Gifts to Keep

Today is Boxing Day and contrary to what we might think; Boxing Day has nothing to do with boxing up all the gifts we didn’t like or the ones that didn’t fit in order to return them to the mall. The tradition of Boxing Day goes back to England and there are two stories about how the day after Christmas came to have that name. One story says that on Dec. 26th the priest of the community would open the offering box which gathered money for the poor throughout Christmas season and then distribute that money to those in need. Another story says that because all the household servants had to work on Christmas Day, they would celebrate Christmas with their families on Dec. 26th and the Lord of the Manor would fill boxes on that day with food and gifts for all his servants and their families. Either way, Boxing Day isn’t about returning gifts, it’s about keeping the gift of Jesus alive by giving gifts to others and by reaching out to help those in need.


Just because the celebration of Advent and Christmas are over doesn’t mean we let go of the gifts we have been talking about all month, actually, today is the day we need to keep these gifts close and have them ready to use in the days ahead. It can be easy in these long cold days of winter after the excitement of Christmas is over to let go of the hope and joy that we have been feeling and it is too easy to let go of the renewed faith and love that we know God brings to us in Jesus – so today is the day to keep these gifts close to our hearts. Today is the day to keep these gifts working in our lives. We need to keep the gift of God’s word, the gift of worship, the gift of purpose, the gift of God’s Spirit and most of all gift of Jesus at the forefront of our lives and if we do this we will find the blessing of the abundant life that Jesus came to offer us. If we let go of these gifts, however, we run the risk of missing God’s presence and power in our lives all together.

Think about the days after Jesus was born. The shepherds worshipped him and then it says they went out and told everyone what they had heard from the angels and what they seen with their own eyes Look at Luke 2:17 & 20. They told everyone that the Messiah had come, but do you notice that no one went to look for him. In fact, when Mary and Joseph enter the Temple 8 days after Jesus was born to offer the sacrifices that were required after a child had been born, no one was there waiting for them. There weren’t crowds of people to behold the new born king. There were only two people who even noticed the gift of Jesus in the temple that day, Simeon and Anna, and the reason they recognized Jesus and the reason they got the blessing of being able to worship him was because they kept these very gifts we have been talking about alive in their lives.

Look at what we know about Simeon, he was righteous and devote – he was a man of worship and the word. He kept these 2 gifts alive in his heart – he meditated on God’s word, he worshipped in the temple, he was faithful to God in his daily walk and because he kept those gifts and used them he was there when Jesus entered the Temple. It also says he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Three times it talks about how the spirit was working in Simeon’s life, it says the Holy Spirit rested on him, it revealed to him that he would see the Messiah, and then it was the Spirit of God who guided him to be in the Temple when Mary and Joseph brought in Jesus. Clearly Simeon kept the gift of God’s Spirit and he made sure he trusted in it and relied on it everyday. All the gifts we have been talking about were gifts that were actively used in Simeon’s life and because he kept those gifts and used them – he was one of only 2 people who had the blessing of being able to see Jesus.

The other person who received that blessing was Anna and Anna also kept these gifts alive. It says that Anna never left the Temple, but she didn’t just hang out there, it says she fasted and prayed daily. She was a woman of worship and her fasting and prayer shows us just how serious she was about her devotion to God. And like Simeon she was also filled with the gift of God’s Spirit, how else can we explain how she happened to walk up to Simeon as he was holding the child and how she knew to praise God for the gift of the Messiah that she saw in Jesus.

Simeon and Anna kept the gifts of God and because they did they didn’t just see in Jesus a baby, they recognized him for who he was, they knew he was the Messiah, the one who would bring redemption and salvation to Israel, the one the people had been waiting for. Lots of people saw Jesus that day, they saw a couple holding a baby, but only Simeon and Anna recognized him as the Messiah and because they did they were blessed by God and the reason they received that blessing was because they kept the gifts God had given them.

If we want to see God at work in our hearts and lives in the new year then we need to keep the gifts God has given us. If we want to experience all the blessings God has for us then we need to keep these gifts that God has given us. Now in many ways I feel like I’m preaching to the choir here because you do keep these gifts and I know that because you are here in worship today. Even though we gathered here just about 36 hours ago to celebrate the gift of Jesus – and I know many of you spent a long day here yesterday serving Jesus by feeding 10% of our community, you are back here today because you know you need the gift of Jesus everyday and we know we need to keep the gift of worship and God’s word living in our hearts and lives. These are gifts to keep and when we do then like Simeon and Anna we will see Jesus and when we see Jesus we will experience the power of his presence and the peace of his love and grace.

My hope in the new year is that we will encourage one another to keep these gifts of God alive and at work in our lives. I’m sure that there were times Simeon and Anna must have gotten tired of being faithful and maybe even questioned why they worshipped when God never seemed to show up, or why they fasted and prayed when the Messiah and his kingdom never seemed to come. It had been a long time since God had spoken through the prophets, it had been a long time since there had been any kind of new word of God to the people of Israel and while many people had given up, Simeon and Anna kept the gifts of God. They persisted. I wonder what it was or who it was that kept them going. I wonder if Simeon and Anna maybe knew each other from spending so much time in the Temple and so maybe the encouraged each other to stay faithful.

