244 ~ GRACE ABOUNDS WHEN THE TRUTH ABIDES

Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon Podcast.

We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.

We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will

encourage, inspire, and instill fresh faith in you as we

complete our advent. Series we look at how.

In Jesus, grace abounds as the truth abides.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope that you will

enjoy the gift of having. God with you.

In you and for you. Hi Church, a very Merry

Christmas to each one of you, your families, your loved ones.

Even as we get into God's word today, you know that we have

been looking at the book of John, the Gospel of John and it

has been mind blowing how God has been leading us through this

Advent series. It's been so organic.

We we just knew we had to look at the book of John, John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 specifically. But the way God has LED us

through every verse and exposed to us who God is, who Jesus

really is, has been amazing. And I know Geshum and I both

have been so impacted by the sermons we have preached.

And today I've titled my message this Christmas.

Grace abounds when truth abides. That's what my title is.

And even as we get into this, this the word that we have for

today, I want to begin with this, you know, when I was

growing up, because this is my birthday month, Christmas was a

magical time. You know, the 25th was, you

know, the aim, it was the goal, it was the destination.

But as I got older, I found that this was as ordinary as the rest

of the months of the year. Yes, the house was decorated.

Yes, we were eating a lot more plum cake than we should have.

Yes, we had a lot of gifts being wrapped and given, but it's

still essentially was like the rest of the year.

We still had the same struggles of the rest of the year.

We still had those setbacks. We still had those bills to pay.

Nothing really changed, but the environment somehow had been

recreated to something festive. And I want to encourage you

today if you're stepping into this Christmas Day completely

alone, fall on just absolutely confused about what's next or

maybe you just had a huge blow struck to you.

Whatever it is, I want you to just look at how Christmas

really represents the light of the world coming into a very

dark situation and making it bright as day and that you know

day is coming. Your situation will change,

things will move. Should you give room for Jesus,

everything can change in a second, and I want to encourage

you with that. John chapter 1, verses 10 to 18

John 1:10–18

is what we're going to be looking at today.

Reading from the NIV translation, it says He was in

the world, and though the world was made through him, the world

did not recognize him. He came to that which was His

own, but His own did not receive Him.

Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His

name, He gave the right to become children of God, children

born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's

will, but of God. The Word became flesh and made

His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the

glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full

of grace and truth. John testified concerning him.

He cried out, saying, This is the one I spoke about when I

said, He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was

before me. Out of His fullness we have

received grace in place of grace already given, for the Law was

given through Moses. Grace and truth came through

Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but

the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest

relationship with the Father, has made Him known.

Whatever your situation this December has looked like,

whatever the last 11 months have looked like, what we can rejoice

in today is that in Jesus God was made known.

In looking at Him, the fullness of the Godhead, the deity, has

been revealed and we're no longer in the dark.

We're no longer distant from God, but we are.

He's close at hand. And the beautiful thing is that

grace already abounded to us even before we accepted Jesus.

What does that mean? You know, you look at humanity,

you look at the people of the world, you see war-torn areas,

you see epidemic struck lands, famine, drought struck lands.

People are still surviving. Are they thriving?

Maybe not, but they're surviving.

And there's a basic human survival instinct, and I believe

that is the grace of God in itself.

But here it says in Jesus you get grace upon grace.

You get this added grace. It's a saving grace which

changes your life completely. And then Jesus himself is

personified as grace and truth. Because up until then, up until

you know Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the people who are

waiting for this Messiah who would be born of a virgin, who

would be everlasting counsellor, mighty God, Prince of Peace,

that he would rule the government, up until then, they

were just waiting. And they didn't know when it

would all happen. They didn't know when, you know,

all of those prophecies would find their fulfillment.

And so until then, they had the Mosaic law, the Torah was what

they read, they meditated on, they had the law, they had the

prophets. And for them that was their

truth. But in Jesus coming to earth,

the truth became a person because he was the living Word

like we saw. And so it talks about how He is

grace and truth. And so today we're going to be

looking at how grace abounds when truth abides.

We're going to understand that, unpack it a bit.

