THE BIRTH OF GRACE FOR THE WORLD

THE BIRTH OF GRACE FOR THE WORLD

What if the best Christmas gift isn’t under the tree but in your heart? We explore how grace appeared in history, chose Mary, and now chooses us. The greatest gift is a person. We see how Jesus embodies grace, makes the impossible possible, and grace reaches everyone.

Grace runs through Scripture and reaches fullness in Jesus, showing why Christmas means God’s grace has appeared to everyone.

Chapter Markers
- 0:00 Grace Before The Manger
- 2:45 Mary As Carrier Of Grace
- 6:50 Favour, Fear, And God With Us
- 11:20 Baby Jesus Foretold As Salvation
- 15:05 Grace Personified In Jesus
- 18:20 Saved By Grace Through Faith
- 22:05 The Impossible Made Possible
- 26:00 Look To Jesus, Not People

Chapters

• 0:00 The Birth Of Grace Explained
• 2:10 Grace In The Old Testament
• 5:20 Mary As The Carrier Of Grace
• 10:05 Favor, Fear, And God With Us
• 14:45 Jesus As The Fullness Of Grace
• 18:30 Simeon And Anna Recognize Salvation
• 22:40 Grace Personified And Proclaimed

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

The birth of grace for the world. I know we talk about Christmas. We talk about baby Jesus. But there's so much more beyond physical gifts. The birth of grace for the world. You see, grace has been in existence. Where there's sin, there's God's wrath, there's God's judgment, eventually God's destruction. But guess what appears? Grace. When Adam and Eve our assistants sinned against God. You know what God did? God covered them under his grace. When Noah found grace in the sight of God. You know why Noah found grace on the sight of God? Because the earth was full of wickedness. Like I said, where there is wickedness, where there is sin, grace appears. Where sin abounds grace abonds. So sin and grace to go hand in hand. Grace has been out in history. Grace is evident in the Old Testament. Even before Moses, who is the Lord deliverer, even the Lord deliverer needed grace. Oh God. Even the Lord deliverer needed grace. Moses said, God, may I find grace in your sight? So grace has been around, child of God. This season, it's not only the birth of Jesus, but it is the birth of grace for the whole world. Because during the past, grace was extended to certain people, to certain group of people, like the children of Israel. You have the angel of the Lord, which is Jesus Christ, following them, and grace is a person, and that person is Jesus. Let's look at Mary, a product of grace. Look what it says in Luke chapter 1, verse 28. The birth of grace for the world. Mary, which I refer to as the carrier of grace. Mary was the carrier of grace. Because the angel of the Lord announced to Mary that Mary, you're lucky. He said, Mary, you are highly favored. Sometimes when you read the scripture, the word grace and favor, you're interchangeable. Luke chapter 1, verse 28. Look what it says. And having come in, the angel said to her, That is Angel Gabriel. Reaching out to Mary. Say, rejoice. Highly favored one.

