Let's get down. Let's go to the Gospel of St. Luke, chapter number 2, verse 6 through 12. The Gospel of Saint Luke chapter 2 verse 6 through 12 to our visitors is our custom to stand for the reading of the word. I know you didn't know what was going on they're not leaving. Yeah let's go to work.
Thank you Jesus. I love our church. the service is very interactive you'll get used to it amen and so it was that while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger watch closely because there was no room for them in the end And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not! For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to some people, to church people, oh excuse me, shall be to all people.
That means you can't hold Jesus hostage. That means you cannot deny me Jesus just because you don't like what I have on or what I look like or the color of my skin or the way I talk or the way I walk. He came for all people.
Are you? people then he came for you can you say man give me the next verse for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Glory to God. Take me back to that verse about no room in the inn.
And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room, somebody say no room, for them in the end. Thank you very much. I want to talk about rejoicing in rejection.
Rejoicing. It is easy to rejoice in acceptance. It is easy to rejoice in inclusion.
But I want to talk to you about rejoicing. in rejection and I know that there's not anybody here that's ever been rejected but indulge me while I talk about those other people that have had to deal with rejection let us pray while you're standing spirit of the Living God fall fresh fall so fresh Fall down inside of us. Saturate us. Like the dew falls early in the morning, dampen us with your glory. Prevail over all of the abstract ideologies that would distract us from focusing on you.
And let something linger on us. Even after the service is over, let something linger in our hearts and in our spirit. And I thank you for what you're going to do.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Somebody shout amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Get comfortable. Take your shoes off.
Put you in a fresh Tic Tac. We got some work to do. Rejoicing and rejection hardly seem to be good cellmates in the same narrative.
They seem totally abstract one from the other. Rejoicing and rejection seem like they would not be comrades in the same sentence. And yet my assignment here today has given me the responsibility to talk to you about rejoicing. in rejection it is interesting to note that before the stone that the builders rejected was ever born his life starts with rejection During his earthly experience, he encounters further rejection.
And even when it comes down to a choice between him and a thief named Barabbas, he is further rejected. It is interesting to note that there is a glimpse of his future that starts before his birth. That he would experience a life of rejection. Now to those of you who may not be familiar with the story because you have been so saturated with Santa Claus You don't understand that Santa stole the greatest story that has ever been told.
So let me just rehearse it briefly to you that this young girl, a virgin, who is espoused to a guy named Joseph, the girl is named Mary, has a visitation from an angel that says, Hail Mary, you have been highly favored amongst women, and you shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called Jesus. And she said, wait, bro. We have a problem with this prophecy because I'm a virgin, I know not a man, and I know about the birds and the bees, and I know that babies don't come from cabbage patches, and I haven't known anybody, so I can't be...
And he says, and the Holy Ghost... shall come up on you. The words come up on you remind us of how the spirit hovered over the earth when it birthed it up out of the water and brought it into the world. And that same bruised...
presence of a of a hen over an egg the Holy Ghost shall come upon you and without the assistance of a man you shall bring forth the son and his name shall be called Jesus and he shall save his people from this which was good news but good news always has a backside It always has a backside. Every blessing has a burden. And while people rejoice with you over the blessing or hate you over the blessing, they don't recognize it. the greater the blessing the greater the burden and to get a visitation from an angel is a blessing all by itself and to be picked out of all the women on the world to be the mother of Jesus is a blessing all by itself but the burden is how do I tell Joseph that that that I what had happened was Now, you might not get the full impact of this, but imagine your intendant coming up to you and saying, Yo, I swear, man, look, look, this is not what it looks like.
The Holy Ghost did this to me. And like most men, Joseph has a serious problem with this, and he says, The wedding is off, send back the flowers, unbake the cake, boil the rice. There's not going to be a wedding in this place today. I am giving you a bill of divorcement in that day.
In order to get out of a betrothal, you had to offer up a bill of divorcement because even to intend to get married was a covenant. And he said, I'm going to do it in a dignified way. I'm not going to castigate you or denigrate you or make you look small.
I'm going to do it privately and quietly, but we're done. done through with it and while he was getting ready to do this in a respectful way because no doubt he was shocked and hurt and humiliated and confused and he didn't believe her and there's nothing worse than telling something to someone you love and they don't believe you And he gives her a bill of divorce and prepares to do that, and while he prepares to do that, the angel comes by and says, hey, fear not. That which is within Mary is conceived by the Holy Ghost.
Now, while that gives him some assurance and some confidence, whenever you're the first to experience something, that is a burden. Because you believe it, you believe it, you know, but you don't believe it. You struggle with it. And how do you explain that to your groomsmen and your friends? neighbors, the nosy neighbors next door.
No, no, no, no, that was the Holy Ghost. It's not what it looks like. And he has the burden of walking with her with grace while she is surrounded by disgrace. And when I look at this, I must confess, I look at it from Joseph's perspective to a degree, only because I have preached it from every other perspective in the world.
