Making This Christmas Count
part 1
Give
the Right Gifts
by
Greg Hanson
Sunrise Wesleyan Church
November 30, 2008
Main Passage: Matthew 2:1-12 (NLT)
Well,
this is the first Sunday of Advent and Christmas will be here before
you know it. How many of you are ready for it? Anyone have all their
shopping done? Do you have your baking done? How many of you have a
to-do list so long you need a telescope to see to the end of it?
Christmas
is the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also the busiest time
of the year. And it’s easy for it to come and go, leaving you gasping
for air and wondering, “what was the point?”
Well, we want to
help you with that this year. Beginning today and for the rest of the
Sundays leading up to Christmas, we’re going to be talking about How to
Make This Christmas Count.
We’re going to talk about handling
the hectic pace of the season, we’re going to talk about understanding
what Christmas is all about in the first place, we’re going to talk
about taking in all the content, such as the music and the decorations
and the cards. We’re going to talk about all of that, but we’re going
to start today by talking about the gifts.
The passage that
Chris read for us a few minutes ago and that the puppets sang about
tells us where this whole practice of gift-giving got started. The wise
men started it all. Giving gifts, receiving gifts. We’ve taken it to a
whole new level, but it all got started with them. So you can either
thank them or blame them… that’s up to you.
As we start here, I
want to recognize a couple things about how the wise men gave their
gifts. And then we’re going to talk about some different kinds of
gifts. In your Sunrise Update this morning, you’ll find some notes you
can use to follow along and fill in the blanks. So first of all…
How were the gifts of the Wise
Men given?
A.
They were given personally.
And
that’s a significant thing here. Remember, these were wealthy people.
If Bill Gates were to ever give you a gift, for whatever reason, would
you expect him to show up at your door personally or do you think he’d
have someone else deliver it? Bill Gates doesn’t know me, he lives in
Seattle, I live in PEI… I expect that if he ever had any reason to send
me a gift he would just FedEx it to me.
Well, here you have the
Wise Men. We don’t really know much about them, but we’re pretty sure
that they were wealthy people and they traveled some distance from a
land to the east to personally deliver their gifts to the newborn
Jesus.
Actually, there’s a lot we don’t know about these Wise
Men. We don’t even know if they were wise. I mean, they’ve been called
kings, they’ve been called Magi, they’ve been called astronomers or
astrologers, they’ve even been called magicians or sorcerers… but Wise
Men seems to be the most common and most accurate.
And we don’t
know how many of them there were. The popular Christmas carol says “We
Three Kings”, but all we really know is that there were three gifts.
Maybe it was like a wedding where a lot of people showed up giving the
same gifts. You know, a couple toasters, three or four blenders, nine
bottles of Myrrh.
We’re told they came from the East. But what’s
to the East? [PowerPoint] Maybe they came from Iran, or Syria, or maybe
even India. A lot of people think they came from Iraq, which is
certainly possible. The Israelites of the Old Testament had spent time
in captivity in the area of modern-day Iraq, so maybe these Wise Men
were familiar with the prophecies about Jesus and they were watching
for a sign.
In fact, one of the oldest Christian communities in
the world is found in Iraq. They’ve been there for nearly 2000 years,
so maybe the Wise Men took news about Jesus back with them and paved
the way for the Jesus’ message of hope and forgiveness to be received
there.
The point is, they came from some distance away. But why?
I mean, they could have sent the gifts. They could have been delivered
by the Camel Express. But they didn’t. They took it upon themselves to
personally deliver the gifts.
In fact, when you read this story, the personal part kind of pops out
at you. Look at verse 2… Read it aloud with me.
Matthew 2:2 (NLT)
We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
Matthew 2:10 (NLT)
“When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!”
Matthew 2:11 (NLT)
They
entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they
bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests
and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Each of them presented their gift personally.
B.
They were given with joy.
Do
you remember when you were a kid and you were invited to a birthday
party so your parents went out and bought a gift and wrapped it up for
you to give but you really wanted to keep it for yourself so they just
kind of forced you to carry it in pushed you from behind until you
stepped up and finally, grudgingly, just tossed the gift over and said,
“here!” What, is nobody else as dysfunctional as me?
Well, the
gifts of the wise men were properly given. I mean, they were more than
just gifts in a box. It was more than just gold, Frankincense and
Myrrh. Take another look at verse 11…
Matthew 2:11 (NLT)
They
entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they
bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests
and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
They each gave their gift with worship and adoration and honour and
praise to Jesus.
