Wednesday Night Bible Study
by Billy McCool
December 22, 2021 · First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: Bible study
Scripture: Luke 2:10-11, Matthew 2:1-20, Romans 1:22, Hebrews 11

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/billy-mccool--wednesday-night-bible-study-103
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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praise the lord everyone we greet you tonight in that wonderful name of the lord jesus christ the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and say it's good to see each one of you with us in the house of the lord tonight for bible study and i want to add my word to that of pastor mccool and saying thank you there have been so many texts and cards and also a personal things that i had to pray the calories out of that's been so delicious and everything has been so great i i wish there was in my vocabulary beautiful words to tell all of you how much we appreciate you and all the kind things we have the the kindest friendliest most liberal church that i know of anywhere and we want to say thank you and i also want to add my word to pastor mccools to say happy birthday to sister mccool she's um i got to wish her happy birthday she woke me up um early the morning of her birthday she'd been up cooking and working and fixing and and when i heard somebody rustling around and getting in the bed i looked at the clock and i realized that her birthday's already gone or she's already coming with the birthday but she stays busy as she always does but it's been that way for 65 years and we thank the lord for that and she just turned 85 and she is sweeter and more precious than she's ever been and then i want to correct something else i may correct two or three things uh through the time pastor mccool has said several times i've heard him say that he is gleaning from fields that he didn't plant and vineyards that he didn't plant and he's inherited um and i i i don't like to contradict my pastor but that really isn't true at all i need a house full of people to tell this to he's been in this church his entire life absolute entire life brother robert perry and i was working on the old building at 123 west columbia when we didn't we just had a flat top basement uh on the the morning that i took sister mccool to the hospital when she was about ready to give birth to mark and i had to tell brother robert i would not be working that day with him and his mark has been pastor mccool has been in this church his entire life he's spent many hours in hospitals prisons funeral homes uh he's been by our side when we've been trying to talk people out of suicide he's been by our side when folks were on their with we thought there's no way to our house to kill us a fellow that claimed to be a part of the mafia out of chicago and uh uh sister mccool i was on the phone she jumped up and said mark pray he's coming over here to kill us that's just some of the exciting things that you get to enjoy when you've been in the ministry as long as we have but the lord has given us such a wonderful pastoral staff and not not only is pastor mark mccool and uh he's he's stood on a chair arrows and stood and sang with us uh from two years old on up so if there's anybody that's got anything invested in this vineyard he he does and then along came his lovely wife sister jamie and what a pastor's wife she is and then that little girl ashley what a sweetheart she was and and grew up to be such a wonderful worker in the church and married such a great man of such a great i don't know what i don't know what i've done to deserve all of this and then she married this great great preacher and then there's anthony and what a preacher he he is and and what a lovely wife he he's got and they're they're two of the sweetest little great-granddaughters so i could i could stand here all night long just but it would sound like i was boasting and i'm really not boasting the apostle paul one time said bear with me and my folly he was calling attention to some of his accomplishments in the ministry um but then i'll tell you something else i thank the lord for it is pastor whitley the great preacher he is and and we've heard him uh time and again refer to his mentor and that's sister whitley and the lord saw fit to bring her to knoxville and i i i'm still i'm not over that yet i'm i'm excited and thank the lord for sister sister whitley being in this church so uh all the things i would try to say tonight uh would not be enough to really express and i look around i'll see i would i'd like to mention that that that and that but each one of you i want you to know you are loved and then let me say this i announce uh this coming sunday night i'm going to be preaching and um i i i realize it's the day after christmas and um i'm not fussing at anybody for getting together with their families you should do that that's a that's a great thing and i know a lot of folks are out of town they're on the road and a lot of folks will not be able to be here but when i tell you what i'm going to be preaching on you'll come home early and you'll cancel your your cruise and your you'll cancel all those important trips so you can be here sunday night incidentally i think we've got a good crowd here for wednesday night and this close to christmas a holiday but i made mention of this the other night and i have alluded to something just a few minutes ago about all the different things that we experience in the ministry now it's not all stay in in hospital rooms and prisons and jail houses and uh i remember we we we took the the choir down to uh the prison here several years ago when uh the mccool family we were singing