Kept In The Dark

a tradition, because some traditions are empty. This is not an empty tradition like a turkey or something like that that's going to put you to sleep anyway. This is training. This is how when we trust God, when we bring him the first fruits of everything that he's given us, which thousands of people will commit to do here between now at the end of the year and set it up online and all that, and many people giving above and beyond. I've already got my offering ready. I got

a head start. I started on this, started praying about this in October, so I'm ready. But we're calling the offering better. That's the word that we associated with the offering. I took it from where he said the glory of the latter house would be greater than the glory of the former house. And so many people right now are in seasons of rebuilding. But the Lord doesn't just want to rebuild what we had before. He wants to take us to a new place with new priorities and new perspective.

So now the key to all of this. Do you really trust that he's your provider? Do you really trust that he is Jehovah jiro The Lord provides, the Lord sees. So when I bring my offering, it's not just oh so we can keep paying staff members. Oh so we can keep changing guitar strings on Joey's less pallback there. Oh so we can keep buying goldfish crackers for the kids over any kids so they don't freak out while I'm preaching too long for me's training is teaching me

to trust God. And it also does something amazing because then I get to see the fruit of preaching the gospel all around the world. I want to thank all of you who tithe to this ministry, who give to this ministry. We preach Jesus all over the world daily I mean, every hour of every day, there's somebody being blessed somewhere by this ministry, and we get to do that together. So I'm excited, really excited. I'm grown up now, so I'm more excited about giving than receiving because I'm

grown up now. I'm grown up now. And so we're going to pray for all who are praying and asking God. God want me to give above and beyond the type again to tithe both. Let me pray because only God can speak these things to you. By your head, Father, I thank you for what you've already done. I don't want to skip that if you never did anything else for Stephen Ferdy, for Elevation Church, for the people that

I'm looking at. You already gave us this many breaths, this many days, this many blessings, this many breakthroughs, this many victories, this many slain giants, this many crumbled walls. You've already done enough to be worthy because you saved us and you loved us, and you came to tabernacle and live in us. So it's already enough. But you promise that you're able to do immeasurably more. I declare that over your children today that their best is not

behind them, and the devil is a liar. That the glory of the present house, what you're building right now, by your spirit, in the name of Jesus, it will be greater. Say it. It will be greater. In the chat, it will be greater. Riverwalk, it will be greater. Valentine, it will be greater. And we give you praise by faith in Jesus' name. If you believe that, give God a mighty shout of praise. Yeah, all right, So they'll

give you the details how to get that offering. I need everybody participating on the level where God has blessed you. I'll be sneaking out of here will The church is big. They don't need my money. It's not about the church needing your money. It's about you needing God. So it will be grateful. And if you never ever give, we'll still be here for you. Isn't that cool? The restaurant doesn't tell you that, Hey, we'll still feed you. Man, Just keep on coming. We'll keep on whatever you want, free,

refill as long as you want. They'll kick you out, But this is a ministry that will be here for you, be here for you. One dude told me he left the church for four years. He said, I was mad at you. I said mad at me. I had never met him before. He said, yeah, you were preaching some things that I didn't want to hear. But he said, I came back because what God said through you was right. And he said when I finally reminded me of the prodigal son, when he went off in the pigpen and

stuff and he came to a census. I didn't tell him that he looked like you've been in the pig pen, buddy. But he said, when I finally got my got my mind back right, I knew where I could come back to with elevation because I knew I'll be accepted and welcome and e grace. And that's what I like about this church. I love this church. Man. Oh come all ye faithful, I'll come. Oh come all ye faithless. Oh come all ye heathen, Oh come all ye pagans, Oh come all ye addicted. Oh oh come all ye pretty.

I'll come all ye ugly. I'll come with you buff. I'll come ye skinny, scrawny, fat. I don't care. Oh come just calm, just calm, so it'll be amazing. I'm glad you came. Hey, Todd, at least five people on your way down, don't touch them, don't touch them. Don't touch them, because's how legal. I forgot. I'm sorry. Oh have it, I'll have it. I'll have it. Just look at five people, untell them. I'm glad you came today. Put it in the chat online. I'm glad you came

today when you found five people. Take your seat. Let's go, let's go. Take your seat. I am giving you your Christmas sermon Early. I know how you are, and I know they're shipping delays in the natural, and I know also the closer it gets to Christmas, the less docking room at the docks, You're going to have to hear God's word because your life's going to be so busy

and crowded. You be around all these people. You don't like cleaning up your house to impress them, and don't even like them buying them stuff, and they don't even wear what you bought them last year, and you have noticed. But so I'm gonna give you your gift Early. I'm gonna get out of head. I got out of head on all of Holly's gifts this year. I've got them all there already. I bought them early, that's right. And

Abby knows everything that she's getting. Holly doesn't. So that's because I trust Abby now, trust her, I can tell her honestly. Y'all, all of my kids when they were little, they all spoiled presence. One time, Elijah came back from South Park with me, and he told Holly because I took him shopping and he saw Santa. And I know you think Santa's pagan, but he is five, okay, And so I took him to go sit on Santa's lap.

