Gifts: Who's on Your List?
Tom Shrader explores the motivations behind gift-giving during Christmas, examining both human reasons for giving gifts and the ultimate gift of Jesus Christ. He contrasts giving from surplus versus sacrifice, using biblical examples to show how God's gift of eternal life through Christ should transform our understanding of generosity and gratitude.
“Jesus Christ is not a philosopher - a philosopher is somebody who seeks the truth, Jesus is the truth.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Christmas (1999)
Recorded: 1999
Duration: 44 min
Themes: gifts, generosity, christmas, sacrifice, gratitude, giving, stewardship, motivation, struggling with materialism, christmas shopping, holiday stress, parent, spouse, business owner, feeling guilty, evaluating priorities
Scripture: John 4:10, Genesis 25:6, 1 Samuel 25, 2 Kings 8:7-10, Genesis 34, 1 Corinthians 16:1-3, Mark 12:41-44, Romans 6:23, Acts 2:38, Ecclesiastes 3:13
Theological Themes: grace, eternal life, salvation, incarnation, god's gift, biblical stewardship, sacrificial giving, christology
Full Transcript
What we're doing last week, this week, and then when we come back after the first of the year is kind of something that maybe individually you would do in your own life. Last week we looked at one of two common areas of concern or thought for this time of year - the issue of families. Next time we get together after the first of the year, we'll do our annual review and preview. But today we're going to talk about something that is very much attached with Christmas.
Many of you are in businesses that live or die to a large degree because of these two months. We're going to talk about gifts. And that's so attached in a positive or negative way. Susan came in last night and said, "You know, I've got a couple of things for the girls this year, but I just don't think we're going to do a lot of stuff." Which by the way, never turns out to be the case. I just don't think we're going to do a lot of stuff. And I said, "That's great." And she said, "Are you all caught up? You got your shopping done?" And I said, "I got everybody. I bought for everybody but one person." And the problem with it is obviously I only buy for one person. And I said, "You know, you got to help me here because I know I'm going to screw this up. So give me an idea." And she said, "Well, you know, so that'll be awful." But this whole idea of gifts.
So we're going to ask four questions today. We're going to move through it pretty quickly, and I think we can help you. We're going to talk about, number one, why do people give gifts? What's the whole point? What's the motivation behind this? Number two, where do these gifts come from? Where do the resources come from? As you're doing your gift giving, where do you find the resources for this? Number three, are there any gifts that perhaps you've already received that we don't want to miss in our evaluation of gift giving? And then how do you respond to the gifts, especially the ones you've already received?
The Challenge of Gift Giving
This is indeed, for me personally, I'm not very good at this whole gift thing. And that's not a cop out. This is a statement of fact. Rarely do I - it's not gift giving. And this is where I get a little cynical, I guess. It's not really gift giving. It's really gift trading.
It's evaluating not just who's going to give you something, but what are they going to give you? What's the relative value of that? What's the actual cost of that? If somebody's going to give you a gift, and it's really like a cool gift that they spent $75 on, you know, your little $15 jellies and cheese don't look right. And so you got this eternal thing going on. And I'm just not very good at it. And I just don't do it very well. I don't hardly do it at all. And so consequently, I actually have powered through really the guilt that was at one time associated with it.
I have a friend that does this. He keeps - this is pretty cool, really, because he's in one of these areas where he gets a lot of gifts. But they're kind of generic gifts that don't - cheese, candies, jellies, those things. What he does is when he gets them, he removes the tags, and he kind of stores them for what he knows inevitably happens this time of the year. And that's the person that comes in and says, "Hey, Merry Christmas." And he just literally what he does is says, "Man, I'm glad you came because I didn't know if I was going to have a chance to get you. Hang on." And he'll go to the back, and he takes one tag off, boom, and "Merry Christmas." And that even I, even I am not that cynical. But that's the way he approaches it.
Why Do People Give Gifts?
Why do people give gifts? Not all the motives - this will come as a shock to you - not all the motives are necessarily pure. So look at some of these things. And we'll go through it real quickly. And just kind of take a look at it.
