I got a little tickle on my throat, so if I grab the water, you'll know why, all right? But just tell you that ahead of time. But here's my question. If God were to speak a word directly to you, whether it's from the Bible that we're reading together, the scripture we're reading together, if God were to speak to you through a spiritual mentor or a friend, If God were to speak to you as you do a devotional or you read something about the Bible and all of a sudden it kind of touches your mind and your heart in a different way, what would it take, listen to me, for you to have an experience with the God who you believe spoke it to you? What would be required? What would be required? I'm going to fill in the blank and then I'm going to show you two examples today of this response, all right? What would it take for you to have a living experience with the God of this universe? What would be required of you? I'm gonna say something to you that may be sounding a little shocking, but I want you to know that reading the Bible alone will not give you that experience with God. Reading the Bible alone will not give you that experience with God. If you are looking for God to do something in your life, it will always require faith and obedience in your life. You cannot just read the Bible and say, OK, God, just change me. He says, well, you've got to do more than just read that Bible. It requires something on our part, doesn't it? And all of you are acknowledging it. I can hear you all kind of groaning and responding out there. The truth is you do not come to know God because you read the Bible. You know God because you're obedient to what you read. When God speaks to you or God reveals something to you that you need to change, you need to repent of, you need to confess, You need to get a better attitude. Not that anybody here has a bad attitude, all right? But if you want to see a change in your life, you can read this Bible all day long and it does not necessarily gonna change your attitude. The attitude does not change until what happens. You respond to what God says. When you respond to what God says, here's what you do. Whatever I do next, after I believe I've heard a word from the Lord, what I do next reveals what I believe about God. And if I believe it is God that is telling me something, then what is he looking for in your life? He's looking for a step. He's looking for you to take a step in the direction of whatever he's saying. For instance, somebody says to me, preacher, I try every Sunday to get to church, I try every Sunday. God knows my heart, God knows my heart. Well listen, wanting to be at church on Sunday and being at church on Sunday are two different things. It's just different. Now there are a number of people that watch us online and that's great and I appreciate it. I hope I have a voice to share with the people online. But how many of you would recognize that's not the same as being here in person with the fellowship and the connection and people and praying. There's just a different thing when we're in person. Would you agree? It's just different. So you look at this and you say, what would it require for God to get my attention and for God to give me an instruction or a word from himself that, listen, that I, you, are ready to be obedient to. Obedience will give you joy. Obedience will give you peace. Obedience will change your attitude. Obedience will change your whole mindset, but it requires that obedience to get it. So you sit down and you read the Bible and say, well, I just want God to give me that peace that passes all understanding. Well, he's got it. It's ready for you. I'm just praying for God to give my life a blessing that when the Bible says he'll give me a blessing, I don't even have enough room to receive it. He's got it for you. He owns the cattle on a thousand hillsides. He knows how to bless you, doesn't he? Y'all are kind of quiet out there now. The more I talk about this, the more quiet you're getting, the more you're sinking into them seats out there. But here's the point I'm making. Here's the thing. There are a lot of people that want the hand of God, but not the face of God. There are a lot of people who want an experience with God, but they don't want to do anything to respond to God. They say, God, provide for me. God, meet me. God, help me. God, do this or that. Fix so-and-so. Help so-and-so. Sick on so-and-so. Whatever it takes. And bottom line is, God, I want You to do something. And God says, hang on just a minute. What are You willing to do in obedience to My Word? When you get a word from God, what you do next reveals that you believe it's a word from God, and the word from God will always require an action. Without action on our part, there will not be the release of the blessings and the strength and the courage and the hope and peace, none of that's gonna come. Somebody says, I'm constantly feeling down. I don't know which way to turn in my life. And you say, preacher, what am I supposed to do? Here's what I tell people. Get in the Word of God. And you say, okay, I'm going to read the Bible. But don't stop with just reading the Bible. Let the Bible read you. And if God reveals something to your heart, then you have to predetermine that you're going to be obedient to it. How many of you know that so often we come to the table of God and we've already got a stubborn attitude. We've already got our minds made up. We've already made up our mind. God's not gonna help me. God's not gonna fix this. God's not gonna help and give me peace. Then my situation's too bad. The things I'm dealing with are too rough. I'm going through a great deal of pain and suffering right now. Does God not know you? Does God not know what