And he came back and told Holly, I'm not allowed to tell you that we got you sweatpants from Juicy oh Man. But I trust Abby now, so I don't keep her in the darkening. He go to Matthew chapter two. I told Graham's sitting on the front road, this sermon keeps getting bigger in me the longer we sit here. They need to stop singing so I can preach, because I feel like I'm about to give birth, which is exactly what Mary said in Bethlehem. She wasn't planning to

give birth in Bethlehem, but she had to anyway. And that's where we're going to pick up today in Matthew chapter two. You ready, You're ready or not? Here comes Jesus Matthew chapter two. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who has been born King of the Jews. We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed.

Uh oh, and all Jerusalem with him, because if Herod gets mad, he's going to do crazy stuff to them. Because he's this provincial governor, he's not really in charge. He's appointed by the Roman government. So you know, Caesar Augustus is really the headman, but he's got Herod watching out for all of these Jewish people. So Versport says, when he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the

Messiah was to be born? In Bethlehem and Judea. They replied, for this is what the prophet has written. But you Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. Now I love that verse because it comes from Michael five to two, and it lets me know, o little town of Bethlehem, big things can come from small places. Y'all need to drink your coffee thirty minutes earlier next week, because big things can come from small all places. Look at your neighbors,

say be nice to me. I'm carrying something big. I know you can't see it right now, but out of me it's gonna come something that can change the world. Yeah, let's go Merry Christmas, y'all, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search

carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report back to me so I can go worshiping too. You know, I'm gonna go worshiping too, just to kill him, but he's threatened by him. After they heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose a thousand miles back where they came from in Persia. When ahead of them five more miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem until stopping the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were

over joy. Came a long way to see this. It validated their instinct that something big was happening. And on coming to the house, they saw the child. A child means Jesus is a little bigger. Now he's not. I know you've got that Precious Moments thing on the credenza, but he's not a baby. He's not in a barn at this point. He's in a house. And there weren't three of these guys, the three wise men. They brought

three gifts. Gold represents divinity, Frankenson's represents priesthood, murder represents Jesus burial at his death. It's all symbolic, and it's also about to finance the trip that Joseph doesn't even know that he's going to have to take yet, because God is already working even before you realize it. So they presented him, they opened their treasures, they bowed down and worshiped him. It said they saw the child with

his mother Mary, They bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold Frankensonson Mermer, and having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another rue. Now let's prepare for our scripture landing here. When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going

to search for the child and kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod, and so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet. Out of Egypt, I called my son. This sermon is called kept in the Dark, Kept in

the Dark. Here we are again with the same familiar cast of Christmas characters, and the challenge of reading the Christmas Story as a pastor is you just want to skip ahead to the part where he gets up from the grave and skip past all this stuff where he had You also understand that we're watching these characters as they are walking through what we are watching with knowledge

of where they end up. So that's why it's hard to really grasp the meaning of a scripture is because we're watching something that they're walking through, but we are watching with knowledge what they are walking through, and we know how. So you kind of want to pull him aside. You want to be like, hey, Joseph, Mary's not lying. It really was the Holy Spirit that got her pregnant.

You're not crazy, you're not simping. She really really, she she really when she told you that it was the Lord who came to her, and you kind of wonder was it really the Lord or was it was it was it Leroy and and and and so. So Joseph, y'all please be good. This is a Christmas sermon. Is It's kind of like you want to pull him to the side and be like, hey, Joseph, because Joseph had it rough right, like he really never knew. He died

not knowing if this was really the message. I'm sure he saw stuff that made him think, Okay, okay, this kid's pretty special, you know. I'm sure in the carpenter shop, Jesus would do something every now and then, maybe make a two by four pop up and levitate in the shape of a cross, just to give Joseph a little bit of confidence that this is real, but he didn't really know all he had to go on watch this. I didn't read this scriptures. The Lord came to him

in a dream. Do you believe your dreams? I don't believe my dreams. I'd be in jail. I'd be on so many pill prescription pills for anxiety if I believe my dreams. So he has to hold on to something that he saw in his sleeve and walk it out in his life. We are watching with the knowledge. Hey Joseph, just hang in there, man, Just do the best you can to raise the kid. You know, show him a few things. You really can't mess this up. He's like he's kind of got a little special protection agency. He

got a little heavenly secret service around him. Even if you lose him at the temple when he's twelve, you know he'll find his way back. He kind of pays the roads with gold in heaven so he can find his way through the streets of Jerusalem. It's gonna be all riot. You gotta want to tell him that he didn't know. And if you hang in there, they're going to be every middle aged man in every little Methodist church in America is going to be pretending to be you and dressing up like you in the month of