Now,
when you think about Christmas and the gifts we give, there are really
three different kinds of gifts we give. Here they are. The first is…
Kinds of gifts we give at
Christmastime:
1.
The “gift for a gift” gift.
You
know what I’m talking about. Every one of us has done this before. It’s
the “gift for a gift” gift. Basically, what the gift for a gift, gift
is, is that we get a gift from somebody and so we kind of figure out
how much it was and so we go down to Wal*Mart or Zellers or wherever
and we buy a gift for them of about the same kind of price and it’s a
“gift for a gift” gift. Hey, I’ve been there and so have you. I expect
every one of us has given a “gift for a gift” gift.
Now, the
characteristic about a “gift for a gift” gift, gift is, the person who
does this keeps a long mental picture of what that value of that gift
was. Have you ever heard anybody say, “Oh, yeah. I got them something
real nice and they didn’t get me anything in return.” They’re keeping
score. They keep accounts. This approach feeds the cash registers of
our department stores. And you know what, every Christmas Eve there are
thousands of people rushing out to Christmas stores quickly because
they just got a “gift for a gift” gift and they’ve got to go out and
get a “gift for a gift” gift for that person. Happens every year.
2.
The “now you owe me” gift.
The
thing about a person who gives this gift is that they’re not looking
for a gift in return, but they’re going to call in the favour someday.
They’re going to expect you to do some nice things for them.
This
is the kind of person that loves to have IOUs out there. A lot of
businesses do this. At the end of the year, they give their employees a
ham or a turkey, or a cash bonus or something. They don’t expect the
employee to turn around and give them a turkey in return, although that
would be pretty funny. No, they don’t do that. But they give you the
gift, and they pretty much say, “Okay, I don’t expect a gift back but I
do expect you to, well, work hard and keep your mouth shut, be a good
employee, be nice, be positive. Be smart. You know, just don’t get into
any trouble.” And then about March, if you slack off or say something
nasty about them, they say, “Didn’t we give them a turkey last
Christmas?”
We’ve all done that before. We’ve given gifts
before and we didn’t really expect to get back but, we did expect to
have some kind of a little favor down the road sometime somewhere. I
see this in marriages all the time. Hey, I’ve done it. It’s when you
give a gift to your spouse or you just do something nice for them, and
then you figure they owe you. “They’d better not complain about me
leaving my dirty socks on the floor, I gave them flowers.” Or, “They’d
better not ask me to take out the garbage, I just did the dishes.”
That’s
the “now you owe me” kind of gift. But there’s a third kind of gift,
and it the kind of gift that the wise men teach us about. It’s what
we’re going to call…
3.
The “no strings attached” gift.
These
Wise Men came to Jesus and they gave Him very expensive gifts of gold,
incense and myrrh (which was used in expensive perfumes and oils). And
they presented these gifts to Jesus… who when He was born was laid in a
manger full of hay because he didn’t have a proper crib. They gave the
gifts to the illegitimate son of a teenage girl and a carpenter. They
gave these gifts to a child and to a family that had nothing to give
them in return. At least, not that they knew about. As far as they
knew, there was no way their gifts could ever be repaid, and they
weren’t asking for them to be.
That’s the very best kind of gift
to give. That’s the kind of gift that flows from pure generosity and
not from selfish ambitions. That’s the kind of gift that’s really a
gift.
Of course, the best example I can give of this kind of
gift is the gift of salvation that God gives us through His grace.
Check this out…
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
For it is by grace you
have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.
Salvation is
a gift of God’s grace. It’s a gift that we don’t work for and we can’t
work for… and we can never, ever, repay it. The gift of God’s Son that
first Christmas, the life He gave for you and for me, and the hope of
salvation and eternal life that are offered to us because of what He
did… all of that is a free gift that we don’t deserve, we can’t earn,
and we can never repay.
You and I can never repay and we can
never match the gift He gave. It’s a free gift that He offers to us,
and all we can do is accept it. We can never repay Him.
But what
we can do is learn from His example. What we can do is learn from the
example of the Wise Men. What we can do is pass on that kind of
generosity to others.
So let’s look at five things that we can learn from these Wise Men
about giving…
The Wise Men Teach Us To…
1.
Give an unexpected gift.
You
see, no one would expect these wise men to give gifts. I mean, they’re
not Jews. They have nothing invested in this. All they have done is
study the skies.
