FOR LIFE AND LEGACY
Providing insight amd inspiration for those who seek structure, purpose and vision.
FOR LIFE AND LEGACY
A Forever GOD makes a Promise...Let's Take Flight
Welcome to For Life and For Legacy. We appreciate you jumping on today, looking forward to making something great, because there's greatness in you. So just sit back and don't relax yourself. Get tuned in. Get tuned up And't relax yourself. Get tuned in, get tuned up and I'll tell you what. Get fired up because we're about to tackle some good things that are good for your life and legacy until I joined the navy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't know anything about eating squirrel till I joined the navy. Don't worry about y'all what did I join the navy? And that's why I realized that other people went out there and hunted squirrel and they would hunt the squirrel and, as a matter of fact, my roommate at the time. He would go out there, hunt the squirrel on base, bring it back, put it in the refrigerator and, uh, and occasionally he might freeze something, depending on how many he caught, and he'd take it out in the barbecue pit and then he'd make it all happen and I said, man, you're eating squirrels? I sure am, and that was his delight. He loved to eat squirrel. Now you know what it is. But going back to what I see, if he had put it before me and I didn't know any different I probably would have ate it. Oh yeah, it's good when it's fixed right. You know this.
Speaker 2:This is the day and time we realize that. You know, sometimes we may not like if god told us what was in what we were about to get. If he told us what was in it, we wouldn't want to participate. Right now we're going through it. But how many of y'all know, sometimes God, fix a really good stew, and it might not be something you want to eat, but, lord, have mercy, show fear good when it's over. Amen, he can make it taste good for you. He can make it taste good for you. So this is what we're going to see Today. What we're looking at is God has been, he's a provider. So we're in Luke, the second chapter, luke, the second chapter, and the verses. Key verses here are verses one through twenty, and if you did some devotional reading in Micah, chapter five, one through six, as a matter of fact, I'm going to ask somebody if they could get Micah chapter five, one through six, first, and we're going to go straight to Luke, the second chapter. I think it's going to be good, because y'all know I do, and many of our good people do like to go ahead and set up a foundation.
Speaker 2:Amen, so that we'll know exactly what we're getting into. Because we want to make sure that sometimes, if you read the story of Jesus, it could be a two-dimensional story. Amen, make sure that sometimes, if you read this story of jesus, it could be a two-dimensional story. Amen, we want to make this three-dimensional on today. Is that all right? Amen, amen, amen, all right. If you got it, say I got it. If you don't say I'm almost there, almost there, almost there, let's keep getting it. Then hallelujah, that's what I needed right there. Let's see if we can get this going. Amen, amen, hallelujah. So, micah, the fifth chapter. If you got it, amen, who's got it? Go ahead and read it like hallelujah, like you want to hear it, like you want to be heard.
Speaker 3:Amen, o daughter of the Lord, he has paid for this love. This love is my return of peace to you. This love is my return of peace to you. But thou, bethlehem, thou shalt not, thou shalt not the best in me. After death, those I'll be little among the thousands of Judah. Get one out of three. Shall he come out of thee chair, he come forth into me. That is to be ruler in israel, whose drawings for have been from of old, from ever.
Speaker 2:last we're going to stop right there. That's going to be good right there, as a matter of fact, because that's the point we want to make. What's that last word there, y'all Ever last.
Speaker 3:That last word is everlasting. How?
Speaker 2:long is everlasting, forever. That's right. It's not a trick question. Everlasting is everlasting. There's no end to it. And what we'll find pepper throughout what we're going through today is that God continues to say that I'm about to set up something that's everlasting. Everlasting, it never ceases to end. There's no vacillating in what I'm about to do. As a matter of fact, there's no vacillating in God. God is always true, always right, always good, always. He's always. He is the everlasting of the everlasting. If you will, I want to say that this morning, that we should take courage in knowing that God does not change. Amen, he is an everlasting God. Am I right?
Speaker 5:y'all.