December one day. Right, you kind of tell them, Madgie, because they come so far, right, they come from Persia. These are not even preachers, they're astrologers. These are not even Jews, they're gentiles. They are following something that they shouldn't even be following to see the will of God. And it still got them there. And they had to travel, as I think I mentioned, a long way. How far is a long way five miles, ten miles, twenty miles,

fifty miles, one hundred miles. How many times did they have to recharge the tesla to get one thousand miles from Persia with these heavy gifts estimated to be worth like four million dollars? And then it was all worth it? And you kind of want to tell them that, like, hey, just so you know that star it's got you five miles within. Sometimes you want to tell somebody you are so close. Don't quit right now. You are so close.

They were five miles from where Jesus was, So you kind of want to tell them because you have the knowledge if you go five more miles, you are going to see the Savior of the World. Now we're reading it right with the knowledge of where it ends up. They aren't watching themselves travel a thousand miles. They are walking a thousand miles. So here's the thing that'll keep you humble. Be careful who you judge when they're walking through something that you are only watching from a distance.

You've never walked through the age that your mom is before. You've never well, you have walked through the age that your kids were before, but you never walked through it with a snapjack Ah, I got you right. You were like, I have been a teenager, I've seen it all. You hadn't seen anything, but TikTok. Passage of Time will teach you sometimes that you gotta be careful that when you're

watching someone else go through something. It's interesting, isn't it, Because everybody in the passage is walking through something that they don't know where it ends up, whether it's the Magi or even Herod. You kind of want to pull Herod to the side, right because he's trying to keep Jesus from being the king, and you got to want to be like, don't bother, Like really, man, save your book. Is you're not gonna. You can search all you want to kill Jesus, but you won't succeed, I felt the

Holy Ghost. I want to tell the devil this morning. You can search all you want want, but it won't work. You can come at the Child of God with everything you got in your arsenal and keep flying at him in the middle of the night. But I read to the back of the book, and you can search all you want, but it won't succeed. For the Lord's purpose will prevail. The Lord's purpose will prevail. I'm gonna herald it from the mountain top today. It won't work, Herod.

You can search all of Bethlehem, you can kill every baby, you can lie all you want to, but it won't work because of Jeremiah one twelve. See Jeremiah one twelve is a Christmas scripture that never got preached on Christmas. But I'm gonna give it to you today. The Lord said to Jeremiah, you have seen correctly watched this, for I am watching over my word to see that it is fulfilled. Now you ought to shout about Jeremiah one twelve. He said, I'm watching to see that my word is fulfilled.

And this scripture only made so much sense until Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Now, I want you to look at Jeremiah chapter one in the light of Matthew chapter two, that after Jesus was born, Remember Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but he didn't come from Bethlehem. In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the

word was God. That's John chapter one. So when the Bible says that God is watching over his words to fulfill it, it means that no matter how much Herod searched for the baby called Jesus, God was watching over the sea of his son that would bring forth the harvest of salvation. Yeah, oh, y'all missed the six thirty am service today. That's when God gave all this to me. Y'all miss the good service today. Oh my God, he's watching over Yeah. And yet you wonder, like if you

could tell Herod hey man. In the end, Josephus said that in Herod's later years he couldn't stop eating and there were worms in his intestines. You kind of want to tell him, man, stop trying to kill Jesus. This is not the path you want to go down. But see you know how it ends. He did. You kind of want to tell Joseph, have faith, man, it's gonna because everything in the passage I just read you, from a human perspective was a problem, but from a heavenly perspective,

it was a prophecy. So Christmas gives me this perspective that God disguises prophecy as problems. Verse one said he was born in Bethlehem. That was not where they had the reservations. It was a problem. It also says, if you notice, they had to escape to Egypt because they were trying the king of their region was trying to kill him. That is also a problem. It says later that when Joseph got up to leave for Egypt, he

had to go back to Galilee. He couldn't even go to Nazareth, where he was from, for a little while. He had to wait in Egypt. That's also a problem. But the same things that I read in that passage that problems. We're designed to fulfill a prophetic word, because he watches over his word to fulfill it. In Micah five to two it says he will be born in Bethlehem. So maybe this is why Mary's water broke early because she had to give birth in the place that the

prophet spoke. And at the same time that they are considering, where are we going to do this? There's no room in the end. This is not on our plan. Look at this. God is not protecting your plan. He's protecting his promise. He's not protecting your preference of how you wanted it to go, how you wanted it to be, who you wanted to stay. He's not protecting any of that. In fact, he's disguising the prophecies. See we know that these are prophecies, but but the mag I didn't know that.

