Spend Less – Give More
Advent Conspiracy – Week 2
12/13/2009
Liberia Video
Slide after video
As we continue on in our series during Christmas, we are taking a special offering that will be going to 2 places.
Families in church and Community in need
First it is already helping a number of families in our church and community who have faced difficult times due to job losses and medical situations.
Living Water International
Second, we will be using the remainder of our special advent offering to go toward digging wells in under developed countries so people will have clean water to drink.
As I said last week, water borne illnesses kill about 5000 people a day with the majority being children. We are looking to give the thirsty a drink of water in Jesus’ name.
Transition
We will talk more next week about how the Lord would have us love the people of this world, but this week we are going to be talking about our celebration of Christ’s birth with those the Lord has placed around us.
I want to ask you a question.
What makes a good gift?
Is it the amount of money that is spent on the gift?
Does a good gift come from certain stores only with certain names on them?
Is a good gift one that is completely practical?
Or is a good gift one where there was thought put into
who was receiving the gift and
what it is that they may like or that will communicate thought and love?
I want you to watch this clip and think about what the gifts that are given here communicate.
Friends Christmas video(last minute of Season 2, episode 9 (#33) “The One with Phoebe’s Dad”) - Joey and Chandler give gifts purchased at the last minute from a gas station. (Note: edit out the last gift given to Monica)
Slide after video
Joey and Chandler obviously picked up gifts at the last minute and not only did not spend any money on them, they put little thought into the gifts.
Now I am sure that is none of us here have ever done anything as blatantly thoughtless as that, but I would imagine that many of us have given gifts that had little meaning or thought behind it.
This morning we are continuing in our series, “The Advent Conspiracy.”
Slide
If you were not with us last week, we are banding together to be part of a conspiracy, a conspiracy to take back Christmas from what the consumeristic and often thoughtless pseudo celebration that it has become and restore it in our lives to what the Lord designed Christmas to be, a joyous occasion to
Rejoice in the salvation that has been provided and
worship the Savior who provided it by celebrating and giving to others gifts that are meaningful, thoughtful and sacrificial.
Now I know that there are people who are very thoughtful and give meaningful gifts and are sacrificial in their giving. I want to urge those of you who do these things to keep doing them.
But for many people, Christmas has become a time when we buy and receive gifts, with little thought at all behind why we give or about whom we are giving to.
This is one of the reasons we have started the Advent Conspiracy; to help us overcome this tendency to give without thought. Instead we are seeking to reverse the course and take a stand to help us get back to celebrating Christmas in a way that is reflective of how the Lord would want us to and has been exampled for us through some of the people involved in the first Christmas.
Now to truly be able to do this, we need to have a firmly established and growing relationship with the Lord. That is why last week we focused on what it means to truly and fully worship the Lord.
Christmas is about Jesus and the salvation that has come into the world through Him and the joy we get to experience because of Him. It is a time of great joy.
In Luke 2:10-14
Slide
We see the angels come first to the shepherds to announce the birth of the Christ child. They say to the frightened shepherds, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord…14 "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:10-11, 14)
God’s favor has come upon us in the form of His Son being born in a manger and this is “good news of great joy” and it is something to celebrate with people because it is “for all the people.”
It is a time when we should share the joy of what Christ has done for us by
giving and
sacrificing and
loving and
growing in relationship with the Lord and others.
Like many things though, over time, the things that started out in a good way get corrupted by a sinful humanity and it ends up bringing pain or stress and a lack of joy.
How do we get back to celebrating the birth of Christ with less stress and more of the joy that is for all the people?
That is what we are going to talk about today.
Disclaimer
Now, there is something I believe we need to keep in mind before we begin.
.
This Advent Conspiracy is not about eliminating giving gifts or eliminating spending money on gifts as we celebrate Christmas.
This series is about changing the way that our culture has been heading in celebrating Christmas, giving little or no thought to whom we give to or why we give and seeking to cover over the thoughtlessness by spending on expensive gifts believing that the more that is spent shows the more we care. That is false and has led to the point we are at today.
So, with that in mind let’s talk about how we can celebrate with less stress and more joy?
The title of today’s message really says much of what we are going to talk about.
To get back to celebrating how the Lord would have us, we need to spend less and give more.
Slide
Spend less and give more? How do we do that?
Well let’s first talk about spending less.
In this economic environment, it doesn’t seem that we need a sermon to tell us to spend less.
But the problem is not specifically our spending.
