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Dear God, the King James Bible preserved to all generations, and Father, we just pray to you, please just fill me with your Holy Spirit, dear God, and help every single person to get what they need from the message tonight, and use your word and power tonight, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now, the part of the chapter that I want to focus on is toward the end of the chapter when the Bible talks about God creating man, and he says in verse 26, and God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Jump down if you would to verse number 29, it says, And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb-bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree-yielding seed. To you it shall be for me. Now, I want to preach tonight on several things in the Bible, this is just where we're starting tonight, but I want to preach a sermon entitled, What Has God Given Us? Now there are so many things in the Bible that God has given us, and as I was preparing this sermon I just ended up with hundreds and hundreds of points, obviously I can't preach it all in one sermon, so we're just going to touch on some basic things, but God really has given us so much, and the Bible tells us in James chapter 1, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. So really, any good thing that we receive, every good thing that comes our way comes from God, but there are a lot of things in the Bible where God tells us that he specifically gave us these things, and I want to start right at the beginning here in Genesis chapter 1 where God spells out some of the things that he gave us. The first thing that he gave us tonight is he gave us dominion over the animal kingdom. He gave us, as you say, well us personally, yes, we are human beings tonight, we are men created in the image of God, and therefore we have received the same gifts here that he gave unto Adam as the first man. God has given us dominion over the animal kingdom. The next thing that he gave us in verse 29, it says, and God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree into which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for me. He's saying it will be food for you. He's saying I provided you with all these plants, all these trees, fruits, vegetables, in order to feed you, I've given those to you, they belong to you. He said I've given you the animal kingdom. The animals of this world are for you to subdue, the Bible says. Subdue means to put them under, like the word sub, or the prefix sub there of subdue. Turn to Genesis 9, he said that the fear and the dread of man would be upon every creature, upon every animal, and that we would subdue them, we would have dominion. What does dominion mean? Lordship. It comes from the Latin, the English word dominion comes from the Latin word dominus, which means to the Lord, dominate, is to Lord over. God basically gave us power over the animal kingdom, he gave us every plant, it belongs to us. Look at Genesis chapter 9, we'll go further with this, verse 1. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon the beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered, every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things. So this is pretty clear, isn't it? God gave us all animals, all of them, to be eaten, just as he gave us the green herb to be eaten today. Turn if you would to Lamentations chapter 5. While you're turning to Lamentations chapter 5, I'll give you Psalm 50. In Psalm 50 verse 10, God said that every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. You see, God is the one who created this earth. And the Bible says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and the creatures in this earth and the plants on this earth belong to God, and God has given them to us to use as we see fit. It says in Isaiah chapter 40 of the earth, he formed it to be inhabited. The earth was made as a dwelling place for man. Why do animals exist? For man's benefit. Why do plants exist? For man's benefit. And listen, we need to get this in our mind today, the philosophy of God's word, not the philosophy of this world that says that we're here to somehow serve plants. We're here to somehow, it sounds funny, but literally, they think that we are supposed to spend our time and energy and money and effort in order to serve animals and to serve plants. No. We're to use plants to serve us. We're to use animals to serve us. They are here for us. Now you say, whoa, we need to be good stewards and so on. Look, I'm not saying we should go out and destroy nature. I don't think we should go out and destroy plants and just destroy animals for no reason. I think that they've been given to us for meat. They've been given to us to be used, not just to be destroyed for no reason. What's the point? God does criticize those who waste. He didn't say make it against the law to waste, but he said, he that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. We shouldn't be wasteful people. But no, God did not put us as stewards over this earth. God is the one who feeds the goats on the hills. God is the one that makes the hinds to calf. He just gives us these animals. He gives us these things to use for our benefit. And so we need to understand that the animals and plants of this world are here for us and not vice versa. And we are the lords over the animal kingdom and over the plant kingdom. But today we have a religion of worshipping the environment, worshipping plants, worshipping animals and so forth. Look at Lamentations chapter 5. This is an illustration that, this is for you brother Dave, because you know, brother Dave was telling me this week or the week before he was talking about cutting down a Christmas tree. And how far did you drive to cut down that Christmas tree approximately brother Dave? Two and a half hours or something probably. It's pretty far. You know, he drove, he had to first of all pay for a license, he had to buy some kind of a permit. Now, in many cases you have to put your name into a lottery, okay, to be able to go cut down a Christmas tree. And if you are lucky enough to get picked, you can drive two hours away and pay money to go cut down your own tree out of the forest where there are millions of trees. Now you say, well, you know, so what? Look what the Bible says. This is interesting. This is talking about the children of Judah under the judgment of God and Lamentations. Look at verse 1. Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us, consider and behold our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows. And look at verse 4. I thought this was interesting. We've drunken our water for money. Our wood is sold unto us. Now isn't that interesting? God's talking about here somebody who would be in such an abusive situation where they have to pay for cutting down a tree themselves, okay, or having to pay to draw water out of a stream themselves. You see, the reason why this is looked at, and you know, this doesn't seem that weird to us, but it's because we live in a society where our wood is sold to us and where water is sold to us. But you see, in reality, the way that God designed things, and look, there's nothing wrong with paying somebody to go bring the wood to you or pay somebody to cut it down for you or pay somebody to draw the water and pump it to your house, but hold on a second. The philosophy of the Bible teaches that the things that are on the earth, the natural resources that are on this earth, they already just belong to us. You know what I mean? If you're able to just go into a forest, if it's just a forest of a million trees, it doesn't belong to anybody. There's no fence around it where it's somebody's private property that they own, and you can't just say, well, I own the whole state of Arizona, you know. It doesn't belong to anybody. It's the beast of the forest, it's the cattle on the hills, it's the trees in the field. Hey, they should just be there for man to eat. You see, in many days, and I don't have time to turn there because I have a lot of other points in my sermon. If I turn to Genesis 33, I want to get to the next point. But just while I'm on this point of how God has given to us the animals and the plants of this world for our benefit and for our usage, while I'm on this point, I want to say that, what was I going to say, drawing a blank here, give us animals, buying wood, buying a Christmas tree, don't you hate it when that happens. I'm going to tell you when you're standing up in front of a bunch of people and you hear what we're saying. Alright, next point. It'll come back to me. Alright, next point, Genesis 33, it says this, and he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, who are those with thee? And he said, the children with which God hath graciously given thy servant. Now we saw this concept a little bit in Genesis chapter 1 as well. But not only has God given us the world that we live in, he gave us a beautiful world to live in, right? He gave us all the beautiful trees and plants and animals for our benefit, a nice place for us to live in. He formed it to be inhabited. So he gave us the natural world to use for our benefit. But he also gave us our children. The Bible says that children are a blessing from God. The Bible says in Psalm 127, lo, children are an heritage from the Lord. And the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. The Bible says that children make you happy, right? You know, if you have children, it's a blessing from God. But we need to realize that God is the giver of children. God's the one who gave us a... Now let's get back to plants and animals for a minute. Think about how ridiculous it is. Okay? What if there was just a... Think about this. A pathway. Let's say this road right here. Did I create Southern Avenue here? Did I lay down that asphalt? No. What if I just went out there and just set up a booth and just started charging people to drive down Southern Avenue? You know, I didn't build it. I didn't make it. It doesn't belong to me. Wouldn't that be ridiculous? For me to just go out there and just set up a booth and just start saying, hey, it's going to cost you $2 to go down Southern Avenue. You know, and I'd be put in jail probably for doing something like that. But yet that's pretty much what our government today has done with nature. You know, they just look at our whole nation with billions of trees, literally, and just all the animals and just say, okay, pay us for that tree. You know, did they make it grow? Did they create that tree? Did they create these animals in the field? And did they charge you money to go kill an animal? Here's what I meant to say, and I love it when things come back to me finally. It used to be, I don't have time to turn there, but it used to be that in the old days, in the Bible, when people were poor and they didn't really have a lot of money and they were hungry, you know what they would do? They could at least go out and forage and basically hunt and get some animals and get some food in order to stay alive. The Bible talks about when you reap your field, you should leave a little bit of fruits and vegetables. You shouldn't really reap it 100%. He said, don't go back over it a second time. He said, leave a little bit of it out there so that the poor and the fatherless and the widow can come by and pick the fruit off the trees. He can get the apples off the trees. He said, go over it with a stick. He said, don't go over it a second time. You got plenty. You got all you need. Leave a little bit there as charity for people to go, because it used to be that you could just go out in the field and eat. Did you know this, biblically, that even on private property, even on somebody's field, get this, this is the Bible's law, this is God's rules. He said, in the land of the children of Israel, that even if the field belongs to someone else, did you know that you are allowed to go walk onto someone else's field and just pick the fruit and eat it right there? Let's say you're just walking by and you see an apple orchard or you see somebody who's growing corn. You're allowed to just walk up and pluck the corn and just start eating. Did you know that? That was part of God's way of taking care of the poor, the fatherless, the orphan, the widow. Here's the thing. You say, well, Pastor Anderson, that's not fair, because you grew that and everybody's going to come take it. He did have a rule. He said, you can't bring a vessel. It's the only way you can carry with your bare hands. Now, I've been to some berry farms. Who's ever been to these U-pick berry farms or apple orchards where you go and pick yourself? Have you ever been to those? Well, we go to these all the time where we go strawberry picking, berry picking, and so forth. And when we would go there, you'd buy the berries at the end or the apples and they'd weigh it out to you and then you'd pay for it and buy it. You picked it yourself so it was cheaper. But they had a policy at most of the ones we went to where you could eat as much as you want. They weren't going to muzzle the ox that traded out the corn. So we'd be out there picking and you'd just be eating as much as you want. And you didn't have to pay for it. You only had to pay for what you put in a vessel, you know, what you took home. And that was actually God's rule. That's actually where that came from. And so it used to be that if you were poor, you could go take a fishing pole, you know, and go fishing somewhere, you know, and get some fish and bring it home and eat it and basically survive. Or you could go out and find a fruit tree and eat some fruit and stay alive. But today that's been stripped of, God gave it to us, but man has taken it from us. And man has taken away our right to hunt, to fish, to pluck, you know, it didn't go extinct back then. You know, they did this for several hundred years and, you know, for thousands of years life has gone on and, you know, there's still plenty of plants and animals around. Everybody just thinks, well, if we had that rule everybody would just come and just eat everything in my field. That's not true. Because if you followed God's laws, the law of the law is perfect. And so that's what I'm saying. It's just kind of silly today how people have taken away from us what God has given us. The right to just go hunt and fish and to pluck the corn and fruit and vegetables that we find in order to just sustain our life and to eat. Okay. But let's get on this other point. Our children were given to us, he said in verse 5 of Genesis 33, the children which God has graciously given thy servant. It said in Psalm 127, children are in heritage of the Lord. It said in Hebrews 2 13, and again I will put my trust in him and again behold I and the children which God hath given me. God gave us our children and we ought to thank God for our children. They're a blessing from God. We shouldn't look at them as a burden and we should realize that God is the one who opens the womb and closes the womb. Now maybe God has not given you children or maybe he's given you one child or two children or maybe he'll give you lots of children. But that's not the point. Whatever God has given you, you should be thankful for it and you should thank God for your children. They came from God. They're a gift from God. They're given unto us. But not only that, let's get into more of a spiritual mode. Let's get out of Genesis. Let's go to 1 John chapter 5. So we saw in Genesis that God gave us the world we live in. He gave us the fruits and the vegetables and the plants and the animals and all the nature and all the things for us to enjoy. The Bible says in 1 Timothy, you don't have to turn there, he said that God richly giveth us all things to enjoy. So God really is good to us. He really gives us a lot of good things. He gave us our children. The Bible says a prudent wife is from the Lord. So if you're married, he gave you the wife that you have. He gave you the husband that you have. But look at 1 John chapter 5. Look what else God has given us. It says in verse 10, he that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God has made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. So he says there's two kinds of people in this world. There's those who believe on the son of God and there are those who are making God a liar because they do not believe the record that God gave his son. And look what that record is. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his son. So God has given us not only the physical world we live in, all the blessings associated with that, our wives, our husbands, our children, our food, the animals, the streams, the rocks, the trees, everything for our benefit because he loves us. He gave us all these things. But not only that but we as believers have been given eternal life. Now there are two kinds of people in this world. Those who believe that and those who don't. The Bible says that there are those who believe the record and those who make God a liar. There's nothing in between and the record is that God has given us eternal life. Now we talked about how the government wants to take stuff away from us that God already gave us. They want to take it away and charge us for it. But hold on a second. There are a lot of churches and religions and preachers out there who want to take this away from you. And they want to say that God did not give us eternal life. And they're basically preaching that you can lose your salvation. That it was a temporary life that he gave us. But the Bible says that God has given to us eternal life. Notice this past tense. It's not something that we're going to get in the future. He said that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. Look, you can't lose your salvation and those who believe that it's not eternal, they're basically making God a liar. And the Bible says in Titus 1-2, In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. Is God going to break that promise? Absolutely not. There's nothing we can do that would make God break his promise. Because the Bible says also in 1 John 2-24, And this is the promise that he has promised us. Even eternal life. So one of the things that God has given us is eternal life. He gave us the gift of an eternal salvation. He said I'll never leave thee nor for safety. He said in John 10-28, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. He said it's been given unto you. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. The Bible says verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me half, present tense, half everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation unless, no he didn't say unless, he said shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life. It's a done deal. Salvation is done and it's eternal life. That's why I strongly believe that people who believe that you can lose your salvation aren't saved. Let me tell you a couple reasons why. Number one, they're not fully trusting Christ as their savior. They're not believing on Christ. Because what they're saying is I have to do my part. What they're saying is Jesus did his part, but if I don't live the life, if I get out of church, if I commit sin, he's going to take it from me. They don't believe that God has given to us eternal life. And the Bible says that God has given to us past as eternal life and this life is in his son. They're not trusting Christ and they're making God a liar because they're not believing the record that God gave of his son, that God gave us eternal life and this life is in his son. What else did he give us? Just go back one chapter. You're in 1 John 5. Go back to 1 John 4, verse 13, just one chapter backward. 