“I Almost Let Go” with Kurt Carr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLm9va_4JJc

“I Know Who I Am” with Sinach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frtZ4XfoXxM

“Revealed” with James Fortune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heCK1PEZF1g

“The Curse is Broken” with James Fortune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uf1B5URDnU

“Free” with Kierra Sheard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOlQ4iz6jr8

“Joseph’s Song” with Michael Card
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT4VDAIaMwU

“A Christmas Halleluia” with Chris Tomlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG347euXoTM

“Noel” with Chris Tomlin and Lauren Daigle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vwu-t7QRaE

“This Day” with Whitney Houston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bflUJjH-puo

“He/I Believe” with Whitney and Cissy Houston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9i-HmNJq0U

“Do You Hear What I Hear” with Whitney Houston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB8w2FK98sg

“Through Heaven’s Eyes” 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG0a9WFkgzU

“Wonderful Counselor” with Whitney, Cissy, and Gary Houston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z_EsWkcs5w

Receiving a Second Look at What God is Doing in Our Lives
Matthew 1:18-25

	Praise the Lord! I pray that you are having a wonderful Christmas season, and that it gives all of us another look at God’s saving roles in our lives. 
	18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
	19 Then Joseph her husband being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
	20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
	21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
	22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 
	23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
	24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:
	25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name JESUS, Matthew 1:18-25. 
	While Joseph thought about privately divorcing his wife, Joseph had a dream that gave him a second look at his marriage. The angel of God told Joseph not to fear marrying his fiancé because the Holy Ghost had brought conception to Mary. 
	I wish that this season would give us a second look at our lives. If we could receive a second look at the things that seem like failures in our lives, we might see God working mightily through them. God might be doing something mighty with us in the places were we have failed. God might be doing something mighty in the lives of the friends who seemed to fail us. God might be planning something greater for the relationship or job or project or business or ministry that seems to be a failure. 
	Joseph and Mary got married and fell in love all over again with each other. Do you think that it is any mistake that Jesus’ first public miracle was at a wedding in Cana? (John 2) Do you think that it is any mistake that Jesus’ mother knew what Jesus could do to help this new couple celebrate when they had no wine? Do you think that it is any mistake that Jesus told the wedding servers to fill the water pots with water and serve what came out of them? Jesus learned about love and possibility through what God did in the marriage of his parents. 
	Sometime after Joseph took a second look at his marriage, their child Jesus learned something about the beauty of marriage. Jesus learned something about how God would provide when people lacked what they wanted. Jesus learned that a second look at what came out of what God touched could be something wonderful. 
	Receiving a second look at our lives is not just about us. It will change our lives and our children’s lives and the lives of those around us. 
	God is a bigger and more active part of our lives than we ever imagined. The name “Jesus” that God gave Joseph for his son was a fulfillment of the name “Emmanuel” that the prophets had for Jesus. God is not just with us. God being with us saves us and helps us. 
	Our second look is going to totally reverse some situations in our lives. Jesus would have been born to Mary as a child of sin and defined by sin. But God showed Joseph that Jesus was really born to save all of his people from sin. 
	Where were our lives headed? God doesn’t just mean to save us from where we were headed. God doesn’t just mean to save us from the negative labels that other people would have for us.  God means for us to turn things around and move victoriously in the opposite direction, touching lives the same way Joseph the dreamer saved his family and Egypt from a famine and the same way Joseph the dreamer found love and fathered a child who would bring love, mercy, and salvation into the world. 
	May this Christmas help us to celebrate all that God wants us to see and do all that will bring wonderful things into our lives. 

	What a second look we are meant to see!

Tobias Pinckney, Powered to Witness University, 12/4/16

 © 2016 Tobias Pinckney