The Gift Pt 2.

You know, growing up. My dad always said I'm a peak, so biased and somewhat pastor's kid. And I learned that you had to be careful what you pray for. In this instance, we have to be careful what we worship, right, or what we sing. Because when we say take control, oh, you're here right now, we begin to believe that we know that God is here and He's abiding with us. And when we say Spirit freak out, you can't stop it. Right? So you have to kind of make that adjustment, that course correction. That's when you lay down your agenda, your ways. Because his ways are greater than my ways. Right? His thoughts are not my thoughts. Right.

So, Heavenly Father, you have your way today. Take control. We know that you are here already. If fathers are present, the lesson today. Allow me to say nothing more and nothing less. Father, you. You say what you want to say. I prayed that I would decrease as your Holy Spirit increase. God, I believe right now that the. The atmosphere is ready for a breakthrough. But, God, there's something that we have to do in a breakthrough that we have to participate with. What you're doing as a father by any means necessary, have your way not only in this place, but in our lives. And, Father, we would give you the glory and the honor.

It's in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We say Amen. Amen. And make it hard for a pass, I tell you. Let's give our worship team a round of applause. And let's give a running pass for our. Our elders and our deacons. They got something coming. Thank you. Our elders, our deacons, our staff. Just our leadership. And more importantly, our members of our church. You know, as Krista was saying, that the past couple of years of just pastoring our church for me has been a privilege. It's been an honor, but it's been quite the journey. But I'll say this. I'll do it 100 times over to be where we're at today, to impact the lives that we've been able to impact in being able to do life with so many different people.

I would take the same journey all over again. And so from my heart and Felicia's and our family, we thank you guys. We thank everyone for just partnering with the ministry and because you guys are a huge part of our why I'm so excited of what, um, what God has next. Hey, man. All right, someone make my list really short. My brain is racing. I'm trying to figure out where I want to go and what I want to say, what I don't need to say. I'll say this. This is the season where we celebrate our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, right? In all of the times, you know, I'm reminded of, um, like, birthday parties, right? You know, those one year old and two year old birthday parties, you know, it's really not a party for the kids.

Is typically a party for the adults. Right. It's a reason for adults to get together and gather for the sake in the name of their kids. Now I'm gonna put somebody on blast. It's a dear friend of mine. I love him to death. And, boy, there's a picture of Kingston. Yeah. I won't have you. It's going to be up on the screen, and he's all Rambo out. This is. You have full tactical gear. Tactical gear. He has a Nerf gun. This deal was, didn't it? I love this picture, but this next picture is the reason why they did the party is because these two jokers. Right? This are they and Josh, they're over there squatting. I think there was aiming at Lindsay or something like that.

There was they had a like an army get army. Um whatever was gum celebration party for for Kingston Josh his son is so, um, I think they adults have more fun than the kids even though Kingston had the bigger gun. But they were out. He was outmanned. But what I see is this is often times when we celebrate birthday parties, it's not about the individual. It's all about us. And so as we go into this season of the holiday, I just wanna remind you today, it is not about us, but it's about him. And it's not about us. It's about him. So just in case you missed what I'm saying, I want you to look at your neighbor and tell your neighbors and neighbor it's not about you.

Okay, just in case the neighbor gave you a little bit added, See, I want you turn to the other neighbor, to the other side and tell the other neighbors, a neighbor and boy, I don't know if they like you, but you're going to be sit with them for the next 20 minutes. I hope you like your neighbor, man.

God bless him. So we're starting and we're kicking off this new series in the series is called The Gift. Right. The Gift and Jesus God, the father is all about giving gifts to his children. I read a script early, James, chapter one, verse 17, to say that the giver of all good and perfect gift, Psalm 37, verse four and five, says, Take delight in the Lord, and He would give you the desires of your heart. Ephesians 320 tells us that he's able to do exceedingly, abundantly all that you can ask. He's able to give. And then, of course, I left this because we need mercies new every single morning. And I believe this the gift is never given without the intent of it not being used right. A gift is never given without the intent of that gift being used. Parish, I know what I'm talking about. You guys wrap all these gifts for our children, special birthday parties, right? And they start playing with the gifts and pick up a balloon and hit it for 30 minutes. An hour and a half. Right. Like I spent all day long, I remember putting a baby doll house for Kindle. Like when she was a little kid. I spent maybe two and a half, 3 hours putting a doll house together. That thing collected dust in her room. I'm like, Girl, you better pick up that toy and play with that thing. You know how long it took me to put that thing together? We give gifts with the hope and the anticipation that it would be used.

