James Merritt - Stepping Up
How many of you like to travel? Okay, not a lot of home bodies in here. I do, I love to travel, and one of the most difficult trips I've ever taken, while I'll ever wanna do again, I'm glad I did it once, but Theresa and I flew from here to Australia, and it was grueling. So we leave Atlanta, we flew to LA, from LA, we flew to Tokyo, and from Tokyo we flew to Sydney. Now the good news is, is by the time we got there, we were a day ahead of the day we left. The bad news is we felt like we were a day ahead of the day that we left. We thought we would never, ever get there. We flew in nice airplanes, we ate meals along the way, we got to sleep a little bit, but I don't mind telling you, it took us probably three days just to get over the trip.
If you want to take an even more difficult trip and even more adventurous. So I googled what is the most difficult, hardest trip in the world to take? Believe it or not, according to a travel website, the most difficult trip you could ever take is going from one end of the Sahara Desert to the other. Tell you how tough it is, only one person has ever done it. His name is Michael Asher, by the way, he must have been bored to tears. Michael Asher made the first known crossing of the Sahara Desert from west to east. He did it by camel and on foot, covered a distance of 40 hot 500 miles. This is where he went, this is the Sahara Desert, this is it. I mean, can you imagine 4,500 miles of going across this desert?
Even the better ones will tell you, if you get just a little too far away from food and water, you're basically committing suicide, tough trip, not interested. But there's another trip that we know about in the Christmas story and it's not really mentioned on any travel websites, man took it a long time ago and it wasn't nearly as long, but in some ways, if you go back and realize what this man did, it was even more difficult. And this journey is found in one of the most familiar stories in all the Bible.
So I want you to take God's Word, we're in Matthew, Mark, we're in the gospel of Luke, I want you to turn to Luke 2. And lemme just tell you the background. You know, there's some stories, they don't ever get old. No matter how many times you hear them, even though you're the beginning, you know the ending, you know everything in between, you know, it's kinda like movies. There are some movies you just can watch over and over and over. And I hate to admit it, but every year, this time of year, I'm watching "Christmas Vacation" every single year. You know, there's just certain parts, I know what's coming, but I still laugh, I still love it, you know, "God bless him". I mean, and then you see the cat flat on the carpet, I mean, there's just some wonderful, uplifting things in that movie. But anyway, you never get tired of watching it.
Well, it's almost like with a Christmas story. Even though you've heard it over and over and over, every time you listen to it, you know what's coming but you just love the story. You know how it's going to end, but you still love the story. That's why I believe the Christmas story is so magical for kids. I mean, think about it, it's why every single year, you know it's coming. You're gonna see it in music, you're gonna have it read in church, you're gonna have it acted out in schools, it's one of those stories that you just, you not only just hope it's true, you want it to be true, the fact of the matter is, what's so exciting is that time that comes in your life when you finally understand this really is true, this is not a once upon a time fairytale, this actually did happen, this baby really was born.
We're in a series we're calling Unsung Hero about a character that often gets overlooked in the telling of the story, it's Joseph. And quite frankly, if you never knew the story of Christmas, we would never ever know the story of Joseph. And the reason why we're even talking about it is because it is Christmas. What we're learning is he was both unsung and he was a hero. When you think of a hero, that's probably the last guy in the Bible, you might think about, but then think about this. What are the qualities of the hero? We hadn't even talked about that. What is it that makes somebody a hero? What do you have to do to be qualified so people say, "Now, there goes a hero"?
Well, there was a company called Vantis Life. They ask over 2000 Americans, what makes somebody a hero? Here's the following qualities they gave, 80% said, saving someone's life makes you a hero, 77%, risking your own life, 75%, standing up for other people, being a good role model, 68% said that, 55%, being a good leader, 54%, taking a risk, sacrificing spare time for no extra pay, 47%, and 100% of pastors said, staying awake in my sermon makes you a hero. There's something about being a hero. And I believe we're going to find that Joseph, the father of Jesus, checks off every single one of those boxes. Because as you're going to see, God used Joseph to say the life of Jesus while he risked his own life.
In the process, he stood up for Mary, as a father, he was a positive role model for his son, strong leader for his family, he didn't take any risk and he certainly took risks, and he did all of this for no pay. And he never wore a cape, he never had to go to a phone booth and change, he didn't live in a bat cave, he didn't wear a mask, he didn't have any superpowers at all. This dude, this man, this minimum wage carpenter was just an ordinary, run of the mill, dime a dozen Jewish man that God used to do extraordinary things. And of all the most unlikely people you would've chosen to be the father of Jesus, Joseph would've been last on the list. And yet today, you've read this story in Luke 2 too many times, you're gonna see it a totally different way. 'Cause normally when we read this story, we read it through the eyes of Jesus or through the eyes of Mary.
