How Christ’s Birth Gave You Power to Transform Your Life | Tony Evans Sermon

Dr. Tony Evans explores the significance of Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ. Join him as he emphasizes the importance of surrendering to Jesus, allowing Him to govern our lives, and to consider the true meaning of Christmas that encourages a personal relationship with Jesus.

If you would like to download two encouraging, FREE full-length MP3s of Tony’s popular sermons: “The Sovereignty of God” and “How to Handle a Crisis,” you can do so by clicking on this link

Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.

So the question on the floor is, what are you going to do with Jesus Christ? Christmas?
The child was born. That’s history. The son was given because that came eternity.
And through the virgin birth, god became a man. Because he’s god, he can meet you as god.
Because he’s a man. He knows exactly how you feel and what you’re going the struggle, the stress.
He became a man so that he can experience it, but as god, he can join you in it.
Merry, merry Christmas to you all.
We celebrate the reason for the season, which is Jesus Christ. God become a man.
The incarnation in order to bring about salvation, the forgiveness of sin, and hope in spite of the circumstances that we find ourselves in.
When Jesus was born, things weren’t all well in the world, but yet the angels still broke out of praise because in the middle of the madness, a savior has arrived.
And that means in the middle of your conflicts, and crises, there is a savior that has arrived.
I know that Christmas can be a difficult time of loss, a a difficult time of of conflict, a difficult time of loneliness for many, but this Christmas Jesus wants to meet you where you are and show you there is a reason for your season and him being in the midst of it.
So may god empower and comfort you this holiday season?
Merry Christmas, And remember, the baby born in a manger is the king who rules for you today.
In the movie concussion where Will Smith was dealing with the issue of injuries to players.
There’s a riveting statement that’s made.
And the statement was that football had replaced a day that used to belong to the church, that it had become the dominant focus of Sunday.
This ball How could something this small matter so much?
I mean, It’s responsible for $17,000,000,000 a year of revenue to the NFL.
32 teams whose worth is over $75,000,000,000.
Worship centers called stadiums are packed to the brim every week with home viewers watching it virtually, some 400,000,000 people inside and outside of the United States focus on this.
How could something so small, how could it matter so much?
I mean, Just think about it.
Men fight over it. They cry over it.
They’re willing to risk their health over it.
They spend decades developing the skill in handling it.
I mean, each football game That’s about 17 minutes of contact, 17 minutes of where bodies are actually clashing against each other.
That’s part of a 1 hour game.
But that 1 hour game is a 3 hour experience.
So you sit for 3 hours to watch 1 hour because you’re gonna just watch 70 minutes.
Well, now if you go to the game, that’s couple more hours by the time you drive traffic, get out, walk, or 5 hours where you’re sitting 3 hours because you wanna watch 1 hour.
Because you’re only gonna see 17 minutes worth of action.
Then you gotta drive home, so you gotta leave the stadium, deal with the crowd, get to the parking lot, who worked with the the traffic.
You get home. So now 7 hours of which you set 3 hours to watch 1 hour because you only go see 17 minutes.
I mean, people tithe to get into their service.
And they don’t mind picking up the tab because they’ve decided that this is worth the inconvenience.
So I ask you again, How can something so small matter so much?
We are celebrating Christmas.
We’re celebrating the birth of a person, not much bigger than this, And I ask you, how can something so small matter so much?
I mean, He never wrote a song, yet more songs are sung about him than any other person who has ever lived.
He never personally penned the book yet His book has been the bestseller since its inception.
He never traveled more than 300 miles from the place of his birth and yet.
As hardly anywhere on earth, you can go where they don’t know his name.
Let’s see what Isaiah says. About this baby born to wool.
He says in either there chapter 9 verse 6, for a child will be born to us.
And a son will be given.
And the government will rest on his shoulders.
And his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty god, eternal father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace.
On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forever, the zeal of the lord of hosts will accomplish this.
He says, a child will be born and a son will be given.
Don’t read that too fast, so you’ll miss it.
The child was born, but the son was given because the son existed before the child was born.
The sun was handed. The child was birthed.
The big word for that in Christian theology is the hypostatic union.
2 natures in one person unmixed forever.
Daddy being poured into humanity, the one of a kind son of god, And he says, and he’s here to run a government and to inaugurate a kingdom, this baby was born to rule.
It says that the government will be on his shoulders Jesus has been smothered by the secularization of the holiday.
He’s been smothered by agnog. He’s been smothered by gifts. He’s been smothered by trees. It’s been smothered by lights.
And he’s also been demonized as some segments about society doesn’t want the nativity scenes.
They don’t even want Christ in Christmas.
I just wanna get off of work for a holiday.
Ah, but Isaiah says that there would be a son that would be handed over, and it would come through a child that would be born.
We call that the virgin birth.
God entering into the egg of a woman producing the god man, Jesus Christ.
