Matt Hagee - The Gift You Cannot Forget
We begin a brand-new sermon series entitled "Glory to God in the highest". This message, as simple as it sounds and as familiar as it seems, is something that we often forget to do because of all of the distractions that we see in the world around us. Every time it comes around on the calendar for Christmas to occur, we read familiar verses and we hear these phrases, "Glory to God in the highest". Well that's what the angels declared, but why did they declare it? What was the purpose behind it? Not only was it their function in ministry and their reason to exist, but it was a great reminder to us about what our purpose is. Because regardless of what's going on in your life, regardless of what you're facing, regardless of what you're walking through or you've just came out of, there's really only one thing in this life that you and I should remember to do on a daily basis with every breath that we breathe, and that is give glory to God in the highest.
And sometimes it becomes difficult because we allow things to turn our attention away from what we're really supposed to be about. How many of you in this year have had to deal with other issues? You felt distracted. You've asked God for certain things and it doesn't seem like he answered. You knocked on the door, as the Bible says, "Knock and it shall be opened," and nobody came. The Bible says, "Seek and you shall find". And while you're seeking, you're still searching. Sometimes the best thing that you can do in moments like that is not look for yourself, but continue to remember about God's faithfulness in your life and just give him glory. Just give him glory.
Today we read familiar words, but I pray that it is a reminder to us all about what is the most important thing for us to do, not just this day, but every day and in all seasons. Read with me Luke 2:13. If you're there, say, amen. And suddenly, there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, good will toward men". And so it was that when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us".
Heavenly Father, help us today to be reminded of what you have made known. Help us today to remember that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we are still in awe of his glory. Help us today to understand the power that we possess when we praise and magnify your name, because that name is the name that is above every name. So for all of these things, we give you thanks. And we ask that your presence abide in this service today. And all of God's children said, amen.
You may be seated. This morning's message is entitled "The Gift You Cannot Forget". How many of you have ever had that horrible sinking feeling when you walk into your family's Christmas and you remember the gift you forgot? Go ahead. You can raise your hands. The offended party is probably not here. You do the head count of your third cousin's kids and you realize they had another one. And then you decide randomly, well y'all are just going to share that. But it's a baseball bat. Well you get one end and he gets the other. You know when it comes to gifts, we often obsess about the impossible. We try to please the unpleasable. We look for perfect and perfect can't be found. Many people this time of year are already putting their list together, and they're thinking about what to give certain people. They're thinking about what to give the brand-name person in their family.
Do you have any brand-name people in your family? Brand-name people are very difficult people to please, because they say things that don't make sense. They say, "I'm very simple. I just want a white shirt". Well, that's cool. Hanes makes them and Walmart sells them. But then you go buy them a simple white shirt. And the first thing they do is they go, "Oh, it's not the right brand". That's the brand-name person. Now how many of you have brand-name people in your life? Then there's the experienced person. This is the do-it-yourself giver or the do-it-yourself receiver. They're the ones that they don't really care about the brand. They don't care about the gift. They just want to know how much time, and effort, and energy did you put into the gift. For example, if you get a gift card, that's an offense. But if you make this sixteenth chapel out of Popsicle sticks, well my goodness: this should be kept forever. There's other people in your life that you want to give gifts to. And sometimes you give your gift to the person that you cannot please.
How many of you have ever had you-cannot-be-pleased people with a gift? And the thing about cannot-be-pleased people is the way that they complain. That's what drives me nuts. It's not that they look at the gift, and they go, "I don't like it". They look in the gift box, and they go, "Oh, it's very nice. It's almost just like the one that I saw in the store the other day". And then they spend the next 20 minutes describing everything that they wanted that's not in that box. Now the fact that you're laughing lets me know that you at least know somebody who fits one of those descriptions. Can I get a witness? And the reality of all of these gifts is that the ones that we exchange between each other, while they may mean something for a moment, they're not significant in the outcome of our lives. But if I was going to speak to you today about a gift that you cannot forget, you cannot forget the gift that God gave to you, because it wasn't significant for a moment: it made an eternal difference in your life.
When the Bible says that God gave his only begotten son: that whosoever would believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life, I assure you that gift that was given to you, and to you, and to me, and to all those who are under the sound of my voice: when you receive it, it makes a difference in you eternally. You are not the same, because all things have passed away, and behold, you're a new creature in Christ Jesus. You now have been accepted into a family, adopted as a child of God, given the authority of his word and the power of his name, washed clean in his blood. That gift changes everything! Give the Lord a handclap of praise for what he gave through Jesus Christ!
You cannot forget that gift. But you also cannot forget what you are supposed to give. You and I have a purpose in this season, in this day, in our everyday life: and that is to give God glory. You say, "Well you don't know what I've been going through". Give God glory: he's greater than the circumstance. "You don't know how hard it is". Give God glory: he'll make the crooked way straight. "You don't know the burden I'm carrying". Give God glory: he'll carry it for you. "You don't know the needs that I have". Give God glory: he's a provider. "You don't understand what the doctor said". Give God glory: though you're diagnosed, he can cure you. "You don't know who's against me". Give God glory: for greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world!
