Date Preached: Dec 14, 2014
Church: Oak Park BC (2014)
FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS
Title: God is the Great Gift Giver!
Text: Luke 1:5:25
ETS: God gave a great gift to Zach and Liz!
ESS: TODAY! God has a great gift for YOU!
Objective: I want the listeners to hear & know God has a great gift for them in the person of Jesus Christ!
Introduction
Who wants a gift this morning? [hold up/show Sam’s Shopping Passes] Now I am going to give out three gifts to 3 people this morning, but because I am giving them, I get to choose how I give them and to whom I give them to…
First of all, I am NOT going to give it to a guy… so guys, I’m sorry but you do not qualify for any of these gifts!
2nd I am only going to give it to people who are sitting in these front two sections of the church, so sorry about that...if you are a back row Baptist you lose out on this gift.
Finally, I am going to give these gifts to someone who has a name that begins with… [pick 3 people and use their names as guides for how you give out the gifts] …
We ALL just LOOOOVVVEEEEE getting gifts, right? Wasn’t that fun? Let me ask you something thought, were you upset how I came to my decision on who to give the gift to?
Have you ever made a choice to give a gift to ONE person and NOT to another? Have you ever segregated people for where they live, how they dress or who they were…
Now I want us to think about the giving of gifts and think about it from a spiritual perspective… I want us to realize that God is the great gift giver and He decides who receives His gifts… but the wonderful thing is that He has said He wants to give it to all the world.
In James 1:17 (ESV) we read: 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Basically what James is saying is that God is the greatest gift giver EVER! ALL of His gifts are PERFECT!
During this time of the year, we hear so many stories and sermons about Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the manger… and I want you to know that I believe that is GREAT because the focus of this season IS Jesus!
However, I do not want us to miss some other really interesting stories from the Bible that directly relate to the Christmas story of Jesus.
Now we have read this morning how God is the great giver of gifts, so today, I want us to look at a great story about how God gave a great gift… and how God chose to give His gift… and finally how God has a great gift for YOU today as well!
Read the passage Luke 1:5-25 (ESV)
In reading this passage, I see many things that Luke wanted to communicate to his readers. In this particular story, we find at least 4 ways that God’s giving of a gift goes against the grain of how the world MAY look at giving gifts!
First we will see how God chooses to give His gift to someone society did not believe was worthy of God’s love…
Second we can see that God’s gift always comes in His perfect timing… so often we want our gift and we want it NOW
Third we can see that regardless of what others may think…God knows what is the best gift. So often we want to TELL God what we want…
Lastly, God’s gift may not be what we expect, but we should praise Him because He is the great gift giver and ALL of His gifts are perfect and good!
1. God Gives His Gifts to THOSE deemed unworthy by this world...
v.7 reads: …But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
The people in this story were NOT considered to be worthy… instead they were pitied and considered cursed by God!
The reason was that they did not have any children and Elizabeth was not able to have children! Even in their own town, they were outcasts!
Even though Z was a faithful priest and Elizabeth a faithful servant of God… they were considered to be cursed, but yet… God still chose to give them a wonderful gift!
In fact, we look at the Bible we can see that throughout all Scripture God is giving to people from all walks of life! Many times we don’t or can’t understand His choices or His gifts but still God gives!
In this we find Z and Elizabeth being blessed by God’s gracious gift even though the Bible says they were old and advanced in years
What does this tell us? It tells us that God gives and continues to give all throughout our lives… Do you that you are NEVER too old to receive a gift from God? However, we have to understand that God’s gift to Elizabeth and Zach was a gift that He gave them for them to put into use in the Kingdom of God!
They understood & submitted to God’s plan for that… But my dear Oak Park members… I have heard SO MANY of you say that you are just too old to serve God! You have been gifted by God with redemption and talent to share that redemption but you refuse to put it to work for His kingdom…
Many of you THINK you are past your time of service… that you are too old to be gifted by God! OR even worse, you may have the thought that you are retired from Christian services…that you put in your time and now you can take a break from serving God!
