Possessing a "Manger Mentality"

So without any further ado, I do hope that this message will be a blessing as we come up to the festivals that are coming upon us. Four in a row. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And we gave another presentation a couple of weeks ago about preparation, but this is going to be a little bit different. And I hope that you'll listen, hope you'll absorb, and I hope that you'll understand.

There is an amazing verse that is found in our church hymnal that declares these following words, and you have sung them for years, both as a Church of God member and also as an American.

In the beauty of the autumn, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me. And he died that we might live, so we the living, let's march forward.

We have all sung that song and maybe never quite paused on those words and the deep meaning of them. So that's why we're going to be giving this message today, which is important. It was written during a time, as Mr. Miller brought out in the first message, it was a time of conflict, of brothers, fighting brothers, families separated. The North, the South, whose grandparents and great parents had fought against the same foe, the British, and now were in the battlefields in the border states and in the southern states, and even crept over the border into Pennsylvania at Gettysburg. Amazing what can happen as you allow time to go by.

This was written during that Civil War, during that conflict, during that confrontation, during that great time of sadness, because every war begins by fighting with the plans of the last war, and nobody is up to date. And this was in the midst of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and so we understand that the casualties were just massive. But during that time, during that time of the Civil War, this was written by Julia Ward Howard, who was an abolitionist during this time of conflict, and it would become the marching tune to move forward for the northern forces that ultimately would have the victory, and that the American experiment as a whole might continue with North and South moving together. It is to these words that I would lay a foundation for us to move towards the upcoming festivals, plurals, set before us, ours reminding us of a better kingdom that is yet to come in its fullness. That better kingdom, that better way, that gracious Savior, that loving Heavenly Father. Why am I going to be expanding on these words today?

I speak to it, as you notice, it says in our hymnal, we know that there's a word change because of what we believe, it says, in the beauty of the autumn, Christ was born across the sea.

Jesus Christ was not born in the middle of winter, simply was not, and we understand that he had a three and a half year ministry. So that would have placed him in the autumn, his birth in the autumn. And to recognize that, and sometimes we do not know, there's probably books that are written on it, and paragraphs expounded and multiplied.

Somebody's kind of figured out the date that he was actually born on. You know me as a pastor, I like to be loud, where God is loud and quiet, where God is quiet. But he was born somewhere, probably preceding the Feast of Trumpets, because the Feast of Trumpets is the announcement. It is the blowing of the horns, it is the shouting of Messiah, it is the shouting of deliverance, and that is when deliverance begins. So I wanted to bring that out. So I want to lay that foundation why do I want to lay the foundation always reminding us of that better kingdom yet to come in its fullness. I speak to it because Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem during autumn, that season of festivals that speak of a new world. One thinking of what Skip mentioned, one unified kingdom, and new and one new way of being together in unity. Coming, yet coming.

When you notice the energy of what is mentioned in that hymn, that the army of the North would actually still be marching because it was not fulfilled. And all of God's purposes and plans have not been fulfilled, but what we do as we go through the festivals, plural, is we are marching towards that kingdom. Do not know when it's going to come. If you've been following the prophecy series, I do not set dates. I'm sorry to disappoint half the audience, I just don't.

As I always say, the only date that I set is with my wife, and she might say no for a good reason.

Don't set dates. But to recognize there's something working out here below. I speak to it because the Son of Man, the Son of God, had a glory in his bosom that has transfigured you and me.

As Dorothy Sayers would write in her book about Christ, it said, there was a beauty in him that made the rest of us look ugly. And yet that verse speaks of change and transfiguration.

That's going to be a part of what I'm going to talk to you about for a few minutes to today, too. Transfiguration. As we've been following, I think we did it in the last class on prophecy, is that there's three things that we're looking for when we come to services and we engage in the Word of God. Number one, information. Is information good? Yes, information is good. But number two, it would be nice if there's inspiration in how it is given or how you received it.

