The Christmas Story Also Contains Moments of Terror

How many of you have ever felt doubt in your life, in your spiritual journey? How many have experienced questions and have not known exactly what God is doing in their lives at a given moment, when everything seems to turn gray and it seems as though God does not make sense, and you feel as though burdens are being laid upon you that you did not originally agree to when you signed at the bottom of the page saying that you were going to enter the Gospel. You did not agree to get involved in those things; nevertheless, God is getting you involved, and suddenly you find yourself in something whose outcome you do not know, and you feel uncertain as to whether you are capable of making it through that moment God is taking you through.

And you begin to doubt and ask questions, and to question yourself, and perhaps even to question God, and you find yourself in the midst of a tremendous predicament, and you say, “How will God get me out of this mess I have gotten myself into? How will God pull the rabbit out of the hat?” And we ask the Lord questions.

And I want to talk about that aspect of things in the Christmas story, because many times we remember Christmas and think about the beautiful things, right? And the tender details—the manger, the Child, and that silent night, that holy night—but we do not realize that within the Christmas story there are also moments of terror and moments of great uncertainty, and the story was changing before the very eyes of the people involved in it, and God was presenting them with challenges and taking them into tremendously frightening territory as well; they did not know what God was doing at that moment.

And these three people I want to speak to you about exemplify this element of doubt, fear, questioning God, and uncertainty when God enters our lives and is changing them, rearranging the furniture in the house, throwing things out the window, and even setting fire to some things we love in order to replace them with better things. And in those moments it is good to remember that these people, like us, also felt fear, even terror, and questioned; but in every one of those cases God proved faithful, and when their experience was over, these people found themselves at a much higher level than where they had originally begun.

This question of: How will God do what He says He is going to do in my life? How will it be possible for this to happen, and how is He doing it? That is why, if I were to give this sermon a title, I would call it: “It is all right to doubt; it is all right to doubt from time to time.” The issue is: How do we do it, and what is the inner character of our being while we are doing so, while we are going through this experience? Perhaps we are doubting or questioning in agony or anguish.

After years of preaching Christmas sermons, I always find myself facing the challenge: Okay, what new angle can I find in the story? What new lessons can I offer the congregation? Instead of preaching the same sermon all the time, I try to ask the Holy Spirit to give me a new way of interpreting it, something new, a new element to draw from these Christmas stories, as I do, for example, at Resurrection time and at other such special moments in the Christian calendar. And I like to focus on different aspects of the text and the story—in this case, the Christmas story—and that is why I want to dwell on that element found in Christmas: doubt, questioning, and uncertainty.

And why is it important to focus on that element in the Christmas story? Because when God moves powerfully in our lives or in the human realm, strange and unexpected things often happen. God is an unpredictable God. The Bible says that His thoughts are not like our thoughts, and His purposes are certainly not like our purposes.

Many times, when God steps onto the stage of our lives, our world can be revolutionized and turned upside down. That is why I tell you: Do not ask God to become involved in your life, because you may run into trouble. I tell my fellow pastors—many times they say, “I want revival in my church”—I tell them, “Look, only if you are willing to pay the price, because there is a price to pay.” Many times, when God steps in, you have to tear down a great many things and dig holes, and at first all you see is something like craters everywhere and a terrible explosion before God begins to put things in order.

We must prepare ourselves for anything; we have to reformat our minds. As children of God, when we enter the drama and the spiritual journey of our lives, we have to fasten our seat belts securely, because God is not as interested in our being comfortable as He is in our rising ever higher and in Christ being formed in us. That is why God sometimes takes us into these processes, and we had better be prepared; our attitude, our expectations, and our mindset must be right. Let us be open to what God wants to do, let us be flexible, let us be full of faith, and let God be God.

The announcement of Jesus’ birth is like that; it is something different. It is accompanied by marvelous and miraculous events, and we all know, for example, about the terror of the shepherds when these angels appear to them and the night of Jesus’ birth is invaded by an explosion of light and mysterious beings, and they are filled with terror, and the angels tell them, “Do not worry; be calm. God is doing something wonderful.”

