The Perfect Gift || Inside the Manger Pt.3 || Pastor Adam Mesa

Welcome to the ALC Podcast. Here at ALC, we seek the loss,

teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message if you're ready to dig in the word. I've heard from

so many people that have been enjoying this series Inside the Manger for Pastor Diego's

message last week. Both of our campus were sharing, even people online how

impactful that message was and the first weekend if you joined us. If not,

you can always check our YouTube channel and jump in. How we talked

about Matthew one, the genealogy of Jesus, and so what we're gonna talk

about today is does the perfect gift exist? Has anyone ever struggled with finding

a gift for somebody? Anybody? You ever like, what am I gonna

get this person? I struggle every single year thinking of what I'm gonna get

for my wife. I mean, she has everything, she has me,

So what else can you get on top of that? What can out do

the greatest gift of all? All the men said, Amen, there we

go, fellas you already know. You know your wife rolling her eyes at

you right now. It's tough when she has it all I'm thinking every year,

what do I get? Does the perfect gift exist? We're gonna talk

about that today, And so if you have your Bible, would you turn

to Matthew chapter two. Two weeks ago we were in Matthew one. Now

we're in Matthew chapter two, just one chapter over, and if you have

your Bible, you could turn there. We're gonna start in verse one,

and we're gonna talk about the wise men a little bit today and the gifts

they brought Jesus. And when you're ready, would you do me a favor?

And could we stand for the honor of reading God's word this morning?

Matthew chapter two, verse one to twelve. It says this, now,

after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the

King, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying,

where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw

his star when it rose and have to worship him. When Herod the King

heard this, he was troubled, and all of Jerusalem with him, and

assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them

where the Christ was to be born, they told him in Bethlehem of Judea.

For it is written by the prophets, and you owe Bethlehem, in

the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

For from you shall become a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them where at what time

the star had appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, go

and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring

me word that I too may come and worship him. Slash kill him,

that's what he means. After listening to the king, they went on their

way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose, went before

them until it came to over the place where the child was. When they

saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, and going into the

house, they saw the child with his Mary, with his mother, and

they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they'd offered

him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and being warned in a

dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another

way. Let's pray today, Lord, We thank you so much for today

God, as you have gathered your people into this place. Lord, as

people are joining us from all over the world, joining us from other campuses,

joining us from the courtyard and the cafe to this room. Lord,

we have all come here to hear a message from you. Guy. I

pray Lord in this moment, may your spirit speak to us, minister to

us and radically open our eyes in a new way to see how much you

love us, to see how much you strive after us. And today may

we make a step forward to you in Jesus name a man you maybe see

it. Thank you so much. Does the perfect gift exist? And we're

gonna share about that a little bit today and break that down what that looks

like, cause we see in this passage, we just read that the wise

men they brought three gifts to Jesus. Now, commonly in a lot of

stories, we tend to think that the wise men were three individual and they

brought a gift each. Well, the Bible never says that. That's.

Usually the picture we have in our head is it's three different wise men,

and then they each brought their own gift. Well, if there's a plural

of men, and the Bible never says how many, so there could have

been anywhere from three. But really they could have been two dozen to one

hundred wise men. There's no way of knowing. What we do know,

though, is collectively they brought three gifts to Jesus, and they presented three

powerful gifts to Jesus. The first gift that they gave to Jesus was gold.

The second gift they gave to Jesus was frankincense, and the third gift

they gave to Jesus was merv These all were meant to symbolize something to Jesus,

and as they would give this to Jesus, gold represented something only royalty

held in their possession, so gold was a royal gift. So what they

were saying when they gave Jesus gold, they said, we believe that you

are the king of kings. We see that. They said that to Herod,

they said, we have come to worship the king of Jerusalem. Herod

doesn't like that because he's the current king. He thinks if there's gonna be

a king that comes, he's gonna kick me off my rule, and that's

not a good thing, and so his desire is to try to kill Jesus

before he gets the opportunity to become king. Unfortunately, Herod didn't know the

kind of king that Jesus was here to become, because he was here to

become the king of kings, the king of all kings, of all powers,

and of all authorities. And so as they come to give them gold,

they're saying, Jesus, this baby, this child will become king.