Here's the first one: to discharge your responsibility, because maybe that's something you ought to do. Abraham, at the end of his life, preparing to die, decided that he would leave everything that he owned to Isaac. That is Isaac, the promised son. But while he was still living, he gave gifts. He gave gifts to his sons of his concubines and sent them away and sent them away from his son Isaac to land in the east. One of the legitimate reasons to give gifts is because, as Abraham feels here, it's just the right thing to do. It's just something that's the appropriate thing for you to do. It's as though you're obligated, I guess, really to that.
Here's the second reason to give: to appease somebody that perhaps has something against you. We may use a term like peace offering, almost a bribe in a sense. It's the idea that somebody's angry with you, and this gift will somehow take the anger and dissipate the anger.
A Biblical Example of Peace Offering
This is a great story from 1 Samuel 25. David is providing protection for a guy by the name of Nabal. And Nabal's just a puke. I mean, that's just what this guy is. And Nabal has an obligation to David, but here's what he's done. Maybe you've dealt with subcontractors that work this way. One of the ways to cut down on those accounts payable is just to determine you aren't going to pay him. So that's what he's done. He's decided, even though he has this obligation to David, he's not going to fulfill it.
And his wife gets involved now in the process. David says, "It's been useless, all my watching over this fellow's property." And he says, "I've been watching over this guy in the desert. He's paid me back evil for good. He's not repaid me at all." And now David takes an oath. "May God deal with David" - now he's speaking to himself - "May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male who belongs to Nabal. If there's one guy left that I haven't killed, God, you go ahead and kill me." That's pretty serious.
Abigail comes along. That's Nabal's wife. And she got off her donkey quickly, bowed down to David. "My Lord, let the blame be on me alone. Let your servants speak."
The Gift to Appease
Let this gift appease you. Some people give gifts to calm down somebody who they think has something against them. This is not a little bit different from the first, but this is the idea not of giving out of obligation. In other words, it's not "I feel I want to give and should give to you." This is giving to you to obligate you to me.
I know that in our business environment, this has never happened. But in the past, periodically, things like this used to take place—old ancient customs. There's a guy by the name of Elisha. He went down to Damascus. Now, Elisha is a man of God. There's a king there, Ben-Hadad. Ben-Hadad is ill. He sends one of his guys with a gift to Elisha and says, "Ask him, am I going to get over this illness?"
The idea here is not just to find out a prediction, but to give a gift to influence the prediction. That's what he's trying to do. So the 40 camel loads of the finest stuff in Damascus arrive. He goes, this servant, he stands before Elisha. He says, "Your son, King Ben-Hadad of Aram has sent me. Will he recover from this illness?" This is what he wants to know.
And Elisha says, "Well, I got good news and I got bad news. The good news is he'll recover from this illness. The bad news is God has told me he will in fact die. He's going to get over the sickness, but he's going to get hit by a truck. He's going to live, but then he's going to die." There's nothing going to happen. The fix did not come in on this.
Business Gift-Giving
This used to be—and I'm obviously out of the loop business-wise now, and I think even legislatively, most companies politically have stopped this—but I used to call years ago on a plant back home, an Alcoa plant, and it was a gigantic plant. The plant was down along the river, down along the Mississippi. The plant's over a mile long.
When you went to that receiving dock this time of year, it looked like you were coming up to Circuit City. These were all things coming in and going out for buyers and departments. The whole idea here was to make sure that we were selling paper products, to make sure the paper and chemicals were selling them, that our gift somehow was a little higher price and a little more visible than the two-door double freezer next to it that this guy's getting.
The idea there was, "Oh, you're a great guy. I'm giving you this. This has nothing—I'm not trying to influence you at all. This is because you're a terrific guy." Now, in point of fact, I don't recall ever once these guys left—I'm sure they were just as terrific as the day they were there—but once they left Alcoa, I don't remember ever sending them a gift. So I think this is the way this works. Again, a subtle difference to this. It's to influence a decision.