you're dealing with and what you're going through in your life? Well, then if you've already made up your mind, well, God bless me if you can. Then guess what? He's not gonna bless you. You're not gonna experience the blessings of God. What you're gonna experience is more misery and pain and suffering and sorrow and constant worrying about things and stressed out. And I don't know about you, but the season of God's joy is not supposed to be a season of stress. Boy, this is a quiet audience today. But how many of us have already, you see how long I'm holding my arms together like this, don't you? How many of us have already made up our mind what God's gonna do in our life? We've already made up our mind whether we deserve it, whether we don't deserve it. We've already made up our mind we've messed up too much. We're not going to be blessed. Subconsciously, many of us have made up our mind before we even began to listen to the preacher talk today. You've already made up your mind what you think about religion. You've already made up your mind of what you think about God. You've already made up your mind about what you're dealing with in your life. And you say, you know what? This is so much I've got going on in my life. I don't think God himself could change this unless it was a miracle that took place. You realize your obedience affects your miracle. Your obedience affects your miracle. See, people don't like to hear that kind of preaching, do they? We don't like to hear that there's a requirement on our part to respond to God so that it now opens the window of heaven for God to pour out into my life the blessings He's already prepared for me. That's why He says, if you'll pray to me in secret, I'll reward you openly. That's exactly what He means by that. And so, here's what I want to look at today. I've already preached the whole sermon. I guess I could say, man, it sends you home, but I won't. All right, so we go to Isaiah chapter seven. And what I want you to do is I want you to see two responses to the promise of God. two ways of responding, and you can tell me which one, when you walk away from this service, you can say, which one do I see as being the more blessed one, all right? So we go to Isaiah chapter seven, and a little bit of background, we have a king named Ahaz, and this king is in the line of David, and he is in the lineage of David, and he's serving as a king, and he is having an encounter with Isaiah the prophet. And Isaiah comes to him and says, he says some instruction here, and we usually don't get this point of instruction, but I want you to pick up on it today. Go with me to verse 10. Now remember, a prophet is not going to speak to the king unless he's got a word for the king. And the only way you'll know a prophet was truly from God is with what what God said through him came to pass, then you could verify that he indeed was a prophet of the Lord. And you can't just trust anybody who says, well, I'm talking for God. No, it better line up with the scriptures of God if they're gonna say they're talking to you from God. And so Isaiah comes to him in chapter seven, verse 10, watch this. He says, moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, So remember this is coming through Isaiah, but it's the Lord speaking. How many of you would say amen to that? It's the Lord speaking. And he says in verse 11, watch this. He says, ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God. Now stop there a second. Just stop with me. What is he telling him to do? Ask the Lord for a sign. Now listen, asking God for a sign is not a good idea in our case. He's giving us an instruction, and then we say, well, I think that's the Lord, but Lord, I need you to give me a sign to make sure it's really you. How many of you have ever done that at one point in your life? Anybody ever done that? I'm guilty of that. You know, Lord, if this is really, this isn't just my head coming up with this, if this is really you, then Lord, give me a sign of that. It's a dangerous thing to ask for a sign. Why? Because that demonstrates disbelief in the word of the Lord. That also demonstrates a lack of faith. It also demonstrates that we are, I don't want to say almost supplanting, of the will of God when we ask God for a sign. See, I've already said to you three or four times, you get a word from the Lord, you know it's a word from the Lord, what is He looking for from your life? A response to that word, is it a word from Him? Yes, then I'm responding in obedience. But here's what happens, we stop our obedience by asking for a sign. Are y'all listening right now? And so we ask, if it's you, Lord, you gotta prove it to me. He doesn't owe you that. He doesn't owe any single one of us any affirmation. You either believe him in his word or you don't. If he speaks to you by his holy word, he has that word for you on purpose, and it's gonna serve a purpose in your life. But if you and I say, well, I think it's you, I want it to be you, if you want me to change this behavior or this attitude or this thing, whatever it is, God, you show me a sign. He says, I don't owe that to you. You're a subject to me, I'm God. And so he looked, but here in this case, I'm gonna show you what I mean, all this. In this case, Ahaz is told it is okay to ask God for a sign. Look at Ahaz's response. Watch what happens in the Bible next. He says, ask the sign of the Lord thy God, And then right after that, look what it says. Ask it either in depth or in height above. In other words, all they're saying is you can bow your head and you can pray. You can lift your hands and pray. Whatever it takes to posture yourself before a holy God that you can seek his face. Watch this now. He says, you can ask it And