But before we go through that, I want to just read a very

unlikely passage to kind of put in a nutshell what Christmas is

all about. And most unlikely because it's

written by the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

I'm going to read 8 verses and it's from the Message version

because it's just written so beautifully, but it basically

tells us how Jesus came as the solution for a sinful fallen

world. Like I said, the law existed

before the law was the truth. The law was from God.

It was given to guide his people, to protect them.

But human as we are, keeping all of the law was difficult because

let's face it, we, we forget to look at the heart of the law.

We look at each of its, you know, statutes and precepts and

we're trying to learn that by heart.

We're trying to figure out how to do it.

But they missed the people of Israel, missed looking at the

heart of God behind those commands and in Jesus.

Jesus revealed to us the heart of God.

And so it became so much more easier to grasp these

commandments because now the Spirit of God lives in US, and

the covenant is written on hearts and minds rather than on

stone tablets. And so Paul writes so

beautifully about what God did with sending Jesus, and it's the

most beautiful explanation of the Christmas story.

So let me just read that for you.

Romans 8 verses 1 to 8 in the message version, with the

Romans 8:1–8

arrival of Jesus the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is

resolved, the fateful dilemma of sin.

Those who enter into Christ being here for us no longer have

to live under a continual low lying black cloud.

A new power is an operation. The spirit of life in Christ,

like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air,

free you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands

of sin and death. God went for the jugular when He

sent His own Son. He didn't deal with the problem

as something remote and unimportant in His Son Jesus.

He personally took on the human condition, entered the

disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it

right once and for all. The Law code, weakened as it

always was by fractured human nature, could never have done

that. The Law always ended up being

used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of deep healing it.

And now what the Law could asked for but couldn't, we couldn't

deliver, is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own

efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in US.

Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed

with measuring their own moral muscle, but never get around to

exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in

them find that God's Spirit is in them, living and breathing

God. Obsession with self in these

matters is a dead end. Attention to God leads us out

into the open, into a spacious, free life.

Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God.

Anyone completely absorbed in self, ignores God, ends up

thinking more about self than God.

That person ignores who God is and what he is doing, and God

isn't pleased at being ignored. When you look at the original

Christmas story of what unfolded in Bethlehem, and then two years

later what unfolded when the kings visited, none of them were

obsessed about themselves. In that story.

The shepherds heard from the angels.

They could have sat on that hillside for a day or two and

gone. Why us?

Oh my goodness, did we really, you know, see angels?

Did it really happen to us? They got up and went to see what

was told. They went and trusted God's

action in fulfilling his words. And they're so obsessed in

worshipping the newborn king. It's amazing because sometimes

we are obsessed with ourselves over being obsessed with the

things of God. Obsessing with God, he says

focusing on self is the opposite of focusing on God.

I love that. Those 3 or 4 Magi who came from

the east who didn't make the journey about their hardships or

the the the detours or the struggles of losing the star now

and then or even of Herod, but they made it all about

worshipping this king that they were coming for.

Ultimately, when you look at this whole thing, God was sent,

Jesus was sent to Tabernacle with his people.

He came to live among them and today he lives in US.

And that is the greatest gift that God could ever give.

If that is not what grace is, I don't know what is.

When we sometimes look at the word truth, Jesus himself said,

I am the way, the truth and the life.

And the word for truth has one alternate meaning apart from the

absolute truth. It also means reality.

And so often we try to haggle about the reality of God.

We begin at the Christmas story and say, you know what?

Why did he come as a baby? There's no facts to reference

this. We can't check this up, but the

truth is historians have put down the birth of this child.

We have seen history split into two based on the arrival of the

Messiah, BC and AD. No matter what people are trying

to change in terms of the compilation, the name of these,

these eras, it doesn't change the fact that this is our

reality. We live in the new covenant.

Jesus came, lived, died, rose again, lives in the heavens,

will return one day to take us all home, but he will return as

a judge. This is our reality.

This is a reality we live in. No point denying it.

My husband was recently at a shoot.

He was doing a huge media project and when they were

filming it, he, they were about to start the set design.

OK, so this is before they started filming and one of my

husband's directors was at the site and they were actually in a

shoot flow just kind of creating a set out of nothing.

And as they were erecting the walls of the set, they sent us

this video. And I want you to have a look at

this video before I explain to you what I got out of it.

