Why the Nativity?

This is Darren Kuhn with the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we search the ancient paths to find ways that God brings light into a dark world and helps set men free from the struggles that we all face on a day-to-day basis. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it. Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

Let me be one of the first to wish you a Merry Christmas. And this program took place at the Museum of the Bible, just a few blocks from the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., where we were with Dr. David Jeremiah, his wife Donna, his whole family, and a whole bunch of other really cool people screening his brand new Christmas movie. Have you seen it yet? It's called Why the Nativity. Paul Joyner directed this thing.

Unbelievable. The effects, the setting, real animals, 11 different dialects, all kinds of people acting was off the charts. Why the Nativity? And we were able to catch some cool sound bites from some really cool people that we met as we talked about the movie and shared some neat insights. So stay tuned, be encouraged. We even talked to the actor who played Joseph. You're going to hear it all right here and right now on Truth Talk in these next two segments.

And we even caught up to Dr. David Jeremiah himself. Stay tuned, be encouraged, and learn more at their own website for the movie, WhyTheNativity.org. You can even show it in your church. Over 4,000 churches have partnered to bring this in and show it to their people, their youth group, and their congregation as a celebration of the true meaning of Christmas.

Now join us right here, right now, for today's edition of Truth Talk. Welcome to a modern day version of Joseph, but Robert Morgan, bestselling author, one of my favorite authors. We're here for a screening of a massive movie that's taken the country, the world, by storm. Will you introduce Joseph?

Who is this cat? Well, Logan is an amazing actor, and this is going to be a tremendous encouragement to people around the world. This guy acts with his heart, not just with his skill set, but with his heart.

Logan, I know that you've read Matthew 1 and 2 and Luke 1 and 2 many times in your life about the story of Christ, but what did you learn about the birth of Jesus that maybe came as a surprise to you as you went through this movie? Absolutely. Yeah, I think that whenever we read scripture, we often think of it as a lens of, like, the facts or just, like, historical pieces of the earth. We forget about the relationships. We forget about how relational each one of these people were.

They're real-life humans, you know? And even with Joseph and Mary, you get to see their relationship and their struggle throughout this process. It's something you wouldn't have thought about. Like, even as simple as, what would we do if we found out that our girlfriends or wives, soon to be, got pregnant and said that it was from the Lord?

We'd probably think, oh, you're kind of crazy. But ultimately, like, it takes, if that is true, right, with Joseph and Mary, with them, with that truth that that happened with them, then how much faith do you need to have to trust that amidst a culture, that our culture today and culturally back then, he could have put it to the side, he could have moved on, but instead, he chose, he said, you know, I'm going to stick it out because God told me to. And, I mean, the Lord speaks to me through prayer, through, yes, prayer, but mostly through dreams as well. And I just, I was so baffled to see how gracious and how confident he was stepping into, especially that relationship, taking care of Mary. I learned so much from Joseph. You could obviously learn so much from Mary and so many of these different people. And I'm so thankful for this ministry that is bringing this story to life.

So, so thankful. Well, that's the voice of Logan, who played Joseph in the movie, Why the Nativity, that Dr. David Jeremiah and his amazing team, Paul Joyner, Turning Point Ministries. We're at the Museum of the Bible. This is not unbelievable. This is just, we're in this massive theater. We just watched this movie that was just a blockbuster. And there's so much scripture there. Robert Morgan, you've seen a lot of Christian movies.

You've seen a lot of attempts at Christian movies. You've read, written books and seen all this. What is your gut? And you're standing here right next to the guy that played Joseph. Tell us your feeling coming out of there. My favorite moment was the toddler. When the toddler Jesus showed up and, oh, it just takes your breath away, that little boy and his expressions. And then you're fatherly observing of it all and taking it in as though you were a learner too. You were learning along with him. So it was amazing.

What was the hardest scene for you to do? Yeah. Well, I want to say real quick on that, what you just said. I mean, I bet you as fathers and as brothers as well, learning from your children, learning from your siblings, the next generation, there's so much power there. And how much, how would it be, like, coming from learning from the teacher, you know, from your Heavenly Father? That thought, just to provoke you guys a little bit too. And I don't even necessarily have an answer for you.

That's something for you to dive into over your listeners at home. But the toughest scene to go, I think it has to be the most emotional scene, which isn't talking about the Bible, but is Joseph's dealing with hearing the news that Mary's pregnant. And, you know, you wrestle with so much of the humility and grace that he had amidst that, but how much pain as well. And so just to put yourself, what we try to do as actors, we try to get out of the way and let the character come through.

