I Don't Understand The Assignment

Let's go to Matthew chapter number one, verse number eight. I'm glad to have my baby boy in worship with us today, Gabriel Micah, back from Syracuse University. Clap your hands for Gabe, everybody. Amen. You'll be happy when your kids come back. All right. Matthew chapter one, verse number 18 says, this is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law, he did not want to expose her to a public disgrace. He had in mind to divorce her quietly, but after he had considered this, the angel of the Lord came to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save the people from their sin. I want to stop the reading of scripture there and use as a subject for our time together something very simple. I don't understand the assignment. Clap your hands if God has ever had you confused. This section not honest. I say clap your hands if you've ever been like, God, what's up with this? I don't understand the assignment. I want to start today's sermon with a quote that's credited to Mark Twain. He says this. He says, there are two very important or the two most important days of your life are number one, the day you were born, number two, the day you discover why. Family, your why is the reason for your creation or existence.

We call it your purpose. And I want you to know that your presence on this planet, look at me, is not a coincidence. You're not a result of some cosmic coincidence. You're not even a result of some relational accident. Your parents may not have planned for your arrival, but God did. I can say this, not because I know your parents, but because I know my God. And I got to eavesdrop on a conversation he had with a gentleman named Jeremiah in the book of Jeremiah, chapter number one, where he tells Jeremiah these words. He says, before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you. Watch what he says. Before I formed you, your parents made you. I formed you. The only thing your parents could do was to do the thing that conceive you. After that, everything was out of their control. The rest of it is me. Your strengths, that's me. Your talent, that's me. Your personality, that's me. Your passions, that's me. Your gifts, that's me. And I did not design you by default. I built you by design with your destiny in mind. You've been built by design. You've been wired for a specific work. You've been customized and crafted for a specific calling. And on the inside of you, in latent form, is everything you need to be who God's called you to be and do what God's called you to do. Your problem is not deposits. Your problem is discovery. And if you'll ever discover what God has deposited, you will be a nightmare on Elm Street for

the devil. Do I have anybody listening to me this afternoon? Somebody say purpose. Purpose. Purpose. Somebody say calling. Somebody say destiny. Say purpose. Purpose. Calling. Calling. Destiny. Purpose. The reason for the, watch this, purpose. The reason for the creation or existence of a thing. Calling. God's invitation for your participation in the reason for your creation. Destiny. The accumulation and the summation of a person accepting their purpose and stepping into their calling. Destiny. God's intended outcome for you. It is the consummation, accumulation, and summation of who you've been created to be, what you've been created to do, and the way you've been called to do it. God's called you to do a thing, and He's called you to do it a certain way. And if you stop comparing your way to everybody else's way, God'll start making ways for other people in and through your life. Somebody say amen to the bishop this afternoon. But here's a quandary that we've got to raise. There's an issue we got to address.

Here's a statement I got to say. It's one thing to know you have a purpose, calling, and destiny. It's another thing to know that it's another thing for your purpose, calling, and destiny to have you. You have it. I know that because God created you with purpose, calling, destiny. The question is, does it have you? Does it have your time? Does it have your focus? Does it have your energy? Does it have your attention? Does it have your gifts? Because it's one thing to have it. It's another thing for it to have you. When it has you, some things change. Your standards shift. Somebody caught that. I'm gonna say it one more time. Somebody caught it naturally. I'm gonna see who caught it spiritually. I said your standards shift. Okay. I'm gonna say it one more time. I'll try it again. Your standards shift. Because standards are a reflection of how you see you. So you can never have a low sense of self and have high standards.

And some people's challenge is, you're trying to raise your standards, but you haven't raised your view of you. That's why you can raise it, but you can't keep it. But when you get a revelation that you are an image bearer of God, made in his image and in his likeness with a set amount of time that he has graciously given you on this earth to accomplish what he put you on earth to accomplish, you recognize your days are numbered. And when you do that, your boundaries and your standards become set because you realize I don't know how much time I have. So I do know I don't have time to waste. Can I get an amen in here? Is there anybody ready to make a decision that I'm about to stop wasting time trying to convince people? I'm about to stop wasting time trying to convince myself. I want to be who God has called me to be. It's one thing to have destiny. It's another thing for destiny to have you. How many want purpose, calling, and destiny to get you? How many right now? It's not even New Year's Eve. How many know you need to make a decision in 2026 to stop playing with your purpose? Stop procrastinating with your calling. Stop delaying your destiny.