and we chose i didn't realize the song we were singing uh but the mccool fan were cut down on singing when paul and silas were in jail nobody if you believe you shall receive but they seem to enjoy it all right but anyway uh it hasn't all been jail houses and hospital rooms that's part of our life and i don't resent it in in the least but i've received many gifts through the years i told you this when i was 16 years old a former baptist preacher that got converted in our revival down in georgia he had a 50 model desoto and those they don't make them anymore but back then that was a luxury car and when bobby and i turned 16 he he gave us that 50 model desoto and we were so so pleased with that and then we've had many other gifts i can't mention all of them because i told you about brother mike menser and the car i'm driving right now a cadillac that had 13 000 miles on just like a showroom car that's just most recently and but i've had a lot of uh unusual gifts through the years uh when sister mcclellan were evangelizing first married somebody had a parakeet that said acts 2 38 and i bragged on that i thought that's the most and they gave it to me and the cage and all and well i didn't refuse it to put it in the back seat of that car and until we got back to johnson city we had several revivals and but our home base was johnson city and but we had had that parakeet that we carried and had take that into a preacher's house where we didn't stay in motels back then and then someplace else the children had a guinea pig and i bragged on and they gave it to me and so we let one time we literally had a guinea pig and a parakeet in the back seat of our car going now how would you like to have a preacher drive up to your house with a parakeet and a and a guinea pig but other things have been most unusual things that's been given to me for which i am very thankful but a few weeks ago i received what i consider to be one of the most unique gifts i have ever received sister mccool brought it home from church and on sunday night i believe it was and i couldn't imagine what it was it was rather heavy it wasn't all that big but i couldn't imagine what it was and i'm not going to tell you what it is until sunday night so that you can cancel your your cruise or cancel your trip to florida so you'll be able to hear that but i'm going to i'm going to display that gift this coming sunday night and i got a sermon from it and i'm going to be preaching that that gave me an inspiration for a sermon so i'll be preaching about that sunday night and uh i hope to see all of you here i know you're i know you can't wait uh to be here but uh you we i'll be looking for all of you sunday night all right are you ready to get into the word of the lord i could just simply read the christmas story tonight just read it verbatim and dismiss you and you would hear a great great sermon but i'm going to comment just a little bit because this lesson is designed for december the 19th it's called christmas sunday lesson and it is entitled rejoicing with great joy if there was ever a time that that that we needed something to rejoice are we that beautiful what a great job our technicians do i just love these the graphics rejoicing with great joy if there ever was a time that we needed something to rejoice over it is now but as dark and as dismal as it may seem in some areas it's nothing to compare with the day we're going to be reading about tonight father we thank you for this congregation we thank you for the opportunity of studying the word of the lord i pray father that you will illuminate your word open my mind and give me the ability to say to say what you would have me to say and god will thank you and praise you for all the said in jesus name amen uh the the new lesson for this last year that started out with a different format and there's got a little feature in it that's called lesson big idea and that lesson big idea says i will embrace the joy jesus gives because he was born to be my savior paul said i think myself happy a lot of them think themselves sad a lot of folks think themselves sick now i'm not i'm not one of those uh persons that uh that just think that uh that you can think you're sick and you're sick and you think you're well you're well i i'm i'm not one of those but i do know the bible said and i and this came to me a few this year a woman that had the spirit of infirmity uh there are some folks that not only do they have an infirmity but they have a spirit of infirmity they and and don't you don't you get me wrong for one minute uh when you have pain you have pain when you have a disease you have a disease and you can't you don't just think yourself out of that but you can always look on the the dark side of everything or you can look on the the bright side and i will embrace the joy that jesus gives i i've got something to be happy about to know the lord the greatest thing that ever happened to me was when i received the holy ghost when i was 11 years old and i went to that altar i'd been seeking the holy ghost for four years i repented when i was seven and that that night when i got up and testified i want to praise the lord for saving and sanctifying me and i want you to pray for me i get the holy ghost from you've heard me talk to you oh a little old lady way back and she said yes honey and tonight i don't remember what that preacher preached that night he was a nazarene preacher preaching in a pentecostal church and but those words kept ringing over in my mind tonight tonight tonight and i went to that altar that night and i started praying brother chuck gray who is actually the great uncle of uh brother michael maupin's wife he's married to a