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Part of the chapter I wanted to focus on was in verse 11 where the Bible read, and when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with Mary as mother and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto them gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh. So we have the great story, a story that many people have heard before, of the wise men coming and they're presenting gifts unto the newborn Lord Jesus Christ. Now really when you study this story, it's not like he was born and then they show up that day. It's more likely that he was a young toddler. But when we see this story, we see people are bestowing gifts unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And what I wanted to preach about this morning was giving and receiving gifts. This is a time of year traditionally in America where people give a lot of gifts, where people receive a lot of gifts, and the Bible has a lot to talk about gifts specifically. Ways to give gifts, things about giving, things about receiving gifts. And so I think it's important for us to understand how to give a gift and how to receive a gift. There's actually good ways to give gifts. There's bad ways to give gifts. There's good way to receive gifts and there's bad ways to receive gifts. So let's look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3 if you would, the first place I want to look at. It's kind of in the middle of your Bible. After Proverbs you have Ecclesiastes, 12 chapters, it's the books of wisdom. Now the Bible teaches obviously that salvation is the gift of God. And that's the greatest gift that anybody could ever get. But the Bible teaches that God gives us a lot of gifts. There's not just one gift that God gives us. Hey, he gave you the gift of life. He gives you every single one of your breaths. Every single breath you take every day is a gift from God. But the Bible even specifically mentions other gifts from God. Now look at Ecclesiastes 3 verse 11. He hath made everything beautiful in his time. That's how you know that nobody's born a sodomite. Says he have made everything beautiful in his time. Also he has set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God make it from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and do good in his life, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. So according to the Bible, one of the gifts that God gives us is the fact that we can enjoy our work. That you can enjoy doing a hard day's labor. Going out and working with your hands, building something, making something, doing something that has kind of value, and enjoying that. Enjoying, getting satisfaction out of the work you do. Now not everybody enjoys their job. Not everybody enjoys the things that they do, but God has given us the ability and the capability of going out and building something and having satisfaction and enjoyment. It's great when you accomplish that task. When you finally get that thing built that you wanted to build. A lot of people, maybe they build a house. That gives them great joy, great satisfaction to put that together. Or they just build a school project, and they like it when they're done. They don't like having to start on the project. They're just relieved when it's over. But we can see that you have a lot of enjoyment from the things you do. Not only that, one of the ways you really enjoy it is when you do a really good job and your boss says, hey, you did a really good job. I'm going to give you a bonus. And then they give you a bonus check because you did such a good job. Or you get a commission on the sale you did. Whatever work you did, maybe you're a server at a restaurant and somebody gives you a really big tip because you did a good job. Now you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Now you can go home, you can take that money, you can buy something, you can go eat dinner, you can enjoy the things that God's given you. These are all gifts. Guess what? These are not gifts that slaves get. Slaves don't really enjoy the work that they do. They're forced to do stuff they don't. They're just forced to do things. They don't get to enjoy and reap the benefits of their labor. So God has made us servants. God has given us a lot of great things. He doesn't make us slaves, no. He gives us the ability to work hard and enjoy the fruit of our labors and enjoy the things that he's given us. When I get to go out and eat a great meal, I enjoy that. I enjoy eating a good meal. That's a gift that God's given us. Look at chapter five. Skip over just a couple chapters. Look at five verse 19. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God. So he emphasizes the same thing. He's saying, look, it's a blessing, it's a gift that God has even given you the ability to do work, the ability to make money, the ability to have the job that you do. God controls that situation. If you're not diligent in your work, if you're not following God's commandments, God can take that job away from you quicker than you can think. And the Bible makes it clear the same way is true. If you're a diligent, hardworking person, God could put you in a great job or give you great responsibility overnight. We see this in the life of Joseph. Joseph is constantly losing things overnight and then gaining things overnight, but he's always a constant diligent worker and he gets to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Towards the end of his life, he's made second ruler in all of Egypt. Basically, he gets to determine what's going to happen for this whole nation and he ends up saving many people. The Bible commends Joseph on how good a worker he is. He ended up saving people from famine, from death, from struggle. So we see he got to have great enjoyment from the fruits of his labor. Now go if you would to Luke chapter 11. Go to the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Luke chapter 11. I'll read for you in Matthew 7, the Bible says, What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If he then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? He's saying, as a man, if you know how to give a good gift to your son, how much more would God the Father know how to give you a good gift? I mean, think in your finite capabilities and our corruption and our state of sinfulness, we can still give good gifts. God's so much better at giving gifts to us than we even realize. Look at Luke 11, he's going to say the same thing, verse 11. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give for a fish him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If he then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? So he's saying, look, if you know how to give a good gift, how much more could God give you gifts? Gifts from the Holy Ghost, gifts from the Spirit itself, or just the fact that he gives you the fullness of the Spirit. There's a lot of gifts throughout the Bible. And so if we can see that God is giving something that's called a good gift, that implies that, guess what? There's also bad gifts. There's also things that are not good gifts. So let's reflect on what we've learned. When the three wise men come unto the Lord Jesus Christ, this young toddler, they give him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now, what's the point of them giving him these type of things? Well, they're precious. Well, they're very valuable. And they're able to use this to get money, to use them to sell them. And they're going to be traveling to Egypt. So not only is it a good gift, I mean, who doesn't want something really expensive, somebody giving you a lot of money? That's a good gift. But then they say, what? It's also practical, because they're about to be traveling. They're about to be foreigners in the land. It would be nice to have some funds to be able to travel to make sure that their journey is going to go. So what makes a good gift? Well, it has a purpose, and it's practical. Have you ever gotten a gift, and it's not very practical for you? It doesn't seem like it has much of a purpose. It's not a good gift. If you get a good gift, is you're thinking about the person. It has some type of practicality that can be used. You know, I've gotten a lot of gifts in my life. I was thinking about some gifts. I