In this thought-provoking and stimulating message, we consider why God had to become
a man and other related questions.
Why did infinite God have to come as a feeble human being?
Why a gruesome cross?
What about before and after?
What about other groups of people?
Would God need to incarnate multiple times?
So this Christmas Day this morning, as we take time to think about the birth of
the Lord Jesus Christ, I want us to talk about or think about a very important
aspect about the birth of Jesus and then basically ask one question and then try
to answer that one question.
The most important thing for us about the birth of Jesus is that this was God incarnate.
This was God who became man.
Emmanuel, God with us.
The most important thing, if we miss that, we've missed everything else.
You can talk about the shepherds, the kings and everybody else that came to attend the
birth place, but hey, if you forget that this baby, this Jesus that we're talking about
is actually God incarnate, then we've missed everything.
And there are many places in Scripture where this truth is presented to us that Jesus Christ
who was born in the earth 2000 years ago, whose birth we are taking time to celebrate,
was really God who became man in several places.
And I just want to reference to just read two passages out for you and me this morning.
There are many more in the Bible.
For instance, in Micah chapter 5 and verse 2, the prophet Micah says this.
He says, but you Bethlehem.
So we know Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
So Micah is foretelling, he's prophesying, he's speaking ahead of time.
And he says, but you Bethlehem, though you are little among thousands of Judah,
you're a small little town, Bethlehem, insignificant.
Though you're little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me
the one to be ruler in Israel, a king will come forth.
A king will be born out of this little insignificant town of Bethlehem.
One will come forth, there will be a ruler in Israel.
But what about this king?
The prophet continues to say, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.
His origins, or he, this king is not somebody who began in time.
He was already there from everlasting.
So Micah is saying, a king is going to be born coming out of Bethlehem,
a king who was always there from everlasting.
Not somebody who started in time, but what always eternally existed.
Another powerful passage is there in the New Testament in Philippians chapter 2 verses 6 through 11.
Just want to read that for us.
And I'm reading it from the contemporary English version verse 6.
Christ was truly God, but he did not try to remain equal with God.
Instead, he gave up everything and became a slave when he became like one of us.
Christ was humble.
He obeyed God and even died on a cross.
Then God gave Christ the highest place and honored his name above all others.
So at the name of Jesus, everyone will path down, those in heaven on earth and under the earth.
And to the glory of God the Father, everyone will openly agree Jesus Christ is Lord.
So who was Christ?
He begins by saying Christ was truly God.
And, but he became a man.
He became a man to the point of becoming a slave, becoming like one of us.
And he obeyed, he submitted and even died on a cross.
So the question, one single question that I want us to consider this Christmas day is this.
Why would God need to become a man?
Why?
What's the big point of this whole thing?
Or if you want to use a technical term, why?
What is the reason for the incarnation?
Incarnation, God becoming a man.
What's the point?
What's the purpose behind this?
Why?
Why the incarnation?
And related to this question, we can ask several other questions which hopefully we will answer this morning as we share.
You know, why would God need to come to the earth as a human person?
And why come as a feeble human being?
Why could God show up as God on earth?
And we all like that Star Wars grace, the force.
Who's in charge of the galaxies?
You know?
I mean, why could God show up as God?
There would be no mistake, no arguments, no debates, nothing.
God came, here he is, no questions asked.
It would be so simple for all of us.
Why did he have to come as a feeble human being born as a baby in a manger?
To be cared for by his mother?
I mean, isn't that pretty embarrassing?
For God to be cared for?
Why did he have to walk as a man in a human body?
Why?
And then, why a gruesome cross?
I mean, as we read in the passage, truly God becoming man, becoming a slave, becoming obedient, and even dying on a cross.
A gruesome cross.
Now, if you and I say, well, the reason God came into this world is to save our sinners,
I mean, could he not have done it some less gruesome way?
Could he not have just said, okay guys, I love you all, I just forgive you.
Peace be unto you. See you later.
I mean, why the cross?
What's the big deal?
And it's so gruesome. Bloods.
Why?
And, well, he died in time, so what about people before and what about people after you and me living 2,000 years ago?