Inspiration is good. But inspiration, unless acted upon and internalized, can be fleeting and melt and go away. We as disciples of Jesus Christ need to operate on a three-fold plane. Allow me again to say it. We start with information. Then we pray that God will give us inspiration to understand what he's actually really saying to us, not what other people have said he is saying, but that we get it straight on. Boom! Got it! But then, what do we do with it?

Do we really change? Do we really bow our knee to the Father above and model Jesus Christ and thank Him for His Word and thank Him for His Spirit that dwells within us? This is the big question because as we're coming up to the festivals, bottom line is simply this. It's one thing to show up at the festivals. It's another to ask God every day to help you grow up at the festivals, to grow up. To show up is not enough. You know, maybe you have a, maybe you know somebody that's blind and they bring a dog in with them to the feast so they can get to their chair.

God's not working. We love dogs, please understand, but God is more concerned about the blind person, but sometimes people are blinded, too, spiritually. They think just coming in, paying their dues, coming in, showing up, being seen is enough. It's not enough. We've been called by this one that it speaks of the sense that there was glory in his bosom that the Father has touched us with, that die that we might live. I speak to it because as Christian soldiers guided by the captain of our salvation, we keep marching forward at this time through the battlefields of this age.

We march behind the captain of the salvation, not just our own hearts, not only our own minds, but to put his mind, to put his heart in us. As disciples in training, we approach the fall festivals. We must fully grasp that fully understanding the second coming of Jesus Christ, we must fully understand and embrace the lessons of the first coming of Jesus Christ among us.

Among us. And we must immerse ourselves into his story, learn from it, and allow it to become our story. In other words, are with me. This is the PowerPoint because those that are guessed, I don't do PowerPoint. I'm half Dutch and they're still wearing wooden shoes, so that kind of tells you where I'm at in life. Okay? So that the point is this, as we go back to my notes so I can find, there was a movie out years ago, and I don't remember, I never saw it, it wasn't my kind of movie, but wasn't there a movie called Back to the Future? Am I mistaken? Now we know what you've been watching. Okay, but anyway, Back to the Future. We need to go back for a few moments this afternoon, back so that we might go to the future and understand how we march behind the captain of salvation to that episode that Mr. Miller brought out today. We need to understand there's a time in the future when two systems based on two different ways of life, from two different gods, two different ways, God has kind of been to two. You know, when you go back, there's the God of this age and there's the God of eternity, and they had two people come along, Father Adam and Mother Eve. How did that work out? But there were two trees in front of them, two trees that had two ways, two ways that had two outcomes, two outcomes that later on would be taking root in two great cities, Babylon and Jerusalem, and skip to make a point, there is a contrast there between Jerusalem and Babylon. That conflict has gone down through the ages one way or another. It ebbs, it flows, but the God of this age, the God of this world, as it says in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4, He is alive, He is determined. Do I dare say He's also insane?

Because here He is as a spiritually created being, and He still thinks that somehow He's going to win over and be above God the Father and Jesus Christ. Kind of load that in your gun and try to fire that bullet, and I'm not going to work. But He's insane because it's the pride that was found in Him that is still ebbing and flowing out of Him, and He wants us to take a part of that. There was no pride with Messiah when He came to this earth. Therefore, the Bible shares human history apart from God. It's a study and contrast between two styles of leadership, two cities and two styles of leadership, based on two different spirits. Now, if you're taking notes, I'm going to send out my notes to all of you, but if you are taking notes, here we go. Here's one I'd like you to jot down, please. There are two different spirits. One is born in Babylon. One is born in Babylon with a spiritual negative gene that runs back to BelTashazzar, to his daddy, Nebuchadnezzar, back to Nimrod, and linked to and comes from none other than Satan the devil, who is in conflict with God Almighty and His purposes. So on one hand, we have a spirit that is born, and the DNA is strong of those that are born in Babylon, figuratively speaking.

Over here, then, for contrast, those that are born in Bethlehem.

