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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you I don't have any updates still from anyone on the list other than I heard on Wednesday night that Mrs. Momtahan well I got the update from Wednesday that Mrs. Momtahan is released from the hospital but I haven't heard anything other than that I believe that was from you uh message my wife but uh do you know anything more about that by chance or no like do you know if there's if everything just went well and she's home and good? okay all right no other nothing else was said so no news is usually good news right so if there's if there's an issue usually people will say something if not then we'll assume everything went well so that's good to hear um just pray for her recovery of course and there'll be no infection and things like that and then continue to pray of course for everyone else does anyone else have any updates on the people who are on the prayer list? all right well down at the bottom of the page there we you know we pray for our like-minded churches that are that are friends of ours and this week we're gonna be praying for Mountain Baptist Church Fairmount West Virginia Pastor Jason Robinson let's pray everything goes well with our ministry with the church with his family and uh pray that God will bless them on the next page of course we've got our five year anniversary coming up in two weeks so it's gonna be here before you know we're gonna have a lot of fun that Saturday we'll do some soul winning for a few hours in the morning and then on Sunday Pastor Mahiel will be here to preach for us and we'll have a lot of fun games, snacks, activities, things like that going on all day so that will be a lot of fun and then the June challenge we're in the midst of the month of June and the challenge is to give the gospel attempt to give the gospel to at least one person every single day of the month so um you know it was asked of me this morning whether or not well what if the person that you approach and talk to has already saved you know that still counts it's an attempt you're you're going up to people you don't know whether it's saved unsaved whether they want to listen or not whatever the whole point is just to get it on your mind that you need to preach the gospel so if they're already saved that still counts as an attempt to give somebody the gospel and look cause like I said normally when you're on across people who are saved they usually don't just brush you off and don't want to talk to you at all they usually talk a little bit they tend to be friendlier and um you still like to just really confirm that that person is saved you know bring up some verses and some scripture and make sure they really understand it and then and then move on so um anyhow yes that's that is continuing so hopefully you are joining us in this challenge if you've missed any of the days you won't earn a prize but you know what you will earn rewards in heaven which is way more important than any water balloons or whatever prizes we happen to have at the time for the challenge right it's not that's that's uh kind of a really a really minor thing so just remember especially with this challenge of all the challenges you know leading people to Christ we get to lead more people to Christ you definitely are getting rewarded for doing that by the Lord so um join us in this challenge like I said even if you've missed a day or two or whatever or even if you haven't started for the whole month try to finish off the month and and accept this challenge and say you know what I'm gonna try to do this and and uh you know it's easy to miss a day if if you're not thinking about it but that's the whole point so you know don't just throw up your hands and be like well forget it try to get your mind focused on giving the gospel it's the whole point of the challenge so hopefully we get a lot of people involved in this uh we've got the Bible memory passage there we're on Hebrews chapter 8 week number two uh for Hebrews chapter 8 and then uh I know I didn't get a chance to get any more prizes yet for the other chapters so if you finished Hebrews 7 basically if you finished anything if you did the baptism challenge where you've encouraged somebody to get baptized I know we had some children that got baptized in our church um you know parents or whoever anyone that was instrumental and and you know helping that person to decide if they wanted to get baptized or not uh you know that counts as as you know completing that challenge and and you'll you could get a prize for that if you'd like um anyone who's who's owed a prize I've got a few left on my table in my office and you're welcome to help yourself to one of those prizes and if you don't want anything there don't worry I am planning on getting more so there's only a few things left there's a squirt gun, water balloons, goggles kind of summer themed things mostly for kids and then I think there's still some chocolate there uh but I will be getting some other prizes in for the past to Bible memories of the latter portion of Hebrews chapter 7, the entire chapter of Hebrews chapter 7 and the baptism challenge so uh if you if you completed any of those things uh don't worry I'll be getting some more prizes soon we've got the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries for the rest of the month of June listed there and then the upcoming events so the men's preaching class is this Saturday coming up 10 a.m. right here hopefully you can make it out for that if you're a man and you have any desire to learn how to preach and or have an opportunity to preach too so plan if you're attending if you want to try to preach a sermon if you want to get up and have a shot at that plan on approximately 10 to 15 minutes worth of content you could always do less than that but the max is going to be somewhere in the 10 to 15 minute range depending on how many people show up just to get us out of here at a reasonable time so we have to limit how much time everybody has to preach um that's going to be this Saturday it's always a lot of fun I encourage you to come if you haven't been to one of these before um I would love to have you you join us for that and then of course I already talked about the anniversary the 24th and the 25th and then the last bit of news there is Pastor Anderson preaching for us on that Wednesday July 5th so if you don't normally make it here on a Wednesday try to get out here for a Wednesday night to see Pastor Anderson it's going to be a great service I'm sure uh always is and that is about it for our announcements today so I'm going to turn the service back over to Brother Peter Alright church you can open up your hymnals again song number 400 Psalm 440 thanks to God Psalm 400 my church let's sing the sound of the verse thanks to God my Redeemer thanks to God thanks for time now what a man thanks for Jesus by my side thanks for blessing always free thanks for joy thanks for reform thanks for tears by now forgotten within my soul thanks for prayers now now has cancer thanks for blood now just to die thanks for storms and I have weather thanks for all now just so fine thanks for pain and thanks for pleasure thanks for comfort and despair thanks for grace thanks for fire thanks for roses by the wayside thanks for fortune thanks for home and thanks for fire thanks for hope thanks for joy thanks for sorrow thanks for heaven thanks for thee thanks for hope thanks for all eternity our Sunday morning offering asks the ushers to come and collect the plates alright church