“In Search of the Perfect Gift”
John 3:16
Some of us have in our lives a person who is very difficult to buy for. Perhaps they already have nearly…you know what do you buy for the guy who has everything? What does Bill Gates‘ wife get him for Christmas? After all, he is now worth 75 billion dollars. She probably doesn’t get him a computer. Or Mark Zuckerberg; his wife probably doesn’t send him a note on Facebook.
The text I have chosen for today is probably the most quoted verse in all the Bible. Probably the first verse you ever memorized. But I would suggest that none of us have completely grasped the truth of this verse.
1. When we are looking for the perfect gift, one of the first things we consider is need.
• If it’s cold and someone doesn’t have a coat, you buy a coat.
• If your CD player is broken and you love music, someone might buy you a new CD player.
If we see a need, we know what to buy. So if I were to ask you this morning, what is your greatest need right now how many of you would not have to think very long? Perhaps you’re having trouble and you think “I wish Santa would bring me a new car.” Whatever it is it is an easy question to answer. Pour answers usually fall into one of these 4 categories.
• A material need. Car. Clothes. Something that that costs money.
• A physical need. We’re ill perhaps. The doctor has given us some news we just don’t want to hear. Cancer, maybe. Something that has completely changed everything. And we think God, if you would just heal me or heal my friend---that is all I want/need. I understand that right now.
• An emotional need. Depression. Grief. You’ve been dealing with it for much too long and you need answers. At this time of year depression affects more people than at any other time. It is often referred to as the Holiday blues or the Christmas blues because it has become so common. At a time when we should have joy and peace we have just the opposite. But there is also a 4th need and it is the need this verse addresses.
• A spiritual need.
The Bible teaches that all of us have a sin problem. It’s genetic actually. We were born with this terrible disease and it affects all of us. No one get left out. Since the time of our birth we have had a sin nature. Our nature is bent toward sin. You do not have to tell children how to do the wrong thing. You do not have to tell teenagers how to do the wrong thing. It just comes natural.
The Bible in fact says ALL have sinned and come short of the standard God has set. ALL. The good news is that since all of us suffer from the same problem-sin-the solution is also the same for ALL of us.
2. So God gave us a gift that would meet this need. Everyone is searching for the same thing. We all have a deep need to know that we matter to someone. That our lives matter to someone. That our lives have made a difference. We want to feel important to someone. Last year the US generated 957 million dollars from online dating services. In many ways they have been helpful. In many ways they have caused problems. I overheard a woman in a store this week who was very excited to announce to her friend that she would be getting married this February. Her friend asked how they met and she said online. Her friend so oh, what’s he like? She said, “Well I haven’t met him yet. We will meet in January and then get married in February.”
That is not long enough. We have this need to be loved. It is built into our chemistry but a relationship cannot be built overnight. I wonder how many of you would like to feel like that beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are unconditionally loved, that you are accepted just as you are. You don’t have to have 1000 people like that; but you do need one. Well God knows that so He gave us a gift that would meet that need. And He chose the perfect gift---Jesus.
You see when we give from a heart of love, we give our best. We search for a gift that is absolutely perfect. And that is exactly what God did. I asked my friends on Facebook this question….name a reason people return a gift. These were some of their answers:
• Wrong size
• Already have one
• Wrong brand
• Need the money more
• Just too ugly
But how could anyone refuse the gift of eternal life? How could anyone exchange it for something else? Yet we do. There is a 3rd one also,
3. God gave us a gift that truly keep on giving. It is the only gift that you can give away and keep at the same time. There is plenty of Jesus to go around. JOHN 3:16
Tomorrow will be one of the busiest days of the year in retail because so many people will be returning that “perfect” gift. For one reason, good or bad, the gift gets returned. Or is goes unused. Placed on a shelf in the closet until we decide to re-gift it. That gift you worked so hard to find. For some people the answer to the perfect gift is to buy them a gift card. That way they can just buy what they want. I read an article from the NY Times this week about gift cards. Listen to this:
• More than 80 billion dollars a year in spent in the U.S. every year on gift cards
• Almost 20% of them are never used. Never redeemed.
I know what you’re thinking….hey send them to me. I’ll use them! I mean what good is a gift it is never used?
As a child I remember that when you went to the grocery store depending on how much money you spent, you would receive a long line of stamps. Green stamps. People, mostly women would stick them in their S and H Green stamps book and save them. My mother had an entire drawer dedicated to those stamps. And every so often; when she got enough she would take them down to the S and H Green stamp store and redeem them. Come home with a nice, shiny new coffee pot or some other item. Those worthless looking stamps became something kind of amazing.
That is what Jesus does for us. JOHN 3:16. He takes our often worthless lives, clean them up and gives us a brand new one that will last forever.