Born in Bethlehem. There's a difference of spirit. There's a difference of community, of how we come into community, how we share community with others, and how we worship God.

It is during this time of the year that Christ was born in a manger, right around the time, as I said, of the Feast of Trumpets, the arrival of a king. That would make sense. To enable this mind of what we're going to pick through here in a moment in the story of the birth of Christ, that we can put it in—how are you going to do that, Mr. Weber? That's why you can't walk out right now. We're going to talk about this. Some of the lessons that we know. And to return again again to this part of the story of Christ to ensure that we are building upon the same foundation and mindset that God the Father and Jesus Christ have. We need to, in the Church of God, speak about the birth of Christ. We do not want to have to have others rob the truth about the birth of Christ, sometimes because historically people are over here. We want to go over here and ignore it. I think you know as a pastor, I do not ignore the story of Christ or the birth of Christ, because that story of the birth of Christ tells us of how we can one day—why we can have a new birth in our lives today and one day as we teach others, as we teach others in the Millennium, as a kingdom of priests under the high priest, Jesus Christ, the heavenly high priest, how will we teach them? What will be our leadership format as far as A and B and bringing together?

So today my SBS is to share with you the importance of—here it goes—possessing.

That means not only knowing but internalizing, possessing a major mentality.

I didn't say a major mentality. Okay, that'd be pride. A major mentality. A mindset that we have the privilege to understand and embrace. A mindset that is foundational to active and healthy Christianity—the lessons that we're going to go through for a few minutes—and we will explore and then understand Paul's admonition of letting this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. I'm going to give you a few points. So here's point number one. We've got about four points. So put on your seatbelts. Airbags deployed, spiritually speaking, and here we go.

Point number one. Possessing a major mentality allows us to understand the scope of the personal loving sacrifice freely given from above in the relationship between God and the Word that we now know in the New Testament under the New Covenant as God the Father and Jesus Christ. It's in Philippians 2 and verse 5. If I can draw your attention, here's where we open our Bibles now.

In Philippians 2, familiar words, but we're going to build upon them, thinking specifically of how we can, like Jesus in that sense, be born in Bethlehem and people can recognize the traits. You always know how people... you recognize people from where they're born. If you have somebody down south, it's maybe half the time going to be kind of down home and, you know, just folksy and wonderful, you know that. You listen to somebody from Massachusetts and how they move or from a maniac, you know where maniacs live? That's in Maine, you know, and you're up there on the eastern seaboard and they have a way about them. And then there's those people in Southern California, they just kind of float. They think they're cool, even though they're not.

And we're all different, and you kind of know where people is by their body language, the way they come amongst people, their accent. And I want today to encourage you to always think about possessing a manger mentality because of what God the Father and Jesus Christ did. Let's pick up the thought of you, couldn't verse 5 notice. It says, Paul speaking, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. But therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every one might, every knee might bow of those in heaven and those on earth and of those under the earth.

It says that when you look at this, and the translations are a little bit different, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Here's the PowerPoint time. When that decision was made before time, that this was going to be needed, and one of the Godhead were going to come down to earth, that Jesus was not holding on for dear life to a cloud up in heaven or to a star out in the universe.

No, no, he was not pushed down. No, you got to go now. Go, go, go, go, go, go down. No, no, but I want to stay here with you. I've spent eternity with you. No, cling, cling, cling. No, it's kind of like that story of the person, you know, it's on that proverbial branch that's on a cliff and they're hanging on to it. God, help me, help me. No answer comes from heaven. And then they say, is there anybody else up there?

It was just the two. Life inherent, life inherent, and the sacrifice of being all in all, which I'm going to share in a moment, was had. Your Savior, my Savior, the Son of Man, the Son of God. Let's talk about that for a moment. In John 1, that's what I want to go to. Let's go to John 1. And John 1, because this is going to be important, putting the birth story together in John 1, 1, 3.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and He was in the beginning with God. The Word being the one that we now know as Jesus of Nazareth. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. And in Him was life, and the life and the life was like the light of men.