young lady that she married into her there her great uncle was chuck gray well uh chuck gray and my brother-in-law and my sister they were in a hillbilly band they called them hillbilly bands back then now they call them country singers but he was a bad sick with bleeding ulcers and he had gone to the altar the night before and got the holy ghost i told him about the revival well he he got down over me and started praying for me i was so uncomfortable i was cramped up and trying to pray and and they were praying all around me and and you've heard the old saying it really was true with me some was saying turn loose and others were saying hold on and some were saying say hallelujah and someone said praise the lord and but i was doing everything i could but uh why i i thought well if you don't you gotta get your mind in the lord and get the holy ghost he's gonna smother you to death i was 11 years old and well when i started praying and i heard somebody the last thing i remember hearing somebody say they said he's got the stammering lips well you don't hear much about that anymore but they used to be a common term people seeking the holy ghost and and then start a stammering lips not not speaking fluently in tongues but but their that the tongue would be changing and that's the last i heard it it seemed like the the noise just backed up like he's just turning the volume down on the radio or television and and i totally i totally lost hearing and consciousness of the congregation that was around me now i i'm that's the only time that has ever happened to me when i totally was unconscious i don't know how i got on my feet i was on my knees but when i when i came to myself my tongue was going 90 miles an hour i was talking fluently in some language and i i didn't know what it was and and i was talking and tongue speaking in tongues and dancing on that wooden floor and and i look i i right at that time i said i oh i wish my twin brother had this and i looked he never made a start in his life bobby never tried to live for the lord up to that time in fact he was satan's advocate to try to get me to backslide and he would get me out with other boys and try to get me to say things i shouldn't say and when i didn't they'd call me and and i i i'd take off running home sometime crying because maybe i act like a when they call me one but anyway i thought lo i wish my twin brother had this and when i opened my eyes he was over about about uh five or ten feet from me and he was talking and talking wishing i had it and then when we realized we both had the holy ghost we had a reunion together but that was such a and what i'm saying is to you uh joy i embrace joy that was joy that night and and i embraced you i refused to embrace uh sadness i'm not a preacher that gets and that talks about some bad things sad thing i know the in the last days period of time i know that but there's 10 commandments but there's 10 000 promises in that bible and the bible said daily he loadeth me with bless did you hear what i just quoted daily he loadeth me with blessings now not every now and then not once in a great while not when an evangelist comes to town not when there's a revival on but daily he every day when i open my eyes i want to embrace the joy of the lord and you can do that if you start thinking about all the good things of god you've got so many things it was brother brother louis harris said count all your good days and and if you just count the good days you're going to see they outweigh the bad days all right our focus verses is luke 2 10 and 11. this is taken from the the christmas story and the angel said unto them fear not now i was listening carefully to the message sunday night brother michael maupin and we talked about the the mind and i agree with him totally because that's where the devil starts planting in in in the mine and the angel said to them fear not uh now you normally if you see an angel or you hear an angel now this fear doesn't mean just a a spirit of horror but it's a reverential respect i want you to know i i feel a deep respect you can call it fear or reverential respect when it comes to the dealing with the things of god one time in my life i was driving from johnson city to knoxville all right knoxville was on my way i was i think i was on my way to georgia and it was way before daylight i think i'd left real early back then if if he's going to hold revival 500 miles away or you you start the same day you didn't and you drive all day but i got to pray and i felt the presence of god so strong in that car that i literally turned around and looked in the backseat to see if there was an angel in the car with me i did not see one but the spirit of god was there i i i was rejoicing and i want to tell you something where you can pray and you can seek god until you get the joy of the lord and the and the way you do that go ahead and give the lord a hand clap i have people how do you pray what do you i'll tell you the best way to if you don't know where the bible said we know not what to pray for as we ought but the spirit maketh intercession forth with groanings which cannot be uttered now if you can't think of anything to pray for and sometimes we've got to enumerate and categorize sin start praising the lord just make love to him just start telling him how great he is how precious and love him and the next thing you know you'll be speaking in tongues you'll you'll slip into that heavenly language because he understands when you love him when you get the joy of the lord down in your soul and your heart you're going to rejoice and well the angel said fear not and there's there's enough for you to fear tonight for behold i bring you good