For many of us it may seem like a long time since God has spoken and we may wonder when we will see the movement of God or the outpouring of God’s spirit or the coming of God’s kingdom and as we wait and watch, it can be easy to lose hope and give up on these gifts – so how can we encourage each other. Those are the questions I want us to think about as we head into this new year.

How can we encourage one another and others to keep the gift of God’s word?
How can we encourage one another and others to keep the gift of worship?

How can we encourage one another and others to keep the gift of God’s purpose for their lives?
How can we encourage one another and others to keep the gift of God’s Holy Spirit and the gift of Jesus?

As we answer these questions and as we live out our answers we become the church God wants us to be. Think about what the church is – it’s a group of people who not only follow Jesus but we help each other follow Jesus and we do that by encouraging one another to keep the gifts God has given us. We can become a stronger church, a more devoted and vibrant church, a more faithful church if we will encourage one another to keep these gifts of God every day.

And when we encourage others to see these gifts in their own lives and maybe accept them – accept Jesus and the power of Christ and the purpose God has for their lives – when we encourage people to accept these gifts – the church grows and lives are changed and when lives are changed the world is changed. I hope we will keep these questions before us in the new year and I hope we will keep these gifts of God alive and at work in our hearts and lives today and everyday.

The Gift of Jesus

Aiden Welch hadn’t started school yet so when his mom came in for our Thursday morning women’s Bible Study a week before Christmas they asked if I would watch him. Aiden and I went to the children’s department at our church so I could get a video for him to watch and when we got there he immediately noticed that we had put up the Nativity scene since he was last there. Aiden asked if he could touch the pieces and since that is the fun of having a nativity scene I said sure go ahead. I went to get a video and when I returned Aiden had moved every single piece of that nativity scene into one big crowd around the baby Jesus. When I asked why they were all bunched together like that he told me with great seriousness, they all just wanted to get close to Jesus.


Sometimes there can be profound wisdom in little boys. They all just wanted to get close to Jesus. I’m sure on that night Mary & Joseph just wanted to be close to Jesus, what parent doesn’t want to be close to their new born child. They wanted to be close to him so they could care for him, watch over him, protect him and simply love him, but I also wonder if they wanted to be close to him because they knew who this child was. For 9 months they had contemplated the message of the angels, they had been told that the child to be born was holy, the son of God. Joseph was told that this child was going to save people from their sin. I’m sure Mary & Joseph had no idea what all of that meant, but it must have added to their anticipation and excitement at his birth. How much more would they want to hold him and care for him and be close to him knowing this was the son of God. How much closer they must have wanted to be to him, not just to love him, but to receive his love as well.

When the shepherds heard that the savior of the world had been born as a child in Bethlehem they just wanted to be close to him. We heard from Luke that they went with haste to see this thing that had taken place. They ran to be close to Jesus. They wanted to see and experience this amazing event. Like Mary & Joseph, they didn’t know what to expect – a king born in a stable, the son of God wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger? They didn’t know what they would find, all that they knew was that they wanted to be close to him.

When the Wisemen in the east saw the star in the sky announcing the birth of a king, they didn’t know the child’s name was or his place of birth, but what they did know was that they wanted to be close to him, so they began their journey, a journey that many believe took a few months, maybe even several years, but a journey they continued until their search lead them to the Christ child. Like all the rest, they just wanted to be close to Jesus. Aiden had it right; they all just wanted to be close to Jesus.

I don’t think it is any different for us tonight. We are here because in some way, we want to be close to Jesus. We may not know exactly what that means for us, we may not even know why we feel the way we do, but we are here not just out of tradition, not just to be with family, and not just because it’s a quiet place to be before the hectic pace of Christmas Day, we are here because there is something deep inside of us that wants to be and needs to be close to Jesus. There is a longing in all of us to be closer to God and it keeps us searching until we find him. The philosopher Blaise Paschal talks about a God shaped hole in our lives and we will try to fill that hole with many things, but nothing will fill it except God. We just want to be close to Jesus because that is where we find fulfillment and life. They all just wanted to be close to Jesus, sometimes there is profound wisdom in little boys.

There was another little boy who lived in NYC and he would often hang around the Church of the Holy Trinity. The pastor, Clark Oler, said that the little boy often came around the church and he always wore a red stocking hat pulled over his ears, torn sneakers, and a ragged jacket. Several times Pastor Oler would speak to the boy and try to find out who he was and where he came from, but each time the boy would just looked at him with great big eyes and without a word, run away.

It was Christmas Eve and the snow had been falling all day. Pastor Oler looked out the church window and the only light he saw was the one that came from their own nativity scene set up in church courtyard. Life-sized figures of Joseph, Shepherds, Kings and Angels surrounded the baby Jesus and on the ground was a thick covering of straw with Mary kneeling by the manger. It was in the glow of that nativity scene that the pastor saw him again, wearing that unmistakable red hat. He was peering through the fence looking at the nativity. As he watched, the little boy ventured timidly into the courtyard and for a long time just stood before the manger and then suddenly, the he climbed inside and curled up in the straw with Jesus, sometime there this profound wisdom in little boys.

How many of us, if we could, would climb into the manger to be close to Jesus? How many of us tonight want to feel the touch of the holy child and experience the love and power of that most holy night? We come seeking to be close to God because we want to experience the touch of forgiveness and the hope of being able to start over with a clean slate. We come because we want to touch the power of heaven and tap into a peace that will last no matter what we are going through. We come because we want to know in our own hearts and lives the love that brings life.

We come because we just want to be close to Jesus, but what the gift of Jesus tells us is that God just wanted to be close to us. The good news of great joy which the angels sang out over the hills of Bethlehem was not that the shepherds could run off to be close to God it was that God had come in the gift of Jesus to be close to them, and that is really what this moment is all about. That is what this celebration is all about. That is what this gift of Jesus is all about. For unto you is born this night, a savior who is Christ the Lord. In the gift of Jesus, God has come to be close to you and me.

The amazing truth of this night isn’t that we come to be close to God but that God in Jesus has come to be close to us and he has come to be close to all of us. My theory of why Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger on the night he was born was because God wanted to make it clear that he comes to be with all of us and he comes right into the full mess of our lives. While our nativity scenes are sanitized and attractive, a stable is not a clean environment and a manger, a feeding trough for animals is not a nice place to lay your child – but think about this, is was the best option they had.

This past summer on our mission trip a few of us worked on a horse farm and we spent several hours cleaning out water troughs. These troughs were rubber tubs that held 100 gallons of water and they had not been cleaned out for quite some time. During the heat of the summer, algae grows in those tubs and it was our job to get the algae out. I don’t know if you know this or not, but Algae does not come off of rubber easily and you can’t use any bleach or detergent because it will harm the animals, so we spent hours scraping that black goo out of the water troughs and not only was it hard work, it was smelly work. When I read the nativity story this year I thought about those water troughs and I wondered if the manger smelled any better or if the community stable that housed Mary & Joseph was any cleaner. My guess is that it wasn’t.

I believe that God first entered this world in a messy place to let us know that God is willing to enter into the mess of our lives. If your heart is broken tonight, if your life is not what you thought it would be, if your dreams are shattered, your health uncertain or you are struggling financially – then receive this gift - God is here for you. If you are lonely, hurting or living with doubt, fear or guilt – receive this gift - God is here for you. In the mess of our lives – God is here for us, but you know what… in the joy of our lives God is here for us. When we can see the hand of God’s blessing like Mary must have when she held her first child and like Joseph must have when he heard the shepherds confirm that this was indeed the son of God – in the midst of their joy and blessing - God was there.

So it doesn’t matter who we are or what we are going through, or where you have been, God is here for us and God loves us so much that he wanted to be close to us and he wanted us to be with him forever and that is why he offers us this gift of Jesus, the one who saves us from our sin and the one whose death and resurrection brings us life.

If you just want to be close to Jesus, if you are needing and wanting to feel the touch of God’s power and love then take heart, because the gift of Jesus has been given to you. God so loved the world that he gave us the gift of Jesus so that all who receive him, all who believe in him shall perish but have everlasting life, a life with God forever. When we accept this gift of Jesus and when we allow his love to hold us, we will be changed. When we receive the gift of Jesus and trust in God’s love for us our lives will be changed. Despair can be overcome with a flicker of hope, guilt removed by the assurance of forgiveness; doubt wiped away by the power of faith and when we accept the gift of Jesus our joy and peace is increased beyond measure. Receive this gift of Jesus and allow God to come close to you.

They all just want to be close to Jesus.

There is profound wisdom in little boys.

But the greater truth and the greater love by far is that God has come to be close to us. In a little boy, God climbed into the flesh and blood and the mess and the joy of our lives in order to give us the gift of salvation, the gift of forgiveness, hope, joy, love, and life eternal. We are here tonight because we all just want to be close to Jesus and God is here tonight in the gift of Jesus because he wants to be close to us. There is profound wisdom and there is life changing love found in little boys.

The Gift of God's Holy Spirit

At the beginning of the Charlie Brown Christmas special, Charlie Brown is just not in the Christmas Spirit. To help him get that spirit Lucy suggests that he become the director of the Christmas play, but as we all know - that didn’t turn out well for Charlie Brown. If you are like Charlie Brown today and are just not in that the Christmas Spirit, don’t worry, there is a website that gives you step by step instructions on how to get the Christmas spirit and just about everything it says we need is in this box. Now the first thing it says we need is not in this box and that is children. They say if we don’t have any children of your own you can to borrow some. Their suggestion is to offer to baby sit some children so that their parents can enjoy some peace and quiet, or they suggest you just hang out with those adult friends who still act like kids. The next thing we need to do is get some Christmas music and then bake some gingerbread (which I don’t understand at all because I don’t like GB), and then we need to get some Christmas beverage – and their suggestion is hot chocolate. Now while the GB is baking we are to work on making a Christmas ornament which we can then place on our Christmas tree. Once we have done all of this we are supposed to sit down and watch a Charlie Brown Christmas eating GB, drinking hot chocolate and sitting in the glow of the tree with our children or the children we have borrowed. I’m really not kidding, these were the step by step instructions on how to get into the Christmas spirit quickly and easily.

Beyond the absurdness of all this, there is an underlying truth here, what this all reveals is that the peace on earth and goodwill toward men that we think of as the Christmas Spirit is fleeting. The Christmas spirit doesn’t last. Once the cartoon is over, the music ends, the GB is eaten and the Hot Chocolate has gone cold and the tree and ornaments put away, the reality of life returns and the warm glow of the Christmas spirit is gone. There is a powerful story from WWI that illustrates how the spirit of Christmas just does not last.

During the Christmas season of 1914 there were a series of truces that sprung up along the western front in Europe between the British and Germans. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day both sides would call a truce and soldiers would leave their trenches and meet in the fields between them. The soldiers would gather together and exchange greetings and food and sing Christmas carols together. In one field the British soldiers brought out their football (soccer ball) and a game of football started between the two sides. Now it was said that the British won that game, but it was a British soldier who told that story so we can’t be sure, but the picture of peace on earth that we envision here is close to what the prophet Isaiah talked about in 11:6-9. But the problem was that this peace didn’t last. The day after Christmas the truce was over and the fierce and bloody fighting started all over again.

The Christmas spirit can produce a truce during a war, but it doesn’t bring lasting peace on earth, and while the Christmas spirit can bring good will toward men and women as we show extra kindness and forgiveness toward our family and friends, it doesn’t heal our hurts and restore relationships, and while the Christmas spirit can fill us with a sense of meaning and joy as we help those in need in around us we aren’t able to keep up that level of service and sacrifice throughout the year. What often happens is that the week after Christmas arrives and we are back to our old way of living. What all of this shows us is that the Christmas spirit doesn’t last so instead of looking to get into the Spirit of Christmas by eating GB and singing carols, what we need is the spirit of Christ to enter into us. If we want experience transformation, if we want this Christmas to be the beginning of a new way of living and a new way of loving, then what we need to do this Christmas is accept God’s gift of the Holy Spirit.

While the Holy Spirit has been around since before the beginning of creation, it was particularly active during the time of Jesus birth. Think about all the ways the Holy Spirit was at work in the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. It was the spirit of God that brought Joseph and Mary together as a couple long before there was any message of a child being born and it was the Holy Spirit that helped keep Mary and Joseph together during a difficult and uncertain pregnancy. It was the Holy Spirit that helped Elizabeth and Zechariah conceive a child in their old age and that child was a sign to Mary that the child she carried was indeed from God.

It was the Holy Spirit working in Caesar Augustus that issued a decree for a census to take place which is what forced Joseph to take Mary to Bethlehem which was where according to the prophets the Messiah was to be born. It was the Holy Spirit that gave the angels a song to sing and told them where to find a group of shepherds on the hills outside of Bethlehem. It was the Holy Spirit that even filled the Inns of Bethlehem so that Jesus had to be born in a stable and laid in a manger. Think about it, if God had wanted Jesus born in the Inn he could have reserved a room in some way, after all nothing is impossible for God, but I believe that God wanted Jesus born in a stable and laid in a manger because the humbleness of that birth reveals to us that Jesus came for everyone. It is the Holy Spirit that from the beginning made it clear that God’s love and grace was going to be extended and offered as a free gift to everyone.

It was also the Holy Spirit that placed a star in the sky that directed the Magi on their journey and the Holy Spirit that protected Jesus by sending the Magi home a different way which kept them from returning to Herod who was looking to kill Jesus, and the HS sent Mary, Joseph and Jesus to Egypt again to protect Jesus from Herod. So while there isn’t a HS figurine in our nativity scenes, the birth of Jesus would not have taken place the way it did without the work of the Holy Spirit. There would never have been a Jesus if it were not for the Holy Spirit because when Mary asked how the child was going to be conceived the angel said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. It was the Holy Spirit who brought the gift of God’s divine presence to Mary and it is still the Holy Spirit who brings us the gift of God’s presence and power to us today, the question is will we receive it? Will we receive this gift of God’s Holy Spirit?

While we don’t often look to the Christmas story to teach us about the Holy Spirit, there are some things we learn about the Holy Spirit from the events around the birth of Jesus and probably the single most important thing we learn about the Holy Spirit is that it comes to us as a gift. Mary did not ask for the Holy Spirit to come upon her. Joseph did not ask the Holy Spirit to give him guidance on what to do with his life. The shepherds were not looking for a message from the angels and the Magi weren’t expecting to find a star when they searched the skies. The Holy Spirit took the initiative and came to the people – God’s power and presence were not forced on them, it was offered to them and revealed to them and it was up to them accept them and the spirit of Christ works the same way today.

