Do You Need Directions?

0:41 what is our north star and that of course is a metaphor for vision and so on the eight o'clock service today we dealt with the concept of for those of you who were like just just too hurt to dream too wounded to dream if you're not careful you can be so heartbroken and hurt that you are handcuffed and have no sense of hope and we dealt with the fact that Abram had been promised by God to be the what the the father of a nation and for several chapters nothing happened and Brueggemann says perhaps he thought it was a false alarm have you ever thought you heard from God only to feel like that was a false alarm and you can have so many false alarms that after a while you just say you know what forget it and I'll testify I didn't share this at 8 o'clock but one of the most difficult and dark moments of my own ministry was when we were going through a season of construction here and it was just horrible we went through delays we got you know gypped I mean we got it was a real rough time and and I discovered that I had some people around me that weren't right and it's hard to get to the right place when you got wrong people around you and I'm already preaching huh and and some of you have stopped dreaming because you just had the wrong people around you and wrong people can drain you they can take from you they can stab you in the back and before you know it you just give up on the idea of dreaming because you can't get to the right place if you kicking it with the wrong people that was the first service I'm sorry that wasn't this service so uh so in this service I want to look at Matthew chapter 2 uh beginning at verse 1 Matthew chapter 2 beginning at verse 1 I'm gonna read the first 12 verses of this uh familiar passage and hopefully it will speak to us in a way that will challenge us on this Sunday

2:52 where we are writing the vision. This is our Vision Sunday, so we're going to try to inspire us to do just that. Matthew chapter 2, beginning at verse 1, from the New International Version translation of the Greek New Testament, it reads, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw a star when it rose and have come to worship, him. When the King Herod heard this, he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the chief people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem in Judea. They replied, for this is what the prophet has written. But you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod called the magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared he sent them to Bethlehem and said go and search carefully for the child as soon as you find him report to me so that I too may go and worship him after they heard the king they went on their way and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was when they saw the star they were overjoyed on coming to the house they saw the child with his mother Mary and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they were turned to their country by another route. You may be seated in God's presence. I want to put a tag on this text and for a few moments with your prayers, I want to raise the question, do you need directions? Do you need directions?

4:50 Erykah Badu in Didn't You Know has a luminous line about direction. Ooh, hey, I got to decide which way to go. I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere. It's a luminous line about direction. I made a wrong turn back there somewhere. Why? Because she's recognizing that there is a correlation between what? dreaming destinations and direction. There is no wrong way to get to the right place. We get that. And if you're not careful, you can discover that you aren't where you're supposed to be because you don't have or you lack a sense of direction. I didn't say that like I wanted to, but someone is already looking at me and saying, Pastor, you and my Kool-Aid, you called out the flavor because the honest thing is, yeah, I have this dream, but I'm not quite sure what to do next because what I need in my life is a sense of direction.

5:56 Because you will understand that in this life, where you are going has everything to do with the road that you take to get there. You can know your purpose, but my question is, what path are you on to get to that purpose? Every now and then we get hyped about purpose, but then we miss our path. And as a consequence, we discover that in this life, if you get where you're going, where will you be has everything to do with the directions that you take. I'll make this real plain. This past Christmas, I had a flashback to one of my favorite Christmases long before my father had passed. He passed when I was 14. And check this out. My dad died when I was 14, and around my ninth or tenth Christmas, I won't forget it because my dad and I was, I had seen on television this train set. Now, this is old school.

6:53 Y'all know nothing about this, but I had seen this train set, and I wanted this train set so bad. And I said to him repeatedly, Daddy, I want this train set, and he never would answer one way or the other. Have you ever felt like that when you pray? It's like you're asking God and yet God ain't making a commitment one way or the other. Well, that's what was happening with me. I'm asking and yet daddy does not say yes, but at the same time he doesn't say no. So I don't know how this thing is going to work out for Christmas, but I did get a word of hope. He said to me, wait till Christmas. I like that. And so that caused me to spend the days between asking and Christmas in anticipation. There was an energy of expectation because my daddy had said, wait till Christmas. And because I had gotten that word to wait till Christmas, there was a hope that somehow something good was on its way.

