Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
God made a commitment to give you his best gift,
that gift that is so encompassing. It will literally add
to your life in ways that you can't imagine. It
will pour into you things that you can't even fathom.
It will literally be there when you didn't even think
that you need it. And most of us do just
(00:20):
like some of these people, they get these gift guard
and they just put it on the shelf. Someone will
just forget that they even had it. That's the way
we do Christ, That's the way we do this gift.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
We are going.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
It's time for Sunday Supper and time to feast on
God's words. Sunday Supper is a ministry of christ Church
for the End Times. Christ Church for the End Times
is a non denominational teaching church which ministry. Our mission
is to help prepare God's people for life and ministry
during the times in which we lived. Join us on
Wednesdays at six thirty pm for a dynamic, practical, engaging,
(01:11):
and life changing Bible study and on Sunday mornings at
ten thirty am for a weekly church service. But for now,
let's feast at the Lord's table. Here's today's message. Already
in progress.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm going to stop by showing you a little video.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Our message today is titled the Gift, And while that's
starting up, I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Going to ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
If you could receive any gift that you would want
for this Christmas, what would it be? The sky would
be your limit? What would it be? Any takers, what
would it be? What would you want? The gift of God? Okay, good,
gift of God? You got that one?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
All right? What's another one? Yes? Something you don't have?
I would imagine what would you speaking of that?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Probably most of us, when we get a gift that
we already have, we don't appreciate it as much do we?
Anyone else? A gift that you would what is it?
A million dollars?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Okay? All right? A million dollars? Yes? A new car? Alrighty?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
You want to gass and the money there to keep
it on the road?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Okay? A new car anyone else?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
A new house, a new home paid for cash on
not on credit? Just okay? A new home paid for okay?
One more? Yes, more wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
What if you had a gift, one gift that can give.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
You all of those things and in heart.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
To you your heart's desire, not only your heart's desire,
but a gift that can do exceedly above anything that
you can even.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Ask for or even think about.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Would you rather have your house, your car, your land,
your million dollars or what you want?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
That gift kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Reminds me of your very senior little thing about these
little genies. And they say, well, you only have three wishes,
and the likelihood is that whoever get these three wishes,
they're gonna waste all three of them.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And I'm always thinking, you.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Know, what if someone was to give me quote unquote
three wishes, when I get to number two, you know
what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I'm gonna wish for me ten more wishes.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Come on, I will never run out of Come on,
let's kind of writen up a little bit, right. I
want you to look at this video of them. I
want you to pay close attention to it.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
How much money in gift cards do you think you're
having a wallet right now?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I just spent a button, actually, but I probably have
maybe thirty forty.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Dollars, probably one hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Probably I have what twenty dollars worth?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Zero yes, I think I probably have around ten to
fifteen dollars about sixty bucks. How much money and gift
cards do you think those i'd used to shit? I
would think a lot, because generally speaking, I think people
just forget about them. Probably not that much. I always
use all my gift cards. I imagine hundreds of thousands
(04:37):
to millions of.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Dollars, thousands of dollars overall, probably millions, if what I
have is any indicator.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Did you know you can't.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Change gift cards for cash? I did not know that. No.
I didn't know about that. I did not know serious.
I didn't know that. No, I didn't know that. Maybe
I would do that a bit more.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I came across that little actually, that little website called
Gift Card Exchange, And so you know, a lot of people,
a lot of people are going to be receiving gift
cards and things like that, and this website just a.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Little nugget there.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You can go to this website and you can exchange
your gift card either for cash or for some other
thing or what have you, so you won't waste your
your gift.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Card and what have you.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And now there were several little little statistics on gift
cards and gift cards usage.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
They gave ten on this website, and you can probably
find a whole lot more.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I will probably not give you all, but there are
some that I.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Think is kind of interesting to take note of. One
of the first one is that gift cards have been
the most requested item on holiday wish list and from
two thousand and seven all the way up through two
thousand and twelve, and I will imagine twenty and thirteen
(06:09):
will be no exception. In addition to that, purchases with
gift cards are between twenty and fifty percent higher than
average purchases, which means that people will have a tendency
to pay more for something when they have a gift
card than it is when they're paying cash.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
How about that.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
In addition to that, gift cards are the most profitable
square footage of selling space, and many retailers and essens
if you look at this little rack of a gift
card in the gift cards you ever seem like these
little registers or whatever, see the little things stores make
more money off of that little space than many of
(06:56):
the other things in the entire store.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Think about that because they.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Get a cut off every one of those gift cards
that you purchased.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And again, there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
If you had the store, you would want to make
the cash too, wouldn't you.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Amen. So I'm not throwing off on the store.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
But what I am doing is trying to get us
to kind of look at some of the things that
we do. And a lot of times we do things unwittingly.