So as we saw in this video, there's this huge wall of wood

being erected to form this house set up for the shoot.

And if you saw there were two guys who are using these huge

poles to push this wood up. But the interest and that's very

visible. It's very visible, right?

But if you looked at the back of the video, there were a couple

of guys standing with ropes, and these ropes actually were

holding the board in place. You know, they were kind of

supporting it. They were found forming the

foundation on which this was being pulled up, like a pivot,

so to speak. And these guys were it needed so

many men to push it up. And as I was watching this

video, my husband sent it to me. I wanted me to have a look at

the the magnitude of the work happening.

And as I was looking at it, I felt like it showed and

demonstrated to me what it looks like in our lives when Jesus is

grace and truth. You know, John says he was grace

and truth personified. And what does that look like

when you look at that wall going up?

Grace is what holds it up. Grace is what is obvious to

others, but truth is the scaffolding that holds it under.

It's the undergirding to our lives.

It's what keeps our life in place rather than going all over

the place. We'll get more into this, but

the truth is this our lives, if you were to liken your life to

that wall which is being rebuilt by God himself, grace is the

thing that holds it up. Grace is the thing that is

evident to the world. They'll ask you, how did you get

through that sickness? And you will say this very

simple thing, or it was only God's grace.

You will say, how did you do that exam?

And you had so much of other stuff to do.

It was God's grace. How did you look after your

family in the midst of that hardship?

It was just God's grace. You see what I'm saying?

Grace is the evidence of God at work in us, but the truth is

what holds our lives together. The truth of who Jesus is.

The truth that God is good and He does good.

The truth that His Word is life giving.

The truth that prayers work. These are the things that hold

our lives together and grace is on display.

Grace upon grace was initiated from that very first night in

Bethlehem. God chose ordinary people.

Mary Joseph, a teenage girl, a young man, no accolades, no big

degrees, no experience in parenting.

He chooses them to bring His Son into the world.

Grace was seen when men and women who ordinarily were

overlooked. Anna Simeon, the shepherds to

witness his birth, to witness his dedication.

Grace was in abundance when Jesus at age 30 selected 12

ordinary guys to journey with Him.

And grace was poured out even more when those 1111 of those 12

were entrusted with His truth to spread it around the world.

Grace upon grace, that is what it looks like every single day

that we live and breathe as children of God.

Grace is just poured into our lives.

Favor that we didn't deserve. Favor that I didn't deserve.

He keeps pouring it out. Grace abounds.

And so today, I want to leave three things with you.

Just three things and it's based out of Matthew chapter 6, verse

Matthew 6:33

33. Matthew chapter 6, verse 33.

Matthew 6:33

We know this Sunday school song, it says seek ye first, the

Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these

things will be added to you. It was written at the end of a

chapter where he was writing to those who are worried about what

you will eat, what you will wear, don't run after these

things. The pagans run after it, but

those of you who trust God, seek His Kingdom first.

That's what he was saying. And you might ask me, but what

does that have to do with the Christmas story?

But it has everything to do with the Christian life.

When we come to the end of a year, I love that Christmas is

just placed on this cusp of a new year.

So as we celebrate Jesus, we are bringing him into our lives and

saying, God, look at this, this is my year.

For some of you, it might have been a great year, a year of

fruitfulness, of increase, of blessing, and praise God for

that. For some of you, it may have

been nothing like that. But whatever it is, you take the

remains of your year and you're bringing it to him as an

offering and saying God, this is where I'm at the next year,

2025, I'm scared. I don't know if I have enough in

my bank account. I don't know if I can pay my

kids school fees. I don't know if I can finish

college. I don't know if you'll give me a

job. I don't know if my parents

health is going to get better. I don't know.

But yet I will choose to seek you first and your Kingdom and

your righteousness. That is the position that I want

to bring you to today because it is in this, it is in this

absolute trust that we experience His grace the most.

So what are these three things? I'm going to read Matthew

Matthew 6:33

chapter 6 verse 33 from the message version for us to get

those 3 treasures out for our own lives.

Matthew chapter 6, verses 30 to 34.