Now, He was there in the beginning, and Scripture says, God the Father is like chairman of the board. He is supreme, but what was delegated to the Word was to make the master plan happen. And they were working together. God the Father, God and the Word, and now today in our times, God the Father and Jesus Christ, we never want to keep them apart. We don't want to go over and study them in solo over here, and then kind of study.

They're always together. As I've always said, whenever you see the Father in Scripture, just wander a few verses, and you'll bump into Jesus Christ. They're not over in this corner, that corner. That is how we approach that. Now, notice what it says. He created all things. With that, let's lean back for just a second.

This is called the Relaxing the Moment. I'm going to share a story with you. God created a universe so large that it would take a person between 200 and 500 billion—that's what it would be—billion years to travel around the universe at the speed of light. 100. It hasn't changed since we were kids. 186,000 miles per second. He created the world out of atoms. So we went—we're going macro to begin with. Now let's go micro. He created the world out of atoms so small that it would take the whole population of the world—the whole population.

Now this was probably written probably when there were about five or six billion people. I think we got about 7.8 billion now. But anyway, it would take the whole population of the world 180 million years to count the atom in a cup of water, counting at one per second.

Try to wrap your mind around that. Now, if you're in a hurry, you could count at two per second, and it would only take 90 million years for Earth's population to count the atoms in that water.

John 1 tells us who the author of that creation is. Jesus Christ. Interesting.

That's how great the word was. Even greater than this, many of man's self-devised religions have such a creator. They do have, in a sense, a source of beginning. I'll leave it at that. We're not going to go through comparative religion right now. Christianity is not the only one, but there is a main difference—a main difference, the difference, the God difference. Join me if you would, then. Let's take a peek here at John 1, verse 14. Just glide down.

Because at the beginning, okay, you're God, my God. What makes Christianity different is verse 14.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace. That is the difference. This God, of the Godhead, voluntarily, with no gun to his head, he was not kicked out of heaven, volunteered, knew what was coming. Because it says in Revelation 13, 8, that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. That he, if you want to jot this down, what makes him different, and why we need to understand the verse story, he put his own skin in the game. He who had life inherent knew that he would die.

That's what makes it different. Now what happened was, excuse me, what happened is, let's go to Luke 2 then. Let's just pick this up real quickly. And now we're going to go deeper into our first point. Possessing a means of mentality allows us to understand the scope of personal loving sacrifice freely given. Let's go to Luke 2 and verse 1. Notice what it says, and it came to pass in those days that it had cre went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. And the census first took place while Quintraneous was governing Sirius. So there's a placement there. So all went to be registered, everyone in his own city.

And Joseph went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea into the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and the lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child, who was with child, which is another part of the story. We need to understand something. What's going on here that can expand our faith? It came to pass. God, I believe, moved the mind of Caesar to fulfill God's decree from the beginning. There's a trail leading to Messiah that starts in Genesis 3.15. Are you with me? Even as Adam and Eve are about kicked out of the ground, the first prophecy in the Bible is mentioned that the seed of the snake will bite the heel of the woman.

Doesn't sound good, prophetically speaking, but that's not the end. And it says, and that the seed of the woman will crush the seed of the serpent. First prophecy, and the first prophecy deals specifically with Messiah. We can go to Genesis 12 verses 1 through 4. I've saved time. That is where a Brahm is called by God, and he's told that through his seed, through his seed, this the son of promise, Isaac, that is being spoken about, that all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Now there's a two-fold purpose to that. The first, and I suggest the primary, is that all of humanity is going to have an opportunity to know Jesus Christ. And because of what he did in God's time and in God's way, whether in this age or during the millennium, and or during another time, that God is going to have a witness. And that individual is going to be able to understand that a loving God gave his son because he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever should believe on him should not perish but to have life.

