We're going to read verse number 10 real quickly and then turn back over to Luke 2. Isaiah 11 verse 10, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people, to which shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. Luke chapter number 2. And we're going to pick up reading verse number 1 and read down through verse 7. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 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." Our Father in Heaven, I don't know what else to say, Father. I want to thank You, though, for saving me, for adopting me into Your family. I thank You, Father, that no matter what I do, no matter how badly I sin, You don't throw me out of your family. You don't disown me. I'm still your child. All because you gave your son to us that first Christmas morning. Thank you, Father. Father, I thank you for each and every one that has gathered here today. For those who are watching online, those who will be listening back in later on. I thank you, Father, for him. It's a blessing to me, an honor I definitely do not deserve. And we want to bring all honor and glory and praise to you because of your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you, God. We thank you, Father. And we pray, Lord, all glory to you. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen, amen. A great many factors had to transpire to bring about the birth of Jesus there in Bethlehem. And that's what we want to bring our sermon on here today is how it happened this way. See, it didn't just end here. It's a matter of how it came about. We know the Christmas story, but there's more to it. We read there in Isaiah about him being a root of Jesse, not a root of David. David was a rich man. David was a conqueror. David was king. But Jesus coming as a root of Jesse, Jesse was a commoner. Jesse was an ordinary, run-of-the-mill man. Jesse was not rich. Jesse just looked and trusted and had faith in God. Jesus came as the Root of Jesse to show us, to show you and me, that it is possible. Had He came as the Root of David, He'd have been above us. But instead, He came as one of us. And it's even reflected here. That whole idea of being a root of Jesse is seen here in these first seven verses of Luke chapter number two here. See, there are six things that we can pull out of these seven verses. And we'll be as quickly as we can about it here to show you how it happened. Number one, there was a man who would be God. It said there in verse number one, turn one page too far. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus. The word Augustus is a religious title. This is Octavius that we're talking about here. If you ever did the play Julius Caesar from William Shakespeare, you certainly know that Octavius was a major player back in the day before he became emperor there in Rome. He took the name Caesar, having been adopted by Julius Caesar as his son and his successor to the throne there in Rome. But he chose the name Augustus when the Roman Senate asked, what title do you want to bear? He said, Augustus, because it is a religious title and I want the world to look to me as a god. It says the whole world should be taxed. It's talking about the known world. Every place that Rome had stretched its hands out toward and had conquered. This was part of those who were to be taxed. This was part of the group that's supposed to think of Octavius Caesar Augustus as God. It wasn't his proper name. He didn't change his name to Augustus from Octavius. And we see this over there in Acts chapter 25 when Paul appeals to Augustus and Octavius has been dead for a few decades at that point. But he wanted to be God, he wanted to be large and in charge. He had no clue whatsoever that he was fulfilling prophecy. No clue at all that God was using him strictly as a tool to bring about that Jesus would be born there in Bethlehem, the city of David, the place where he himself was born. But God has no problems pulling on whatever string is necessary to accomplish his means, church. What strings did He pull in your lives this morning to make it so that you yourself could be here today? There are strings that even we don't even know about in our own lives that God has moved so that we could be here. But heaven forbid we get to the point in our own lives where we start saying, I am the one who's going to start pulling the strings because I want to be large and in charge in my life. I want to be numero uno. The world already craves to be its own God. Heaven forbid a Christian should want to be its own God. But this man thought he would be God, and instead, he just became a footnote in the divine plan. I don't want to be a footnote in the divine plan. I mean, yeah, it's a whole lot better to be a footnote than to be completely left out. Don't misunderstand me there. But I would like to actually have God say, hey Dennis, congratulations, you actually did something for me. Other than just breathe. But there's a lot of people out there at church who are content to just breathe. When God wants us to be overcomers instead. But this is how it happened. One man who wanted to be God, It also was a distance, was very great. We see in verse number four, and Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. By the way, Bethlehem means house of bread. Very interesting that the bread of life was to be born there in the house of bread. I like how God works those things out there. And I've heard many different mileages associated between Nazareth and Bethlehem. I've heard 50, I've heard 70 miles. And I'm like, well, there's such a wide variety. Let's see what Google has to say. So I Googled it this morning. I want to know, what does Google say is the distance? Google declares from Nazareth to Bethlehem is 93 and a half miles. Average walking speed is three miles an hour Which means it would take a normal person? 