This message reveals the New Covenant reality that the anointing is not a special experience or office, but Christ in you, the indwelling Spirit given in full measure to every believer. Church offices exist to serve, not to exercise lordship, and spiritual gifts are diverse expressions of the same Spirit working in all, not evidence of different anointings. When we rest in Christ and commit to loving God and people, fruit is borne naturally through abiding, not striving.

When James and John sought authority and position, Jesus rebuked them and redefined greatness, declaring that His kingdom does not operate through lording power but through self-giving love and service. In Christ, authority is not a hierarchy to climb but a life to give, flowing from union with Him and expressed by loving one another rather than ruling over one another.

Clint Byars

Lead Pastor | Forward Church

Phone: 770-824-3434

Email: [email protected] | [email protected]

Websites: www.forward.church | www.clintbyars.com

Membership: https://www.clintbyars.com/membership

God makes His presence and voice known in an atmosphere of love. Jesus defines His commandments not as rules to perform, but as living in the love the Father has for us and letting that love flow back to God and toward others. As we receive God’s love, abide in it, and love one another, we experience His manifested presence, His joy, and clear fellowship with Him.

Jesus never taught us to relate to the Holy Spirit as distant or unpredictable. In this message, we look at how the Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus and makes it known to us—so we can walk with God relationally, in truth, peace, and confidence as friends of God.

Jesus doesn’t think of us as His servants, He considers us His friends. He then goes on to say that he has shared everything with us that Hid Father told Him. When you take time to persuade your heart of these powerful realities it changes how you make decisions. You are secure in Him, but there’s work to do.

Jesus took it very seriously when religious people who were supposed to represent Him made following God hard for people. He rebuked them for their hypocrisy and set the precedent that we are not to merely look good on the outside, but we are to walk with inward integrity, and help others lift their burdens, not make it difficult to experience God’s mercy. In this message, we do a deep dive into the heart of Jesus and how we are to minister to others.

As we enter 2026, we are invited to stop striving for life through effort or information and instead come to Christ for the refreshing that is already ours in salvation. Jesus calls the weary to take His easy yoke, to sow to the Spirit rather than the flesh, and to trust that righteousness, rest, and fruitfulness flow naturally from abiding in Him. When we allow Christ to refresh our souls, we become free to sow spiritual seed and experience the life of the Kingdom to the glory of God.

This Christmas, we celebrate that the child born in Bethlehem is the King whose kingdom will never end and whose light has already dawned in the world. Jesus declared that this kingdom is here and at work within us, growing quietly like leaven as it fills our hearts. As we live in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, we allow His kingdom to spread through our lives and into the world around us.

The Most High God with Us - Clint Byars by Forward Church Sermons

This Christmas, we fix our eyes on the Word made flesh-Light with no darkness. Love revealed, the Anointed Savior, the unchanging Father of lights, and the Preeminent One through whom and for whom all things were made. Our joy is made full not by examining ourselves but by the looking unto Him.