And he has this... burden of handling this situation and so he's trying to move her to a safe place to give birth away from the scrutiny of the people around him in a place where he can protect what God has provided because if God provides something and you don't have a strategy to protect it you could lose it to him how much is given Much is required. And so since he has submitted to the will of God, I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to think that when God has given me something to do, that he's going to help me do it.
Nilos are up on a donkey and they start traveling and I always wondered I want to talk about Mary for a moment I always wondered what it would like what it would be like to be pregnant on the donkey I wonder in my mind how highly favorite she felt straddled a donkey with her stomach swollen and the baby dropping down into her lower extremities I wonder she felt highly favored and it makes me think that it is possible to be favored and not feel it you know And I only say that because there are some people in this room that don't feel highly favored because they're looking at their circumstances and they're looking at their problems, but they're not looking at their promise and you have caught them in a season of... their life where they're dealing with controversy and adversity and they don't feel highly favored. There are people in this room that it's a Christmas season, but they really don't feel much Christmas joy because of circumstances that have... have come upon them and what if you look at life in slices and not the whole pie you can become bitter and not better because temporarily you don't feel blessed you feel burdened and I wonder I've never been pregnant so I gotta guess at this but it doesn't sound like it would be a comfortable experience for a pregnant woman I've seen them try to struggle to get up and down off the couch it seems like it'd be kind of tough to be in the third trimester of your pregnancy you straddle the donkey accompanied by a husband who is trying to understand.
Lord, Hammers. I don't know whether to groan for Mary or groan for Joseph. I groan for her physically, I groan for him emotionally, because respectfully, sisters, with all due respect, you can be hard to understand anyway.
And when you add pregnant by the Holy Ghost and riding on a donkey, it really stretches a brother's capacity to be able to connect with you. So my heart bleeds for Mary, but I almost cry for Joseph to have to take that ride with a woman. In the third trimester of pregnancy, straddle the donkey, getting ready to have a baby for God that I cannot see. But she is pregnant in a way that I can see. And I don't see God traveling with her.
He overshadowed her, but I don't see him walking her through the process, and now Joseph has to walk her through a process that he didn't start on his own. Have you ever had to handle something that you didn't start yourself, but it fell on you to be the steward of a situation that you did not author or authenticate or validate, but yet you have to handle it? It seems like to me it is a long journey. A few days ago I did a ministry with the men. And we had an incredible time, over a thousand men came together and we talked about a lot of things.
I won't share them all here, but it was powerful and it was significant. One of the things I didn't get to talk about is... One of the attributes or liabilities, depending on how you look at it, that comes with being a man is we are fixers.
If you give me a problem, my first reaction to the problem is to solve it. It took me maybe 15 years into my marriage to figure out that you're not talking to us for solutions. We don't even have to be smart at all. All we have to do is grunt at the appropriate places and say, Shut your mouth.
Get out of here. No she didn't. She know better than that. We don't really have to come up with anything smart or bright.
We have to listen. But ladies, you have to understand that we are by nature fixers and it is frustrating to see you crying about something. Oh, I ought to have some brothers backing me up in here. If you're gonna come home crying about it, let's fix this thing so we can get some dinner up in here. I thought the brothers would back me up and say, y'all are white sides and y'all gonna let me bear the cross alone and all the world go free.
And we are fixing up, it is our inclination to solve problems and we are happy when we're fixing stuff. Whether it's cars or houses or steps or contracts or negotiations, we love to fix stuff, solve problems, see results and get the job done. Like a good man should.
We're gonna fix this up in here today. I'm gonna straighten this out. And maybe it's hard for you ladies to understand where we're coming from, but it shouldn't be because you have a little bit of that too. Especially those of you women who date men who are fixer-uppers.
And a man who has already accomplished and established and got it together, he's nice but you really don't like him, you like a project. And you go home and tell your mama, you just don't understand. He just never had a chance. He never had anybody who really believed in him. But you're going to see the greatness come out.
Y'all ought to understand why we're like that. Because we're like that about life, but you're like that about us. I just thought I'd give you something to think about.
Think of the women that avoid men who are whole financially, spiritually, and emotionally. Subconsciously, they are more attracted to fixer-uppers in part because they feel needed. Makes them important.
They get to be needed. They get to be mama. They get to be Wonder Woman. You all understand this a little bit because some of you are like that. But many times it ends in rejection.
You can't change a person until they want to be changed. I'm preaching way better than you shout. I said, you can't change a person until they want to be changed. But my heart goes out to the text because when I go to the text I bring my son self to the text.
I bring my father self to the text. I bring my maleness to the text. I bring my preacher to the text. I bring my culture and my ethnicity to the text. All of me comes and dives on the text together, and so I'm walking beside a woman in the third trimester of pregnancy who's craving and crying and complaining.