They didn't even quote a single scripture and they found Jesus, yeah weird. And the one the chief priests and describes, and the teachers of the law, they know every scripture and they don't even see the Savior. The ones who should have seen God first were kept in the dark. I don't like being kept in the dark, do you do? You? Then you would not have liked to have been a disciple of Jesus Christ of Nazareth because his communication skills

were suspect at best. You could have told me to feed five thousand men and their wives and children before you were on the third hour of your sermon, Jesus, why did you wait until now to ask us if we have any food for these people? All the times that the disciples were and we think about everything that Jesus taught is to sciples, but all how about other things? He didn't tell them, Hey, go over in that boat to the other side. I'm gonna see you there in

little wall. He didn't say anything about the storm that they would spend the next six hours rolling through. Why would you love somebody and keep them in the dark. I'm telling my staff one time, I said, do not play God with information that you were waiting to give me until I'm in a good mood, because by the time you're figuring out how to tell me how to tell me, it's gonna get three times worse. I need to turn off the sink or unhooked the pips, or burn down the house or whatever I need to do.

So tell me now. I don't want to be kept in the dark. I used to go on Twitter was this was BC, but it would say on Twitter. I was at the so and so campus today at elevation and the the sermon went down in the middle of the sermon, and nobody on my team and told me, and I'm I'm like, I'm calling a meeting Monday. I'm like, y'all, if the video for the sermon cuts out at the at the Matthew's campus, you gotta tell me. I can't find out on Twitter. I'm gonna find out because I'm

trolling the internet to see all these problems. Y'all are trying to hide from me. So tell me, and I should I say this, I've told God before. You gotta tell me stuff. You can't let me get out of here with a sling shot and a bag lunch and put a delith in front of me. Tell me that's gotta be a giant so I can do some bicep carls and some ju jitsu training. Tell me, don't keep me in the dark if you love me. The Bible says that in him was light, and that life was

the light of men. And so why would God, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, whose life is the light of men, whose light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehendith and not John one to five, King King James version, Why would the God who dwells in ineffable light keep his children in the dark. Why didn't he just tell Joseph when he said, Hey, Mary's pregnant, it is the Holy Spirit. Why didn't he tell him that before Mary started to show? Why is she got

to be six months along? Before you give me a dream? Don't keep me in the dark. Just tell me. Tell me when I meet somebody, they are lying through their teeth and you will not even want to see their name on your phone three months from now. Just tell me, God, I could save a lot of texts back and forth. I could just block them on day one if I had some advanced planning, strategic knowledge. Just tell me. Just tell me, Hey, by the way, you're gonna have the

baby's birth in Bethlehem, so get a room. Why I got to trick me into going to bettle him with the census that Caesar called for to get me there, So I wasn't even expecting it. Why ain't you telling me God before we had multiple kids. No, I'm kidding. I love all my kids. But I'm saying I could have planned for it. I could have saved for it. I could have got ready for it. Maybe I went to build all these campuses. If I had known about covid. Ah. Maybe God doesn't keep you in the dark all the

time because he's cruel. Maybe sometimes he keeps you in the dark because he's getting something ready inside of you. Like right now in our house, Holly has a little room right off the kitchen, and the door is shut all the time, right now and shut last month. Let's see all this stuff that's coming through our house right now, all these boxes giving me gray hairs in my beard. How many boxes come in my house this time of year, all these boxes? And Holly, Holly, Holly's a wonderful wife.

She's always happy to see me. But she's been telling me lately on the other side of the door, in that little office where she's got all these Christmas gifts, she says, stay out. And I'm like, who are you talking to right now? This is not Graham knocking on the door. This is not one of your children, This says your husband. No, stay out, because I'm getting something ready for you. Stay out right now. I'm not in this room, no, man. That's kind of a silly illustration.

Is it? Is Holly not like God? You like that? Ah? Is she not like your God? Who sometimes you say God, show me this, and tell me that, and give me your direction for this and that. And does God not sometimes in his silence send you the message I need you to stay out because my ways are not your ways. Who thank you, Jesus, I didn't even think of Isaiah

fifty five. And my thoughts are not your thoughts. And as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts. And sometimes God, because He's got these See, he's got these boxes that have been coming in of something that he ordered before time began from eternity, he spoke a word, a prophecy concerning your life, not just the life of Jesus. No, No, there's a prophecy over

your life. And the prophet said, before you were born, I knew you when you were in the darkness of your mother's womb. I set you apart, and I kept you in the dark. And no eye has seen, and no ear has hurt, and it hasn't even in your heart what God has prepared for those who love him and trust him enough to follow him, even when he keeps you in the dark. Do you trust the one who's behind that door you think he's wrapping up interaction