And then the next thing they give him is frankincense, which frankncense was something

that you would burn in a ritual or in a temple. It's a worship

practice, and so incense was only used when you were worshiping something. So

when they give Jesus incense and frankincense, what they're saying is not only is

he going to be king of kings, he's also going to be lord of

lords. So this incense is something that you would give to something that you

believed was divine. And so the wives men believed that Jesus was divine.

So as he was king of all things, and as he was divine,

he was fully God. Then the third gift comes, and what do they

give him. They give him mirv. When was murr used, Well,

mrr was used in ritual burial practices, and so it was appointed that every

man and every woman would die at some point, and so they gifted Jesus

murr to say, we also know that you are fully human, to redeem

humanity. So the first gift they say, Jesus, you are king of

kings. Second gift they say, Jesus, you are Lord of lords.

Third gift they say, Jesus, you must die so all can live.

So these were very they call we call them wise men for a reason because

these were men that understood the mission that Jesus had to play out to redeem

humanity. And so we understand that at this moment as they would give.

The Bible says when we read it, it says, and they came to

him and they saw the child, not the baby. So in Jewish literature,

just like us, there's a difference between a baby, a newborn,

a baby, an infant, a toddler, And so for them, when

they're calling Jesus a baby, in Hebrew literature, that's anywhere between six months

to about two years old. So that's about the age that Jesus is in

why do we always tell it in the Christmas story? And it seems like

they're there at Jesus's birth. Well, because when you're watching film and television,

there's not enough room to tell the story of what happens for a year

and a half, so they kind of bring the whole story together so that

we see it's all one kind of journey. But really what you're looking at

is that story where we hear about the shepherds going to visit Jesus and the

manger with Mary and the angels are there. Now you're talking about anywhere between

six months to a year and a half later, as they're raising Jesus.

The wise men finally make it because they're coming from the east and they got

to come by animal or walk, so it's going to take them some time

to get to Jesus. It's also great to remember that the star was lit

in the air for that amount of time, that they could follow that for

that long, and so this is a story that God was telling for some

time for them to get to Jesus. And so where does it come now,

Well, the reality is for Jesus, the wise men gave the perfect

gift to Jesus. And I know when we look at that passage, we

think that the perfect gifts are the gift of gold, frank, sense of

mirk, because in their day, those are the three most highly valuable things

resources next to salt, that you could own on the planet. So they

gave Jesus the best. And many of us will look at that and say,

see, that's where it is. They gave Jesus their best gift.

And you may have heard that in a sermon before. They gave Jesus the

most valuable stuff and they blessed them, and that's what the gift was.

But that is not what the true gift is that the wise men gave them.

The wise men gave them something. There's one word that we read in

there, and it says that they fell on their knees and they worshiped Jesus.

That is the perfect gift that they gave Jesus in return. It's not

that they gave material possessions. Because if we get caught up in the material

thing that they gave Jesus, then it's easy for us to get caught up

in the material that we want from God. And so if we just say,

oh, Jesus gave them the best material. Then we think, oh,

then all I could do is the Church of Check and then I'm good.

I don't need anything else. If you get caught up in that type

of mentality, that could be detrimental to your faith, because what they really

did was they humbled themselves before a child and they worshiped him. They worshiped

him. You know, there's a great video that I saw online and it's

of a young boy who spent his whole life in foster care. So his

whole life in foster care, and at about eleven or twelve years old,

he was finally adopted by a family and so they sung him Happy Birthday,

and they say in the captions that it was the first time that a family

had ever presented a birthday cake to him. He had never seen a birthday

cake, never had one for himself, and never been celebrated. I want

you to see and I want you to try to identify what is the actual

perfect gift in this video. Is the perfect gift the birthday cake or maybe

it's something else. So I want you to look at this video and trying

to decide what the perfect gift is. Listen, don't you make race?

Yes, you and you're telling all the kind of sit if you blow out

all again, come over you. You don't say so, he doesn't believe

it off. Oh boy, do you like your cake in your head?

Don't tell you're not so? Tell me in that video? What was the

perfect gift? Was it a birthday cake? Or was it a family?

A family that he's always wanted, a family that he's always desire, a

family that he's always needed in his life. When we think about God's gift

to humanity, the greatest thing that God can give you an eye is a

place in his family. It's the greatest thing. That's the greatest gift God

can ever give to you and I is he can put us in a place

in his family where you and I, as Romans says, we become inheritors

and children of God. That's the greatest thing that you and I need in

our life. There are a lot of other things that we may be believing

for. There may be a lot of other things we may be asking for.