Speaker 2:So we want to focus on that, because if an everlasting God makes a promise, he's probably going to make a promise that lasts forever, and now y'all see where we're going with that. We ought to take courage in knowing that if he makes a promise, he's going to make a promise that just lasts forever, and we want to be happy about that. So let's go ahead, luke the second chapter, and we're going to dive into this really quickly. Hallelujah, luke the second chapter, and I need somebody just to read the first two verses for us. The first two verses for us. Luke the second chapter, verses 1 and 2, and, if you get, greedy read 3.
Speaker 3:That's fine that all the world should be taxed, and this taxing was made when.
Speaker 5:Cyprus was governor of Syria and all went to be taxed.
Speaker 3:Everyone to his own sin.
Speaker 2:Alright, so here it is. We find ourselves now in the midst where Luke is actually. If y'all don't remember who Luke is, luke was, if you will, an acolyte or a disciple Y'all heard the term acolyte here lately an acolyte or a disciple, or someone who followed Paul. And while he was with Paul, luke who, being a physician, became very interested in how things were being done. So he took it upon himself to start writing, if you will, the history of how this came to pass. And if you ever notice, when you look through Luke, luke has very long chapters Like he sometimes has 67, 78 verses. You know he's very detailed in what he does. So here what we find is that Luke is actually giving us, if you will, a left and right boundary about the time frame in which the Christ, our Christ, is going to be born. Now he's not only giving us a time frame, but he's telling us specifically and it came to pass. In those days there went a decree from Caesar Augustus. Right Now we find out what time did it happen? Around the time of Caesar Augustus and the taxing was first made, and they give us a time frame in which it was first made. So he's even given us a better historical reference of who actually first made it. Now there's some discussion here about Assyrinius, as whether or not he, as he's, been Syria governor when he did this, or how it happened, but if you actually align it, you'll find out. What we end up finding out is that Jesus was born around 4 or 5 BC. Jesus was born around 4 or 5 BC. If you put all these together along with King Herod and you extrapolate and you find out he was born around 4 or 5 BC. Now here's the thing we find out that everybody, it all went to be taxed Anybody. Anyway, I'm going to leave that alone. Hallelujah, and to his own city.
Speaker 2:So why is Joseph coming to Jerusalem? Joseph is coming to Jerusalem, as we'll see. He's coming to Jerusalem because there's a census going on. There's a census. He's been called to come forward so he can pay his taxes and be a part of the census, right, and he can be counted.
Speaker 2:Now what we find out is that this is something that's been set up by my, by man, but what it does give us is a point in time so that we can see when our savior is born. Y'all see that I don't know, baby, it's just me. All right, so I see you seeing it. Uh, so what we find out is god allows some things to happen in life, just so he can pinpoint a particular time where he's about to make a change. Now we might not I'm not going to say all taxes are good, some taxes are needful, some are not. Amen, like those five stop signs on Grove Avenue. Anyway, hallelujah, y'all got to be there. Don't make any sense, but anyway at all. So we find this happening. Now, if we want to actually look at this, it says verse four.
Speaker 5:Somebody read verse four and five for me and joseph also went up from galilee, out of the city of nazareth, into judea, into the city of david, which is called bethlehem, because he was of the house of lineages of dav, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife.
Speaker 2:There we go, great with child, great with child. Now, hold on Now. Y'all ever been on the phone and said we're going to come up to see you? Oh, we're going to come down to see you. Now, you know, I live in Virginia and I tell somebody in North Carolina we're going to come up to see you. Well, that don't make much sense, does it? Because it seems like to me I'm traveling what South? So I'm going down.
Speaker 2:Now here's the thing Nazareth is in Galilee, galilee is actually Nazareth and Galilee is actually north of Jerusalem. But this says he went up to see. They went up. Now here's the difference is that Nazareth and Galilee are actually lower on this. If you're looking at the elevation, they're lower. And as far as and you got to get into the mindset of the writer is that now we're going to go up to the hill set because it's about 2,500 feet above sea level.