got a message Bible one time. Now, is that very practical for me? Is that going to be something? I mean, I could use that put in the fire. I mean, I can use it as a sermon illustration of what not to read, of what not to preach. But is that really a good gift? Would you be excited if I just gave everybody in the church a message Bible for Christmas? You'd be like, what is this guy doing? What's happening? You just wasted 15 or 20 bucks or whatever. He gave it to the devil. I mean, so obviously there's good gifts. There's bad gifts. I even got for Christmas a Tree of Life version of the Bible. So apparently when you're King James only, your family just keeps giving you these snake versions, you know, these serpent versions or whatever. The Tree of Life version literally does not have the name Jesus in it one time. They replace it with Yeshua every single time. Actually, pretty much every word for God is a Hebrew word. I thought you're supposed to know the Bible in your own language. Why would I want to read it in a foreign language when I don't speak, even if that was true? Which the name of our Savior is Jesus Christ. And you know what? You open the book, you open this damned book in the front, it says, hey, our number one goal is to restore the correct name of our Savior to Yeshua. So they want to eliminate the name Jesus off the map of this earth. Talk about a wicked doctrine. Talk about a Bible that's from hell wanting to get rid of the name of Jesus Christ. This is not a good gift. So whenever you're thinking about a gift, you got to be thinking about the person. Think about what do they want, not what you want to get them on, you know, taking Jesus out of the Bible. Now, some people have fun with this. My family's had this history for Christmas. They always give these like gag gifts, okay? They give these gifts to like try and, you know, just stir the pot. So one time my sister, she has a scavenger hunt. So you open the present and it's just like, hey, go look where things get hot real quick, so you like go look for the microwave and then there's like another note. And then it's like, hey, I like to play music real loud. You can stop and play me. I'm in your room. So then I go look at my stereo, you know? So I'm like doing this scavenger hunt and you're kind of getting excited. There's a lot of anticipation. Well, finally I get to the glorious prize. It's a package, it's wrapped. So I start peeling off the paper. It's a Justin Timberlake doll. So I was like, what is this? And so it's just to make fun of me, emasculate me, I guess. I don't know, whatever they were trying to do, but that was not a good gift, okay? Obviously it provides a funny story. You know, it makes fun of somebody. So we got her back. We, one year, you know, we went to the store, we got one of those lottery tickets that are like a $10,000 winner. And it was perfect because my dad, I don't buy lottery tickets. Never bought one. I don't advise it. But my dad would always buy lottery tickets. So I just sneak one in with all the lottery tickets that he's bought for everybody for. And you know, everybody's kind of scratching them and somebody gets like a dollar, somebody wins two. And for some reason it was her last one. So she goes through and it's just like nothing, nothing, nothing. And she's kind of like distraught. She's kind of like, oh man. And so then she gets her last one and she's like, I think I won. And she's like, yeah, I won $10,000 in your face and in your face. And it was just like, whoa. It was kind of hard to tell her. You're kind of like, yeah, it's only valid on Mars. But that wasn't really a good gift, was it? Then she felt really embarrassed. Then she was really distraught. This is not a recommendation of what to do. This is like when you read the Bible, this is just what happened, okay? So I'm giving you some examples, right? Is that a good gift though? Is it a good gift to trick people and make fun of them and you know, put them on the spot? Not only this, whenever I was in Amarillo, Texas, I had the ability to preach for an addiction and recovery center. And you know, I don't agree with pretty much any of their ministry. You know, a lot of people there were just unsaved weirdos. But it gave me an opportunity to preach. And I felt like it was still something that was a blessing for me because I got to learn how to preach. I could preach consistently every week. And you know, occasionally I got someone saved there. So I still think it was beneficial. When I was leaving, they were like, hey, we want to get you a gift. And so they mailed me this gift and it was this picture frame of Jesus. This long haired, hippie Jesus picture frame. What a great gift. What a great gift to cap off, you know, preaching for this place. They're going to give me some picture of some faggoty dude that they call Jesus. Blasphemy, it's wicked. Well, go if you would to Romans chapter number 12, Romans chapter number 12. The Bible makes it clear that there's good gifts and there's bad gifts. I gave you a couple examples of bad gifts because I think sometimes people, you know, maybe you don't realize there's bad gifts. I don't know. I've seen a lot of bad gifts. I've gotten a lot of bad gifts. So when you're thinking about buying a gift for somebody, it should be on purpose. It should have a reason and it should be practical. What makes something a good gift? The person's like, hey, I can use this. This is something that's going to be beneficial to me. If somebody buys you something that you already have, is that really, I mean, you're kind of like, okay, I already got one of those. Do I really need it? Is it going to really help me? It ends up not being that great of a gift. It ends up not being as special. So whenever you're giving gifts, God's a great at giving gifts. He's going to give you something you don't have and something you can use, something that's going to be very practical for you. And we'll talk about how you receive those. I'm going to read for you from Proverbs chapter six. Another example though. The Bible says, for jealousy is the rage of a man. Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though they'll give us many gifts. So the Bible warns in Proverbs chapter six, a man that would commit adultery with another man's wife. It says, no matter what you try to give that guy to appease him, it's not going to cut it. It says jealousy is the rage of men. He's going to tear you apart. He's going to want to tear you limb from limb. He doesn't care what you buy him. And so some people, they try to buy love. They try to buy a ransom. They try to buy all manner of things. Gifts should be superfluous. They should be just extra. They should just be something that you don't necessarily need. It's just something to be, you know, added. So you can't replace all of the normal stuff in your life with gifts. You can't replace spending time with your kids with gifts. You can't replace being, you know, faithful to your wife with a gift. Hey, I know I slept with your wife, but here's a gift. That's not going to cut it. No, it's not going to change the situation. And we see celebrities, they constantly try to do this to get off. They commit murder. Well, then they'll just, they'll bribe the judge. They'll just give a gift to try and get off on the deal. And it's wicked when a judge will not condemn the wicked for a gift. The Bible constantly talks about people perverting judgment because of gifts. We should not let someone give you a gift to pervert judgment. This could even happen in the church. Somebody could do something in the church that's not right or wicked. Maybe they need to deserve to be kicked out, but they come to me and they're like, hey, here's, you know, a car. I mean, you don't think that happens? You don't think that people do wicked stuff in churches and then try to bribe, you know, the pastor or the assistant pastor or something in order to not get judgment or not be cast out of the church? It happens all the time. And look, if someone tries to offer me some elaborate gift, I'll probably think negatively of it. Just because I'm like, why are you just giving me this elaborate gift? Why are you just trying to do something? What's the real motivation of this? Now, some people are sincere. Some people are