in those boxes trying to hurt you. He said, I know the plans I have for you, plans to pross for you, not to harm you. I'm a good God. The irony of the passages, everybody was kept in the dark, all of them. Mary didn't know, Mary, did you know? No, that's the remix. That's the Stephen Verdick remix. Y'all put that on Spotify for me. No, she didn't know. She hoped, she carried. She didn't know. You don't know. Merry Christmas. That's the message of Christmas. That's the message I'm getting

from this passage. We saw a star, we came to worship, and where is he? They didn't know. The ones who should have known didn't know. Because of their knowledge that kept them from knowing what they were supposed to know. They knew the Bible too good to believe it. Ah, God said, I'm gonna leave the Pagans to a place that a priest wouldn't even go. Oh, my God, you mean what I think I know about God could keep me from seeing him for who he really is. Yes, you mean I don't know God in all of his

fullness No, he's omniscient. You are not. I'm not even sumniscient. I'm no niscient. I don't know nothing. I don't even know grammar. Can't you tell you? See now, you're kind of in the Christmas story cause you're like the magi. You don't know, you don't know where this is going. You came to Charlotte for a job and then they fired you eight months in What if God got you? What is the problem is the costume for a prophecy? God? Why did you keep me in the dark. Why didn't

you tell me that that relationship would fail? Maybe he wanted the relationship to surface some stuff in you that he could work on, so your relationship with him could get better. If he had told you how it would end, you wouldn't have taken the first step. So now I know why God didn't call a committee meeting before Christmas. Okay, Shepherd's angels, you know, like he's running a Christmas pageant

or something like that. All right, come on, mad joh, here's how it works, Joseph, here's what's going to happen. Mary's gonna come up. Yeah, we read it. We're so smug and honestly, like if I can be real, I spent all of my thirties hating Christmas as a pastor because people come in and it's like they don't really

even want to hear a sermon. It's just like, especially when it comes to Christmas and people are coming in because they're supposed to, you can't say much to somebody who's there because they feel like they're doing God a faith or to come to church. People have to have need that they're aware of to really receive from God. That's why I push my Christmas message early to avoid the shipping delays so you could get this word. And God is thank you Jesus watching over his word. We

are watching what they are walking through. We know where they end up. They don't and that takes faith. Man. I mean, if you know the whole twenty third song, yeay, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil for that with me that run that stuff they come from me. You know it ends with the wolves getting driven off by the staff. But if you're right in the middle of the valley you think it's your new mailing address. Oh, I guess

that's just how it is. Shadow of death. Well, that's an allusion to Galilee, where Jesus ended up being raised. That's what Isaiah prophesied. He said, those of you in what was it helped me out Zebulen and nephtilly Man. Galilee was so sprawny to the Jewish people. When Solomon was paying off his debts and he had to give the King of hear him something, he gave him twenty cities in Galilee. Just roll them over here. You can

have this the northern part of the kingdom. Part they didn't want, the part where a lot of the Canaanites still lived because it was still overrun by enemy. Oh, you can have Galilee. And the King of Tiger got it and he said, what did you give me, my brother, you can have this back. That's where Jesus did his ministry in the land of those dwelling in darkness. Galilee where Jesus based his ministry. Now, please don't think this is a geography lesson. This is a word for you.

The place that was associated with darkness, that's what Jesus did the most. It was known as the land of shadow and death, Shadow and death. And the thing is, you don't know which it is when you're walking through it. Is this gonna kill me? Or is this just a shadow? And God doesn't tell you you ever? Wish God would give you an age you're gonna die at so you can know how much to save and how much to enjoy,

because I would spend it all. If God told me I had till forty three, I wouldn't leave the kids a die. I probably wouldn't come preach again either. Honestly, if I only had till forty three, I might do one more message, you know, and put it out there and see if you want to see. I don't know about Definitely, I'd spend all the money. And God knows that. That's why. If God told me when I was gonna die, or God told you when Ah, did you notice what the angel told Joseph go to Egypt. Herod's trying to

kill your kid, But watch us. I'm gonna keep him in the dark. I'm not gonna let him find him. He can search all he wants to kill Jesus, but I am watching over my word to fulfill it. So no weapon formed against the Word of God that is in your arms will prosper before I forget. Let me tell you this God set to tell you that he is keeping your kids. God set to tell you that as they walk through the darkness of the valley of this cultural shadow of death, the hand of the Lord

is upon your children. And I want you to shout if you receive this prophecy by fame. Herod can look all he wants, but he won't kill mine. He won't get soords. The blood is on my house, the blood is on my life. Hey, hey lord, ha ha ha. Y'all settle down, silent night, Holy night. All is calm ya, all is bright, All is not bright, All is not bright, All is not bright. That's pretty to sing, is a nice image. It helps the Christmas light tree light manufacturer

sell a lot of merchandise. But all is not brightant he said, I was so distracted by the star in Matthew too, and how bright it had to be to lead them a thousand miles because I like the bright stuff, don't you. I like the bright spots when I can see. I like when God gives me light, let there be life. I love when God says let there be light and he shows me something clearly. I loved Saturday morning when