Matthew 6:30–34

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers,

most of which are never even seen, don't you think He'll

attend to you? Take pride in you, do His best

for you. What I'm trying to do here is to

get you to relax. Do not be so preoccupied with

getting so you can respond to God's giving.

People who don't know God and the way He works fuss over these

things, but you both know both God and how He works.

Steep your life in God. Reality, God initiative, God

provisions. Don't worry about missing out,

you'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now and

don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.

God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up

when the time comes. I love that he talks.

He says this beautiful thing of saying don't be so preoccupied

with getting so you can respond to God's giving.

Most of us the minute we come into our faith with Jesus, we

realize that in Jesus are all the blessings.

Every spiritual blessing is in Jesus.

And so our prayers are so tailor made to say, God, you said I can

ask for anything. So here I here I go.

I'm asking you for this, asking him for that, which is great.

Please ask God for things. Ask Him for all that is on your

heart. But there's a point which comes

at least in the season of the year when we need to bring come

to God and say, God, you know already all that I need, but I

want to rest and just receive what you give, what you choose

to give me. You know, we have kids.

Then for each birthday, each of them give us a list of the

things they like. And I'm yet to find one of them.

Tell me you get me anything you want, I'll be happy with it.

Never. And none of us are like that

because I feel I need to tell God what I need and I miss out

on receiving what He knows I surely need.

And so I want us to come to this place of resting before we go

any further. If you could take a deep breath

in and a deep breath out and say, Lord, I'm ready to receive

what you're giving. You already know what I need.

So let's leave that on the side. I just want to receive what

you're giving. Grace is one such gift that is

just given you and I didn't deserve salvation.

It was a free gift. All it required was me to say,

Lord, forgive me, I'm a Sinner, come into my life and the rest

is history. Everything was given to me on

this beautiful platter. And that is the picture of

grace. Favour I didn't deserve.

And so with that in mind, when you're just in this attitude of

receiving whatever it is God wants to give you, there are

three things that you need to soak yourself in, immerse

yourself in. The first thing is God reality.

Second thing is God initiative. Third thing is God provision,

God reality. I want to ask you, what is your

reality? We live in a time of virtual

reality, augmented reality, where everything can be shaped

and changed. Made it look so artificial, but

it look real. It'll feel real sometimes.

But here's the thing, our reality only we know.

Have you had a hard year health wise?

That's your reality. Have you been lonely because

your spouse walked out? That's your reality.

Did you go through a job loss or did you have a hard time with

your boss this year? That's your reality.

Jesus is not calling you to deny your reality.

Instead, He's asking you to see it through the lens of heaven.

He's asking you to see through the lens of eternity.

So what does that look like? How do I change my reality to a

God reality? This is how.

It's seeing yourself as somebody who needs to cast their burdens

on someone else. Feeling heavy, you need to cast

your burdens, for he cares for you.

Feeling sorrowful, He's saying He will give you beauty for

ashes. He will give you oil of joy

instead of mourning. Maybe you've been so

disappointed because the things you asked for didn't came,

didn't come, but it's laying your disappointments down and

choosing to hope again. Maybe it's the anger that has

been beneath the surface bubbling up, but it's probably

saying, you know what, God, I'm choosing forgiveness.

I'm choosing to bless my enemies.

Maybe it's the loneliness that was debilitating this year, but

it's saying, you know what? I was lonely.

But God, I thank you that you're Emmanuel.

You are God with me and God in me.

Maybe it's walked. You've walked through sickness.

You're so tired of the medicines, you're so tired of

the hospital visits. You're tired of the different

reports. But it's knowing that by his

wounds you are healed. Maybe not today, maybe not

tomorrow, but soon. God, reality is not denying

where you're at. It's not denying what you're

going through this December 25th.

You are not denying what you are walking through, but instead

you're looking at it to the lens of God Himself and you're

seeing, you know what? In the midst of this, God's

grace was so evident. I can stand testimony to that.

2024 was one of the hardest years yet, but when I look back

I think, Oh my goodness, I wouldn't have made it through if

not for the grace of God which got me up every morning, which

trained me in his word, which trained me to pray, which

trained me to forgive, trained me to release, trained me to

speak up when I needed to. The reality is that his grace is

sufficient. That is a God reality.

