The Perfect Christmas Gift | Pastor Paul McGee

He's over here, brother Alex and I working on Friday with this

new screen television monitor. Whatever you want to call it, I

don't care. I'm as similar to what Jesus

Christ I'll call it the TV but and life just gets so like

crazy. I missed taking my son to a

haircut appointment and got him there late.

Apologized profusely for being late to her and wanted to know

that her time was valuable and gave her extra money because I

felt bad. Forgot my guys devotional for

that for that day that's in a connect group till later in the

night. Then come find out tissue paper

in our house in the bathrooms was scarce.

I forgot to get some Monday when I did grocery shopping and the

list seemed like it went on and on.

Things I forgot just because of the time of year.

I guess it I'm going to blame it on the time of year.

Everything's just busy so you should be glad.

I just even remembered to come here this morning.

I'm going to be turning to Matthew chapter 26 today.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

If you didn't stand for me for the reading of the Word, again,

just honor to the Word. We have scriptural precedence

for doing that. Amen.

God's been good to us. Matthew 26 and verse 26 through

28. I want to read in your hearing

this morning. Bible says and as they were

eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, break it, gave it to

the disciples and said take, eat.

This is my body folks, I'm sorry to do this, but you know what

else happened this week? I took my son to get to the

dentist and it wasn't the day for him to be there.

They looked at me and they said that's next week.

So if we could fit you in, we can fit you in.

I said, no, that's fine. It well, I'm just right here in

town. It's good.

So that's another thing I forgot.

Just happened to remember it. Sorry.

Take and eat. This is my my body.

And he took the cup in verse 27 and gave thanks and gave it to

them saying drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New

Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

I said all that because when we go to the prey here in a moment,

I need you to pray for me, right?

Amen. I want to minister this the

perfect Christmas gift, the perfect Christmas gift.

I was reading this week in the book of Romans chapter 4 and

Romans 4 · chapter mention

again I'm reading from the home and Christian standard Bible for

the re spot one because that's what I was reading through this

year and there was a verse in chapter before that's word like

this. It said now to the one who

works, pay is not considered as a gift but as something owed.

So that tells me when you have no work involved, it's not

something owed you truly as a gift.

So I want to talk to you today about the perfect Christmas

gift. Can we pray together tonight or

this morning? See, here we go, Lord Jesus,

help us, God. I pray, Lord, in the next little

while that you have annoying our hearts and our minds.

Mark any air, Lord, from my mind and from my lips.

I pray Lord Jesus, today you able to strengthen us.

God, let your spirit, Lord, I feel it already in this place in

a special way. God, let it meander, Lord,

mingle, Lord among the people this morning.

God, let your perfect will be done and will not fail to give

you praise and glory and honor. Lord Jesus in this place because

to you, you alone we give Lord God all of the recognition and

the acknowledgement in the lovely name of the Lord Jesus

Christ that I pray Hallelujah Amen of the church Amen.

You may be seated this morning in Jesus name in December back

in 2022, Ipsus Poe that it's just a type of Poe was revealed.

A few things that 3/4 of Americans agree that people have

forgotten the real meaning of Christmas with about 2/5 or 42%

saying that they strongly agree with that statement that people

have forgotten the real meaning of Christmas.

I even look further back and there was a odor poll taken

several years ago by the Baptist Press.

In the article they were reporting Lifeway Research.

Does some research impose as well that concerned church and

things of that nature. And then it said that 9 out of

10 Americans personally celebrate Christmas.

And then they broke that down just a little bit more

interestingly that a majority of agnostics or those claiming no

preference, no, no religious preference, if you will, 89% did

individuals claiming other religions that were not

Christian religions, 62% of those people celebrated

Christmas. Even atheist, 55% celebrate

Christmas along then with the majority of a 90 percentile of

Christians. And so as I pondered on this, I

thought that, Bishop, the real meaning of Christmas has to have

been clouded or denied when atheists who do not believe in

God celebrate Christmas. Did not Gabriel say to Joseph in

Matthew 123, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall

bring forth a son, and they shall call his name?

Emmanuel being interpreted is God with us.