unknown: 2:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 3:00

So the carrier of grace has to be found with grace. So grace started everything. The angel said, Mary, rejoice, woman. Why you should rejoice? Why you and I we should rejoice in this season is because of the birth of grace. That's what Christmas is. You shouldn't rejoice for gifts. Yes, there's a place for gifts, but you should rejoice because the grace of God has appeared to all mankind. The grace of God is present to all mankind. And God desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. That is why when we go out there to preach the gospel message in this Christmas season, let them know that the grace of God has appeared to you, has appeared to my daughter, has appeared to my uncle, has appeared to my my children, has appeared. That is the best gift that you can give to anybody. Look what it says. Blessed are you among women. Wow, what made Mary so special and blessed? It's as a result of what grace. Not because Mary was the only virgin. No, Mary was not the only virgin. Mary was not the only virgin. Mary was not the only one betrothed. But why Mary? Was it because Mary was so special, Mary was so righteous? No, it was because Grace unpicked Mary. You and I we are in church because grace has unpicked us. Not because you are better than your friends, not because you are better than anyone else. No, no, get that off your mind. You are here, you are in Christ because grace has picked you from among. Look what it says. He said, Mary, you need to rejoice because you are highly favored. And guess what? The Lord with you, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. And look what it says in Luke chapter 1, verse 30. Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Mary, you don't need to be afraid. And the reason why you don't need to be afraid, Mary, because God is with you, and you have found favor in the sight of God or with God. You see, when you find favor with God, it's like God likes you. When you find favor with God, it's like God is pleased with you. Don't you want your creator to be happy with you with you? Don't you want your creator to be comfortable around you? Don't you want your creator to reach out to you? Don't you want your creator to approach you? Don't you want God to look at you without frowning? Don't you want God to look at you smiling? Tell you what it means to find grace in the sight of God. You are standing right in front of God. God does not look at your past, God does not look at your presence, but God looks at who you are, a new creation in Jesus Christ. Mary found favor with God. A favored mother with a favored child. Grace extends. We can see that in the life of our pastor. Grace found her. Now grace is extending to her children. Grace extends. Mary, the product of grace, conceive the fullness of grace. Oh God. The product of grace conceived the fullness of grace. So everything started off with grace. Oh God. The birth of grace. Mary found grace in the sight of God, and Mary conceived the fullness of grace. Now, look what it says. It said in Luke chapter 1, verse 21, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son. And you shall call his name Jesus. The word Jesus is Yeshua, it means Savior. The Bible says we are saved by grace. The breath of grace produces salvation in our lives. Because the angel said, Mary, you're gonna conceive Jesus, and the name Jesus means salvation. And not only that, in Matthew chapter 1, 22 to 23, it says, All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with a child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. Like I said, Mary found grace in the sight of God, and you and I we have found grace by through Jesus Christ. So Emmanuel, because when you found grace in the sight of God, God has no choice but to be with you. There comes in Emmanuel, God with us. So God is with you. When you found grace in the sight of God, God is with you, God is in you. From birth, he was a child of grace. From his boyhood, it was a child of grace. Till his adulthood, it was a man of grace. Everything about Jesus was grace. That is why the Bible says he is the fullness of grace. Child of God, you I'm looking at you, your children, from birth, product of grace, in their team, product of grace, in the adults, product of grace. Your whole life, mama, you are a product of grace, because our Savior from its conception, even his mother, was a product of grace. So don't despise your parents, even people testify during the birth of Jesus, people like Simon. Look what it says in Luke chapter 2, verse 30 to 31. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of the people. Can you imagine? When Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple, this old man has been waiting to see the salvation of God. Can you imagine? An old man has been in the temple waiting to see the salvation of God, and the Holy Spirit was able to lead this man that hey, the salvation of God is here. And guess what? The salvation of God is here, it's in a child. Can you imagine? Jesus was not yet in ministry, he was just a baby, and somebody looked at him and prophesied. Prophesied the future of this young man. He said, Wow, God, you can take my life now because I have seen with my corrocoral eyes, I have seen with my physical eyes your salvation right here in this child, in this newborn. What that is why, parents, what can we learn from this? When you look at your child, you're not just looking at a baby child, you're looking at a future, the future of the next president, a future doctor, a future man of God. If oh my god, oh my god, if you know He was looking at Jesus as a baby, and the baby had no clue. This is my salvation, and I have tasted it and I've seen it. Not just Simon, Anna, Anna, look what it says in Luke chapter 2, verse 38. And coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. So this woman is a widow, I think. For 86 years, all she did was to be in the temple, praying and fasting, again, waiting for the salvation of God, and she saw baby Jesus. And look what she prophesied, she said, Wow, God, I thank you. I thank you because I can look upon my redemption, the redemption of Jerusalem. What a special baby! So, Christmas season is not just a child wrap in a manger, we are talking about the most important person. Christmas is the most celebrated birthday of all birthdays in the world. We don't celebrate Muhammad, Muhammad is dead. You understand? Buddha is dead, Krishna is dead. All of the founding members of any religion, their founders are dead, but our founder is the life and the resurrection. We're gonna pray. Let me finish this up. We're gonna pray now. Our salvation is by grace, and God made the necessary provision, and there's a personality that possesses grace, and we're gonna look at the process in which you and I we obtain our salvation. So, the grace of God is Jesus, and this grace of God brought about our salvation. Look what it says in Titus chapter 2, verse 11 to 12. It says, For the grace of God, who is the grace of God? So the grace of God in this context is not what grace is, it's a person, the grace of God, just like Paul states that Jesus is the wisdom of God, Jesus is the power of God, Jesus is the prince of peace. So, all these themes, all these abstract terms that we use, they are personified in Jesus. Love is God, love is not just a thing or a feeling, love is a person. That is why you have to have that person to have that thing inside of you. So when you have God, you have love, when you have Jesus, you have grace. When you have Jesus, you have peace. So if you're looking for peace, have the Prince of Peace reign in your heart. So it says, For the grace of God, that is a person that brings salvation. Wow, this person, Jesus, his name means Savior, brought about our salvation, has appeared to all men. He came in the human form and presented himself as the savior of the world. So when we go out there to tell people about Jesus in this season, Jesus Christ is alive, Jesus Christ has resurrected, Jesus Christ is not dead, and Jesus Christ has brought about the salvation of your soul. This is what you and I will need to tell our friends, we need to tell our co-workers, we need to tell our aunties, our uncles, our children. Let him know that the best gift I can give you is Jesus. I can give you money later, I can give you candy later, but now take Jesus because when you have Jesus, you have everything. So we also see that grace is personalized in Jesus as the fullness of grace. If we read um from John chapter 1, 16 to 17, it says, And of his fullness we have all received grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Christ. The children of Israel they tried to live for God, they tried to be accepted by God through the laws, it couldn't work for them. But when grace was introduced, you and I we are saved. God extended his mercy because of Jesus, he is the fullness of grace. Now, how do we go about obtaining salvation? The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 to 9 the process of our salvation by grace through faith. It says, For by grace, again, grace is the reason why you are saved, mama. You're not saved because of your works, you're not saved because of your pastor, you're not saved because you're from Kenya or you're from Nigeria, you're not saved because you're Canadian, you're not saved because you were raised in a religious home, you're not saved because you can you know the Bible, you went to school, or you study religion. No, you're not saved because of that. You don't have there's no reason from you that you're saved, you are saved because of grace, because the Bible states that for by grace and grace alone, you have been saved, even we have been saved by grace and for grace alone, and Jesus is the fullness of grace. All that we did was true. All that God requires from me, just to believe, accept this free gift of salvation. Jesus died for my sin, my past is gone, my future is clean, my future is correct. God, I believe. That's all by faith, so simple, and not that of yourself, nothing. Guess what? It is the gift of God. Wow, so the gift that you can give somebody for Christmas is salvation. So at times I know, so this is a gift we should always give, not just on the birthday of Jesus, not just December 25th. Every day we should give people the gift of salvation because this is the best indescribable gift that you can give to anybody, and now the thing that baffles my mind is this, okay. Mary said that God, how is this going to happen? Okay, how am I gonna conceive without a man? How am I gonna bear a child without a man? Because to have a child, you need the opposite sex, man and woman coming together to conceive a child. That's the natural protocol, that's the natural process. So Mary is asking the angel, how is this going to happen? Because with man, this is impossible. I'm getting somewhere, with man, this is impossible. Okay, with man, this is impossible. So, just as the birth of Jesus, humanly speaking, is impossible. The birth of Jesus, humanly speaking, for a virgin to conceive a child, humanly speaking, naturally speaking, it is completely impossible. How is this gonna happen? That's what that was the right question that Mary asked angel, how is this going to happen? Look what she said. Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be? Since I do not know a man, Mary was not stupid. Mary knows that if for me to have a child, I need a man to sleep with, I need a man to sleep with. How are you gonna save me, a virgin? I can just have a child like that. This is impossible for me as a man. But look at the reply of the angel. Okay, just because things are impossible for you or impossible for this church, never never take your weaknesses, never never take your inadequacies, never never take your inabilities, never never take your lack and portray them on God. Because God is not a man, God is not like you, God is not as weak as you, God is not as lazy as you, God is not as incapable as you, God is God, is in is incompetent, competent, but you are not. I like the fact that Mary said that's the sign of humility. That God, how is this going to happen? But look at the response of the angel, he said, and the angels answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit, the power of God. Wow, he said, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest over. Shadow you. Do you know how God created this universe? When the universe was full of darkness, void, and and and and and and and um empty. The Bible said the Holy Spirit overshadowed the earth, and God spoke his word. So the birth of grace came as a result of the power of the Holy Spirit. So you and I we are also saved by the Holy Spirit that quickens our spirit to accept Jesus. He says, Mary, I know it is impossible with you, but not so with God. Guess what? My spirit is gonna make it possible. He said that it said the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Oh my god, and the power of the most high will overshadow you, and you shall conceive the Holy One. So the conception of Jesus is the same conception as you. Ah, how Jesus was conceived is the same way you and I we are spiritually conceived on a spiritual sense. It's impossible for me to come to Jesus, to come to God without the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that does the work that quickens the hearts of people. This young man is wasting his life. We might not see him. He's able to do that with multiple people at once. Sometimes you just talk, leave the Holy Spirit to do the work. Don't go there. Do you know who Jesus is? That's why Jesus said, It's better for me to go because me as a human being, I'm limited. But if I go, the paracle, who is the omnipresence, will be all over the world, convicting the heart of people to come to me. He said, Let me go, let me go, let me go. And look what Mary said. I like this verse from Mary. Be all again the act of faith. So the account between Mary and the angel is our salvation. That's exactly how you and I would give our lives to Jesus. So the angel said, This is what's gonna happen. Mary said, How is this gonna happen? The angel said, It is possible with God, my by my spirit. The Bible said, Not by power, not by might, but by my spirit. If you're gonna boast, don't boast of your strength, don't boast of your riches, boast that you know God. And look at the response of Mary, a response of faith. Look what it says. And then Mary said, Behold, thy made servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to thy word. And the Bible said, Faith comes by what? Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word. This is our salvation. Mary said, Humanly speaking, it is impossible. The angel said, With God, all things are possible. And Mary responded was let it be done, faith. That's all. That's that was the difference between Mary and Zachariah. Zachariah, a priest in the church, doubted religion. I like that. Religion. Religion. He said, You know what? I'm not gonna say much. Let it be done according to thy word. If you have experienced God, that's why God was telling me the day that you doubt me, you're done. I can't afford to doubt God. In this my life, I can't afford to doubt God. I can't, because I have seen the mighty hand of God in my life from childhood till now. I cannot afford to have one slice of doubt in my head. No way. And now, lastly, lastly, his disciple, his disciple. Look what it says, Matthew chapter 10, verse 25 to 26. When his disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, Ah, because Jesus was talking about how hard is this to get to heaven. They have heard the sermon from Jesus, and then they said, Ah, who then can be saved? Who then can be saved? Because you're saying that it's hard for a rich man, then who then can be saved? And then, but look at the response of Jesus. But Jesus looked at them and said, With men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Somebody can pray for you, your pastor can pray for you 24 hours. Humanly speaking, she cannot save you. It takes the Holy Spirit to convict your heart for you to be saved. With God, all things are possible. We as ministers, we are just vessels for God's use. Don't look, don't look on us, don't keep your eyes on us. That is why when pastors fail, people leave church. And the reason why people leave church is because they see their pastor as God. But when you come to church, look onto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith, because Jesus will never let you down. Give your all in all in Jesus, child of God. We're gonna pray with this, okay? We're gonna pray with this. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all men. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Let me read again. For this is good, child of God. Salvation is good, it is good and it's acceptable. Not only is it good, God accepted, God validated it, God confirms it in the sight of God, our Savior Jesus Christ, the grace, the fullness of grace, and look at the desire of God for Christmas. Look at the desire for God for this season. God has a desire, God has a will. He's saying that I desire your son who's not saved, your husband who is not saved, your boyfriend who's not saved, your classmate who's not saved, your co-worker who's not saved. I desire them to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And who is the truth? Jesus. No man comes to God except through Jesus because he is the way, the truth, and a life, and he is the fullness of truth.