You know, I was thinking about what I wanted to talk to you guys about this morning. And what's really unique about Christmas is the idea of buying gifts and giving them to one another. And I got to thinking, I'm like, where did that even start? This idea of purchasing a gift, wrapping a gift, and then giving it to somebody. And I think for the most of us in here, we would say, well, it started with Christ, with God. He gave us the world. He gave Adam Eve, he's a giver, he's a good God, he gives. So it is built into our spiritual image bearing DNA to give. We like to give. You don't even have to be saved to want to give gifts. It's a good thing to do. So I was thinking, well, I wanna talk about gift giving, and I wanna talk about the most important gift, the inexpressible gift, and I think you know what I'm talking about. I'd like you to think back. Think back through the years. Some of you aren't gonna be able to think back too far. Some of you have a lot of thinking to do. I want you to think back to maybe the most precious gift you've ever received. Consider that. Earthbound gift that you've ever received. I asked the college kids this same question when they were at my house last week, and it was pretty quiet in the room until we got the juices going. Hoverboard, pencil, and as we started talking about the gifts, the question next would be, why was that gift so special to you? What brought value to that gift? Was it the amount of money spent on the gift? Was it the person or persons who gifted you? Was it maybe the surprise of the gift? Like maybe you weren't even expecting it and it just, that someone gave you a gift. Was it something you really needed and therefore it was gonna change your life, change the way you live? I do have a gift up here. You see that, and some of you are probably wondering, is he even allowed to do an object lesson while preaching? I am gonna open this gift, okay? I don't know what it is. It is from my daughter, Juliana, and her boyfriend, Nick Hopkins. Thank you. Because I wanted you guys to see my true reaction. I really don't know what's in here. So this is a gift. I asked my wife, do you have a gift I can open? She goes, Oh, you can't open that gift on stage. She goes, I don't even know if you'll know what it is. Okay. Slippers. I needed slippers and their polo. So that for those of you who know me, I do like that brand of clothing. Thank you guys. I appreciate this and I value it. I actually am surprised you remembered. I wore my slippers finishing the basement and I ruined them because I didn't want to keep putting my shoes on and off and I kept coming upstairs so I wore my slippers and I ruined them. And thank you. I have to assess value to this gift. We all do. No matter what gift you're given, you have to assess value to it. It's actually part of what we do. You cannot not assess value to something given to you. This gift will be, for sure, slotted somewhere in my heart. I'll put some type of affection to it, and maybe when my feet get cold and I want to put my slippers on, I'll think fondly of you too. Thank you. All right? Today, I do want to look into the inexpressible gift, and we will look into the value of that gift. How do we value it? It's a wonderful reminder this morning for all of us. And I'm actually going to be looking into three different letters by Paul. And we're gonna start off by praying that the Lord would encourage us and then we'll get into this brief message this morning. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you that Christmas landed on today so that the people whom you've purchased into your family because of the inexpressible gift of you that we would be able to gather as a church and celebrate today as a church and consider and meditate and think and value the gift of Christ on the cross for us. We thank you in your precious name, amen. Philippians 3, 7 through 8, this is my first thing I want us to look at, the valuing of the gift. But whatever things were gained to me, Paul says, these things I have counted as loss because of who? Because of who? Christ. Verse eight, more than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value or incomparable value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them mere rubbish so that I may gain Christ." No matter where you're at in your Christian walk today, guys, whether you're young or old, this verse will apply to you. Paul gives us a snapshot into his own perspective on how he values Christ. If you're young and you're a new believer, Paul talks about that. If you're older in your years and you can look back through the years of how Christ has been part of your life, Paul speaks to that. Paul had the perfect look of what a Christian, or I should say, a religious person should be. He was dedicated to the law. He would even say in Philippians that I was, concerning the law, I was perfect. I'm from the tribe of Benjamin. Of all the 12 tribes, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin. I'm like, that's top. Top tribe, right? When it came to the zeal for religious things, zeal for the law, I kept it. He was tenacious. Paul took the time though, in verse seven, to weigh what he was before Christ and what he had before Christ. Before Christ gifted him with true salvation. And when he weighed these two things, the scale tipped quickly and with force, boom, it was all loss. What I was and what I had before Christ meant nothing. That's how he valued it. But then we get this rich look into Paul's life because he would actually say in verse eight, but more than that, More than just, I count it loss of what I was and what I had. More than that, in verse eight, I count all things, everything, to be lost in view of the surpassing value of, and here it is, knowing, knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord. There's a huge difference between understanding what Christ accomplished on the cross and then having a personal relationship with Christ. And through the years, Paul could look back and he could value. It was of surpassing value. It's not just the understanding that everything outside of Christ is of lesser value. These are knowledge things, but they have to become heart things, and they did to Paul. We need to intimately understand that the gift of Christ is most valuable because of the relationship of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord. All other gifts, treasures, possessions, titles, our comforts, our loved ones, they should pale in comparison to the gift of intimately knowing Christ our Lord. I must value Christ as my Lord to the point that my love for everything else is disposable. That's valuing the gift. If I had everything in