Action4Canada - December 19, 2023


A4C Christmas Prayer Message


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

134.90775

Word count

775

Sentence count

58

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Where is God when it hurts? Is there really a God in the midst of the tough times? What does the Bible say about this and how does it relate to the story of the birth of our Savior, Jesus?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 On behalf of Action for Canada's ministry team,
00:00:26.620 I just wanted to take just a moment
00:00:28.520 just to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
00:00:31.320 It's been a busy year.
00:00:32.740 It's been a full year as well.
00:00:34.700 And I realize that Christmas may be
00:00:36.480 a bit of a difficult time for some of you,
00:00:38.640 but I have some good news to share with you.
00:00:42.020 The Bible tells us in Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14,
00:00:47.420 and again, this is from years and years ago,
00:00:51.180 All right then, the Lord himself will give you a sign.
00:00:54.540 Look, he says, the virgin will conceive a child. 0.89
00:00:59.660 She will give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel,
00:01:03.860 which means God with us.
00:01:06.600 I realize that some of you this year may have lost a loved one.
00:01:11.960 Some of you may have gone through the pain of divorce.
00:01:15.080 Some of you may have lost your jobs,
00:01:17.420 but you may be in the process of losing your home
00:01:19.280 because of the economy.
00:01:20.940 So times are tough.
00:01:22.700 And you may be wondering,
00:01:24.240 well, where is God when it hurts?
00:01:26.820 Isaiah promised in the Old Testament
00:01:29.280 that a Savior would be coming,
00:01:30.780 and his name would be called Emmanuel,
00:01:34.180 God with us.
00:01:35.800 What does that mean for us today?
00:01:38.620 In the New Testament,
00:01:40.300 when Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
00:01:43.280 God sent a mighty host of heaven
00:01:45.280 to announce his birth to the shepherds.
00:01:48.000 Now, a mighty host of angels is not a choir of angels.
00:01:50.940 It's a mighty army.
00:01:52.820 It's no wonder that the shepherds were so scared.
00:01:56.220 And the angel said,
00:01:57.060 Behold, I bring you great tidings of great joy
00:01:59.260 unto you this day is born a Savior.
00:02:02.740 And then he gave them instructions
00:02:03.900 as to where to go and where to find him.
00:02:06.260 And the shepherds, once they got over their fear,
00:02:08.800 they were filled with excitement
00:02:09.780 and they went to Bethlehem
00:02:11.280 and they found Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths,
00:02:15.440 lying in a manger,
00:02:16.820 a feeding trough of all places.
00:02:19.020 And that's how God presented himself
00:02:20.820 and came into this world,
00:02:22.660 as a lowly baby.
00:02:25.000 How does that relate to you today?
00:02:27.400 Maybe you're seeking for answers.
00:02:29.260 Maybe you're really wanting to know,
00:02:30.840 is there really a God?
00:02:32.940 I want to encourage you today.
00:02:35.360 God gave us his wonderful word,
00:02:38.620 the holy book, the Bible.
00:02:41.380 And you can find the answers
00:02:42.580 that you're looking for in here.
00:02:44.020 And it's a time where, you know,
00:02:45.740 you can spend some time reading it
00:02:47.860 and seeking him.
00:02:49.820 And I would challenge you to simply say
00:02:51.780 and say a prayer to him and say,
00:02:53.680 God, I'm really looking for the answers.
00:02:56.240 And I understand that there are answers in here.
00:02:59.140 Maybe finding it difficult to understand.
00:03:01.980 But if you simply ask him,
00:03:04.120 God promises to be found by those who seek him.
00:03:08.160 And so I just want to pray with you
00:03:09.580 as we round up this year
00:03:11.080 and as we end up 2023,
00:03:13.240 there is a God that really loves you.
00:03:16.340 And he wants to show himself to you.
00:03:18.620 So, let's pray together.
00:03:23.400 Heavenly Father, I want to thank you
00:03:25.160 for everything Action for Canada has done this year.
00:03:28.600 But I want to thank you for everyone
00:03:30.140 that's on listening to or watching this right now,
00:03:34.520 this just short little presentation.
00:03:37.040 I realize that Christmas is difficult for some people.
00:03:40.620 I realize many people may have questions.
00:03:43.160 And I realize many people may want answers.
00:03:47.480 You are a great God who really loves your creation.
00:03:51.240 And hurting people are really looking for a loving God.
00:03:55.980 And Father, you promised through Isaiah
00:03:57.720 that you would send Emmanuel, God with us.
00:04:02.240 You demonstrated in the New Testament
00:04:04.380 when you came,
00:04:05.880 you gave the message through the angels
00:04:07.620 to lowly shepherds and they came.
00:04:09.880 And then the wise men came offering gifts.
00:04:13.540 And Jesus walked this earth for 33 years
00:04:15.940 proclaiming the message of hope and salvation.
00:04:20.600 So, my prayer, Lord, is for each and every person
00:04:22.960 that really needs to find this hope,
00:04:25.600 really needs to find the peace of God
00:04:27.500 through this season.
00:04:29.480 May they turn to Jesus 0.98
00:04:30.700 and simply pray,
00:04:32.520 Dear God,
00:04:33.660 if you are there,
00:04:35.860 reveal yourself to me.
00:04:37.820 And may they find the peace of God
00:04:40.240 that passes all understanding
00:04:41.620 through this Christmas season.
00:04:44.240 In Jesus' name.
00:04:46.580 Amen.
00:04:47.860 We at Action for Canada love you.
00:04:50.280 And we appreciate you being with us
00:04:51.940 through this year.
00:04:53.000 And we look forward to some great things in 2024.
00:04:56.440 So, God bless you.
00:04:58.140 God bless Canada.
00:04:59.740 And thank you for being with us.
00:05:01.480 We'll see you all next year.
00:05:02.580 Thank you.
00:05:23.040 Thank you.
00:05:23.560 Um,