Take Care of the Gift
Notes
Transcript
Welcome to 2026!
I hope that those wonderful gifts you received at Christmas are still bringing delight to you.
Were all of your gifts good like that for Christmas? I always get nervous giving and getting gifts of clothes. Because you know that clothes, especially for a guy like me, when I give them they are often going to be the wrong size. I’ve made people mad, giving them a gift, because I got the wrong size. I didn’t know. either too big or too small and one insulted gift recipient. If I had to wear women’s sizes I’m not sure I would bother wearing clothes.
I’ve also gotten gifts I didn’t want, couldn’t use, or whatever, and then I returned it. Have you returned a gift? By the way best time to return a gift, Dec 26 early in the morning, everyone things everyone else is out returning gifts so no one is out returning gifts. I do it, might not be scientific, but always fast for me.
What about those gifts you didn’t return but you already forgot about? Are there any already that you swear you got that gift but have no idea where you put it and until I said it right now, you forgot that you forgot that you had it? Well come back to me because I bet you find it again but if you keep thinking about it you won’t hear what the Lord has for you today.
The Holy Spirit gave me a gift around Christmas time and I want to give to you today and in the next coming weeks. It’s a great gift, because while I was enjoying wrapping up the Bible Recap, reading the Bible all the way through in a year, I read some verses that stuck to me. They kept popping in my soul. Let’s enjoy this gift today.
With gifts we can either return it, forget about it, or enjoy it.
With gifts we can either return it, forget about it, or enjoy it.
Thus we have our outline for today, because God came to us to gift us with something.
God is incredibly generous. He continuously gives. Look at the beauty on the beach, in the snow covered mountains, in the valley of Yosemite, and then just look at your hands and be amazed at the movement, the crevices, and uniqueness, the articulation of all the angles it will go. God is a generous and beautiful artist who in His nature gives and gives and gives.
Including His gift of salvation
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
God came, became a baby, grew up, became a man, lived a perfect life, showed us how to live our life, how to live not for ourselves but in love for God and others, God himself, gave himself up in a physical and spiritual act, his death on the cross paying the price for our sins and then days later he rose again, conquering death and giving us the ability to be right with God by accepting what He has done for us. A completely new life is available to all who believe in Him by following Him.
This is a great and incredible gift. Better than anything purchased on black Friday because it is free, it is received by following Jesus. And more valuable because it is eternal and it comes with life purpose. The best gift.
With gifts we can either return it, forget about it, or enjoy it.
With gifts we can either return it, forget about it, or enjoy it.
As you think about that, I think about the life purpose God gives. Purpose/Reason is something I think a lot about, and I also thought a lot about when I was blessed by my mother’s cancer a few years ago. Weird to say blessed, but the blessing in the midst of that hard and horrible time of disease is that unlike accidents and strokes, their is time to say the important things. The end can be seen coming so a person can really take time to let people know what they want them to remember.
Mom did that and what I need to share with you, was a letter written by a person, Peter, who knew He was dying. But not from disease. He would be killed by the government for following Jesus. And God told him this would happen.
I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
I might remind you of this most of the weeks we talk about 2 Peter because this letter, these are key words from Jesus’ best friend. The last words we have of his written down. They matter, they are a gift, that can guide us. A gift that shouldn’t be lost, the most important words he knew to share before he died. These are words we need to keep in our hearts and minds so we can easily find them in our days.
This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.
I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
Their is way more , but today I just want to start with just these few verses. They are all about that incredible gift that any who follow Jesus have, Salvation.
With gifts we can either return it, forget about it, or enjoy it.
With gifts we can either return it, forget about it, or enjoy it.
The truth in this scripture is a gift you can accept this gift and realize all that it means in your soul, for today and Tuesday and every waking second.
Let’s look deeply into these first words to see what we mean
Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ:
To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
This is just a beginning to a letter. But did you see it? Do you get it? Ask your neighbor, because there is something profound in these first verses that impacts you and me and how we do church, how we follow Jesus, there is a wonderful gift.