Speaker 2:Jerusalem is set high above sea level. As a matter of fact, as a point of reference, the lowest place on earth is the Dead Sea. It's actually negative 400 feet below sea level. So there's a straight dichotomy between the height of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. As far as space is concerned, you have almost 3,000 feet of elevation to go from the Dead Sea, if you were traveling up from the Dead Sea for the plains of the Dead Sea to go all the way up to the mountain of Jerusalemusalem. As a matter of fact, mount zion is the highest point. One of the highest points aside from mount hermit now I'll give you a quick point here is that mount hermon, which is back all the way up towards where nazareth is right, is a mountain.
Speaker 2:Now, if you remember the scriptures, that says as a dew from mount hermit, let it. Then we have a song. Let that do rest upon our hearts. The dew comes from the mountain. The mountain is so high that it's an elevation that may have snow-capped peaks and the dew just comes off of the mountain. In dry seasons, the dew comes off the mountain and refreshes people. So when you read that scripture again, as the dew comes on, when he talks about the dew fall upon us, the dew fall upon us, it's a refreshing. Imagine being in a desert and you see no source of water, no rain, nothing coming. But God has a provision that the dew from the mountain is so elevated that it will fall upon you and refresh you Even more, so that it will fall upon what you need for vegetation.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So that you could eat. So there's a provision from God, amen, in certain regions of the world where we find that things just seem so, so elegant, so, so, so, so, so, so poignant. God is so good at what he does and he just knows how to set the scene. Y'all he does, he doesn't. He knows how to set the scene. So here we find that he's coming up. He's going up Even though Nazareth is north of Jerusalem. He has to come up from an elevation standpoint to get to Jerusalem. And here we have also.
Speaker 2:It says specifically that they went there because Joseph was what of the lineage of who? David? David, david was also known to be born. Where did David grow up? Anybody? Where did David grow up? Anybody know? Where did David grow up? Where did David grow up? David the shepherd, david, like David, he was in what? Bethlehem. There we go. I knew it was going to come out. Amen, he was in Bethlehem. How do we know he's in Bethlehem as a matter of fact? Let's do this because I think it's needful. Let's do this real quick. Let's go with us to. I believe it is going to be 1 Samuel. Yes, it is 1 Samuel, 7. Chapter 7. 1 Samuel, 7 chapter and I believe it is somewhere around verse 15.
Speaker 2:If you got it, say I got it. Somebody go with me there. 1 Samuel 7 chapter. I'm sorry. 1 Samuel 17, chapter verse 12. There we go. 1 Samuel 17, chapter verse 12. There we go, 1 Samuel 17, chapter verse 12. 1 Samuel 17 and 12.
Speaker 4:If you got it, say I got it.
Speaker 2:All right, go ahead.
Speaker 4:Who's got 17 and 12 for me? David is the son of an epithet of Bethlehem in Judah named Jesse.
Speaker 2:Alright, read 58 for me as well, verse 58. No, you did good Verse 58 as well.
Speaker 4:Eight sons. Jesse in the days of Saul was old and mass in years In 58?. Yes, david answered. I am the son of your servant, jesse of Bethlehem.
Speaker 2:All right. So here we have, just so you know, I didn't make that up. We understand that Jesse was in Bethlehem and Jesse was David's. What Jesse was David's father, jesse was also the son of anybody. No, what line did this come out of? Anybody remember that thing? I think they took down this city.
Speaker 2:It was a big city called Jericho and there was somebody in Jericho who happened to be a prostitute, but Rahab. She believed the people, she believed the spies. When they came, as a matter of fact, she was the one that let the scarlet line out of the window. Y'all remember that. And as a matter of fact, there was a promise made to her that if she kept her mouth shut and she kept her people in the house, that they would save her family. And that woman, rahab, ended up marrying somebody else and she ended up having a child named Boaz, and Boaz ended up having some children. And the next thing you know, jesse was out. And after Jesse was out, the next thing you know David was out. And if you keep going, what you find out? When it's all said and done, here comes Joseph, here's Joseph. This is where we are right now. Joseph comes because he says he's of the lineage of david, so we have to y'all. I didn't do the 42 generations don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:So what we find out is that this lineage is important because what it does? It causes him to go back to his respective city, from which he's from right, but even more so because he has to go back to the city to pay his taxes. He also ends up in a place called Bethlehem I don't know if you know this, but that's important because it's a place that has been prophesied that the Messiah might be born in a little city called Bethlehem. God keeps his promises, y'all. God keeps his promises. So, if you will, since I'm talking about God keeping his promise, let let's do this really quick. Why is this so important and how do we find ourselves? Let's go to second samuel, verse 7, second samuel, chapter 7, and we're going to pick up verse 12 and verse 16. Why are you turning there? Here's something to be thought, to think about. Is that, while god is in the process of making this, I think he's a brilliant mathematician as well as an archaeologist.
