Gifts to Be Thankful For

Tom Shrader walks through six gifts every Christian has already received: salvation, eternal life, reconciliation with God, the gift of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts for ministry, and the God-given ability to enjoy life. Drawing from Ephesians 2, Romans 6, 2 Corinthians 5, Acts 2, and Ecclesiastes 3, he emphasizes that each gift is entirely a work of God, unearned and freely given. The message closes with a call to respond to these gifts with thanksgiving, worship, and a generous, outward-focused life given over to the ministry of reconciliation.

“God took Jesus, who had never sinned, and punished him as though he were guilty of all the sin that all his people had ever committed.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Christmas

Recorded: 2005 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 51 min

Themes: thanksgiving, salvation, eternal life, holy spirit, spiritual gifts, reconciliation, gratitude, generosity, new believer, feeling unworthy, struggling with gratitude, searching for purpose, young adult, questioning faith, exploring spiritual gifts, wanting to serve

Scripture: Ephesians 2:8-9, Hebrews 2:17, Romans 3:23, Romans 5:1, Romans 5:8, Romans 5:10, Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23, 2 Corinthians 5:17-20, Philippians 4:6-7, Luke 2:14, Acts 2:38, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, John 16:7, Hebrews 9:27, Ecclesiastes 3:13

Theological Themes: soteriology, gift of salvation, pneumatology, holy spirit indwelling, reconciliation with god, grace alone, spiritual gifts, ministry of reconciliation

Full Transcript

Introduction and Teaching Schedule

Let me talk to you about the teaching schedule a little bit. There probably aren't many of you who, if asked the question "What study are we engaged in right now?" can answer correctly. The correct answer is the book of Acts. Now you may be saying, "I've been here four years and I haven't heard anything from the book of Acts." Let me explain what we're doing, and this may make sense to you.

We started studying the book of Acts, and I saw it as a magnificent way to get us through not just the book of Acts, but also through all of Paul's writings. What we did was study the book of Acts, then when Paul would come and visit the church at Corinth and leave and write letters back, we would study those letters. So we'd study a little bit from Acts and then go study these books.

In the middle of that, I felt we were getting an awful lot of doctrine but needed more of the human touch. That's when, two years ago, we started to study the life of Christ. You may have been in small groups like this, where you start out saying, "Let's really study the Word — let's study the Gospel of John." You get to about chapter ten, and somebody says, "We don't really know each other. Here we are spending all this time together — let's get to know each other." So you start getting to know each other, and then after a while someone says, "We're not really in God's Word, so why don't we take a book — like a Patrick Morley book — and make that our study?"

Some people get very frustrated in those situations, saying, "This isn't working." My point is: no, it's working perfectly. There was a need to study God's Word — an ongoing need, I understand — but there was an apparent need, and then all of a sudden there was a relational need, and meeting that created a new need. It's the same thing from the pulpit. My sense was we were going doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine — so let's look at the life of Christ. While it's heavy in doctrine, it also gives us that human touch and so often an example of how we're to live.

When we started that study, if someone had asked me how long it would take, I would have said probably two years. My intention was to break it in the middle, knowing we'd probably need a pause. We've been at this study for two years now, and in an elders' discussion the other day, someone said, "I think we need to do a book." So here's what we're going to do: we're going to set our study in the life of Christ aside, and beginning after the first of the year, we're going to start a study in the book of James. It's a New Testament, non-Pauline book — which is what the elders asked for — and it's filled with doctrine and practice. When we finish that, we'll come back to the life of Christ. My sense is we have about a year left in that study, and then we'll move on to something else after that.

A Christmas Message for Believers

I want to do something different today. On Christmas Eve and Easter, when I speak, both services are an hour long and I have about fifteen minutes. In each of those instances I'm speaking to guests — to those who are here to celebrate, and whom you've often brought along. I'm trying to get those guests to say, "You need to think about this." And because of that, we often assume Christmas messages only apply to unbelievers.

