Bring Gifts

This is the second week of our Come to Worship series where we are spending some time looking at what it means to be a follower of Jesus, what it means to be a Christians.

It’s not about a decision you made when you were 4 in Sunday School, or that your parents had you baptized when you were a baby, or even that you were baptized as an adult.

To be a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus means that you are a worshipper.

A worshipper meaning that your whole being is pointed to God. Your focus is not on you but on a Holy God who create the world and everything in it.

This time of year we celebrate the fact that God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten son.

Only begotten, we don’t use that word very often but some of the writers John for example in 1 John use the term monogeny. That word means unique. God’s only unique son.

Stating that God’s son is unique. Unique in the special way that he is to be worshiped.

So we worship Jesus here this morning.

Last week we talked about worshiping God with raised hands. I have to tell you that last week was one of the best experiences I have had here at this church.

Watching you, worshipping with you. Hands raised all throughout this place was one of the best moments I have ever had here.

If you missed it, please listen to the sermon online. Either through the web site or the app. You won’t be sorry.

I guess it meant so much to me because my prayer is for the people of this church in being disciples and making disciples for Christ, my prayer is seeing you take that next step of faith.

Going one step further that you had been previously. That is what the Christian walk is about . It is about a faith journey that continues

There isn’t a destination, not in this lifetime anyway. Our lives are about following and worshiping and being transformed into the character of Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians had a theme of Sanctification, which is the changes that take place within you and me as we walk out this Christian journey.

The longer we do this, actually do this we are being sanctified. And this happens as we take steps in our faith. It happens as we move into area’s where we aren’t comfortable.

You don’t grow in your faith without some uncomfortable times. We grow the most when we are struggling the most and for some of you last week, I know that raising your hands at the end of the service was wayyy out of your comfort zone. I know that some of you were really uncomfortable with that, but what a beautiful thing to see the people of God, worshiping in a new way, in faith, in a way that maybe they never had before. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.

You felt good about it later though didn’t you? I know you did.

Well let’s continue with the story of these worshipers, these Magi, the wise men who travelled, by camel or donkey, or by foot to see the Christ child.

They travelled about 900 miles, the distance from here to Tampa, Florida. That’s far to ride a camel, or a donkey. Would have taken a long time.

But their intent was to worship this king.

Matthew 2:1–2 ESV

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

They go to Herod. And if you know the story you know that Herod is a bad, bad man. The wise men announce that they are here to worship this new King of the Jews.

I always thought that was a little awkward. They actually go to the current king to look for the next king.

Maybe thats what so much time on a camel does to you. They just want to get there.

But they ask Herod and Herod tells them later in verse.

Matthew 2:8 ESV

And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”

Now Herod didn’t want to worship Him, he wanted Him dead.

Matthew 2:9–11 ESV

After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

-112

They travelled and they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. If there was a grammer teacher here I am not sure if that sentence would work. There are 4 greek words for joy that our English doesn’t do very well.

It was compounded joy. Total happy about being joyful. Compounded joy. Overjoyed

Sometimes people are underjoyed. Ever meet one of those? A person who is just miserable because they are just miserable?

Even worse, have you ever met a Christian who was miserable? It shouldn’t ever be. There should never be a miserable Christian.

Have you ever had an answered prayer that just made you jump up and down? I can’t count how many times God has blessed me and my reaction needs to be joy, exceeding joy.

The wise men were overjoyed and their response to their joy, the response to meeting this King was worship. Worship. Watch how they worship

Matthew 2:10–11 ESV

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

How did they respond? Their joy responded with giving. The product of their joy was giving.

That is an important concept here. Joy equals giving.

When your life has joy, giving is a normal response. When you love someone, giving gifts is a normal response

That is one of the things about gift giving. It seems like the more you love someone the more you are willing to give them a gift that is really worth-while, a gift that is valuable—whether in your own heart valuable, or really expensive.

