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To kind of use Scripture to release this message today. It's almost a sort of a holy warning, and I want to share it with you. Matthew 2, verse 13 says, when they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, get up. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And was so fulfilled. What the Lord has said through the prophet out of Egypt. I have called my son. I want to stop the reading of Scripture right there. And the clause of concern is found in verse number 13 where it says, the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, take the child and his mother and escape. Everybody say escape. Come on, say it like you mean it. Say escape. Escape to Egypt. I want to talk from this subject. In our time together, who can I run to? Clap your hands. 12:30, if you're ready for the Word, who can I run to? Family. This story here in Matthew chapter two shows us something very significant about our Savior. This story found in this scripture shows us that the God of Scripture is the God who orchestrates escapes. The Advent or the coming of Jesus reveals to us a God who invades Earth, who interrupts and intervenes in human history for the purpose of getting humanity out of a predicament that humanity could not get itself out of. The good news of the Gospel reveals to us that God is the God that is able to get us, us out of whatever we are into, no matter how we got into it. And what I just articulated should be exciting and should evoke enthusiasm from those of us who are seated in this sacred space. Because this truth suggests that just because we feel trapped doesn't mean we are trapped. And just because we can't see a way doesn't mean there isn't a way. It's in the language of the old saints in the old church. Our God is the God that will make a way out of no way. And I could turn this church into a courtroom and call witnesses from Scripture to the witness stand, and they would testify that he's a God that makes a way out of no way. I could call Moses to the witness stand and he would testify that we were standing in front of the Red Sea and the Red Sea in front of us, Pharaoh behind us. We did not see a way, but God caused the wind to blow on the Red Sea and turn that red sea into a highway and we walked through on dry ground because he makes a way out of no way. I could call his successor, Joshua to the witness stand and Joshua would testify that we were dealing with a city called Jericho. And Jericho was surrounded by walls and there was no way to get in. But God made the walls fall flat and we were able to get in what the enemy was trying to keep us out of because he makes ways out of no ways. But I don't have to call Moses, I don't have to call Joshua, I can call some of you. And you'll sit on the witness stand and say there were seasons and circumstances where I felt trapped, where I felt confined, where I felt constricted when I didn't see a way out, when I didn't know how I was gonna get out. But somehow, someway, the God who orchestrates escapes made a way out of no way. And when I couldn't get through the door, he got me through the window. And when I couldn't get through the window, he cut a hole in the wall. Because when God is determined to get you out, nothing can keep you in. He's the God of escapes. So this means, this means I may sense danger, but I'm never trapped. And this revelation family should cause a revolution in our behavior when we find ourselves in seasons and situations where we feel trapped, where we feel confined, and where we feel constricted. Because when we feel trapped, when we feel confined, when we feel constricted, many if not most of us feel the temptation to create our our own escape instead of waiting for God to reveal his way of escape. And when we create our own escape routes instead of waiting on God's escape routes, then what we don't ex, when we, then what we experience is not escapes. We experience escapism. And escapism is not freedom. Escapism is the exchange of bondage. Pastor, what do you mean? The answer is in the text, right here in Matthew, chapter two. Matthew chapter two exposes us to an incident in the life of the man who's responsible for marrying Mary and raising Jesus. We talked about him last week. His name is Joseph. And Matthew, chapter 2, verse number 13 starts this way. It says, and when they had gone. Who's the they that had gone? It's the wise men. When the wise men had gone, Joseph goes to sleep. And the Bible says, an angel appears to him in his sleep. And I'm going to see if my Pentecostal oriented members will help me right here. God through an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and says, get up. Wait a minute. Somebody say, get up. So listen, does Joseph deserve sleep? They've been through, so he's probably good in sleep. I'm talking about mouth open sleep. He's probably good in sleep, which means he's comfortable. And here comes God giving him a command that disrupts his comfort. He tells him, get up. Now, I want you to see a couple of things here, all right? First of all, I want you to