(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

Today I wanna talk about unexpected times in our life because oftentimes we do have unexpected things happen in our life, but I do believe if we can get through those unexpected things that come in our life, we can get to the other side and oftentimes watch a miracle happen through those unexpected challenges.

And I don't know that many of us are faced with unexpected things.

We may be faced with unexpected things this coming week into the Christmas season, but I wanna talk about how to charge through those things and see God do amazing things in our life and through our life.

You know, the entire Christmas narrative surrounding the birth of Christ is all an unexpected event.

Nobody was expecting a king to show up in a manger.

Nobody was expecting the God of the universe to become flesh and be born in a manger among people, especially in a little town called Bethlehem.

And so the unexpected happened that first Christmas and all the people that surrounded that event, they had to navigate through the unexpected.

And today what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at all the people that surround the Christmas narrative and we're gonna see how they dealt with the unexpected.

Because as they dealt with the unexpected, what they eventually got to see was an amazing miracle happen in their life and not only in their own life, but through their life.

And that miracle still is producing today right here at Valorous Church in 2024.

The reason we celebrate the birth of Christ is simply because of what God did through the birth of Christ that allows all of us to be a part of his amazing family, come on, and begin to see him do great and mighty things in us and through us as we surrender our life to Christ and come back to God.

So today let's talk a little bit about some of those people in the narrative because every single one of them saw God turn the unexpected into an amazing miracle.

And if you and I are gonna see God turn unexpected events in our life into amazing miracles, the first thing we have to do is face the challenge.

We have to face the challenge.

Oftentimes the miracle seems like a challenge as it's brought on to us.

But what I've discovered in my life, I never do see a miracle happen without first a resurrection.

And then, you know what?

The resurrection begins to have the power of God put on top of it.

And then that begins to produce a miracle.

The people that surround the Christmas narrative, you know, they saw the unexpected happen in their life, but they were willing to face the challenge.

Let's take the wise men.

Though the wise men saw baby Jesus some two years later after he was born, they had to basically face the challenge of going on a long journey in order to see this miracle baby born in a manger in Bethlehem some two years later.

They had to travel for two solid years in order to get there.

How many of you know that the challenge of traveling for two years can be quite a challenge?

But what happens oftentimes is we expect the miracle to show up in just a minute.

Other words, when we have a challenge in our life, we're like, God, would you do a miracle tomorrow?

And then if God doesn't do that miracle tomorrow, we're like, well, where is God?

And we miss the miracle because we don't stay the course and begin to expect God to show up in the way that God says he's gonna show up.

We see the wise men traveling for two solid years as they face the challenge of that journey.

Let's take Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus.

They both have challenging moments in their life as they were spoken into about this miracle.

They were engaged to get married at a young age in a Jewish culture.

And then the Holy Spirit comes upon Mary and basically says that he's gonna, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit's gonna overshadow you and you're gonna become with child Mary.

This was an unexpected challenge in their life.

They were planned to get married just like couples in that particular day did, but God interrupts their plans with an unexpected challenge.

And I want you to listen to what the angel of the Lord said to Mary, because I believe this is what God wants to say to many of us today in the unexpected challenge.

The angel says in Luke chapter one, verse 30, don't be afraid, Mary, the angel told her, for you had found favor with God.

And so at first, Mary probably thought, man, this don't seem like a favor of God, because I'm going to carry the Christ child.

Just think a minute about that.

Nobody was expecting God to show up this way.

There was no plan for God to show up this way.

Though God had announced it through the prophets, nobody really understood what the prophets of the old were saying.

God had prophesied that this was going to be, but the angel comes to Mary during this unexpected challenge and says, don't be afraid.

The angel of the Lord said the same thing to Moses, I mean, to Joseph, Jesus's earthly father.

Look what it says in Matthew chapter one, verse 20.

An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.

Joseph, son of David, the angel said, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.

In other words, he says, don't be afraid.

Our tendency in life of when we are faced with a challenge is to sometimes become afraid of what is ahead.

Our tendency sometimes is to let fear overtake us instead of let God speak to us and begin to watch a miracle.

Sometimes we wanna quit, we wanna give up, we wanna pull over to the side and we don't wanna wait that two year journey to see God do the miracle.

There's all kinds of things that come at us whenever we are faced or we begin to see God do a miracle and we're always gonna be faced with a challenge.

Let's look at the shepherds.

They were faced with a challenge.

