"Thanks Be To God For His Indescribable Gift!"

Xmas Day Talk

Reading: 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 15

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"

Alternative Bible translations render it:

• King James Bible:

• “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift”

• Message:

• “Thank God for this gift, his gift. No language can praise it enough!”

• New Living Translation:

• “Thank God for his Son--a gift too wonderful for words!”

• English Standard Version:

• “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”

• Contemporary English Version:

• “Thank God for his gift that is too wonderful for words!”

Question: What was your best Christmas Present ever?

Answer:

• I can honestly answer that;

• Last year I got the best present ever, a gift of a son! (Although ask me again in 15 yrs!)

Ill:

• When his uncle gave him the guitar, he was not too impressed,

• Yet the next time he saw him after the Xmas holidays he was full of enthusiasm.

“Thanks for the electric guitar you gave me for Christmas,

it's the best present I ever got."

• “That's great," said his uncle. "What made the difference, did you learn how to play it?"

• "Oh, I don't play it and that’s why it’s so great," replied the boy.

• The uncle puzzled asked him “What do you mean?”

• The boy answered:

"Well, My mom gives me a 50p not to play it during the daytime

and my dad gives me £1 a week not to play it at night”.

Reading: 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 15

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"

• In 2 Corinthians chapter 9,

• The Apostle Paul has been writing about human gifts.

• The church in Corinth is taking up offerings to give to the poor Christians in Jerusalem.

• He commends them for their eagerness to help, & reminds them;

“That those who sow sparingly will also reap sparingly,

but that those who sow generously will reap generously.”

Then he shifts his attention from human gifts to God’s gift of sending Jesus to earth for us.

• And he cannot find words to describe that.

• He simply says, "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift”.

• Or as the Contemporary English Version:

• “Thank God for his gift that is too wonderful for words!”

(1). A promised gift (Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14).

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel”.

ill:

• One stormy night in America;

• An elderly couple entered the lobby of a small hotel and asked for a room:

• The clerk said they were all booked up, the same as all the other hotels in town.

• Feeling sorry for them he said. “I can’t send a fine couple like you out in the rain,”

• “Would you be willing to sleep in my room?”

• The couple hesitated, but the clerk insisted.

The next morning when the man paid his bill, he said to the clerk,

“You’re the kind of man who should be managing the best hotel in the United States.

Someday I’ll build you one.”

• The clerk smiled politely.

• He was used to compliments and kind remarks but he knew they were only words.

A few years later the clerk received a letter from that elderly man:

• In it he recalled that stormy night and the clerks act of kindness;

• And he asked the clerk to come to New York.

• Also enclosed in the letter was a round-trip ticket.

• The clerk accepted the mans invitation and headed for new York.

• Soon after he had arrived in New York,

• His host took him to the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street,

• They both stood opposite a magnificent new building.

• “That,” explained the elderly man, “is the hotel I have built for you to manage.”

• The elderly man was William Waldorf Astor,

• And the hotel was the original Waldorf-Astoria.

• The young clerk was called George C. Boldt.

• And he became its first manager!

Christmas is a reminder that God keeps his word!

• I often say in my sermons that there are 7, 474 promises in the book,

• And none of them come with the words, “promises are meant to be broken!”

• God made a promise the devil after the fall in the Garden of Eden;

• Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 (C.E.V):

15You and this woman

will hate each other;

your descendants and hers

will always be enemies.

One of hers will strike you

on the head,

and you will strike him

on the heel."

And throughout the Old Testament: