12.8.24 A Gift Received

During the Christmas season, the speaker reflects on the gift of Jesus Christ and how He came to redeem mankind. The speaker emphasizes that the gift of salvation is free, but it has to be received. The Christmas story from Luke chapter 2 is mentioned, highlighting the birth of Jesus and the message brought by the angels to the shepherds. The speaker explains that Jesus is both fully man and fully God, and that He came to be our Savior, the Christ, and the Lord. The speaker also discusses the significance of Jesus being placed in a manger, symbolizing His role as the provider of spiritual nourishment. as we now call it, we've kicked off this season back at Thanksgiving and we looked at how that God, we began by thanking Him because of His indescribable gift that He has given us in His Son Jesus Christ and we looked at the fact that Jesus Christ took upon Himself human flesh in order to pay the price of our sin and we know that because of our sin the wages of that sin is death and so He had to die on the cross of Calvary and He did that willingly for you and I and so the Galatians chapter 4 says that Jesus Christ was given in order to redeem mankind and we looked at that word redemption and that idea is buying back and making us what we were created to be and He accomplished that by being born of a woman. He had to be human and He had to subject Himself to the laws that we have and we know that as a human He lived a perfect sinless life and because of that He became the very perfect sacrifice to be made in order to redeem us and so we saw that last week in the gift that has been given to us and because of His life and because of His death we have an opportunity to have our sins forever forgiven, to be cast as far as the east is to the west, to be buried at the bottom of sea, never to be remembered anymore and because of that we have become the opportunity to be adopted and become a son or a daughter of God and then a joint heir of everything that Jesus Christ has in store for us and however there's a catch. There's a catch to all of it and we talk about salvation, we talk about the gift as being free, but there's absolutely nothing free and so there is a catch to it and what is that catch? The catch is the gift has to be received. You have to receive it and so that's what we're going to look at today and I want to illustrate that real quickly this morning. The church voted Wednesday night to help Brother Philip get into the 21st century and so the church voted for this Christmas to buy Brother Philip an iPad and so Brother Philip, I want you to come right now and will you come and accept this gift from the church this morning and we're hoping and praying that it will help a little bit with the music and stuff, but we appreciate all that you've done for us and you can set that up while I'm preaching this morning. Did you see how easy that was there? The gift, it was given, but it wasn't his gift. It wasn't his until he received it, until he accepted it. And so in Luke chapter 2, we read the Christmas story this morning and we find out this morning that our response, that our part of the salvation, our part of the gift is that we have to receive it. We have to respond to that and in Luke chapter 2 it says that it came to pass in those days that there went out a degree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. Uh oh, wait just a minute. Let me go to, there we go. I was in the wrong program there. All the world should be taxed and this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was the governor of Syria and all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea under the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David. To be taxed with Mary, his spouse wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, fear not for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. And it came to pass that the angels were gone away from them into heaven. The shepherds said one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. We look at that Christmas story this morning. We see that the Christmas story, even though it is simplicity and it's very few details, there's a lot of questions that I have. There's a lot more things that I would love to know about that particular night and what was going on. Yet it is very, very precise what Luke gives us. And Luke is there to give us and to show us the humanity of Jesus Christ, that He is a man just like you and I. On the other hand, when you read the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John presents Jesus Christ as deity, as God, and deals with the spiritual aspect of Jesus Christ. And when we look at the Christmas story, we have to understand that Jesus Christ was fully man, but He was also fully God. He was both. And therefore, He was able and sufficient to pay for the debt of our sin. As a matter of fact, John, a very familiar passage of Scripture says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. A gift given does not become your gift until you receive it. It can sit there under the tree. It can sit there at this altar. It can sit wherever it is for the rest of your life and never be yours until you receive it. And so I want you to notice some things out of our passage of Scripture this morning when we talk about this indescribable gift, the gift of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. The first thing we noticed, and we kind of talked a little bit about this last week in the