But the reason why Jesus came to humanity was to bring you into the

family of God, not necessarily to set you up for success, not necessarily

to make your life perfect, in your life easy. It's so that one

day, and even in this life, we would experience what it means to

be part of the family of God. That's why Jesus is known as the

Prince of Peace. The greatest gift God can give you is a sense of

peace, is a sense of blath longing, is a sense of purpose.

And so Jesus even says this in the scriptures. I want you to see

this verse because it makes me laugh. The confidence of Jesus. In John

chapter four, verse ten. Many of us know the story of the woman

at the well. This is a woman late in the afternoon getting water.

She's gone through many husbands, she has a boyfriend, all these things like

that. And so what happens is Jesus encounters her and he says this to

her when he asks her for a drink of water, and she refuses at

first, it says, Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of

God that's standing in front of you talking about himself, If you knew the

gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me

a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living

water. Listen, I love everybody here. I know you think your God's

gift to humanity. I know you think, just like I said, that

you wish for Christmas you could just wrap yourself up in wrapping paper and present

yourself to your family. I know that's what we tend to think. And

I also know that we in this life we call celebrities and entertainments and athletes.

It's been said, oh, they're God's gift to humanity, their talent,

their skill, what they bless us with entertainment wise, I know Mariah

Carey may have the number one song of all time when it comes to Christmas,

but at the end of the day, she's not God's gift to humanity.

She has been gifted by God for humanity, but not God's gift to

humanity. And so what happens is we can often get it construed and thank

to ourselves God, I am the gift this Christmas season. And if people

would just recognize how unique and special I am, their life would be so

much easier. But there's only one person that could stand in front of a

woman that's in need, look her in the eyes, and tell her if

you knew that I was wrapped up thirty years ago in a swaddling cloth and

a manger, and you knew that I was God's gift to humanity, you

would ask me for some living being water. Jesus is the only one who

could confidently look someone in the eyes and say tode. He the only one

who can do it. He's the only one on this planet that could legitimately

look at you and I and say, Hey, that gift you're looking for,

it's me. Jesus is our perfect gift. Jesus is the gift that

God has purpose for you and I. So if you're taking notes, we're

just gonna look at three things today with the few moments that we have,

the few things that a perfect gift is. And it's God's desire to present

you the perfect gift today. Here's the first thing that the perfect gift that

God has for us. The perfect gift comes with no strings attached, no

strings attached. The perfect gift comes when no strings attached. How many y'all

like giving gifts? Anybody here like giving gifts to somebody? How many y'all

like getting gifts? Getting gifts? Y'all lying like have the room put their

hand, they got come on, come on, yeah right, I see,

i'ma I'm gonna see uh Ii Lean, could you run up here real

quick for me? Could you? Could you come up here for reco?

You know, I was stinking because it's the holiday season. I was at

the grocery store the other day and so you know, I Lean, your

pastor, Aaron's daughter, and you know you marry Colin, who's over at

abundant kids. And so I got for you and calling a little a little

chocolates, a little Christmas gift. So some Kinder chocolates. So that's my

gift to you today. Okay, no, no, what do you What

do you have for me? What do you have for me? A bracelet

with hair on it? Oh? No, you could keep the chocolates.

I don't want the gift. Thank you so much. See how awkward that

is that when I give a gift and then I expect something in return.

Okay, I did something for you, Now what's in it for me?

And we often think that, and we often treat people that way. We

often create these lists. Hey listen, I've gifted you, Now what are

you gonna give me? What is in it for me? Hey? Hey,

babe, I gifted you a massage? What are you gonna what are

you gonna do for me now? Or or we think to ourself we just

we give, but what there's contingencies on it? Hey, I thought of

you. I got through this gift, But what's on it? And oftentimes

we think to Jesus, if we're like the wise men, we say,

okay, Jesus, Okay, Jesus, I'll worship you. I'll get on

my knees like the wise men, I'll worship you. But what's in it

for me? What gift are you gonna give me in return? If I

worship you? Well, the reality is worship comes out of place of recognition

of what's already been done and what's already been given. Worship is not a

gift to God. It's a reaction of the gift He has given you.