One year one of the kids gave Rachel a gift that was basically a message that said “I love you” written in lego letters. My wife was stunned and that little lego gift still sits on a stand in our house. The giver was happy to give, worked hard to give and the gift was valuable to her.

Another time one of my kids drew a picture on a napkin and gave it to rachel and that napkin is hanging on the wall in our house.

Another child wrote a version of a song and sang it for her on Mother’s Day and those were gifts that were heart-felt and important. The love of those kids for their mom resulted in the giving of gifts.

Our response to loving someone results in giving.

Those wise men were overjoyed and they gave to the new King.

What did they give? Gold Frankincense, Myrrh.

Now what kind of gifts are those? I mean I kind of understand the gold part.. but what is Frankincense? Myrrh?

Scholars over the years have fiercely debated what these gifts were all about. No one knows for sure but many of the scholars say that the

Gold was symbolic of Christ’s kingship

Frankincense was symbolic of Jesus’ priesthood.

Myrrh was supposedly a foreshadow of Jesus’ death.

One thing is for sure. All these gifts were quality gifts. No one regifted the Myrrh, or the Frankincense. These were expensive valuable gifts.

But listen, these gifts were not just because they loved this king, the gifts weren’t just because they wanted an in with the King.

The giving of gifts was an act of worship. An act of worship.

And now you say, Uh, Oh! I know where this is going. It’s a giving message. I can’t believe you would preach a giving message 2 weeks before Christmas! We brought a guest with us today and you are preaching about giving!

I used to feel that way about giving. I never felt comfortable with the giving talks until I started giving. My parents were tithers and they taught us to be tithers.

It’s funny, those who give, you always know who they are because they are the ones nodding their heads in agreement and everyone else kind of sinks down in their seats.

But listen, we are in the context of talking about worship and I want to tell you that giving IS worship. It really is. It is a response to the gift God has given us.

And when you really love, you are willing to give.

Most who know me know that I am frugal. I am cheap, no doubt.

But when I met my wife, I wanted to buy her things. I will never forget a wedding that we went to where my mom was commenting to her that she liked an anklet she had and Rachel told my mom that I bought it for her, and not just that, but I got two of them for her.

My mom—who knew me, knew that was pretty uncharacteristic and so she knew that this was gonna be a big deal.

Love = giving.

Giving is a natural response to love. We see this even in the way that God loved us so much

John 3:16 ESV

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

The response to love is giving.

God loves us so much that he gave up His son for the likes of you and me, even when we didn’t deserve it.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Have you ever been given a gift just because someone loved you? Have you ever given a gift when it was a stretch to do it? Where financially there was a sacrifice to give that gift? But you loved them so much that you were willing?

I don’t do as many giving messages as maybe I should. But you need to understand that the overflow of our love for God is generous, its giving.

And I know, I know, especially this time of year giving, when you may have never given before sounds really scary. Giving doesn’t make sense according to your bank account.

Giving when you are already strapped for Christmas presents that you need to buy, or pay for. You love God, but you are afraid to give.

One year one of the kids gave rachel a gift that was basically a message that said “I love you” written in lego letters. My wife was stunned and that little lego gift still sits on a stand in our house. That gift was valuable to her.

Another time one of my kids drew a picture on a napkin and gave it to rachel and that napkin is hanging on the wall in our house.

Another child wrote a version of a song and sang it for her on Mother’s Day and those were gifts that were heart-felt and important. The love of those kids for their mom resulted in the giving of gifts.

And I understand that. It makes sense mathematically. There is this much in the account, I have this much in bills, there is nothing left over. I get that.

But two things.

Giving isn’t a priority. It’s just not a priority. There just isn’t enough money coming in. Let me tell you, there will never be enough money coming in. Giving has to be a priority.

Even if giving was a priority, you love God but are afraid to give. You are afraid that giving to God first will give you problems on the other end.

