“For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Luke 2:11-14 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 359TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
Today is a day we are commemorating the Birth of our LORD and savior Jesus Christ.
Though today is not His birthday, because the date of His birth was not written down. It was only the season of His birth that was described. And from the season, it is clear that He was not born on December 25th.
But we join the angels who declared great things on the day of His birth over 2000 years ago to say “Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, and goodwill toward men! ” Yes, He is the prince of peace and His birth brought eternal peace to men.
It does not matter to me how Christmas celebration started; we all know it was not started by the apostle. Jesus did not say we should celebrate His birth. The only thing He said we should celebrate is our name written in the book of life. The Bible says;
“Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20 NKJV
Yes, He did not say rejoice at the day of my birth, He said rejoice that your name is written in the book of life. Though it will not be a sin to rejoice at His birth day if it was known, but He never commanded it. Celebrating birthdays began from the life of earthly kings and men of fame, but it is not important to our LORD.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO HIM IS OUR SALVATION. AND THROUGH HIS BIRTH IT CAME, SO THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH COMMEMORATING IT.
Christmas did not begin in the early Church! Christmas began when the religious Church tried to convinced the pagan world to abandon its pagan ways and live the Christian life. It began when religious men tried to reform pagans instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to do it.
The pagan where celebrating a very demonic feast on the 25th of December. The details I will not like to go into now because you can find the full message on my you tube channel preached few years back. It was a day set aside to honor the god of misrule and do all kinds of sexual things and human sacrifice. It was a day set aside to honor the spirit of lawlessness.
So when these men and women joined the Church, the leaders requested that they replace it with something religious; they succeeded in convincing them to be using the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Sadly, the practices where not disallowed. So they started doing their abominable things on that day calling it a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.
That is why you find a lot of misrule happening during the Christmas season. It is also the reason that people like us decided to use the season to partner with the Holy Spirit to get souls saved instead of just watching the enemy use the season to do what he use to do when the day was used to honor the god of misrule.
I tell people, if you chose not to celebrate Christmas because of the way it started, no worries. God will not destroy you for not celebrating His birth. If you chose to celebrate it. God also will not destroy you for do so. The most important thing is how you chose to celebrate it.
If you chose to use the day to do what those pagan used the day to do when it all started, then you are damned. But if you chose to use the day to reflect on the blessing of the birth of our LORD and savior Jesus Christ, and lead others to Him, you will be blessed.
So when I say, “Merry Christmas!” am not promoting the god of misrule or the spirit of lawlessness. Am saying it with an intention to promote the Spirit of Godliness. That is why we have used these season for many years to focus on renewing our faith and getting others to know the LORD and savior Jesus Christ through the story of His birth!
IF YOU TAKE YOUR EYES FROM HOW IT STARTED, YOU WILL DISCOVER THAT THE CHRISTMAS STORY IS A GREAT STORY!
Like I said in one of our devotionals, it tells us of “Christ-Move-Against-Sin.”
For me, the Christmas story, among other things, is a redemptive story. It is the story of how God stepped into the human flesh as second Adam to redeem the first Adam with his offspring. It is a story of how God became man to redeem man from the consequence of the fall. The angle who announced the conception of Christ to Joseph put it this way, “to save His people from their sins.”
Meaning, even when we were all sinners, we were still God’s people in need of salvation. In other words, we were God’s people who needed to become God’s Children. The Christmas story tells how it started. It reveals to us the mystery of immaculate conception.
Actually, it will be foolish not to use a day like this to reflect on the mystery of immaculate conception. Hidden in that mystery is the process of authentic salvation. You will never be certified saved by Heaven if Christ is not conceived in you.
The mystery tells us how He was formed in the womb of Mary, who was not His mother but the source of His flesh. And how He can be formed in us when we surrender our lives to Him.
The Christmas story also tells us of another mystery; it tells us of the mystery of how God picked Himself up again after His initial plan for mankind was disrupted at the Garden of Eden by the fall of man.
Like I have always said, God suffered a major set-back the day Lucifer became Satan and the day he seduced mankind to disobey God and follow his ways.
God’s initial plan was to outsource Heaven to the earth through a creature in His Own Image and Likeness (a Son of GOD), hence creating man. You need to read the book of Job to see how Heaven celebrated with Joy when man was created.
Adam was GOD-Man on earth, DOING God’s bidding until the tempter came and beguile Even who later brought Adam down. That was it! Everything stopped, and God suffered a major setback.