while the offering plates are being passed around open up your Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 23 that's the book of Exodus chapter 23 and as we do customary here at Stonewall Baptist Church if you want to read the entire chapter and ask for the Bible to report on it please do that that is Exodus chapter 23 Exodus chapter 23 the Bible reads thou shalt not raise a false report put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to rest judgment neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause if thou meet thine enemies ox thou shalt not go into strain thou shalt surely bring it back to him again if thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden and wouldest forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him thou shalt not rest the judgment of thy poor in his cause keep thee far from a false matter and the innocent and righteous slay thou not for I will not justify the wicked and thou shalt take no gift for the gift blind of the wise and the words of the righteous also thou shalt not oppress a stranger for ye know the heart of a stranger seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt in six years thou shalt sow thy land and shalt gather in the fruits thereof that the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still that the poor of thy people may eat and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat in like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard and with thy olive yard six days thou shalt do thy work and on the seventh day thou shalt rest and thine ox and thine ass may rest and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed and in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods neither let it be heard out of thy mouth three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days as thy command of thee in the time appointed of the month Abib for in it thou camest out from Egypt and none shall appear before me empty and the feast of harvest the first fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown in the field and the feast of ingathering which is in the end of the year when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field three times in the labor and all thy mayo shall appear before the Lord God thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning the first of the first fruits in thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God thou shalt not seeeth a kid in his mother's milk behold I sent an angel before thee to keep thee in the way to bring thee into the place which I have prepared beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him but if thou shalt indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary unto thine adversaries for mine angel shall go before thee and bring thee in unto the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and I will cut them off thou shalt bow down to their gods nor serve them nor do after their works but thou shalt utterly overthrow them and quite break down their images and ye shall serve the Lord your God and he shall bless thy bread and thy water and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee there shall nothing cast there shall nothing cast their young nor be barren in thy land the number of thy days I will fulfill I will send my fear before thee and destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee and I will send hornets before thee which shall drive out the Hivites the Canaanites and the Hittites from before thee and I will not drive them out from before thee in one year lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against thee by little and little I will drive them out from before thee and so thou be increased and inherit the land and I will set thy bonds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines and from the desert unto the river for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand and thou shalt drive them out before thee thou shalt make no covenant with them nor with their gods they shall not dwell in thy land lest they make thee sin against me for if thou serve their gods Let's pray Father God we thank you for this word we thank you for this church and God allow for Pastor Burns to speak with boldness and allow for us to hear your words and to take your words and minimize distractions and allow for us to be able to take whatever you have for us to take home with us and also to give to others and we just pray this message will be a powerful message for all of us to learn something brand new we thank you in Jesus name, Amen Alright, so the subject matter this morning I know Exodus 23 is kind of a longer chapter but we're going to be focusing in on the section there in verse number 6 is where we'll start just rereading what we just looked at here The Bible says, Thou shalt not rest the judgment of thy poor in his cause keep thee far from a false matter and the innocent and righteous lay thou not for I will not justify the wicked and thou shalt take no gift for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous and what I want to be what I'm going to preach on this morning is receiving gifts receiving gifts this is something the Bible actually talks quite a bit about and to my recollection I don't know if I've ever really preached on this subject before but it is a good subject to preach on and what we're going to find is first of all that you have to any doctrine that we believe always look at the context because receiving gifts is not always wrong but what we're going to find is a lot of places where the Bible talks about not accepting gifts at all but we need to balance that and understand why that is and in what situations that would be appropriate or not this is actually similar to the series I've been doing there's a time to do everything chapter 3 and there's a time to accept gifts there's a time not to accept gifts essentially is what we're going to see from scripture but we're going to start off with all of the I would say well it's one of the there's two main points I guess when people think about gifts one would be salvation, the gift of salvation the Bible talks about that quite a bit but then there's also these verses and then there's verses in Proverbs we'll look at some of those not accepting gifts, hating gifts and things like that but let's get the understanding of this and I wanted to start off in Exodus chapter 23 Deuteronomy 16 also has basically kind of like a parallel passage here or parallel teaching about this but what we're going to notice first and foremost when the Bible is saying like it says here in verse number 8 thou shalt take no gift it's easy for people to get caught up and just be like alright that's it I'm just accepting no gift keep reading, get the context see what it's saying first of all why does it even say just accept no gift for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous but what is the context of this anyways if we go up a couple verses it says thou shalt not rest the judgment of thy poor in his cause keep thee far from a false matter and the innocent righteous lay thou not for I will not justify the wicked so it's talking about having good judgment being able to judge righteously and then you get to not taking gift why because the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous how does a gift blind the wise I mean is it all of a sudden you're just going to lose all wisdom if you accept a gift well in the capacity it's not like you just oh man all this knowledge has just gone out of my brain as soon as you accept a gift it's in the capacity though of making a judgment