Not everybody is condemned at this point. Oh, in a sense, yes, their sins are upon them. They die. But to recognize when you understand the broadness of God's plan, it just...

You want to have a feast of shouting? Skip. Don't shout. You want... not here. We have some new visitors. Don't shout. Okay, is that a feast of shouting? This is what God did for us. We also know that in Isaiah 7 14 it says that 700 years out he says there's going to be one that comes and you're going to call him Emmanuel. God, who knows all, takes what's in the future and brings it even down into our day as he did with Isaiah. Emmanuel, which literally means God with us, which John 1 14 tells us then that the word came down amongst us. It says when he dwelled, the word dwell means the out... the raw form is really he tinted. He was on a pilgrimage. Aren't we going to be keeping a pilgrimage festival here in a few weeks? He tinted. It says he camped down here. You know, some of you are campers. He put up his tent. It was going to be temporary because a pilgrim is a pilgrim as long as you're moving towards a goal or a devoted sight. As soon as you put down roots, you are no longer a pilgrim. And so that's why it's so important that we are rooted to the kingdom of heaven up above and not rooted just simply down here below. So we take a look at that. Anyway, and it's interesting that... join me in Galatians 4 if you would for a second.

Galatians 4 4. Pardon me. But when the fullness of the time had come, God set forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are the sons of God, has sent forth the spirit of a son into your hearts, crying, "'Hava, Father.'" Let's understand something. A very... as we go sometimes through our dark days, and we say, just like the chorus goes up in Revelation, how long, O Lord, how long?

And sometimes that is not just set for the future, but in our own lives right now, things that are happening to us. How long are we going to go through this?

God not only created time, but he is the master of timing. When you understand that your faith will grow and develop, he's the master of timing. Just as Skip was bringing out in the first message, that there are going to be challenges that are coming along, but when you go to Matthew 24, it says it's going to get tough, but for the elect's sake, for the elect's sake, this will not happen. Humanity will not destroy itself totally. Although there'll be challenges, there'll be a World War II, there'll be a World War I. Oh, how that worked. That was supposed to the war to end all wars. Peace, peace, but there is no peace. And to recognize the challenging times we are, God not only created time. He didn't just create all those stars that are out there that take billions of years to go around or all those atoms. He is the master of timing, and God will never be late. Some people spell late D-E-A-T-H. And we understand through the story of Lazarus, that's not how God spells late. He's the master of timing. So there's this divine convergence. You have the Roman world at this time when the time was appropriate. You have the Roman world, the Pax Romana, the peace over the Mediterranean, of which the Romans called nicely Latin our sea. How about that? A little pride. You had the Greeks, you had the Jewish diaspora with the synagogues around. It was time to come. God is the master of timing. Here Augustus thought he was doing it. I think God put a thought out there so that the family of Joseph would go from Nazareth down to Jerusalem. Because in Micah 5 and verse 2, which was written 400 years before or 500 years before, said that Messiah Emmanuel would come from Bethlehem. Now where's Bethlehem? Bethlehem's probably about 10 miles, 12 miles outside of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is where heaven does touch earth. But sometimes it does spill over into the suburbs, like Bethany, where Lazarus was, where Bethlehem is. And why Bethlehem? Because Bethlehem means house of bread. And who made that title? I am the bread. You have to kind of put this all together and recognize there's something happening beyond our human space so that we might gain total confidence in a God who sees things as if they already are. Let's notice verse 7 here, going back to Luke 2.

And Luke 2, and picking up the thought, verse 7, Notice what it says, Speaking of Mary, and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes. It's kind of a tight fit, you know, when you previously were beyond time and space, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end.

Laid him in a manger because there was no room in the end. Interesting to think about that. The same God whose arms could stretch across the universe of time allowed himself to be bound in the confines of a trough, which holds livestock feed.

That's what your God, my God, did for us and emptied himself. Let's go to point number two. Possessing a manger mentality should allow us to contemplate on a daily basis who we make room for.