Ahaz, watch verse 12. Here it is, watch this. He says, Ahaz said, I will not ask. Now stop there for a second. There's a period. Stop there with me for a second. Now we're going to see evidence in a minute that this is Ahaz going, I'm not going to ask for a sign. Wait a minute. Was this a word from the Lord? It's okay to ask for a sign if the Lord says it's okay to ask for a sign, isn't it? I mean, he's the one that is giving the instruction here. And what he's telling Ahaz through Isaiah is it's okay to ask for a sign in this situation. Why? What was God looking for in Ahaz's life? A willingness to believe God at his word. He was waiting for him to say, well, yeah, sure, God, give me a sign. He was waiting for obedience in the heart of Ahaz. But guess what? He says, well, I wrote a lot. Sounds like a grump along to me. What does it sound like to you, right? It sounds like somebody that's determined. You said, preacher, you're being a little silly. I'm trying to illustrate the point. The point is so often what we do is we get a word from the Lord and we become more stubborn. We become more hard-headed. As if we could get any more hard-headed. How do you say no Lord in the same sentence? If he's the Lord of your heart, he knows what you need even before you ask. He knows what's going on in your circumstance. He knows what's overwhelming you. He knows what's got you down in the dumps. He knows what's got you depressed. He knows what's frustrating you. He knows where you're going and he knows where you've been. Everything he knows about your life. And when he gives you a word, what he's looking for is a faithful heart, a willingness to Those two words fit really, really well in the same sentence. Those two words are required. But here what you have is Isaiah saying, I will not ask. God has said it, it's coming through you Isaiah, but I'm not gonna ask. Now look at his reasoning. He now comes up with an excuse right after that. And he says, because, what's it say in verse 13? I'm sorry, verse 12, he says, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. Now what he's saying right there is, I'm tempting the God who already said I can ask him. Come on now, are you listening to what I'm saying? God's already said it's okay, but now he's giving an excuse. What do we do? I want a word from the Lord, I want a word from the Lord, I want a word from the Lord, if the Lord could give me a word, if the Lord would tell me what he wants me to do, if the Lord would just tell me, if he would just show me, if he would just make it very clear to me, and God has already made it clear to you, thus says the word of the Lord, and you say, after all, I don't want to tempt the Lord. I don't want to ask too much of the Lord. I don't want to be found guilty of going before the Lord. And if he's already doing something, I don't want to be guilty of coming and asking the Lord for this or that and thus and so. God can't be tempted. He's already given the opportunity. He's already told Ahaz, you can ask freely. And that was the whole point of this encounter. Ahaz being told, you can ask. I will not. God has already said to you, you can ask anything you want according to His will, and He promises to hear you. That is a promise from the Lord. So what does that tell you, ladies and gentlemen? That tells you and I, we can ask God anything we want to ask Him. But here's what He also says. He says, according to what? His will. What's His will? Are y'all listening right now? Where is the will of God? It is in the Word of God. It's in the Word of God. You want to know what the will of God is for that crazy family member you got to invite over for dinner? You want to know how to overcome the conflict that's going to come around the dinner table for Christmas Day? You want to know how to overcome the stress and the worry and the anxiety of the holidays, which was never intended by God to create that stress and all that confusion and all that chaos. That's why the Bible says when he is declared, he comes as the prince of peace. So how are we experiencing so much stress and chaos and confusion? I'll tell you how, we're leaving out the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord is our peace. The Word of the Lord is our sanctuary. The Word of the Lord is our strong tower. The Word of the Lord is our rock of salvation. The Word of the Lord is our strength and power and the peace of mind that passes all understanding. It's the Word of the Lord. And so what happens is, many of us say, I will not. And then we start giving some spiritual sounding answers. Well, God's probably pretty busy. He doesn't want to deal with me. I've made too many mistakes in my life. I'm just a failure. I've failed too many times. I've had this and that and this and all this stuff. And we give all these excuses. How do you excuse what God has already promised? You may not be experiencing it, but it doesn't require an excuse. It requires repentance. It requires a change of your mind. It requires a change in your focus. It requires a change. How do I get up out of this funk? Change your mind. How do you get up out of this point of depression? Now I'm not talking about clinical depression. Nobody get offended by the preacher. I do that enough on my own. Don't get offended and say, well, that preacher said I can't be depressed. You can be depressed all day long if that's what you wanna do. But what I'm telling you is what the word of the Lord says. He says, lift up your eyes for the one who is on the horizon is the Lord himself. He is the one that gives you strength. He is the one that can give you peace. He is the one that can give you something new to look at. But if you keep on meditating on what you've got in front