 John chapter 1 verse 1 says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. And Him was life, and life was the light of man. And verse 14, and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. As Christians, our belief in this holiday and this season is what separates us from every religion and what separates us from every faith. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus became man, who was God, so He can save us men and bring us closer to God. This belief, we didn't come up with this, in the sense, there's 2.2 billion Christians on the planet. 1.8 billion people on the planet are Muslim, or is people who believe in Islam. And because we live in a more of a Christian bubble in the United States, and most of you here, most of your debates during this holiday will be about vaccines, masks, mandates, Biden, most political, and what's happening in our culture. But the moment you step out of your bubble, and step out of what is happening in our culture, the most common debate the world will have with you, and maybe you're here today, and that is your biggest concern with Christianity, is how could this man claim to be God. And so the alternative solution to that, that people who are in secularism, atheists give, is this, Jesus never claimed to be God. He was simply a good man, like many they were there, and Christians loved him so much that after he died, they made him into a God. And then Christians had a little help from this emperor called Constantine, who gathered all the bishops together in the Council of Nessia, and there they officially declared Jesus God. But Jesus never claimed to be God. Jesus slept. Jesus got tired. In fact, one time he didn't even, he said he didn't even know when the second coming of Christ will be, indicates he's not God. Christians simply made him to be one at the Council of Nessia. And so today in this message on Sunday morning, I'm going to present to you just a very simple and the basic truth of what Christianity and your faith hinges on. Most of you don't pay attention to that. Most of you believe it because that's how you grew up, whether you were in Catholic or you're Protestant, you grew up with this with your mother's milk. Jesus is God, became man, without giving further thought. And today I'm going to just give you few verses and also a few thoughts to bring that back and why it matters at the end, and we will pray. This started in the garden. In Genesis chapter 3, we see a verse where God after humanity has sinned. Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, God said this, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This was 4,000 years before Jesus was born that God said to our first parents that a woman will produce a seed, which we know that's not possible, but because a man has a seed, not a woman. So this tells us 4,000 years before Christ came that Jesus' birth will not be a result of a man's seed. It will be God's seed. So virgin birth is declared 4,000 years before Jesus is born. So Christians didn't come up with this. This was a long foretold prophecy. And then Isaiah 700 years before Jesus is coming says very similar words. And he says in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Now if you know anything about being a virgin, you can't conceive and continue to be a virgin. That's how I'm gonna leave it right there. The moment you conceive that means that virginity is no more. So if a virgin conceives that tells us that she did not have a physical relationship and this was spoken 700 years before the virgin conceived. So 4,000 years before God already said there will be a seed of a woman, which kind of doesn't make sense because a woman doesn't have a seed. A woman receives a seed, but the seed comes from a man. This tells us that there will be the supernatural birth of this being that will come on this planet. 700 years before the coming of Christ, prophet Isaiah, he says the similar words a virgin will conceive and she will give birth to a son. His name will be Emmanuel. We go a little bit later in Numbers chapter 24 verse 17 and this is Balaam, not even a Christian prophet per se. He didn't belong to a Jewish nation and he declares this about Israel. He said, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter shall rise out of Israel. This is Balaam saying prophetically, hundreds of years. He says, I see him, but not now. I see a star coming out of Jacob and a scepter coming out of Israel. And this is the star that the astrologists, we call them the wise men, they found and they came to see not the Savior but the king because Balaam saw a star and a scepter. A ruler would come to Israel. So the reason why I'm giving you this background is for you not to think that Christians have blind faith and who are gullible and who made Jesus who was a good man into a God. Our faith hinges on prophetic declarations that happened hundreds of years from different people who did not, were not connected to each other, whom God revealed about this man whom we worship. Who is God? One more prophecy and that is in Micah chapter 5 and verse 2. It says, but you, Bethlehem, Ephrath, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me, the one to be the ruler of Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting. Now this King James of terminology, my like fourth everlasting word. In another words what he's saying is that Bethlehem. Now Bethlehem was like Paschal. It was not necessarily a large city. This was not a Jerusalem. This was a very small