so if you're in a position where you're going to be making judgments you're going to be a judge over things when you start accepting gifts that's going to make your heart be more associated with the people you're going to like that person a lot more that's giving you the gift that you're receiving this gift from basically what we would call that today is a bribe okay and what we have to understand is that there are times in the bible when it's talking about receiving gifts where it's literally just meaning that it's a bribe in today's you know the way that we would call things today that's a bribe but there's other instances where it's receiving a gift that it's a gift that you give to someone because you love them right there's different reasons why people may give a gift to you and when people are trying to get in good let's say with politicians right they're giving gifts they're giving them these fancy vacations or whatever whatever they're giving right all these things to corrupt a politician you know it's corruption because why because when they want something they say oh man I gave you this you get on their good side so then when they come to them and be like hey you know can you throw me a bone here can you do something can you pass this law that we're trying to pass you know and they want to be seen as this really good guy this really nice guy oh okay I know that guy he wouldn't do anything bad or you know and you could have the wrong perception of things and make a bad judgment call because you've been accepting gifts and people who are in a position to make judgments should not just be accepting gifts for that very I mean that's why there's laws against bribe you know there's laws on what people can and can't do even in business there's laws against you know what type of gifts how expensive they can be and things like that and if you've been you know different industries are kind of different but you know where I work our vendors will often will send us things every year maybe something at Christmas or you know like for the company and you get these little squish balls or pens or coffee mugs or whatever right these little this little swag we call it swag and that's acceptable that's okay because it's not like anyone reasonable is going to go oh I got this coffee mug from this place so I'm going to make all this huge business decision and give them millions of dollars or whatever because I got this mug from them it's something that people they want to do something nice for their customers great you could give them something but if it is turns out to be something that is really significant you could get in trouble for that because that would be considered bribery if it's going to influence you know making a decision to buy some product or anything like that when someone has given you some some exorbitant gift and this is I mean this is what the Bible teaches it's definitely true Deuteronomy 16 as I said before you have to turn and turn if you would to Proverbs chapter 15 we're just going to look at some more verses about this Deuteronomy 16 essentially says the same thing as Exodus 23 Deuteronomy 16 18 says judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes and they shall judge the people with just judgment thou shalt not rest judgment rest is like twisted thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous and the reason why I am reading from Deuteronomy 16 is to point out that the context is exactly the same as it is in Exodus 23 it's talking about having good judgment it's talking about being able to do these things and not respect persons which is another way that people can have bad judgment oh I like this person I don't like that person so I'm just going to rule in favor of this person right it's a respecter of persons no you got to deal with the facts of the case and the facts you know whether whether someone's trying to give you gifts whether you know this person personally whatever you have to be able to judge righteously in all matters and especially if you are a judge and that's in Deuteronomy 16 he's saying judges and officers shalt thou make thee like you need to establish people who are going to be judges so when it's talking about people even accepting these gifts this is what it's talking about and why am I even bringing this up well first of all because some people get really extreme on just not accepting anything from anybody and I believe that's wrong and I'm going to get into that a little bit later but this is one of the reasons why I want to cover this and see what is the context in which a person should not be accepting gifts let's read in Proverbs 15 verse number 27 the Bible says he that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house but he that hateth gifts shall live so notice this also there's a connection with being greedy versus hating the gift so if you're really covetous over things and you're really greedy that will definitely influence you when people are offering you things because you want them so bad and when you're covetous and when you're greedy you're going to be willing to turn the blind eye to some things that are wrong and not have right judgment again you're going to pervert things because you're so interested in the stuff but if you're just saying you know what nope I don't need any gifts I hate bribes I don't have anything to do with that then obviously that's going to be good for you in the long run the Bible says you're going to live you can turn over to Proverbs 17 Proverbs 17 verse 23 Proverbs 17 23 the Bible says a wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment so here we see someone giving the gift he's taking it out of his bosom to basically give it to someone else but what's the purpose of that gift to pervert the ways of judgment so this is someone who's and the Bible says you know what a person like that is wicked if you want to just pervert judgment and have something ruled in your favor even though it's wrong he's saying that's a wicked person who's going to who's going to try to do that bribe to cover up something that's not right and and this is what we see all these things are in this context here because it's not I don't even believe it's always wrong to give people gifts if you want something from them but if you're perverting judgment then that is wrong and that is wicked and those are two different things and it might be a subtle difference but it's definitely a difference and it's a difference that's in scripture and we're going to see it I'm going to get there in just a minute that's my next point of showing you where there are examples where it's a wise thing to be able to give gifts to people but not for the purpose of perverting judgment where it's going to where you're going to try to influence someone to do something that's wrong that is wicked that is a sin that is a bribe you never want to do that flip over to Proverbs 29 Proverbs 29 and verse number 4 Proverbs 29 and verse number 4 the Bible reads the king by judgment establishes the land but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it so you know the land is just going to be overthrown because when there's no judgment when there's no righteousness it turns into this banana republic and that's you know there's a lot of things that happen in countries where you just operate on bribes then at the end of the day money is just king right if there's no righteousness you need to have righteous laws righteous people in charge righteous judges in order for a land to succeed because inherently a land won't succeed if people