Give Thanks to the Lord - For His Provision

Victories: 1. Steve and Diana Held 50 Years Dec. 8th 2.

Prayer: First Baptist ChurchPastor Mick Simpkins

Missionary Prayer: Matt & Katie Dooney / Word of Life

In Jesus’ Name, I pray.

Bible Reading:

Intro

Generosity of Life

How great is our God! As we celebrate Christmas it is our pleasure to be worshipping our great creator God. We have a great God who generously gave us life and gave us everything we see. We are able to worship our God who in Genesis 2:7 says “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” It says that God used His own breath to breathe life into our bodies. How cool is that? God took some dirt that he had just created and he formed it into the body of a human being and then he breathed life into it. This isn’t some alien invasion story where we were placed here by some other super-beings. No. We have a God who personally formed humanity and then personally breathed life into humanity.

What we need to recognize is that we didn’t have to be created. God didn’t need us. He wasn’t stuck out there in eternity past saying, “Man I really need something else in my life, I think I will create humanity in order to feel more fulfilled.” Nope. That is not what happened. Instead what we do know about all of this is that God didn’t need us but our God is worthy of being worshiped so He chose to create a being who would freely choose to worship Him. This was the plan God Generously provided Adam with Life then He provided him with a wife in Eve.

Generosity of the Created World

But God’s generosity didn’t end there. God didn’t create human beings and then leave them to fend for themselves on some barren landscape. God placed His creations in the most beautiful garden ever in order that these two would tend the garden and worship God. What a beautiful plan. God created night and day, sun and moon, oceans and seas, Sky and land, Trees and all the animals to fill the whole world. God did all of this and then He have it to Adam and Eve to care for. And just in case that wasn’t enough God continued to cause everything to function. Look out your window and ask yourself the questions, What causes the wind to blow, and the rain to fall. Who taught the birds to fly and the fish to swim? Who causes the sun to shine and the plants to grow? It is our generous God who causes all of this to happen and continues to cause it to happen over and over again. Psalm 65:9–13 says of God, “You visit the earth and water it, You greatly enrich it; The river of God is full of water; You provide their grain, For so You have prepared it. You water its ridges abundantly, You settle its furrows; You make it soft with showers, You bless its growth. You crown the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with abundance. They drop on the pastures of the wilderness, And the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; The valleys also are covered with grain; They shout for joy, they also sing.” Everything that God created was for the His glory and for our benefit. Psalm 33:5 “He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”

Lack of Generosity from Humanity

We truly do have a generous God who has given us life and everything to make that life flourish. However, we have not been generous to God in return. Instead of being obedient to God and following His instructions humanity tried to be like God. We weren’t happy with our position as the created of God so we decided we needed to be more like the creator knowing what He knows. We wanted God’s job and we wanted to be our own supreme beings. This is when sin entered the world. Genesis 2:15–17 “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Eve broke the commandment of God to no eat of the tree in the center of the garden after being prompted to do so by the serpent and Adam followed right along. Now the curse of sin is complete and there are no human beings that have escaped the infection of sin. We were created to worship God but instead we want to be worshipped ourselves. Not a generous action on our part.

Generosity of Salvation

At this point God had every right to call this experiment in worship a loss and just wipe humanity from the face of the earth. He had every right to remove any source of His generosity and yet God did just the opposite. Instead of removing His generosity He doubled down and gave even more generously. Acts 14:17 says“Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” Despite our sin God continued to give us rain and food and gladness. Despite our sin our God was faithful to His faithless creation.

It doesn’t end there either God loved His creation so much He created a way that sinners could be brought back into God’s good graces and the solution was nothing less then the most generous gift God had ever given. God gave us Jesus. Jesus was God in human form and in becoming human Jesus was able to do what no human being could do and that was to defeat sin. Jesus lived life just like everyone else but the difference was He did not sin. When Jesus sacrificed himself on the Cross He took the responsibility of all sin past present and future and paid the price for it all. Ephesians 1:7–9 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,”

Gospel Message:

Jesus is the Lamb of God who died for your sins. God sent Jesus in order that Jesus might take the punishment we deserve in order that we might return to God and be called His own. God holds out His outstretched hand for you. Are you going to continue in your sin or are you going to take His Hand? He is calling and all you have to do is believe. Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

It is just that easy. You can confess Him as your savior. If that is your desire today you can say this prayer with me. Bow your heads.

Dear Lord,

I know that I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin, and I ask you to forgive me. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I repent of my sins and I ask you to come into my life and take control. I make a commitment to follow you, and I trust you as my Lord and Savior.

Friend if you prayed that prayer today I ask that you come and speak to me after the service.

For those of you who are believers-

Benediction: Ps. 121:7-Psalm 121:8 “The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.”