Research shows that our generation is laughing less and having to juggle more. Prescriptions for anxiety and depression medications are all on the rise. There's a word that describes what we're feeling; it is gravity. We're not talking about the physics kind of gravity like the earth's gravitational pull; we're feeling the "gravity" of life. We put on smiles and wear our Christmas red and tell everybody "Merry Christmas," but underneath all that, there's a heaviness to our lives. So we put up the façade and keep pushing. You know what we need? We need the opposite of gravity. It's called levity. When you bring levity to a situation, it lightens the load. Levity makes the burden a little lighter. We need to be in environments and have experiences that lift us. We believe God has sovereignly appointed you to come across this service recording today to bring some levity to the gravity of your situation. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said a lot about Christmas and the coming Christ child hundreds of years before any of that ever happened. He foretold many things about this child who would change the world. He said Jesus would come: Isaiah 61:3 NKJV To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness When Isaiah says that Jesus will give you beauty for ashes, it means every place where your life is ugly and burnt he's going cause something beautiful to spring from the ash of that situation.

Related Topics: Joy, Pain, Spirituality | More Messages from Bryan Jarrett

From Series: "Joy To Your World"

Christmas at Northplace 2019