The scripture says, my people are destroyed because they lack knowledge.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Knowledge is really really powerful. Amen.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So the smarter you are not when it comes to
worldly knowledge or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Ela Warren asks for the gift the wisdom that's great.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
The wiser you are, which means that you have some knowing,
a knowledge understanding.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You are learned.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You do that which is necessary to learn about things,
and then you exercise good judgment. And that's when people
consider you to be wise. If you know a whole
lot of stuff. You ever heard this little thing about
you know, it's educated food. You ever seen anybody that
might have been one of these educated foolish persons?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
You know?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
And so you can know a lot of things, but
don't know how to render good judgment, how to do
things properly.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
And guess what you'll still be considered to be unwise.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
And so our wisdom is displayed and it gets spressed
through the things that we do. But that's a little side.
Just a few other little statistics here. When it comes
to gift cards, Christmas is the top time when people
purchase gift cards. Do you think you get a gift
card for Christmas?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
This year? The average gift card.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Purchase is around twenty five dollars. So if you get
someone a twenty five dollars gift card, just know you're
right there and where the average one is. That's why iTunes.
A lot of them started them twenty five dollars gift cards.
But that's a little side. So when you get one
that's twenty five dollars, it doesn't mean that the person
is cheap. It just means that they're average. Amen, all right,
(09:12):
Just a couple of others. Forty percent of gift card
recipients do not use the full amount on their gift card,
and they leave an average of two dollars and thirty
cents on their gift cards.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Retailers love to sell gift cards for a couple of reasons.
One is, upfront, they make a whole lot of money
on the back end. They know that there's a certain
percentage of that gift card will never be cashed in,
and so they love to sell you those gift cards.
And you might have heard this little stat on this video,
(09:48):
but between two thousand and five and two thousand and eleven,
there's over forty one billion dollars in gift cards that
has gone unused.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
How about that.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
There will be over two billion dollars of gift cars
this year that will go unused. Two billion dollars. That's
people that have spent money on a gift and it
will not even be used. Now, how would you like
to give that gift? Better still, how would you like
(10:24):
to receive it? And today we're talking about the gift,
not the greatest gift, not the gift that keeps on giving,
not all these little cliches.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
We have a tendency expression.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You know, when the Lord was giving me this message,
this is kind of what it gave me, the gift.
And I'm almost kind of had a little bit of
loss as to how I'm gonna pull all this together,
So you're gonna have to bear with me a little bit.
Elda Warren shared this scripture with you earlier this morning.
In Isaiah nine and six minute says, for unto us,
a child is born, unto us, a son is what given.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I want you to think about this when you get
ready to give a gift to someone, especially if the
person is important to you, you really.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Want to give something that the person can really use
and benefit from. Right, you don't just give some of anything.
You want to give something that will add something to
that person's life. You want to give something that will
just kind of cause that person to light up and
what have you. And especially if you can afford it,
(11:34):
you want to give that person what your best right.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
We want to give them as much as we can afford.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Descriptionized there says for unto us a child was born,
and unto us a son was given.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
And ask you a question, who did the giving? It
was God.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
In John chapter three and verse I want to read
verse sixteen and seventeen. We have a tendency to stop
at seventeen, but verse seventeen says, for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son. And
this is what Isaiah was talking about in the Old
Testament when it says, unto.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Us, a child was born.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
He's talking about Jesus Christ, and unto us, a son
was given.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I don't want to really.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Get into the minutia of all of this, but there's
a reason why he's saying, a child is born and
a son is given your redemption and all of the
benefits of the gift came not just from the child
being born, but from the son being given and from
(12:48):
the son given his life. Some of us we just
mess Christmas all up because we're the main focus is
on the child that was born, but not on the
sun that was given.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
We see that park to eastern.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
This is what the Lord is talking about when he's
seeing the gift. And I want us to understand the
importance of this gift. I want you to understand when
God decided to give you a gift. God made a
commitment to give you his best gift.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
He didn't want to just give you anything.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
God wanted to give you the gift, that gift that
is so encompassing that it will take care of things.
