- Coming up. - That's the greatest need any human being has. - Man, that's real right there. - It's to have our sins forgiven. That's the greatest need. - Yes. - That's what propels us into an eternal life with God. That's our deepest need. We need to be saved from our sin. - Amen. - And it's a gift that will never fade away. - Hello, and thank you for joining us on "One by One," the podcast ministry of Pastor Robert of Quit's Life Christian Fellowship. - The birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, is the most important and impactful birth in human history. Therefore, there are aspects surrounding his birth that every human being should consider as we approach the Christmas season. Join us for the message series as Pastor Robert and his wife, Carolyn, help us dive deeper into these truths. Here's the fifth message in this series, the realization of the Savior's birth. - I want to give you some practical, reasonable, and doable things you can do. This and every holiday season and every holiday season. And in so doing, we should remember how God demonstrated his love for us by his actions. And John 3, 16 tells him that he loved us so much that he sent this one and only son. Therefore, we should demonstrate our love for God and others by our actions, by our actions. We should respond to God's love, God's show of love by showing love ourselves. And there needs to be action, needs to be action. So I want to give you some things you can do. Write this down. Things you can do to honor the birth of our Savior. Things you can do to honor the birth of our Savior. Though Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman and those jingling bells, the reindeer and Rudolph, all the mistle toes and many other gestures surrounding Christmas are fun and gestures. They do not, I repeat, they do not honor the birth of a Savior. Someone who's come to save the world from its sin and the people from its sin. Bells can't ring the sin away. Santa can't give gifts and say, "Hold, hold, hold the sin away." Rudolph knows don't shine bright enough to get the sin away. Frosty can't be big enough or cool enough or cold enough to take the sin away. And you can't kiss the sin away with mistle toes under mistle toes and any other thing. None of those gestures will take the sin away. - Right. - So they don't do justice to honoring a Savior that was born for you and me and for the world. So I wanna give you eight things, eight practical things you can do. This and every holiday season to honor the birth of our Savior. The first is extend grace to people. Extend grace to people. And we're gonna pull all eight of these things from the actual event, the scene, events that happened during the time of when Christ was born. We're gonna pull some things that we can do, things that were done in honor of him. So the first you can do is extend grace to people. And that just means give favor, even if you don't think people deserve it. Give them favor anyway, 'cause that's what grace is. Grace is unmarried, his favor. And it's exactly what God did when he sent his son and for sin to die for our sin in our place. It was something we didn't deserve. It was something we didn't earn. And so God extended grace to us. So we should extend grace to others during this and every holiday season. Look what it says in Matthew 1, 18 through 19. This is how Jesus, the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph to whom she was engaged was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly. So he decided to break the engagement quietly. So look what Joseph did. Joseph was engaged to Mary and she got pregnant of nothing of his doing. And just think about that, man. You're the woman you engaged with is all of a sudden pregnant and you're like, hey, I haven't touched her. That must have been difficult for Joseph. - Yeah. - But the text tells us that in his, because he was a righteous man, he did not want to disgrace her publicly. So we need to extend grace to folks. We should try to give people grace. That's what he did for Mary. And so he had a plan that he would not publicly disgrace her. So we can learn from that. Somebody might say something that offends you and hurt your feelings and whatever. And it may be offensive and wrong. But if you want to honor Jesus during this and every holiday season, just extend some grace. - Especially I can be mindful of that when we're out there shopping. - Yes. - Especially on Christmas Eve. That's why I don't like being in store at Christmas Eve 'cause it gets crazy. - Yes. - Last minute shoppers, people are just anxious and angry and trying to get the last thing. So driving crazy. We just have to stand some grace. - Stand some grace. And when you do it, do it with the mindset of just following Joseph here and looking at this lesson and saying, you know, I'm gonna honor Christ 'cause I'm gonna give some grace. I was wrong, that was wrong, but I'm gonna give some grace. I'm gonna let it go. I'm gonna be like a duck lady roller, the water roll off my back. I'm gonna give some grace. If you wanna honor Christ, I'll give some grace 'cause God gave you grace, He gave me grace. - He continues to give grace. - And continues to guess, right. He continues to give us grace. - Yeah. - And so we should demonstrate that, like God demonstrated that to us. The second thing that we can do to honor the birth of our Savior is be obedient to God's commands. Be obedient to God's commands. So after hearing it picks up from the story and with Joseph again, in Matthew 1, 20 through 25, it says, as he considered this, he considered, you know, breaking