And I had promised God I would do this. But I thought that if he called me to do it, he would help me. What do you do when God calls you to do something, sends you to a place, and says nothing?
He, you understand, he who gives the promise says nothing in the process. And I would have thought that if you promised it to me, you would process it with me. But now, she's in the third trimester of pregnancy and her water's about to break.
And I'm running out of time. And she's craving and she's hurting and she's cramping and she's crying. And we are walking. A couple of blocks would have been okay. I'm good for a couple of blocks.
I might even put in a half a mile if we got to do it. You know, how far can you go without God saying anything? How far are you willing to walk on what he last told you?
Sometimes I have problems with my GPS because it doesn't talk enough. I want you to tell me you're doing good. You got this.
You're not lost. You're headed in the right direction. I want some affirmation. I want some confirmation. I want some reassurance.
But I don't hear where God said anything. Not for half a mile. Not for a mile. It was a 90-mile journey. 90 miles!
In a car is an hour and a half, but on a donkey is seven days! How far will your faith last? How long will you be inconvenienced? How long will you wait on the house? How long will you wait on your son to get out of jail?
How long will you deal with the adversity of a mother-in-law who's here for the holiday and you know, she don't like you How long? How long can you respond with good Christian ethics when you see no sign of God in your circumstances and and you're crying and you're cramping on a donkey for 90 miles and seven days. God said nothing at all.
I know how to walk with God when he's talking. I know how to walk with God when he's showing up like an angel. presence and invading my space with supernatural affirmation.
I got you dog. I will fight a gorilla if he got me like that. Yeah, put me in the ring. The Lord is on my side. But the real test of faith is not when God is talking.
The real test of faith is when God is saying nothing. And the only thing that's talking is what's wrong in my life. And when I read this text, I can imagine that Joseph is just a little bit ticked with God. I didn't even want to do this, and you told me to do this. And I'm out here on this road, and I'm walking, and I've been walking for days, and it's cold.
And it's dark, there's no street lights, there's no gas stations, there's no stores open. It's pitch black at night, and I'm walking at night with the woman that I love so much that I would marry her pregnant with a child that's not mine. And my love, the love that makes me love her, is also the love that torments me. Don't you see her crying, and cramping, and craving, and complaining?
And I can't fix this, because we're not there yet. I want to talk to people that are not there yet. I'm tired of talking to people who are already there.
I want to talk to people who are not there yet. And you don't know how far you're going to have to go before you... get there, but you're hoping that this new year will be better than the-Where are you?
Where are you? Is there anybody in here that's believing 2020 has got to be better than 2019? Though the vision tarry, I will wait on it.
And though the cramps continue, I will wait on it. And though the night is pervasive, I will wait on it. And though the shadows are all around it, I will wait on it. And though the wolves surround us, I will wait on it.
In the end, the vision will speak. And not lie, but for right now, the test of my faith is to keep on walking. Touch a neighbor and say, keep on walking. Sometimes when you don't know what to do and you don't know what to say and you don't know how long it's gonna be, all you can do to express your faith is not dance, is not shout, is not talking talk, real faith will just keep on walking.
Good God, amen. Somebody needs encouragement for Christmas. Somebody needs encouragement because right now, you're straddling a donkey, and the conditions are not right, and they're not conducive for what you're trying to burn, and you got to keep on touching them and say, just keep on walking.
I don't know where the money's gonna come from, but keep on walking. I don't know when the problem's gonna get fixed, but keep on walking. I don't know when the student debt's gonna be paid off, but I wish I had some real...
People in the room, y'all feel kind of bougie to me this morning, but I wish I had some real people who were straddled, a donkey right now. I'm stretched between this and that. Have you ever been stretched?
And he keeps trying to do like I try to do is encourage myself. There's a hotel down the road and if we can just make it to the hotel. Hotel, everything is gonna be all right. Hold on baby, I know it's tough, but we're just two days away.
And if we hold out a little while longer, it's gonna be alright. It's gonna be alright. Don't you faint on me now.
Don't you doubt here in the middle of the road trying to have this baby. It's gonna be alright. I think we're about a day and a half from an answer to the problem.
Have you ever put a date on an answer that didn't happen? I mean something you needed. I'm not talking about a cute dress you saw at the mall. I mean something you really need. Because ready or not, this baby's gonna come.
Make it to the end or not, this baby's gonna come. Make it to the answer or not, this bill is going to come. This eviction is going to come.
We got to move by the 31st. This job is closing. This position is moving.
Have you ever had time not be your friend? See, see, see, see, some of us understand what I'm saying when I say I'm running out of time. I'm normally a polite person, but excuse me, I'm running out of time. Don't bring me no foolishness right now because I'm running out of time. I don't have time to play games with you.
Don't call me with no... I could have took it last month, but this is the wrong month to call me acting a fool. Not acting, acting. Don't you see her crying and cramping and complaining? My manhood is on the line.