I mean, why would it matter?
God coming 2,000 years ago, how can it impact me today?
How can it impact you today? What about before and after?
And would God need to, what about other people groups, other groups of people?
I mean, it's pretty obvious he came to a small group of people in the Middle East.
But what about all the other groups of people on all the other continents?
What about them having their incarnation of God? Would that be necessary?
Isn't that very partial that one small group in the Middle East has an incarnation of God?
What about all the other groups of people in the world?
And then what about if he came back then, does he need to keep coming over and over and over again in time?
Does God need to come multiple times? Does he need to incarnate multiple times?
Because, you know, modern day, okay, maybe comes in a modern way using an iPhone and, hey, to relate to us.
Does he need to come multiple times? Is there a need for that?
So, in answering this one question, why would there be a need for God to incarnate?
We can have all of these other questions related to it and hopefully we'll try to cover that.
But before we just get into trying to answer that, I want to just say this, that there is a lot of Scripture behind all of this.
But we will not have the time to mention all the verses and read all the Scriptures.
So, I will be making a lot of statements, but I want you to understand a lot of this is backed up by Scripture.
And if we had to do, you know, if we had time, we had many hours, we could give you all the references of Scripture,
the backup, much of what we are saying this morning.
But for the sake of brevity, I will make these statements and keep moving.
So, let's start at the very beginning, or maybe before the beginning.
Before the beginning, there was God, the Tarion God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit,
there was community, there was love.
And in the mind of God, and remember God lives out outside of time, so he doesn't measure things by AD and BC.
In the mind of God, the Bible reveals to us that everything was already finished before he even started.
Everything was completed before he actually started doing things, because in the mind of God, it was all done.
God lives out of time, he can be at the beginning, that we call the beginning, and he can be at the end, what we call the end.
It's not the beginning and the end for him, it's the beginning and end for you and me.
So, he can be at the beginning and at the end at the same time.
So, I don't understand it, don't worry.
He's God who lives outside of time.
So, in his mind, he can see everything, the beginning and the end is all done.
So, nothing that was going to take place in time was a surprise to God.
Nothing was a surprise, nothing, he already knew.
So, the Bible says things like, even before the foundation of the world, the cross was determined,
even before the foundation of the world, the Lamb's Book of Life was written, the names of people,
even before the foundation of the world, he predetermined what kind of people he wants to have,
who would be his sons and daughters, even before the foundation of the world.
He decided to have a people who will stand before him clothed with his love, just bathed in his love,
nothing inhibiting them from relating to him.
That's everything he had already in his mind, he determined, that's what I'm going to do.
Now, even the whole journey to get there, it may seem a long time for you and me.
God, six thousand years, God, this is taking a long time, why don't you wrap it up quickly?
But the Bible says a thousand years is like one day for God.
So, while it seems a long time for you and me, for God, it's nothing.
It's nothing, for God.
He's not getting old, for a long beard.
No, he's outside of time, and so for him, this is nothing.
And he knows what he's going to have, he's going to have a people who are righteous, holy, blameless,
just sons and daughters in his love, he knows that.
So, everything was completed before he started.
So, now we come to the beginning, so in the beginning, God created everything.
He created man and woman, as the Bible describes in the book of Genesis.
And they were in perfect fellowship, perfect communion with him.
They could relate to him, nothing between them and God.
And God would walk in the garden in the cool of the day, imagine God showing up in your office.
It was perfect communion, this fellowship, and so God would be there.
There was perfect communion, and man and woman were created in the image of God,
to represent God on the earth, and he endowed them with the authority to take over the earth,
to subdue, to multiply, to fill the earth, to make it beautiful.
And that was their commission on the earth.
But then, we also understand that God created man as free moral beings.
You and I have a free will that was given to man right there in the Garden of Eden.
Free moral beings.
We could choose to do what we wanted to do.
And God, in his sovereignty, decided to actually release you and me to do whatever we wanted to do.
And he was losing none of his sovereignty when he said,
I'm giving you a free will that you make the choice you want.
It's not going to make me any less God.
That's how secure God was in who he is.
Then he could say, you do whatever you want.