tidings of great joy did you know that the word gospel means good news that's what good news he said don't you be afraid because i bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people now it is good tidings and it's great joy but the world is deathly afraid of it they want the devil wants to erase everything that that pertains to god he won't they want to eliminate the little manger scene on the courtyard he wants to he'd like to take in god retrust off of the money because that is a a dead enemy to what he is after and that is your soul he said fear not for behold i bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people isn't it isn't a tragic thing it's supposed to be to all and could be to all people if they would only let it be if they would only let it be now uh we'll we'll see some of the cruelty and the horrible things before this lesson is over tonight but that's not what his birth meant to bring his birth meant to bring joy to the world and everybody could be instead of the political parties fighting each other and turning the saying the most vile ugly hateful uh terrible things about one another the lord wants us to love one another the bible even says speak evil of no man god don't want you criticizing anybody and he don't want anybody criticizing you the coming of jesus meant to bring joy to the whole world and it will one day it's not finished yet but at this present time they're missing the point for unto you to you and i i've got a yellow magic marker that i outline that word you for unto you brother jones to you brother wilson to you sister bring the parrot to you to billy mccool to you to you to you says is born this day in the city of david a savior which is christ the lord oh when he said you that meant me i feel like the two little boys that was gone walking down the street together just young kids and they could read a little bit and and they passed the u.s post office and he looked at that and he said would you look there there's us his post office that's us that's well i want you to know when it said unto you that meant the north the south the east the west the black and white they yelled the great it don't matter who you are until tell the world this christmas is unto you the whole world it's to you this day it's born the savior a savior a savior don't you wish that right now that somebody could come on the scene and say i'm gonna save you from the pandemic now i'm sorry to say this i believe there's a lot of things i don't just believe it i i know it that there's a lot of things brought on this world by our own behavior and we're we're suffering the consequence of sin be not deceived god does not muck whatsoever a man sows that shall they also reap if if you sow johnson grass johnson grass is going to come up whatever you sow that's what's going to come up our lesson text matthew normally we read the christmas story in the book of luke the second chapter but this time it's from the book of matthew the second chapter starting in verse one and when jesus was born in bethlehem of judea in the days of herod the king now i have about i have highlighted that word in the days of herod the king now in the day and the herod was a an appointed king he wasn't a real king like you think of him they were under the dominion of rome and rome allowed him to be king and he had tremendous power and he was known for his uh great powers in in war but also he was known for his inhuman cruelty to others now now this was that was in the days of herod you may think that you're living under a a bad political system if your particular part is not in power but there's no one man that can say i want the the the national guard and i want the army to go out and everybody everybody that's got a baby that's under two years old i want you to kill them nobody has that kind of authority you don't even hear of that in some of the the tyrannical uh countries around the world but he had that kind of power but in the days have heard the king behold there came wise men from the east to jerusalem wise men from they came they didn't come because of herod the king they didn't come on expedition to uh see how they could fare financially but they came because they were was and they had recognized that something was taking place i want to tell you this now they were not magicians in those days there were wise men called wise that were so-called magicians but these men uh were either a priest or religious men believing the prophecy believing the bible but they were wise you know we need more wise men today in the uh the book of romans it said professing themselves to be wise they became fools now you you stop and think about this for just a minute these were wise but truly wise men some of the wisest men supposed to be on planet earth uh i'm not i'm trying to be careful not to be political but as uh pastor mark says i'm not uh i'm not even politically interested concerned politically concerned but the the secretary of of uh travel i forget the the what office he they call it i was appointed by the president he had to take off from his job of maternity leave him and his wife was a man two men married they adopted twins two and they they called him a try had took office now and yet they called themselves wise they call them and they've got this term that that lbgq whatever it is and that is uh you know whatever you don't think you are that's what you you can be you know you can think you're a girl if you're a boy and you if vice versa whatever you want to claim to be now i you know now of course here i go stuttering because the devils put us in on the defense and we're afraid to preach against us foolishness such ignorance such ungodliness but