The problem is more about what our spending often wants to buy.
We often spend to buy Fulfillment and Contentment
Slide
We often think if we had the newest iphone or the latest Wii system then we would be content. And often as we buy for others, we are breeding that same “contentment through stuff” attitude.
Now I am not here to spoil anyone’s plans. It is not wrong to have those things or to enjoy having them and using them.
It is just that we need to be cautious in what we are really seeking to buy in our spending.
If it is the full life we are seeking to buy for ourselves or for someone else in our spending, then we need to realize we will never attain it through our buying and spending.
Proverbs 19:23 says, that it is “The fear of the LORD leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble”
And Isaiah 55:2 says, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”
We will never buy fulfillment and contentment and we will never be able to give it to anyone by buying it for them. It is only in our close relationship with the Lord that we will find that peace that passes all understanding.
Striving for that peace and contentment by buying things or by thinking we can give it will only increase our stress and leave us empty and anxious as we continually seek the latest and greatest thing to make us content.
I believe that if Christmas is going to be different, we need to learn the secret of being content. And that is not through acquiring stuff.
I would challenge anyone here to tell me that a gift you received last year is continuing to bring the same level of happiness and contentment into your life as it did on the day you received it. That temporary happiness fades quickly and leaves a person only longing for more.
But it is in our fear and reverence of the Lord where we can find life and contentment.
That is why we began last week with learning to worship Him fully.
When we are drawing close to the Lord in worshiping Him through obedience, submission, and sacrifice, we will be growing in our reverence or fear of the Lord and we will find in that reverence of the Lord a peace and contentment that only comes through Him.
I believe that for us to find that requires that we stop feeding the Spend and buy for contentment addiction that has a grip on many of us as well as those we buy gifts for others.
So this Christmas let’s determine to spend less so that it will be easier to find that it is not the latest and greatest stuff that fulfills us, but reverence and fear of the Lord that brings contentment.
Transition
So if we are spending less, does this mean we totally forgo spending money on Christmas gifts?
No. This is not about not spending anything. This is about overcoming our tendency to seek to buy contentment with money.
Now celebrating the birth of the Savior is not about spending less so we can just have more for ourselves or so we don’t have to do as much.
I believe as Christians, that even as we spend less, the Lord is calling us to give more.
And I believe He is calling us to give more to those we are in relationship with whom we are spending less on.
That is where I want to spend the rest of our time this morning.
Just as we looked at some of the characters of the Christmas story last week to see how they worshipped the Lord, we are going to look at some of those involved in the Christmas story to see how they gave.
Turn with me to Matthew 1 again.
Slide
Last week we read about Joseph’s dream of an angel that said it was ok to take Mary as his wife after he found out she was pregnant and he worshipped by his obedience. Well in this story, we also see how God gave to us.
Look at
Matthew 1:20-23
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"-which means, "God with us."
God came to be with us on this first Christmas. He gave His presence.
One way we can honor Christ this Christmas and get back to how Christmas was originally celebrated is
Give fewer Presents, but give more Presence
Slide
Jesus gave us His presence. We honor God as we give like Jesus gave by giving our presence into people’s lives.
How many of you remember all the gifts you received from everyone last year.
You may remember a few of the gifts you received, but I will guarantee that you don’t remember all of them.
Coffee Mug
What if your adult child or a close friend gave you a Coffee mug?
Would you remember that?
Probably not.
But what if with that coffee mug came a stipulation that this mug was only to be used on the first Saturdays of the month.
Now it may be memorable, but it would be memorable because it was weird.
But what if that coffee mug came with the stipulation that it was only to be used on the first Saturday of the month when you and your adult child or friend got together to have coffee.
Would you remember the gift of their presence by making and setting aside that time for you to just be together?
I bet you would and I be it would be one of the best gifts you got.
How many of you remember the song “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin?
That song is all about the lack of presence in a father and sons life.
The dad didn’t have time to be with the son and then the son didn’t have time to be with the dad. There was a line in that song where the boy got a baseball mitt as a gift but the dad didn’t have time to play catch with him.
Baseball Mitt
Maybe for some of the parents out there, what if you got your son a baseball mitt and with it came with 12 coupons to be redeemed any time you were home to play catch with your son.
Or if you got little Suzie an easy bake oven and some certificates to turn in to you to actually bake together using that easy bake oven.
Give like Jesus gave and give more “presence” this year at Christmas
Transition
A second way we learn to give is through the story of the Magi in Matthew chapter 2.