Simon Peter, if you read some of the Bible or watch the Chosen you know that Simon, whom Jesus changed his name to Peter, was really close to Jesus. He was special
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”
Peter is important. He is declared the leader of the church. Peter is the first preacher when the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples and the church. Peter is the one who is first arrested for healing through the name of Jesus. Peter was really important.
Yet what does Peter tell his original readers of his letter and to all of us,
This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.
I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
That while he is an apostle, a called out one by God Himself, we and He share the exact same faith. The relationship given to Peter is the same relationship given to you. It wasn’t because of what Peter did but because of what Jesus Christ did.
I’ve knowingly met a few famous people. I tried to take a photo once of a famous person and quickly was told, “only with the kid, my daughter.” Famous people give special permissions, they have body guards. People like you and I can get ignored, walked around, thanked but not known. But this is not how it is supposed to be with followers of Jesus. Jesus gave me the same faith he gives to those of you who follow Him. Pastor of thousands of people, same faith as you.
I once was at a work meeting, not for church, at another business I worked at and some of us organized the room for the meeting. All the tables and chairs were ready. We began meeting and the boss showed up late. He moved his own seat to a spot. He interrupted the meeting and told us all what to do, but the only thing I remember is what he said at the end. He became furious that there was not a chair set aside for him to sit on at the front on the stage. He was furious that in a room full of chairs no one had prepared him a special chair for him to come in late and sit in. He was so mad that it cemented in the minds of those who worked for him so that years later, anytime we had a meeting one of the guys who was there at the meeting made sure that there was a special seat for the boss. Even after he was fired, a special seat for the new boss. Trauma programming.
It was the most ridiculous, power hungry, anti-Jesus establishing of boundaries I had seen that sadly was acceptable in society. A boss pushing his weight around. This is absolutely not the way of Jesus and His followers.
The faith given to Peter and the faith given to you are the same.
Jesus said,
But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
In God’s kingdom, Peter and you, Jesus best friend and you, share the same gift of faith.
You matter. This gift you have is so precious and perfect that Jesus gave you the same best.
You know what else that means, it means that the more right you become, the more your addictions fall away, the more you know the Bible ...
You’re not more important to God. You don’t get to become a power hungry jerk that everyone has to listen to. You aren’t the savior of the world, Jesus is.
Be very careful, our sinful culture values raising up people and lowering others out of power and ability. Jesus gives us the same faith.
Their is another side to this, for those of you who like to remind yourself of how awful a person you are, who think of yourself as so much less. Jesus doesn’t let us wallow.
Jesus gave you, the person who did what you did, who didn’t do all those nice things that other people have done. He gives to you the same faith even though your not near as great as all the other people you think are great. God gave to you the exact same faith. The exact same gift.
With gifts we can either return it, forget about it, or enjoy it.
And he accomplished the gift. He paid the price for it. What are you going to do?
Stop. Metaphor time.
Did anyone here get some boots for Christmas? Or maybe a new jacket or shirt? Did you look at the brand to see where the person might have got it. Like you know the brands only sold at some stores. I get clothes and sometimes recognize immediately where the person bought it.
But You know what I have never done with a gift, whether it was from Kohl’s, Target, Amazon, or the jewelry store.
I never went to Target, to the customer service counter, and had this conversation, “Here is the jacket I got for Christmas.” “Would you like to exchange or return sir?” “Neither, I want to pay more money for it.”
Could you imagine the look on their face?
Anyone else do that, anyone else ever got a gift, figured out where a person got it from and then went and paid more for it?
NO! The gift was paid.
Look at this verse again
This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.
I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
It’s Jesus that did it. Anything you do now doesn’t make yourself more right, more worthy of the gift instead it is building on a new life of following Jesus.
In recovery people often date the last time they used a drug. They will say I have 3 months or something like that. It’s pretty cool. Then if they use again, they will be so sad because they are back on day 1. They will say all my work is wasted.
