(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The title of my sermon tonight is Giving and Receiving. Now I picked out this chapter because I think it's kind of an interesting story about someone who's trying to give a gift unto Abraham, but he's not really wanting to receive it. He's trying to pay for it. The guy's trying to give back and forth. And when we talk about this subject in the Bible, you know, it's kind of mind blowing. There's so much in the Bible about giving and receiving that there's no way I could really cover all of it or talk about every single part of giving and receiving in the Bible. But I just kind of want to emphasize some points that I think the Bible emphasizes. And I want to focus on those two aspects. The aspect of giving something and the aspect of receiving something. So if we look at the text that we have, look at verse 7. It says, And Abraham stood up and bowled himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he commuted with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat me to Ephron, the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field, for as much money as it is worth, he shall give it me for possession of a burying place amongst you. And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite, answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of the city, saying, Nay, my lord, hear me. The field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee. In the presence of the sons of my people, give I it thee, bury thy dead. So we see at the very beginning Abraham tries to request the field to be given unto him for a sum of money. He says, I will pay whatever is fair, I'll pay what is the fair price. But Ephron, he responds by saying, Hey, you know what? I just want to give it to you. Go ahead and bury it. It's yours. Take it. Just take it. But what does Abraham say in verse 12? He says, And Abraham bowed down to himself before the people of the land, and he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me, and I will give thee money for the field. Take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me. The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is now betwixt me and thee? Bury therefore thy dead. So it's a really strange answer that Ephron gave. He kind of like indirectly tells him how much money the land is worth, but he's still trying to say, No, it's only four hundred shekels. Why don't you just go ahead and take it? It's not a big deal. But then we see in verse 16, And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron, and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named the audience of the sons of heath, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. Now to take kind of just a carnal view of this, this scripture, you know, it really always brings up in my mind every time my parents would take somebody else out to dinner, and they would just argue over the check. I mean, they would say, You know what? We've got dinner tonight. And the other family would be like, No, no, we'll pay for it. You don't have to pay for it. We'll pay for your dinner. And they're like, No, we've got the dinner. And it'd be this constant fight over the check. Even when I was younger, I worked at a restaurant, I worked at Chili's. And man, this would happen all the time. You'd come to a table, and they would be like, Go ahead and give me the check. And they'd be like, No, no, no, go ahead and give me the check. And you know, as a waiter, you're just kind of like, I don't care who it is. Just somebody give me a good tip. But I mean, it's a very awkward situation, and it's kind of frustrating. I think it's frustrating to most people. It's frustrating when someone's trying to offer you a gift, and you just won't take it. You just won't receive it. You won't take the thing that they're giving to you. You won't let them do something nice for you. You just have to pay for it. And we see with Abraham, obviously, there's spiritual significance to everything in the Bible. But even in a carnal example, Abraham never really wanted to receive any gifts. I mean, we even see after he defeats the five kings and he brings back all the people, the goods from Sodom, they're like, you know, what are you going to take? And he's like, I'm not gonna take any of it. He doesn't want to take any gifts. He's only gonna let the Lord bless him. But it's interesting that Abraham always struggles with wanting to receive a gift. And I think when we think of a gift, the definition, if you look at it in the dictionary, it says, A thing given willingly to someone without payment, a present. Now, giving something is a good thing to do. It's a great way to bless somebody. It's a great way to help somebody. It's a good thing to do. And it's frustrating when someone won't let you give them a gift. It's frustrating when you decide, I want to give something to somebody and they're just like, no, I'm just gonna pay for it. You know, the ultimate frustration is what? It's salvation, right? But go to Luke chapter six if you would. The Bible makes it clear that giving, my first point tonight is expect nothing in return. So let's focus on giving it first. If something's gonna be a gift, it has to come with nothing being expected in return. That's the set, that's a necessary component of a gift is the fact that you're not asking them to give you something back or you don't expect any kind of payment. You know, a lot of times, even around the holidays, a gift, the meaning of a gift kind of gets perverted. It kind of gets perverted because everybody's like, well, I'll get you a $25 gift and you can get me a $25 gift or let's all put our names in a hat and we'll all buy each other something and we'll have a $50 limit. It's really not a gift anymore. It's just an exchange. It's just a, I'll get you something, you get me something. It's really destroying what a gift truly is. And even at the time of Christmas, the time of that year, the whole thought of Santa Claus, it destroys what a gift is because Santa Claus does not give gifts. He rewards the good children. He rewards those that are good and he punishes those that are evil. He doesn't give any gifts. Sorry to ruin, you know, Christmas for you. Santa Claus does not give gifts. He gives rewards and it's a false gospel or really what it is. He's trying to revert the true gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ gives gifts on demand, the gift of eternal life. But Santa Claus doesn't do that. He gives rewards. So we need to understand that a gift is always expecting nothing in return. I had to turn to Luke chapter six, look at verse 33. And if you do good to them, which do good to you, what thank have ye? For sinners also do even the same. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank have ye? For sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again. And your reward shall be great and he shall be the children of the highest for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil, to the unthankful and to the evil. Meaning, look, you can give a gift to somebody that's unthankful and evil. But he says, look, the heathen, they give gifts to each other. They lend to each other, hoping to get the same back again, hoping to receive some other type of payment or form of goods. But we see here, he's saying, look, you need to lend hoping for nothing again. If you really want to be able to give a gift out of your heart, you have to have no expectation with that gift. You have to say, I don't even care if they give me a thanks. Wow, that's, I mean, when you think about Jesus Christ, the gifts that he gave, he gave to the unthankful and to the evil. He gives reign unto the good and the bad, unto those that would never give him the honor and glory. That's a true gift. Go if you would to Romans chapter six, Romans chapter six, Romans chapter five. Go actually go to Romans five. I'll read for you Romans six, Romans six, 23 for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Very obvious that the biggest gift of the Bible is salvation. Ephesians two eight says, for by grace he saved through faith and that out of yourselves is the gift of God. Matthew 19 16 and the old one came and said unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? So this guy was confused. He didn't know that it was a gift. He's asking for something that he has to do. But before we get there, let's look at Romans chapter five. Look at verse 15 but not as the offense. So also is the free gift for through the offensive one. Many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man. Jesus Christ had abounded unto many and not as it was by one that sinned. So as the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift, the free gift is of many offenses and justification for if by one man's offense death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign like by one Jesus Christ. I love this this verse because it uses the word free gift. Just doubly emphasizing the fact that a gift is free. There's nothing in his expectation. There's nothing that God requires of us. But we see that the world today, the unsaved, they don't understand gift. They don't understand that Jesus Christ is offering a gift. They don't understand that the gospel is a free gift. They think they have to earn it. They think they have to do something to pay for it. They think that it's a reward essentially. And we see that was with the life of the young rich ruler or the certain ruler that was rich that came unto Jesus Christ in Matthew 19. He said, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? He doesn't understand it's a gift because if you understood it's a gift, you wouldn't ask what you have to do to get it. You would just ask for it. If I said I had a gift for you, would you say, well, what do I have to do to get it? No, then you don't understand. You just ask for it. Well, can I have it? Sure. It's a gift. It's free. If you say, if your parents say, hey, I want to give you a car. Well, I have to build a lawn. You don't understand it's a gift. You think it's a reward. You think you have to earn it. So just inherently by even asking the question, the guy clearly shows he doesn't understand the gift of God, right? Now it's interesting because I saw on a YouTube video, a guy named Creflo Dollar. He was on an interview for CNN. This guy's a Pentecostal preacher. He's a, he's kind of a charismatic preacher. He came from Kenneth Copeland. He's a real famous, has a church called the World Dome or World, he has a ministry called World Changers. He preaches on what's called the World Dome. I can't remember the exact name of his church. I think he's based in Atlanta. This guy has a lot of disciples. He has a lot of money and he was on an interview at CNN because him and several of his buddies were being indicted by the federal government because they were saying these guys must be running some kind of, you know, racking scheme. Look at all this money and lavish spending that they have and it's all from tax free dollars. But I don't think they're really spending it on the ministry. I think they're spending it on personal funds like personal trips, personal houses. I don't think this money is being spent on the ministry and that's a fraud to take church money and spend it on frivolous spending that has nothing to do with the church or the ministry. That's against our government's laws that you're not allowed to take ministry funds and just do whatever you want with them. You're getting indicted by the federal government. You get in a lot of trouble. So, this guy was being indicted and in the interview they were trying to give him a chance to speak for himself. Well, of course, they go ahead and attack what he believes because they're saying, doesn't the Bible teach that, you know, you shouldn't be rich and you shouldn't be having all this lavish spending? So, this anchor, this news reporter, they say, well, let's look at Matthew 19. And so, they kind of read in a false Bible version but it's basically the same. You're like, what does this parable mean? They read parts of Matthew 19 and they say, you know, give us this parable, you know, craft flow, teach us what this means. So, before we do that, I want us to read Matthew 19. Go there if you would. Let's go ahead and read that passage so we have it crystal clear in our mind what the word of God actually says there. What the word of God is teaching so that when we hear his response, it just becomes even that much more obvious this guy's a false prophet, this guy doesn't understand salvation. Look at Matthew 19 verse 16. And behold, one came and said unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, why cause thou me good? There is not good but one, that is God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto them, which? Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith unto him, all these things that I kept from my youth up would lack I yet. Jesus said unto him, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus and his disciples, verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed saying, who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Then answered Peter and said unto them, behold we have forsaken all and followed thee, what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. So now what is this parable teaching? It's saying there was a man, he was trying to justify himself, is what the bible teaches. He was trying to justify the fact that I'm keeping all the commandments, I've done all that which is good, why don't I have eternal life? Am I not going to inherit eternal life? Am I not going to be rewarded with eternal life? And Christ is like no, there's none good but one, that's God. Look you're not good enough, you didn't keep the commandments, and he exposes to this guy, even to his, he was lying about the fact that he keeps all the commandments, but he's going to make it obvious, look you're not willing to give all your money, you're still trusting in your money. And the bible says in another parable in Mark chapter 10, the same parable passage, when Jesus expounded, he said, his disciples are astonished at his words, but Jesus answered again and saith unto them, children, how hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. He gives a lot more better explanation as to why this guy didn't want to get saved, because he wanted to trust in his money. His trust was not in the Lord Jesus Christ, his trust was not in the savior, it was in the trust the fact that he was rich, the fact that he thought he was a good person because he was rich. But we see even, I'll read a Luke chapter 10, I won't even read one other parallel passage so we really get this in our mind. It says in verse 25, and behold a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him saying, master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said unto them, what is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answered and said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbors thyself. And he said unto them, thou hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, and it was my neighbor. So after Jesus and that parable, it was a little bit different passage, but in that section, he's trying to justify himself again by keeping the law. And Jesus Christ is challenging by saying, loving