1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Hey. 2 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:11,800 So, a lot of strange things have been happening. 3 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:16,160 A lot of things have been happening in the past too. 4 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:19,720 I'm just a craftsman. Sometimes I'm a carpenter. 5 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:23,760 Sometimes I'm a stone mason. You do what you have to do, you go where the work 6 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:25,200 takes you. 7 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:27,520 I'm in Jerusalem right now, 8 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,880 but normally I spend my time around Bethlehem. 9 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:34,360 I go back and forth, depending on the job. 10 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,800 The thing is, is that a lot of things have been strange lately, but 11 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:41,160 they were strange before too. 12 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:44,800 About 30 years ago, I'm feeling my age now. 13 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,280 I was over in Bethlehem with my wife and the kids. 14 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:51,240 There were a lot of people that were coming into the city. 15 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,360 They were coming in because there was big census going on. 16 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,480 Taxes, right? It's always taxes. 17 00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:03,760 But as they were coming into the town, there were just too many people. There was nowhere for them to go. 18 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:06,840 We had some people staying in our place, but they'd already 19 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:11,880 given us money, they'd already paid for it. So we really couldn't kick them out, but all of a sudden 20 00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,720 we see this one family coming in. 21 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:19,640 Man, his wife, she was very, very pregnant. 22 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,720 The thing is though, is that we really didn't have a place for them to go, but you don't want them just 23 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:29,240 sitting out in the town square. You don't know what's going to happen. 24 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:34,280 Well, the only place we could think of was the spot over down in the quarry. 25 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:38,120 The cave where a bunch of us keep the animals. 26 00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:42,520 I mean, who really wants their pregnant wife to be around a bunch of animals there? 27 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:47,040 It was nasty, it was smelly. I didn't know what else to do. 28 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:50,320 And you end up hearing very clearly 29 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:53,440 when the time came for her to give birth. 30 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:58,800 The thing is, is that that was already quite a bit to deal with at the time. 31 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:02,960 But then all of a sudden, you end up seeing a crowd of a bunch of kids 32 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:06,960 coming in and running into the cave. 33 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:11,360 And you're just like, what in the world is going on? A bunch of these kids, they looked rough. 34 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:16,040 Clearly there were a bunch of kids who were out tending sheep. 35 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:19,760 And they come running in, yelling, the savior, the savior, the savior. And I'm like, great. 36 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:24,040 There's another prank going on. 37 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:25,960 And we go over there and try to figure out what's going on. 38 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:29,880 And they're saying, not just savior, but they're saying messiah. 39 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,640 Okay, that's, I mean, come on. That's a big ask. 40 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:37,280 Everybody knows about the messiah. But when's he actually going to come? 41 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:42,800 So I'm over there looking at Joseph and I'm thinking, this guy is also a craftsman too. 42 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,520 I mean, how is this guy supposed to end up being the messiah? 43 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:50,320 And then I realized after a little while, they weren't talking about the man. 44 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:55,920 They're talking about the baby, the little wrinkly raisin that was laying there in the feeding trough. 45 00:02:55,920 --> 00:03:00,320 It's like, okay, y'all, this doesn't make any sense. 46 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:05,600 I mean, number one, okay, the messiah is supposed to be a mystery. 47 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:07,280 You're not supposed to know where the messiah came from. 48 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:09,480 I know clearly where the messiah came from. 49 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:12,000 I saw the pregnant woman. I now see the baby. 50 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:16,560 Clearly, we know this is not Melchizedek all over again. 51 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:20,160 And this is a baby. How do you know what this baby is going to do? 52 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:22,160 How do you know what this baby is going to become? 53 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:23,840 How do you have any idea? 54 00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:28,720 And frankly, I didn't want to say this. 55 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:36,880 But talking with Joseph, he kept saying, son of God, I mean, look, dude, okay, I get it. 56 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:40,320 This is not your baby. All right, we're not going to tell a bunch of other people, 57 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:43,920 but come on, son of God, look, we'll just keep it hush-hush, okay? 58 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:48,240 Look, illegitimate child. It's okay. I don't know why. 59 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:51,360 I get it. You're a really nice guy. You decided to go ahead and marry her. 60 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:56,960 Okay, that's fine. But look, this is clearly, this couldn't be messiah. 61 00:03:56,960 --> 00:03:59,920 We finally got those shepherd kids out of there, okay? 62 00:03:59,920 --> 00:04:02,400 It was a crazy night. Finally got some rest. 63 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:06,160 Well, you know, Joseph and Mary, they're still hanging out in Bethlehem. 