gift given, but first of all, the gift has to be extended. It has to be offered unto us. The gift has to be offered. If it's not offered, then guess what? It's not a gift. You know, my wife tells me every year you buy your own Christmas presents and so you've got your gifts early. I said, them are not gifts when I buy them myself. Them are my purchases. Them are not gifts, right? So I still need to get gifts. And so there is a difference. And so a gift has to be extended. And when we look in Luke chapter 2 in verse 7, it says, And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward all men. Notice he tells us that this baby will be our Savior. This baby will be the Christ. This baby will be the Lord. He uses three different words there to describe this baby that was wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger in the city of Bethlehem. Notice first of all, they call him a Savior. And the word Savior means that he is coming to save the world of their sins. He is the one that is capable and has the ability to relieve us from this sin nature that we have, because he would later come and he would lay down his life on a Roman cross in order that you and I might be saved from our sins. And so he is our Savior. Isaiah 53 talks about him taking our beating, taking our problems and all of the curse that has happened to us because of sin. And he took it upon himself as he died in our place. But then he also refers to him as a Christ. The word means the anointed one. The name identifies this baby, this particular one as the Messiah, the one that would come and be the Messiah of the Jews, the deliverer from the Jews, the one that would take the Jewish people that have been off in captivity, that have been off in exile, that has gone four hundred years without a word from God. This is going to be the Messiah that is going to bring them back and to reconcile them with God and to bring them back through his own very sacrifice on behalf of them. And then he is also called Lord. And the shepherds are told about a baby in a manger, but that baby would be identified as Lord. In other words, the name Lord portrays to us the one that is in control, the boss, the one that has the answers, the one that has the authority that is there. In other words, the Creator became man. We saw in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 16 that Jesus Christ, that all things were created by him, for him and through him. It is that God, it is that Creator that has come and was laying there in a manger in Bethlehem. Wow, Jesus Christ has been born in our Christmas story and he has been placed in a manger which is simply a feed trough. Now let me ask you a question. What goes into a feed trough? What do you put in a feed trough? What does that mean? Hey, food, grain, right? Grain. And hey, kind of neat is I begin to look at this Christmas story and I say, why in the world a feed trough? You know, I've worked on a farm. I've had farm animals. There's a lot of other things that I could grab when a baby is born to put that baby in besides a feed trough. You know, I mean, yeah, it kind of may be good, may be the right size and everything else, but how many of you would put your baby in a feed trough that's been slobbered in and everything else by all of these animals as they eat grain? But yet, like Brother Moore said this morning, all of these prophecies had to be fulfilled perfectly and completely. If you remember, he was placed in this feed trough in a town called Bethlehem. You know what the name Bethlehem means? It literally means the house of bread. The house of bread. In other words, in other words, Jesus Christ, you've taken that manger and what do you do? You put grain in there. You can also take that grain, the oats and the wheat and the hay and the stuff that they gather. You can take the seeds, you can pound it down and you can make flour and you can make bread. And guess what? Jesus Christ comes and what does He do? He declares Himself to be the bread of life. As a matter of fact, He tells us in the purpose of bread, He says in John chapter 6, it shows His deity says, for the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. You see, we need bread to survive. We need food. We need substance. And guess what? Jesus Christ was in the house of bread, laid in a manger and He came and they wrapped Him in swaddling clothes. And as I think about that picture and I think about the bread of life, I think about grandmother when she used to make yeast rolls, right? And she would take and she'd mix up that flour and everything and add the yeast to it. And then what she would do, she would wrap a little cloth over the top of it and she'd set it in a warm plot in the kitchen so that it would rise. And I think about man, Jesus Christ. He was put there in the dough form and when it's rising, it's not very attractive. It's sure not very tasty. I've eaten my share of raw dough and stuff in the kitchen, but it's not that tasty. And Jesus Christ wasn't that wonderful. He wasn't recognized by all of the kings and all of those in authority. He was just there waiting the day that He could be offered up for you and I. As we think about that bread, notice what the shepherds did. They said, then they said unto Him, Lord, in John chapter six, then they said unto Him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And so we see here the gift has been extended. The gift has been delivered. This babe lying in a manger, this babe that