Give more “Presence”
Slide
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?
Is it exactly what was asked for?
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 spent very little money on them, they put little thought into the gifts.
Now I am sure that 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.
Transition
This morning we are continuing our series, “Keep Christ in Christmas.”
Slide
Last week we talked about how our culture has turned away from this being a celebration of Christ’s birth and into just a time when we are out trying to get the best deals.
And we talked about one of the ways to overcome this cultural slide that is invading the church was to truly worship Christ. Not just by showing up on the weekends to sing songs, but to worship Him through our obedience, our submission and through our sacrifice, like they did at the very first Christmas.
But that is only the beginning. I believe that for us to continue to move in the direction away from this societal slide, then we also need to learn how to give differently, and more thoughtfully like Christ gave to us.
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 what our culture has turned it into. While there are parties and get togethers that go on at this time of year, it doesn’t seem to be the time of celebration that it should be.
Christmas is a celebration about Jesus and the salvation that has come into the world through Him and the joy we get to experience because of Him. And 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.”
Christmas is a time when we should share the joy of what Christ has done for us by
giving and
sacrificing and
loving and
celebrating in honor and recognition of the birth of Christ.
But, 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 in a way that is truly joyful and celebrates what has been done for us?
I think this is going to require
a change in the way we spend and
a change in how we give.
Spending
I want to begin today talking about our spending. And I want to say that the problem isn’t necessarily our spending, but what we are seeking to buy with our spending.
In our spending,
We often spend to buy Fulfillment and Contentment
Slide
We often think if we had the newest iphone or an ipad or a bigger TV, 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.
The Bible tells us that contentment and fulfillment come, not from what we have, but from the Lord when we are in proper relationship with Him.
Proverbs 19:23
Slide
“The fear of the LORD leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble”
Isaiah 55:2
“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.”
It is through a relationship that respects the Lord and listens to and obeys Him that we will find peace and contentment in life.
We will never buy fulfillment and contentment and we will never be able to give it to anyone by buying it for them.
And when we do strive 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.
Let’s try a little test.
What did you get last year?
Does anyone even remember the gifts they got last year?
And if you do, is it still bringing you the same level of happiness and contentment into your life as it did on Christmas day last year?
That temporary happiness fades quickly, doesn’t it? And then it leaves us looking for the next thing to bring us that contentment.
But when we are worshiping Christ and not feeding the same spend and buy for contentment addiction that our society preaches, then we are moving forward in helping Christmas be the celebration that it was meant to be.
Transition
So we worship Christ and we don’t spend like we did before thinking we are going to be content by what we have.
Do we just not spend anything?
Do we act like scrooge?
Do we totally forgo giving gifts?
No. This is not about not spending anything. This is about overcoming our tendency to seek to buy contentment with money.
I believe as Christians, that even as we spend differently, in a wiser way, the Lord is calling us to give more.
That is where I want to spend the rest of our time this morning. I want us to learn how we can truly celebrate and give in a way that honor’s the Lord and helps us Keep Christ in Christmas.
And, 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 1:20.
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.
It reads
Slide
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 Keep Christ in Christmas and get back to how Christmas was originally celebrated is to
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.
And even though I am sure not many, if any of us, remember all of our gifts last year, we do remember the time we spent with people.
So how do we give our presence in reality?
Do we just show up?
No. I don’t think that is what we are supposed to do.
Let’s think through how we can give more presence to those we care about this year.
A gift and your presence
Coffee
A popular gift over the last couple of years have been those single cup coffee makers.
And boxes of the coffee for those makers are also popular gifts now.
Do you think if you gave someone you care about a box of 24 k-cups for their single serve coffee maker, they would remember that next year?
Probably not.
But what if that box of 24 k-cups came with a note that said these are only to be used on the first Saturday of every month when you and I get together and enjoy some time together.
Do you think they might remember that gift next year?
That is the gift of presence.
It says you are important in my life and I want to be part of it.
I bet you would and I be it would probably be one of the best gifts you got.
Football - Barbie
Or what if you gave your son a football or your daughter a Barbie and with it came 6 coupons that could be redeemed any time you were home to play with them?
Yes, we still want to give gifts, but we want to give gifts to those who are close to us in a way that we can give them our presence which is really and truly a gift to be cherished.
Your kids may not remember the football or the Barbie, but I will tell you that the impact of your time with them will be a gift that will have effects into eternity.
Give like Jesus gave and give more “presence” this 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.
Now we just talked about one way to spend more time and that is through giving our presence, but there is also the gift of time in thinking about the person we are giving to and how we can give gifts that are meaningful.
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?
Make a keepsake
Maybe you can make some sort of remembrance keepsake for someone in your family like a book or a video with pictures and music.
Cookies or baked item
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
Ok, we are going to look at one final set of characters this week, that we didn’t look at last week. Turn with me to Luke 2:15-18,
Slide
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 spread the word about Jesus’ birth and what the angels had told them.
If we are going to Keep Christ in Christmas and if Christmas is ever going to get back to primarily being a celebration of the birth of Christ, then we have to be giving like the shepherds and sharing the gift of salvation with people this Christmas.
This is why in November we talked about how we can best communicate the gospel to this world and especially to those we know.
Even as we gather with friends and family over this Christmas season, and have conversations with others about what we are doing for Christmas, we can tell them that you are trying to give more “presence” this year and explain to them what that means.
Conclusion
Maybe you are making more money this year than you have in years past and you are excited to be able to give more this year than you were able to in the past.
Realize that it is not always about how much you spend, but how you give.
When we can give the gift of our presence, and when we can share the gift of God’s presence as we share with them the reason for Jesus coming to this world, we honor God and celebrate Him because we are giving like He gave.
He gave His presence to us on that first Christmas. He is Immanuel – God with us.
And even as you do give differently and spend differently, maybe you can continue to celebrate Christmas by helping us share this good news beyond our family and friends.
Christmas offering
This is the purpose of our Christmas offering this year.
We want to help Keep Christ in Christmas not only in our families, but to see His name exalted and his Kingdom expanded around the world.
So be praying about how you might be a part of sharing Christ’s love
in the Philippines to those devastated by the Typhoon,
in the Washington, IL area and those impacted by last month’s tornadoes,
in our own community as we help those who are struggling financially this year and in Ecuador as we seek to send a team to be present in Ecuador and continue to minister to those we have made inroads with.
So this Christmas, even as you may have more available to spend than in years past, don’t just buy more stuff or more expensive stuff, but give what is truly valuable, give more presence, both your own presence to those you care about, along with sharing the presence of God and the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray
