Are just. Is painful. Some of us, God, would rather skip over Christmas.
[00:35:33] We'd rather skip over Christmas because it's just complicated and it reminds us again about the. The. The. The just the situations that we're in. God.
[00:35:44] So, God, I pray that in the middle of this, God, you would do something that only you can do in our heart.
[00:35:52] God, you would remind us, God, that you see us, you see the stuff that we're going through, you see also what we're doing to cope with it.
[00:36:01] And God, you're not mad at us. You have compassion over us.
[00:36:08] God, I pray.
[00:36:10] I pray, God, that, God, that this. As we move into the season, especially when it comes to relationships, I just pray, just you would do something supernatural, a peace, a reconciliation, a coming together, a forgiveness, a letting go of bitterness. God, something powerful that would happen here as we begin to let our faith shine.
[00:36:43] And God, for some of us, we've never really crossed the line of faith. We've never said, I want to be a light. I want to be the light.
[00:36:51] So today I pray, God, I pray for them that they would have the courage, they would be brave enough to say, jesus, I give you my life.
[00:37:01] I give you my life.
[00:37:05] I want you in my life, in the dark places of my life. Jesus, I give you my life.
[00:37:16] Would you save me? Would you forgive me? Would you fill me?
[00:37:23] And Father, I pray that as we go and respond during this song. Some of us might receive communion. Others of us might go light a candle.
[00:37:34] Some of us might go to the cross.
[00:37:36] God, just speak to us. I pray as we respond. God, we thank you.
[00:37:42] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:37:48] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