It's a reality that who he says he is, he is.

He is faithful to his word. That is God reality, God

initiative. You need to be immersed in God

initiative. The very fact that we are saved

and called children of God was the initiative of God.

I didn't do anything to initiate that.

I didn't initiate salvation at all.

Right from the book of Genesis. Grace is like that invisible

thread through the Bible, through every book.

You look at the book of Esther, there may not may not be much of

A mention of God, but there's this beautiful intertwining of

where God's grace came in to save his people through an

ordinary girl. Every book in the Bible has

grace placed, evidently. And The thing is, we're so often

so stressed from striving. We want to do things for God.

We want to serve people. We want to do good works.

Or maybe maybe you've done so much already, you're burnt out

and you can't do more. Or maybe you've been working

hard at trying to please God and and receive his blessing when in

reality anything you or I ever do, we are just following up on

what God has already done for us.

You need to remember this verse. It says while we were still

sinners, Christ died for us when we were in darkness.

Ignorance had no clue which side was up.

That was when God saved us. We came into that knowledge that

salvation at a later date. And so anything I try to do,

anything I try to give has already been done and given by

God himself. And so the very fact that you

walk in faith is a God initiative.

So, so often we are so hung up like this verse says, you're so

preoccupied with getting. So stop that.

Relax and respond to what God's give.

The very act of being a believer in Jesus, following him where he

says requires that he take the lead.

He takes the initiative you follow.

So many times our mess ups that we make in our lives as

believers is because we run ahead of God and tell Him to

follow us. Lord, let my will be done on

earth as it is in heaven, but God wants us to reframe our

lives. Anything that we do for God,

anything that we want from God will always be a follow up to

what He has already done for us. I've written this huge little,

I've done a huge painting which I leave in my room.

It's on my shelf for me to see every day.

And it says I will joyfully anticipate what God is going to

do because what God has already done for me, and I don't just

mean in my life in terms of my healing or my restoration or my

blessing. No, what He did on that cross

cover is everything I will ever go through in this life.

Nothing in my life that I will go through over the next 40

years, say if I live to about 80, nothing will match up to

what He did for me on that cross.

The initiative God took on my behalf, the source of all grace,

should cover me for the rest of my life.

It's too often we're so caught up in serving Him, doing things

for Him, that it becomes burdensome or awesome.

But it needs to move to a place where I abide and dwell in the

fact that God is with me, Emmanuel.

He is with me. He is in me, He is speaking to

me, He is cherishing me. He loves me deeply.

And out of that love, anything I do for Him becomes easier.

Anything I do for Him is so fulfilling.

It's not burdensome. I do it out of a place of joy.

The third thing that you and I need to immerse ourself in is

God provision. When you look back at this year,

what were some of the things you needed?

Was it finances? Was it love?

Was it compassion, empathy, validation, rest, success,

miracles, science wonders? What was it you needed?

I love that verse. It says God gives such attention

to the wildflowers, most of which I never even seen.

Don't you think He'll attend to you, take pride, and you do His

best for you. We're so desperate for the

validation of people. We're so desperate to be liked

by everyone. We're so desperate to have what

we need in our bank account. We're so desperate to get that

car or that house. While all of these may not be

the worst desires, what if I first look to God for my

provision, God provision? To be steeped in it is to look

to Jesus for everything. And I find that when I look at

all these things we may have needed in the last year, the

source and the answer for all of it is Jesus.

Did I need finance? He's Jehovah Jireh, He's my

provider. He will give me that which I

need according to His riches in Christ Jesus.

Did I need empathy? Did I need compassion?

As high as the heavens are above, so great is His love for

me. Did I need forgiveness?

He says as far as the east is from the West.

So far have I thrown your transgressions, I have forgotten

them. Did you need rest?

He says come to me, all you who are burdened and heavy laden, I

will give you rest. Did you need empathy?

He says he is the counselor of the Spirit of truth.

He will comfort you. Did you need miracles?

He is a miracle worker. Did you need science to be

confirmed so that you could take that step?

He's the one who says I will guide you with my eye.

I will speak in your ear. This is the way I walk in it.