So it's difficult for me this morning to begin to process that

there would be some people that claim they don't even believe in

God celebrating an event when God was with humanity in a more

tangible way than ever before. The Lifeway Research also

reported that 62% strongly agree with this statement.

I believe Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season, while

only 28% read or told the Christmas story from the Bible,

meaning that there's a great percentile of people that

acknowledge him as the source without rehearsing his story.

Americans have a pulse then it would seem, even through the

polls that they have a pulse on an alleged problem.

But I'm not even sure as Americans or even as Christians

that we want to correct it. And please don't get me wrong

this morning, I'm not here to do a Christmas bashing and take all

your Amazon packages off of your porch or anything like that.

But what I'm saying is this, I, I like our holiday traditions.

I love, I love lights and I love the atmosphere of, of Christmas

and just seems to be even the personalities of people that you

deal with seem to be a little bit maybe lighter or, or, or

more accepting and able to embrace.

There's just a good feeling in the air.

I like to eat. I, I like to sit down and eat

what we have as, as traditions at those meals.

And, and I don't mind to give gifts and even receive gifts.

And I like and our candlelight service.

And I like those things that center around our holiday

traditions. I like all of those things.

But I'm here to emphatically tell you this morning, but I

love the Christmas message. I like all the greenery and all

the lights and all those things that accentuate different

things. But I love the Christmas message

and I'm not convinced this morning that Jesus was born on

December the 25th and when that would be a side conversation.

But I am confident that he was born, confident that he was

born. And so there's many today even

in our world. Christmas is not just now a

religious holiday as much as it is also a cultural holiday

today. Studies have even shown that

I've read this week a generational decline in the

belief of the traditional Christmas story.

That would be the story that's in the Scripture.

And so I believe it's it's important today that we need to

know the real meaning of Christmas.

So I've come just as a void on this Sunday morning in the month

of December, trying to acquaint us once again with the real

meaning of Christmas. Bishop even alluded to it the

other night as he was preaching. He discussed how words have

changed in meaning and that there were some differences

between some of his older dictionaries and modern ones.

And that's a real phenomenon. I I've read a book even with a

chapter just dedicated to that before.

They say that language is fluid and that there is not like

standard meaning of a word, but it changes with generation what

people bring meanings to words. And so meanings change because

we alter many times how a word is used or the context that it

is used in. I mean, some of the these young

folks are using words that I have the slightest idea what

they're meaning. I know what that word mean, but

it means something different to them than what it meant to me a

generation ago. And so meanings are shifting at

the reflecting, if you will, the modern perceptions of how we

look at or consider a word or its use.

And so with that, we come to a place where we also alter the

meanings that are attached to holidays and traditions based

upon how the current generation or the current society has

learned them. And one thing is for sure, the

only way to stay true to the original intent of anything is

by giving a repetition of what it meant when it first came on

score. I believe that's reason why Jude

and Jude one and three had these words to Penn.

He was related to Christ. He said, Beloved, when I gave

all diligence to write to you of the calm and salvation, he said,

it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye

should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered

unto the Saints. Jude had learned something from

predecessors, a man that had come even in the Old Testament.

He had learned from others that in order to keep the original

intent of the meaning there, you got to repeat it and rehearse it

within the ears of those who you want to know it.

We read in the Old Testament that Moses was even encouraged

to write the law in a book and it said rehearse it in their

ears. We have the books like

Deuteronomy, which it's name means the book of Remembrance,

and books like the Chronicles which are nothing more but a

record of events and happenings. Just for something to go back to

a archaic file and refresh what took place and what was

adequately remembered. When we do not talk about things

from the perspective of the original design.

I understand today that meanings get lost and sometimes they

become all together forgotten. The psalmist in Psalms chapter

#78 and through other places. He was very purposeful about

God's fingerprint on Israel's lives.

What God had done for the nation of Israel.

He wanted that to be generational knowledge.

He didn't want that just to have an impact upon the generation

that experienced those things. But even on their children,

their grandchildren, those that would go forward.

He wanted them to understand what God had did for a nation,

how he delivered a people, how they went in as a family and

came out as a nation. And so with that, we hear

different things in Scripture how the psalmist desired.

Amen to emphasize that and allow the original intent of all what

that meant to continue from age to age.

He says in Psalm 78 and 4. If you will indulge me for a

little bit of Scripture reading. He says, We will not hide them

from their children, shewing to the generation to come the

praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful

works that he have done. For he established a testimony

and Jacob and anointed a law in Israel which he commanded our

fathers, that they should make them known to their children

that the generation to come might know them, even the

children which should be born who should arise and declare

them to their children, that they might set their hope in God

and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.

He was saying this is information that we're going to

make for sure our children and our children's children know

we're we're not going to withhold this from them.

This is vital. This is important.

This is a part of their legacy and a part of their heritage.

We're going to explain it other places in Psalm, he said, so

that it would be written for the generation to come.

He says in other places that one generation shall praise thy

work, Speaking of God's works to another generation.

And so that the very transference of this information

was so vitally important, so much so that the psalmist in the

Psalms even pleaded at one time with God or or at least asked

for extension. He basically said, God let me

live just a little bit longer because I have something I need

to share. You look at it in Psalm 71 and

verse 18. Listen to what the psalmist

says. Now also, when I am old and Gray

headed, oh God forsake me not until I have shewed thy strength

unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to

come. What what the summer says.

I don't, God, if you just give me lengthen my days, if I'm not

told it yet, give me a little bit more time on the counter.

I know I'm old, my hair's Gray, and my body is feeble.

Things are not operating like they used to.

But God, if I've not yet shared this message, if, if, if I've

not yet told this story, if I'm not yet instilled this into the

next generation, I'm asking for a little bit more time to show

them your strength and show them your power.

Folks, there's something we must understand though, about this

versus Scripture. This is more than the psalmist

telling them about all the exploits of God through the Old

Testament. It's more than telling them the

stories of how he proved himself strong in battle.

He brought food to those that were impoverished.

I'm here to tell you today that the psalmist is also telling

them about his strength in that he wanted to reveal to that

generation, Amen, about a Messiah that was yet to come.

Just follow me here a little bit today.

If you read the book of Psalms, there are several psalms in the

Old Testament that are known as messianic Psalms.

They are writing and then there's words that are coming

forth, but those words are actually Speaking of a time and

a place beyond the present. It is speaking about the

Messiah, or if you will, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's in those Psalms that we catch glimpses of the one that

at that standpoint would come and they would foreshadow what

would happen to and with the one that would come.

And whatever David or the psalmist rather is saying, don't

give me some time here until I can share with them thy

strength. And this generation, he for sure

is speaking and has in mind the Messiah.

Because in New Testament Scripture, what do we oftimes

see? And then we see it even whenever

Stephen is being stoned at the hands of those that would that

cause him harm. He's the first martyr of the New

Testament church. And the Bible says he had a

vision. He opened his eyes and he said,

because he said, I've seen Christ standing at the right

hand of God. You see that terminology all

throughout Scripture, Amen. Christ standing at the at the

right hand of God, Amen. Of course we understand this,

that throughout Scripture, the right hand always was a place of

power. It was a place of strength.

And so whenever David in the psalmist is saying, Hey, don't

let let me die till I shoot them your strength, he's talking

about the role of Christ, Jesus the Messiah upon the earth.

What's so power? What's so powerful about the

Messiah? Is this What's so powerful about

Jesus Christ? Is this The earth was in a

dilemma without a right sacrifice to right the wrongs of

humanity? We were in a dilemma and we

needed some blood and we needed remission and we needed a

cleansing. And God, though, according to

John 4, God's a spirit, a spirit don't have flesh and bones and

blood. And so we had a dilemma on our

hands. God says, you know what, I'm

going to make this old word flesh and it's going to do well

among them, and they're going to be held the glory as the only

begotten of the Father. You know what?

David is prophesying. The psalmist is prophesying.

I don't want He sent me to die until I can already tell this

generation about one that is to come about the Lord Jesus

Christ, because He is Thy strength and thy power.

Concerning the role that he served, the psalmist wanted to

show his generations God's strength and power.