And several angels appeared to the people involved in the Christmas story. These three people experienced angelic visitations because God was arranging an event of incredible magnitude and wanted His messengers—and not just any angel: in at least two cases, two archangels appear, in one of the cases the archangel Michael. Again, when God begins in this way, in those spectacular moments, we must be prepared for Him to lead us in unexpected directions.

The first person we see here is the priest Zechariah, who would ultimately become the father of John the Baptist. And we see that Zechariah is visited by an angel while carrying out his priestly duties. In Luke chapter 1:17, the angel announces to him that he and his wife Elizabeth are going to be the parents of a very mysterious, very powerful man who will be “possessed,” so to speak, by the spirit of Elijah, the great prophet Elijah, fulfilling a prophecy given in the Old Testament that Elijah would come in the days of the Messiah’s appearing and perform a work of reconciliation between God and the people.

In verse 17, the angel tells Zechariah that this person, John, who is to be born, will go before the Messiah in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, and to prepare a people well disposed for the Lord. And Zechariah, a priest already experienced in matters of faith and the things of the Lord, hears this announcement. What is interesting is that instead of being overwhelmed by the great blessing of finally having a child—a man who had already abandoned all thought of having descendants, and God tells him that he is going to have a son—Zechariah nevertheless responds by asking a question, as we are going to see, that reveals unbelief, and he questions God’s purpose.

For in verse 18 Zechariah says to the angel, “Well, how will I know this? For I am old, and my wife is advanced in years.” Now, this might seem like a very reasonable question, but the difference between this and another question we will see later is that the angel discerns that Zechariah is questioning God. Zechariah is saying, “But this is not possible. It is impossible for us to have a child because my wife is barren and we are both already advanced in years; we cannot conceive.”

I was saying this morning that if one were a cinematographer of sorts and were composing the score—the music for this film—as the angel Gabriel announces John’s birth to Zechariah, the background music would be full of promise, full of encouragement, very beautiful, and in a sense very warm and welcoming. But suddenly Zechariah’s question seems to kill the mood and becomes a discordant note. Have you ever heard those kinds of changes in the notes of a piece of music, when suddenly there is a discordant note? It is as though the violin goes out of key and everything changes, and the air becomes filled instead with doubt.

And then this angel, who up to that moment has been telling this man about this great promise, also becomes stern, and if we could see his face in a movie, it would change; it would take on a kind of metallic glow, like burnished bronze, and his eyes would become very stern. And I believe he would grow in size, and those great wings archangels supposedly have would open completely and would seem to swoop down upon Zechariah, and we would hear this thunderous voice saying: “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and bring you this good news. And now you will be mute and unable to speak until the day this comes to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” Be careful how you react to that blessing if it does not appear in the way you would like it to appear.

Zechariah questioned the Will of God; his question called God’s integrity into question. That is why he tells him: “Because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” In other words, God fully intends for this to be fulfilled, and He has sent me; I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God. It was not just any angel whom God sent to make this announcement to this man.

I believe that one of the reasons the angel’s reaction was also somewhat severe is that more would be expected of Zechariah. Zechariah is a priest; he is a man of the Word; he has been educated in the Word of the Lord, and Zechariah should have read the Scriptures. First, he should know that God is a God of wonders: opening the Red Sea and causing fire to fall from heaven, and destroying an army of thousands with just a few men. And not only that, but Zechariah had read the accounts in which God had enabled barren women and people advanced in years to have children.

There we have the story of Abraham and Sarah, who had Isaac when they were nearly one hundred years old. The story of Hannah, who was barren for a long time and came before the Throne of God in the temple and wept, and God gave her not only a great prophet, the prophet Samuel, but also other children after that; He opened her womb. Samson’s mother, Emanoa’s wife, also had a son. It was as though, many times, when God wanted to raise up powerful men, He chose the impossible in order to display His glory and His Power, and Zechariah should have understood these accounts.