God gave me this message I love this morning. When he gave me even more, I'm not gonna I love it when I have to think about all this stuff I didn't get to. I didn't love Thursday. Thursday, I was groping around in the dark. ELOI lama shabaktany, My God, My God, why had that forsaken? I'm so sorry. Lord, whatever I did, I won't do it again. Just give me a message. I don't even feel like the Bible's in English right now. Oh God, I don't like that, you know, like I try to give you what God

gives me and regifted. Now I'm coming to a point in my life where I try to give you what I would give to my own kids. And that's deeper than giving you a lesson from the Bible. So pushes me to go deeper. But deeper means darker, h to look low for God, not always up here in the clouds. Somewhere on some inspirational feeling, he said, you're gonna find the child on the ground in little old bedlamb Oh, little town of Bedlam. Wasn't a compliment, it was an insult.

And from that place, God, wherever you feel the most insecure, wherever you feel the most insulted. Wherever it is the darkest, wherever it is your galilee, that's where God's glory is the greatest. Elijah told me the other day during her workout, I'm sorry, my energy is low. I slept horrible last night.

I messed up and listened to this music that got me in this dark mood, and then I just was like I couldn't get it out of my head, and I'm laying there and I'm sitting there like I can't sleep, and then I try to look at my phone because that's what I normally do, but that made it worse. Well, yes, you ever have nights like that? Dad, The guy in me that wants to be so admired and respected wanted to say, of course not, son, I don't count sheep.

I talked to the shepherd. You know what, I don't think you should keep your kids all the way in the dark about what you struggle with. You don't need to tell him everything. No, don't don't hate. Please, don't tell him everything. That's going to build up a therapy build that you know, be bigger than their college fund. But I am saying, I am saying there's moments where I realize, you know, he already sees me preaching. He's sixteen. I said, nights like that, I've had months like that. No,

I had no nights like that. I've had I've had a year like that, not this year. And that's when the Lord took me back to my passage. I thought the passage was about the star. I had a message going. It's pretty good too. I don't know why the Lord won't tell me to write message the first time. Why does he keep me in the dark. I'm studying about the star, like how it's God's GPS system. That's what I was going to tell you, God is your GPS.

Merry Christmas Ler said, that's a look at Matthew two fourteen. It said that after they saw the starbout down in worshiped him, an angel came and he took the child and his mother during the night. And that's what I realized. That God does a lot of things at night that he can't do during the day. They left for Egypt they would stay for a year. Wasn't their plan. They weren't packed for it. It wasn't your plan to be right now? Are you exactly where you plan to be?

Right now, because if so, I want to worship you, Jesus. I want to give you gifts of gold and Frankinson's and Mr. They left her in the night. You got to follow at night? Sometimes? Are you following God in the night? Right now? What I mean is you can't really see what's two steps ahead, and you keep bumping into stuff that makes you want to cuss, and you can't even hardly find the bathroom at night, and you don't really know. You're just like Joseph. You're just like Mary,

You're just like the Magi. You're even just like Herod. There was only one in the passage who knew where this was headed, and he couldn't even walk yet nobody else knew. So I tell my sons about my daughter, about my church, about nights like that. I don't want to just tell him about the God of nine point thirty on Sunday morning. It's got too much makeup on. Then they won't realize God when he has to show

up at four am. I want to pastor a church and to be a person who has four am faith during the night, because I want my kids to see me do great things from God and write great songs for God and preach great messages and make good decisions, and love their mom and be a memory making dad and give them all of these wonderful experiences. But I want them to know that I had some nights where I didn't know. I didn't know, I didn't know if the church would keep going, especially when it was a baby.

I would walk out every week, not knowing if anybody would be out there. I hate when God prompts me to tell you stuff that's embarrassing to me. I'd rather keep you in the darks. I would rather roll out on the stage. Hey, praise the Lord, everybody. God is your GPS, and he's gonna rerupt you. Am I right? But Lord said to tell you the things you doubt about I doubt about you. Hear me, Son, I've had

nights like that. I had nights where I wished I could throw up, but I couldn't because it wasn't physical what was making me sick. There's no sickness like night sickness. I never had morning sickness like Holly did. But let me tell you something. He's not just the God of nine thirty Sunday morning. He led Joseph teeth at night so if you ever see me do anything great, boy, it's not because I always walked in the light. It's

because I was kept in the dark. Everybody who God ever used, he didn't use them because they always had so much light, so much knowledge, so much goodness. You see all this other stuff everybody's posing on Instagram, and they got all these lights that are so flattery and all these filters. But the God of four Am, the God of four Am, the God who got up from the grave in the physical body of a man named Jesus.