city. Everybody knew each other. So if you think of Bethlehem and I know we romanticize it in the Christmas story, okay? There was nothing super romantic about it, except David was being born there, but Bethlehem was not necessarily the city, a dream city that you would want to move in. This was a very tiny city and this Bethlehem, God says, you Bethlehem, He says, out of you will come the King and your association will be, oh yeah, this is talking about David. The problem is that Micah was just after David was born. So he's not talking about King David. It's talking about another King. And the reason why it's not talking about David, because I want you to see what the last words of this says. It says, he will be the one to be the ruler whose goings are from old from everlasting, meaning this King has been here forever. So that tells you, how could someone be born in Bethlehem whose goings, meaning his resume, is from everlasting? This is not David. This is someone else. You know who that is? His name is Jesus. Do you wish people call him Yeshua? The Lord saves. His name is Jesus. Spanish people call him Jesus, and we Russians call him Jesus. Come on somebody, amen. Three things I want to share with you. Number one, Christians believe that Jesus is God who became man. It's not borrowed from pagan methodology where Zeus begot Hercules, Apollo begot Ion, because myths in Greeks, they come after the prophecies where God had sex with women, God had sex with women, but it actually did not involve actual human beings. These are myths. These are not actual stories verified by history. And Christians did not adopt Greek methodology to create this thing where God became a man. God the Father said that Jesus was God. At his baptism, God pronounced and he said, this is my beloved son, and you should listen to him. God said that on the mountain that this is my son, and you should listen to him. We see that the word came from the cloud, my beloved son, and you should heed him. Demons said Jesus was God. Interesting, demons believed in Jesus' divinity way before humanity did. Angels declared that the Savior, the King, is born to you. Jesus clearly stated that he was God. Matthew chapter 26 verse 63, he said, but Jesus kept silent, and the high priest answered and said to him, I put you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus said to him, it is as you said, nevertheless I said to you, hereafter you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Now the word coming on the clouds of heaven mean not very much to you, but to Jewish people that phrase indicated that this is a Messiah, because Daniel prophesied of the Asian of days coming on the clouds of glory of God. So to Jewish people this indicated point blank, Jesus is saying I am the Son of God. John chapter 8 verse 58, Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. For Jewish people, the word I am is what the word, how God revealed himself to Moses when he met him at the burning bush. Why am I using these verses? Somebody like man of Latta, I know that, because 1.8 billion of people in the world, the verses I'm sharing, they say Jesus never said he was God. We're growing up in a culture today that will question everything, that believe, and as a Christian, your faith must be grounded in the Word of God. We don't believe the Bible is a Word of God, it holds a portion of God's Word. We believe the Bible is the Word of God. We believe the Bible contains all that we need to know about our life, and we see in the Scriptures, in the Gospels, Jesus says I am before Abraham. In John chapter 10 verse 30 and verse 32, he says verse 30, he says I am the Father and one. The Bible plainly teaches that Jesus is God. Romans chapter 9 verse 5, Titus chapter 3 verse 4, 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 18. Jesus did the works that only God can do, he forgave sins. Out of the 40 miracles that Jesus performed, they verified and they confirmed also his divinity. People worship Jesus as God. I mean in the Gospel we see the first worship of Jesus as God is when he was a baby. The wise men worship Jesus. The Bible didn't just come and they say they admired his little baby. They didn't just kiss the baby and take took selfies with it. The scripture clearly indicates they worship because they acknowledged him as a king. This was not a simple honor or a bow like bless his soul Bryson was doing today to baby Jesus. But this was ultimate. This was worship and acknowledging of a deity in a baby. They worshiped. The little children worshiped Jesus when he walked into Jerusalem. It provoked the Pharisees because this was not just applause. This was not just hey, we love Jesus. We want to take a selfie with the Lord. This was something that was a blast for me and that's why Pharisees said stop them. They shouldn't be doing this and they would have been correct if Jesus wouldn't be God. Are you with me? Number two, Christians believe that Jesus did not stop being God when he became a man. Now this is where I'm going to step in and I'm going to ask you to engage your intellect with me for a little bit. So many people in this world, they believe and a lot of the fights that happen in the Christian theology or the Christianity from the beginning of Christianity all the way until now is the fight over Jesus's divinity. All the councils that were taking place, all the heresies that were starting really were trying to jab or trying to cut at Jesus's divinity. And this is one of the verses that many times