Listen to what an interesting thing this is: Many times, when we are experiencing the miracles of God, we Christians seem to think that these accounts in Scripture were for those times, and that the great movements of God are somehow for other people, as though God’s interventions were for religious specialists. And many times God wants to work in your life and in my life, and when God steps into our lives, it is as though we are not prepared; we do not seem to believe that God can do for us the same things He did in other times and with other people.

I believe that one of the problems with Christians at times is that we fail to discern the God who wants to unfold the very same dramas of Scripture in our own lives. Many times things happen, and we must have eyes to see our lives in the light of divine patterns and stories, in order to understand that what is here is simply a model—that is all—so that we can understand the ways in which He is moving in us, so that we may have spiritual discernment.

My eyes are always attentive to any movement in my life as I try to discern: Listen, what might God be doing at this moment? Because I see myself as the protagonist of a biblical-style spiritual drama. And therefore, if my eyes are not attentive to what God may be doing in my life, I may miss God’s visitation. I believe that many times the problem with many of us is that God wants to impregnate us, God wants to fertilize us, God wants us to bear children, and when God appears to us and does so in an unexpected, humble, or ordinary way, we reject Him and close our wombs, and we do not allow ourselves to be impregnated—to use a graphic term—by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

For example, I can tell you, regarding this matter of our granddaughter—forgive me for returning to the same subject again—I know that there is something prophetic in it and that God is speaking to our lives, because God works through His children and His prophets, and through births, deaths, illnesses, and the events of life. God is speaking through everything; the world is full of language. And to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, God will say something; He will speak to them in some way.

We have to keep our eyes open, brothers and sisters, because those dramas may be unfolding in us as well, and God may be doing unexpected things, and we cannot doubt, we cannot think: well, that was for those days, but right now that is not for me. I believe that was what prompted the angel’s somewhat severe reaction when he rises up and says to him: look, I am not just some random messenger from the United States Postal Service; no, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and God has an immense purpose for your life, and that is why you are now going to remain mute for a while, so that you may learn.

I believe God discerned that in Zechariah’s heart there was a great... God was visiting him, and it was as though Zechariah was not rising to the occasion. And because he questioned God, God said to him: I am going to impose discipline on you, and therefore you are going to remain mute for a while.

I believe that Zechariah’s muteness was like a time for reflection. And once again, it was as though God were bringing the themes of that Scripture back to life, because let us remember another case, when God reacts very severely regarding the barren fig tree. The Bible says that He reached His Hand into the fig tree because it was very leafy—it had an abundance of leaves, a beautiful plant—and when the Lord was walking by, He reached His Hand in to pick a fig and found that it was barren: many branches, but little fruit. And Scripture says that the Lord cursed the fig tree; He said to it: May fruit never grow from you again.

And one wonders why the Lord reacted so severely toward that fig tree: had He skipped breakfast and was in a bad mood? No, I believe the Lord perceived something. The Lord realized that this fig tree represented another barren fig tree, which we saw described this way: Israel is like a fig tree that bears no fruit—or, in another case, like a vineyard that produces no grapes—which had received so many gifts, had received so much revelation from God, had so much, and yet had done nothing with what God had given it. All the Lord’s messages had fallen on deaf ears, and there was no prophetic Word in Israel at that time. Religion was completely dead; there was no Voice of God.

And I believe all of that was stirring in the mind and subconscious of God when God reacts to this priest, who is the very embodiment of the Hebrew people, and who reveals himself to be a coarse, clumsy man, deaf to the miraculous tones God wanted to play. And so He says to him: All right, I am going to put you under discipline for a while. And I believe that the time Zechariah spent mute was a time of reflection, a time for God to work in his soul and dig deeply, so that at another time he could be what God wanted him to be.

And we see that at the end of the story, when John is finally born, God opens Zechariah’s mouth again, and he then announces his will that his son’s name should be John. And God had prepared that moment because then the entire village erupts with a sense of: wow, this is amazing; who will this wonderful person be? God prepared the entire setting so that His glory would be revealed.