7:53 Well, Christmas Eve, you know, that was bananas and I could hardly sleep. Christmas day I wake up real early run downstairs with the rest of the family and this is what wiped me out I saw it as soon as I saw the tree and that is this big box and this big box had a picture on the front of the train set I had asked my daddy for and I ran to that train set I said daddy thank Thank you because I have been raised right. And so I went and grabbed him and hugged him because I've been raised right. When you have good home training, whenever the Father gives you something, you know how to say thank you. Is there anybody here who has come to church today? And your thing is, I don't care what choir sings, what preacher preaches. I got enough holy home training that I need to show up in church on Sunday just to say thank you.

8:50 You woke me up this morning. And thank you, you done kept me through some crazy situations. Thank you, you've given me chance after chance after chance. Thank you. Is there anybody here that just wants to say thank you? Well, that's what I did. I thanked my dad. After thanking my dad, I said, can I open it right now? And you know, he said, no, I'm going to the kitchen to get something to open up the box. And when he left, I couldn't wait. I opened up that box and cut my hand in the process because I could not wait. When I opened up the box, I then poured out the contents of the box. And this blew my nine-year-old mind because I'm thinking that because there's a picture of the train set that is already put together outside of the box, that when I opened up the box, the least it could do was have the train set together because the picture was together.

9:50 But when I opened up the box, out of the box came all of these pieces. And that's when I read on the box, it said assembly required. Now, that's what I came to talk about with us today because God has given you a vision. And yet God said still assembly required. It's not going to come fully put together already Assembly is required I think I'll stop right there Because that's what you've been dealing with for quite some time And that is you're saying God I know I got the picture I know I got the vision Harriet D. Ultraman said No vision and you perish No ideal you are lost Your heart must ever cherish Some faith at any cost Some faith some dream to cling to some service that is high, some melody to sing to, some rainbow in the sky.

10:44 You got to have vision. But when you have vision, it doesn't just automatically fall together because God has sent me to share with you on the box of your vision. God says, assembly required. Assembly required means there is work to do. Now, come back with me to my home. I'm nine years old. and all of these pieces come out of the box. I try to put them together myself and I'm having a hard time because none of it is working. Wait, it got worse because finally I see this folded sheet of white paper. I open it up. It's what? The directions. And so I said, oh, this will help me. But I look at the directions. There are diagrams I don't understand. There are big words too big for me to comprehend. And so it's like I have directions. I have the pieces.

11:37 I have the picture, but I don't understand the directions. Here it is because God brought you to friendship west today. Let's keep it 100. You have a dream. You have a vision, but it's the directions that ain't making sense. You trying to figure out, God, are you serious? Is this exactly what you're saying? Y'all still missing this thing. I'm going to help y'all out right quick. Listen, it was flight. watch this 007 that flew Korean Airlines it was what October 31st 1983 and flight 007 Korean Airlines was scheduled to fly from Anchorage directly to Seoul Korea those of you in my age group know where I'm going the flight took off but what the pilot did not know is that the computer in its connection with the navigation system of the aircraft was off by one and a half degrees. And because it was off by one and a half degrees, it was what really not too detectable.

12:41 And so the flight taxied and took off. And when it was 100 miles from takeoff, it was already straying off course, but it was not that detectable. And then it flew over the Aleutian Mountains. and before you know it, this is during the Cold War, parenthetically. And so as a consequence, it flew into Soviet airspace. They thought it was what? An enemy that was trying to spy. They immediately sent some aircraft to contact the plane. No response was given. And because they were in Soviet airspace, they shot the plane down. They shot it down. Why? Because the plane had veered off path. It had veered off course. It had strayed just a little bit, but just enough to go where it was not supposed to be. I'll stop right there because somebody came to church.

