The Birth of Jesus: The Gift
by Sam Hodum
December 11, 2024 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Matthew 18:23-27, Matthew 18:28, Matthew 18:15-17, Luke 6:39-42, Luke 23:33, Acts 7:58-60

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/sam-hodum--the-birth-of-jesus-the-gift
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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I'm going to pick up where Pastor left off last week we we were in Matthew chapter 18 uh and we were talking about the gift right the whole month of December it's about the gift um it's it's that time of year and I don't even know the song there's there's like 10 songs with that in it right uh it's that time of year that that we start we start looking into life uh I'm in prayer and and just now I was I was praying very intentionally for those that have lost because that's when it's most realized for those that have gained because that's when it's most realized and and we look at what we've given what's been given to us and and you know the the the the it's more blessed to give than to receive it seems right as time goes on that just becomes more and more and more true um it just it just is how can I invest in you how can because we start to realize and appreciate the Investments the giving that those that are no longer with us they're fingerprints that are Upon Our Lives that appreciation it's so I don't know it's it's like it's like someone that can just say one sentence and then you spend a lifetime unpacking what was all the meaning behind that that gift of that word that gift of that of that touch of that of that impartation uh that gift of just a gift and we know that we when we're trying to give gifts uh we we think of the golden rule right do unto others as you would have them do unto me and so we get them a Target gift card because that's what we would want I mean kind of that's I mean honestly that drives a lot of our giving uh and then some of us we list an item of uh you know kids what is what is Santa Claus going to bring you this year I I don't know you guys you did did y'all believe in Santa Claus like what age did you stop believing in Santa Claus I see we have a couple kids in here is that a okay all right well I was like oh shouldn't have started on that path okay all right so what age did someone in here like was it five was it six seven 10 fourth grade oh no yeah yeah I I I was never a Believer just wasn't I don't know why I just didn't make sense to me I was too little of a kid wasn't that fun of a person you like I remember walking through kindergarten and like listening to uh Ashley farmer was her name cuz I went to school with all the same kids my entire life right that's and so Ashley farmer we're walking down the hallway I have no idea how I remember this but I remember her mentioning she doesn't remember this if she heard this she'd be like what in the world's he talking about but we were walking down the hall and I remember her mentioning Santa Claus and like you don't believe in Santa Claus and like like that and I was like oh my Lord who believes in that you know like but that the beauty of the beauty of that illusion of believing in Santa Claus of I'm just going to get everything as a child that's just it's the most fun thing to watch right kids opening stuff and then forgetting all about it it's the most fun thing to watch uh and then right so Lauren Lauren what do you want for Christmas oh I I want nothing and you know she's probably not saying the truth on that I really don't know what she wants for Christmas other than to be delivered in our lesson last week we talked we talked about the man we looked at uh who had he owed 10,000 talents that was $26 million that's a lot of money I know Pastor went on about I was like you know I was thinking about this how in the world would I rack up a bill of $26 million like what are you buying how like where do you find like I mean think about it you could be like I'll just purchase a business well then you just going to run the business in the ground you know like because you don't know how to run it uh I'll just buy a a mansion what I mean like the nicest house in Chattanooga is like 12 million it's not even 26 what are you buying for 26 Mill you know what's this dude and I think this was just an inflated number I don't know uh this guy could have just but but as he's going through the he goes to the king he's like I'll pay it back I don't know how he was going to do that if some if I owed $26 million I'd be like man you're going to have to send me to prison cuz I don't I don't I can't even fathom that of how to pay that back but I guess I'd have to work on it and so the king wiped it clean it he just you're good man how would you act like I don't I mean I don't know I don't know if any of you owe on a car you ever owed on a car and then paid the car off or not owed on the car you're like man that's nice breathe a little bit yeah this dude wasn't breathing I mean 20 and then he's like oh my Lord he he wrote the song uh blue skies nothing but blue skies do I see as he was just skipping along whistling Zipp Zipp day is any anyone got these songs these are old right uh and uh thank you thank you he was giddy I mean just skipping on I I'm good I I've I've been forgiven of this debt and in Matthew we we find that in in Matthew 18 and 23-27 and in 26 he says so the servant fell on his knees imploring him have patience with me and I will pay you everything and out of pity for him the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt and so he goes on his way the very next verse Matthew 18 and 28 but when that servant went out he found one of his fellow servants who ow him a hundred Dinara and seizing him he began to choke him saying pay what you owe that's like 200 bucks 250 that's nothing I mean compared to $26 million so his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him have patience with me and I will pay you and refused and he went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt how's he going to pay the the debt in prison hey we are a blessed like blessed country we do not have a debtor's prison that was a wild wild thing to read about in history to be put in debtor's prison uh but the point here was not the amounts Jesus he gave these these incredible massive amounts of differences and both people asked for forgiveness the same way but not both were not both re both did not receive Mercy uh it's it wasn't the differences if I may it wasn't the differences in how they act it wasn't the differences in the amounts it was the differences in the internal process that they went through of the power that they could have the power to give forgiveness the gift of forgiveness that was it they controlled if they controlled their life and the life of the other with the power to forgive or not to forgive Jesus is teaching that lesson there forgive forgotten released yet how many times do we hold the grudges the attitudes against others it allows us if it it allows us to or it forces us not to look at life but we get tunnel vision upon that one little thing and that's all we see we we look at uh uh we look at someone that has wronged us and we we can't see the good that's happening in their life we can't see the the things that are happening uh the the increase God's blessings we can't see anything other than when we look at them we see that one little speck that's it it's like a it's like a big nice white tablecloth with just like a Sharpie dot right in the middle of it and you can't get that out enough shout to get that out that's the title of my next sermon got a shout to get that out come on this is Wednesday night guys I'm just trying trying to pull us in here okay so this if it is a lesson in learning so in in in behavioral psychology I I remember sitting in through uh some behavioral psychology classes and one of the key components of this was how they measured learning it is and and and that that that uh that discipline of psychology measures learning by observation that's it they say well we can't really measure it by anything else other than that it's too subjective otherwise and so what they said was learning is defined as the ability to apply a learned skill or concept and a different area than it was taught in so if you're for example in CL in a classroom if you're able to take two blocks and add two blocks and know that there are four blocks there you're like all right I got that but then you go out on the street and you see two mailboxes and then two more mailboxes but you don't know that that equals four mailboxes you haven't you haven't learned addition cuz you haven't been able to apply that concept outside of its setting for me I struggle this is this is me guys you all you all know this social settings if I am aware if if I've been in a social setting before and I've been taught how to interact I'm I'm good would you put me in a whole new place it's terrible I don't know how to act and you're like man that he was acting super weird he was super off he's just a strange n he just didn't know he didn't it did not have that scenario written

down in his brain you laugh I know I listen for I know it's a very feminine trait to be able to just be able to pick walk in a room and just like know what everyone's feeling that is not the way that works in my head I just walk in like a bulldozer like a bull in a china shop everybody's feelings just like man he just don't care he doesn't know he cares he just doesn't know and I and so what I have to do is is I have to think I I know I have to consciously think of all right in this setting what is most similar have I have what's something similar that I've been in in this setting if not I laugh in a funeral okay like not even disrespectful I just don't know all right that's that's me I have to learn AKA got married and my wife teaches me that's how that works for us right gentlemen amen that that learning being able to put that that's what that guy was he he had received something but it didn't click all the way through he did not he had received forgiveness but he did he had not learned how to give forgiveness he had and and you would we would look at it and think yeah that's easy we should know that but yet we do the same thing do we not there is uh there's a term we use for CAC and in church in general and and I'll say that it is is a particularly good term for us I believe uh it's Community we we we are a lot of us are transplants into Chattanooga so we we don't have a lot of family here we don't have a lot of support systems we don't have a lot of of just general connections we have we come together as a body of Believers our common ground is not what we do it is not our Hobbies it's not it's not our backgrounds it's our belief in Jesus Christ that's it that's our that's our common ground and so from that Common Ground we build community and Community makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside it does right some of us it it's good for us we want to feel all fuzzy inside we want to feel all nice but guess what with when when when we take that and we