There's No Gift without the GIVE

Join us December 25th for
Christmas Sunday 9:30a & 11:30A
at The Kingdom Center

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son…”

Galatians 4:4

It is at this time of the year that we begin to focus our attention on the GIFT that God the Father has given us in the gift of His son.  It’s only natural for us to focus on the GIFT, the greatest gift ever given to mankind, JESUS!  It is because of Jesus that the redeemed of the Lord can “say so”. Jesus, the Son, is the GREAT GIFT, but this year I want to focus your attention on the Father and “The Great Give”.

Everything that God has done for us in the person of Christ started with the GIVE.  Everything that God has done in my life started with THE GREAT GIVE.  My salvation and my healing all started with the give.  My JOY and my PEACE all started with the GIVE.
There is no GIFT without the GIVE.  We could not celebrate the gift of Jesus without the give of the Father.  It was the willingness of the Father to give that made the gift available to “all who would believe”.  It confounds my mind to think that it was love that moved Him to give.  He gave because He LOVED.  When we give because we love the HARVEST is supernatural. The GIVE has the power to start something in my life.

This Christmas we are going to get caught up in “THE GREAT GIVE”. We are going to allow love to fuel our give.  Our give has the power to start something in our lives!

The Value of the Gift is Decided By What Remains

Join us December 25th for
Christmas Sunday 9:30a & 11:30A
at The Kingdom Center

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

We are conditioned, at this time of year, to focus on gifts.  We are buying gifts for those in our lives that are special to us, and we are celebrating the Father’s GIFT of Jesus.  Jesus, the Son, is the GREAT GIFT, but this year,I want to focus your attention on the Father and “The Great GIVE.

The Father’s gift was a “weighty” gift.  It had weight because this wasn’t something - this was EVERYTHING!  It’s easy to give something.  Everyone can give something.  It’s something else entirely to give EVERYTHING.  God the Father gave everything, and because the gift had weight the GIVE had weight too.  The weightier the GIFT, the weightier the GIVE.  When the GIVE carries weight, it moves the dial on the HARVEST.

The weight of the GIVE is determined by the value of the GIFT.  When the gift is valuable, the give is weighty.  The value of the gift is not determined by what you have, but by what you have left.  In Mark 12, the widow who sowed “two mites” did not impress Jesus nor catch His attention because of how much she sowed.  She caught His attention with WHAT SHE HAD LEFT.

There were others who had sowed MORE, but they had much more left.  She had GIVEN ALL THAT SHE HAD!  When God sowed His Son, it was His ONLY Son.  He had nothing left.

I wonder how differently we would give if we weighed our gifts by WHAT WE HAD LEFT?  This year we are going to gather as a spiritual family on Christmas Sunday morning, December 25th, and we are going to worship God in our GIVING.  I want us to weigh the GIFT not by how much it is, but by what we have left.  I want you to consider THE FATHER’S GREAT GIVE as you consider what you and your family will sow this Christmas. Join us at The Kingdom Center on Sunday, December 25th at 9:30 am or 11:30 am.

The gap between my present circumstances and my promise. 

Join us December 25th for
Christmas Sunday 9:30a & 11:30A
at The Kingdom Center

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” 

John 3:16

 
For several weeks I’ve been talking about THE GREAT GIVE as we get ready for our Christmas offering.  Man had a sin problem, and our sin problem had created a GAP between us and God.  There was no way for us to negotiate the gap between God and man, until the Father GAVE.
 
It was the Father’s willingness to GIVE that filled the GAP.  The gap between us and God caused by sin could not be reconciled until the Father gave.  Now there was a way back to relationship.  Now there was a way back to salvation and to healing.  The Father’s GIFT filled the GAP!
 
Each of us are negotiating our own “gaps” today.  Your gap may look a little different than mine, but nevertheless we are all dealing with our own gaps.  The biggest one we all have is the gap between where we are and the promise and purpose that God has for our lives.  The gap between my present circumstances and my promise.  The gap between wanderer to wonder!
 
What you give is what fills in the gap.  As you consider what you are going to give on Christmas Sunday, I want you to identify the gap that you are negotiating.  I want you to know that it is the GIVE that will fill in the GAP!  Worship with us at The Kingdom Center on Sunday, December 25th at 9:30 am or 11:30 am for our special Candlelight Christmas Communion services.