Amen. And that surpassed the victories

that we read in the Old Testament, that surpassed all

the ingenuity of creation. He wanted to show them God's

Son, Emmanuel, God with them. Wait, Psalms 22 is one of those

thinged messianic Psalms. You can turn there if you

desire. You can even start reading

through some of Psalms 22. But it speaks of that strength

that the psalmist wanted to speak of that person, if you

will, that was during the time of suffering and very

vulnerable. You can read it in verse #1 he

tells us that this individual felt forsaken.

In verse #7 he tells us that he felt like everybody was laughing

him to scorn. In verse 15, it says that his

tongue clay, but to his jaws, like your tongue sticking to the

roof of your mouth. Verse 16 says that they pierced

his hands and his feet. Does that sound?

Familiar verse #18 says they parted his garments and cast

laws. David, or the Psalmist is

writing about something still yet to come, almost 1000 years

before Christ was ever crucified.

These words were written in scripture, for that matter,

before there was ever a well before there was ever even such

a thing as a Roman crucifix. These words were written Amen.

Because he's trying to convey to his generation, he he wants an

original message and meaning and intent to be tied to something

He wants them to know. He doesn't want it to fall

through the cracks. He wants them to know about the

Messiah. He wants them to know about

Christ Jesus. He wants them to know about what

he's going to suffer. He wants them to know about how

he's going to come. He wants them to know about all

these things because we celebrate Easter and I'm

thankful for Easter. But something and we must get in

our hearts and minds when we think about Christmas is this is

what died on the cross was born in a Manger.

What culminated on Golgotha started in Bethlehem.

Know someone say man, before they stripped him of his

garments, he was a babe that was wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Before people mocked angels saying hey man, before they

sarcastically put above his head the King of the Jews.

He was proclaimed the Savior of the world.

Before the adult Jesus cried on the cross and said it is

finished. The baby Jesus cried in

Bethlehem and pierced the darkness of a holy night before

he told John to take care of Mary.

Mary had taken care of him from the womb.

So would say yes. And so Christ identifies Calvary

with this song. He does.

You know the wording, you know the story.

Christ hanging on the cross. Everybody's listening, right?

We can do studies on the seven last sayings of Christ.

They're there, right? What he spoke.

I thirst. All these different things,

right? One of them though, is this.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

The first verse of Psalms 22 is my God.

My God, what is that? Well, if we were to do a little

survey ourself this morning, if I start this.

For God so loved the world that he gave.

You familiar with that as he hung on the cross and they're

saying my God, my God. Just as you picked up on John

316, the people in that crowd picked up on Psalms 22, how that

which was written speaking about his tongue cleaving to the roof

of his mouth, what he's thirsty about his hands being pierced

through, about his garments being taken off and them casting

laws. He's bringing a remembrance.

Christ identified Calvary, Amen, all the way back with that Psalm

from the Christ from the cross. He said that, Amen.

And we do the same with Scriptures today, a Psalm that

that is focused extensively on Calvary.

Calvary extensively on the cross in Psalms 22, though it also

hints at his birth because you can look at the Scripture of

Psalms 22 verses 9 and 10. And in those verses it is

Psalms 22:9

mentioning things about how he was cast up, cast upon the Lord

from the womb. And he begins to speak about his

mother's belly and he begins to speak about his mother's breast.

And he meant he in this thing of all crucifix.

Then there's a reflection back to his birth, His infancy.

Amen. When it all began.

And So what I'm saying this morning, this is common phrase,

this is nothing new, but it's OK.

What I'm saying today we must speak equally if not more about

the gift on the tree, yes, rather than the gifts under the

tree. But we also must remember that

the gift on the tree came in its packaging and Bethlehem's

Manger. It's more, listen, the gift that

came in Bethlehem, it was more than wrapped in swaddling

clothes. There was a certain aspect of it

that was wrapped in mystery and wrapped in intrigue.

That's the reason why throughout the Scriptures of the Gospels

you have people saying, what manner of man is this man, that

even the sea and the wind obey him.

There's a little bit of mystery and intrigue that this man was

wrapped and it took a lifetime. It took 33 1/2 years to unwrap,

if you will, this gift, to unwrap, if you will, this

present. But whenever that violent

unwrapping started to take place, it revealed on the tree,

Amen, with certainty, as a centurion was standing there and

he says, Charlie, this was the son of God.

