The Joy of Giving

Communion

Hello, its communion time!! When we take communion, we remember the gift that we were all given at Christmas, we remember Jesus.

In 2 Corinthians 8 it says

2 Corinthians 8

9For you know the grace [the gift] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

So as we take communion, there are tables set up on the side and in the back, take a minute and connect with the King of the Universe, who become poor so that we might have the Ultimate gift, a relationship with God.

The Worship team is going to lead us in another song, lets come forward and receive communion

Introduction

Hello. Great to see you all, here in-person and on-line. Christmas is nearly here and it’s time for presents, loads of presents. A huge part of Christmas is gift giving.

Sure, it’s not all healthy, our consumerism can get out of hand at Christmas.

But, at the heart of Christmas is God’s over-the-top generosity. God gave us an amazing gift, he came to us as Jesus, and through Jesus, God welcomes us into our true home.

Christmas really is about gift giving. …

And, the why, why we give gifts matters. The best is joyful giving, the best motive is love.

John 3

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

2 Corinthians 8

9For you know the grace [the gift] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

Why did Jesus give us this incredible gift?

Hebrews 12

2bFor the joy set before him he endured the cross

Joyful giving. It’s what God does. It’s what he wants from us.

So today, how do we learn to give like that? …

Well, (putting aside the gift of baby Jesus for now) let’s start with the first three, perhaps the three most famous Christmas gifts of all: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Join me:

We three kings of orient are

Bearing gifts we traverse afar

Field and fountain

Moor and mountain

Following yonder star

Yes, yes, they were bearing important gifts. But, you know they weren’t kings, right? They’re Maji, astrologers, pagans (Magi/Sorcerer/Mage/magician/ wise one, wizard) . And, there weren’t three of them. There’s three gifts, but who knows how many Magi (Christmas Wizards). And, they don’t show up at the manger (like in our nativity scenes), they go to Jesus’ house later.

Today, lets play a little closer attention to this story.

It’s not the story of the three wise men, it’s more, it would be better to call it the story of the joyful guys, these astrologers, these Happy Horoscopers who gave three gifts worthy of a king.

Matthew, chapter 2:

1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi [not kings, Magi] from the east came to Jerusalem 2and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

[And you know, their worship includes giving him gifts, they brought three gifts, they planned ahead to worship the new king by giving him gifts.]

3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed [he was not joyful], and all Jerusalem with him. 4When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6“ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

7Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

9After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

[overjoyed. I like the way N.T. Wright translates this: they were beside themselves with joy and excitement. You see, they’re thrilled. We make up parts of this story, but we often miss this key part: These guys are super joyful givers.]

11On coming to the house [not the manger], they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. [Kingly gifts, gifts worthy of a king.] 12And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Alright, that’s the story of the joyful guys who gave three gifts worthy of a king. And, this story can help us become joyful givers. We can press into that this Christmas.

Now, kinda like how we see things in this story that aren’t there, we can easily give motives to the Maji that aren’t there. We skip over the joy and fill in some other motive.

So, before we get to, explore the real why, we’re going to look at some lesser, even wrong reasons to give.

So the question is, Why did these joyful guys give baby Jesus three gifts worthy of a king?

And an easy answer is that they give him these lavish gifts (and back then, these were seriously lavish gifts) they gave them because they were kings, and that’s just what kings do for each other, they can afford it, they got money to burn, so they do extravagant stuff like this.

Nope. That’s wrong. These joyful guys weren’t kings, they were Maji, astrologers, pagans. We really don’t know if these joyful guys were super wealthy or not.

But, we do know that…

(Point 1) Joyful Giving to God Doesn’t Depend on How Much We Have to Give

Doesn’t matter if we’re rich or poor or somewhere in between, we can all be joyful givers.

I love, the Apostle Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, he includes like a solicitation (giving) letter (chapters 8 and 9), Paul asks the Corinthians to give money to help the poor in Jerusalem, and he starts by giving an extraordinary example of how joyful giving doesn’t depend on how much we have to give.

2 Corinthians 8, starting in verse 1:

1And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace [the gift] that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

[You see this, right? The Macedonians are like dirt poor, but they are joyful, extravagant givers.]

