We are catching into this spirit of giving at Christmas - the world says it’s the season of giving.
• And it means of buying too, because without buying there won’t be any giving.
• You see that all around you. When I opened my mailbox a few days ago after my trip, it was jam-packed with mails. There were many colourful, glossy booklets – some from shopping malls, some from credit card companies - informing you of all the great Christmas discounts you can get.
• Banks are offering you interest-free loans so that you can lend to buy.
• Go to the malls and you’ll see that many items are already gift-packed for you, nicely packaged as gifts. You just need to buy and give. No wrapping needed, no wrapping papers needed.
• We see that here, we see that in Italy, France, in our tour.
• People are into this buying craze in order to give.
Yes, Christmas is all about giving - BUT it’s a giving of a life.
• Christ gave Himself to a world lost in sin.
• Being in very nature God, yet did not consider equality with God something to hold on to.
• He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
• He humbled himself, even to the point of death – and not a simple death, but shameful and torturous one on the cross!
Christ did not give us something. He gave us Himself.
• “For unto us a CHILD is born, unto us a SON is given.”
• Christmas is all about the giving of a PERSON!
• Our lives have been changed because SOMEONE gave Himself, and sacrificed.
As I was pondering this – the fact that the world is so caught up by the giving of things - we as Christians are called to offer our lives to God.
• Rom 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.”
• Worship is more than just the offering up something to God; it is the offering of our selves to God.
• Jesus wasn’t impressed by the rich that brought in lots of money, but by the poor widow that gave two coins – her life’s savings.
• It is not burnt offerings and sacrifices that God is delighted in but our obedience to Him. (cf. 1 Sam 15:22) Samuel told King Saul.
If we are called to be like Jesus, then Christmas forces us to confront this truth:
• God wants us to offer our lives to Him so that His will can be accomplished.
• That was what Jesus did.
It is the giving of ourselves, not just things that God wants.
• God does not really need our things, He needs us. He calls people, not things.
• He called Abraham; He called Moses; He called Samuel; He called Mary; He called John the Baptist (he Bible says, he "was a man sent from God.” (John 1:6)
• We see God providing the things: Food, water, land, flock, harvest… but He calls the man.
The world has made Christmas a season of giving, which is good.
• But we have to go beyond that – beyond the ‘once-in-a-year I give you a thought and buy you a gift’ thingy.
• Which is good in itself, but we have to go beyond that.
• When thinking about gifts – probably once a year at Christmas or birthday, consider this: People need us more than the things we can buy them.
We are the GIFT to God; we are the GIFT for others.
• God wants us to offer this GIFT – our lives – to Him.
• We offer that to God and allow Him to use it to farther His Kingdom and fulfil His will.
• People need our love, our care, our time.
God wants to build His Kingdom, His church; He wants to change this world, but He is not going to look for things.
• He’s looking for people – people like you and me who have come to know Him and love Him.
• …Christians who are committed to see that God’s will be done on earth, so that this lost world will find His love, and experience His grace
E. M. Bounds puts it very well:
“We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.”
What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use…. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men.
This is true in relationships. We treasure people, not things.
• You may have realised, that our loved ones, those we care about, aren’t always concern about the things we give them, but that we are there for them?
• It is not always the things you give them that matters. It’s you. They want you to be there for them. They want to know you care.
• Stephen Covey says at deathbeds everyone talks about the same thing – family!
FIND SOMEONE NOBODY ELSE LOVES
A few years ago, when Mother Teresa visited Phoenix, Arizona, to speak at the opening of a home for the destitute, KTAR, the largest radio station in town, interviewed her.
During a commercial break the announcer asked Mother Teresa whether there was anything he could do for her. He expected her to request a donation or ask for media help to raise money for the new facility.
Instead, she looked him in the eye and said, "Yes, there is. Find someone nobody else loves and love them."
We do not know if that disc jockey did really go out and seek out someone in need.
• But that challenge is equally applicable to us today. It’s hard to ignore.
• Giving a gift of money is never as costly as giving of our lives, our time.
• The gift of money can be a one-off thing. But giving of ourselves is not.
• Once money leaves our hands, so often the memory of it leaves us as well.
• But when we give our heart and our soul, the memories stay with us.
While money is necessary for the church (and always appreciated!), God is looking for servants.
• …Christians who are willing to invest their lives in the lives of others.
• It is often easier to give some extra money to the church than to be personally involved in any ministry.
• But it is precisely that sacrificial quality of service that the Lord delights in – we see that in the poor widow who gave 2 coins; the woman who broke the alabaster jar of very expensive perfume (Mark 14:3) to anoint Jesus.
• Whether it is teaching children in Sunday School or being part of the work crew to clean up the place after an event, serving is the key to keeping our priority and focus right.
Jesus “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matt 20:28)
• We want to be like Him. Not just to give things, but to give of ourselves, so that God’s work can be done and people encouraged.
• We need to make sacrifices, usually of time. To give of ourselves is to give time.
• Remember, most of the time people need us, not our things.
QUALITY VS QUANTITY
James Dobson wrote a good article on TODAY papers on 22 Oct 07.
It’s entitled ‘Quality vs Quantity’ – about spending time with children.
“It’s not the quantity of time that you spend with your children; it’s the quality that counts. Or is it?
Maybe you’ve heard that argument that it doesn’t matter how much time you spend with your children as long as your few moments together are of high quality
– whatever that means. But the logic of that concept seems rather suspect to me. The question is, why do we have to choose between those virtues of quantityversus quality? We won’t accept that forced choice in any other area of our lives. So, why is it relevant only to our children?
Let me give you an example. Let’s suppose you’ve looked forward all day to going to one of the finest restaurants in town, and when you get there the waiter
brings you a menu and you order the most expensive steak dinner in the house. But when the meal arrives you see this tiny little piece of meat in the centre of the plate about 1 inch square. When you complain about the size of the steak, the waiter says: “Sir, I recognise that the portion is small, but that’s the finest corn-fed beef money can buy. And after all, it’s not the quantity that matters; it’s the quality that counts.”
Well you would certainly object, and for good reason.
Both quality and quantity are important in many areas of our lives, including how we relate to children. In fact, the quantity versus quality argument might
be a rationalisation for giving our children neither.”
We don’t have to polarise them – we need both!
• We need quality time, and we need lots of it!
I think you get the point – God wants us. Let’s dedicate our lives to God.
• Christmas means more than the giving of gifts; it’s the giving of ourselves to God.
• It means the giving of ourselves to people around us, because God is going to accomplish His purposes that way.
• It means the giving of ourselves to our loved ones – caring our parents, spending time with our kids, looking after our grandparents, loving one another…
• This I think is the real work of Christmas. It shows that the love of God has truly come on earth.
Howard Thurman wrote,
"When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, then the real work of Christmas begins."
To find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to visit the prisoner, to rebuild the nation, to bring peace among brothers and sisters, to make music in the heart - that is the real work of Christmas!
In a couple of weeks, we’ll take down our Christmas trees and put the decorations back in storeroom for another year.
• All the presents would have been unwrapped, the suspense ended.
• But we hope that the spirit of Christmas – the hope, the joy, the peace that it brings will linger in every heart.
• That people would have come to know Christ and His love.
