David [00:00:01]:
The last four weeks we’ve been talking about the season of giving. And as I mentioned before, we are full fully into celebrating this season of giving that we experience every year in November and December.
David [00:00:35]:
Almost three weeks ago, we began by giving thanks and celebrating Thanksgiving Day together. Now we are all focused on Christmas and all that means all the decorations, everything’s out. We’ve got trees up, decorated. Everything is moving. We were with our grandkids a few days ago, a few weeks ago, and we got little miniature trees in their rooms, so they got to decorate something also. So just a lot of great things, a lot of great memories being made. The second way we discussed expressing giving after Thanksgiving is celebrating the greatest gift given to us through Jesus Christ. And this is a gift that was given to all mankind by God, our Heavenly Father.
David [00:01:30]:
And this gift was His Son, Jesus. Christmas is a celebration of God’s gift to us and to this world in the form of Jesus. He is the reason for the season. And don’t forget that. Share that with your family and your friends. Let’s all remember that Jesus is the reason for the season. Then last week, our brother Jackie Liston shared with us the three GS of giving God, gratitude and generosity. Giving originated with God.
David [00:02:12]:
When he created us, he wanted to give to us. And so we show gratitude by doing that. But he was showing gratitude for us and generosity to us by all that he gave us. And again, as we saw a couple weeks ago, the Book of John tells us that God loved us, that he gave. God is a giver of gifts. He loves giving to his children. His heart to give flows out of his love for you. Hallelujah.
David [00:02:58]:
Today I want us to look deeper into God’s heart to give. We started that a couple weeks ago by looking at John 3:16 and all that the word love meant there for God so loved that he gave. And so when we understand God’s heart to give, we see how our heart to give brings glory to God and impacts the world around us. And we see why giving is so important. Also as a part of this today, I want us to understand the way giving gifts works, the way of giving. Giving is not just arbitrary action or something we do to be nice. Giving is a process. It’s a flow, a flow of blessing governed by God’s law.
David [00:03:57]:
And we’re going to talk about what that law is as we drill down into this today. But. But let’s start first with our key verse. Our key verse today is James 1:17. James 1:17 says this. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Now, let me say this. We’re not going to drill down into this today, but I want to go ahead and say it.
David [00:04:32]:
It says it comes down. His gifts come down from the Father of Lights. Guys, it’s not just talking about the sun, the moon, the stars there. It’s talking about us. It’s talking about you. Jesus said, we are a light unto the world. And a light’s not put up on the hill to be hid. No, it’s to be seen.
David [00:04:57]:
And so God is bringing to these good and perfect gifts for us, to work for us, and in us, and through us and with us. And so God is a giver of gifts to us. And so in this verse, James is giving us insight into God’s heart for giving. We’re going deeper into that and then how the process works. So the first thing we see is God gives good gifts and perfect gifts. So what is a good gift? The first thing the word good means. There is. It means excellent.
David [00:05:37]:
It’s an excellent gift. You know, sometimes in our vernacular, people say, well, that’s a good gift. No, the word good here and the Greek means it’s excellent. It’s an excellent gift. It goes on to say, it means full of majesty. It’s a majestic gift. It’s a magnificent gift. An excellent gift is one given to benefit greatness.
David [00:06:06]:
Hallelujah. Guess what? There’s greatness in you. In fact, Psalm 16:5 says this. As for the saints who were on the earth, they are the excellent ones. You’re an excellent one in whom is all my delight. All the delight of the Lord is in you. You are his gift. His excellent gift.
David [00:06:31]:
His good gift. Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another God. So this is talking about those who don’t follow God or choose God. Their sorrows will be multiplied. Their drink, offerings of blood, I will not offer nor take up their names on my lips. And then the writer goes on to say, O Lord, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot. So the writer is recognizing here.
David [00:07:06]:
Not only are we the saints, God’s excellent ones, his good gifts, he is ours. God is our gift. He is our portion, our inheritance, our cup. And he maintains our lot. He is there to take care of us. Wow. Praise God. That is powerful.