3For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.

Yeah, thank God for the dirt poor Macedonians, I love their example. You and I don’t have to be kings, we don’t have to be rich, to be joyful, extravagant givers.

We all get to play.

See, whether we’re joyful givers depends way more on whether we have, as the verse says, given ourselves first of all to the Lord, than on anything else.

You follow? Let’s stop worrying about how much we got and just press into giving ourselves first of all to the Lord. …

[Transition] Alright next, why do we give? Why did these joyful guys give baby Jesus three gifts worthy of a king?

Some commentaries say that talkJesus’ little family (Mary and Joseph), they would have totally needed these fancy gifts for their escape to Egypt. Yeah, if we keep reading in Matthew, King Herod goes berserk and orders all the baby boys under two slaughtered, an angel tells Joseph in a dream to escape to Egypt.

But, the Maji didn’t know that. Yeah,...

(Point 2) Joyful Giving to God Isn’t A Care Package, Isn’t Pitty or Guilt

That’s really clear with the Maji. You don’t worship a king with a care package. Think how disrespectful, insulting that would be. Kings can take care of themselves. They don’t need care packages.

Now, I’m not saying we should just ignore the needs. In a way, money is needed to do kingdom work.

Our food shelf has never given away more food, the demand is high right now, and it takes real money to buy food from Second Harvest.

Our church, with this difficult year, we’re over $100 grand in the red, there’s a real financial need, we’re drawing on our savings.

And, at the same time, we work for Jesus, the actual king of the universe. If he wants something to happen, he doesn’t need our care package, our pity.

I am pretty confident that God will provide the resources this community needs to do God’s will, to serve him in the way he wants to be served.

And likely, those resources will come from our giving, you and I will give the money this church needs, we will figure it out.

But my hope, my prayer, is that we won’t give it out of pity or guilt. No, for us, for our souls, there’s a way better reason to give. My prayer is that we’ll be like the Maji, beside ourselves with joy and excitement, because of what Jesus has done for us, in us. …

This messages isn’t a cash grab, its not a way to make you feel guilty to throw more money in the plate, this is an invitation into joy, the type of joy that makes Magicians leave all they know to try and find a king they think might exist to present him with lavish gifts.

Have you felt that type of Joy? Yesterday I took my oldest daughter Clara to a birthday party for one of her friends. She picked out the present and was so excited to give it to her friend. When her friend opened it, her face light up, and then I looked at Clara and there was a huge smile on her face, and she ran to me and said “Daddy, she liked her present”

When I talk about Joyful giving, that’s what I’m talking about. This Christmas, when we give gifts, what if we got to experince that type of Joy, the joy of bringing joy to others, the kind of Joy that makes our heavenly father Smile.

This Christmas, that’s the joy Jesus wants us to experience.

[Transition] Okay, moving on, why did these joyful guys give baby Jesus three gifts worthy of a king?

Were they trying to get on the good side of this new king, curry favor? Nope.

(Point 3) Joyful Giving to God Is Not a Bribe

First off, you can’t bribe God.

Deuteronomy 10

17For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

Unfortunately, in our world today, selfishness is a common motive for folks giving to God, to the church, to television preachers.

Give Now, and God will bless you with a new Cadillac! Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. …

Yeah, you know where that comes from? That idea that gets twisted into thinking we can bribe God, get what we want from him? It’s Paul’s solicitation letter in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

And, here’s the thing, Paul is actually saying that those that give get something in return, we do, it’s just not a new Cadillac. No, when we give like God, we become like God. What we get … is righteousness.

Corinthians 9

6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9As it is written:

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;their righteousness endures forever.”

10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Do you see God’s promise? The more we joyfully give to him, the more God will enable us to give. This thing snowballs as God transforms us, makes us more and more like him.

I know (many of us know) what that feels like. When we give, instead of feeling a loss, we actually get excited, we feel like we want to give more. The joy of giving builds in a really cool way.

