A Christmas Devo

Ever wonder why a season meant for joy can feel so heavy? We go back to Luke 2 and find a nativity that’s anything but quiet: census chaos, dangerous politics, terrified shepherds, a closed-door town, and two young parents walking by faith when nothing felt ideal. Instead of chasing a flawless holiday, we explore how God meets us in real life—through imperfect plans, inconvenient timing, and decisions no one applauds at first.

We draw out three anchors for a crowded heart. First, what looks broken may be perfectly positioned. The manger, the travel, and the timing were not mistakes; they matched prophecy and revealed a better definition of “perfect.” Second, there’s no substitute for obedience. Mary and Joseph stepped into a calling that cost them comfort and reputation, but their yes opened the way for joy and redemption to arrive on schedule. Third, treasure truth. Like Mary, we can store God’s words, notice small mercies, and resist the distractions that try to hollow out the season. When we guard our attention, we recover our hope.

This conversation blends scripture, plain talk, and practical encouragement for anyone navigating transition, family tension, or the ache of unmet expectations. You’ll hear why joy often sits on the far side of trust, how obedience shapes outcomes we can’t see yet, and how treasuring truth reframes stressful days. If you’re longing for a Christmas that feels honest and still full of wonder, this one will steady your steps and warm your faith.

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Chapters

• 0:04 Welcome, Prayer, And Purpose
• 0:57 Reading Luke 2 Christmas Narrative
• 2:57 Reframing A Hard First Christmas
• 5:22 Point One: Imperfect Yet Perfect
• 10:31 Prophecy And God’s Better Plan
• 14:14 Point Two: No Substitute For Obedience

