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This God seeking man. It's not loud enough.
Let's do it one more time. Is God seeking man?
Yeah. It's just, you know, we need to.
We want to keep it very simple today.
The message from the time Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of
Eden. What did they do as a reaction?
First thing they came to know that they were, they were
ashamed of. I mean they knew they were, they
were naked and they were trying to hide it by taking the leaves
and covering themselves, you know.
And I mean God kept his timetable and in the evening he
used to come and speak to them. So he started walking in the
garden. When they heard the steps of God
walking in the garden, they hid behind the bushes.
And then he calls out Adam. Adam, where are you?
You know all the story. But man's reaction has always
been to hide from God. It's always been to run away
from God. From that Adam's behavior till
today, man has not changed. He may have gone to university.
He can have degrees, He can make millions of dollars living in
great houses, but the behaviour of man towards God has not
changed. They run from God, hide from
God, but God's heart has always been to reach out to man, as He
did in the Garden of Eden. He does even today.
Show me one instance where God has not taken initiative.
In the Bible you see everywhere the signature that God sought
man always, always it's he who took the first step.
So we see in the in the in the story of, you know, as Luke
describes in Luke chapter 2, when Jesus was born, the angels
appear to few shepherds. We read it in Luke chapter 2,
verse 13. Suddenly a great company of the
heavenly host appeared with the Angel praising God and saying
glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth.
Peace to those on whom His favour rests.
His favour rests on earth. There's no doubt about it.
That's why we are sitting here. If that favour is not there, we
will not be here at all. And that favour is pursuing man
as it pursued those people, the shepherds, who are out in the in
the open. When the angels had left them
and gone into heaven, the shepherd said to one another,
let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened
which the Lord has told us about, and they go and find a
little baby in a Manger. It's just amazing for me, so
many years. I've been thinking about now
nearly 48 years now having become a Christian.
I always wonder how can God fit into a small frame the body of
Jesus 6 foot let's say he is he was 510.
Some people say so let's say 510 frame.
How did this big God fit into the small frame?
It's a mystery, but that mystery is also the time in very
encouraging to me very recently when I thought about how does
God dwell in man and work miracles?
How does he heal? How do they set people free?
That insight into incarnation is the key to move in the
anointing. You wonder, oh, I want to pray
for somebody. What's going to happen if that
big God can fit into the small body of Jesus?
He can fit into your body as well.
He can dwell in you. So when we say touch, it's not
me wanting to touch somebody, it is to allow Jesus within me to
touch the person and to release that power to heal or to give
answer to any anything they are standing for.
So that is what it is. And for me, this idea has really
made Christmas, understanding Christmas very special.
And then man sometimes, you know, has been trying to find
his own ways, as you see at the Tower of Babel, he they all came
together. They had one language.
They said, let's make build a tower, make a great name for
ourselves. Let's reach it to heavens and
they start building it. That is a symbol of man's
working hard to reach heaven or to become equal to God or to
take the place of God. And you look at many religions,
they are based on that. They are based on that.
I've been breaking my head to with a man.
I mean he was my friend when I was in primary school and we
connected now and he is a strong Hindu and now I am not only a
Christian but I am a pastor and he is trying to convert me to
Hinduism again because he keeps sending me different videos.
I told him stop it, you are not going to change me, instead you
should change. So I send him information and in
fact I send this message that I am preaching now.
I send it to him and I don't know whether he read it or not,
but he sent me in response another video of why we should
consider Hinduism as an option. The point is, it is a
revelation. Christmas has to be a
revelation. Just just as much as God came,
left heaven and came through and became a small child, and that
child has become the Christ who died further on the cross, it
has to be a revelation that knowledge has to come through
the work of the Holy Spirit. Until that it shines in your
heart, there will be darkness in the life.
So that revelation is what is redid.
And I am praying God, you touched that man out of so many
people. You brought that man back into
my life after more than 60 years or even 55 years.
I'm saying I don't want to lose that guy.
I want him to. I want you to save him.
So this is this should be our heart.
The Christmas. Let's have this heart of praying
for people who need salvation and speak to them, be persistent
in presenting love of Jesus to them is very, very important.