that's exactly what it is that's exactly what it is paul said something does not nature itself teach you now if nature don't teach you that a man's a man and a woman's a woman you ain't get you hadn't been told anything are you with me now what they you're not very wise you're not now years ago they used to call a boy that's a little bit on the feminist side says you know a girl called her a tomboy but that was a common thing that happened and i don't know and i can't explain i'm not going to pronounce any judgment on anybody but i want to tell you one thing if if our schools don't know any better than to let a let a boy dress up like a girl and race against girls and give him a trophy uh you talk about ignorance you talk about uh what's a pretty what's a good clinically clean uh word that i can use that's stupid would that be it but anyway but these were why this world is not wise this this world is so unwise and and that more and more and more spending their time going against nature and this is a sad thing indeed and i'm i told myself and teaching this lesson please say sweet and kind and don't don't get hoarse and stay so you know stay stay nice and and i am trying to stay nice but i want to tell you we're not living in in a wise world we're living in a foolish world the fool saith in his heart there is no god well let me go on there came wise men we need from the east we don't know how where we don't know where in the east we know how far it was but they were wise enough to come seek him the lord was real wise people are looking to find the lord they want to seek the lord you're smart if you want to live for the lord you're wise if you want to seek to if you want to seek not just the baby jesus if you want to seek the jesus that was crucified put in the tomb and rose from the third day and descended to heaven and came back on the day of pentecost as the holy ghost then you're a wise person you may not have it agree with your name but i want you to know your wise lord oh my god i've got 20 verses and i'm on the first verse there came wise men from the east saying where is he that is born king of the jews for we have seen this star in the heaven and the east and will come to worship him let me say this god is going to make a way for you to find him if you want to find the lord he gave them a star to guide them god's going to send somebody your way now i have i don't i have no idea i can't remember how it came about when the lord sent a an old brother and and my grandmother helped in the revival and that little uh school house in charlotte missouri and they they wouldn't have the school to have church but they had church out behind god is going to make a way i do not know for the life of me how two little boys 11 years old son of a sharecropper in the fifth grade you know they didn't have a degree from uh some big college at that time called us to preach them and we didn't have an evangelistic department to promote us but somehow god made us evangelists and we traveled across the country how in the world could an 11 year old boy in the fifth grade who could wind up in knoxville tennessee up uh establishing a church in a christian school and while i may not have gone to college and got by the group i've had the privilege of being able to help send so many to college to see them get their degree and to see a school with holy ghosts filled teachers with degrees that's qualified and i get to sit back and say look what god has done i have been honored on more than one occasion to be offered a doctor's degree i've been been offered to be given an honorary doctorate and i appreciated it so much i do i do appreciate it but i have declined the offer because i am what i am i haven't been and to college but i have been to the school of neology and the old red barn out behind our house for two little uh fifth graders that got filled with the holy ghost and we'd climb the ladder of that hay barn and get down beside a bale of hate and pray until we're talked in tongues and shout all over that barn off and i'm not criticizing education i'm so glad to see and we need it we need it we need it but i want you to know god made a way for two little eleven-year-old boys up to to sing and preach and evangelize give the lord a handclap all i am and all i ever hope to be it's him and while i appreciate the offer for a doctoral degree they said but brother mccool asked i i didn't you're you graduated from the school over they call it lifelong learning and i and and that i that i appreciate i very much i appreciate and you can't live for god and preach and associate with and study as much as i've studied without learning something but i may not have the the certificate to put on the wall i may not have the master's degree i have got the master's degree i don't have a master i but i've got the master's degree and i'll settle for that until to reach the other side saying where is he this born now and again don't you think for one nano second that i'm criticizing or belittling education i i'm one of the the greatest uh uh proponents of of education that's why we've got a christian school there's a battle for the mind and we need to be getting a quality education along with learning the word of god we're talking about being wise now and these they saw us my point was god gave them a way to find him and god's going to find a way for you and your children if you'll just be wise enough to seek him and believe him and they said we're come to worship him when herod the king had heard these things he was troubled in all jerusalem with him now the reason he was troubled in those days any inkling in any hint of competition with the king meant a death penalty so when he