In John twenty, verse one, it says, while it was still dark Mary Magdalene went to the twob what he didn't get up when the light came out. Easter didn't start with a sunrise. It started in the dark. So if you are in the dark today and you don't know, and you can't feel, and my God, why have you forsaken me? And how does this end? And why does it hurt? And when does it stop? And when can I leave? I need you to know that He's watching you and keeping you and holding you and with you

in the fourth watch of the night. Yes there's a star that guides you. Yes there's a light that guides you. Yes, there are blessings that attend you. Yes, there is favor that you can feel, and you will experience all of those things. But sometimes he's gonna tell you things in the night and lead you through things at the night. And what he does at the night you will be shouting about in the day. Because this is why you gotta hold on. This is why you can't give up.

This is why you gotta get help. This is why you gotta work through it. This is why you can't accept the feed. This why Hair is searching for you. But he couldn't find you yet. He couldn't kill you yet. What he couldn't kill is Christ. You the hope of glory. And he leads me not just with a star, not yet, not yet, not yet. Y'all don't want to go yet, do you? Ya? Don't wanna go yet, do you? Y'all got enough battles at home. Just stay with me for a minute, get under this blessing for a minute. The

night is coming when Roman can work. Let us work the works of him who sent us, watch him over me. Yes he is because I got something in common with Mary and Joseph. I'm carrying Jesus. I got Jesus on the inside of me. Everything that God spoke to Joseph that confirmed his word, he did it at night in a dream. Take Mary home in a dream. Go to Egypt in a dream, Go back to Nazareth. Everything God did in Joseph's life, he did it at night. What is he doing on the night? Watch for you right now?

What is he doing? I'm telling you we're gonna be shouting about it tomorrow, but right now it's night. Right now it's night. I always feel like coming out here to preach is a little bit like a detective novel. I'm trying to find who are you? Who are you that God gave me this word for that? He just stirred me up till, like I told Graham, I feel like I'm about to give birth. Who are you? What are you carrying? What does Herod know about you that has him trying to track you down and kill you?

Why has the attack been so strong? If you were not carrying Jesus, if you were not sent for purpose, if there was not a prophecy over your life, you wouldn't be feeling any pain. The pain is a labor pain. You're about to break something forward and it made me think that this is not the only Joseph, that there's another Joseph who had to go to Egypt. Y'all know the other Joseph. Y'all know ot joseph old Testament Joseph. Y'all know Joseph put it in the chat. I know Joseph.

I know Joseph. I know what you're talking about. I know what you're doing. You're not talking about Joseph who married Mary. You're talking about Joseph who was promised that God would raise him up to feed his whole family and save his whole nation in a time of family. That Joseph who saw the stars and saw the grain. But God didn't show him everything he would go through. God him in the dark. He didn't tell him, your brothers are gonna betray you, the very ones you're gonna

have to feed. You're going through something right now. And you didn't see this coming. He didn't see himself pushed into a sister. He didn't see himself sold into slavery. He didn't see himself running away in a prison while he was forgotten by the cup bearer and the baker. But you know what Joseph told me to tell you. God kept me in the dark. He was with me. He kept me. He held me steady, he held me down, He held me level, he kept me safe. He preserved

my mind. He walked with me through the valley of the shadow of Death. I will fear no evil. He's with me. That's how I'm here. He kept me. Everybody, God kept giving price right here. Ah. He kept me. He kept me in the dark. He kept me in the dark. He kept me from killing myself. He kept me from walking away. He kept me from giving up my dream. He kept me from turning my back on my Fathe I'm not here because I always walked in the light. I'm here because He kept me in the dark.

That's how I got here. He kept me in the dark. He didn't tell me everything. That's how he got me here. He told me one thing at a time, and that's how He's gonna speak to you. One thing at a time, One thing at a time. Give us this day, our daily bry. He kept me in the dark. If God told you everything, you start spazzing out. We have to call the ambulance to your gammis. I used to pray, and I still pray. God give me light but this is a Christmas prayer. God keep me in the dark

when I got you, don't let me tonight. Well, one man said from the nineteen twenties, don't forget in the darkness what you learned in the light. He got up at night, Joseph went to Egypt. You're following God right now to a strange place. I know you are. He spoke to me about you. He said, to tell you, I'm keeping you in the dark. You got to turn it over. You gotta trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in

all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will direct your past. What's he saying? He will keep you in the dark, keep you You remember when God's people came out of Egypt in the Old Testament, and the Bible says that they had believe and the firstborn of all of Egypt was struck down. So committed was God to the freedom of his people. God has committed to your freedom. Yeah. God is committed to his children. He is watching over his word to perform it in your life. In this

moment at night. He neither sleeps nor slumbers. And one time I heard a fella say, well, if God never sleeps nor slumbers, then I'm going to get some rest, because one of us should. The Bible says that the people of Israel, and look at this, HOLLI this cling to me in the last minute. How God does it? The first Joseph who went to Egypt in the Bible was Joseph who went to preserve the nation of Israel. And watch what it says in age of this chapter twelve,

