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Hello and welcome to the
Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,

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where we are proclaiming the
truth to the world.

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In this podcast series, we're
going to be looking into biblical

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words that have great
significance to our faith.

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The name of this series is
called the Word of the Week, where

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once a week we will dive
deeper into these words that we are

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familiar with in scripture.

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So come along with me.

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Let's study the Word of the week.

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Pastor Josh here.

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The word of the week is gift.

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Actually, we're going to say
that this is the word of the month.

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For the next few weeks, we're
going to be looking at the word gift

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and how we can see in
Scripture what it means to, number

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one, receive a gift of God,
but also to be able to understand

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how we can give good gifts as
God has given us gifts in our life.

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And so we can see the word
gift of throughout the Scriptures

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and the passage of scripture
that comes to mind when it comes

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to the gift is Ephesians,
chapter 2, verses 8 and 9.

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It says, for by grace are ye
saved through faith.

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So the Bible says that we are
given grace.

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And that word grace just means
given something that we don't deserve,

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the gift of grace.

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So it says, for by grace,
that's God's grace, are ye saved?

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So we're saved through the
gift of grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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And it says that it's through faith.

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And so the reason why we can
receive this gift is our faith.

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So we believe in the truth of
God's word when it comes to the gospel,

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the truth of Jesus Christ, and
when we believe, we receive that

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gift.

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So for by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves.

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Meaning we didn't earn this.

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Because you don't earn a gift.

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It says it is not of yourselves.

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It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast.

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So the Bible tells us here
that the most important gift that

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we can receive is the gift of
grace, the gift of salvation.

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And so certainly we could have
people come into our church and we

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could say, hey, everyone, as
you leave today, there's a gift waiting

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for you in the lobby.

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Now, that gift is offered to
all of the people in our service,

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but it would be those that
would go and receive that gift that

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would be the beneficiaries of
that gift in their life.

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And so it's the same thing
with the gift of grace.

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God is extending that gift of
grace to those that need it.

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But yet it's through our faith
that we are able to receive that

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gift.

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So the greatest gift of God is
given to us through the gospel message,

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the truth of the gospel.

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There's another passage of
Scripture that mentions that word

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gift.

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It's in Romans, chapter six.

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Romans, chapter six starts
with the whole passage of Scripture

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dealing with God's grace and
how we can understand that gift of

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grace.

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And then we get to the very
last verse.

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There it says, for the wages
of sin.

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So we see a gift is something
that we don't earn with our own works.

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A gift is given to us, even
though we might not even deserve

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that.

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That's grace.

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So he says, the wages.

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So what?

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What do we deserve?

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What's the payment that we
actually deserve?

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Well, for all of us, that sin,
which, you know, newsflash, that's

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all of us, right?

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The Bible says for all of sin,
they come short of the glory of God.

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So it says, for the wages of
sin is death.

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The payment for sin.

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The wages of sin is death,
separation from God, spiritual death.

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And we know that the Bible
says that in and of ourselves, we

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cannot earn salvation.

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We cannot earn the gift of grace.

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It says, but.

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And this is the second part of
this verse, but the gift of God is

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eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord.

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And so it's essentially
reiterating what's mentioned there

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in Ephesians chapter 2.

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We can't earn our salvation.

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We cannot pay for it.

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We cannot get that gift in our
own strength.

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All we can do is come to, as
it says here, through Jesus Christ,

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our Lord in faith.

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And what do we receive?

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Well, it's the gift of God.

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Eternal life, salvation.

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And so as we get into this
Christmas season, as we come into

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the month of December, we're
thinking about this phrase, gift

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of God.

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Now, the greatest gift of God
is the gift of salvation.

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But we also know that as
Christians, we are given gifts, spiritual

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gifts.

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And we are called to use those
spiritual gifts to encourage those

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that are in our fellowship at
the church, to edify, to build up

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other believers.

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We're called to use our
spiritual gifts to encourage Christians

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and to evangelize the lost, to
lead people to Christ.

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So we are not given the gift
to hoard to ourselves and to keep

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for our own pleasure, though
there is benefit, benefits to having

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the gift of God's grace in our
life, certainly eternal life and

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the blessings that come with that.

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But we are also called to turn
around and give that back to other

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people, though we can't offer
the gift itself, we can bring people

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to the truth of God and we can
explain to them what has been gifted

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to us.

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And so therefore, we can use
the gift of grace in our life as

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an opportunity to treat people
with the love of God, to serve people

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as God has served us.

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And we know that through these
passages of Scripture in the New

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Testament, that as the church,
we are called to serve others.

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We are called to love others.

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We are called to demonstrate
all those things that God has given

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to us, to other people around us.

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And so, really, I want you to
think about those two verses, Ephesians,

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chapter 2, verse 8.

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For by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves.

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It is a gift of God, your salvation.