You see, the angels that spoke to the shepherds, they were there all the time. The problem was the shepherds couldn't see them. There was one angel and then there was a multitude of angels. Did they just show up? Or where they there and the shepherds were just too distracted to recognize it? I believe that the shepherds were lost in their distractions. I believe that the shepherds were so overwhelmed by the situations of their day that they weren't aware of what God was doing. And the reason I believe that is because when you read what the Bible has to say about angels, angels don't get to go and do what they want. They have to go and do what they're told. They're God's messengers. And when you look in the Bible at what angels are doing whenever they're not on a mission with a message, the Bible says in Isaiah that he saw the Lord seated on the throne. And he saw the angels around the throne. And the angels were saying, "Holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is filled with his glory".
So when they're not working with a message that God sends them with, they're worshiping. Why? Because God deserves the glory. So here we read about one angel. He's sent with a message. And the message that he sent is a reminder to the shepherds. On the night when God's son is being born, when the greatest gift that has ever been given is being received, the whole world is too distracted to recognize that God is keeping his promise. I can see these shepherds standing out in a field, "You heard about this census thing that Caesar's doing: right? I hear it's a big government strategy. They're not asking us to register: they're going to register us. You can check it out on www.Caesar.Org". You think we're the first generation with conspiracy theories? I promise you, if we spent as much time witnessing to the lost as we spend talking about what we heard on the news, we could have this city won to Christ in a matter of weeks.
Down road, the Son of God is about to breathe his first breath. And God suddenly makes a decision that he needs these men to be aware of what's going on in the world, because as shepherds, they were going to go and they were going connect with a multitude of people that came to the City of Jerusalem. And he needed somebody to tell the world about Jesus Christ and his birth. And so he sends an angel. And the angel comes, and he says, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. There is born to you this day, in the city of David, a Savior". He's not just any Savior. "He's Christ the Lord".
And the moment that he said, "He's Christ the Lord," suddenly the perspectives of the shepherds went from looking at the things in this natural world to recognizing that there's something above the natural world we're living in that is a supernatural realm. And when they looked into that supernatural realm, they didn't see one angel: they saw one angel and a multitude of other angels. The point is this: the supernatural is greater than the natural. What you don't see is greater than what you do see. When you look in the Old Testament, the prophet Elisha, he's in the city of Dothan. The Syrian army has surrounded the city. His servant runs to him, and he says, "Master, what are we going to do"? And Elisha says, "Don't worry. Greater are those who are with us than those who are with them".
And his servant, with natural eyes, he says, "An entire army," uno (one), dos (two). Donde esta tres? (where is three?) and Elisha lays hands on his servant, and he prays a prayer. And he says, "O Father, open his eyes that he may see". And when he pulls his hand away, the servant looks past the Syrian army. And he sees, on the mountainsides all around the valley: that there are angels with swords and shields drawn. And suddenly he recognizes that the supernatural is greater than the natural: that those who are watching over him are greater than the enemies that he's facing. Suddenly he recognizes what the New Testament meant: "If God be for you, then who can be against you"?
You see, that night that the angels appeared to the shepherds, I believe that heaven was telling the people of earth, "I know you're going through a difficult time. I know you don't understand everything that's transpired. I know you're not aware of all of the things that have happened. But if you'll stop looking at the situations around you, and you'll lift your eyes towards heaven, and you'll give God the glory that he's worthy of, he'll give you the greatest gift that you've ever received. He'll give you a gift that will turn you from the slave into a son. He'll give you a gift that will turn you from lost into found. He'll give you a gift that'll take you from death unto life. If you'll give God glory, he'll turn your world around"!
The thing that I want you to understand is that you, as a natural person numbered amongst the righteous, he has given his angels charge over you. The supernatural is greater than the natural. The God that you serve already knows about your situation, and he sent help! And he promised he'd never leave you, nor would he forsake you. So don't get so distracted by everything that's going on around you, and recognize that you have the ability to go into supernatural places in the mighty name of Jesus, and pull the greater world down into your natural situation. God will not change the situation and the circumstance, but he'll send you anointed with his word, with his power, with his strength, with his might. And with his help, you can change the world! We refuse to give God glory, because we get distracted. That's what happened with the shepherds. Sometimes we refuse to give God glory, because we take on the mindset of defeat.
How many of you know somebody with a defeated mindset? Even when they get a blessing, they count it as a burden. You give them a brand-new car. They'd complain about washing it. These are the kinds of people that in spite of the food that they get to eat every day, in spite of the bed that they lay in, in spite of the roof that's over their head, in spite of the breath that they breathe and the clothes that they wear: they've got nothing to be thankful about. You have to understand that one of the things that keeps us from not only giving God glory, but experiencing God's glory is the heart with which we enter the house.