The Holy Spirit is a gift from God that is offered to people who are open and willing to receive Him. Joseph, Mary, the Shepherds, the Angels and the Wisemen were all open to God and in one way or another they each accepted the gift of the Holy Spirit and when they did things changed, their lives changed - the world changed. There can be lasting change in our lives and there can be significant and lasting change in our world if we will be willing to receive the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. Are we willing, like Mary, allow Christ to be born in us. That’s what accepting the Holy Spirit is all about, it’s allowing the life of Christ to be formed in us so that our lives look more like the life of Jesus. This doesn’t happen on our own, it is the work of God when we accept God’s gift of the Holy Spirit.

As we think about what this gift of God’s Holy Spirit means for our lives we need to go back to the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given to the church. On that day the disciples were all gathered together and we know they were open to God because they were being obedient to the word of God. Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power and so they were following his instruction, they were waiting in Jerusalem and when the Holy Spirit comes upon them 3 things happen, there is the sound of a mighty rushing wind, there were tongues of fire that rested on them and they were able to speak in different languages. What some people see here is that the gift of the Holy Spirit change the disciples and the world through inspiration, purification and communication. The inspiration is the rushing wind that breathes new life into the disciples, the purification is the fire which cleanses and renews the disciples and the communication is the gift of being able to speak in different languages and as they do, the disciples spread the good news of Jesus to people from around the world. So that’s how the Holy Spirit changes us, it inspires us – it breathes new life into us, it purifies us, it cleanses us from sin and refines our faith, and then through us the Holy Spirit changes the world as we communicate God’s love and grace to others.

What I find interesting is that if we look at the Christmas story we can also see there that gift of the Holy Spirit brought inspiration, purification and communication. The Holy Spirit brought inspiration to Joseph by giving him the wisdom he needed to understand all that was taking place in Mary and clearly God inspired Mary, literally breathing new life into her. The Holy Spirit also brought purification to Mary and Joseph through the fire of trials. It was not easy for Mary and Joseph to go through all they did, but each step of faith refined their hearts and helped purify their faith, and then the angels and shepherds and even the Wisemen, God communicated his message to the world. So long before the day of Pentecost the gift of the Holy Spirit was bringing inspiration, purification and communication which makes me think that this is simply the work of the Holy Spirit.

Think about what we heard from the Prophet Isaiah this morning, his message was spoken hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, or the day of Pentecost, but did you notice how it talked about the Holy Spirit bringing inspiration, purification and communication. In 11:2 it says that the Spirit of the Lord was going to come and rest on the Messiah and bring wisdom, understanding and counsel another way of looking at that is to say that the Spirit of God was going to inspire the Messiah. The Spirit of God was also going to bring a fear of the Lord – not a fear that terrifies but a fear or an awe that ignites a fire of passion and worship in our hearts that refines our lives, or a fear of the Lord that purifies us. And the Holy Spirit resting on the Messiah was going to bring a new order of peace and justice and righteousness. In other words the Messiah was communicate to the world that there is a better way to live and a better way to love. And then perhaps most important of all the Spirit was going to make that new way of life possible. I don’t think this image of peace and justice and righteousness was just a heavenly vision, I think it was to communicate the truth that God has a new way for us to live today and if we will accept the gift of the Holy Spirit and allow the divine power and presence of Christ to be formed in us that new way of live will come.

The spirit of Christmas is that warm sentimentality that comes with gingerbread and Christmas carols but it doesn’t last, the spirit of Christ comes with power to inspire us and to purify us and then to communicate through us that the peace and love and power of God are able available to us today. When we accept the spirit of Christ we are allowing God to breathe into us. Inspiration brings purification and as we accept God’s spirit and allow Christ to be born in us and formed in us we will find ourselves wanting to share God’s love and power with others. I’m not sure the Shepherds really thought about what they were doing when they left the stable, I think they were simply so filled with the gift of God’s spirit that they couldn’t help but share what they had seen and experienced for themselves. When we are filled with the gift of God’s Holy Spirit we will also share God’s love with others, we simply won’t be able to stop.

So the gift of God’s Holy Spirit is not the spirit of Christmas – it is the spirit of Christ and when we accept it – it will change us and then through us God can change our world. So let us accept this gift of God.

The Gift of God's Purpose

This Advent we are looking at some of the different gifts God has given us. Too often during this season we only think about the gift of Jesus and the forgiveness, grace and life he brings, and while that is a great gift to focus on, there are other gifts that God gives that we need to acknowledge and receive and one of those gifts is the gift of purpose. The good news for all of us today is that God did not just give us life and then leave us alone to figure life out by ourselves; God didn’t create us and then set us adrift in this world, God created us and then gave us a purpose. Each and every one of us has a purpose in life. That purpose may change as we find ourselves in different situations and relationships, but God does have a purpose for us. No matter who we are or what we are going through God has a plan for our lives and that purpose and plan is given to us a gift.