64 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:09,040 He's got to get some work. They've got to do some stuff. It's fine. 65 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:12,720 But you know, it doesn't end there. All right, we get a lot of people that come in and out. 66 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:20,480 We're not that far from Jerusalem. But like two years later, we end up having a bunch of foreigners 67 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:25,040 that come in through town and they were just weird looking. I don't even know, okay? 68 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:28,240 But I think they came from somewhere east of there. I don't know. 69 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:35,360 They probably came across Jericho or something. But apparently, they were following a star that 70 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:40,720 was like the King Star and the King Planet and they're like aligning or something. 71 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:46,720 And then they apparently was wandering in the sky. I don't know. I don't check out the sky all the time. 72 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:54,880 But apparently, they'd been traveling for two years. They really needed some faster camels. 73 00:04:55,520 --> 00:05:00,320 But they finally get there. But what did they decide to do? Did they go to Bethlehem? No. 74 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:03,920 They decided to stop in Jerusalem. Why? Because they're trying to find the King. 75 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:10,160 So where did they go? They go talk to King Herod. Everybody knows he's not actually a king. 76 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:15,120 We just call him that. It makes him feel better. They decide to say, where's the King? 77 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:20,320 He's like, I don't know. I haven't had a kid anytime soon. But why don't you tell me where he is? 78 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:28,160 Good job. So these wise men come over there. I guess they must have been studying some of 79 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:34,880 the old prophets or something. But they come and they've got gifts for two year old Jesus. 80 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:39,760 And they are with gold and well, that makes sense. I mean, who doesn't want some gold? 81 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:44,080 But they got frankincense. I mean, it smells good. But the weirdest part was the myrrh. 82 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:49,760 Because that's what you usually use for funerals. It just had a kid. I mean, it's kind of a little 83 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:54,320 morose, don't you think? But there they were. And it turned out it was probably a good idea 84 00:05:54,320 --> 00:06:00,160 that they have brought these things because lo and behold, they end up going somewhere else and 85 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:08,320 Herod's freaking out trying to find this future king. Well, Joseph and his wife, they run. 86 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:14,000 And it's a good thing they had some things they could sell because they were gone for a while, 87 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:21,040 all the way down to Egypt from what I heard. And it see them again for, well, 30 something years. 88 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:27,600 But the thing is the other day, I ended up seeing Mary coming along. I remember her. I mean, she was 89 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:36,720 still a young girl back then, but that face, you remember the face. But she's walking along with 90 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:43,280 this 30 year old guy that apparently is now a rabbi. And then I realize who he is. 91 00:06:43,280 --> 00:06:51,200 And people are flocking to him and they're talking about miracles and teachings and freedom and 92 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:59,360 everything else. But the problem is, is that when you get too much attention, you get in trouble. 93 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:04,800 And apparently the Sanhedrin didn't like him very much. I mean, the court people and everything 94 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,880 and the Pharisees and Sadducees and all these people didn't like him and he gets arrested. 95 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:16,480 But the thing with it though, is that normally, whenever the Sanhedrin convicts somebody, 96 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:24,800 they're stoning. But they got the Romans involved. And you know what happens when the Romans convict 97 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:35,040 somebody for death. Now, I didn't know. Okay, look, I didn't, I didn't know. Look, I'm just, 98 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:41,760 I'm just a craftsman. Okay, I do the work that's there to do. Okay, whatever pays, I do it because 99 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:48,400 it needs to get done. I need to work. I didn't know who was going to be there. I didn't know 100 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:57,520 who the stake was for. I didn't know who the cross beam was for. I didn't know. Aren't they all 101 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:07,040 supposed to just be criminals? And that was just a few days ago. I mean, I didn't, I couldn't look 102 00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:17,760 Mary in the eye. She, if she knew it was me, it's my fault that he was up there. It's, it's my fault. 103 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:26,080 And the thing is, is that all this going on is that my guilt has just been racking me and I don't 104 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:37,920 know how to get over it. You know, I had another Joseph friend, apparently he put Jesus afterward 105 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:46,560 into another cave to bury him. So I decided I was going to go over there and pay my respects, 106 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:51,520 just hoping Mary wouldn't be there. But you know, it's really, really weird. A lot of weird stuff 107 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:58,400 happened. There was an earthquake and torn curtains and people supposedly rising from the dead. I 108 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:04,800 don't know. But when I get there and people are saying he's not here, and I don't know what to 109 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:12,400 make of that. I don't know. Maybe you don't know what to make of that either. But I really, I really 110 00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:21,440 hope it's actually true. Because here's the thing. If what I did led to him being dead and he still 111 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:32,080 dead, I don't know how I'm going to face that. But if he's alive, maybe he'd forgive me. If he's alive, 112 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:38,800 maybe God will forgive me. Because that's the thing about it, is that I remember that little baby 113 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:44,800 and knowing that he's here and that this is where he ends up, and that I was a part of that. 114 00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:56,240 I need to know he came back to life. Because I need to know that I'm forgiven. Don't you ever know 115 00:09:56,240 --> 00:10:02,720 that feeling? That feeling where you just need to stop and pause and say, would you please tell me 116 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:14,320 I'm forgiven? But you know the wonderful part about being forgiven is that you can't earn it. 117 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:32,240 But when it comes out of love, all you have to do for it is just ask. Thanks be to God.