That's the way we feel. When you got a problem and we can't fix it, we feel like our manhood is on the line. Because I ought to be able to fix this, I can't fix this. And I'm running out of time.
But just over the hill, after they made it seven days and ninety miles, by themselves in the dark and in the night and in the cold, against the animals, against the adversities of nature itself, After seven days, they finally made it to the end. Oh, baby, I told you we was going to get there. You know how we do. I told you. Didn't I tell you?
Didn't I tell you? What's my name? Didn't I tell you that no way?
weapon formed again, didn't I tell you that if the Lord before you, he's born, didn't I tell you that? I got a feeling that everything is gonna, I can see the end. The only problem was... When he tied the donkey to the post and said, wait right here while I handle the business, and he ran to the end and knocked on the door, they told him, well, I have no room for you.
Have you ever put all your hopes on something, and when you finally got to the something, you had to fight to get to? This is the moment where his hopes fell like Niagara Falls. This is the moment when his heart sank down into the cellar of his stomach. This is the moment where all of his confidence dissipates.
This is the moment where he is hurt and angry, because angry is what we get when we get hurt. This is a moment that he faces the rejection of a lifetime. I just want to talk to people who have been rejected.
Because all of you who have been accepted, you will understand this message. Come back next Sunday, I'll preach something for you. This Sunday, I want to talk to the people who know what I mean when I talk about your heart fall.
into your stomach because it's one thing to be rejected by something that's optional but I really needed this. What do you do when you really need a blessing? And you really needed the job and you really needed that companion and you really needed some help and you really needed some love and you really needed somebody to stay. I mean needed it.
I don't mean wanted it. I mean, look, God, I'm trying to believe you, but wait a minute here. I'm in a crisis situation.
I don't have time for you to teach me no lesson. Sunday school is over. I need a breakthrough right now.
I'll learn less in the church, but right now I need a breakthrough. Is there anybody in here that needs us? God help the innkeeper that tells me you don't have room, you don't have what? You mean to tell me after 90 miles and 7 days that I finally got there and now you, what do you mean you don't have room for me?
How you handle rejection determines whether you will be successful in life. Rejection, the point of rejection, is the place where faith is proven. Oh, y'all got quiet now. Y'all were shouting with me pretty good, but I lost you. Rejection is the magnometer that you must go through to prove that you can take the flight that God's about to put you on until you master your ability to cope with no.
He who would be defined by rejection is rejected before he is ever born. The rejection is almost prophetic of the whole Christology experience of who he is. He would spend a lifetime of being rejected.
He would spend a lifetime of coming to his own and his own people not receiving him. He would spend a lifetime of being rejected by many of the disciples that he poured into. He would spend a lifetime of being rejected. That's how he ended up on the cross.
He would spend a lifetime of rejection. I can't take no more rejection. Do you know what rejection does to self-esteem? Do you know what rejection does?
Does anybody in here know what rejection does to self-esteem? Do you understand how personal this is? How do I go back out there and tell her that I didn't get the job, that they called me for the interview, and they picked somebody else?
How do I tell her that they repossessed a car and I had to get a ride home with a friend? How do I get myself to come home and tell my kids we don't have no Christmas? I want to talk to people who understand something about... Something about rejection, what, not just rejection, you must go deeper than the act of rejection. It is the consequences of rejection that I'm talking about.
I'm talking about what happens in your stomach. I'm talking about the taste of bowel in your mouth that comes out of your liver. Because it's not just that the door is closed, the closing of the door says you ain't no man. You ain't no man.
You ain't nothing. You ain't nothing. This just confirms it, this settles it. You done brought her out here, now she know you ain't nothing.
And this is a crisis. And it brings up every negative thing that has ever been said about you in your whole life. All of them rehearse themselves as you walk back to the donkey trying to figure out how you're going to explain to her that your best plan didn't work.
And she's crying and cramping and craving. And any minute her water will break and all I have for you It's rejection. Let me take a poll in here. How many people in this room have ever been rejected? I just want to make sure that I'm talking to the right people because there's no need in me trying to explain something that you haven't experienced because I am not articulate enough to enunciate those things that happen to the soul when you are rejected.
Rejected by a lover, rejected by a father, rejected by a mother, rejected by a family, rejected by a job, rejected by a boyfriend, rejected by a girlfriend, rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected from... the sorority, rejected from the fraternity, rejected from the inner circle, rejected in your own office, rejected in your own neighborhood, rejected in your own school. I want to talk to some people that know what it feels like. I'm not talking about rejection, but what it feels like.
There is a disorder called rejection-sensitive dysphoria. Rejective, sensitive, dysphoria. RISD comes to people that rejection has an extreme reaction for.
They cannot handle it well. RSD comes in your life. It is rejection sensitive.
All of us hate rejection, but some of us freak. We are rejection sensitive. We are traumatized by rejection. Rejection does stuff to us.