look at we've moved from extended family we've moved from areas that we've grown up we've moved from areas of familiar influence and so we come together and we're with people that are investing but it doesn't we don't have that lifelong investment yet we're working on it we'll get there it'll be there but we're missing something because when Granny says something to us it it she can cut us up one down up one side and down the other and slice Us in half and in two and that's called constructive criticism it is it's not destructive because she loves you she knows it you know it she's trying to help you that's what and so that that piece of community is is famili but it's also a part of the church church Community involves that it involves iron sharpening iron I don't know if you've ever sharpened something but it's not an easy process that means something's taken away something is pulled off something is is is is it's just very delicately it's very gently but it it it can't be softly it's got to be intentional and it's got to be pulled off to get a sharp edge on a knife on a sword on something iron sharpens iron when we are in community we get the warm fuzzy feelings but then we get the iron sharpening iron fillings too and we're like who do they think they are we get all big and bad and we don't do it out loud most of the time do it here there was there was a gentleman there was a time I was I was working I I was I was like I mean I was like in the church I mean I was I was work I was wide open where I thought I needed to be going doing what I thought I needed to be doing and a very kind gentleman was he was an elder but he wasn't old he took a moment and he invested in me and he said hey what you doing that ain't working buddy you're going to have to cut that out and I wasn't sinning I wasn't out of the way it wasn't it wasn't unethical but the way I was going about it was all wrong and in that moment I I remember exactly where I was standing I remember the look on his face I remember the thoughts going through my mind this probably 10 years ago or more now and I remember it hurt it hurt my pride hurt my feelings it I was like okay but he did he loved me enough to invest in me he loved me enough to risk me receiving it wrongly blowing up and just going off but I loved him enough not to I respected him enough not to and I know this is this is the gift this is this is the middle this is the middle of of the week but in community there is there is those times I I am convinced that if I had not learned that then from that gentleman at that moment I would be in a totally different place in life today there are those times in our lives it's not and I'm going to say it's not sin it it may be but it doesn't have to be it it can be it can just be attitude or approach or ideas or or just just general way I can walk in okay and I'm going to use myself here as I can walk in like a bull in a china shop into an emotional place and just wreak havoc and not mean to but I still done it wrong and my wife's going to have to be so gentle and so kind hey don't do that stop it right now but I know she loves me and know she's investing in me because it matters for both of us it matters here's the thing that that is part of community that is part of investing in one another uh have you I don't know when when I and I'm going to stay in this vein for just a moment here but the voice of an elder is so important in my life and and I'll say this what is it who is an elder cuz it's not always an old person I've seen some younger people are Elders I've seen some older people that are just older I don't mean that disrespectfully I mean that in all respect but but an elder if in my mind the the spirit of the Elder is the one who plants trees and whose shade they will never sit the spirit of the Elder is the one who gently invests and cares about what happens after they're gone that's the spirit of the Elder the mind and the attitude it's it's the voice of that constructive

criticism not destructive criticism there's a difference and and if if we're in this idea of the giving of forgiveness there's going to be times that someone's going to just rub us the wrong way or they're going to say something and to someone we love and it's going to rub us the wrong way well that one gets us it gets us real quick me all but we hear half a story from half a love you know from a loved one and all of a sudden we're just mad we don't even know why we're mad we're just mad what do you mean you it's like easy that was not how it happened at all and so we come in if I may we come into to a come into a service we come into a church this is this is the body this is the house of God we come in and we throw up our hands God forgive me I know what I am I I need your mercy and Grace not not in a uh not in a self- debasing way but in an understanding that without God's grace and mercy where would I be and then some of us it might be $26 Million worth of issues that God forgiven Us of for some of us it might be 200 I don't know we know only only we know what God's forgiven us of what he saved us from and yet we come in and all we can see of our brother and sister is that little spec right there and and it's going to happen it's community it's people we're people it doesn't make make us good bad or ugly it just makes us human that's it that's it and there's there's a formula for this there's a formula to go about how to do this Matthew 18 this is this is right before our Parable Jesus was was laying the foundation of the parable that we've been talking about