"He Gave Gifts to Man" By Brother Parrish Lee December 28th,
2014
For
those of you who don’t know
me, I am Parrish Lee. Andy
Giebler and I,
we are the co-fellowship leaders for up here, and we don’t make a big
deal
about any of that. Actually,
just call
ourselves people who help lead the fellowship, because, let’s face it,
it’s a
family, you know? And we‘re drawing together, and we all come together,
and we
bring our beliefs, and we take them to the Lord.
And it’s just amazing, I can tell where all
the sick people normally sit. All
the
people that are out sick today, they obviously normally sit on this
side! We
want to welcome all of our
visitors, our military guests, we want to welcome you.
We want to welcome—we see some family
members. We see
Aaron, Arman’s son Aaron
is here; we’d like to welcome him and his family, of course. We see two people that we
see where our
brother Jason gets his looks from, because he looks exactly like them. I’m not going to steal
your thunder, brother;
stand up and introduce them, would you please? JASON: Yeah,
this is my father
and my mother, Lenny and Christina. Amen! And, would our military
visitors stand? Our
military guests? Let’s
give the Lord a praise. It’s
wonderful to be back; it’s
wonderful to see everyone. It’s
good to
see so many smiling faces, but we do have to keep so many people in
prayer. There is so
much illness. They
say that the flu vaccine that they gave
out—I got it!—they said it was the wrong one, so it really didn’t do
what it
was supposed to do, so that’s why you see people sick everywhere. At least that’s what I
heard. Maybe I got
a good dose. Many
people I know, people at work, obviously
people in the ministry—we need to be able to just keep each other in
prayer,
amen? Amen. We
hope everyone has had a wonderful
Christmastime. We
hope that this has
been a time of just benefit for every one, that everyone has been able
to receive
good things from the Lord and from the family, in the entire atmosphere
of the
entire time. This
is the time where we
put the tree away, and figure out how to work off those extra Christmas
pounds,
and for a few, yes, a few, thinking about exchanging a gift or maybe
re-gifting
a gift. We are a
blessed people. We’ve
taken, this month, our theme
of the month has been a Savior has come, with our Scripture theme being
from
Luke 2. Giving
honor to
that same Lord, God our Father, who is Lord of all and King of all, who
is the
reason why we are here, the giver of all good and perfect gifts. Giving honor to those who
have stood, and
paved the way for our ministry: Our
founding pastor, he and his family, to our pastor, he and his family,
who was
here just recently, to those who have stood in the gap and made up the
hedge. Giving
honor, of course, to all
of you to present yourselves and to say nothing will deter you, that
you will
come in service and obeisance to the Lord that you might receive of Him
according to that which he has given to HIs people. If
you could
just bow your heads with me for just a moment.
Lord, we thank You truly, God, as You’ve allowed us
to have time to lift
our voices and to honor You and to cherish You, God, to worship You and
to
praise You. Lord,
You are indeed the
giver of all good and perfect gifts according to Your Word. God, we thank You for the
opportunity to meet
with each other. And,
yes, Lord, we ask
for a blessing on those who are not able to be here because of illness,
or
something that is keeping them away that they have to take care of. We ask for a blessing on
their lives. God,
we ask for a blessing on this message,
also, that it would do, according to Your Word, exactly as You have
sent it to
do, to accomplish in all of our lives.
That it would not return unto You void, but would
accomplish all that
You have sent it to be. So,
therefore,
Lord, we thank You and praise You, believing that You are the giver of
all
those good and perfect gifts. This
we do
pray and claim in Jesus’ name, and everyone said amen.
Amen. So,
here we are,
the first service after Christmas, at least, after what the world calls
Christmas Day. Our
theme of the month
has actually been ‘A Savior Has Come.’
We already read the Scripture.