is being used even by Muslim people or even misunderstanding by Christian people to claim that Jesus was not God when he was on this earth. Now I'm going to present to you the problem. The problem that they try to solve is this. If he was God, why did he fall asleep in the boat? God neither slumbers or sleeps. If he was God, why did he was limited and had these limitations on this earth? If he was God, why did he pray to one? That's what Muslims will tell you. If he was God, why was he called the Son of God instead of God? If he was God, why did he claim he did not know when the second coming will happen if God is all knowing? So that pretty much gives you three holes into the divinity of Christ and most Christians they hear that and they're like, you're right because these are facts in the Gospels. Let's look at the verse in Philippians chapter two and then I'm going to explain a little bit. Who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant coming in the likeness of man. So this clearly indicates that Jesus had the God stuff meaning Jesus was of the same material if I could use in our language. Jesus of God essence but in here it says is that he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God and then there's this word he made himself of no reputation in other words he emptied himself the Greek word for that is canosis. He emptied himself and so some people based on this verse say to try to explain and reason why Jesus got tired why he prayed to the Father why he claimed he did not know once the future that this simply meant that Jesus was God we agree but when he came into a human body he emptied himself of his divinity meaning of his godness he pretty much renounced it he laid it aside he embraced humanity he stopped being God while being here for 33 years because you can't kill God and they killed him so it kind of makes sense to a reasonable mind and then when he rose again he left the humanity behind and took on the divinity meaning the God part again. The problem with that teaching is it's a heresy and this is why it's a heresy if Jesus stopped being God when he became a man then his claim that he was God was a blasphemy then he died for his sin not yours when he claimed in front of Pilate and the Pharisees I am God then they justly crucified him because he wasn't one he was just a man who left his divinity before his birth if he died as a man who was not God that means he died for his sin for claiming God receiving worship for giving sins that means you and I are still sinners who need a Savior we don't have one because Jesus was not our Savior how could he be a Savior if he himself blasphemed if he himself blasphemed if he himself committed the ultimate sin for which he was crucified as Christians and what the Bible teaches is not for one second Jesus stopped being God when he became fully man Jesus simply took on as an addition humanity to his divinity without subtracting removing renouncing lowering minimizing who he was as God amen that's good preaching I know this is this is 9 a.m. in the morning but this is theology 101 today we're bringing back what we believe as Christians now what does this word emptied canosis mean this word simply means that Jesus laid aside the privileges he had in heaven emptied himself of reputation simply means Jesus veiled his glory chose to occupy the position of a slave he set aside his heavenly glory he voluntarily refrained from using his divinity to make his life easier he submitted to the will of the father and operated within the limitations of his humanity and not in any way or a hint does it indicate Jesus stopped being fully God he's simply voluntarily let go of all the privileges for example in heaven he was never questioned in heaven he was never ridiculed in heaven he was never doubted in heaven he was never sped on in heaven he never stood in front of a court he was the judge in heaven he never needed to learn how to walk so he let go of the privileges that his divinity entitled him to but he never let go of his divinity he never let go of his godness if I could use it in our terminology he never let go of being God for one second otherwise his claims about being divine make him a blasphemer and his death is justly deserved and then his resurrection should have never happened but it did happen that means that God put an exclamation mark on the statement of Jesus that I and the father am one his resurrection proves his claims were true he rose from the dead his life and his claim to be God confirms the prophetic words for thousand years before that 700 years before that 400 years before that every prophet testified about a king that will be born who will have his beginning from the everlasting who will be eternal who will be pre-existence and my friend his name is Jesus Christ if you love him give him some praise if you love him give him some praise hallelujah now you may say well what about this whole thing that Jesus was tired he was thirsty it simply means that he operated within the limitations of humanity and at least one time he voluntarily surrendered the use of his omniscience meaning all-knowingness one time he voluntarily surrendered his omniscience but in other times he put his omniscience all-knowingness on full display when it says he knew everybody's thoughts when the bible says he started to predict things that came to true and so just because at one time he voluntarily surrendered one component of what makes someone God it does not mean Jesus surrendered