Possessing—oh, I can't move today, that's right, I'm sorry—possessing a manger mentality does simply this. It allows us to contemplate on a daily basis who makes room for—notice verse 7. And she brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swollen clothing, and laid him in a manger notice because there was no room at the end. This is going to be major in our Christian discipline.

You'll understand that in a moment. This point of entry was never lost on another, the author of Luke. Luke was a Gentile—you have to understand the background. That's what's exciting when he opened the bird and starts saying—Luke was a Gentile, and he was a doctor. He might have started out as a what we call it devout person or a God-fearer or what we might call a proselyte. And who doesn't? I'm not the fly in the law, and for some of you that are worried, I'm not that old. This is 2,000 years ago. But to recognize that in Luke's writings he always deals with those that people didn't make room for. It's at that time, in that patriarchy, as it were, he talks a lot about women. He talks a lot about those that are suffering. He talks about the leper. Get away! Get some rocks! Throw them! Get away! No room. No room. Luke, the reason I think why God inspired to write the book of Luke was to let all peoples, all nations, and you and I today, to know that God has room for us, and that if God has room for us, after all we've done in our life, we ought to, in turn, make room for others. And that does not always mean putting them up overnight. That may be a case. Understand that. But making room emotionally, making room in our time schedule, making room in our eye contact, as somebody's trying to pour out their heart to us, and you're like, bing, over here. Making room for them by listening. And as Covey would say in his book, which is so important for us as pastors, as sometimes you pour your hearts out to us, is first seek to understand before being understood. Because maybe we, as pastors, have not, you know, we can look into that goldfish bowl, but we have not swum the waters in that goldfish bowl that that person is going through right now. And that's what this little part comes about. There was no room. But another thing is the mission continued. Even though there was no room, finally God supplied something. And here was one that was in all glory and all honor. I can't, you know, want to know what the heavens would look like? Go to Revelation 4. Revelation 5.

It would make the Versailles. It would make Buckingham Palace look like not even a good back alley. There was no room. Somebody didn't recognize what was going on here. Somebody didn't take the time to think what was going on. Do we then have the spiritual capacity to comprehend? And here's the bottom line. I want to have you take out of this today, okay?

Do we have the spiritual capacity, the care, the love of God in us to comprehend who is truly knocking at our door and needs to be let in and given some space and have value and have worth?

That may be our mates that we have not given room to, and they're knocking at our doors. It may be our children, our grandchildren, even our great-grandchildren. Ours isn't talking yet, haven't asked for room yet, and there's been no hand signals. That's how sensitive we need to be as disciples of Jesus Christ. Who needs room? Just like the woman that came up behind him, and I've given that message before. He said, who touched me? Who touched me? Because he felt the power going out of him. See, these stories we need to understand that sometimes we skip over because others have misappropriated them to another time and another date, and it basically left Christ out of his birth story and spent more time with Santa than they do with the word of God and understand what God the Father and Jesus Christ did for us.

Making room. We don't mean to, but sometimes we hang up our own personal signs to even our loved ones.

Not available. Not available.