The angel says the same thing to them.

The Bible says, that night, the shepherds were staying in fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.

That night that Jesus was born, they were basically doing their job.

They had the night shift, you know what I'm talking about?

And they were on the job.

And the Bible says, as they were on the job, suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them.

They were terrified, but the angel reassured them, don't be afraid.

And I think that's what God may wanna say to many of us today, that are faced with a challenge, is there's a miracle on the way.

But don't you be afraid.

Don't you quit and pull over to the side.

Don't you give up on what God wants to do in you and through you.

Because you see, nobody was expecting this miracle to happen.

But what happens is God steps in to their life and challenges them to step away from the comforts of their own life towards the miracle that was gonna be birthed through Mary that is available to each and every one of us here today.

And they had to face the challenge.

They had to begin to wake up to what God is more concerned about us putting our faith and beginning to trust him and believe that he can use us than he is our own comfort.

Think about it.

The shepherds were comfortable in their job, but the angel of the Lord comes and says, leave your job right now and go and see this Christ child.

Mary, I don't care what yours and Joseph's plans are, but the reality of it is I'm gonna ask you to leave the comforts of what your feelings are in order to step forward towards what I wanna do in and through you.

And I need you to have faith, Mary, that this is me, God, speaking to you, and I want you to step towards it.

And oftentimes, you know what?

We don't see the miracle of God in our own life because when the challenge comes, we give up.

We pull over to the side.

We say God is against us and not for us, and we miss the miracle of what God wants to do through us.

We have to learn to face the challenge.

But not only do we need to learn to face the challenge, we have to listen well.

We have to listen well.

You know, a lot of times people say, well, I'd love to hear God's voice.

I would love to learn to hear from God.

I'm gonna teach you today how to hear from God.

I'm gonna teach you how to hear from your creator today.

And the first and primary way God speaks is through his word.

Known to us today in 2024 as the Bible.

God speaks through his word.

And the question is, are you listening well?

Because God's talking.

He has said a whole bunch and he continues to say more.

But the way he says that more is if I'm willing to listen to what he's already said, apply it to my life and do what he says.

And some of us are wanting to hear a word from God.

I need to hear a word from my creator in this unexpected situation.

Oh, he's speaking.

He's already spoken.

But the reality of it is, is if we're not listening well, we'll miss the opportunity for God to birth an amazing miracle through us.

Whenever challenging moments happen in our life, you know what, is an opportunity for God's power to show up in a incredible way.

But God is not a conventional thinker.

He thinks very unconventional.

He does things very unconventional.

I mean, I'm telling you right now, the miracle in the manger was unconventional.

It didn't happen before and it hadn't happened since.

Nobody been impregnated by the Holy Spirit, but one, her name was Mary.

And the reality of it is, this is very unconventional.

And do you understand that it's God's way of providing a way back to himself through a human being born of a virgin?

It's a beautiful thing, but listen to the Bible of listening to why God did it this way, understanding that it could have happened maybe another way, but God chose it to do this way because his ways are higher than our ways.

And every single person in this miracle that surrounds this manger had to learn to listen well.

Look at the wise men, Matthew 2, verses one through two.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod.

About this time, that time, some wise men from the eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem asking, asking Herod, where is this newborn king of the Jews?

We saw a star as it rose and we have come to worship him.

They had been listening, listening to the word of the prophets down through the ages.

They had traveled for two years.

They heard what had been predicted and so they saw this star because they had been listening well.

They were hunting the king of the Jews because they had been listening well.

Look at Mary.

Mary listened, Luke chapter one, verses 31 through 35.

The angel came to her and said, you will conceive and give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus.

He will be very great and will be called the son of the most high.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David and he will reign over Israel forever.

His kingdom will never end.

Mary asked the angel, but how in the world can this happen?

I'm a virgin.

The angel replied, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

The power of the most high will overshadow you and the baby to be born will be holy and he will be called the son of God.

Mary listened and she obeyed and she trusted the word that came from God.

And we know she listened because she birthed the Christ child.

She obeyed, she submitted herself to God.

You say, well, am I listening?

Well, let me ask you a question.

Are you submitting?

Because, you see, listening to God means I'm submitting to what he has said.

I'm obeying his word.

Jesus is saying, hey, if you love me, you'll obey what I said.

It's one thing to say you love the Christ child.

It's one thing to say you love Jesus.