his divinity now the question is how could he be a son of God and be God when you think of the son of God you and I are thinking in the terms of the son and the father the father has a relationship with the mother and as a result the son is born so when we think of that we come to the gospels and we're looking at the son of God and we're like okay I'm a simple man with a simple mind who did God have a thing to with so and Muslims are correct to use their brains and they would say things well like your God had a thing with somebody probably with Mary and Jesus came as a result otherwise he wouldn't be called the son of God see but you must understand is that the son of God does not in any way hence God's physical relationship with someone the word of God indicates that who Jesus was was of the same material as God that's all that means how do I know that because Jewish people when they ask Jesus are you the son of God in Jewish culture God was divine and he never had a physical relationship intimate with a human being this was totally against the law this was totally against even even the possibility of thinking in that realm so it was common in that day to call somebody the son of without ever having any kind of a hint that that being a person had a relationship that's physical with someone to produce it give example Judas is called the son of perdition but the Bible says he was son of Simon so his biological dad was Simon yet Jesus calls Judas the son of perdition so whose father was he so when it says son of perdition it indicates a manifestation of ruin bad and horrible it's not meaning that Judas became a result of because perdition had a physical contact with something else it simply means a manifestation of ruin when the Bible says that Jesus is the son of God it simply means Jesus is a manifestation of God there is no hint there is not one instance in the Bible where it hints to us where Heavenly Father has something going on with Virgin Mary amen now to finish this what does that mean for us well that's good Jesus is God get it Jesus also was fully man he embraced humanity and I think that series chosen really helps to see it gets criticized a lot but one thing that chosen did really good is to highlight Jesus's humanity what I did right now is I highlighted more of Jesus's divinity but Jesus also was 100% human not less human fully human and he was also 100% divine now the verse that pretty much that a lot of Christianity hinges on concerning the divinity of Jesus is the one I've read which I'm going to read again because we will see how it applies to us right now in the beginning was the word now the word is the logos it's Jesus is speaking about Jesus the word was with God so in the beginning was the word indicates Jesus existed before the world the word was with God it simply means that Jesus is distinct yet the same meaning Jesus is a personality that is different from the Father the word was with God indicates Jesus is a different person of the Godhead the word was God indicates Jesus is divine he was in the beginning with God tells us that Jesus was involved with creation all things were made through him and nothing and without him nothing that was made was made verse four what does this mean for us Jesus became God excuse me God became man Jesus was born and God came on this earth what does that practically mean now we know he died for our sin I understand that but what else does that mean and I want you to see what that means there's five things I want to highlight in the conclusion in him was life and the life was the light of all men so number one is Jesus is the carrier of life I have life I am not life I have light for example I can get a light from one of the light bulbs but I am not light the difference between Jesus is Jesus did not have life he was life that means he was able to give life Jesus did not have light he was light that means that he could bring and give light because he was light so what does that mean life that means that if you're experiencing death if you're experiencing death in your life if you're experiencing death in your situation if you're experiencing death a separation from God there is only one source who is the source to eliminate the darkness and that source is Jesus Christ he was God who became a man and the Bible says in him was life he wasn't just an extension he wasn't just having it he is life number two in him was light he's not just having light he is light maybe you find yourself in darkness today maybe you find yourself in depression maybe you find yourself in stress and anxiety maybe you find yourself today overwhelmed with fear maybe you because darkness that's really what darkness is darkness follows death when we are separated from God we begin to get overwhelmed with what happens when you're separated from God which is darkness and Jesus comes not simply as some kind of an extension of light he comes as the light of the world number three i want you to notice is that the bible says is that Jesus was glory the bible says in verse 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father Jesus came to reveal his glory now the glory of God is the weightiness of God the glory of God we as Christians especially more of charismatic when we experience the glory of God we're like man i just felt the glory meaning you felt a really really good in the bible the glory of God was more than that it was very practical when the glory of God would manifest Jesus would say to Mary and Martha