This Christmas Season: Discovering the True Meaning of Gifts in Faith
The Word of the Week is "gift," a concept that holds profound significance in our faith. Pastor Josh explores the biblical understanding of gifts, focusing particularly on the ultimate gift of grace and salvation offered to us through Jesus Christ. He emphasizes that salvation is not something we earn; rather, it is a divine gift that we receive through faith. Additionally, the podcast highlights the importance of recognizing all good gifts in our lives as coming from God, encouraging listeners to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. As we approach the Christmas season, Pastor Josh invites us to reflect on how we can share the love and grace we have received with others, reinforcing the idea that it is better to give than to receive.
Reflecting on the theme of 'gift', Pastor Josh presents a compelling exposition on the significance of God's grace and the call to share it with others. The podcast emphasizes that the essence of Christian faith hinges on understanding salvation as a gift, not a reward for good works. By referencing Ephesians 2:8-9 and Romans 6:23, he elucidates the contrast between the wages of sin and the grace offered through Jesus Christ, drawing a vivid picture of the Christian’s relationship with God as one founded on love and generosity rather than obligation.
As the message unfolds, Pastor Josh encourages believers to embrace their identity as recipients of God's grace and to carry forth that grace into their communities. He articulates the importance of utilizing spiritual gifts, not merely for personal gain, but as tools for edification and outreach, thereby enriching the body of Christ. The podcast serves as a reminder that the act of giving reflects God's character. Pastor Josh places a particular emphasis on the Christmas season as an opportune time to practice this principle, urging listeners to translate their understanding of God's gift into tangible acts of kindness.
Listeners are left with a sense of purpose, challenged to rethink their approach to giving and receiving. The episode ultimately paints a picture of a community bound together by love, grace, and the shared mission of spreading the gospel—a community that recognizes the goodness of God in every gift and seeks to share that goodness with the world. This thoughtful exploration serves to deepen the listener's appreciation for the true meaning of the season and the ongoing call to live as givers in a world that deeply needs the light of Christ.
Takeaways:
- The greatest gift we can receive is the gift of grace and salvation through faith.
- Receiving God's gift of grace is not about our works but about His love.
- As Christians, we are called to use our spiritual gifts to serve others generously.
- Every good gift we have in life comes from God, reinforcing our need for gratitude.
- In the context of Christmas, we should focus on the gift of Jesus Christ.
- The message of the Gospel is the ultimate gift, offering eternal life to believers.
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This podcast is produced by Ralph Estep, Jr., host of the Ask Ralph Podcast, a daily podcast on Christian Finance you can find it at https://www.askralphpodcast.com/
00:00 - None
00:14 - Introduction to the Word of the Week
02:43 - Understanding the Gift of Grace
06:38 - The Gift of Salvation vs. The Wages of Sin
08:41 - The Gift of Grace
11:12 - The Greatest Gift Ever Given
Pastor Josh
Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
Pastor Josh
In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical words that have great significance to our faith.
Pastor Josh
The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are familiar with in scripture.
Pastor Josh
So come along with me.
Pastor Josh
Let's study the Word of the week.
Pastor Josh
Pastor Josh here.
Pastor Josh
The word of the week is gift.
Pastor Josh
Actually, we're going to say that this is the word of the month.
Pastor Josh
For the next few weeks, we're going to be looking at the word gift and how we can see in Scripture what it means to, number one, receive a gift of God, but also to be able to understand how we can give good gifts as God has given us gifts in our life.
Pastor Josh
And so we can see the word gift of throughout the Scriptures and the passage of scripture that comes to mind when it comes to the gift is Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9.
Pastor Josh
It says, for by grace are ye saved through faith.
Pastor Josh
So the Bible says that we are given grace.
Pastor Josh
And that word grace just means given something that we don't deserve, the gift of grace.
Pastor Josh
So it says, for by grace, that's God's grace, are ye saved?
Pastor Josh
So we're saved through the gift of grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
And it says that it's through faith.
Pastor Josh
And so the reason why we can receive this gift is our faith.
Pastor Josh
So we believe in the truth of God's word when it comes to the gospel, the truth of Jesus Christ, and when we believe, we receive that gift.
Pastor Josh
So for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
Pastor Josh
Meaning we didn't earn this.
Pastor Josh
Because you don't earn a gift.
Pastor Josh
It says it is not of yourselves.
Pastor Josh
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Pastor Josh
So the Bible tells us here that the most important gift that we can receive is the gift of grace, the gift of salvation.
Pastor Josh
And so certainly we could have people come into our church and we could say, hey, everyone, as you leave today, there's a gift waiting for you in the lobby.