If that's you, there's something I need to share, okay? I said, if that's you, there's something I need to share. I need to know, do I have your permission to share this? The balcony, y'all didn't say nothing to you, boy. I said, do I have your permission to share this? Okay, do you want me to share it? Do you want me to share it now? You want me to share it right now? Okay, well, since you asked, since you asked, I need to share that many individuals will get to the end of their life only to discover they didn't do with it what they were supposed to. Here's what I mean. It's not that they didn't participate in their purpose. It's they didn't fulfill it. And many people confuse participating with fulfilling. Participating. Doing part of what I've been created to do is participating. Doing all I've been created to do is fulfilling. And some people confuse participation with fulfilling. I want you to see the consequences of participating and not fulfilling through the lens of Jesus fulfilling his purpose. Because if he only participated, but didn't fulfill, where would we be? Thank God for two fish and five loaves of bread, but that was participation. Thank God for the Sermon on the Mount, but that was participation.

Thank God for Lazarus getting up out of the grave. That's participation. Because Lazarus getting out of the grave fixed his life. But Jesus getting out of the grave fixed mine. He fulfilled. And I believe the Holy Spirit is using Scripture this morning to push you, to challenge us, to encourage us, not just to participate, but to fulfill. So that at the end of our life, our testimony is similar to the testimony of the Apostle Paul. I finished my course. I finished my course. I kept the faith and I fought a good fight. Many people would get to the end of their life and realize I did not do all that I was supposed to do with my life, that I participated in purpose but I didn't fulfill. I kept kicking the can down the road. I kept delaying destiny. I kept being detoured by distractions. I kept assigning things a place of urgency in my life that it didn't deserve. I kept making other people's irresponsibility my emergency. So nothing for them got better but everything for me got worse. For those of us that are serious about fulfilling and not just participating, it's something I need to share with you. Do I have your permission to share this with you? Do you want me to share this with you? Do you want me to share this with you now? Do you want me to share this with you right now? Okay, here it is.

I need to share this with you. In order to fulfill purpose and not just participate in it, you have to accept that there will be aspects of your purpose you won't understand and aspects of your purpose that you don't agree with. We were doing so good. It was so energetic and enthusiastic and, I mean, let me say it again. There will be parts of your purpose God will invite you into things that you don't understand and invite you into things that you don't agree with. And this is a shocker because many operate with the understanding that God requires your agreement before He picks your assignment. Many of us, we don't even know we're operating with this assumption. It's an unconscious assumption that God consults my opinion when it comes to selecting my assignment. But I was reading the book of Matthew, and I saw something that debunked that myth and arrested that assumption. I'm reading the book of Matthew, and I'm reading a story where the star, for lack of a better word, of this story is typically a woman named Mary. And Mary should be the star. But there is someone else in the story that, in my opinion, is incredibly consequential but often overlooked, and his name's Joseph. Today Joseph wants to talk to us about parts of your assignment that you may not understand and you may not agree with. Y'all got a little time? I got 15 minutes. Y'all good? Here it is. Here it is. This story exposes us to a man named Joseph who is, we would use the word, engaged. He's engaged to a woman named Mary. Now during this cultural context, engagement was different. Once you proposed, and she, come on, you rented the room.

You flew all her friends in. You put rose petals all in the room you rented. You got candles around, and her girlfriend's in, her mama's in town, everybody crying. It's like, I thought I was going to dinner, and oh my God. And when you got down on that knee, it was legally binding. It's called betrothal. Am I making sense? Yeah. It was legally binding. It means, I want you to catch this. It means that in order to break the engagement, even though during betrothal, you could not consummate the marriage, and typically, betrothal lasted at least a year. And one of the practical reasons for that, and I won't bother this, but I am going to teach on this next year. One of the practical reasons for that was to give the man time to practically prepare. We can't eat love. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. We need love, but we can't eat love, and the kids can't wear love, and the lights don't run off love, and the car doesn't run off love. So it gave the man time to raise his level of responsibility. Because covenantal love shows up in the form not just of affection. It shows up in the form of you being responsible. I can't say as a pastor, I love you. you, and manage my life outside of you irresponsibly. Did you hear what I just said? I can't say I love my family and give them hugs and kisses, and then outside my family's presence make decisions and choices that put the welfare of my family in jeopardy. Love! Almost with the boomerang, I'm sorry, come back, Darius.

