" PRESENT - JESUS IS THE PRESENT - THE INDESCRIBABLE GIFT"

Look Up:     Romans 5:15-19; 2 Corinthians 9:15

Sermon preached by Dr. Wayne Poplin, Senior Pastor of
Carmel Baptist Church, Matthews, NC (Copyright 2007)   

INTRODUCTION:  I have had some very special relationships with pulpit committee chairpeople over the years.  That was true of one of the pulpit committees I had while I was in Virginia.  The man who chaired that group became a special friend.  He was wise—with great insight and discernment.  He was a neat person to know, and we became very close.  As a result of working with him and his committee, I didn’t go to his church.  After several weeks of praying, I told Ed that even though I would love to work with him, God was just not leading me to his church.  He accepted that and told me that he wanted to give me something and would see me in a couple of weeks to bring it.  A couple of Sundays passed and he showed for worship and afterwards we sat and talked.  He told me the story behind his gift—how it had been in his family for years—how during a season of missions giving when funds were tight his father hocked it to get money to give to missions—but afterwards got enough money to buy it back.  Then he told me he wanted me to have this gift.  So he takes out of his pocket a beautiful diamond ring.  I was dumbfounded and didn’t know what to say.  I finally said, “Ed, I can’t take this.  What in the world are you thinking?”  I didn’t want him giving me something that special to him.  He said, “I know what I am doing.  I really want you to have this.  I wouldn’t be offering it if I didn’t.”  Now, I have this present, precious to him, given to me. 
            I am not a jewelry person.  But now I have this diamond ring.  I thought I should wear it to show appreciation in case Ed showed up again in the next few weeks.  But, I was very self-conscious about it.  I told Brenda that people were watching my finger as I preached, and I just couldn’t wear it.  So I put it in a little box that held my cuff links and things and left it there for a good while.  Then, I got to thinking, well if someone breaks into the house, they will find that ring right off the bat, so I hid it where nobody would ever find it.  It stayed hidden for months.  Then I got to thinking, what if I die and no one ever finds that ring.  So, I made a decision about what to do with the ring.  I decided to take the ring—have it put in another setting—and give it to my wife one Christmas.  After it was ready, I gave it to her mom to hide for me, because we were going to have Christmas at her house that year.  She hid it in the freezer.  She would kid with me that “she had it on ice.”  The night I gave it to Brenda, I waited until all the gifts were given and then gave her the package.  She began to look a little hesitant because the level of excitement had risen considerably in the room, and you could feel it.  She opened the ring, and like I was with Ed, she was speechless.  Then she looked at me—not knowing that it was the ring that I had and thinking I had gone out and bought that ring—and finally said,  “Have you lost your mind?”       
            Not being disrespectful or sacrilegious, that could be our response when we are offered God’s gift.  “Have you lost your mind?”  “What are you thinking?”  How could the Father offer the special treasure of His Son to us—THE PRESENT—the incarnate, crucified, buried and raised PRESENT?  How could He do it from eternity, before we were ever created, knowing the mess we would be in? 
            We are speechless.  But, in this case, we are speechless because the gift is indescribable.  The scripture says:

            Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift [2 Corinthians 9:15 ].

The gift, THE PRESENT, is indescribable, because there is no way we can fully describe the love behind the gift and the greatness of the gift.  Human language fails when we try to describe the value of this gift.  But God knew what He was doing, and He did what He wanted to do.
            This is unheard of in the world of religions.  In religions, man is always trying to find a gift to give to God to atone for his sin—something they value, even children, mutilation, inducement of bodily pain [flagellation], deaths of infidels.  With our God, He is the One Who gives the gift and the One Who is the gift, and the Gift is indescribable.  The gift is not an item.  It is a Person.  It is Jesus.  Why would He do that?  Because it is the only way we could have been spared, redeemed.  There is absolutely no gift we could have given to Him to atone for our sin.  We are alienated from God, dead in trespasses and sins and, left to ourselves, without hope.  But God gave the gift that we desperately needed.  The gift, THE PRESENT, is Jesus—
                        The One Who is God and Holy Who could offer Himself as the acceptable sacrifice.
                        The One Who took on flesh so He could die and pay the penalty of sin. 

 Why would God offer the PRESENT and why would Jesus become the PRESENT?  Grace.  Unimaginable grace poured out from eternity.    And the PRESENT has the power to reverse the effects of Adam’s sin and give me a right standing before God.
            But the gift is not like the trespass.  For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!  Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin:  The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification [Rom5:15-16]. 
            The PRESENT is like no other.  At Christmas we get presents that we don’t need, that don’t fit, that we don’t want, that don’t work.  That is why the return areas in stores are mobbed after Christmas.  We save receipts so that those to whom we give a gift can make an easy exchange.  This PRESENT is different.  We need this PRESENT.  It fits.  It works.  We can’t live without it.  There is no PRESENT like Him.    
            I remember the day that I took the PRESENT, opened it up, and trusted Jesus as my Savior.  [Go to the time ribbon and place a bow on it].  That is the day not only when my sins were forgiven but the day I received all the things that go with the Gift—eternal life, a place in the family of God, the opportunity to experience abundant life right now. And there was a day when many of you put your bow on the time line too.
            What should our response be to THE PRESENT?  Thank Him.  Give Him thanks.  Praise Him and live a life of praise to Him. 
            Thanks be to God for His indescribable Gift [2Cor. 9:15 ].
        And give the PRESENT away.  I got as much joy giving the ring to my wife as I did in getting it.  I want to offer the PRESENT to you today.   If your bow is not on the time ribbon, it can go up today.
        The PRESENT has been packaged in many ways.  I have seen it sloppily wrapped.  I have seen it inappropriately wrapped.  I have seen it beautifully wrapped.  I have seen people offer the PRESENT just as escape insurance.  I have seen the PRESENT offered with the wrong attitude.  I have seen people offer the PRESENT as a way to end all problems and poverty and sickness.  The PRESENT has been offered as just a means of being forgiven for our sins, which it is, but not understood as the opportunity to live life to the fullest now and to experience the deliverance of power over sin now.  However you have heard or seen it packaged, it doesn’t change the PRESENT.  
            Take the PRESENT and open it
            Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become the children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God [Jh. 1:12-13].  

THE PRESENT, and THE PRESENT Giver have unleashed a whole culture of giving presents at Christmas.  Most don’t understand why giving is such a big deal at Christmas.  We do.  It is because of the PRESENT.