see who the angel came to. He came to Joseph. Am I in the text? And he told Joseph, you get up and you get Mary and the baby. He didn't go to Mary and say, you get up. The text doesn't say that the baby woke up and then woke everybody else up. He came to one person in a room full of people that sleep and say, the way I'm gonna wake them up is by waking you up. And some of us are dealing with relational frustration because we want everybody to wake up at the same time. We want our children to wake up, and we want our friends to wake up, and we want our family to wake up. Why are you in slumber? Why are you slothful? Why are you stagnant? Why are you not moving? But what if God wants to wake you up first? And what if when you start moving and shaking, it wakes up something on the inside of other people? And they are. It's not that they aren't going to wake up. It's God's waking you up first and using them to wake them up. He tells them, you wake up. Joseph, I want you. I want you to hear the urgency embedded in the instruction. Get up. It's not just divine instruction. It's divine urgency. It's timing. You don't get to wait till the morning. Did you hear what I just said? I know you'll feel better rested in the morning, but you don't get to do this when you feel rested. You got to do this now. Get up. It's divine timing. It is proactive protection. It is God protecting Joseph by prompting him to act proactively. Why is he saying, do this now? He explains in the text, for Herod is searching to kill the child. You don't know how close he is. I do. You don't see danger, so you don't know you're in it. You don't feel dangerous, so you don't know you're in it. You don't know how imminent the threat is. So what I'm trying to do is to move you based off of What I know, not based off of what you see, because you think you're safer than you are. And I know Herod is closer than you think. So I need you to move when I say move, because I'm trying to protect you from something you don't know is coming. I need somebody right now. Let's go. Old school church. To praise him for protecting you from danger seen and unseen. Come on, somebody praise him for the stuff he blocked this week that you don't know about. The stuff he blocked this morning that you don't know about is timing. And some people end up in Herod's hands not because they didn't obey, but because they obeyed too late. He says get up. Herod is searching for the child to kill him. Two questions we need to ask. I got to get out here. Two questions we need to ask 1. Who is Herod and why does he want to kill sweet baby Jesus who's minding his own business in a manger? He just a baby. He minding his business. Herod is what's called a client king. Client king? Pastor, what does that mean? Well, you have to understand something about Rome. During this day, Rome was an empire, not a country. So it was an empire that was a conglomerate of countries that they had conquered or countries that had submitted to them. So the empire is so vast that the emperor at this point, who Caesar Augustus, has to assign what they call client kings to rule certain regions. They're called client kings because in some sense, they're a client of Rome. So they don't have absolute authority, the emperor has absolute authority. They have delegated authority so they can build things, which is why Herod built a temple. They could tax and they could execute, which is why Jesus was able to be executed. You following me? But they still had to answer to Rome. So there's this man named Herod, who wasn't a Jew, who was over the region that the Jews were settled in. So he's called King of the Jews. Here's what happens. Herod isn't healthy. Oh, he's in power with no health. I'm not talking about physical health. He doesn't have spiritual or emotional health. So he has unbridled ambition. So it is ambition without a governor. And when you have ambition without a governor, it will drive you into a wall. That's spiritual. Then he has unaddressed insecurity. How do you know? Because when the wise men come to Herod, they say, we looking for the King of the Jews. He say, who? Because in his head, he Like I'm king of the Jews. So now he sees a baby as a threat. So now he's competing with someone who's not competing with him. Cuz that's what unbridled ambition and come on, an unaddressed insecurity will do. It will have you feeling threatened by somebody who does not want your kingdom and they don't want your crown. Jesus is like, my kingdom is not of this world. I don't want your kingdom and I don't want your crown. Can I contemporize it? This is why you should really pray for haters. Because they are internally tortured by unbridled ambition. So enough is never enough. Or emotional insecurity. Because no outward achievement will ever feel enough for somebody who's got a hole in their soul. Herod, you king. Leave this baby alone. But he doesn't. He is so intoxicated by ambition and insecurity and narcissism, he orders that every male Jewish baby born be executed. So God knows this is about to happen. I needed my Pentecostal members there. God knows