So, in one sense, yes, God disciplined him, but He also blessed him and fulfilled His Will, because even when we fail God many times in the things He wants to do in our lives, you know, God is the God of second chances. God is merciful, and God deals with us and even uses our failures to take us to another level of blessing.

And Zechariah fulfilled his purpose. I believe this whole story tells us: look, sometimes we can fail God; sometimes that is okay. Even when we question Him and even when God sometimes tightens our belt a little, He has His purposes, and He is going to do something wonderful in our lives.

Let us not be like Zechariah, brothers and sisters. One of the things we should indeed learn from this account is this—look: we come to church Sunday after Sunday, we attend discipleship courses, and there are so many ways in which the Word of God is proclaimed over our lives. Yet unfortunately, many of us can be like torn sacks that do not take God’s supernatural patterns seriously. And God tells us: Take Me seriously, because I am doing a great work, and I can work in your life in the same way I worked in the pages of Scripture. Stay ready, stay alert, stay curious, remain deeply engaged with My Word, live the Christian life with a blazing fire; do not be like those sluggish priests who are so coarse. Sometimes those of us who know the accounts in the Word can be the people least sensitive to the Word of the Lord, and God wants us to be serious about this.

The last thing I see in the account of Zechariah is that, wow, in this Christmas story, where there are so many elements of grace, mercy, and God’s love—the God who seeks reconciliation, the God who is sending His Son as a humble baby to speak to us and reconcile Himself with us—there is also an element of judgment and discipline, which means that we must take God very seriously; we cannot play games with God.

Nowadays, I see so many people summarize the Christmas story this way: It is all about God loving us; Jesus came to accept everyone, to welcome everyone, to forgive us everything, and so on. And that is true up to a point, but the Bible also says that God is love and that He is also a consuming fire, and we must take God’s works in our lives seriously. I believe Zechariah learned a great lesson through his failure and his questioning.

But we also have another character who, very interestingly, asks the Lord a very similar question, and that is Mary. The account right there in Luke chapter 1 says, beginning with the verse—yes, but let us go farther ahead, to verse 34, and I am going to recount a little of what comes before that, okay? The angel Gabriel appears again to this humble maiden and tells her: You are going to have a son who will be the Son of the Most High God. And Mary, incidentally, is also troubled. Verse 29 says that she was troubled by the words of the angel who comes to bring her a blessing and tells her: Mary, you have won the lottery; God is pleased with you, and you are going to be the mother of the Messiah, right?

But Mary is troubled by his words and says: what sort of greeting is this; what am I supposed to make of it; what does this angel want with me here? And she is filled with fear as well. Many times, when God enters our lives to bless us, it may seem as though it is something negative and may bring—as I say—bring doubt into our hearts.

And then the angel tells her, as he told Zechariah—look: “This being who will be born from your womb is a very powerful being, and from now on you will be called blessed among all women. You will give birth to a son, and you will call His name Jesus. He will be great, He will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord your God will give Him the Throne of David, His father. He will reign over the house of Jacob; His Kingdom will have no end.” Wow, so many promises.

And then Mary asks a question in verse 34 and says to the angel: How will this be, since I know no man? Another question like the one Zechariah asked. But notice that Mary’s question is qualitatively different. Mary’s heart and Mary’s mind are different. Sometimes the words are very similar, but the spirit is different, and thank God that God discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. God does not go solely by outward appearance or by the words we physically speak. Sometimes the heart is saying something else, even though it looks the same.

In Mary’s heart there was no questioning whether God could do that or not; rather, Mary’s question was a practical one: wow, but I am a maiden, I am a virgin; Lord, how are You going to do this?

And if you think about it, I tried to put myself in the mind and attitude of a woman—it was difficult for me, but I did it. Think about a young woman being told: you are going to have a child and carry him for nine months, and he is going to be the Son of the Most High God; he is going to be great. I think women are going to ask: okay, Lord, let us see, how are You going to do this? I am going to carry that child in my womb for nine months; what are You going to do, and how do I have to prepare myself? Women always think about that.