heard of a of a king being born and this tells me something else that even king herod knew enough about prophecy he had heard enough of the people that believed the prophecy that he knew something unusual was happening when that talked about a savior being born when king herod heard these things he was troubled and not only was hair trouble all jerusalem was troubled you better believe they were troubled because when herod got trouble when he got angry you don't know what's going to happen and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together he demanded of them where christ should be born he didn't request he demanded because he had a diabolical scheme in his mind to do away with this baby that was prophesied to be king of the jews and his diabolical scheme get the now he gets the the chief priests and scribes together because he knew they knew the scripture they knew more about this than he ever knew but he thought he could get from them the information he needed and he demanded of them where christ should be born and they said unto him in bethlehem of judea how do you know for thus it is written by the prophets thank god we have people today that still believes in the word of god and the words of the prophet you if you if you read the newspaper it'll be like reading and if you read the bible it'll be like reading the newspapers what i meant to say it's it it's already foretold what's going to happen they said in bethlehem of judea for thus it is written by the prophets and thou bethlehem in the land of judah are not the least among the princes of judah for out of these shall come a governor that shall rule my people and that's what herod couldn't stand excuse me let me tell you something be he republican democrat be he communist be he an atheist or what god's word's going to come to pass god's word is going to come to pass i read something a little maybe you shouldn't try to insert anything funny in a such a serious bible lesson but i've read something today that caught my attention that i found it a little bit funny talked about a dilemma of an atheist in heavy traffic behind the car at a red light and the bumper sticker said honk if you love jesus you figure it out yourself and thou bethlehem in the land of judah are not least among the prince of judah for out of these become a governor that shall rule my people you'll chuckle about that as i honk if you love jesus and his car stalled in front of him then herod when he had privately called the wise men inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared and he s and he sent them to bethlehem and said go and search diligently for the young child and when you found him bring me word again that i may come and worship him also what a liar what a diabolical liar he was because he was not intended to worship him at all his idea was to eliminate him as a competitor in the world of politics when they heard the king they departed and lo the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was and when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy now there's something that we may or may not have we probably have wrong in our uh in our uh christmas plays and so forth uh we don't know how long it was they did not find him in a manual that came to a house the bible said in the into a house but that don't matter how long it was or how short how long they were wise enough to search for him and that's a lesson in itself you and i don't need to set any limits on god you don't need to worry about finding him in a manger or in a mansion you don't need to worry about where just find the lord you don't have to worry about whether you're standing praying or seated prayer in the altar kneeling prayer find the lord that's what's important we're not worried about whether it was a manger we do know he was born and laid in a manger we do know what was in the barn we know that but we don't know the time schedule and that don't matter like right now we don't know the time schedule when the trumpet's going to sound and the rapture's going to take place but it don't matter it's going to happen and when it happens the dead and christ shall rise first and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air give the lord a handclap well they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy and when they were come into the house notice that didn't say they went into a stable but that don't matter he was born in a stable and laid in a manger we don't know the time schedule but let me repeat and reiterate the time schedule is not important the fact dan you've heard me quote this a hundred times daniel said the thing was true though the time appointed was long don't put a limit on god say god whatever your time is the bible said in your patience possess you your soul let's wait they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not wage oh hallelujah i don't know when it's going to be but it's going to happen and when they were coming to the house they saw the young child with mary's mother and fell down and worshiped him and when they had opened their treasures they departed they presented unto him gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh when they found the christ child they brought gifts um in the new testament you don't find very many folks able to give gifts of gold and silver but the bible speaks of presenting to the lord the sacrifice of praise and the calves of your lips what he desires of us today is not gold and silver and frankincense and myrrh but he wants our praise he wants our love and being warned of god in a dream that they should not return to herod they departed into their own country another way i i circle that term those two words