1 John 4, 13, all the things that God has given us, he gave us eternal life, but look in verse 13 of chapter 4. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit. He's given us the Holy Spirit. And then it's interesting in the next verse, it says, And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. So right there in two verses, you have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Go back to 1 John 3, verse 24, it says almost the same thing. 1 John 3, 24, and he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him, and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us. You don't have to turn there, but 1 Thessalonians 4, 8 says, He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. Many verses in the Bible tell us this. God gave us the Holy Spirit. John 14 through 16 explains this in more detail. You don't have to turn there. But he talks about how when he goes unto the Father, he said he'll send the Comforter. He said he is with you, but he shall be in you. And he promised to send the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to be a Comforter. Comfort means to give strength. It comes from the word fort, that's the root word. And so he said he'll send the Comforter to strengthen you. He said he'll send the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, to guide you into all truth. The Bible says the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we're the children of God. If we are saved, the Bible teaches that we have been given the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. The Bible says know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you. He said if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. So if you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. And that's a gift from God. Jesus even said this, and this is an amazing statement. He said it is expedient for you that I should go away. And the disciples were perplexed by that because here they are. They've got Jesus walking and talking with them. He's teaching them from his own mouth. He's preaching to them. They're watching him live. They're watching the miracles. But he said no. He said it's actually expedient for you that I should go away. Because he said if I go not away, the Comforter shall not come. He said the Comforter coming and dwelling inside of you is actually more important. He said that's more expedient for you. That's why Peter talked about how when he stood on the Mount of Transfiguration, he saw the Lord Jesus Christ and heard a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son, hear ye him. But he said we have a more sure word of prophecy. God's word with the Holy Spirit inside of us to interpret for us is actually more expedient. We have more knowledge than Peter, James, and John did at that time before Jesus Christ died on the cross. And so we ought to thank God for the fact that he's given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He's given us eternal life. He's given us the Holy Spirit. But not only that, go to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter number 1. You're in 1 John. Just go back a few pages. 2 Peter chapter 1. But while you're turning there, I'll read for you 2 Timothy 3.15. It says, from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Did you get that? Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And how do you learn about it? He said through the Holy Scriptures. And then he said all Scripture is given, is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Look at 2 Peter 1.3. It says, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. So not only did he give us eternal life, not only did he give us salvation, not only did he give us the Holy Spirit living inside of us, not only did he give us the Bible, he gave us all Scripture through inspiration of God, but he also gave us exceeding great and precious promises. Now, it's amazing that God has given us these promises. Now a lot of people that you meet, they don't want to necessarily stick their neck out sometimes. You know, they don't want to commit to things. You say, you know, are you going to be there? Well, I can't make any promises. I'll try to be there. People today sometimes don't want to make promises, and I don't always want to make promises, because you never want to make a promise that you're not going to be able to keep. But we've all made promises in our life. Every time we buy something with our credit card, you never read that receipt that you're signing. We signed so many millions of those. I remember I signed those things for about ten years before I read it. You sign receipts, sign receipts, and then one day I was like, what am I signing? And I picked up and said, I promise to pay this amount according to the cardholder agreement. So, you know, basically you're making a promise there. When you run that card, you know, I will eventually pay this bill. Someday, you know, I'll pay this off, or I'll die trying, you know. But anyway, you know, you sign that thing. See, you know, when you got married, you made a promise, right? You're promising to be with that person until death do you part. That's a pretty big promise. When you buy something, you sign a paper that you're going to pay for it. That's a promise that you're making. And you never want to make a promise that you can't keep, because God has no pleasure and fools, the Bible says. Pay what you vow. Pay what you promise to pay. The Bible says, the wicked borrow it, then payeth not again. And so we should make good on our promises and the things that we commit to. Well, God has given us multitudes of promises. All throughout the Bible, he's made all these promises to us. And the great thing is, we know that God can't lie. And the Bible says, in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began, we know he's not going to break that promise. And God's not going to break any of his promises that he's made to us in the Bible. And where do we begin with all the great promises that he's given us? And it's just great because we have the Bible and we can hold God to this. I