David [00:07:34]:
God loves us. And he loves to give to us. Let me say this again. You are an excellent one, and all his delight is in you. Jesus, as we all know, was God’s gift to us. And we are God’s gift to those we influence. Think about that. Jesus is God’s gift to us.
David [00:08:01]:
And then we are a gift of those we influence and introduce to God. He is your portion, your inheritance, your gift. And so then we get to go share that with others. We see here, good is not just enough, like I said, or alright with God, good is always more than enough. It’s magnificent. It’s given to benefit greatness. That greatness within you. God has put his greatness within you.
David [00:08:40]:
The second thing the word good means here is distinguished. Think about that. Distinguished. This is a distinguished gift. It means separated from others by superior or extraordinary qualities. This is a gift that is superior, extraordinary, above and beyond. It’s imminent, it’s transcendent, it’s noted, it can even be famous and celebrated. God’s good gift is all that to you.
David [00:09:17]:
When God gives a gift to you, it separates you from others by superior or extraordinary qualities. It distinguishes you from others. First Peter 2, 9 says this. I love this verse, but you are a chosen generation. Let me just stop right there. I’m sure you’re familiar with this verse, but let’s just stop right there. You. You are chosen.
David [00:09:49]:
God has chosen you as his own. You are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood. Wow. A holy nation. His own special people that you may proclaim his praises. The praises of him who called you out of darkness and to his marvelous light. You are distinguished because you are chosen.
David [00:10:20]:
You are royal. You are a priest. You are holy. His own special people. You see, when you received the good gift of Jesus Christ, the life he came to give you, it distinguished you. It set you apart. It gave you the qualities of being chosen in royalty, of being priestly and holy, of being special to God our Father. You are set apart unto God because you received his gift of love, Jesus Christ.
David [00:11:01]:
Colossians 3:12. And this is from the Amplified. It says this. So was God’s own chosen people, who are holy and set apart, sanctified for his purpose, and well beloved by God himself. But on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, which has the power to endure whatever injustice or unpleasantness which comes. And do this with good temper. Your presence in this world is a good gift from God to the world.
David [00:11:52]:
I don’t know if you Thought about that, but it’s true. You are. You are made to be loved by God and to share his love with others. By doing this, you help transform the world. God put you here to share his goodness and all that we said that this word means. He put you here to share it. You were not here by accident. You’ve heard me talk about this before.
David [00:12:23]:
God put you here on purpose, for a purpose. Your life is a good gift. His presence in you and through you is a game changer. Your heart and your life matters. You were God’s gift to the world. Jesus Christ was the most extravagant and best gift. God came to the world, gave to the world, so that we might have life, eternal, abundant life. We’ll talk about that a little later too.
David [00:12:56]:
But because you received the gift of God, God uses that gift in you and through you to touch the world around you. And you become a gift to the world. You are here to bless others as you’ve been blessed, to serve them, to love them, to encourage them, to uplift them, and to nurture them them so that they may walk in all the goodness of God also and go and share that goodness, that gift with others. Wow. You are distinguished. God has made us distinguished and given us a distinguished gift. The third word good, that good means here. The third word that defines what good means here.
David [00:13:47]:
I really can get this. Right is upright. It’s an upright gift. That which is correct, that which is right, that which is proper. God only gives us gifts that are correct, right and proper for us. He also only calls us to what is correct, right and proper for us. So when we look at the gift God’s given us and the gifts God gives us, that is correct, right and proper for us. It gives us insight into how we need to use those gifts and who we need to influence with those gifts.
David [00:14:37]:
The fourth thing the word good means here is honorable. God gives honorable gifts. And that word honorable means holding a distinguished rank. Not only are you distinguished, you’re holding a distinguished rank. God’s good gift honors you with a distinguished rank, his chosen one. If you go back to first Peter 2. 9 again, read and meditate on that verse every day through this season. Because as his child, you are honored with all these distinguished qualities.
David [00:15:18]:
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You are a distinguished gift of God with a distinguished rank. The fifth thing the word good means here is pleasant, agreeable, joyful, happy, Hallelujah. It means to be pleasing, cheerful, creating gratefulness wherever you go. God’s gifts to you, in you, through you, bring pleasure, gratefulness and cheer to those around you. It also brings us to God when he sees it. You know, I shared this recently, but I’ll share it again because I’m a granddaddy and I like sharing things like this.