the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. Joseph, son of David, the angel said, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit and she will have a son and you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. Now I wanna pause on this for a moment 'cause I just wanna make sure you caught this in case you missed it the first time. Joseph didn't wanna disgrace her before he got this message from the angel. And it was because as the text said that we read, he was a righteous man. - Right. - He was a righteous man. So I don't want you to think that he didn't because she had a child of the Holy. He didn't disgrace her because she was with child of the Holy Spirit. No, he didn't disgrace her because he was a righteous man. He didn't even know about that at the time he decided not to disgrace her. See, we like to go tit for tit. It's like, oh well, she done, you know, got pregnant, you know, by some other means or whatever. So I'm just gonna, she did me wrong. She threw me under the bus. Then I'm gonna throw her under the bus. We operate in that worldly way of thinking that's not what Joseph did. Joseph hadn't even had the message from the Holy Spirit yet. - Yeah. - And he from the angel yet. And he didn't just want to disgrace her 'cause he was righteous. - This is a righteous man. - And so, and so the text tells us here, I'm going to read verse 21. And she will have a son and you are to name him Jesus where he will save his people from their sins. Verse 22, all of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through his prophet. Look, the virgin will conceive a child. She will give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God is with us. When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. Verse 25, but he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus. - Amen. - So you see what happened here? He was up the mind not to disgrace her, to separate with her privately, quietly. And then the angel spoke to him and he was obedient. He was obedient to go ahead and marry her. And he was obedient to call the child Jesus. - Amen, amen. - He was obedient, right? And he continued to be obedient. So if you want to honor God, honor the birth of our Savior, this and every Christmas season, do what he says. - Right. - Just do what God has commanded you to do. And some of y'all know exactly, there's something already on your mind that you know you didn't do, that God said you should do. Okay, 'cause you intentionally didn't do it, it's already there. It might've been yesterday, it might've been last week, it might've been last month, I don't know, but you know that's something God said to do. You haven't done yet. So you want to honor Christ? Do what God commands. - Amen. - And follow his word. The third thing that we can do to honor the birth of our Savior is seek to be in the presence of the Savior. - Amen. - Seek to be in the presence of the Savior. Here in Matthew two, one through two, it says this. It says Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod. About that time, some wise men from Eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem asking, where is the newborn King of the Jews? - Amen. - And so these wise men came looking for the King of the Jews. They were seeking to be in the presence of the Savior. Now, I want you to understand that this wasn't a casual question they asked. Where is the new born King of the Jews? It wasn't a casual question. They were desperately seeking the topying to Savior. They had traveled a long distance for a long time, at least a couple of months of travel. So they were truly seeking the King, the Savior. I got a question, how badly do you want to be in the presence of the King of the Savior this Christmas season? - That's a good question. - How badly do you want it? Are you more interested in the presence, meaning the gifts with your name on it? Then you are interested in the Savior's presence, meaning being with him and experiencing his peace and joy in all the areas of your life. Which are you most interested in? What do you want? You want to tear off the wrapping paper and get that new thing that you wanted? Or do you just want to open up your heart and your mind and your spirit and say, "Lord, speak to me." I want to enjoy what it's like to be with you, the joy and the peace that comes, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Which of them are you most interested in? And on a scale for one to 10, 10 being extreme, how badly do you want to be in this presence? Be honest, answer that question honestly. And if you need to correct yourself, say, "God forgive me, help me to want your presence more than I do." And I mean, being around him, not the gifts. Be honest about it, on a scale for one to 10, how would you grade yourself? - Amen. - Look what it says in Matthew 6, 33. It says, "Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and He will give you everything you need." So we should be seeking the kingdom, we should be seeking to be in this presence above everything else. - That's right, that's right. - And it says that if you do that, he'll meet your needs. So we could ask, "How badly do you want to have all your needs?" - That's right, that's right, that's right, yes. - Some of us are pondering, "What's going wrong? Why can't this happen? Why can't that happen?" - That's right. - And not do it what God commanded them to do. - It might be that you're not seeking the kingdom. - Yeah, that might be it. - Not seeking the kingdom. - Amen. - You see, if you got every gift you ever wanted for Christmas, it won't meet your greatest need. It won't meet your greatest needs. - You can set