God's Unspeakable Gift | Part 1

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Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.

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It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.

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Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.

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And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.

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Turn with me this morning, if you would, to Second Corinthians, chapter nine.

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And I just want to draw your attention to verse 15, one verse as we start out here this morning, Second Corinthians, chapter 9, and verse 15, where it says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

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Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

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Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.

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I couldn't get away from that verse when I was reading through Second Corinthians, chapter nine, reading through Second Corinthians, and I came across that verse and thinking about Christmas, and I thought, what a wonderful verse to bring in in a Christmas message.

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In this chapter, the Apostle Paul is admonishing the church in Corinth to make sure that they've collected the gift that was to be sent to the Christians in Jerusalem.

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He reminds these Christians at Corinth in verse seven that they must decide in their hearts how much that they will give.

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And he also reminds them, we're very familiar with this verse, that God loves a what kind of giver.

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A cheerful giver.

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Actually, that word cheerful means a hilarious giver.

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A.

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A cheerful giver I love.

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That reminds them in verses 8 through 11, that they, when they give, that God will supply even more to them to give, not to lavish upon themselves, but so that they might be a vessel through whom God may use to supply even more to other Christians, other believers, other people with needs.

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And then he goes on to say in verses 12 and 13 that several things will result from their giving.

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The needs of believers in Jerusalem will be met.

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That is, all the Christians there, they had.

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They were very poor.

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And they will be helping the needs of all these Christians in Jerusalem be met.

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They also will joyfully express their thanks to God and glorify him for meeting their needs.

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So it will bring them to a point of glorifying God and thanking God for all he has done for them.

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And also it will lead these Christians in Jerusalem to begin to pray for them because of all of their generosity.

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But as Paul closes this chapter, he gives us not a command, but an exclamation, a spontaneous shout, we might say a doxology.

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In one verse, Paul moves from the theology of giving to the doxology of grace.

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He is so overwhelmed by the goodness and the generosity and the grace of God that he says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

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This verse has been described by some as an eight word Christmas hymn.

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I think that speaks well of what it says.

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Handel Brown called it the theme song of Christianity.

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And from this verse I want to take a few minutes this morning as we enter into this Christmas season, as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, to share with you several thoughts this morning.

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I believe in this verse we see a gracious giver.

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We see also a glorious gift, and then we see the gratitude that's given.

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So I want to look at each one of those from this verse this morning.

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First we'll focus the gracious giver, the giver of this unspeakable gift that's mentioned twice in this verse and the giver of this gift.

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It says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

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That is, God is the one who has given this unspeakable gift.

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In verse seven, we read, every man according as he purposes in his heart.

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So let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity.

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For God loves, as I said a while ago, a cheerful, hilarious giver.

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That which God commands, that which God admires and requires of us, he does himself.

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God is the original gracious, cheerful giver.

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And I think, when I think of that, and I was meditating upon this, I thought first, God has the ability to give.

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And I thought about his ability.

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The Bible often reminds us that nothing is too hard for God, that nothing is impossible with God in the Christmas story.

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In fact, in Luke chapter one, when the angel comes to Mary and tells her that she will have a son conceived by the Holy Spirit, he says, for with God, nothing shall be what church.

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Nothing shall be impossible.

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You know, there are gifts that I would like to lavish upon my wife at Christmas.

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One of the things she would love to do, we've talked about and dreamed about doing one day, is to go to Italy.

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How many of you ever been to Italy before?

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Should we go?

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Some of you are nodding your heads, but it's been kind of a dream to us to go to Italy.

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And because we're very romantic at heart, we teach on marriage.

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We talk about romance all the time.

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We thought that would be a wonderful, romantic place to.

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And one day I would love to do that.

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But right now we don't have the ability to do that.

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I don't have the funds to do that.

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Another thing I would lavish on my wife at Christmas this year is the healing of the headaches that she's had for the last year.

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She's had continual headaches almost for about a year.

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And she's getting help with that.

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But if I could, if I had the ability, I would want to heal her of those headaches.

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How many can relate to someone, you know, maybe yourself, that you would like to see healing occur?

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I thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if I had the ability to take us to Italy?

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Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could heal her Now?

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I can't do that, but I know someone who can.

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I know someone who owns all the cattles and all the hills of this earth.

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I know someone who owns everything.

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Our means and ability is limited by who we are.

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But God's not limited.

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God is able to do, folks what we cannot do.

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God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly.

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Above all, we could even ask or even think.

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But not only when I think about God as a gracious giver do I think about his ability.

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I think about his awareness.

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At Christmas, we select gifts for people without any real awareness of what they really need.

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We often search for that.

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What perfect gift.

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What is that perfect gift?

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I mean, my boys for the last three or four weeks are texting me, what does Mama need?

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Dad, what do you want now?

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I told my oldest son last week, I said, now, I just visited you a couple months ago and you had a brand new peloton, son.

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That's what I'd like to have.

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Could you get me a peloton?

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Some of y'all will think, what in the world are you talking about?

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Exercise bike.

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It's about $4,000, you know, something like that.

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He said, dad, I don't think I can do that this year, you know, but they're texting us because they're really not aware of what we really need.

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They want to get us something that we would really like, but they're not really aware of what that really might be.

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And all of us can relate to this.

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We're trying to find our husband what he wants, our wife what he wants, our children what they want.

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And we're really not aware of what they really.

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I believe this is reflected in a song we often sing at Christmas.

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Y'all know this song called the Twelve Days of Christmas.

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On the first day of Christmas.

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I'm not going to try to sing this.