David [00:16:02]:
But it just gives me great joy to see my grandkids flowing in the gifts that God has given them. I’m already seeing it. It gives me great joy when we give them some little gift we took them when Conia and I were up there recently. We took them to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and each one of them walked out with a little gift from the corner of the store over there where all the kids toys are, and they all got to pick one and they were so excited. They were simple little gifts, but they brought such joy and cheerfulness and happiness, and it filled me with joy and cheerful and happiness. And that’s what God’s gifts do for you and in you and through you and to those around you. The sixth thing the word good means here is useful. God gives useful gifts.
David [00:17:00]:
Useful means having the power to produce good, to be profitable, advancing any purpose as a vessel and instrument that is useful. God’s gifts are useful. And this takes us back to Genesis 1:28, and I’m reading this from the Amplified classic version. And God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth, subdue it using all of its vast resources in the service of God and man. I’m going to stop right there for a moment. The word blessed Here in Genesis 1:28 means prospered by God. And that word prospered in the Hebrew means empowered. When we are prospered by God, it means we are empowered by God.
David [00:17:50]:
And there are four things we’re empowered to do through the blessing. We are empowered to advance, we are empowered to make progress, we’re empowered to succeed, and we’re empowered to profit. God’s gifts are good gifts that empower us to advance, to move forward, to make progress, to succeed, and to profit, to bring value. Isaiah 48:17 in the Amplified Classic says this. Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way that you should go. The word prophet here in the Hebrew in this verse means to be valuable, to be useful. God says he will teach you to be valuable and useful to all those around you. God’s good gifts work in you, through you, with you, and for you, so that you can be useful and valuable for his kingdom, for his purpose, His Plan and to everyone in your life.
David [00:19:08]:
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. As Paul said in Ephesians 3:20, God works through us to accomplish his purpose superabundantly, far, over and above anything, all that we dare ask or think. Hallelujah. Think about that. His good gifts are far, over and above anything we ask or imagine. God’s good gifts are excellent.
David [00:19:38]:
They’re distinguished. They’re upright. They’re honorable. They’re good. They’re pleasant. They’re agreeable. They’re joyful. They’re happy.
David [00:19:46]:
They’re useful. So what are God’s perfect gifts? Are we ready to talk about that? Every perfect gift is one that is complete, nothing lacking, nothing needed to fully walk in it or enjoy it. It is a state of fullness, of completeness. It means abounding and being in great plenty and abundance. That word perfect there means brought to its end, furnished, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness, absolutely nothing missing and nothing broken. It works. Psalm 16, verse 11 says this. You will show me the path of life, and your presence is fullness of joy.
David [00:20:42]:
At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Complete joy, perfect joy, nothing missing, nothing broken. John 10:10. Jesus said that’s what he came to give us. It says in the amplified version, it says, a thief only comes in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have and enjoy life and have an abundance to the full till it overflows. It’s life in the full, complete, nothing lacking, nothing wanting, nothing needed, nothing missing, nothing broken. It’s a full life and overflow life that Jesus came to give us.
David [00:21:31]:
That’s his good and perfect gift to us. The gift of life Jesus came to give us is a perfect life, an abundant, full, overflowing, complete life. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. His life is always more than enough. What we see here is God gives her good far over and above all we can ask or think. And perfect, abundant, full, overflowing, and complete. These two words, good and perfect, are simply defining the characteristics of God’s gifts.
David [00:22:11]:
All God’s gifts are good, and all God’s gifts are perfect. It’s not that they’re two separate kinds. They’re all good and they’re all perfect. And that’s all they can be is good and perfect. Well, David, why do you say that? Psalm 100, verse 5 from the Amplified Classic says this. For the Lord is good. There it is again. He’s good.
David [00:22:39]:
His mercy and loving kindness are everlasting. His faithfulness and truth endures to all generations. The Word good here means bounty. It’s bountiful. He’s bountiful. It means prosperity, God. It’s full and prosperous. It means benefit to be right, kind, rich, valuable, excellent, pleasant, agreeable.