We know that purpose is a gift from God because in Jeremiah 29:11, God says, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. So God does have a plan for our lives and ultimately that plan is for something good. God’s plan is to prosper us, to grow us. God has a plan to use us and give us a future filled with hope. God has a purpose for our lives and if we want live out that purpose then the first thing we need to do is accept it as a gift.

To help us think about how to receive this gift of purpose I want us to think about Mary and the purpose and plan God had for her life. God had a purpose for Mary’s life; it was to be the mother of Jesus. God’s plan for Mary was to use her faith, love and life to bring Jesus, the Messiah, into this world. Mary was the one who would give flesh and blood to God’s heart and soul and spirit. What an amazing purpose for a young Jewish girl. In fact, in Mary’s day most young Jewish girls dreamed of being the mother of the Messiah, it was the highest honor any young girl could imagine and yet while God’s purpose was wonderful; his plan to accomplish this purpose was going to be difficult because while Mary was engaged to Joseph they were not yet married and so if Mary were to conceive a child by the spirit of God before the wedding, people were going to talk. And then what about Joseph, would God let him in on this plan or was Mary going to be left alone trying to explain it all to him? While the purpose God had for her life was wonderful and honored, the plan God had to accomplish that purpose was not exactly what Mary was thinking it would be.

As we look to receive the gift of God’s purpose for our lives we have to be willing to accept God purpose and plan even if it might not be what we want it to be. God’s purpose is a gift which means we don’t get to choose it – we simply need to receive it. It was during my second year of college that I began to discover God’s purpose for my life. I began to understand that God wanted me to serve him in some kind of full time ministry. I was sure this was what God wanted for me and I was eager to accept this purpose but I wanted to accept it on my terms and according to my plan. I was clear with God that I would serve him in mission and ministry, I would accept this gift and do whatever God wanted me to do, except be a local pastor. I even remember standing in a classroom at MS and saying to a friend of mine, I will do anything for God except work in the local church. She kind of laughed and said, but what if that is what God wants for you? In my ignorance and arrogance, I said, I know that’s not what God wants for me. I didn’t know that, I was just putting my own agenda on God’s plans.

If we want to receive God’s purpose for our lives we have to be willing to accept it all. What if Mary had said, OK God, I will be the mother of the Messiah, but only after Joseph and I are married. Come back a few months after the wedding so that people won’t talk. My guess is that if Mary had put conditions and limitations on God, God would have moved on and found a more willing servant. Accepting God’s purpose for our lives means accepting God’s full plan as well and there may be times when that plan makes no sense to us, and there may be times when God’s plan appears to be everything we don’t want, if in those times we say no to God, we will pass up his gift of purpose. If we say yes to God, if we are willing enough to trust God and his plan for our lives we will not only find God’s purpose but we will in time experience the peace and joy and that sense of fulfillment that comes when we walk in God’s purpose.

When I finally acknowledged that God’s purpose for me was to serve him in full time ministry and also accepted the God’s plan of serving him in and through the local church, I not only found God’s peace, but joy as well. As much as I might struggle at times and even doubt myself at times, God reminds me in so many ways that this is his purpose and plan for my life and most of the time there is no where else that I would rather be. As hard as it must have been for Mary during this time of her life, I don’t think there was any place else she would rather have been. In fact, during her pregnancy she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth and it is during that trip that she sings a song of praise to God that is filled with confidence and assurance, listen to what Mary says, Luke 1:47-55.

So Mary accepts the gift of God’s purpose and surrenders herself to God’s plan and when she does this she finds the blessing of God and the fullness of life even as she walks a difficult road. If we are willing to accept God’s purpose and surrender ourselves to God’s plan we will also find the blessing of God and the fullness of life and the gift of God’s peace even if the road we walk is difficult. God’s purpose is not always easy – Mary’s life was not smooth sailing and even after she said yes to God things didn’t get any easier. At first Joseph was going to dismiss her quietly, he was going to grant her a quick divorce and move on, but then an angel convinced him that his purpose was to be the father of Jesus so they moved forward together, but still things weren’t easy. They had to travel to Bethlehem right before Mary’s due date and she gave birth to Jesus while they were away and the only place available to them the night Jesus was born was a stable and the only place they had to lay Jesus after he was born was in a manger. Not exactly the way Mary dreamed it would be, but the picture we get of Mary through it all is one of quiet faith and trust. After Jesus is born, it says she simply pondered all these events in her heart. She didn’t question God, she accepted all that was talking place and found it all a sense of peace.