We
had our services—a brief recap: The
first service of the month, talking about ‘a Savior Has Come,’ talked
about the
Promise, the promise that the Lord left us, and in the promise that the
Lord
left us, the power of a promise is that, for those who believe in the
promise,
it give hope. That
was our first message
for the month, followed by a message was by our General Pastor, who, as
he and his
wife Debbie visited, it was such a wonderful occasion, and they’re just
talking
so much about how received. We
talk
about how much they gave; they talk about how much they received. What a blessed time it was. That’s just how God is. Our General Pastor came,
and he talked to the
sisters and the young people, and he shared the Scripture: Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a
child is born,
unto us a son is given...” I
wasn’t here
Last Sunday, but, Brother Chris Ulrich, I heard about the message, ‘So
This Is
Christmas.’ What I
heard was that at
several points, but at one point he started talking about our young
people, and
some of the things that the Lord has put into their lives; the lives of
the
young people. In
the eyes of the Lord,
all of us—let’s face it, from eternity to eternity—all of us are right
there in
the same range; we are all just His children.
But the young is from the perception of the things
that the Lord has
poured in their life. Amen. Today,
our service is going to be
the after-Christmas message, entitled, “He Gave Gifts to Man.” Introduction I
thought I was going to be in for
a treat when my flight pulled into town, because it was 45°. Yeah.
It was a trick.
It was a trick.
Matthew 2:2 Saying, where is he that is born King of the
Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship
him. “…Where
is he
that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east,
and are
come to worship him.” This,
of course,
being said by the wise men, and we’ve talked a little bit about them
this
month. We want to
point out that by the
time they had gotten to the Lord, He was no longer the babe in the
manger; the
Bible says He was a young Child. The
first time I ever heard that was in one of the Children’s Church plays. Yeah, the first time I
ever heard that. Amen.
It brought a whole new meaning to Christmas, because
we see the little
TV shows, and we get the whole thing in our mind real quick, and, you
know, it
all must have happened in one day.
All
the animals learned how to talk overnight, and then, all of the sudden
they’re
back speaking animal-ese. All
in one day
it happened, but, as you read the Bible, you see that there was a
sequence of
events. The point
is that they said, “…We
have seen his star… and are come to worship him.”
Yes, this is truly—if you want to say
Christmas Day, this is an after-Christmas message, and this is just the
one for
it, because the fact of the matter is, they were earnestly seeking;
they wanted
to know about this King of the Jews.
But, once they got to Herod—because they figured,
“Hey, if anybody’s
going to know, the most important, prestigious people in the land,
they, of
course, are going to know about this.”
But, after they got to Herod, they found out that he
didn’t even have a
clue, and wasn’t even looking for another king.
I can imagine the surprise that they must have felt;
they’ve come a long
way, and this guy wasn’t even looking or anything, and, all of the
sudden, he
started feigning some interest, “Okay, okay, let’s go out, and let’s
find
him.” The Bible
says that when they
found the star, they rejoiced, and went looking for the chosen spot. But, the point is, not
everybody was looking for
the King or the secret. Not
everybody—even when you talk about it, it doesn’t even hold an interest
for
many people. “The
King has come, and His
star, that lights the way… The
brilliance of showing the path, it is now revealed.”
Not everybody’s going to have that interest. So, we go on to
this, He gave gifts unto
man. Part 1:
The Nature of the Gift Ephesians 4:8 Wherefore He saith,
When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts
unto men.
“Wherefore
He saith, When He
ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” The Lord actually is the
originator of giving
the gift that keeps on giving. He
is the
first one to give the gift that keeps on giving.
The first time I heard that, I thought it was
kind of funny. I
didn’t really
understand it, but it had an origin, somewhere.
The originator of giving a gift that continues to
give—anybody who’s
ever been saved for any length of time, if you ever come to know the
Lord,
really come to know Him, and He lives with you and you follow after
Him, and
you can hear His voice when he makes His call, if you’ve ever known the
Lord,
it only takes a moment or two to take you back to a time when you did
not. When you back
to the tie when you were not,
and you compare that time with the time that you do, you realize that,
“This
time that I do, yes, the Lord has given me things that I didn’t have
before,
and in this life that I live with Him, He continues to give unto me. That is the originator of
the gift that keeps
on giving. I know,
for myself, I can say
that He gave me Grace, mercy, salvation; He gave me joy 31 years ago,
and it
has not been any of those—I’ve had some gifts that I outgrew. You know what I mean? And
I’m not just
talking about clothes. I
had some
clothes that I outgrew, and I’ve had many gifts that, they were
wonderful at
the time, but, over time, they lose—they have a term for it in
marketing, they
call it diminishing utility. Initial
utility is high—I can really use this gift, but, over time, it
diminishes more and
more. But the Lord
gives a gift that
always has great utility. So,
for the
years that anybody that has been saved for any length of time, you know
that
God continues to give, even through the same gifts that He gives. A friend of mine, he says,
“You know, I
understand that whole salvation, and washing away your sins, and being
a
Christian thing. I
understand that; it’s
no big hullabaloo, big deal about the whole thing.”
