Weakness to Strength

2 Corinthians 8:9,Isaiah 53:1-3 · 2024-12-08 · Jason Wolin · Advent 2024

2 Corinthians 8:9,Isaiah 53:1-3 · God's Love, God's Power. Weakness to Strength — sermon from Cypress Bible Church on BibleSlides.

Weakness to Strength Slideshow for this message PDF Message Download Introduction Well we are into advent season and each week we are looking at key contrasts we see in the Christmas story. Last week we looked at darkness to light. In the OT there was clearly a sin problem but it wasn’t clear how that problem would be resolved. But there was this prophesy that there was a coming ONE. Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. ” And Jesus bursts in on the scene. And his whole life was light. He was intellectual light, prophetic light, moral light, emotional light, redeptive light, healing light, spiritual light and the light of justice. As John 1 says. John 1:4-5 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”” John 12:46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” So when we think of Christmas we think of putting up lights. That’s appropriate because Jesus is the light of the world. That was the first contrast from Darkness to Light. Gifts Well another thing we think of at Christmas is gifts. Christmas is marked, perhaps more than anything else, by the giving of gifts. Everybody gives gifts at Christmas. Now what makes a good gift? Half the fun for a kid is imagining what’s in the package. There’s all this suspense. They shake it to see if it makes noise or to see how heavy it is. It takes a lot of the fun away if you already know what the gift is. The older you get the fewer surprises you receive because your always giving guidance. A good gift is a surprise. A good gift is something you want. Some people love soap. I’m not one of those people If you give me soap, you don’t know me. Something that has value. Plastic toys from the dollar store don’t make very good gifts because they are cheap both in quality but in price. Now it is absolutely correct to say that Jesus was the gift of all gifts. If you think about it, he ticks all the boxes of a good gift. It’s a total surprise. Nobody was expecting God come in the flesh! It’s something we absolutely need. It’s extremely valuable. In fact, in our anchor text this morning, we read that this gift makes us filthy rich. But it comes at a cost. Here’s our anchor text for today: 2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” Let’s take the infinite God of POWER and STRENGTH and wrap him up in rags of flesh and…

Cypress Bible Church · Full sermon loading below.