Thanks so much for joining us today! As a church, we’re on a journey together this Christmas season. We are spending four weeks together looking at Christmas or Advent through the lens of ~
1. Worship Fully
2. Spend Less
3. Give More
4. Love All
As we start today, here is a video clip from the Advent Conspiracy.
Two weeks ago…before the blizzard, we looked at some ways to spend less during this Christmas season. Despite the crazy pressure to look at Christmas as the time to get more gifts.
This week, we’re looking at ways to give more. NO, I’m not going to set you up in some Ponzi Scheme or sign you up in my multi-level marketing company so your can earn more money in order to give more. For you visitors, I’m not going to pass the offering plate again and ask you to give more…so you can sit back and relax!
Rather, we’re going to look in a few minutes at some specific ways to share our Treasures, Talents, and Time during this Advent Season. As we’ve discussed some the last two weeks, we want though to remember the honored Guest at Christmas…the One whose birthday we’re celebrating…the Savior who came as a baby.
This morning, we’re going to look at a passage the Gospel of Matthew. As we start, we will look at chapter 1 of Matthew, verses 18-25.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,
25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
In this passage, we’re given the story of Christ’s coming from Joseph’s perspective. How do we know? It’s clear, direct, and short and to the point.
We’re told that while Mary and Joseph were engaged that the Holy Spirit caused Jesus to be conceived in her womb. Joseph who was a godly man planned on giving grace and mercy to his fiancé.
In their culture, since they did not have the sophisticated medical technology that we currently have, a man and woman would get engaged, and then wait about a year before their marriage to make sure that the woman was pure and not pregnant. This engagement period was as serious as full marriage as the courts had to grant a divorce certificate in order for it to be broken. In fact, if one partner were to die during this period, they were referred to as a widow. That’s the reason we see both the word “betrothed” and “husband” used to describe Joseph. So, after finding out that Mary was pregnant during this engagement period, Joseph had the right to not only divorce Mary and expose her shame to the world, but due to her obvious infidelity, he could arrange things for her to be stoned.
WOW! Can you imagine if things were still done that way today? Can you imagine how Joseph must have felt as he found out that his girlfriend…his fiancé…his wife was pregnant, and he KNEW it wasn’t his baby? In the midst of that anger, rage, hurt, disappointment, etc…, instead of pursuing revenge or even justice, Joseph determined to avoid embarrassing Mary by parading her in front of the city elders and he refused to sentence her to death, but rather, as a righteous man, he decided to quietly divorce her.
As we are in this time of celebrating the Advent Conspiracy, maybe you need to follow Joseph’s lead and give more grace, mercy, forgiveness, tolerance, love, and the list could continue on and on. While these attitudes and resulting actions are sometimes hard to measure, I know that many of us probably have someone we need to reach out to and offer to make things right. That would be a GREAT Christmas present for someone to get this year!
Not only do we see Joseph giving grace and mercy to Mary, but we also see God giving salvation. In the midst of Joseph’s consternation about what to do about Mary and her pregnancy, God steps in and send an angel to him letting him know that Mary, as unlikely as it seems, is telling the truth and that the Baby is God’s Son!
As the angel tells Joseph about the coming of the Baby, the message is clear: This is going to be a very special Baby! Not only was He conceived by the Holy Spirit, but also, He is to have a special name, “Jesus”. In Greek, Jesus means “Yahweh is salvation”. It also sounds very close to the word that means “he will save”. So, there is great meaning in this name! It also parallels one of the most known verses in the New Testament, John 3:16. In this verse, we’re clearly told that God loved the world so much that He GAVE His only Son so that whoever believes in Him can be saved.
The birth of the Baby in the manger is so much more than just another birth! I had the chance to go and visit Larry and Judy’s new grandson shortly after he was born. He was small, and good looking, and all of that. Almost everyone loves babies and enjoys looking at them and touching them and holding them. However, the birth of Jesus signaled that God had given His Son to mankind so that we could achieve salvation through the ultimate death of Christ on the cross.
Thinking about giving up one of my sons…even so that one of you could be saved is a tough concept! I’m kind of selfish about my kids. I love them and want to keep them from harm and from getting hurt by people. Yet, in incomparable love and grace, God GAVE His Son so we could have our relationship restored with Him.
This Christmas time would be a wonderful time for you to investigate your relationship with God through His Son Jesus. If you haven’t made a decision to accept this gift that God offers, I’d encourage you to talk with myself or one of the members of the church here before you leave today.
A third gift we see in this passage is the fact that Jesus came to live among us. He wasn’t born in a palace behind locked gates where He avoided people. Rather, He came and lived among us. He was God with flesh.
He came and invested His life serving others. He left the glories of Heaven to live here in our world. I once worked with a student over at ISU who grew up very poor in one of the Chicago suburbs. She had a tough life growing up because her family lived “on the other side of the tracks” and her home was worth under $5 million while most of her friends lived in $15 million homes!
She was a great gal, but she had a tough time understanding how to relate to people who lived in “the real middle class” or the “real lower class”. As we know, living in heaven and coming down to earth is kind of like my friend leaving her poor $5 million home and moving into a one bedroom apartment in the projects…except way different!
I think this is a great way for us to think about another way to give during this Advent season. How can we give our life away to help others and to help bring people to salvation? I want to encourage you to be bold…not rude…but willing to tell people why you’re excited to celebrate Christmas…Christ’s birthday.
So, in today’s text, we have examples from Joseph, God the Father, and Jesus of ways they GAVE MORE at Christmas. I want us to think of some practical ways that we too can give more this year…and in weeks to come.