It's in that moment that every eye caught a glimpse of what he

was and who he who he was. Someone say Amen.

Someone say the flesh. The flesh.

Listen. Stripping Jesus of His clothes

wouldn't be enough to unwrap this gift.

Lacerations on the back, those would be necessary.

The flesh had to be torn. Flesh had to be pierced.

I don't mean to be grievant, but the flesh had to be peeled back.

There's nothing delicate. I know today, you know, some

people really conscious of bows and ribbons and paper and bags

and boxes because we're going to use them next year, right?

There was nothing concerning being cautious about the

unwrapping of this gift. Nothing cautious, for one.

There was no need for a present after this year.

There's nothing cautious about how this thing was handled and

how it was unraveled and how it was unwrapped.

Amen, the flesh. And please understand when I say

it and I'll get to my I haven't forgot about where we started.

The flesh, Amen that this thing was wrapped in wasn't the gift

per SE. I know we haven't.

Our tree. Oh, look at that gift and has

bows and has paper and boxes and all that.

And look, that's your gift. And yes, I understand that.

But in reality, the papers and the boxes and the bows isn't the

gift per SE. They are just the container that

makes the gift accessible. They're just, they're just the

container that makes the gift accessible to you.

If I can say it. And my sister, sometime in the

past few weeks, she sent a verse of Scripture in it.

My mind went back to it here as I was studying this week.

The real gift, Amen, of Bethlehem's Manger, the real

gift of Christ Jesus, the real gift of Christmas, is the blood,

blood that was in that body. The blood that was in that body.

Old Testament precedent gives it to us over and over that the

life of the flesh is in the blood.

The life of the flesh is in the blood.

That's the reason why they slaughtered their bull and they

slaughtered their lamb, but it could only take care of it for

one year. But the life of his blood that

was in his flesh once and for all when I wake.

The body made the blood available.

The spirit has no blood, but the body had blood.

The body makes the blood accessible.

It's the wrappings, it's the paper, it's the box, it's the

container, but the gift is the blood.

I want to under score that just a

little bit more because Acts 20 tells us that his church was

purchased. Not silver, not gold, not some

trade off if you will of chickens and bulls.

No, the church was purchased by his own.

That's the gift. That's the gift, and Hebrews

tells us, and that goes Leviticus.

Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.

Or if I can define that, removal of sins.

And yet you and I all have sinned and come short of the

glory. That's the gift.

That's the gift. And yet Leviticus also says

these words that blood makes atonement for the soul, or blood

makes the soul at one again. Atonement at 1:00, at 1:00,

again with God, you can't get that any other way that comes

through. No, no other venue.

There's not a substitute for it or a Plan B for it.

It requires blood, The blood someone came in.

Not only that, we read in Isaiah, we read in Peter what by

his stripes he two places, which is I love this.

One of those passages say by his stripes ye were healed.

Another passage says by his stripes ye are healed.

Always love that because one is present and one is past and as

long as you keep healing in those two areas, the future is

taken care of. But stripes the bleeding or the

causing to bleed the blood brings, if you will, the best

medicine for our healing. To top it all off, Peter even

said and calls the blood of the human body of Christ Jesus.

Note now precious blood. No, no blood's precious on any

level. I understand that you only got

so many liters of it in your body.

I looked up just to make sure about I thought it was.

I just looked up yesterday to make sure they're still.

I know we have heart replacements, lung replacements,

all this stuff, but the blood of any human body still remains

irreplaceable. They don't have a substitute.

And I'll tell you this, if there's no substitute for my

human blood, rest assured there is no substitute for so, So, So

what? What's the real, real meaning of

Christmas? The old hymn?

What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh precious, here's the flow that makes me white hats.

No, no other fount. I know nothing but the blood

because of the perfect gift and the sin that it remits and the

church that it buys and the healing that it offers and the

redemption that it gives because of the perfect Christmas gift.

That means a healthy bride without spot or wrinkle or any

such thing. That means a bride that's in

good standing with her groom. And it's all largely

underwritten by a gift that was presented in Bethlehem and

unwrapped on Calvary. Jesus said in our text, yes, our

text. It's still there.

