Hold On! Light Is Coming

• “God, why did you keep me in the dark? Why  didn’t you tell me that relationship would   fail?” Maybe he wanted the relationship to  surface some stuff in you that he could work   on so your relationship with him could get  better. If he had told you how it would end,   you wouldn’t have taken the first step.
• Now I know why God didn’t call a committee meeting  before Christmas. “Okay. Shepherds, angels…” Like   he’s running a Christmas pageant or something like  that. “All right. Come on, magi. Here’s how it   works. Joseph, here’s what’s going to happen. Mary  is going to come up.” We read it… We’re so smug.
• Honestly, if I can be real, I spent all  of my 30s hating Christmas as a pastor,   because people come in, and it’s like they don’t  even really want to hear a sermon, especially when   it comes to Christmas, and people are coming in  because they’re supposed to. You can’t say much   to somebody who’s there because they feel like  they’re doing God a favor to come to church.
• People have to have need that they’re aware  of to really receive from God. That’s why   I pushed my Christmas message early to  avoid the shipping delays so you could   get this word. God is watching over  his word. We are watching what they   are walking through. We know where they  end up. They don’t. That takes faith.
• I mean, if you know the whole  Twenty-third Psalm… “Yea,   though I walk through the valley of the shadow of  death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;   thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”  You know it ends with the wolves getting   driven off by the staff, but if you’re  right in the middle of the valley,   you think it’s your new mailing address.  “Oh, I guess this is just how it is.
• ” The shadow of death? That’s an allusion to Galilee  where Jesus ended up being raised. That’s what   Isaiah prophesied. He said, “Those of you in  Zebulun and Naphtali…” Galilee was so scrawny to   the Jewish people… When Solomon was paying off his  debts and he had to give Hiram, the king of Tyre,   something, he gave him 20 cities in Galilee. He  just wrote them over. “Here, you can have this.
• ” It was the northern part of the kingdom, the  part they didn’t want, the part where a lot   of the Canaanites still lived, because  it was still overrun by enemies. “Oh,   you can have Galilee.” The king of Tyre  got it and said, “What did you give me,   my brother? You can have this back.
• ”  That’s where Jesus did his ministry:   in the land of those dwelling in darkness.  Galilee, where Jesus based his ministry…   Please don’t think this is a geography  lesson. This is a prophetic word for you. The place that was associated with darkness is  where Jesus did the most. It was known as the land   of shadow and death. The thing is you don’t know  which it is when you’re walking through it.