and he says if you believe you will see the glory of God he didn't mean they're gonna fall in a trance he didn't mean they will get slain in the spirit he simply meant whatever was dead in the grave will come to life God's glory is very practical when he kills you he reveals his glory when he restores your family he reveals his glory when he begins to touch your finances he reveals his glory when he brings your back sliding children back to the fold he reveals his glory when he kills you of your mental disorder he reveals his glory when he begins to help you in your studies in college he reveals his glory and the bible says that we have to behold his glory the bible says that Jesus brought the glory of God into this world my friend there is glory for your story that is the glory of God there is the miracle of God that is available for your situation don't give up don't give in and don't quit what because God became a man so that he can bring you life so he can bring you life and so he can bring glory for your story somebody give God some praise hallelujah hallelujah the bible says in verse 14 the word became flesh and wealth among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten son but i want you to notice number four full of grace maybe you find yourself separated from God in dark in death maybe you find yourself overwhelmed with the problems of life in darkness or maybe you find yourself today overwhelmed by the issues and by the shame and the guilt and condemnation Jesus is the only solution because he offers life he offers light he offers glory but he also offers as God in flesh incarnate fully god fully human he offers grace grace grace is when you get what you don't deserve mercy is when you don't get what you do deserve in other words let me give an example you're speeding police officer pulls you over and does not give you a ticket that's mercy that's not grace now it feels like grace but it's not grace is when you were speeding and not only police officer didn't give you a ticket but he gave you a gift so you were just hoping not to go to jail and on the top of that he just gave you a gift card now that is grace when he gives you what you don't deserve now when he takes away what you deserve that's mercy but the bible says Jesus is full of grace amazing grace saving grace empowering grace incredible grace we sing that powerful grace Jesus is full of that's why there is hope for you because there is grace in him and his grace means it's unmerited it's undeserving you don't qualify for it you can never repay him for it you will never earn it all you gotta do is receive it because it's by his grace we are saved it's by his grace we are healed it's by his grace we are delivered from the claws of the devil it's by his grace we are protected it's by his grace he lifts us up it's by his grace he showers us with his goodness and with his mercy my friend somebody give God some praise for his grace hallelujah and the last thing it says he is full of grace and truth see Jesus is not a sugared daddy Jesus is not a senta he's not just walking around and distributing gifts he also has a truth in fact unlike every leader in the world of religion who happened to know a piece of truth Jesus was the embodiment of truth truth is not what you find in oxford university truth is not what you find in ancient languages truth Jesus said I am full of truth and then later on he says I am the truth I want to encourage you today that God became a man so he can make light life glory grace and truth accessible to humanity that is why I get my truth from the truth I know we live in the generation today where everybody has their truth now you can do whatever you want with whatever you think you can do but there is still only one truth and his name is Jesus that's why he became a man who was God who is God and continues to be such on a practical level how does this relate to hungry jen we as Christians believe that in a similar way Jesus became a man to be a missionary to the world believers are sent to be missionaries to their world 40 times in the gospel of john Jesus declares that father sent him indeed the incarnation is the sending of the second member of the trinity into human history as a missionary this is what Jesus meant when he taught that Christians should be sent as missionaries like him into the cultures by the power of the holy spirit as the father sent me even so I'm sending you our vision is to bring salvation to this generation he left heaven he embodied the culture without embracing the compromise he took on the human nature with took on the humanity without taking the human nature he took on the limitations without taking the inequities he walked our walk he didn't ride a car he rode the donkey because that's what people did at that culture but he never sinned and that's what Jesus calls us today to go into your world to go into your school into your family we are not monks we are not nuns we are not hiding somewhere separating the the height of our spirituality is Jesus and Jesus went into the world not outside we're not sitting on our bags waiting for Jesus to come we're not there cursing the darkness we're sent into it to be the light that's why we're gonna see thousands saved locally and millions saved globally that's why we're gonna use every means every venue that's why we're gonna embrace the cultural methods the culture has without embracing the cultural ways and cultural ideologies we will embrace the kingdom lifestyle but we will