For this is my blood of the New Testament, the word Testament

covenant interchangeable here in the Scripture covenants,

Testaments, Old New alike, they were often ratified or confirmed

by blood. When the covenant was made, they

would sacrifice, slaughter an animal and that blood would

oftimes be sprinkled in order to make the covenant binding,

ratify the covenant. Truth is why in the Old

Testament, you see Moses, he's made a covenant with the people

and concerning the law, it talks about him taking blood and

sprinkling that blood upon the altar and upon the people and he

called it this. The blood of the covenant or the

blood of the Testament Jesus is holding.

I'm sure his cup looked better than a painted koozie, but hey,

who am I to criticize? Jesus is holding a cup of the

fruit of the vine that represented his blood.

Listen, Calvary hasn't happened yet in our text here, Calvary

hasn't happened. It's still in the future.

But he's holding the cup of the fruit of the vine representing.

He's even making it plain to them his blood, Christ's cross

isn't standing upright on Golgotha's heel yet, but he says

here's the cup. This is my, this is my blood.

This is the blood of the New Testament.

Notice that Christ did not say this will be my blood, but he

says this is my blood. Why are you talking like that

Lord? Because the gift was there, it

just needed unwrapped. It was there, it was present, no

pun intended. It was holding the cup, it was

readily available. It just needed unwrapped.

And he goes hard to say, this is this is, this is my blood of the

New Testament, and it is shed for many.

No crowns been placed upon his head.

No, no cat of nine tailspins laid to his back.

No, no, no scourging. No, no spear has went through

his side, and blood and water has come.

Not even the first snail has been put in his hands or in his

feet. And yet, he says the blood is

shed. How so?

Listen to me very clearly, because no one ever intends for

a gift to remain wrapped. Correct me if I'm wrong.

There'd be a problem at your house when all the festivities

are over if you stumbled across a Stillwell packaged gift.

And maybe your dilemma is even greater because the name tags

fell off. Or perhaps your name was Paul

McGee and you forgot to even put one on.

That will be my case. What's going to be the thing?

Somebody has a gift here, you're not just going to like, oh, I

guess we'll put it up with everything and get it out next

year. No, because everybody knows a

gift is intended. He could say is shed because he

knows a gift doesn't go unwrapped.

The blood, the Old Testament, New Testament matters not.

It seals the New Testament, the new covenant.

The writer of Hebrews talks about that New Testament, that

new covenant. He said that thing, Amen.

That his blood sealed. He said it is giving us a man a

better covenant than what we had, a better testament than

what we had. He goes on to say, the writer of

Hebrews, he said if the first covenant would have been good

enough, we wouldn't have needed a second one.

He said. But this is the blood.

Amen of the new covenant of the New Testament.

Amen. And it's going to be better,

folks. That's our perfect Christmas

gift this morning. Peter said we understand the

Scripture. Christ was the perfect lame of

God. He knew no sin, right?

It's made in all ways like you and I are tempted, tested, but

without sin. But Peter said that he bare

though he bore, he bare our sin in his body.

So when I get from this perfect gift is this He bears our sin in

his body, but he bears our redemption in his blood.

Body and blood, bread and cup, the perfect Christmas gift.

If you can stay with me this morning.

Why are you saying all this, Brother McGee?

I'm saying this because if we have such a large margin of

people, whether connected to Christianity or not, and

evidently people that don't even believe in God, celebrating

Christmas, then I cannot go this season without talking about the

true message of Christmas. Can't fall silent.

Listen, it is too vital for even one generation to go without

hearing about the perfect Christmas gift, the birth of

Christ. It's just not a tale of history,

right? The the the writer of the New

Testament, Paul even said one area, he said, whenever I'm

talking, I'm not talking about some canonly devised fable,

right? This is not some pseudo fake

artificial truth. So I'm telling you the truth.

And I think it's important today to reacquaint ourselves with the

truth of this gift, right? It's the it's the remedy for for

our sin. It's the remedy for humanity.

And the amazing thing about, you know, we say it all the time.