It will literally add to your life in ways that
you can't imagine.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
It will pour into you things that you can't even fantom.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
It will literally be there when you didn't even think
that you needed it. Is this gift that is literally
almost indescribable.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
And most of us do just like some of these people.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
When they get these gift guard and they just put
it on the shelf, someone will just forget that they
even have it. That's the way we do, Christ, That's
the way we do this gift. For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Now we read
(14:23):
that scripture and it goes slap across our head, but
the next verse illustrates to us why this is so important.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I want you to listen to this very closely.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Verse seventeen of John three says, for God sent not
his son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through him might be saved. One astribute
of the gift, one benefit of the gift, so that
(14:56):
you would not perish, but that you can be saved.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Let me see saved.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
See one of the mistakes we make in the church
that we made salvation religious. And I constantly tell us
that the Gospel, Christianity, the Church, it isn't about religion.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
If you plant your your commitment to God.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
In religion, I can assure you you're gonna come up short.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
It transcend religion.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
This is talking about life and the way that you
live your life, and whether or not you're gonna live
life successfully, whether or not you're gonna be all that
you have been created to be, you have been destined.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
To be more than you are now.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I was listening to some of your testimonies and things
like that, and I was just bubbling up inside because
I see all of the things that you were testifying
about where attributes benefits of the gift. When your mom
is stuck in Alaska and have no place to go
and no way to get there, and that's a long
(15:59):
way to walk.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
From Alaska back to.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
The Connon, you know, the as they say the Lord
of forty nine or whatever the case will be, that's
a long way to thumb. And when you see no
way out, and then you have someone that will give
you a word that you know, pray, you believe God,
And all of a sudden, someone miles upon.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Mouse states away, God wake.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Them up in the from their sleep and said, this
person here needs some help.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
If there was someone that was that was on this
that might have loved that person to life, I won't
say to death. And that person was poor, didn't have
the means of whatever the case was. That God woke
that person up and said, you know what, so and
so on and Sarah that's her name, is up in
Alaska and she need a ride home, you know, and
you in Chicago where you are, could you help Sarah
(16:58):
if you didn't have the resources to help those, Well, Lord,
I can pray for now.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
But God knows who have the resources, and that they
are going to relieve themselves of the resources in order
to accomplish his purpose. A lot of people have a
lot of resources, but they're so tight they won't give
God a dime. People praying, they ask God for this
and ask God for that, and God bless them. God
(17:26):
literally the Bible says, and brother Baba was reading Ala
the Cops, who says, when you bring your time in
your office into the storehouse, he rebuked it of our
for your sake. You see, you might not understand it,
you may not believe it, you may not realize it.
But there is a devour that's constantly moving back and
forth seeking whom he may devour. It reminds me of
(17:49):
Psalms one O three.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Verse two is the verse.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
That I'm mainly focused on, but I want to read
a few other verses.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Let me just give you verse two.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Verse two says, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. Some of us we go
looking for jobs for the benefits. Always tell you know, people,
I tell people all the time if it's been a
long time since I've gone to seek a job and
(18:20):
whatever and get a salary and things like that. But
that's a little side. But when I was doing that,
and even if I was to do that now, I
would tell people, forget your benefits, keep your benefits.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Just give me the cash. I will take the cash.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
The thing that you don't realize is that what you
call benefit in the natural is a part of your
salary that they're keeping in order to pay for those benefits.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
But that's a little side.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
But the thing that God has wanted us to realize
and understand is that that gift, the gift has benefits
you being able to pray, to prayer faith, there's a
benefit that says the prayer of faith will heal the sick,
and the Lord will raise them up, ask what you will,
(19:06):
and it shall be given. That's the benefit. I'm gonna
tell you something else. You need some people in your
life that's acquainted with the benefits. Her sister Lauren's mother
may not have realized the benefits when it comes to
the Lord being able to work in her life or
(19:27):
her words give her a miracle. My sister Lauren did,
and she didn't keep that to herself, but she imparted
it to her mom, and a mom submitted herself to her.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Daughter, and the Lord honored and this is going to
seem kind of strange, honored the word of the believer.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Her daughter, and honored the prayer of the unbeliever her mother,
and brought her or made the provisions for her to keep.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Get back and to the Lord forty nine.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
This is why the scripture says, how beautiful are the
feet of those that brings the Gospel of peace? And
the believers are saints. We walk through the through the
world like we're whims. We think the world has it all.
We think they got they got everything going and what
have you. We look how flashy they are. We look
at everything that they're doing, and we many times envy them.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
When the Bible tell us, how.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Don't even work the fact, not yourself for those evildoers
and what have you, And we will do the opposite
of that. And the reason why we do the opposite
of that is because we've forgotten His benefits.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
We treat Christ like the gift card.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Some of us have used some of it up, but
we leave most of We leave a certain portion of
it on the card, and we never collected.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Some of us forget we even have it.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Some of us are waiting until child I need something
and say, where's that gift card? And we go pull
a little something out of whatever the.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Case may be. And the reason is we don't value
it that much.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Passing angel will tell you I don't like to give
gift cards. I'm serious, I pastor been it. Do not
like to give gift cards like to receive them. I
don't like to give gift cards to me. It's just
so impersonal. I love to shop for people. I love Christmas.
(21:24):
Every gift that I purchased for an individual, I thought
about that person. I thought about what that person may
like or not like. I thought about what that person
may do and not do with this gift. I thought
about how this person could benefit from this gift or not,
and what have you?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Do you think God would do anything less?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
There is a reason that out of all the things
that God could give, think about this. Some of us
think that if we can just get a million dollars,
a million dollars is on the cheap side. But this
is the thing, sayings, the gif Christ isn't like some
little gift card. When God decided to give you a gift,
(22:12):
God didn't decide to just give you some of anything
or throw.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Just throw around some little junk.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I want you to think about something. The God of
the universe, the God that made all of the heavens
and the earth, the God that created the inner and
the outer space, the outer space that astronauts get up
into a spaceship and look back down and just say ah,
The God that created the milky Way in galaxies that
(22:38):
man's eyes haven't even seen in his mind, having even fathom,
the God that created everything from the words of his mouth.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
And when he looked at.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
You before you even was born, and God said I'm
gonna give humanity a gift, he could have given you
an the planet.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
He could have given you another government.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Talk about a million Now God could have God could
have said, you know what, I'm gonna make all of
my children billionaires. God could have looked down through the
annals of time and said, you know what passed a beenut.
You know what everybody's complain about your little truck you ride.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Now, I'm gonna give you a brand new one every year.
God could have done that.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
God could have you your just let your mind go
whatever your heart. God could have The Bible says He's
able to do exceedingly above anything that you can.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Ask or think.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Out of all the things that God could have given you,
God decided, let you know what, what they need doesn't
even exist. So God, out of all that he created,
he created all of the heavens, all of the earth.
And God said, you know what, they need something that
doesn't even exist.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So literally God reached into.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Himself, pull out, let's just say a thing, and planet
it in Mary, and nine months later came out a son. Literally,
God gave himself to you. God gave his son Jesus
Christ to you. But I wanna tell you he just
(24:22):
didn't give a little babe wrapped in Swadden clothes. It's
not about the baby. I want to tell you. It's
about the son. It is about the son that is
the key. You see, the son is the difference between
going to the lord's Lord, will you really do this
and being able to speak it forth and it's being done.
(24:45):
It's a difference between a child and being a son.
You talk about maturity, you're talking about ability and capabilities
and what have you. God looked and he saw that
you were gonna need a savior. Why because you was lost.
Remember what we shared with you in John three. And
(25:06):
look at in verse eighteen. It says he that believeth
on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not
is condemned already because he have not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
See, this is the thing.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Everyone that have been birth and born in this earth,
everyone that has committed a sin on this earth is
doomed and was doomed. And if we don't say this
word that much these states, but let me just say it,
and just remember what I'm saying this.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I'm not cursing everyone.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Every human being that was born on this planet was
condemned to hell. And so God knew if you had
a million dollars that one want to save you from that.
Everyone that was born on this earth was condemned for
any eternity apart from God. God didn't want that. God
love his children, God love mankind. God wanted a relationship
(26:12):
with man. God didn't want that. God, what is it?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
God is looking? What is it that they need?
Speaker 1 (26:18):
They don't need a million dollars. They don't need to
be billionaires. They don't need new cars. They don't need relationships.
They don't need to poty party.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
They don't need all of that.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
They don't need intimacy with one another in personal and
close ways.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Catch my drift. They don't need all of that. They
may think they need that. God said, they don't need
a job. God. They may think they need that.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
They need something that's more important than a job. They
need something more important than sexual intimacy. They need something
more important than politics and government. They need something that
goes beyond that. They need something that's more inclusive, more encompassing.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
What they need, and what they need first.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Is a savior, because the bottom line is you can
have all of that. And the scripture says, what does
a profit a man to gain the whole world and
lose is his soul or what can he give in
exchange for his soul? And the thing is, there's nothing
worth losing your soul, and there is nothing that you have,
(27:32):
and there's nothing that you can come up with that
you can give any change.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
For your soul.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
However, you need a savior because you are condemned. You
on death row, without an attorney, without a judge, and
in reality, the judge had the trial has already been had,
if I can say that way, the verdict has already
been rendered, and you have been found guilt tea. And
(28:02):
the punity for your sin is death. So when God
thought about you, when he was trying to say what
is it that you need? He decided, you know what,
they need a savior. I'm gonna give them a savior.
(28:24):
Now most preachers will stop there, but I'm gonna add
something else to that.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
They need a savior, But they also need a.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Job, They also need a car, They also need the intimacy,
they need relationships, They need all of these things they
having having that and not this isn't good enough. Having
this and not that isn't good enough. What can we
do to give it, to give them all? To give
(28:54):
it all to them?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
God, said, got it. I want to give them meat.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Thank you for being with us today. I pray that
today's meal was a blessing to you. If you are
a serious Christian looking for a place to worship, fellowship
and fulfill God's call upon your life, consider Christ Church
for the end Times and don't forget to join us
on Wednesday evening at six thirty pm for Bible study
and Sunday mornings at ten thirty am.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
For a weekly church service.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
The church is located at nineteen ten Norwich Street in Brunswick, Georgia.
You can also reach us online at Sunday's Supper Online
dot org. That's Sunday's Supper Online dot org. You can
also tune us in on your iHeartRadio app. So until
next week. The Lord bless you and keep you. The
Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious
(29:43):
into you. The Lord lift up his continents upon you
and give you peace. And may God's richest blessing always
be upon you.
