Gifts

This sermon is about God's gifts and what happens when we reject them.

What if you were given a super cool mustang, or a huge plasma screen tv by a very important person such as the president of the united states but you turned it down? Wouldn't that be ridiculous? I mean here is the commander in chief giving you a fabulous gift and you won't accept it. You didn't do anything to earn it, you don't even deserve it. Now lets take it up a knotch. What if you were given a gift by God Almighty, the creator of the universe. Would you accept it. Well as a matter of fact God does give gifts, and not just ordinary gifts. God gives extravagant gifts. The first people He gave gifts to were a man and woman named Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were the first people God created. Genesis 2:16-17 reads "God commanded the Man "You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. The moment you eat from that tree, your dead ". So Adam had unlimited food plus a gorgeus garden to live in. That was God's first gift. Verses 18-20 says "God said "it's not good for man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion. " so God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them. Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man named the cattle, the birds of the air, and the wild animals ;but he didn't find a suitable companion." God saw that Adam was lonely so he created all the animals to keep him company. God even let Adam name the animals. But Adam couldn't find any animal that could really be his companion. That's why in Verses 21-22 it says "God put the man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from the man to make woman and presented her to the man. "  So lets review what gifts God has given Adam. He gave him plenty of food to eat, a beautiful garden to live in, authority over all the animals, and a beautiful wife to share it all with. He should be happy, right? he should thank and praise GOD right? He should obey God's one command and not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, right? Well he did... For a little while. One day Eve was in the garden just minding her business. Suddenly she heard a voice. It was the voice of the serpent. In Genesis chapter 3 the serpent began questioning Eve about why it was forbidden to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Eve told him that God said if they eat from the tree they would die. But the serpent (satan ) tricked her into believing that they would gain knowledge from eating from the tree. He said that they would become like God. Verse 6 reads "when the woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it, she'd know everything! --- she Ate the fruit and gave some to her Husband and he ate." So they took their mind off God and all the good gifts He gave them. Little did They know what the consequences would be for their actions. Verses 17-19 says "He told the Man because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from, ' don't eat from this tree' this very ground is cursed because of you . Getting food from the ground will be as painful as having babies is for your wife you'll be working in pain all your life. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way , planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk until you return to the ground yourself. You started out as dirt, you'll end up as dirt". WOW! Adam and Eve really blew it. God practically gave them everything but they rejected it.

God kicked them out of the garden and sent them to work in the field. See this was the first sin. God absolutely hates sin. In fact in romans 6:23 it  says that the wages of sin is death. That is exactly what happened to Adam and Eve. Sin is basically disobeying God and breaking his law. How do we know what his law is? Well he personally wrote his law on stone. God's law is called the Ten Commandments and they are found in Exodus chapter 20. Lets take a look at just a couple of these Commandments to see how well we've obeyed God. Exodus chapter 20 verse 16 says "No lies about your neighbor ". Have you ever lied? If the answer is yes, you're guilty of breaking that holy Commandment of God. Verse 15 says "No stealing ". Have you ever stolen, even just like a pen. If you have you're guilty of breaking that Commandment. Verse 7 reads "No using the name of God, your God in curses or silly banter; God won't put up with the irreverent use of his name." have you ever used God's name in vain. God hates that and rightfully so. I mean here you are using the name of the one who gave You life to show disgust. How messed up is that? Lets look at one more Commandment . Verse 14 simply says "no adultery ". Adultery is simply sex outside of marriage. But it's not just the act of sex outside of marriage. In matthew 5:28 Jesus said "but i tell you whoever looks at a woman to lust after her committs adultery with her in his heart." so if you even think lustful thoughts about anybody beside your spouse, you break this Commandment. Now if you broke even one of these commandments, you've sinned against God. And we already established that God hates sin. The Bible makes it very clear that God will punish all sinners. But what will be the punishment? 1 corinthians 6:9-10 says "don't you know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be decieved. Those who are sexually immoral, those who Worship false gods, Adulterers, both participants in same sex intercourse, thieves, the greedy, drunks, abusive people, and swindlers won't inherit God's kingdom." so if you sin, when you die you don't get to enter God's kingdom, which is heaven. Instead God has designated another place for sinners to spend eternity. Revelation 21:8 reads "but for the cowardly, the faithless, the vile, the murderers, those who committ sexual immorality, those who use drugs and cast spells, the idolaters and all liars, their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur.". This lake of fire is called hell. It's where all violators of God's law will go. One day we Will have to stand before God and he is going to determine where we spend eternity. 2 corinthians 5:7 says "for we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ so that each one may recieve what is due for what he has done in the body;  whether good or evil." romans 3:5 says "but because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgement will be revealed.". So on that day, judgement day, will you be innocent or guilty?  Will you go to heaven or hell? Some might say "well I'm a good person ". naa man. Romans 3:12 says "all have turned away. They have together become worthless; there is no one that does good, not even one." guys that's talking about us. We may do nice things sometimes, but deep down we are all evil. And we deserve nothing but hell. I know I'm sounding harsh but this is the cold truth. But here is the most beautiful news ever! Even though we reject him, even though we constantly disobey him, GOD STILL LOVES US! He gave us the most amazing gift ever! he gave us the gift of his precious son, Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53:5 says "but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;the punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds we Are healed." see God loves us so much and he doesn't want us to go to hell. That's why he punished Jesus instead of us. Jesus never sinned in his life, NEVER! But yet he was brutually beaten, spatt on, and killed all to satisfy the wrath of God so we wouldn't have to. romans 5:8 says "but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners CHRIST DIED FOR US!". This is the greatest gift God ever gave. This is the greatest gift anybody ever gave. But sadly, people still reject it. It's like the song "grenade". Christ gave everything he had for us, but people just reject it! Will you reject it? Or will you fall to your knees, beg God to forgive you of your sins, and make him lord of your life? I strongly urge you to do the second. Don't be like Adam and Eve. DONT REJECT GOD'S GIFTS!