I was telling the brothers and sisters this morning: many times I get excited about an activity and say to Meche: Meche, let us invite a group of brothers and sisters to the house, or let us have a dinner for pastors, or whatever it may be. And I get involved with the idea or the project, but Meche always says to me: well, okay, how are we going to do it, how many people are you going to invite, what day will it be, how are we going to set the table, and how are we going to coordinate our work schedules? Women are always thinking about the how of things, right? And they are thinking about the system itself and asking very practical questions.

I believe Mary’s question was more like: Okay, Lord, what are You going to do in me? How is my biology going to change? How can I prepare myself for this moment that You are going to bring into my life? I believe that we have the right at times to speak to the Lord and ask Him about the things He is doing in us.

I believe we have a very communicative God and that, if we ask Him, He is willing to answer. If we give Him time and approach Him with an attitude of humility and meekness, He respects our questions.

And in this case, the angel Gabriel answers Mary very gently, because Mary’s question is a very legitimate one, and he explains to her: Look, what is going to happen is that the Holy Spirit will come upon you like a cloud of life. He will rest upon you, and the Holy Spirit will be like rain, a cloud full of moisture and life that will impregnate you. And just as a woman is impregnated with a man’s seed, so you will be impregnated with the very life of God, which will rest upon you. Your biology will undergo a change, and in that way you will conceive. Then the being who is born from you will be a holy being and will have a divine dimension, because it is the nature of God that will be imparted to your body, and a mysterious chemistry will take place. He did not take as long to say it as I am taking, but you get the idea, right?

A mysterious chemistry will take place, and the divine will be united with the human. And that being who will be born from your womb will be the product of two dimensions and two natures. So do not be afraid, do not worry; God already has that biology prepared, and He is an expert in chemistry and biology and all the other things, and He knows exactly how it will be done.

And do you know what Mary says when the angel tells her what is going to happen? She says: “Behold the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me as the Lord wills, according to Your Word.” Mary gives evidence of a heart submitted to the Lord, a humble heart, and she truly reveals what her question was, the origin of that question, what lay behind her question.

Brothers and sisters, how important it is that we, first of all... I say to the Lord: Lord, always help me so that, if You are doing something strange in my life, if You do something strange and different in my life, if You do something whose outcome I do not understand or whose reason I do not understand, there may always be in my heart—and in our hearts—that willingness to bow our heads and say: Lord, let Your Will be done; let it be as You desire, even though I do not understand everything. But ultimately, even if I cannot explain it all, after I have asked You, let Your purpose be fulfilled, because You know very well what You are going to do.

How much did Mary have to surrender at that moment? For she knew that if this young woman in a tiny village suddenly became pregnant—listen, who was going to believe her? “Oh, Mary, you are pregnant!” “Oh, it was the Holy Spirit.” Ah, yeah, sure. She knew that for the rest of her life she would be marked, that people would not understand what she was doing with her life and would question her. Yet she bowed her head and said: Lord, here I am; I am Your vessel. Do with me whatever You desire. That is the attitude we must have before the Lord: an attitude of acceptance beforehand.

Say to yourself there, right now in your heart: Lord, whatever You desire to do with my life, I am willing. Let Your Will be done in me. I ask only this of You: give me the faith, give me the strength, give me the obedience to accept whatever You desire in my life and always to be a pliable instrument in Your Hands.

This year, we do not know what God may have in store for us, but I know that God has a plan, has a purpose, has a story, has a narrative. And when we are going through a situation, let us enter the prayer room, let us speak with God, let us submit our questions to Him, and then, in the end, let us bow our heads and say: Lord, let Your Will be done and not mine. And I assure you that your life will always be blessed, and God will always give you His gifts and His consolation prizes.