Speaker 2:Anybody here not sober? What do you call that? When you knit, you crochet. That's what it is. Anybody here crochet? You still crochet. Let me ask you something how do you keep the patterns together?
Speaker 5:I keep it from the line. The way I made it the way you made it. I just go by line.
Speaker 3:I put it right there. I put it right there, I keep on track.
Speaker 2:So there's a pattern that you go along with and you just got to make sure you keep along with the pattern To keep it right. So there's a pattern yeah, there's an outline somewhere that that you go along with, because sometimes anybody ever seen something really crocheted and put together real well, and you look at it and say my, how did they manage to do that? You know it looks so intricate and and you say wow because you know what it looks from from. And you say wow Because you know what, from your point of view, your vantage point is, if you don't know what it took to put the pattern down and then, let alone, to stay faithful to the pattern. See, and I want you to think about this Sometimes we maybe it's just me I can say I'm saved and I thank God for the salvation, but sometimes I forget how good my salvation is, what it took to make sure I got here. Oh, my God, god had to set up a pattern Right here, to set up a pattern and then stay true to the pattern. He stayed true to the pattern so much so that he would even think about these little small things. I don't care what David was born, I don't care what Jesus was born. But he said I do, as a matter of fact, I'm going to stick true to my pattern, all right. So here we go, here we go, here we go. Let's do this Just in case we wondered about two Sunday school classes ago, or Christian education classes ago, david decided that he woke up in one morning.
Speaker 2:He looked out and he saw if y'all remember this he saw that the ark of God was in a tent and he said but I dwell in a house of what Seed. And he thought to himself that God ought not be in a house of a tent. He should be be in a tent, he should be in a nice house. If I'm in a nice house, god should be in a nice house. And because it lighted upon his heart, he said I'm going to build God a. What I'm going to build God? A house. And God, you know I like it. We took another way last time, but I like it because it seems like this is one of the times where God is shocked. You know One of the times where God is shocked. I know he ain't shocked, shocked, but you look at it. You look at it. It's like God is saying I've never asked anybody to build me a house? Nobody, matter of fact, ain't nobody even thought about building me a house. But here you are, david deciding to build me a house. Okay, so here.
Speaker 2:What we pick up here is the first 12 of chapter 6 in Samuel, chapter 7. It says read somebody, read 12 for me, stop. So here we find out, because David had this on his heart to do something for God, that he's saying guess what? Because you did that, I want to establish your kingdom, stop. So here we find out, because David had this on his heart to do something for God, that he's saying guess what? Because you did that, I'm going to establish your throne, I'm going to establish your kingdom and, as a matter of fact, I'm going to establish it through your seed, through your lineage, and even going on to verse 16.
Speaker 4:Somebody hit 16 for me.
Speaker 2:There's a word that keeps popping up. Anybody see the word that keeps popping Forever. That word forever keeps popping up in this text. It pops up in the other text that we're talking about the word forever. God is a forever God. He is a forever God, now, I know. And maybe sometimes you say, well, yeah, okay, he's a forever God. He is a forever God, I know. And maybe sometimes you say, well, yeah, okay, he's forever God. No, you understand, he doesn't vacillate, he doesn't slip. We talked about it this morning.
Speaker 2:You think about this. How many of y'all, most of y'all, right now, you're blinking. You don't even think about it. You're blinking. God don't blink. His eyes are always open, always open. He's always attentive. He is always God. He's an absolute. You know. Sometimes I'll give you.