And so we're going to go to a scripture. I will let you make you stand up. But we've been standing long enough, so we just stay seated. We know the scripture. So it's one of the most famous scriptures all known to man John 316 For God, so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have ever lasting life. That God loved the world so much, that He gave His only begotten Son, that he may, that we may have everlasting life. And so the Apostle John is right into two groups. He's writing to the Jews and one hand the also writing to the Gentiles. And what he's trying to to convey in his message in the Book of John is that he wants you to understand and believe in Jesus Christ.

That's all he's trying to convey. He does it in such a way, because we go back to John chapter one. John Chapter one says that in the beginning was the word. The word was God, the word was with God, and he was God in the beginning. That's a lot of into beginnings, right? So what John was saying is that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. The word was God like at the very, very beginning of time. So if you were to read John chapter one and go back to Genesis Chapter one, what would you read in the beginning? So John wanted you to know, one, understand that from the very beginning that God was already had a plan for redemption, for His Word and for you, and how to get back in the right relationship with him.

Verse 14 of John Chapter one says this that the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Let me just stop right there. The word the logos, the word of God, the God's word as this breathe this in air right here became flesh. And he dwelt among you. And now that means he ate chicken. Come on, now. Yeah. Remember, baby Jesus, we talked about baby Jesus. We're talking about chicken nugget. Eaten baby Jesus. Right. Come on. In church with barbecue sauce, we can dip it if you want. Sweet and sour. Bless your heart. Okay? It's okay. It's all about the barbecue sauce. Yeah, but Jesus dwelt among us. He walked into did life with you. Come on, Jesus. Our Lord and Savior. So today, the title of my short message is God's greatest gift. John 316 I remember Tim Tebow. Dave I'm sorry about bringing this up. Tim Tebow back in 2007, 2009, he played for the University of Florida. He was a junior T.A., Tim Tebow. Yes, sir. Mm. Okay. Church. Tim Tebow getting ready for, like, the national championships. He's walking in a field and, you know, the teammates putting the eye black up under their eyes, which is a little black mark up under I and, you know, so many teammates have their and their moms names on their eyes. Sometimes they have their their zip codes or addresses, you know, like area codes to kind of represent who they are.

And Tim's like, what I want to do, you know, I don't want to just put my mom's name. I love my mom to death, but that's, that's not what I want to do. Tim is like, I want to do something that would be impactful, something that will help change people's lives. Better yet, I want to do something inspirational. So Tim decided, you know, let me just put God bless under my eyes, like, not us. I want something a little bit more. So during his game, he put Philippians 413. I can do all the things through Christ. So as an athlete, that's that's pretty stellar, right? That we can do all the things through Christ. And so Tim Tebow gets on the field with the with the Gators and then, you know, they're playing and they're playing and guess what?

They win. They win this game. And so Tim goes out for the entire season that he has Philippians 413 up on his eyes and so it caught fire. The news mark is beginning to look at it into the book stores are selling the eye blacks with the stickers on it then made this whole big thing about Philippians 413. Not many of them knew what it was, but it's okay. Next thing you know, they made it to the national championship. So Tim's like, you know, Dad, mom, like, you know what I mean? I'm having this feeling that I'm gonna change Philippians 413 is something different. I just don't know what it is. And his pair says, You better tell the coach, because, you know, being superstitious, they think mean that this Philippians 413 got them through the entire series and that's not the case.

So Tim Tebow begins to meet with his coach and he knocks on a door meet with coach Meyer, who's the head coach of the the Florida Gators. And he said, Coach, guess what? I'm believing that God has given me the impression that I need to change this scripture and coach like, no, no, no, no. This, this has got us the entire chapters. This has got us this far. Sounds like Noah's now, but, you know, okay, if you believe that that's that's not the case. But Tim leaned in and said, Coach, this is something I really, really want to do. So coaches that okay, says Tim Tebow takes the field for the national championship game. He places John 316 under his eyes.

