Matthew, Matthew's book, chapter number two. Matthew, chapter number two. Amen. Matthew, chapter number two. Matthew chapter number 2. Amen. Stand, please, for reading a portion of the Word of God. Amen. See what God will help us with. Amen. Here tonight, get our mind on the things of God. Amen. Amen. Matthew chapter number 2 and verse number 1. Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. He's approximately two years old or closer to two years old. Jesus is when they get there. And he's still a little baby. Amen. Saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star. in the east and came to worship Him. Amen. And so they said they seen a star and they said come to the east and they come to worship Him. Amen. Now look over at verse number 10 for me. Verse number 10 because it talks about them going for Him and we heard how to say. Verse number 10, and when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. Boy, I like to have that kind of joy every now and then. It helps me. Hallelujah. And it does. You can have joy. You're saved if you listen to God. and be faithful to God, do what he says do, you can have joy, great joy. And when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child, see the young child. There he is with Mary, his mother. Now, amen. That young child, I don't know what he was doing. I don't know, amen. He's like, how old is your youngest boy there, brother? Chris, how old is your youngest boy? Four. Well, he's smaller than that then. He's two years old. Oh, yeah, that little cute baby there. She's cute as a button, ain't she? Amen. I'm telling you, she's so cute, she looks like a puppet laying underneath the porch, I'm telling you. Amen. Amen. Well, so at two years old, well, amen, they saw him possibly that way. And the Bible says here, he was marrying his mother and fell down. and worshiped him. Amen. Yes, sir. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Amen. Amen. Father, I pray in Jesus' name, may you add to the message. I pray that you would help us tonight. Lord, I need thee. I pray, Lord, that your work in hearts and lives tonight and help us to worship Jesus and we'll thank thee and praise you for that and while we'll give you all the glory for in Jesus holy name we pray to the glory of God amen and amen you may be seated so we see here the birth of the Lord that I was some wise man Amen. And my wise people always seek Jesus. They remember that. Amen. Wise people seek Jesus. Amen. And so they were told how far away they were, but they don't read a lot in the scriptures, the word of God. And they knew that the word of God spoke about a star was going to shine. Amen. About the birth of Christ. So they lived where they was at. Amen. They traveled that distance after that star appeared. Amen. I believe the star appeared when Jesus was born. Amen. A bright star appeared. That's where the shepherds, they was out in the field. I may read that a little bit later. He's out in the field. Amen, brother, and they saw that star, and the angels, amen, spoke to them, so they went in where they had the star, amen, and Jesus was born that night, hallelujah, or morning, or whatever. Amen, my brother's friends, so then these wise men from some far off, I know the Bible don't say, but they had to travel there, and it's approximately two years, amen, when they got there, So they went to worship Him. They worshipped Jesus and they worshipped Him. So they presented some gifts to Jesus. Gold and frankincense and myrrh. So when they came in, they fell down and worshipped the Lord Jesus Christ. but they gave an offering. Amen. You get that? Hallelujah. I believe you get an offering, don't you? Amen. Amen. They gave an offering unto Him when they bowed down to Him. Amen. Now, I want to preach on this thought for a few moments. The Lord helped me tonight on some gifts to give to our Lord Jesus. Some gifts that he would be appreciated. He gave himself. For heaven the Father gave him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Amen. Then Jesus gave himself to Calvary and the sufferings of Calvary. And so that you and I could be saved by the grace of God. And we could have his salvation and his righteousness in our hearts and our souls today. So he gave. But wait a minute. We brought this in my mind because this is gift giving time. This is gift giving time. So we got some gifts we can give Jesus. There are some gifts we need to give Jesus, amen. I want you to turn over to Psalms 96. Turn over to Psalms 96, amen. There are some gifts you can give Jesus, amen. I can give Jesus that Jesus is pleased with, amen, with those gifts, amen. Psalms 96, Psalms 96, amen. Excuse me, my throat is gray as it can be. Psalms 96, the Bible says in verse number one, oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord, all the earth, and then God will raise up a songwriter that'll write us a new song. Amen. And I'm not against that. I'm for that, especially if he's a dedicated man. Amen. Amen. Amen. Dedicated things of God. He can write songs about Jesus. She can write songs about Jesus. Amen. Sing unto the Lord. Bless his name. Show forth his salvation from day to day. Hallelujah. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wisdom among all people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods, all other gods that it can be. And our nation today is caught up with the god of sports, one kind of another. Amen, amen. They make that their god instead of God being their god. Amen, they certainly do. For all the gods of the nations are idols. All the things they might have, might be fishing, it might be hunting, it might be some kind of ball play, and it could be going up to the mountains, anywhere, anything else on the Lord's day, instead of being in the house on the Lord's day. That's a God. You put another God before you when you go do something other than worshiping the Lord on the Lord's Day. Amen. Yes, sir. Very well. Amen. Look at what he says. And all the gods of the nations. Amen. All idols. God said all idols. Amen. But the Lord maketh the heavens Honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Right now, here's the first one. Here's the first gift you can give God. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give to Him, realize He has all glory and He has all strength. He has all glory to have on strength. You give that to the Lord. You surrender that, your power, your strength, your wisdom, you give to the Lord, amen. All glory, amen, and strength, you give that to God. He has all glory. He's gonna have all strength. He has it today, and He's gonna prove to this universe, to every person that's on it, that He is, ALL STRENGTH AND IN CONTROL OF ALL STRENGTH! Amen. He's in control of all strength. Amen. So you give that to Him. Now, if you give that to Him, then that glory and strength don't belong to you no more. Amen. It don't belong to you. You give Him glory for being saved. You give Him glory for the breath you breathe. You give Him the glory to be able to think, you give him the glory that you're still able to enjoy food, you give him the glory for everything. If I could use verbs and adverbs and all those things, amen, I could go all night on things you can give him glory for. Amen. Well, amen. So that's the first one. Here's a Psalm. Psalm said, in verse number seven, give unto the Lord all you kindreds of the people. Now, who is that? That's me and you. All you kindreds of the people. That's even folks in Oklahoma. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. But amen. And give unto the Lord glory and strength. So twice he says that in that one verse. Something you can give God. God will be more pleased with that in your life. Amen. Other things that you could do. Look at verse number eight, we see another one. We see another gift you can give the Lord. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. It's due. It should be. Why? Because He died to praise for you and save you. You ought to give Him glory for that. Amen. Thank God you ought to have it in your heart every time you have an opportunity at the house of God. Jump up, thank God. And so I'm glad I'm saved. Give him the glory for it. Amen. Yes, sir. And give him the praise for it. Yes, sir. Oh, yes, sir. Now, I got saved. I was so happy. Old George and old Ben saved. I didn't know. Amen, boy, it was so good. He saved. I thought praising him would be whatever I thought was real exciting to me. So I just jumped up and hollered, hot dog, hot dog, hot dog. Amen. Well, I finally learned to say hallelujah, and amen, and glory, amen. But amen, what it is, it's better than a hot dog. Hallelujah, yes sir, amen. Oh, yes sir, thank God, it sure is. Amen, so give him glory. Here's a gift you can give God for Christmas. Here's a gift you can give God, glory and strength. Glory and strength is what you can give God. You can give him that. Amen. Praise Him for that. You give Him glory and strength. Amen. So we see here His two lows. He says in verse number nine, Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before Him and all the earth. Hey, amen. A gift you can give God is presenting a body unto Him that's holy. Amen. He's striving for holiness. It gives a gift to God. He wants that. Jesus wants that. Amen. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth, and the world also shall be established, that it shall not be moved. He shall judge the people righteously. So we see some things we can give God in Psalm 96 that God will be pleased with. Amen. Yes, sir. And look over in Psalm 97 and verse 12. Amen. 97 and verse 12. Now, amen. Here's one you ought not to be shy about. Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. Hey, it's His holiness in you. It's His salvation in you. Amen. It's His strength in you. Hallelujah. Thank God. Your sins are rolled away because of Him. Amen. Because of Jesus. You can give Him that. He'll give you breath. You can talk about everything. Amen, you can talk about everything else. Well, take time and rejoice in Jesus. Rejoice in that. Rejoice in what He can give you, what He gave you. Rejoice in Him. Thank God. Yes, sir. I thank the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. You are righteous and give thanks at the remembrance. God give you a mind to remember. Amen. Aren't you glad when you think about something you've done when you was weak and it's gone away? Aren't you? Aren't you thankful? Amen. Hallelujah. Amen. I am. Oh, I certainly am. Sometimes I think that some people didn't get sorry enough for their sins as I did before God. Of course, they don't give Him much glory. Amen. Give Him glory and praise and give Him honor. Yes, sirree. So that's another gift you can give God. Look in Psalms 136. 