Now, you might expect Herod to be there. I
mean, He had as much information available to Him as the Wise Men did
about the upcoming birth of Jesus. His own advisers were able to tell
him that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. And even if he wasn’t
watching for the birth, when he found out it had occurred don’t you
think he would have gone to see for himself?
But no. Totally
unexpected, these wise men from a far off country showed up when the
local leader couldn’t be bothered. Nobody would have ever expected that
three Magi would come and work their way, for literally weeks and
months to the place where Jesus was born just to bring Him gifts. No
one expected that.
And that’s the way it is with the best gifts.
The best gifts are unexpected gifts. Maybe you’ve experienced a gift
like that. Maybe there’s been somebody that’s done something for you in
your life… maybe recently or maybe a long way back. But you know how
meaningful that kind of a gift is.
Who can you give an
unexpected gift to? Maybe it’s the kind of gift you can put in a box
and wrap up, maybe it’s the kind of gift that you do something for
them… whatever gift it is, who can you give an unexpected gift to?
In
fact, in your notes I have a little place in there for you to put a
name. You need to think of somebody and you need to say, “This year I’m
going to do something for them that’s going to come clear out of the
blue for them. I mean, they’re not going to expect anything from me.
And when they get it it’s just going to be a gift. And I mean, it’s
just going to be me doing something for somebody and I expect nothing
in return. I’m not looking for them to give me a gift, I’m not looking
for them to owe me something, it’s just a grace gift… I want to bless
them. And they wouldn’t ever expect me to give this to them.”
The best gifts that you ever received and some of the best gifts I ever
received were those unexpected gifts.
The second thing we learn from the wise men is to…
2.
Give with genuine delight.
When
the Wise Men found the place where Jesus was, they were so excited. The
Bible says they were filled with joy! And then they went inside and
they gave their gifts, they did it with such joy. They could hardly
wait to give their gifts… to Jesus Himself.
“Giving with a
glad and generous heart has a way of rooting out the tough old miser
within us. Even the poor need to know that they can give. Just the very
act of letting go of money, or some other treasure does something
within us. It destroys the demon, greed.”
~ Richard Foster, from Money, Sex & Power
Isn’t that true? When you give freely and joyfully, that money loses
its control over you.
And
you know what? I’ve seen many of you give with this kind of joy. Even
over the past couple of weeks, as you’ve come in carrying your
shoeboxes, you’ve been so excited about the opportunity to give with no
expectation of anything in return. [For those of you who don’t know,
every year we collect shoeboxes filled with gifts to be distributed to
needy children all over the world…] Some of you make it a family
project, and I think that’s tremendous. As 2 Corinthians 9:7 says…
2 Corinthians 9:7 (NLT)
“For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”
[Note:
this passage is specifically about tithing, but this is a quote from
Proverbs 22:8 (included in the Greek, but not all English versions)
simply about generosity]
3.
Give a gift that’s personal.
Now,
we’ve already talked about how the Wise Men gave their gifts in person.
But in addition to that, their gifts were personal. Now, I know the
gifts weren’t exactly a pair of socks, a family portrait, or a
hand-made craft. But I think they were still personal. I mean, they
were gifts that probably reflected who they were, and they were gifts
fit for the newborn King.
Now, let me tell on my dad. My dad is
very generous, he loves to give gifts, but he’s not always the best at
choosing them. In fact, at Christmas time he doesn’t choose them. He
gives my sister some money to go out and buy gifts for him to give to
my mother.
Now, to be fair, my dad works hard, he’s a truck
driver and doesn’t really spend a whole lot of time at home and it
would be difficult for him to go out and shop for a gift himself. Plus,
he has questionable taste, so maybe this arrangement isn’t such a bad
idea…
But for most of us, I wouldn’t recommend anything like
that. Instead, I’d say “make your gifts personal.” Make your gifts if
you can. Or if you buy them, put some thought into them. The gifts I
remember the most and that I treasure the most are not necessarily the
most expensive… they’re the sweaters knit by my great-grandmother that
I know took hours and hours to make, they’re the home movies sent to me
when I was living out west and away from home, they’re the gifts that
indicate that the giver really thought about who I am and what I would
enjoy. So give something personal.
4.
Give gifts that will endure.
The
story of the wise men has been told now for two thousand years, but
people still know about them and the gifts they gave. That’s a pretty
good record.
Give a gift that will endure. And you know, you
can’t just go out and buy one of those gifts. Those gifts wear out.
