Thank you. Appreciate that. You know, it's interesting. There's so much confusion today when it comes to the Bible, Christianity, things of that nature. And, uh, we mentioned it this morning, Sunday school. There's a lot of things that are just simple and we make complicated. I mean, it really is. There's the simplicity of things. And we make things complicated. You've got people arguing about salvation, whether or not, you know, this has to take place. And, and, uh, you've got people that argue about the Lordship of Christ and, you know, Lordship salvation. I had a guy asked me, so you believe in Lordship salvation? I said, I have no idea what that is. I said, I just know this. I asked the Lord to save me. He did. Now he's Lord of my life. You say, I don't think he's the Lord. Doesn't matter what you think, he is the Lord. Now whether you make him Lord of your life or not has no bearing on who he is. Right? And you got people, they argue, I mean, I saw two guys arguing whether or not Christ was born in December. He probably wasn't. Just so you'll know, he probably was not born on December 25th. But why does it matter? You missed the whole purpose of why he was born, right? And now you have people arguing about the death, burial, and the resurrection, whether it happened on Wednesday, he died on Wednesday, or whether he died on Friday, right? And I understand some of the argument, great for a Bible class, but if you don't believe he's alive, none of the rest of it matters. People say, well, there's contradictions in the Bible. No, there's not. I don't understand the Bible. This word means this. Listen, let me help you with something. You can interpret it any way you want to. The only thing that matters is what God meant when it was written. See, it's not our job to interpret it. It's our job to find out what he meant. While she was singing that song, I thought, you know, isn't it amazing that even today, and you can turn in your Bible to Luke chapter 2 verse 7, that the creator of the universe, the Lord of lords, the king of kings, came and was born in a stable and died as a sinner. I don't mean he was a sinner, I'm saying his death on the cross was for you and me. The Bible said in Luke chapter 2 verse 7, you'll know the scripture, She brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, laid him in a manger. Notice the reason why. Because there was no room for them in the end. One of the kids earlier when they were doing their part in the Christmas program this morning talked about the fruit of the womb. Every time I hear that I remember hearing a story of a preacher that once was preaching in a big way and he was preaching on that scripture and he was trying to say fruit of the womb but he said fruit of a loom. I thought I hope I never do that. Right? So I stay away from that scripture much as I can just for that very reason but you know you think about this in Luke chapter 2 verse 7 the reason that Jesus was born in a manger was not because there was no room in the end that is because that's where God said he was going to be born. And God orchestrated all the events for Jesus to be in Bethlehem to be born just like he prophesied in the Word of God. Now, I understand this, it was necessary for our Lord to come to Judah. It was necessary for Him to be born in Bethlehem. God arranged all the events to make sure He was in the right place at the right time. That's the sovereignty of God. May I say this? That you're here today not by accident. You say, well, I came to hear the kids sing. Well, I understand that, but God has you in the right place at the right time to hear the message God wants you to hear this morning. And so think about this 2000 years later, we're finding similar circumstances as we saw in the days of Jesus. Why? Because honestly, man really hasn't changed a whole lot, right? I mean, we have new devices and we think we have new intellect and new ideas, but the fact is. Human nature is pretty much the same as it's always been. Go back to the Garden of Eden, we know that Eve and Adam sinned. Why? Because they disobeyed God. We look today, 2,000 years after the birth of Christ, after the death of Christ, men are doing the same thing. They rejected God in the Old Testament. They rejected God in the New Testament. We're rejecting Him today. Listen, the whole reason this world is in such a mess is because we have rejected God and the Bible. So many people today still have, guess what, no room for Jesus. Didn't have room for Him then, we don't have room for Him now. Even, I mentioned earlier, even as we celebrate the birth of Christ, and again, I'm glad we can get together, Brother Brian, with our families and friends and give gifts and eat turkey and ham and whatever you eat, but this is not about all that stuff. May I say this, if the only time that you get together with your family is Christmas and Easter, you probably need to spend more time together. I didn't