After it walks away, it fondles us, it plays with us, it talks, it teases us, it suggests that we, not that it did. work but that we don't work and that we aren't anything and that we aren't any good and rejection sensitive dysphoria it was years before there was a name for it now we have a name for it I want to talk to people who wither inside the time dysphoria comes from a Greek word to mean unbearable because the pain It'll make you go in the house and not come out. Rejection-sensitive dysphoria will make you procrastinate from trying for fear of rejection.
You would rather not know that you could lose than to risk having this feeling again. Rejection-sensitive dysphoria comes in the lives of people. They do well for a while, but then something happens and triggers it.
And when that triggers in them, they go into this painful, dark, dank, angry place. Where you don't hear, I don't like your dress, you hear, you're ugly and you're stupid and you are nothing and you're never going to be anything. Rejection, sensitive dysphoria makes the rejection sound louder to you.
And the pain and the consequences of the pain, the torment, they say, is so intense that they called it dysphoria because some people commit suicide. Because the pain is absolutely unbearable and nobody understands the dark place I get into where I go in my room and I don't come out and I don't care what I put on or if I brush my teeth or comb my hair because I have rejection sensitive dysphoria. Because when you reject me, it's not just that the deal didn't work. It makes me feel like I don't work and that I am nothing and that my life is a failure.
And everything else that I did that was positive was fraudulent. I thought I had beat it but then something happened and it triggers again and I have an unusual reaction to rejection because I have rejection sensitive to for you but I had no name for it and if you're married to somebody who has it anytime they face rejection they freaked because they have rejection sensitive dysphoria and the place they go into is so painful but Part of the pain is the inability to articulate the feeling. And everybody says you should just get over it.
It's not that big a deal. You should be okay. That's not that big a deal. Get up, get up. If it wants you to don't succeed, try, try again.
And you're sitting in prison. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. I can't try again because I can't risk going back to that place, that dark place.
It's more than a closed door. It's a closed me. There was an old song they used to sing, someone left my cake out in the rain and I don't think that I can take it because it took too long to bake it and I may not ever have the recipe again.
A lot of times I won't even try. A lot of times I will procrastinate on opportunities i am so afraid of rejection that i won't ask you i won't approach you i won't talk to you and and i am getting older and i am locked in a prison of Rejection, sensitive, dysphoria. And thank you Bishop because you just gave me a name. For a feeling I could not even explain.
And I tried to make the people closest to me understand what rejection does to me. rejection stops me freezes me isolates me darkens me shuts my lights out and I don't even know how to explain what I wrestle with in my silence about me not about the opportunity it is what the rejection makes me feel About me. Is there anybody in here who understands what I'm talking about? That when you face rejection, every other rejection you ever had in your life sings a concert. And the music is so loud. And what attracted me to the text.
It's not the door that opens, it's the door that close. And the reason I'm attracted to the door that close is that you will never find your open door till you can manage. Until... Until you can see rejection and not take it personal, because after all, it's not about we don't like you, it is that somebody got there before you, and there is no room in the end.
So why are you freaking out? Like you are not valuable. I would have took your money, but there is no room in the end. But when you are rejection sensitive dysphoria, it's not about practicality.
It's about how you rationalize rejection. Oh, can I talk to you today? And so I feel unwanted and not valuable.
can't rationalize the fact that you only had seven rooms and you got 14 guests in them and there just wasn't any room in the end i wanted to talk to you about rejection because christmas brings rejection up loud as you turn on your tv and everybody's laying on a bare rug in front of a fireplace sipping some chablis and you in the house with your dog Rejection screams the loudest when you're supposed to be happy but you can't be happy because your daughter don't even like you. And every time you go in the mall and you see mothers and daughters shopping, a dagger goes right in your chest because I was the best mama I knew how to be. She don't even like me. Oh, you see those kids running there, talking about how good their mama was. But your mama wasn't.
And the holidays are not great for you because there's no room at the end. In fact, you didn't get invited to the party and they purposely avoided inviting you to things that you should have been a part of. And you were left home to wrestle with rejection.
Wonder what they're doing. Wonder what they're doing right now. Wonder what they're cooking.
Wonder who's there. Wonder who's laughing. Wonder who's holding him.
Wonder. Rejection, sensitive, dysphoria is not about the doors that open. It's about the door that closed.
And what it made me feel about me. Mary, we gotta get back on this donkey and find something that I don't even know what it's gonna be. I don't even know where. I don't know because my life as I imagined it has fallen apart and anytime what you imagine falls apart we are watching the death of a vision while we are watching the birth of a child have you ever had death and birth cohabitate in your life at the same time. On one hand, something is being born, and at the same time, you ought to at least separate the experience.
Because now I'm emotionally schizophrenic. I ought to be happy about the baby, but I'm mad. I'm mad about the rejection, and I'm mad, and I'm mad at the innkeeper. I'm mad right now at the innkeeper because anger is the only feeling that men get permission to feel. So rather than the burst in the tears we get mad I'm mad at the innkeeper and the truth is I'm mad at God because when I started this I expected you to help me this is your wish and you would think if I was doing God's will he would help me what do you know when you're doing God's will and you can't get God's help what do you do when God told you to do it and the door closes in your face can I preach this Christmas message Mary get back on the horse, get back on the donkey.