That's the placement. And so a lot of times we think to ourself,

God, this is what I'll do for you this holiday season. Me and

my family, we didn't plan on going to Christmas Eve. But since Abundant

has been talking about it so much, God will give you an hour and

a half on Saturday night so that we get the rest. So you don't

interfere with the rest of what we have going on. And a lot of

times that is a mentality we have. Worshiping God becomes a burden in our

life. Okay, yeah, you know, we could go to it's summer,

we can go to the beach on Sunday, but we'll just watch online

on the way. And I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that you

can't do those things. I'm not saying that those aren't real decisions you have

to make. But it's the expression of where the heart is. It is

the heart of place where like I have to do that because I feel like

when I give God the gift of this time, then he I'm expected that

He's gonna give me gifts back. And there's a difference between man. This

is part I read my Bible, I spend time with the Lord. I

go to church. Why because it's a reaction of what God's already gifted me

with. It's a reaction of what He's already given me with. And so

therefore, if we do go to the beach, I'm not even guilty because

God knows he has my worship on a daily basis. There's no guilt to

that there's no condemnation in any of those things. Why, because I am

spending time with the Lord, I do have my worship. So therefore,

to take a Sunday off to go hang out with your family and drive somewhere,

there's no wrong with that, because you are regularly worshiping God. Galatians

chapter four, verse four to five says this, But when the set time

had fully come, God set his son, born of a woman, born

under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive

what adoption to sonship? Why did Jesus what? What's God's perfect gift for

us? Adoption to sons and daughters. That's God's gift to you and I

adoption. Jesus was born so that you can join the family. That's what

it was. And God begin to give you this gift with no strings attached.

And as the wise men would present gifts that was not mandated by God

that they needed to present gifts, the worship was the place that they but

they loved Jesus so much that they also wanted to contribute to his namesake to

make sure he got to where he needed to go. We know shortly after

that when Herod found out where he lived that for a period of time for

many years, Joseph marrying Jesus had to flee to Egypt, and they lived

in Egypt for many years. And you want to know how they afforded to

live in Egypt for many years. They had gold, Franken says, and

murder to sell to live off of. So they were like, Jesus,

we want to present something for you that is useful to you, but what

we are giving you is our worship. So God gives with no strings attached.

Augustine of Hippo, the Great Church Father, says this God gives us

what we need, not what we deserve. That's mercy, not fairness.

God gives you and I what we need, not what we deserve. I

know we may have a list this Christmas that Sannah has been not really providing

for you, guys, and so you present the list to God instead.

But outside of the list, God will always give you what you need,

not what you deserve, and not more than what you need that will take

you from him. That's what the Lord does. And so God provides mercy,

not fairness. What would be fair is we don't get nothing. We've

all sinned we've all fallen short of the glory of God. We all need

a lump of coal in our in our little stocking this Christmas. But God

doesn't do that. He doesn't provide a lump of coal. Even those who

don't follow him, he lets them have an opportunity of success in this earth.

That is part of God's love and that's part of God's grace that everybody

takes for granted every single day. And so what we see is a perfect

come gift with perfect gift comes with no strings. That second thing is this

the perfect gift? Has you in mind? Has you in mind? Has

you and I in mind? How many of you guys have ever given a

bad gift? Before? Anyone given a badt I know I have. I've

when I was early on married, the first years of my marriage. It

was one of my anniversaries, my second year marriage anniversary with Ashley, and