I tell you all of us who follow Jesus, we are always on day 1. And none of your work is wasted. You works of righteousness and repentance are actually building something totally new, a growing relationship with Jesus, that will never go away and your failure doesn’t take you back because if you were doing that to show worthy you are of Jesus love, then you were completely missing the point. You were paying for a gift that’s already been paid. When we learn to accept the justice and fairness of Jesus. It means you stop beating yourself up for the old stuff you’ve done, you can forgive the stuff done to you, because God did with you. He is big enough to pay the price for your sins, and He can also give justice for the wrong done to you. Any right you do, is awesome because you get to know God as you do it.
If you are still trying to get good enough for Jesus, you are returning the gift and asking to pay more for it.
This gift isn’t because of you, it was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ.
This gift isn’t because of you, it was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ.
I get it friends. I’ve talked a lot about the fact that God offers you the same faith, the same standing before Him. He also offers all of this to you as a gift. I don’t ask my kids to do something because of the great gifts I gave them at Christmas, I just want them to enjoy them.
But some of us might be going, I still feel like crap. I still keep doubting or I still keep failing or I still feel like I got to be so much better than I am, or something.
You can forget about your gift too.
With gifts we can either return it, forget about it, or enjoy it.
Listen to a metaphor for a second. This year, my wife did something different for Christmas. Her and I get two weeks off because we are teachers, and if you’ve ever been over to the house you know we have a ton of board games, card games, old games and new games. We get them as gifts as well. We have a bunch we have never even opened and owned them for a long time. We are putting dates on them on them to try them all because we want to move from just having this gift of a game to actually knowing if the game will give us joy.
It’s not enough to have a gift of a game, I have to use it too. The only enjoyment comes in using it. I can’t just play it once either. I have to learn it. Oh my goodness we would play a game and realized we all screwed up in just 10 minutes. We start again, learn more, keep playing and the enjoyment comes as we learned and used the game we already owned.
Yes, you own a free gift of salvation but until you grow in it, you don’t even know what you have. That is exactly what the dying desire for Peter is for his first readers and for you too. To get to know God better.
May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
God doesn’t stop giving with Salvation. God gives when anxiety hits at 11 pm. When anger rushes in at 8 am. When failure is remembered. The more you get to know God, use this same faith that Peter had and you have then the more grace and peace that comes into your life.
Grace and Peace was a common Christian greeting, back 1900 years ago. That united the Jewish People, and Gentile People like us into the family of God, because Grace is a greek word, Caris was a common Greek greeting. Most Gentiles or non Jews knew Greek. It focuses on God’s undeserved love and favor, more of his generosity and blessing. The idea that God likes us, is generous towards us, not because of us, but because He wants to be. That is Grace. Even when it’s bad, God is lessening the bad and preparing the good. Caris, Grace..
But Jesus was a Jew and Peter was a Jew and the Old Testament common Hebrew Greeting is Shalom. It could be said in the Greek, in the word, Irene, and probably was but Shalom is a heart word of the Jewish people given by God and it means peace. We can say it in English and sometimes mean no war, but Shalom is more than that it is an all encompassing peace. It means the peace you get from total health, total well being, it is the peace that gives everyone what they need for a life in full abundance. Peace bringing abundance.
So as you get to know God more you get to know His undeserved favor and more abundance.
This Christmas season my family found some cool new games to play, but we had to grow in our knowledge of them. The joy, the purpose was found in growing knowledge of the game.
In 2026, you have an opportunity to find out that knowing Jesus means knowing a God that the more you know Him he shows you How much He favors you, more than you deserve. How much he gives you abundance, more than you could know. How unworthy you are but He keeps pouring out himself to you.
But you have to learn more about Him. You have to trust Him and do what you know you should do, don’t do what you know you shouldn’t. And work, work, with hunger to find out more about who God is.
Or you can keep church stuff at church and forget about it.
Or return it, add to it the beliefs of astrology, the values of reality television, believe that your rest is the most important thing in the world. You’ll have a faith that wasn’t given to you, but a faith you made, in which what you know is the most important, other than that faith that we all share, because it is a gift given to us by one who actually can change everything.
Enjoy it, forget about it or Return it.
My friends enjoy what God has for you in 2026.
