"I Don't Want Your Gift"
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I praise God for all He has done this year in my life. He has given me HIS best and continues to daily. God has blessed this ministry - it continues to grow - our supporters are few but God always meets the need. This is the 2nd anniversary of the Newsletter ministry - it�s been a great 2 years and it seems as if I�ve had Christmas every day in 2000. I look forward to witnessing the Holy Spirit doing a mighty work in 2001 in the Hi-ways and Bi-ways, and people coming to God that have never been in a church! Again, I just want to say �THANK YOU LORD� for all He has done, for all the �gifts� that I�ve had placed before me this year. The thing with gifts is, you�ve got to reach out and accept them, or else you�re rejecting them. Things are no different with the gifts that God offers �whosoever� daily. This message is titled, �I Don�t Want Your Gift.� I pray that you will stop right now and ask God for His gift of wisdom and understanding, to prepare your heart for His word.
Well, it�s Christmas time again and whether you celebrate it or not you�re aware that people exchange gifts in celebration of Christ�s Birth. People scrambling around to try and buy some gift for friends and loved ones. I think it would be safe to say that most have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I find it almost impossible to believe that anyone hasn�t heard John 3:16, �For God so loved the world, that He GAVE His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.� Almost everyone can quote that scripture. It is one that tells of God�s Gift of love for us. It is God�s offer of the Gift of Eternal Life. While men and women scramble to buy gifts that will perish, that thieves can steal, that will burn up in the end, GOD offers His BEST GIFT to them. Matthew 7:11 says, �If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?� Before we can proceed I must ask if you�ve accepted God�s Gift of Eternal Life, or have you refused it through your actions, saying to God, �I DON�T WANT YOUR GIFT�?
It troubles me deeply that parents that �love� their children and are so concerned about them having the best gifts for Christmas, completely ignore telling them about its true meaning. They don�t tell the children that it is celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. The Gift of God to us! A Gift that, when you accept Him, you don�t need drugs, you don�t need alcohol, you don�t need MTV, you don�t need nose rings or belly button rings, you don�t need to dye your hair purple, to be accepted. Why? Because God loved them so much that He will accept them just as they are. That�s why Jesus was born into this world and died on Calvary, that all those children, confused and looking for acceptance, trying to fill that void, can receive a life full of joy and love. Your children can know, that if some crazed demon-possessed gunman shoots up the school, they have accepted God�s Gift of Eternal Life. If you love your children give them that opportunity to accept God�s gift! By not taking children to church, by not telling them about Jesus, parents are making an eternal life-threatening decision for their children - �I Don�t Want Your Gift.�
It�s time for the church to examine itself as a whole, asking if they have refused God�s Gifts. Are new people coming in? How is the church�s spiritual reputation? The New Testament church received God�s Gifts on the day of Pentecost. They received the power, the Holy Ghost, and they were able to witness boldly. Why did they receive? Because they heard what Jesus said, �to wait� in Jerusalem for the promise: they obeyed God. In Acts 5:32 it says that the Holy Ghost was given to them that obeyed. That New Testament church waited on God, they continued to seek Him, and they were baptized with the Holy Ghost. At that time they received God�s Gift of power to go out and do the things commanded in Mark 16:15-18. They received the Gifts of healing, prophesy, discernment, tongues - every Gift that God had to offer - they received and took them out into the world and applied them. That didn�t just happen to the preachers - it happened to everyone that OBEYED. They received God�s Gifts completely. They sold out completely and took the Gospel and all of God�s Gifts, speaking boldly to everyone about Jesus. Because they accepted those gifts and put them to use, they were heard near and far and the church was added to daily! Anybody in the church today that is bound up with false doctrines saying these gifts are not for today�s church, is refusing God�s Gift and walking in a dangerous area. Anyone not obeying God�s Word in the church today is saying, �I Don�t Want Your Gift.� Repent! Become obedient to God, become teachable - able to receive God�s Gifts - watch people start desiring the Jesus in you.
Praise God, I think it�s time to get on some toes! There is another little group in the church today... God has given you Gifts, �talents� to use to lead others to Christ, to GLORIFY GOD, to ASSIST your pastors and evangelists - but for some unimportant reason you have set down on God! Let me tell you there is only one reason for anyone that has God�s Gifts to sit down. If you�ve got SIN in your life, I respect you for sitting down. There is no other reason and that sin has to go! Get on the altar and get rid of it! If something is bothering you, if something�s oppressing you then get some Spirit-filled elders to lay hands on you and pray STIRRING UP THE GIFTS (2 Timothy 1:6) and taking authority over any hindrance. Remember the story in Matthew 25:14-30 about the talents? Use what God has given you. Pastors, take your flock into the Hi-ways and Bi-ways to put their Gifts to work. Don�t keep your Gifts hid and in the closet. If you have been given a Gift of God and you�re not using it, then you are telling God, �I DON�T WANT YOUR GIFT�. Repent and put your Gifts to work for God. If there were ever a time for the church to be applying all His Gifts, it is now! Today!
To every man, woman, boy and girl - don�t refuse the Gifts of God another day. Our nation, the world, is on a downward moral spiral that continues to accelerate. The call of God is going through the land for those that would carry the full Gospel of Jesus Christ to every corner of the earth. He�s looking for those with a teachable heart that will say, �Here am I, send me, I want every Gift you have, to share with others.� He offered Gifts for offices of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Ephesians 4:11). Some of you might say, �Well I can�t go to seminary.� The Holy Spirit will train you and teach you if you just study, seek and keep asking. Seek the teaching of the Holy Spirit and not some Bible College. And I�m not saying there aren�t any good schools out there, there is; but follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah 24:7 says, �And I will give them an heart to know Me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart.� Ezekiel 11:19 offers the gift of a new heart, �And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh.� God desires to give you spiritual, physical, financial, and eternal gifts today - will you accept or not? By doing nothing you say, �I Don�t Want Your Gift�.
To those that are reading this, whether at home, in a jail cell, in a hospital - if you are tired of the life you�re living, tired of hurting and hurting others - then God has a Gift for you that will change everything. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said, �Come unto Me, ALL ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.� Come today to the One that died for you, the Shepherd that will not let you want, the One that maketh your pastures green and calms the stormy waters of life. Whosoever will let Him come and drink, whosoever believeth, shall have everlasting life. You don�t have to perish, or suffer in this world or eternity. You can ask Jesus into your heart right where you are - pray in your own way from your heart. If you�ve just accepted Jesus, then write me and I�ll try to get you connected with a good church and good materials. Wherever you are, please don�t tell God, �I DON�T WANT YOUR GIFT�!
Please know that you are loved and being prayed for. God�s people care about what�s going on in your life.
In Jesus� Name, Bro. Don George