I thought to myself, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna I'm

gonna order online like a little mold and I'm gonna pour concrete in it,

and I'm gonna custom make her a candle. So this candle took me like

eight hours to make. So I gotta mix the concrete, pour the concrete

in the mold. I gotta get a pot and pan, and I gotta

melt the wax. And I'm melting wax, and I'm pulling all these sins

that I think that are her favorite, and I'm like, ooh that's lavender,

Ooh that's this, and I'm pouring it in. I'm thinking to myself,

when she finds out the work that I put in to this candle,

she's gonna lose herself. She's gonna lose herself. And so I'm sitting there

for like seven hours that day. She's at work and I'm there and I'm

cutting the candle wick and I'm looking at YouTube videos on how to make a

candle and then putting in the fridge to dry. And so it's our anniversary

and I got her these gifts, and I got her some other gifts,

but to me, the big dog was the candle. Like that was like

she was gonna she was gonna fall out, you know. So she opens

this up and she looks at the candle, She's like, oh, wow,

thanks baby, And I told her I made it. I made the

I made the mold, and I painted the I painted the candle and I

laid all the wax and I did all these things and she's like, oh,

thank you so much, babe, and she gives me a kiss and

I'm like, okay, well then it celebrate as high as I thought she

would. But but she likes it. She likes it. About a month

later, I open up her her medicine cabinet and the candle is rolled in

the back of the Mexicana. It's collected hair, it's collected lid. And

so I pull it out. I say, hey, babe's my candle in

the back of your days. Oh my gosh, I miss Blacy, thank

you you found it. Oh my goodness, thank you. And she gets

it and I go, you know, you've had this grow over a month

and you've never lit it. And she's like, no, I could smell

it, you know there. And I put it away because it's special and

I don't want it to get lost. I'm like, candles just grow legs

in the middle of the night, Like, how does a candle get lost?

And in that moment I realized really fast, early on in the marriage,

my wife is not an arts and crafts person. That is not her

love language. That is not her thing. What I found out is my

wife is much happier if I take the day off and I buy her a

Disney Lamp pass and I take her to Disneyland. That to her is you

got this gift for me. So when I made that candle, I made

it for me because I was expecting some type of praise, some type of

reaction. It wasn't about me wanting to know her or get to know her.

It was a matter of fact to say, when she finds out how

much I did for her, she's gonna celebrate me. And So when it

comes to God, he has the perfect gift in mind for you of what

we need and what he wants to show us, which is bringing us into

his family. He has you and I in mind. He sees his children.

They're lost, they're wandering, they're broken, they're addicted, they're in

pain, they're hurting, and he thinks to himself, I could get them

a new car. I thinks to himself, I could. I could provide

a boat for them for Habsu on the weekends. But what I could really

do is I could heal them of all that brokenness through my son Jesus.

That's he's having us in mind to say, that's what they really need,

that's what my children want. I can actually adopt them into the family,

provided that Jesus fulfills this mission and this mandate, which is to be born

and thirty three years later die for our sins and resurrect three days later.

He said, as me and my son have a plan that goes according to

purpose, I can give humanity something more special than they ever knew they could

ask for, and that is adoption into the family. If you ever ask

a Jewish person if they're part of the family of God, they know they

don't believe so because that's not the goal of Judaism. To them. God

is just too far. God would never adopt us into his family. He's

too good for that, he's too holy for that. The best thing we

could do is build temples and just worship him because of how grand he is

and how he has selected us as a special people and a special nation.

But to be considered part of his family, no, we could never.

But because of Jesus, God says, yes you can, Yes you can,

because I have you in mind, and I have the perfect gift,

which is my son. My wife. On the flip side. One of

the things about Ashley is is Ashley has a great heart. She's super caring.

About a week and a half ago, we were at the movie theater

and we took our boys on a day off and we went and watched a

movie. We went to watch the New Trolls movie. And we're sitting down

and we're watching the movie and there's maybe about twenty twenty five people in the

movie theater and somewhere near the front row there's a family of kids that have

come because it was kind of a holiday Monday, so a bunch of people

were off and through the line of kids, and there happened to be one

girl who was on her iPad during the movie. And the iPad wasn't super

distracting. When the movie got quiet, not like no speaking at all,

you could kind of hear it, but outside of that, I mean,

it wasn't when the movie's talking and characters seeing it till you you don't hear

nothing at all. So finally, about five minutes into movie, someone says,

shut the iPad off and and and the mom turns around and she's like,

guys, I'm so sorry, my daughter has autism. We're here with

our family. There's nothing I could do. This is what comes her.

And we're trying to let all the kids. And then someone on the other

side and the other back of the room says, nobody cares. Turn it

off. And then me and my wife are just like we're like looking at

each other, like, oh my lord, what just happened. And so

the woman starts crying. And then about a minute later, they hear it

again and they're like, get out, and a person actually goes and gets

the worker. So the worker comes and they're like trying to they're talking to

all the people who complain and blah blah blah blah blah. So finally the

mom gets up and she's bawling and she grabs her her daughter who has autism.

She's got headphones on, she's got her iPad, she got everything,

and she looks at the crowd and she says, I'm trying best I can.

And she's crying. And then and then and then a woman in front

of us says, just leave. And so this woman storms out crying,

and sure enough, there's my wife next to me. She grabs her popcorn

bucket, she throws it in my lap and she's like I'll be back.

