There's only one way to get joy if you don't have it, and that's by rejoicing.

Dr. Tony Evans says joy grows when we choose it, even when the circumstances are saying otherwise.

And so you choose to rejoice so that the circumstances aren't having their way with your joy. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

It's easy to let the gifts, events, and expectations of the season drown out the very reason Christmas exists.

Well, now that the stockings are empty and the presents unwrapped,

Dr. Evans wants to remind us that Christ was born into a world just as chaotic and troubled as ours,

one filled with political tension, social division, and deep uncertainty. It's a look at how to

recover the joy we've lost by rediscovering the Savior we've overlooked. Let's join him as he

talks about the good news of Christmas. When I first started traveling and speaking many, many

years ago, I would always go to the airport gift shop

and buy a gift for the kids, something, you know, bat and ball or jacks or a puzzle,

or some gift to bring back from wherever I was going to speak.

And the kids, my four kids, would be excited about me coming home and daddy's home, daddy's home, daddy's home, and they would be all excited.

I was home.

And then I reached in my bag, my suitcase or whatever, and I would give them whatever I had picked up from the gift shop.

The problem occurred, however, when they began asking me when I was going again.

They wanted to know when I was leaving because they knew that that probably meant I was going to bring them back a gift.

In other words, a shift occurred.

At first, it was about me and they happened to get a gift. Then it was

about the gift and I was just extra. A great inversion has occurred with Christmas. It's supposed to

have been about Jesus.

And gifts would be the accessory.

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