And then you see, God took the initiative to send the angels to
proclaim that a son is born for you guys who is the savor of the
world. He is Jesus, he is Emmanuel, God
with us. And the shepherds went and found
it as the angels proclaimed. So again, the initiative is
coming from God, not from the shepherds or for anyone.
And you have another story of miraculous guidance to find
Jesus in Matthew chapter 2. And you find 3 wise men who
travelled from the east and when they saw the star in the sky and
they said, ah, this star means somebody great is being born.
A great king is being born. And they were looking for a sign
and they found the sign in the sky and they said let's go and
find this child or this king who is born.
And they travel probably 3 months, six months, 2 years.
I don't know how long it took, but they travelled and then the
star kept guiding them. I've been doing some research,
you know, Google research. So in that what you find here is
that that is indication of the birth of Jesus.
He is trying to find a star. And there was one NASA
scientist, he said, oh, he figured it out.
He looked up into some of the writings of Chinese writings and
he says he was able to say there was a comet that appeared and
guided those Magi or the wise men to the place where Jesus
was. And they came to here and said
where is the king who is born? King of the Jews is born here.
He felt alarmed about it and he calls the priests and they finds
out that he is going to be in Bethlehem.
And then he says OK, go and find him and worship him and come
back and tell me so that I too can go and worship him.
But they were warned in the dream not to go back to the
king, but to go by another way. And afterwards he got angry, got
all the children killed under 2 years of age.
So looking into those kind of a thing they were able to say,
yeah, it is BC four or five between that time and there is
one more clue that you come across in the in the in the
Gospel of John in verse 14, he says God in the beginning was
the word, the word was with God, word was God.
And in 14 he says the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
The word dwelt, the Greek word is Tabernacle.
So they think that that is a big clue John is giving that it
should coincide with the Feast of Tabernacles, which they
celebrate for seven days in a year, once a year, remembering
their deliverance from Egypt. So the Feast of Tabernacles
should be the time when Jesus was born.
That's how they come to a conclusion about it.
And then you look at so many other things here and there, and
ultimately it is not 25th of December anyway.
That's the good news. It's not 25th December, so they
come up with a date in September and some people come up in
March, whatever it is. So my point is very simple that
Jesus left heaven, who was the Word, the Logos, and who had no
beginning and no end. He had the same beginning, same
continuous existence or ontological existence as the
Father and the Spirit. That means they are coexistent,
Co, eternal and all powerful, equally to be loved and to be
worshipped and to be obeyed. He left heaven for you and me
and dwelt and took the form of the flesh.
And I think it is a great event, great event, not to be
celebrated just one day in a year.
It has to be celebrated every day.
Every day, every day it's Christmas for us and every day
it is Easter for us because that is the purpose ultimately why he
came into the world to die on the cross.
So it is something Good Friday and Easter.
Everything you have to celebrate.
You have to worship him because he's worthy of the sacrifice.
He's a lamb who became the sacrificial animal for you and
me. He died as you, you died as me.
That's why we celebrate. That's that's the most powerful
thing that we can ever think of it.
And then he did not come into a he could have been born in a
kings family. He could have been born in a
very rich persons family, but he was born to a couple who are not
very wealthy. In fact, when they wanted to
come back and register, you know, there was an addict to go
back and register. And then they traveled to
Bethlehem from Nazareth. And then when they went to the
inn, there's no room. So he LED into a place where she
gave birth in the, you know, animals were kept and they had,
she had to keep the baby in a Manger.
You know, many times I used to wonder about the word Manger.
One day I had to look up with the dictionary, you know, it's
just the tub in which they put some grass or whatever they want
to feed the animals. And that was the place they put
some dry hay and that was a bed for Jesus.
And he was laid in the small Manger.
And that is just, you cannot get more simpler than that.
You cannot get more simpler than that.
I don't know whether he ever had experience of lying down on a
hay. Have you ever had the
experience? Yeah.
Those who have farming background, it is not very
comfortable. It's very itchy.
I don't like it. I tried it, I don't like it.
But they just put some cloth on it probably.
And then he was laid in that Manger, not the most comfortable
bed. Why?
Because he was identify with you and me, Every common man.
I tell you if you are making 100,000 or more in a year, you
are the top 3% of the people, rich people, top 3%.