genuine. They just want to bless others. That's great. I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying a lot of times when people are doing this is to obtain favor that they don't want to naturally get. They don't want to obtain favor from the pastor by being his friend, by coming to church constantly, by talking to them and getting to know them. They want to buy his friendship. They want to buy respect. They want to buy their way into the church. I've seen Baptist churches where their deacon boards, okay, are literally only rich guys in the church. Now that's not a coincidence. It's not a coincidence that all the deacons just happen to be the business owners and all the rich guys. I saw a guy, he's like 28 years old, not married, no kids, and he's the deacon of the church. It's like, didn't we read the qualifications of the deacon? Supposed to be the husband of one wife, having faithful children, ruling over his children well. I mean, why would you let this guy come in? Oh, well, he owned his own business. He's given lots of money to the church. I guess he's qualified to be the deacon. Probably hasn't even read his Bible one time cover to cover. Couldn't even quote John 3.16. Doesn't even have a family. Doesn't even have any children. But since he gives lots of money to the church, let's just make him the deacon. Because if he's the deacon, he won't leave and his tithe money leave with him. His money go away. And we want, you know, we need these guys to come and sign on our big bank note because we have some million dollar property that I can't qualify for unless I have all these rich business owners in my church. So we'll just make them all deacons. And we see people are perverting judgment constantly with gifts. This is wicked. This is not something that we should be striving for. Whenever you give, it should come from the heart. It should come out of sincerity. Look at Romans chapter 12, verse number six. Having the gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith or ministry. Let us wait on our ministering. Or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. So this is, you know, our Bible memory chapter. And it's got a lot of great things. He says, look, people have different gifts. Not everybody in this room has the same gifts. God gives different gifts. The spirit gives different gifts as it leads. One of the gifts is the ability to give and to be able to give with simplicity. I hate gifts that are hard to receive. Sometimes people want to give you a gift and it's really difficult just to receive it because it's got all these strings attached. Well, I collected all these box tops from these cereal boxes. And if you mail them in and call the number, then they'll send you a check that you can mail in a rebate, and then they'll eventually give you this cool Swiss Army knife. It's like, I don't want to do that. Like, I just, you know, if you want to give me a gift, just give me the gift. But let's do it with simplicity. Don't make it hard for someone to receive the gift. I had a family member, you know, for a wedding present. They said, hey, we want to give you this really cool gift. Sometime in the future, we'll go to, you know, this big box retailer, and we'll let you just pick something out and you can buy it. We just want to use our credit card because then we'll get the bonus points and then we don't have to pay for it up front. So you just kind of let us know. And it's like, okay, well, you want to do it next weekend? Well, we're busy. But you let us know in the future sometime, guess what? It's never going to get redeemed. People don't want to inconvenience you to get a gift out of them. Obviously that just makes it completely uncomfortable. If you're going to give a gift, do it with simplicity. Make it easy for the person to receive the gift. You're doing it to bless them, not to get something out of it for yourself. Well, I just want the bonus points on my credit card. Well, I just want to get the sales commission. Hey, I'm going to give you this special gift. Come to my store and buy this thing from me so that I get 20% commission. And then it's like, what? You know, I mean, obviously some people are trying to just help others out, but it's not a good gift. There's good gifts and there's not good gifts. A good gift is with simplicity. I don't have to do all this extra work and effort. I can just receive it. Isn't it nice that salvation, hey, just receive the gift by faith. It's not like, oh, go to church too. Oh, and get baptized. Oh, and do communion. Oh, and confess to Jesus the priest. This is not, don't we say that's not a gift. Don't we explain this at the door. Hey, that's not a gift. It's not with simplicity. It's not just receiving it. So we see a good gift is something you can just receive. It's not something you have to work for and do all this extra effort and do all these extra things. The government tries to ruin gifts. Cause you ever go on like a TV show, like people that win money or they win a car. Now they have to pay all these like gift tax and all these other things. It's like, you kind of lose when you win a gift. It's like, hey, you won this $20,000 car, give us $5,000 cash. You're like, oh man, that's kind of a weird gift. Like, you know, I get this thing and now I have to pay all this money. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number nine if you would. So we shouldn't have strings attached to a gift that we give. It should be done with simplicity. It should be done to bless the other person. We see when the wise men show up to the Lord Jesus Christ, they have their gift with them. It's with them and they just give it to them. It's not something they had to go somewhere else and get. Hey, back at my palace, I've got some gold for you. If you take a trip over here, then I'll give it to you. No, they traveled their whole, across the entire country, many different lands to just bless them with a gift. You say, who should be inconvenienced in a gift? The giver, not the receiver. That's what makes a good gift. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter nine verse seven, or verse six, let's skip back a verse. But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart. So let him give not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. As is written, he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. So I love that phrase, God loveth the cheerful giver. Gifts should be given from a heart that just wants to have blessed somebody. If you want to bless somebody, guess what you're going to do with simplicity. That's why I combine simplicity and cheerfulness, because if you're trying to really bless somebody and help somebody out, you don't want to give them a gift that's going to inconvenience them. You're wanting to help them, you're wanting to do something to help to bless them. You're not trying to, you don't have an ulterior motive. There's not some other reason why you're giving it. The only reason you're giving the gift is to bless the person, because you love the person. Because you want to show appreciation to the person, whatever the case is. You just want to help them. Any of the good reason, you're excited. You like it. You're not like, hey, you can have this, do you want it? Are you sure you want it? It's like, no, you're like, please take it. Please, I got this for you. I can't wait to give it to you. You're not kind of resistant. You can take it, and they're kind of trying to rip it out of your hand. It's like, here, have it. I want you to have this. This is a blessing. This is a gift. The Christmas CDs, some people are kind of hesitant. They're like, what's the catch? And it's like, we want you to have it. This is just a gift. This is just a blessing. Go to Acts, chapter number five, Acts number five. The Bible talks about this in Psalms 119. It says, except I beseech thee the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments. God even likes it when you give a gift to him, but from your heart. A lot of churches take this away by trying to say it's like a commandment just to give all your money to God or something like this. God only expects the tithe, and everything above that would be a gift. Would be you trying, out of the kindness of your heart, you just say, I just want to bless. I want to bless this ministry, this missionary, this church, this person in our church that's struggling. I want to bless the poor saints of our church. Whatever it is, you just say, I want to. I want to help this person. It gives me joy to help this person. If you ever give a gift and it's not with joy, don't give it. If you're sitting there thinking, I don't want to give this person this, don't, because you're not going to get any blessing out of it. There's no reward in that. You should only be giving gifts because you want to, because it's out of the kindness of your heart, not for an ulterior motive, not because you want to be seen of men. And look, the Bible warns very heavily against giving something that's not coming from the heart, a very strict punishment in the New Testament. Look at Acts chapter five, verse one. But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet. 