I want to encourage you with a section of Scripture that is very familiar to most Christians. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of Christians who would call these verses their favorite in the bible, me included.

Proverbs 3:5–7 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

Proverbs 3

Now is that a stretch? Trust in the Lord with all your heart? Lean not on your own understanding? Is that twisting, manipulating what the bible says about giving? I don’t think so.

Keep reading, verses 8-10 this is called the motive clause.

When you trust in the Lord with all your heart, when you lean on His understanding.. then..

Proverbs 3:8–10 ESV

It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

Proverbs 38-10

So contextually, scripturally, our worship involves giving to God. Giving, and not just service. I have heard a lot of people say they tithe their service. What does the Bible say?

It says Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of your crops.

That means your currency, or whatever God has blessed you with.

Malachi 3:10 ESV

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

God knows this is hard. He says test me. Put me to the test. God is saying. I dare you! The only place in all of Scripture where God says, test me. See if I don’t pour out my blessings on you.

What is the tithe? The word is ma aser, it means tenth. Tenth. Malachi says bring the first 10th. The first and the best, not that last and the worst. We don’t leave it over at the end for God, we honor God by giving back to him our first and our best.

These are not my words but God. You can’t get around the idea of giving. People will say that tithing isn’t mentioned in the New Testament but in the New Testament the tithe is the starting point for giving.

Now I said before that I grew up watching my parents tithe. I grew up hearing them talk about it. They talked about the way that God blessed them as a result of their tithe.

I have heard countless stories about how people have been immediately blessed when they began to tithe.

And no, it doesn’t always make sense financially, but I trust God when he says to TRUST in Him. Lean not on our own understanding. Trust Him.

We give back to Him because he first gave to us.

Giving is a worshipful response to God. Giving is a form of worship in response to a loving God who first gave to us.

When I first came to this church I met with Ryan our financial guy and we talked about how important giving is, but not just us, personally.

That is why we, as a church give a tithe. We have been tithing to Deep Roots for the last almost 4 years. We were pretty much only giving to them because we wanted our gift to be significant and we wanted to make a differnce down there and we really have. Because of the way that tyouy tithe, we are able to give to that organization and help out families who otherwise could be living in cars, and tents in the woods.

You have made an impact.

And God has blessed us as a church so much and we wanted to add to the ministries that we support. I talked with the men at the last men’s breakfast where I told them about a girls home in south africa that is being built.

This year we are going to expand our giving to the Senegal girls home in West Africa. The human trafficking trade runs rampant in West Africa and there is an opportunity to help young girls have a safe environment where they can go to school and to learn about Jesus in a place where that is illegal to do that.

We are looking at opportunities locally too in helping out Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at the University of Delaware so that the next generation of leaders can learn to worship the God who made them.

Why do we give? Why do you personally Give? Because God gave first, God gave first

We worship God by giving. Last week we worshiped God by the raising of our hands, a physical act to honor God. I don’t want you to stop that. Keep going with that.

This week I challenge you to worship through giving. Remember that it is worship that you are doing. It is worshiping a God who gave to you.

When the wise men saw that little baby they were overjoyed. And their worshipful response was giving. Giving of their costly treasures.

We respond to God’s ultimate gift by yes, giving of our resources but before we can really honor God that way we give him the thing that matters most.

We give God our lives. The ultimate gift

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

What I want to do is challenge you to give today, today. If you don’t do it today then you will find yourself conveniently forgetting about it. The cares of the world slowly creep in.

God says test him. Test him.

Now I am not going to ask for a line of people to form at the offering box. This isn’t about us being seen, it is about our hearts.

You can give online, it’s easy, its fast, you can do it without the whole world looking at you.

But do something today, not because we get something, but that again, you are a worshiper who is surrendering yet another aspect of your life over to GOd and I promise that if you do this,, if you begin to tithe, your life will never be the same.

Worship the Lord this way today.

Confidence in God, not wealth.