mean, here it is, laid out. I mean, I know I'm going to heaven because the Bible says, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. God has promised me that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. God promised me he that believeth on the Son has everlasting life. But God has promised us a lot of other promises that we have just in our lives. He promised us in James 1 that if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and are braided not. God promises to give us wisdom if we just ask. God promises to answer our prayers according to his will if we ask. He said we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask and we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. He's promised to answer our prayers. He's promised to save all who believe. He's promised us that if we train up a child in the way he should go, when he's old, he'll not depart from it. He's promised us and promised us all these things. We need to take these promises and rely on them and bring these to God. And a lot of times when I'm praying, I bring these promises to God and say, God, here's what you've said. Here's what you've said, God. Here's what you promised. God, do this for me. And God will do it. He promises to hear us when we ask, when we pray to him. Here's a great promise for Faithful Word Baptist Church. We're coming up on our five year anniversary. And Jesus Christ said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. God has promised to build the church. It's not our job to build the church. It's our job to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. But he said, thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. You see, the devil cannot destroy this church. It cannot be destroyed by Satan. Did you hear me? It can't. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The only way that this church would ever be destroyed is if it's our fault. If it's from the inside. The devil can attack and assault and the Bible even says, behold, some of you shall be cast into prison that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation ten days, be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of light. Persecutions can come. People in the early church were thrown in jail. They were attacked. They were persecuted. But the more they were persecuted, the more they multiplied. Because the gates of hell could not prevail against the church. That's a promise that we have from God. That if we will stand in the strength of the Lord and in the power of His might, if we'll put on the whole armor of God, we cannot be defeated. We can't be stopped. You know the devil would love to stop Faithful Word Baptist Church as we go out and knock all these doors and win souls to Christ and preach the gospel to so many multitudes of people. He'd love to stop us, but he can't. He's unable to stop us because we have a promise of God that He said, I will build that church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I believe that. Because that's something that God has promised. There's so many promises. We could go on and on. The things that God has given us. He said He's given us all things. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And if you think about it, do we really deserve all these things that have been given unto us? I mean all the sins that we've done in our life and yet God has given to us eternal life. All the sins we've committed in our life and yet God gives us all these promises. He doesn't owe us anything, but yet He promises us all these blessings. He promises us a reward. He promises that whatsoever good thing we do in this life, the same shall we receive of the Lord, whether we be bond or free. He's promised us that if we serve Him, we'll receive a reward. He's promised us that if we sow in righteousness, He said, let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. He's promised us, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. He's promised us a home in heaven. He said, in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I'd go to prepare a place for you. Why do we deserve it? No, it's by His grace. He's just giving it to us. It's a gift. Now, it's almost Christmas time and you're probably excited about getting gifts and it's always fun to get gifts, but God has given us more gifts than anyone. Have you ever had one relative that just lavish you with a ton of gifts? You get there and there's just tons of gifts from somebody, maybe a wealthy relative and you're like, no. Hopefully you've received a lot of gifts, somebody who's been very generous with you, but think about what God's given us. It couldn't even fill up a whole sermon. It would fill up a year of sermons just to list all the things that He's given us, all the blessings, all the promises, all the gifts that He gives us in our life. The Bible says He gives us the power to get wealth. I mean, if we go out on our job and make money, it's only because God gave us the ability to do that. He gave us the mind, He gave us the strength, He gave us the dexterity of our hands to be able to work and bring in profit and so forth. But the Bible says in verse number 11 of 1 Corinthians 2, are you in 1 Corinthians 2? Look at verse 11. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. Talking again about how God has given us the Holy Spirit. That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. So God has freely given to us the things of God. Look, it says that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So He's given us things that have not been given to the unsaved. The unsaved have no understanding of the scripture. They do not have the Holy Spirit living inside. They have not received the adoption of sons, as it says in Romans 8, whereby we cry Abba Father. We've been adopted. We've been given understanding. The Bible says, just a few chapters later, we have the mind of Christ. God has given us understanding of all things. He's given us the spirit of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. He's given us the Bible. He's given us the ability to understand it. He's given us the promises of God. He's given us the Holy Spirit living inside of us. He's given us eternal life, eternal salvation. He's given us our lives. He gave us life. He gave us liberty. He gave us breath and being. He gave us free will. He gave us everything. But look if you would at Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. I mean the list goes on and on