13:36 You ain't strayed a whole lot, but you strayed just enough to get in some situations that you need to get yourself out of. Preach, Freddie. I'm doing that. You ain't strayed a whole lot. You show up in church every Sunday, but you just off course enough to be in a space where you shouldn't be. And if you're not careful, my sisters and brothers, you'll end up, watch this, losing what you have, not getting where you wanted to go. Not only because you couldn't read the directions, but because the signal is just a little bit off. Well, that's exactly why I couldn't wait to hop homiletically into this amazing passage. We know it real well. It's preached during the Christmas season. But note with me that this really is two years after heaven's hero and earth's emancipator has been born. And the Bible lets us know that Jesus is now growing up in Bethlehem, a little child, probably two years old, a toddler.

14:36 And the book lets us know that here comes some wise men or some magi. Now parenthetically, the Magi end up in Jerusalem and they end up in Jerusalem having followed a star from the east. They are astrologers by trade. And so they are students and scholars of the stars. And when they see this particular star, they rightly discern it's a star. I'm about to shout you. It's a star that is connected to the rising of a king And the king evidently must be the king of Judah because the king of Judah, that's where the star has risen. And so they make their journey, but where does their journey take them? The star doesn't lead them first and foremost to Jesus. It leads them to Jerusalem where Herod is running things.

15:32 Ain't that a trip in that every now and then, during the course of our lives, our star will lead us to Herod. Now, y'all didn't shout, but those who first heard this, when they read this, they are tripping because they know that Herod is an insecure, amoral lowlife. Herod is one of those leaders or rulers who is put on the throne. And Herod is all about using his throne to punish his enemies. And so Herod would create crises. Herod would declare war on his own people because that's how insecure that Herod was. Herod was some kind of a lying king. He would manufacture a crisis. What kind of a ruler would manufacture a crisis, would just create a crisis where there ain't even a crisis? That's a real lowdown, insecure, lying and conniving ruler.

16:30 What kind of, do y'all know of a ruler who would do such a thing? Well, that's the kind of ruler that Herod was. and the book lets us know when Herod would do stuff like that, the Bible says this, watch it, that Herod would do that. And so here is where the Magi are led. They are led to Herod. And every now and then, God trips me out because I'm following what I think are God's directions and I end up with Herod. it's like God if you're leading me why would you lead me to Herod why would you confuse me and so today's message is to have a conversation with you because my question is can you use some directions my question is as you look at where you are as opposed to where you're trying to go can you use some directions have you tried to follow God's path in the past and where you ended up was not exactly where you planned on being and now you're tripping on God it's like God I don't know if I'm supposed to be here right now I see if I can help y'all out this happened to me I won't forget this I was in what I was in Southern California a few years ago and this was back when I had a Blackberry phone I was one of the last people to hold on to a Blackberry and so I'm in Southern Cali I rent me a car rent my drop top because that's what I do When I go to California, always get a drop top.

18:03 Why? Because I got to dig the scene with my preacher lean, woo, woo. So I rented my drop top, get in my car, but I don't know exactly where I'm going because I've never been to this church before. It's in a new space. Watch it. It's in a new space that I'm going to. And so I get in the car and I use, watch that, the GPS on the BlackBerry. And so I'm following the GPS directions only to have the BlackBerry decide to freeze on me, mere traffic. I'm in traffic. I know I have to make a turn somewhere, but the BlackBerry GPS freezes on me. That means I don't know what to do next. And cars are flying by me, and they're giving me half of a peace sign because I am slowing down because my BlackBerry has frozen on me. And every now and then, that becomes a metaphor for what I'm waiting to hear from God. Traffic is flying by me, and it's like God has frozen revelation.

19:02 God ain't talking. God ain't speaking. And that's where somebody is that came to church today. It's like you're trying to hear from God, but God ain't coming through. And since God ain't coming through, the question is, do you need directions? God ain't speaking. Do you need directions? The directions aren't making sense. Do you need directions? You got a piece here, a piece there, a piece there, and the pieces ain't fitting. Do you need directions? If you do, if you do, watch this text because the text has me hyped and shouting because the text says the first thing God's going to do when you need directions, God is going to give you a signal that you are looking for. Okay, notice the magi see the star. The star is something everyone can see, but only the magi are looking for it because in this life, you only see what you're looking for.