136. Psalms 136. Psalms 136. Amen. Amen. Amen. Yes, sirree. Look at verse number one. Give thanks. That's a gift. Give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good." How good is God? You want me to tell you how I feel? We got to see God so good. We got a church. We got a building. That's all right. You're the church. Born-again, blood-washed children of God. And some of you, man, don't want to love it enough to be faithful to it when you could be. Amen. You could be faithful. I'd not let, I'd not let nobody, if my children were to visit me and come over and said, we need to do something on Sunday. I said, no, we ain't going to do it. If you're going to do what you want to do, well, I need you to go. You ain't going to talk me out of being in the house of God on Sunday. Amen. This is something God's given. I'm thankful for the people that God gives me. I get to preach to. Oh, Herbert Williamson, it ain't worth falling off the log. I'm telling you, amen, but here I am. Got a little congregation of people. And seeing God's blessing and bringing people in, amen. I don't deserve that. I'm telling you the truth, man. I'm not trying to blow no smoke. I'm telling you the truth from my heart. I'm telling you the truth from my heart. Amen. I preach some things. Sometimes I preach, I say, oh God, but I have to preach it. You come in on Sunday, you like to be lifted up and praised up and strengthened up. God put something in my heart like I'm trying to pull the hair out of your head. I have to preach it. I have to preach it. God, you'll turn around and love me for it. Amen. Tell me, that's right, you'll do that. Amen. Well, give thanks unto the Lord for what? He is good. Amen. Isn't that good? He is good. Amen. He's so good he loved you. Hallelujah. He loved me. Hallelujah. He's so good he loved you. He loved me. My life was filled with a lot of filth and stuff. ungodliness, and he picked me up, hallelujah, out of that muck and mire, hallelujah, thank God with his strength, he picked me up out of that muck and mire that I was in, set my feet on a solid rock, established my glory, hallelujah, Glory to God, hallelujah. Yes, sir, there's something to shout about here. Yes, I give him glory. Yes, I praise him. He tried to destroy my marriage. I'm telling you everything he could. He tried to destroy me and turn my back on God. Oh, he's a wicked devil here, but thank God I got a great savior. Amen. I've got a great Savior that's got strength. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for His good, for His mercy, and do it forever. Whoo! He's had mercy with me for 50-some years. Mercy! His mercy. Watch verse number two. Oh, give thanks unto the God of gods. He is the God of gods. Give thanks for that. He's the God of gods for His mercy. He'll have mercy tomorrow. But if I do fail him, I'll bow my head and fall to him and say, Lord, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fail you or give him a shot at you. Lord, have mercy with me. Yes, and my blood's taking care of that. Amen, hallelujah. His blood takes care of that failure and that shall come that we have in our life, and then it makes for joy in our heart, and then we can rejoice again, hallelujah. As one preacher put it, the birds start singing again. Amen, yessiree. Ah, yessiree. So there it is. Look at verse number three. Oh, give thanks. To the Lord of lords, for his mercy endures forever. Amen. Thank God. Thank God. Amen. Look over at verse 26. Verse number 26 of that chapter. Look at verse number two. Oh, give thanks unto the God of heaven for his mercy endueth forever. He's the God of heaven. He's the God of the universe. Amen. He created and made everything. And boy, then he would have mercy with a worm like me, mercy like a failure like me. He have mercy with me. Yes, sir. Oh, yessiree, amen, yessiree, amen. So glory and strength. Due unto his name, we saw over in verse 8, an offering came unto his courts, amen, an offering came to him. And I said, you know how you give an offering to God? You give it to the church. That's his word. Amen. You bring an offering unto God, to the house of God, a mission offering back yonder, and me an offering to operate the expenses of the church. This is His business. Amen. If you call on the call, it's His business. But He's chosen you and me to take care of it. The financial need to keep the lights on. The financial need to keep the heat on. The financial need to keep the air conditioning going. And then we have a little bit left over. Somebody have a need, we'll try to help them and sometimes even take up an offering for them. Amen. Yes, sir. But that's God's. You see, we don't need no frankincense. He's well aware enough of all that stuff. We don't need no more. Amen. Amen. I'm telling you, see, it's like they bought that, of course, for his normal, his body. Amen. It's what they bought it for, for that child. But in a way, amen. But we do need finances. We do need finances. And so you ought to get