Pastor Josh
Now, that gift is offered to all of the people in our service, but it would be those that would go and receive that gift that would be the beneficiaries of that gift in their life.
Pastor Josh
And so it's the same thing with the gift of grace.
Pastor Josh
God is extending that gift of grace to those that need it.
Pastor Josh
But yet it's through our faith that we are able to receive that gift.
Pastor Josh
So the greatest gift of God is given to us through the gospel message, the truth of the gospel.
Pastor Josh
There's another passage of Scripture that mentions that word gift.
Pastor Josh
It's in Romans, chapter six.
Pastor Josh
Romans, chapter six starts with the whole passage of Scripture dealing with God's grace and how we can understand that gift of grace.
Pastor Josh
And then we get to the very last verse.
Pastor Josh
There it says, for the wages of sin.
Pastor Josh
So we see a gift is something that we don't earn with our own works.
Pastor Josh
A gift is given to us, even though we might not even deserve that.
Pastor Josh
That's grace.
Pastor Josh
So he says, the wages.
Pastor Josh
So what?
Pastor Josh
What do we deserve?
Pastor Josh
What's the payment that we actually deserve?
Pastor Josh
Well, for all of us, that sin, which, you know, newsflash, that's all of us, right?
Pastor Josh
The Bible says for all of sin, they come short of the glory of God.
Pastor Josh
So it says, for the wages of sin is death.
Pastor Josh
The payment for sin.
Pastor Josh
The wages of sin is death, separation from God, spiritual death.
Pastor Josh
And we know that the Bible says that in and of ourselves, we cannot earn salvation.
Pastor Josh
We cannot earn the gift of grace.
Pastor Josh
It says, but.
Pastor Josh
And this is the second part of this verse, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Pastor Josh
And so it's essentially reiterating what's mentioned there in Ephesians chapter 2.
Pastor Josh
We can't earn our salvation.
Pastor Josh
We cannot pay for it.
Pastor Josh
We cannot get that gift in our own strength.
Pastor Josh
All we can do is come to, as it says here, through Jesus Christ, our Lord in faith.
Pastor Josh
And what do we receive?
Pastor Josh
Well, it's the gift of God.
Pastor Josh
Eternal life, salvation.
Pastor Josh
And so as we get into this Christmas season, as we come into the month of December, we're thinking about this phrase, gift of God.
Pastor Josh
Now, the greatest gift of God is the gift of salvation.
Pastor Josh
But we also know that as Christians, we are given gifts, spiritual gifts.
Pastor Josh
And we are called to use those spiritual gifts to encourage those that are in our fellowship at the church, to edify, to build up other believers.
Pastor Josh
We're called to use our spiritual gifts to encourage Christians and to evangelize the lost, to lead people to Christ.
Pastor Josh
So we are not given the gift to hoard to ourselves and to keep for our own pleasure, though there is benefit, benefits to having the gift of God's grace in our life, certainly eternal life and the blessings that come with that.
Pastor Josh
But we are also called to turn around and give that back to other people, though we can't offer the gift itself, we can bring people to the truth of God and we can explain to them what has been gifted to us.
Pastor Josh
And so therefore, we can use the gift of grace in our life as an opportunity to treat people with the love of God, to serve people as God has served us.
Pastor Josh
And we know that through these passages of Scripture in the New Testament, that as the church, we are called to serve others.
Pastor Josh
We are called to love others.
Pastor Josh
We are called to demonstrate all those things that God has given to us, to other people around us.
Pastor Josh
And so, really, I want you to think about those two verses, Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8.
Pastor Josh
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
Pastor Josh
It is a gift of God, your salvation.
Pastor Josh
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ and you have everlasting life, if you have put your faith in him, you have the gift of grace.
Pastor Josh
You have been gifted something that cannot be bought you, you have been gifted something that cannot be earned.
Pastor Josh
You are a beneficiary of the love of God.
Pastor Josh
And so therefore, it's not your good works, it's God's good work that you are trusting in for salvation.
Pastor Josh
So you have that gift if you are a believer in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
And in contrast to that gift, what do we earn?
Pastor Josh
Well, Romans, chapter 6, verse 23.
Pastor Josh
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Pastor Josh
So I wanted to, as we get started in this month of looking at that Word gift, I wanted us to start thinking about the framework or the context in which we have received this gift and how we share the truth of this gift to other people.
Pastor Josh
So God gives us in eternal life, God gives us with salvation, but God gives us with a lot of other things in our life.
Pastor Josh
So God has come to give us life and life more abundantly.
