I'm Glad I Made Room for Him

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Give Honor

Text: Luke 2:7

Luke 2:7 KJV 1900

7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Perspective is everything.

One’s belief in something is based off of how one see’s a thing.

Perspective is everything.

It’s what drives our social beliefs, our spiritual beliefs, our emotional beliefs, and even our political beliefs.

Perspective is everything.

It brings peace to a situation. The glass if half full, not half empty.

It brings clarity to a situation. There are no losses, only lessons.

Perspective is everything.

Perspective in a nutshell is how one views a situation weather good or bad.

Perspective, looking at the same story with a different lens.

The first four Books of the New Testament Explain perspective.

It’s the same story told from different points of view, with different meanings.

Matthew’s perspective is not the same as Luke’s perspective.

John’s perspective is not the same as Mark’s perspective.

And each perspective Makes you appreciate the story that is told from that angle.

It is here this morning, where we find the same story that we’ve heard for many years.

The birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I’ve heard this story preached so many ways from so many perspectives. And it is each perspective that makes me appreciate the story a little more.

It’s my job this morning.

Not to tell any different of a story, but to tell it from a perspective that you may not have heard before.

The birth of Jesus Christ.

We all know Joseph’s perspective.I

f I was preaching a message form Joseph’s perspective, I would title it, You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me”

Joseph, a man who is about to be married to a virgin named Mary. Finds out before he ties the knot that his soon to be wife is pregnant.

Jospeh was a JUST man.

Joseph had not quite married Mary yet, which means he was not able to make a child with her.

Yet Joseph has be stuck with dealing with uncertainty on account of “The Holy Spirit”

Joseph was about to leave Mary, and an angel of the Lord came to speak to Joseph and tell Joseph to stay with her.

Joseph didn’t ask for this.

Joseph didn’t know this was coming.

This rocked Joseph’s world.

And if I can imagine, Joseph’s response to this would have to be “YOU gotta be kidding me”

I know you’ve been there before, when things seem to be going good, and life comes at you like a ton of bricks, and all you can say is “you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Life, knocks the wind out of you. Problem after problem.

Pain after pain.

Hardship after hard ship, “You’ve got to be kidding me”

But that’s not what I want to talk about

Then there’s Mary’s perspective if I was preaching this, I would title it, God DID!

A virgin woman Mary.

Is with child.

Not from natural birth, yet from spiritual birth.

This woman, has to walk around with greatness on the inside of her and people’s opinions on the outside of her.

Is it Joseph’s baby?

Who’d you cheat with?

Was he cute?

Was it worth it?

Or my favorite

Who did this to you?

Who Put this on the inside of you?

How did you get this?

How did it happen

And all she could say was, “God Did”

‘And how many times have you birthed greatness and did not have an answer to how it happen?

How’d you start that business, God Did

How’d you made that money, God did

How’d you get that Car- God did

How’d you get that degree- God did

How’d you survive that sickness- God did.

and the truth is, Mary’s story teaches us, that

Some things are just unexplainable.

And the only answer you have is God did.

……but that’s not what I want to talk about.

Theres Mary’s perspective

There Joseph’s perspective

Then theres’s God’s perspective- If I was preaching from God’s perspective, I would title it.

, I’ll do it myself;

NO ONE COULD DO IT FOR HIM

Jacob was a Cheater,

Peter had a temper

David had an affair

Noah got drunk

Paul was a murderer

Miriam was a gossiper

Thomas was a doubter

Elijah was moody

Jonah ran from God

Abraham was too old

And there was no man perfect enough to take on the sins of man so God, took of himself, makes himself in human form, and walks the face of this earth as a man.

because we were not perfect enough to do it, God said, ILL DO IT MY SELF

but thats not what we’re talking about

Theres the prophets perspective-prophets of old predicted a messiah for years and years predicted a savior.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

If I were preaching the prophet’s perspective, I would preach- I told you so

There are three men, who follow a star to get to Jesus, and they come baring gifts. I would preach- I’ve got to see it for myself

the stories would not work

I need to see the man you all were talking about

But there’s another perspective that we rarely talk about,

A perspective thats overlooked.

A perspective that’s undervalued, and that perspective is the

INN KEEPER.

We’ve talked about Mary

We’ve talked about Jospeh

We’ve talked about God

We’ve talked about the prophets

We’ve talked about the 3 men coming to see him

But everyone misses the inn keeper. and since i’m preaching the INN Keeper’s perspective,

I want to talk about “ IM GLAD I MADE ROOM FOR HIM”

The inn keeper’s perspective

Here it is, a man with no identity put in a sticky situation.