that Joseph has no clue what's going on in Herod's head. But God knows, come on here. Not just what the enemy is going to do. God knows when the enemy is ruminating on thoughts and devising schemes and devising plans. So he says, joseph, get up, take Mary and the child and go to Egypt. Why is this important, y'? All? Because logically, going to Egypt doesn't make sense. Not to Joseph. Watch this. Because if I'm under threat and Herod's coming here, shouldn't I get to another place quickly? Jerusalem is just several miles north of where we are. Why can't I go there? Watch this. Nazareth, which is where he was from, was about 90 miles from there. So in Nazareth, he at least had a mama. I know if his cousin wouldn't do it, his mama would come on here, where my mama's at. His mom would say, you, Herod, looking for you. You come stay here in the basement. And when they open the door, say, joseph here? No, No. But he didn't send them to Nazareth. He sent them to Egypt. It's the longest distance out of those two options. Jerusalem is closer, Nazareth is closer. But he sends him to Egypt. Because when we under threat, our temptation is to run to that which feels safest the quickest. We want quick relief. And if I got to walk all the way to Egypt, I feel like I'm under threat longer. But in this case, what felt like the longest option was actually the safest option. Because, Pastor, what do you mean? Because Egypt was the one out of those three places I mentioned that was not under Herod's jurisdiction. Hallelujah. He only had legal right to exercise his authority as long as he was in the bounds of the jurisdiction assigned to him. But God knew how to place Jesus, Joseph, and Mary outside of the enemy's jurisdiction, so he had no, no legal right to access them. And God knows where to put you so that the enemy cannot get to you. So it's the longest, but it's the safest. It's the longest, but it's the safest. It's the longest, but it's the safest. So when God says Egypt, he's not choosing convenience, he's choosing coverage. He says, I'm putting you not where it's convenient. I'm putting you where you covered, where you're protected. I got a question. Can I ask you this question? I said, can I ask you this question? Here's my question. Family. What would have happened if Joseph picked his own Egypt instead of going to God's? Did you hear what I just said? Because Joseph, Joseph, now. Joseph now hears God say Egypt. And he could have just decided, I'm going to Jerusalem because that's closer, or I'm going to Nazareth because I got more people there and that feels safer. Am I making sense? He says, if I'm going to Egypt, I'm an immigrant. I feel vulnerable. But you, you didn't let me go to Nazareth where I got family. Am I making sense? Now, remember, we don't just need to see Joseph in the text. We need to see ourselves in Joseph. And the question is, when we experience Herod, which can represent not just an individual, but adversity, where are we tempted to run to? And many of us, if not most of us, have to admit we wrestle with the temptation to run to the thing that gives relief the quickest. Come on, Church. But the thing that gives relief the quickest isn't always the safest. See, when we go to Egypt, which represents the place God sends us, when we deal with Herod, like situations, we experience an escape. And an escape is a divinely designed pathway out of danger that protects destiny without destroying development. That's what an escape does. This is real danger. And God, who makes a way of escape, says, I have divinely designed a pathway that gets you out of danger so it protects your destiny. Because part of Joseph's responsibility wasn't just to get Jesus in the earth. It was to keep him around enough so that Jesus could get in a tomb. That's what I meant last week when I talked about the difference between participating in your purpose and fulfilling. If he got Jesus to the earth, then he just participated. If he got Jesus in a tomb, then he fulfilled it. And your purpose is a book that has chapters and you got to say yes when God turns the page and puts you in a new chapter. And the season where you stop saying yes is the season you've actually stopped walking in your purpose. And we cannot con should not confuse walking in our purpose with having walked in our purpose. Joseph is not just enough for you to get him here. Part of your purpose is to keep him around long enough so I can get him in a tomb. He said, so I got a pathway to get you out that protects you from danger. It gets you out of danger, but it protects your destiny. And it also allows you to experience development that destiny requires. Did you hear what I just said? Okay, so when God creates an escape, it's a divinely designed pathway out of danger that protects destiny without destroying development. Watch this. So escape. God's escape moves us out of danger without moving us out of God's will. But when we create our own, we go to what gives us relief the quickest. That's called escapism. I need my intercessors here. It's about to take a turn. I'm so serious. This is why I