it again, that's something to ponder. - If you got every gift you wanted for Christmas, it won't meet what's really your greatest need. It will satisfy your wants. And that's a temporary satisfaction. But the gifts will get old, they'll stop working, they'll rust away, they'll fade away, they'll rip their tear. But on the other hand, the greatest gift of the thing that you need the most is a savior, someone who will pay who has paid the price that you could not pay for your sin. That's the greatest need any whole human being has. - Amen, that's real right there. - It's to have our sins forgiven. That's the greatest need. - Yes. - That's what propels us into an eternal life with God. That's our deepest need. We need to be saved from our sin. That's the deepest need of every human being. - That's right, amen. Amen. - It's a gift that will never fade away or lose its effectiveness. - That's real right there. - Amen, somebody should say amen. Y'all saying amen? - Amen, it's the amen in a chest. - Amen. - Amen. - Amen. The fourth thing that we can do to honor the birth of the savior is be sure to worship. Be sure to worship. - Worship. Matthew 2.2 goes on to say, it says, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews?" We saw his star as it rose and we have come to worship him. And this is the wise men talking who were really like astrologers. They were star watchers. - Yeah. - And they say we saw the star because it had been prophesied about. So we've come to worship him. So they were coming to worship. They were part of the characters of that time, of the first Christmas time, the first Christmas season. They were part of it. And they say, "We come to worship." - Yeah. - So if you wanna honor him, be sure to worship. - And that's in our everyday living. - Yeah. - Not just on the week. We love you guys when you come here and worship together like the Bible tells us to do, but y'all saying you're everyday living. - That's right. - Yes. - That's right. I remember, and I think me and my wife shared this with y'all before, but when we was young in our 20s and he was before, KJ was born. So KJ, we were 25 when he was born. So we were early 20s. And Christmas Day fell on a weekday. Christmas Day fell on a weekday. And we were young, a young couple, young believers. And we just wanted to worship God on Christmas Day. And we just assumed that they must, it's gotta be serviced at church. That's why we went to church at Regularly and we said, it's must, we just, we got up that morning, put on our Sunday, our Sunday golden, it wasn't Sunday, but we put on our Sunday going to church clothes. And we was all excited about going to worship on Christmas Day. And we drove to the church and it with a parking lot was empty and the doors was closed. - Like what? (laughing) - We were like, oh, I thought, I thought we were gonna have service today. - Yeah, we just kind of so, you know, nothing was probably announced or whatever, but like I said, we were young and trying to build our lives and our marriage and our, you know, growing God and all of that. We just had an eagerness to worship. And you know, that you see on TV, some churches are open to having services on. So we just assumed they were and we got ready to go, you know, and went. - Yeah. And I only bring this up to say that, to just to speak to our eagerness, to want to worship on Christmas Day. And that's what it did for us. We got dressed and everything and went to church and, you know, and nothing was happening on that day. - That is that most from worship and to worship with our lifestyle. - Yeah. So we came back home and did our normal thing. - Yeah, yeah. - And just, right. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - But anyway, that's what eagerness and wanting to worship will do it'll, you know, it'll make you take action, as I said earlier. - Amen. - And that was an action we took because we were eager. So the fifth thing that we could do to honor the birth of our savior is guide people to the savior. Guide people to the savior. It only makes sense, right? If the greatest need we have is a savior, right? - Right, right. - And that means every human being, then it only makes sense that if we're gonna demonstrate love, like God did, that we would guide people to the savior because it's their greatest needs. - Right. - Mm-hmm. - It's really, really that practical. So we would guide people to the savior. Look what it says in Matthew 2.9. It says, "After this interview, "the wise men went their way "and the star they had seen "in the east guided them to Bethlehem. "It went ahead of them and stopped over the place "where the child was." - Mm-hmm. - So these wise men, these astrologers saw a star stop. - Yeah. - And they, and they stopped where Jesus was. So the star led them to Jesus. The star led them to Jesus. I heard John Maxwell in a sermon he gave, he said, "You should be a star." (laughing) He said, "Be a star, you're gonna be a star, be a star." Meaning you should be guiding people to Jesus. See, I thought that was pretty good. - Yeah, that is good. - Yeah. - You're a star. - You're a star. (laughing) And you know, you may never know just how much you've inspired someone by leading them to Jesus. And how you've challenged them and how you challenged them to overcome things in their life because you took them to the one who can help them overcome. - Yeah. Yeah. - And so that star inspired these wives, man, to go on this at least two month trip to find, to see the savior, to be in the presence of the savior and worship the savior. And they invested that time of their life to go and see the