God made a commitment to give you his best gift,
that gift that is so encompassing. It will literally add
to your life in ways that you can't imagine. It
will pour into you things that you can't even fathom.
It will literally be there when you didn't even think
that you need it. And most of us do just
(00:20):
like some of these people, they get these gift guard
and they just put it on the shelf. Someone will
just forget that they even had it. That's the way
we do Christ, That's the way we do this gift.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
We are going.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
It's time for Sunday Supper and time to feast on
God's words. Sunday Supper is a ministry of christ Church
for the End Times. Christ Church for the End Times
is a non denominational teaching church which ministry. Our mission
is to help prepare God's people for life and ministry
during the times in which we lived. Join us on
Wednesdays at six thirty pm for a dynamic, practical, engaging,
(01:11):
and life changing Bible study and on Sunday mornings at
ten thirty am for a weekly church service. But for now,
let's feast at the Lord's table. Here's today's message. Already
in progress.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I'm going to stop by showing you a little video.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Our message today is titled the Gift, And while that's
starting up, I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Going to ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
If you could receive any gift that you would want
for this Christmas, what would it be? The sky would
be your limit? What would it be? Any takers, what
would it be? What would you want? The gift of God? Okay, good,
gift of God? You got that one?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
All right? What's another one? Yes? Something you don't have?
I would imagine what would you speaking of that?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Probably most of us, when we get a gift that
we already have, we don't appreciate it as much do we?
Anyone else? A gift that you would what is it?
A million dollars?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Okay? All right? A million dollars? Yes? A new car? Alrighty?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
You want to gass and the money there to keep
it on the road?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Okay? A new car anyone else?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
A new house, a new home paid for cash on
not on credit? Just okay? A new home paid for okay?
One more? Yes, more wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
What if you had a gift, one gift that can give.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
You all of those things and in heart.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
To you your heart's desire, not only your heart's desire,
but a gift that can do exceedly above anything that
you can even.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Ask for or even think about.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Would you rather have your house, your car, your land,
your million dollars or what you want?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
That gift kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Reminds me of your very senior little thing about these
little genies. And they say, well, you only have three wishes,
and the likelihood is that whoever get these three wishes,
they're gonna waste all three of them.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And I'm always thinking, you.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Know, what if someone was to give me quote unquote
three wishes, when I get to number two, you know
what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I'm gonna wish for me ten more wishes.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Come on, I will never run out of Come on,
let's kind of writen up a little bit, right. I
want you to look at this video of them. I
want you to pay close attention to it.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
How much money in gift cards do you think you're
having a wallet right now?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I just spent a button, actually, but I probably have
maybe thirty forty.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Dollars, probably one hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Probably I have what twenty dollars worth?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Zero yes, I think I probably have around ten to
fifteen dollars about sixty bucks. How much money and gift
cards do you think those i'd used to shit? I
would think a lot, because generally speaking, I think people
just forget about them. Probably not that much. I always
use all my gift cards. I imagine hundreds of thousands
(04:37):
to millions of.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Dollars, thousands of dollars overall, probably millions, if what I
have is any indicator.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Did you know you can't.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Change gift cards for cash? I did not know that. No.
I didn't know about that. I did not know serious.
I didn't know that. No, I didn't know that. Maybe
I would do that a bit more.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I came across that little actually, that little website called
Gift Card Exchange, And so you know, a lot of people,
a lot of people are going to be receiving gift
cards and things like that, and this website just a.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Little nugget there.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You can go to this website and you can exchange
your gift card either for cash or for some other
thing or what have you, so you won't waste your
your gift.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Card and what have you.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And now there were several little little statistics on gift
cards and gift cards usage.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
They gave ten on this website, and you can probably
find a whole lot more.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I will probably not give you all, but there are
some that I.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Think is kind of interesting to take note of. One
of the first one is that gift cards have been
the most requested item on holiday wish list and from
two thousand and seven all the way up through two
thousand and twelve, and I will imagine twenty and thirteen
(06:09):
will be no exception. In addition to that, purchases with
gift cards are between twenty and fifty percent higher than
average purchases, which means that people will have a tendency
to pay more for something when they have a gift
card than it is when they're paying cash.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
How about that.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
In addition to that, gift cards are the most profitable
square footage of selling space, and many retailers and essens
if you look at this little rack of a gift
card in the gift cards you ever seem like these
little registers or whatever, see the little things stores make
more money off of that little space than many of
(06:56):
the other things in the entire store.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Think about that because they.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Get a cut off every one of those gift cards
that you purchased.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And again, there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
If you had the store, you would want to make
the cash too, wouldn't you.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Amen. So I'm not throwing off on the store.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
But what I am doing is trying to get us
to kind of look at some of the things that
we do. And a lot of times we do things unwittingly.