God has a purpose for our lives. God says he has a plan for us and we can receive it as a gift if we are open to God’s ways and don’t insist on our way, but still the big question we all face is how to know what that purpose and plan is? How do we figure out God’s plan for our lives? How do we actually open this gift of God’s purpose? Well, if we use Mary and Joseph as an example then we see that God shares his purpose with us by telling us. An angel came and talked to Mary and an angel spoke to Joseph in a dream. So God spoke to each of them in a slightly different way, but God still spoke to them. God may speak to us in a different way than he did to Mary and Joseph (at least an angel has never come and spoken to me) and God may speak to each of us in a slightly different way, but God still speaks if we are willing to listen. Do you remember the first gift we talked about? It was the gift of God’s word. If we will take the time to listen and read and open ourselves up to the spirit of God, God will speak to us and when God speaks part of what he shares with us the purpose he has for our lives.

So we have to accept the gift of God’s word, we have to listen to God before we can understand God’s purpose but we also have to accept the gift of worship, think again about Mary. In Luke 1:28 it says that the reason God chose Mary was because Mary had found favor with God. Mary was close to God, she honored God, she glorified God - she worshipped God. Because Mary surrendered herself to God in worship God was able to speak to her and share with her the purpose for her life. If we want to know God’s purpose for our lives then we need to make sure that we have surrendered ourselves to God in worship, and that doesn’t mean just attending a worship service for one hour on Sunday, the kind of worship God is looking for is complete surrender of heart, mind, soul and strength. It involves actively opening ourselves up to God and his word and gathering together with the expectation that God is going to speak to us and move in us in ways that will not only reveal to us his heart but his purpose for our lives as well.

We need to actively worship God because we can only receive the gift of God’s purpose when we are close enough to God to reach out and take it from his hand. I don’t think God is going to toss us this gift from afar, I think God wants to place it in our hands, more than that, I think God wants to place it in our hearts and that can only happen if we are walking with God, and if our hearts are open to Him in worship. God was able to reveal his purpose to Mary because Mary worshipped Him; she had found favor with God. It was because Mary and Joseph walked with God that God was able to reveal to them the purpose for their lives and that is how it will happen with us, we need to spend time in worship so God can reveal to us his desire and his plan for our lives.

So for us to discover our purpose we have to first be willing to receive the gift of God’s word, and this gift of worship, but there is something else that we need to keep in mind if we want to receive the gift of God’s purpose and that is that God’s purpose will always involve an element of sacrifice and service. Mary had to sacrifice her reputation and Joseph his good name in order to accept God’s plan for their lives, and that was just the beginning. After Jesus was born Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt to protect their son, and then later in her life Mary had to watch her son struggle and then die. Mary was one of the few people at the foot of the cross when Jesus died, so while accepting God’s purpose blessed Mary and filled her with joy and peace, it was not an easy life and it called her to a life of service and sacrifice.

It wasn’t just Mary and Joseph who faced that kind of life, the plan God had for Jesus also involved sacrifice and service. Jesus served people throughout his life and clearly the cross was his ultimate sacrifice for others. Now if the purpose of Jesus’ life involved sacrifice and service then as followers of Jesus it only makes sense that part of God’s purpose for our lives will involve sacrifice and service. Whether it is a full time vocation or a volunteer ministry, the purpose God has for us will always involve lifting up those in need and loving those around us. Jesus said, if anyone wants to come after me, they must take up a cross and follow me so part of the purpose for our lives as followers of Jesus means taking up a cross, it means being willing to live for others and serve those around us.

In a world of great uncertainty, there is one thing we can be sure of, God has a plan for our lives, I know the plans I have for you, God says and God wants to give us those plans as a gift. As we reach out to accept this gift of God we need to remember that we also need to listen to God’s word and surrender ourselves to God in worship. In the busyness of this season, let’s not crowd out these gifts of God, let us receive them and open them and use them so that we can experience all the blessing and fullness and power of life.

The Gift of Worship

While in this season of the year our focus is on the gift of Jesus, God has given us other gifts that we need to recognize, receive and celebrate. Last week we saw how the word of God is a gift that brings life and we have the opportunity each and every day to allow the word of God to shape us if we will take the time to read it and allow God to speak to us. Another gift that God gives us is the gift of worship. We may not think of worship as a gift because as part of the law we were commanded to worship God. The first commandment says “you shall have no other gods before me”, which means we are to worship God and God alone. The second commandment is similar when it says that you shall not make for yourself an idol, you shall not bow down to them or worship them. So the law is clear, we are commanded to worship God, so if worship is a commandment, how can it also be a gift? I think the shepherds in the Christmas story help give us the answer.


On the night that Jesus was born the very first thing God did was send an angel to a group of shepherds to tell them that the Savior had been born and through the angel God gave these shepherds directions on where to go to find the Messiah. Jesus would be the babe not just wrapped in cloth like every other child in Bethlehem, he would be the one lying in a manger. God didn’t just want the news of Jesus’ birth to be proclaimed, God in the flesh wanted to be found, God wanted to be worshipped, so in giving the shepherds directions on how to find Jesus – God was giving the invitation to come and worship Him.

The shepherds were not commanded to go and find Jesus, they weren’t ordered to worship him, they were invited. Worship is a gift. That the shepherds were able to worship God that night was because God invited them into his presence. That we are able to worship God and enter His presence is because God invites us, worship is a gift and it always has been. In Jeremiah 29:13 it says, when you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me. So God is the one who allows himself to be found. God is the one who invites us into his presence and so our ability to worship God is a gift.