It's a whole nother thing to obey what he says.

And so listening is defined by, am I submitting to the Lord?

Joseph, listen, look what it says, Matthew chapter one, verses 20 and 21.

The angel said, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Joseph, listen, he became the earthly father of Jesus.

He did something very, very out of the cultural norm.

He didn't listen to what all his buddies was telling him.

He listened to what God said, come on somebody, and he stepped into it, and he sees the miracle child born.

You know, culture around Joseph was probably saying, you're an idiot.

This don't make no sense.

Mary's crazy, she's the crazy wife.

And again, this is culture speaking, but Joseph listens and goes against the grain of culture and believes God's voice over culture's voice.

See, how do we know if we're listening well?

Well, you know, the question is, are we obeying?

Are we stepping towards what God has said?

Are we being a people who go against the grain of culture based on the word of God?

The shepherds listen.

Luke chapter two, verses 10 through 12.

The angel came to them, I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.

The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the liberator, the Lord will be born today in Bethlehem, the city of David.

And you will recognize him by this sign.

You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.

So how do we listen?

How do we listen to God?

How do we listen to each other?

We listen to each other by first and foremost, spending time with each other.

And what happens oftentimes is people say, well, I can't listen to God because I don't have time.

Let me give you an awakening today.

We all have the same amount of time.

It's called 168 hours in a week.

And it's not, we have different demands on our time, but the reality of it is we choose, each and every one of us can choose whether we believe, you know what, time well spent with God is worth what God says it is, or we choose to believe that we don't have time because something else is more important for our time.

So if you wanna listen well, you gotta first and foremost, prioritize your time.

As you see, again, I spend time with what's valuable to my heart or what I believe will make me better or make me great.

And if you're not carving out some of your 168 hours a week to get in the word of God and listen to what the word of God says, you're really missing something amazing of what God wants to do in your life and through your life.

So again, how often do you truly get along with God in his word and listen to what he says?

Secondly, whenever you read God's word, if you want to listen well, I invite you to listen to God in context, not just in tweet mode.

How many of you know that, you know, I could tell you today that your hair looks bad and you could get angry at me, you could get mad at me, and maybe it does really look bad, but I'm giving you the definition of how to make your hair look good and how you can look great and how you can be awesome and you'd be incredible, but you took that one word of correction of me saying that you look bad out of context and you missed everything else about what I was saying and you turned that one word into something that I never meant to do.

Come on, come on.

Whenever you study God's word, first and foremost, and you hear us talk about it here some at Valorous Church, but we gotta remember context is king.

Let me say it again.

When you read God's word, the context of where it was written, who it was written to, and why it was written is king over everything else that is said.

Because you can pull a tweet out and you can make God's word say anything you want it to say.

And then if you do that, whenever God doesn't deliver in how you wanted that word to be delivered, you miss what God says, and you begin to claim that God didn't do what he says.

It's because you misinterpreted what he said.

And I'm here to declare to you today, on behalf of God's word, if you will read it in context, God always does what he says he's gonna do.

His promises are always what he says they are.

But the reality of it is, a lot of times we listen out of context, don't we?

And we try to make God do something that he never promised he would do.

And then we start going, God, where's the miracle?

And God says, why don't you read it?

In a way that I wrote it.

Because the miracle's in the making.

If you'll begin to choose to obey what I said.

I'm for you, my friend.

And I'm not against you, is what God's word says.

I'm here to elevate you and help you become all I knitted you together in your mother's womb to become.

But you gotta step in to what I am doing.

God is a miracle maker.

And God will do what he says he will do.

But what happens all the time, and again, I still become a student of God's word.

But I don't wanna just read God's word.

I wanna listen to what it says in context, apply it to my life, and then do what it says.

See, you wanna know if you're listening to God's word?

Have you read it in context and do you believe God?

And you do what he says.

Because God delivers and God does miracles.

And God can step into any mistake, any unexpected event, any relational challenge, any financial challenge, any broken challenge that we have, and he can step up and begin to deliver a miracle and burst so many things out of that miracle that you never dreamed of in your life.

Miracles happen when we believe God.

God's power shows up and does amazing things.

Why do you think Jesus resurrected from a grave?

It was to display the power of God and death couldn't hold him in the ground.

The fact that Jesus died in a horrific death and was put in a grave is factual information.