The scripture says, my people are destroyed because they lack knowledge.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Knowledge is really really powerful. Amen.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So the smarter you are not when it comes to
worldly knowledge or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Ela Warren asks for the gift the wisdom that's great.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
The wiser you are, which means that you have some knowing,
a knowledge understanding.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You are learned.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You do that which is necessary to learn about things,
and then you exercise good judgment. And that's when people
consider you to be wise. If you know a whole
lot of stuff. You ever heard this little thing about
you know, it's educated food. You ever seen anybody that
might have been one of these educated foolish persons?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
You know?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
And so you can know a lot of things, but
don't know how to render good judgment, how to do
things properly.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
And guess what you'll still be considered to be unwise.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
And so our wisdom is displayed and it gets spressed
through the things that we do. But that's a little side.
Just a few other little statistics here. When it comes
to gift cards, Christmas is the top time when people
purchase gift cards. Do you think you get a gift
card for Christmas?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
This year? The average gift card.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Purchase is around twenty five dollars. So if you get
someone a twenty five dollars gift card, just know you're
right there and where the average one is. That's why iTunes.
A lot of them started them twenty five dollars gift cards.
But that's a little side. So when you get one
that's twenty five dollars, it doesn't mean that the person
is cheap. It just means that they're average. Amen, all right,
(09:12):
Just a couple of others. Forty percent of gift card
recipients do not use the full amount on their gift card,
and they leave an average of two dollars and thirty
cents on their gift cards.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Retailers love to sell gift cards for a couple of reasons.
One is, upfront, they make a whole lot of money
on the back end. They know that there's a certain
percentage of that gift card will never be cashed in,
and so they love to sell you those gift cards.
And you might have heard this little stat on this video,
(09:48):
but between two thousand and five and two thousand and eleven,
there's over forty one billion dollars in gift cards that
has gone unused.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
How about that.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
There will be over two billion dollars of gift cars
this year that will go unused. Two billion dollars. That's
people that have spent money on a gift and it
will not even be used. Now, how would you like
to give that gift? Better still, how would you like
(10:24):
to receive it? And today we're talking about the gift,
not the greatest gift, not the gift that keeps on giving,
not all these little cliches.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
We have a tendency expression.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You know, when the Lord was giving me this message,
this is kind of what it gave me, the gift.
And I'm almost kind of had a little bit of
loss as to how I'm gonna pull all this together,
So you're gonna have to bear with me a little bit.
Elda Warren shared this scripture with you earlier this morning.
In Isaiah nine and six minute says, for unto us,
a child is born, unto us, a son is what given.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I want you to think about this when you get
ready to give a gift to someone, especially if the
person is important to you, you really.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Want to give something that the person can really use
and benefit from. Right, you don't just give some of anything.
You want to give something that will add something to
that person's life. You want to give something that will
just kind of cause that person to light up and
what have you. And especially if you can afford it,
(11:34):
you want to give that person what your best right.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
We want to give them as much as we can afford.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Descriptionized there says for unto us a child was born,
and unto us a son was given.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
And ask you a question, who did the giving? It
was God.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
In John chapter three and verse I want to read
verse sixteen and seventeen. We have a tendency to stop
at seventeen, but verse seventeen says, for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son. And
this is what Isaiah was talking about in the Old
Testament when it says, unto.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Us, a child was born.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
He's talking about Jesus Christ, and unto us, a son
was given.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I don't want to really.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Get into the minutia of all of this, but there's
a reason why he's saying, a child is born and
a son is given your redemption and all of the
benefits of the gift came not just from the child
being born, but from the son being given and from
(12:48):
the son given his life. Some of us we just
mess Christmas all up because we're the main focus is
on the child that was born, but not on the
sun that was given.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
We see that park to eastern.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
This is what the Lord is talking about when he's
seeing the gift. And I want us to understand the
importance of this gift. I want you to understand when
God decided to give you a gift. God made a
commitment to give you his best gift.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
He didn't want to just give you anything.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
God wanted to give you the gift, that gift that
is so encompassing that it will take care of things.