We read about the Magi last week and we talked about how long their journey to worship the King of the Jews had taken. It took weeks or months for them to come and worship Jesus.
We saw that when they arrived, Mary and Joseph were in a house, so we know it wasn’t at the manger, and they did not arrive the night he was born.
Yes the Magi presented gifts of gold, incense and myrrh but one of the gifts they gave was their time. They spent a long time coming to see and worship Jesus.
Another way we can celebrate Christmas like it was originally celebrated, we can
Spend less Money, but spend more Time
Slide
So often we spend money so we don’t have to spend time. We often find time to be a more valuable commodity than money.
But what if we spent time really thinking about someone and something that might be meaningful to them or enjoyable for them and made something with that time?
I am going to show you a video and you tell me which gift you would rather receive.
The Christmas gifts video
Slide after video
Do you want a gift from someone who
spent their time thinking how they might impress you,
spent no time thinking of you at all and no money to boot, or
from someone who thought about you and spent time putting something together that was meaningful for you?
Maybe you can make some sort of remembrance keepsake for someone in your family like a book or a video with pictures and music.
Maybe you don’t have a relationship such that you are going to make a keepsake book, but instead, maybe you can bake some cookies or make a banana bread.
Some of you are already doing things like that. I know I have had gifts in the past of Pumpkin bread and pound cake and chocolate chip cookies and those are some of the most special gifts I receive, because not only are they delicious, but I know that someone took the time to make them for me.
Illustration - Long walk part of Gift
The story is told of a young missionary teacher in Africa who was teaching her class about why Christians give presents to each other on Christmas. She said, “We give gifts to express our joy over the birth of Jesus and the salvation he brought and to celebrate the relationships we have with each other that His gift has made possible.”
When Christmas came, one of the boys in her class brought the teacher a seashell that was amazingly beautiful. “Where did you get such a beautiful shell?” the missionary asked as she held this beautiful gift in her hands.
The boy told her that there was only one spot that these shells could be found and he named the place. The missionary knew that this place was quite a few miles away from the village that she was in and that the only way the boy could get there was by walking.
The missionary was flabbergasted and nearly speechless. She said, “this is absolutely beautiful, but you shouldn’t have walked all that way to get this shell for me.”
The boys eyes brightened as he said, “Long walk part of gift.”
The time we spend thinking about what someone would like and then spending time to make it or put something together is part of a gift that will last much longer than a toy that will be broken in weeks or discarded and not used in the next few months.
Give more by spending your time thinking about and making something rather than just spending money.
Transition
Turn with me to Luke 2:15-18
Slide
We are going to look at one final set of characters we see in the Christmas story that we didn’t talk about last week. We are going to see what we can learn from the Shepherds in how they gave at the first Christmas..
Luke 2:15-18
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
We can get back to Christmas the way it was on this first Christmas as we
Reduce the gifts of Stuff, and share the gift of Salvation
Slide
The shepherds went out and told others about Jesus.
Even as we spend less money this Christmas, we can give the ultimate gift as we share the good news of Jesus Christ with friends and family.
As we gather with friends and family over this Christmas season, participating in the Advent Conspiracy provides a perfect opportunity to be able to talk to people about Jesus.
As we have conversations with those around us of some of the things we are doing differently this Christmas, we can explain to them the reason why.
I will tell you that even many non-Christians sense the stress of the season. Talking about how you are celebrating Christmas by spending less yet giving more and, as we will talk about further next week, learning to Love all, provides a great opportunity to discuss why you are doing this, because Jesus gave us the opportunity for eternal life for all you receive Him for those who believe in Him and trust Him as their Savior.
This may be the time that the Lord uses in some people’s lives to open their hearts to the truth of the gospel of His Son.
This is the greatest gift of all time that those of us who have received Jesus Christ as their Savior are able to share with others.
Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Give more this Christmas, by sharing the ultimate gift that is needed by everyone, the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
So this Christmas, even as we seek to spend less, realize we can give more and in that giving, honor the Lord Jesus Christ and truly rejoice and celebrate with less stress, but more joy and in deeper relationship with Him who has rescued us from an eternity apart from Him.
Worship team come up
The worship team is going to come up and lead us in worship as we finish up this message.
It is imperative that as we seek to glorify Him we keep our eyes on Him. Christmas is all about Him and as we celebrate and give gifts we need to continually be worshipping Him.
Let’s stand and worship Him so we can glorify Him this Christmas.