And she gets up, and if you've never seen my wife before, my

wife is is is it? She's the bubbliest person. But when she's not

bubbly, she she's pretty scary. She's she is a scary black woman.

That's what she is. She she's taller than me, she's stronger than me,

she's buffer than me. Just on all accounts, my wife could beat

me up. So she's somewhat like, you don't want to make her mad.

It's just not gonna go well. And so she storms out and there

about five minutes, five minutes later, actually comes back and she has the

mom under her arm and she sits down. And then she sits down and

she looks at the crowd and she's like, nobody speak to her. And

then she goes to her her seat and I go, babe, what'd you

do? She said? I told her those people are idiots. Don't listen

to them. I want you to know if they say something again, I'll

stand up. I'll get your back. You're not doing this alone. I'm

gonna do this with you. I got your back. So Mom came back

in and she watched that movie, and you know what Ashley did in this

season of Christmas. She gave that mother a perfect gift. She gave that

mother the confidence, the support, the encouragement. Where that mom felt alone

in that room, felt alone in that world, nobody else would speak up

for her. We're even sitting there saying what's going on? But then she

said, you know what, I'm not gonna be like the crowd. I'm

not gonna say that's not in my business, or I'm not gonna be like

them and say yeah she should leave. I'm gonna get in there and I'm

gonna get in between the fight. If this person can't speak for themselves because

this is too hard for them, I'll speak for them now. I just

wonder to myself, as God would step in and give us the gift that

we need. How much more so on our own lives. Are there people

around us that need a gift like that, that need a gift of a

text of encouragement. Hey, I see what you're doing. You're a great

father, You're a great mother. I just want to encourage you today.

Hey, I just want to see Hey, I know you're a single mother.

I know. I just talk to my husband. If we could ever

watch your kids for a night so that you could just go, or an

afternoon so you could go and get a massage or whatever. Just want you

to know we have your back. To text a grandparent who maybe hasn't heard

from someone in a while, Hey, just want to check in on you.

Is there anything that you need? Are you doing okay? Just to

start supplying people with the very thing that they need. Some people just need

a word of encouragement. Some people just need support. Some people just need

someone else to fight with them. It's as simple as just linking an arm

with someone else. Because what happens is that says, Hey, I got

a gift for you, but I have you in mind for this gift,

not me in mind, not all. I know when I give this gift,

they gonna they're gonna be so impressed. Every year they give me a

twenty five dollars gift card to Chick fil A and I'm gonna get them some

shoes, so I know they gonna feel real awkward when I get them some

shoes and they looking at their chick flip, then everybody gonna know that I'm

bawling this Christmas season. You know, sometimes we think we're doing something because

we're thinking we want to fix perception of people. But for God, God

humiliated himself by sending his son to go on across. It's not the fanciest

way to save people. It's not the most beautiful way to save people.

But it's the right way, and it's the way that has you and I

in mind. Here's the last point is this, as we close, the

perfect gift has to be received. You gotta stretch out your hand and you

have to receive the perfect gift. You have to receive it. There was

a point not too long ago where I had something meld and shipped to me,

and I had it because I wasn't home and it was something I had

assigned for. I put it. I sent it to like a local FedEx.

Well. The problem was is they kept sending me emails and I had

busy days and emails, don't forget you have this pack, don't forget his

package. By time I made it to FedEx and I gave them the tracking

code, they said, hey, we sent that back because you never received

it when you needed it. And a lot of times we think to ourselves,

when I die, one day, I'll receive Jesus. I'll look at

God and I'll be like God. I'm good. I believe in you now

now that I see you face to faith. No, no, no.

The season to receive God's gift is when you hear it, when you hear

the good things that God has done from you, when you hear that God

has once and desires to bring you into his family, and his requirement is

received. My son, who I gifted you with, received the present.

When people say we aren't there other ways to heaven because God only wrapped one

present. That's why there's no other present he rapped. You could go to

someone else's Christmas tree, you go, you go to someone else's stocking.

But that's not the present that God rapped. And so why do I have

to open Jesus? Why go? Why do you have to go through Jesus?

