Finding Holy Ground in Life's Messy Moments

Well, as we kind of look into our nativity story today, I want to prepare you. And actually, I want to break it to you in this way, because the story of our Lord and Savior's birth kind of looks more like that messy moment than the picture-perfect moment we kind of always imagine it to be, right? All the nativity scenes and all of the artwork, we kind of have this picture of our mind, but it's kind of one of those things versus beauty versus reality. But here's the beauty of what we're going to see today, that even in this, when life is hectic, right, when it's not what you imagine, when it's not what you expected, when life feels like it's a mess, it's still holy ground. [00:08:16] (47 seconds)


And that's what we'll be talking about in this series, right? We'll be talking about these moments of holy ground where heaven itself touches earth. And we're learning that through the birth of Christ, guess what? Our every day can be holy ground, right? We can have these moments, these opportunities where we can see heaven touch earth and give us these pivotal, life-changing moments, right? We talked about it, right? When Moses was facing an identity crisis and he came to the burning bush, it was holy ground because God was there with him as he was giving him assignment, right? When Joseph, the husband of Mary, heart was broken. Because he found out his fiancee was already pregnant, right? And he was just facing just kind of the anguish. His heart, that moment was holy ground because Jesus was closest to them in that moment, right? See, we understand that holy ground is wherever Jesus is because Jesus is holy. Guys, and that includes our lives when they seem the most complicated, when they seem the most disastrous, unexpected, unhinged, right? When they seem conflicted. When they seem confusing and straight up. [00:09:03] (74 seconds)


messy, right? So today, this is the good news. We're going to see and we're going to celebrate this fact that out of our greatest mess can come our greatest miracle. And I want you to be encouraged with that right now. Wherever you are, out of your greatest mess can come a great miracle. Amen? Amen. So let's look into this as we look into this story, right? Today we find Joseph and Mary after they learned that Jesus would be the Messiah, that their expecting baby would be the Messiah. And I just want to pause right now to ruin a Christmas classic, all right? Mary, did you know? Yes, she knew, all right? Question solved, right? She knew. Sorry, Clay Aiken. Mary knew. Now, of course, she didn't know everything about the journey, but she knew Jesus was the Messiah, all right? Could we just, all right, we fix that, all right? But after Mary knew, right? [00:10:17] (53 seconds)


communal orientated society right it's not like us when we just close our doors and you don't see us no they were very mixed in with the community and i can imagine if this happened if people didn't believe oh it would be a lot of shame and a lot of just guilt that they would face every time that they would leave the house and we kind of get a glimpse that this was probably the case from jesus himself as he's a grown adult right in in the book of mark this is what jesus says about his hometown he says jesus said to them a prophet is not without honor except in his own town among his relatives and in his own home he says he could not do any miracles there except lay hands on a few sick people and healed them and he was amazed at their lack of faith see what jesus is saying they're like when he went back to his whole stopping around the people didn't believe in him like they've seen him grow up right they've seen him and here's the amazing thing jesus at this point has done already he's done some great things already and they still didn't believe in him so how much less did they believe this crazy story that joseph and mary is spitting out when she's pregnant right so everything points to the fact that the community around them didn't believe again just not a great start to their to this journey this they're on not an expected uh journey to be carrying the the king of the universe and yet have your community around you not believe in you just kind of could you imagine that for yourself right now right imagine just that awkward space that joseph and mary is feeling not having the support maybe getting side-eyed every time they go to the store right when they're having their family over imagine trying to explain imagine you right trying to explain to your aunts and uncles that uh that your fiance actually she didn't cheat on you actually what's in her stomach was conceived by the holy spirit i may right you talk about awkward things right but in actual fact you know joseph even him doesn't get any less than this lets make it clear um joseph i don't think that joseph and mary was cheating on him because he was sensitive with his family and that's why he's not raising his hand up and telling us to not cheat on him because he's not going to be the same person that joseph said he was right i mean i think it makes a lot of sense right joseph even joseph even joseph and mary was like all these [00:12:18] (121 seconds)


This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone went to their own town to register. So check this out, right? This is a government mandate that has taken place, right? And what we need to know is that this was a government mandate. We need to understand that, again, the Israel people, they were under the boot of Rome. They were under the government control of Rome. And so Rome, in order to just perpetuate this rule, they needed to get accurate numbers of people who were living there. So they need to know, hey, how much can we tax these people? Or how can we control these people in this area, right? And we can't imagine what that looks like today. But this is the kind of oppression that they lived under. And so they called everybody. They called everybody to migrate to whatever hometown that you were born in to take this census, right? And check it out. This wasn't like, oh, yeah, it's not like when you get a summons for jury in the mail, like for jury duty. It's not like, oh, yeah, I'll look at that next week. No, this was, they had an expected time to be there, right? And if they didn't, there were consequences, right? More taxes. There was confiscation of property. There could be imprisonment if they didn't go, right? So Joseph and Mary. They had to respond. [00:14:50] (76 seconds)