The Story of Shechem
This is a great story. Shechem—Shechem's a guy's name. He also represents a city. He's a player. He has eyes on Dinah. He and some of his boys have gone further than the kitchen with Dinah on this deal, and there's a problem, but he wants to marry her.
Shechem goes to Dinah's father and Dinah's brothers. Now there's a sub-lesson in here, and the lesson is this: if you're going to pick some gal and you're going to defile this gal, don't pick a gal with 12 brothers. This isn't a good move.
So he goes. He said, "Let me find favor in your eyes. I'll give you whatever you ask." Goes to Dinah's father. "May the price of the bride and the gift that I bring you be as great as you like. Whatever you say, that's what I'm going to give."
Now Dinah's father and her brothers are determined to revenge the fact that their daughter and sister's been defiled. So here's what they say, because their sister's been defiled: Jacob's sons spoke deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. He's given a gift—that's all he wants—and his idea is to influence their decision to say yes, "Take my daughter, please."
The Price of Defilement
Here's how this story ends. It's pretty interesting. These guys get together, and what they say to Shechem is, "We don't want any stuff from you. What we want is we want you and all your guys to become Jews." So Shechem said, "I don't have a problem with that. That's fine."
They said, "Well, we have a little orientation process we go through, and it's maybe a little harder for you to sell to some of your men than others." He said, "Whatever. What is it?" And they said, "Well, Doc, you explain it to him, and then we'll be back to close this deal."
So what happens is Shechem then—I don't know, that's obviously having a lot of influence—his guys line up. They become Jews in heart and flesh as well. In Genesis chapter 34 verse 24 it says that three days later, when the men were in pain—that was the phrase—Dinah's father and brothers come in and kill all of them. Great end of the story. I like that story. That's a good story. When they were in pain.
Giving to Alleviate Hardship
Here's another reason. Here's a good reason to give: to alleviate hardship. You got people who are suffering. This is Paul writing to the church at Corinth, and he's talking about something that they can do. He said, "When you get together on the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income. Save it up so when I get there we don't need to take any special collection. We're going to take that portion of that money and take it to the church at Jerusalem."
Again, let me just remind you historically that first church in Jerusalem was almost exclusively Jewish, and persecution comes on that church, and it was persecuted.
The Principle of Regular Giving
Here's what he says: he wants you to take some money and set it aside because this church is hurting. They have no resources. We can use our money to alleviate their suffering. There's a couple of principles here.
When you give—because we'll get this frequently in this process of giving—how should I give? When should I give? Where should I give? Those kinds of things. Here you go. Number one: you should give regularly. In this case, I think it should be in a setting, and this becomes a real issue. How much should I give?
I get people all the time—it's so much fun in these environments—because they'll be Christians, they become Christians, and they're going to say, "You know, we never talk about this stuff in here, at least as it relates to priority living." But God just begins to work in a heart, so the question becomes: what should I give? "Boy, I've been given five, ten, fifteen bucks. That seems like a lot. What should I give?"
The Principle of Proportional Giving
What we never notice: the scripture in the New Testament never lays down any sort of rules. Here's what it says: if you're making a lot, you ought to be giving a lot. Now we'll go back and talk about things like ten percent and all those kinds of stuff, but understand all that is is some sort of barometer, some sort of regular, some sort of idea out there. If you're making fifteen grand a year and you're giving fifteen hundred bucks, that's a far deeper commitment than the guy that's making one hundred fifty grand a year and giving fifteen grand.
At what point—and this gets really challenging for those of you that are really serious (and many of you in this room are very serious about this issue)—as you begin to build wealth, what's the difference between good sound financial planning and hoarding? How much do I take and prepare? At what point? Well, I'm gonna leave it all. Here's my plan, by the way. It's a pretty good plan, although I don't think it's correct, but it's a good plan. I'm gonna take it all, and then what I'm gonna do is upon my death, I'm gonna distribute it to kids and people and all this. I'm not sure that seems to me a little bit like having it both ways.
What's that distinction between planning and hoarding? The reality is you got to answer that question for yourself. I can't answer it for you, and nobody else can. You got some good conscience to look at these things.