I'm giving you a free will.
It'll not undermine my sovereignty in any way.
So God's sovereignty is not his insecurity.
God's sovereignty is his security in himself.
That he would so endow man with free will saying, you choose, you decide, you do anything you want on the earth.
I will not overwrite your will.
Freedom.
And that's why in the Garden, when they disobeyed God, God didn't make the tree suddenly grow taller.
Eve can't reach it.
And you know, we can ask little kids, we can try to imagine, why didn't God do that?
Wouldn't he just make the fruit suddenly into the tree?
He could have saved himself all the struggle.
But no, he'd given you and me sovereignty.
A free will.
In his sovereignty, he'd given you and me free will.
Do whatever you please.
Because he's expecting that free will to come back to him and say, I worship you.
I recognize who you are.
I'm on free will and recognize you.
Or I'm on free will.
I can go and just do whatever I want.
He's not going to hold us back.
And so we understand from scriptures that man and woman, Adam and Eve, the sin disobeyed God.
And then came in all the consequences of sin.
Sin separates us from God.
Sin coming in through one man.
Passed upon the entire human race.
From all those who were born after that.
You're all born in sin.
And sin becomes this big barrier between God and man.
So we try to reach God, but there's this barrier of sin.
Because God is so holy, He's so pure.
And the sin actually separates us from God.
It becomes a barrier.
Sin hinders the flow of the blessings of God in our lives.
The Bible tells us.
God wants to bless us, but there is this barrier called sin.
And ultimately the Bible says that the result of sin is death.
That means we are going to be eternally separated from God in hell.
Until and unless this barrier of sin is removed between us and God.
It's only separated from God.
Now, man is making attempts to reach God.
Has always made attempts to reach God.
But futile.
There is eternity, the Bible says in every person's heart.
There's something in every person that longs for eternity.
The eternal.
Now we can sear our own conscience over time.
And tell ourselves there is no God.
There doesn't make God go away.
There is no eternity.
There doesn't make eternity go away.
But we can sear our own conscience and deceive our own selves if we like to.
And God's not going to stop us from that.
But inside every person there is eternity.
The Bible says God has put eternity in our hearts.
There's something within every person that says there's got to be more to life than just my living and dying.
There's got to be meaning.
There's got to be purpose.
Look at all creation.
It's God's huge signpost staring you in the face saying, hello, I'm here.
None of this could be an accident.
The grand design, the intelligence we see all around us.
From the intelligence you see in a tiny leaf to the intelligence that you see in the galaxies.
All of that is staring you in the face saying God exists.
And so something inside us say, I want to reach God.
I want to reach God.
I want to reach God.
But the door is closed because of sin.
I can't reach God.
So that's our predicament.
So we attempt to reach God, but it's impossible.
God is holy.
Even one speck of sin cannot stand in His presence.
God is love.
He loves us immensely.
And yet He's also just, sin has to be dealt with.
And so this is where the incarnation comes in.
I want to bring your attention to four reasons why the incarnation is necessary or the purpose behind the incarnation.
Number one, He came.
He had to become man to reveal God to us.
Man was trying to decide or understand what God looks like.
Maybe He looks like the sun.
No, maybe He looks like the moon.
Maybe He looks like this.
Maybe He looks like that.
So we all in our own imaginations were trying to figure out what does God really look like.
Maybe He's a really angry God.
No, no, no.
He's a really good God.
Maybe He's a mad God.
No, He's a bad God.
All kinds of things about God.
And God says, I am going to reveal myself to you, but I have to do it in terms that you can understand.
Now just picture this.
If you, and this is just imagination.
If you wanted to communicate with an ant,
what is the best way to do it?
Become an ant.
Forget all about your science and technology.
Ants don't understand that.
Forget about all your intelligence.
Ants don't understand it.
The only way that you can communicate with an ant is to become an ant.
Now this is a very poor example, but magnify this example infinite times.
That's what God decided to do.
I got to communicate with these people.
The only way I can speak to them is become like one of them.
And this is God Almighty, infinite God having to speak your language in mind.
