Struggling or just need encouragement? This message shows us that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are close in our struggles, fears, and triumphs. Learn how God is with you wherever you are today. With God, nothing is impossible!

How has the birth of Jesus changed your life? Because of Jesus, we can find hope in our uncertainties, peace in our struggles, joy in our discouragements, and love in our differences. And now we find Christ in our world: Christ has come with hope, peace, joy, and love.

This is a season of expectation and preparation, an opportunity to align ourselves with God’s presence and rediscover Christmas.

During this Advent season, we are exploring the attributes of Christ. Looking at his birth and the whole Christmas season: hope, peace, joy, and love. Then we will celebrate the arrival of Jesus, the Christ.

About the Guest Speaker

Our guest speaker today is Bill Mathews, who has been a minister for over 50 years. He and his wife Lynette are missionaries “at home,” answering the call God has put on their hearts to provide a loving home to a very special group of people. They started Safe Harbor Homes with a vision “to provide family-style homes on small farm settings for adults with Special Needs.”

To learn more about Bill and Lynette, and Safe Harbor, visit their website: safeharborhas.org.

Christ’s birth, and the help of the Holy Spirit, gives us life.

The necessity of the Holy Spirit at Christmas

I want to talk about the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit to work in your life if you’re going to become all God created you to be, to be able to live the Christian life and follow Jesus. It’s true for all of us. If we’re going to become what God wants us to be, it’s going to be by the power of the Holy Spirit. What Zachariah said is true, “not by might, not by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts.”

If you are in Christ Jesus you are highly favored by God. God loves you, God favors you. The Lord is with you today. The Lord is with us wherever we go.

I want to begin by noticing the necessity of the Holy Spirit to be at work for that first Christmas to happen.

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God’ (Luke 1:26-35, NKJV)

That word “come upon you” means to arrive where you are. “And the power of the most high will overshadow you.” Think about the power of the most high. We are talking about the power of the most high; we’re talking about a power that is beyond our capacity to understand. God was able, by just speaking words, to create billions of stars. Someone who has a capacity to speak words and create everything that there is has a power that is far greater than any of us could ever imagine, far greater than all the power that there is and all the people and all the businesses and all the nations of the world. We’re talking about a God with incredible power. And the angel says the power of the most high is going to arrive at your address and he is going to overshadow you—that is to surround or envelop you.

Gabriel is saying in affect" “Mary, it’s not going to be you making this happen, your ability, your strategy or efforts or skills. It will be the Holy Spirit 100%. It’s not within your capabilities to be able to make this happen.” And then Gabriel encouraged her to believe. Imagine how hard that would be to believe, so Gabriel encourage her to believe that God, in fact, was going to do the impossible in her life.

36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”

38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.’ (Luke 1:36-38)

I love this verse, with God nothing is impossible. You may face hardships and impossibilities in your life but with God nothing is impossible. That is a great truth for us. Mary‘s response is to say that she understands it’s impossible for her to accomplish this task but she believed the Holy Spirit anyway.

There are many participants when you read through the gospels in the Christmas story: angels, priests, shepherds, wise men, rulers, stars, an innkeeper, angelic choirs. All of them are important and they enhance the story of Christmas. I don’t know if you can see that there’s anything more important on earth that happened than Christmas. There are a lot of different parts to the story but if it were not for the Holy Spirit, there would’ve been no Christmas. The meaning of Christmas is that Jesus Christ, the savior, was born and that birth was brought about by the Holy Spirit working in her life.

The Holy Spirit played the most crucial role in the Christmas story.

The necessity of the Holy Spirit in your life

So we think about the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit and Christmas. Now I want us to think about the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. That’s what we want to think about here. You have no more ability, by your determination, by your resolve but, by your will power, by your physical skills, by your strategy, by your intelligence; you have no more ability to obey the commands of God and to live a holy life, to pray effectively, to witness for Christ than Mary had to cause the baby to be in her womb. You and I don’t have a capacity on our own to be able to go and tell it on the mountain. You and I must have the Holy Spirit come upon us—envelop us and empower us—to live the Christian life. The Christian life is a supernatural walk, the Christian life is only done in the power of the Holy Spirit. We would’ve never been saved had not the father divined and planned salvation. We would never have experienced eternal life had not the Son come to earth and died for our sins. And we would not have experienced salvation if the Holy Spirit not reached out to us to convince us that we need Christ. From our vantage point, it seems like “I made a decision to follow the Lord and I figured it out.” But if it were not for the Holy Spirit, you would’ve never heard the message or understood it. The Holy Spirit can speak to you and say “you need Christ, Christ is the answer for your life.”