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My true love gave to me A partridge in a pear tree I never asked for a partridge in a pear tree what in the world do you do with a partridge in a pear tree?

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Then he goes on to list some of the most bizarre gifts that you can imagine.

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Two turtle doves, three French hens.

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What in the world Six geese a laying.

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I don't need those.

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Seven swans, a swimming eight maids, a milking.

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I don't have any cows.

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Ending with 12 drummers drumming and a partridge in a pear tree.

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And these are gifts that are to most of us very listen.

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Very useless.

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What in the world do you do with this stuff?

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But we sing this song.

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But listen, folks, let me say this morning, God's gift is not like that.

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He knows exactly what we need.

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God's gift perfectly fits the nature and need of the one to whom it is given.

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It reflects the perfect awareness of a very gracious giver.

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In each season of my life, as I will turn next month, 64 years old, those seasons are.

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I'm going through all these different seasons.

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I really find comfort, significance, strength and love in Christ that is beyond what I could have ever imagined or what I ever could have dreamed or experienced before.

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He is aware of my need.

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And my name was on the package before I even realized I needed it.

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I thank God for that.

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God has great ability and God has great awareness in his giving.

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But also, when I think of God as a gracious giver, I don't think of just his ability and just his awareness, but I think about his affection.

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His affection as a giver.

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You know, many gifts are given at Christmas to others only because others are giving gifts to you.

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We set a price limit and we swap gifts up to that certain price limit.

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Our gifts are often not necessarily affectionate gifts, but giving only because it's the time of year to do it or to give.

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But God's gift is given solely and exclusively because he loves you and I.

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Listen, folks.

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God is rich in mercy and God is rich in grace.

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His generosity is not based on him receiving anything in return.

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Think about it.

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Even though God has been unworshiped, unserved, unloved and deeply and greatly sinned against, he still has given us this unspeakable gift.

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And I want you to notice something here, when I was looking at this, that this giving transaction involves three people.

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Really.

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We might say there is a gift, the gift is a person, the giver is a person, and the recipient is a person.

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I don't know if you've noticed that.

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If you think about it, all of them are persons.

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A giver is a person.

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Listen.

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The gift is a person and the recipient is a person.

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This suggests, from God's standpoint, the most valuable Gift, listen, that can possibly ever be given has personal value.

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We often regard material values as the most important gift.

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We highly esteem houses and land and cars and clothes and electronic trinkets.

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But we neglect the greatest gift that could be given.

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Let me give you an illustration of what I mean.

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Suppose I was thinking on this.

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Suppose there's a very, very wealthy guy who lives in a very large mansion.

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And this mansion is a very palatial mansion.

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I mean, it's a very, very beautiful, beautiful mansion.

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But in the mansion there's also an infant baby boy that belongs to the owner and his wife.

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And suppose that one day while the man is at work downtown in his very extravagant office downtown that the phone rings and he picks up the phone to receive the call and on the end of the line the housekeeper is screaming, sir, sir, come quickly, your house is on fire.

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The house is burning down.

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Now what would he say?

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Would he say, oh no, my 80 inch flat screen TV.

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What about my specially designed man cave?

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I'm going to lose it.

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What about my Armani suits?

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What about all my expensive furniture?

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Is that what he would say?

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No, his first thought would be, what about my baby?

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Is my baby safe?

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His first concern would be for the safety of his precious child.

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Listen folks, God has created a beautiful universe and place for us to live.

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In fact, the original home that God put man in was called the Garden of Eden.

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The word Eden means an enclosed place of pleasure.

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God put man in the original place of pleasure until he sinned.

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But still God has given us gorgeous mountains.

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He's given us beautiful skies with flickering stars at night, rainbows, sunsets.

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And I could go on and on and on, but the Bible says in second Peter chapter 3 and verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night into which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.

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The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

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One day the Bible says God's house will be burned up.

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And what is the object of his affection?

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What is the object of God's deepest concern?

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What does he give his affection and attention to?

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Not to any material value, but to man, his precious image bearer.

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We folks listen.

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We are God's highest treasure.

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And listen, all the great values in this universe are personal values.

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They have to do with relationships between persons.

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You know, this time of year, one of the things my wife loves to do is watch Hallmark Christmas movies.

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And it seems to be an unending supply of them in fact, I think Hallmark started back in the summer showing Christmas movies.

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She loves Hallmark Christmas movies and within the first three minutes I can tell her the whole storyline and exactly what's going to happen.

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I could have wrote this story.

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Every movie involves at Christmastime it involves families decorating a tree.

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It involves a beautiful little town with snow coming down, with lanterns in the streets lighting a Christmas tree.

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I've never went to a town Christmas lighting.

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I'd like to do that someday.

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Maybe.

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Christmas carolers out on the street caroling everybody.

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I mean, every one of these shows has that.

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Why does she want to watch them?

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It's because of the point of every Hallmark movie is the personal, heartwarming attachment and care between the people involved in that movie.

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It's a happily ever after ending.

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It didn't like the Bourne Identity or some other action flick that I like.

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There's a happily ever after ending and we can predict it and she loves it and doesn't care if she already knows it.

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It's person to person.

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It's the heartwarming care and love between people.

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No wonder that our text speaks then of a personal giver and a personal gift and a personal recipient.

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It's not about filling a need with food or money or fancy clothes or the latest iPhone X.

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It's about a person giving himself to another person he loves from the depths of his heart.

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This good and great personal God is a gracious giver of the gift mentioned here.

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And folks, we ought to give all glory to his name.

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You have listened to the first part of a two part message by Evangelist Sam Wood.

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Thank you for joining the Fortifying youg Family podcast.

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