Reveal who He is to you and me, but He has to do it in terms that you and I can relate to.
And so says, okay, I'll put on a body that they can see, handle, touch.
I will speak their language, I'll walk amongst them.
The Bible says that this Jesus who was born,
He is the image of the invisible God.
Hebrews says He is the exact image of the unseen God, the shining out of His glory.
And yet for this God to become a man, the human body could not contain,
cannot contain the infiniteness of God.
How do you compress infinity into something that's finite? You can't.
And so He had to leave aside His omnipotence, His omniscience and His omnipresence.
That part of His deity, that there's too much for a human body.
And He had to confine Himself to what a mortal body or a human body can contain.
And so was He was born as a baby in Bethlehem and walked as a man in Galilee.
And if you want to see God, the Bible says look at Jesus Christ.
He is the image of the invisible God, He is the exact representation of God.
That's what God looks like.
That's the nature of God embodied for you and me in a human vessel.
So why did God have to become a man?
To reveal Himself to us.
Because you and I were not willing to take into account,
the Bible says that His invisible attributes were revealed to us in creation.
But instead of recognizing the greatness of God in creation,
we started worshiping the created things.
God said,
Sorry, that was just meant to wake you up.
So God said, these guys are not getting it.
I can't speak to them through this grand creation.
I've got to become like a created being myself.
I've got to become an ant to talk to them.
The second reason that God had to become a man,
the incarnation had to take place,
was He had to become a man to demonstrate what we were originally designed to live like.
Going back to the same analogy,
if you want to teach an ant how to be an ant,
it's very important to become an ant.
Demonstrates to the ant.
This is what ants do.
This is what ants live like.
And in order to demonstrate to you and me,
the kind of man, the kind of people to model for you and me,
the kind of persons we are supposed to be,
He became a man.
I'll walk the earth.
I'll walk the same earth that you walk in.
But I'll show you what I originally intended for man to walk in.
But He had to do it in the context of the world at that time.
So He didn't have the iPhone.
And He didn't have all of the technology.
But that's besides the point.
The point is, what would man look like if he walked on the earth?
The environments can change.
But what is man supposed to be like?
That's it.
He became a man to demonstrate to us,
to show us, to model for us.
God said, this is the life I originally designed for you to live on the earth.
Even if sin came in, this is how you can live.
You can live victorious over sin.
You can live victorious over Satan.
You can live victorious over the turbulence
and all that the world may throw against you.
You can live victorious because that's how I originally designed you.
Are you with me so far?
Look at Jesus.
It's the life you and I are supposed to live.
And we are growing into that.
The third reason He had to become a man
is so that He could represent man.
The first man, Adam, just failed miserably in this.
So Jesus had to become a man in order to represent you and me.
The first man, Adam, representing the entire human race,
sold the entire human race in subjection to the devil.
Satan gained mastery of the earth.
Because one man filled the form, signed on the dotted line,
on behalf of the entire human race, there you go.
Now we had to represent you and me.
On our behalf, go back to Satan and say,
sorry, I want to take that piece of paper back.
I'm cancelling what Adam signs.
I am the second Adam.
But I'm doing it differently.
I'm taking back everything He gave to you.
So Jesus said things like this,
now is the ruler of the world judged.
Now is the prince of this world cast out.
He came to do that, representing you and me.
Before Satan.
But He also represented you and me before God.
All the other priests, all of other man-made attempts to get to God
failed because every other person was born in sin.
They had to atone for their own sins first.
Here was a priest, the Bible says,
who could represent us fully before God
and yet be our intercessor because He also knew what we felt like.
In Hebrews 2, just refer to verses there, in Hebrews 2 verse 14,
it says,
in as much as the children have partaken in flesh and blood,
you and I are partakers of flesh and blood,
he himself, likewise, shared in the same,
he became just like us,
so that through that, he would overthrow the devil.
That's the first point, representing you and me against the devil,
giving us victory.
And then in verse 17 and 18,
that in all things he had to be made like his brethren,
he became like you and me,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest
representing us before God in the things to God.
He took care of our sins and he now helps us in our weaknesses.
He understands us completely.