David [00:23:14]:
This is who God is. All these things that we’ve been talking about, all these definitions point us back to this. This is the heart of God. He is good. He is full of bounty, prosperity, benefits, righteousness, kindness, riches. He is valuable, excellent, pleasant, and agreeable. And God wants you to share in all of that and benefit from it. This is God’s heart for giving.
David [00:23:46]:
Then the verse goes on to say, his mercy and loving kindness are everlasting forever without end. God’s heart for giving flows out of his goodness. And his giving good gifts flows out of his mercy and loving kindness to us forever. Which goes back to what James said in James 1:17. These gifts come down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. All we have to do is receive them so we understand the giving heart of God. Now let’s look at God’s way of giving.
David [00:24:37]:
The word gift here, good gifts means this. It means a giving. It means a bestowing, a conferring. It means imparting or granting or delivering. It means a providing to. And then it goes on to say this about this word. It is a giving, a gift given and received. And so what the word here in the Greek means is to be a gift.
David [00:25:13]:
For a giving to happen, it must be received. God created a flow. It’s called the law seedtime and harvest. The law of sowing and reaping. The law of giving and receiving. Now, here’s what we know. A law is how something works. So this is how giving and receiving work.
David [00:25:44]:
For example, I’m familiar with, and so are you, the law of gravity. Two of my brothers are pilots. They’re very familiar with the law of gravity and the law of lift. And I’ve learned about the law of lift because I’ve flown with them. And I want to know that they’re in line with the law of lift so we can fly and not fall out of the sky. God just doesn’t talk about seed time or sowing or giving. He talks about every time. He talks about seed time and harvest.
David [00:26:17]:
He talks about sowing and reaping. He talks about giving and receiving. If we plant and sow seed but don’t get a harvest, you know what we’ll say. And brother Jackie was sharing this recently with me. We were talking about farming because my uncle owned a huge farm in the Panhandle, Florida, and Jackie’s family owned farms there in southwest Oklahoma. And he said, if we plant and sow seed, but we don’t get a harvest, he says, I remember them saying, that’s not good ground. Something wrong there. Why? Because seedtime and harvest and sowing and reaping is all about the law of giving and receiving.
David [00:27:07]:
If I sow seed and plant seed, I expect to reap a harvest. If I give the earth the seed, the way God created this environment, this earth is, the earth will give me back a harvest. I will reap something from it. Now, to have a harvest and reap, I got to receive what the earth gives me. If I just leave it in the field, it’s going to rot. It’ll be of no use to anybody. When we plant and sow a seed, we expect to reap a harvest. That’s the way it works.
David [00:27:54]:
What it’s saying here in the Greek, in this verse, for there to be a giving of a gift, it must be received. If we give and don’t receive, what are we doing? We’re interrupting the flow of God’s blessing. We’re interrupting the law of giving and receiving. The law works when both actions are at work, the giving and the receiving. We miss out on what God has for us. When we don’t receive from him or from those around us, he uses to give to us. And that’s why a lot of my friends. Well, I’ll talk about that in a minute.
David [00:28:52]:
I don’t want to get distracted here. This is one of the things Satan uses to rob us of what God has for us. He’ll say, you should give, but don’t expect anything back. Don’t be greedy. Or if someone is trying to give you something or buy you something, you’ll say, don’t let them do that. What will people think? They’ll say, you’re just poor and needy. This is one of the things the enemy uses against us. What I was going to say a moment ago, a lot of my friends, if they’re trying to buy me dinner, we’re out eating.
David [00:29:34]:
They’re trying to buy me dinner. I said, no, I got this. I’m going to take care of my own check. They go, you gonna rob me of my blessing? Oh, no, I don’t want to do that. Because what we recognize here, if God has moved on their heart to buy my meal and I stop them, I stop the flow of blessing in their life and in my life, giving and receiving Receiving a gift is just as important as giving a gift. It is a part of the flow of God’s blessing. It is how the law of giving and receiving works. Now, I know you know this, but let me say this.
