What is the purpose of Christmas presents?

Warning

A father gave his little girl $2 and said you can do whatever you want with one of those dollars but the other dollar you have to give to God. The little girl rushed off with excitement to the candy store and as she ran she fell. It was raining so one of the dollars slipped out of her hand and washed down the drain. she looks up and says welp God there goes you’re dollar.

Paul gives warnings to Timothy and I think there is one particular warning we can deeply consider this time of the year

English Standard Version Chapter 6

17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

sometimes I think we put our own judgement as being better then Gods judgement

I want us to really think about what we have as well as what this church has this morning

I think we can get a little stingy sometimes

Lets look in depth at Pauls warning to Timothy with money

v.17 These people Timothy was warned about were more then likely members of the church of Ephesus.

Some of them may have had ascendancy to allow the money they had dictate what they did. Others may not have a dime but where very rich in a spiritual sense. verse 17 was essentially a warning of greedy people

v18 in verse 18 Paul states what the proper christian should look like

v18 in verse 18 Paul states what the proper christian should look like

Today i want to focus on the last couple phrases especially “to be generous and ready to share,”

Today as a Gods people we need to evaluate if we are generous.

Most of us would say yes i’m generous but are we truly generous

I have a question for the cooks in here

If im following a recipe and the recipe calls for 3/4 cups of flour but I only have 1/4 cup is it going to turn out right?

Each of us have heard the phrase if its worth doing its worth over doing

However many of us want to give the less the best option to everyone else

If we went and found 2 tvs and we knew so and so down the street didn’t have a tv at all then one of these tvs was a huge tv nearly brand new with all the latest and greatest features. Then the second tv wasn’t hardly as nice it was smaller and didn't have the nicest picture. Most of us would keep the nicer tv cause Jim down the street doesn’t even have a tv why would we give him the best

We want to keep the best for us and give not as nice stuff to the other person

 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

We are to look toward those help and we should not only try to help them with the interest they have but we should also treat them better then ourselves

I ask you this morning if somehow we've made ourselves to believe were of a higher standard then Jesus.

Lets look up close at verse 7. In KJV it says mad himself of no reputation. So he has made it so he didn't get anything from the deal people didn't say look at all he is doing or wow how amazing is he.

I like the next words they really make you think “He took upon the form of a servant”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The definition of servant is literally someone who does things for others

Jesus took on a role that he made it into a purpose to do other things for people and we manage to think were to good.

I’ve often wondered what the importance is of Christmas presents but I've quickly came to the conclusion they are a good thing because people can see generosity and love through them.

It is our responsibility to share what we have to the best we can.

The bible tells us that we will be blessed in return 10 fold

There is a story of a man that dreamed this came true it goes like this

The story is told of a man who had a horrible dream. He said “I dreamed that the Lord took my Sunday Offering and multiplied it by ten, and this became my weekly income. In no time I lost my color tv, had to give up my new car and couldn’t make my house payment. After all what can a fellow do with $10 a week?”

Some of us get stingy we want to give other people the second best and give God what makes us happy not what makes him happy.

We fail to serve a man who came to this earth with a complete servant hood purpose.

God has called each one of us into servant hood.

He has called each one of us to use our resources toward other people

I try with all of me to be a cheerful non selfish giver

What I mean by that is if i am put into a spot to help someone out I try to help them the best I can

As Gods follower I have a responsibility to show others that being Gods child made me have something special in my heart.

It made me not be stingy in giving money or gifts or anything else because I have come to a place I realize it isn’t mine anyway

I think one of the big problems with these people Timothy was warned about wasn't the money

It was the failure to realize that Jesus was the reason they had the money

It was there failure to realize that if they lost every single dime that they have Jesus would still make them rich in other ways

It was a faith failure not a money failure

Being rich wasn’t the problem the lack of faith was

I think a lot of us are hesitant to give to pan handlers or organizations cause we don’t know every detail I understand that

What I don’t understand is using that for a excuse to never give

It is a spiritual responsibility that God has given us to share what we have been blessed with.

It isn't our place to be stingy it isn't our place to say whats going to happen to that money after I give it cause it isn't our money and once we've done what God told us to do the rest isn't our problem

We want to cheat God in a sense. We think that we don’t him anything and all but place ourselves as being equals to Jesus

There are people alive who don’t know where they are going to sleep tonight or what they are going to eat and we don't help because were scared of being cheated

Our biggest problem as Gods people is making it our problem what everyone else is doing

Its our responsibility to be generous

Generous to our church and to other people as well

We say they can get a job or they arent doing the right things

Can any of us say we've not made mistakes

One mistake can place us in a place we don’t want to be and sometimes we look at people almost as though we are better then them but we could be 1 mistake from being in the same place.

V18 in the opening scripture states that God will take care of us with or without money

If God told you to give every dime you have to a homeless guy on the street even though felt he wasn't going to do the right thing with it would you.

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We fail to answer Gods call cause we think we know whats best more then he does

I think we sometimes forget the situations people are in I think we sometimes for get that church needs our financial backing.

I think we often get to a place that we are so selfish that we forget God already should have complete say of everything we are including our money