verse forty. And this is the word I want to leave you with today. Now, the length of the time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. Y'all, I don't care who you are. That's a long night. That's a long time to wonder. Where are you God? Now, it's been eighty one generation since the birth of Christ that we live in, and I think we have completely messed up the message of Christmas in those eighty one generations because we only associate God

with the light, and He is the light. There's no darkness in him. However, look what the Bible says to the people. This is thousands of years before Jesus. And watch how the prophetic word alives. God is watching over his word to perform it. Next verse, at the end of four hundred and thirty years to the very day, all the Lord's divisions left Egypt, Go go go, because the Lord kept vigil that night. Somebody say, that night, do you know the one I'm talking about, the one

where the anxiety was beating, the breakers were pounding. You know the one I'm talking about where all the memories came flooding back. You know the one I'm talking about, all the regrets that four am devil that you fought, that was searching to kill you, like Herod was searching like Pharaoh wanted to kill the Israelites. He like he wanted to kill like he wanted to strike them down. But he couldn't watch why because the Lord kept vigil that night. And this is what the scripture says, to

bring them out of Egypt on this night. Somebody say, this night, now follow me, follow me. Receive this word. How many of you received this word that I'm appreciate to you today. That is a weak response. If you have heard this word, if you receive this word, maybe it's for somebody on the Epham. Maybe it's you that this word is coming for. All right, So give me the scripture again, he said, on this night because the

Lord kept vigil that night. I want you on this night to keep vigil, to honor the Lord for the generations to come. Aren't you glad that Joseph followed in the dark so we could have Jesus in our hearts and our lives. What are you carried? What is the important thing on the other side of this night? That night, the night they left Egypt with the blood on their doors, so that the angel of Death passed over their houses. That night God stayed up and watched. And now so

he said, you keep it. If you were kept in the dark, then don't you get in the dark and lose your faith. Don't you let this knock you off of what the solid rock you've been standing on. Don't you let this snatch your prophecy. This is bigger than you you hear me. This is bigger than how you feel right now. This is for generations to come. That's

why you have to make it through the night. That's why I had to make it through the night so I could tell my sixteen year old, so he can tell his sixteen year old I've had nights like that. But watch this. No matter how dark the night. God, God never stopped watching. God never stop keeping. God, never stop working. God never stop sustaining. Because they were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. God is a good shepherd.

He watches his flock at night. He doesn't only like you in the light of day. He watches you in the grimy place. He's a grimy God. He'll roll up his sleeves and come down, born of a virgin, dressed like a man, to set his people breed. He never stop watching me, never stopped. He never stopped watching. He never stopped watching. Gis God worship. He never joke his I cap you, ay, that's great to have promises that

God made you in the light. But the promises that God makes in the light have to be kept in the dark. The whole church missed it, but you do. It has to be kept in the dark. That's where you need Jesus. That's where you need Jesus. That's where you need light. And I think, I think, I think, no matter how long the light is, the day is going to be greater. I do, I do. God never remember when he came out walking to the disciples on the water. It was the fourth watch of the night.

What I love about it say, watch this, I'm gonna get out of y'all. Wait a minute. I know it's late, but it's late in your life too. Huh, it's late in your life too. He said that Jesus came walking to them on the storm in the water. What I love about it is before he walked out to them, he never stopped watching them. He saw him the whole time they were in the storm. God is watching over his worth, whether it's herod, whether it's depression, whether it's

your dumb decisions. They are not stronger than the prophecy. Yeah, and until Christ has brought forward, God is watching. Oh God, I thank you that you're watching over my house. I thank you that you're watching over my gift. I thank you that you're watching over my spirit. I thank you that you're watching over my broken heart, so that nothing seeps in that would keep me from seeing you. God. I thank you that you are watching over these men

and women. I thank you that know storm that they are in reduces your visibility, for you have an all seeing eye. You are the all knowing God. You are the living Word in the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. That same word that came forth through forty two generations and past state these generations to come to us today. We have our eyes on you now. Watch God, watch God. Watch God. Keep your focus even in the door. Watch God,

watch God, watch his word. Meditate on in your bed, remember it, play it in your Watch God. Watch God bring you out. Watch God do a miracle. Watch God give you a testimony. Watch God turning around. Wat's God use this very thing. Watch God, watch God, Watch God, watch God turn around. Tell five people watch God, watch God, watch God, watch God, watch God, watch God. Heyy, stop watching the news for five minutes and watch God. God

doesn't watch the news. Please good news. Yes, glad tidings, it breaks great story and he watches over his flock by night. Give him praise. If you received this one, thank you, loving, Thank you Jesus. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and

review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevation Church dot org, slash and give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast inst