The last character we have in the Christmas story is—who dares to tell me who it would be? I do not think I have preached this sermon before, but it seems that you are good readers of the Bible. We are about to finish, Omar, if you are around. I want to speak to you about this third character because Joseph exemplified, and exemplifies, so many things.

When our world falls apart, when it is breaking into pieces, when our hopes are fading, we must have Joseph’s attitude. For the account tells us, in fact in Matthew chapter 1, that Joseph discovered that his betrothed was with child, that she was pregnant. He did not have the benefit of an angel appearing to him beforehand and saying: Joseph, your betrothed is going to be impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and do not worry, everything is all right, the Lord is in control, and He is the one doing this. No. Joseph simply finds out. How did he find out? We are not sure. Perhaps Mary told him, or perhaps a little time had already passed and Mary’s little belly was beginning to show, or we do not know how, but Joseph discovers that his beloved betrothed, his girlfriend whom he is going to marry...

And I want you to understand the seriousness of an engagement in the Jewish world. It was not as though an engagement were simply something optional—if it works out, fine; if not, there is no problem, and so on. No. In the Hebrew tradition, an engagement was almost like a wedding, and it was not a matter of, “Let’s date and see what happens.” It was a matter of: no, once an engagement had been publicly declared—correct me if I’m wrong; Gregory is the expert on Hebrew literature and all these things, right?

They were already practically married, although the formal wedding and the consummation of the marriage had not yet taken place. Then suddenly this man discovers that his wife/betrothed has been unfaithful to him, because that is the only explanation he has, and his world comes crashing down. But notice what is so wonderful about this man, which I believe is why he was chosen by God. In each of these characters there was a reason why God had chosen them, because through them God wanted to display, for the benefit of us who would read and interpret the Christmas account, values that we too must draw from the Word and apply to our own lives.

And what does Joseph teach us through his simple and noble character? The Bible says that when Joseph learned that Mary was with child, he decided to leave her discreetly because he did not want to defame her; he did not want to hurt her. Joseph did not do what some of us would do, going around with our pride wounded and saying, “Look at what this woman did.” It says that what Joseph did was say: “You know what? Well, I am not going to marry her, but I am going to leave her secretly.”

At times I have said this to people who have gone through difficult situations like that. Not long ago, I had a conversation with someone. This person did not want to separate from their spouse, but had no other choice—it is a long story—and one of the things I told them, because there were other complexities in the situation, was: “Look, do not give in to the desire to reveal these things to anyone. Maintain complete discretion, take the high ground, and act like a Christian here: respect that person’s honor, do not take revenge, do not try to damage their reputation in any way, but instead leave things alone, and you will see that God will bless and reward you for it, right?”

How important it is, brothers and sisters, that in our lives we always exemplify the values of mercy, love, and generosity; that we not seek revenge, but leave judgment to the Lord, because God is very faithful, and our part is simply to entrust everything to the Lord. Every day I become more and more convinced of the importance of generosity in the believer’s life. The apostle Paul says: “Let your gentleness be known to all men.”

That character of gentleness and generosity is so important, and I believe it is what keeps this world from being the far greater hell it could be. Right now I am thinking about that terrible murder of two police officers in Brooklyn, two men there trying to do their jobs. I know that terrible things have happened in this nation that have aroused the indignation of many people thirsting for justice. I understand that, and many injustices are committed. But the murder of two officers who actually had nothing to do with that situation, and this other person’s suicide, and the vengeance—all this does is cause terrible harm to the very noble cause of protesting the injustices committed by the authorities. It robs the legitimate cry for justice of its weight, its moral stature, and its legitimacy.

What that does is generate more hatred; blood brings more blood. And that is why this morning I was, in fact, celebrating the spirit of Martin Luther King, who, amid the most terrible oppression in this nation and the greatest injustice against our African American brothers and sisters in the ’50s and ’60s, said: “Yes, we are going to seek justice; we are going to resist injustice.” But he said, “We are going to do it peacefully. We are not going to burn tires and destroy businesses; instead, we are going to let the justice of our cause make the difference.”

