The Greatest Gift

[00:00:01] Hello and welcome to Tal Paul's preaching. [00:00:06] This is the last episode of 2019 recorded on Sunday, December 8th of 2019 and it is titled the Greatest Gift. [00:00:18] Episode 22 wraps up the year with a Christmas message about the greatest gift of Jesus and being adopted into God's favor. Family. [00:00:29] Well, let's pray. [00:00:32] Heavenly Father, we come before you today. [00:00:35] We thank you for Christmas, Lord. [00:00:39] A time of renewal, a time of joy. [00:00:42] Lord, we thank you for that gift, son. [00:00:47] Lord, and as we enter this Christmas season, let us remember our friends and family and pray for them and pray that we would all grow closer to you this Christmas. [00:01:00] We pray for our nation, Lord. [00:01:04] It seems we're just in turmoil, Lord, and we need you. We need to turn to you, turn back to you and follow your examples and what you've laid down in your word for us and how to act and just how to be, Lord. [00:01:21] Lord, we pray that again that this Christmas time would just be a reminder of you and your goodness and that we would turn to you this Christmas, Lord. [00:01:35] Pray all this in your precious son's name. [00:01:38] In Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:43] Well, it doesn't quite look like snowman weather out there and I'm glad for that. I'll take the sun, but got a couple snowman jokes for you to start out today. [00:01:55] Why was the snowman searching through a bag of carrots? [00:02:00] Well, he was picking his nose. [00:02:07] What does a snowman eat for breakfast? [00:02:12] He likes ice Krispies or frosted snowflakes. [00:02:21] What do they sing at a snowman's party? [00:02:25] Freeze a jolly good fellow Freeze a jolly good fellow. Alright, enough of that. [00:02:35] Well, today I'm going to talk about the greatest gift as we near Christmas. And I hope everybody has their Christmas shopping done. I know I am going to try and finish up mine today, but I am going to talk about the greatest gift. [00:02:54] I am going to start out with a little history of Christmas. [00:03:00] And everything starts with Genesis 1:1. [00:03:05] The first four words are in the beginning, God, meaning no matter how far back you want to go, wherever you want to say it started, right, whatever that history point you say starts, God was already there. [00:03:26] And the Hebrew word for God In Genesis 11 there is Elohim. And the L in Hebrew means God. And the hem in Hebrew makes that a plural. So there wherever you want to start in the beginning was the Trinity. [00:03:44] God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. [00:03:48] The rest of Genesis 1:1 finishes with God created the heaven and the earth. [00:03:57] So it would seem that God was not simply satisfied with himself and his own company. That that God created the universe and the sun and the stars and the earth and the planets and animals and us, all of us. [00:04:15] And the debate rages on on just how God created and maybe why he created. But God did create. He created us. And everything we see and touch testifies to his creation. [00:04:31] God created everything. The planets, the birds and the bees and mankind. [00:04:37] But even though God possesses this mighty creation ability, He's a mighty creator. God could not create what he truly wants. [00:04:49] God did everything on his part. Now it's not for lack of anything that God did, but God truly desires for us out of our love for him, to choose him. [00:05:04] God wants us to love Him. And you can't force love. [00:05:10] God could create as many tin soldiers and nutcrackers as he wanted. And you know, you can give them orders and set them up and move them around, but you can't make them love you. [00:05:25] They have to be truly free in order to love you. [00:05:29] So God created mankind in his own image. He created Adam and Eve. And God gave them a choice. He gave them free will, the ability to choose or reject God. [00:05:44] Unfortunately for us, Adam chose Eve and, and rejected God. [00:05:50] And that's bad news for us. Because of that rejection, they died spiritually at that moment. [00:05:57] And we are all, as a result, born disconnected from God, spiritually separated. [00:06:05] We're born with that God shaped hole in our lives that we need God to fill. [00:06:12] And it's not just us that that desperately need that hole to be filled. [00:06:19] God himself yearns for us to choose him so that he can come into our lives and make us new and make us