your neighbors yourself. And he's like, what does that really mean? Let me see if I'm actually measuring up into that one. But it's interesting, I love the way Jesus words this, because he kind of actually proves that there's two ways to heaven. Technically, hypothetically, he's saying, if you keep all the commandments, that you would go to heaven. And Jesus Christ answered, he says, thou hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. But there's only one problem, there's none good, no, not one. So it's impossible for a man to go to heaven except through Jesus Christ. But technically, hypothetically, if someone were perfect, they would go to heaven, they're not going to be punished for the fact they have no sin. But that's not the case for any man. The Bible says that all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But we see this guy was trying to justify himself. Now, when Dollar was given the opportunity to expound this parable, this is what he said. Well, first of all, when the rich young ruler showed up and he said, you know, what you need to do is take the things that you have to sell, sell it, and then come and follow me. It was about loving God with your stuff. And if you keep reading down a couple more scriptures, it says, and he received a hundred fold everything that he gave, everything that he sold. So we talk about it, you know, it is impossible for rich people to get into heaven. You know, that's not the truth. You know, rich people are going to go to heaven just like average people. The issue there is will you be willing to take your things and share it with other people. Again, we can't assume just because you have some things that you will automatically not share with other people who need it. We invest in people's lives, not only in our community, but all around the world. So he's trying to say, look, the Bible is not saying here that because he was trusting in his money or because he was rich, he was going to go to heaven. It was because he wasn't loving God with his stuff. He wasn't, you know, doing good works by giving money to the poor. These rich people want to justify themselves by thinking they're so good because they give money to the poor. But you know, they're just giving it out of their abundance. They're not giving it according to what the Bible says. And you know, they're giving it not even as a gift because they're expecting something in return. They're expecting that when they give that, that's going to somehow make them right with God. That's not going to make you right with God. You can't give any gift. The Bible says in Proverbs that you can't give any ransom for a man's soul by paying money. You can't buy somebody's salvation. You can't buy your own salvation. It's not something to be bought. It's not a reward. It's a free gift, expecting nothing in return. Christ is technically expecting nothing in return with salvation. Now, obviously, that doesn't mean he doesn't want us to live a good life. Doesn't mean that we're not ordained to walk in the works that he set before us. But it's just meaning that we don't have to do, we have to do literally nothing but put our trust and faith in him and he will save us no matter what. That's expecting nothing in return. Even the unthankful, even the person that he would save and would be so unthankful enough to never do any work for him, he's still going to save that person. That means it was a free gift by the fact that that person would still be saved. You know, a lot of the lordship salvation and the Calvinists, they say, well, good works will follow. Meaning what? They just want to trust the fact that they're a good person to get there. We see Dollar, he doesn't understand the parable. He's saying, look, this rich guy, he ended up selling his goods and got a hundredfold. Look at it through carnal eyes when he says, hey, if you give, if you forsake houses and lands that you'll get a hundredfold in this life. It's not meaning that if I somehow sold my house and gave that money to the church that God's going to magically bless me with a hundred more houses and that in this life I'm going to personally own a hundred more houses. The proper interpretation of this verse is the fact that if I'm in the local church and I'm serving God and I've forsaken all and I'm dedicating my life to following God, there's going to be a hundred brethren that would take me into their house, that would feed me, that would clothe me. I've gave brothers and sisters and mothers that love the Lord Jesus Christ and they're going to stick closer than a brother, than in my physical flesh and blood. They're going to love me more. They're going to because they love the Lord too. When you follow the Lord Jesus Christ, He's going to take care of you. He's going to give you provision. He's going to give you houses to stay in. He's going to give you lands and goods. Who cares if you technically own it in this life, it's all going to perish anyways. I mean, if I technically own it in this life and it all burns up or I don't technically own it, but I still get to use it and it all buries, what's the difference, right? What's the difference between renting it and owning it in the end? Nothing. What's the purpose? To be able to use it, right? I mean, think about it. Some people buy these really fancy cars and then they put them in their garage and they never drive them. What's the point? I mean, use it. If you haven't, why wouldn't you want to use it? Because it's all going to perish and it's going to burn later. But it's clear that a gift is not something to be expected to turn. I wanted to focus on salvation first because that's the most prevalent point in the Bible. I could explain even much more than that, but I want to kind of move on. Go to Esther chapter two if you would. So my first point is that a gift, if you're going to give something to somebody, it has to come with no expectation. It has to come with no thought that you're going to receive something in return, that, hey, this is an exchange. Look, salvation is not a gift exchange. He gives you eternal life. I didn't give him anything. I just received it by faith. I just took it by calling upon the name of the Lord. I received the free gift of eternal life. I don't have to change. Give my life. Oh, I have to give you my life to be saved. No, that's not a gift. That's a gift exchange. That's a reward. That's some type of training agreement. Hey, I'll give you five chickens. You give me five cows. That's not a gift. That's a business deal. That's a business arrangement. Lordship, salvation's false. Hey, I gave my life to Christ. No, you didn't. You didn't give anything to him. And even if you tried, it would always fall short. Salvation is a free gift. Christ doesn't expect anything in return for your salvation. In regards to salvation, nothing. Obviously we should be thankful. We should live a life for him. But let's look at Esther chapter two. Look at verse 18. Then the king made a great feast on all his princes and servants, even Esther's feast, and he made a release to the provinces and gave gifts according to the state of the king. The second point I want to emphasize is when giving a gift, we should have the right attitude. What does that mean? It means we should give gifts in the proper place, in the proper time. What's a good time to give gifts? When you're excited. When there's a time to rejoice. When there's something that is worthy of giving gifts. We see there's a great feast. We see this as a time of rejoicing. They have the right attitude. Hey, I want to give you a gift. We're cheerful. We're having, you know, all this fellowship. Giving a