Heavenly Father we worship You; King of glory we honor You; our Redeemer we worship You this morning, we adore You, we exalt Your holy name, blessed be Your name Father in Jesus name.
Lord, we thank You for the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You Lord for loving us so much that You gave us Your very best, be thou glorified in Jesus name.
Father this morning, even as we have come, let Your love and Your goodness, Your faithfulness run after all of us in the name of Jesus. According to Your word Father, let this year end for each of us on a wonderful note of Your goodness and faithfulness in the name of Jesus.
Father even as we share Your word now, we ask that You speak to every soul by Yourself in the name of Jesus. As we soak ourselves in the atmosphere of celebration of the birth of our Redeemer, the Bible says He brought joy to the world, give us joy on every side in the name of Jesus. Thank You precious Father, in Jesus name we pray.
Good morning church, merry Christmas (in 24 hours or less than that actually) in advance, praise God! I pray that your joy will be full this Christmas than ever before in Jesus name. You have been experiencing the goodness of God, this time, it will be different, it will be better, it will be greater, it will be more awesome in the name of Jesus.
I bring you greetings from our father in the Lord, our PICP, he should have been here but we have Go-A-Fishing meeting with daddy GO this morning, so he has to be there, but he prays that all will be well with you, you will have a wonderful Christmas, he’ll be here with us tomorrow by the grace of God. Hallelujah! Praise God! Praise the living Jesus!
This morning we want to speak briefly on what I’ve titled “The Greatest Gift of All”, praise God! I know that God has been good to us, He has filled us with all manner of blessings, all manner of gifts all the days of our lives till now and He will continue to do so, but there’s a gift that is greater than every other gifts; those who have gotten it, you will not lose it in Jesus name, and those who are yet to have it, today, you will receive it in the name of Jesus. This Christmas will not leave any of us empty-handed in the name of Jesus, because we have a God (like we sang) who owns heaven and earth, we shall never lack, we shall never want in the name of Jesus.
Our scripture is taken from John 3: 16 & 17, “16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved”. Praise God!
I want us to take note of three words in verse 16, ‘love, gave and believed’, praise God! Love, this is season of love; He gave, our God is the greatest giver; He loved us so much, then He gave us His best, although He gave Him to the whole world, but He said ‘but for those who believe’, hallelujah!
The historical background to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ may be a bit controversial; the issue of the exact date of His birth may also be a bit controversial, but what is not controversial is the fact that our Savior Jesus Christ was born and He came to this earth as a child and then He became a man, praise the living Jesus! Luke 2: 1 – 12 tell us the story of how He was born.
The second thing that is not controversial is that the birth of Jesus which we are celebrating this time, symbolizes the highest expression of God’s love for us. We are celebrating the height of the expression of God’s love for mankind; those two cannot be contradicted or controverted, so if there’s any other thing about how Christmas came to be or whatever, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that our Redeemer was born, He died for you and I, and today He lives. He lives, praise the living Jesus! He’s alive, that’s why we are alive to celebrate, praise God! And we are enjoying the love of God.
Now, as we celebrate Christmas, I want to remind us about a few things that are important and that will help us to truly appreciate the reason why we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The first is that everything that we have belongs to God. According to the Bible, everything that exists and everything that we have is from God, He’s the owner of the heavens and the earth, He owns all things, so whatever you and I have today – our lives, our joys, our happiness, properties, whatever it is, belongs to God, He only gave to us, we must always remember that.
The Bible even says in Deuteronomy 8: 18 that the power to work, to strive, to gather wealth is from God, there’s no self-made man or woman anywhere, there is nothing that we have that was not given to us by God. Deuteronomy 10: 14 says that the heaven of the heavens and the earth, they all belong to God, hallelujah! Psalms 24: 1, the earth and its fullness and all those that are in it belong to God.