what God has given to us. And yet often we focus on what we don't have. You know, we focus on what we lack. When we've been given so many things, we should just be thankful and grateful no matter what situation life puts us in. Because the good thing about these things that come from God, they can't ever be taken away from us. You know, they've been given unto us these spiritual blessings. No man can take away our joy from us, Jesus said. No man can take away our joy from us, Jesus said. Nobody can take away the Holy Spirit or the Word of God or the promises that we have, the spiritual blessings that He's given us. Look what else He gave us. It says in verse number 11, And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. He gave us church. You see that? He gave us the body of Christ. He gave us the local congregation of believers where we could come and be assembled together and where we could have pastors and teachers and preachers preach unto us, build us up where we could be edified and encouraged. The Bible says as iron sharpened at the iron, so that the man sharpened the countenance of his friend. Hey, it's a blessing to have church. There are many people today who wish they had a good church to go to and maybe they're living in an area where they can't find any good church in their area. Or think about a lot of the people that were living in the Old Testament. They didn't really have church available to them the way that we have it available to us. And it's a blessing. We ought to be thankful for the church that God has given us. God's given us a great church here. He's given us a whole group of people, men, women, old, young, that all love God, that are excited about serving God, that are unified. I think our church has more unity than any church I've ever seen, that are all fired up about winning souls to Christ, that want to serve God, that love the Bible, that love preaching. That's a blessing that's been given to us by God. He gave us a preacher to preach the truth. He gave us other people to assemble with. He gave us the house of God. It's a huge blessing to have. But look what else He gave us. Go back to chapter 3. Because He gave us everything, right? But you know what He also gave us? Work to do. He gave us a mission. He gave us work. He gave us something to do. Now wouldn't it be terrible if we just took all the things that God gave us? And really if you look at what He gave us, a lot of it is tools. You know, the Bible is a tool. The Holy Spirit inside of us, He gave us all these promises to use them. He gave us all the natural resources that we talked about. He gave us our life and our being and our breath. Wouldn't it be terrible if we just took everything that He gave and just took and took? And how many hundreds of things did we just list that He gave us? And then He says, okay, I've given you one more thing. I've given you some work to do. Oh, no, I don't want to do that. I mean, is that really how we are as Christians? We just want to take and take and take. Oh, God gave me salvation? Great! Oh, God gave me food to eat and clothes to wear and a nice family and all these spiritual blessings and salvation at home and heaven. But, no, I don't want to do the work that God gave me to do. The Bible says in Ephesians 2, go back to Ephesians 2, we'll go to Ephesians 3 in a second. Go to Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, famous passage. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. See how it's been given to us? He said, the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in Him. He's got some work for us to do. Look at chapter 3. Let's see what that work is. It says in Ephesians 3, verse 7, Whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God, given unto me by the effectual working of His power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given. What grace is given? What did we receive? What grace? He says, is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ? That is a gift that God has given us. He's given us the privilege to preach the Gospel. And I'm not just talking about behind a pulpit. I'm not just talking about coming to church and being a pastor. You know, only certain people are going to be a pastor or a deacon. That's only something that certain people are going to do. You know, there's qualifications for that. Not everyone has been given the ability to do that. But God has given all of us the gift. He's given all of us the grace and the gift to go out and preach the Gospel to every creature. You say, well, I'm not women. No, He gave it to male and female. In Acts chapter 2, He said, I'll pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. He said, your young men, He said, upon the servants and upon the handmaids, I'll pour out of My Spirit and they shall prophesy. You see, we believe that women should keep silence in the church. The Bible says it's not permitted to them to speak. The Bible says, I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you serve authority over the man, but to be in silence, for Adam was first formed, then eat. But when it comes to witnessing, when it comes to preaching the Gospel, when it comes to going out and giving the Gospel to people, you know, ladies can be used just as greatly as men. And they were used greatly in the book of Acts, as we saw in Acts chapter 2 a few weeks ago. They were used greatly throughout the New Testament to win people to Christ, to preach the Gospel. That's something that God has given us to do. Let's not just take everything and not do the work that He gave us to do. And really, we ought to look at it as a gift because Paul said, hey, I'm the least of the saints. He said, I don't even feel worthy of this wonderful job that he's given me, this wonderful privilege to go out and preach Jesus Christ among the Gentiles. Look at 1 Corinthians. Keep your finger into Ephesians 4. We're going to come right back there. Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter number 9. 1 Corinthians chapter number 9. He says in 1 Corinthians 9, verse number 16, He said, for though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. He said, woe unto me if I don't do it. I mean, God has called me to preach the Gospel. He said, necessity is laid upon me. Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me, what is my reward then? Verily, that when I preach the Gospel, I may make the Gospel of Christ without charge. He's saying, make it free. You know, not charging for it. He says that I abuse not my power in the Gospel. So we've been given the charge, we've been given the commission to go out and preach the Gospel to every creature. We've been given that job. Look if you would at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians 5. Just a few pages to the right in your Bible. 2 Corinthians chapter number 5. The Bible reads in verse 18, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. So this is something that God has given to us a job to do. The ministry of reconciling people unto Christ. The ministry of reconciliation. Verse 19, To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. He's given that to us. He's given us that ministry. It says in verse number 20, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. That's what we're doing when we're out soloing. We're asking people in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now this is a great job that we've been given. Now, work is not a bad thing. Sometimes people look at work as a necessary evil. Well, you know, I just have to go to work Monday through Friday just to pay the bills. And literally, if they had enough money, they wouldn't even go to work. They think that the ultimate lifestyle is to do nothing. To not work. To forego working. But hold on a second. Is that really a satisfying lifestyle? I don't think so. We as men today, especially, we ought to love to go to work. You know, we as men should not look at work. Every day when you ask somebody, you know, how you doing? Well, it's Monday. You know, or like, how you doing? Well, it's Friday. You know, it's almost over. Like it's just torture to go to work. You know, we ought to work heartily and work as unto the Lord. And, you know, working is good. Sometimes I've had time off sometimes and it's great for a little while, but don't you just want to get back to work? Come on, don't you want to get back to work? Because so many people today, they're lazy. That's what it is. You know, they're lazy. They don't want to work. And they just want to sit around and do nothing. And so we've got an idea that work is somehow bad. Well, you know, I guess I'll go to work because I have to. But really, we ought to enjoy work. We ought to love work. It's all about work. All throughout eternity, you're going to work. Did you know that? We're going to be serving God throughout eternity, the Bible says. We will serve Him. He's given us work to do. And thank God for it. Because people who have no work to do, they're not happy. You've seen it so many times with elderly people. They get to a point where they don't have any work to do. They retire and they begin to just go downhill sometimes. The people that I've known who were elderly, who stayed the youngest, were the ones who stayed busy. You know, even if they were retired from their job, they found other work to do. They found other things to do to stay busy. You know, God has given us a great job. Now, are some jobs better than others? Absolutely. I mean, you look at some people's jobs and maybe it's a really dirty job or maybe it's just a job that's really boring or repetitive or it's really hard physical labor. And we might look at that job as a drudgery. But how would you like to be an ambassador? That's a pretty cool job, right? I mean, what if you, you know, I don't know where you work, or some of you I do know where you work, but what if God offered you? Think about your job that you have. What if all of a sudden, not God, I'm sorry. Let's say the government of the United States came to you and said, you know what, we'd like you to be an ambassador. You know, and that sounds pretty important, right? We're going to send you to a foreign country and you're going to represent the United States. You're going to be, you know, we're going to put you up in all the nicest hotels and everything, and we're going to send you over there and take care of you. And you're going to be meeting with, you know, the important people, the top people in these governments around the world. You know, we're going to send you to Europe. We're going to send you to Asia. And you're going to meet with these really important people and you're going to represent us over there. You're going to be an ambassador. You'd think that was a pretty good job, right? Sounds like a pretty high-paying job too. I mean, I'm sure, I don't know how much an ambassador gets paid, but probably a hundred grand at least. I mean, probably, how much do you think, brother Dave? You're making faces at me. Probably like 200 grand. Yeah, 100 grand would be probably nothing for an ambassador, you know? Forgot about inflation. 100 grand used to be a really lot of money, but it's not really anymore as it used to be, you know? You know, a couple hundred, I mean, a couple hundred grand, right? To be an ambassador? You'd say, wow, that's an important job. Now, if you have somebody ask you what you do for a living, you know, what would you rather say? Would you rather say, I'm an ambassador? You know, would you rather say, like, you know, or your job? You know, fill in the blank. Like me, I'm an electrician, you know. Oh, I'm an electrician. You know, hey, I'm proud to be an electrician. That's great. But the point is, an ambassador sounds like a really important job. You know, God has given us that job. God has given us a more important job than representing the United States. We represent the Kingdom of God. We represent God's Kingdom. And we're important people today. In fact, God told Jeremiah, when he called him to preach, he said, I've set thee this day above kings. He said, I've set you above princes. He said, you have a more important job today. And let me tell you something. Man, woman, boy, and girl, who's under the sound of my voice, when you go out and knock that door, or when you're on the job, or when you're talking to a friend, and you open your Bible and preach the Word of God, and open your Bible to Romans 3.23, and begin to show someone how to be saved, I mean, you are ambassador of Christ, the Bible says. That's an important job. That's a privilege. I mean, isn't it great that God has given to us that responsibility and that privilege? How do we treat it, though? I mean, if you got that job from the United States, you wouldn't show up five minutes late. You know, you wouldn't come. I mean, are you going to come in a sweat suit on the first day? You know, OK, I'm here to be an ambassador. You