They break, they get lost. But there are a couple gifts I want to
mention that you can give and they will last forever.
•
Good memories.
Nothing like giving the gift of memories. Make sure this Christmas that
you do some things that will create memories.
For
me, my memories are things like our Family Christmas Eve Gathering. I
remember how as a kid, all of my family would gather at my
grandparent’s home… thirty or forty of us… and we’d have a great time
together. There was always an incredible table of food… I always loved
the baked bean… everyone had fun catching up, and all my cousins and I
would play hide-and-seek in their basement. And then it’d climax as we
all gathered around my Great-grandmother’s chair to listen to her read
the Christmas story from the Bible.
Another highlight for me is
our Christmas Eve service. I always enjoy the music and the reflection,
and finishing it off with the candlelighting. That’s a very special
time for me. And it’s a memory I keep with me from year to year.
I
took Nate to see the Santa Claus parade last night. His very first
parade. He wasn’t that into it this year, but I’m looking forward to
that becoming a great tradition and a great memory for us.
Listen,
great memories last. For your kids, for your spouse, for your friends,
for your parents, great memories last. Spend your time making memories
with the people that you love. Those memories are worth a lot more and
last a lot longer than anything you can buy.
•
Godly heritage.
A godly heritage will bless you and your family for generations. that’s
what the Bible teaches us.
Exodus 20:6 (NLT)
“But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who
love me and obey my commands.”
You
parents, pay attention to this. Live God-pleasing lives. … lives that
will impact your children and your children’s children and your
children’s children’s children. That doesn’t just mean that you go to
church. It means that you live our your faith. It means that you trust
God’s leadership in your life. It means you put Him first in your time
and in your passion and in your finances. It means that you let go of
addictions and habits and actions that dishonour God and instead you
strive to live a life that does honour Him. It means you love God with
everything you’ve got and you pass on His love to others.
I
personally have a long Christian heritage that I am more grateful for
every year. I can’t imagine how my life would be different if my
parents or my grandparents or my great-grandparents or my
great-great-grandparents had turned their backs on God. I am who I am,
in no small measure, because of the Godly heritage I enjoy.
Now,
some of you don’t have that kind of a background. Some of you may be
the first believers in your family. Well, you have a great opportunity.
You can start this kind of heritage yourself. Leave a Godly heritage
for your children.
Let me say one more thing about giving before I wrap this thing up. The
last thing I would say about gifts is:
5.
Give that gift now.
Those
wise men. They weren’t about to go back home until they got those gifts
to Jesus. They pressed through opposition. They pressed through time.
I’m sure they got discouraged. I’m sure people said, “Turn back. You’re
never going to find Him.” And I’m sure they said, “No, we want to give
our gifts now.” The saddest thing in life is to see people at a funeral
look at their loved ones and wish for one day back where they could say
something or do something. Give that gift now.
Just yesterday, I
was sitting in our living room, working away on my laptop, when Nate
pulled himself over to my chair and started biting my knee. I’m getting
used to that, really. Anyway, I was deep in thought… or at least as
deep as I get… and it wasn’t the most convenient time, but I looked
down at him and realized he was just looking for some attention. So I
set my laptop down, and I picked him up, and I gave him that attention.
And it was then that I also discovered I needed to change his diaper…
The
point is, I was tempted to put it off. I was tempted to ignore him
until it was more convenient for me. But I had a gift… a gift of love
and attention… that I needed to give to my son, and I realized, “I need
to give that gift now.”
That letter that you should have
written, that phone call you should make. This afternoon, go make it.
Go give a hug. Go share your love. Whatever gift you have to give, give
it now.
Now don’t misunderstand me… I’m not saying to go home
and open all your Christmas gifts today. I’m not talking about those
kinds of gifts. I’m talking about those special kinds of gifts… those
gifts that create those good memories and a Godly heritage… gifts of
love, gifts of compassion, gifts of attention, gifts of encouragement,
gifts of serving, gifts of togetherness… those kinds of gifts that are
so easy to put off. Give them now.
Give the right gift. If you want to make this Christmas count, then
you’ve got to give the right kinds of gifts.
Next
week, we’re going to move on to talk about overcoming the hectic pace
that so many of us get caught up in during the Christmas season. So if
you’re like me and you often find yourself trying to do too much and
getting all stressed out because of all the busyness of Christmas, then
you’ll want to be here next week.
[Adapted primarily from material by John
Maxwell and Stan Toler]
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