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If you're a believer in Jesus
Christ and you have everlasting life,

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if you have put your faith in
him, you have the gift of grace.

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You have been gifted something
that cannot be bought you, you have

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been gifted something that
cannot be earned.

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You are a beneficiary of the
love of God.

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And so therefore, it's not
your good works, it's God's good

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work that you are trusting in
for salvation.

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So you have that gift if you
are a believer in Jesus Christ.

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And in contrast to that gift,
what do we earn?

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Well, Romans, chapter 6, verse 23.

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For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life

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through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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So I wanted to, as we get
started in this month of looking

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at that Word gift, I wanted us
to start thinking about the framework

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or the context in which we
have received this gift and how we

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share the truth of this gift
to other people.

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So God gives us in eternal
life, God gives us with salvation,

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but God gives us with a lot of
other things in our life.

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So God has come to give us
life and life more abundantly.

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Sometimes the perception is
that, well, you know, God saved me,

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but now my life is miserable
in him.

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And that's not the case.

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That's actually the opposite.

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The Bible says that after
we're saved, though it doesn't mean

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that we're going to live
perfect lives or lives that are completely

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smooth with no issues.

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But we are gifted things in
our life.

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James Chapter 1, verse 17
says, Every good gift, there's our

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Word again.

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Every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above and cometh

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down from the Father of
Lights, with whom is no variableness,

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neither shadow of turning.

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So the Bible tells us that
every good thing that we have in

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our life, starting with
salvation and following in every

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other area of our life,
anything that we can point to and

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say, that's a good gift,
that's a good thing in my life, that

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comes from God.

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And so that brings us back to
what we looked at last week.

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Thankfulness, right?

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If I look at my life in the
framework of my own works, I deserve

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what the wages of sin is, death.

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I deserve nothing.

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That's a hard thing to say in
our society today because our society

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teaches you deserve
everything, get what you can.

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And so biblically speaking,
what do we deserve in our own works,

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in our own character, in our
own flesh?

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This is hard to take in, but
biblically speaking, we deserve nothing.

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So when we receive the gift of
grace, when we receive these blessings

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from God, every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above.

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It's from God.

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So we give him thankfulness,
we give him praise, we give him service,

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we give him love.

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Why?

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Because he first loved us.

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And so to think about it from
that perspective is I don't deserve

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this.

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I have received this
wonderful, amazing gift and now I

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need to live that way.

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I need to live with that
expectation of the goodness of God.

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I need to live with that
attitude of gratitude.

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I need to live with the joy of
being a gift receiver.

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Yes, but also a gift giver.

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We even know in the New
Testament it says it's better to

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give than receive, right?

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So we have received a gift.

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Now what do we do with that gift?

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We don't keep it to ourselves.

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We tell other people about
that gift.

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And so that's what we're going
to be talking about here this month.

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For the next few weeks through
the month of December, we're going

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to look at the elements of
God's gift to us, God's gift through

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us, and how we can share the
love and the forgiveness of the Gospel

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to those around us here in
this season and really year round.

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So hope that you can join me
in this series here in the month

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of December.

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We've got this week and then
we have next week, the next week.

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And then Christmas will be our
last message here for the gift.

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So we actually have 1, 2, 3, 4
different gift word of the weeks

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that you can follow along with
us this month.

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And I hope that you can.

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I hope that this can be a
wonderful season of Thanksgiving,

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a wonderful season of
understanding the gift of God and

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just a time in which we can
really focus on the greatest gift.

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And we know that God loved us
so much that he gave his only begotten

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son.

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That's John 3:16.

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It's the gift is Jesus.

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The gift is his sacrifice for us.

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And so he did that out of his love.

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We give gifts to people
because we love them.

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We give things to people
because they mean something to us.

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And so God loved us so much
that he gave his only begotten Son.

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And those who believe in him
will not perish.

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But what will they have?

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They'll have everlasting life,
which ties right into what Romans

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chapter 6, verse 23 said.

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The gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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So come along with us as we
look at the greatest gift ever given.

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And that is the gospel, the
truth of Jesus Christ.

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Well, we look forward to
hearing from you.

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We look forward to coming back
to you next week with another Word

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of the Week looking at this
term gift.

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And I pray that God can
clearly demonstrate to you and you

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can receive that gift of grace
as a believer here today.

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So hope that you join us for
this month.

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God bless you.

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Have a wonderful week.

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We will talk to you soon.

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Hey, I really appreciate that
you listened to the Word of the Week

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podcast.

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If you have any questions
about the podcast or about our church,

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Middletown Baptist Church, you
can find more information about us

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on Facebook or YouTube.

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Or you can find the podcast on
NBCPodcast.org you can contact me

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directly at Josh massaro@middletownbaptistchurch.org.

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stay tuned for future Word of
the Week episodes where we dive deeper

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into words that impact our
life according to scripture.

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Thank you so much.

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God Bless.

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We'll talk to you soon.