Our children, our spouses, our lives, the air that we breath, the properties we have, the positions that we occupy, whatever it is that you have is traceable to something, whatever is visible that we have came from the invisible, God is the Creator, the Author, the Owner of everything and that is very important because as we celebrate the birth of Christ at this time, one of the greatest virtues is the virtue of humility; He came to teach us how to live and then how to die gloriously. He came to show us that no matter what we have on earth, it all belongs to God, we are not going to leave this earth with anything, so we must not let anything to displace God in our life, we must not let anything take focus, take primary position in our life.
When Christ came, everything took the back position, He glorified God in all that He did, God was number one; we must never allow whatever God has given us to becloud us or to make God become smaller in our lives, because in the end, we will leave everything here, praise the living Jesus!
So one of the things we must remember at this time is that everything belongs to God, hallelujah! Including the Savior Himself, that’s why in the scripture it says ‘and God gave His Son’, there’s nothing greater than His Son, so if the Redeemer of the world is owned by God, there is nothing outside God’s ownership – the house where you live belongs to God, your business that is thriving belongs to God, that position you are belongs to God, hallelujah!
That’s number one, if we understand that and we understand that God gave His Son, not just to come and die, but to come and teach us how to live to please God, one of the things that Jesus came to do was to teach us how to live to please God; so as we celebrate Him, the question should be how did Jesus live to please God? What are the things that He said that we should do to live to please God? He said I’m the only way to live a life that pleases God, I’m the only way to heaven, He’s the way to everything, there’s no way outside of the way that Christ represents, hallelujah!
Number two, because everything belongs to God, we must know that there is nothing that we have that is not a gift from God. Everything we have is a gift.
I said number one, it belongs to God; secondly, that which we have is a gift from God, hallelujah! A gift is something that someone gives to another freely without that recipient paying for it, free gift of God. Everything we have, we enjoy as at the pleasure of God, we do not pay for it, God gave it to us – our life, that we can sleep, that we can wake up, we can walk around, it’s not because you have money to pay doctors to go to the best hospitals, there are people that don’t have money to go to hospitals but they are still healthy, everything belongs to God – that we can talk, we can do everything, how much would you have paid for the air that we breathe, for the ability to be able to sleep and wake up; you can take medications to enable you sleep, but what medicine can you take to make you wake up in the morning?
Only God can decide who will wake up and because you are special to Him, that’s why in spite of everything we have come through, He has kept us and we keep waking up every day, His mercies are new every day, that’s why we are alive today; somebody who is alive, shout a big hallelujah!
Many slept last night, not everybody had the grace to wake up today, not because they are sinners or we are better than them, but it’s just by the mercy of God, so today is a new gift, hallelujah! Not many people could sit down like this; I remember many years ago, I could not stand for 2 minutes, but when God healed me, I realized how wonderfully good God is, I understood that being able to stand like this is not to be taken for granted, hallelujah! If you’ve had sleepless nights for days and you are able to sleep and wake up, you’ll appreciate the love of God, the beauty and the fact that you cannot quantify sleep itself, but we take these things for granted, hallelujah!
There are people who cannot sit the way you are sitting now. For 2 minutes they cannot sit, there are things that money can buy but there are things that money cannot buy, hallelujah! Even the richest man in the world cannot buy the air that we breathe, hallelujah! There are things that money cannot buy, people would say ‘if only money can buy it, I will give you all the money’, but that’s why we must know that everything is a gift from God and we must be humble, and that’s what Christ came to teach us, those are the reasons for the season, hallelujah!
The flamboyance, yes, all those things are just side shows, we must not let those things that we do at Christmas remove our focus from the real reason why we are alive, hallelujah!
Bible says in James 1: 17 that every perfect gift is from God; the gift of life the ability to be able to eat easily, have you ever wondered that there are people who cannot eat but they have food; in school, we used to sing ‘some have food, they cannot eat, some can eat but have no food, I have food and I can eat…’, praise God!
You have food, you can eat, you can drink water, there are people who cannot drink water, they have to pass water through pipe to them; there are people who cannot go to toilet on their own; we need to appreciate what God has given us freely, hallelujah!
So whatever we consider to be good in our lives came from God, how much did you pay? One thing that we need to understand is that sometimes when things that are not palatable happen to us, it’s not because God is not there or that God is not powerful, He wants us to appreciate a little of the enormity of the gift that He has given to us so that we will say ha, it is God that did this. I pray that from now on, you will not underrate or undermine the gift of God in your life in the name of Jesus.