I want you to know that this is a LIE straight from Satan… He wants you to you’re too old…that age matters
Satan WANTS you to believe that you have nothing to contribute to God’s kingdom…
But I want you to know that it doesn’t matter how old you are, God still can and will gift us with His power and grace… and I know that He is still calling YOU to serve Him and that you are NEVER too old to work in the Kingdom!
Zach and Elizabeth may have had some doubts about God’s promise… They MAY have thought they were too old to serve as parents…but I want us to look at their actions! Their actions reveal to us that they were going to serve God NO matter what age… that they were focused on serving and not on their age!
God chooses to gift those in this world that the world believes is unworthy… But God gives to WHOM He chooses and as the Great Giver of Gifts he also gives gifts that come at the perfect time!
2. The Timing of God's Gift is perfect and patience is req’d.
I want us to take a look at v6 in this passage.
6And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.
We can see that both Z and Elizabeth were righteous people before God. We can see that their entire life revolved around them walking in God’s commandments!
What we can also see here are two servants of God who were patient in their service to God! The found their joy IN serving God, not in what God could give to them!
They did not look to the ‘greener’ grass on the other side of the fence, but instead they waited on God for His blessing. They had been praying for His blessing and they were waiting patiently, but while they were waiting, they served with joy!
Now we have to understand something here… In the 1st century if a couple was advanced in their years and they had no children… this would have been the time to panic!
There could NOT have been a time where there was probably an urgent sense of desperation, but when we read this, we just don’t see it…do we? Why? Because they found their joy in their service to God!
They patiently waited on God to act and unlike some others in Scripture they made the willful choice to NOT try to act FOR God. In v13 the angel tells Zech…
3But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
Their prayers had been heard and God was going to answer them! They were going to be blessed with the gift of a child!
He and Eliz. had been so patient and now they knew that God was going to bless them with the gift of a son.
So often we just need to be patient with God and know that He is going to give us what we need WHEN we need it! We must always trust in Him to provide for us and we know that He is the giver of gifts!
But so many times we want to try to rush God in getting whatever it is He has for us… God’s gift is always going to come at the perfect time!
Here in our story we find that God’s gift to Eliz and Zach was a son… and that son was being given at the perfect time! God is the gift giver that gives to those who the world may NOT think is worthy… God is the gift giver that gives His gifts at the perfect time… but more than this…
3. God's gift is greater than we can ever imagine.
13…the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. 16And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
The angel was telling them that their son was going to bring joy & gladness & that many would rejoice because of him!
Their son would be great in the sight of God.
Their son would be set apart by God for something special...
Their son is called by God and filled with the Holy Spirit from birth…
Their son will be the cause of MANY turning many back to God because he is going to introduce the Messiah!
He will be the messenger that preceeds the Messiah.
He will be seen in the same light as Elijah.
He will be the cause of many families being reconciled. "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children".
He will be the cause of many disobedient Israelites turning to the wisdom of God.
He will be used by God to prepare the way for the Savior of the world!
Let me ask you the question tonight…Have you ever wondered what your children will do when they leave home? Or if they have left home, have you ever sat and looked at their accomplishments?
We all want our children to succeed in life, we all want them to serve God to their fullest, and this is just what Zack and Eliz. Wanted…
Their desire was to have a child, but they wanted him to serve God too! (they were both from a line of priests) God answered their prayers in a big way.
What a gift to parents. What a joy to know, in advance of what you child is going to do in life. This was an answer to their prayers, in a BIG way!
They could have never imagined how incredible God’s gift was going to be!
Most of the time, when we are living our lives and going through the daily routine we have in our lives… we have NO IDEA what God has in store for us!
We don’t know the blessings and joys that we can experience… but that only comes from total and complete submission to His will.