I'm not going to break that tradition entirely. When we get together next Saturday for Christmas Eve, I'll take fifteen minutes and really target guests and unbelievers. But today I want to do a Christmas message targeted toward us — the believer.

The Problem of Overindulgence

I was going back and forth about whether to take that approach, and then something pushed me over the edge this week. I read an article from the MSNBC website with the headline: "Blame the Kids for All That Red Ink." Let me give you just some excerpts.

Half of all Americans don't pay their credit card bills every month. A man named Robert Manning wrote a book called *The Credit Card Nation*, and he has since written an article — you can find the full piece at mortgagetree.com, titled "Living With Debt." Let me give you some of the highlights.

Manning found that many Americans aren't the selfish super-consumers they've been made out to be. Instead, much of the nation's exorbitant consumer debt is the result of parents and grandparents trying to give their children the best of everything. The single most important factor underlying high debt is what he calls the "elevated lifestyles parents provide for their children." The report states: "Whether they're buying an $800 prom dress, a $2,000 trombone, or a $1,000 Labrador, parents are convinced that they're doing all this in the child's best interest." This often assumes a form of vicarious adolescence, whereby young parents relive their childhood through the material objects they were denied by their own parents.

The article goes on to talk about the enormous ramifications of this pattern. Overindulgent spending is hardly the only factor in —

The Gift of Identity

Among the most troubling stories in these articles about consumer debt is the issue of parents stealing their children's identities to pay their bills. Statistics show that 31% of identity thieves use credit cards to swindle their victims. The cruelest form of this is robbing a child of his good name — credit they didn't know they had.

Randy Waldron describes his experience this way: "By the time I was 10, I had not only been a convicted felon, I had outstanding debt somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000." He had been a victim of childhood identity theft for almost 24 years. "The total debt in my name between outstanding credit card bills, bounced checks, back taxes, and civil judgments totaled $2 million. My father began using my social security number, and he never stopped."

Children are the easiest targets for identity theft because most of them receive a social security number at birth but never use it for years. Of the children whose identities are being stolen, two-thirds of the cases involve a relative. When a parent can no longer obtain credit themselves, a child's unused number becomes the path of least resistance. There is even a story in these articles about a nine-year-old who was nearly arrested because he had $9,000 worth of outstanding debt he had never charged.

The Real Gifts of Christmas

On that note, I want to talk about gifts — and I am not Scrooge about this. There will be a lot of gifts purchased this coming week, and there will be a lot of gifts exchanged a week from today. But I want to do something a little different. Rather than talk about gifts you will receive, I want to talk about the gifts that you and I have already received as followers of Christ, and I want to talk about Christmas from that perspective.

Memories of the Season

The last song I heard before I dozed off last night was Andy Williams — a fellow Iowan, by the way — singing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." When I think of Christmas, I think of gifts, but I think of a lot of other things too. I think of music. This morning in the conference center we sang "Silent Night," and for whatever reason, every time I hear that song I think of my grandmother's home. They had three kids and two bedrooms, and the two things I remember about Christmas there were the candles in the windows — remember those? — and the Christmas ornaments that bubbled. Somehow, in this brain of mine, "Silent Night" is attached to that memory.

There is real power in the music of this time of year. Every time I hear "I'll Be Home for Christmas," I think of my first Christmas here in 1975, driving over the Mill Street Bridge and seeing palm trees decorated with Christmas lights. I remember thinking, "This is crazy. This is so weird. This doesn't make sense at all." It may be decorations that come to mind for you. Someone in the back was talking about having to finish putting up their outside decorations today.

Our Christmas tree at our house is actually a palm tree with lights on it. When Christmas is over, we unplug it and put it in the corner, where it stays beautiful all year long, and then we pull it out and plug it back in at Christmas. My memories of decorations are not all particularly good. I remember one year putting up the tree and Susan and I had a disagreement about it, and every year since, she has put up the tree by herself. Sometime in December I would go play golf or whatever, come back, and the tree would be up.