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

Hey everybody. Uh pumped today to just bring you a little bit of the Christmas story. In the Christmas season, we got all this different stuff going on. And I wanted to take a second and share some stuff with you guys. I know, man, so many of us have been in transition and have all kinds of different things going on. So I want to just take a second. Let me pray for us. Let's get into the word and let's hear from the Lord today. God, I thank you for your grace and your mercy in this season. God, I thank you that Christmas time, the Advent, reminds us that you are a glorious and good God who brings about wonderful things from difficulty. And you're a glorious and good God who does wonderful things with absolute nobodies. Bless us be with us as we get into your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, I want to read the Christmas story from Luke 2. It says this. Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Corinius was governor in Syria, and everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up to Galilee from the city of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who is engaged to him and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in clothes, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the field and keeping watch over the flock by night, and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all people, for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in clothes, and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared the angels uh with the angel a heavenly multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men, with whom he is well pleased. And when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which had been told them by the shepherd. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying God, praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them. Okay, this story is uh a well-known story, it's a familiar story, but I wanted to paint it maybe in a little bit different of a light as I was reading it uh this time around. This first Christmas was one of the most terrifying and frustrating and confusing seasons that the the first people involved in it ever went through. All right, so I was just I was thinking about Herod, uh, who is this genocidal quarter king uh who literally is killing children um because he's afraid of this Messiah coming. You have angels, which in almost every account you read of are terrifying beings who um, if you look at you fall to your face and sometimes pass out, like the Apostle John. Uh, you have a bunch of people traveling all over the world. So, like in some sense, like regular Christmas time, okay? You have people who are going from this place to that place, but literally in this season, it's like the whole world is uprooted and everyone is traveling to different places, finding different places to go. If you had a dog, trying to find somebody to dogsit for you was probably an absolute nightmare. All right, but there was uh there's upheaval, uh, trying to find places to stay, the difficulty that comes with transition, a wife, if you're Joseph, that everyone thinks is pregnant, either with another man's child or with your child out of wedlock. So there's like a social nightmare that comes along with this. Uh, the Romans are oppressing the Jews, the Jews are oppressing their own people, and everyone keeps telling you that it's totally fine. Like this environment was less than savory. And I think sometimes we like to glamorize everything about Christmas. We sing silent night, and I just think nothing was silent about it. We we think like joy to the world, the Lord is come, and and in one sense, that was absolutely true and happening, and in another sense, I doubt they felt immense joy as they were walking through the process of figuring all this stuff out and trying to walk out what they were told to do. And so there's three things that I want you guys to take from this story as you're trying to press into the Christmas season, the reality uh of the coming of our Lord, the the Perusia, uh Christ coming. The first thing that I want you to see is this what they had was perfect. What they had was perfect. What Joseph and Mary had, the circumstances that they were in, the difficulties, the struggles, the traveling, when you're like eight and a half months pregnant, you know what I mean, is an absolute nightmare. Nobody in their right mind would go out of their way to try to choose that thing. But I want you to know the the clothes, the manger, the trip to Nazareth, all of these things were ultimately part of God's good plan. And look at me, your plans are not God's plans. Your idea of perfection is not God's idea of perfection. Your idea of how things should go and what Christmas is supposed to look like and how everything is supposed to work out is just not God's idea of how those things work out. Your circumstances, your problems, although not what you would pick for yourselves, I want you guys to know, uh, are actually bringing about God's perfect redemptive purpose. All right, for Christmas, we spend so much time trying to make things perfect. And as humans, we don't know what perfect is. We just don't. We have an idea of how we think things are supposed to go. And if you've been breathing for more than like a year, more than a day, you're gonna realize God has a different plan than we do. He has a different way of going about things than we do. And his way, look at me, is better. It's just better than what we can come up with. And we know this in hindsight. When we look backwards, we see, oh man, uh, thank God this didn't happen and I didn't get my way here. In the in the words of the great theologian Garth Brooks, thank God for unanswered prayers, right? We have a way of thinking that things were supposed to go, but there was prophecy that went into exactly how Jesus would be born, where he would be born, how he would be born, what he would be wrapped in, the the place that he would be, that like the circumstances were orchestrated by the hand of God. Your life is not different. Your circumstances are not different. It's not a it's not something that you get to just walk out from and say, Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get that the apostles and the prophets and the disciples and the stories in the Bible are gritty and difficult. And we'll take those gritty and difficult circumstances. We want to derive principles to keep us from the difficult circumstances. But the reality is the principles are supposed to help us in those difficult circumstances. Your circumstances are perfect. Look at me, you are positioned perfectly in walking with God to bring about exactly what he wants done. Your circumstances are not a problem. Your circumstances are are pregnant with purpose. Your uh things that you don't think are going right in God's eyes are going right. The things that you don't think are going the way that you hoped they would go, and God's eyes are going the way that He wants them to go. And I want you guys to know where Jesus would be born, how all this stuff took place. It wasn't Joseph and Mary's perfect plan. It was God's perfect plan. And we need to embrace that. Glory is found looking backward at our silly plans being foiled by God's ultimate plan. Whatever is going on, whatever the circumstances, wherever you find yourself, you have to trust God and know that your circumstances are perfect for what God wants to bring about. The second thing is this there's no substitute for obedience. And then when I think about what God was asking Joseph and Mary to do, it's frustrating. Like I said, we read the story and we're like, oh, Mary and Joseph and the angels and the wise men. Like I said, we we think about like we conflate it with popcorn balls, you know what I mean, and Christmas trees and Santa Claus. And like, look, joy is supposed to come out of this season, but I want you to understand that joy was on the other side of obedience for them. All right. Mary doesn't want to be pregnant as a young girl. She doesn't want to be pregnant out of wedlock, right? Joseph doesn't want to marry a girl who's pregnant. He doesn't want to believe that the girl who said she's pregnant by God is actually pregnant by God, right? And an angelic vision takes like nothing in this scenario, in the obedience that God is telling him to walk in, feels like a nicer, comfortable thing to do. All of it, all of it was a difficult step of faith. And now I gotta take this family and this girl with all the stuff going on and the social weirdness, and we gotta travel when she's very pregnant to a place that we don't want to go. And like you get there, and now we have to find a place to live. And it's like, God, couldn't you have ordained all these circumstances better? Couldn't you have, you know, couldn't you have made it easier for everybody? Uh I don't want to do this, you know? I'm bringing your son into the world. Why is it that it's not cleaner and more put together than this particular thing? And I want you to know that God's