It will literally add to your life in ways that
you can't imagine.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
It will pour into you things that you can't even fantom.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
It will literally be there when you didn't even think
that you needed it. Is this gift that is literally
almost indescribable.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
And most of us do just like some of these people.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
When they get these gift guard and they just put
it on the shelf, someone will just forget that they
even have it. That's the way we do, Christ, That's
the way we do this gift. For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Now we read
(14:23):
that scripture and it goes slap across our head, but
the next verse illustrates to us why this is so important.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I want you to listen to this very closely.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Verse seventeen of John three says, for God sent not
his son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through him might be saved. One astribute
of the gift, one benefit of the gift, so that
(14:56):
you would not perish, but that you can be saved.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Let me see saved.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
See one of the mistakes we make in the church
that we made salvation religious. And I constantly tell us
that the Gospel, Christianity, the Church, it isn't about religion.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
If you plant your your commitment to God.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
In religion, I can assure you you're gonna come up short.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
It transcend religion.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
This is talking about life and the way that you
live your life, and whether or not you're gonna live
life successfully, whether or not you're gonna be all that
you have been created to be, you have been destined.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
To be more than you are now.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I was listening to some of your testimonies and things
like that, and I was just bubbling up inside because
I see all of the things that you were testifying
about where attributes benefits of the gift. When your mom
is stuck in Alaska and have no place to go
and no way to get there, and that's a long
(15:59):
way to walk.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
From Alaska back to.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
The Connon, you know, the as they say the Lord
of forty nine or whatever the case will be, that's
a long way to thumb. And when you see no
way out, and then you have someone that will give
you a word that you know, pray, you believe God,
And all of a sudden, someone miles upon.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Mouse states away, God wake.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Them up in the from their sleep and said, this
person here needs some help.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
If there was someone that was that was on this
that might have loved that person to life, I won't
say to death. And that person was poor, didn't have
the means of whatever the case was. That God woke
that person up and said, you know what, so and
so on and Sarah that's her name, is up in
Alaska and she need a ride home, you know, and
you in Chicago where you are, could you help Sarah
(16:58):
if you didn't have the resources to help those, Well, Lord,
I can pray for now.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
But God knows who have the resources, and that they
are going to relieve themselves of the resources in order
to accomplish his purpose. A lot of people have a
lot of resources, but they're so tight they won't give
God a dime. People praying, they ask God for this
and ask God for that, and God bless them. God
(17:26):
literally the Bible says, and brother Baba was reading Ala
the Cops, who says, when you bring your time in
your office into the storehouse, he rebuked it of our
for your sake. You see, you might not understand it,
you may not believe it, you may not realize it.
But there is a devour that's constantly moving back and
forth seeking whom he may devour. It reminds me of
(17:49):
Psalms one O three.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Verse two is the verse.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
That I'm mainly focused on, but I want to read
a few other verses.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Let me just give you verse two.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Verse two says, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. Some of us we go
looking for jobs for the benefits. Always tell you know, people,
I tell people all the time if it's been a
long time since I've gone to seek a job and
(18:20):
whatever and get a salary and things like that. But
that's a little side. But when I was doing that,
and even if I was to do that now, I
would tell people, forget your benefits, keep your benefits.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Just give me the cash. I will take the cash.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
The thing that you don't realize is that what you
call benefit in the natural is a part of your
salary that they're keeping in order to pay for those benefits.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
But that's a little side.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
But the thing that God has wanted us to realize
and understand is that that gift, the gift has benefits
you being able to pray, to prayer faith, there's a
benefit that says the prayer of faith will heal the sick,
and the Lord will raise them up, ask what you will,
(19:06):
and it shall be given. That's the benefit. I'm gonna
tell you something else. You need some people in your
life that's acquainted with the benefits. Her sister Lauren's mother
may not have realized the benefits when it comes to
the Lord being able to work in her life or
(19:27):
her words give her a miracle. My sister Lauren did,
and she didn't keep that to herself, but she imparted
it to her mom, and a mom submitted herself to her.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Daughter, and the Lord honored and this is going to
seem kind of strange, honored the word of the believer.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Her daughter, and honored the prayer of the unbeliever her mother,
and brought her or made the provisions for her to keep.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Get back and to the Lord forty nine.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
This is why the scripture says, how beautiful are the
feet of those that brings the Gospel of peace? And
the believers are saints. We walk through the through the
world like we're whims. We think the world has it all.
We think they got they got everything going and what
have you. We look how flashy they are. We look
at everything that they're doing, and we many times envy them.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
When the Bible tell us, how.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Don't even work the fact, not yourself for those evildoers
and what have you, And we will do the opposite
of that. And the reason why we do the opposite
of that is because we've forgotten His benefits.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
We treat Christ like the gift card.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Some of us have used some of it up, but
we leave most of We leave a certain portion of
it on the card, and we never collected.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Some of us forget we even have it.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Some of us are waiting until child I need something
and say, where's that gift card? And we go pull
a little something out of whatever the.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Case may be. And the reason is we don't value
it that much.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Passing angel will tell you I don't like to give
gift cards. I'm serious, I pastor been it. Do not
like to give gift cards like to receive them. I
don't like to give gift cards to me. It's just
so impersonal. I love to shop for people. I love Christmas.