in the business of supporting the need of the finances. If you don't have a dollar, Amy, give her a dollar. Thank God. Amy, that's how I got involved giving to missions. I started off with one dollar and I asked the Lord, I said, Lord, if you'll let me have more that I can give, I'll give it to you. And he's done it down through the years. He's built it, built it, built it, built it, built it. Amen, amen, amen. Now here I am, me and my wife. At an old age, you said, well, Preacher, you ought to be. I support missions in two churches, my home church and this church. Amen. I give an offering to my home church back in Kentucky, where I'm a member of, and I give an offering to this church. And I'll give a good offering at any time, some coming along. Amen. God will bless me for it. I ain't never give a dime to God, then bring it back to me somewhere. Amen. If I see somebody I think could use a little help, and prolong them a little way, I give them something. Amen, my beloved friend. Why? Because God blesses giving! Amen. God bless his giving. If that'll ever get in your heart, ring in your heart, you'll receive some. Well, watch it. Oh, give. God, now here's some things I'm giving you tonight. You can give God for Christmas. Amen. You can give to him. Amen. To that local church. Amen. Yes, hooray. Amen. Amen. Well, amen. Amen. I want you to do it. Look at Psalms 119. Psalms 119. Turn back a page or two. Psalm 119. Psalms 119. Amen. Look at verse 33. Amen. Psalms 119, 33 and 34. Here it is again. You know what? Give me understanding. Oh, that's what I need. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law. Lord, if you'll teach me that law, I'll try my best to keep it. Not to go to heaven, I do it because I am a child of God, and I love Him. I love Him, and I do it because I love Him. I'm not trying to keep a law, be holy to go to heaven. I do it because I love Jesus. Amen. Give me understanding, Oh, give me understanding, Lord, and I shall keep thy law. Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. I'll observe it, Lord, if you'll give me understanding to understand your law. And I'm not talking about the ceremonial law, but the laws of holiness, the commandments of holiness, what God has pleased with in my life. Oh, if you'll give me strength, Lord, and give me understanding to understand that, I'll surely try to keep it. You can give it to God. Amen. That song we sing, Surrender All. It's all surrendered unto Him. Amen, that's how that comes about. Yes, that's how it comes about. Amen, give me that understanding. He said in verse 33, to teach me, O Lord, thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. I'll keep it as long as I live. Lord, help me to have it. Look at verse 73. Look at verse 73. Amen, 73. The Word of God says, amen. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me and give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments. You know what I had to have when I got saved? I had to have understanding. And I grabbed the Scripture and grabbed that Scripture and I clung to it. And then I started to get an understanding that this is what God wants me so I can be obedient to Him. Amen. Yes, sir. Amen. Amen. Watch what verse 74 says. They that fear thee will be glad. You'll get some when they see me because I have hope in thy word. And I won't be glad when I see him. Amen. I like I'm like I go, Joe. Joe said, Oh, when I come, I come see him. I'll be lacking to him. Yes, sir. I'll be like unto him. I won't heal. Yes, sir. Won't anything. Yes. I won't him look at 125 verse 125 and verse 125 Verse 125, I am thy servant, give me understanding, give me understanding, Lord, that I may know thy testimonies. Give me understanding. Oh, look how much David is praying for understanding. battles going on in you with you and the devil. And I might preach on that Sunday. Amen. I'm working on me now. But it's because you understand that it's the devil on you. It's the devil trying to destroy you. If you don't understand that, you're not going to see God. But there's a helper in God. There's a helper in Jesus. Amen. Yes, sir. Amen. Amen. Yes, it is. And amen. He says, Thy servant, give me understanding that I may know thy testimony." And every saved person in this building is a servant to Jesus Christ. You're a servant to Jesus Christ. The pastor has a little bit higher call on his life that you have, but you are called to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, you certainly are. You're called to be a servant. Amen, amen. Well, let's see, hey, where am I at? 124. Oh, across the page, 144. The righteous of thy testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding. Give me understanding of your testimonies, Lord, how you'll take care of me, how you'll live through me, how you'll help me, and I shall live it. I shall live. I shall live. Amen. I want to be there. I want to be living of God, and when you get around people and the show, and they won't like you because you're living for God. Amen. The automatic family people turn against you, go against you. These things we can give God. Look over 169. 169. Look over there at 169. Amen. The Bible says, my soul hath kept thy testimonies. I love them exceedingly, and I love them exceedingly. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies for all my ways are before thee. Amen. Amen. I read 68. Let me get to 69. Let my cry come near before thee, O Lord. Give me understanding according to thy word. Let my supplications come before thee. Deliver me according to thy word. Hallelujah. My lips shall utter praise, then that hath taught me thy statures. My tongue shall speak of thy word, and all thy commandments of righteousness, that thine hand Come help me. Oh, I have chosen thy priest. You have to choose to serve God. You have to make it up in your mind. I'm going to serve God. If you don't, you're not going to serve God. You'll be a halfway Christian. You'll be a halfway church member. You ain't going to serve God unless it's settled in your heart and you've settled it in your heart. I'm going with God. Amen. How sweet a home can be when the husband and the wife both are dedicated unto God to serve Him. Man, it's like a little bit of heaven on this earth. When the dad and the mother and the children come along, get saved, and they live for God, hey, that's a little bit of heaven on this earth. Yes, it is. Yeah, watch what he said. Where am I at? I forgot somewhere. Well, I'll pick up at 174. 174. I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord, for thy love is like my delight. Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee. Oh, let thy judgments help me." When he judges you, they say, Lord, thank you, help you. I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek thy servants, for I do not forget thy commandments. You'll go astray, that's what the devil wants you to do. Go astray. David went astray. Man sought after God, his own heart. He wants to pray. Amen. Yes, sir. And he says, oh, God. and cried over that. David was a mighty man of God, used of God in a mighty way after he, when he, after he got right. Judge Israel was a mighty man, but he never forgot how he failed God. He never forgot it. I failed God several places in my life, and I've never forgotten, and God has forgiven me, but I never have forgotten to God like I ought to have been. Yes, sir. Greased my heart today. I was so foolish. I'm glad he's so merciful and gracious, God. He turned around and forgave me and called me and put me in the ministry. If I could sing tonight, I would sing, oh, what a Savior is mine. I don't know if you ever heard that song or not. It talks about Bethlehem. Judah talks about that. That's it. Oh, what a savior is mine. Oh, I tell you. Y'all son of a, y'all, y'all, On the close of this, Romans, amen, chapter number 6 and verse 23. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, the gift of God, you get that? The gift of God is eternal life. Ways of sin is death there. Often, and a person in this building like to rejoice about death. Amen. Coming. I'm talking about, amen. You rejoice in Jesus at death, but you don't rejoice in death. Amen. In a way that is talking about here in a worldly way. Oh, well, little friend, look at I Corinthians, chapter number 13. I Corinthians, chapter number 13. I said 1 Corinthians, didn't I? Yes, I did. And I'm right. 1 Corinthians in chapter 13, and look at verse 13. It talks about all the things that's good that you ought to strive for in life. But look at down to verse number 13. Now, a bond, faith, hope, charity, these three. But the greatest of these is charity. That charity means a love for Jesus. A love for Jesus, then you express. You have love in your heart of Jesus, it'll come out for your friends and your people and your home. with if you have that love in Jesus. His salvation, his cross, and our home in heaven. Oh, yes, he gives. He gives his salvation. He gave his cross, died for you and me. He gave his salvation. Amen. Clean and pure and holy. And then he's going to give us a home in heaven. Oh, won't it be wonderful there? Oh, won't it be wonderful there? Amen. Amen. It's going to be wonderful, children. God, I tell you, that ought to make you want to serve him and serve him, yes, sir, and serve him. Amen. Thank you. Hallelujah. Well, I'm done all but all I can do tonight is try to get you all to get happy. If you ain't happy, it ain't my fault. Hallelujah. All right, stand to your feet. And maybe somebody want to come in. The Bible says surrender yourself to the Lord. I give myself. I read about the little boy. Came down to the altar and got the offering page and laid it down in front of the church and got over in it. And the pastor says, son, what are you doing? He said, I don't have much, so I'm just going to give myself. I don't have nothing to give. I just want to give myself. Won't you give him tonight? Won't you yield to him? You would never be sorry to totally give yourself unto the Lord. And you might need to come tonight and say, Lord, here I am, places I'm at, where I ought to be with you. Help me, Lord. I pray for your help. You're not saved. You're not made in no profession of faith, and you're not trusting Jesus to take you to heaven. You know it in your heart, and you have to be a good knight to get saved, give gift to gift of salvation for this Christmas, and certainly would. Amen for Christmas. Amen. All right. Amen. Oh, it's bearing ice cold. Order first.