get much amen-ing on that one. Amen. Maybe you don't like them. I don't know. We only take them two times a year. We'll make it St. Patrick's Day and Labor Day or something. But this time of the year ought to be celebrating the birth of Christ. And so the question I have for you this morning is this. Have you made room for him? Have you made room for him? Why is this stable so important to the plan of God? Well, because it gives us a picture. Obviously, as I said, it was prophesied he'd be born there, but today it gives us a very good picture of where we are today, if we're honest, right? I mean, the fact is, when I say the manger, we realize that that's this lowly place where Jesus was born. But I want to pay attention to what the Bible said here in verse number seven. There was no room for them in the end. No room. Zero, not a closet, not, not a rollout bed, zero. And see that, that that's where a lot of folks are today. You're sitting here going, well, you know, preacher, I got room for Jesus. I showed up today. What about tomorrow? What about the next day? See, we like Jesus when we want Him. We like Him when we need Him. We like Him when we pray. We like Him in certain circumstances. But here's what I want you to do. When I mention this word in, I-N-N, I want you to think of that as you. Your being, who you are. You're the in, right? Do you have room for Him? Now, three areas I see. First of all, there's no room. Think about this. The King of kings, Lord of lords, the creator of the universe, there's no room for him. Well, first of all, there's no room for him in the palace. I mean, you would think a king would be born in a palace, but there's no room for him there. And I see that that palace really is the throne room of your heart. This morning, something is going to take the priority of your life. Something sits on the throne room of your heart, and if it's not Jesus, what you're saying is, I don't have room for you. Why? Why would they not accept him? Matter of fact, the Jews said this, we'll not have this man rule over us. Why is that? Why? Because there's no room for a ruler. Let's be honest. He is the Prince of Peace and they delight in war. He is the one who preached about serving but they wanted to be served. They desire power but He is all powerful. They want people to bow and one day every knee will bow before Him. See the fact is the reason you will not let Him have the throne room of your heart is because you want to be in charge of your own life. May I say this? You're not. You say, oh, yes, preacher, I'm in charge of my own life. Tell you what you do. But John, he just mentioned this morning he's been dealing with prostate cancer. You didn't plan on having prostate cancer, did you, sir? Nope, didn't wake up one morning and say, I think today I want prostate cancer. He wasn't in control of that. Listen, the doctor can call you tomorrow and say, listen, you've got this disease or you have this condition. You're not in control of that. You can wake up after Christmas and them say, listen, we don't need you at work anymore. You're not in control of that. See, you have this illusion that you're in control of your life. And the fact is that every breath you take is a gift of God. And you just don't want anybody to rule over your life and tell you what to do. But the fact is somebody's telling you what to do all the time. If you don't make Him the ruler of your life, you know what you're doing? You're letting the flesh rule you. Listen to me, more homes and more marriages and more lives have been destroyed because we've allowed the flesh to be the ruler of the throne room of our life. Not one person have I ever met that has allowed Jesus Christ to rule the throne room of their life and said they regret it. Amen! You say, oh I do preacher, I want to live my own life and you've not put Him in the right place. He'll never let you down. Why? Because he does all things well. See, there's no room for a ruler in the palace and there's no room for a representative. You say, what do you mean by that? See, the people then, they wanted to be unquestioned in authority. He is the authority. They had their own way of doing things, but he is the word. Now, I hear people all the time say this about them. They'll say, well, you know what? Jesus was the first rebel. No, he wasn't. He didn't rebel against one thing. He rebelled against religion. No, he didn't. They rebelled against him. Amen. See, he is the standard. He is the alpha and the omega. He is the creator. He is the word. He didn't rebel against one thing. He is the standard bearer of everything, may I say. And you say today, well, you know what? I don't want anybody speaking for me. Boy, I do. But, baby, I want somebody in heaven advocating on my behalf. If you want to let him in, you've got to make him Lord. He wants to be Lord of all. or not Lord at all. You can't give God some of it and you take some of it. You've got to