Try it and see. …

And you can start small, being generous doesn’t always mean big things. Any of you go to the big family Christmas’s where everyone gets together? What would it look like to be generous in there? You could be the pocket knife dad who opens all the kids presents. You could be the uncle who makes sure everyone’s drinks are refilled. You could be the cousin who finds the big garbage bag to put all the wrapping paper in. You could be the mom that remembers to bring the extra batteries. You could be the Aunt who takes the garbage outside. You could be the grandparent that goes into the basement to check on all the little cousins who wrestle a little too rough.

What does generosity look like for you this holiday season? Maybe it’s inviting someone into your holiday traditions or making that phone call that you keep putting off. What is it for you? Back to the Christmas Wizards!

[Transition] Why did these joyful guys give baby Jesus three gifts worthy of a king?

Was it just because it was in the handbook? Was it a rule they had to follow? Nope.

(Point 4) Joyful Giving to God Is Not Legalistic

We just read it in Paul’s solicitation letter, 2 Corinthians, that we should not give under compulsion, because we have to give. He makes it even clearer earlier in the letter, he’s asking them to give, but….

2 Corinthians 8:

8I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. 9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

[Jump to verse 12]

12For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.

God loves a cheerful, a willing giver.

Like Paul, my job is to ask you to give. This Christmas, please consider giving a gift to God. I hear he likes ​​gold, frankincense and myrrh.

But, I’m not commanding you ‘cause my prayer is that it will be a joyful gift, like the Maji, a beautiful act of worship. …

[Transition] Now, I do need to follow up on something, Paul says: but I want to test the sincerity of your love

I don’t like tests, I just got done with Finals, I don’t want more tests.

However, tests can be healthy if they show us the truth so that we can move foreward, and thats what this test is.

(Point 5) Joyful Giving to God Is a Test

It’s a heart test, our giving shows us what’s going on in our hearts. There’s no heart meter, soul x-ray, but our giving, what we do with our money, does expose what’s going on in our hearts.

Paul David Tripp in his book Sex & Money says:

Money will expose what you really value and what you truly serve.

It’s a test of whether we, like the Macedonians, have given ourselves first to the Lord or not.

Timothy Keller (the late New York City pastor) he’s even more pointed:

Paul is actually saying the way you know you have actually experienced the grace [the gift] of God is if you’re radically generous. Paul was saying that, if you need to be commanded to give, you have never experienced the grace of God.

Let’s pause there for a second, because I bet there are some of us that are starting to check out. If your checked out, can you come back just for a minute or two.

I get it, times are tight. Inflation is out of control, wages haven’t caught up, taxes keep going up, and some of us are drownding, and the last thing you need to hear is “If you love God, you need to give x amount of money to show it” That’s not what I’m saying, thats not God’s heart. We can’t buy a relationship with God. This test that Paul is talking about is a heart test, not a numbers on a spread sheet test. Ant Tim Keller, he goes on to say this next bit, and I hope that you really listen to this next part, because when I read it it was one of the best things on tithing, on financial giving that I’ve ever heard.

Keller says:

If, when you look at 10 percent, and you realize the Bible sees that as a minimum amount, a minimum rule of thumb for how much you should be giving away, a person who’s a moralist or legalist will say, “That’s ridiculous!”

A person who’s been touched by the grace of God, who owes everything to Christ, what you may say is, “I’m strapped. I can’t do it. I’m too much in debt. I have obligations. I’m in trouble. I can’t make it.” But you would never say, “That’s unreasonable.” Never. You have a pragmatic way to find out whether you’re a legalist or a real Christian today. If 10 percent is unreasonable to the One who’s given you everything, you don’t know him yet. If it’s reasonable, but you don’t know how you’re going to get there, that’s different.

Okay, this can be challenging stuff. Please don’t tune this out. And, don’t start feeling all guilty. Let’s just look at how we react to tithing, let’s see where we’re at. It’s good to see where we’re at and invite God to meet us there, to move forward with him from there. …

And, Keller is right about joyful giving, joyful giving is a response to experiencing, to being touched by the grace, the gift of God. Paul, the first thing in his solicitation letter, he ties the grace, the gift of God, to the Macedonians’ generosity, their extraordinary giving.

And, Paul spells out God’s extraordinary gift, he describes God’s gift in such a powerful way. This is Christmas, what it’s all about:

2 Corinthians 8

9For you know the grace [the gift] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

See,...