believe it leads to escapism. Escapism is a self constructed pathway away from pain that offers temporary relief but leads to long term bondage. So Jerusalem feels safer, but it's actually more dangerous. And Nazareth feels safer, but it's actually more dangerous. Are you hearing what I'm saying? See, escapism, family is when we try to create our own ways of escape. It's when we receive, we seek relief and refuge from the wrong place. And it doesn't allow us to get free, we just exchange bondage. We don't bring break chains, we trade them. We don't leave the prison, we just change cells. When we create our own path, we get free from one set of bondage and then submit ourselves to another set. It's escapism. It's avoidance. It's avoidance. It's avoidance. It's avoidance. We call it cutting up, cutoff. But sometimes it's avoidance. Give me escape again. Give me escape again. Because the key word in escape is development. Escapism robs us of development. Am I making sense? I said, am I making sense? Said, am I making sense? So when Herod, which represents Adversity. And adversity brings stress. Here's my question. When you're stressed, what do you run to the quickest? Because sometimes prayer Egypt feel like it take longer. Let me go over to this side. Who's gonna help me preach? Come on. When that adversity comes and that stress comes and we want relief from the stress, what do we run to? Because it feels like prayer, which is God's pathway, takes longer. When I'm dealing with adversity, that's coming from individuals, what do I run to? Let me just tell them off. Because loving my enemies take longer, Pastor. It's taking me too long to get there. I'm walking in that direction. But it's taking me too long because I've been discipled by my pain. And my pain has discipled me to run to whatever I believe gives me relief quickest. And sometimes that's people, sometimes that's patterns of self destructive behavior. Look at me. Sometimes that's plants. Here it is. Now, here it is. Objective biblical exegesis make space for nuance. So I'm not making a broad sweeping statement about plant medicine. That's not what I'm talking about. There are uses of this that I think require theological nuance. People going through chemotherapy, people with ptsd, people that traditional methods of dealing with clinical anxiety don't work. There's nuance. So I'm not going to make these broad sweeping statements about the moral nature of it. My question to you is, are you running to the plant because you don't pray? I've got to go. This is. Have I judged anybody? Have I made any broad, sweeping condemnatory statements? Am I being bombastic or condescending? Right. Okay. I'm just ask. I don't know. I'm just asking you, Do you run to prayer or to that? And I know prayer takes longer, but it develops the stamina and the resilience that destiny will require. Because if you crumble under the weight of pressure, you're going to be destroyed under the weight of your purpose. If you think not having what God's about to give you is pressure, wait till you get it. Wait till the business blow up. Wait. Oh my. You think, you think it's pressure trying to get there? Wait until you get there. And you got to carry the weight of a team on your shoulders. Come on here. You got to carry the weight not just of your family, but other people being able to feed their families. And if you cannot keep up on foot, what will you do when you try to run with the Horse. I'm just asking, is it revealing spiritual underdevelopment? I'm just asking. Watch this, watch this. Because some of the stuff we run to in sin, the question is why you run into it. Okay, now we got a little, got a little loud on the plants. Let me go to this. Let me go to this. Some people don't run the plants, some people run the potion. What's a potion? Patron? Yeah, that's the potion I'm talking about. It's christmas. I know it's. Now I'm not making just like plants. I'm not making a broad sweeping judgment. Am I making sense? The Bible clearly calls for moderation. Got me? Moderation. That's it. And so that's what we teach. I'm not arguing with you about that. Some people, never mind, they get, they get saved yesterday and get to say no. Anyway, I'm not going to about that. The Bible teaches moderation. Got me? They wouldn't, they wouldn't insult Jesus by calling him a wine bibber if he's drinking grape juice. Look it up. Anyway, so the Bible teaches moderation. There's a strict prohibition against drunkenness when you are no longer under the influence of your own faculties. Strict prohibition with that. Got me? Okay. But moderation is relative. So for some people moderation means nothing. Because you don't know moderation. You don't know moderation. And so, and so when you come on here, come on here. And this is why there's this strict prohibition against drunkenness. Because God's like, I know drunkenness put you in the wrong bed. I know. And I know some things that can come out of that. That destroyed your life and destroy your self esteem. So he's saying, that's why I'm telling you stay away from that. Cuz husbands, what kind