Giving to Honor
Here you go, two more things. To honor a superior: maybe you're faced with this. Your responsibility is to get everybody else together, get the money, and go buy the gift for the guy that has everything. You don't go to the Sharper Image catalog to get him something because he has everything in there. Part of that, by the way—it's part of the reason I have a sub-point here—the point is here: Solomon with everything, and you give him that because his position is worthy of that. It's to honor him. There's people in their life they don't need another thing, but you get them something because you're showing your honor to them, and that's a legitimate process.
The Gift-Giving Dilemma
Let me just spend some time here because I think I've nailed a lot of this gift-giving thing and some of the dilemma. Part of the reason that it's so hard to give gifts is because you truly are buying things for people that they don't need, because we don't live in a time where we deny ourselves that.
When I was a kid—and these are absolutely true stories—I remember the Christmas that I got a twenty-six inch twin bike. It was green. I remember that I wanted that bike that summer. I wanted that bike that summer. I had this pukey little twenty inch or whatever they were that you rode up, and I wanted that bike. My dad said, "I don't think so." But boy, I'll tell you what: I started in June anticipating Christmas getting that bike.
We don't do that with anybody anymore. If your kid wants a twenty-six inch bike in June, he gets it in June. If she's got something she wants in July, she gets it in July. I'm not making any judgment on that at all. Our kids are like that. You can't find something our kids need because whatever they need, they've got. Most of the things they want, they get. That's why this gift shopping at Christmas is so hard. That's why you got to come up with something like gliding lessons, because you're trying to get something for somebody that has nothing to do with need.
The Christmas Club Memory
My dad—I remember when the day I started working and the day I started making money—I remember my dad taking me down to the bank and saying, "I'm going to introduce you to something called a Christmas Club." We look at these things and we'd laugh at these. These are so archaic. His deal was: "Tom, we're gonna put money away. You're gonna put your money away. I don't care if it's a quarter every week, every other week, whenever you get paid. You're gonna have money at Christmas because you know you're gonna have expenses there, and this is a forced savings plan."
All I know is there was some planning there. There was some need there. That's part of, I think, all the dilemma we have. It's not that we're buying because we don't know anybody that needs anything. So Christmas shopping took my mom and dad fifteen minutes to Christmas shop because we had four boys. All four boys needed a thing. They got a little bit of stuff and some popcorn balls and Merry Christmas. You spend five hours and turn it into an ordeal because you got to come up with some creative thing to get these people because they already have everything.
When we have everything, it's just kind of a silly thing, and I don't mean that critically at all. That's just kind of a commentary on where we are.
Here's the last reason we might give: it would be this whole idea of a signifying event. We give gifts at birthdays and not just Christmas, but graduation. It's to mark an event. This is the story of the Magi as they come. They signify the significance of the event. They bring gifts to mark this event.
Where Our Gift Resources Come From
Where do the resources for these gifts come from? Well, in their simplest sense, they come from one of two places. They either come from your surplus, or they come out of sacrifice.
Now, everything you have you get from God. That's a given. Every breath you take, every dime you make, it's a gift from Him. Everything you have is from Him. But as you begin to give gifts to other people, there's only two places they can come from: from your excess, your surplus, or from sacrifice.
Jesus Watches the Giving
This is the story of Mark 12. This is a real interesting thing. These are the kind of things that I love, as you read through the Scriptures, to look at. Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put, and watched people give their money to the Treasury.
Now, that's an odd thing to do. Let me try to put it in context. At our church, we don't take a collection. We've got boxes around, and you just go and you put your money in the box. So what this is, this is like saying, "Here's the box." It's like saying, "I'm going to pull up a chair, and I just want to watch this for a while. I'm just going to watch people put it in the box." We're going to have it in a way where it's not—in our deal, you put an envelope in there. That envelope could have a dollar or a million dollars in it. Nobody would know. This is a way in which you're going to give where I can see it openly and understand what it is.
That would make you a little nervous. That's something we would say, "Gee, this doesn't seem appropriate."
The Widow's Greater Gift
So they would give. As Jesus watched this—this would be a great way to do this—as Jesus watched this, many rich people threw large amounts in. But a poor widow came in, put two copper coins in, less than a fraction of a penny.
