The Indescribable Gift

THE INDESCRIBABLE GIFT

2 Cor. 9:15

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. Ruby Popp told about a friend of hers who took her son Danny on trip to see Santa Claus.

2. Then he climbed up onto St. Nick’s lap and shared his wish list. Later that day, in another store, there was Santa again.

3. Santa asked, "And what would you like for Christmas?" He asked Danny.

4. Shaking his head, Danny sighed. "You really need to write these things down." [Reader’s Digest, Dec. 2012, p.20]

B. TEXT & THESIS

1. “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” 2 Cor. 9:15.

2. In 2 Cor. 9, Paul at first is writing about human gifts. The church in Corinth was taking up offerings to give to the poor Christians in Jerusalem. He commended them.

3. Then Paul shifted his attention from human gifts to God's gift of sending Jesus to earth for us. And he couldn't find words to describe that. He simply had to say, "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"

4. Why does Paul call Jesus "indescribable?" I think there are at least three reasons:

I. BECAUSE OF THE COSTLINESS OF THE GIFT

A.GOD HAS GIVEN US MANY GIFTS

1. SALVATION -- is called a gift (Eph. 2:8-9),

2. HOLY SPIRIT -- is called a gift (Acts 2:38),

3. SPIRITUAL GIFTS -- are called ‘gifts’(1 Tim. 4:14).

4. But the BEST GIFT is God's own Son!

5. If God had sent an Angel -- it would've been a great gift. If God had sent one son out of many, it would've been an incredible gift. But for God to send His only Son –

that was an indescribable gift!

6. One man's daughter got caught up in the excitement of gifts and giving. She picked up a discarded bow, placed it on her head and said, "Look at me, daddy! I'm a present!" Her dad solemnly considered it -- how true!

B. WHAT CHILD IS THIS? Architect of the universe.

1. “The One in the beginning (John 1:2-3), who fashioned the Sun and heated it to 35,000,000°F to govern the day. The One who molded a cold, shining ball 2160 miles in diameter to govern the night.

2. The One who also made the stars -- 100 billion of them in the Milky Way and hundreds of billions more in 100 million other galaxies.

3. JESUS. He spoke six sextillion, 588 quintillion short-tons of elements into existence and called it ‘Earth.’ Then He set its footing and "laid its cornerstone -- while the morning stars sang together and all the Angels shouted for joy" (Job 38:6-7).

4. He shut up 132 million square miles of seas behind their doors. He entered the storehouses of the snow and hail and went to the places where lightning is dispersed and the east winds are scattered over the Earth.

5. Then one day this Almighty God compressed himself down to a divine cell and fused with the ovum of a Jewish teenager.” [Dan Betzer]. In Jesus – is Undiminished Deity; perfect humanity. Immanuel -- God with us.

6. Bishop Cyril, "For although visible and a child in swaddling clothes, and even in the bosom of His Virgin Mother, He filled all Creation as God and was a fellow ruler with Him who begat Him for the Godhead is without quantity and dimension and cannot have limits."

7. God gave His best! There's no greater gift to us? God emptied the treasuries of heaven. There's no more costly/precious gift than God's own Son. It was God's loss, "He who did not withhold his own Son." Romans 8:32. God "gave him up."

II. BECAUSE OF THE RECIPIENTS OF THE GIFT

A. WE GIVE GIFTS BC THE RECIPIENTS HAVE A CLAIM ON US

1. I'll buy a gift for my wife because she is my wife. I'll buy gifts for my children because they're my children. You'll do the same.

2. Now if I buy a gift for you and you’re not in my family, it's probably because you bought a gift for me last year or I feel owe you one this year.

3. If I give a gift to feed the hungry, or clothe the naked or to take care of the homeless, I do it because deep down inside I recognize that I have a debt to humanity, a feeling of obligation to them.

B. JOKE: MOST PRACTICE SELF-INTEREST

1. A man was having trouble getting his neighbor to keep his chickens fenced in. The neighbor kept talking about chickens being great creatures, and as such they had the right to go where they wanted.

2. The man was having no luck keeping the chickens out of his flower beds, and he had tried everything.

3. Two weeks later, a visiting friend noticed his flower beds were doing great. The flowers were beginning to bloom.