Tim Tebow national championship game in 2007 2009. They ended up winning that game that day. So they're having dinner. He's having dinner with his mom and his dad and the coach in there talking. And then the coach, Myers, which is the head coach, his phone rings, picks it up and oh, hey, Tim, here's. Uh huh uh huh. Okay, yeah. Okay. Awesome. Great. You don't say. Okay, thank you. Click. He hangs up. So they're talking in Tim's like, what just happened? That was the PR rep for the Gators. Gave them the stats and someone told him that during the game. John 316 was the number one Google no name. Well look up researching for 94 million people logged on during a football game.

94 million people Google. John 316 that's the gospel right there. But to basemen like who doesn't know what John 316 means, right? You know, I see bums out on the side of the street holding up signs. I'm hungry. John 316 Right. Bless them. God provide for may man but even they put John 316 on there. But the point is this the greatest gift ever is John 316 So in short, today I want to kind of highlight three quick points about John 316 for God, so loved the world. He gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. My first point is this guy gave his love. I may not be big for you, but it's big for me to know that God gave us His love, that he loves us right, that God loves you and not because love is connected to value.

Love is directly connected to what you value. So when you love something, you value it. You you wash your car. Those who, you know, washing the cars every week and got the armor all on it because you value your car for those sneakerheads out there, you guys put your shoes into those little plastic boxes and put them all the way, you know, because you value shoes, ladies. You mean same way to him coming for you as well. You value shoes, you lock up your jewelry. Let me put it like this. Show me your bank account and I'll tell you what you value. Right. Show me your bank account and let me run down by line, item by line. M I would tell you what you value the most because where you spend your money is an indicator.Speaker 2

Every person needs or every person is created to be love because every person needs to be valued. God created you and because he value us, he valued you. And oftentimes we're willing to compromise because we fail to realize the value in your life. You're willing to compromise certain things, certain individuals. Let me say this to ladies. Don't don't compromise for a joker who don't care about you. Right. Don't compromise your cookies. Keep your cookies in a cookie jar. Fill is to work both ways. Equal opportunity. Right to know what your value is. Don't compromise it. God loved us so much. He sent his only son to redeem us because he valued you. He created you the created. He was an artist in the Christian culture. He's a hip hop artist in a Christian culture.

And Lecrae was doing a, um, a conference one day. He was telling this, this the story about when he was in L.A. One time he wanted to go down to Beverly Hills and kind of buy some clothes because he felt what he says. Beverly Hills. That's a word he used, not mine. So he goes into this department store to buy a t shirt. So Lecrae goes into this department store to buy a t shirt. He's looking on the racks. So he goes from one rack to another rack. And so he's like, I don't like this one. Let me go for this one. He takes it off the rack and he looks at the price tag, and a price tag says $640. So like crazed looking at this this t shirt, like $640, like what's what's what's up with this T-shirt?

So he goes to another rack and he just he realized the rack that he was shopping in was the clearance rack. So he he's he's like, take him back a little bit. So Lecrae asks for the sales attendant, like, can you tell me what's what's going on with this t shirt? Why is this t shirt? $640? He said, you know what it's worth a Hanes beefy t you know, can I get a heavyweight something? But no, it's just a plain o t shirt. You know, you go to Walmart, get the t shirt for $15, you days like crazy. Like what is it made out of? Is it Egyptian? Kind of like no. Look, cotton, polyester or you some other stuff. He said, well, the saleslady said, Well, the reason why is $640, because it has a designer's name on it.

He said the designer name makes it valuable. So the name that you carry makes you valuable. So if you missed that because you are a believer in Christ, you are valuable. Guess what? You're priceless. I need you to know that. That you are priceless. That. Do you truly know that God. The Father who created the heavens and the earth values you. Let me put it like this. Your perception of the father would determine his presence in your life. Mm. The perception of God. The Father would determine his presence in your life. Let me expound on that just a little bit for you. Who you perceive, who God is, would determine how much you value, who God is. See, my kids growing up, these like they they just come to dad because they know daddy pay all the bills and is going to give them all the money. At one point my kids are only knew me as God. I mean, excuse me, my dad, the provider. They had to learn that Daddy was just not a provider, that he loved him.

