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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

The Gift of Gifts

I've had the opportunity to pray and reflect in the very location where Jesus spoke 1 of the greatest discourses in his ministry on earth, known as the Sermon on the Mount.

And as I sat there I could only imagine as the breeze blew across the Sea of Galilee.

I can only imagine his voice echoing across the valley into the hearts of every listener.

And there he uttered the wonderful promise as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew when he said, If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him.

But in the Gospel of Luke, where he repeats the question, there's a difference.

He says, how much more will your heavenly Father give, who?

That's because the best of all the good gifts is the Holy Spirit.

And our Father delights in answering this request Above all, above all.

So my message today is entitled, The Gift of Gifts.

Let's acknowledge him in prayer once more.

Father in heaven, we just want to pause to acknowledge you because we are in your presence.

We have spoken to you, expressed the loyalty and the love we have for you in our hearts through our giving, through our singing, through our Praise.

And now Lord, we have an expectation and that is that you would now speak to us.

Speak to us through your word as we have communion with you today.

You know the highest aim of any good father is to pass down the best character traits that he has to his children.

And in order for this to happen, if a child is to know and understand his Father in such a way that he imitates the very best characteristics of the Father.

In order for this to happen, if he is to really get him, if he, as he grows, is to understand his father's will and plans for his life, If he is to experience the highest joy that could possibly be in a son or a child relating to their father in the deepest way, The child must be of 1 mind and spirit with his father.

How can 2 walk together unless they agreed?

A child must be 1 in spirit with his father in order for the father to be able to see that his very best character traits are lived in his son.

Yeah, Paul, the Apostle Paul, who wrote many books in the New Testament.

In fact, in the opening of his first letter to Timothy, he refers to Timothy as his true son in the faith.

And he does that not just once, not just twice, but multiple times.

He calls Timothy his son, his son, his son.

That's because Paul has become a spiritual father to Timothy.

Paul has taken on the role that I, Timothy, I am your spiritual father.

I'm gonna pour my life into you, My son, Timothy.

After all, as best as we can tell, Paul was about 30 years old, or rather 30 years older than Timothy.

And so Paul writes in Philippians 2, verse 20, that as he looked upon Timothy and recommended him to the Philippians, Timothy is referred to as a kindred spirit.

There's some versions in the Bible where Paul speaks of Timothy as 1 with a kindred spirit.

Paul, as the spiritual father of his son Timothy, recognizes in Timothy that we think a lot alike.

You just don't describe any kind of relationship or bond you have with anyone as a kindred spirit.

That's why Paul says, I recommend this young man.

That's why Paul could entrust Timothy to his flock.

We have the same values and the same biblical worldview.

And he was of 1 spirit, kindred spirit, with Paul, his father figure.

I hope we've established that Paul and Timothy have a father-son relationship.

Spiritual father and Timothy, who is his mentee, his spiritual son.

And so this is, this is where I'm going with this.

If Paul, if Paul, the chief of sinners, if Paul, The chief of sinners was of 1 spirit with Timothy and consequently trained him in godliness and succeeded.

Succeeded, how much more will your heavenly Father give to you his own spirit and complete the work of making you godly.

My friends, my brothers, sisters, let that concept just sink in.

Because when you think about it, 1 can conclude based on this perspective that it is impossible to conceive of God bestowing any higher gift on you as his son, on you as his daughter, than his very own spirit.

This is the gift that our Father wants to bestow upon His children.

Because if it makes an earthly father proud and glad, if his highest aim is to see that his son is able to live out his values and his interests and his morals and his principles, how much more?

How much more will God, who can literally and spiritually grant us his very own spirits to be transformed into his likeness.

It is precisely what happened with his very own son, Jesus Christ, at his baptism.

There was both an affirming voice, a voice, a literal voice that could be heard, and a sign of the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

2 things, the voice and the sign, a tangible literal sign of the Holy Spirit.

And it was as it was in the waters of the Jordan River, so it can be in this very room, in this very place.

The proclamation and the anointing of the Holy Spirit is given simultaneously to those who ask in faith.

For without faith it is impossible to please God.

It pleases our Father when we ask in faith as his son, as his daughter.

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The Gift of Gifts

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