Let's go back and at least read it through the eyes of Joseph. Because what you're going to learn today is there is some unbelievably valuable lessons, I pray, we'll never forget, so that when we face what Joseph is facing, when we have to do what Joseph had to do, when we have to go where Joseph had to go, we will step up and be what God wants us to be and do what God wants us to do. So before I do this, ask one last question, I'll start with me, 'cause I'm here. Anybody here today, don't raise your hand, anybody here today facing a difficult decision? Is there anybody here today, you've got to do something, I do, you gotta do something this week, it has to be done, you can't get out of it, but you just dread it.
Anybody here saying that, "I'm trying to get the Christmas spirit, but I wanna tell you, things are really, really tough". Okay, if that's true, here's the principle I want you to remember. We're gonna learn today from Joseph. You ready? No matter what is in front of you, God is always ahead of you. No matter what's in front of you, God is always ahead of you. Now, bad news, I got five things I wanna share, good news, they're all brief, all right? Five things I want you to jot down today, gonna learn them right out of the story of Joseph, all right? Lesson number one, we don't always understand what God is doing. If that bothers you, get in line, 'cause we don't always understand what God is doing.
Lemme tell how this story begins, you got big brother government, they're doing what governments love to do, they wanna make sure everybody's paying their fair share of taxes. You can guarantee one thing about the government, whatever else the government does for you or to you or with you, they're gonna make sure they get their tax money, right? Things never change. We're in Luke 2:1. "In those days, Caesar Augustus used issued a decree that a census should be taken to the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria".
Now you go back 2000 years, here's what you're gonna find, in the Roman Empire, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. On the one hand, historians called this period the Pax Romana. It means the peace of Rome. If you are a Roman citizen, times were good, things were great, empire was safe, you could travel anywhere you wanted to go and be assured that you'd get there safely, the economy was good, prosperity abounded, interest rates were down, wages were up, so if you were a Roman soldier or you were a Roman citizen, I mean, life was good. However, it was a piece that was bought for and paid for at a heavy price for other people. Because the only thing the Romans cared about were two things. Number one, you stay in your lane, you stay under their thumb, don't cause any trouble, and number two, you pay your taxes. So at certain intervals, the Roman Government would conduct a census.
Now, usually it would happen every five years, but by the time Cesar Augustus came along, it was every 14 years. Well, that time it's now come, Caesar Augustus says, "I want a census taken of everybody in the Roman Empire". Now here in America, we understand, we're pretty familiar because we do a census every 10 years. Why do we do that? Well, we want to know how many people do we have? Where do they live? What do they do? What is their job? What's the basic demographic data that we need to know? Now, of course, not all that's related to the census, but here's what it does do, it helps county officials who want to assess taxes on your property to know what you make, to know where you live. And then you've got the Congress that comes along and they set those tax rates, then you've got the IRS, they enforce the payment of those taxes.
Now the difference is, in America, all of those are divided up into different agencies. But back in the days of Jesus, there was just one central government and they did everything. They took the census, they assessed the taxes, they collected the income tax, it was all combined in the census. So the Roman soldiers wanted to register everybody, make sure they know everybody was so everybody paid their fair share of taxes and the tax burden was crushing. But you're not a Roman citizen, and you're not a Roman soldier, you're Jewish. Life's not good for you, life's not really cool for you.
You're living in a under a corrupt dictatorship, you're under tremendous economic oppression, political domination, you don't get the best jobs, you're under a madman who believed he was God, you lived in a society where minorities and women had absolutely no rights whatsoever, and if you were a Jewish man like Joseph, a good man, a devout man, a synagogue going man, back in that day, a man that went to temple, a man that gave a tithe, a man that really did love God, but if you were a Joseph back in that day, you would be very tempted to say one thing every day of your life, "Where is God? I mean these Romans, they worshiped pagan gods, not even worship the true God. These Romans, they care nothing about us. These Romans, they have no interest in us, no love for us. All they wanna make sure is we're under their thumb and we pay our taxes. Where is God"?