plan was perfect. We know that. So our obedience to what God has told us to do is what brings about the joy that we get to see in God's perfect plan. That obedience is what gets us to the breakthrough and the hope and the joy of this baby being born in this place and this time and exactly this way, so that prophecy would be fulfilled, so that people would know that our Savior and King didn't come uh clad in bright colors and into a palace, but he was born into the dirt. He he was born to a poor family, he was born as an outcast. And this is this reminder to all of us that Christ did not come looking down his nose at all of us, although he absolutely could have, and he and he could have just smoked us all right away. No, no, no, God became incarnate. Jesus Christ put on human flesh and came and dwelt among us and lived a perfect life, walking with us and and doing everything to connect with those who he came to save and to show the world the truth of the gospel. And I want you guys to see this that it was the obedience of Mary and Joseph in this difficult situation that ultimately brought about the fullness of the prophecies and everything that God said he would bring about in this situation. And I just want to tell you guys like there's there's no free lunch when it comes to following God. God has written a story and has given us things to walk out, things to do. So many of them are not easy. So many of these things are frustrating, and we we don't like the fact that God hasn't given us details. He didn't tell Mary and Joseph that, hey, by the way, when you get to Bethlehem, there's not going to be a place for you. He didn't tell them all the details of what was gonna go ostensibly wrong in this situation. He told them what to do, and his circumstances, his provision, and his way was exactly what he wanted to bring about. And I'm telling you right now that joy and the beauty and the purpose that God is bringing about is on the other side of our obedience as we trust his plan. It's better than ours, it's good, and God is writing this beautiful story, guys. We get to be a part of it. We we don't see the whole picture, we don't see the whole plan. Sometimes I feel like our life is like going in and watching, you know, 10 minutes of a movie and not understanding the beginning of the movie or the end of the movie, but understanding that this is the part that I'm called to play in this section, and I don't understand how it connects to everything else. I want you to know God is good, He understands. Continue to walk in obedience. Obedience is part of that process. Uh, Adam's omission um is the thing that drives me crazy, right? He did nothing when Eve was standing there, but I want you to see the obedience of Joseph and Mary with Jesus. He went ahead and did what God called him to do. Adam saw the entire um uh human race damned. Joseph and Mary walked in obedience and brought about uh through the birth of Jesus Christ, the redemption of all things. Obedience changes the world. Obedience is what radically transforms the place around us, and obedience is what begets joy. So make sure you're walking that out. Okay. Faith, obedience, and treasure these things in your heart. It says that Mary saw all these things that were going on and she treasured them in her heart. She took these things and she absorbed them. She she would remind herself of these things. She put herself in a position to remember and stew on and meditate on every good thing that God had said, every good thing that that was being told her. Why? Because you're gonna have plenty of reasons to doubt. You're gonna have plenty of moments where this doesn't make sense and that doesn't make sense, and I don't know. Did God really tell me? Is this really what God was saying? And I want you to know she treasured these things away in her heart so that she would remember how many times God had told her, and in how many ways God had told her this is what you're called to, this is who he is, this is what he's going to be. Don't miss it, okay? Don't miss what God is doing. Don't miss the opportunity of adventure. Don't miss the Son of God being born because of frustration, irritation, or distractions. It's really easy to dole out the good things that God is doing and the glory he's bringing about with all the other things that we have going around us. This season uh that is coming is about the conquering Lord, right? And ultimately it's attacked by Satan primarily through uh misdirection, distraction, and headache. Their stress, suicide rates are uh like staggeringly high uh during Christmas time. This thing that is supposed to be beautiful and wonderful and a reminder to all of us, joy to the world, right? Like God is coming, is fraught with distractions and is constantly um under attack by darkness to try to steal away the goodness of what God did. And I want to tell you, as Christians, we need to treasure away the truth in our heart and remember everything that God has done. Listen to me, the gospel started Christmas, the redemption of all things started this night when they were walking this stuff out. My salvation, your salvation, the story of everyone's salvation and the redemption of the world started on this difficult night in this frustrating circumstance. And if you're walking in faith and obedience, you'll see it. But if you're walking in distraction, if you're not treasuring these things in your heart, you're actually going to miss it. If you aren't treasuring what God has said and getting it into your guts, Christmas is not going to feel like Christmas. Family is not going to feel like family. The time that we're supposed to spend together, walking with each other and rejoicing, will be overshadowed by a bunch of nonsense that should not be driving decisions, shouldn't be driving what's going on with our emotions, and definitely should not be driving our lives. I want you guys, as we're walking into Christmas, as we're walking into this beautiful season, treasure the moments in your heart. What are the good things God is doing right now? Who are the wonderful people that He has put you around? What are the blessings that God has in your life right now? Even if it's just your own salvation and the goodness of God and what he has brought about, I want you to treasure these things in your heart, treasure these times in your heart, the people you are with, the hope that you have, the smiles of kids, the health you have, what the season represents, and the reality that God is not done writing this story. This uh this birth wasn't the end. It was it was the beginning of the end of darkness, but it was just the beginning. And Joseph and Mary didn't get to see everything that God was going to bring about. And I don't get to see everything that God is gonna bring about, but I know that I'm part of this glorious story. It's not over. You've been chosen by God to play your part in the greatest story ever told. Treasure this in your heart. Stay the course, stay faithful, stay obedient, stay focused in your heart on what God is doing like it's a treasure, like it's something that you're supposed to hold on to that will define you. This Christmas, I want you to put your faith, obedience, and heart forward into the story that God is writing, because he is and you get to be a part of this glorious thing that he is bringing about. All right, so Christmas is a reminder to all of us that no matter what is going on, Christ is victorious. This child becomes the destroyer of death and an object, the object of our salvation, the hope of our lives and the champion of our stories. Every single minute of this matters. Every aspect of the difficulty and circumstances was ordained by God to bring about his purposes. Every ounce of obedience that you pour into what Christ has called you to do echoes into eternity and is producing for you an eternal weight of glory that we will receive because of it. And everything depends on you treasuring these things in your heart, in your guts. Get the truth in there. Don't allow distraction and frustration and darkness and everything that the world wants to do. Do not let it take from you the reality that you serve a glorious king, that you serve a wonderful God, and he has written you into his story to be a part of the greatest story ever told that would bring about the redemption of all things. Christmas is about realizing that you've been invited to that table, that you get to drink that drink, that you get to enjoy that food with our glorious God. And one day we will share the fullness of that table together in glory because of what happened on one disalcone. Organized, disheveled, frustrating, travel, um, you know, saturated time of year where people had to walk something out to bring about the beginning of this story. Play your part in the story that God is telling. Walk in obedience, walk in faith, treasure these things in your heart. And I just want you guys to know there's so much hope and so much joy and so much beauty in that story. Trust, have faith, and continue to pursue Him. Love you guys. Merry Christmas.