We got to keep on riding and we're riding into the abyss of not knowing because I'm out of ideas and I'm out of plans and I'm out of tricks. We got to keep on riding and I'm a walk right beside you but I don't know where I'm going but I tell you what devil I'm gonna keep on. I wish I had some strong-willed people that's been through some stuff and you say I tell you what devil I don't know where I'm going but I'm gonna Touch three people and say keep on walking keep on walking Walk when you don't know where you're going.
Walk when you don't see your way clear. Walk when your heart is broken. Walk when you're under distress. Walk when you run out of money.
Walk when your friends betray you. Walk when they lie on you. Walk when what you imagine doesn't happen.
Just keep on walking! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel some faith in this room. I feel a little bit of faith stirring in this room. Touch your neighbor and say, I know something is going to happen.
I know something is going to happen. I don't believe that he brought me this far to leave me. I don't believe I walked seven days and 90 miles to die on the side of the road. I just believe that something is going to work in my favor.
I don't know where. I don't know when. I don't know who.
But something is... I may have, I may have rejection sensitive dysphoria, but I'm gonna keep on walking with it. I may be crying, but I'm gonna keep on walking. I may be hurting, but I'm gonna keep on walking.
I don't know how long I'm gonna have to walk. I don't care if it's another seven days and another 90 miles. I've come too far to turn around.
Oh! My God, this is where the story gets good, because he stumbled up on something. Hit your neighbor and say, this is your season to stumble up on something.
It's not what you planned, but it's what God has in store for you. You're going to stumble up on something. I need 30 seconds of praise.
I feel like I'm confirming a word in somebody's life. You already got a feeling that you gonna stumble up on something. I'll give you 10 more seconds to give God a...
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey.
Get your faith out and slap your neighbor and say something is about to happen. It may not look like what you thought it was gonna look like. It may not be who you thought it was gonna be.
It may not be where you thought it was gonna be, but something is about to happen. All my people that got vision, look at somebody and say, I see something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not there yet, but I see something.
I haven't checked it out yet, but I see something. Is there anybody in here that sees something? The reason I'm excited about 2020 is because I...
I see something. Oh, and if I was going to die, I could have died seven days ago. But devil, it's too late to kill me because I see.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like I'm talking to somebody. I don't even know who it is. But somebody who's been through a series of rejection, the Holy Ghost said, God's got something for you.
Touch seven people and tell them I see something. It's been a long journey, but I see something. It's been a tough process, but I see something.
I had to cry, but I see something. I've been in pain, but I see something. I've been in labor, but I see something.
I've been crapping, but I see something. I've been craving, but I see something. Oh my God, I see something.
Excuse me a minute, I gotta praise him for myself. Cuz I see something. I see something. Death, you should have got me when you had a chance. Cuz I see something.
Watch this, watch this. Give me, give me, give me seven minutes. Sit down. Give me seven minutes.
Give me seven minutes. But, but I see something. I can't go because I see something.
I can't shut it off because I see something. You can't leave because I see something. I see something that's about to break through. What I thought was going to happen didn't happen.
But I see something. I feel like I'm talking to somebody prophetically. And so the Bible says that Joseph got married back on the donkey and they and they started going to God knows where to get God knows what from God knows who and while they were traveling they saw something it wasn't what they had in mind it wasn't no end it didn't have no elevator Yeah. Wasn't no New York Times at the door.
No room service, but they saw something. See, sometimes you got to bring your loftiness down to reality. Because what you had in mind may not be what God had in mind.
But God wouldn't have brought you out here if he didn't have a place for you. I see something. Watch this, y'all. Come on, come on. He stumbled up.
Oh no, it was kind of like a barn, but it was something. It was something. And the Bible says that there were shepherds out in the field, keeping the sheep safe. So it was safe. Safe enough.
Watch it, this is a powerful thing. What I'm about to say is a powerful thing, especially if you have rejection issues. Safe enough to be vulnerable.
See it's hard to be vulnerable if you don't feel safe. So they found a place. It wasn't elegant, it wasn't fancy. No nice beds or nothing like that.
But it was safe enough to be vulnerable, to go into the birth position. You can't have a baby and be running. So, baby, I know it's not fancy, and there's no room service, and nothing like that, but it's safe enough to be vulnerable. And they brought him into this old barn.
And Mary is in the barn, and there are three things in the barn. The manger, the milk rags, and the men that watched. In the barn, there is a manger. And the word manger comes from a Latin word that means to chew.
It was a trough for feeding animals. But they said the baby will fit nicely in here. So the manger became a cradle.