And it says his government will be governed because he will handle it on his shoulders.
In other words, this ruler this baby who is sent to rule will handle anything that’s on his shoulders.
So if you want your world ruled well, you better be on the shoulders that he’s carrying.
Because that’s the kind of king he is.
And so over and over, he stands in these verses, that this child born and son given is about government, and government is about rule.
That’s why he says it’s a kingdom issue. His kingdom shall never end.
So let me ask you a question today, this Christmas Christmas where I’m sure you’ll get your full of football and you’ll see how this one thing can matter so much.
What about This one who was born to rule.
When Jesus Christ governs, Isaiah says, this is what you’ll get.
The first thing he says is that his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, chief adviser, In other words, you don’t have to live a confused life.
Because he’s not a counselor, he’s the best at it.
He’s a wonderful counselor, means he makes no mistakes in his advice.
You can bank on what he says to be true on anything he says because he cannot be incorrect on any matter.
As colossians chapter 2 verse 3 says, all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge are located in Jesus Christ.
So if you allow him to be your ruler, your government, and your king, and you rest on his governmental shoulders, then the confusion of your life can be now ordered The problem with human counseling is that it is limited by flawed people who give it.
And even the best and the most well meaning cannot dive into the inner circle of all of your being but I know somebody who if you allow his government to put you on his shoulders, can erase the confusion of your life bring clarity to your existence He can take the lack of clarity, the bad decisions, the frustrated history, reoriented, reorganize it so that it makes sense, because he’s a mighty counselor.
Awesome counselor. He says his name will also be called mighty god.
Remember, this baby is deity in diapers.
He’s a king in a crib.
He is mighty god, Emmanuel, god with us.
I said it last time. Let me say it again. He’s the god man.
One minute he can get hungry the next minute he can feed 1000 with a moby dick sandwich.
One minute he can get thirsty because he’s here when the next minute he can walk on water because he’s divine.
One minute he’s tired and he has to sleep The next minute he can raise somebody else from the dead.
One minute because he’s a man, he can die.
The next minute 3 days later, he can get up.
Because he’s mighty god. Now let’s collect that with wonderful counselor.
When you go to a good counselor who gives you good advice, they typically don’t have the ability to pull off what they’ve advised you to do.
But this mighty god can assist with the counsel he gives.
So he doesn’t just give Wonderful counseling.
He’s the mighty god that can enable the counseling to have the effect is designed to have that is if you’re situated on his shoulders.
If he’s your government.
Because, uh, after all, he was born rule You know, the wonderful thing about this mighty god, he can overrule what is overruling you.
Satan has been overruling you.
Circumstances have been overruling you people, have been over we’ve overruling you problems, have been overruling you but this is mighty god, and he can overrule the overrulers.
So the beautiful thing about having Jesus who is born to rule, ruling you as he can overrule the things that you don’t want ruling you anymore.
That addiction, that problem, that person, that circumstance that need that is dictating your existence.
I can something so small, Pete, this big Uh, because he’s mighty god.
But not only that, he goes on the same His name will be called eternal father.
In other words, the originator of time. He’s the father of time.
Book of Hebrews chapter 1, says, did Jesus originated time? He’s the author of history.
In the beginning was the word John 11 says Jesus is the word.
So he brought about the beginning.
So if you bring about the beginning, you existed before it began.
He is the father of time, which means If you’re in charge of time, you’re not complex because if you own time, and you manage history, then the complexity of our time and our history does not belong to him, so you better be letting him rule since he’s got time in his hands.
He’s the originator, sustainer, and will be the culmination of time.
What about if he was ruling the time in your hand?
Our time is limited. Our time is finite, and our time is uncertain.
But this one was born rule.
See, he is the manager owner originator of time.
So that means somebody else’s clock doesn’t have to control your clock.
Somebody else’s existence doesn’t have to control your existence because he is in charge of time.
He is the father of it.
So there’s there’s no complexity with him, but not only that, He goes on to say, he’s the prince of peace.
3 hours every Sunday, there’s a conflict, isn’t it?
Teams were at war with 1 another.
They are fighting But he’s called the prince of peace.
In other words, he knows how to bring order out of a chaotic situation.
Today, we are living in chaos.
We have personal chaos where people can’t live with themselves.
And if you can’t live with you, anybody around you is in trouble, we’ve got family chaos, don’t we?
Conflict, brutality, child abuse, divorce, abandonment.
We’ve got ecclesiastical conflict.
Where even Christians are at each other’s throats were divided illegitimately over class or race.
Then we have cultural conflict. Oh, and that’s everywhere.
Political conflict, social conflict, group against group, nation against nation, communities against communities, is conflict.
You know what? It’s conflict because we’re not on his shoulders.
He’s carrying it on his shoulders.
And if you don’t wanna be on his shoulders, then you can expect to be living in conflict.
Starting with conflict with you. Have you ever seen her?