savior. - Amen. - Amen. - And they found him. - Yeah. - They found him. - Amen. - And all they wanted to do was worship him, right? And that's what they did. So guide, guide someone to the savior. - Be a star. - Be a star. (laughing) The sixth thing that we can do to honor the birth of our savior is be sure to rejoice. - Choice. - Be sure to rejoice. - Amen. - Matthew 2.10 says, speaking of the wise men again, when they saw the star, they were filled with joy. - Amen. - They were filled with joy. - Where it says, "Rejoice in the Lord always." - But always, again, I say rejoice. - All right. - And the star helped them. They got filled with joy 'cause they knew what the star meant because of prophecy. And then that's why they came seeking the savior. And they were filled with joy. So rejoice. I know everything in your life is not the way that you will want it to be. But there are things that are and there's always a reason to rejoice. - That's right. - There's always a reason to be thankful. There's always a reason to honor and praise the Lord. - Yeah. - So don't focus on the things that are not what you would want them to be. Don't let them take up the dominant part of your thoughts and your mind and your words and your heart. Focus on the things of, on the Lord who's the joy of the Lord is our strength. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. - Okay, Pastor. That's a nice gift, y'all. Yes. You know, when you start thinking about what your blessings and rejoicing and what God has done for you, you feel, but you start to feel better. Whatever you worried about goes out the window, you know? You start reflecting on what you do have 'cause things could be worse, you know? Yes. - That's right. That's right. - Send them blessings up when, I mean, send those praises up. When the praises go up, the blessings come down as they say. - Yes. - Man. - So make sure you rejoice. The seventh thing that you can do to honor the birth of our Savior is to be sure to give, be sure to give in God's generosity. He gave the greatest gift ever given, His Son, Jesus Christ. - That's right. - So we should give too. Look what it says in Matthew 2, 11. They entered the house, talking about the wise man again, they entered the house and saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. As he said, they came to do. Then they opened their treasured chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So they came ready to worship and they came ready to give. This is a way that we can see that giving is a part of our worship. - That's right. - Giving is a part of our worship. And so if you wanna honor the birth of our Savior this season, give, give something to somebody. And look what it says here in Acts 20, 35. It says, "You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus. It is more blessed to give than to receive." So give, give something to someone. Give something to someone. And then the eighth thing that you can do to honor the birth of our Savior is follow the Lord's leading. Follow the Lord's leading. - Yeah. - Matthew 2, 12 says, "When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route. For God had warned them in a dream." Talk about the wise man in a dream, not to return to Herod, okay? - 'Cause they knew what Herod was about. - That's right. - And Herod was an anti-Christ. He wanted to kill baby Jesus. - That's right. - In fact, he had gave an order to kill all the boys in Bethlehem in the end of a sanity who were two years old or younger. - Yeah. - And so he was trying to kill baby Jesus. So they were led by God to go, not to go back to Herod, but to go another route. - Right, right. - And if you want to honor Christ, honor our Savior, follow the Lord's leading. - Can go wrong. - Settle down, yeah. Settle down in your spirit and pray, seek to be in his presence and let the Lord lead you. I know you're facing some kind of decision you have to make in your life, whatever it might be. And so, 'cause we're making decisions all the time. Big ones, little ones, we're always making decisions. And I just want to tell you that, seek the Lord about how he wants you, what he wants you to do. Get wisdom from God, follow the Lord's leading. - Amen. - And to honor the birth of our Savior, this Christmas season and every Christmas season. - You've been listening to One by One. Here's a personal message from Pastor Robin. - You may have never said yes to Jesus Christ. Do you know that God loved you so much that he sent his son to die for your sin? If you're ready to say yes to the love that God showed, pray this prayer. Lord God, I admit that I've sinned against you. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sin. And I commit my life to you. I ask that you come into my life, come into my heart, take control. Transform me into the character of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, I want to be the first to welcome you to the family of God. And I want to encourage you to find a church where you can learn more about Jesus, draw closer to God and to other believers. God bless you. - To learn more about Quicks Life Christian Fellowship, go to quickslife.org. Weekly services are held online every Sunday at 11 a.m. Our hybrid services, hailed in person and online, are every first Sunday. You can also find information on our Bible Life Group, Man's and Women's Gatherings and social media channels where we provide words of encouragement and ministry updates. Quicks Life is located at 7080-Donneland-Way-Sweet 217 in Dublin, California. Again, visit quickslife.org for details. Thank you for listening. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music)