Speaker 2:You say what do you mean absolute? You should never say never. They say you should never say never because you never know what might happen. Right, it's funny, right? You shouldn't say never and tell somebody say you never closed the door. You don't say that because they will remember the one time that they did close the door and the argument will continue. You say you always. They don't always. They don't always. I promise you, they do not always do that.
Speaker 2:There are things that should be ascribed only to God because they are absolutes, because he doesn't change in any way, shape or form. So he is always good, he's never bad. Even when he's bad, he's good. I'm just going to let you know, because he said I'm terrible. The Old Testament said he's terrible, but when he's terrible he's executing judgment. For righteousness' sake, he's still good, because I want righteousness, anybody here want righteousness. Anybody want righteousness to stay in your house, I mean because God is a God who loves righteousness. So here he is. He said hold on, I'm loving David so much today I'm going to set something up for him and I'm going to establish his throne. How long? Forever. Let's go on a little bit longer. Just in case you don't believe me, go to Isaiah 51. How much time? I said, just in case you don't believe me, go to Isaiah 51. I must time. Yeah, isaiah 51 11, and I need somebody else. Hey, now we gonna stay right. Isaiah 51 11. We're gonna jump real quick hallelujah.
Speaker 5:Yes, therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away okay, I'm gonna ask you really, somebody tell me.
Speaker 2:I got an easy question for you. That easy question for you why is salvation so important? Don't you think about why is salvation so important? So right, without it, we'd be lost anybody else without it, we have what? No hope. That's real good. I love it. Well, we have no hope, anything, anything else, anybody else. God wants us to be with him. God wants us to be with him, anybody else.
Speaker 3:If I don't prepare a place for you, if I don't prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.
Speaker 2:You better bring it home, mother. He wants us to be with him, wants us to be with him. He shall prepare a place so he can come and be with him. Come on, think about it. I mean, so let's say, for instance, I'm standing in front of somebody, right? And I think it's some of the things like if somebody said, well, why do you love your wife? Oh, I shouldn't have to think about that. Y'all I'm going to tell you right now. I shouldn't have to think about that, I shouldn't have to think about that.
Speaker 2:And sometimes I might be able to tell them you know what? I can't pinpoint an answer. I can tell you a lot of things, but I can't name just one. I can go down the line of a lot of things and you know, if I'm smart, I better say that, Because I better not be able to say you know, there's some things that are just intrinsic, some things you can't even, I can't even tell you, you can't even write it down to describe it.
Speaker 2:There's some things in my mind when we start thinking about why is salvation so important? It should be ready upon our tongues to be able to say God has been so good to me, I love him so, because he's been marvelous in all his ways. Matter of fact, salvation is good because he brought peace to my soul. Peace, that peace, pass what All understanding. Can I just give you a little hint what I think about that? I think about that scripture peace that passes all understanding. That means that there's a peace that's going to come to me from God himself, something that shakes my, in other words, this world can't understand it and I can't wrap my mind around it. But yet, and still, I have peace. Anybody ever experienced that? There's a peace that just comes in. I'm at peace when everything around you is falling apart. Salvation gives you the opportunity to tap into the peace of God, am I right y'all? He gives that peace to us. Yes, ma'am, you have something.
Speaker 1:I want to thank you for tuning in today. We appreciate you jumping on board. Look, look, look, look, look, we're about to take you somewhere. I believe you've been wanting to go for a very long time, after a while. This is called For Life and Legacy, and we're looking to make sure we bring value every single time you listen in. We have some things on the docket that we're definitely going to get after, definitely going to make you scratch your head a little bit and think about the things that are coming to pass in your own life. To pass in your own life. We have some favorite scriptures that we want to push to you, that we want to make sure you bring life to your up and coming. Near future that I believe there's going to be a sign on the roadway saying land here, for greatness is happening in this area because you showed up Alright. So we're looking forward to hearing back from you. Remember to like and share, like and share, for we are doing what's best for your life and your legacy. Talk to you later.