(21:24):
Every gift that I purchased for an individual, I thought
about that person. I thought about what that person may
like or not like. I thought about what that person
may do and not do with this gift. I thought
about how this person could benefit from this gift or not,
and what have you?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Do you think God would do anything less?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
There is a reason that out of all the things
that God could give, think about this. Some of us
think that if we can just get a million dollars,
a million dollars is on the cheap side. But this
is the thing, sayings, the gif Christ isn't like some
little gift card. When God decided to give you a gift,
(22:12):
God didn't decide to just give you some of anything
or throw.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Just throw around some little junk.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I want you to think about something. The God of
the universe, the God that made all of the heavens
and the earth, the God that created the inner and
the outer space, the outer space that astronauts get up
into a spaceship and look back down and just say ah,
The God that created the milky Way in galaxies that
(22:38):
man's eyes haven't even seen in his mind, having even fathom,
the God that created everything from the words of his mouth.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
And when he looked at.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
You before you even was born, and God said I'm
gonna give humanity a gift, he could have given you
an the planet.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
He could have given you another government.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Talk about a million Now God could have God could
have said, you know what, I'm gonna make all of
my children billionaires. God could have looked down through the
annals of time and said, you know what passed a beenut.
You know what everybody's complain about your little truck you ride.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Now, I'm gonna give you a brand new one every year.
God could have done that.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
God could have you your just let your mind go
whatever your heart. God could have The Bible says He's
able to do exceedingly above anything that you can.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Ask or think.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Out of all the things that God could have given you,
God decided, let you know what, what they need doesn't
even exist. So God, out of all that he created,
he created all of the heavens, all of the earth.
And God said, you know what, they need something that
doesn't even exist.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So literally God reached into.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Himself, pull out, let's just say a thing, and planet
it in Mary, and nine months later came out a son. Literally,
God gave himself to you. God gave his son Jesus
Christ to you. But I wanna tell you he just
(24:22):
didn't give a little babe wrapped in Swadden clothes. It's
not about the baby. I want to tell you. It's
about the son. It is about the son that is
the key. You see, the son is the difference between
going to the lord's Lord, will you really do this
and being able to speak it forth and it's being done.
(24:45):
It's a difference between a child and being a son.
You talk about maturity, you're talking about ability and capabilities
and what have you. God looked and he saw that
you were gonna need a savior. Why because you was lost.
Remember what we shared with you in John three. And
(25:06):
look at in verse eighteen. It says he that believeth
on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not
is condemned already because he have not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
See, this is the thing.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Everyone that have been birth and born in this earth,
everyone that has committed a sin on this earth is
doomed and was doomed. And if we don't say this
word that much these states, but let me just say it,
and just remember what I'm saying this.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I'm not cursing everyone.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Every human being that was born on this planet was
condemned to hell. And so God knew if you had
a million dollars that one want to save you from that.
Everyone that was born on this earth was condemned for
any eternity apart from God. God didn't want that. God
love his children, God love mankind. God wanted a relationship
(26:12):
with man. God didn't want that. God, what is it?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
God is looking? What is it that they need?
Speaker 1 (26:18):
They don't need a million dollars. They don't need to
be billionaires. They don't need new cars. They don't need relationships.
They don't need to poty party.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
They don't need all of that.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
They don't need intimacy with one another in personal and
close ways.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Catch my drift. They don't need all of that. They
may think they need that. God said, they don't need
a job. God. They may think they need that.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
They need something that's more important than a job. They
need something more important than sexual intimacy. They need something
more important than politics and government. They need something that
goes beyond that. They need something that's more inclusive, more encompassing.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
What they need, and what they need first.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Is a savior, because the bottom line is you can
have all of that. And the scripture says, what does
a profit a man to gain the whole world and
lose is his soul or what can he give in
exchange for his soul? And the thing is, there's nothing
worth losing your soul, and there is nothing that you have,
(27:32):
and there's nothing that you can come up with that
you can give any change.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
For your soul.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
However, you need a savior because you are condemned. You
on death row, without an attorney, without a judge, and
in reality, the judge had the trial has already been had,
if I can say that way, the verdict has already
been rendered, and you have been found guilt tea. And
(28:02):
the punity for your sin is death. So when God
thought about you, when he was trying to say what
is it that you need? He decided, you know what,
they need a savior. I'm gonna give them a savior.
(28:24):
Now most preachers will stop there, but I'm gonna add
something else to that.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
They need a savior, But they also need a.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Job, They also need a car, They also need the intimacy,
they need relationships, They need all of these things they
having having that and not this isn't good enough. Having
this and not that isn't good enough. What can we
do to give it, to give them all? To give
(28:54):
it all to them?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
God, said, got it. I want to give them meat.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Thank you for being with us today. I pray that
today's meal was a blessing to you. If you are
a serious Christian looking for a place to worship, fellowship
and fulfill God's call upon your life, consider Christ Church
for the end Times and don't forget to join us
on Wednesday evening at six thirty pm for Bible study
and Sunday mornings at ten thirty am.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
For a weekly church service.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
The church is located at nineteen ten Norwich Street in Brunswick, Georgia.
You can also reach us online at Sunday's Supper Online
dot org. That's Sunday's Supper Online dot org. You can
also tune us in on your iHeartRadio app. So until
next week. The Lord bless you and keep you. The
Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious
(29:43):
into you. The Lord lift up his continents upon you
and give you peace. And may God's richest blessing always
be upon you.
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