Christmas 2023: How to Enjoy God’s Gifts Continually.
length: 78:26 - taught on Dec, 24 2023
Class Outline:
Sunday December 24, 2023
The biggest lie my culture told me was that matter was dead, along with God, and that humans could reason their way to freedom.
The coming of God is not only a message of joy, but also fearful news for anyone who has a conscience.” [Dietrich Bonhoeffer]
He comes to earth in judgment and in blessing. Which one depends on if you call upon His name.
"Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the Lord of hosts. 2 "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.
Today I want us to look at a few gifts that God has given us through Christ. Our fellowship and our possessions are not visible. And if the eyes and ears of our hearts do not see and hear them, therein lies the problem (Isa 6). We possess but we do not enjoy.
Gift of an eternal home JOH 14:1-3.
"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
The Son of God left His home. All things relative, He left the greatest home to enter the worst (for God), a world of sin and death.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
Compared to the gifts we get at Christmas, this inheritance is Christ’s.
Time component to blessing - how often do you enjoy them; for yourself and in giving to others?
Having Christ is to have Him every moment on into eternity. We have His gifts in the same way.
Gift 1: Joy of children in an adult brain and body:
"Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."
Php 2:22
he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.
However, this gift is one of the rarest to see in use. Adults cranky with current events portrayed on their favorite news channel are very common. This gift is the ability to wonder like a child, have imagination and creativity of a child, have the faith of a child without the ignorance of a child, or selfishness, or uncontrolled emotions, or addictions.
Psa 131 A Song of Ascents, of David.
O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
2 Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
3 O Israel, hope in the Lord
From this time forth and forever.
Something has to happen to a believer before it begins to function in any significant and consistent way. Something easy and yet hard at the same time. This is why it is rare.
Gift 2: Agape (divine) love.
I mean agape love in all its virtues.
the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
What needs to happen before the gifts of Christ can function in the life altering manner that they should can be seen in how each believer builds their life.
A Song of Ascents, of Solomon.
Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
Change within by the Spirit of God and His word and then the house around you (with you) will be built. This is Christ’s gift and it is every day.
When Moses finally got to the Promised Land, after forty years of dealing with that bunch; he was forbidden entry and he died. God told him to climb up a mountain from where he could see the land and there he would die.
We all know unfulfilled hopes.
We must turn our back to the world and the flesh if we have any hope of transforming them.
Our bodies used for Christ.
Our world aware of Christ.
The Lord spoke to Moses that very same day, saying, "Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, … Then die on the mountain where you ascend, and be gathered to your people … because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel. For you shall see the land at a distance, but you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving the sons of Israel."
Self-priority has to die and only then will God’s gifts be enjoyed.
Christ came to give Himself to us, but to receive Him we must die with Him.
Desire lives on after the death of the flesh.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
This is why it is easy and hard. Easy once the funeral happens. Hard to throw all the dirt on top of the grave.
Self dies at salvation and desire for self lives on.
The Lord is born! Are you ready for Him?
Paul’s thorn in the flesh:
"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
This doesn’t mean that you’re lazy or that you have no desires which you pursue with gusto. It means that if doors close you’re at peace. If the events of the journey or its finish is not to your liking, “It is well with your soul.”
God bids us, “Climb that mountain and die alone before Me.”
God is in the process of killing you.
So you can enjoy His gifts without looking elsewhere.
When you understand, and I suggest a lot of prayer here, you will find joy in yourself even through the trial, just as James discovered and wrote.
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