So why did God have to become a man, number three, to represent us?
You're with me so far?
And the last one, number four,
why did He have to become a man?
He became a man to be our perfect substitute.
This is so important.
Our perfect substitute.
You see, we all have sinned.
We, each one of us, deserve punishment.
The consequences of our sins are upon our lives.
And the consequences of our sins are going to take us to a place
of eternal domination separated from God in hell.
Now none of us can atone, even for our own sins,
forget for the sins of the others.
We can't do it.
So we need somebody sinless, perfect,
who can then say, I will die in the place of everyone else
because I don't have any sins of my own to pay for.
And such a man could only come if God became a man.
Because every other man or woman born after Adam was born in sin.
No matter how good or how bad they may have lived life on earth,
born in sin.
Get out and be a substitute for anybody else.
But here was God who became a man,
sinless, holy, human.
And He said, I can be the perfect substitute.
I will take upon myself the sins of the whole world.
I will die in their place.
Put upon me the sins of the whole world.
And only He could do that because He was without sin.
Because He was God who walked as a man.
The perfect substitute.
No other man, no other woman could ever do that.
That's why in Romans 5 the Bible says,
through one man's offense, that is Adam, he sinned.
But what did that result in?
Judgment came on all men resulting in condemnation.
But through one man's righteous act,
the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life.
Verse 19, for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners.
By one man's obedience many will be made.
It's one man.
But he had to be the right person who had no sin of his own.
That could only be God who became a man.
So we'll just go back very quickly to some of the questions
we asked at the beginning and then close.
So why did he have to come as a feeble human being?
Because all these false things he could only do as a human being.
Though he was God, in order to represent God to man,
to speak our language, he had to confine himself to a human body.
He had to reveal God to us.
He had to demonstrate to us, living in a human body,
what man was originally designed to live as.
As a human person he could represent us before God and against the devil
and as a human person he could be our substitute.
But why a gruesome cross?
I mean why, if God was the God of love,
why couldn't he just sit in heaven and say, I forgive all of you?
Three quick reasons why the cross was necessary.
First of all, God had to be consistent with his own nature.
He's a God of love, immense love, he loves you,
but he's also holy, so sin cannot stand in his sights.
Not even one sin.
And he's also just, which means he just can't overlook sin,
that would be being unjust.
What if the government said, I love all the citizens of the country,
so all you citizens, you're forgiven, do whatever you want?
Is that justice?
Oh, God is so loving.
God is love, he's also just.
Justice requires that violations be penalized.
The soul that sins it will die.
Atonement is only blood that can make an atonement for the soul
because sin has to be paid for with life.
It is blood that makes an atonement for sin.
A second reason why the cross was necessary is because forgiveness is never cheap.
You know, even in our own terms, human terms speaking, humanly speaking,
if somebody offends you, let's take an example.
If your closest friend betrayed you, did something wrong?
I mean, let's say, you know, just for a situation,
you had a close business partner, he turned against you,
he took away the money and all of that, and he just betrayed you.
Now, as people, we have a choice, you know, I could retaliate,
I could fight, and there's nothing wrong in doing what is just,
but I'm talking about the emotional side,
and I could retaliate, I could go and tell everybody what he did,
I could fight back, I could all of that.
But if I'm going to choose to forgive, I pay the price.
Because I am hurt, I've been wronged,
but I take that wrong, and I say, I forgive anyway.
Forgiveness is never cheap, somebody is paying the price.
Amen?
But on a much higher scale, God says, I love you so much,
I'm willing to forgive you, and I will pay the price.
I'll take it, but this is the price I need to pay.
I need to give up my life as a human person,
as the perfect substitute, I need to give up my life,
and I'm willing to do it because I love you so much.
Forgiveness is never cheap.
And true love, third reason why the cross was so necessary,
is true love is always substitutionary.
If you say you love somebody, you will step into their world,
you will get in there.
If you want to care for the ants, you become an ant.
Get into their worlds, do something there.
And that's how God demonstrated His love for us,
coming into this world.
What about before and after?
He died in time.
I'll just use a simple example.
Suppose you were using your credit card for two months,
and you spent two X amount of rupees.