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 land? Whilst it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. Now we've got to be careful because when we read right before this chapter, we see it says the disciples were selling lands and possessions and laying them at the apostles feet. And somebody might come away with that and say, well, we should just give all our money to the church. Just give all our money, you know, that's like a commandment, that's like a requirement. And we see Ananias, you know, you could look at him and say, well, he just was nervous about giving all his money. He didn't wanna just, he was nervous about the commandment of just having to give all his money. But he makes it clear in verse four, whilst it remained, was it not thine own? He's saying, look, nobody is telling you to sell the farm and give it to the church. Nobody's commanding you to do that. Nobody's forcing you to do that. That's not God saying sell everything and just give it to the church. It's yours. Is it not yours? You get to do with whatever you want. He's saying, guess what? Even after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? He's saying, look, even after you sold the farm and you had the money in your own pocket, it's still yours. Do whatever you want with it, he's saying. But guess what? He decides to give some of it to the church and not all of it, but pretend like he's giving it all to the church. He's coming and he's saying, hey, I sold all of my possessions, here they are. Here's all of it. I'm gonna give all my money to the church. Here's everything I got. Here's the receipts. He's trying to make it look like he's giving all of his money to the church. He's lying. And he's saying, look, he's being rebuked. Peter says, you didn't lie to me. You lied to God. You lied to the Holy Ghost. He's not giving it out of a cheerful heart. He's not doing it with simplicity. He's doing it deceitfully, trying to just be seen of men. Having an ulterior motive, well, what's the punishment? Verse five, and Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all of them that heard these things. He died instantly. So there's warnings in the Bible about giving a gift. You say, why are you preaching about giving a gift? I mean, this seems superfluous, whatever. Why don't want you to give money to the church and die? You know, I bet Joel Osteen doesn't warn people about giving money to the church. He's just like, my name's Jimmy, and I'll take all you give me. I mean, they just want you to bring in, they don't care if you die. After you sold all you got, you're worthless to him anyways. He doesn't care about your soul. He doesn't care about teaching you doctrine, so once he's got all your money, he cares, he's dead. But I actually care about your soul. I actually care about your family. I don't want you to lie to the Holy Ghost and die. And we see it's important your motive. The Bible emphasizes motive when it comes to giving. We even see Jesus Christ is looking at people giving. They're giving into the treasury, and he sees a widow give two mites into the treasury. And Jesus says to his disciples, she's given more than all these rich guys. Now, in the physical world, that's not true, because she gave like, let's just put in modern vernacular, maybe she gave like two bucks, two dollars. But these rich guys are giving thousands. They put $2,000 in the offering plate. They put $5,000 in the offering plate. Jesus looks at that, and he says, she gave more. Why? Because she gave of her necessity, they gave of their abundance. They were doing it to be seen of men, she's doing it because she just loves the Lord. She's not concerned with money. She's like, God's gonna provide my needs, these two bucks, we're gonna cut it in any ways, so I'll just give it to God. And look, it's not like the church needs the two bucks, okay, but the thing is, is in God's sight, the motive is where he blesses. And you say, man, are the people that gave like thousands and thousands of dollars to the church, they're gonna have the big mansions in heaven? It's the motive. There's gonna be a lot of poor people that gave hardly any money in this physical world that are gonna have great riches in heaven because of the motive, because they loved God, because they were a cheerful giver. So if you're giving to God, make sure it's coming from the heart. Don't give to this church if you don't want to. Now, when it comes to tithe, that's a different issue. We're not talking about tithing, we're talking about something that's not tithe. Tithe is a commandment of God. Tithe is to give 10% of all thy increase, but if you ever gave something above that, that would be an offering. And if you're ever gonna do that, make sure it's coming from a place of genuine sincerity, from your heart, from love, from appreciation. Never give something that's not from your heart. Look at verse nine. His wife does the same thing three hours later. I guess she was taking a while to get ready for church. It says, then Peter said unto her, how is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. So this is also a lesson that you shouldn't just be complicit with your spouse doing something wicked. Now women are supposed to obey their husbands in everything. So I believe a wife should obey her husband, period. Here's your one exception, if it violates God's word, if it's a clear command of God. Don't go lie to the church just because your husband did. Don't go commit murder with your husband. Don't go commit adultery with your husband. Don't go against God's commandments, but if it's not something going against God's commandments, yes, obey. But we see she gets the same punishment because she's complicit with her husband's wicked deeds. So we should make sure that our first loyalty is always to God. Then my second loyalty is always to my wife, always to my spouse. I'm gonna back her up on everything unless she's just going against the Bible. That's where I draw the line. My ultimate trust is with God's word. Now let's go, if you would, to another part of giving. Go to verse, let's go to Luke six, Luke chapter number six. So go back to the gospels. You know, it's interesting there's a term associated with giving called an Indian giver. Now the interesting thing is, is in Arizona, they have a lot of these Indian reservations. I would see people in their soul-winning method. They would go up to these people and they would say, so if I gave you a gift and took it back, what would you call me? And they're like, an Indian giver. And it was just kind of ironic. So, but you say, what's an Indian giver? Well, I'll just read for you. It says an Indian giver is an American expression used to describe a person who gives a gift and later wants it back or who expects something of equivalent worth in return for the item. So now, as I was reading the definition of Indian giver, our modern vernacular, an Indian gift, is when you give it and just take it back. But when you study like the history of it, it was really people thought that you were trading or selling it to them. And so they're expecting money or equivalent good back once you're handing this to them. They didn't think they were just giving it to you because they wanted you to have it. So a lot of the, you know, when they go into North America and they don't really speak the language, okay, of all the Native Americans of the