But God's power showed up and turned that fact into a promise and what he did in that situation, my friend, he can do in any one of our lives because the Bible says the same power that elevated Jesus from a grave is available to you and me.

But are you listening to what God's word says?

Or are you going with what you feel instead of how he talks?

Because God has spoken in his word.

The next thing I wrote down is we really wanna see a miracle in the unexpected events in our life.

Not only do we need to face the challenge, not only do we need to listen well and do what the word says, I wrote it down this way, we have to learn to make a move.

This is where faith comes in.

Our Bible, the word of God, says it's impossible to please God without faith.

So God wants to see if you believe it and will you step towards it.

So he says it and then, okay, God, I believe it and I'm gonna step towards it.

That's where make a move.

That's where the rubber hits the road.

And again, every single person that saw this miracle that was born in a manger, that began to produce miracles all over this world and still is producing miracles today, what happened is they made a move when the word of God came to them and spoke to their heart.

Look what the Bible says, the wise men.

They came, they met with Herod after they interviewed the wise men, they went their way.

Matthew chapter two, verse nine.

The star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem.

It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.

And when they saw the star, they were filled with joy.

They entered the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and they worshiped Him.

They worshiped Him, and how they worshiped was they opened their treasure chests.

And they gave gifts of gold, frankincense, and mirth.

In other words, the rubber met the road.

They did something with their life.

They found what God had said, the miracle in the room, they worshiped Him by opening their treasure chest and giving something to this Christ child.

It was a way to say that their faith had met God's promise.

And they believed what God had said.

And as a matter of fact, this treasure they brought to the Christ child in the manger allowed basically Mary and Joseph to eventually travel to Egypt to keep the Christ child from being killed.

And so they saw God do something amazing in this particular juncture as they had, and they put their faith, and they made a move, and they kept moving towards what everybody else said what was a problem, because Herod said this Christ child is a problem.

They said, no, he's a solution.

And they moved towards him.

Mary, look, she made a move.

Look what it says.

Mary responded, once the angel revealed all this to her, I am the Lord's servant.

When is the last time that God spoke to you through His word?

And you said, God, whatever you want, wherever you want it, however you want it, open my heart, I'm your servant.

See, that's what making a move looks like.

Not, hey, I wanna serve this way or serve that way.

No, God speaks.

And the question is, do you have the faith to step towards it and make a move towards what he says?

Joseph, Matthew 1, verse 24, when Joseph woke up from his dream, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded.

He took Mary as his wife.

Step of faith, doing something with God had spoken.

The shepherds, Luke 2, verse 15, when the angels had returned to the heaven after they announced what the shepherds were to do, the Bible says the shepherds, they said to each other, hey, let's go, let's go to Bethlehem.

Let's see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.

Again, making a move of what God has spoken into your heart from his word about his plan will begin to be where the rubber meets the road and the miracles will begin to happen.

Do you know how God says he's gonna change the world?

It's called through the church.

The whole New Testament is about the birth of the church.

The book of Acts is about the acts of the apostles and the birthing of the church.

People call out of darkness from every tribe, every tongue and every nation coming to know who God is through the power of the Holy Spirit and then going on display for him in the world to announce the miracle of the Christ child.

Do you know what Jesus said?

He said, I'm gonna build a church that evil will not prevail against.

How beautiful is that?

Think about that for just a minute.

What is Jesus saying?

He made a promise that I'm gonna build a church, I'm gonna take people's heart, I'm gonna transform their heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm gonna give them a gift and they can put that gift with the other gifts and I'm gonna build a church, a community of people who have been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, given a gift from the hand of God.

They put those gifts together and as they put those gifts together, there is no evil that can hold that church back as it penetrates the gates of hell and takes back what belongs to God.

It's a promise.

It's a promise by our creator.

And so are you participating with a local church?

Because a local church is what God's gonna use to change the world.

It's a group of people that put their gifts together that believe God's promise and they step into it and transform communities all over this world.

And I love this picture because I'm all for, you know what, the global church.

I'm all for the organizations.

I'm all for your job.

I'm all for that.

But what God is going to use, there is no plan B. It is plan A. It's the only plan and it's the local church and it's going to change the world.

Some people say, I don't want to be a part of the church because it's messed up.

Well, go be a part of the world.

It's messed up too.

But here's the beauty and the miracle.

God takes the messed upness of the local church.

He heals hearts.

He heals people.

He heals people by the power of the Holy Spirit.

He gives them a gift.