The also that I was their protector. I was their counselor, God, the father. And who you see in him would determine your perception of him, would determine his presence in your life. So if you knew Jehovah Jara, Jehovah Nishi, Jehovah El-Amin, Jehovah, Rafa, how you look at God would determine his presence in your life. Second point God gave with purpose in mind. God gave His only begotten Son with a clear purpose in mind. Why is it? Romans 323 says this for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God for all have seen. Is it just this one section here or just this section here? Know everyone in here have sinned and fallen short as they 1592 says this. But your iniquities have separated you from your God. Big, your iniquities, your sin have separated you from God.

The Father put it to you like this. Growing up in New York, um, there's often this, like these two story houses in upstate New York, right? So we lived in a two story house growing up and my brother and my, of course, my, from my twin brother back in the back, we always played downstairs. My mom was always upstairs. And oftentimes my mom would hear us fussing and arguing and fighting. Right. And so she would tell us just after y'all quit fighting, quit arguing, she's yelling from upstairs, downstairs to tell us what to do. And so my mom were always often saying, don't make me come downstairs in low key. I always want to say, do it. But I do.

My mama and I like breathing. Hey, man, come on now. We old school. I've never said that to, but I knew what she was saying. That if she will come downstairs, there going to be some trouble, in other words. All right, Holly is out in here. She said she going get that switch. In other words, what my mother was saying, if I come downstairs, I'ma restore order back where there's chaos.

Oh, I'm going to put things back in order. Put things back in place. Put things back where I designed them to be. So let me give you a little illustration. I'm going to call a jay on stage for a quick so they don't know if I'll call J. Counterpart. Better get ready. I got to call Jacob J Rock and his yo yo. See how good looking is? Do this man there. That's why I called J a friend. But you so j just to give this illustration, I'm a you're you're going to be Adam, okay? And so this, um, I'm playing guys who ga takes the does dirt of the earth and I create man I fashion men and everything. And so what my goal was to go back and read Genesis.

What I want you to do is come out here, son, look at this, all of this that you have out here I created, and I'm gonna give you power over it. But you got to do some work. You have to name all the animals and all of the birds and the fish. And here, you know, you just name whatever you want to name them. And this, that's what we'll work with for eternity. And so I know that you may need some help, so I'm gonna take a rib from your side and create this nice Indian lady named Pinky. I mean, Eve, come on up with Eve. You won't bring your blanket, boy. I tell you, I'm gonna hear about this later. So your goal is that you guys, everything that you have up here is yours.

Except for this one tree over here you can't touch. So even the way that she is already, if she decides to take that thing and eat it and give it to the other guy over here, Adam and guess what happens? They fail God to work with them, take them out of the garden. So I need you guys to step down here. After they feel they procreate it and multiply. That's what scripture says, right? So they got busy and have some babies. So what? I need you guys to go do what? I need you guys to go do. Go adopt some children out there. Just bring a couple forward. Just. Just bring some. Come on, lady. Book. Come on, Nexus. Who's back in the back?

All right, we got another one. There you go. I love it. All right. So I want you guys to understand this. When Adam and Eve fell, they knew what it was look like to be in the garden with. With God right there. Kids don't they don't have any recollection what it looks like up here. Right. The only thing that they know is what it looks like down here. Do you see that? And because we are derived from Adam, right? That's what the scripture says, that we have been the we are derivatives of Adam every generation after this. Don't know what that looks like. The only thing that they know is everything down here. Because remember, the gift that we have in John 316 that God gave with a purpose. And so what what do we have to do? Because they don't know what it looks like. They don't know what it feels like. They can't even operate in this realm right here. The only thing that they know how to operate in this realm down here. Let me put it in English. Down on earth. Okay. This is what they know.

But watch this. If we were born in sin, born in iniquity, a state in sin, how our mother conceived us, everything that we know with goes from that point forward. So Adam knows that there's something missing. He knows that there's something. Something more. Even us, as we gather today, as we gather week after week, we know that there's more that God was more for us. But how do we begin to tap into that more? How do we begin to walk into that more? Because now we have over 4000 years of living down here. Watch this. God realizes that there's a problem because redemption takes place, because he loves us and he values us. He wants to redeem us from down there to back here.

