Uncommon Gift: The Re-Gift

Uncommon Gift: “The Re-Gift”

Introduction:  I trust you had a great Christmas filled with fun times, too much food, and a lot of time with Family.  Hope you got all the gifts you wanted and they are were just perfect!!!!

Transition:  We have been in this series about the Uncommon Gift…realizing and celebrating the Truth…Jesus truly is the Most Uncommon Gift Ever Given.

But let’s wrap this series up today.

2 Cor 4:7-18, 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. ESV

Title:  The Uncommon Gift of Re-Gifting

Re-Gifting:

Let’s be honest have you ever regifted a gift given to you…did you think about it this year…now for the deep question…have you ever re-gifted a gift you truly treasured, valued, and wanted to hold on to?

 

  1. Gifts
    1. Art of Gift Giving
      1. There is a real art to gift giving and I for one don’t have that gift…I love getting people gifts…
        1. I’m often afraid I’m going to get the wrong gift…
        2. The wrong size
        3. The wrong color
        4. The wrong shape
        5. The wrong brand
      2. I want the person I’m buying a gift for to just tell me what I can get them…
  • But People who excel in the Art of Giving gifts…they are amazing to me…
  1. God was, is, and will forever be the Ultimate Example of the Art of Giving Gifts…
    1. Let’s think about it for a moment…He gave you life…all life comes from God, according to Colossians!
    2. He gave us a beautiful world to enjoy…
  • Christmas – He gave us His son…
  1. He gave us the Holy Spirit
  2. He has given you fruit of the Spirit
    1. Love, Joy, Peace,…
  3. He has given you Spiritual Gifts
    1. Faith, Healings, Miracles, Discerning of Spirits, Word of Knowledge, Word of Wisdom, Prophecy…etc…
  • He has Loved us and given us Hope….
  • He has give us relationships and friendships…the person you’re sitting next to is a gift of God, from God, to You!
  1. In verse 6 of 2Cor.4 Paul uses the imagery of Genesis and tells us just as it was when God said “let there be light and there was light…” so that is what it was like at Your conversion when Jesus came into yours and my life….

Transition:  Now that my friend is a Gift…what a Gift!

  1. Great Gifts Have Value
    1. “we have this treasure in earthen vessels…”
      1. The treasure is Christ in us the hope of glory…
      2. But it is interesting and keeping to the customs of Middle Eastern Culture…you take that which is of great value and you put it in jars of clay…
    2. The Jar is valuable all on its own…but its value is increased exponentially because of what has been placed in the Jar…
    3. See often times we compare Jars, devaluing the jar (ourselves or others)…but it truly is what’s inside the jar that increases the value of the Jar…
      1. The Jar had a creator…Jeremiah 18 “now Jeremiah goes to the Potters House and the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it…
        1. Oh my God you better hear the word of the Lord…some of you are being reworked…
        2. The pressure is God’s hands on you reworking you for purpose…
        3. Tell three people he’s reworking me…
        4. You realize He’s reworking you to carry something…
          1. A gift
          2. A fresh oil
          3. A fresh encounter
          4. Something of Incredible Value…
          5. A New Relationship
          6. A New Job
          7. A New Spiritual Gift…
          8. MY LORD I CAN’T SHAKE THIS….

…into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.”

  1. The Jar’s value comes from the potter…You are valuable because God, the Heavenly Potter formed you and fashioned you in your mother’s womb…
  1. But then God offers the jar the Greatest Treasure to Carry…Jesus!!!
    1. We devalue the treasure because Jesus has been given freely and must be received freely…you can’t earn Him…if He wasn’t free…He could never be received because He is priceless, unpurchaseable.

Transition:  Now I would not put a Priceless Gift in such a fragile vessel…but I’m not God and neither are you…can I get a big Amen.

  • Great Gifts Become a Part of Us

2 Cor 4:8-9

8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

NIV

  1. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair…four pairs of expressions to sufferings:
    1. Hard pressed, but not suffocated.
    2. Puzzled, but not utterly baffled.
  • Pursued, but not caught or outrun.
  1. Struck down, but not out of the fight.
  1. The first two refer to wrestling; the third to a race; and the fourth to a boxing match.
  2. The treasure on the inside of the vessels is what is causing the vessel not to crumble under the pressure of Life…the clay should succumb to the pressure…but the Gift on the Inside is holding it all together…
  3. It does that by becoming a Part of Us…
    1. Jesus put it this way…”whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it…”
    2. Gal 5:25-26

 

25 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. 26 That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. (MSG)

  1. Let me share this crazy illustration with you…if you won the lottery…there would be evidence that you had won…you may not even tell anyone…but let’s be real…after you tithed LOL…there would be evidence…

Transition:  When these Jars of Clay received the Gift of Salvation…My friend, you and I won the lottery…

  1. There should be signs…evidence that we are Gift Carriers.
  1. Great Gifts are to be Re-Gifted
    1. We unfortunately usually re-gift those gifts we don’t truly want…but God created you and me to be a re-gifter.
    2. Every Gift in the Bible is First for Others…then ourselves…
      1. I’ll go so far as saying…you can’t even begin to understand the full benefit of a Gift until you share it with someone else…
      2. Salvation for example…an incredible gift…I remember when I got saved and rededicated my life to Christ…but man when I re-gifted salvation to someone else and shared faith with them and led them to this treasure and they received Christ…I promise it was like I got saved all over again…
  • I received Healing…what a priceless gift…but then I prayed for someone, and they were Healed…WOW…I became addicted to Re-Gifting…
  1. Acts 20:35 “it is more blessed to give than to receive…”
  2. See Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Self-control…as much as they benefit us personally, they are really gifts to be given for others…they are meant to be used like all of God’s gifts…
  1. Closing
    1. The Best Uncommon Gifts…are those Great Gifts when Re-Gifted are Still Great Gifts…
    2. This gift we have in Jesus is the greatest because it is:
      1. Of Great Value
      2. It is Now Part of Us
  • Is to be Re-gifted
  1. What would your 2024 be Like if we all determined to be Re-gifters!!!!

 

  1. Prayer
    1. I want to Pray for the One’s 2023 was a year the Potter Was Re-Working You!!!!

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