Now Jesus said, "Boys, I want to show you something here. I want to teach you something." Again, a sub-lesson. This is the way you ought to live your life with your kids and the people around you. Everything is a teaching lesson. Continually looking at what does this mean.
Jesus gets the disciples. He said, "Let me show you. See what we saw here? Got it." He said, "Let me tell you something. I'll bet you didn't get it. I'll bet you didn't see this. The widow put in more in the treasury than everybody else."
They're going, "How can that be? She had a few pennies. These guys were throwing thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars at this."
And He said, "No, she gave out of her poverty. They gave out of her wealth."
The Challenge of Defining "Enough"
As you give, most of the gifts you give are going to be from your surplus. There's probably no one in this room who's going to go without food and without clothing and without shelter because they gave it away. We define—and even then, it becomes very hard because how do you define what is surplus?
I come back—these are very hard issues and I raise them and you will respond. Right now in your mind, you even respond to this because they're hard issues and you know they are. How do I define what is enough? How do I define what I ought to give away?
I mean, if I'm in a situation—I was talking to a guy, absolute perfect example—talking to a guy not long ago and his whole goal was to try to build up an estate that could be liquid of two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand dollars. That's what he's going to retire on. I'm talking to another guy, not a week later, who's saying, "I really feel like I need between three and three and a half million dollars in cash to be able to retire on that to live on that." And both were very comfortable.
If I'd have gone to the guy at 275 and said, "I'll give you 350," he'd have said, "350 grand? No problem." If I went to the other guy and said, "350 grand," he'd say, "I got nothing. I can't live on that."
There's no right or wrong here. What I'm saying is, this one guy—and probably the guy at three and a half million is going to get to the number faster than the other guy, one of the ironies of life—but where in there do I say that's enough and what do I do with the excess?
The Heart Behind the Gift
I think what Jesus is saying is, I move and I give out of surplus, but where I really give and God sees it as a greater gift is not the size, but the intent of the heart and what it's doing to the giver. You got that?
Any chance that there's gifts that you've received, because especially this time of year when we want to respond, reciprocate in terms of gifts, any gifts that maybe you've received through the year that warrant a response from you?
The Greatest Gift: Two Categories of People
Now, this is going to get—and we're going to spend 15 minutes on this, the rest of the time on this—because this becomes probably the most important message that we can talk about at this Christmas time of the year.
We're going to make a distinction now between two categories of people in this room: those who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and everyone else, those who don't.
If I know Christ as my Lord and Savior, I understand who the gift of God is. In John chapter 4, Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well, and they're dialoguing. They're dialoguing about this physical water, and Jesus says, "No, it's a picture of what I want to teach you spiritually." He says to her, "If you knew the gift of God, that is, if you knew who is asking you for this drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you a drink of living water."
Now, there's two totally different planes. She's thinking physically, He's thinking spiritual, but Jesus identifies Himself as the gift of God. The gift of God is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to this world. Very interesting—
I don't know, I'm kind of a political junkie—that's too hard a word—but I'll watch all this stuff. I assume most of you diligently were watching the Iowa debate the other night when the question was posed: "Who's really the greatest philosopher that's impacted your thinking as it really relates to American government?" Steve Forbes says John Locke, Alan Keyes says the Founding Fathers, and George W. is next. He had a real interesting answer: he said Jesus Christ.
The moderator then said, "Expand on that." He was talking about when Jesus Christ comes into your heart, or you ask Jesus Christ to save you, and he said, "It's not going to mean anything if you haven't experienced that—you don't know." I think it was sincere; I don't think it was political. But you have some really interesting thought processes there.
Jesus Is Not a Philosopher
Jesus Christ is not a philosopher. A philosopher is somebody who seeks the truth. Jesus is the truth. The answer's actually a bad answer. It's a nice answer for the Christian coalition, but it's not a really great answer. Jesus isn't a philosopher—a philosopher is one who's seeking after truth. Jesus says, "I am the truth."