And the credit card was in your hand.
You have six months, four months more.
But somewhere along the way, your dad pays 10 X.
And the next four months, you ring up another,
I don't know, another three X, whatever.
But that 10 X has paid everything before and after.
It's all paid.
I'm not saying go try it.
So when Jesus Christ died on the cross,
the price he paid was so great,
took care of everything before and everything ever to come.
Paid in full.
One bill, one price, paid everything in full.
What about other groups of people?
So does every group deserve its own personal incarnation of God?
Just because one group in the Middle East received theirs?
The Bible is very clear that Jesus didn't come just for the Jews.
There are many references to this, both in the Old and the New Testaments.
Just to make mention of one here in 1 John chapter 2 verse 2,
the Bible says that he became the offering for our sins
and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole.
So every group of people does not need its own incarnation.
God comes once, he comes among the people, but he came for the whole world.
Last question, would God need to incarnate multiple times?
Bible is very clear on this, that Jesus Christ is God's one and only incarnation.
And the offering and the work he came to do was completed.
He said it is finished.
He didn't say it's 50% finished, thank you Father.
It is completed.
Hebrews tells us here verse 12, Hebrews 10,
when Jesus had made one offering for sins forever,
he took his place in the right hand of God.
And again in verse 14, because by one offering he has made complete forever,
those who are made holy, one sacrifice, once and for all,
took care of the everything.
Now think logically, if there was a necessity for several incarnations,
it would obviously imply that every previous incarnation failed in some way.
Every previous incarnation was insufficient in some manner.
That's why there was a necessity for another one.
But the Bible says God came once, took care of everything,
work was completed, there was no need for any further incarnation of God.
So we do not need multiple incarnations of God over time.
So what's the conclusion then this morning?
Jesus Christ, the reason for the incarnation was to reveal,
to demonstrate, to represent, and to be the perfect substitute.
He came to be our Savior.
He died for our sins.
He rose up again.
He ascended into heaven.
And He's alive today.
There's one thing He invites you and me to do.
He invites all people in the world to do.
He says, repent, believe, and follow.
Repent means I turn away from my own ways.
I turn away from my own way of doing things,
or from me trying to figure out a way to get to God.
Repent.
Believe, I believe in who Jesus Christ is,
what He came to do, what He has done for me.
Believe in Him and follow Him.
Acts 10 verse 43 says that through His name,
everyone who has faith in Him will have forgiveness of sins.
That barrier of sin is broken.
And everything that sin put upon us is removed out of the way.
Then we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to call our worship team up please.
We're going to take a few moments to pray.
This Christmas season, we've looked at the reason for the incarnation.
Why did God have to come?
He came for you.
He came for me.
To do something we could not do for ourselves.
To do something that no other human being can do for you and me.
Came to take our ways in.
Bring us into this relationship with God.
Enable us to live life the way God wants us to live.
In our context today.
He came to bring us into that relationship with God.
And He did it by becoming a man.
Living on earth and dying on the cross for you and me.
Could we rise to our feet please?
This morning, I want you to take a few moments just to reflect on what we heard.
There might be some amongst us this morning where you have never personally decided in your heart
that I'm going to repent, I'm going to turn away from my own ways.
I'm going to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm going to follow Him.
Maybe you've never made that decision.
The Bible calls us to make such a decision.
And if you've never done it, we need to do it in our lives.
Baby, at some point in our lives say, Lord, I'm turning away from my own ways.
I'm going to believe in Jesus, God who became man.
I'm going to read His Word, I'm going to read His teachings.
I'm going to try and follow that, I'm going to live by that.
But Jesus is going to be the center of my life.
There might be some amongst us who's never done that and I want to help you do that this morning.
I want to pray with you, help you do that.
For the rest of us, I want us to focus our gaze on Jesus Christ.
He is God who became man.
To reveal God to us.
If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.
Peter is good, Moses is good, Paul is good, Peter is good.
But they are all human beings.
Look at Jesus.
He is God who became man.
If you want to know how we are to live our lives, look at Jesus.
He came to demonstrate what it means to walk as children of God.