gift, there's not always, there's not always a time to give a gift. Sometimes there's not a time to give a gift. But what's a good time to give a gift? Hey, when you're rejoicing, when you're having a good time, when there's this fellowship. Go to Esther nine. Go a couple of chapters forward. Esther chapter nine. We'll see another time when there's a giving of gifts. Look at verse 22. And as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy and from morning into a good day, that they should make the days of feasting and joy and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor. So what had happened in the book of Esther, the Jews were threatened. They were threatened, their existence was being threatened because their enemies were going to try and kill them. They're going to try and take all their lives. But then there was a great deliverance of the Jews through the hands of Esther and Mordecai and through the, through the king, Ahasuerus. But we see at the end of the, of the battle, at the end of this conflict, they win. They kill their enemies, they slave their enemies, and now they're giving gifts unto people. What a time of rejoicing. But if someone just got a bunch of bad news or somebody had something really bad happen to them or they're in a lot of sorrow, giving a gift's not really the, I don't think that's always the best time to give somebody a gift. You know, it's not always going to really console somebody. They don't really want to get a gift. Think of it this way. If someone lost somebody and you're kind of close to them, maybe you're a, you are a brother or maybe your dad or your parents, they would much rather you, you know, weep with them and, and, and kind of be with them and spend time with them. They don't want you to just send them a gift card, you know, and say, well, we just sent him a gift card just so we can console them. They would rather, you know, maybe they don't even realize it in the moment, but what they'd rather do is you just sit down and talk to them and kind of help them and be a shoulder to cry on, be someone to lean on. Giving a gift there is not really the right timing. It's maybe not the right situation. And there's probably other situations where it's not necessarily the best time to give a gift. Maybe somebody gets fired from their job and you just, you just give them a gift and it's just kind of like, well, that was kind of weird. Imagine you, you, you fire your employee and then you give them a gift and he's like, what? You just fired me. And it's kind of this weird thing that he's trying to do because he feels bad. But again, it's not really the right time. It's not really the right, you know, attitude. We need to have the right attitude when we give a gift. Go to Matthew chapter five. It says in Proverbs 19 six, many will treat the favor of the prince and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts. Now everybody likes to receive gifts. So sometimes you think, well, I'd always like to see a gift. That's not always true. But giving gifts is something that a lot of people like. And if you want to have friends, sometimes giving a gift is a good way to make friends. You know, say invite somebody to lunch and pay for their lunch or give them some kind of gift or, or help them out with something. Give them a shirt or give them some type of something that means something to them. Maybe a new Bible that they really wanted. It doesn't matter necessarily that the amount of money, but a lot of times they buy them a Coke, buy them a candy bar, buy them lunch someday. A lot of times that will help build friendships. Maybe there's somebody at work you don't really know that well, but you go and buy them lunch one day and now all of a sudden you're really good friends. I mean, that's just the case. I know one of the guys, the first guys that ever got saved doing like, you know, showing the Romans road. Uh, he didn't come to church. I was hoping he'd come to church. I didn't know what to expect. I thought people would more likely come to church than they really will. So I was like, Hey, I'll just take this guy to lunch. You know, I'll buy him lunch one day. So I took him to lunch and then guess what? He showed up to church the next day. I mean, I don't think it's a coincidence that I bought this guy lunch and he shows up to church. Sometimes buying people gifts or trying to invest in them a little bit will sometimes go the extra mile. And then proverbs 21 I'll read for you another one in verse 14 it says a gift in secret pacify anger and a reward in the bosom strong wrath. So the Bible is saying, even if you were at conflict with somebody, if you just kind of secretly come to them and give them some type of a gift or gave them some type of a blessing or something, not wanting anything in return, sometimes that could pacify that wrath. Maybe you do have that conflict with that guy, but you buy him lunch, you buy him something and it kind of pacifies that wrath. But is that a reward in the bosom strong wrath? I think that way, you know, one of the ways you could maybe interpret that would just be the fact that maybe if you and your coworkers are working on a project and then you get rewarded and they don't, sometimes that can bring a lot of resentment and contention between people. Maybe you don't even have any problem with anybody you're working with, but then you get kind of recognized and then all of a sudden everybody doesn't like you anymore. Everybody's kind of angry or kind of gets jealous of you. We see that with even like Haman and Mordecai. You know, Haman gets really jealous of Mordecai's attention or affections of the king. This can happen. This can bring a lot of wrath and a lot of anger towards people. And so we should always be cognizant of that. If you're getting rewarded and a lot of recognition and maybe somebody else isn't, maybe a gift and secret might help them out or maybe giving them some recognition or kind of repaying that. But I'll read one other place before we get to Matthew 5. In Matthew 10 42, it says, And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water, only in the name of a disciple verily I send you, he shall no wise lose his reward. You know, I think sometimes when I got soul winning, especially if somebody's saved and they offer me a bottle of water or something, sometimes I'll just take it, even though I don't really need it, just so maybe they won't lose their reward. Maybe they get a reward because they're giving me, you know, a bottle of water in the name of Jesus Christ, right? And I mean, I think it's impolite a lot of times when somebody goes out of their way to try and offer you something and you just won't take it. You're just the type of person I will not take any gifts. It really frustrates people sometimes. Really, it doesn't give them the opportunity to actually give. They went out of their way to offer it something to you. Maybe they want to give it to you. So if you're willing to, I a lot of times will try to take things, even if it's not necessarily I really wanted it or I really need it right this moment. And I think it's more polite and more honorable to just take gifts when someone wants to receive it. That's a part of our character. It's a part of growing up as being able to receive a gift. Some people are terrible at receiving gifts. I mean, you try to offer them a gift and they're like, what? I don't need a gift or what do you think I'm poor or I can't buy myself. I can buy my own lunch. What are you trying to say? I mean, I've never been around somebody and somebody's trying to do something nice for them to give a gift and they just kind of like blow up or