God provision. If you're worried about 2025, I

want to encourage you. He's already in 2025.

He knows what is going to happen.

He knows what's going to unfold and He is the God is going to

provide. You need to steep yourself in

this place of saying everything I ever need will be found in

Jesus. Everything.

Do you need a bit of rest? You've had a hectic season.

He's your shepherd. He will lead you.

Besides still waters. This is who he says he is.

You know, the problem is, you know, why some of us are so

tired at the end of a year, why we're so exhausted and weary is

because we have tried to be all of these things for ourselves.

I want to be the one who increases our finances.

I want to be the one who heals our diseases.

I want to be the one who brings empathy to myself.

And that's where I fail. Because when I'm so aware of God

provision, I'm not looking to be the saviour of the world, but

I'm content to say, Jesus, you're enough.

You will bring healing. You will do the miraculous how

you do it, when you do it where you do it.

I don't, but I will trust you. So no matter we it doesn't

matter at all if you didn't do that. 2024, we have another year

to do it in a different way. It's interesting because so many

times we have lived life on our terms rather than living it on

God's terms. When you look at a tea bag, you

know, and you have a hot glass of water, you dip the tea bag

in, right? The tea bag has to be allowed to

rest in it for maximum, you dip it a bit.

So it's just kind of, you know, in the water.

You don't keep taking it out and putting it in.

Then it's so important in order to get the most essence out of

those leaves in that little, small little bag is to let it

rest, is to let it abide. And so often we are content to

have Jesus in and out of our lives.

The fact is, He is in our lives. He's already in US.

The Spirit of God lives in us. But our awareness of Him, our

need of Him, our ability to recognize Him in a given

situation is so temporary. Because a lot of times I take

him out of the mix. And I'm trying to do all of

these things myself. But in order for us to

experience abounding grace, which is readily available in

Jesus, I need to abide. Let the truth abide, which means

I need to let the truth sit like that tea bag, which needs to sit

there for its full essence to come into the to the water.

I need Jesus to stay in me. I need to allow him to just seep

deeply in me. And that is when when I'm

immersed in Jesus that I have this understanding of God

initiative, God reality. I start to look at things

through his his vision because now he's in me.

I'm soaked in him. God, I see this happening.

You have a plan. It feels unexpected.

It feels like it came out of left feet, that conversation.

But God, I'm trusting you that you know what you're doing.

This God initiative. I feel like I need to do all

this for you, but God, you've already done so much for me.

Help me to do it out of a place of responding to your love

rather than trying to prove something.

When I'm soaking in Him, I start to trust Him for the big and the

small details of my life. Nothing is beyond His purview.

Everything in our lives, everything. 2025 will not shock

him. 2025 is not going to have surprises to him.

He knows all you can do is rest and abide in the truth so that

grace will abound as I conclude. Some of us here are so cynical.

We have to celebrate Christmas with our families because, well,

it's a family affair. You have to decorate your home

because probably you have kids like mine who enjoy decorating

their home. Or maybe you're just someone

who's gets carried away by all the thrilling and the fanciful

side of Christmas, but your heart isn't in it because you're

probably prematurely decided that you know who Jesus is.

And we want to come back to this thought of Jesus, the truth.

Here's our reality. When I look back on 2024, if I

look at 2024 outside of the reality of Jesus, it looks like

a difficult year. But when I put on my Jesus lens,

when I asked the Holy Spirit, show me what this year was

about, it was a powerful year. It was a year of growth.

It was a year of tremendous stretching, tremendous blessing,

tremendous increase in spiritual authority, tremendous changes on

a spiritual realm that I never anticipated participated would

have asked for all those setbacks.

No, I wouldn't have, but it was good.

The problem is that too many of us are deciding to live my

truth. This is the latest thing.

I'm living my truth. You do you, I'll do me.

And using that, we're using that as license and saying I'll do

me, I'll live my truth. We're choosing promiscuity.

We're choosing greed. We're choosing corruption.

We're choosing unfaithfulness, but here's the truth, your truth

and my truth is not the truth. It is fabricated.

It's an augmented reality. It's not the truth.

The truth is Jesus. It is found in the person of

Jesus. It is found in his word.