The Gift of Salvation

If your family is goofy 364 days a year, it is not going to be normal at Christmas. You put a couple drinks and some eggnog in there and it is nutty. It just is, and you cannot change that. Some of you have some real tension over the next two weeks, and you need to remember that, especially if you are a Christian, a follower of Christ, especially if you proclaim that to your family — they are watching you. So, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with one another.

One of the unique things about Christmas is the gift giving. Here is how Webster defines a gift as a noun in two ways. One: a notable capacity, talent, or endowment. Two: something voluntarily transferred by one person to another person without compensation. When we walk away from here, I want your heart to be filled in response to the gifts you have already received.

We are going to start in Ephesians chapter 2, and we are going to talk about the gift of salvation. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Paul is talking about the gift — the gift of God, which is salvation. Salvation is given to us by grace, the exhibition of that grace in our life is the faith, and that is not of ourselves.

Go back to Webster's definition: something voluntarily transferred by one person to another person without compensation. That is exactly what we have here. If you are a follower of Christ, you have received the gift of salvation. You have been saved, delivered. The bondage of sin has been broken, and you are no longer enslaved to your sin.

You are free to live a life that is void of sin, no longer enslaved to your animalistic human desires and natural tendencies. You do not have to live naturally anymore. You can live supernaturally.

Grace: Entirely a Work of God

Look at the verse again. I am saved by grace — this is entirely, utterly a work of God. We use that sentence all the time: God saves sinners. The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do everything that needs to be done pertaining to the deliverance of people who are helpless, powerless, and unable to do what God has called them to do. I am saved by grace, unmerited favor. There is nothing I can do to merit, earn, or deserve grace. Grace, by its very definition, has to be unearned.

As though Paul is trying to put an exclamation point on it, look at verse 9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." It is entirely a gift of God. We have been saved. Delivered.

Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17 tells us that Jesus came and He is our propitiation. That word means to satisfy the wrath. Contrary to popular opinion today, God is angry. We have sinned, and our sin has angered God, and God must judge that sin. What is so significant to us about Christmas is that God now begins the process of saving His people.

There is no sacrifice that you and I could make that would somehow earn grace or earn His favor. We had sinned, so any sacrifice we make is imperfect, and God's justice demands a perfect sacrifice. The only possible solution for us, the only way for us to avoid eternal punishment, is for God to pay the price Himself.

That is why Jesus became flesh — God with us, here. He walked. He lived a perfect life. He died on a cross. It is the gift of God. Here is Webster again: something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation. You did not do anything to earn it. It is entirely, completely, utterly a work of God.

A Personal Testimony

So when you are sitting around ripping gifts open, before we ever get to that point, here is what I want you to see. You, as a follower of Christ, have already been saved. You have been delivered from the bondage of sin.

Last Sunday, after one of the services, someone came up to me and said, "You know what today is?" I said, "December 11th." They said, "No, do you know what today is?" Rather than have me guess a million things, I said, why don't you just tell me? He said it was 25 years ago today that I had my last drink. I had not thought about that, and it is amazing to me how closely people follow things and keep track of them. But that is exactly right — God saved me.

Introduction: Delivered from Bondage

God saved me in March of 1980, and my last drink was in December of 1980. Is this an anti-drinking message? You all figure that out. It is certainly an anti-drunk message, and that was my problem. I am not huge on moderation. The only thing I have ever really done in moderation is work. Everything else I have done has been to excess. If somebody said to me, "Do you want to stop on the way home and get a beer?" I would say, "I'll stop and get drunk, or I'll go home. I'm not that interested in having a beer."

God saved me, and then the frequency of that behavior stopped, but its occurrences continued. Finally, December 11th of 1980 was our company Christmas party. There were a lot of things that went on that night, and I drank way, way, way too much. The centerpiece was a wooden donkey with greens and berries in it, and I woke up the next morning having either stolen or won the centerpiece — I don't know which. I woke up wrapped around that centerpiece and said, "God, I've got a lot of issues and a lot of problems, but this seems to be the biggest one, and I cannot get rid of it. Get it out of here." That was the last drink I had.