The point I'm making is, from one Sunday to the next, when you come into the house of God, if you don't come with the right heart, not only will you not give him glory, but you won't feel his glory. Consider the wise men. The Bible says they traveled from afar. In Bible history, when you look at the life of Daniel, he went from Jerusalem to Babylon, over 1500 miles. And there, in his lifetime, he established a school of the prophets. So he taught the Torah. He taught the law of Moses. He taught the prophets to individuals in Babylon, who wanted to know something about his Jewish roots. And individuals from Babylon saw a star, and they took off on a journey.
Now when you read Isaiah 60, here's what it says, it doesn't say, "We three kings of orient are". Isaiah 60:6 through 8, it says, "A multitude of camels shall come across your lands. And they shall bring gold, and they shall bring Frankincense. And they shall bring myrrh". "A multitude of camels". It says, "Camels" and "DRomedaries". Say that three times real fast. They brought so much treasure that king Herod turned his head and saw it with greed in his eyes. It wasn't three small boxes like we show you at the Christmas pageant. It was an entire Amazon caravan. Why? Because they recognized that God was doing something on the earth and they wanted to be a part of it. When the purpose behind your worship is for you to be a part of what God's doing, he'll change everything for you.
Notice what the Bible says about when the wise men came. It says, "They humbled themselves, and they knelt, and presented these gifts". They didn't come to the bedside of the Savior, and say, "O Jesus, you don't know what we've just been through". You see, when you make your worship about what you've been through, you can't receive what God wants to take you to. All you're doing is talking about everything that you've done for him, instead of giving him glory for what he's done for you. The wise men came with their caravan of all of these wonderful things.
And they didn't come to say, "Look what we brought you". They said, "In spite of what we have, we're not giving enough, because you're more than we can contain. In spite of what we've been through, it was worth every step of the way, because you're greater than we could ever ask, think, or imagine. In spite of everything that's going on in the world around us, the only thing that's important is that right now, right here, we are where we're supposed to be. We're bringing honor to the King of kings and to the Lord of lords, because this is the one that God promised when he said that he would send the seed of the woman. This is the one that he promised when he said that he would send a deliverer. This is the one that he promised when he said he would send a healer. This is the one he promised when he said he'd send a way maker. This is the one he promised when he said, 'whosoever called upon his name shall be saved'".
Child of God, when you come with a heart like that, not only will you give him glory, but you'll receive his glory! Give the Lord a handclap of praise! The question I have for you this morning is, what would happen at church if suddenly we went from making it about us to making it about him again? What would happen if we walked through the doors, and we weren't talking about what we went through last week: we were talking about what we were getting to come into? We were coming into his gates with thanksgiving. We were coming into his courts with praise. We wouldn't walk in here with a long list of stuff we'd like to whine about. We'd walk in here, and say:
Lord, you've been so faithful. God, you've been so good. Jesus, you are greater than I can contain. No matter what I've been through, you were right there beside me. Everything that I'm going for, you're going to help me gain. Everything that I need, you can provide. Every question I have, you're the answer to it. Every burden I bear, you're strong enough to carry it. Every sickness that is diagnosed, you are the cure and you are the conqueror. Even if I lay down in death, because I believe in you, I shall never die, but I shall live again.
Oh, church, he's worthy of your praise today! He's worthy of all glory! He's worthy of all the honor! I want you to give him the praise that he's worthy of! I want you to say:
Father, I thank you. I thank you that you've given me your son. I thank you that he is a mighty Savior. I thank you that he made a way where there seems to be no way. I thank you that his goodness and his mercy, they're following after me. I thank you that every need I have, he shall provide. I thank you that he is God in the highest: that there is none liken unto him: that he is the glory and he is the lifter of my head: that he is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. I thank you that when I'm in battle, he's my banner of victory. I thank you that in a day of trouble, he's a strong tower. I thank you that when I call upon him, mountains move, the crooked way is made straight, my enemies are defeated, and I am more than a conqueror through Christ!
Oh, church, if he's worthy of being praised, give him glory in this house today! There's one gift you cannot forget and that is to give him the praise that he is worthy of. You can forget all the rest. Your credit card company would probably be real glad if you did. But do not forget to give God glory. Here's how I want to close this service. I want everyone to stand to your feet. For just a moment, I want you to bow your head. And I want you to raise your hands and open your mouth, and thank God. Thank him for his goodness. Thank him for his grace. Thank him for his word. Thank him for his power. Thank him for everything that he has done, and all that he is doing, and everything that he has in store for your future. Don't be distracted by the circumstance that you're walking through. Don't be distracted by the season. And recognize that there is a God, who sits on a throne, who sees what you cannot see, who can do what you cannot do. He can make a way where there seems to be no way:
Heavenly Father, today we thank you. We honor you. We give you glory. Here on this earth, we join the angels in heaven and we say, "Holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is filled with your glory". When the sun shines, it's your glory. When the stars are out at night, it's your glory. When the wind blows, it's your glory. With the breath that we breathe, that's your glory. Every move that we make is your glory. Father, never let us take it for granted. Never let us quit believing in the God who has given us all things. And we ask that your glory would be demonstrated in our lives, so that in these times, you would use us to change the world. Now let your joy, and your peace, and your confidence rest upon us all, as we worship and magnify your name.