And when we have that as the scaffolding of our lives, like

in that that video, what undergirds our life, our life is

in a good place. I want to encourage you, if your

truth has been misplaced, today would be a good place to say

Lord Jesus. I want you to come back in as

the sole truth. You cannot decide prematurely on

who Jesus is. You cannot base it on hearsay.

What someone else said about him, you need to taste and see

who he is. Some of us have made-up our mind

about God because, well, you think you've seen it all.

You've seen everything and you know what?

This is evidence. There's no God because you know

good God won't allow this. Well, you don't know the half of

it because most of the things that happen in our lives is in

the unseen realm and faith is trusting in the unseen realm.

Some of us have made our lives about us.

We made it all about us. Every dot that's joined was

about us. The truth is, even our history

is his story. It's not about us.

I want to ask you today, what have you been abiding in?

Has the truth abided in you? Has it soaked into you?

2024 Was it a year when Jesus had soaked so thoroughly through

you that when something was happening, all that came out was

blessing, not cursing? All that came out of you was

joy, not sorrow? I can honestly say that I messed

up many times. But we're a work in progress,

and that is where grace comes in.

When the truth undergirds our life, race abounds.

My grandma. When I was growing up, one of

her favorite gifts for people was lace handkerchiefs.

And I I looked for one and I unfortunately didn't find any of

the handkerchiefs she had made for me before she passed away.

But I remember she even knitted for my daughter.

You know, dresses made of cotton and lace.

So when you say lace handkerchiefs, you assume the

entire thing is lace, but it isn't.

The centre, you know, the square or the rectangle is made of

cotton and the softest cotton, but the edges are laced with

this beautiful Italian lace that she would stitch on.

And as I was thinking about it, this was the image that I

thought of and I want to leave it with you.

Jesus, when He is the truth that holds your life together, He is

like that beautiful cotton fabric holds your life together.

Remember that the Bible says that the truth will set you

free, that the Spirit of truth will lead you into all truth,

right? The truth is what holds our

lives together. Jesus is the one who holds our

life together, not you or me. It's not our smartness, our

brilliance that is holding our lives together.

It's Jesus. But the beautiful thing is,

grace is like that lace that surrounds that beautiful,

beautiful piece of cloth. Grace holds everything in place.

Grace is what displays God's beauty to a watching world.

When people look at you at the end of this year, they're going

to go, whoa, how did you walk through that?

How did you come out of that fire without smelling burnt?

Well, that was God's grace. It's as beautiful as the lace

lining on a handkerchief because that is what grace is.

Grace is the evidence of a living God.

Grace upon grace, Grace and truth together.

That is what Jesus is to us as we pray.

As we pray, I want you to come back to this place of examining

what truth you have been living by and have you truly been

abounding in grace because grace is is very present.

It's not something you have to ask for because he already gives

it to you. But here's the thing, Do I live

with God initiative, God reality, God provision?

That is the question we need to ask ourselves.

Let's pray. Father, I just thank you for

this time. I thank you for what you are

doing. I thank you for how much you

love us. I thank you for sending your Son

Jesus and God, even today. We just come before you asking

that you will show us if there's any false truth in our lives, if

we have been founding our life on a on a fake truth that you

would reveal it to us. God, I pray that each of us Lord

will be so soaked in God provision, God reality, God

initiated that Lord, we will stop making it about ourselves.

We will stop insisting on getting but just relax and and

just receive what you want to give us.

God, I pray for those whose reality has been so harsh they

have no other view. I pray for a fresh perspective,

fresh vision. Spirit of God, open blind eyes,

open blocked tears of God, I pray that Stony hearts would

break today and that you would give us hearts of flesh that

imbibe your truth that live by your truth.

Father, I pray for anyone who has been living a life that is a

shadow of the real self. If they've been living in the

darkness, I pray that Jesus, light of the world, you would

bring them into the light and that they would receive a fresh

breath of life in them. Watch over us, bless us, give us

an amazing time. Lord of rest.

Father, I pray, no matter what our situation looks like, I pray

that we will have the experience of Emmanuel, God with us.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen, Amen.

God bless you and a very Merry Christmas to you.

Thanks for listening to this message.

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