would be the bread of life, the one that would be able to give us substance, to give us life and life more abundantly. He was there in this feed trough and He was offered to the world and first of all, to the shepherds, to the shepherds. And the question that we have to ask is, will we, will you accept Him as your Savior? Will you do what the shepherds did and receive the gift? Notice what happened in verse eight. As we go back to our story in our text, it says that there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to some people. Now it says to all people, to all people. And so notice the response is, first of all, fear. When we think about salvation and I think this story gives us in the simplest form today, I think it gives us the most simplest, purest form of salvation that we have probably anywhere in the Scripture. And notice the first response is all of a sudden fear. When the angels appear and we talk about, you know, well, that would probably scare me too, right? If I'm out in the middle of the fields and I'm out at night and it's dark and you're on your own watch and you're keen anyway looking for wolves and lions and bears and predators for the young sheep and all of a sudden an angel appears to you out of nowhere. I believe I would be afraid also, right? Fear would come upon us. But you know what? When you look through the Bible, everybody that come into appearance, everybody that come into contact with Jesus Christ or with God, guess what? Every one of them responded in fear. You go all the way back to Abraham. And when God appeared to Abraham to tell him to leave Ur of Chaldees, it says that Abraham was afraid. He was afraid. And then you go on through Isaac, the same thing, Jacob the same way. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, it says he was afraid. And everybody that you read in the Bible, when they come into contact with Jesus Christ, they become afraid. And as I was thinking about that and I was thinking about this message today, fear is the standard reaction to divine manifestation. When God comes to us, it is natural to be afraid. And as I was thinking back on my salvation and I was thinking way back yonder to when I was nine years old and I can remember when God was dealing with my heart, when God through His Holy Spirit was convicted me and offering me the gift of salvation, I can remember being afraid. I can remember sitting there in the pew during the invitation and squeezing the back of the pew, you know, trying to keep myself from wanting to move, trying to keep myself from responding. I couldn't wait till the invitation was over so I could get out of there and change my mind and do everything. There is this fear. There's this fear of the unknown. There's this fear of not what to expect. There's this fear of what's going to be involved. What's God want me to do? There's this reverence. There's this respect and this fear. And it says the fear of the Lord, according to Solomon in Proverbs 1, 7, is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. He also tells us in chapter 2, verse 5, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. At some point, we have to get beyond our fear. At some point, we have to stop and we have to listen to the Holy Spirit. At some point, we have to stop and hear what God is wanting to say to us. And so, notice, can you remember the astonishment? Can you remember back to the day that you felt when the Lord Jesus Christ was coming to you and drawing you to His Son through the Holy Spirit? Can you remember the fear that coupled your heart? Can you remember the amazement when you realized the truth and you realized that this fear was because you were in the presence of a holy God and that all the people in the world at that moment, God wanted you. God loved you and God cared for you. It's an astonishing moment when God breaks into our life, but what a blessing it is. And see, this is the very first step towards salvation. The first step of receiving the gift of Jesus Christ is by seeing your life being able to be changed forever. To be changed forever. And so, notice, not only it was a response of fear, but then they got past the fear and they went and had a response of faith. See, that's where faith comes in. For by grace are you saved. What? Through faith. That not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should be boast. And so, at some point, you have to get past the fear and you have to respond in faith. And these shepherds, they hear the message of the angels. They hear that He is the Savior, that He is Christ, that He is the Lord. And God gives them a sign and says, here, you can go check it out. You can go and verify this. You can go and see what has happened. And you know, there's a lot of things that these shepherds could have done at this point. They could have debated about it. They could have talked about it. Could they afford to leave the sheep and go to Bethlehem and check this out? What if something happened while they were gone? They could have talked and talked and more talked and discussed what was going on with one choice that they could have made or they could have totally rejected it. They could have said, man, we had a bad supper tonight and this really wasn't an angel. And we're just, I'm not going to believe what they say. They're just trying to get us to go into Bethlehem. We saw all them people and we didn't like all the crowds and everything else. So we're not going to Bethlehem and checking