But, anyway, if anyone was able to say that I
was, you know, being a goody-two-shoes, well, that goes with being a
Christian,
you know, a Christian goody-two-shoes, and it’s no big deal, being a
goody-two-shoes now; I was never that big of a sinner, anyway. If anybody ever says, you
know, “It’s no big
deal! Eventually,
I’ll get around to it,
because it doesn’t make so much of a difference. I’ll
do all the stuff now, and then, later on,
once, you know, I get old, then I won’t have that; it’ll be great then. I’ll be sewing everything
else in the
meantime.” The
truth of the matter is,
“The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)
Not sins; sin is
death. It doesn’t
matter—in society’s eyes, we could
be really good people, in society’s eyes, but, in the Almighty who ever
was we
don’t have anything to stand in His presence with.
In His eyes, we can’t even open our mouths
before His brilliance of righteousness.
Therefore,
the first gift, the greatest gift of His only begotten Son, which He
gave from
the foundation of the world. That
gift
that he gave, yes, is still giving God’s power. I
had a little something to say.
Somebody actually told me, they said, “You can boil down your whole
Christianity down real simple, because, Parrish, all you really got to
make
sure you do is believe a little bit, and make sure your good outweighs
your
bad.” That was a
bit of a challenge,
because I’d heard that before, but I’d never had that thrown at me
before. I had the
opportunity to work with the youth
group, sometimes ago, and we went down to the Oriental Institute Museum. It was great.
I actually thought it was going to be about Asian
dynasties. I
thought it was going to be about that, but,
no, it was about the orientation of the world.
I’ve told this a time or two before, but I like to
tell it again. As
we went down there, we saw the kingdoms of
the very first kingdom. We
saw the
kingdom—some of the representations of Babylon, Mesopotamia, we saw
Syria, and
their Persian kingdoms and how the different things in their mindsets
were. We went to
another place, we actually
saw—they had a Rosetta stone and the engravings on it were used for the
language. It had
the alphabet on it, per
se, and they had that, and they would use those things to communicate,
and,
when they didn’t know what something meant, they would go back to the
stone and
see what that image meant, and that was how they had written language. Amongst many things that
we saw, was in
Egypt—Egypt, now think about it, Egypt was some 4500 to 5000 years
ago—Egypt. Now, in
this time, they had
several guys. We’ve
all heard of Ra, and
Isis—they had a children’s cartoon thing, and that was cute, but one of
the
things that they had was the god, Horus, who was the god of the
underworld. And, he
sat on the little
chair, there, and he was sitting on his little chair, and he had his
servants
by him, and then there was a scale, in front of him a ways. On the other side of the
scale was a
man. On the scales
was, a feather on
scale, and on the other scale was that same man’s heart. So, the implication was
that they would be
okay as long as the goodness in that man’s heart out-weighed his
badness before
Horus. So, when you
hear somebody say
that you’re going to be okay as long as your good outweighs your bad,
that is a
five-thousand year-old lie. They
don’t
even know, and it’s been circulating around, because, without the
judgment of
God, what do you know? So,
my point is,
there is only one true salvation.
One
true salvation, and we want to talk about the nature of God's
salvation. The
Bible says they are new every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 It is after LORD'S
mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every
morning: great is thy
faithfulness. It
is after LORD'S mercies that we
are not consumed, because his compassion, his compassion fails not. For they are
new—hallelujah!—new every
morning: great is thy faithfulness.