something. And the person is not mature. They just haven't, you know, learned that receiving a gift is something that we should be able to do. We should be able to receive a gift because if you can't receive a gift, you never get saved because salvation is a gift. So it's important for us to learn the principle of being able to receive a gift that somebody wants to give us. Look at Matthew chapter 5 verse 24. Leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled with thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. So we've been kind of talking about the right attitude of giving a gift, of being in the right time and the right place. This is saying, look, if you're going to try and give a gift unto God, but you're at awe with your brother, you have some kind of conflict with your brother, you would be better off going resolving that with your brother than trying to give the gift unto God. God would rather you go reconcile with your brother than to give him some kind of gift. He said, look, follow my commandments. You shouldn't be, you know, at awe with your brother. You should be forgiving your brother. You should make recompense on your brother. If you're trespassed against him, go and make right with thy brother. Go make sure to thy death that you owe him or whatever it is that's the problem before you give him a gift. God doesn't want your gift and not follow his commandments. He wants you to follow his commandments first and then give him a gift. So we see here an example of giving a gift and not the right timing, not the right attitude. Again, it would be kind of the same way with parents and children. Maybe children are struggling and they want their parents' attention and the parent just gives them money. They just say, hey, I can't really spend any time with you, but here's 20 bucks. Go do whatever you want. They just try to pass it off, try to give them money. That's not really what the kid wants in his heart. That's not really what anybody wants. They want, the child wants that attention. They want that affection. And we see even with God, he doesn't want your gift. He wants you to follow his commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments. That's what he really wants you to do. Now a gift is something just kind of extra. It's kind of icing on the cake. And we see even with God, he's like, don't give me a gift if you're just in blatant sin with your brother. Go first reconcile with your brother. Go to Acts chapter five if you would. I'm going to read for a couple more places. In second Corinthians nine, it says, but this I say he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he was so bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposes in his heart. So let him give not grudgingly or out of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver. So what are we talking about? Giving gifts out of the heart, giving gifts out of love, giving gifts in the right timing, having that true joy in your heart and saying, I just want to bless this person. I love this person. I want to give them something. And God's saying, Hey, I like that. I like it when someone gives it out of their heart. I like it when someone is expecting nothing in return. I'm going to reward this guy. I'm going to give more to this guy because he loves to give out of the kindness out of his heart. He just has true love and true affection for others. And he just wants to bless others. God loves that attitude. We should have the right attitude when we're giving things unto other people because if we don't have the right attitude, it's really not going to benefit anybody. It's not going to benefit anything. Acts chapter 20 verse 35, we'll read another place, says, I have showed you all things how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Isn't that a profound thing? Even the world will acknowledge that it's more blessed to give than receive. We all love receiving gifts. That's a good thing. But guess what? Giving is more blessed than receiving. So if we really want to follow God's commandments, if we really want to be perfect as our father in heaven, which isn't perfect, we would be one that would give. We'd be one that's liberal. We'd be one that's doing it out of a good heart, one that's a cheerful giver. We would make sure that we're not forsaking God's commandments and then giving gifts. We're even trying to follow his commandments and then giving gifts out of our heart and doing it at the right timing, doing it when it makes sense in the right situation. Look at Acts chapter five verse three. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the lamb? While as it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why has thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all them that heard these things. This guy was giving a gift to the church and died. Think about that. I mean, this guy is trying. He's giving a large sum of money to the church and God kills him. Why? Because his heart wasn't right, because his attitude wasn't right. Giving a gift is not always right. Giving a gift is not the most important thing. It's where your heart is. It's where your mind is doing in the right place, having the right attitude. If you're not, if you think, I don't even think I ever, you know, I'm giving gifts out of the heart or expecting nothing in return, you should probably stop giving gifts. My advice to you, make sure you're doing it right. Make sure you're doing it with the right attitude. Make sure you're doing it with a cheerful heart. Make sure you're following God's commandments when you're giving a gift. Why? This guy lied about his gift, ended up giving this gift, and died. And he didn't have to. I mean, Paul says, look, was it not thine own after it was sold? He didn't have to give the money to the church. If this guy never tried to give money to the church, he wouldn't have died then, would he? No. But out of a wicked heart, out of having the wrong attitude, he gave this gift and he died. What a shame. What a horrible idea that Satan had filled in his heart to give this money and he was going to do what? He was expecting something in return, wasn't he? He was expecting the praise of men. So it really wasn't a gift. He was trying to give a gift, right? He thought it was a gift. He thought it was an offering unto the Lord. But the problem was he was expecting something. If we're never expecting something in our gifts and we have the right attitude towards the Lord, then we can give gifts properly. We can give them cheerfully out of our heart. We're not going to be in sin. Let's go to my second point. Let's talk about receiving now. Let's go to Matthew chapter 26. So we kind of talked about giving. It's more blessed to give than to receive. We need to keep that in mind. That's an important thing. I think a lot of people can see this, especially when you get older. As a child and as a young kid, a lot of times you just really like getting gifts. You love Christmas Day. You love getting all those things. But when you truly start to grow up and mature and you're able to bless other people and give other gifts unto people and it's truly out of your heart, it really does give you a good sense of joy. It gives you a just a good satisfaction even. That's why if someone wants to give me a gift, I don't want to ruin that by either not receiving it or by saying something that would kind of make it awful or by trying to even just give it back. Sometimes you do something really nice for somebody. You give them a gift and you're trying not to expect anything in return, but then they just give you like a same type of a gift or give you an equal amount of money