Monday, November 18, 2013

What's in the Box

What's in the box?
What will you unwrap this Christmas?

As we look at the weeks running up to Christmas, lets take a look at what is in God's gift box to us. God has given us many good gifts.

Matt 7:11
So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him.

James 1:17
Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father who created all the lights in heaven.

God gives good gifts to his children. Not because he has to but because he loves us and wants to. The greatest gift he has given us is his son. We receive the greatest gift from a loving heavenly father who wants the best for his children and wants to be in relationship with his children.

God sent Jesus as the greatest gift on earth for us. He was prophesied in Isaiah, in Micah and elsewhere.

Isaiah 9:6
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace will never end.

God sent his son. The great verse John 3:16 is fullof meaning. Its easy to sprout it without pondering the real and deep meaning of it. God loved each and every one of us so much. More than we can imagine.

John 3:16,17
For God loved the world so much that he have his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God sent his son into the world, not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.

It's all about the amazing gift that God gave to us through Jesus. God wants relationship with us, because he loves us and was prepared to allow his beloved and only Son to die for us. Jesus instigated communion so we would remember God's amazing love and Jesus' sacrifice for us.

Luke 22:19
This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembramce of me

Titus 3:4-7
But when our God our Saviour revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out his Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.

There are many gifts that God gives us. Salvation, grace, mercy, righteousness, hope, faith, love, peace, his Spirit and all the amazing and wonderful spiritual gifts. We will only look at a few over the next few weeks.

God gives us these gifts. What will our response be? Will will we receive it or not?

1. Salvation
The greatest gift is Jesus and through him we receive the gift of salvation.The gift of salvation comes as a result of belief and faith calling on the name of the Lord.

2 Thes 2:13
As for us, we can't help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience God's salvation - a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth.

Salvation comes from a belief in the truth, the good news of Jesus.

Heb 5:9
In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

1 Peter 1:9
The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls

Romans 10:9-13
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in y8ur heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God and it is by confessing with your mouth, that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, Anyone who believes in him will never be disgraced. Jew and gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For "Everyone who calls upon tye name of the Lord will be saved."

THE GIFT OF SALVATION IS AVAILABLE - ALL WE NEED TO DO IS ASK AND BELIEVE

God has given us this great gift. He wants all to have his great gift of salvation. He has made a way for salvation for all people.

1 Tim 2:1-6
I urge you first of all to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Saviour who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For there is only one God and on Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity - the man Jesus Christ. He gave his life to purchase fredom for everyone.

God's gift is available. Take hold of all that it means, including his health and wholeness for our physical bodies, our soul, our mind and spirit.

2. Forgiveness
The second gift today is forgiveness.

When we come to God is faith and believe we receive salvation and the forgiveness of sin. It is the sin that separates us from God, and his free gift of salvation, comes with a free gift of forgiveness.

Romans 5:15
There is a great difference between Adams sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many, throigh this other man Jesus Christ.

God's gift of forgiveness to us, undoes the sin that Adam brought into the world. God forgives the sin and we receive the wonderful grace of forgiveness, and freedom.

Eph 1:7,8
He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased pur freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave us our sins. He has showered his kindness on us along with all wisdom and understanding.

Forgiveness is powerful because it brings us freedom from sin, freedom from the past and freedom to pursue what God has called us to do. The gift is not selective. The gift of forgiveness is for all.

Luke 24:47b
There is forgiveness of sins for all

Col 1:13,14
For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son. Who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Paul clearly wanted the Colossians to understand this.

Col 2:13
You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He cancelled the record of charges that was against us and took it away, by nailing it to the cross.

The gift of forgiveness was given freely to us through the blood of Christ. As a result, our sins are gone, the record of them is totally under the blood of Jesus and God remembers them no more! There is also ongoing forgiveness. It is available to us whenever we confess our sins and repent.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We just have to ask.

Psalm 86:5
O Lord, you ate so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.

We serve a God who is ready, willing and able to forgive. Will we take hold of the forgiveness on offer to us as his gift? Will we take hold of the freedom that forgiveness brings?

All we do is confess, repent and ask. (And be willing to forgive others)

Remember Matt 6:14
If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you.

This is us choosing forgiveness for others as a response to God's amazing forgiveness available to us and for us.

God has the gift of forgiveness ready to give us whenever we have need. He does not hold it back. All he requires is an honest, repentant heart, that will trust in him and take hold of what he so freely gives.

3. Eternal life
The last one for today is eternal life.

As a response to Jesus' gift of salvation through faith and belief, and forgiveness through repentance, we receive eternal life. This is God's free gift.

Because the power of sin has been broken through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have salvation, forgiveness and eternal life. Before salvation, we live in darkness and in death. Sin leads to death, but God's great gift to us is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Roman 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we stay in relationship with God, we not only have eternal life when we pass from this life; but we live in eternallife right now. Eternal life starts the moment we receive Jesus.

1 John 2:25
And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised.

Romans 5:21
So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul understood that God's love for us, made manifest in Christ, would bring a new kind of life. A life that was lived in the eternal, and no longer in the temporal.

1 Peter 5:10a
In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus.

Eternal life is God's free gift through Jesus, to be experienced by all who believe and all who call on Jesus for salvation. This eternal life starts whenever we take hold of God's free gift of salvation through repentance. It is a reward, a free gift. It is ours right now, not in some future day, but now.

How will we live differently knowing eternal life is ours now?

Conclusion
How does all this affect us?

We can ask ourselves - what will I do with God's gifts for me?

Knowing that we have these amazing gifts, how will I respond?

God's love is made manifest in Christ. We receive his gift of salvation, forgiveness and eternal life, when we receive Christ as our saviour, believing in him, and putting our hope, our faith and our trust in him.