alive. [00:06:32] And in our ability to choose, we start to grow apart from God. If you look at Adam's sons, Cain and Abel, right off the bat, they start to kill God's creation and brother kills brother. [00:06:49] And then you get to the flood of Noah. Humanity was choosing wrong, so wicked that God had to wipe out all but just ate. [00:07:01] And then you got the Tower of Babel, another silly and stupid choice of ours. [00:07:08] Then our first breakthrough comes at a time of Sodom and Gomorrah and all that wickedness that God has to wipe out. A man named Abraham decides to follow God and listen to God. [00:07:20] And therefore God chooses Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and their descendants to be his people. [00:07:29] We start to make a little progress, but it's really, really not that much improvement. You've got Jacob and Esau fighting, and then you've got Jacob's sons, you know, the 12 sons. And 11 of them turn on their brother. They Decide to kill him, but they end up selling them into slavery. [00:07:53] Slavery in Egypt. [00:07:55] And Egypt rises, and Pharaoh enslaves the entire Hebrew race, entire race of people. [00:08:05] Pharaoh puts him into slavery. And God asks Pharaoh to let his people go. [00:08:12] But does Pharaoh know? Pharaoh chooses not to listen to God. [00:08:18] And even though 10 devastating plagues come upon Egypt, Pharaoh still refuses to do what God wants. [00:08:29] And God essentially has to wipe them out. [00:08:33] Kills all the firstborn of Egypt. [00:08:37] Well, they're let out and they're let go. And finally God leads them by Moses, there in the wilderness. [00:08:46] And there, God gives Moses his word, the law. [00:08:52] And with God's word, now the people know just how far they've drifted away from God. [00:09:00] Still, even with Moses as a leader and even with the law, they're still murmuring and complaining. [00:09:10] They say things like, you brought us out of Egypt just to kill us in the desert. [00:09:18] Just whining people. [00:09:21] Well, God's will is for them to possess this land, and they choose not to. [00:09:29] And so God gives them 38 more years, for a total of 40, that they wander through the wilderness. And a generation that refused to enter into the land dies off. And their children end up entering that land. [00:09:45] And they are in that land flowing with milk and honey. [00:09:50] Well, they quickly forget God again. [00:09:54] They enter this time of judges, where God would raise up a judge, and they deliver the people for a little bit, but they'd spiral back down into captivity of all the surrounding nations. [00:10:06] And so God gives them kings to rule and to lead them. [00:10:12] You start out with this disobedient Saul, their first king, and. And then they reach this really high point of David. The king delivers them. [00:10:23] It's a wonderful time. And his son Solomon, well, he starts to turn the other direction. He winds up with 700 wives and 300 concubines, kind of like Adam, you know, he chose the woman instead of God, and. And they lead him astray. And it's pretty much all downhill from there with the kings, king after wicked king leading the people away from God and them going into captivity, right? [00:10:55] And they go into captivity and they lose their kings. [00:10:59] And Israelites now serve other nations instead of God. [00:11:04] You've got Babylon, the Medes, the Persia, Alexander the Great, the Greeks, you know, and then Rome, they're under Roman rule, and Rome was full of pagans who had zero respect for God. [00:11:21] It's pretty bleak and dreadful history of mankind there. [00:11:27] But God is loving and ever so patient with us. [00:11:34] God is good, for his mercy endures forever. [00:11:39] Amen. [00:11:40] And there, under Roman rule, God creates Christmas. [00:11:48] God gives us the greatest gift. [00:11:51] His only begotten son, Jesus. [00:11:56] Peace came down at Christmas. [00:11:59] God's love was revealed. [00:12:02] Angels announce his burden. Birth, salvation was born. [00:12:08] What a turning point. [00:12:12] And Jesus, he showed us how to live and how to choose God to do God's will. [00:12:19] And when you see Jesus, you've seen the Father. [00:12:24] And Jesus is love. [00:12:27] Jesus is righteous. Jesus is holy. [00:12:31] Jesus. He healed the sick, the blind, the lame. [00:12:39] And we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. [00:12:46] It's joy to the world, you know. [00:12:49] Let the earth receive her king. [00:12:55] The