type of a gift right back and it feels like you never even gave them anything. It's like you didn't even really give them anything because they ruined the gift for you. It's just like I try to say when I'm soul winning, you know, if I want to give you this Bible as a free gift but you're trying to give me a hundred dollars, can I ever give it to you as a gift? No, you have to stop trying to give me anything. Then you can receive it as a free gift. So receiving is not trying to pay it back. So we need to keep that in mind too. If someone wants to give us a gift, our mindset should not be immediately, how do I pay them back? How do I make, you know, even retribution? We see Christ received many gifts in his life actually, but he didn't try to just immediately pay them back. He just received them. In Matthew chapter two, he says that when they were coming to the house and they saw the young child with Mary's mother and fell down and worshiped him and when they opened their treasures, they presented them gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. His parents were like, well, we got to do a bunch of work for these kings now, for these wise men. We got to try and earn it. We got to try and get it back. They just received the gifts. Christ received gifts at his birth. See in Matthew 26 where I do turn like verse seven, there came another woman having an alabaster box, a very precious ointment and poured it on his head as he sat at me. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation saying to what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, why trouble you the woman? For she had brought a good work upon me. For you have the poor always with you, but me you have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body. She did it for my burial. So you see again, Jesus Christ not even receiving a small gift, a very expensive gift because the disciples had indignation saying this could have been sold for much and given to the poor. Again, they're like, we should have given this to the poor, but it wasn't really out of a cheerful heart. It really wasn't. I mean, we see even Judas is the one kind of behind this. He was a thief. He wanted to get that money for himself, right? He wanted to take out of the purse. But we see Jesus Christ receives another gift. He didn't say that was wrong. He didn't say it was bad for him to receive this gift. He wasn't trying to pay back this one with anything necessarily. He received the gift and he was thankful for the gift. He's saying, look, what she's done is a good work. And guess what? She's going to be remembered. You know, you're going to everywhere this gospel is preached, she's going to be remembered because she did this great work for me. We see he was willing to receive a gift of this woman, a sinful woman, right? Go to Luke 8. Mark chapter one verse 30, it says, but Simon's mother's, but Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever and a non they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the hand, lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her and she ministered unto him. There was a lot of women that would minister under Jesus Christ doing what? Giving him food, possibly even Raymond, taking care of them, washing their feet, giving them a lot of gifts, not even expecting anything in return. Look at Luke eight verse one. And it came to pass afterward that he went throughout every city and village preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the 12 were with him and certain women, which had been healed of the evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene out of whom went seven devils and Joanna, the wife of Cusa, Herod steward and Susanna and many others, which ministered unto them of their substance. So even if in Mark one you thought, well, they were just ministering in other ways, it says very clearly here, they ministered of their substance, meaning they were giving him goods, things that they own, possessions they had, they were giving it unto Jesus Christ and he wasn't refusing it. He wasn't not taking it. He wasn't saying, no, you can't give me anything. I'm God. I don't need anything. No, he was receiving their gifts. He was receiving the things that they were wanting to give unto him. We don't see it's a bad thing to take gifts. Jesus Christ took gifts in his life, didn't he? Go to Acts chapter two. You know, there's a lot of other things in the Bible that it describes as being gifts from God. It's not necessarily the gift of God, eternal life that we think of, but it's other gifts that God gives us and we should want to receive those. We should want to receive those of the Lord and Ecclesiastes three 13 it says, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God and Ecclesiastes five 19 it says every man also to God have given riches and wealth and have given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion and rejoice in his labor. This is the gift of God. God gave us the power and the ability to go out to work, to get money, to then eat. And guess what? Eating is a gift. Eating is enjoyable. Eating and drinking and enjoying your labor. Doing what? Looking on the labors, the things that you either created or built or worked on and having the satisfaction of seeing that work accomplished or seeing the fruition of the works of your hands or what you've done. That's a gift from God. That satisfaction, that joy, the things that we get to eat. I like eating food. You know, food is a great thing to do. Obviously, we shouldn't desire to be glutton. Eating food is very not important when it comes to everlasting things, but it's just a gift that while we're on this earth, we don't suffer. We can eat good food. We can have good drink. We can enjoy the work that we do. God didn't give us some rope, you know, tasks that we necessarily have to do that we don't enjoy. We can actually enjoy the work we do. We can enjoy going out and preaching the gospel. We can enjoy going to church. We can enjoy singing praises unto God. It's a gift that he's given unto us. He can make us like robots. I mean, they don't really have a soul or any consciousness, but a lot of tasks that robots do, I don't think we would find them enjoyable. We would find them as something that we would really want to do. But God gave us things that we do enjoy. Acts chapter 2 verse 38. Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the mission of sins. And he shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The gift of the Holy Ghost. The gift of the Holy Ghost. Think about this. Not every man that was saved got the gift of the Holy Ghost. What about before the Holy Ghost was given? What about the thousands of years when men didn't have the gift of the Holy Ghost? Think about that. Us in the New Testament have a special gift. The gift of the Holy Ghost was to bring to remembrance all things that Christ commanded us that will be with us. I mean, what a blessing to have. I don't think very many times we think of that as being a special gift that we could give honor and recognition and thanks to God that he gives us the Holy Spirit, that we can be filled with the Holy Spirit, that we can go out and preach the gospel with the Holy Spirit, you know, guiding us and leading us. Acts chapter 10. Go to 1 Corinthians 12. Go to 1 Corinthians 12. Acts chapter 10 it says, and they the circumcisioners believe were astonished as many as came with Peter because then on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. Not just the Jews, but even the Gentiles. We can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And what a gift that is. Acts chapter 11 it says, and then remembered by the word of the Lord how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost for as much then as God gave them the light gift as he did unto us who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What was it I that I could withstand God? So Peter, you know, he's looking at the Gentiles and he's saying, look, they received the, you know, the gift that we did because they believed on Jesus Christ. How do you get the gift of the Holy Ghost? By believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 though, look at verse one. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have ye ignorant. So there's a lot of gifts that God gives us. Look at verse four. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are diversities of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but as the same God, which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all. For one is given by the spirit of the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning the spirit, to another the diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the self same spirit dividing every man severally as he will. But as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. Now what I want to think about in this verse is very important. I think it's something that we really need to take application of in our lives. And you say, what are you trying to talk about? Well, sometimes I hear this analogy when soul winning. Somebody will say, if I give you this Bible as a free gift, but then you just throw it in the trash, is it still your gift? You know, just trying to illustrate eternal security, right? But think about this. The spirit has given gifts unto those that are saved. What gifts? The gifts of what? The gift of knowledge, the word of wisdom, the gifts of healing, the gifts of prophecy, the gifts of faith. But you know what a lot of people do? They don't want to receive that gift. They don't want to use that gift that God's given unto them. They're like, no, I don't want to use that gift. God's given them a gift of prophecy. God's given them a gift of faith. God's given them all these gifts. Hey, if you want to be a good receiver, use the gift that God gave you. Receive the gift that he gave you. Do something with it. You say, I have great faith. Then use it. Oh, I can preach great sermons. Then use it. God doesn't want to give you this gift for you to just say, oh, I don't really want to use that. Oh, I'm not going to, I don't have any need for that. No, I don't want to, I know I'm really good at preaching and I've got this great, you know, spirit of faith. Hey, I can speak multiple languages, but I'm not going to use it. No, God gave you that gift. You know, people that grew up in a bilingual home, they didn't earn that. That was a gift that God gave them that they could go out and preach the gospel in multiple languages. The gift of tongues, the gift of healing. We need to use the gifts that God gives us. We need to be a good receiver of gifts, not just carnally. I think that's very important, but even more so spiritually, the gifts that God's given us, you know, he doesn't want to give you five talents and you just bury them all on the ground. He wants you to use all of them. Even if he gave you just one talent, you say, well, I'm not a great orator. I don't seem to, you know, have the gift of tongues and other things. Maybe you have the gift of faith. You can take a leap on God. You can do something big for God because you trust in the Lord. You trust in his word. Hey, I'm going to move to a good church. Hey, I'm going to move to a foreign country and be a missionary. Hey, I'm going to move and start a church. Hey, I'm going to do something big for God because I have the Spirit. I have the gift of faith. God's given me this gift. I'm going to use it. I'm not going to just hide under a bushel. I'm not going to just get rid of it. We see that we should be a good receiver of the gifts that we're given. If someone wants to give us a gift, we shouldn't, we shouldn't just, that's not a big deal, especially when God's giving you the gift. If God's giving you a gift, you better use it. You better just say, this is important. What God's given unto me, the administration or the office that he's given me. Hey, I don't know if it's that important. No, if God gave it to you, it's important. He wants you to use it. He wants you to receive it in your heart. Get the right attitude about that gift. It says in verse 74, neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and under the doctrine, continuing them, for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. You know what? This room is not filled with thousands of people tonight. We need to use our gifts to go out and compel them to come into God's house. Not only just get saved, but also to live for the Lord, to save their flesh from their sins. We should receive the gifts that God's given us. Don't neglect the gift. Although it's not that important, no, it's even more important. It would seem less important if every person in this entire country was all in a faith-aware Baptist church and we were all reading the Bible. Then it wouldn't seem that important. When there's not very many people, when there's few disciples, it's that much more important for you to use the gift that God gave you. You say, I know he's given me this gift and use it. Use the gift that God's given you. You know better than I do what gift God's given done to you. Use the gift that he gave you. The Bible says in James 1, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Look, if God gave you a gift, it's good. He gave you a good gift and he gave it to you on purpose, that you would use it. I have a lot more in my notes. I don't think I'm going to be able to get through all of it. There's also, go to Galatians chapter 2 if you will. My second point of receiving is that there's bad gifts to receive. You can receive bad gifts and I'm not going to take the time to necessarily look at all these scriptures, but it says that when in judgment or you're in a possession of authority, that it's bad to receive gifts that would alter your judgment, that would pervert the judgment that you have. I'll give you a few examples. It says in Deuteronomy, for the gift blindeth the wise and perverted the words of the righteous. It says, thou should not rest judgment, thou should not respect persons, neither take a gift for a gift of blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous. It says he that is greedy of gain trouble with his own house, but he that hateth gifts shall live. It says a wicked man taketh the gift of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. It says the king by judgment established the land, but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it. We see what is this talking about? It's talking about America. It's talking about all of our politics and all these these lobbyists who constantly take bribes and all kinds of money from all these corporations and other political offices and all the rich people so they can pervert judgment, so they can do perverted laws, pass wicked laws, and pervert this country. Why? Because they love taking gifts. The person that doesn't want to take any gift because he doesn't want to pervert judgment, that's a righteous time to say, I'm not going to take this gift. So I'm not saying that every single time somebody wants to give you a gift, you take it. No, we should be wise into why they're wanting us to give us a gift, but if someone's giving you a good gift, if it's out of the abundance of their heart, I think we should do our diligence to take it, receive it, and use it. But the third point I