TD Jakes - Discover Your Resilience Through God's Love (05/19/2025)
God humbled Himself to enter His own creation as Jesus, Emmanuel—God with us—pouring out His glory to become incarnate flesh, fulfilling the promise to seek and save lost humanity through the seed of the woman. Yet the greater wonder is that this King of Kings chose to be born not in a palace but in a lowly barn at night, identifying with the poorest among us, while wise men brought royal gifts, showing that divine provision finds us even in our lowest places.
The Wonder of the Incarnation
God is with us in the personification of Jesus. The first step is to realize that the great big God would come into the world at all—that He would come into His own creation. This is an amazing truth. He cannot even fit inside His own creation. The truth is, He had to reduce Himself down to His lowest common denominator. The Bible says it this way: He poured out of Himself His glory and honor and humbled Himself so low as to come into His creation.
And having come into His creation, which was awesome, then He picks out a woman and comes inside of her. The God who performed the delivery of the first woman—putting Adam to sleep so no man could get credit for her and saying, “This is not your fight, Adam. I have this covered. I am going to show you what you have”—reached inside of him and pulled her out of him, and heaven was amazed.
What I am talking about is the God who created the woman now getting into the woman He created, wrapping Himself up in flesh and coming to walk around in a flesh suit. They called His name Emmanuel, meaning “God tabernacled with us.” It is Him answering the question, “Adam, where art thou?” The question never got answered until Jesus came. He said, “I am coming to get you. I am going to use this lamb as a temporary substitute, but lo, I come in the volume of the book to do Thy will, O God.”
God Wrapped in Flesh
He comes down through over 42 generations, wraps Himself up in flesh and says, “I am coming to get you.” The Incarnate God—where we get the word “carnal,” related to “carnivorous,” meaning “meat.” God wrapped Himself in a meat suit. The term “incarnation” means “in meat.” I came down to your level. I came where you could touch me; I came where you could see me.
If I had shown Myself in My original state, it would have been too much for you; it would have burned the eyeballs out of your head. So, I hid Myself in a meat suit just so we could have a conversation. Incarnated divinity—the Creator has now become subject to what He created.
He gave up His omnipotence, His omniscience, and His omnipresence. He submitted Himself to prayer because He gave up omnipotence. All-powerful, now He has to go to the garden and pray. Omniscience: He said, “No man knoweth the day nor the hour that the Son of Man cometh; neither the angels, nor the Son, but the Father which is in heaven,” meaning, “I do not know everything anymore.” He gave up His omniscience.
He traveled because He gave up His omnipresence. As Father, He never had to travel; He was just there. But Jesus had to get on a boat and travel to come where you are and said, “Let us cross over to the other side.” It is the humility of God: the God who said, “I counted it not robbery to be equal with God, but made of Myself no reputation.”
Fulfilling the Promise
He humbled Himself and came inside the woman He created to fulfill Genesis 3:15, that the seed of the woman would rise up and bruise the head of the serpent. Christ is the seed of the woman. A woman does not have a seed, and a virgin does not have sex. So, the only way that she could be pregnant is by the power of God. I know in whom I have believed, and He became incarnate with us.
The Humility of the Nativity
But that is not the really good part. Let me give you the good part. The really good part is part two: the polar propensity of the nativity scene tells more than a story. The King of Kings would not be born in a palace, mansion, cathedral, house, or hotel. The King of Kings, the Ancient of Days, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Counselor, the Bright and Morning Star, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, chose to live homeless.
Even homeless people do not choose to be homeless; He chose to be homeless, not because He was broke—because His Father was looking for a hotel room. You do not look for a hotel room if you are broke. But God had shut the door on every possible option so that He could choose a spot to be born that was the lowest of the low—not a house, because houses are built for people, but a barn, because a barn is built for animals.
The Man who is about to be born wants to be born in a barn because He is a Lamb. You must understand that Jesus is the light of the world, but He was born at night. He was born at night, though in Him was life, and that life was the light of men.
Identifying with the Lowly
He was born at night in a lowly place, so low that He could hear the cry of the poor, broke folks—folks eating government cheese, folks that cannot afford powdered milk, people eating out of trash cans. Jesus says, “I can be touched with the feeling of your infirmity because I understand what it is to not have a place to stay—a windy, drafty place.”
Jesus was born in a barn so that even if you are a slave in a shack, you can call Him, and He will hear you. We are comfortable with understanding a broke Jesus, a poor Jesus, and we love to talk about how lowly and poor He was.
The Camels Are Coming
But the oxymoron of the text is that three wise men brought Him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. This is the offering that you give to a king. The king’s ransom is brought to a barn by camel. God said, “What I have got for you, I have got for you, and you do not have to come to it; you do not have to lower yourself for it; it will come to you. I will find you wherever you are!”
If I have to find you by night, if I have to follow the star, I will find you in the shelter; I will find you in your lonely place; I will find you with your power off; I will find you with nothing to eat for Christmas but a hot dog. But I have got good news: Jesus said, “Preach good news to the poor!”
I want the broke folks to know that the camels are coming to you! And if you receive it, praise Him like you lost your mind; praise Him like you do not care who is looking at you; praise Him like you do not care what nobody thinks; praise Him like you do not care what you have got to wear! My camels are coming!