Ultimately, our job isn't to be seen on the screen, not to love ourselves in the art, but love the art in ourselves. And I was just, it was so grateful to learn from him in that, but it was definitely hard. I mean, take after take, getting that emotional built up, but it's also so visceral. So thankful, like, the Lord's blessed me with challenges to be able to relate to him, and even him to relate to us, right?

So that was the toughest scene, but also, I know it felt like the most rewarding being able to express that. Why should people go see this movie? We're at the after party here.

This is amazing. They're bringing by these delicious crab cakes. They're bringing by all these, it's hard for me to let that go by. They got brownies and baklava.

They got coffee. David Jeremiah, his whole family's here. There's Mrs. Jeremiah. There's Graceanne, Caleb.

There's, you know, Brad. Everyone's just, it's an exciting time because here we, you know, this is a celebration, right? We're kind of like the shepherds.

Maybe they didn't have this kind of cuisine, but what's the big message to everyone out there about this and why they should go? We want people to come to Christ. We just want people to see how wonderful he is, how he meets needs, how he fills up that empty space, and how his whole coming to this world was the most incredible miracle that has ever occurred or will ever occur in human history.

We want people to know that. And young man, you play Joseph, and when you, in the afterward, I think we were all moved, almost as much as we were moved by the movie to hear your testimony. Here, God came to a peasant, a no-name, you know, a young man who would have thought, this guy, he's poor.

Why didn't he come to the great, you know, the great Caesar or the great king or a guy like Herod, you know, a great conqueror? But he came to a little humble guy to be a part of that process. But that's part of your testimony.

Real quickly, just like, you were in a hospital. You were done. Everything you dreamed about was taken away from, and then now you're playing Joseph in this big movie. What's God done in you, and what's that message to everyone else? Man, that message is the same throughout every one of you guys. Each one of you guys have an interesting and wonderful testimony that the Lord has brought you through the hills and the valleys, but I'm telling you, the valleys, like Rose said earlier today, too, you know, we need the valleys to appreciate the hills, and amidst that, we need the surgery to be able to get the masses out of us, or for me, it was blood clots, right? But that's a metaphor for the sins of our sin in our lives and the grit that we have to go through, but I just challenge you guys to miss that, too.

Like, embrace it. You know, just dive in and trust that whatever you let go and you let God, let him hold you and guide you through that, that he's got you completely secure. And I tell everyone in there, too, there's not a breath wasted pursuing the Lord, and even if that means having questions, it means having doubts. The Lord wants your questions. He wants your doubts. Don't be afraid of that. Don't push that aside and be like, oh, well, I wouldn't be a good Christian if that, or, oh, I don't know about the Christians over there.

Pursue that relationship with him fervently, him and you. So, go after that, and that's what the Lord's been doing for me. He's been growing me, first of all, in finding salvation again, and then also in sanctification, so I'm just humbled and thankful and excited to see what he's doing next. Robert Morgan, this is a, the Bible's unfiltered. I mean, you're looking at everything he described going on in his life is happening in this nativity story. There's chaos, there's taxation without any representation, there's an oppressive government, there's people, there's evil, there's bloodshed, and yet Christ came into our mess, and that's, isn't that how the Gospel works, Robert Morgan? Yes, he was sent. The Lord sent his son to this world, and Jesus did what he was told. He came as he was sent. He died, he rose again, and the very crux of history and the joy of our lives is found in that. Shannon, come on over.

This is a cool thing. Dr. Jeremiah said this from the stage. Now, he said it from his lips to our ears, that this is one of those movies that you don't have to go buy a bunch of tickets for, right, Shannon? You've been the director of all this outreach with this, Why the Nativity movie.

We're here in D.C. at the Museum of the Bible. A bunch of folks just watched it, and now you're at 4 million YouTube or something like that. It's going crazy, but what do you say to everyone out there about getting the word out there? Because what a great message.

What a powerful movie. Yeah, go watch it. Share it.

Watch it again. Have your friends over. Have your neighbors over. Have your church toast tonight. Like it on YouTube so it pushes up our algorithms. Go share it on our Facebook. Share it on yours, and hashtag Why the Nativity so we can get that trending.

I love it. Best website for everyone to go to. I know you're all everywhere. You're on TikTok. You're on Instagram. You're on Facebook, Twitter, everywhere. What's the best website to go for the movie? So the best website to go is whythenativity.org.

Simple enough. God bless you. Thanks for all you're doing. What an exciting time. I finally got to meet Joseph after all these years.

Robert Morgan, and what a blessing. Thank you. Folks, we're going to take a picture, and we're going to put it up right now at the website.