Zach and Eliz were willingly submitted all the way to God's will. They were doing what God required and they were joyful in their service, even when it seemed as if God was ignoring them and their prayers!
God’s gift comes to those willing to serve, and it comes in the perfect time! He is NEVER too late… Mary and Martha told Jesus that he was TOO late, but still their brother was saved! People when God is 4 days late… He is still on time! His timing in giving His gifts is a perfect timing…
Total submission to God's requires us to serve God to please and honor him! Are you willing to submit yourself as Elizabeth and Zach submitted themselves to service to God? Are you willing to patiently serve, even when it seems as if God is not listening?
Finally this morning… we may not understand the nature OR the timing of God’s gifts, but He is the perfect gift giver & we must trust & praise Him for it!
People might not understand, but we must praise God for what he does.
18And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, & my wife is advanced in years.” 19the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, & I was sent to speak to you & to bring you this good news. 20behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21the people were waiting for Zechariah, & they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, & they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. he kept making signs to them & remained mute. 23when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. 24After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, & for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25“Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
During this time, most Israelites had forgotten the prophets. They were just a fading memory in the conscious of the nation.
To view the prophets one had to look back almost 400 years to see the prophets of Scripture. They also looked back to see the Law.
The angel that visited Zach was in fact issuing in a new prophetic age. The age of the Messiah or the MESSIANIC age.
To introduce this new age to the people God provided a messenger to bring the message of the coming Messiah! Their son was to be that forerunner.
We see Zach and Elizabeth are two people from priestly backgrounds. While Zach was a priest who would be called upon to perform duties within the Temple, Elizabeth was from the line of Aaron, the first "priest" in the nation. This was important, as the Bible reveals that these two people were blameless.
Most Israelites did not have a full understanding about the afterlife, in fact many believed that they could only become immortal through their children! They believed that they could secure a legacy thru having MANY children. This is why many families in Israel had many, many children.
So, if you did not have children, it was thought that God was somehow punishing you for something. It was believed that you, more than likely had sin in your life, and God was preventing you from having children.
However, in this story we find two people who are declared righteous, not just in the eyes of man, but even in the eyes of God. Scripture does not say they were perfect, but they were living the kind of life that God desired for them to live.
We know that they were old. Zach believed his wife was too old to have a baby, but she did. God provided the wonderful gift of a son at time in life when all seemed hopeless. God did the work that humanity thought to be impossible to do.
Zach and Elizabeth were living their lives for God, they were not living their lives for someone else. Like them, we cannot live our lives as if though God did not exist, but we must focus on what God has called us to do…
First, I believe we ALL must be thankful for what we do have and not complain about what we don't have.
2nd we must rejoice in what God gives and when He gives it… we must remember that He is the Giver of Gifts and His gifts are perfect and right on time!
This morning you may think that you have rec’d all you can get from God and you are just waiting for Him to call you home…
This morning you may think that your days of service in God’s kingdom are FAR behind you…
You may think that God has forgotten you… that He has NOT heard or is NOT listening to your prayer!
You may be praying for a miracle and you think that God just isn’t there…
I am here this morning to tell you that God IS there and God is listening! God is there and God is listening and God has a plan! His plan in perfect and the gift He will bring into your life is the best gift you could ever receive and it is going to come at the perfect time!
This morning you may not know what God has to give to you? You may be confused about what gift God wants to give… The answer is simple… God has already given his gift… [read John 3:16 here]
For God so loved the world…HE GAVE!!! God is the greatest GIVER ever and His gifts are both perfect and eternal!
This morning you can know about AND receive His gift… you can have what God wants to give you! DO you want to have what God wants to give?
As Bro Kyle comes to lead us… I call on you to step out from where you are standing and come to these steps and pray… pray with me, pray with Wren… pray kneeling by yourself, but do NOT allow the enemy to convince you to NOT come down!
Step out and come down… step out and surrender to Him this morning… PRAY…