are corrupt and taking bribes it's gonna that sin and that wickedness will devour itself naturally but on top of that you'll have the judgment of God on you right so it's like a double whammy and this happens with so much sin sin just inherently has things that are bad for you that's why God's telling us not to do them but on top of you know trying to protect you then by giving you his commandments hey don't do this then you also face the punishment on top of the self punishment from the sin itself does that make sense it's like you have rules for your kids not to do something like don't touch the stove when it's hot well you know what I made the commandment I told you not to do that and then you do it and you get hurt well now you could face a punishment on top of that right and you know and sometimes the Paramat show mercy be like okay they learn their lesson with that and God can do the same thing right but the point is it's a double whammy right you've got you definitely have the impact from the sin itself but then you also could have the you know God's judgment upon you as well and when a land does that when a kingdom when people in authority are doing that you know watch out turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 7 that's just a little bit farther in past Proverbs it's the next book Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and verse number 7 Bible reads a wise man mad and a gift destroyeth the heart and this all falls in line with everything so far we've seen essentially in the context here it's talking about people who are in charge people who are in positions of judging this will corrupt the heart this will corrupt your judgment and pervert the judgment which is why you need to stay away from the gift I've got one more example for you but turn if you would to Proverbs chapter 18 I'll read from Isaiah chapter 1 and there's so many examples of this I really just tried to limit it down I don't want to beat a dead horse here but it's important to understand that all these negative the negative scriptures regarding receiving a gift they all have to do with not judging righteously Isaiah 123 the Bible says thy princes are rebellious and companions of thieves everyone loveth gifts so it says thy princes are rebellious the princes are the people in charge they're the principal rulers they're the people who are leading judging in charge that's who the princes are and it says they're rebellious they're companions of thieves everyone loveth gifts and followeth after rewards they're corrupt they just care about receiving the kick back for themselves which is why they make bad judgment calls and this happens all the time there's laws that are passed why because the politicians are in bed with the big companies the big corporations that want to make more money they want to they want to starve out their competition so they enact these laws that sound real good oh we're interested in this safety you know then it brings in all this government regulation that the big corporations can afford but the small businesses can't and then it wipes out the small businesses which are the competition to the bigger businesses and this is one example and it's real broad I know what I'm saying but that applies so many times in government where people just try to you know they got the lobbyists this is why big corporations even hire people that literally just go and like their full time job is to just go and lobby the government and just try to convince the government to enact laws why would a business care about you know like why do they care because they want an advantage they want to get an advantage they're greedy you know at the end of the day they want to get an advantage over other businesses so how are we going to do that well if we can manipulate the system to get an advantage then let's do it and that's the problem it's a big problem and it's been going on forever but that's why you need that's why you need leaders and judges that won't be influenced by the gifts by the bribes and you know these huge corporations companies they have the resources to give really good bribes set people up with whatever they want I mean isn't it interesting how many people if you actually just look at statistics and numbers of the wealth of our politicians right the representatives and the senators and the people just in power look at what their net worth was before they get in office and then look how it is after they're in office and you know how much they've just grown by doing a job that's supposed to be a public servant right and all of a sudden they're just making even more money hand over fist there's a reason for that there's a reason for that and the Bible has very clearly stating you know don't do this this is wrong this is wicked it perverts judgment and it's going to destroy the land essentially that's why it says you know the gift destroyeth the heart and it says that you know the king establishes the land when they have good judgment but it's overthrown you overthrow the land when you receive gifts Proverbs 18 is where I had you turn now those are just some of the examples there's many more like that in the Bible but it's if you just if you do your own study you're going to find out that condemnation of receiving a gift is all about the because it affects your judgment that's not the same as a friend or a relative giving you a gift just giving hey man I want you to have this right like how is that going to pervert your judgment they love you they want you to have a gift right it's not the same thing but these people who want something from you that want that you are in a position to make judgments that's when you don't accept any gifts when you're the one you know that has the role and responsibility of making judgment calls and you know what you ought to be wary of this too even in business if you're in a position of say purchasing things or you know like in my position I'm in charge of all things IT related so I could decide what vendors I want to use and go with I can't just let people be like oh yeah here we'll give you this and this oh well I'll go with you then because you're going to make me you know give me all this stuff it's not about me it's supposed to be about the company right and when you're in a judgment situation like a judge it's not about you it's about the people it's about justice being served in the land so you can't be accepting gifts you can't be accepting bribes in in that regard now here's some wisdom though from scripture that talks about gifts in a slightly different light it's similar but it's not the same as bribery look at verse number sixteen the Bible says in Proverbs 18 16 a man's gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before great men so a lot of times if you want to be seen or heard especially before people who are in a lot of you know sending a gift might help to even get yourself an opportunity to come in the presence of someone that you may have a reason to get before right that allows you an entrance when you're bringing a free gift right it gives you opportunity it gives you a reason for people to even want to listen to what you have to say where it's like hey I got a gift and even in scripture I didn't have this in my notes but that was a common practice if you remember when King Saul before he was anointed king and he was sent out to find the lost asses of his father and he was looking for him and looking for him and they were about to return because they were saying you know dad's not going to care so much about the ass he's