God bless you, and Merry Christmas. It's such an exciting night. I'm standing next to Dr. David Jeremiah. He's in a tuxedo.

I'm way under dressed doc, according to what you're wearing there, but what just happened, and why is this something you want to share with the whole world, sir? The story of Jesus' birth is better than any Christmas story anybody ever can see because it's the real story, and we tried to make this story happen in video so that it actually captured all the nuances of the story, the connections between all the events, the background of all the events, and I think we, in some way, we were able to do that so that this story makes the story of Jesus coming to this earth come alive, and I hope people will sense it when they watch it. And it's something you can share, and you had the best light of the whole night when you said, you know, you leave a movie, you've got to go buy a ticket for someone to go back and see it. You're telling everyone they can go see, anyone can go watch it, right? Right.

That's exactly right. I'm in a star-studded room full of all kinds of people, including Sheila Walsh. Sheila Walsh, best-selling author, amazing. You've seen her on all kinds of TV things, tele-dramas, whatnot, but you and I just experienced something together tonight with a whole bunch of other folks at the Museum of the Bible, with Dr. David Jeremiah, just a gift. I mean, what in the world? You know, you go to a movie, you almost have to mortgage your house, as expensive as it is right now, Sheila, but what just happened here tonight?

Tell everybody. It was honestly one of the most extraordinary things I've experienced, a story that I've known since I was a child, but played out in such a powerful way, and a human way. You know, you suddenly see what it must have been like for Joseph to try and find a place for his pregnant wife to give birth, so I just, I can't wait for the world to see this docudrama. It's powerful. And it's interesting, of all the people Dr. Jeremiah likes to have on stage with him, interviewing him through these things, there's Sheila Walsh.

You just have a way of, you know, the investigative reporter. Of course, half the time I turn on these Christian TV shows, I see you as the one being interviewed about your wonderful books and all the stuff you're doing, but talk about the legacy of Dr. Jeremiah. Here, here a guy needs to be chasing a little white ball, retired.

What are you thinking? He's not making blockbuster movies. And of course, Paul Joyner had a little part of that too, right? Paul Joyner is one of the most creative people I've ever met in my life, but Dr. Jeremiah, I mean, the way that he has vision and leadership and does things that have never been done before and does them better than we could think of. I'm just, what an honor and a privilege to sit beside this godly man year after year and mind the riches that he has deep, deep in his soul. Sheila, I'll leave with one quote that I want you to expand upon as we get out of here.

Okay. The movie is Why the Nativity. And by the way, if you're here in this interview, we played as best of in July, go watch this movie.

It'll touch you because the story is true. Because of the Savior's birth, we can have rebirth. We can have new birth. Amen.

So Sheila Walsh, Dr. Jeremiah says, he says, attempt great things for God, expect great things from God. Speak to that. How prophetic is that, the need for that right here, right now? Maybe even for like a 15 year old listening to this.

I don't think it's ever been more relevant than it is at this moment. We live in a culture that is so negative, so disconnected, so sad, so broken. But the thing is, we have the privilege of tuning into the almighty power of God. And he loves to use people like me, the least likely people to do the most extraordinary things. So whether you're 15 or 95, if you still have a pulse, and there's not a white chalk mark around your body, believe God for great things. And missiologists are telling us that there's over 2 billion people on planet Earth that have never heard the gospel, that we are in a room full of people that each person here owns an average of, you know, 50 swords of the spirit Bibles in their, you know, in their home.

What do you say about the Great Commission? Why we need to we need to not grow weary and well doing? Yeah, I think one of the things at the moment that I'm more excited about is, I want to tell people that we're on mission 24 seven, we don't go to church on a Sunday morning and then maybe go to a Wednesday night Bible study. Wherever we are, we need to ask for two things. Give me ears to hear what I would miss without you, Lord, and give me eyes to see what's going on in the world.

And then give me the power by your Holy Spirit to speak into that. Okay, Sheila Wash, you heard it from her. Thank you, Sheila. What a blessing. Thanks for the ministry you've had.

Minister Turning Point, the movie Why the Nativity. We're kind of in this post party. They're walking around Sheila.

What do we do now? Do they do they have these kind of foods where you're from these crab cakes and these delicious little tenderloin briskets and things like that? I mean, what in the world?

No, in Scotland, we just go for haggis. So we're up here. The movie's Why the Nativity and we've got all kinds of cool people here. God's doing a great thing. And there is a just something powerful about a Christian movie that holds true to Scripture. There's so much Scripture in this movie. Why the Nativity?