of husband are you? When you're drunk, Some of you, you become abusive verbally. And if you would not let a man talk to your daughter that way, if you're ready to put hands on a man. I'm sorry, this. If you, if you're ready to put hands. If a man were to talk to your daughter that way. Your wife is somebody daughter. It makes you unpredictable. And where there's unpredictability, there's an absence of safety. So your kids don't see consistency. So you have authority with them, but not influence. Because they don't respect you. They obey, but they don't respect. And some of us. Come on. Am I, I'm lovingly. Do you. You feel my heart? I'm not trying to. So it's not. If it's. Is it safe? It's not just is it sin, is it safe and is it pulling me away from God's Egypt and I'm creating my own escape. And the reason we can stay in it many times is because we lie to ourselves about it. I got control. Stop the day then stop till the new year. Taria, we're done. Now. I, I don't even have time. Because we talked about the plants in the potion. I didn't. I, I could deal with, I could deal with caffeine. Moderation applies to caffeine. Because some of you, you, you talk. You were screaming loud when I talked about that patron. But you don't want me to talk about them 10 cups of coffee you drink every day. You got 10. Because you don't practice the Sabbath. You have a life without boundaries. You have a over congested schedule because you got your identity in your accomplishment. And you can't stop cuz you're scared of what will happen if you do stop. So you need 14 cups of coffee because you're living at a pace that is not consistent with the principles and the practices of Jesus. You too scared to slow down. You scared to slow down. You can fool other people, you can't fool me. You scared scared to slow down. Cause slowing down mean you got to sit with you and you gotta sit with your thoughts and you gotta sit with what's going on on the inside of you. Escapism. And God's like my way take longer. It take longer for you to learn how to live at my pace. It take longer for you to learn how to trust me. When you're resting, it take longer for you to learn how not to have your identity in your accomplishment. But even though it's the longest route, it's the safest route. I, I know it takes longer for you to feel like prayer working because you're a prayer. You're like, I don't feel anything Pastor. I know it takes long. But if you get addicted to prayer, that's an addiction it's okay to live with. Because when you get addicted to prayer, heaven starts opening. When you get addicted to prayer, family members start changing. When you get addicted to prayer, doors start opening. When you get addicted to prayer, something starts shifting on the inside of you. Get addicted to that. Can I have five minutes? Nobody moving. God's like my way feels longest, but it's safest. Because the thing you run to relief for will eventually become the thing you need relief from. It's not just. Is it sin? No, no, no, no, no. Is it safe? And I felt this holy. I had no intentions of sharing this week. It's been an incredibly laborious and honestly emotionally taxing year. And I was like, I just kind of need this week. But I felt a strong Jay, I felt a strong Rick holy warning. I felt divine urgency underneath this message that there's something in this Christmas season that you might be running to and you don't know. Herod is closer than you think. And all these years you've been running there and you never ran into Herod. But I got a strong warning that this time could be different. It's not for everybody, but it's for somebody. If you run to it this time, you're gonna run into Herod. Do you hear me? Listen to me. So during this Christmas season and this year. I'm done. I need five minutes. During this Christmas season, I was listening to. And I'm gonna do some thinking Christian around this. On our break, I was listening to Tyson, John Tyson out of New York. And he says when people who do not have a continuationist, charismatic or Pentecostal pneumatology, they say trap. When they done with the message, they say amen. And there's nothing wrong with that. He said, but for those of us who have a Continuationist, charismatic or Pentecostal pneumatology, when we're done with a message, we say, come, Holy Spirit. We say, I've just preached about a God that's inviting you to encounter him. So I've just preached about a freedom that the Holy Spirit wants to usher you into. Hallelujah. He said, you got yourself in it. You can't get yourself out of it. You can write all the notes on the mirror you want to. I'm gonna have to snatch you out of this one. You can make all the affirmations you want to. I'm gonna have to snatch you out of this one. You are human enough to get yourself in it, but I'm God enough to get you out of it. So you know who you text when you're lonely. You know what you run to when you're stressed. You know what to do to keep you up when you're overextended and over committed. So three things I'm gonna share. I got three minutes left. Here they are real quick. When Herod this