20:08 You better preach Freddie Haynes. I'll give an experiment right now. If I were to ask you to tell me how many people on your row are wearing black and you start to look down your row to see who's wearing black. And then I ask you, after you have seen all of those who are wearing black, I would ask you, okay, while you were looking down the road for who's wearing black, did you see anybody that's wearing red? And guess what? You probably did not see those who were wearing red because you weren't looking for those who were wearing red. You were looking for those who were wearing black. And in this life, baby, Baba, you always get what you are looking for. And so a lot of times God is trying to show us something, but we ain't looking for what God is trying to show us. The Magi, they saw the star because they were looking for the star. And because they were looking for the star, that's why they were able to discern that this star was a different star.

21:06 This star was connected to the one that was born, King of the Jews. And all I came to tell y'all today is what are you looking for? because God is so good that God will make sure that you see what God knows you are wired to look for. Preach, Freddie. I just did. They are magi. They are astrologers. They study the stars. They look at the stars. So they are looking for a star. And God says, however you are wired, I promise you I will use that wiring to help you look for what it is I envision for your life. okay okay that was really good and y'all didn't get that because evidently I know what's going on right here I'll help you and see if this will bless you you are tripping still because I appreciate your sensitivity and you're saying well what happened to you when you were in LA with your drop top did you ever get where you were going you know I did I got where I was going and this is what's gonna mess y'all up because once I discovered that my phone GPS had frozen I said well, I can't go with this, but here was the good news. The pastor had met me at the airport, and the pastor said, this is the address to the church. This is when I used to carry a Bible, and so he said, this is the address to the church. I put the address in the Bible, and so once I put the address in the Bible, I then said, well, let me check that out. I opened up the Bible. He did not only put the address in there, he put the directions in there, and so what I needed to get where I was going, was already in the Word.

22:45 And so what I did was just simply allow the directions in the Word to get me from where I was to where I needed to go. Come here, because I've come by to let y'all know your directions. I know where they are. They in the Word. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge God. God will direct your pathway. Okay, I spoke so fast, you missed every shout bomb. It says Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust. And the word there means to lean on. It means to find your security in. Trust in the Lord. You didn't shout. You don't know who the Lord is? I am talking about the Lord. The Lord Yahweh, Elohim, El Elyon, El Shaddai, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah Shalom. I am talking about the Lord.

23:40 Trust in the Lord. Y'all still know the Lord? The Lord, heart fixer, mind regulator, burden bearer, heavy load sharer, rock in a weary land. Trust in the Lord. Here it is, with all your heart. And the word for heart means everything inside you. So trust in the Lord with all that's inside of you and don't lean on what you think you know. Because his thoughts ain't our thoughts. His ways ain't our ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are God's thoughts and ways above our thoughts and ways. Have you thought about God's thoughts and how God's thoughts manifest themselves? The Bible says, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And the word for word is logos, which we get our word what? Logic from. And divine logic became flesh and kicked it with us. Y'all didn't shout.

24:36 Here comes your shout. God's logic ain't my logic how do I know because God can take a two-piece five biscuits and feed 5,000 men not to mention the women and children logically that don't add up for me but guess what God says your thoughts ain't my thoughts and your logic ain't my logic and so watch this watch this it says trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding in all your ways Here it is, acknowledge.