They step into it and they begin to transform the world by God's amazing power.

My Bible says, we are the body.

He is the head and together we're going to change the world.

I believe in the promise of the local church.

And if your life isn't being changed, I'm inviting you today to make a move.

Step into the fullness of what God is going to do.

I think about Giving Hope Mall, what this church is going to exhibit next Saturday, being the hands and feet of Jesus, helping people in our community.

We've had thousands of gifts come in and we're going to be able to serve hundreds of families next weekend off of this campus.

Not just giving away presents, we're giving away miracles.

We're helping bring dignity and honor back to parenthood.

We're allowing parents to come in and shop for their kids, put the gifts under their tree so they can be the heroes in their kid's family.

But all of this was birth back in 2012, 12 years ago.

Back then we called it Upcycle Mall.

And again, we had this idea, hey, can we make parents, the heroes, and their families said, hey church, can you start giving some bicycles and some gifts or whatever else?

We had this unorganized mall and God took that little mall we started and over the years we built, built, built on it.

And this year we'll serve more families than we ever had, but we were obedient at that first Upcycle Mall.

Come on somebody, I'm asking you today.

And look, not only have I seen families changed, I've seen a congregation transformed by producing this miracle in the community, by being the hands and feet of Jesus and helping people out.

You see, miracles are small beginnings of obedience.

I remember when me and my family back in 2003, 2004, we didn't know one soul at this place called the Grand Strand.

I didn't even know it was called the Grand Strand.

But we were over in Columbia, South Carolina.

We had just finished seminary and some people began to say, hey, why don't you take your family, my son was in the second grade back in that day, and why don't you take in your family, you know, out of these relationships, out of all of this familiarity, and go to the beach and plant a church, start a church.

We stepped away from the familiar and believed God.

We didn't even have the resources to do it.

We had basically expended all of our resources in seminary and getting through seminary.

But lo and behold, when we took a step of faith and obedience to be a part of what God's doing in the world, which is the local church, and believe in the miracles of the local church and what God wants to do through the local church.

And we chose to step this way.

There was a couple of business folks from Columbia, South Carolina said, you know what, I'll support you for three years financially to go plant this church.

And we were able to move down here for three years.

Come on, somebody, and do what God asked us to do.

No, we didn't know how we were gonna do it.

You're gonna always know how everything is going to work out.

Step into the miracle.

Believe God today, trust Him with a little bit, and see if He don't do much.

And my friend, what God's inviting every one of us in into this Christmas is a walk of faith.

The miracle child that was given in a manger was to forgive humanity of their sin as He was nailed to a cross.

But the miracle is He resurrected from a grave so you and I could see the power in the hand of a God who wants to forgive people and begin to empower them to do great things for His kingdom's sake.

And the miracle of that first Christmas is still going on today.

God's birthing new people into His family over and over again.

But God's made another promise.

And I want you to latch on to this hope this Christmas is He's coming back.

I love you.

To rescue His bride.

And you know, it may be a few thousand years before it happens, but it was a few thousand years before that miracle showed up in a manger.

And some people kept watching for the miracle and others didn't.

Let's be caught living by faith, watching for the miracle of God to show up in people's life, no matter what the circumstances.

Because my Bible says, when He comes back, it's gonna be more unexpected than it was the first time.

Amen.

It's gonna be like a thief in the night.

And our heart is that everybody will be ready to join Him in all eternity and be who He's created them to be forever and ever.

Amen.

Yeah, let me pray for us today.

God, I thank you so much for every person here today.

And God, though we may feel a little bit like Kevin, today and the unexpected happened, we feel like maybe even you've disappeared, God.

I pray today we would recognize that that's what Christmas is all about.

Emmanuel, God with us.

And God, I pray today if there's a person here today that don't know you through that divine connection that you made when you sent Jesus into that manger to later go to a cross and resurrect from a grave, that God, today, they would find hope in what he did for them.

God, they would submit their life to his authority.

They would turn away from their sin and begin to trust him to help them become all you have designed them to be.

My friend, if that is you today, just say, God, today I believe in my heart that Jesus resurrected from the grave to salvage me and put me in right standing with you so that I can move forward by faith in trusting you all the days of my life.

Tell God you're turning away from your sin today and you're gonna trust him and put your faith in him and him alone.

God, we thank you for those who pray that prayer of salvation and may you continue work in them and work through them, work in us and work through us.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.