Well, this is it's the gift that keeps on giving.

We bow our heads this morning to this place.

It came as a carefully wrapped gift.

There's nothing in Scripture that indicates that there was a

10 toes and 10 fingers. Like new parents, you know,

check when that newborn comes and they're looking very

carefully. He was a carefully wrapped gift.

He did not take upon the nature of an Angel.

The Bible says he took upon the nature of the seed of Abraham,

right? He came down, he condescended,

and he became a man among. And like humanity, he who was

rich became poor, that through his Amen poverty we might be

made rich. He came, but his humanity, his

wrappings, all this stuff was concealing his divinity.

Like all gifts, they got caught glimpses of maybe what it was

when a blind eye was opened by him, caught glimpses of what it

was when a dead Lazarus came forth from the grave.

They caught glimpses of it all. But ultimately, when his body

was per SE broken and when that blood was shed and poured out

for her redemption, there was no guesswork now that this was the

perfect, the perfect gift. Can we just start talking to the

Lord this morning? We are in yes, as they oftimes

say, the most wonderful time of the year.

But I'm asking us on this Sunday morning, as we get caught up in

the hustle and the bustle of a season and all of the other

cultural things that pull us in every direction and every way.

All the different lists that we have to keep track of this and

at what night we're going here and what time this function is

at. I'm asking if just on this

Sunday morning, we could have a holy pause and remember the

perfect Christmas gift. Am I urging to you this morning

is this. You, like me, have been born

into this Adamic nature. You, like me, have been born

into this world as a Sinner. You, like me, fail.

We succumb to temptation. We succumb to impurity.

We succumb, if you will, to mishaps.

And we have our fallacies. But it's all bound in that gift.

It's all bound in that packaging.

Blood for the purchase price of the church.

Blood for the redemption of humanity.

Blood for the healing of the body.

Blood, Blood. There's life in the blood.

Can I tell you that the cup is still full?

Uh huh. That cup is still full.

His blood is still the blood of this new covenant.

It's a covenant that he wants to involve you in.

It's a covenant that he wants to make a joint arrangement with

you, Sir, with you, ma'am, wherever you may be, whatever

your path past may have been. He's extending the cup right in

that moment. His blood to Matthew, who was a

tax collector. He's extending his cup to the

fisherman. Hey, man, he's extending his cup

in that moment to people of different segments of life.

He's he's extended that cup to a political man, Simon the zealot.

It's still there today because it's the perfect gift that you

can ever receive. You may have your list and you

may, you may have your wants and you may have your aspirations.

If I ever get this someday, man, there just be a sense of

satisfaction. Let me tell you Sir, ma'am, you

will never have the satisfaction you need until you avail

yourself of the gift that came in Bethlehem's Manger and unwrap

it for yourself. Unwrap it for yourself.

Peel back the layers and see the love.

That wasn't meant just for a 1st century church.

That wasn't just meant for 12 guys that were His disciples.

It was a love for you he became, he became Amen, a ransom for all

for many Amen, even his name that the Angel told Joseph and

Mary, you're going to call him Jesus.

The tagline is for he shall save his people from their sins.

Folks, that's the most perfect Christmas give.

You don't know the Lord this morning the way that I'm

describing to you. I'm trying to be of Solmus in my

hour and say, God, give me a little bit more time until I can

tell this generation about your strength and about your power of

who you are, what you are, what you've come to do for us.

This altar is open today. Hey, man, the gift is here.

The gift is here. It's here, if you will.

It's accessible. Hey, man, it's accessible, but

you got to reach out to it. Just like the Old Testament

blood that was in a basin from a perfect lamb on the day of

passage, silver that was put up on the lid on the doorpost.

It could have been a dead lamb and blood innovation, but it

didn't serve the families until someone applied it.

Someone applied it, perhaps today you need to come to where

the gift is and get your hands in the gift and allow that

blood, allow that purpose, allow that future to be applied to.

It's the most perfect Christmas gift, Brother Mason, if we can

go to song right now and if we can just praise the Lord and

acknowledge him. He's in this place.

I feel the witness of his Spirit.

Amen. Here today.

I love you, Jesus.