The Perfect Gift

We unpack what “established in righteousness” actually means: fixed when life feels unstable, prospered in the holistic sense of well-being, and fashioned into God’s likeness over time. Then we line up six positions of inheritance that come with the gift. Far from oppression. You will not fear. Terror will not come near. Whoever attacks you will fail. No weapon formed shall prosper. Every tongue raised against you will be shown wrong. These aren’t slogans; they’re a blueprint for calm courage in a noisy, anxious world.

Transcript

A Hard Lesson On Humility

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Anointed. But when I got up to minister to them, I found it very difficult to minister to them because each one felt that they were the most important person in the church. Because they all had these great gifts and were highly anointed. And they thought that only when they got up to minister would anybody receive anything. And I'm thinking, I have traveled thousands of miles and I'm here to minister to you. And I can't, because you all think you have more, you're more blessed than anybody else here. And as a result, you won't listen. And I remember waking up, and I was thinking, Lord, how can I resolve this issue? What can I do about this? How should I minister? And mind you, it was in the middle of the night. I could have been in a trance, I don't know. But the realization that I had was I couldn't do anything about it. God can't do anything about it. Nothing can be done for them. And I'm thinking, what a place to be in. But there is one person who can help them. And that is themselves. Change their attitude. Ask God to make them flow in the spirit. And I realized how important it is that each of us not only have knowledge, but that we acknowledge that we don't have it all, and that we're more than willing to listen and to share what members of the body of Christ have to share. And that's what makes our ministry and our gifting so powerful. It's because we don't come across as arrogant and know it all. But what we do have and where we place and where we are in the world. The Lord is the one who exalts us. The Lord is the one who causes others to take note of what we have to say. And I'm glad to be with you all again. You must have wondered, where have I gone? And and while I'm talking about this and you online, why don't you hit the share button right now and share with others? And also go to my website, doncarpenter.ca, and hit subscribe. And that will give us greater increase in outreach. Does anybody here like getting a gift? I think most of us do. God knows that humanity loves to get gifts. And God's a giving God. And if you've got a gift from someone, it was in their heart to give. And I want to talk about the perfect gift. Birthday. We go looking for a gift for somebody's birthday. We want to give them the perfect gift. We want to give them something that is just what they've always wanted or what they talk about. Christmas, anniversary, wedding, whatever occasion it is that you give gifts. It's nice to know that you can get the perfect gift. Every gift that God gives us is life-changing. There's many gifts. Today I'm going to focus just for a few minutes on salvation, and then I'm going to talk to you about some gifts that God gives us that we have victory of. And we'll get to that in just a moment. John 3.16, 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. So God's gifts are perfect for us. It's unfortunate if we don't know that we've got a gift. I remember reading a story a number of years ago. A dad and mom gave their son a graduation gift. And when he opened the gift, inside the package was a Bible. And the young man was so mad and so upset. That's all you can give me. And he just walked out in a rage, never opened the Bible for a long time. But one day he opened the Bible. He wanted a car. He really thought his parents were going to give him a car. And when he opened the Bible, there was a key to a brand new car inside the Bible. He didn't realize the value of the gift. Jesus met a woman at a well, John 4.10, and he said to her, if you knew the gift of God, if you knew, if you just knew what all is in that. Some people think, what is in this gift that I got, his son Jesus. If you just knew, and it is our responsibility to seek and we shall find. But he said, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. If you just knew the gift of God, I'm reminded. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. We want all kinds of things, and we leave the kingdom of God many times to our dying day. It's not the way to go. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. The perfect gift. A lot of times people say, Why do I have it so hard in my life? Why is it that no matter what I touch, it seems to work against me? And I am not to judge, but let me tell you this. Sin and its wages is always death, according to Romans 6.23. Sin will mess you up big time. And when you sin, you reject Christ, you walk away from God, you find yourself messing around in the world, and you're getting in deeper and deeper. I was reading something just the other day, and they were talking about this current young generation that's now entering adulthood. And one of the things they face, one of the great things they face is loneliness. Yeah. Young people, loneliness is one of the greatest things that they face today. They're around people, they're always trying to, whatever it is they do, to be accepted because they're lonely. When I look at salvation and what has been offered to us by God Almighty, it's the one gift that will change your life forever. And will change it for good. If I could take you for a moment to James 1, chapter 1, verse 17 and 18. Here's what it says: every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Now listen to what it said. Every good gift, every perfect gift comes from above, comes from God, comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there's no variation or shadow of turning. Verse 18, of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. We are highly favored of God. Human beings, we're highly favored of God, and that's why Satan goes after us. Satan is trying to get at God, and he gets at God by getting people. He wants people. And when I think about it, that when we are in the kingdom and we know what it is to accept this gift from God, we are the first fruits of his creatures. First, we are the examples. We are highly favored. Isaiah 54, 14 is the verse that I want to focus on today. Isaiah chapter 54, and starting with verse 14 through 17. In righteousness, you shall be