25:09 Acknowledge. And the word acknowledge comes out of the word no. And in Hebrew, the word no was used for intimacy. That's why it said, and Adam knew Eve. It wasn't talking about he knew her name. They did the thing because they were intimate. Adam knew Eve. In all your ways, get intimate with God. And out of intimacy with God, God provides direction and your pathway. I ain't even making that up. Go to Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. It says what? Romans 12, 1 and 2 said, it says, it says, it says, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

26:12 And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will discover and prove that which is good and perfect, which is the acceptable will of God for your life. I got to give y'all the Freddie Haynes remix of Romans 12, 1, 2, and give you time to shout. It simply says, here's what you do. Present all that you are. Don't half-step with God, but give all that you are to God. And once you give all that you are to God, you'll discover that's when you're really worshiping. Worshiping ain't just what you do on Sunday. Worshiping is what you do all week long. And when you present all of yourself in worship to God, then you won't be conformed. You won't let the world squeeze you in its mold. You won't let who you are be defined by what other folks say about you. And once who you are is defined by whose you are and not pleasing other people, then you will discern the acceptable and good and perfect will of God.

27:19 okay okay I'm gonna get y'all I'm gonna get y'all uh so God will give you a signal that you are wired to discern God ain't gonna do it on a conference call it's gonna be person to person let me move on so the so so so watch what happens they the magi see the star show up in Jerusalem and discover now I'm going to say this slow because man this is hot God orders our stops in order to redirect our steps okay okay let me talk to y'all they miss every shout Bob God orders our stops stops you wanted me to say steps No, God don't just order your steps.

28:14 God will order your stops. And when God orders your stops, it's so God can redirect your steps. And God every now and then will bring your life to a stop sign. God will bring your life to a red light. You ever come to a red light that was put there by God? It's like you ready to go, but it says red. You trying to move, but it says red. God will give you a red light because God is ordering your stops. Because God's getting ready to reorder your steps or redirect your steps. They come to Jerusalem. Oh, I got to say this. And all Jerusalem and Herod are upset. Okay. When you live in your truth, it will disturb those who are living a lie. Don't trip if you being true to your dream, your vision, your purpose upset people who live with you.

29:25 Because there's some folk that live with you who live in a lie. And as long as they live in a lie, they can't handle your truth. Boom. And if they can't handle your truth, the Bible says they were upset. They were agitated. They were disturbed by when the Magi said, we are coming looking for the king of the Jews. We've come to worship him. Uh-oh. This is our mission, worship. Pay homage to. We've come to worship him. And the text says the response was Herod was ticked. And all Jerusalem was too. and some of y'all been trying to live your truth and you were coming up against so much yin yang so much attack so much of people hating on you and the bottom line is it's because once you come to accept your truth those who are living a lie got to attack your truth okay that's alright that's alright but here's what gets me they are in Jerusalem which makes sense they've done what they're supposed to do Jerusalem is the capital of Judah so the king should be born in Jerusalem capital makes sense but they get there and that ain't where the king is let me see if I can help you some would be real real with you this this right here is where I'm just gonna testify okay I graduated from Bishop college in 1982 and when I graduated I just knew that my life was gonna be perfect because I had gotten my degree and and then when I got my degree I was about to go to grad school in New York but but that fell apart because I went home after graduation my mama had been through a divorce and it had been a real messed up situation so I decided that I'd spend a semester at home working and And that's cool because after all, I had a degree in religion and English, real, real marketable degree.

31:37 And so I had this degree in religion and English. I'm going to get me a job. I'm Freddie Haynes. I know I can get me a job. I'm in San Francisco. Everybody loves me there. So I know I'm going to get me a job. Check out what happened, y'all. I applied for job after job. And Brother Heron, not one door opened, not one door opened. And I got me a degree. I'm tripping because I done got me a degree in religion and English. First of all, religion, God, you ought to open up a door for me since I got a degree in your name. And then English, you know I can interview well and talk well. So surely the interviews had gone well. And check this out, y'all. I could not get a job until finally a member of my home church, Third Baptist, says, we can, I got a job for you. It's at a rental center. So I go to the rental center, and once I check into the rental center, the person who is over me looks at my resume and says, I don't know why you're working here.