front of me, my family even, my job, my title, all of it, if I had it in front of me, and these are good things, These are good things, but if I had them here, and I had Christ's gift here, and I had to measure them, we need to have the heart of Paul and go, you know what? It's all here. These things, compared to Christ, I count as rubbish. They in and of themselves aren't rubbish, but compared to knowing Christ as my Lord and Savior, yeah. I want to look now at Ephesians. And before we do, and I hope I hold it together here, I want to tell you a story real quick. This story my grandfather told me, Grandpa Oliver, and I remember it. And anytime someone asks me about a gift or whatnot, I just think of this. And it wasn't even my gift. It was something that happened to my grandfather during the depression. And the title of this next point is the givers of the gift. And this is a sweet reminder to us, because we need to understand that there are givers involved here, not just one. So my grandfather wrote his life story, and we actually have it. It's so sweet, and I asked my wife, I said, oh no, I'm afraid I'm gonna get the story wrong, you gotta find it for me. So we climbed up into the closet last night and pulled it down, and we found it together, because I wanted to get the story accurate. And this is what he wrote about a Christmas experience during the Great Depression. He said, folks now have not only what they need, but most everything they want. We learned at an early age to be content with what we have. At Christmas times, we always had a Christmas tree, but we did not get too much else. Maybe a big orange and a box of candy. One Christmas, we got two games. And the one game we really liked, it was, I remember him telling me it was a pinball machine game. There was a family that went to the same church that we went to, and the kids didn't get anything for Christmas. Our dad knew about it, so he got us together as a family and asked us which toy we liked best. We told him, they told the truth, the pinball game. And then he told us that they were gonna give it to those folks who had nothing. No doubt he was teaching us that when you give, give your best. We almost always got some clothing that we really needed, but our Christmases were very slim pickings. It's a great story. One of the things that makes that story sweet is it wasn't just my grandfather that gave the gift. You know what made the gift more valuable and sweeter is that the whole family went and gave this gift together. Let's do this as a family to another family in need. And you know, sometimes at Christmas, we give due credit and we should, and it is right, to talk about the gift of Christ Jesus, what he did for us, and it's sweet and it's special. But it is much sweeter and much more special if we realize that this gift wasn't just Christ Jesus giving it. It was God, his Father, and the Holy Spirit took part in it too. And that is a sweet reminder. Let's look at Ephesians 1, three through five, and verses 13 through 14. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ. God the Father has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us, this is talking about God, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, God in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Christ Jesus, according to the purpose of his will. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, verse 13, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. And I love this, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to praise of his glory. To put it simply, we are predestined by God, adopted by Jesus and sealed by the Holy Spirit. That's the precious gift. Those are the gift givers. The gift of Christ was given by the Godhead. All three played a role in responding to our need of a savior. All three love us unto eternity, amen? The creation of mankind to the redemption of a people was all part of a triune God's work. From the beginning, the triune God would say, let us make man in our own image. It was the one time in creation where we get to see and get a glimpse of the triune God communicating with one another. And at the apex of creation, they would come together and say, you know what? Let's make man in our image. And I think it's most beautiful that Paul was was governed by God through the Holy Spirit to write this letter in Ephesians to make sure that we understood that, yes, it started in a garden. But when it came to our redemption, all three were still involved. And that's sweet. That's a sweet reminder. And that's one of the reasons we can say, you know what? I value the gift. And I am so thankful. that God loved me so much that He adopted me through His Son, and the Spirit holds me until the day that I can take full possession of it. Our next point is the response of the gift. Because we, as believers, if you are called by Christ, we have to respond. I responded to the slippers. I'll respond later with hugs and all that. But we are called to respond. When you get a gift, you don't open it and go, oh, well, some kids on Christmas morning do. I mean, they're like, oh, and they just throw it aside. And you're like, what? I gotta teach my kids to be thankful. This isn't polite. Are we polite believers to our Christ, to our God? The response of the gift, 2 Corinthians 9, 12 through 15, This might seem like an odd text when we first look at it, but let me talk to you quickly about it. For the ministry of this service is not fully supplying the needs of the saints, but it is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all. Verse 14, while they also by prayer on your behalf yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. And Paul would write in verse 15, it seems a little out of place, but it's not. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Paul is thanking and encouraging the saints in Corinth who promised to give money to the saints in Jerusalem. And Paul is like, thank you. Thank you for promising to do this. And thank you for following through. And there's some things flushed out here that I think are incredibly sweet. And lessons for me, when I was studying this text briefly, It dawned on me that my response in Christ has to be this. My response and what Christ did for me on the cross has to be this same thing. You're called to do the same thing. It is actually a biological, I shouldn't say biological, it is actually a by-product of becoming called into Christ's family. Christ is the great giver, we should become givers. And Paul would say thanks to God for his indescribable gift. Verse 12, the gift we receive needs to transform us into gift givers. This points to God and cause others to thank God, to recognize God. For the ministry of this service is not fully supplying the needs of the saints, but it also overflowing through many thanksgiving to God. My dear friends and family, when we in turn, because of what Christ did for us, give to others, whether it be our time, our prayers, or even monetary things, when we give out of a heart of thanksgiving to others, God is recognized as the great gift giver. And in verse 13, The sole purpose in which we were created, which is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, when we are gift givers, what does it do? Who does it lift up? Us? No, it lifts up God. It glorifies God. My response to the gift needs to be giving and praying for those, you guys, I know through text that some of you were praying for me this morning, and I appreciate that. I spent some time praying for you this morning. My wife tapes up our Christmas cards for everybody, and I just stood there and prayed because I better practice what I preach, right? And it was sweet. My response to the gift means that I need to be a giver. Paul isn't saying that we shouldn't, and at the end here, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. I absolutely love this. If we stop pushing forward in our efforts to describe this indescribable gift, we become unthankful. We stop becoming givers. We grow complacent and dull. I was reminded by a Spurgeon quote that speaks to pastors who are preaching. And I pray this for you guys as well, that we would never ever stop pondering the indescribable gift, because I think this is what Paul is getting to. You need to consider this indescribable gift all the time. And Spurgeon would go on to say to pastors, if you preach Christ, you will never run short. If you have preached 10,000 sermons about Christ, you have not left the shore, you are not out in the deep sea yet. Dive, my brother, with splendor of thought, plunge into the great mystery of free grace and dying love. And when you have dived the farthest, you will perceive that you are as far from the bottom as when you first touched the surface. And that's how we need to be when we consider what Christ has done for us. Right? We need to just not stop. We need to not grow complacent. My last point is the wrapping of the gifts. And I don't know where that started, that we would wrap the surprise, and with anxiousness, we would open it. But it got me thinking about our Lord and Savior. Philippians 2, six through eight reads, who being in the very nature of God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross. I'm going to read this next portion because I do not want to mess it up. I love how the entire word of God is the whole story of Christ and the redemption of his people. It starts in Genesis and goes all the way through Revelation. So I'm going to speak to two things here. Adam and Eve attempted to wrap their shame in the garden. Instead of having the sweet fellowship with God, they ushered in an era of death and hatred towards God. Their plan of hiding and self-protection failed. But God in His grace gives them a covering, a wrapping for their sin in place of the all-consuming judgment they deserve. Fast forward to Revelation. A disastrous scene unfolds at the other end of the Bible. In Revelation 6, 15 through 16, Revelation 6, 15 through 16, we are told of the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, all calling out to the rocks and hills to fall on us and hide, wrap us, hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne. This time, however, there was no mercy. It is the climactic day of God's judgment. The slain lamb is now the devouring lion, and there will be no place to hide for his enemies. They are without the wrapping of God's righteousness. Genesis to Revelation. But in between, sandwiched in between is something really beautiful. And that's what we need to understand, the wrapping of the gift, our Lord and Savior, Eric Watkins says it best, and I'm gonna quote him here. Centered between these two books, Genesis and Revelation, stands the cross of Christ. It is the apex of history as God's grace and justice are mingled like streams meeting in a river. Neither is weakened as they come crashing together at the cross. They deepen and intensify as they overtake our Savior in a flood of judgment. yet become the river of life for you and for me." This should deeply pierce our hearts, that in order for God's just judgment to pass by sinners like you and me, it has to find Jesus. That is what it means for us to be hidden with Christ, to be wrapped in His righteousness, At the cross, the full, unbridled wrath of God came down upon Jesus, and in that moment of judgment, there was nowhere for Jesus to hide. No mercy, no grace, no compassion. Jesus, for us, is exposed to the all-consuming expression of sin's cruelty and the wrath of God. He did that for us. Nobody came to defend Him. No sacrifice is offered in His place. No one negotiates his release. Jesus was wrapped in our shame, crowned with our thorns, and exposed to the judgment of God that we deserve. Jesus became our hiding place. He is our eternal wrapping of splendor, having no spot, wrinkle, or blemish. Outside of Christ, there is no safe place to hide, but being found in Christ, there is a peace and a safety. A rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee." It is safe to say, it is beautiful to say, it is beautiful to consider Jesus Christ willingly and lovingly wrapped himself with human form so that he could in turn wrap his beloved children in his righteousness. And that's a beautiful segue into our communion. We get to do communion together this morning. We get to remember. We get to take stock. We get to value. this gift as a church together. Luke 14 through 20, when the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table, and he said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God. After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, take this divided among you. For I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took the bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, after the supper, He took the cup saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. So I'm gonna have my dear brothers come forward. We're gonna pray for communion. Carl and Bruce, thank you guys. And I would just ask that as my brothers pray, that you guys, that my myself would consider what Christ has done for us, that we would value, really take inventory in our lives, that we would consider the cost for our salvation, that we would remember that it was God who loved and gave and sent His Son and it is the Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit that holds us with a promise