I used to work at a hotel before, the country inn and suites.

It made my Job easier when the inn was full because I would take a note, and write, We’re FULL on it, and go to the back and go to sleep.

But this inn keeper was still up. Can you see it?

Probably turning people around all night

telling people before they make it to the front desk, I’m sorry, we’re full.

And there is a man and woman who’s walking up to the desk.

The man, walking in fear,

The woman, Wobbling for dear life.

The woman panicking because she’s pregnant and can’t hold the baby any longer.

The man talking trying to cut a deal with this Inn keeper to get a nice place to have Mary’s baby. Can’t you see it?

The inn keeper, as usual, stops and tells them, IM SORRY, We have no room.

But this couple was different.

This couple brought chills to his body.

This couple seemed desperate

and He realizes he has to do something.

As Mary and Joseph are walking away, trying to find somewhere to have this baby

this inn keeper stops them in their tracks, tells them “I don’t have room inside, but there’s a stable, I can take you to out back,

that can possibly help you while you’re trying to get this baby out of you”

And my questions is, WHY?

Why did he make room?

There are some lessons that we can learn from the IN KEEPER’s perspective on why it’s important to make room for HIM

We should make room because

1. It’s our responsibility -

There was no where for Mary to go.

The inn was full, she had to get her baby out of her,

and this man, seeing the desperation in Mary’s face,

made it his responsibility to make room for Jesus.

and I can hear him saying

With everything going on out there, its best you stay right here.

And the truth of the matter is,

when we look at the scope of where our world is today, It’s best we room for him.

While mass shootings are at an all time high- its our responsibility to make room for him.

With the number of people leaving the church today- Its our responsibility to make room for him.

When everyone is calling right wrong and wrong right, its our responsibility to make room for him.

When the minimum wage isn’t enough for a person to live on their own- It’s our responsibility to make room for him

When a rapper says slavery is a choice, wear a white lives matter shirt and says George Floyd died from a drug overdose-its our responsibility to make room for him.

When he turns to she and she turns to he and he and she turns to THEY- Its our responsibility to make room for him

And if we want to see change in our church, in our community, in our marriages, in our lives, in our businesses, in our political systems, and in our schools, we have to make it our responsibility to make room for him.

We can’t wait on anyone else.

We have to make it our responsibility.

A. Responsibility despite our availability-

He made it his responsibility,

Dispite their availability.- and there are so many times where we lose Jesus because of the lack of availability.

Family takes up our time

The world takes up our time

Social media takes up our time

Friends take up our time

Christmas, takes up our time

Football takes up our time

Work takes up our time

Money takes up our time,

but if we want to make room, we’ve got to move some stuff out the way.

Even though there was no availablity in the INN, he made a space available for Jesus to come in.

And I don’t know who needs to hear this but its some of you who need to say

“LORD IM Available TO YOU.

MY WILL I GIVE TO YOU.

ILL DO WHAT YOU SAY DO, USE ME LORD.”

WE MADE ROOM FOR HIM BECAUSE IT’S OUR RESPONSIBILITY.

BUT THEN WE MAKE ROOM BECAUSE It’s Reciprocated.

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE.

30 years later.

This same man he made room for

is making the blind see,

same man Making the lame walk

same man Making the mut talk

same man Making the deaf hear

same man Making the dead rise

Changing lives

Saving lives

And I can only imagine the inn keeper asking the question, well how old is he?

What’s his mother’s name?

How does his dad look?

I can just imagine 3 years after that him hearing the stories of what this man did and how this man died and it hit him.

Because I made room for him thirty years ago at the inn

He made room for me 30 year later at the cross. That’s reciprocation

And there are some people in here who can testify,

THAT IF I MAKE ROOM FOR HIM down HERE, HE’LL MAKE ROOM FOR ME over THERE

As messed up as I am I need to declare, LORD ILL MAKE ROOM FOR YOU.

IT’s hard but ill make room

It’s christmas, but ill make room

I’m tired but I’ll make room

I’m worried but I’ll make room

My friends- you can move that over

My family- you can move that over

my ego- you can move that over

my ways- you can move that over

my schedule- you can move that over

my itenirary- you can move that over

because Lord, from this day forward, ILL MAKE ROOM FOR YOu.

My problems- you can move that over

My issues- you can move that over

My work- you can move that over

From this day forward, ILL MAKE ROOM FOR YOU.

and the reason, that IM MAKING ROOM

Because one friday.