An orchestra before they begin and they’re warming up their instruments, They’re warming up the instruments, and all you hear is discord because everybody’s warming up their own instrument.
So you had discord all over the place. It’s discord all over the place. Nothing is making sense.
They’re not harmonized. They’re not getting along. Because they are doing their own thing.
And then in the midst of all of that, The conductor comes out with the 1 and all of a sudden, things become orderly.
Harmony is now replacing discontinuity and discord because now the conductor has come out And when he shows up, he changes the atmosphere.
And now things that weren’t binding and blending are now being harmonized because they’re focused on the central authority because the conductor is gonna rule the orchestra.
Jesus said in John 16 33 in this world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
I have overcome the world, and I leave my peace with you.
Peace is not the fact that there are no conflicts peace is god showing up in the midst of the conflict and calming the storms of your life.
Because How can something this small be this big?
Because he is the wonderful counselor, mighty god, everlasting father, and he is the prince of peace.
And if one day he’s gonna govern the whole world. Don’t you think he can govern your world?
If one day he’s gonna rule the whole world, don’t you think he can rule you?
The Bible says when he physically returns the earth from coast to coast, kiver to kiver, pillar to pillar, post to post, He is going to run the whole show, and there will be no choices.
He’s offering that to you and me and us now because he was born the rule He is the unifier, the emulsifier.
Emulsification is that process of bringing things together that typically can’t get along like oil and water.
Whenever I eat my sandwiches, they will always be with mayonnaise. I’m not a mustard guy. I’m a mayonnaise guy.
But mayonnaise is made of substance that really doesn’t get along, or there’s a lot of oil and watery mayonnaise, and no matter how much you try to force them to be harmonized, they’re just not gonna get along.
They’re gonna go back to their own corners. That is until you introduce egg.
Because once you introduce egg, egg grabs water, egg grabs oil and pulls the 2 together so I can get my mayonnaise.
Jesus Christ is the emulsifier for the conflicts in our world, in our families, and in your life.
And if you let him rule If you let him be the government on whose shoulders you sit, he can be the one to bring things together in you and for you that you have not been able to fix on your own, but he’s got to be the ruler.
He’s not just the person you show up to.
He’s the person who wants to set the agenda.
So the question on the floor is, what are you going to do with Jesus Christ Christmas?
The child was born. That’s history. The son was given because that came from eternity.
And through the virgin birth god became a man. Because he’s god, he can meet you as god.
Because he’s a man, he knows exactly how you feel and what you’re going through.
God became a man so that he could know the pain.
Without sin, yes, but not without circumstances.
And he became a man so that he can experience it.
But as god, he can join you in it, but he wants the rule.
So where do we start?
We start with a personal relationship.
He can’t rule you if he doesn’t have you.
You must enter the kingdom before you can be ruled by the king.
And that comes by placing personal faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and the free gift of eternal life, a gift he offers to anyone who comes to him and bleeds in him for it.
You can’t earn it. You can’t buy it. But he is giving salvation away.
The Bible declares all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god.
Everybody hadn’t sinned to the same degree, but everybody is a sinner.
You know, this this ball, you can be 1 inch from the 1st down marker or 10 yards from the 1st down marker.
But if you didn’t hit the marker, you fell short.
And if it’s 4th down, you have to turn the ball over.
You may not be as bad as your neighbor, but you fall short because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god.
We have not met god’s standard, and that’s why god demands all men everywhere to come to Christ.
Not come to church. You could be born in the church.
Your mother and father could raise you in the church.
They could bring your meals and feed you in the church. They could bring a cat.
You can go sleep in the church. They can bring you to your desk and work out of the church.
But if you’ve never given your life to Jesus Christ, you’ll die in the church and not wake up in heaven.
This comes to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, not religion, a personal relationship.
It is where you say to god, I recognize I’m a sinner. I know I need a savior.
I believe you doubt on the cross for me in my place as my substitute and I am now trusting you with my eternal destiny as my personal sin bearer.
When you go in faith, believing god Christ to be your savior, he forgives your sins and begins the journey of a new life where then he can begin to rule.
So first of all, you have to enter the kingdom so he can be the king.
Once you enter the kingdom, you must surrender to the king. You must say, what is your desires?
What is your goal? What is your way? What is your guidance governance guidelines? I wanna follow you.
That’s called discipleship. Discipleship. That’s where you leave the stands and get on the field.
Because one of the problems today is we’ve got folks who’ve come into the stadium.
Oh, they’re they’re blowing to god, but they don’t wanna be ruled by him.
They wanna be fans, not followers.
But if you want order in your life, counsel for your direction, almighty god to empower and assist you and peace in the conflicts of your existence.
This baby was born to rule. To save you from for heaven and to rule you on earth.
Christmas should not be just a holiday.
It should be where you are being reminded, Jesus came to rule your life and to be the government of your existence.
First by saving you and then by getting you to follow him.