but Matthew 18:5 if your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone if he listens to you you've gained a brother but if he listen doesn't listen to you take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three Witnesses if I may that's privacy that's discretion and then that's that's a independent not your friend person that goes along with you and then if refuses to listen to them tell it to the church if he refuses even then let them even to the church let them be to you as a gentile and a tax collector now this that's a process not everything is that massive we don't have to make mountains out of mole Hills all right not everything's that grand but it's a principle of making sure that we keep ourselves in Shake if we find that nagging at the back of our brain oh they did this you know maybe I need to go talk to them maybe I misunderstood because how how much more have we been forgiven of Luke 639 says he also told them a parable can a blind man lead a blind man will they not both fall into a pit a disciple is not above his teacher but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye I listen this is Jesus is teaching and he cuts he he's he's about like granny right I mean up one side and down the other as a as a teacher tonight I'll say this I I'm in the back every time I'm I'm working through this every time I'm thinking about this lesson I'm thinking of James's writings let a teacher be careful about being a teacher because you're going to be held to a different standard you're going to you you can't you know like and I get it I understand that I respect that and so in that I'm God I need you for sure tonight I need you to help me with this pull this out pull this out God I I I need to get this under you because I know how the these are simple things that that determine the trajectory of Our Lives it doesn't make sense that from 18 to 25 that we make pretty much we make about like 80% of the large decisions of our life and then we have to live with it and we spend the rest of our life either building off of it or untangling it it's I mean think about think about all the dumb decisions everybody everybody not not me not just you everybody makes from 18 to 25 our brain is not even fully developed we're just out here running around like is that even what that's just terrible decision but some or another that's what happens that's how God made it out to be and we live with that and then we have to take that log out of our eye that massive whatever that is in ourselves and you know when we take that out sure he said you can see the speck better but when you take it out and you've got it the log right here you forget all about the speck you don't even see it anymore cuz you're like oh my Lord that was oh my Lord how did I even see you wasn't I I mean really and truly you were not as as I as I know the moat and the beam a speck the timber the lumber those things those are that Parable for us as a church body as we grow as as as our community expands as as as we step into different areas in our walk with God as we step into these things do not go away they make or break us they matter that that being able to give forgiveness that's not even a fraction of what

we received guys that matters because guess what your kids are going to teach my kids and my kids might teach your grandkids I don't know the full weight of those things I do not I I can't calculate that I cannot calculate the full breadth of decisions we make today but what I can see is that when we allow the beam to get in our eye while we're trying to get out the one of the others get the speck out of the others we're going to cause a lot of damage and we're going to hurt some people not on purpose it's just going to happen that's human nature it's very easy very easy for for a immunity for a body of Believers to get themselves to a place of saying oh my Lord I just can't even talk to them oh my Lord I just can't even oh my it it's it's easy it happens but it doesn't have to just because Granny ain't here doesn't mean that somebody can't say Hey you shouldn't act that way oh I'm not doing anything wrong I kind of are like oh is it a sin like I don't know buddy you tell me I is is maybe I don't know like I said that gentleman that came to me privately very sincerely very very intently trying to help me I honestly if I if I mentioned it to him I don't know that he would remember but I do because it changed my thoughts it changed my outlook it changed my perspective I know there were times that I didn't respond well to things I know there are times that I've I haven't okay I'm not I'm not just up here I I know the speaker so I get to like bring out the good things here so I know there are times that I didn't respond properly that didn't condemn me to a forever uh hell and Damnation okay but I do remember I do remember that time specifically that I was like yes I think I got that one right I think I responded because it hurt and it cut and I allowed God to do a work in me that I still feel today so if you've made a million times and you've responded wrong a thousand times me too everybody else in here has but there's no condemnation in the love and the grace and the mercy of God that's not what this is about this is about taking that principle of learning that principle of the of of forgiveness and learning it through and through through how if this has been so freely given to me how do I freely give it Jesus I I know he's in Luke 23 and 33 when they came to that to the place that is called the skull where they crucified him