Because God in heaven one baby in swaddling cloth in a manger, and

he said, that's my one gift that will work for all humanity. You

don't have to search for other gifts. You have one gift that you have,

and so the perfect gifts have to be received. Here's three verses about

it. As we close. John chapter one, verse twelve says this yet

to all who did receive him to those who believed in his name. He

gave what the right to become children of God. There it is again,

man. He wants to bring us in the family. He wants to adopt

us. He wants to consider us children. Revelations three twenty. Jesus speaking

here, I am. I stand at the door and knock. I say

this all the time, and alter calls. If anyone hears my voice and

opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and

they with me. What does he say, I stand at the door and

I knock. If anyone receives me, you get to eat at my table

and we will dine together. Which means you become a benefactor of the goodness

of Christ everything that he has. You become an inheritor of what he has.

Chapter two, verse six to seven. So, then, just as

you have received Christ Jesus as your Lord, continue your continue to live your

lives in Him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened the faith as

you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. There's multiple verses that say receive

Jesus. When you receive him, you become adopted into the family. When

you receive him, so this Christmas season, there is a difference between having

a welcoming spirit, a welcoming attitude to Jesus towards an unwelcoming spirit, and

an unwelcoming attitude towards Jesus. I'll close with this, when a couple of

years ago, about five years ago, I got called from a friend and

they said, hey, man, I have I met someone at something.

And there's a guy in Thousand Oaks and there's a church that no longer meets,

but it's a church, and so it's a guy who's retired and he

has about forty or fifty people kind of in his retirement community, and they've

been meeting on Sunday evenings and having church together because in their local area there's

not really any churches there. So there is a church that stopped meeting,

but the building's there, so they're running it. And it's just all his

friends, about forty or fifty of them that are all retired, they're all

sixty and above, and they have been looking for a pastor. He wasn't

offering me the pastor job, he said, they've just been looking for a

pastor because they want a pastor to come in and revitalize the church, and

they love young people and they want to win the next generation to the lost

and all these things like that, And so he said, would you consider

going and preaching there and just giving them encouragement while they're looking for a pastor.

I said, yeah, absolutely, And so I bring about six of

my friends from our Sunday Night Fresh Start back then, and so I'll bring

about six other people that were all kind of millennial age at the time,

twenties, thirties and so and so when we roll up to the church at

six, it's the church at six o'clock. We roll up at five thirty.

When we roll up at five thirty, the whole church is waiting outside

in the parking lot. Everyone that was there to meet for church was in

the parking lot all forty And when we came and we pulled up and we

got out of the car, they all started clapping and they all started cheering.

And this woman came up to me and she said, I baked you

these cookies. And so she hands me some cookies. And then there's another

person's other grandma came up and she's like, went to one of my other

friends. She's like, I got you guys candies and she hands candies,

she doing the grandma thing. They're like, we're so excited for you to

be here. We love that you're here. Thank you so much. And

so then we go in to have service, and they're just standing up the

whole time while I'm preaching. They're so excited that young people are coming,

and they're yes, past, I don't even think they listened to half of

what I was saying. They're just so excited that young people came in to

have church with them. And so they're jumping and they're shouting. And they

had a praise of worship with just one acoustic guitar, but you would have

thought it was a ten piece band, and cause they're jumping and they're clapping

and they're shouting. When I'm done preaching, we talked for about an hour

and they're telling their stories, but also more than that, they're looking at

our young guys. Tell us your story. How many kids do you have?

We're talking, we're talking, and so they are just so elated to

have us there. They're so excited to have us there. They act like

it's the greatest gift and the greatest bessing they ever had before. Still to

this day, I've had the honor of privilege of standing on little stages and

big stages, talking in front of twenty people to twenty thousand people. But

I'll tell you that is still to this day a top three experience for me.

Not because of the size of the room, not because of the greatness

of the crowd. It's because when I came, there was an attitude and

spirit that said, oh, we've been expecting you, we're excited to have

you, We're thankful that you're here. And they welcomed us with open arms.

They made us feel like we were the president or some type of celebrity

because of a welcoming spirit. How much does a welcoming spirit change? And

I wonder to myself, do I have that same attitude when it comes to

the Christmas story of Jesus? Do I welcome this major story into my life

with great eager anticipation of God? This is a year again where we get

to celebrate this gift You've given us. Thank you, it's the only thing

we could have, it's the only thing we need. You brought us into

your family. Or do we say all right, all right, right,

guys, I know we want to open the presence. But let's just let's

get this out of the way. Let's let's read the Christmas story, or

let's let's just thank God for one thing around the circle and let's just kind

of get this inconvenience out of the way for a moment, and then we

can get back to all the fun stuff, the toys in the presence.