Number three; the birth of Jesus Christ shows to us that the best and the greatest gift of God is free for His children, hallelujah! Of all the gifts that we have from God, the best and the greatest is the gift of salvation. What is salvation? Salvation is freedom from bondage of sin; salvation is that you have been saved from the road to hell.
Before Jesus came, we were all walking on the path of destruction, but because God loved us so much, sent His Son; the blood of rams and goats could not save us, the prophets could not save us, nothing could save mankind from the walk to hell, and God knew that the only thing because He loved us so much – love, we were undeserving, man was unlovable, even God said the heart of man is desperately wicked, but the love of God is so unconditional, it is not out of our good behavior that He loves us, it’s just because He made us in His own image and when He sees us, He sees Himself, hallelujah!
And so despite our unlovableness, despite the fact that we are totally undeserving, He gave us what we didn’t deserve, God gave us what we didn’t deserve. So knowing that the only thing that can save us from destruction was the unblemished blood, not the blood of animals or the blood of anything, because the Bible says that all (men) have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Romans 3: 26; so the only innocent blood that could save and without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin, blood had to be shed but there was no man on earth whose blood qualified, hallelujah!
So God, out of love – unconditional, sacrificial, called upon His own Son, part of the Trinity, part of Himself, God gave of Himself and asked His Son to come and shed His blood, to pay for a sin He did not commit, and the Son in total obedience also came and surrendered His life. The Bible says that even at the cross of Calvary, it says Jesus had to surrender; they couldn’t have killed Him if not for the fact that He knew that that was what He came for and He let go of Himself; so salvation is God’s freest gift.
The Bible says in Romans 6: 23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. The wages of sin is death, what we deserve as sinners is death, not just physical death, both righteous and unrighteous will die physically, spiritual death is eternal separation from God. I wasn’t from a Christian home and I was walking the way to hell, but God in His mercy found me as God has found many of us and as God will find you, praise God. So when I look back on all the things that God has done for me in my life, the greatest miracle – I’m not waiting to die so that I will wake up, I don’t want to be sick so that I will be healed, the greatest miracle is the miracle that Jesus died on that cross for a sinner like me and gave me a new use of life and gave me a hope of eternal life in heaven with Him, praise the living Jesus!
And even though we say salvation is free, the fact that a gift is free to the recipient does not mean that somebody has not paid for it. Salvation is free, it’s by grace that you and I are saved that we are here today, we can hear this message; there are people in the world, millions, who cannot sit like this to hear the word of God, but that we can listen to the word every day, every Sunday, every Tuesday, every Thursday, all the time, but many of us are taking it for granted, it’s just by the grace of God, salvation is a product of grace but grace is something that nobody paid for, the only free thing there is that you and I (who are the beneficiaries) have not paid, but look at the price that God paid for my salvation, for your salvation, it cost Him His best, it cost Him His Son, it cost Jesus Himself His life.
The free gift that we enjoy today cost Jesus His life, cost God His Son, so how can we take it for granted? How can we make mockery of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? How can we take it for granted the fact that He came as a baby, He left His throne in heaven, He came here, He became poor that you and I may be rich, He walked the earth, a God in man, One that had His throne in heaven with His Father, He came to this earth and began to walk on the earth in all the dust and all that, He suffered humiliations, all manner of disgrace, He took all the shame and disgrace that we should have taken.
See what it cost Him and ultimately He had to lay down His life on the cross of Calvary to be humiliated, He died a most humiliating death and shed His blood for a sin He didn’t commit, why? Just because He wanted you and me to make it to heaven.
So one of the lessons that we must learn at this time Christmas is that the great price that God paid by loving us so much; imagine a child that you love so much, that you spent all your money to train, the money that you should have used to buy a big car, buy a big house and all that, you spent it on your child because you love him so much and that child grows up, become something and says I disown my parents, I don’t need them anymore; that’s what we do when we disdain the sacrifice of Christ at the cross of Calvary, when we do things that are contrary to what Jesus Christ paid so dearly for, when we do things that are contrary to the price that God paid by giving His child, His own Son.