of you, you're gonna be like a, you're gonna be stuck in a rut. You know what a rut is? It's a grave with both ends cut out. And many people spend much of our lives in a rut. And God says, no, no, no, I've set you on a higher plane. I've set you above all of that. You've got a seat in the heavenlies. You've got power and blessing and authority in your life that supersedes any single rascal you've got to deal with in this world. But you've got to be willing to believe God and then take a step according to what you believe. Without that, there is no release of the promises of God. People say, preacher, pray for me. Pray for me that I'll have a sound mind. Pray for me because I feel like I'm losing my mind. Pray for me, I'm going out of my mind. And all of a sudden I look at people and now, now, not always, now I'm recognizing, I wanna tell you, hang on, hold on to whatever peace of mind you got and focus on the word of the Lord. And then ask the Lord, God, what am I supposed to do in reaction to what you're telling me? And then will God find you willing to be obedient? Most of the time, I will not. Now we don't have to say the words, ladies and gentlemen, Our behavior says it all. Our reaction to God says it all. If I have a word from the Lord and I say, well, thank you for that word today. That was a good devotional thought. He said, no, that wasn't given to you as a devotional thought. It was given to change your mind. It was given to change your focus. It was given to you to change your view about the future. It was given to you to change your view about the past. It was given to you to create a want in you that causes you to look up to where your health comes from instead of continuously staying in that rut of your physical life, your emotional life, your spiritual life. No, I don't want to stay down in the valley. I want to rise above that. He says, well, I've already seated you in heavenly places. I've already given you a higher walk. I've already given you a path. It's called the path of holiness. I've already given you a path of holiness to walk above all of the other circumstances of life. I can raise you up above it. Doesn't mean you get out of it. You might still have that road right down the middle of your conflict. Might have that road right down the middle of your problem. Might have that road right down the middle of your cancer. Might have that road right down the middle of your heart disease. That isn't the question. The question is, has God set a path? And he said for me to believe him and his word so that as I'm obedient to his word, I'll experience the blessings he's promised. Now, this is an important word for somebody. I don't know if it's everybody, but I think it's for somebody. People want peace without Christ. People want fixed to their problems without Christ. People want to feel better without Christ. People want to be less depressed, less frustrated, less overwhelmed without Christ. You know, wait a minute, preacher, how dare you say that I don't love the Lord? I never said you didn't love the Lord. I never ever question a person. I can't determine somebody loving the Lord or not loving the Lord, but I'll tell you what I can. I can sure look at the fruit of our lives and look at that and say, are we being obedient to the Lord? Amen. Are we being obedient? And I didn't say perfectly. I didn't say without falling down once in a while. We've been watching this little baby, learning how to get her feet under her and getting her legs under her and getting that walk going. Man, can I even count the number of times she's fallen down in the process of learning how to walk? I'm glad she wears a diaper. Cuz that'd be painful, right? And so you look at that and you say, how many more times is that girl gonna fall down? But you know what I've noticed about her? Every time she falls down, what does she do, everybody? She gets right back up again. She gets right back up again. You know what she's determined to do? She's determined to walk. What are you determined to do in your relationship with the Lord? Are you determined that he's got you in this pickle and you're just supposed to stay there, sit, sulk and sour? Or are you supposed to get up on the higher plane, walk on the road of holiness and say, Lord, whatever you ask me to do, the best I can, I'm gonna take a step in that direction. And Lord, because I'm being obedient to you, I'll see your hand guiding me. And Lord, as you guide me, I may fall down. But guess what, Lord? Your word says you're gonna pick me right back up. As long as what? I'm putting you first, trusting you first, loving you more, and desiring more of you in my circumstance. Ahaz was not acting like that with God. Ahaz was saying, I will not. As a matter of fact, spiritually, I'll give you a reason. And he gives Isaiah some lame reason that doesn't even fit in the equation because God has already given Ahaz permission. You don't give somebody permission and then say, well, that tempted me. He gives him permission to ask for a sign, and he chooses not to. It's the same thing as when God tells you to change something, do something, act a certain way in your life, and if you make up your mind, I will not, then guess what? No blessing comes. You say, I will? Then guess what you're gonna receive? Blessings from the Lord. A second time I could quit the sermon, but I won't, all right? Here's what else he says. Look at verse, I know I've got to hurry, because I've got one more verse, or chapter I want you to look at, but here's what he says. Look at this. In verse 13, here's what God says to Ahaz. He says, and he said, hear you now, O house of David. I mean, he's in the line, in the lineage of David, so he's speaking on that behalf. He