going to care about us being safe and make sure that we're good so him Saul and his servant that went with him they decided to go see Samuel which was the seer so they call him the seer someone this prophet that was going to be able to maybe help them out a little bit and guide them down the right path and when they went to go see him though they said well wait we don't have anything to give him and it wasn't like they weren't looking to pervert judgment they weren't looking to get him to tell them that what they're doing is right when it's really wrong or anything like that it was just a common practice to just be like hey I'm going to go see this guy I respect him so let's give him something and they brought like some food or something just like hey man here you know can you help me out here I've got a question for you here's this that's not considered a bribe it's just it's something that you can give that's kind of giving you an entrance and a lot of times things like that become traditions right it's just something that people will do because because it's a nice thing to do for people that you want to he wanted to get something from him which was some information so he's willing to say okay yeah here I'll here's what we can do for you but that's not a gift it's not the same exact thing and here Proverbs 18 is just saying this is wisdom right a man's gift make it through him for him and bring it in before great men now if your intent is to pervert justice then that's wicked and that's wrong but just getting an entrance to be seen by someone I mean maybe you know I've done this before people wanting you know looking for money people asking for money on the street I say you know what I've got something for you but I want to I want to say something first and I give him the gospel right and to me what I'm doing is I'll be buying their attention span for however long it takes to preach the gospel to them and in my opinion I think that's fine I don't think there's anything wrong with that if that's going to say hey I've got here's what I got for you I let them know and I don't hold it regardless of what they're going to say whatever their answer is I tell them look whatever you say isn't going to impact what I give you I'm giving you something no matter what so you don't have to like tell me oh yeah I believe that just for me to give you money that doesn't matter right but but what I do is I buy their time buy the truth and sell it not so I'm going to that's that's one way of looking at this it's something that's an incentive right like hey you want to get people to listen fine that's great give the gift it's not a problem Proverbs 19 verse number six the Bible says this many will entreat the favor of the prince and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts now again take that for what it is it's not saying right or wrong but it's saying that look a person that give gift is going to find himself having a lot of friends everyone wants to be friends with the guy that's giving away a lot of gifts so but it but it's wisdom because if you're generous and you are willing to give you will find yourself having more connections more people that are going to be friendly with you again you're not it's not to say you know if you're not trying to use people you're not trying to do anything wicked or cause a perversion of justice there's nothing wrong with it then it's just a wise thing to be a liberal with your gifts right just to be able to be nice to people and give things to people it goes along with being hospitable too Proverbs 21 14 Proverbs 21 14 the Bible says this a gift in secret passifieth anger and a reward in the bosom strong wrath so someone's upset with you someone's angry with you give them a gift a lot of times that will help right if you want someone not to be as angry with you it's a token of my apologies or whatever like hey I'm sorry I don't want you mad at me here I mean didn't we see Jacob doing that very much so when he was meeting Esau's brother like look I know you have all these reasons that you want to kill me so here and he's sending all these gifts before him he's not trying to pervert justice but he's trying to get in the good graces of his brother he doesn't want his brother to kill him and honestly his brother didn't have you know a righteous reason to kill him you could say he stole his blessing he shouldn't have done that there's things that he shouldn't have done but he didn't do anything worthy of death to his brother so that's what he was worried about and that's what he's trying to repair that relationship because he definitely did him wrong but he's trying to smooth it over and make it right by giving him all these gifts and hey look this is now there's definitely times where we don't accept gifts and again this isn't in my notes either but the Bible talks about not sparing righteous judgment right so if there's people who for example are worthy of the death sentence people are guilty of a murder the Bible says not to take any satisfaction for that person that you can't take any amount of money or anything else in order for that the judgment to be changed into something else and this is what bothers me I don't know about you but I've seen a lot of like crime show documentary type things that talk about you know people who commit these crimes and they talk about you know they go over they talk to the detectives and you know FBI whoever's involved in these cases and time after time after time after time because our court systems are all screwed up now and they're like they want to get these convictions so they're always offering these deals to people who like commit these murders and it's like oh look well just tell us this or tell us where the body is or tell us where the person is and we'll make this you're saying like that should never be done it's crazy it is crazy but it happens all the time apparently that they're making these deals why because they just don't want to take the time in the courts to and the resources and everything else to have a trial to actually discover what's true and and what's not true and just go through the whole process now they'll tell you like oh well we don't we don't want to cause any more pain to the victims and stuff like that that's garbage now I'm not saying that some people don't actually think that way I'm sure they do I'm not saying they're all insincere if they make a statement like that but you know what it's garbage because what the victim really needs is justice justice is what needs to be done just that's what God God said don't take any satisfaction and you know what that would go for the victim as well someone murders a loved one you can't allow for that person to say well yeah just give me a million bucks and then that person could live no no because if that person's guilty no amount of money is going to be able to save their soul they need to face the consequences and that's what's right and that's righteous judgment and that's the way laws that's the way things ought to be handled there shouldn't be any of this wheeling and dealing going on it's if someone's guilty of murder they should be up for the death penalty every time bottom line let's see where I want you to turn next turn if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 so we've already seen a lot of negative versus scripture about receiving gifts right how we should hate gifts and not have anything to do with gifts but in the context I think it's clear it's talking about specific examples of specific people in these positions we're going to be