Grace Bible Church Georgetown, Tx

The Apostle Paul embraced his own weakness knowing he, in his flesh, was totally insufficient. We all fight these battles with our flesh. We want to be noticed, special and influential. We all sometimes want to ignore the truth about ourselves thinking we have some of what it takes to be godly. God is calling us today to real power, real strength. Put no confidence in you , receive all power from Him.

Maybe you feel inadequate today, a failure, a sinful failure. Have you thought that maybe you are right where God wants you? God wants you to break free from self-sufficiency. He wants you to break free from the prison of pride. He wants you to know today that His grace is the complete provision and all you will ever need.

The crucifixion is the one event that will convict, challenge, and forever change us.

As we walk in faithful obedience, though no perfectly, we experience the joy of the Lord. Although we struggle at times in this wilderness, Jesus did not. What he accomplished fuels our hope. He accomplished what we could not.

Jobs don't always seem fulfilling, they don't seem to be building Kingdom. They don't seem to have any redeeming value.....But maybe they could.

The State of our Church covering staff, Elder Board, ministries we support both local and international, events, finances.

Most of the time people who lack joy look to regain it by working to change their circumstances. They are looking for joy in the wrong places. They lost their joy when they took their focus away from Christ and only going back there will return. Joy is Jesus, plain and simple.

We are in a three-week Christmas series called Emmauel – God With Us. The first week we saw how God was with us in the hopeless lonely place of the wilderness. Last week God was with us when storms are raging all around us. Today, on this Sunday before Christmas, we look at how God is with us always. He has made promises to us about his abiding presence in our lives. One of the last things Jesus told his disciples was that he would be with them always, even to the end of the age. The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, God, is actively with us to bring about His will in our lives. Sometimes His activity can be confusing, disturbing, encouraging, and many other things because He often does not do things the way we would or expect. The beauty of living in the Holy Spirit is being shaped to see the world as He sees it. One of the great examples of how God works in unexpected ways is how he deals with Joseph in the Christmas story.

You may be here today and you know a storm is raging in your life. You’re bailing water as best you can, but the storm is winning. Perhaps it’s just raining but you know it may get worse. Maybe all you see right now are some dark clouds forming. The question is what are you going to do about it? Are you going to have faith in yourself to figure it out? Are you going to have faith you will find the answers through a counselor or good book or just waiting it out? Or are you going to come to him and say win or lose, live or die, my faith is in you? I will trust in no other.

Loneliness and isolation can be extremely difficult things. Throughout our lives, we will have days or seasons where life is either painful or confusing or lonely. It’s like entering a spiritual wilderness. The wilderness is where significant spiritual work is done. God walks with us through the wilderness times of life. He comforts us there. He ministers to us there. Jesus’s presence, speaking his love to you will change the way you face and handle what life is throwing at you. Spend time in His Presence where there is freedom, release, peace.

The light has come. How are we spreading the Good News? We are the voice for this light. Share your life with others.

If you are here today, and you find yourself frustrated or feeling a deep sense of lack in your life and wish you could get through this rough patch. . Can I challenge you just a bit? Might you be deceived? Is the black cloud hanging over you there because you have allowed some wrong thinking into your life? You can only draw the conclusion that either He is not as good as you thought or you’re deficient in some way. Those are wrong patterns of thinking and belief. Jesus loves you and is jealous for you. And yes, He is willing to let you walk through valleys, even valleys of the shadow of death in order for you to know that He will walk with you. . He wants you and he’ll stop at nothing to have you all for Himself. In Him is peace, the ceasing of striving, the rest of knowing you are finally safe, finally home, finally free.

Maybe you’re in a place where you are frustrated or scared or discouraged or alone. You might call your situation a place in the wilderness and you just don’t like it much. You want Jesus, but you also want … You want him to heal your body, change your spouse, provide a better income, make your kids do what they ought to, and he is not obeying you very well. Could it be that God may be asking you “Am I enough?”

We are called to a life that embraces the life of Christ. It is the way of the cross. In our weakness, in our sacrifice we experience His power.

I wonder if there is someone here today who feels defeated. You feel like you need a break and you need it now. You know your motives are probably not godly. And you don’t like it, but you see your behavior being manipulative with others as you just feel you need things to change. And to sum it up, you just feel defeated or unloved or forgotten. I want you to know God doesn’t want that for you. He wants victory for you, but he also wants you to know that victory doesn’t come through changing circumstances, it’s a matter of the heart. He wants to raise you up with him, so your weakness is met with His strength. He can do this. He will do this. He is victory.

Do you need to declare war today? You may be here today facing a real battle in a particular situation. You may feel helpless or even hopeless. You think you know what the right outcome is and have been praying and asking God to give you your desired outcome. You are going to access the divinely powerful weapons that are able to destroy everything raised up against the knowledge and truth of God. You may be facing an internal battle today. It may be letting go of some lies. I know that sounds ridiculous, but some people hold on to lies that they’ve believed because letting them go means real change. “Because of my failure or bad choice, there’s no hope.” That’s a lie. Do you need to declare war?

Generous is not something we do as much as it is something we are. Jesus comes, sets us free from the worry of this life, controls us by His love and changes everything.

No doubt, there are many people here today who are resisting God in some area of their life. Month and after month, you resist yet wonder why there is a growing loneliness or an increasing distance between you and God. Can you connect the dots this morning – your resistance is your refusal to sow God’s seed and your lack is the result. You always reap what you sow. Can you quit clenching those seeds so tight and let them go and throw them into the field and see what God may do with them? I close with this promise from the 10th verse.

So, the context for today’s Scripture is an offering that is being collected for the persecuted church in Jerusalem. Paul has already received the contributions of the Macedonians who were poor but gave generously. He has used them as an example to the Corinthians, who were wealthier, to see the heart of the generous Macedonians and be generous themselves. Not only that, the Corinthians had told Paul that they wanted to contribute a year earlier, yet had still not done so.