Let's grow into that.
We are not perfect, but we have to grow into that model.
So would you pray and say, God help me to grow into that.
He represents you and me before the Father today.
And like we read from Hebrews, he's able to aid those who are suffering or facing temptation, trial, as our high priest for God.
He's able to aid you, he's able to assist you.
He knows how you and I feel.
The Bible says he's touched by the feelings of our weaknesses.
Would you call out to him and say, Jesus, because you became a person, a human being,
you know exactly how I feel.
My feelings, my emotions, my turmoil is not foreign to you.
You understand?
Could you help me?
He became our perfect substitute.
Would you thank him for it?
Take a moment once again to speak to anyone here.
If you've never given your life to Jesus Christ,
never asked him to come into your life to make you a brand new person,
this Christmas day, 2017,
we'd like to invite you to do that.
You could pray in your own heart and say, Jesus, I repent in my own ways.
I believe and I choose to follow.
Help me to do that.
I'm going to lead us in a simple prayer.
And if you've never done it before in your life,
made a decision to believe in Jesus Christ,
and you like to do it this morning,
we invite you to just pray that prayer with us.
If you've never done this before,
we invite you to say this prayer with me, please.
Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.
Thank you that you came into this world for me.
You died for my sins on the cross.
You were barred and you rose up again.
You're alive today.
I give my life to you.
Help me to follow you the rest of my life.
I pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Anybody, you prayed this prayer with me for the very first time this morning.
You know, we want to celebrate with you.
This is what Christmas is about.
It's about you and I coming to that personal knowledge of who Jesus is.
If you prayed this prayer with me for the very first time,
we want to celebrate with you.
We want to give you a gift bag that we have available with us.
So if you don't mind, if you prayed this prayer with me for the very first time,
would you raise your hand, please, so that we could celebrate with you
and also make sure you get this gift bag.
Anyone, just raise your hand.
You prayed this prayer with me and I want to see your hand, please.
Can't see any hands here.
Did you pray this prayer with me?
Just raise your hand.
See one hand right up in front.
Let's give her a good hand.
Just put your hand up right high.
There's one person here.
Anyone else?
We just like to...
There's another one.
Second, God bless you.
Just make sure she gets her bag, she gets her bag.
Anybody else?
Just like to make sure you pray this prayer.
There's a third person here.
Just right here.
God bless you.
Thank you.
Thank you for raising your hand.
Just let us know.
Anyone else?
Up on the balcony, I can't see.
There's one person up on the balcony as well.
Anyone else in the balcony or outside in the corridors
or outside at the back?
If you prayed this prayer with me, just raise your hands.
We make sure you give you this bag right now.
Anybody else outside in the corridors, in the hall, up in the back?
Can I just raise your hand?
Our creators will be there to give you...
There's one more at the way at the back.
God bless you.
God bless you.
Praise God for that.
God bless you.
Okay.
Anymore.
Okay.
Now, along with this bag, you'll ever see a card that says Decision Card.
If you could please write your name and your number.
Just give it back to the person who gave you the card.
It's right next to you.
And they'll come and collect this.
It'll help us be in touch with you.
It'll help us tell you how to use the resources that are in the bag.
And it'll also help us help you grow in your knowledge of what Jesus Christ is.
That's our goal, to help all of us grow in knowing who Jesus is and how He changes our lives.
So if you leave your name and number there with the person who gave you the bag,
people will get in touch with you in the next few days.
God bless you.
Amen.
All right.
I'm going to close with the benediction then the worship team will take over, right?
They might sing a song or two.
I'll leave that to worship and then we will dismiss.
All right.
Let's just close.
Father, we thank you for this morning.
Thank you that you came into this world.
You sent your son, Jesus, into this world for us God.
Thank you, Jesus.
We worship you.
We love you.
And we honor you.
And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, our heavenly Father,
and the sweet fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with each of us always in Jesus' name.
Amen.
We trust that this message was a blessing to you.
We would love to hear from you.
You can email us at contact at abcwo.org.
Also visit our website abcwo.org for additional resources.
Thank you for listening and God bless you.