long awaited Messiah is here. We, we have victory in Jesus. Jesus is going to rule and reign forever and ever. [00:13:07] I hate to let you know, but we killed him. [00:13:10] Wait, what? [00:13:13] Mankind did what? With the Son of God? [00:13:17] Yeah, we crucified him on a cross. [00:13:22] Oh, the depravity of man. [00:13:25] Will we ever learn? [00:13:28] No, no, I don't think we will. [00:13:32] Because apart from God, we fail. [00:13:37] And God's not finished. Though death could not stop Christ, God's gift to us lasts forever. [00:13:47] And death won't stop us either if we lose God if we accept the gift. [00:13:54] His Son. [00:13:57] Since that first Christmas, God continues to let us freely choose. [00:14:02] God has still not wiped us all out. [00:14:07] God freely gave at Christmas. [00:14:11] He freely gave Jesus. [00:14:14] And God had only one begotten son to give. And just like at the beginning of all things, God was not content with just himself, just the Trinity. [00:14:26] God desires a much bigger family. [00:14:31] God desires for you and for me to be a part of his family. [00:14:40] Now my wife and I, we have a daughter. And she's our oldest. And we also have a son, a younger son. [00:14:48] And our daughter gave us our only begotten granddaughter, Ayla. And Ayla is this many. Now she's three. [00:15:02] Why do I say only one? Well, my daughter had a terrible pregnancy. [00:15:08] It was pretty, pretty horrible. [00:15:11] Health issues, high blood pressure, just sick all the time. And part of that is her pain tolerance is so low you have to dig below sea level to find it. But whatever the reason, she informed us that she was done having kids. [00:15:31] Ada was to be the only one that she would deliver. [00:15:35] But my daughter and her husband were not content with just one. [00:15:41] Their compassion is great. [00:15:44] And so last year about this time, there were three young girls who were in need of a family. [00:15:52] They needed a permanent place to call home. [00:15:56] They were literal orphans. Their father and mother had died, they were lost, they were kicked around. They were involved in the system and no permanency in their lives. [00:16:10] Sounds like mankind. [00:16:13] They were on the verge of being split up and placed into separate foster homes or into group homes. [00:16:20] But my daughter, upon discovering their need, opened her home to them about a year ago. [00:16:28] She started with the youngest two and obtained the oldest daughter several months later. [00:16:35] And I'm proud to say that a couple weeks ago, on November 22nd, National Adoption Day, our daughter, her husband and her only begotten grandchild adopted those three girls. [00:16:52] They became a family of six, doubling in size. [00:16:57] And now we have four precious grandkids. [00:17:02] Praise God, my daughter and son in law. [00:17:09] They're representations of God. [00:17:12] They reflect his love. [00:17:16] God loves the lost, the orphan, the fatherless, the hopeless, those beat up by the world or crushed by sin. [00:17:28] God desperately wants to fill that hole in our lives, to make us new and to give us a new family, to be a new creature in Christ made alive by God's Spirit. [00:17:44] He gave his only begotten son so that we could be adopted into his family to live in his kingdom. [00:17:54] And God will do everything possible. [00:17:57] But we still have to choose God. [00:18:00] Our three new granddaughters, they said yes to joining our family. [00:18:07] If you're feeling lost in this world, abandoned or tossed aside or rejected and in need of some permanency, then choose Jesus. [00:18:17] God with open arms is welcoming us into his family. [00:18:24] And Christmas is about family. [00:18:28] And at Christmas, we didn't just gain a little boy in a manger. [00:18:33] We didn't just gain a Savior of the world in Jesus. [00:18:38] We gained each other spiritual parents and brothers and sisters in the Lord. [00:18:46] Let's look at Galatians 4:1:7 Galatians chapter 4. [00:18:57] Now I say that the heir, as long as he is under age, differs nothing from a servant, even though he be lord of all, but is subject to guardians and trustees until the time appointed of the Father. [00:19:14] Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. [00:19:22] But when the fulness of time was come, that's Christmas. [00:19:28] God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law. [00:19:33] Ah, that first Christmas, verse