David [00:30:20]:
We don’t do this from place of manipulation. That is not how the law works either. We can’t manipulate the law. We receive from a place of gratitude and gratefulness, which we talked about back around Thanksgiving. The first pilgrims planned that event to be grateful and thankful for the abundant harvest they had that year. We come thankful for the blessing of God in our lives. So I want to say something I said earlier. To be a great giver, you must be a great receiver.
David [00:31:04]:
To be a great giver, you must be a great receiver. Now, the other word there, where it says good gifts, so that first word gift and then perfect gifts, that word gift there is just a little different. In the Greek, it means a bounty, a benefit conferred or bestowed on someone. The Greek word bounty there means an invocation of blessing, means speaking blessing as God did over Adam and Eve in the beginning. God’s gift empowers you to advance, advance, like I said, to make progress, to succeed, to profit, to learn, to be valuable and useful. The other thing it means here in the Greek, it means consecration. It means that you’ve been separated from a common, a commonness to a sacred use. God has set you apart unto Himself.
David [00:32:06]:
God’s gift given to you come as a blessing and a consecration. And they’re sacred. They’re sacred. They’re sacred. Wow. In the Hebrew, that word bounty means an open hand. So when God comes with his good gifts and his perfect gifts, he’s coming with an open hand. And the open hand indicates power.
David [00:32:40]:
He’s coming with his power available to you. It indicates means it’s coming with all of his means, all of his potential, all of his supply available to you. It means direction. His good and perfect gifts come with direction, a way forward. It means dominion. His good and perfect gifts come to you with power and authority and influence. It means fellowship. His good and perfect gifts come to you.
David [00:33:14]:
That open hand means, hey, come on, let’s enter into fellowship. Let’s do this together. It’s like the old saying, when God gives good and perfect gifts, they come from his hand to yours, from his hand to yours. And then he directs you to go share that, share some of that gift. And so from your hands to theirs. But it’s really God’s hands working through your hands to bless others, to walk in the fullness and completeness of God’s gifts, you must receive them. To be a great giver, you must be a great receiver. And that word receive simply means to take it, to accept it.
David [00:34:13]:
That’s what we’re wanting to see at Christmas when we give gifts. Have you ever given the gift Christmas? And they went, oh, wow. Oh, thank you. Do you ever have anybody do that? No. You want. That’s not what you want. You want to see someone take that gift and accept that gift. And this is my gift.
David [00:34:34]:
A receiver is one who takes or accepts a gift in any manner with joy and cheerfulness and happiness. Don’t let the enemy rob you of your blessing by not receiving what God is giving you. Even when the gift is coming through someone else, recognize that is God working through them to bring you a gift, to bless you. As we move forward into this season of celebrating the gift of life, Jesus came to give us. Know this. When you receive what Jesus gave to you, the gift of eternal life through believing in him and through your salvation. When you receive what he came to give you and you received it, you were giving yourself to him and he received. You see what was going on there? Giving, receiving, giving, receiving.
David [00:35:47]:
Welcome to this season of giving and receiving. Hallelujah. Let’s bow our heads in prayer. Father, we thank you for the revelation of your word, the insight into your heart, and how you love to give, Father. And just pour your love out for us and bestow on us all these great and awesome and mighty gifts. Father God, these excellent, magnificent gifts. Father, thank you. And thank you for working in us and through us to share those gifts with others and to give to them.
David [00:36:28]:
And Father, we receive your love today. And I pray that as we receive your love, we show that love to others and give it to others that they may receive your love, Father, and that we may become a shining light in the earth reflecting your love, your life, and your glory to all those around us. So, Jesus, we come to celebrate your birthday, to celebrate the gift of life you came to give us by sharing that with others. And that is one of the greatest gifts that we can give anyone. And we thank you for that privilege, that opportunity, the honor we have to partner with you in doing this. Thank you, Father, for working in us to give and to receive Jesus name. Amen. Praise God.
David [00:37:29]:
Pastor Conia’s coming now with a closing word and closing prayer. God bless you and go out and bless somebody else this week.