I JUST SUMMARIZED A ONE WEEK TEACHING IN FEW LINES!
There was need to God to pick Himself up again. He actually did by coming to earth as man and using the womb of Mary to do it. The day He did it, angels appeared on earth to shepherds who were taking care of their sheep and rejoiced greatly. They also left a message behind that has reverberated for generations. The Bible says,
So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a [b]manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
Then the angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.
Now when they had seen Him, they made]widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. Luke 2:6-20 NKJV
WHAT YOU SEE WHEN YOU READ STORIES LIKE THIS IS A MATTER OF YOUR MINDSET
I see a lot of mysteries when I read stories like this and believe we should use this day to uncover the mysteries buried in it. That is what I will be doing this morning in our Christmas service starting today at 1 pm. I am inviting you to join us to receive the blessing of the LORD trapped in these verses. If God picked Himself up again after such an eternal set-back, then He can help us to get back on our feet after any kind of setbacks.
You see, when the Bible said,
“we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses or infirmities”
it is not a myth. There is nothing you are going through now that God has not gone through and is still going through. So He is able to help us even in this service.
For instance, if you say God does not know what it means to lose a precious one, don’t forget that He lost His First Son, Adam and had to sacrifice Himself by becoming the only begotten Son to get him back. So He knows!
If you say God does not know what it feels to have an unfaithful spouse. Go read the books of Hosea and other prophets and you will gain wisdom. He lamented severally calling Israel an unfaithful wife. If you say God does not know what it means to suffer losses, you lie. When fallen angels invaded and corrupted the earth, it was a big lose.
When Lucifer became Satan, it was a big lost. When one-third of His angels decamped and became loyal to Lucifer, it was a great lose.
If you say God does not know what it means to be betrayed, you forget that whenever we sin against Him we betray him. And also remember what He went through “as man” in the hands of Judas Iscariot.
If you say God does not know what it means to have eyes filled with tears because of a grief that will not go away, you forget that the Holy Spirit weeps daily for souls that are going to hell. I can go on, and on. But what is important is how God picks Himself up again each time He suffer these things. That is why the word “redemption” is very important.
This Christmas day may be a day of regret for someone. It’s not a sin to regret a thing because God Himself regretted for creating man. But in His Regrets He stretched forth His mind towards His redemptive plan.
AND NOAH WAS THAT PLAN.
There is someone out there that is part of God’s redemptive plan for your life. There is a minister of the gospel out there, a local Church, or even a book that is God’s redemptive plan for your life. There is a Christmas service this morning that can function as part of God’s redemptive plan or your life. The service am inviting you to could be that service.
Things that are part of God’s redemptive plans for our lives must be discovered for our redemption to be executed. If they are not discovered, there will be no recovery. However, it takes sensitivity to discover!
Be sensitive this morning and join us in our Christmas service!
One day the LORD said to me, “Every attack of the devil is preceded by a redemption plan”. Meaning God’s redemption plan precedes any attack of the devil. Even our cars tell us that. “What do you mean Pastor?” you may ask! Here is what I mean; if you own a car, you will understand that a “spare tyre” is a redemption plan for a “flat tyre.”
When a serving tyre goes flat, you don’t sit down and lament over it. You just reach out to the spare and use it to replace the flat tyre. It is when you do not have a spare that things become awry.
In similar way, for everything that has gone flat in your life – marriage, finance, family, ministry, health, career or spiritual life – there is a redemptive plan of God for it. Just reach out to God in prayers and ask Him to reveal it to you, and then use it as a recovery plan for your life from 2021.
Friend I have just shared with you the greatest message of the Christmas story!
Our devotional text made it clear that as soon as God’s redemptive plan was born – Jesus the Christ – angels descended with song and praises to God. Then the shepherds, and finally the Wiseman with gifts!
What is the message here?
If you will stretch through prayer into God’s redemptive plan for your trouble life and lay hold on it, God will release angels to minister to you. Yes, they will do things that will change your story and the bad side of your life.
Shepherds will also come; not self-serving ministers of God, but those who will feed you to enter into God’s redemptive plan revealed. Then destiny partners will invade your life with amazing favors like the Wise men did to Jesus after that. Hallelujah!
My Christmas prayer for you is that you stumble into God’s redemptive plan for any area of your life that may have been wasted and ruined in Jesus precious name.
WISHING YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A GLORIOUS NEW YEAR!!!