five. [00:19:37] To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. [00:19:45] And because you are children, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father, wherefore you are no more a servant, but a son or daughter. [00:20:02] And if a child, then an heir of God through Christ. [00:20:09] Amen. [00:20:11] Romans 8 is very similar. Romans 8. We will start in verse 11. And while you are turning there, I just kind of want to mention that those angels that were out there announcing the Birth of. Of Jesus to the shepherds. And they were celebrating that the Bible says that they party when one of us, just one of us, come to Christ and accept Christ. They party, they get down, and they celebrate just as much when just one child enters into the kingdom. [00:20:47] Romans 8, 11. [00:20:51] If the Spirit of God that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead will also make alive your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you. [00:21:07] Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, for if you live after the flesh, you will die. [00:21:18] But if you, through the Spirit, do put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. [00:21:24] For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons and daughters of God. [00:21:30] For you have not received a spirit of bondage again unto fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption whereby we cry, abba, Father. [00:21:43] The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. [00:21:51] And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so, be that we suffer with him, that we might also be glorified together. [00:22:03] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which we will be revealed in us. [00:22:13] So give God what he really wants this Christmas. [00:22:19] Give God the greatest gift. [00:22:22] Give him. You choose God. Accept him. [00:22:29] You know, it seems like a really lopsided gift exchange. You know, you. [00:22:36] You have a gift exchange and they say, well, keep all the gifts under $20. [00:22:42] So you get to this gift exchange and someone shows up with a gift worth $1,000, and you are like, wait, what? I was sold under $20. [00:22:52] Well, it's kind of like that. We get salvation through Christ and God gets us. And I don't know if you've met me, but I know what I'm like. And I think that's just a lopsided deal, but I'll take it. [00:23:09] Amen. [00:23:11] We should give God our love, our prayers, our obedience, our thanks, our praise grow in your relationship with Him. [00:23:26] You know, my mother, whenever I ask her what she wants for Christmas, my mom would always tell me she wants time. [00:23:38] She wants time with those that she loves. [00:23:42] And God is the same way. [00:23:47] Spend some time with God this Christmas. [00:23:51] Sit for just five minutes and talk to Him. [00:23:56] Pick up your Bible and read the story of our Savior's birth there at the beginning of the Gospel of Luke. [00:24:05] Pray for your friends and for your family. [00:24:09] Pray for our nation. [00:24:12] Pray for Israel. Pray for peace. [00:24:15] Remember God, all that he has done and all that he has given and thank him for Christmas. [00:24:26] Wow, I really sped through that one. [00:24:32] Let's pray. [00:24:34] Oh Heavenly Father, thank you for Christmas. Thank you for your son. [00:24:39] Oh we desperately need you. [00:24:44] We need you for, for all goodness comes from you. [00:24:50] Peace and love and joy and just help us to remain in you, to just stick close like glue and never leave your side. Lord, when you find us wandering around and just kind of drifting away and lost, Lord, just bring us, reel us right back in and keep us close to you. [00:25:14] Lord, thank you for that gift your son. [00:25:18] Thank you that you gave it willingly instead of wiping us out. [00:25:23] And Lord, as now we give to you, Lord, will you just bless and multiply this offering that we have? [00:25:33] Lord, I just pray that we give you from our hearts willingly what you desire. [00:25:44] Praise your holy name Lord and in Jesus name we pray. [00:25:50] Amen. [00:25:54] Thank you for listening to this message. [00:25:57] We hope you enjoyed it. [00:26:00] Our prayer is that the message in some way or another, helped in your walk with God and that your relationship with God was strengthened and grew more intimate. [00:26:12] If you would like to contact us with questions or comments, you can email us at the following that's meredletters.com or me-l e t t e r s.com thank you.