If we’ve spent less as we talked about two weeks ago, we might have some extra money that we can invest in eternal projects that will make a difference in Christ’s name.
If we purchase 2 presents instead of 3; if we purchase things on sale instead of at full price; if we don’t buy something for all 1200 friends on our Facebook list; we can purposefully choose ways to give financially of our Treasures to important organizations, individuals, and causes.
Over the past several months as we’ve prepared to bring Barret and Andrew into our home (after lunch today, we’re going to pick them up and they’ll be with us permanently!), we’ve been working at downsizing on various things so we’d have more room for them. I have been amazed at the incredible amount of STUFF we have in our home! We have taken what seems to be a small U-Haul full of stuff to the foster/adoptive family King’s Closet and to Home Sweet Home’s thrift shop. Truth be told, much of what we took was probably Christmas gifts from some time in the past…clothes and toys that have been outgrown or are no longer wanted and so on. It was a great reminder that we don’t NEED to keep buying things for ourselves but instead need to be looking at other ways to give more.
While there are probably a nearly infinite number of groups that you could donate money to, I thought I’d give you a list of just a few representatives in a few categories that might help you brainstorm about others that you’ve heard of:
· Individuals:
o Do you know someone who won’t have much for Christmas this year? Help provide a great Christmas for them!
o Do you know someone who has a specific need that you have the funds to supply? I know people who have received appliances, vehicles, hot water heaters, help with medical bills, etc… from others in the Body of Christ.
o Do you know someone who is discouraged with issues going on in their life and with just a little bit of generosity, it could make a long-term difference? Give a gift card, send some money to them, give them a special present to let them know they aren’t forgotten!
· Local Ministries:
o The Eureka Food Pantry: What if instead of just using your bags and “just bringing” one jar of peanut butter you invested $25 and gave a case of it?
o The Baby Fold: I know, it’s a shameless plug, but our organization has a flyer about all kinds of ways you can invest from $10 to $5000 to help foster children, kids who are in our residential center, kids who are in our schools and are among the poorest and needy that God tells us about.
o The Salvation Army: has anybody seen a red kettle and heard a bell?
o The Gideons: you can purchase Bibles that are used in hotels; hospitals, with our service people; and with students in grade schools as well as our colleges.
· Larger Organizations:
o Heifer International: Provide help for families in other parts of the world become more self-sufficient
o Samaritan’s Purse: Whether it’s buying things for the Christmas shoe boxes or helping with their relief work in places like Haiti
o Projects that the Great Rivers Region and the American Baptist Churches are cooperating on…like the jar for the pennies up front; our American Baptist International Ministries are currently raising money and supplies to help with the Cholera Outbreak in Haiti
o Advent Conspiracy: working on providing clean water around the world
o Donating your good used stuff for a good cause: Our church over in Normal holds an incredible garage sale every summer. Year after year, we’ve raised between $15-20,000 from our own treasures and then have been able to give a nice financial Christmas gift to each of our missionaries.
In addition to being able to give more money as we spend less at Christmas, I believe we have the opportunity to redefine some of what giving is all about during this Advent season. I know I’ve mentioned it the past two weeks, but nowhere in this section of Scripture where we look at the coming of Jesus the Savior do we see references to credit cards, spending loads of money, or even sponsorships by Best Buy, Target, State Farm, or Wal-Mart.
Just because our culture tells us that Christmas is about buying and getting doesn’t mean we have to fall into that mold. God has given each of us talents that we can also use as we seek to Give More.
· Give of your talents:
o What do you do well? How can you give more with your talents?
o Can you pray and let someone know that you’re supporting them that way?
o Could you make a meal, cookies, or something else and share it with another individual or family?
o Could you use your financial skills to help someone understand how to set up a budget or how to make major financial decisions?
o Could you give music lessons?
o Could you tutor students who are struggling in a certain subject?
o Could you offer to do some yard or house work for others who may struggle at that?
o Are there other talents…special or ordinary that you could give to others? Whether you are one of the youngest or one of the oldest here today, you have some kind of gift that you could share.
o Remember, the drummer boy??? (I know he’s not in the real Christmas story either) But, the point of that song is that he wants to use his talent instead of giving a financial gift.
· Give more of your time.
o Now, I know, time and talents can seem to overlap some, but there are some things that may not take tons of supernatural talent to do, but just an investment of time.
o Invite a friend over for supper or dessert. NOT for an agenda…just because you’re friends
o Volunteer at school, a nursing home, the library, help a shut-in. (Kathy B & Eloise)
o Get to know a kid and become a “big brother/big sister” for them. So many of the kids I work with do not have ANY positive adult role models in their lives…YOU could be that one! (Max Hutchinson coming to Hammitt)
o Invite a Eureka College kid over…REAL food, wash clothes, HOME! If little boys like Max scare you, I’m sure Craig and Lisa would have ideas of kids at Eureka or even youth group kids who could use some extra time.
o Spend time with YOUR kids and grandkids! Be a Godly role model for them! Go to their athletic and musical events. My mother flew in last Monday to visit us and we are excited to just have her with us for a week!
o Missions trips: to Judson University, Haiti, inner-city Memphis…God can use you!
Christmas is almost here…it’s less than a week away. All around us, we are being pressured to Worship in Stores, Spend More Money, Give More Costly Gifts, and to Love Ourselves.
This week, I want to challenge us all to really think about the four themes from this series and to...
~ Worship Christ Fully
~ Spend Less
~ Give More of Ourselves
~ And Love All
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