The greatest gift ever given – Eternal Life!

Did Santa bring you everything you wanted? Everything you asked for? Probably not. However, you need not be discouraged, I want to tell you about the greatest gift you can ever receive.

Since early November, I have been working part-time for UPS delivering packages. The invention of the internet and the ease of ordering online from retail powerhouses like Amazon and eBay has increased the shipping business exponentially. So much so, that delivery companies, like UPS, hire seasonal help to handle the increased workload through the holiday season. For the last several weeks, I have been daily loading my personal car and delivering packages from Cordele to Warner Robins. I’ve also delivered orders from Oglethorpe to Perry and most everywhere in between.

People love receiving gifts. One gentleman was so excited when I brought the latest gaming computer for his son. Another lady gave me a great big hug when, on Christmas Eve, I brought the guitar she had ordered for her teenager. One family treated me like Santa when I showed up at their door with a brand new flat-screen TV. From honey baked-hams to T-shirts to DVDs to crockpots, I have enjoyed delivering gifts to people all over our area the last few weeks.

Yet, while I have enjoyed my part-time job (and certainly the overtime) my full-time responsibility is preaching the gospel and pastoring a church. Interestingly though, these two positions share a similar task. As a UPS – PVD (personal vehicle driver), I was responsible for safely delivering gifts for the holiday season. Yet, as a pastor, I am responsible for accurately delivering the gospel that is good news year-round. While wearing my brown UPS uniform, I was employed to deliver gifts bought and paid for by customers. As a Christian, I am duty bound to share the gift of salvation that was bought and paid for by God alone.

You see… the greatest gift ever given to man cannot be boxed and sold online. The greatest gift ever given is not delivered by UPS, FedEx, the Post Office or a jolly white-bearded man in a red suit. Instead, the greatest gift ever given is the gift of saving faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, produced and provided by God.

Note with me, Ephesians 2:8: ”For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

By grace, and grace alone, we can receive the gift of saving faith that is able to redeem mankind. This is not something we can earn, nor is it something we can merit. It is a gift. A gift that cost us nothing, but cost God dearly.

What did it cost God to freely offer this gift of salvation to underserving sinners? It cost God the death of His only Son. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). While the gift of salvation is free to all who receive it, it came at a terrible price … the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.

I wonder… have you received this gift? Have you placed your faith in the Risen Messiah as your only hope for salvation?

If not, why not? Why would you reject the greatest gift ever given?

How foolish would it be if I showed up at your home with a gift, that cost you nothing, and yet you refused to receive it? How absurd it is for you to refuse something that cost you nothing to obtain, but grants you the key to everlasting life? Yet, my tenure as pastor and my decades as a Christian make it clear that many, many people refuse to receive the world’s greatest gift!

The best gift you can receive this year is not brought by a big brown truck, but by a loving Savior who willingly died, was buried and rose again that you could have eternal life!

Receive this gift by trusting in the finished work of Jesus of Nazareth. This is one gift, I promise, you will never want to return!

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