GLAD TIDINGS/GREAT JOY: Gifts
Jesus was born in Bethlehem near Jerusalem during the reign of King Herod. After Jesus’ birth a group of spiritual priests from the East came to Jerusalem 2 and inquired of the people, “Where is the child who is born king of the Jewish people? We observed his star rising in the sky and we’ve come to bow before him in worship.”
Matthew 2:1-12 (TPT)
3 King Herod was shaken to the core when he heard this, and not only he, but all of Jerusalem was disturbed when they heard this news. 4 So he called a meeting of the Jewish ruling priests and religious scholars, demanding that they tell him where the promised Messiah was prophesied to be born.
5 “He will be born in Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,” they told him. “Because the prophecy states:
6 And you, little Bethlehem,
are not insignificant among the clans of Judah,
for out of you will emerge
the Shepherd-King of my people Israel!”
7 Then Herod secretly summoned the spiritual priests from the East to ascertain the exact time the star first appeared. 8 And he told them, “Now go to Bethlehem and carefully look there for the child, and when you’ve found him, report to me so that I can go and bow down and worship him too.”
9 And on their way to Bethlehem, the same star they had seen in the East suddenly reappeared! Amazed, they watched as it went ahead of them and stopped directly over the place where the child was. 10 And when they saw the star, they were so ecstatic that they shouted and celebrated with unrestrained joy. 11 When they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, they fell to the ground at his feet and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests full of gifts and presented him with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 Afterward they returned to their own country by another route because God had warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod.
They magi weren’t kings – and there weren’t 3 of them. Perhaps as many as 300! Notice they came “into the house” – not the manger. Their arrival was much later than the birth of Jesus…as much as 2 years. The age of the children Herod had killed. The magi were astrologers – ancient mystics who studied the stars. (Not horoscopes!) Daniel was appointed as the chief magi in Daniel 2 – which is probably why the magi knew to look for this great king (Messiah) who would be born. While Israel was captive in Babylon and Daniel served King Nebuchadnezzar. His legacy continued on in while in captivity serving a bad ruler!
We give extravagantly to the King with shouts, celebration and great joy!
Let giving flow from your heart, not from a sense of religious duty. Let it spring up freely from the joy of giving—all because God loves hilarious generosity!
2 Corinthians 9:7 (TPT)
Each of us has been given various gifts by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds of gifts. But they are all given to believers by the same Spirit. 5 There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord. 6 There are different ways the Spirit works. But the same God is working in all these ways and in all people.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (NIRV)
7 The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all. 8 To some people the Spirit gives a message of wisdom. To others the same Spirit gives a message of knowledge. 9 To others the same Spirit gives faith. To others that one Spirit gives gifts of healing. 10 To others he gives the power to do miracles. To others he gives the ability to prophesy. To others he gives the ability to tell the spirits apart. To others he gives the ability to speak in different kinds of languages they had not known before. And to still others he gives the ability to explain what was said in those languages. 11 All the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives gifts to each person, just as he decides.
The gifts are for everyone and we value and welcome their operation among us.
Jesus established leaders as gifts to His Church.
7 And he has generously given each one of us supernatural grace, according to the size of the gift of Christ. 8 This is why he says:
Ephesians 4:7-13 (TPT)
“He ascends into the heavenly heights taking his many captured ones with him, and gifts were given to men.” 11 And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers. 12 And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ. 13 These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, and finally we become one into a perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ.
The gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher did not pass away with the early church. We need them functioning in the church TODAY.
THE BIG GIVE – Launching Strong in 2022!
- Missions (10% tithe)
- Finish the Grand Opening
- Continue making progress on projects required by the city
- 101 Resource Center – lease expires in March
- Missions team coming to St. Joseph in March!
- Restoration to the Nations
- Togo
- Browning
- Dominican Republic
- Philippines