let him have it all. You say, well, I just don't believe that. I want to go to heaven, hallelujah, but I want to live my life down here like I want to. There's your problem. You've not let him have the throne room of your heart, so there's no room for him in your palace. Number two, there's no room for him in your inn. What do you mean by that? There's no room to fellowship. You ever have somebody come stay with you and you do your best to avoid them? You try, you know, maybe it's family, maybe that's why you don't get together, but twice a year you're like, I'm only gonna put up with them so long. But they come and say, listen, we got some time off, we're gonna come stay with you for a couple weeks. You're like, hey, that's wonderful. But all of a sudden, you know what? I got to work like 94 hours a week. But you can come. Why? Because you don't want to spend time with them. That inn was a place of abiding. People came there to stay. They came there to sleep. They came there because they wanted to come out from the outside, the elements. They wanted to abide there. Right? And so when I see that picture of the end, I see someone who is abiding or spending time there. And you ever thought about this? You ready for this? You ever think your life is such a mess because you don't have time for Him? You ever think your life is such a mess? Listen, I've been doing this a while and I'm not foreign to people's life and their drama. But I'm going to help you with something, alright? You probably know this about me, but I'm probably not ever going to be the popular pastor, but I am going to tell you the truth. A lot of the drama in your life is your fault. You don't understand preaching, it's not my fault. Yeah, it is. See, because you won't let the right thing in or the right person in, but you let the wrong thing and the wrong people in. Amen. Right? I mean, you choose who you let in. And some of you have chosen to tell Jesus, I don't want you in my life. I want you outside of my in, and I'm not going to let you in. But the occupants you've allowed in are turmoil and chaos. And you can't understand it because you let the wrong person in. See, in this inn, there was no room for Jesus. There was no room for the masses. And what I mean by that, the inn was available to the masses, but it wasn't available to the master. See, you're letting all this stuff in. And let's be honest, we live in a day, brother Matt, there is so much information out there that you don't need Jesus. You can occupy your time with everything but Jesus if you want to. And you know what I found? The devil will make sure you've got plenty. You've got Netflix and Amazon Prime and you've got, listen, streaming channels and DirecTV and you've got the YouTube and the Smut and the Instagram and Facebook and you've got Snapchat. Watch, end of the year, first of the year, you know what's going to happen? Probably you're going to get an email or something that's going to say, the best new apps of 2024. You go, oh, I've got to figure them things out. A brand new social media app where you can connect. Oh, I've got to find that out, right? Got all this stuff distracting you. You know what preach? Football season? I loved them Panthers. Why? If you still love them, you're a true fan because they're terrible. Maybe that's the Lord telling you, you need to go to church, quit watching the Panthers. Right? At least college football's on Saturday. Can I get amen? This is bad. We got all these distractions, right? Basketball, football, and I like them all. Man, I love sports. But I tell you what can happen. Whatever it is, sports, activities, kids, ready for this? Your kids can get you away from God. Your hobbies, your job, right? What's this? Your education. I got to get this degree, preacher, because I'll make more money if I... Well, how much is that worth? Because you know how many times I've heard in 21 years of pastoring, listen, pray for my kids, they're not in church, but listen, they got a good job. Why are they not in church? Well, their job takes them away, but it's a good job. It ain't too good to take them away from God, is it? Better get your priorities right. You better let the right things in, not let the masses in. See, the masses can come, but the one that should be there was Jesus. There's no room for the masses, there's no room in man's heart. Our world is filled up just like the end. All this stuff takes our attention, right? People, places, things, politics, causes, right? Can I help you with something this morning? The best way to change this world is Jesus. The best way to change your family is Jesus. The best way to change our church is Jesus. The fact is, you cannot make sufficient eternal changes without the Lord Jesus Christ. And think about this, if they knew who Jesus was, surely someone would give up their room. See, I believe this, Brother Matt, the reason we won't let Jesus in is because we don't really