I know what George W. is trying to say, and we'll applaud him for the answer. But do you see this? Jesus comes along, and He's different than everybody else. He's not a way of life; He is the life. He is the gift of God. When we talk about Christ, we're talking about the person that divides all of life and all of history. He is not an option; He's the only option.
We even talk in our culture about sharing Jesus Christ. Maybe you've been to events in ballparks or arenas or luncheons where they have what they call "the invitation"—your invitation to come to Christ. Jesus never invited anyone. He said, "Come." It was in the imperative form; it was a command: "Come to me." Why? Because in Me there's life; apart from Me there is no life.
The Living Water
Here's what He's saying to the woman at the well: "You ask Me for water, and I will give you a water that will satisfy your thirst forever." Not in a physical plane, because although you're thirsty physically, you've got a deeper problem—it's a spiritual thirst, a spiritual hunger. And at this time of the year, it's evident all around you as people are seeking.
Look, I love this. I happen to think—because I've got a lot of friends who are pretty negative about everything: the world's awful, we're going to hell in a handbasket, Christians are bad, they don't speak up, it's a secular humanist world, Democrats are going to get to Congress—I agree with all of that, but I put it in a very different context. I cannot imagine a better time to be sharing your faith. I honestly can't, and that's not just hype.
The Reality of Human Sinfulness
Even as you talk to people this time of year, once you're tuned in, you'll learn how to just talk and ask questions. I was talking to a guy the other day—not a believer—and I said, "What are you going to do for the holidays?" He said, "Well, one of the things that I do this time of year is support the food bank, and I actually go down and feed people." Very good thing to do, right? We all agree with that.
So I said to him, "Really, why do you do that?" He said, "You know, I feel so good about myself when I do it." That's how sinful we are! We don't even feed a hungry person to feed them because they're hungry—we feed them to feel good about ourselves. That's sin. That's how rotten you are. You're a sinful, rotten, selfish creature, so even when you do good, it isn't good. It's evil and pride in your life.
The problem here is to change that guy's heart so that next year he goes to the food bank and feeds the hungry, and when you ask him why he does it, he says, "Because they're hungry. That's why I'm doing it. Because I have the ability to meet their need." That's genuine goodness. "I feel good about myself"—what is that? Only evidence of how selfish you are.
The Gift of Eternal Life
Maybe you've received the gift of Jesus Christ. If you have, you've received the gift of God. You received this because as you unwrap this gift, there's a whole series of gifts that come together. You've received the gift of eternal life.
I was with a guy yesterday who is older and ill. He feels okay, but there's just no question that maybe not today or tomorrow, but in the next year or two, he'll die. It's just what we talked about—he's 70-ish, and it's not like it's a secret or a surprise. But what about then? That's what I want to know. What about then?
In a sense, we do a little bit of a misnomer when we say to people, "If you have Christ, you have eternal life." You already got eternal life, pal. You're already going to live forever. Everybody in this room is going to live forever. The issue is—because eternal life has two aspects to it, quantity and quality—you're going to live forever where? Heaven or hell?
The Wages of Sin
Here's what Paul writes in Romans 6: "The wages of sin is death." When you're one of those people that says, "You know what? I'm not asking for anything. There's no free lunch. I just want what I deserve. I want what I've earned"—your sin has earned you death. That's what you've earned. What did you deserve? Death.
Death means, literally, separation. When we think of death, we think of physical life ending, being separated from this body. But when we talk about death spiritually, we're talking about being separated from God. Your sin separates you from God. You are no longer neutral—you're at war with God and you hate Him. You're sophisticated enough to be able to cover it up, but in the quiet of your heart, you understand that.
you will not, cannot, do anything that's good because you're at war with God. But the gift of God is eternal life. By that He means the gift of God is reconciliation.
I love this time of the year where you can put on K-E-Z and they play Christmas music. That's what I'm singing this morning, and I'm drinking this trying to get here, and all these songs. But it's just so funny to me to sit, you know, after an ad for Smith Barney, Budweiser, West Corps, and now we're going to sing God and Sin Are Reconciled. I don't have any problem with any of those things. They just don't typically see them together. Only this time of year can do this.
