Thanksgiving At Christmas Series

THANKSGIVING AT CHRISTMAS

“Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift.”

2 Corinthians 9:15

What Paul is sayIng here is that he cannot find the words to express how grateful he is for all that God did for him and the whole world when He sent His Son to be our Savior. One gospel song points to the blood Jesus shed for us to be forgiven and calls it God’s “I love you written in red.”

THE GIFT OF CHRIST

We are thankful, first, for the gift of Christ. Think of what this COST GOD. I have told my church members through the years that I might love them enough to die for them. I cannot say I would, because none of knows that. But I can say there is a possibility of it.

But I tell the I know I would never give the life of my child to die for them. I would never in a million years, watch one of them hang on a cross for them.

We don’t think much of how God suffered when His Son died. But He told Israel, in their afflictions He is afflicted.” (Isa. 63:9) In seminary, Dr. William Hendrix had an unusual slant on the words of Jesus on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

In East Texas, earlier that year an eight-year-old boy fell about forty feet down an old well. Rescuers could not get to him going straight down because the crumbling dirt walls might cave it. They began digging another hole about ten feet away from it. When they reached the right depth, they would dig a small opening towards the boy and pull him out.

We all watched on TV as the hours dragged on and darkness began to fall. The little boy kept crying for his “Mama” and “Daddy” to help him. They and the firemen kept looking down the well trying to calm him down and telling him to be still.

At times, the mother and the father, would turn away from the well and bury their faces in their hands and cry. Dr. Hendrix told us the cry of Jesus from the cross is interpreted in many ways. But, he said, “I believe God, like that mother and Father, did not abandon His Son, but turned away to weep”. Isaac Watts may have had this in mind when he wrote:

Well might the sun in darkness hide

And shut it glories in

When Christ the mighty Maker in

For man the creatures’ sin

Think of what it COST CHRIST. An early church hymn in Philippians two says, “He did not count equality with God, to be something to selfishly hold on to / but He emptied Himself and / as was born in the likeness of man.” (2:6-7)

Dr. R.G. Lee said He came down:

- from heaven’s adorations, to earth’s abominations

- from heaven’s coronation to earth’s curses

- from heaven’s glory place to earths gory place

- from heaven’s kisses to earth’s hisses

- from heaven’s songs to earth’s sneers

- from heaven’s crown of gold to earth’s crown of thorns

As an old hymn says:

Out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe

Only His great eternal love

Made my Savior go

THE GIFT OF CONVERSION

Growing up in Christian homes we are taught to do “Christian” things- go to church, give an offering, pray, etc. These, however do not make us Christians. Our parents make us do things like bathe. When we leave home we no longer have to bathe. We must choose to do it. The same is true of the Christian “things” we do. We must choose to do them. God does not have any grandchildren.

We must be converted and do things like this from the heart, because God wants us to. And this change from “me first” to “God first”; this conversion; this new birth (Jn. 3) is a gift from God. Jesus said, “No person comes to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent Me. (Jn. 6:44)

We must make Christ our PERSONAL Savior. We must go from believing Jesus died for everybody, which includes us, to being able to say with Paul, “I live by faith in the Son of God who loved ME and gave Himself for ME.” (Gal. 2:20).And the desire and opportunity to do thos is a gift from God.

1) God gives us the DESIRE to be saved. Romans 3:11 says “no one looks (searches) for God. We all think about God when we are in trouble and need help and when we are curious about who He is. But to us He is the “God” we know is out “there’ in the great “somewhere”. We don’t search for the true God of the Bible.