preparing judgment right that seems pretty clear we also have seen some wisdom now from Proverbs that says hey I've been giving gifts and I'm giving gifts and I'm giving gifts that says hey I've been giving gifts we'll definitely have an impact on people if you're not using it for bad purposes for wicked purposes it's not necessarily a bad thing it's just this is the way people are people like receiving gifts that's why there is such a thing as bribes because people like receiving things but there's other reasons that the Bible talks about people giving gifts or receiving gifts we see in the book of Esther you don't have to turn there stay in Ecclesiastes 3 after the great victory at the very end of the chapter when the Jews were supposed to be killed and everything else and then they ended up killing their enemies and it was this great time of victory there was two days the 14th day and the 15th day where they were going to celebrate one of the things they did it says that it was ordained essentially that they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor clearly in scripture we see here hey it's a celebration sending portions and giving gifts to the poor is how they're celebrating so it's not like well a portion received those gifts because you're supposed to hate gifts no like keep it in the context and you think about this even at Jesus' birth gifts were given unto the Lord Jesus right was that righteous or was that wrong should Joseph and Mary not accepted those gifts for Jesus Christ no of course it was fine to accept those gifts for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that was born into this world and you know it's funny because I was determining whether I wanted to bring this up but like the Jehovah's false witnesses you know they don't celebrate birthdays I don't know if you know they're not but they don't celebrate birthdays they think it's pagan and all it's like everything's pagan of all things celebrating a birthday like you can't be happy and recognize hey we're glad you were born every year we're glad that you're with us you've been with us another year and hope you're with us another year like what's wrong with that some people just want to find something wrong with everything but instead of just saying hey we love you you think it's like a kid's birthday party they just get together play games people often times will bring gifts right you eat cake okay if you have a problem with blowing out candles then don't do it like so what like that's not the big deal if you say then don't do it we can still celebrate the birth it's like it's like Christmas right I don't celebrate Santa Claus or things like that but you know what I do celebrate the birth of our savior and so what if it wasn't December 25th it doesn't matter I'm still going to celebrate the birth of our savior on one day out of the year because there's nothing wrong with that so whatever and giving gifts or receiving gifts isn't inherently wrong but when we look at the context that's what we're going to determine when is it right and when is it wrong when should I give gifts receive gifts when should I not receive gifts Ecclesiastes chapter 3 we're going to see gifts of God and here's the thing there's not just one gift of God there's many gifts of God now we always think of the gift of God being eternal life because we go sowing and that's what we kind of focus on and that's the best gift eternal life is the best gift it doesn't get any better than that your own salvation that is the number one gift hands down but that's not the only gift that God gives but if God's going to give you a gift you'd be like nope I'm supposed to hate gifts God not accepting your gift well it's kind of proud I'll get more on that in a minute I don't want to get too far ahead of myself look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse number 10 the Bible says I've seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it he hath made everything beautiful in his time also he hath set the world in her heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor it is the gift of God so just working laboring and being able to eat and just enjoy the fruits of your labor is a gift from God just in itself now you know with Ecclesiastes you find a lot of things we'll ultimately say is vanity you know this work that I'm doing is vanity but you know what this is a gift of God just to be able to work hard and just enjoy the fruits of your labor that is a gift that is a blessing and that comes from God flip over to chapter 5 chapter 5 verse number 18 chapter 5 verse 18 the Bible reads that which I have seen it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh unto the sun all the days of his life which God giveth him for it is his portion every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor this is the gift of God so essentially saying kind of the same thing there but reinforcing this is a gift of God and this is a gift that you should appreciate and that you should enjoy and accept and it's fine to enjoy the fruits of your labor there's nothing wrong with that you go out you work hard you do what you're supposed to do and if you're blessed and if you're blessed with a little bit of wealth you're blessed with some goodness then great enjoy that that's fine now don't let the riches corrupt your heart into being covetous and greedy and everything else keep your heart right keep your mind focused on what's right but it doesn't mean you can't enjoy the fruits of your own labor you've worked you've done this enjoy it it's fine it's a gift from God you know we can enjoy the life that we have here a little bit right I mean we know that there's already going to be trials tribulations all this other stuff and I preach a lot of warnings about that but it's okay to enjoy a little bit of what you have that shouldn't be what your life is all about it's not about the pleasure of this world but it's okay to just take satisfaction in the sense that I've worked hard and here's what we got great I'm going to enjoy a nice meal I'm going to sit down and enjoy this food and just enjoy the day or whatever and be satisfied and thank you God what a great gift what a great blessing you know the Bible also says that the Holy Ghost is also a gift there's a gift to the Holy Ghost that's given there's there's spiritual gifts there's gifts of the Spirit and there's also just the fact that the Holy Ghost is given is also a gift as well and the gifts of the Spirit the gifts of the Holy Ghost the Bible says in Acts 2 38 then Peter said another repent be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the mission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost so just receiving the Holy Ghost is a gift in itself and furthermore when it comes to the gift of the Holy Ghost and this is important to understand I'm going to get into this just a little bit when it comes to receiving gifts if it's truly a gift you have to receive it for free you have to receive it for nothing and understand if something is being given as a gift that it's wrong to even try to pay for that and in Acts chapter 8 we see the story of Simon who got saved by the way he was a sorcerer and everyone held him up to be some great man of God and he was deceiving the people and the thing that way but then when he heard the gospel and he heard the preaching he saw what real power was he saw the truth he got saved but here's the thing he starts seeing you know the Holy Ghost being given and he he was a babe in Christ and he didn't understand and he had a wicked thought in his