Already occupied. Byself. Think that one through as we come up to the Feast of Trumpets. Think that one through as we come up to the Day of Atonement. Think that one through as we come to the Feast of Tabernacles. Think that one through when God is going to make ruin the eighth day where he wants to have everybody have an opportunity at the right time in the right way to know him personally. Point number three. Possessing a manger mentality should allow us to know where God is working and how to open doors to others. Possessing a manger mentality should allow us to know where God is working and how to open doors to others. Let's fully grasp that Herod and the political and the religious advisors who were in power at that time misread the events of Christ's birth. And we don't want to be in their company. When a woman gives birth, she seeks ideal conditions. A couple does not because of a, the couple does not do this out of a sense of security, but from a sense of concern and weakness. When Christ was born, he was born in, at best, some form of a stable in a smelly, unsanitary setting, unsettling atmosphere. Maybe even busy with flies. I'm not sure. This occurred not because God was poor, but because God was sure of himself. I want you to think that through. It's a little bit different. God did not allow this to happen because he was poor, but because God was sure of himself and what he was doing. The leaders misread the signs. Christ's birth was not a sign of weakness or an ineffectual leader or king. Rather, it was a sign of God's security and knowledge of who he was and who Jesus Christ would be and the people that he selected to raise him, the Father on earth that would raise him named Joseph, and the Mary, his mother, who was confronted and gave one of the most famous lines for every disciple of Christ to follow when the word comes knocking on our door. Let it be. Interesting. It is here that he enters, and the rest is history. It is where he begins with us in our own lives. In our own lives is where he begins with us. He expects us to move forward. In a sense, we're a manger. We're not clean when God the Father calls us and gets us over to Jesus Christ to work on. We can be smelly.

Our hearts can be dark. We can be filled with self. We can act like we've been born in Babylon big time. We have pride that goes higher than Mount Everest and wider than the Pacific Ocean.

And yet God knocks on our door. Kind of like Uncle Sam. Remember those old pictures of Uncle Sam from World War I? I think World War II? With a hat. I want you. The leaders of that time were not acquainted with this form of servant leadership, so they missed it and didn't know where to find him. Point number four. Possessing a manger mentality allows us to comprehend how, where, and when Christ chooses to enter our lives. Again, it reminds us the timing, the place he enters. I might have mentioned this already. It doesn't look like a Ritz. It doesn't look like a Hilton.

I know my good friend out here on the fourth row, Susie, when we have guests, we know somebody's coming. I'm sure all of you women do the same thing. You go around your house and you clean it like we've never had dust in our house for the last 21 years. We want to clean it up.

We want to make it good, and then that's a good thing to do. You know what I'm saying?

Christ finds us when we're at our low point, and the other low points that will come, because there will be those challenges that come. Let's always remember, Jesus Christ never said that it's going to be easy, but he did say it's going to be worth it. And so we take a look at that and understand that. And we can only...here's the bottom line. Here's the point where you get to write. And we can only make room for others if only we make room for him first. I want you to really think that through. Great lesson. We can only make room for others and see the need and see that we are a vessel of the Lord to help. We can only make that kind of room emotionally, spiritually, spatially, whatever, when we have made room for God and put first things first.

I had another point, but I'm going to skip it. I'll send you out my notes.

It was a really good one. It was about the shepherds. Got to love the shepherds.

Got to love the shepherds. When they saw things happening, and when they were told what to do, they made a beeline. They understood the importance of the word now. It's one of those small, you know, those in our congregation know I love small words, like now. Now doesn't mean, as we say in Spanish, mañana or double mañana. How am I doing Esther? All right. Double mañana. No. Nada. Now means now.

Move while you can. Move while you can. But I'm going to share this conclusion with you.

This is my conclusion. So almost done. Being born in Babylon or being born in Bethlehem is a choice that each and every one of us make every moment of every day. Over the last five or six years, I've been overwhelmed at times with the term in the beginning. In the beginning. Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning. God. John 1, 1. In the beginning. The word. As we move towards the festival season, let's make a compact with our Father above that we are going to make a goal of every motive, of every thought, of every word, of every action, and every deed. And that is the catapult broken down. We always want to catch our words. Don't catch your words. Work with your heart. The words spring from the heart. It comes from the motives. You can even say the right words, but if your heart is not in the right condition, those words aren't going to count either.

Remember this. And I'll tell you who taught this to me, because I always like to give credit. My wife.

To understand. The heart. God doesn't want our brain. The brain's going to the grave. God's not going to resurrect our brain. He's going to resurrect our hearts. He wants our heart.

So we have to start and recognize that the heart is the engine. It's where the motives are.

Motives. And those motives then are given over to thoughts. Number two. Those thoughts then come out in words. How often have you said, oh, I wasn't thinking. I shouldn't have said that.