32:31 You got your degree. And I can see he don't like me because his neck is red. And so since his neck is red, we're going to have issues because I'm budding as the person I am right now. And so that means I ain't going to take no stuff off of you. And if you come for me wrong, then guess what? I got to clap back at you. But at the same time, I wanted to get paid because I'm here to help mama. And so there were times I'd have to keep my mouth shut. And one day he decided that he was going to help this uppity Negro to get in his place. Y'all know what he did? He said, here it is. It's a rental center, a center where they rented different stuff. One of the things you could rent from this center was garbage cans. And so a huge thing of garbage cans had come back in after they had been rented for the weekend. He says, that's you. You have to clean every garbage can and you better get it spick and span. And at that moment, I began to speak in tongues, an unknown tongue.

33:28 You cannot judge me because none of y'all would have said, thank you, Jesus, if you give an assignment to wash garbage cans and you got a college degree. And so I go to get them garbage cans and all I can think about is this fool is trying to make a, is trying to put me in my place. and y'all what he didn't know is I had been raised right and so I began to remix Martin Luther King Jr. I washed them garbage cans like Langston Hughes wrote poetry. I washed them garbage cans like Beethoven composed music. I washed them garbage cans in such an excellent way that they had never been that clean and have not been that clean since but I was washing and cussing at the same time. You know why? Because now I ain't just mad at him. I got issues with God. It's like, God, why would you let me get in this position where this man is dissing me? He's embarrassing me.

34:30 He's laughing at me. He's doing all of this stuff to me. And while I'm washing the garbage cans, watch God work and answer prayer. I'm washing the garbage cans. I come to a can on the outside of it. Watch this. A woman who was real nice to me had put a note on the sign, a note on the garbage can, and the note had a scripture, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge God. God will direct your path. I already knew it, so I started crying. And I started washing the garbage cans even more. And the next thing you know, she said, call this number. And I got home, called that number. And the number was to the manager, branch manager of Sumitomo Bank. And the branch manager at Sumitomo Bank kid said, I heard about how you wash garbage cans. I said, I ain't washing no garbage cans for you.

35:27 He said, I ain't asking you to wash garbage cans. But if you will wash a garbage can with a sense of excellence, I know I can trust you to be in my management training program. And y'all, I got in the management training program of Sumitomo Bank. But watch God, because Sumitomo Bank was about to throw a big Christmas party. And we needed to rent, watch this, some furniture for the party we were going to throw. And my branch manager said, why don't you come with me? Because we're going to go look at various rental centers. And I want you to let me know what center you want to get this contract. And y'all, I said, for real, for real. And we went to the one where I had quit. And when I got there, I walked in and there's old Mr. Redneck. And the redneck looks at me and said, what are you doing here? I'm here to see if you are worthy of a contract.

36:24 because I'm the one who's going to decide if you get the contract because God will prepare a table before you in the presence of people that don't like you. I ain't done. I ain't done. I'm working in the management training program and I get a call from Dallas. Friendship West Baptist Church says, we just had a vote to call you as our pastor. And I look back on that time now and it's like God used the garbage cans to break my ego down because God wanted to know if I would handle a garbage can right because if you're faithful over a garbage can God will raise you up All right.

37:20 All right, I'm going to quit. I held y'all too long. This is so good because I'm trying to let you know God is directing even to Jerusalem. Jerusalem may get upset with your truth, but you keep on going anyhow. And then in the final analysis, watch God. The text says, I got to give it, I just give you the story. Let the story speak for itself. The text says that Herod called in his preachers on payroll because every Herod has to have a preacher on payroll because Herod knows when I'm doing my dirt, I need to have a preacher who brown-noses, and this preacher was probably the first church, a pastor of First Baptist, and the preacher gets up and says, yeah, God's going to have a wall in heaven. You on your way to hell, you keep saying stuff like that, but I hope you don't go there.