Mary and kind of imagine what it could have been like for them kind of just traversing right on that road whether it's on donkey and you know Joseph's carrying the bags Mary's having maybe labor pains and they just have to continue to walk through the cold through through the danger of it all right this could have not been what they were expecting when they found out that Mary was carrying the Messiah of the world this is what I find intriguing about that moment right the Bible doesn't tell us at all about another moment that the an angel came to Joseph and Mary up to this point we don't see another example of of an angel coming to them and saying hey you're doing great right there's no other they had that holy ground experience when the when the angel spoke to Joseph and the angel spoke to Mary but up to this point we don't see any other example of that happening right so on this journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem there's no angel tapping them on their shoulders saying hey good job just keep on walking you're doing good right hey remember that's the Messiah in your belly there looking great Mary like there's none of that and so they have to just continue walking right continue through these harsh moments whether it's you know the scrutiny of her community whether it's where she is now they have to continue walking without this type of affirmation from God which I'm sure they could have used right these are hard moments and this is kind of what I want to ask you today have you ever had a moment in your life where it's not going the way that you expected and it seems God is completely silent have you have a moment where you're not experiencing any type of holy ground yeah maybe years ago you had a firm direction about your life [00:18:22] (121 seconds)


right you knew where you were going to work you knew your career path right you had a firm direction of your relationships you knew who you wanted to marry you knew where you wanted to live you know how many kids you were going to have but as you kind of walk this out that's what life it gets complicated things get difficult things get messy and i feel like these are the hardest points in our journey you know i was last week pastor john talked about seeing the holy ground amidst the pains of our hearts right when we're feeling grief and we're feeling brokenness in our hearts right that that's holy ground but this is kind of something different right because this is seeing holy ground when the facts of life are staring you right in the face this is not a feeling this is not a fear this is a straight fact of life your life is complicated right when that layoff happened right things could get difficult real quick these are facts when that divorce happened right and now there's child support battles there's custody battles it gets really messy these these are are facts you're facing maybe you find your life to be messy by the result of your own mistakes maybe bad choices that you've made and now you're facing the consequences guys these are facts not just feelings right so how do we see holy ground in this in the face of our facts and it seems no matter how much you pray and no matter how much you're seeking god for a guidance or affirmation it still seems like he's silent how do we see holy ground in this so let me ask you what what has that been for you as you listen to me i want you to reflect upon your life what has been a messy moment in life for you you know sometimes we come to church we got the week and it's seems like nothing is speaking directly to our situations right and i kind of imagine mary and joseph as they're walking through that cold desert as they're traversing through that time that complicated [00:20:22] (126 seconds)


messy period desiring affirmation from God and maybe not hearing it again here's the question how can we see holy ground in these moments how can we see pivotal moments of miraculous life change when the facts of life are speaking everything but see I think the first thing you need to understand is this is actually the majority of life right what I mean is that not every day will we have a burning bush experience right not every day will we hear angels singing out of heaven giving us clear direction most of our lives are traversing through the unknown most of our lives we will face the unexpected and for some of us most of our lives will face messy situations so how do we see holy ground I thank God because the Bible doesn't leave us there it gives us a prescription for these moments it gives us prescription to how to hear and see God and how to see God and how to see God and how to see God and how to see God and how to see God when our moments and our facts are telling a different story. How to have faith over facts. I think a perfect prescription is found in Proverbs 3 .5. It's a very famous scripture. And I think it's a great example of how we can have faith over facts in these situations. And it simply reads this. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. [00:22:28] (85 seconds)


rain and she says the grass and he says to her but it's dark you can't see the grass she says yeah boss i know it's still there and he told me that when she said this this gave him hope even though his his life was crazy that moment to remember the things that he can't see and that's the same for us right when we're going through the messy moments of life you have to remember the things you no longer can see remember the things you no longer can hear and that can be for you what god has spoken to you my question to you what has god spoken to you maybe it was 20 years ago maybe it was last year what word of affirmation do you need to hold on i'm gonna encourage you hold on to it and build your trust find your safety in what jesus has said there is safety in jesus amen there's safety in his word there's safety in his presence even when we're walking through messy periods of life right so we have to first trust but then the second thing second opponent is we need to learn submission now I know in our modern day context like nobody likes that word nobody why because we're all our own bosses right we we like to have a certain autonomy but it's something that we need to lean into and so I want to help us lean into this word by doing something with it I want to kind of break it up right the word submission to two words sub and mission right sub meaning secondary and mission being purpose right and think of it like this submission to God means simply to be sub to his mission be sub be secondary to God's mission in our lives meaning that our wants our desires our level of comfort have to come second to the priority of God's mission in his for this world for our life for our lives for our lives for our lives for our lives for our lives lives. Amen. [00:28:25] (113 seconds)


God's mission is bigger than our temporary discomfort. It is. And again, so we have to remember. [00:28:25] (7 seconds)


To see holy ground when the facts of life are messy and complicated, we have to be subbed to his mission. And here's the promise, guys. [00:28:25] (10 seconds)


When we trust and submit, the verse ends with this phrase. It says, he will make your pathway straight. [00:28:25] (9 seconds)


And a lot of times I used to read that and I'm like, great, I'm going to have a clean path out of this trouble. I'm going to have a clean path to a land of gumdrops and candy canes. It's going to be great. But here's the thing, right? [00:28:25] (13 seconds)


God's path doesn't always lead us to gumdrops and candy canes. [00:28:25] (6 seconds)


But his path always leads us to see the miracle in the mess. And that's the case for Mary and Joseph, right? [00:29:19] (9 seconds)


As it's time for them to give birth. Let's read the ending of the story. It says, while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born. [00:29:19] (8 seconds)


And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him on a bed. She placed him in a manger because there were no guest room available for them. Now, this is probably the most famous nativity verse, right? We all know what this looks like in our minds, right? They are going to this home and there's no room in the inn. And so they have to stay with the animals. Usually we imagine it as a barn, right? Or some type of fancy pergola. And there's, you know, there's lamps and there's the sheep bowing down to Jesus, right? That's what we kind of have in our mind. Right. So we want to, again, pause to kind of paint a more truer image of this scene. Right. There were no beautifully constructed pergolas, right? Actually, in the ancient world, if they were kept, if they're going to keep animal outside, then the animal was outside, right? They didn't build the structure outside for the animal. Actually, if they had animals that were important, they would keep them inside. And it would be in one or two places. If the house was constructed in the way it would be that the animals were on the first floor, sub-floor, kind of like a basement. And the family lived above. [00:29:19] (67 seconds)