HIS BIRTH BROUGHT US GREAT TRANSFORMATION AND FREEDOM

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES.

TOPIC: HIS BIRTH BROUGHT US GREAT TRANSFORMATION AND FREEDOM

SERMON BY-:
Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace-Udochukwu President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM

The Birth of Jesus Christ:
“Good Tidings of Great Joy”

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
2Corinthians 3:17

Preamble:
Jesus’ birth ushered in an age of enlightenment. His birth brought light to those in darkness and ignorance of sin. It brought hope to the hopeless- the hope of eternal life. What makes the difference is the Saviour being born into a man’s heart. The Christmas season is not for wining and dining, it is not for new clothes and shoes. What is important is the acknowledgment of the essence of the birth of Christ.

You can be and have everything in life, but if you do not have peace with God, you have wasted your time and without peace with God, you have no reason to celebrate Christmas.

THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION
The desires of one’s heart will determine the direction of one’s life and ultimately one’s eternal destiny. This simple but profound truth is obvious, yet it is often neglected. For many of us, daily life is busy, pressured, distracted, and bombarded with what seems like an unending stream of alluring enticements designed to capture our attention and shape our desires. It is a battleground that can easily hijack our spiritual lives.

How on earth, you may ask, can I possibly fight such a battle, much less enthrone God as my heart’s desire? Given my weaknesses and the strength of my sinful temptations, it seems impossible.
You are correct, it is impossible — unless we have supernatural help.

The spiritual death that Adam and Eve experienced resulted in a profound transformation in their souls. Their rebellion and drive for autonomy fractured the happy relationship they had always enjoyed with the God who loved them, leaving them alienated from Him and each other. The image of God in which they had been created became deeply corrupted. The God-centeredness of their former innocence would no longer govern their heart’s desires. Instead, self-centeredness and self-seeking would dominate their desires and the desires of all their descendants down to the present day.

But God was merciful and did not leave them — or us — in complete darkness. A remnant of His image remains and with it a God-shaped vacuum in the human heart. Lost people typically experience this void as a vague sense that something is missing — that there is more to life than what they have found so far. This leads to a restlessness in the soul, a thirst, a longing, a desire for the undefinable “something” that is missing. In an attempt to find it, people stumble and grope in spiritual darkness, pursuing substitutes (which they may or may not connect with God).

God invites us to Himself through His Son, Jesus. He alone can reconcile us to the Father and bring peace and satisfaction to our restless hearts. To an audience of believers and nonbelievers, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

THE REAL AND TRUE FREEDOM
In the “land of the free,” we often confuse the true nature of freedom. For many of us, freedom has become synonymous with personal independence — the ability to make our own decisions and choose our own path in life, to do whatever we want, whenever we want. It’s what I call “outside freedom.” But this is not the freedom in Christ that we have been given.

When Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah, He said that He had come to Earth to “proclaim freedom” (Luke 4:18).
And on another occasion, He said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
Jesus was not setting us free to do whatever we wanted; He was freeing us to do what we ought to do. He was liberating us to walk in relationship with God and to be the kind of people He created us to be. This spiritual freedom in Christ is what I call “inside freedom” — the ability to obey God and choose His will for our lives.
And this is the freedom in Christ that sin had long denied us.

How do we find freedom from the penalty and power of sin? That comes through accepting Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross as the payment for our sin. As we submit to Christ, sin loses its power — Christ’s power takes over. As we choose to trust and follow Him, our sinful habits, thoughts and attitudes lose their control. Guilt disappears, and peace of mind dominates. Right habits become the norm. That’s freedom in Christ — true freedom!

This brings us back to the promise of Jesus that “rivers of living water” would flow out of the heart of everyone who truly believes in Him. As we saw earlier, “This he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive” (John 7:38–39). This fullness of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, is essential for living the normal Christian life. Only through the presence and power of the indwelling Spirit can we resist sinful desires, overcome temptation and glorify God.

You are born again or saved when you believe Jesus. He said that you have access to the peace of God through Him. The starting point is when you ask Him to invade your life…when you open the door and invite Him in.

“And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God”
(John 3:19-21).

There it is. We tend to turn away from such light. The more brilliant and educated we are, the more we are capable of coming up with endless varieties of ways to justify ourselves.
However, there is hope. When we finally quit running, the Lord will search our hearts, show us our selfish ways, clean us up, and fill us with His strength.

CONCLUSION
The love of God is eternal; it abides forever. We are commanded to show and share His love with people around us this season.
• The birth of Christ brought us freedom: Jesus came to buy us freedom- Galatians 4: 4-5(NLT). We are no longer slaves to the law (cultural laws, traditional laws, etc). Jesus bought our freedom, therefore, we are no more slaves or in bondage. We are free to live life to the fullest.
Finally, whatever you do this Season, do all to give Him glory.

SHALOM!

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