Sioux Indians and Cherokee or whatever, they're giving them something and they're thinking, oh, this is a gift. All the English are like, this is a gift. And the Indians are like, you know, where's my gift? You know, where's my, you know, because they didn't understand how gifts are. So there was kind of a culture issue there. But this is how Christmas is in most families, isn't it? I mean, hey, I'm gonna get you something for 50 bucks. You get me something for 50 bucks. I'm gonna get you something for 25 bucks. You get me something for 25 bucks. Let me give you a little secret. It's not a gift. It completely destroys everything about what a gift is. A gift should be given with nothing in expectation. Nothing in return, that's a gift. You say, what's the gift of eternal life? Nothing expected in return. God doesn't put a condition on it. Well, guess what? You also have to continue in work so you didn't, you know, I'm gonna take that thing back. Look, he's not gonna take it back. It's yours. Now obviously we'll talk about how to receive a gift. Obviously it would be good to say thanks and use it and be kind, but you don't have to. Otherwise it wouldn't be a gift. And a lot of people, they have all this expectation on you. Hey, if I give you something for 50 bucks, you gotta give me something for 50 bucks. It's no longer gifts. It's this weird exchange. And the Bible says how the heathen, the ungodly, they do this. They give something, expecting something back in return. But that's not how Christians should be. Look at Luke chapter six, verse 30. Give to every man that asketh of thee and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise. For you love them which love you, what thank have you? For sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them, which do good to you, what thank have you? For sinners also do even the same. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank have you? For sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again. But if you love your enemies and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be therefore merciful as your father also is merciful. So the Bible's saying, look, when you give a gift, you should never expect something from that person. You shouldn't even expect a thank you. That would, you shouldn't put that expectation on anybody. If you give a gift, you should expect nothing. And the problem with most people is they have bad expectations. You wanna know why people get offended and get upset? It's because they build up expectations in their mind and they don't come to pass and it makes them upset. Well, I was expecting you to say thanks. Well, I was expecting you to write me a handcrafted letter, you know, with special sprinkles on it. And I was expecting you to call me and tell me how special I am because I gave you a gift. That's not a gift. That's like you saying, hey, in order to be saved, you pray to God every single day, right? That's still not a gift. We need to understand that if we give a gift to somebody and they don't say thanks, we're okay with it. I just wanna bless them. I wanted them to have this, whether they liked it or not, the fact that I gave it to them. Obviously, I want them to like it because then it's not a good gift, right? I'm just saying if they don't say anything appreciative about it, that's great they still got it because I just wanted to bless them. And we see God does this with the whole world. God reigns on the just and the unjust. There are so many people that get good things from God in this world that will never say thanks, that will never get saved, and they are gonna burn in hell for all of eternity. And you say, why? Because God's merciful. Because God's loving. Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of every single person, whether they would believe or not. I don't believe in limited atonement. That is garbage straight from the pit of hell. Jesus Christ is kind and merciful to everyone. Everybody types of gifts. I run into unsaved people and they're like, man, I just feel like God is blessing me. I was in this really difficult situation and somehow just a blessing came out of it. Or I was in this dangerous situation, in this car accident, and by a miracle I was saved. I think that could be still God's hand in it. God is still giving blessing and miracles and doing all kinds of kind and good things. He's reigning on the just and the unjust. But he's not doing it with like, we have to say thanks. He just does it. And if we say thanks, he'll continue to bless us. We'll continue to get more reward. It'll have a good relationship with him. Obviously I'm not saying don't give thanks. I'm just saying the gifts that God gives are without strings attached, hoping for nothing in return. You should not put expectation of favor. This is why pretty much my family used to do all these like gift exchanges and like these white elephant things. I just don't want to do them. It's not a gift anymore. And I don't, it's like me buying myself a $25 gift I didn't want. It's usually what it is, right? It's like, hey, I'm going to buy this $50 gift for you and you're going to get me some $50 thing that I didn't even want that has no practical use. A gift card to some restaurant I don't really want to eat at. It's like, okay, what's the point of this? You're just going through an exercise that you've been taught to do and it destroys what a gift is. You're teaching your children that that's a gift. That's not a gift. Santa Claus destroys gifts. Because guess what? Santa doesn't just give gifts. He gives zero gifts. If you're naughty, you get coal. If you're nice, you get a present. Work salvation. Satan Claus teaches work salvation. He doesn't give a single gift. You know who gives gifts? God. God gives gifts. God doesn't put strings attached. Like, oh, you got to pay me. Oh, you got to be good. No, just receive it. Just receive the free gift. Just believe in Jesus Christ and receive the free gift. But we see people today, they destroy gifts. I want to restore gifts back. Gifts used to be, I just want to give you something, hoping nothing in return, and that's how gifts should be given. That's what a true gift is. Go to Matthew chapter six, last point I have on giving. The Bible says in Acts chapter 20, it is more blessed to give than to receive. I'm emphasizing giving first because it's the most important. It's the most important thing. Giving is better than receiving. And you learn this as a parent, because I always thought about this. I said, as a child, you never give your parents anything for Christmas. Typically, a lot of times, especially in some households where they celebrate Santa Claus, it was also weird to me that the parents would get their children nothing. So this magical guy that they've never met, that they don't know, gives them a whole bunch of gifts. The parents get them nothing, and the children get the parents nothing. And I'm like, this is weird. Like, wouldn't the parents want to get the credit for the fact that they like, hey, I'm blessing you with a gift or whatever? I mean, it's super weird. It doesn't make any sense. Look at Matthew chapter six, verse one. Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thy alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. So when you give a gift, there should not be the ulterior motive of being seen of men. And this is why most people give money, why most people give gifts. You see the rich, they'll give millions of dollars to charity, but they put on Twitter, don't they? They tell you all about it. They're like, hey, did you see? I gave $2 million to this charity to cure AIDS. Never gonna happen. The incurable disease. Just flushing that money down the toilet. Hey, we got $4 million to this charity, which forces vaccinations on Africans. I don't, wow. That sounds like you're wicked as hell. I don't wanna commend that. And see, all the time when they're giving these money, it's not really helping anybody. It's not really blessing anybody. It's a fraud, it's deception. They're just doing it, though, so they can brag, well, we give more money away than any other business. We're the most charitable organization. Come praise us and lick our boots and tell us how wonderful we are. Look, I don't even like that, first of all. But even if you do get that kind of recognition, the Bible says you have no more reward. All the stuff that you thought you were gonna get, if you really want a reward from God, you have to give where nobody knows. You say, man, that guy, he doesn't seem like he ever blesses anybody or gives any money to anybody. Great. I hope that's what you think about me and lots of other people. I don't want to go around and brag about all the money I've given or don't give or whatever. It should just be completely private. That's the best situation. And then guess what? God can reward me later if I actually do that, if I actually give to somebody with a cheerful heart, on purpose, no ulterior motive. I'm not gonna go around bragging about it. So go if you would to John chapter four. Let's transition. Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. You should be anonymous in your giving. Even, you know, there's even things like, what's that, GoFundMe? You have an option to put your name or to put anonymous. You can like check and say, I don't want anybody to know. Well, if you're a Bible believing Christian, why would you ever put your name? Like you're literally just saying, I don't want a reward. My name is Pastor Shelley. No rewards for me. I don't believe the Bible. I mean, seriously, I would just never do that. I'm not saying you don't give money. I'm just saying I'm gonna do my best to make sure nobody knows. Now, sometimes in today's world, some, you know, the banker might realize that you're taking money out of your account. Your spouse is probably gonna realize. But obviously, what's the spirit? Are you trying to be, you know, concealing the matter as much as possible? Are you trying to bless the person as much as possible anonymously? That's what the Bible teaches. Look at John chapter four, verse 10. Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, and neither come hither to draw. So you see, the woman asks for eternal life, doesn't she? Everybody that gets saved asks for it in the Bible. Some people attack Romans chapter nine verse 10 that you have to actually pray and ask for eternal life. My question, how do you prove that you believe something without asking for it? Well, you see, she asks for this gift, and I like it because God's offering the gift. He wants the gift. He says the gift is there for the taking, so what should you do? Receive it. If someone offers you a gift, receive it. We should be good at receiving gifts. You know what's the polite thing to do when someone offers you a gift? Receive it. You know what a lot of people do? Oh, I can't take that. You can't give me a gift. Oh, I'd have to get you something back. No, it just ruins it. You must have spent like $300 on that. How much was it? Tell me how much it was. You start making it terrible for someone giving you a gift. Have you ever tried to give somebody a gift and they make it horrible to receive? They're arguing with you about it. They don't wanna take it. You see this a lot at restaurants. Hey, I'll get the check. No, I'll get it. No, you can't buy it for me. I don't want you to buy it for me. You can't take it. It's just like this big, awful mess. You wanted to bless the person, now you can't. Now it's like ruined. Now it's like destroyed. If someone offers you a gift, take it. Now that does not mean that carte blanche. There is an exception. If it's a sinful gift, if it's a wicked gift, don't receive it. Let's look at an example of that. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. But 99% of the time, people are gonna give you gifts, receive the gift. Be good at receiving gifts. Be good at just taking things when someone offers something to you. If someone's offering something unto you, it's more blessed to give than receive. Enable that person to be blessed. Enable the person to receive the blessing of being able to give you something. Just as much as you're supposed to give with simplicity, I think you should receive with the same level of simplicity. If someone wants to bless you, just take it. Some people get so offended. Why are you giving me a gift? You think you're better than me? You got more money than me? What, you think I'm po? You think I'm so po I can't just fold up myself? I can't take nothing from you. We see people can't receive gifts today. It's a joke. It's sad. Why, because they think they have to earn everything. Hey, all you have to do is believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. Why think you have to be a good person? We see that spirit that can't receive a gift. And if you can't receive a gift, you're never going to heaven, because salvation's a gift. You have to be humble enough to just receive gifts to get even saved. We should have the same level of simplicity when someone offers us a gift. Receive it. Take the gift. Don't sit there and argue with the person and make the person feel bad for trying to give you a gift. You want to stop getting gifts? Be mean to people when they try to give you a gift. But that wouldn't mean that there wouldn't be an exception. Let's look at the exception, okay? First Corinthians 10, verse 25. Whatever whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof, if any of them that believe not bid you to a feast and you be disposed to go, whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no question for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that showed it. And for conscience sake, for the earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof, conscience I say, not thine own, but of the other. For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? Now I think sometimes when you read this, it's just really confusing. It's like hard to understand. Let's make this really clear what he's saying. Imagine your company is gonna have a Christmas party and you're invited to go. All the employees are invited to go to the Christmas party. And they're gonna serve you some meat. But guess what? They're at a restaurant. And this restaurant is like a Thai restaurant or an Indian restaurant. And it just happens to be that this family literally makes sacrifice of their meat unto idols that they're gonna serve you, okay? You don't think that happens. You don't think when I walk into these restaurants where they have Buddhas everywhere that sometimes this meat's being sacrificed in the idol by these local shops where these people worship devils? It does happen. But here's the thing. He's saying, look, if I just go in that restaurant, I can eat whatever I want. It's the Lord's. It's the Lord that made it. It's the Lord that's gonna bless it. I don't have to worry about the fact that it somehow had some bad preparation, some bad religious ceremony, if I have the liberty, if I wanna eat it. But let's say you're at this party, you're at this restaurant, and people know you're a Christian. Hopefully they know you're a Christian. And they say, are you really gonna eat that? I mean, you realize that they sacrificed that unto idols. And now this person's gonna be greatly offended that someone who claims to believe the Bible is eating meat that was sacrificed to Buddha or some devil. Okay, you're gonna wound this person's conscience because they're like, why in the world would Christians partake in that type of food? So you're gonna literally damage your reputation, damage your testimony to this person. He's saying, don't eat it. Don't eat that type of meat. And this is probably more prevalent if you're in a different part of the country. Let's say you traveled to India. Guess what? A lot of the meat there is sacrificed unto devils, unto idols. Other foreign countries where they literally worship devils, they could literally be doing this. So you're on a foreign missions trip and you go into the restaurant and you're with a newly saved Christian and they're like, whoa, you just showed me that idolatry was wicked and these are devils. You're about to eat that. And you're like, no, I'm not gonna eat that. I didn't realize it was sacrificed unto idols. Okay, because you don't want to just offend them when they don't understand all the Bible yet. They don't realize that look, ultimately everything is of the Lord. God is the one that created all these things. Those things that they sacrifice unto devils, they're just, you know, in the physical