Now, I hesitate to tell that story very often, because some of you will say, "Well, I've struggled with whatever it is on and on and on." What I want you to hear is this: you've been delivered from that. It's not a matter of you cannot — you will not. That's what He says. You've been saved, and I know what we think of when we think of being saved, but I want us for a moment to see that salvation is deliverance. It is deliverance from having to live an awful, self-centered, selfish life.

You may be living that way even as a believer, but that is voluntary — you chose to live that way. So if you are a wife and you are angry at your husband and you say, "I cannot love him," no, no, no — you will not love him. If you say, "I cannot love my wife," no, no, no — you will not love her. You have received the gift of salvation. You have been delivered.

The Gift of Eternal Life: Romans 6:23

Here is the second thing. We are in Ephesians, but we are going to go left to the book of Romans, chapter 6, verse 23: *"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."* There it is again — a gift. A little earlier, in Romans chapter 3, verse 23, Paul said that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us have sinned, and the result of that sin — do you see it in chapter 6, verse 23? — the wage of that sin, what I have earned by that sin, is death.

When Scripture talks about death, it talks about it in three ways. Number one, physical death: Hebrews 9:27 tells us it is appointed for man once to die, and then judgment. Number two, it talks about death meaning separation from God in this life — spiritual death. Number three, it talks about eternal death — separation from God for all eternity. So when Scripture talks about death, it means physical death, spiritual death, and eternal death.

When you say, "God, I don't really need You. You don't bother me, I won't bother You. I'll get to You on my own terms. I just want what I've earned" — what do we call that? We call that a wage. Your sin has earned you death. It has earned you physical death, it has earned you spiritual death, and unless you respond, it will produce eternal death.

Just a little earlier, in Romans chapter 5, verse 12, Paul writes: *"Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death came to all men, because all have sinned."* This is universal. All of us have sinned. And the fact that you look around and see that all of us will die physically is evidence that we have all sinned and that we were at some point separated from God.

A Visit from Santa Claus

Friday night was the 7-10, the twenty-somethings ball, and somewhat unbeknownst to them, they had a special guest — Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus. I was Santa Claus, and Susan was Mrs. Claus. I was Santa Claus on my own terms, though. I didn't wear the hair piece — I figured I had that covered anyway — and I didn't wear the beard, and I wore flip-flops. But it was Santa nonetheless. Susan looked incredible. We came in, I rang bells, it was "ho-ho-ho," and they announced that everyone could have their picture taken with Santa. We had a great time, we were dancing afterward, and it was a wonderful night.

Now, Brayden — the first grandson — is three weeks old. He was a little fragile, and they told Haley for four or five weeks they didn't want him around a lot of other people. So Haley was over at Sarah's yesterday, and I dressed up like Santa Claus, Susan dressed up like Mrs. Claus, and we went over and rang the doorbell and surprised her — so that Brayden could have his first Christmas picture taken with Santa. That Santa was me.

Right during the picture — and this is a side note — Sarah is really great at taking pictures, so she came up with the idea to do a shot over our shoulders looking down at Brayden. As I was looking down at him, I was thinking two things. Number one, what a sinner he is. It is really interesting, because at just three weeks old, he has already learned that if you put him down and cry long enough and hard enough, some weak grandmother will pick him up. He has already learned that. The other thing I was thinking — and this may sound morbid to you, but —

The Weight of Sin and the Gift of Life

He is already beginning the process of dying. His body is already beginning to die at three weeks. Why? Sin. The wage of sin is death — physical death, spiritual death — and unless I come to Christ in repentance and faith, eternal death. My prayer for Brayden at this point is that God would save him, that he would respond. The wage of sin is death, but here is the other side: the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

USA Today reported the results of a survey in which people were asked what they would pay for certain things. The details of how it was set up were never fully given, but here are the results they reported. People said on average they would pay $55,000 to be president for a day; $83,000 for great beauty; $206,000 for reunion with a lost love; $259,000 for eternal youth; $285,000 for talent; $407,000 for a great intellect; $487,000 for true love. But at the top of the list, far away from everything else, the top thing people said they would pay was $640,000 to know they had a place in heaven.