31.2 hours to complete Just from A to B. Not going back again Normally this is a three-day journey that's being taken here and Mary As it says, great with child. I remember back when my wife was seven months along with our little bouncing bundle of joy, and we made a trip down to Tennessee. And she rode in the back of the pickup truck, not in the bed of the truck. I had an extended cab. She rode back there, because it was me and my cousin Adam. He was navigating for us, because I hadn't been to my Papaw's house. But she had that nice long trip, and at least she got to ride in the vehicle all that distance there. Weren't none too comfortable, were it, dear? No, she's shaking her head, no. She's also over there like, how dare you remind me of that? You're in trouble when you get home now. But still, they're not comfortable. You ladies who've had a child of your own, could you imagine walking for the next three days? Would you want to walk for the next three days? Can we also factor in the fact that the baby sits right there on the bladder and the baby likes to kick the bladder and use it as a punching bag? How many times extra did they have to stop along the way for her to get a little bit of rest, for her to relieve her back? I don't think it was just a three-day trip for them. Seems like four at the very least to me. That's a great distance to travel by car. It's over two and a quarter hours to travel that distance by car. They're walking it. There's no mention in scripture that she rode on a donkey. So I don't know, did they have a donkey for her to ride and Joseph walked the whole way? Did they both walk the whole way? I don't know, but I know they did not have an automobile. But it happened this way, church, a great distance had to be covered when so many people won't even walk across the street to tell someone about Jesus. We won't even pick up the phone to wish someone good health, because we're mad at them. We find distances of all shapes, sizes, varieties, colors, and whatnot to keep us from doing anything. He stepped down from His throne and was placed in a manger. The third heaven passed the second heaven, passed the first heaven down to terra firma here. He certainly covered a great distance. Can't we? But you know, aside from the man who would be God, the distance was very great. There's the travelers without grace. It says here in verse number seven, at the very end, there was no room for them in the end. That's because the whole world has been taxed. The whole world is required to go back to the place that you were born so that you could be a part of this census here. We are going to record what job you are occupying now. We are going to record how big your family has grown right now. We are going to make sure we're getting our money from you right now. But it's got to be done where the last record was taken 14 years prior. Because that's how often Rome did a census, every 14 years. The place is full, jam-packed. And no one looked at that very obviously pregnant, ready-to-drop woman and said, ma'am, you can take my bed tonight. Everyone managed to turn a blind eye. Let me hurry up and pick up the pace and get out of here before I get asked. Oh, I'm just a weary traveler too, trust me. I'm so tired I can't even pay attention to what you're saying. I just gotta go ahead and lay down. In fact, no one came to help her deliver that baby. According to verse number 7, she did it all by herself. Any of you all that had a baby, take care of cleaning up that child and bundling that child up after you had that child all by yourself. Not too many people nowadays do that, do they? She had to. No midwife. The world will come looking for a handout, no problem. But to give you a hand up, the world's not really interested in that too much. How about us, church? Are we travelers through this life who are willing to show grace? Who are willing to show a little bit of compassion? Who are willing to try to help others out to show what the true meaning of Christmas is all about? Are we busy? Let me just hurry up and get from point A to point B and, you know, your problems are your problems. But this is how it happened. You know, I noticed something as I've gone over the nativity story. It hit me this morning. Where's the family? The family were gone. Micah chapter 5 verse 2 says, But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. For centuries, this family has been looking for the promised Messiah. This family has known that the root of David is going to be born there in Bethlehem. David's greater son is going to be born there in Bethlehem. The family knows this. I can't help but imagine that there's still some extended family living there in Bethlehem in case they get to be the ones who gives birth to the Messiah. I would not blame them for that at all if they were hanging around there in Bethlehem. Hey, hey, hey, my wife's pregnant and guess what? This might be it. Things are looking good. We're here in Bethlehem. I'm a David. Uh, yeah, no, this ain't the Messiah either. Why weren't they opening their doors to Joseph? Why? I go down to Tennessee. I have a key to that place. I can just walk right on in. My parents told me to. I'm family. I've got other family in Tennessee and Kentucky, here in Indiana. I can knock on the door and they will let me in. Why didn't they do that for them? Maybe they heard about Joseph. Joseph, you're fooling around a little bit there, aren't you, son? You have brought great shame upon the family name out of wedlock, Joseph. You ain't no good. And that child of yours certainly ain't gonna be the Messiah if he's born in sin like this. Busy judging them is what they're doing. Nobody in their circle of family or friends deem them good enough or worthy enough to help out. How many people in our lives do we look at and we deem they're not