You may not be millionaire or a billionaire, but you are in the
top 3%. And when Jesus came into the, I
mean into the world and was laid in the Manger, He was
identifying with the 97% of the people of the population of the
world. He is just saying I have loved
you to leave my heavenly home and to become one with you.
He identified with us. It is amazing.
I just don't know. I don't have enough words to say
how amazed I am to think about God trying to identify himself
with a common person if in this 21st century, if he came, he
would choose to be born in a Mumbai suburb or Bombay suburb
where is a slum area. Probably because they are the
people who are down economically, socially, in every
way, ignored, trodden upon, used.
He would be choosing to be born in such a place.
Why? That is the heart of God.
Heart of God. To seek man makes him to come to
the lowest point so that you can be lifted up to the highest
point. To sit with him in the heavenly
realms in this by the right hand side of the Father.
It's amazing. The more you think of
incarnation, the more you will be humbled.
And I tell you, that is how God was to conquer your heart this
morning. And you had to put him on the
throne in your heart, the highest place.
Why? Because he came to the lowest of
the point a man can live in. So that's why he's called
Emmanuel, God with us. Let's shout.
Emmanuel, God with us. Yeah, he ordained a star to get
the Magi, and he does not leave you without proof, without the
message of the gospel. He as he ordained a star to
guide those people from the East.
What God is saying is he is interested in the whole world.
He did not come as a Christ or a Redeemer just for the Jewish
people. It is for the whole world.
And he made it clear from day one and we cannot make him a
Jesus for justice. Christians, it is for everybody.
So many times we confine him to the church just on Sunday or on
a Bible study day. No, he has to be Lord of every
day of your week. And that should compel you to
see somebody and look at that person and say made in the image
of God should be saved by the gospel of Christ and reach out
and touch the people. It is the same thing we are
repeating again. Actually I had a very different
message to preach, but I said I don't want to preach that
message because it's a bit harsh.
Very, very harsh message I had. I was reading the book of Jonah
and the book of Jonah. God says to Jonah, go and preach
to Nineveh. I am going to destroy in 40
days. He didn't want to take that
message. Why?
Because he can. As a prophet he must have
forcing that the same people are going to attack Israel and carry
them as captives. So he doesn't want them to be
alive. So he says he refuses to go and
preach and he runs away. If this is where God tells him
to go, he goes this way and he had to cause so much of trouble
to him. You know, he had to bring the
storm on the sea. He has to send a fish to swallow
him. And next day or after three days
again, he commands the fish and it vomits him on the shore.
And then the word of the Lord comes to Jonah again.
Get up, go and preach to Nineveh.
Why? God had to take that trouble
because the man was unwilling to preach the gospel or message of
repentance to Nineveh. And what we are doing is
repeating the story of Jonah in our lives.
We are unwilling to share the gospel of Jesus.
You are and you and me are a Jonah.
To someone who is working with you, to someone who is a
relative to someone who is your friend, you are a Jonah.
I am a Jonah. If you don't open your mouth and
say Jesus loves you and came into the world, you have to
choose whether you want him to bring a storm in your life.
You want us to be thrown into the sea and a big fish to
swallow and warmed you out again in front of his house where you
have to preach the gospel. I don't want that to happen.
I would rather be willingly say, God, I want to partner with you.
I want to pray for this person. Will you please pour out a mercy
and grace? I have saved the person.
You know, that's how we have to be doing it.
Cool. And he crossed many barriers
from heaven to earth. You know, God has nothing to
share in. In a sense, God is transcendent.
He is far above, far away from whatever is belong to the earth.
He has nothing in common. But he crossed that barrier and
shared in our humanity, in the in the flesh and blood that we,
we, we are in. He took he partook in that human
nature. And that's that's a big barrier
he has crossed. Secondly, he crossed the barrier
of holiness to sinfulness. He is holy, He's being
worshipped by the angels, holy, holy, holy all the time. 24 by 7
But he left that holy Kingdom of God, his own presence, his own
heaven, and became and came into the midst of sinners and lived
like a common man. That's a crossing the barrier.
It could have been as painful as going through the cross.
It may not be simple for God to become man.