Now, the cradle was really a trough, but Jesus is the bread of life. And later he would say, unless you drink my blood and eat my flesh, you should have no part with me. And when she birthed him, dinner was served. And so they... They laid him, Husha, they laid him, they laid him in the manger.
And I know you don't think it was appropriate, but it was appropriate if you understand that he called himself a grain of wheat. and wheat was what they fed to the animals. And wheat is what makes bread, and he became the bread of life, and they laid him in a trough, because God would say, come and dine. The master called him, come and dine, and they laid him.
In a manger, and I know this isn't the way you would like for it to be, but the Bible says she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and swaddling clothes are milk rags. They're the rags that when you milk a cow and you have some spilt milk, those are swaddling clothes. They're milk rags, but we'll wrap him up in milk rags, and they didn't know they were wrapping the sincere milk of the word.
And so they had milk against milk. Yeah, yeah. They didn't know that they were wrapping the breasted one in milk rags. And they wrapped him in swaddling clothes and they laid him in the manger. But I want to talk about the men that watch because I never paid attention to the men that watch.
I always knew the story, but and I knew that they were shepherds watching the sheep. And then I realized that Jesus is the Lamb of God. And now I understand why they had the shepherds there.
Because they were about to birth the Lamb of God, and Mary thought she was carrying a man, but the man was a lamb, and the lamb was a man, and the shepherds ought to be watching because she was about to have God's little lamb, and he didn't need to be in the inn, he needed to be in the barn because he is the Lamb of God. Shout hallelujah somebody. Shout a hallelujah somebody!
Shout a hallelujah somebody! Shout a hallelujah somebody! And now I realize that what Joseph had planned was never what God had planned. I'm gonna preach this in a minute. The reason I'm preaching about rejoicing in rejection is that any time you face rejection, it's a sign of direction.
Anybody can shout when God opens the door, but you ought to shout. When God shuts the door, because anytime God shuts the door, he says, not here, not here, not here, not here. I got a place for you. Come on, somebody, 30 seconds of praise right now.
Just 30 seconds of praise. I feel a shift in the atmosphere. I feel a shift in the atmosphere. I feel a shift in the atmosphere. Slap your neighbor and say, I'm in the right place.
Take the uppercase, I'm in the right place. I'm in the right place. I'm gonna stay right here and wait on the Lord.
He may not come. I've got one more thing to tell you. All while they were traveling the 90 miles and the seven days, God had sent a word to the wise men that said, go till you see a child.
Laying in a manger. If he'd have been laying in an inn, he'd have missed his blessing. The Bible said that the wise men had frankincense, myrrh, and...
and I don't know who I'm preaching to, but if you had not been rejected, you'd have missed your blessing because the blessing isn't coming to your hotel. The blessing is coming to the barn. And while they were in the manger, here come the wise men. They got there on donkeys, but the wise men rode in on camels.
And the Lord told me to tell you, the camels are coming. The camels are coming! The camels are coming! Slap your neighbor and tell them the camels are coming! Get ready for 2020!
Get ready for God to open up the windows! And the only thing, the only thing that matters... The only thing that matters is that I'm rejected enough to be in the place where the camels are coming.
And if God would have cared about my comfort, I'd have missed my camels. Because my camels are not coming to my comfort. The camels are coming to my crisis. And if he were not in the barn, the wise men would have been waiting in a place that he missed. And so we rejoice.
And again I say we rejoice in rejection. I don't know who in this room has been dealing with rejection. Dysphoria, I don't know who in this room has been in pain about what you lost or who left you or who said no or what rejected you or the job you didn't get or the house you lost or the car that went or the daughter that's gone or the son that is in jail or whatever your rejection is. And I know what I'm asking you to do is hard, but I'm not asking you to do nothing that God didn't tell me to ask you to do.
The Lord said, when you get through preaching, I want the people who have been through the most rejection to find a way to give me the highest praise. Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Praise him, like your camels are coming.
Praise him, let everything that have breath. Yeah! Yeah!
Tell your neighbor, my camels are coming! My camels are coming! My camels are coming!
You can't make me doubt it! Yes! Yes! Yes!
My camels are coming! My camels are coming! My camels are coming! To every person who...
ever rejected me, thank you. Thank you for leaving me. Thank you for betraying me. Thank you for lying on me.
Thank you for hurting me. Because my camels are coming, I want God to praise. Join hands with somebody, leave no one untouched.
Stand on your feet if you're able. First, I want to call you out. Of your rejection dysphoria, I want to call you out of the vicious cycle that keeps coming up in your life, suggesting that you aren't nobody and you don't have what it takes and you can't do it.
I want to call you away from fighting ghosts out of your past. I want to call you out of your yesterdays into your tomorrows. I want to call you out of your fear into your faith. I want to call you out of your struggle into your success. I want to call you out of your...
brooding mood swings, your depressions, your disorders, your anxieties, your traumas, your fears, your uncertainty, your grief syndrome, your depression. Rejection, my sister. Rejection, my brother. It's God's way of direction. It was good.