The
blood from Calvary's mountain—now we understand this—the blood from
Calvary's
mountain—“what are you talking about the blood in December, Parrish Lee? Don’t you know December is
the Christmas
month? The Blood is
the Easter
month? You’re
getting your holidays all
mixed up!” No I’m
not! No I’m not;
this is part of the same
message. You see,
the blood that flows
from Calvary's mountain, it isn't just a cupful, and it wasn’t just a
bowlful. You
see, Saints, it wasn’t even a lake or an ocean-full of love. The blood
that
flows from Calvary's mountain flows yet still. And
it doesn’t just flow by a small measure,
it flows enough to cover; it flows enough to cover whatever we have
gotten ourselves
into. Wherever we
want to find
ourselves, it flows to the lowest valley and it reaches--that’s what
the song
says—it reaches to the highest—and that’s a fact!
Wherever you go, we have in our blood the
flow from Calvary’s mountain. In
fact,
it needs to keep flowing. It
actually
needs to keep flowing, because some of us need the blood of Calvary to
cover
the sins that I did yesterday. I
needed
it to cover my crazy thoughts and even my sins that I might have done
today! That, if I
commit some later on
tonight, I need it for that. I
need it
to cover every aspect of my life.
I need
it to continue to flow, and that is the blood that continues to flow,
being the
gift that continues to give. “Oh,
how
precious is that flow that makes me white as snow, no other fount I
know—nothing
but the blood of Jesus.” Part 2: He Gave
Gifts to Man Ephesians 4:8 Wherefore He saith,
When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts
unto men.
He
gave gifts unto man. I have
heard it said that He-is the God of a second chance. You
know, when you blew your first chance, a
second chance sounds real good. But,
I only
partially, partially agree with that – because, the fact of the matter
is, some
of us have blown our second chances.
So,
I have to say He is the God of ANOTHER chance. He’s
the God that, after I’ve blown my second
and third and 20th and 50th chances, after I’ve messed up and messed
around and
I can’t even see what’s up or down, He is the God of another chance. Hallelujah!
A chance that goes beyond what my little mind is
wrapped around. Many
of us know that, where in the world have
we found ourselves that the blood hasn’t been able to reach us? David said it most of all,
when he was
talking, he said, “Where shall I go to hide away from Thee, oh Lord? Because, if I ascend into
the heavens, thou
art there, or if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art altogether
there, also.”
(Psalms 139:7-8) There’s
no place to go
to be able get away from God, which is why, even in the belly of a
whale, you
can only make your cry, and God can deliver you.
Knowing this, that no matter what state we’re
in, no matter where we find ourselves; knowing this, it’s no wonder why
the
angels would surround the hillside in a whole multitude and sing songs.
It’s no wonder
why they would shout out to the
shepherds in the field, “Good tidings to man; peace and joy and
goodwill
towards men, because unto you, this day, is born in the city of
Bethlehem,
which is Christ the Lord. No
wonder they
would come and sing about Him, because they see, “You guys have an
eternal gift
with you.” And it’s
no wonder that,
after knowing how good this chance was, that is has made a difference,
that the
shepherds aid, “Hey, let us go and see what these angels are talking
about,” because
that gist is that special. And,
it’s no
wonder that, even after the shepherds went, that Simeon would come
over, and
just hold the child and lift up his eyes to Heaven, and say, “now I can
go, oh
great God, for I have seen Your salvation.”
And while Anna went and said, “Now everybody know
that this child is given
for the redemption of many. No
wonder
they were making a big deal about this gift, this second chance. You see, the first one,
they might have
gotten things a little bit going. You
see, the bible says that the
wise men brought Him gifts of gold, and frankincense and myrrh, and
they had
their places, but the truth of the matter is, wise men still bring Him
gifts. But, those
gifts had their places
as they brought them to the Lord, but the true thing was what He was
going to
turn around and bring to everyone else. The
Bible goes on to say that He gave gifts to man. He
gave gifts; not just one. Not
just one.