heart and he's being rebuked for that and we're going to start reading here in verse number 18 it says and when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given he offered them money so he sees the apostle Paul and Barnabas and they come in and people are getting saved and they're able to give the gifts of the Holy Ghost upon people and they lay their hands on them so that they're able to then show those you know receive those spiritual gifts like being able to speak with other tongues or you know healing or whatever the spiritual gift that they're able to receive and they're giving this gift just by laying on of their hands and he sees that and he's like wow I would love to be able to have that power to do that but instead of trying to do it the right way by seeking and asking and saying hey can I also have that gift of being able to give this you know he's thinking well hey how much is that going to cost me right here how much money can I give you give me the power to do that look that's a gift my friend you can't just go and purchase this especially the power of God to give the Holy Ghost unto people he says verse 19 saying give me this power also that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost and he's just trying to offer money for this verse 20 says but Peter said unto him my money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money you can't purchase the gift of God it's a gift you can't pay for it you just have to receive it as a gift and too many people want to receive the gift from God by giving something to God now look offering yourself up a living sacrifice to the Lord because you're thankful for what he's already done for you great no worries about that no problem you want to give a gift unto the Lord you want to make a sacrifice to God great but don't think that has anything to do with your salvation or don't think that that's going to buy you some special powers with God or anything like that God's gift can't be bought they've already been bought and paid for you can't buy them because you ain't Jesus your blood's not perfect he's not going to accept that payment and and in fact it's an insult for something so precious for anyone to think that they can buy it especially with something just like filthy lucre the cash the currency of this world you think you could buy anything spiritual with that please that's an insult of course the greatest gift of all I've already mentioned is eternal life the Bible says for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord you know Ephesians 2 8 and 9 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast on and on I've got more verses on that but I'm actually just going to pass over this for sake of time my point for getting into all this is to show that there's a lot more gifts besides just salvation salvation is the most important one there's other gifts there's gifts of God there's gifts that people give in celebration there's plenty of reasons to accept gifts right plenty of reasons because there's a lot of good gifts out there that you should be seeking and in fact the Bible talks about that when it comes to spiritual gifts the gifts of the Spirit and I tell you if you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 1 Corinthians chapter 12 1 Corinthians chapter 12 now verse 1 key verse 7 just opens up the context of this passage now concerning spiritual gifts I would not have you ignorant and he starts to just talk a lot about spiritual gifts we are going to jump down tolip verse It's still in the context of spiritual gifts verse 7 says but the manifestation For to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit To another faith by the same spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit To another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits To another diverse kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues But all these work at that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man Severally as he will all these things are mentioned all various gifts that God can give that are from the Holy Spirit and different people Receive different gifts and God gives them out as he sees fit, but you know what their gifts they're given They're not purchased or not earned they're given and whatever God's given you he says Hey use it to profit God you use it to serve the Lord with but it's a gift that's given to you Now look at this in verse 31 jump down to the end of the chapter there the Bible says but covet earnestly the best gifts and I'm bringing us up because this isn't stark contrast what the Bible says about hating gifts Well, it's not a contradiction to say well. Hey you need to covet gifts I thought I shouldn't cover anything no come at these gifts. Why cuz they're spiritual gifts. You should greatly desire these Because it's a spiritual thing. It's a good thing It's okay to covet spiritual gifts like I really want that spiritual gift. God. Can I please have that gift? That is like you know one of the rare times that any type of coveting would even be okay Usually we hear about coveting It's it's in regards to you know money and the things this world and riches and wealth like that stuff here You want that you want to come at spiritual things? So this is great come at that want that desire that and ask for God to give you that gift. That's a good thing So you shouldn't be just avoiding all gifts all together You should be seeking the right gifts, and there's nothing wrong with asking for them now Many people myself included don't like asking for things like money Right I don't like asking for that. I'd rather support myself and then be able to help other people out financially I Don't seek the gifts of money and things like that, but don't apply that same mindset to the spiritual gifts of God Where you're going no, I'm gonna do it. I'm at you can't You have to have help you need help And God's the only one that could give that to you, and you know what it's a gift And you know what it's a good thing to want to have those gifts and a good thing to ask for them It's a good thing to seek them and and humble yourself a little bit and ask God for the gift you Covet them chapter 14 verse 1 of course of course in between the end of chapter 12 14 chapter 13 it's all about charity which is You know is that and that's how verse 31 ends Covet spiritual gifts, but I show you a more excellent way, and then it goes into into charity That's that's greater than all these other spiritual gifts that we've seen and then in verse number 1 of chapter 14 about says follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts But rather that you may prophesy so again desiring a gift it is good when the gift is good It is good when it's not going to pervert your judgment. It's good when it's not a bribe, right? And a spiritual gift isn't a bribe So it's it's it's good for you the Bible says in James 1 17 every good gift and every perfect gift is from above So every good gift is it wrong to want or desire or to seek a good gift No of course not 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 By was in John 3 27 John answered and said a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven So what the things of God look God's a giver of all good gifts and all good gifts that you have It's because God gave it to you So thank God and be humble and be happy for what you have now turn if you were to act chapter 20 I'm going to close on this verse and this is this is really kind of the main thrust Everything that I've said up to this point. I want to get the clear context I want