says, is it a small thing for you to weary men But look at the next thing he says, but will you weary my God also? You're wearing me out by telling me I don't have something for you, but you can't receive it because you're too stubborn to bully me. Now, I'm not looking at anybody in the room when I say that now, all right? Please, don't let a preacher look right at me when he says, no, I'm just telling you that's what's happening here. He says, you're wearying the Lord. The Lord said you can ask, you refuse. The Lord said it's available to you, you refuse. So here's what he says, therefore, verse 14. He says, therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. You didn't ask for it, I said you could. Okay, I'll supersede this whole thing. The Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Now in the New Testament, you know what the name Emmanuel means? God with us. God with us. Ha ha. You ain't gonna listen for God's words. You're not gonna be obedient to God's words. You ain't got no interest in following the things of God. Well, God don't care about that. He cares about his will, his glory, his honor, and he's gonna do what he's gonna do. Let me tell you what that looks like. Let me tell you what God's gonna do. And so he gives him this word and he says, the Lord himself is gonna give you a son. Who, a son? Ahaz? No. The people of Israel are going to see a future hope in spite of this man's rebellion and disobedience. God still has a plan for his people. He's still got an outcome for his people, his nation Israel. He's still going to do something in the future. By the way, can I just add this side note? God is not limited by time or space. In other words, you're looking for a microwave answer in an eternity of hope. I don't know if you caught what I just said. We're looking for microwave answers in an eternity of hope. What does that mean? God sees the long view. We are limited by time and space. And so most of the time, all of our prayer life, all of our responses to God are tied to our present feelings, or our present circumstance, or our present identity. We tie everything that God can do and will do to where we are presently. God says, you're limiting me. Don't limit me, God says. I'm eternal. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I'm everything in between. I have the future in mind for you. I have the past in the view of you. And I know what I'm trying to do in the present for you. There's going to be a son. He's going to be called Emmanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. Do you see what he's saying right there? He's saying here, let me make this clear to you. The one that is coming that's been promised, this Emmanuel, he's gonna eat milk and honey. Do you know what that's a reference to? The land that God promised his people flowing with what? Milk and honey. What is this a reference to? The eternal future, the future kingdom of none other than Jesus Christ. Isn't that cool? Well, you don't think so. All right, let me show you something that is cool. Go all the way forward in your Bible to Matthew. Matthew chapter one. Now that we've talked about Ahaz's response, right? Now I'm gonna show you a different man's response. And then I'll close with a word of prayer in a few moments. If you can bear with me and listen to this teaching. So we're not done yet. We're not ending this message because there's another way to respond to the things of God. So you come to Matthew chapter one, verse 18. I love hearing those pages turn. Let me tell you something. You probably don't realize this, but listen to me. You just traveled more than 700 years. You just traveled more than 700 years from the prophet Isaiah to the fulfillment in the gospel of Matthew, you've just covered 700 years of time. You say, I thought that was how long this sermon was, Preacher. No, you just traveled 700 years. What does that tell us? That tells us that God has an eternal view of what he is going to do, no matter what man says. No matter what man does, no matter how people respond, no matter what we say or do in response to his word, he's gonna still fulfill his ultimate glory and his ultimate will in spite of those who reject him and with those who accept him. And so you've just traveled 700 years. Now watch this. Look with me at verse 18. Here's what the Bible says. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. When, as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, look at this, then Joseph, her husband, now they were betrothed, but in their culture, that was the same as being married. They had just not gone through, they'd gone through all kinds of ceremonies. up to this point, but they had not officially officiated the official thing. Just saying if you're listening. All right. Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately. In other words, I don't know what's going on. I don't know how this happened. I don't know what's... I don't want to expose her to the whole world with a sense of shame. And any kind of regret, I don't want her to be ostracized by the community. I don't want her to look bad. And by the way, just as a side note, that's a good husband. Doesn't want his wife to look bad in the eyes of others. He might rebuke her in private and say, you shouldn't have done that, you shouldn't have said that. But in public, he doesn't shame her. And so he has to put it in his mind, those are all just side notes, that he's going to put her away. That is, he's literally going to just stop the process and just say, I'm just going to go my way, you go your way. Watch this. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream. Now it doesn't say through the scripture, although it proves itself in the scripture. I'll show you that in a minute. But here's what he says, watch this. He says, he comes to him in a dream. Now watch what he says. Joseph, by name, by the way, God knows your name. Hello? He knows you. You're not just a number in the billions of humanity. God knows your name. Joseph, the son of who? David, now we just looked at a passage of scripture in Isaiah. It was in the line of lineage of David, Ahaz. Now we're in this passage of scripture. Thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee, Mary thy wife. What is he requiring of Joseph? Taking a step. Hello, y'all listening? Take a step. Don't be, first, fear not. By the way, every time God tells you something that's bigger than what you can do or handle, you're always gonna have a little bit of fear. And one of the first thing he does is comes back to you and says, fear not. If it's a word from me, I'll give you the strength to meet it. I'll give you the strength to overcome it. He says, fear not to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. Jesus, the sweetest name we know. For he shall save his people from this rude, mean Roman government. Is that what Jesus' purpose was? Some believed that. Some were expecting that. In his day, in his culture, there was a lot of conflict. There was a lot of chaos. There was a lot of political upheaval. There was a lot of conflict within cultures. He shall save his people from their sins. Now this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, look at this verse 23, 700 years later. 700 years later, you've got a promise from God. And look at verse 23. Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name, what church? Emmanuel. What is the interpretation? Which being interpreted is what? God with us. What was required of Joseph? He had to believe that the word that he received was from God, and he had to act accordingly. When he was willing, whoa, I got ahead of myself. Look at verse 24. I got ahead of myself. Look at what he does in verse 24. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, crossed his arms like the preacher did and says, no. that what he does? No, the Bible says, and being raised from his sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife. Do you know how much pride that required him to put down in his life? Do you know Do you know he absolutely was staking his entire life and the future of himself and his family on this word from God? Do you know it was requiring so much of Joseph, more than just saying, okay, ladies and gentlemen, in that culture, this was surely to bring shame upon the very birth of this child. This was to deal with the shame and the humiliation and eyes and ears and comments and gossip. This was to literally even bring shame into his own family line. Ladies and gentlemen, in those days, families would, they would disown you for less. and Joseph says, hey, this is a word from the Lord, and he rises from his sleep, and he embraces her as his wife, and what does the Bible go on to say? And knew her not until she had brought forth the firstborn son, and he, he, he called his name Jesus. Do you see what I'm trying to contrast with you today? Two different experiences, two different people, and now you've got two different responses. Ahaz, I will not, even though God has told me I can. Joseph, at first, in his mind, he's already trying to figure out what he's supposed to do. He's got a spiritual relationship with his heavenly father. And in the night dream, he gets a word from God. Fear not, this is a God thing in your wife's life. Move forward with her. And what does he do in response? Okay, Lord. Why? Because it was a word from the Lord. And he knew it was a word from the Lord. And it required faith and obedience. And when he was faithful and obedient, guess what? The blessings of God were now poured out with favor upon Mary, upon Joseph, and ultimately upon baby Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes, in the manger. What do you have? You had the most beautiful and precious experience. Would God still, listen, would God still have brought forth baby Jesus without Joseph involved? Yes, because that promise had already been made to Mary. Are y'all still listening? Joseph had a choice. to experience this miracle and be a part of raising this miracle and being a part of being the priesthood to his family in this miracle. He had the opportunity to be a part of this awesome blessing from heaven or he could have done what many of us do. He could have put his arms together and said with pride filled heart, I'm not going to do this. I can't because it'll be too hard and it'll be too complicated and it'll be too many people saying stuff about it. How am I going to explain this and so and so and such and such? We do not see that reaction in Joseph's life, do we? Come on now, church. We don't see that response. Now there may be in this room of 50 people, 40 people, whatever it is, there may be somebody in this room that says, you know what preacher, I've not really been listening. My mind is elsewhere. Well then I'm sorry for you. But if there's one person that can get something from this message, I started out by asking you on a scale of one to 10, where are you? In your walk, in your relationship with the Lord, or with the circumstances you're dealing with, where are you in your mental well-being today? Where are you? And some of you said, I'm a two. Some of you said, I'm a 10. Some of you said, I don't know where I'm at. I don't even know if I'm on the scale. And my question is the same. What would it require for you to come one number higher than where you are right now, or when you started this sermon? What would it take? Now, if you've been listening to this message, you know what it's