Love should show up looking like responsibility. But pastor, he a good man, he's irresponsible. Pastor, he in church, and when I stand in the, he in church and sometimes I'm in my That don't make me a car. Let me go, somebody missed it. Who got it? I stand in my garage, that don't make me a car. I said I wasn't bothering this, Rick, I'm not. I'm not even talking about this. But sisters, you do need to know, because this is an equal church. We equal opportunity. Now sisters, y'all was just amen-ing me. Don't get quiet on me now. And there are some men who ask for time not because they're running from commitment. They understand the weight of responsibility, and there are some areas, maybe even in their own life, that you hadn't made them feel safe enough for them to divulge to you. So they're trying to work on stuff they hadn't told you about, and because they don't feel safe, you feel like they're being slimy. I need to hear the fellas backing the bishop up right now. Yeah. He carrying stuff he don't know how to talk about yet. And you like, why won't you talk about it with me? And he like, sometimes it's not that you've made me feel safe, it's I've been unsafe so long, I don't even know what safety feel like yet. So sometimes they're working through stuff they're not ready to talk about with you. But anyway, that's not what we're talking about. Joseph. I'm back. Joseph is betrothed, right? So he's working, he's preparing practically to be able to take care of Mary.

Make sense? He's doing his part. All of a sudden, Joseph at the house, he playing Madden. He get a text. It's from Mary. She say, we need to talk. Joseph is a man, so he get nervous. But he say, I'm on the game right now. Just call me. She said, we need to talk in person. He like, oh my. So he get in the car. He drive over to Mary house. It's three o'clock, and normally, even though, because they just got engaged, so Mary always done up when she see him. She not quite there yet. But see, she's so stressed today. That when Joseph get there, he ring the doorbell. She open the door. She so stressed. He see her lashes off. No lashes. Bonnet on. It's three in the afternoon. She grab his hand. She grab his hand. She walk. She sit down on the couch. She look at him. She say, you know, I love you, right?

He say, yeah, baby. What is it? She says, I'm pregnant. He take his hand back. He say, you what? She say, I'm pregnant. He say, how are you pregnant? We don't—we hadn't—I knew Jackboy55 that was always liking your pictures. I told you, nobody keep double-tapping that much on those pictures unless y'all know each other. It's Jackboy55, man. She say, no, I haven't been with anybody, I promise you. He say, you're telling me you're pregnant. Well, how you get pregnant? She say, God—guys, I'm just contemporizing the text, but I'm just bringing this to 2025. That's it, okay? I'm taking some exegetical liberty and bringing this to 2025. She say, God—he say, what? She say, well, I was chilling, and then an angel came. He say, an angel? What? An angel came to me and was like, blessed art thou among women, blessed and highly favored, and they told me I was going to carry the seed of the Son of God, and I was like, how can this be since I don't know a man? And they said, the Holy Spirit's going to do it, and then I'm pregnant. And Joseph is a godly man, a patient man, an empathetic man, a praying man, a kind man who got his keys, walked out the door, got in his car, and went home. So, this is why the text says, in his mind, he had made up to divorce her quietly, because you couldn't break the engagement without divorce. But there are two options with divorce.

There was public divorce, which led to public shame, and her wearing the proverbial scarlet letter, and she could even, in some cases, be subjected to stoning. And then there's quiet divorce, where between her and him, and two or three witnesses, they absolved themselves, emancipated themselves from the agreement. She went on to live her life. He went on to live his. And even though he is deeply wounded, he is deeply hurt, and he believes she's being dishonest, he still said, I'm going to do it privately. Even though he feels like he's been done wrong, he does, in the words of Ryan Leake, something very specific. He says, I'm not going to match your energy. I'm going to hold my standard. So how I treat you isn't based on who you are or what you do to me. How I treat you is based on who I am. So he says, I'm going to do it privately. And he's asleep. I don't have time to bother this, but he's asleep, guys. While he's asleep, while he's asleep, while he's asleep, because there are certain things that God does when you're asleep. And when I say sleep, I don't mean sleep literally, I mean sleep metaphorically. Because sleep is a time where you're inactive. Ooh, sleep is a time when you're at ease. Sleep is a time where you're not busy, engaged in so much activity. Sleep is a time where you can actually position yourself to hear. And you'd be amazed. I don't have time, but you'd be amazed, Adam, what can come out of you if you sleep. Did you hear, did you catch what I, did you catch what I just said? Yeah. Yeah, you'd be amazed what can come out of you if you just sleep, if you get still long enough.