the criminals one on his right and one on his left Jesus said father forgive them for they know not what they do and they cast lots divide his garments the power to forgive here that's what Jesus was embodying in a in a when I imagine the the state of the Jewish World at that time when I imagine the state of the Middle East at that time and at this time if if I may it hadn't changed a whole lot if we we've seen our fair share of it in the United States of the Hatfields and the McCoy no one really even knows how that started but I don't know how many people died the Middle East has been doing that for the last God knows how long because this person killed this person's great great great great great great great great great great grandfather and you can't unweave that you can't go in and say well we'll just do this and make this right we'll eat even this out we'll even the score they've been trying to even the score forever Jesus came in as counterculture to hatred he came in his counterculture to unforgiveness and he said don't hold this against them forgive them they don't even know what they're doing they're just angry that's hard to do cuz they're stabbing him in the side they're crucifying him you're like well that was Jesus he can do it you know Steven did the same thing acts 7 and 58 then they cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul and they were stoning Stephen he called out Lord Jesus receive my spirit and falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice Lord do not hold this sin against them can I can I take it our our forgiveness just a step further tonight when the one that has hurt us so deeply and so painfully and so intently maybe even on purpose walks into a let's just say they walk into this church and they walk and they find an altar of forgiveness how can we respond they you don't know what they've done you're right I don't I don't want to be near I understand can you forgive them how could God forgive them he forgave you I know what they done yeah but we know what you did that's hard not easy as he

is being stoned Lord don't hold this against them some of us would be God holded against them for all eternity I pray hell and Damnation and fire upon them maybe you'd be right to do so I don't know I get that I I I get that I understand that he modeled Jesus here he wasn't thinking he wasn't in that moment can you imagine the adrenaline the desperation of the realization of this is this is it there's no facade here there's no church face here there's no this is where the rubber meets the road there's nothing else this is it in that moment he could have said God condemn him and he would have died I mean and God may have condemned him I don't know but he didn't chose Mercy chose forgiveness it's hard it's not easy oh if you'll if you'll stand with me tonight I know I I know I took a little a little bit of a round trip out into the the topic of community but I wanted to make sure that we understood that the principle of forgiveness that applies most when we don't want it to that principle of forgiveness is the the only time that it is most important is when it's the hardest yeah I never easy we may can justify and we may I don't know I can't say that we may you don't know you're right I have no clue but you know what I can say is I take mine to God God help me what am I holding on to Proby my fingers loose of it I don't want that to grab anywhere I I don't want to be being stoned and just being hanging on to that just no you know God don't don't forgive them just they're doing wrong sure they were they you I wonder if we can just lift up our hands right now all across the building all across the house Jesus I pray tonight God that your grace and your mercy God that you've so freely poured out upon each and every one of us that your love and your kindness that you so freely and so kindly set upon each and every one of us God that we would take that lesson and learn learn God learn learn freely have we received freely we shall give help us God to learn that the the power of our tomorrow allows in letting it go help us God to learn that the power of our future allows in forgiveness of letting it go God the power of us growing the power of us of us becoming more like you allow us letting go of some things of some things being shaved off of us God that that God that maybe maybe maybe we are right maybe we are self-righteously right maybe we're just right but God help us to let it go God I don't care if I was right or wrong Jesus help me to forgive help me to forgive Jesus Lord I pray upon every heart and every soul upon this whole congregation God help us Lord uh to to be your body to dwell together in unity in love in one another with the power of the gift the gift of forgiveness God we'll be so careful to give you all the praise Lord we'll be so careful to acknowledge that you are Almighty you are Supreme and you're wonderful God God we'll be so careful God to make sure our lives align with your footsteps with your path so that we can follow after your your way God we'll be so careful God to follow after your pattern God will be so intent God that that in the last moments of our life in the time when we have no facade left God that are principle in our heart the way we are wired God the way we are built the way we are living God the way we think the way we act the way we are made our DNA is made in your image and in your likeness Lord that we just forgive that we just forgive Jesus I pray Lord that you would help us that you would guide us and you would direct us Jesus