Christmas Triggers – A Wrapped Gift

A Wrapped Gift

A. How Do We Typically Determine Who Receives a Gift?

1. The of …

a. A gift signifies one has moved beyond the level of acquaintance to the level of .

B. How Do We Typically Determine What to Give as a Gift?

1. We consider what …

2. We consider what …

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…” (Ephesians 2:8)

Today’s “Christmas Trigger…”

“ on .”

“I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.

You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight.

You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence;

I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there too –

your reassuring presence, coming and going…

You shaped me: first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb…

You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book,

you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life

were spread out before you…” (Psalm 139, The Message)

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.

Instead, I have called you friends…” (John 15:15a)