How does he do that? He can't have relationship with Adam and Eve in the Offspring because they are sinful and we serve a perfect God. So if a perfect God is here and sin is down there, there has to be an agent to help them get back up here. Yeah. So, John 316 tells us what so God, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, right? He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believe in him should not pears, but have everlasting life. He wants to redeem them from down here, to have a relationship with us, with him up in heaven. So what does he do? He craft his only begotten son. And I only have one son. I only have one son. I only personally have one son.

Come on, son. You might even get like looking son, son, we have a problem. We have a generation of people who don't know where their home is. So I'm gonna need you to do something for me. You have two jobs. One is to get rid of that sin. Then also leave your spirit behind. But when you get down to earth, let me tell you, it's going to be ugly. They're going to hate you. They're going to spit on you. They will call you names. They will even tell you that you are not the Godhead. But this is what I want. You do it anyways. Are you willing to go down there? Remind them that this place down here is not their home, that I've prepared a place for them, a place that has many matches.

So what I need you to do is go down to earth, lay down your life, and redeem our children. Can you do that for me? Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. So he grabs one and he tells her that your home is not on Earth. There's a better place for you. There's a place that you can connect with me and God, the Father. But first you have to meet me first. So if you believe in me and only me, then you can have a seat in heaven right beside me. Begin to worship together. Now, if you're willing to do that, you can take his hand and come with him. But then he goes back for another one and begin to remind someone else that their home is not down there. It's up here. Come on. There you go. And the beauty is this is this. Guess what? It's not only for the kids, for the adults as well. Salvation is done for every single person, every tribe, every gender, every color. Because y'all may not know, lady, but she's half Persian. Come on, now. That's why she's so beautiful. That's because she's a Simms.

Amen. I ask and keep redeemed and keep restore. Keep bringing them back. There you go. Yeah. We take Adam back to and I. But guess what? I need you to stay down there. They're going to beat him. They're going to stretch him. Why? To the point, we won't even recognize who he is. It says that he was beaten without recognition because he is the official lamb that is without spot or wrinkle. So when we say that, we get he gave his only begotten son. So that way you and I can have everlasting life with them. With God, the Father, this is what you see. This is the greatest gift that we begin to begin to walk in, begin to do relationship with you. Stay there. Actually, you guys get it right around our path.

Thank you, Adam and Eve, as soon as you get, we're sitting quiet. Come on up. I'm out. The ratcheting up. My last point is this guy gave an imitation. There's an imitation in John Chapter 316. The imitation is this for gospel of the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Verse 17 says this For God did not sin his son into the Word to condemn it, meaning that He know that you're going to fall short. He knows that you're going to mess up. He knows that you're going to sin. He said that you were he did not come to condemn the war, but he came that the war with the war through him might be saved.

That's the imitation church. The baby Jesus came in hopes that we will be saved because we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This gift, this gift demands a choice. This love demands a choice that you get to make today if you have not already, because the gift is never given without the intent of it not being used. You have a choice today to receive the gift. Ephesians 289 says This force about grace that you have been saved through faith and not of ourselves. It is a gift. Yes, CHURCH It is a gift. It's a gift from God. Please. Anyone shall boast in the beauty about a gift as you can't pay for it. That's the ultimate benefit of the gift that didn't cost you anything.

Your sins, your transgressions, your faults caused you to go to hell. But there's a gift that we get to celebrate this season. A gift? Born in a manger with the intention of saving you and I. It's. I'll say this. That we have victory in that gift. The victory that we get to have is that we are no longer condemned to hell. The victory that we get to receive in this gift, we get to have relationship and communion with God, the Father, all the days of our life after eternity. So if you don't know this gift, I would ask that you just come up and let us pray for you, because we see a victory in that gift. This is a victory that you begin to see as you begin to walk out your relationship with God. That victory that you only can have with God, Jesus Christ, his son. So if you don't if you don't know about that gift, if you never experience that gift, I will implore you today.