Pastor Lutzer and the staff at Moody Church Media would like to wish you a very blessed Christmas!
Transcript: Hi, this is Pastor Lutzer. I want to bring you special Christmas greetings, but I also want to leave you with hope. We all know that it's been a very difficult year because of the pandemic, because of political wrangling and conflict, and there's been social unrest, but let's step back for a moment and look at the Christmas story.
In Luke 2 we find that God brought together three streams to bring to us the river of blessing that we think about when we consider Christmas. First of all, there was politics. It was because of a decree of a pagan King, Augustus, that Joseph was forced, of course, and asked to go to Bethlehem. After all, Jesus had to be born there. So you have the political stream, you have the prophetic stream: Micah had predicted that Jesus Christ would be born in Bethlehem and Isaiah said that He would be born of a Virgin. So, all of that needed to be fulfilled. And then, of course, you have history and you have the genealogical stream, because, after all, Joseph and Mary—their genealogy had to go back to the time of Abraham to fulfill the covenant that God made way back then. Now, here's my point. Here you have three streams coming together to bring about the greatest miracle you and I could ever imagine, but I want to ask you a question. If you had seen Mary and Joseph go from Nazareth to Bethlehem, would you have said, "Oh, they represent the fact that God is coming in the flesh"? Of course, you wouldn't have. They looked like a very ordinary couple and through this ordinary couple, God did something very extraordinary.
Now, here's my point: You and I don't have to look around and see all the things that God is doing in order to believe that He is working. He's working His divine purposes. He is working through His Providence to bring about His will. So when you look at the world at this time at Christmas, when you are disappointed, discouraged, and you wonder, always remember that God is the one who did the supreme miracle in Bethlehem, but He's also doing all kinds of other miracles that you and I don't see. But God is at work. So, during this Christmas season, I want you to give thanks to God—thanks to God for what we can see that He is doing, thanks to God for what we can't see, because after all we belong to Him. And as for that babe in the manger, may I quote His words that we so desperately need. "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give onto you. Not as the world gives I onto you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid."
From my heart to yours, have a very thankful and blessed Christmas.