It is critical for us to now understand that we will never live out the Christian life. You’ll never be able to execute Christian living in your own strength. You must have the Holy Spirit work in your life. It’s the only way. You must have the Holy Spirit empower you. It’s the way God designed the Christian life to work.

The Spirit is your source of Joy

The Holy Spirit is responsible for any good thing that has happened in our lives. Did you know the Bible says every good and perfect gift comes down from the father above?

In my own life I’ve learned that I need to know what God wants me to do but I also need to understand that I don’t have the capacity to do it under my own ability. And then I need to call on the Holy Spirit to fill me, to envelop me, to fill me with the Holy Spirit, and to work in order to produce Christ in my life.

The Scriptures reveal some 30 or 40 ways in the New Testament, and even in the Old Testament, that the Holy Spirit will work in our lives to accomplish God‘s plan for us. God has a plan for us. He has a unique plan for everyone of us .

When we come to one of those areas where the Holy Spirit has promised to help us, we need to recognize that we need his help, that we’re weak and we need to ask him to help us in real time, in that moment. When you ask the Holy Spirit for help, it releases the spirit of God to manifest his power in you just as he did with Mary and we become strong. There are those difficult situations that happen to each of us at times, and who do we lean on when that happens? Where do we lean to help us? Did you know that the Bible says the Holy Spirit will help us to pray? If you would come to the altar and say, “Lord, I need you today. May the Holy Spirit, whom you have positioned within me, teach me to pray today; or help me to read and understand the Scriptures.”

He can help and give you joy. I have found that I can talk all day to myself, encouraging myself to have joy. But it doesn’t work for me. But the Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace. The Holy Spirit is the one that works joy into your life. So, if this Christmas you’re feeling a sense of sorrow for whatever reason, if you were to come to the Lord and say, “you know Lord you’ve told me I could have joy and I’m not experiencing it right now. Would you begin to produce joy in me?” And it’s not as though there’s an instant change but as you keep looking to him, you’ll find that a few hours or a day or two later you’ll start to have joy in your heart. The Spirit of the Lord intervenes, and envelopes you and gives you what you need, and also helps you overcome issues with sin. It’s a great way for us to focus on our need of God, especially when we have a tendency to focus on our own deeds. God says all you have to do is know that you are weak and then turn to me and I will help you.

The Spirit can do the impossible

The Spirit of God is able to do the impossible in our lives. He is able! Is there an area in your life that you feel is an impossible situation? Maybe it’s a relationship problem, or maybe it’s a ministry issue, it could be anything where you feel like God has a plan for you but you can’t seem to get there. You can’t seem to make it happen in your life. I wondered if we could just take a moment today to admit our weakness and say “Lord, I realize I’ve been giving it my best shot but I can’t seem to get there. I’m going to trust that the Holy Spirit is going to envelop me and bring forth Christ in my life. I’m going to trust the Holy Spirit is going to do something in my life that I can’t do on my own. I am your servant Lord. I want to do what you want me to do. May your word that you said in Scripture, that the Holy Spirit will guide us and lead us, would you fulfill that in my life?” And then every time you feel like you’re not seeing it happen just say “Holy Spirit I need you to help me with this. I’m trusting you to help me get this done.”

A prayer for all of us: “Lord, thank you today for your word to us. Thank you that you care so much about each of us. And you care so much about us that you have come to live inside of us. You knew we could not do this any other way so you came to live inside of us in the person of a Holy Spirit. And we have inside of us the incredible power of God, the mighty power of God, the unstoppable power of God. And Lord each of us here today have areas in our lives where more than we like to admit that we are weak, but you do best—that’s when your power is most showing—when we are weak. And we are admitting it Lord, we are not trying to give the impression that we are something we’re not. We are weak people. We are asking that you would fill us with the Holy Spirit. (Now think about that area and commit it to God.) Lord help us to trust the Spirit of God to get it done. We thank you for it. May the blessings of the Lord be upon us.

Take a moment to let the spirit of God do something in your life today and speak to you.

Suggested Praise and Worship

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This and other sermons brought to you by Faith Chapel, an Assemblies of God church in Pleasanton, CA.