The Deceptive Gift Series

The gift can look deceptive…

As a farewell present to thank you for your company with us this evening, I have a gift here for you to share, at first glance the gift won’t look much, as its wrapped up in news paper But as you take the trouble to unwrap it find a beautiful box of Terry’s all gold chocolates So on the outside it didn’t look up to much but once opened up we see that these chocolates actually come with a pedigree.

Have we any chocolate fanatics out there? I imagine you feeling rather happy at the thought of biting into the chocolate if so go ahead bit into it and enjoy but if you still need convincing lets look at a few facts about Chocolate.

• Power point facts: Chocolate is a wonderful substance Taste and see its very good.

1. Chocolate was First drunk 3,000 years ago in Guatemala and Northern Brazil

2. The Greeks called it the food of the gods

3.It is renowned for its medicinal purposes

4. Chocolate contains vitamins and iron. Serious walkers and climbers swear by it. To give them that extra get up and go!

5.Children just love it as a soothing comforter in childhood stress.

6.They say smiling releases endorphins into the blood stream apparently so does chocolate. So providing you don’t eat to much chocolate and be sick you can be guaranteed an endorphin Christmas.

7.Women with PMT would kill for it somebody once told me that there is something in a woman’s body that NEEDS Chocolate

8.Samuel Pepys who is famous for his diaries about the plague and the great fire of London, drank chocolate to relieve migraine and ease biliousness It is renowned for its medicinal purposes

At this point you might be asking, "what on earth has chocolate got to do with the Christmas message tonight?". Nothing much..

But in the eyes of the world, the gift that God gave 2000 years ago didn’t look much either, rather a bit like our tatty gift-wrapped choclate in newspaper. A child born in abject poverty in some back of beyond town of the Roman Empire called Bethlehem, in the Middle East born to an unmarried teenage girl and delivered in a stable in a food trough, alongside animal excrement is not exactly appealling is it.

But if…You unwrap this present a little and look beyond the first impressions you’ll find something which is absolutely out of this world! So much so that when the shepherds first saw the baby they were so gobsmaked that they ran out shouting "Good news! Good news!"

This was because this was no ordinary baby, even though there’s no such thing as an ordinary baby there all extraordinary but here was an extra ordinary baby, born at an inopportune moment in squalid conditions who would change the course of world history and eternity forever.

Other visitors came also to see this extra ordinary child wise men from the east, bearing gifts for this Christ child. The time line is not exactly accurate in many peoples minds, but come they did bearing some amazing gifts which if not unwrapped we will fail to see the significance of the Christ child.

So let’s unwrap these gifts together...

1. The gift of Gold represents Jesus as King.

Why should these wise Magi bear gifts at all to some child born in abject poverty?

Because they knew that this child born was in fact the King of Kings (Studied OT Prophecies) Have you ever traced your family tree - my Father always said we belonged to the bloodline of Russian princes.

Jesus had a top notch family tree. Both Mary and Joseph both came from a line of Kings traced right back to King David. More importantly through God the Father - Jesus lineage is far greater than that it spreads right back to eternity to the High King of Heaven itself!

The wonderful truth this Christmas is that King Jesus came to establish His kingdom in the hearts and lives of people who seek Him. Unlike earthly kingdoms established by force his Kingdom is established in the hearts of people through love and he gives us all the opportunity to become part of His Kingdom.

So friends you like me may not belong to a blood line of Russian princes, but we all have the opportunity to belong to the blood line of t he King of Kings whose Kingdom rules in our hearts and lives.

This type of gift can be deceptive because no –one can see it Jesus said – Luke 17:21 the Kingdom of God is within you. But be assured this Christmas you can experience it! John 11-13read

1. The gift of Frankincense: This Christmas thousands of pounds if not millions will be spent on perfume for loved ones as gifts to each other (Drop a hint: I’m hoping for some Jazz)