So when Joseph is still, he's asleep, here's what happens. An angel comes to him in a dream, says, Hey, do not, here's what he says, Joseph, son of David, he calls his whole government and kingdom name, son of Joseph, son of David. Joseph isn't literally David's son. He is from the lineage of David, the David that defeated Goliath. So he's reminding of him of his identity while introducing him to his assignment. He says, you come from a lineage that don't run from giants, you run to them. You don't run from hard things. You've been built for hard things. Other people run from hard things, but you don't run from hard things. That's not in your blood. And I don't know who I'm talking to in here. today, but you need to know that you come from a spiritual bloodline that does not run from hard things, we've been built for hard things, and just because it's difficult doesn't mean it's not destiny. He says, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, for the thing that she has conceived is from the Holy Spirit. So watch what he says next, he says, so this is what you need to do, she's going to give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. Joseph had the responsibility to give Jesus his name. You name it. Now let me ask you something, I want the brothers and the sisters, let's be honest, this is a difficult assignment to accept. But Joseph's life reveals to us there will be aspects of your assignment that you have to accept that you might not fully understand, nor even agree with. That God, let's wrap up, that God will require some things of you that don't quite make sense, and that you don't fully agree with. But Joseph's calling to raise and protect, to name, to raise, and I'm going to show you next week, to protect Jesus, was actually a compliment. Joseph's like, well I've got to do this, he doesn't realize it's a compliment.

God's like, I can't trust anybody, and everybody. Watch this, to carry out an assignment that when people are reading the story that seems less significant. Come on here. Joseph had a career, he's a carpenter, probably had a carpentry company. Jesus was a carpenter. But he would be known, Deshaun, not by what he did, but who he raised. What happened to all of the energy? I said, he would be known not by what he did, but by who he raised. In other words, the thing he thought he would be known for may not have been the thing he ended up being known for. And he had to realize and recognize that God doesn't exist to do what I want. I exist to do what he wants, and it is his responsibility to make my name great, not my responsibility to make my name great. So if my purpose in this season is to partner with Mary, then I'll come alongside someone and protect what I'm not even carrying. And many people are missing their purpose, because the only person they see in the text is Mary. And they assume that if you're not carrying it yourself, you're not in purpose. But sometimes God calls you to come alongside someone who's carrying something that God has given them. And your—come on here—and your assignment is to help bring it to pass, and your assignment is to help raise it, and your assignment is to help protect it. Sometimes purpose requires that you're Joseph. You don't always get to be the star in the story, and people are missing their assignment because they're addicted to being the star. This might be one of the several reasons that Jesus Christ himself said—Jesus the Christ, the anointed one said—there is no greater man that's born among women than John the Because John was so obsessed with his assignment and not his own ambition. He said, my assignment actually requires me to decrease.

You know how solid spiritually you got to be? You know how healthy emotionally you got to be? You know how clear you got to be to say, my assignment is actually to decrease. So that he might increase. There are going to be things that God asks of you that you don't understand and that you don't agree with. There are going to be seasons he will walk you through and you won't understand and you won't agree with. There will be certain seasons of adversity for which you never get an explanation. You know what the Spirit said to me one time? He said, Darius, here's the reason I'm not giving you an explanation. Because there's no explanation I could give you that would satisfy you. So even if I told you why I did it, you're still going to ask me, why wouldn't I do it another way? So, Darius, when you ask me what am I doing, I'm asking you, do you trust me? Do you hear, Pastor? Say, do you hear, Pastor? I talked all this time just to say one thing. This text teaches us that destiny requires detoxing from rationalism. Not rationale. God's giving you common sense. He wants us to use rationale. Rationale says I use my reason as a tool. Rationalism says my reasoning is truth. That way, if it doesn't make sense to me, then I don't think it's true. Rationale says my reason is a tool. Rationalism says my reasoning is my master. So I only obey what I understand. So when God's calling me into something, instead of acting immediately, I'm spending time negotiating with Him. Because I require understanding before obedience.

And what I found is that a lot of what we call rebellion to God's commands is actually rationalism that's governing people's lives. So when He say love your enemy, rationalism says that don't make sense. So we cherry pick the passages in the Bible we obey. So we're not in submission, we're in agreement. It ain't bad grammar, good theology. It ain't submission until there's disagreement. Look at me. And sometimes you and God are not going to agree. But you got to accept what you don't understand. You got to accept God's pick. Joseph is probably thinking, why me? Everybody that God used greatly in scripture felt that way. Moses is like you, why me? You got the wrong one. I'm slow at speech, I don't even like the front, I like the back. And God's like, so I'm smart in everything I do except for when I pick you. I pick you maybe because there's some things in you that you don't see yet. I see the value you don't see. You are saying you can't do this. And I'm like, that's exactly why I picked you because you will never try in your own strength. You know you don't have it all together. So you have a childlike dependence on me. That's why I picked you. Am I making sense, guys? Got to accept God's pick. You got to accept God's plan. You got to accept God's process. You got to overcome people's perception. You got to rely on God's power. Because there are going to be aspects of your assignment.