it out. They could have dissected it. They could have talked about, well, it's really too far to go to Bethlehem or it's too crowded. Or they could have come up with all of these excuses on why they didn't want to go to Bethlehem. And they could have even doubted it. They could have doubted what God was doing for them. They could have ignored it because of all of these excuses, but they didn't do any one of these things. But yet they responded in faith. They responded in faith. Look at what it says. It says, and it came to pass. We don't know how long the angels worship. We don't know how long they sang. We don't know how long this service happened out there in the field. But eventually they all left and the shepherds were there all alone and they were doing their job. They were watching and taking care of the sheep. And it says the angels were gone away from them into heaven. And the shepherds said one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. The shepherds chose to believe. They chose to have faith and their faith is revealed in their words. They did not say, let us go and see if these things are true. Did they? That's not what Scripture says. They didn't say, let's go check this out to see if they were lying to us or telling us the truth. No, they said, let us now go and see this thing that has happened. You see the faith, the belief. They understood what was going on. They understood what was happening. And their response was pure faith, pure, simple belief. But notice what happened to their faith. And this is the simplicity of faith. And again, John 3, 16 lays this out for us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever does what believeth in him, and who Jesus Christ, his Son, the Savior, the Lord, the Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, whosoever believeth in him should not die, should not suffer the penalty of their sins. And we're all sinners, but what shall have everlasting life? In Acts chapter 16 and verse 31, when they were preaching there, Paul said, and they said, they asked, what do we do to be saved? And they responded, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. See faith in its simplicity, how easy faith is. In Romans chapter 10 and verse 13, it says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. In John 6, 47, it says, Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. John 8, 24 says, I said, therefore, unto you, that you shall die in your sins, if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins. See, the Bible tells us that we're all sinners. We looked at that a while back at Genesis chapter 3, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, that sin was passed down to every single one of us. But there would be a Messiah. There would be the Lord. There would be Jesus Christ that would come and crush the head of Satan. This is him. And you have to believe in him. Notice how they established or secured this gift that was offered unto them. Notice the gift as it being established. First of all, they did it firsthand. They responded their sales. It says there in our text, in Luke chapter 2, verse 15, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and let us see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. Let us go and let us see what our ears have heard. Right. And so they were told something and they believed it. And what? Let us go prove that it is true. And so your salvation cannot be received or experienced by anyone else. They can't take this angel's word on it. They couldn't take what they made here in the next week or two for granted. It had to be received firsthand. You have to make the choice to receive the gift. A gift can't be received by proxy. In other words, if there is a gift for the tree for Daniel, I can't get it and say he got his gift. No, he has to receive it. He has to open it. It has to become his. And so you have to believe again that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Not only does it have to be responded firsthand, but you have to respond with fervor. What do I mean by responding fervor? Look at what the shepherds did. It says, and they came with haste. They came with haste and found Mary and Joseph in the bay lying in a manger. What was they told? They said, here's the sign. This is the Christ. This is the Savior. This is the Lord. You will find a babe in Bethlehem wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. When you think about it that day, it says they did not delay. They responded immediately. When we talk about the conviction of the Holy Spirit in Hebrews chapter nine and verse 27, the author of Hebrews reminded us that it is appointed unto men once to die. And after that, the judgment. Do you realize that God will only deal with us for a certain amount of time? And if we keep delaying, if we keep waiting, what if the shepherds would have said, you know what, we'll go check it out in a week or two. Jesus would have been gone. He would have been gone back home. We know that he took off. They took Jesus. And what did they do? They left the country. They went to Egypt, according to the Bible story, because Herod was wanting to kill all of the young males under the age of two. And so if they would have waited, if they would have delayed, guess what? Their faith wouldn't have been realized. And so they responded with haste. They responded with fervor. Ephesians chapter two in verse eight says, for by grace are you saved through faith. You have to believe faith is believing, but it's also acting. It's also acting. It's also stepping out. See, whosoever believes in him shall be saved. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord. You have to believe that Jesus Christ is fully man and that he is fully God and that he is the gift given to God to overcome our sinfulness, our wickedness, to make us holy in order to go to be with God. You have to believe that. And so we have to respond with fervor. But then look at the last thing I want you to notice this morning. It has to be experienced. There is an experience when you take that gift and you know that gift is yours and you receive it. Then all of a sudden here comes the experience of this situation. And notice it is a response of fulfillment. The first experience that they had was one of fulfillment. It says there in verse 16, and they came with haste and what did they do? They found Mary and Joseph. All they had was the word of God. All they had was the word from the angels that said there is a babe lying in a manger. What did they do? They decided to go and see this babe. And so they made haste. They took off quickly. And what was the result of their endeavors? They found him. They found Mary. They found Joseph. Can you think about for just a minute in Bethlehem? All of these descendants of David are all coming to Bethlehem. Can you imagine how many people was gathered there in Bethlehem? This probably wasn't the only babe that was born in Bethlehem that night. But guess what? He was set apart from all of the other babes. This is one of the parts of the story that I would have liked to have known more about. You know, how many people, how many places did the shepherds have to go before they found who they were looking for? You know, when they get into town, you start asking, you start talking. Hey, have y'all seen a babe? Has anybody had a baby tonight? Have y'all heard of anything? And you know how in a community, in a small town, how quickly gossip and stuff spreads? Well, I heard of a baby over here. There's a baby down at the motel 6 or there's a baby down at the hospital. No, we don't need that baby. We need a baby that's being born in a stable. Have you heard of that one? Have you heard of the one that's not in a home or a hotel or a house, but the one that's in a stable that's wrapped in a swaddle? Well, over here. And eventually what happened? The shepherds found him. They found Mary. They found Joseph. They found the babe lying in the manger exactly like that God and the angels had told them. And what happened? They knew immediately when they laid eyes on Jesus Christ and they laid eyes on Mary and Joseph, they saw that baby in a manger. They knew for certain that the Word of God was true. That the Word of God was real. And all of a sudden, just as quickly as it began, their search was over. It ended. It's done. And I think what a sequence that comes to mind. First comes the revelation. First, God reveals to you your need of salvation. He reveals to you your need as a sinner. If you think about these shepherds this morning, these shepherds were the outcasts of society. Being a shepherd was not an honorable position. You know, it's like one of them things. If you've ever had to go look for jobs or whatever and your own unemployment. One time I went on unemployment and they required me. Every single day I had to go give so many job interviews. I had to put my application in in order to continue to draw my check. And there were some places that I would put my application in hoping and praying that I didn't get a job there, right? That's the shepherd. Nobody wanted that job. Nobody was looking for this position. But yet, they are the very first ones that God comes to. The outcasts, the degenerates. And they had a revelation. But then what happened? They had faith. They believed the message that they heard and by faith they responded. They went to check it out. And then after they had faith, the action kicked in. They go to pursue what they believed. They believed and they kept after it until they found the babe that was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger. Not only was it a response of fulfillment because they found Jesus Christ, but it was also a response of fact. Look again at verse 17. It says, And when they had seen it, when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. I don't know how many times I have read the Christmas story and all of a sudden this year was the first time as I was reading this story, I got upset. I got mad because it says when they had seen it. My Jesus is not an it. Is he? No, he's a he. He's a son of man. He's the son of God. And when I saw that, I said, man, so I started doing a little bit of research into this it. And this word really is an amazing word because what it's really referring to is the complete nature of the deity and humanity of God back to that indescribable gift. He's everything and anything. And so all of a sudden as I begin to study this and I begin to look, they met him for themselves and they wanted others to know about him. And so they found everything that they was looking for, everything that was promised. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad. So they finally leave and their main interest, their main interest when they leave is not the sheep that they're supposed to be taken care of. Did it say they walked away wondering the condition of the sheep? No, it doesn't say they were worried about the condition of the sheep. It doesn't say they were worried about things coming in. But what happened as they left their main interest, their main desire, their main focus was reporting the things which was told them concerning the Christ. And they wanted to tell everybody they wanted to share everybody on the way back from their flock. They told everyone they met about this baby, that all of a sudden changed their lives about the message that the angels gave to them in the dark and how they went and they found what the angels had told them. And see, when we meet Jesus Christ for ourselves, we want others to meet Jesus Christ. We want others to know about Jesus Christ. There is this desire that is built up, that is birthed within us, in this new birth, in this new creation within us that wants us to tell our friends, you cannot keep quiet. In Acts chapter one, it says, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall be what? Witnesses. You want to tell somebody. I remember back when I was nine years old and my mother was not in the service that day. She had had gallbladder surgery that week and she was at home and wasn't at church the night that I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. And just like most Baptist churches, you know, I was made to stand there at the back door and I was supposed to shake hands and let everybody hug me. And the little old ladies would squeeze my cheeks and say, boy, Rodani, we're so proud of you and you made a good decision. And the whole time I'm thinking, man, I want to go tell mama. I want to go call grandpa. I want to go call grandma. I want to go tell somebody what had happened. You guys know, right? And then when that last person, it may not have been the last person, but when there was a gap, a break in the line, I split and I took off. Why? Because when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you are reborn, you want to share that. You want to tell that. You want to give other people, you want your family, your acquaintances to also understand this faith in Jesus Christ. And so the question that I want to ask you this morning, as we look at these shepherds and we see that when the gift has been offered to them, what do they do? They proved it. They accepted it by faith. They personally dealt with it. And then what did they do? They experienced the results and they shared it with other people. The question that I want to ask you today is what will you do with Jesus Christ? See, it's great to read about what the shepherds did, but what the shepherds did doesn't do anything for you and me. What the shepherds did doesn't change my life. It doesn't change your life. What has to happen is you have to receive the gift. You have to personally have faith. You have to personally step out. You can't be saved by proxy. You can't be saved by birth because my parents were saved or my grandparents were saved. I don't get gifts that way. You have to receive it yourself. You have to have faith enough to open it and to experience the joy of the gift that is given you. And immediately when they exercised faith, their experience became real. You know, that's the hard part about Christianity because what we explain is that leaf of faith. You know, you don't really know the outcome, but you believe that it's got to be better than what we have. It's got to be better. And out of that faith, what happens? There's this hope that one day that this same Jesus that was born in a stable, that died for our sins, looked at His disciples and us today, and He said, if I go, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, and here's the clincher, I will come again, that where I am, there you may be also. And that's our hope. That's what we're looking for. And that's the joy of Christmas, to not only be forgiven of my sins, not only to be adopted into His family, but I am a joint heir of Jesus Christ. Where is Jesus Christ right now? He's seated at the right hand of the Father, isn't He? He's seated at the right hand of the Father. Guess what? If I am a son of God, and I am a joint heir of Jesus Christ, one of these days, I'm going to inherit what Jesus inherited. I'm going to get to sit at the right hand of God. I'm going to get to be in His presence. I'm going to be able to be there for all of an eternity. And so the second question we have to ask is, will you by faith accept and apply this sacrifice to your life? See, not only did they accept the message from the angels, but they responded to it. They went to see for themselves. The psalmist David wrote in the Psalms, he said, taste and see that the Lord is good. You know, I am so very glad that one day I decided to taste blackberry cobbler. Amen? Because blackberry cobbler changed my life, right? You know, that's one of my favorite desserts is blackberry cobbler. And so, man, I'm glad I tasted it. But you know what's even greater? I am glad that I've tried Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ has made a difference in my life. A joy that is unspeakable. A life that is filled with wonder, with hope, with amazement, because God loves me in spite of me. In spite of my love and my actions for Him, He still loves me. And guess what? He still loves you. So the question is, is by faith, will you accept and apply His sacrifice? As we stand this morning, the gift has been given. The question is, are you going to receive it? The gift has been given. Will you receive it? As we sing, what number is it, Philip? It's 440.