to make sure we understand the difference between the bribes and all these other good gifts and that you know We need to approach this in a righteous manner And when it comes to receiving gifts from people I just made the statement that like I'm one of those people I don't want to really receive money from people. I'd rather just kind of deal with things on my own. But here's the thing Sometimes people get out of hand with not accepting anything from anyone ever and I don't think that we should be this way. I Think we ought to have a place to be able to receive a gift And I think that people struggle though the ones that just will never like like you could never buy this person anything You could never pay for a meal. You could never do anything. You could never give them anything. It's always refused I think you're doing a big disservice by having that attitude Here's why the Bible says in Acts 20 verse 35 I have showed you all things how that's so Laboring you ought to support the week and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive It's a blessing to be able to give but if we live in a world where nobody received How is anyone gonna have that blessing of giving? When you allow people an Opportunity if they want to if they really want to give you a gift if they want to help you out accept the gift Just accept it. Let somebody do something nice for you Because they are being blessed by blessing you. I mean believe it or not the people who are giving the gift They actually are enjoying doing that I mean the vast majority of time unless they're looking for something out of you, right, but that's not the situation or context We're talking about here We're talking about people who just love you People that are your friends people that want to do something nice for you. Let them do something nice for you Don't let your pride get so lifted up that you just refuse any help from anybody Because you are denying the opportunity for people to just have that blessing look it feels good to help people out, doesn't it? I mean those of you who've someone's been in need you've been able to supply their needs you've been able about that's great And when you're sincerely like you just care about them, you're not asking for anything in return You just want to help it's such a great blessing it brings so much joy to be able to say wow, that's awesome I'm so glad we could help this person out with whatever it is Even if it's some of the smallest things like hey, we've got this thing My kids are growing and I've got this and I think you go. Oh, that's awesome You know, I haven't been able to get whatever like little things sometimes can still be a great blessing To be able to just help people out with stuff And I think most people generally get this but there's definitely some times where you're going like look Stop refusing just let people do something for you. Give you a gift And Sometimes it's hard to consider that but you know what? The what the number one problem again is the humility because you have to be humble to accept the gift The greatest gift of all our salvation you have to be humble. You have to humble yourself to accept that Hey, I can't save myself. I need this. I need something from God. I can't pay for it It has nothing to do with my works. I just need to receive it as a free if that takes humility to this admit Hey, I can't do this But we're receiving gifts from friends and things like that It doesn't even necessarily have anything to do with you not being able to do it for yourself But if someone wants to help you out, you know, like someone has a child and like hey, we're gonna give you some meals great Accept the help right and I'm not Mrs. Rogers that you accepted the help right? I'm not preaching against them or anything. It's like yeah, this is great Isn't it nice and it's nice for both people for everyone involved right to be able to help out that cool Like I was able to help them out during a difficult time and the people receive it it helps them out Now you could have the attitude and I'm not one of anything from you know, okay, you could do that but you are depriving everyone else from from the blessing of being able to help and That the closeness to I mean you I've found that that the more like when you do things for people Your heart is is your heart's get more knit together On Both sides of things, you know when people have done nice things for us Yeah, it means a lot, you know, there's a bond that gets built there If you just refuse everything all the time, you're kind of closing the door for that as well Just got to use the right discernment when it comes to gift giving hey, are you in a position of making decisions and And and and having judgment then yeah, you're gonna you're gonna need to consider that very carefully who's giving a gift Why are they giving it you know things like that if you should even accept it at all If it's in the capacity of your position, then you just can't receive it at all And you know, honestly, I have I have a difficult time sometimes navigating this for myself Being a pastor of a church because I'm in a position of authority, but it's still only so much right It's not like I'm in charge of someone going to jail or not or you know Like like it's not affecting anyone's freedom here or things like that So Mine is still but I still don't want to ever because we want to make sure you have the right mindset of going Hey, I don't want to be influenced or corrupted in any way of going Well, this person's always you know, giving me something so I'm not gonna say something but here's the thing that works here if you've got a preacher that that is Right with God in the sense that you you know, their purpose is to do things right then When when a hard sermon is preached it is to help the people it's not like a slam on anyone So if I'm gonna be influenced righteously Right and doing my job then all you'll expect if someone's giving me a lot of gifts Then I'm just gonna preach that much more on that person Because I'm gonna want them perfected more right as you see I'm saying like does that make sense? That's all you're gonna have it's I'm not gonna look the other way because then I'm gonna be hating you more But At the end of the day, you know the Bible teaches Don't accept the bribes but gifts from other people it's fine And you know, it could be wise to be able to be generous and gift-giving the people you'll find yourself in good favor with a lot It's a good it's a good practice generally speaking to be open like that But don't be seeking ever to pervert justice to pervert the righteous judgment that would come from God Let's borrow. I just have a word of prayer. Do you have any father Lord? We thank you so much for the wisdom that you give us in your word. I pray to please Help us to apply these truths and give us the the sermon on what's appropriate what's not Lord and and we thank you for giving us all the the warnings about About these things about accepting gifts dear Lord, but I pray to please also help us to have a heart That's not too full of pride where we wouldn't be willing to accept gifts when people are trying to help us and people love us dear Lord and I pray to please help us all to also have the generosity in our own hearts to care about others and Truly understand the truth that it's more blessed to give than it is to receive Lord. We love you It's in Jesus name we pray these things. Amen All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we are dismissed brother Peter we please lead us 461 resting its promise Oh Oh I Oh Oh You