I'm not saying everything that's a part of your assignment you will hate. I'm saying there are going to be parts of it you're going to have to learn to love. Because accomplishing purpose, isn't God just blessing your plans? you his and saying mine are better than yours. Boy, if I had time, I would take you to Jeremiah 29, and I would remind you of what the prophet Jeremiah said to people that were in exile. If you quote that scripture but you don't know the context in which that prophetic proclamation was made, you're robbed of the richness of it. These people are in exile. They've been stripped from their homeland. They've been—they've lost loved ones. They've gone through grief and poverty and destruction, and in the midst of suppression and oppression and depression, God tells Jeremiah, tell my people I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. My plans are better than yours. So whenever there's a gap between what God is doing and what you understand, you got one choice. To fill that gap with doubt and suspicion and cynicism or fill that gap with trust. I don't understand, and I don't even know if I agree, but I submit because your plans are better than mine, and your ways are higher than mine. The other day, I was—last week, I was on TikTok—a couple weeks ago, I was on TikTok, and I saw the—I was watching—somehow, lawyer stuff always comes up in my feed, I be arguing cases, but anyway, in my head, I'm Matlock. Some of y'all too young to Google it, Matlock. And I saw the Harvard versus Yale game, and the African-American alumni from the law school at Harvard got together, and I'm watching all the stuff that they're doing on TikTok, and many of you, some of you may know that my plan prior to going to was going to law school, but I submitted law school to the Father, and I'm looking at that, and I felt something. I've been out of college since 2001. Do you understand how long that is? That's a long time. I've been out of college longer than you've been alive. And 20-something years later when I saw that, something rose up in me like, man, what if? 20-something years later, it rose up like, what if? How much easier would life have been for you? You don't have the bubble. You don't have the pressure. You don't have the stress. And because my father taught me work ethic and excellence—I got that from Timothy Daniels.

My father taught me to fight with this. If it had been God's will, my belief is the same way I approach theology and ministry, I would have took that same energy to law. I'm going to try to be one of the best. And I'm feeling that rise in me 20-something years later, and it taught me something. Abraham had to offer Isaac once. There are some Isaacs you're going to have to keep offering. I don't know if some of your want-tos are ever going to go away, but will you submit your want-tos to your supposed-tos? Come on, let's have a real conversation. Let's have a biblical conversation on purpose. It's not just you getting to do what you want with life. I'm trying to save you time and energy and tears of trying to force something that he didn't form you for. Could you do it? Yes. The question is not, can I? It's, are you called to? And I'm not saying God's asking any of you to give anything up. I'm teaching this just so that if he does, you've already given him an answer. My answer is yes. Father, I accept the assignment, even when I don't understand the assignment. I trust you. Now you're trusting him with your health. You're trusting him with your career. You're trusting him with your resources. My question is, are you willing to trust him with your life's purpose? I trust you to use my life in the way that brings you the greatest glory, even if I don't understand it, and even if I don't agree with it. I thought I'd be married by now, God, but you chose something different. I accept the assignment, even if I don't understand and I don't agree. I thought I'd be further down my career path right now, God, but that's not the case. I accept the assignment, even though I don't understand and I don't agree. I thought my career would be in this, and now my career's in that. I don't understand it, but I agree. My wife's degree is in software engineering. She's a computer programmer at the Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. And when God called me to seminary, she gave up her career and goes from a programmer at

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, the Stennis Space Center, and she is a computer programming teacher at a charter high school in New Jersey to keep us off welfare, because they wouldn't give us stamps, but my oldest son, Seth, is a WIC baby. You can have it. My life's—this degree is yours. I got the degree, but it's yours. Whatever you want to do in my life, it's yours. I trust—I don't trust me. I trust you. It's yours. So today, I just want to encourage you to give him a yes. He hadn't even—maybe he hadn't asked the question yet, but he will. There's going to come a time—listen to me—everybody's going to have to offer an Isaac. But he never asked you to offer an Isaac when he doesn't have a ram tied in the thickets. Hello, ram. They missed it. Look at the ram I would have missed willing to offer an Isaac, the blessing I would have never met, the people my children would have—look at what I would have missed. Over career, over some money, and now I got family that if they got half a ham—if we got a ham sandwich, if they got a ham sandwich and I'm going hungry, they'll cut the ham sandwich in half and give me—I wouldn't have got that in law. Y'all aren't talking to me. I wouldn't have got people that love my children like they're their grandmother. Miss Janet, I wouldn't have that if I was in law. God's plans are better! I wouldn't get a chance to watch what God is doing in some of your life. I wouldn't have met your daddy. And it's not easy. I know I'm talking spicy right now. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

He's worthy of it. Your plans, not mine.