established. In righteousness you shall be established. That's the place of new beginnings. You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you. That is a new beginning. You will be fixed. Ezekiel chapter 40 and verse 4. And the man said to me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee. For to the intent that I might show them unto thee, art thou brought hither? Declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel. You're going to be fixed. This is this word established. That's one of the meanings of it. You're going to be prospered. We wonder why doesn't everybody get caught up with the things of God? Like, why doesn't everybody who claim that they love the Lord, why don't they want to grow and move ahead in God? Because the enemy is constantly standing in front of you trying to block your way. Because God's going to fix it for you, and God is going to prosper you in every way. One of the writers of the New Testament, John, said this, he said, prosper and be in health. I like that. Prosper and be in health. And another word for this word established means that you're going to be fashioned. When you come to the Lord, you're going to be now fixed, you're going to prosper, and you're going to be fashioned, shaped, made into his image and into his likeness. And when you can get all of this done in your life, when you come to know Jesus, a lot of things are going to start falling into place. When I read this, verse 14 of Isaiah 54, in righteousness you will be established. I want to talk to you about the six positions of inheritance. That's the power of righteousness. The six positions of inheritance that you get when you come to Jesus. God wanted to fix things for humanity. And he says, the only way I can change it around is to have the shedding of blood. And there's nowhere, nobody in humanity that can be the perfect Lamb. God became flesh. God sent a son into the world and offered this son up as a sacrifice for humanity. But this perfect gift, the power of righteousness, God says, I'm going to give it to you. We do not stand in our own righteousness. So the six positions I want to share with you is you will be far from oppression. I look at the word of God, and the word of God says that when the righteousness of God comes in my life in this perfect gift, number one, I will be far from oppression. Is there oppression around you? Of course there is. If you gave in, you could be oppressed all the time. But I'm glad that I have a sound mind. It hasn't affected me, it hasn't touched me. If it's not touching me, if it's not in my life, I'm free from it. The second one is you will not fear. God said it to me. Most things you fear never happen, never occurs. But the Bible says, you will not fear. Do you have reason to fear? Yes. Just like anybody else, I'd have reason to fear. But I'm the type of person that is God has made the way for me. God said, I'm going to look after you, I'm going to provide for you. I believe God's word. You will not fear. I think that if you find something that you're afraid of, the best way I would suggest to handle that is to ask God, take away the fear. Remind him that you are a believer, you're walking in righteousness, and you believe his word, and his word says, you will not fear. Number three, terror, T-E-R-R-O-R. Terror will not come near you. It was in Bangladesh. And there was a lot of rioting going on. And we had a hired car and a hired driver. And he got so terrorized by this mob. He turned the vehicle around and he was driving like a madman, going against all the traffic. And I'm thinking, I'd rather face the mob personally. But he was terrorized. What'd you do? We got him straightened around pretty quickly. Amen. 15th verse of Isaiah 54. Indeed, they shall surely assemble, but not because of me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. Number four, whoever attacks you will fail. Will you be under attack? Of course you'll be under attack. Demons, people, and for whatever reasons. But you know what? They're going to fail. That's the word of God that I have. And at my age, and I've gone through a lot of things, and I've had people try to attack me. I've had them come at me. I've had them threaten to kill me, to shoot me, and etc. They fail. Because that's what God's word says. Now, if you believe it, it's amazing. When you get the perfect gift, it not only satisfies, but it protects you, makes a way where there is no way. You're so blessed if you've been given the perfect gift. And if you've accepted it, you're blessed. You can expect good things. If I come under attack, I know that attack is going to fail. And all I have to do is stand, and God will make a way where there is no way. That's what you get when you walk in righteousness. Because the perfect gift includes righteousness. Isaiah 54 and 17. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord. No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper. That includes lies. That includes rumors. That includes killers and thieves. It's not going to prosper. I can't prevent anybody from saying anything nasty. Matter of fact, most times I don't even bother responding. People will say, Do you know somebody was saying this to me and they told me this about you? I said, Oh yeah. And I just walk on. I don't even bother with that. I have to decide what am I going to do in my position? Am I going to try to stop everything? The Lord fights my battles. The Lord keeps oppression from me. The Lord keeps me from being fearful. The Lord keeps terror away from me. The Lord causes all my attackers to fail. And now I know just as much as he handles all of those, any weapon that has been formed, that means organized, put together, trying to single you out, it's not going to prosper. People have already formed their opinions and they've done the same for you. God is the one who fights for you. You rest in that. Number six, every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. And that word, when it says you shall condemn, it means you will show it to be wrong. People get upset what the neighbors think of them or what somebody says about them. I can't help what the neighbors say. So let's just come to rest. Amen. It'll show that it's wrong. What did I tell you? I told you that sin will mess you up. I told you that salvation is the one gift that will change your life forever. What are you saying? I am saying that if you accept the perfect gift, your whole life is going to be enlarged. The greatest, the most perfect gift that you can have comes from God. It is perfect. For God. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. That's the perfect gift.