have is what do you do after you receive a gift? What's the right thing to do? We see in Galatians 2, verse 21, I do not frustrate the grace of God, but if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now, I think it's reasonable to believe that some people in the New Testament, when Paul's writing them about salvation, that some of them were saved and then kind of got mixed up on the gospel, right? They got perverted in their thinking. They thought maybe it was by works or by the circumcision or by keeping in the law. There were some people like that. We even see today, sometimes somebody could maybe get saved and then get a little mixed up on works or repentance or something like that. And what are they doing? They're frustrating the grace of God. Doing what? They're not really receiving the gift that he gave them. They're trying to say, well, you got to earn it. Well, you got to keep it. I think this is great spiritually and carnally. Let's think about it carnally. If someone gives you a gift, don't then try to earn it. Don't then try to make up for it and try to buy them something really nice. I remember one time, it was a few years ago, this person I was working with, we were really good friends and he bought me a really nice gift. He bought me like a huge set of mini power tools. I mean, we're talking about several hundred dollar gift. I mean, this was a really nice gift. And my first inclination was I want to get him a really, really nice gift now. I want to go buy him something really nice or give him like a really big gift card or do something. When I thought about it hard and I thought about the Bible, I said, you know what? That would just cheapen the gift that he gave me. And that would make him feel like he didn't really give me something. It wouldn't let him have that satisfaction of the fact that he blessed me and he gave me this gift and he can have the full joy that he gave me this gift. That's what people try to do when they try to add works to salvation. They try to cheapen the gift that God gave them by saying, well, I know we're saying by faith, but you got to do the works. I mean, the works are going to come. I mean, the works, I mean, we're still going to live righteous after that. They're trying to cheapen the gift that God gave them. Now, I'm not saying that when someone gives you a gift, you're like, you know, see you buddy. I don't want to ever talk to you again. You can't be nice then. You couldn't ever give them a gift in the future or something. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying I think it was better to just take the gift and be thankful and you just let him have given me that good gift. And you know what I could do if I really want to? I could bless somebody else. I could give a gift unto somebody else and that's who I could bless. I don't have to bless him. I can let him receive the satisfaction of giving a king a gift and I can find somebody else that's in need, somebody else that needs some kind of gift and give them something. You know, my whole life I've been given so many gifts. So many people bless me. I've had so many things that were just given unto me. I don't want to spend my whole life trying to pay all those people back. And better off, why don't I pay the poor? Why don't I pay back those that are needy, the brother that's in need, the person that needs it? That's the best way to do it. I think that's what the Bible teaches. And most importantly, I think when you do receive a gift, we should just be thankful. If someone gives you a gift, if someone gives you a compliment, if someone gives you something, just say thanks. Well, I don't really need this gift. Oh, you didn't have to do that for me. I don't know why you did that. Why are you doing that? I don't need your money. Why are you blessing me? People don't like that. Don't try to haggle with them. No, I got the ticket. Think about Abraham back with Ephron, right? No, you can't give me this. I'll pay it for you. What is 400 shekels between me and you? Don't haggle with people. If someone wants to bless you, if someone wants to give you a gift, just make it easy on them to say thank you. Thanks. That's going to help that person, you know, giving the gifts. That's the best way to do it. And the same way with God. It says thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. How do you give thanks unto God? Just praise the Lord. Sing praise unto his name. I can't even read the hundreds and hundreds of verses that say that. I was going to, I picked a few. It says in Psalms 92, it's a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, to sing praises unto thy name, O my most high. Psalms 105, O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Psalms 106, praise he the Lord, O give thanks unto the Lord for his good, for his mercy endureth forever. Psalms 136, O give thanks unto the Lord for his good, for his mercy endureth forever. First Corinthians 15 says, but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5 20, giving things always and all things unto God and the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's how I believe you should receive a gift. Okay? You say thanks unto the person and then you use their gift. That's what God wants you to do. He wants you to say thanks for the gift that he gave you and then use it. If someone in this life gives you a gift, say thanks and then use it. That's the best way to receive a gift. I think that's biblical. I think that's what God teaches us. Now I'm not saying this was replete on every aspect of giving and receiving, but what should we do when we're giving a gift? We should give expecting nothing in return and have the right attitude, right? And then if someone gives us a gift, what would you do? We should say thanks and I believe we should use it. That's going to be the best way because you get a gift to somebody and then they just throw in the trash. You're like, thanks. They're like, what? I don't know why I gave that guy a gift. But you give somebody a shirt or give them a tie or something and then you see them wearing it, it gets even more satisfaction. You gave them that gift, right? You give them a car and they use it. It's not that much satisfaction when you bless somebody with a car or something and then they just sell it and get the money and then do something else with it, right? You know, you're like, what was the point of giving them a gift? You know, I tried to give them this thing because I thought it was going to be something I was going to use. Isn't that why you give a gift to somebody is for them to use it? Why did God give you the gift? To use it. To use it. Don't try to pay him back with some other thing. No, just use it. Be thankful and just use it. Last verse, close on this thought. First Thessalonians 5, and everything gives thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. What is the will of God for you to give thanks in everything? Let's close in prayer. Thank you Father so much for the gifts that you've given us. Obviously your unspeakable gift of salvation that we could never earn and we just thank you so much that it's just a free gift that we receive by faith and not only that, all the other gifts that you've given unto us. I pray that you just enlighten our eyes to the gifts that you've given us and bless us with that we could use them, that we can not only thank you, but we could also go out and use them. I pray that something in this sermon may, you know, strike in our hearts for us to be able to be better givers and receivers according to your word, not according to the wisdom of this world. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.