It was good they rejected you. It was good you didn't get the job. It was good the door didn't open. It was good that it didn't happen the way you imagined it. Because your camels were never called to the end.
And if you would have got to the end... You wouldn't have got your camels. Hear this.
You who have always wanted to fit in, this is your last day of trying to get in. Your camels are not coming to the inn. If you had not been rejected, you wouldn't have found here.
Squeeze that hand. It's hard to believe when you're sitting on a donkey, cramping and crying and craving. That on the other side of your life the camels are loaded down with frankincense and myrrh and gold but squeeze that hand until the person that you're holding knows that your camels are coming. And according to Ephesians 1 and 9, he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. And so God is working all things after the counsel of his own will.
And if what you had in mind would have worked, you wouldn't have been in the right place at the right time to receive what God is about to do in your life. And I know I should have preached some little nice Christmas message, you know, after traditional fashion, but God gave me a ministering word of impartation. God said the next time you feel the way you feel when you are rejected, drop everything and start praising him.
Yeah, right in the middle of the rejection, rejoice. Rejoice until the Spirit of the Lord comes in. Rejoice until depression cannot hold you. Rejoice until you stay out of that dark place. Rejoice so that you don't walk in anger and bitterness.
If you rejoice, the enemy will flee away from you. Resist the devil! Squeeze that hand.
I want to pray that you can believe, that you can receive, that you can conceive. Everything that we will ever know about Jesus starts in that barn. He is the bread of life. He is the milk of the word.
He is the lamb of God. Everything that we will ever learn about Jesus is in that barn. He humbled himself to be born in a barn.
But the camels come with gifts. Not to a lamb, but to a king. Not to peasants, but to royalty. And you might not feel like a king in a barn right now, but when them camels get there...
They're going to see who you are. I don't know whether you can receive this word, but I received this word for myself. I want to usher in my camels. I believe that my blessing has already been in route.
I believe that the delivery is in process. I believe that when Mary's water broke and she was delivering Jesus, the camels were delivering the gold at the same time. I believe that mercy and truth meet together. righteousness and peace kiss each other.
I believe that destiny and agony collide in one spot until everything that I have suffered is swallowed up in everything that I've succeeded. I believe that this is more than a Christmas story. I believe that this is a prophetic word.
I believe that this speaks to the heart of somebody's next business decision. I believe that this speaks to somebody's marriage and somebody's ministry and somebody's order. That if you could just humble down to a barn, God would exalt you like a king. Squeeze that hand. For some folks it's hard to be humble.
Some folks would have stood there and fought with the innkeeper and missed the camels. Some people would have walked past the barn because they think too highly of themselves. But he which was high became low for us, that through his poverty we might be made rich. Squeeze that hand. Is your pride blocking your blessing?
Is your stubborn commitment to the way you have always done things stopping you from getting to your predestined destination? Are you too cute to be born in a barn? Are you so worried about what people think about you?
That you won't come to the barn where God is holding your next blessing. Because what would they say and how would it look and what would they think about me to see somebody like me hanging out in a barn? Your pride is poisoning your prophecy.
Your arrogance has created its own agony. And if the one you worship could be birthed in a barn, then why are you walking around with your chest stuck out? Squeeze that hand because most of the agonies we carry are a result of our arrogance.
I'm not gonna apologize until it wasn't my fault and shut up minute and get down in this barn. Get down in this barn. Get on this birthing stool, girl.
Squat right in this barn. Get down in this barn because something is going to happen in this barn. If you can come down, you can go up.
Father, I've spoken many things over your people today. And as we prepare to celebrate the greatest gift we ever got, I thank you for the power of the message he taught while he was delivering the gift. The kings and princes don't need palaces and castles to be mighty and great.
That real greatness can be birthed in a barn. To every person in this room, Lord, who's been stuck in a phobia, dysfunctional, about rejection, who thought nobody understood them and nobody heard them, let this be the balm in Gilead. Let it heal, let it touch, let it deliver. In fact, Lord, I want you to give them deliverance for Christmas. The people who have secret agony that nobody sees.
The people who lay in the bed at night with tears falling across the bridge of their nose into a pillow that won't tell. The people who are carrying unbearable pain. Give them deliverance for Christmas.
They couldn't put nothing under a tree any better than this. That you have borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. The chastisement of our peace is upon you. And with your stripes we are healed. Breathe it in real deep.
We breathe in this word. We take this word into our lives and into our psyche and into our thinking and into our process. Exhale and we exhale all of the contaminating habitual practices that have limited us to pettiness and blocked us from the greatness that you have called us to. I exhale it now.
The words, the pains, the memories, the thoughts, the agonies, I push it out of me right now as I make room for what's next. I exhale 2019 so I can inhale 2020. And I thank you for it. And I praise you for it.
In Jesus'name. Amen. Any praise in the house? Any praise in the house?