embrace whatever the culture has so we can advance the gospel of Jesus Christ because that's the way he did it he came into this earth to be a missionary charles purgeant said every christian is either a missionary or an impostor every christian is either a missionary or a mission field and my friend that's why we're not gonna sit on our buds blessed assurance Jesus is mine and wait for his second coming or for the coming of the antichrist we will get busy and do business we will get busy and plant churches we will get busy and raise the dead we will get busy and cast out demons we will get busy and we will start life groups we will get busy and we will kill the sick we will get busy and we will plant churches and support orphanages why because that's what Jesus did he was gone he became a man so that we as sinners can become missionaries so we can change our world for god so we can change our cities for god somebody give god some praise right i want you to stand i want you to rise to your feet god in the cradle is jesus christ i want to give you an opportunity today if you are in darkness if you feel separated from god live in shame overwhelmed with guilt and are full of your own truth and today you're saying i want this the facts are right in my face i want to be a wise man acknowledge him his divinity worship Jesus accept his free gift of salvation exchange my sinfulness you're not exchanging your humanity you're exchanging your carnality your sinfulness for his gift of righteousness today he's waiting for you maybe you used to come to church and used to practice your christian faith but you walked away through sin i want to tell you my friends our problem is not that once in a while we slip up we have a condition you know people have a condition they just can't change it you know jesus didn't come to just forgive us over sins he came to save us from our sins that means we have a bigger problem than slip up controlling our tongue controlling our behavior impulses he wants to completely rid us off of that old nature and give us new life no psychiatrist no psychologist no doctor nobody in this world can do that no religion can do that every religion is trying to remodel your behavior jesus regenerates your heart every head bowed and every eye closed if you're in this room this morning or watching us online and you have not made a decision to make jesus the lord of your life it is your decision it is your choice he came that whoever will believe whoever will call will be saved are you part of that whoever we all have made that decision today it's your turn to make your decision to follow jesus christ to embrace him as your god your savior and your king when i count to three if you would like that if you say i am tired of looking for my own truth finding my own light finding my own glory looking for my own life i want to come to him who can give it to me freely when i count to three i'm going to ask you to just raise your hand and that's going to be your way of saying i need the lord one two three just raise that hand high raise that hand high thank you thank you anybody else who say hey today is my day i need to give my life to the lord if you're watching me on live or rewatching and you would like to give your life to christ just drop that in the comments i need to get saved i need to get saved i'm going to ask you to take another step which is bold i'm going to ask you to come out of your seat and come and stand here right now if you raise your hand or you want it to raise your hand just come we're going to have our team right now with with you we're going to stand with you just come just come anybody else i give just few more seconds if you're here today and you have not bowed your knee to jesus christ as your lord and as your savior if i can have some more leaders come up just come just come today is that day maybe you believed in the lord but today you need to recommit your life to the lord you need to make that public come back to god i mean christmas would be the best time to do it because as he was born in the marries womb he can be born in your heart today and he didn't really come to give us a holiday he came to give us a brand new life embrace that today offer that because that offer stands for those of you on live soon get ready to pray because in just a second we're going to pray together and those of you here in the front with us church can we pray this prayer together say this out loud with me say lord jesus i am a sinner please forgive me of all my sin and wash me with your blood i believe you are the son of god who died on a cross for all my sin i need your help i need your miracle of salvation i quit trying and i trust you to make me into a new person take the heart of stone and give me the heart of flesh fill me with your spirit in jesus name amen hey thanks for watching this video if you enjoyed this content and this was a blessing to you would you help us and hit thumbs up so that it could help more people to discover this video it cost you nothing but it can go a long way to help with the algorithm as well as if you're not subscribed to our channel hit subscribe click on the bell so that you can be reminded each time that we upload videos thank you so much for being a part of this community if you're interested in learning more about hungry gen our internship our conferences deliverance and so many other things go to hungry gen.com for more information and as always remember better is not good enough the best is yet to come