Why the Nativity? The movie's available right now. You can watch it. You can screen it. You can show it.

Have a house party. Show it in your church. And they have opened, they've just kind of laid out the red carpet like they have for us tonight to come see it with Dr. Jeremiah. For everyone and anyone listening to my voice who wants to see it, a great way to share the Lord with maybe your friends and neighbors who've never heard the gospel for the movie. Why the Nativity? Why the Nativity.org from Turning Point Ministries, the ministry of David Jeremiah.

Why the Nativity of the movie is social. Grace Ann Jeremiah is now married to this man right here. And tell everyone, introduce him real quick. Yeah, this is my husband Caleb Baker.

We just recently got married in July and he's attending law school in Alabama. And I like the fact that he's a ball player. He can drop buckets, right Caleb?

Only with big country. But Grace Ann, you are handling a lot of social media for Turning Point Ministries and for your granddad, Dr. Jeremiah. I love the generational thing. What's your message to everyone out there about getting this out on social media?

They can simply point and click and not even do anything. Yeah, social media can do tremendous things for this film. We have a Twitter, which is Dr. David Jeremiah.

That's the handle. We have an Instagram and a Facebook, all that have the handle of Dr. David Jeremiah. And we have a ton of tools on there that are easily shareable, such as messages about the film, where it's streaming, where you can watch it on live television. And it's really important that we share this information through social media because that is such a great avenue to reach people who might not get a chance to listen to the gospel. And so any way that you can help on our socials, following Dr. David Jeremiah, sharing any of his content, that can do tremendous things for this film. You really can't even get to the next step without getting a way in, a perspective of Chris Gould with Salem Media.

Because you hit all the social media, but it isn't fun how the radio stations like Salem Media push Turning Point. And Chris Gould happens to be here at this big gala. Chris, you're here with your bride.

You reside in Colorado Springs. What's your organic reaction? You sat there with all of us and you watched this movie.

What did you see for all the world to hear? The heart with which Turning Point comes at every project is what makes the difference. I mean, Dr. Jeremiah is a long time local pastor. He stands on the Word of God. He teaches the Word of God.

He believes in the Word of God. That's the most important thing. And it all starts with the teaching and preaching of God's Word.

Everything falls from there. So this whole team, these folks, I mean, the heart with which they serve one another and serve each other, the staff, the talent, it's amazing. And I think that's really the difference. They take simple concepts and they make them extraordinary. And that's what they do.

And it helps a guy like you trying to get a good quality program on radio stations across the country. Is that an accurate statement? Well, yeah, that's an accurate statement. Turning Point. That's called a softball. That's called, I just laid it up there for you. Nominal radio and television program. And again, we've been together for 40 years.

So, you know, I was, you know, 20 years old when they started. Thank God for Ed and Stu. How encouraging is it, Chris Gould with Salem, to see Gracie Ann, Brad, Caleb, the next generation, David Michael, you know, Dr. Jeremiah's son, very prominent role. You know, he's also wearing a tuxedo.

We're not the best dressed guys in the room after all, are we? Here's the thing. They all understand because they've sat underneath the tutelage of their grandpa. So they know that he used every platform available to get the gospel out. And we want to be where people want to get content. And that's what we have to do. We have to be everywhere people want to get content, including social, over the top, broadcast, television, radio, the whole thing. None of them go away.

It's plus, plus, plus. And maybe someday, you know, there'll be some kind of consolidation. But right now it's you got to get that content everywhere that people can grab it. And there's a lot of young folks that are on those social media channels that may find why the nativity and they may it may be just enough to get them to the Lord.

Right, Gracie Ann? Absolutely. And that's why we've been expanded to TikTok where the youngest generation currently is so that we can, you know, go everywhere that they are and we can share the good news of the gospel with them. So I think we need to do a big why the nativity flash mob TikTok right now at the Museum of the Bible. What do you think?

Dr. J, get your mix on. What's the website? Kind of what would you say the main website nucleus for folks to go to that want to pop on? Learn about the Twitter, Instagram.

I pretty much followed you guys everywhere. But what is the main website? Who's going to like and share and all that? Yeah, if you go to why the nativity dot org, all of our social pages are on there. How you can scream stream. The video is on there.

It's kind of a hub for all of our information. And don't just do it because you're hearing all about it. Do it because it's an absolutely amazing movie. I mean, I mean, let's double a gold standard top shelf Academy Award winning performances in every way. The cinematography, every everywhere. The score is so beautiful, absolutely heartwarming and so motivating. The whole experience is worth it. Why the nativity dot org? This is the Truth Network.