another way they returned another way another way they they knew not to go back through and expose themselves to herod but they came back another way and that reminded me of the scripture of the potter when the potter was making a vessel and something happened it didn't turn out the way he wanted it to and he crushed the vessel crushed the clay and the bible said it made it into another vessel he made it let me tell you something you we may not be everything god wanted us to be i i i certainly know i'm not i wish i could do more be more and be but when he could not when he was unpleased with that vessel he crushed it and made it into another vessel you you may have been marred your life may have been ransacked and you may have been uh troubled with divorce you may have been troubled with uh backsliding you may have been in trouble with oh you you fill in the blanks you may not have been what you wanted to be in what god but he knows how to take that clay and reshape it and remix it how many would have turned out to be a alcoholic how many of us would have turned out to be a drug addict how many of us would have turned out to to be something unsavory undesirable but the lord crushed us started over started over and made us into another vessel that pleased him god's still doing that today through the miracle of the nativity through the miracle of the coming to earth by jesus christ well i'm i'm hurrying along and when they were departed behold the angel of the lord appeared to joseph in a dream saying arise take the young child and his mother and flee into egypt and be thou there until i bring thee word for herod will seek the young child to destroy him herod is still seeking to destroy the effects of that young child the world's political system the worldly system through its uh through its um trying to find the the right words through its maneuvering through its culture through its system they're trying to destroy effects of that baby child but they're not there's another way god's going to take care of it when he arose he took the young child his mother by night and departed into egypt and was there until the death of herod i want to tell you something you can outlive your problem you can you can outlive herod you can out there's things that paul spoke of a thorn in the flesh but god said my grace is sufficient his strength is made perfect in weakness you may you may have was it was brother michael preached about the nameless child don't let the nameless child define who you are outlive it you may have done wrong you may have a lot of things you may have a lot of things in your past and things that you may not be proud of but that's all right outlive it outlive it there may be things that you're ashamed of there may be things that you you and and i'm not one that likes to dwell on all that but let me tell you something you can outlive here he's going to die because god's going to take that tyrant out of your life that tyrant may be a bad memory of a bad marriage it may be a bad memory of of a bankruptcy maybe a bad bad memory of something bad that's happened to you in your life keep on serving god and his time he's going to make you into a new vessel and you can outlive the herod in your life when he arose took the young child and his mother by night and departed into egypt we're not cowards but god does maneuver us paul one time was let down over a wall in a basket god has ways sometimes sometimes he miraculously moves and sometimes he gives us miraculous movement to let us know how to escape the problem and was there until the death of herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the lord by the prophet saying out of egypt have i called my son then herod when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men now notice the the cruelty the inhuman cruelty of this man the when he saw the and was marked by the wise men was receiving roth and set forth and slew all the children that were in bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men then was fulfilled that which was spoken by jeremy the prophet saying and rhema was their voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not life is going to afford some of us some terrible tears but heaven is going to wipe away all tears from our eyes we'll just stand your feet with us and when herod was dead behold an angel the lord appeared in a dream to joseph in egypt saying arise and take the young child and his mother and go into the land of israel for they are dead which sought a young child's life god we do thank you for your goodness and mercy we're thankful lord that your mercy is going to outlive all the cruelty and the wickedness you're going to let us be victorious your word all tells us your your word of god in that great great champion book the 11th chapter of hebrews tells about all those who fought the fight who were delivered but it also says there were others of whom the world was not worthy god they did not get their deliverance by way of a miracle in this life but they faced death but they were victorious because they closed their eyes on earth and opened them in glory god we who are living for you are going to be victorious one day i pray lord that you will bless us throughout this holiday season this coming weekend may we show our true love to our families let it be a season father for all of us to think on the good things of god and to emphasize and accept and embrace the joy that this season is supposed to bring and not only just for the season but for our entire life dismisses from this place but not from your presence in jesus name we pray amen whatever your protocol is shake hands bump knuckles elbows hug next you're dismissed in jesus name