Embracing God's Joy Amidst Our Weaknesses

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The first Christmas was a difficult day but perhaps somewhat similar to what you and I are experiencing today. There was a dominant culture called Rome that had come into the Holy Land, come into the place where God's people were supposed to be blessed of God and become the blessing that God intended them to be. [00:00:08]

Suddenly one day God himself in the womb of his mother Mary shows up at the door knocking asking for entrance to where his own people were. You know the book of John the Apostle John says he came to his own and his own didn't receive him but to as many as did receive him he gave them the power to become the children of God. [00:01:30]

I bring you good tidings of great joy to all people. I bring you good news and this good news should bring great joy into your heart and this good news is for all people not just some people not just the strong people not just the wealthy people not just the ones who have it all together. [00:03:53]

The joys of this world are temporary. You go to any show on Broadway and they always finish on a high note and everybody gets up and everybody's happy but I've been out on the street when they come out and they're not happy when they come out. They walk in miserable looking for joy. [00:04:32]

This is an internal joy that only God can put there. In the Old Testament he promised to those who had turned him he said I'll give you a new mind I'll give you a new heart and a new spirit. King David once said I was so down I couldn't get back up but God picked me up out of the place I was sinking in. [00:05:00]

The hand of God has come down to you not to harm you not to point at you and judge you not pound you into the pavement but the hand of God has come down with the willingness to have a nail put through it for your sake. Glory to God you know in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament this love that God has for you. [00:06:32]

You'll find a baby and he's wrapped in rags really swaddling cloths were just rags they were discarded pieces of cloth that really poor people would take and wrap the children and so they went there when they were born so they wouldn't be cold this is the sign you will find a baby wrapped in rags lying in a manger. [00:08:09]

God has to be carried God has to learn to speak in human form God has to have his diaper changed for real it's the son of God but it was his choice and why here's what I believe the sign is it was God saying to you and to me I'm not offended by your weakness I'm not offended by your struggles. [00:09:50]

When we acknowledge that we can't save ourselves that he had to come and died on a cross to pay the price for the wrong that we had done when we opened our heart to his sacrifice the Bible says that he calms and actually takes up his residence inside our earthly bodies by His Holy Spirit and he begins to carry us. [00:10:26]

The message is not for the strong it's not for those who have it all together it's not for people who've never made mistakes it's not for people to read their Bibles 15 hours a day or pray 25 hours a week it's for those who know that without God I'm nothing without God I'm going nowhere. [00:11:15]

Let me tell you the rags of my life he came and by His Holy Spirit and he took up residency inside this body and he wrapped himself in the rags of my failure the rags of my pride the rags of my stupidity he wrapped himself in the rags of my life and he began to change me from the inside out. [00:12:19]

Over the years the Bible says if anyone is in Christ it becomes or she becomes a new creation the old things in your life pass away they lose their power source they lose their ability to govern you your present in your future and all things become new so little by little line by line step by step. [00:15:05]

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