Now, this was a totally secular survey — not a Christian thing at all. And yet the number-one answer was: more than anything else, I want a place in heaven, and I would pay $640,000 for it. Here it is. It is free. Most of us would rather pay the $640,000. Most of us would rather do religion. Most of us would rather earn it. And the scripture says you cannot.

Eternal Life Begins Now

Those of us who are Christians know right now where we stand. If you get down to the corner of McQueen and Elliott on your way home after this service, and a car pulls through that intersection and kills you, those of you who are Christians know where you are going to be. At your memorial service, we can say — not "we wish," not "we hope" — you are going to heaven. Eternal life begins today. "I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly."

Reconciled to God

All of a sudden, we are now reconciled with God. Look at Romans chapter five, verse eight: "But God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." This is not us toward Him — this is His love toward us. A little later, in verse ten, he calls us enemies of God. But now, as you sing about at this time of year, God and sinner have been reconciled.

We were alienated from Him, but now we have been reconciled to Him. Consider this: if I tell you that Ellen — who used to be on staff here — and I have been reconciled, and that is all you know about us, what can you deduce from that single word? That there were some pre-existing hostilities. We cannot be reconciled unless we were first separated. Jesus came so that we can be reconciled.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

Look at 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse seventeen: "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things have passed away, behold, new things have come." Verse eighteen continues: "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself." Notice the verbiage — it is not merely that we are reconciled, but that He reconciled us to Himself. This is utterly His work. He initiates it, He completes it.

"He reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and then He gave us a ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He had committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were entreating through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God. God took Jesus, who had never sinned, and punished Him as though He were guilty of all the sin that all His people had ever committed.

Peace With God

Paul tells us in Romans chapter five, verse one: "Having been justified by faith, we now have peace with God." There were pre-existing hostile conditions, and in your own relationships you may know how that works — it manifests differently with different people. With some you simply coexist; with others there is ongoing friction; with others you simply cannot get along at all. That is the way some of us are with God. Some say, "Don't bother me and I won't bother You." Some are openly hostile. But what scripture tells us is that all of us were in rebellion against God. All of us were at war with Him. While we were yet enemies, Christ died.

But now we are not at war with Him anymore. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. We call Him Father. There is a whole new relationship taking place here, and it is all a result of His work, for I am saved by grace.

The Peace of God

Not only do I have peace with God, but in Philippians chapter four, Paul writes: "Let your gentle spirit be made known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God" —

The Peace of God

I have peace with God, but this verse says I now have the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension. All of a sudden, I have this right relationship with God. We've been reconciled. I'm in my place, He's where He should be. He's on the throne, and I'm worshiping Him. Now, because that relationship is in place and I have peace with Him, I now have the peace of God. And that's a mind-blower — that's beyond comprehension.

So in my life, I'm not subject to every little circumstance, good or bad. Just because my situation and circumstances are going like this, it doesn't have to be that my mood follows. I'm not a victim of bad circumstances anymore. Am I going to have them? Absolutely. There's no question I'm going to have them. I'm going to get physically sick, I'm going to have financial problems probably, I'm going to have relational problems — lights turn red, garage doors break. I have all of that in my life.

But even though I have all of that, because I have peace with God, I now have the peace of God. In fact, you'll even have people saying things to you like, "I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you got through that. I don't know how you survived that. I could have never handled that. You're amazing." No. The God who indwells me is amazing.

