Sunday Worship Experience

This powerful message takes us deep into the messy, scandalous reality of the Christmas story through the eyes of Mary and Joseph. We often sanitize the nativity scene into a peaceful tableau, but the truth is far more complex and relatable. Joseph discovered his fiancée was pregnant—a baby that wasn't his—and faced the devastating collapse of everything he'd planned for his future. Mary stood accused of unfaithfulness, facing potential death by stoning. Both were righteous people whose dreams were shattered in an instant. Yet this is precisely where God was at work. The sermon challenges us to recognize that sometimes God has to get us out of our own way, that our good plans can actually obstruct His God-sized plans. When we find ourselves in the wreckage of broken dreams and failed plans, we're invited to wait, listen, and trust. The angel's message to Joseph wasn't that everything would be perfect, but that God would be present—Emmanuel, God with us. This is the scandalous hope of Christmas: not that God removes our difficulties, but that He walks through them with us, often building our greatest blessings from the ruins of our greatest hurts. The question isn't whether God is working, but whether we'll surrender our way to His.