Likewise, Mahatma Gandhi in India brought the British Empire to its knees with his peaceful protest, and in the end the British Empire had to retreat and yield to India’s demands for independence, because love and peace accomplish things that no other force can accomplish—mercy, goodness. I believe that we as Christians must always understand the importance of those attitudes of generosity. We cannot live in anger and resentment and in, “You did this to me, so I am going to do this to you; you said this to me, so I am going to say this to you.” In marriage, in friendship, and at work, the difference is made by those men and women of peace and goodwill. That is what makes the difference in turning a workplace environment into a blessing, and we must imitate that same thing in our lives.

And although it seemed that Joseph’s world had shattered, although it seemed that God had abandoned him, although it seemed that his dreams of marital happiness had fallen to the ground, Joseph decided to uphold the values of the Kingdom of God. And that is why God answered his doubt; God answered his agony and sent him an angel as well. This angel appeared to him in a dream and said: “Joseph, do not worry. It is not that your girlfriend, your betrothed, has been unfaithful to you; rather, God has decided to visit her with His Power. Join yourself to her and embark upon this journey that God has destined for the two of you together. And do not worry, because the Lord is blessing you both, and He will take care of everything that lies ahead.”

Again, the Word says the same thing: Joseph bowed his head and joined himself to his wife, and the account continues. Joseph will always stand before us as an example of the fruit of the Holy Spirit and of the God who, when things do not work out as we expected, always sees to it that everything turns out well when we bow our heads and practice the values of faith and mercy. Amen?

So this afternoon, brother, sister, I invite you to bow your head there for a moment. Amen, amen. Glory to God for the values of the Kingdom of God. Bow your head for a second. Think about what part, what elements, of the life of Zechariah or Mary or Joseph you and I need to incorporate into our lives. If you are going through a difficult time, if the year has been difficult for you, if you have suffered some losses, if God has spoken in ways you did not expect, if you have experienced some kind of struggle and difficulty, give the Lord time.

If you find yourself in a tight spot and do not know how God is going to get you out of the place where you are, remember the God who calls the barren woman to have a family; the God who already has a plan for how He is going to make you fruitful; the God who knows the exact chronology and sequence of the miracle He is going to perform in your life; the God who will not allow your life to end in a dead end. Even though right now it seems that the train is going to keep going and crash into a mountain, you will discover that at the very moment when that is about to happen, an opening will appear, and the train will pass through the tunnel and emerge on the other side, because we have a merciful God, a God of love.

Broaden your capacity to experience miracles in your life, to become a protagonist in His drama here on Earth. Right now, God wants you to be like Mary, to be like Joseph. He is crafting His own Christmas drama in your life. And what drama are You crafting through Lion of Judah Congregation, in this multiethnic, multinational, and multicultural community? Even though we do not know how our ministry will end, Lord, even though we do not know exactly what You are doing with our marriage, or with that rebellious child, or with this financial situation we are going through.

Father, this afternoon we declare in faith that You are not asleep, that You are present, that You are working in our lives, that You are crafting a precious drama, Lord; that You will make us fruitful and cause the life of God to shine in our lives and all around us. I bless this Congregation, Father, amid all its drama and all its pain. I know that You have compassion on us, and I think of all those who at this moment are suffering through some struggle and are in doubt.

Father, may their hearts be strengthened; may their faith not fail, just as Christ prayed for His disciples when they were going to be tempted before the crucifixion. May this community be able not only to endure but even to prosper in the midst of its trials and difficulties. Thank You for Christ Jesus. Thank You because He conquered principalities and powers, and because He removed every accusation against us, and today we can come freely before the Throne of Grace and ask You for help, Lord, with our needs. Bless Your people, Lord, and may the peace of the Christmas account rest upon our hearts. In the Name of Christ Jesus we pray, amen and amen. Thank You, Lord; thank You, Father. We bless You, Lord. Thank You. Amen, amen. God bless you, brothers and sisters. May the grace of the Lord be with you all. Amen.