Those words then create actions, either for you or against you, either for or against people.

And thus a deed is hatched and born. So often we're not on the right part of the escalator.

We've got to start with our heart. And that's what I want you all to do as my friends and my brethren, that as we're coming up to these festivals, that we're not just going to show up, but that we're going to grow up. And more. Susie and I have had opportunity, basically about 62 feasts now.

Annual feast. I'm looking forward to growing more than ever in Temecula. And I know God will give me the challenges. He gives us the textbook, but then we have to do the lab work, too, right?

Are you ready to do some lab work at the feast? Are you ready to do things now when God says, go worship Messiah like the shepherds? Are you ready to make room in your life, maybe not a hotel room, maybe not a spare room? Find if you can. But just room emotionally, room spiritually, room for contact, to seek out somebody. That's what I'm imploring you to think about.

Allow me to share this one thought between the difference between Babylon and being born in Bethlehem. It's a very interesting story. I think all of us can go back to Daniel 2, and in Daniel 2 you had the image of the beast. And in the image of the beast, you had the head of gold, then you had the head of what, silver, then the head of bronze, not the head, but going down the image, the configuration. Excuse me. There's up the top, there was the head. That was gold. Babylon. But then you start going down, you have the consecutive parts of the empires. You have the Persian Empire. You have the Greco-Macedonian Empire. And later on, the boots of Rome at the bottom that continues to be resurrected over millennium. I want to share a story of contrast, skip, as we conclude, about whether you are a citizen of Babylon or a citizen of Jerusalem, whether you were born in Babylon or born in Bethlehem, and learn the lessons of Bethlehem, which is just a suburb of Jerusalem. Let me talk to you about two different people. One was a beast, the other was a lamb.

It's a story of Alexander the Great and Jesus Christ. I'm almost doing spiritual AI. I'm going to put them all in the same picture here for you. Okay, you know I will never understand AI, but I think I can make this picture. Think of the contrast between the two. One led vast armies forward. Who would have that been? Help me. Who? Louder.

You sure? Thank you. I was seeing if this was a testimony to the American education system. I was getting a little nervous. One led vast armies forward, the other walked alone with a cadre of followers, 12 men and probably some of the women that came alongside like a Cleopas and there's Mary Magdalene. Listen to this. One shed all of the world's blood at that time. The other spilled his own blood. One gained the world only to lose it. The other gave up all that all to him might be given. Hmm. One made himself a god. The other made himself less than god.

One conquered every throne that he set his armies against. One conquers every grave, including our own spiritual graves. It is of note that one died in Babylon. That was Alexander the Great. The other was born in Bethlehem and died in Jerusalem where God has always had heaven touch earth to make his will known. One died in Babylon and the other one died that we might live once and forever. As the autumn festivals approach the simple question, where do people think you're from by the way you act? Very simple question.

Are you born in Babylon and kept your citizenship there?

Or was your Messiah and you in a sense of the spirit born in Bethlehem because you're a new creation and you are in the hands of the Father and you are in the arms of our Savior who let go of heaven and came down here that he would die that we might live forever with both of them.

Remember the festivals are not merely in the event to show up but continue to grow up.

They'll be transfigured just like that song that is sung from the Battle of the Hymn of the Republic and that we might be able to march forward. Susie and I are still marching together after 62 years of keeping the feast and 52 years of living together. Oh, I'm married.

And then I have the opportunity, I'll just share something with you, that I have the opportunity after 50 years of being an elder. I was baptized, not baptized, we do have to have our elders baptized before they're elders, pardon me, it was 1975 at the Feast of Trumpets in Pasadena that I was able to be coming to the service of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

A wonderful opportunity. And God gives us that opportunity not only to help others, but to see ourselves and dig deep into our hearts and look for the light of love of Jesus Christ.

All of us can do that as His servants. Let us go up to the feast. He will teach us His ways, and we will teach others.