(Point 6) Joyful Giving to God Is a Response to God’s Gift

Let’s start with the Maji, they see a star in the sky. Maybe it was the planet Venus, folks have long wondered. But, something in them made them sure that a new king of the Jews had been born.

Think about it, the Maji see the star, maybe they hear these rumors, but they didn’t see Jesus perform any miracles, heal the sick, feed 5,000. The Maji didn’t hear Jesus teach, his incredibly wise words, with so much authority, they didn’t get to hear like the Sermon on the Mount. They didn’t see or hear any of that to convince them.

The Maji just show up and see a newborn baby on the lap of a poor teenager. And, they worship him. They joyfully give him gifts, super valuable gifts, gifts worthy of a king.

Think about their faith. It’s one of the most powerful examples in all scripture. My prayer for all of us today is that the Holy Spirit would give us this kind of faith, the kind of faith the can recognize the King in unlikely place, that can show us that this king is what we’ve been searching for. Lord help us see your Gift

The Maji are something else, they are the first gentiles (like us) to recognize Jesus as the king of the Jews. It won’t happen again until soldiers, more gentiles, mock Jesus as: King of the Jews. Rather than gold, frankincense and myrrh, the soldier's gift will be a crown of thorns, a savage beating, a cross for his throne. There will be no bright star, but when the sky goes black, one of the gentiles, one of the soldiers will get it: Surely he was the Son of God!

What a lavish gift, for a King to die on a cross for me.

Now, let’s consider the Macedonians, the dirt poor Macedonians. Ancient Macedonia was the northernmost region of Greece. Just like we’re in the northernmost region of America.

And, just like us, the Macedonians had heard about Jesus’ crazy miracles, they’d had folks tell them about Jesus’ brilliant teachings. Like us, the Macedonians had the Apostle Paul to help explain to them what Jesus had done, God’s gift.

In fact, Philippi was a Macedonian city. Paul famously wrote to them about Jesus: Philippians 2

6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Wow, let that sink in. Jesus was in heaven, the son of God, equal to God. But, he didn’t selfishly hold on to that, use it for his own advantage.

Jesus emptied himself for us, that’s his gift. He made himself nothing, a human, a servant, a salve.

He lived a perfect, sinless life. And, then he humbled himself even more, he laid down, gave his life for you and me. He endured death on the cross, experienced hell in our place. To pay the price for all our sins.

So that we could be free from sin and death, so that we could have his righteousness, his perfection

It was hard, painful, horrible, but Jesus gave us this gift for the joy set before him, he did it so we could be rich.

9For you know the grace [the gift] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

And, it’s hard to get our mind around how rich we are in Christ. In Galatians Paul says:

Galatians 4

4But when the set time had fully come [at Christmas time, the first Christmas], God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

We’re not just welcomed home into the kingdom of God, we’re heirs, heirs to the kingdom.

This is our true home, where we’re free, truly free to be what we were made to be, it’s like no home we’ve ever known before.

This is our true identity, children of God, we are welcomed into our dad’s loving arms.

And, ultimately, this gift transforms us, makes us more and more like Jesus, his character.

We are Jesus’ prized possession and he is ours, for all of eternity. …

So, we’ve looked at the Maji, the Macedonians, but what about us? We get to decide. Will we accept Jesus' grace, his gift? Will we unwrap his present or will we just play with the box?

Today, I invite you to grab hold of his gift. Maybe for the first time, maybe for the millionth time. This Christmas, receive the one gift that really matters, Jesus’ gift. And that gift, it will change us.

(Point 7) Joyful Giving to God Is a Response to God’s Gift

Just like the Maji we can be beside ourselves with joy and excitement, like the Macednonians we can have overflowing joy, as we are touched by Jesus’ grace, we’ll respond to God’s gift, we’ll want to worship, to give back to God.

We’ll want to sacrificially give him gifts worthy of a king. As we joyfully give, we’ll tell Jesus that he is our treasure, not our things.

Ministry Time

Salvation Call

Never felt that Joy

Shame around Giving

That Keller Quote is you. Christmas is hard

Dampening Joy this season

Fiances

Illness/Death

Family Stuff

Loneliness