world are nothing. And the physical meat that I'm eating, there's not any spiritual damage that I'm gonna receive by eating this meat, okay? So the only way this would be damaging is by wounding this person's conscience. And he says, I would never want to eat to offend a brethren. I would never want to wound this person's conscience. So what is that? Don't take a gift if it was sinful. What we noticed, what was his attitude? Don't even ask a question about it. Don't even wonder, just receive the gift, just receive the meat, just receive whatever's put in front of you without any asking any questions. And if there's this really weird situation, which most of us probably won't experience, but it could happen, that you would say, okay, I'm not gonna, you know, I don't want to offend somebody. That would be the sin. Now, the sin is not eating it. The sin is not receiving it. Now, what if someone offered you a graven image? I wouldn't take that either, okay? I'm not saying just do sinful things, but 99% of your gifts are not meat sacrifices and idols where your brother's gonna be offended or like graven images or something, okay? So this would be my exceptions. But otherwise, we should be really good at receiving gifts, at taking a gift and saying thank you. That's my second point. Go to 1 Thessalonians 5. You know what the correct response is when someone offers you a gift? Thank you. Thank you. You say, should I argue with them? Say thanks. Should I, you know, wrestle with them for the check? Thank you. Should I beat them up about it and tell them, hey, you must be looking down on me and how dare you? Thank you. Hey, can I buy your dinner? Thank you. Yeah. Hey, I got this gift for you. Thank you very much. That should be the proper response. And now obviously, just as much as we understand that's what we should do, we still shouldn't put that expectation on other people. You can put that on your children because your children are supposed to obey you, but don't put that on other people. Don't hand them the gift and say, where's my thanks, buddy? You got something to say? You're gonna sell me something? No, you just give. But as a receiver, you should always, thank you. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. That's very kind of you. I like this. You know, maybe if it's something you really like, really compliment it. This is great. I can use this. I'm excited, thank you. I appreciate that you thought of me. This is how you receive gifts. This is how God wants you to treat him. We're talking about how God gives us all these gifts. You say, what am I supposed to do? Say thank you. God constantly wants you to say thanks. How do you say thanks? Well, if you read the book of Psalms, man, it's like thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks. God wants you to just literally pray and sing thanks to his name every day for all the great gifts that you give. That's what God demands. I'll read for you. Psalms 107, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Psalms 118 one, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, because his mercy endureth forever. Psalms 119 62, at midnight, I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. I could read a hundred more verses. We're supposed to constantly give thanks, sing praise unto his name, tell him how much we appreciate all the things that he gives us. Look at 1 Thessalonians five, verse 18. And everything, argue, complain, fight, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. You say, what does God want me to do when someone offers me a gift? Every time, say thanks. Now, what was the small, rare exception? Okay, it's ungodly. Sorry, I can't accept that. Sorry, that's not something that I could use. This is against the Bible, okay? I appreciate you giving me a gift, but I can't receive this. This is sinful to me, okay? So we see the importance, though, of saying thanks. Go to 1 Timothy chapter four, just a couple chapters forward. In 1 Corinthians 15, the Bible says, but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not going to hell, because I get the victory through God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and I should say thanks. We should constantly be thankful for the free gift of eternal life. The Bible says it's the unspeakable gift. It's so great a gift, we can't even, in words, describe how wonderful it truly is. Look at 1 Timothy four, verse four. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. Why do people pray before they eat? The Bible says you can eat anything if you receive with thanksgiving. We should always be thankful for what God gives us, the food that he gives us. It's sanctified. It says the food that you're about to eat, it literally gets sanctified by the word of God in prayer. So that meat sacrificed unto devils, well, when you're thankful to God for it, he's like, guess what? That's going to be a blessing unto you. I'm going to bless you with that meat. Go if you went back to Romans chapter number 12. So not only should you say thanks for the gifts that we are offered, but if you truly want to be a good receiver of gifts, if you truly want to go to the next level, you must use the gift that someone has given unto you. If you, let's say we go through the first two points. Someone says, hey, I want to give you this Bible, okay? What was the first step? Receive it. What was the second step? Thanks. They're going to be like, well, that was a bad gift. What if they just say thanks as they're putting it right in the trash? Someone gives you a card, a card for your birthday. You kind of do the one of these. Okay. And then you just throw it in the trash. You shake it out for the money. I mean, this is a bad way to receive a gift. And look, people will attack this with soul winning. Okay. They'll say, so you can just live however you want so to go to heaven? Technically, yes. If someone hands you a gift, you can throw it right in the trash. But is that a good thing to do with the gift that someone's given to you? You know what's a good thing to do? Use it. Hey, someone gave me this shirt. I'm going to put it on. Someone bought me a meal. I'm going to eat it. Someone just bought your dinner and you're not even going to eat what they just bought for you? That's not a good way to receive a gift. Look, use the gifts that God gives us. Look at Romans chapter 12, verse six again, it says having them gifts differing. Let's look at verse seven. Well, let's just keep reading verse six. According to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith or ministry. Let us wait in our ministering or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortation. He that giveth, let him do with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love and honor preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. God gives you gifts. What does he want you to do with that gift? He wants you to use it. Hey, I'm a great preacher. Okay, then use that gift and preach the Bible. Hey, I'm great at playing an instrument. I'm great at singing to the Lord. Then lift up your voice like a trumpet and sing praises unto his name. He likes that. He likes it when you come into church and you lift up your voice and you say thanks to God. God likes it. And if someone gives you a gift, use it. Hey, someone gave me this cool tool set. You know what makes that person feel really nice? When you build something with it and you tell them, man, I built this really cool thing. I use those tools you got me, they're great. That person's like, cool. I'm glad I got them that. I'm glad I got them this great gift that they're using. Children, if your parents give you a gift, they like it when you use it. They don't like it when you throw it in the trash and you ruin it and you don't use it the right way. If you wanna be a good receiver of a gift, use the gifts that are given to you. Go if you would to Luke chapter 10. So this is my last point. So what have you learned? We've learned a lot of different things. Learned it's important if you're gonna have a gift given to you to receive it, to say thanks, but most importantly, use it. Use the things that God's given you. Use the things that people bless you with. That makes them feel great about giving you a gift. And whatever you do, the Bible says to