Sometimes I think we get this backwards and we feel like our worship is a gift to God and on some level it is, God wants the gift of our hearts and lives centered on him and lifted up to him, but really – worship, or our ability to enter into the presence of God and experience God’s love and grace and joy and peace and power is God’s gift to us and like all gifts from God, it is a gift that we need to receive. More importantly it is a gift that we all can receive.

What I like about the shepherds being the first ones to receive the gift of worship on the night that Jesus was born is that it shows us that this gift is open and available to everyone. God doesn’t exclude anyone from worship, quite the opposite; God wants everyone to worship him and that is part of the reason I think God chose a group of shepherds to first announce the news of Jesus birth. While the idea of being a shepherd in Jesus day may have been noble because Moses and David, the two greatest men of Israel’s history both worked as shepherds, the reality of being a shepherd was quite different.

In Jesus day, shepherds were near the bottom of the social ladder. They had bad reputations and were known as being notorious liars. In fact, shepherds were not able to give testimony in a court of law because they were not recognized as men who were able to tell the truth. Shepherds were social outcasts because they spent so much time away from the community tending to the sheep and because they worked in unclean environments they were not able to follow all the religious laws of they day and so were considered religious outcast as well. All in all the life of a shepherd was not highly regarded and if the angels had tried they could not have found a more unlikely group of people to invite to worship God, and yet because they were the first ones who were given the gift of worshipping Jesus it shows us that we are all given this gift of worship. We are all invited into the presence of God.

Any gift that is given has to be received and it can often be difficult for us to receive the gift of worship because there are times when we all struggle with feeling unworthy to be in God’s presence. I know there are times when I think to myself, how God could want me to be in his presence after all I’ve done? How could God want me to worship him when I know how far away I am from the life He wants for me? When I think of who God is and who I am, I am humbled and amazed to think that this gift of worship has been given to me, but it has been given to me. The gift of worship has been given to all of us no matter who we are or what we have done or where we are in life and God wants us to receive it. God wants us to come into his presence and know the power of his love.

In 1 John 4:10 it says, this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us and gave his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sin. Again, we see here that God initiates the relationship of love with us. God first loves us and it is God’s love in Jesus that reconciles us to himself. It is through the death and resurrection of Jesus that our sins are atoned for, or forgiven, and it is through Jesus that the door is opened for us to enter into the presence of God, and all of this is a gift because we don’t deserve it. We don’t deserve God’s love and we didn’t earn it – but it is given to us none the less.

So the shepherds show us that worship is a gift – God invites all of us to enter into his presence so that we can experience the love and grace and power of God, but this gift of worship does more than just warm our hearts – it can change our lives and again it is the shepherds of Bethlehem who show us this. While they go to Bethlehem with open hearts and minds to find God – they leave Bethlehem praising and glorifying God for all they had seen and heard. And they didn’t just praise God, they shared with others what they had seen and heard. Notice that they didn’t do any of this after they heard the message of the angels; it was only after they worshipped Jesus that their lives changed.

The gift of worship, the gift of being in the presence of God filled the shepherds until their hearts overflowed and that is what the gift of worship needs to do for us. Worship needs to do more than just warm our hearts; it needs to change our lives from the inside out. Our experience of the living God in worship needs to shine light into the areas of our hearts and minds that are dark. Worship needs to bring hope where there is despair, joy where there is sorrow, acceptance where these is isolation and loneliness, grace where there is brokenness and sin, and love where this fear. What amazes me is that this can all take place if we will let down our defenses and enter into the presence of God. When we tear down the walls of our heart – God can enter in.

The shepherds didn’t have those walls built up in their hearts and lives. For example, they didn’t have that wall of doubt or fear in their lives when they went to find Jesus. They didn’t question what the angels said, they didn’t doubt, they believed. It says they went to see this thing that had happened. They believed it to be true, they had faith and trust that they would find the Messiah lying in a manger and because their minds and lives were open – they found him. And their hearts were open as well because they didn’t say to themselves, well we can’t go because we aren’t worthy, they trusted in the love that was shown when the angels sang to them and when the invitation to worship God was given. They believed they were accepted by God and so the set out to worship Jesus and because they believed, because their hearts were opened, their lives were changed. That is the key to worship, we have to accept this gift with the faith that God wants us to enter into his presence and receive his love. We have to trust that God loves us more than we can possibly imagine and that his love can heal us and forgive us and fill us with all that we need.

On the night Jesus was born the shepherds were given the gift of worship, they were invited into the presence of God through the person of Jesus and their lives were never the same. That same gift is being offered to us today. God extends to all of us this gift of worship, through Jesus we can enter into the presence of God and if we will open our hearts to the spirit of God, our lives can be changed today, in this moment. As we pray, as we sing, as we share in the bread and cup, our lives can be changed, so come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the new born king.