Because what we show our children will ultimately determine what they value, and what

we show them we value, they will ultimately learn, oh, that's of

value. And so if the Christmas story, if if right now in a

certain time, and I'm not talking about one to year old kids, I'm

talking seven, eight, nine, ten and above, if right now in

their head the story of Sannah and the story of Jesus are on an equal

plane, feel then something would need to change. And you can simply ask

your children. You could say, son, who do you hear? Who

do we talk about more Santa or Jesus and just and just and just see.

They'll they'll provide the feedback. I just encourage you this season that said

Jesus always has that one up above everything that are that our children and the

next generation understand that there are great stories and there are great fictional tales that

we can enjoy and have fun about. But there's Jesus who is very real

and very much loves you and I and very much desires to bring us into

relationship. And so I just want to encourage you this season that uh my

iPad, I forgot to put it in airplane mode. So my wife,

one of our boys, isn't feeling well, so she's watching service online and

she just texts me a picture of the candle I made her and said,

I still have it. Forgot to put my iPad on airplane Mode's look down

and saw that little message. She's crazy. She's just trying to prove a

point. That's it. And I'm gonna ask her and where was it?

The bottom of the closet, That's where it was. Hey, as you

guys are here today, and like we shared, you've heard the message of

Jesus today. And whether you're watching online, you're in the courtyard cafe or

in this room, and I just want to invite you today to ask you

have you received this gift that God has for you? Have you ever truly

received Jesus in a real way, not in a way where you just believe

it and you have a cross around your neck, or you have a versus

a bio or somewhere in your house. It's the fact that literally says,

God, this is the gift that I need for my life. The reality

that without this gift, we are completely disconnected from you and we aren't family

with you, because it's only through Jesus that you wrap this gift for me,

and it's only through his death and resurrection that literally gives me access to

a relationship with you. Without the work of Jesus, we would be foreigners,

we would be lost in space. Without Jesus Christ. There would be

no hope and no future without the work of Jesus. And so it's only

through Jesus today that the Bible says in Romans chapter nine, verse ten,

Verses nine and ten that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,

and if you believe in your heart that he rose from the grave,

then you will be saved. It is a period at that moment that says

the only way to heaven is faith. It's belief. You don't have to

pray for it, you don't have to pay for it, and you don't

have to work for it. There's other religions that say that you got to

pray for it, you got to pay for it, you gotta work for

it. But when it comes to Jesus, you don't have enough money in

the world, you don't have enough prayers in the world, and there's not

enough work you could do to earn this. It's out of your hands and

it's out of your reach. Without saying, Jesus, I fully believe in

you. I believe you died for my sins, and I believe you rose

again. And I believe, as you say in Revelations, that when you

stand at the door and you knock on my heart, that I'm willing to

open this today and I want to receive you. I want peace, I

want hope. The Bible says when Jesus came as a Manuel God with us,

God is truly with us. Today, as you and I would receive

Jesus, the spirit of God moves in our heart. So I encourage you

today as we're going to receive Jesus. Some of you all may be saying

this for the very first time, and I encourage you to make that step

forward. There's nothing I could say or do to convince you to do that.

It's a choice you have to make that says one day I will die,

one day I will stand before God. And I'd rather stand before God

as one that follows him and serves them than the one who has rejected him,

because if I don't want God on earth, why would God want me

in heaven. If I want God on earth and I receive Jesus, then

God says man, this family, I've been wanting to adopt you in You're

in it. You're in the family, and so would you all join me

right now? As many people will say this for the first time, or

maybe you've said it before in the past, but as you reflect in your

life, you haven't really been following him and you want to take a step

forward to following him. Let's all say this together, family, with this

prayer out loud, say, dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I

confess you as Lord and Savior. I believe in my heart that you died

on the cross and you rose three days later, and I commit to follow

you for the rest of my days in Jesus' name. Amen. We really

hope you enjoyed the message and if you said yes to Jesus. We just

want to say congratulations and give you a free devotional to help you walk out

your faith. Click the link in the description or head over to grow dot

Faith for download your devotional. Oh and be sure to subscribe and share this

podcast with your friends. Thanks for listening to ALSC podcasts and we hope you

tune in again