year, this Christmas season or next year brings you drama, you need to practice because Joseph dealt with some drama, right? You need to practice what's called wise withdrawal. Some of you get overwhelmed because you consistently subject yourself to that which is toxic for your soul. So that's why we need, we constantly need stuff to take the edge off because we're constantly subjecting to ourself, ourself to stuff that puts us on edge. So when you find yourself dealing with all this drama that is external issues that you're internalizing, here's what God's Egypt is. It's wise withdrawal. What's wise withdrawal? That's not avoidance. Wise withdrawal. Choosing to create intentional distance from chaos so you can hear God clearly and more wisely. It's not avoidance, it's not fear. It is holy restraint that leads to biblical boundaries. Are you hearing what I'm saying? What are you doing? You're doing what Jesus did in Luke 5:15. It says, yet the news about him spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sickness. But Jesus often withdrew, withdrew, withdrew to lonely places and prayed. It's wise withdrawal because drama feeds on access. And the more access you give drama, the more drama you experience. Wise withdrawal says this is not causing my soul to prosper. You're also going to deal with not just some drama, but Joseph dealt with some disappointment. How did Joseph feel when the king who's supposed to protect him is now trying to kill his child? And chronic disappointment can lead to despair. And when we're dealing with despair, Egypt fell too far. I want to feel better now. But God has an Egypt for disappointment. It's called prophetic lament. It is the spirit guided, truth centered expression of grief, loss and pain that leads us toward healing and not hardness. This is where I've got somebody say nuance. This is where I got some healthy tension with like the way but not confession. Not the biblical practice of confession, but the way believers, the way believers use it. Cuz sometimes in the name of confessing things to protect their faith, you're delaying your healing. So some of us are hiding behind blessed and highly favored language. When you're broken and in despair and until you acknowledge I'm broken and in despair, I can't experience the reality of being blessed and highly favored. There's a whole book of the Bible called Lamentations. God's trying to teach you to learn how to lament, to take what you're really feeling to a God who can handle your honesty. And some of you, God's got some conversations he like, when are we ever gonna talk about this? When are we ever gonna talk about you hate your daddy Because I can't feel it as long as you keep trying to stuff it. I consume what you put on the altar. Did you hear what I just said? I think, Marcus, I think business leaders and entrepreneurs will be much more productive and peaceful if they learn prophetic lament. You got to learn how to lament a thing that didn't work. It didn't work. It didn't work. It doesn't mean I don't work. It just means that didn't work. God, I put time in that. I put money in that. I put energy behind that. I put focus behind that. I put resources behind that. And it didn't work. And I'm disappointed. So I'm bringing this to you because I know when you heal my heart, you're gonna tell me to take my boat and launch out into the deep and let down my net again. And I want to be healthy enough and whole enough to do it again. Hallelujah. Jesus did it on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then there's disruption. Joseph thought he was going home to Nazareth. That's where his family was. That's where his business was. But instead of going back home, God sent him to Egypt. He disrupted his plans and disruption exposed. How you and I respond to disruption reveals how addicted we are to control. I hate when God be messing up my plans. But God has an Egypt for disruption. It's called sacred yielding. This is the releasing of control without carrying resentment. It's allowing God to reorder your steps even when you don't understand the route. It is what Jesus did the Garden of Gethsemane when he said, if it's possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but yours be done. A sacred yielding Egypt feels like it takes the longest, but it's the safest. What are you running to? Come, holy spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. It's a prayer we wrote. I'm gonna pray it over us. Heavenly Father, I come to you acknowledging that you are the God who orchestrates escapes. Even when I can't see a way you're making one. I confess that too often when Herod shows up in my life and when adversity hits, when chaos surrounds me, when disappointment threatens to crush me, I've run to my own Egypt instead of yours. Forgive me for the times I've chosen escapism over escape, trading one bondage for another instead of trusting your deliverance. Forgive me for choosing convenience over covering. Running to what's near Instead of what's safe today I choose to run to you. Come, Holy Spirit. Just sit with him. Come, Holy Spirit. Sam.