We are disdaining the sacrifice of God, we are disdaining the pain that Jesus Christ suffered; so as we celebrate Christmas, those are the things that should matter to us, the fact that all that happened, the suffering of Christ on this earth, all the time He took to teach us to live lives of modesty; this is a time of modesty, not only because of the economic situation, but because our Savior said so.
Many of us this kind of time, we throw caution to the wind, we live riotously, there’s no difference between us and unbelievers, it shouldn’t be so. It’s a time for sober reflection, it’s a time to remember all the things that Christ taught us and told us how to live in moderation, love for other people, giving without expecting anything, being sacrificial, helping others not because they deserve it or because they can give back, but just because you are also extending the love of Christ, hallelujah!
So, salvation is the assurance that your soul will not be lost to hell. Salvation is the assurance that Christ came to give us that our soul will not be lost, and I pray this morning for all those listening, including myself, that our salvation will not be lost, our journey to heaven with Christ which Jesus Himself had paid and signed for…
Can you imagine somebody buys a property for you, He paid for it and signed for it and gave you the document and you throw the document in the trash bin, meanwhile that property belongs to you; at the cross of Calvary, Christ signed off on all the things that will give us joy, peace on earth. Bible says that the chastisement of our peace, that is everything that can cost us our peace, Christ paid for it.
He promised us a life that is abundant, He paid for it on the cross of Calvary, all that we need to live a good life on earth without even offending God, Christ paid for it on the cross of Calvary. The assurance of heaven that no matter what we face on earth, no matter the challenges, no matter the tribulations, no matter the temptations, no matter the economic situations that we must make heaven, Christ has already signed it, signed, sealed and delivered, it is irrevocable, only two people can revoke it when you have an agreement like that, one of the people involved and God does not revoke, God does not change His mind, but we can render God’s promise negative, you can render it unworkable for us and I pray that God’s plans and purposes for you and I will not be rendered unworkable in the name of Jesus.
Now as I begin to close, Romans 8: 32, this is one of the most important lessons that we must learn at this time, it says “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? If He could give us His best, His most precious, His greatest, why would He not give us the others? Jesus is what is most costly to God, if He could release Him, what else? Is it a spouse, a partner? Is it a child? Is it good health? Is it money? Is it peace of mind? Whatever it is that we need on earth is a subsidiary to the main thing, hallelujah!
That’s why the Bible says seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all other things shall follow, but we treat that scripture in reverse which is unfortunate, that’s what most of us do; we read it and then we apply it in the reverse, we seek those other things first and then we say when I get the other things I’ll come and be looking for the kingdom of God. It’s not going to happen, we must seek God first; the times of ‘delay’, the times of trials, the times of rising and falling, those times are times that God is ready to steady our faith, He’s trying to train us because of the glorious place He’s taking us to, because it is inevitable that we must suffer with Christ, we must suffer as Christ suffered, we must experience part of the pain, and no matter what we go through in this world that is not palatable, be it sickness or disease, be it lack of money, be it challenges, loss of job and all that, is never an indication that God is incapable or that God is weak.
Even when your enemies appear to be ‘winning’, it’s not that God is powerless; sometimes God allows the enemies to fight and fight you until they are so tired and weak, then God shows up. I don’t know how many of you watched some boxing last night, praise God! God allows the enemy to box and do everything, and then He brings out the sucker punch; whatever you are going through right now, it’s not that God is not there for you, it’s not that God has ceased tom work miracles, it is because the testimony that awaits you if truly you are on the side of God, if truly you appreciate what Christ has for you, it means that your testimony is going to be bigger than your challenges, and so it shall be in the name of Jesus.
So we need to understand that if God gave us Christ, He can give us any other thing. We must also learn importantly from the birth of Christ and His death that we must never write ourselves off. Thank God for our father in the Lord, daddy Adeboye, in this morning’s Open Heavens, we must never write ourselves off.