worthy? That's one thing. If you can't help in any way, shape, or form, in fact, you know you're going to make it worse. Trust me. Every time I see Brother Tim working on a car, we'll talk, and I'll make my comments, and then I walk away, because I know I will make things worse for him. I am a horrible mechanic. He is better off by himself when it comes to me and mechanical expertise there. Fact of the matter. I don't know how good he is, but, you know, he doesn't need me to make things worse. That's a little bit different, though, than opening up my doors and saying, hey, you need some help, come on, I'll give you some help. Where were they? The family was gone when they needed them. Are we gone with a world that needs our help? Fifthly, the innkeeper with gall. Of course, that word gall means nerve or impudence. Jesus declared in Luke 12, 34, for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Every 14 years, as we said, Rome commands this census to be taken. And every innkeeper, he suddenly starts seeing dollar signs walking through the door. He can charge whatever prices he feels like it. These are the original Airbnb taking place right here. He will even take and rent out his own personal bed just to make a little bit more money. He could charge, like I said, however much he wants to. Was it a matter of Joseph couldn't afford his prices, and that's why there wasn't room? Joseph budgets a certain amount of money for the trip there, and he figures, OK, normally getting a room will be $20 a night. We know there's going to be extra demand, so say it'll be $50 a night. And he shows up there, and he says, innkeeper, I'd like to have a room. And the innkeeper says, I've got one left, and it's $200. No, I don't need it for four nights, just one. No, $200 a night. And Joseph's like, I ain't got $200 total. The guy behind him says, I'll take it. And the innkeeper says, here you go. How many of us negotiate like that? Now let's cut the innkeeper a little slack. Maybe it's simply a matter of that they started on this trip, and Mary suddenly remembered, oh yeah, I left the stove on. They had to turn around and go back, and they lost an hour or two doing that. They're a day's journey out, and Joe says, I forgot to lock the garage. I've got to turn around and go back, lock the garage up, come back. And they just arrive too late for there to be anything. It's a census. The people are going nuts needing rooms. They're everywhere, like locusts descending upon Bethlehem at that time. We can't fault the innkeeper nowhere near as much as we do, because it's simply a matter of their He's only got so much space. These places get filled up quick. So maybe he wasn't as bad as we think, but certainly there was no room for them there in the end. But sixthly, we've seen some bad, we've seen some hardship, we've seen one that could go either way, but how about one that's just outright positive? with the woman who wrapped the gift. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 says, For unto us a child is born. Jesus was a child. He was born. He did not just appear. He did not happen by spontaneous human combustion. Poof! There He is. He was born. Every sense of the term except the actual conception came the natural way. For unto us a child is born. Isaiah goes on to say, Unto us a son. is given. He specified Son, because indeed this is a Son. This was a little boy that was born here, but it wasn't just a little boy. This is the Son of God that has been given to us. Gifts are free. Gifts cost the one giving it, but literally for you to accept it, it is free. You just have to accept it. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death. Wages, that's what you've earned. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Not through Muhammad, not through good gifts, not through who you know, not through who you are related to, but through Jesus Christ our Lord, given to us. This wasn't a gift that Mary gave. She was a vessel, another tool, just like Augustus was just a tool. Mary was just a tool. But that gift was God Himself. That gift was God Himself giving to mankind. Without Him, Jesus Yeah, we wouldn't know Him. Without God giving us Jesus, we would not know Him. So Mary wrapped a gift. The greatest gift. Because if Jesus did not come, there would be no Calvary. There would be no empty tomb. There would be no salvation. There would be no heaven for any of us. But there would still be hell waiting on us. This is how it happened, church. Mary wrapped a gift. Not even one that she herself gave. God gave it. So I want to ask you this here in closing this morning. I'm going to be very direct. Has Jesus come into your life? I can't answer it for any of you. I can only answer it for myself. I can't even answer it for those two over there. I can only answer it for myself. So if He has not come, now is the time to ask Him to come into your life. My second question is this. if He has already come into your life. When was the last time you thanked Him for it? Our Father in Heaven, I believe, Lord, this is the sermon you'd have for us to bring today. And we ask you, Lord, please, for your blessings upon it. That there's anyone here, in the sound of my voice, who does not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, that they would make today that day. that they get birthed into the kingdom of heaven. That they would make today their own personal Christmas by Jesus coming into their lives. I thank you God for each and every one here in faith and I do pray Lord for your blessings upon them. I pray Lord for our little church to grow in understanding and strength of your will, your word, your Holy Spirit, that we'd all do a much better job of being witnesses for you. Help us, Father, please, to keep Thee faith. In the name of Jesus, we do pray. Amen, amen, if you'd please stand.