Someone To Give To
Keeping the Grinch From Stealing Christmas. • Sermon • Submitted
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Keeping the Grinch from Stealing Christmas
Keeping the Grinch from Stealing Christmas
Have something to Look forward to
Someone to give to....
Giving has psycological benifits:
1. Giving makes us feel happy.
1. Giving makes us feel happy.
A 2008 study by Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton and colleagues found that giving money to someone else lifted participants’ happiness more that spending it on themselves (despite participants’ prediction that spending on themselves would make them happier).
2. Giving is good for our health.
2. Giving is good for our health.
A wide range of research has linked different forms of generosity to better health, even among the sick and elderly. In his book Why Good Things Happen to Good People, Stephen Post, a professor of preventative medicine at Stony Brook University, reports that giving to others has been shown to increase health benefits in people with chronic illness, including HIV and multiple sclerosis.
3. Giving promotes cooperation and social connection.
3. Giving promotes cooperation and social connection.
When you give, you’re more likely to get back: Several studies, including work by sociologists Brent Simpson and Robb Willer, have suggested that when you give to others, your generosity is likely to be rewarded by others down the line—sometimes by the person you gave to, sometimes by someone else.
ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE
4. Giving evokes gratitude. Whether you’re on the giving or receiving end of a gift, that gift can elicit feelings of gratitude—it can be a way of expressing gratitude or instilling gratitude in the recipient. And research has found that gratitude is integral to happiness, health, and social bonds.
5. Giving is contagious. When we give, we don’t only help the immediate recipient of our gift. We also spur a ripple effect of generosity through our community.
A study by James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, and Nicholas Christakis of Harvard, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, shows that when one person behaves generously, it inspires observers to behave generously later, toward different people. In fact, the researchers found that altruism could spread by three degrees—from person to person to person to person. “As a result,” they write, “each person in a network can influence dozens or even hundreds of people, some of whom he or she does not know and has not met.”
While Giving has benifits that make an impact in the community and in you, that’s not the reason we give.
Rick Warren teaches that Giving/ Generosity is the only real cure for greed.
Look at what happens in this story.
The Action of Giving Puts this story into action.
The Action of Giving Puts this story into action.
It revealed the character of the people in the story
It
It reenforced the testimony of The Angel to Mary and Joseph.
They were looking for something greater than themselves.
They were looking for something greater than themselves.
Mattew 2 1-4
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived unexpectedly in Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Messiah would be born.
The Maji were interested in giving Honor to something greater than themselves.
Herod was interested in protecting what He had.
Herod was interested in his regime. His own self interest and the result was he was disturbed. :”and all Israel with him.”
It was more that kist looking for what was greater than self. I was a realization that they needed something greater than self.
They Saw that God was at work.
They Saw that God was at work.
Matthew 2
5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they told him, “because this is what was written by the prophet: 6 And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah: because out of you will come a leader who will shepherd My people Israel.”
The Maji Saw a greater thing at work.
The Maji Saw a greater thing at work.
Herod thought his great thing was under threat.
They were students of the word. These foriegners were more versed in the content of the Scriptures than Herod.
how do I know this?
2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
matthew 2
They knew he was the King.
When we are only looking to protect ourselves it will blind us to what matters and the innocent will be hurt in the process of our own self interest.
They Made an Effort to Bring the Gifts.
They Made an Effort to Bring the Gifts.
matthew 2 9-
9 After hearing the king, they went on their way. And there it was—the star they had seen in the east! It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure. 11 Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route.
The Maji were willing to make a sacrifice to give their gift
The Maji were willing to make a sacrifice to give their gift
Herod was willing to sacrifice anyone else to keep what he had.
The Wise Men/Maji put the work in. The Effort to give themselves to the King. That was greater than they.
they made a long journey.
Applied their knowledge,
Used their resources
Traveled a long distance
Herod was willing to hurt anyone who threatened what he thought he needed to keep. No matter how innocent.
matthew 216-18
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been outwitted by the wise men, flew into a rage. He gave orders to massacre all the male children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, in keeping with the time he had learned from the wise men. 17 Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 18 A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.
When we are only looking to protect ourselves it will blind us to what matters and the innocent will be hurt in the process of our own self interest.
When we are only looking to protect ourselves it will blind us to what matters and the innocent will be hurt in the process of our own self interest.
There is no end to what a man will do to protect what he most values. In Herod’s case it was his own tribute. His own messiah. Himself.
Final Thoughts.
Final Thoughts.
The grinch steals our Christmas when we are only believing that what we see on the surface matters. Giving expands our understanding of what is important.
Like Herod when we are more interested in the kingdom we are building we will will do whatever it takes to protect it when we feel it is threatened.
When we do we risk being
small minded and unable to look beyond oursleves.
missing God’s work around us
Hurting the innocent in our way. Because we are not making any effort outside ourselves.
Where are you at this morning? Like that or are you....
looking For God to move among us
seeing what God is already at work doing
Making the effort to get to what God has done.
Seeing the Trees on Fire.
God’s work endures even when it’s not immediately evident.
Are you looking at the holiday’s in such a matter where you can see the Glory of God or are you worried about preserving your own.