do it heartily as unto the Lord and not an amend. God's entrusted you with gifts this morning. I don't care who you are. Every single person in this room has a gift from God. My question is, how are you using it? Are you a good receiver of that gift that he gave you? Do you want more gifts from God? Why don't you use the gifts that he did give you? Look at Luke chapter 10, verse number 29. But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? So we have the story of the good Samaritan. He's gonna tell us about how the priest didn't wanna help him. Nobody wanted to help this guy that had been robbed and was, you know, naked. But look down at verse 34. And he went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him into an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence and gave them to the host, and said unto him, take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor on him that fell among the thieves. And he said, he that showed mercy on him, then said Jesus in him, go and do thou likewise. So when someone gives you a gift, not only should you receive it, not only should you say thank you, not only should you use it, but my belief and from the Bible is that you should not try to repay the person. If someone gives me a really nice gift, I'm not gonna give you something back. You say, I really wanna get Pastor Shelley something nice so he'll get me something nice. I'm just telling you right now, it's not gonna happen. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get somebody else something really nice. I'm gonna bless someone else. Take the gift that someone's given you and bless someone else with it. You know what cheapens a really good gift? Them trying to give you something back. You find a person, you're like, I like this person. They could really use this. I wanna just give them something. And then, you know, two weeks later, they just give you something back, equivalent amount of money. That wasn't your goal, that wasn't your intention, you had the right heart, but it still cheapens the gift that you gave them. Look, I give gifts to my children. I don't want them to try and figure out something to give me I just wanna bless them, because I just love my children. I love giving them things. I'm not looking to see what I can get out of it. I'm looking to help them. And you know what'd make me feel better? Is if they help somebody else. I bless them and then I see them bless somebody else. Wow, that's great. That's awesome. So guess what, I'm not gonna try and repay God for the gift of eternal life, because I can't. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go out and try to get somebody else saved. I'm gonna go out and use the salvation he gave me to bless other people with it. Now obviously we should be thankful, we should serve the Lord, but I'm saying I'm not doing it to try and repay him. I'm trying to do it to help other people. I'm trying to bless other people. And if someone gives you something really nice, bless somebody else. Use that to help somebody else. Do something for someone else. He's saying, look, this is what this guy did. The person he helped wasn't supposed to repay the Samaritan. He's supposed to find the next guy beat up and help him. Why don't you go and do likewise? Why don't you go and do and just help somebody that needs help? I said that was the last point. I had one more in my notes, all right? So not very far. Look at Luke 14, Luke chapter 14. Look at Luke 14, Luke 14. of the just. So my fourth point was the fact that when you get something, don't just give it back. But I said you should help others. The Bible says who you should help though, is people who you think there's no way they could ever repay me. Hey, here's somebody, I'm gonna bless them knowing there is no way they're gonna be able to help me back. There is no way they're gonna be able to repay it. And God says, guess what? I'll repay. I will be the one to help you out. So you're just doing it out of the kindness of your heart. And guess what? You're doing it by faith. You say, is that cheap in the gift knowing that God will give it to you? No, that's faith. Because have you seen God give you the gift yet? No, you're just trusting his promise. You're trusting the promises that God says, when you bless others, when you help the poor, I will exalt you in due time. I will give you your reward in due time. That's what true faith is. When you read something in the Bible, and you say, I believe that's true, I'm gonna do it. It's not you just making something up in your head. Some people just have this idea of faith as blind faith. They think, well, I just think, you know, if I just buy this guy a pack of cigarettes, you know, that'll just bless him. I think if I just go find the derelict street bum on the corner, and I give him five bucks out of my wallet, somehow that's gonna be good for him, or 50 bucks out of my wallet, or whatever. Not considering the cause of the poor, not considering the fact that this guy should be kicked in the rear and said, go get a job, you know, or arrested or something. I mean, that's terrible. There was a guy standing right next to the sign that says it's okay to say no to panhandlers. And he's just standing like right there, like still begging for money. Look, don't give money to panhandlers that are well able-bodied men. Don't do it. You're not getting the special reward. Where does the Bible say that? The Bible says if they wouldn't work, neither should they eat. But you know what? When you see someone that's poor, you say, this person can never help me. They could never repay me. But I just wanna bless them because God said he would bless me. That's putting your faith in God's word. So it's important, why? Because it's more blessed to give than receive. So you wanna be really good at receiving? Circles back to blessing by giving somebody else, by blessing someone else. We see the cycle of giving should be to others, not this reciprocal arrangement. That's what the heathen do. Isn't that what, I mean, people are gonna celebrate Christmases here. What are all they gonna do? Reciprocate presents with people they know can repay them. They're expecting something in return. It's not giving. It's not Christian. Christianity is giving a gift expecting nothing in return. Receiving the gifts that you're given, saying thank you, using them, and then blessing someone else. I would love it if that's what our culture was like. I would love it if in this church, that's what Christmas was like. That would get me excited. You know what'd not get me excited? If we all just had this like $25 sign-up sheet where we all just do a circle, buy each other a gift. That is not what the Bible teaches. That is not something that would get me excited. I don't want that. And if someone wants to bless somebody with a gift, follow what the Bible says. Do it in faith. And you say, I wanna get Pastor Shelley something really nice so that he'll give me something. It's never gonna happen. You can just take it to the bank. That is never gonna happen. And I expect nothing from anybody in this church ever. I don't want anything. It better be out of the kindness of your heart. I don't want anything. You don't have to give me or my wife anything. If I bless you with something, do not think, oh, I need to get Pastor Shelley something. What did I teach you? Bless somebody else. So if someone were to give you something from this church, don't think I need to bless them back. Bless somebody else. That's what the Bible teaches. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you so much for the great gifts that you give us. Thank you for being such a great giver, a great example of the free gift of eternal life only bought and paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that we would just receive that gift, that we would receive it with thanks, that we would use that gift, that we would not just try to repay it some weird way, but rather we would just bless others with it, that we know can't repay us, that won't be able to repay us, that we could just go out and preach your gospel with a cheerful heart, that we could bless others expecting nothing in return, knowing that you will recompense us in the end time. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.