"Little do they know the true story of it; it's quite easy to judge them and the family judged them. They said they can't stay at their house because that would be taking them on." [01:06] (Download)

"Whenever you think of God, sometimes you know God deserves the grandeur of the palace, but He was born in the meagerness." [02:19] (Download)

"God humbled himself, he became like us so that he could die for us. He became the lamb that was slain; his blood purifies us and allows us to have a perfect relationship with him." [02:58] (Download)

"In the humility of saving people, God reveals His true glory, not in the glitz and glamour, but in the quiet, humble act of redemption." [03:45] (Download)

Hi, I'm Paul. This is day seven of our Advent series, and this is amazing.

If you just look, I'm over here at the mission in Riverside. It is decked out and decorated for Christmas. Man, it looks great! It looks stunning! It looks amazing!

We're going to take a little walk just to kind of look at some of the things. As I’m walking down the street, there's going to be ambient noise—sorry about it—but this is what happens when you come and you hang out with people and you walk amongst the people.

Just envision Mary and Joseph. Mary and Joseph coming into town, yeah, you know, coming into Bethlehem. It's a big production; there are lots of people coming into town. They're required to be there for the census.

Mary and Joseph are coming. She's pregnant; she's ready to give birth any day. So they're waddling. They got the donkey; they're waddling in, and here they are. They're scared; they're concerned.

And you know the family members, they're not that excited to see them because, well, they're living in sin. And since they're living in sin, little do they know the true story of it. It's quite easy to judge them, and the family judged them and said they can't stay at their house because that would be, you know, taking them on.

So they come over here to the Maitre D', and he says, "You know what? You can't come in. There's no room. All of these rooms up here, all of these rooms, they have already been paid for."

And Mary and Joseph are just going, "What? We've got to stay! We’ve got to have a place! My wife is about ready to give birth!" Can you imagine that? Just the craziness of it.

And the Maitre D' says, "You know what? Sorry, can't help you."

Well then he goes, "You know, maybe I can help you. You got the singers up there and got the little families over here. Maybe I can help you. I know what we do. We're going to put you up in a special place. We're going to put you up in a special, quiet place."

"Oh, just—oh, great, great!"

And so the Maitre D' takes them out from the craziness of the mission in. He takes them out and brings them over to here.

I think the lane closed is a perfect illustration because it was closed. The mission was closed; everything was closed. And the owner of the Inn says, "You know, we don't have any room. I don't know what's going on with you two, but you can have that spot. You can have that manger."

You know, whenever you think of God, sometimes, you know, God deserves—He absolutely deserves the grandeur of the palace. But He was born in the meagerness of the manger.

When you think of God, think of His humility. God humbled Himself. He humbled Himself; He became like us so that He could die for us. He became the Lamb that was slain. His blood purifies us and allows us to have a perfect relationship with Him.

We get caught up in all of the glitz and the glamour and the glory, and God gets caught up in the humility of saving people.

Alright, so today for the Advent, I want you to focus in on the humbleness of God. He's our hope; He's our Savior; He's our Redeemer; He's our Rescuer. And He's the one who is born in a dull, dirty, dingy, quiet spot.

Alright, praising the Lord as I just dwell on this. Take care; we'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.