gonna require. It's gonna require you to believe that what the preacher's been sharing with you today is not my opinion or my studies of the scripture. It has nothing to do with my theology. It has come straight from the scripture to your heart. Now you have to ask yourself, have I heard a word from God or has it just been a preacher up there? Have I heard a word from God? If you have heard a word from the Lord, it's because the Lord wanted you to hear that word and the Spirit of God wants you to respond to it. What do you do in response to it? I guarantee you on the authority of God's Holy Word, you can walk out of here on a higher plane. You can walk out of here with your head held a little higher. You can strengthen your backbone and trust the Lord. I can tell you on the authority of His Word, what you're in right now is not the end of you, because if it was in the end of you, God would have already taken you out and brought you home, because ultimately that's His plan and purpose anyway. But if you're still here breathing, you're still here taking up space, you're still here going through the motions of life, it is because the God of this universe wants you to be here. And if you're here by His glory and for His honor, that I'm telling you, you cannot become stubborn and stiff-necked before a holy God and say no and call him Lord at the same time. If he is the Lord of your heart, you only have one response. God, I'm not exactly sure what this looks like, but I'm going to take a baby step toward what you're revealing to me. It may be I've got to turn off my phone. It may be I've got to stop Facebook. It may be that I've got to stop gossiping. It may be that I've got to quit a physical habit in my body. It may be that I've got to change how I treat somebody. It may be that I've got to start valuing somebody that God has placed in my life. And if I started valuing them, maybe it would be met with value back in my life from them. Maybe I've got to change me first instead of expecting them to change. Can I give you one more word before I close the sermon today? I want everybody to go home and find a puppy dog. Every one of you, I want you to go home and find a puppy dog. And here's your instruction. I never want you to forget this. I never want you to forget. Go home and get a puppy dog. Set that puppy dog down and teach that puppy dog how to meow. I want you to go home, get that puppy dog, and I want you to make that dog meow. You put forward all of your effort and all of your energy. You put forward all your prayers and all your love. You feed that dog. You give it the best you can possibly give it. Here's the point I'm making. That dog is not gonna change until there's something supernaturally that changes inside that dog, that that dog would now somehow change its entire nature. The Bible says, unless we are born again, we cannot see nor can we inherit the things of God. We must be born again. You know what that means? He took you from barking to meowing. Or you can go the other way around. But the bottom line is, ladies and gentlemen, there is change in your life. It is because you were obedient to believe that it was God wanting to change you. And He said, I've made you into a new creation. A new creature created in Christ Jesus. The old things are passed away and behold, all things have become new. The reason you have any spirit life in you If you're a true believer, a child of God, it's because God changed your heart one day, and it came as a result of you saying, yes, Lord, instead of saying, I will not. You responded to the invitation of Almighty God, and when you responded, you said, I will never be the same. In the name of Jesus, I will never, ever be the same. Glory to His holy name. I'm not that person that I used to be. Thank God He's still working on me. And thank God He's got a future. And it might be just to make me stop barking and start meowing. But the change is going to be there as the evidence that I've been obedient to God. Would you bow your heads with me? If you believe the Word of God has been for your heart today, you believe there's something that you've received out of being here today, would you witness that to me by lifting your hand quickly and putting it down? I believe there was a reason that I was supposed to hear this sermon today, I was supposed to be here today. See, I believe everybody that's here is not here by your own volition, it's by the movement of the Holy Spirit. Is there anybody here that would say, preacher, if I died right now, I'm not sure that I would get to go into God's heaven. And I can't see God and I can't hear from God. And I feel like I'm just lost. Nobody looking around, but if that describes your condition, lift your hand quickly and put it down. I'm just lost. I'm struggling. I don't know which way is up. I just don't know what to do in my life. If that describes you, I want you to know that right now you can confess Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior by praying this prayer. But now listen, my prayer does not save you. My prayer is just to put to word what your heart is already experiencing. This is an act of obedience to God so that you can experience salvation. I'm just verbalizing it, but you have to believe it. You pray this prayer after me. You say, dear God, I'm a sinner and I am so sorry for my sin. Will you please forgive me as I turn away from my past and turn my life to you? Please apply the blood of Jesus to all of my sins and wash my sins away. In the absence of that sin-filled heart, God, I pray that you would fill my heart with your presence by your spirit. I pray that you will teach me how to love you every day for the rest of my life is my prayer in Jesus name.