Look at the story of Saul; he was physically supervising the killing of Christians, that’s why he said in 1st Timothy 1: 15 & 16, I am the chief sinner; if there’s anybody who should sit in the front row in hell, it should be Apostle Paul, but because God is so patient – the fact that God has not come to you, God has not dealt with a sinner and you’ll say look at this man, what is God doing; He is God because God does not want the death of a sinner, so He gives time for the sinner to repent until the sinner refuses to repent.
So no matter how bad your life may have been, no matter how terrible your sins may have been, don’t give up on yourself, Christ came to assure us that we must never give up, that if it took Him to come and save us, that means there is hope, God always have the last card, the last card for you and I is the fact that Jesus came.
Remember the story of the two thieves on the cross of Calvary with our Lord Jesus Christ; one gave up hope, he said what else, I’ve been convicted, I’m on the cross, I’m going to hell now, so what else, he gave up hope; but the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9: 4, a living dog is better than a dead lion because it has hope. As long as you are alive there is hope for you; your story is not over, God is the One writing the story of your life, hallelujah! And whatever story that God is writing always ends in applause.
No matter what you are going through now in your life, in your career, in your marriage, in your health, whatever it is, it’s going to end in praise; the enemies of Jesus, those who killed Him, if they knew it was going to end in praise, they would not have bothered to kill Him, hallelujah! When they caught Him, they were so happy; they nailed Him on that cross and they were rejoicing, they were sharing His garment, they were jubilating, they were drinking and doing everything, they thought everything was over, but on the third day, they realized that God always has the last card.
Somebody says he who is robbed but laughs at the robber has stolen something from the robber, hallelujah! When somebody steals something from you or does evil to you, and instead of getting angry, you just smile and you laugh, you are the one that has stolen something from the thief because you know what he doesn’t know, because something better is going to come out of you just like the case of Joseph and his brothers; they thought they had stolen his destiny but God made him to laugh and God gave him the last laugh, that will be your portion in Jesus name.
Let’s rise to our feet, beloved; we must give to others, not because they deserve but out of love at this season; God gave us His love, He gave us the greatest gift in our Redeemer, Christ our Lord Jesus Christ, not because we deserve it, but because He loved us.
Let’s look around us at this time, those who do not deserve, but whatever we can give, the greatest we can give is love, let us care for other people. Most importantly, if you have not given your life to Jesus, there’s no better time; He says when I’m lifted, I will draw many unto Myself.
Let’s bow our heads; just begin to thank God for the privilege of salvation if you are already saved; just say Lord, I just thank You that I even know You and You have called me to Yourself and I have an assurance that when I die, I will make it to heaven with You. Lord, I just thank You for that grace.
[Altar call]
Let’s pray this prayer and just say Father, Lord Jesus, I thank You for Your sacrifice for my sake, I thank You for Your sacrifice of love, thank You Lord Jesus for what You did at Calvary for my sake, I appreciate Your sacrifice, I appreciate Your love, in Jesus name we pray.
Say Father, let Your sacrifice not be in vain in my life in the name of Jesus. Please pray that prayer for yourself; let Your sacrifice, Your coming to this earth because of me to bring joy and Your death at Calvary for my sake, let it not be in vain in my life; from now, help me to live to please God, help me to live as You lived on earth, with love, with humility, help me Lord to give of my best even to You and please Lord, help me that my journey to heaven will not be truncated; don’t let my journey to eternal life be truncated by anything. This is why we celebrate Christmas; our journey to heaven must not be truncated.
Finally, we are going to say Father, open my eyes and help me to show love to other people around me even as You have shown to me; open my eyes, give me the grace, the enablement to show love – unconditional love, sacrificial love to those around me even if they don’t deserve it; help me Father, not to hold anything back even as You have loved me, help me to love others who are not deserving, thank You precious Father.
Lord we thank You, we glorify You, thank You for coming for our sake, let this Christmas be the best for us ever, let us not do anything at this Christmas to discount Your sacrifice for us, and in the end Father, let all of us make it to heaven in the name of Jesus. Thank You precious Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