know who He is. We don't recognize who He really is, and we just think, well, you know what? I'm probably going to anger some of you right here, so get ready. Some of you say, I got saved when I was five years old. No, you said a prayer when you was five years old. There ain't been no change. Because if there had been a change, they wouldn't have to beg you to be in the house of God every time. Well, listen, I said this morning, Sunday school, I got hurt in church. Welcome to the world. I get hurt at the grocery store every time I go in and have to pay them high prices, but I still go get some food. Right? Anybody quit eating? No, because we babbed us, we're going to eat. Sometimes I get upset at Chick-fil-A because some of them don't say, what did they used to say to you? My pleasure. Some of them don't say my pleasure, but I still go get me a biscuit. Right? What I'm saying is, You talk about all this stuff you're letting in, but you're not letting the most important person in. And if he's really in, right? If you're truly born again, listen to what I'm saying. If you're truly saved, you have the very person of God's Holy Spirit living inside of you. You mean to tell me if the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the person of His Holy Spirit lives inside of you, that you're going to have trouble serving him I didn't say our flesh didn't get in the way sometimes but what I'm saying is we're not letting him in we're letting everything else in be honest with you I believe this the world would be a thousand times better off if we never had one computer never had the internet And some genius would have never developed a smart phone. You say, how can you say that, preacher? Because look at what we have. Do you realize this morning that the average kid is introduced to pornography by the time they're 12 years old? Now let me say this. They didn't go down to the adult bookstore and get it. They got it on this little handheld computer that they got in their hand. Do you realize potentially more homes have been broken up because of Facebook? You say, how can you say that? Because all of a sudden an ex-girlfriend sees you on there, ex-boyfriend sees you on there and you start private chatting with each other. I know, I told you I wasn't going to be popular this morning. Can I tell you the problem? We've let all this stuff in the end, but we've not let Him in the end. We've got no room for Him. We've got room for everything else. Football, basketball, family gatherings, hanging out, social media, Netflix, but all of a sudden it's like church on Christmas Eve, preacher. What are you thinking? What are you thinking? I don't know. Think about Him, I guess. No room in the end. Number three, no room in religion. Now watch what I'm saying. There are no atheists. There's no atheist. Everybody believes in something. You know what we're seeing today? It's called humanism. I'm going to worship me. This morning we talked about the relationship that we all like with Jesus Christ. We like the parent relationship where he does all the giving and we do all the receiving. Our prayer life typically is nothing more than just God give me, give me, give me. We used to call that when I was growing up a Sears catalog. You got the catalog in the mail and you circled the stuff you wanted and people look and go oh they want a racetrack. For you kids, a racetrack is something that you plugged into the wall and it had these little cars and you push this button and they go around the racetrack. They don't make them anymore, right? Mine never worked. But now it's different. Not me. What do I get out of serving God? What do I get out of this marriage? What do I get out of going to church? What do I get out of this job? What do I get out of this relationship? What do I get out of this friendship? What are you giving to it? Right? Everybody worships something. That's called religion. And the problem they had was the Pharisees had all this religious system set up. Right? And here comes Jesus and he destroyed it all. Why don't you let him have that power with you see he destroys their power he'd go in the temple remember this they said he he preaches with someone with authority like he's got some kind of authority it is because he wrote it right Jesus is righteousness and he revealed their hypocrisy. They walked around like they were righteous yet they were vipers and they were whited sepulchres and Jesus revealed all of their hypocrisy. Why? Because he was the embodiment of God's righteousness and holiness and so they didn't want him around. And most of the time we live in a day-to-day, let's be honest, where if you preach Jesus and Him crucified and Him living a sinless life and Him resurrected and He's spotless and perfect and He wants to make us like His darling son Jesus we'll say we don't want that we want a Christianity and a religion and a church that celebrates our sin and celebrates our inefficiencies and celebrates who we really are instead of celebrating who He is so He destroys their power and He defiled their principles They had all this man-made doctrine. Paul told Timothy this, he just said this, preach the word. Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season. Right? Just preach the Bible. Right? I would like to go to a church or I'd like to a devotion where it encourages me all the time. Can I be honest? I don't need to be encouraged all the time. Sometimes I need the Lord to say, you're wrong. Remember this? Remember this? Here's what Paul, by the way, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, told Timothy. He said, reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Now, you don't have to be an English scholar to realize that reprove and rebuke are negative. Exhorting is positive. Two-thirds negative. You say, well, we ought not tell people what we're against. We ought to tell them what we're for. Most of the Bible is what God's against. If you tell people what you're against, you're probably going to tell them what you're for. So he destroys their power, he destroyed their principles. Well, I think, right? How many times have we heard this, Brother Jerry? Well, I think the Bible says, well, I know what it says this, but I feel like, no. See, that's that humanistic mindset that's saying, listen, I'm just going to do it my way, and I'm going to try to conform God instead of letting him in the end, I'm going to do it my way, and I'm going to put him on the outside until I need him. Right? And so God's word was and is rejected. It is today. I told a guy the other day, we were talking about church. He said, how's it going? I said, it's going good, man. I mean, growing. I said, here's what I came to the realization several years ago. We're probably not ever going to have the biggest church in this county. So a preacher, how can you say that? I thought the whole goal was to get everybody to come to church. The whole goal is to get them to heaven. The church ought to be the ground and pillar of truth. I'm just going to preach the Bible, right? So there's going to be a lot of people that offend. I don't mean to offend them, but Shane, I don't want to be offensive. Man, I love people. You get me outside church, we can yak it up and have a good time. Man, I'm talking about sports and all that, but we get in here, it's business, man. This is Jesus time. He destroyed all their little man-made principles. They didn't like it. You know what, if you let him on the throne room of your heart, he'll mess your thinking up. He will change your thinking on some things. It won't be about you, it'll be about him. It won't be about what I want, it'll be what he wants. Listen, you say, well, preacher, how can you say that? Well, I'll tell you exactly how. When I got my life right with God, you know what I started doing? pastor in a church. I didn't want to, Brother Adam. I didn't want to be a pastor. I wanted to be a businessman. I wanted money. Amen. I wanted stuff. Some of you, you ought to get your eyes off stuff. You say, boy, this inflation preacher, this inflation. You just don't understand. I do. But see, we're operating on a different economy. I'm worried about what's going on up there. So what I'm saying this morning is this. When you let him in the inn, he'll mess your religion up. He wants to be Lord of all, right? Then finally, there's no room. You say, this morning, think about Jesus. He didn't fit in society. He didn't have room at the inn. Nobody wanted him. But here's this manger. Right? Manger. You know, it's interesting, Brother Ian, we have this picture of the manger. You see it and it's this wooden fixture and you got Mary and Joseph and Jesus and the wise men and the shepherds. They must have lived in that manger a long time. Them wise men showed up. They didn't come until like three years later, right? This is pretty. You know what a manger was? It was a cave. It was a cave where those animals would go. Notice the Bible said in verse 7, she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room in the inn. So there's no room in this warm, comfortable place. But the Bible said she wrapped him up in the swaddling clothes, put him in a manger. You know what it was a picture of? His death. Those swaddling clothes are in essence grave clothes, same principle. They put him and laid him in a manger. I'm saying this, that the manger is a place of humility. It's unattractive. it's available. Wasn't anybody else really? Plenty of room in the manger. Plenty of room in the inn. Plenty of room in the manger. What are you saying? It's the way salvation is. It's not attractive. All through the Old Testament you see that something had to die to cover the sins of the people. Something had to shed its blood. That wasn't attractive. The manger wasn't a five-star place and so salvation is unattractive to most because it means you've got to admit you're