It's not a OK, I'm going for a holiday for 33 years.
It's not like that. It is not like that.
At least that's what I think. And yeah, the cradle, probably
even the Manger could have been a wooden through.
If it is a wooden through that is used, that would stands for
the cross. If she made a cradle to put baby
Jesus to sleep, that word symbolizes the cross.
That is, from day one, the cross is at the heart of Jesus who
came into the world. You cannot separate the cross
from his incarnation. You don't have any mission.
You've got no purpose if you separate them.
And Jesus came into the world just precisely for this purpose
to die on the cross so that he can make the atonement cover up
for you my everybody's sin in the world.
So we may be saved and become one with him and share in his
royalty, share in his sonship and share in his ruler ability
to rule with him. And I tell you, this is just
from rash to riches kind of a story.
We are having that kind of rags background and he wants to lift
you up to riches background. And this is quite amazing to me.
It's very amazing. And I'm telling you this, Christ
deserves your worship. It deserves your praise,
deserves your Thanksgiving. And this is not for something to
think about one day in a year. It is to be lived daily, daily.
You need to understand that as he incarnated came into the
world, so should we reach out to somebody?
So should we reach out to somebody. 2 more minutes I have.
I think I'll just tell you. Once I went to Delhi and we had
a meeting in in that place. It was very dirty, very dirty,
smelly. He went to crossover into that
area. There was an open drain and
there were two or three bricks in between to keep your leg on
the brick and crossover to the other side.
And there are millions of flies. And I was, I didn't want to
really go and sit down on the ground.
So I was just standing there. So the preachers, the pastor
said, will you please come and sit here?
I said, no, no, I'm quite all right here.
So he thought, I'm separating myself.
This guy has come from New Zealand.
He's not identifying with the people.
It wasn't the case. I just my knees are not great.
So I don't want to go and sit on the floor.
I was quite happy to stand. But at the time came, I did go
there. I laid my hands upon them and I
prayed. And this man is waiting to for
me to say, do I have a sanitizer or something to wash my hands?
I didn't do any of those things. I laid my hand on them.
I prayed and he said, this is surprising to me.
I have seen many other pastors come here.
They come with hand sanitizer. When they lay hand again, rub
their hands. But I did not see you do it.
I said They are men and women who need God, and I have come
here to bring God to them. I am not here to impose myself
as a man who has come from a rich country.
That is not my purpose. Jesus crossed barriers to bring
the gospel to each one of us. I cannot afford to do it.
There has to be a change, a
transformation of heart and mind, otherwise we are going to
lock up the gospel in our heart. Shall we pray?
Father, this morning, thank you for the Word.
I bring your children before the throne of grace.
And Father, I pray, Holy Spirit, that you move here right now.
Move here right now. I pray that you convict and
convince and give them a vision, a vision of taking the gospel to
someone. Oh my Father, Holy Spirit, I
pray open their eyes to see, open their ears to hear right
now and touch their heart. Touch their heart.
I can feel right now God is warming your heart.
God the Holy Spirit is putting that warmth in your heart.
You feel warm in your chest right now and that is happening
to you by the Holy Spirit. I want you to just stand up so I
know that the Holy Spirit has stirred you and you are not
going to be the same. You are going to carry this
gospel to someone, somewhere to bring glory to His name.
If you feel that warm sensation in your heart right now, I want
you to stand up so I can pray for you.
Sastre sarane mahasarasto korobo sandastereni mandana sarastoroni
bahasastere sandara mahare shandara sastro kohori BA
samandar sokoroni rehas sandastakoroni ho sabasta
koroni. The Lord says, I have kept a
reward for you because you want to follow me.
You want to have a heart like my own.
I will reward you in due season, says the Lord.
We praise you God for the for the word and bless your children
and I pray that everyone will go today with this burden in their
heart to take the gospel to somebody.
Let not this year pass before they open their mouth and share
the gospel with somebody, a friend, a relative, or someone
to the glory of your name. Thank you again for your
presence in our mission. We worship you, we honour you.
You're worthy of our worship because you cross the barriers
and came into the world to dwell in a human body.
I worship you Jesus. We praise you, Lord, in Jesus
mighty name. Amen.
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