going to come in your pajamas? No. Man, you're going to come. You're going to be excited about it. You're going to get up early. You're going to be ready to go. You're going to be on the ball. You're going to be alert. You're going to be excited about it. You're going to be talking about it. It's going to be a big thing to you. And that's the way this should be to us. God has given us the most important job in the world to be ambassadors of Christ, to be witnesses of Jesus Christ, to preach the gospel, to serve Him. This is the most important calling that anyone can have. Thank God. Not only did He give us all these resources and all the spiritual blessings and physical blessings, but He gave us some good work to do. You say, why is that? Because our life has a purpose. And today, those who are not Christians, their life is meaningless today. And I'm not ashamed to say that. It's the truth. Those in this world who are not Christians have a meaningless life. And it sounds like a harsh statement, but it's true. What can they accomplish in life? What does a man profit in if he'll gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? What good is it if you go out and spend your whole life eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, you know, what is it profited when you die and go to hell? Nothing. And what do they even have to do in this life? What is it, just living for the, just, oh, just another weekend, I can go out and have fun and party and eat, drink, and be married because tomorrow you die. That's a meaningless life. It's Christianity. It's the Spirit of God. And it's these works that He's given us to do that give our life meaning and value. And the reason that we as Christians have a life that has value is not just because God's given us all these blessings but because God's given us a meaningful work to do with our life. He's given us a church that we can be a part of and help it grow and help it edify itself in love, as the Bible says, and to go out and reach the world with the Gospel and to reap a spiritual harvest that will last forever. I mean, the things that we do for God will last forever. You say, wait a minute, Pastor. There are all kinds of people in this world who are not Christians who did something meaningful with their life and, you know, maybe they led a nation to freedom, but does that nation even exist anymore? You know, people out there that have, you know, fought for freedom, and that's great to fight for freedom, but you know what? Freedom doesn't last in this world. There have been so many kingdoms in this world. Great nations have risen and fallen. Great governments have risen and fallen. Freedom movements have risen and fallen. Great people have lived and their memory is forgotten after them, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. I thank God that I have a purpose in my life. He's given me a purpose, given me meaning to my life where I know that I'm doing something with my life of eternal value and so are you if you're a Christian. So are you if you're serving God. But this world has a meaningless existence because they haven't been given any meaningful work to do with their life. And so we need to understand that God has given us all these wonderful things. You know, I could go on and on all night. I'm not going to. But the point is that God has given us so much. There's so much to be thankful for. Everything that we have is given to us by God. We shouldn't glory in it as if it's some greatness in ourself. You know, hey, we were privileged to be born in the place where we live, where we live in prosperity. We were privileged to be born with the talents and abilities that He's given us. Once we believed on Christ, He gave us all these spiritual blessings. He's given us a great job to do. He's given us work to do. Hey, thank God for it. But don't be someone who just takes and takes and takes and won't give back. You know, if God has given us so much, can we at least give back and do the work that He gave us to do? Can we at least show up for work on that job of being an ambassador? Can we at least show up and clock in and do what we're supposed to do for God? I mean, is there any good thing that He's withheld from us? I mean, is there anything that we need that He hasn't given us? He's given us everything. And He says to us, His children, Son, go work today in my vineyard. And we don't want to be like that son that said, I will not. I don't want to. Son, daughter, go work today in my vineyard. I don't want to. After you've been given everything, can you imagine my children, who I feed and clothe and work and pay the bills? You know, they don't pay the bills. They don't contribute anything toward the bills. They don't contribute anything toward paying the food or the rent. It's just for granted to them. And they just wake up in a warm bed and the heater's on and food's on the table and the cupboards are full. You know, they just wake up and it's just, sure, yeah, it's been given to me. And can you imagine if I said to my son, Son, go in the backyard and mow the lawn. Son, go pick up the dog droppings. Son, go pull the weeds. And he said, I don't want to. I just want to play. Wouldn't that be ridiculous after I've given him everything? Now, I didn't give him food because he worked. We don't have a, if you don't work, you won't eat policy in my house, because that's for adults, okay? But anyway, you know, children, we feed them no matter what. But wouldn't it be an ungrateful child? Wouldn't it be a naughty child that would say, No, Dad, I don't want to work. You know, I want to play a video game. I want to, you know, just sit around and play games and play sports all day. I don't want to work. I don't want to do that work. You know, it'd be a spanking right there. You know, he's going to get spanked. Yes, I spanked my children, as the Bible says. And so we don't want to be that way spiritually. Let's not just take all the blessings from God and refuse to do the work that he's given us. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for all the wonderful things that you've given us. There's so many things that you've given us. We wouldn't even have time to say thank you for the, as you said, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. Just the gift of salvation alone is such a marvelous gift. But all the other things we've been given to God, physically, spiritually, just meaning and purpose to our life, works to do.