And what you're going to see now in the next 15, 20 minutes is even though you didn't know it, Joseph didn't know it, maybe it didn't look like it, God was behind the scenes, pressing the right button, pulling the right lever, flying the plane, everything was going according to plan. So if you walked in this morning, or you're watching me this morning and you say, "I just don't understand what God's up to, I just don't understand what God is doing," let me tell you, just leave you these on one thing, God is doing right now exactly what He wants to do. The government can't stop him, the military can't stop him, you can't stop him, I can't stop him.
So we may not understand what God is doing, but I can tell you right now, God is doing what God wants to do, that's lesson number one, now here's lesson number two. We realize life can be tough. That's one of the hard things about graduating from high school and graduating from college. You know, you look back on it now, those days we didn't like going to school, now we all know, man, we had it pretty good, right? Mom and dad had it tough, we had it pretty good. You go to school, you get out, you hang out with your friends, you do this, you do that. But then one day you finally realize, you know what, life can be tough. So we go back to Joseph.
Now remember, Joseph's been betrothed to marry and Joseph's got his life all planned out if you think about it, he was a carpenter, he had a good job for him, he was looking forward to marrying this beautiful teenage girl, he was gonna raise his family in Nazareth where his mom and dad lived, her mom and dad lived, everything's gonna be just rosey, they're gonna live a fairytale life, and all of a sudden, Joseph's entire life falls apart, comes tumbling down because of two things. Mary's pregnant, he's not dad, Mary's got a baby bump and he didn't put it there. That's all he knows. And besides that, he hadn't heard from anybody until this angel shows up and he tells Joseph what happens.
So now what's Joseph gotta do? Well, he's not gonna have to move up his wedding date. And the complications that were brought about then, we'll talk about that in a moment, but all of a sudden as we're reading this story, we come to a couple of sentences and they don't seem like they're a big deal, but they really are. We're in verse three. "And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth and Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David because he belonged to the house and the line of David".
Now, if you've never been to Israel, you can't appreciate it like I can but some of you have been with me. I made that trip from Bethlehem to Jerusalem many, many times. And I can tell you, for me, it's no big deal because I'm always doing it on an air conditioned bus, I'm doing it on a paved highway, but 2000 years ago, they didn't have buses, they didn't have air conditioned buses, they didn't have highways, this was a totally different day. So now Joseph is looking at a trip of 70 miles over rough territory, he's got a wife that's eight and a half months pregnant, but he's got no choice, he's got to go. So what's his mode of transportation gonna be? Two feet. And what's hers going to be? Well, she at least he could afford a Mercedes donkey, okay? So she's gonna be on a donkey, no cushion seat, no air conditioning, no smooth ride.
But you say, "Wait a minute, his hometown was Nazareth, why did he have to go to Bethlehem"? Because you had to be registered. But unlike in America, they don't come to your house, they didn't come to your house to register you the way they do in America. Now, wherever your family line began, went as far back as you can trace your family heritage. If you were, for example, if your family migrated here from North Carolina, you'd have to go to North Carolina, if your family migrated here from Arkansas, you have to go to Arkansas. With David's family line, he was of the line of David, and David was born in Bethlehem, that's where they traced his line. So Joseph's got to go to Bethlehem. He's gotta make a 70 mile trip, 'cause they don't come to him, he's gotta go to them.
Now you're gonna see in just a minute, that's not the only reason that he had to go, but here's the problem, what if Joseph had said, "Well, I'll try to hide". Well, he couldn't hide. And what if Joseph did what some people try to do today, "I just won't pay my taxes this year, I just hope they won't find me," oh, they will find you. And the problem is, if you did not appear for the census, lemme tell you what would happen. I mean, the penalties were severe. For example, even if you were a Roman senator, if you didn't show up for that census, you would lose your job as a senator and you'd go to jail. If you had horses, which were very valuable on that day, you'd lose all your horses. But if you were like Joseph, you were not even a Roman citizen, your property would be seized, you would either be in prison, beaten or scourged or you could be enslaved.
So on top of everything else that Joseph is enduring, everything else Joseph is suffering, now he's gotta take a 70 mile trip to Bethlehem with a pregnant wife, just so the Roman citizens can tax him for everything he's got. If you said to Joseph that day, "Hey Joseph, how's it going for you"? He'd have said, "Man, life is tough". When we realize that, everybody in this room at one point or another, you'll find out, life can be tough. So number one, Joseph, "I don't always understand what God's doing," Joseph, "Man, life just tough," and here's the third lesson that we learned, we don't always get what we deserve. Can anybody relate to that? We don't always get what we deserve, that's just a fact of life.