Peace on Earth — But Not Universal

Look at Luke chapter two, verse 14. We typically go to the gospel of Luke to study the birth of Christ — the long story, the swaddling clothes, the angels. Now the angels speak: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men." On almost all your cards and all the little things you'll see in people's yards, that's what you'll read — the first two-thirds of that verse. But it's not a universal. It is not universal peace.

Do you see the qualifier? "On earth, peace among men with whom God is pleased." That's not universal. If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, there's a cessation of hostilities between the two of you. You have peace with God because you have the peace of God. Those two now go together. You have peace with Him, and therefore you have the peace of God, and all of a sudden in the midst of everything, there is peace around you — not necessarily circumstantial, but relational.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

He has given you now the ministry of taking that message to the world. If you're here today and you didn't take communion because you're not a follower of Christ, I'm telling you — even as you sit here searching for the answers to life's questions, your search is over. You've come to the right place. We have not an answer; we have the answer, the correct answer, because we turn to God's word and He tells us how to get the most out of life. And then we turn around and proclaim that to everyone else. That is the ministry of reconciliation. Remember the term Paul used in 2 Corinthians — the word of reconciliation.

I don't care what it is or where you've searched. Whether it's been getting more stuff, changing your body, moving from here to there, switching partners — you've done everything you can do and you're saying, "I don't get it, I'm still miserable." That's because none of those things are your problem. Your problem is sin. All you're doing is getting further into it. Your problem is sin, and the solution to sin is Christ. That is our proclamation to the world.

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

Now I want to talk about a couple more gifts you have received. Turn to Acts chapter two, verse 38. You're in Luke, so turn to the right — Acts is Luke's second book. Peter has delivered this extraordinary sermon, and the people are asking what they should do. Peter said this: "Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of the Lord for the remission of sin, and you shall receive" — now this is really important — "the gift of the Holy Spirit."

One of the things you have received as a Christian is the gift of the Holy Spirit. I'm not talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit — we'll talk about that in a minute. But you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Literally, you have the Spirit of God living in you. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19: "Did you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?" God is literally living in you. When we say God is in this room, we don't mean He's floating around in some mysterious way. We're saying He is in this room because believers are gathered together and He indwells us.

The night before He died, Jesus gathered His key men together and made to them a series of promises. One of them was this — John chapter 16, verse 7: "I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come. But if I go, I will send the Helper to you." He is speaking of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that the Spirit is the seal of redemption. You would take a king with his signet ring, press it into soft wax, and that seal guaranteed ownership, authenticity, and authority. The Holy Spirit is that seal on us. Our ownership is by God — He owns us. There is our authority. It is authentic. It is real. How do we know? The Holy Spirit dwells in us.

You have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He caused you to be born again. He indwells you. He seals you. He convicts you. He is the One that Jesus promised.

You Have Already Received the Gift of the Holy Spirit

You have received the gift of the Holy Spirit — the Holy Spirit Himself indwelling you. But God has also given you a gift through that Spirit: a special enablement to perform a function in the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 7 says, "To each has been given a manifestation of the Spirit." Ray Stedman defines it this way: a capacity for service which is given to every true Christian without exception. It is given by God to every believer.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 4, 5, and 6 that the gifts are varied — there are many different gifts, and they manifest themselves in different ways. But every believer has a gift: a special enablement to perform a function in the body of Christ. Paul uses the image of a body. If the body was just an eye, we would see very well, but we couldn't move around. If we had hands and feet but no eyes, our dexterity and efficiency would be limited. These gifts are given to us so that they all come together and the body functions as it should.

God has given you a gift. Do you know what it is? Are you using it? I desperately want you to find your gift and exercise your gift — and my motive has some selfishness to it, because we are a body. If you don't exercise your gifts, our body is hurting.

The Gift of Satisfaction and Contentment

Here is another thing you have already received. God's Word says this: "I know that nothing is better for you than to rejoice and to do good in his lives. And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God." Ecclesiastes 3:13. The word I would use here is satisfaction — the ability to say, "I don't have to strive and strive and strive." A good synonym in this sense would be contentment.

Last Monday morning, my day off, I had a full day. It started up in Scottsdale with 25 high-powered business men — business, money, go, go, go — and my topic was contentment. I said to them, this is going to be a really difficult discussion, because I am probably going to bring more frustration than answers. I just wanted to ask a whole bunch of questions, because I have wrestled with this all my life. Practical questions: How much is enough? What car should you drive? What house is okay? Just because you can afford it — just because you can hand over your card and they swipe it and it says approved — does that mean it's okay to buy it? Is there any sense in which the American dream is in conflict with the dream God has for you?

And it's not just about money. It's contentment with the spouse God has given you. It's contentment with the children God has given you, if you have them. It's contentment with the single status God has given you. And how does that differ from apathy? What about excellence? These are real issues.

I have a friend who died about ten years ago. A mutual friend, speaking of him, said life was so hard for him. This man, I believe, was a follower of Christ — he was instrumental in a lot of organizational work that we did together. But he struggled with everything. Everything was a struggle. He never enjoyed anything, and the minute he began to enjoy something, he felt guilty about it. But the ability to enjoy life is a gift of God. Let me read it again: "I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of his labor. And this is a gift from God."

How Do You Respond to These Gifts?

So those are some of the gifts you have already received. They are not gifts you are going to open someday — these are gifts you have already received. You may even be able to go home and add to that gift list. We have had two questions. The first is: what are the gifts you have already received? Here is the second: how do you respond to that?

The answer is actually simple. All we have to do is think about how we handle our kids. There is rarely a Sunday that goes by when I am not walking across campus and I say to some little girl, "That's a pretty dress," or to some little boy, "Hey, that's a cool shirt." Some of them will run and hide behind their dad or their mom. But generally, what the parents will try to do is coax them out and say, "What do you say to him? He told you he liked your dress. What do you say?" And the answer is: thank you. From the time children are tiny, we try to teach them to say thank you. If somebody gives you a compliment, if somebody gives you a gift, you say thank you.

If God has given you the gift of salvation, eternal life, His presence indwelling you, the gift of the Holy Spirit, a spiritual gift, and the ability to enjoy life — what do you say to Him? You say thank you. And that thank you really becomes worship. Martin Luther said to know God is to worship Him — not just to gather together collectively and sing songs, though that is part of it. Paul says, "I present my body as a living sacrifice" — it is the only reasonable response to the truths laid out in the first eleven chapters of Romans about how God saved us.

So I ask you: is your heart filled with two things — gratitude and generosity? Freely you have received; freely you give. Not in some superficial way — not just a quick "God's given me this, He's really good" — but as you sit and contemplate it, as you break these things down, as you take in all that He has given you.

Living in Gratitude

He has given you the ability to get here today, the ability to listen to this message and understand it. He has given you salvation, and He has left you here for a purpose. He has entrusted to you the ministry of reconciliation and the proclaiming of the gospel to your world. He has put the Holy Spirit in you to convict you, dwell in you, strengthen you, and guide you. He has given you the ability to enjoy today.

So what do you say? You say thank you. And having received, you give. This is not about grabbing your wallet — though that may be part of it — but you present your entire body and say literally, "God, this is Your life. What are You going to do with it? Let's see what happens."

Closing Prayer

Father, we look at our lives, even as believers, and we see the extraordinary things that You have entrusted to us — the gifts You have given us. Thank You for salvation and eternal life and the Spirit that indwells us. Thank You that we can live in a way that has meaning and purpose, and that we did not do anything to earn this — that we receive it in spite of who we are, not because of it. God, when we get our arms around that, it sure changes the way we see You and the way we see ourselves. Father, I pray that we would be a grateful people with gentle, generous hearts, committed to the ministry of reconciliation, using our gifts to glorify You. God, we thank You. We pray to You in Jesus' name, amen.