38:13 But, but, sorry, boom, bad, bad pastor. And so here's what happened. So Herod calls in his preachers and says to his preachers, they just said, Messiah gonna be born, you need to tell me where. And text says, they told him where, but they didn't go. Okay. The preachers knew where Jesus was being born, but they didn't practice what they knew. it can really mess you up if you get a word from someone and then discover that that what they preaching ain't what they live in and so and so so so so so the magi get a word from folk who ain't living what they preaching but they make up their mind really all I want is the word anyhow so you You may miss out on what God is doing, but we going anyhow.

39:12 And the text says they then made their way to Bethlehem. And that's when the star came back. And the star confirmed they were moving in the right direction. And they came to the house where Jesus was. And they worshipped him. What else are you going to do when you're in the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? What else are you going to do? When you're in the presence of the God of the universe, they worshiped him. And the Greek word is proskuneo. You know what this word means. It's the word picture of a lap dog that is licking the hand of its owner. You know why lap dogs lick the hands of their owners? Because those hands carry them. Those hands feed them. Those hands protect them. And you ought to have enough dog in you that whenever you are getting to church on Sunday, you ought to say you know what God your hands have fed me this week and give God a lick your hands have opened up some doors for me your hands have carried me and give God what God is worthy of here it is and the text says they offered Jesus gifts because it's hard to worship without giving I'm sorry I know y'all don't like that but that's right what the text says and the text says after worship that night here's your shout they had a dream and they were warned don't go back to Herod and they went home another way Al Heron, you know my late mentor, Emmanuel Scott Sr.

40:48 had a sermon called Going Another Way because Dr. Scott was saying in that sermon sagaciously that every now and then in this life, you've got to embrace another way. You can't keep doing what you've been doing and expect for something to be different. You got to go another way. Ain't nothing gonna get better unless you make some changes. You got to go another way. And so maybe what God is saying in 2019, it's time to go another way. You've been doing this for a long time now. It's time to go another way. If you want to make a better life, you got to have better systems. You got to create better structures because it's time to go another way.

41:32 Because when you go another way, what God was doing, God said, I'm directing you away from Herod. Herod helped you get here but don't confuse here's your shout don't confuse destination with an information desk oh that was so good when you travel and go to airports you land at the airport it ain't your destination but they have an information desk and the information desk is to give you direction to get from where you are to where you need to go and so what God does God says I'm gonna use Herod for your information desk but you ain't got to go back to him because I'm protecting you from him in protecting you from him I'm directing you to where you need to go I'll quit with this uh y'all know by now I'm I'm a huge fan of Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman blows my mind every time I read about her this is what I read this week and I had to give it to y'all Harriet Tubman this is it I'm done Harriet Tubman so-called uh how many of you have heard of the revolt at Harper's Ferry the revolt at Harper's Ferry ended up being a failure it was led by John Brown John Brown a white abolitionist decided that it's time for us to violently end slavery and so he organized a fight at Harper's Ferry and Harriet Tubman was invited to the fight but when she was invited to the fight watch what happened she was stricken with the flu it was a bad case of the flu the fever would not break. I mean, it was a horrible, horrible flu, and she could not go. She had planned on being there, but the flu was so, so bad, and so, so, so, so it knocked her down so that Harriet couldn't get out of the bed, and so she had to get a message to John Brown. I can't make it to the revolt at Harper's Ferry, and John Brown got caught. He ended up being executed, and it would have happened to Harriet Tubman had she not been sick. And I've discovered something. God won't let you

43:40 go certain places because God knows what will happen if you go where you want to go, if you go where you think you're going. And so this shout is for those of you who have looked in 2018 and thought about where you wanted to go, but you didn't end up going there. But now all you can say is, thank you, Jesus, because if I'd gone where I wanted to go, I'd have ended up in a messed up situation every now and then God orders your stops because of what God is trying to block and God will order your stops because of what God is trying to block because God is setting you up for a blessing. Do you need directions? If you need directions, this text lets us know that God will give you a signal that you're wired to look for. This text lets us know that God will order your stops to redirect your steps.

44:44 And this text finally lets us know that God challenge you, challenge you, challenges you in the new year.