You say, "You know what, Pastor, life isn't fair". You are exactly right. You can't legislate fairness, you can't demand fairness, you can't insist on fairness, life's not fair. It wasn't enough that Joseph's having to take a 70 mile trip just so he could be taxed, there's a far greater reason Joseph could be dreading this trip, 'cause remember, where's he going back to? His hometown. Well, who's in his hometown? Uncles and aunts and cousins and buddies you grew up with, kinfolk relatives, and they don't know he's bringing a wife pregnant and he's not married, and they don't know that he's not the dad. So Joseph is about to go and see all these relatives maybe he hasn't seen since he was a kid, and what's he gonna tell these people? I mean, you think really he's gonna get all of his family together at their reunion and say, "You are not gonna believe why she's pregnant".
You think he's really gonna try to go there about this angel and about the Holy Spirit and about this dream? Well, we're pretty sure he never told anybody that. How do you know? Because later on we're told when Jesus visited his hometown of Nazareth, they didn't call him Jesus. You know what they called Jesus? Joseph's son. So why is that such a big deal? Because all of his life, people just assumed Joseph had committed fornication, and all of his life, they just assumed Joseph was the father of an illegitimate child. In the eyes of his neighbors and his friends and his family, there was snickering, there was laughing, there was pointing fingers, they didn't assume, they didn't think he was the righteous man that he appeared to be.
And keeping something in mind about Joseph, he did not ask for any of this. He did not ask to be the father of Jesus, he did not ask to take the blame for what had happened, he didn't deserve any of this, yet until the day he died, he had to live with every bit of it. So what does Joseph teach us? Well, just don't be surprised when life's unfair, and just don't be shocked when you give the short end of the stick, because we don't always get what we deserve. Matter of fact, go back to Genesis and just start reading through the Bible, it will amaze you how many people got what they didn't deserve. You don't go four chapters in the Bible. Cain murders Abel, Abel didn't deserve to be murdered.
I'm reading right now and, I'm reading through the Bible again and I'm reading about Moses. Moses is forced, I mean, he did not want the job of leading the people of Israel to the promised land. And you know what you read time after time, after time? All they do is gripe and complain and blame Moses for everything. Moses didn't ask for any of it, he kept getting what he did not deserve. And you know, take Jesus, we're gonna learn as we read this story about Jesus being born, 33 years later, a perfect man got what he didn't deserve. So don't be shocked, don't be surprised, don't be perplexed when you get what you don't deserve.
But there's another trait that you see about Joseph, I want you to see it right now, that makes him an unsung hero. And that is, you do what is right even when others do you wrong. You do what's right, that's a hero, you do what's right when others do your wrong. Doesn't matter how somebody treats you, how they talk to you, how dirty they are to you, you talk right, you act right, you live right, you respond right even when life is unfair, even when you get what you don't deserve. Lemme tell you why, you're gonna learn one day, and I've learned it the hard way, you know the only thing that really matters in life is not getting what you deserve, is giving God what He deserves, that's all that matters. Not getting what you deserve, it is giving what God deserves. What does God deserve? My praise, my obedience, my gratitude, my holiness, my love, my trust, my surrender.
So what are we learning from Joseph? He's a guy just like you and just like me, "Pastor, I don't understand what God is doing". He didn't either. "Pastor, life is tough," he understood that. "Pastor, I'm getting right now what I don't deserve," so did he. Lesson number four, we can't see the end from the beginning, but God does. We can't see the end from the beginning, but God does. Now let's go back and pick up verse five and continue reading. "He went through to register with Mary, who is pledge to be married to him and was expecting a child". Keep that in mind, that covers this whole story, that's the cloud hanging over his head. He's gonna walk into Bethlehem, "Oh Joseph, we haven't seen you in such a long time. Oh, look at you, man, it is, so now you, Mary, this is your wife"? "Not yet". "Okay, good to have you, Joseph". She's expecting a child, they're pledged to be married, not married. "While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son".
Now there's something about this story I had forgotten or did not realize until I worked on this message and I guarantee you probably don't know it. Joseph took Mary with him, but he didn't have to. So what do you mean, he didn't have to? Because ladies, this was a break you did get, only men were required to have a census, only men were required to go and register for the census. Women did not have to go. You say, "I know what you're asking, Rodney". You say, "Well, wait a minute, I thought you said this guy was a hero. So why in the world did Joseph take a woman eight and a half months pregnant on a 70 mile journey when it was not required by Roman law"? Because keep in mind that back in that day, women frequently died during childbirth.