a sinner. Not baptism, not I'm a good person, not I'm a member of a church. I'm saying has there ever been a time that you've admitted you're a sinner? It's available to whosoever will. Now you preachers, if I'm wrong, tell me. I don't think you had to have a reservation. Jesus didn't need to have a reservation to be born in a cave. Had to have a reservation for the end, but not the cave. And you can come too. Doesn't matter what you've done. Doesn't matter where you've been. Doesn't matter how you grew up. Been in church your whole life, this is the first time you've ever been, doesn't matter. The Bible said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's you, that's me, right? Then it's a place for the hungry. You know what they did in there? They fed animals. If you're hungry, then come. Jesus is the way. He said he's the bread. The psalmist said, taste of the Lord and see that he is good. Right? This morning if you're hungry, listen to me. Give me just a minute. I'm not going to linger. I'm not going to be the, I'm closing, take you 15 minutes. Here's what I'm going to say. If you're tired of where you are, he's the way. If you're tired of the back and forth, up and down, some good, some bad, you've never made Him the Lord of your life, right? You've never let Him have full control of your life. May I say, today would be a good day. If your religion is about you and not Him, it'd be a good day to change that. What a day God's given us. What a savior he's given us. Will you make room for him? Wouldn't you think if somebody knew that had a room in that inn, right? And somebody said, you know who's coming? Mary. You know who her kid is? The Messiah. But they're going to have to sleep out in the stable because there's no room. Wouldn't you think if somebody would say, you know what, I'll give up my room for him? Of course, I don't know a day if you're on a bus or a subway and a little old lady comes in, people wouldn't get up and let her have it. I mean, you know, that's the world we live in, right? Probably the same way then, but I'm just saying you would think if people really knew who he was, they'd say, he can have my room. It's no different today. If you really knew who he was, you'd know what you'd say. I want Him. If you knew He was the only way to heaven, you'd say, I want Him. If you knew your life could be radically changed by having Him as your Savior, you know what, this morning you'd say, I want Him. But see, you won't give Him the room, because that means you've got to get out of the way. He will radically change your life. Do you have room for Him? Let's stand together. Bow our heads this morning. No one's looking around. Thank you so much for being here and thank you for your attention this morning. All heads are bowed, every eye's closed. Some are praying already. I wanna ask you this question. Have you given Him? Have you let Him in? See you're safe, see you're Lord. You're here this morning. You've never trusted him as your Savior. I want you to do this. I want you to just slip your hand up. Say, Preacher, would you pray for me this morning? If I died today, I don't know that I'd go to heaven. I'm not going to come to you. I won't embarrass you. I want to pray for you. Would you do that? Is there one? Just put it up. Put it right back down. Preacher, pray for me this morning. Let me ask you this, if that's the case, every person in here says they know Jesus Christ is their Savior, going to heaven. Have you given your life to Him? Have you ever said, Lord, my life is Yours? It'd be a good morning to let Him have it. Stop fighting. Stop fighting. Your life could be so much different if you just let Him have it. Would you come, whatever your need is this morning? If you didn't raise your hand but you're not sure, would you come? If you are sure and you say, my life's not what I want it to be, won't you come just give your life to Him this morning? Whatever your need, maybe you've got loved ones you need to pray for. No sob stories for me, friend. Hadn't always been easy, but it's always been worth it. I go back to Calvary and remember what He did for me 2,000 years ago. The least I could do, the least I could do is serve Him. The Bible says we're to give our bodies a living sacrifice. But it's just our reasonable service, right? Reasonable service. Would you give your life to Him? All over, I talk to missionaries. You know what? We need workers. We need workers. Talk to preachers. Hey, pray, this church here needs a pastor. You know why? Because we got a lot of folks that have that parent-child Christianity. Lord, I want to stay right where I'm at. You just give me, give me, bless me, touch me. We need some folks who are going to say, Lord, I want my life to honor You. If we believe what we say we believe, we're in the last days. We better get busy. Better get busy. Father, I love you. Thank you for your word. I speak to every heart in Jesus' name. Amen.