So, we could say, “Well, what manner of gifts are
they going to be,
these gifts?” Gifts
of prophecy, gifts
of healing, maybe the gifts of being able to speak with tongues, great
gifts of
discerning? Yes,
absolutely. Gifts
of encouragement? Yes,
absolutely, all of the above, and more.
They are the gifts of, when I find myself in
despair, being able to pull
me out. They are
the gifts of, when I
need some help, and nobody seems to understand me, God has a gift for
that. They are the
gifts of, when you
find yourself all alone and lonely, God has a gift for that. I
had the opportunity, when I was
in Baltimore, recently—I’ve been trying to make videos of elderly
people in the
family, so that we can have some sort of record, and, you know, have
that sort
of thing for the family. Sounds
real great,
and, but there’s one thing, as I interview more and more elderly
people, they
say, “More and more people are dying from my time period. It seems like I don’t have
people to talk—I
mean, I can talk to people, but I want to talk about the things that
are
special, and important, and relevant to me.
I want to talk to them about where we came from, and
what we did when we
were coming up, but, now, people, they don’t seem to be able to relate
to that,
because most of those people are dying off.
If I could have something that would really help me,
I’d like to have me
a couple of friends who would know what I’m talking about.” I thought, “Wow.” I interviewed a few more
people, trying to,
and the middle aged-people, I found one concern, and that was just
broken
marriages. Either
there was divorce, or
there was estrangement; in some cases there was widowhood, and saying,
“You
know, I just need some companionship.
Not necessarily talking about getting married gain,
but just somebody to
fill the void in my life.” I
listened to
it, and we talked, and we prayed, and we would have more and more
family
gatherings, and they would just voice that, but they weren’t’ the only
ones
that would talk about having needs.
I
have many brothers and sisters, so, obviously, I have many nieces and
nephews—it’s
approaching forty, actually. And,
as I
talked to the young people, they also had a common thread that they
shared,
they said, “You know, I just want to talk.
I just want to be encouraged when I’m talking,
because it seems like the
older people in our family, they think they’ve got it all figured out,
and they
don’t want to listen to us. So,
I would
like to be recognized that what I say is also relevant and important.” And, in hearing all these
needs, I said,
“Lord, please, what and how, how will You minister to all these people,
because
I sure don’t have a clue?” And
God would
say, “Yeah, with man, this kind of thing is impossible, but, with Me,
all
things are possible. Cast
your cares on
Me.” And we would,
and you would see,
one by one, two by two, more and more, God opening up door, softening
up
hearts, as we would lay them before the Lord, He would minister unto
His
people. When we
turned it over to Him,
God would make miracles happen. Miracles
happen. So,
no matter what the need is,
“You know, I need a better opportunity at work,” He gave gifts to man. You know what I mean? “I need a healing.” The Bible says He gave
gifts unto man. “You
know what I ned from You, Almighty
God? I need You to
make a way out of no
way, because I don’t even know how I got myself in this crazy situation. Maybe I opened my mouth
when I shouldn’t
have. Maybe
I—whatever I did, God, I
can’t even figure a way out!” The
Bible
says He gave gifts unto man. So,
in closing, as we prepare to
close, here: Oh
sure, you might want to start
with the gifts that were given to Him but we move beyond that, Saints
of God,
we move beyond the whole Christmas-day thing, and we move to the after
Christmas. And, as
we move to the
after-Christmas, we see that, no question about it, the most important
gift that
the Lord gave, was the gift of eternal life—but we have to finish with
the
temporary life before we have the eternal life.
As we go through the temporary life, we see that,
how comforting would
it be if we had to wait our 70, 80, 90, 100 years before we were able
to see
all the blessings of His precious love, of His precious presence, Him
being
able to do things for us. That
wouldn’t
be a great comfort at all. The
Bible
says that we have these treasures that He gives us, but they're in
earthen
vessels. So, what
comfort would it be?
None at all, but the Bible says He gave gifts unto man.
The most precious gift, the most important
gift is love. Now,
our first message
that we started off with in 2014 was, “It Starts With Love,” and, here
we are,
finishing the year by saying, again, the most important gift that He
gave, even
in this day, is love. Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
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