As a matter of fact, this kind of blew me away, the average life expectancy of a woman in Mary's day, ladies listen, 35 years of age, the average woman died by the age of 35, not a long life. So you go, "Wait a minute, I thought Joseph loved Mary". he did, "I thought Joseph cared about Mary," he did. Well, if Mary didn't have to make the trip, why did Joseph take her with him? Because 750 years before this journey took place, 750 years before Joseph was born and Mary was born, 750 years before they even met, Micah foretold the future birth of this future king. Here's what he said, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel whose origins are from old, from ancient times". You see, we can't see the end from the beginning, but God can.
So lemme tell you one part of this story that I love, and by the way, this will help you if you're kinda one of those people, you're really into politics and you live and eat and brief politics, and you live and die with who wins and who loses, and you're all concerned about who the president is or who the senator is, or who the congressman or who the mayor is, let me give you a piece of encouragement. Caesar Augustus was not a good guy, Caesar Augustus hated the Jewish people, Caesar Augustus was a pagan, Caesar Augustus didn't even believe in the God that we're talking about today, but Caesar Augustus couldn't see the end from the beginning, this is what I love about this story.
So Caesar Augustus says, "You know what? I think we ought to have a census". And he's what he thought, "I'm gonna make these people have a census, it's gonna give me more power, it's going to give me more money, it's going to give me more control, it's going to give me more influence. it's going to give me more fame, it's going to give me more riches, that's what it's going to do for me". And all that time, God's up there laughing and He's saying, "You don't get it, you're just my errand boy. You're doing exactly what I want you to do. You're doing exactly the time that I wanted to be done because I made a promise that that baby would be born in Bethlehem and I'm going to go use you to make it happen".
So I'm just saying all that to say just a little practical application, at the end of the day, read my lips, the President's not in control, the Senate's not in control, the Congress is not in control, God is in control. And everything's going according to plan, He's pushing the buttons, therefore, in the end they're going to fulfill a Word they don't even know. Because every day is not full of sunshine, sometimes the news is bad, the stock market crashes, interest rates go up, the doctor's office calls with bad news, don't ever forget this though, God sees the end from the beginning and God's already looked at the end and here's what God says, "Hey, I got a plan and I'm fulfilling it, and I've got a purpose and it's going to be done, and I made a promise and I'm going to keep it. And, oh by the way, I don't just do what's right, I do what's best".
So see, we don't always see the end from the beginning, but God does. Here's the last lesson, this is the best lesson of all, this is what we're gonna learn today from Joseph. We follow a God that can be trusted. We follow a God that can be trusted. Now, just about the time you think, well, you know poor Joseph, I mean, things can't get worse. He has to pick up and go a 70 mile trip to Bethlehem, he's gotta take this eight and a half month pregnant woman with him, he's gotta have a family reunion where he's gonna be shamed before everybody, I mean, surely things couldn't get worse. Well, they do. "While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave first to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger".
Now lemme stop right there. The readers of this story would go, "You gotta be kidding me. You don't put a newborn baby in an animal drawer, you don't do that. Well, Joseph, are you that cheap? Are you that stupid"? But then Luke says, "No, lemme tell you why, no guest room was available for them". Can you just imagine Joseph, he finally gets to Bethlehem, his feet got blisters all over them, Mary's been fighting back these labor pains the whole time, they're tired, they're hungry, they're thirsty, they just want a place to rest, and no Holiday Inn Express had one vacancy open, nowhere. So he's born in an ordinary cave.
And you know, if you think about it, isn't that just like God in a way, you know what God said? "I don't need a Holiday Inn Express, I don't need a Marriott, I don't need a Hilton, I don't even need an Airbnb, just a cave that I carved by my own hands". It's just like God to do that. I read the other day, you'll love this story, it's about a church that's putting on a Christmas pageant, and of course they include the story of Mary and Joseph and you know, coming to the end. Well, there was this one boy and he wanted to be Joseph, that was the part that he wanted to play. But when they handed out the parts, not only did he not get the part of Joseph, he got the part of the inkeeper. And he is absolutely royally ticked, he didn't say anything to anybody because the only word he would get to say in the play, the only word he got to say was, no.