Pastor Josh
Sometimes the perception is that, well, you know, God saved me, but now my life is miserable in him.
Pastor Josh
And that's not the case.
Pastor Josh
That's actually the opposite.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says that after we're saved, though it doesn't mean that we're going to live perfect lives or lives that are completely smooth with no issues.
Pastor Josh
But we are gifted things in our life.
Pastor Josh
James Chapter 1, verse 17 says, Every good gift, there's our Word again.
Pastor Josh
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Pastor Josh
So the Bible tells us that every good thing that we have in our life, starting with salvation and following in every other area of our life, anything that we can point to and say, that's a good gift, that's a good thing in my life, that comes from God.
Pastor Josh
And so that brings us back to what we looked at last week.
Pastor Josh
Thankfulness, right?
Pastor Josh
If I look at my life in the framework of my own works, I deserve what the wages of sin is, death.
Pastor Josh
I deserve nothing.
Pastor Josh
That's a hard thing to say in our society today because our society teaches you deserve everything, get what you can.
Pastor Josh
And so biblically speaking, what do we deserve in our own works, in our own character, in our own flesh?
Pastor Josh
This is hard to take in, but biblically speaking, we deserve nothing.
Pastor Josh
So when we receive the gift of grace, when we receive these blessings from God, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.
Pastor Josh
It's from God.
Pastor Josh
So we give him thankfulness, we give him praise, we give him service, we give him love.
Pastor Josh
Why?
Pastor Josh
Because he first loved us.
Pastor Josh
And so to think about it from that perspective is I don't deserve this.
Pastor Josh
I have received this wonderful, amazing gift and now I need to live that way.
Pastor Josh
I need to live with that expectation of the goodness of God.
Pastor Josh
I need to live with that attitude of gratitude.
Pastor Josh
I need to live with the joy of being a gift receiver.
Pastor Josh
Yes, but also a gift giver.
Pastor Josh
We even know in the New Testament it says it's better to give than receive, right?
Pastor Josh
So we have received a gift.
Pastor Josh
Now what do we do with that gift?
Pastor Josh
We don't keep it to ourselves.
Pastor Josh
We tell other people about that gift.
Pastor Josh
And so that's what we're going to be talking about here this month.
Pastor Josh
For the next few weeks through the month of December, we're going to look at the elements of God's gift to us, God's gift through us, and how we can share the love and the forgiveness of the Gospel to those around us here in this season and really year round.
Pastor Josh
So hope that you can join me in this series here in the month of December.
Pastor Josh
We've got this week and then we have next week, the next week.
Pastor Josh
And then Christmas will be our last message here for the gift.
Pastor Josh
So we actually have 1, 2, 3, 4 different gift word of the weeks that you can follow along with us this month.
Pastor Josh
And I hope that you can.
Pastor Josh
I hope that this can be a wonderful season of Thanksgiving, a wonderful season of understanding the gift of God and just a time in which we can really focus on the greatest gift.
Pastor Josh
And we know that God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten son.
Pastor Josh
That's John 3:16.
Pastor Josh
It's the gift is Jesus.
Pastor Josh
The gift is his sacrifice for us.
Pastor Josh
And so he did that out of his love.
Pastor Josh
We give gifts to people because we love them.
Pastor Josh
We give things to people because they mean something to us.
Pastor Josh
And so God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten Son.
Pastor Josh
And those who believe in him will not perish.
Pastor Josh
But what will they have?
Pastor Josh
They'll have everlasting life, which ties right into what Romans chapter 6, verse 23 said.
Pastor Josh
The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Pastor Josh
So come along with us as we look at the greatest gift ever given.
Pastor Josh
And that is the gospel, the truth of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Josh
Well, we look forward to hearing from you.
Pastor Josh
We look forward to coming back to you next week with another Word of the Week looking at this term gift.
Pastor Josh
And I pray that God can clearly demonstrate to you and you can receive that gift of grace as a believer here today.
Pastor Josh
So hope that you join us for this month.
Pastor Josh
God bless you.
Pastor Josh
Have a wonderful week.
Pastor Josh
We will talk to you soon.
Pastor Josh
Hey, I really appreciate that you listened to the Word of the Week podcast.
Pastor Josh
If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church, Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us on Facebook or YouTube.
Pastor Josh
Or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org you can contact me directly at Josh massaro@middletownbaptistchurch.org.
Pastor Josh
stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper into words that impact our life according to scripture.
Pastor Josh
Thank you so much.
Pastor Josh
God Bless.
Pastor Josh
We'll talk to you soon.
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