Here's the way the play was gonna go, Joseph, Mary would come to the door, they'd knock on the door, and Joseph was going to simply say, "Hey, do you have any room"? And all this kid was gonna be able to say was, "No". He's ticked. So he came up with his own idea, didn't tell anybody, came up with his own idea. So putting on, place is packed out, Mary and Joseph walk across the stage, they knock on the door, he opens the door and Joseph said, "Do you have any room"? Now he's supposed to say, no. But this little kid throws the door wide open and says, "Oh man, I got the best room in the place. We've made it up just for you. We knew you were coming. Please come on in".
Well, the kid playing Joseph, he's stunned, that's not what the guy's supposed, the kid's supposed to just say, no. And so for a minute he didn't know what to do 'cause that's not what the inkeeper was supposed to say. And then this kid thought so quickly on his feet, here's what that kid did. He just stuck his head inside the door and he said, "I'm not gonna let her stay in a dump like this. Come on mayor, we're going to a cave". Now after that, the play was back on track. And see, here's the truth of the matter, when Caesar Augustus said, "Let's have a census," it wasn't an accident, it wasn't bad luck, it wasn't a stroke of faith that Caesar took that census and made sure everybody went to their hometown.
See, the Christmas story, even it reminds us, there's a sovereign God in control of your life, in control of my life and we can trust Him. So that means we don't really have to worry about access because there's no such thing as an access, there's only appointments. We don't have to worry about how everything's going to end 'cause everything at the end of the day is going to be exactly the way God wants it to end. We don't have to worry about what plan is in place, His plan is in place, His plan will be accomplished. So I'll leave you with this. It's amazing to me that God chooses not just a man to be the father of Jesus, but a man named Joseph. Why Joseph? Why not Malachi? Why not Barnabas? Why not Bartimaeus? Why not another Moses? Why does he choose a man named Joseph?
Do you know what the name Joseph means? Listen to this, God will give the increase, God will give the increase. Did Joseph ever learn that all of his life, I mean, it didn't matter whether it was a trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem or a trip from Jerusalem to a cross, didn't matter. When we don't understand what God is doing, God knows exactly what He's doing and God is doing what God knows, not just what is right, but what is best. And so here's the moral of the story about Joseph, like father, like son, like son, like father. An eternity past, the Father looked at the Son and said, "Will you go become a human being, live and die for the sins of the world"? Jesus stepped up. When the angel came to Mary and said, "Mary, you're highly favored of women, will you be the mother of the Son of God"? Mary stepped up.
When the angel came to Joseph and said, "Joseph, don't be afraid of who I am, but you might wanna be afraid of what I'm gonna ask you to do. 'Cause I'm about to put you in a place where for the rest of your life, you won't always understand what I'm doing, and life won't always be fair, and you won't always be able to see the end from the beginning, and you're gonna get what you don't deserve, but Joseph, you can trust me," and Joseph stepped up.
We're living in a world right now, my brothers and my sisters, we're living in a world right now where everything I told you is true on steroids. Can't see the end from the beginning, life's not fair, life is tough, we don't get what we deserved, we've never been more under a microscope as Christians than we are in my lifetime, than we are right now. And the truth of the matter is, yes, religious liberty is being threatened on every hand, I get it, I understand, I live in the same world, the same culture that you do. But I will tell you one thing, I go to bed every night, and nobody will change my mind on this, I know a God, I follow a God, I serve a God, I love a God that can be trusted. He's got a plan, He's got a purpose, I'm under His protection. And so for the rest of our life, no matter what may come and who may do it, all God is saying to us is, "If you trust me when I call you, step up".
Would you pray with me today? With heads bowed, with eyes closed. The way to get saved, the way to give your life to God, the way you have a relationship with God, you know what you have to do? You gotta step up, you gotta step out. You gotta say, "You know what? I'm a sinner, I need a savior, I can't save myself. I can't face life alone. I won't go through this by myself. I need the one that died for me. I need the one that came back from the grave. I need Him in my life".
If you've ever trusted in that little baby that was born 2000 years ago that lived a perfect life, that died a violent death, that experienced a glorious resurrection and is absolutely more alive today than we are, if you've never put your faith and trust in that baby, I'm gonna ask you to do it right now. So if you're watching gonna lie or you're in this room, and you've never received the greatest gift of all, the gift of eternal life, you've never been saved, you've never been born again, would you just right now pray something like this?
Baby Jesus, you became a perfect man, you were born a perfect man, you died a perfect death 'cause you lived a perfect life, you experienced a perfect resurrection, and you are the only perfect Savior. Would you come into my heart? Would you save me? Would you forgive me of my sins? I repent and turn away from my sins. I surrender my life to you. I confess you as my Lord, I trust you as my savior.