And so you're moving along, and here's this magnificent message. By the way, I'm very supportive of West Corps, Budweiser not, but Smith Barney's fine. So that's not a shot at them. It's a shot at, here we are, sitting in a red light, God and Sin Are Reconciled. What does that mean? God and Sin Are Reconciled means our death that separated us from God has now been put away, and we're now united with Him so that I have eternal life. I've moved from death to life spiritually, but that life is found only in Jesus Christ.
Christmas Is About Christ
That's why Christmas is significant. It's significant because we stop and mark the moment that we celebrate for Christ's birth. All the schools, I was in public schools, no Christmas breaks anymore. It's winter break. I have more and more people who don't say to me, Merry Christmas, they say, Happy Holidays. I'm not hung up on any of this stuff. It's just me watching it. But Christmas is about Christ. That's the whole issue.
The mistake I make is if I leave Him, little baby Jesus meek and mild in the crib and don't allow, Christmas is fine. But the holiday for us to mark is what? Easter. That's the one we care about. Really, it's a mistake to separate Easter from, all right, what else? How about Good Friday? I can't separate, here comes Christmas, now He's born, but I need that death. I need the death of Christ because in that, I find eternal life. When I die to myself, I'm alive in Him. That's the whole equation.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
You also have received the gift of the very presence of God Himself. In Acts chapter 2, Peter delivers this message, they say, what should we do? He says, here's what I want you to do, repent, be baptized, every one of you, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is that power, that force that convicts us of our sin, that indwells us, that secures us. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. How do I find that strength? I find that strength in the Holy Spirit. I have everything I need for life. Where do I find it? In the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells His people.
The Gift of Satisfaction in Life
As a sub-point of this, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, I also end up with the ability to enjoy life. Solomon writes about this incredible truth, and here's what he says, I know there's nothing better off for a man to be happy and do good while he's alive, that everyone may eat, drink, and find satisfaction in his toil. This is a gift from God.
Most people I know are incredibly dissatisfied with life. They're operating, and this, why is suicide rate high this time of year, why is, I'll explain why, primarily because we become self-absorbed, we think about how awful everything is, that's the biggest problem. But I begin to look at my life and I begin to not find satisfaction there.
That's why, maybe some of you are on this train, if I can just get this deal closed, I'll be happy. If I can just get this promotion, I'll be satisfied. If I can just get that person to marry me, then I'll be happy. If I can just get rid of this person I'm married to, then I'll be happy. And so what I do is, in all my life, I just continually move from thing to thing to thing to thing. So I go from job to job to job to job, deal to deal to deal to deal, spouse to spouse to spouse to spouse, date to date to date to date, whatever it is.
I'm in golf, I get down, I'm a 3, all I ever wanted to be was a 5, I'm a 3, I'm not satisfied, I'm done, I never touch the clubs again. Because I just think all this is, one of the great gifts from God is to be able to look around at your life and say, you know what, I'm really happy. And I'm happy with far less than I ever dreamt possible.
An Example of Contentment
Without doubt, humanly, the greatest gift of my life is my wife Susan. She brings so much to my life and allows me to be able to do what I do. One of the things she does is she has a contentment in her life.
We just went through an interesting process. We're talking about remodeling the house, and ladies probably can relate to this, maybe better than guys. When we go through this, and we're doing a lot of drawings, she had a three ring binder, two or three of them filled with kitchen tops and magazine ideas and tile, you know what I'm talking about. It was clipped out of everything she had at all. We sat down, did all the architect's drawings, did the rough, got the estimate back, and I said, we can't spend that much money. That's just too much. We're not going to do it.
You know what she said? Okay, that sounds like a good idea. That sounds like a good decision. I'm going, wow, that's exactly what I said, wow. I mean, I would have gone for a countertop or something if you had asked. I was ready. You had me. You had me where you wanted me if you made a move. And she said, no, Tom, I mean, hey, I'd love to have everything in this book, but I don't want to spend a hundred grand to get there and then have us take on that debt so we don't have a new countertop and the ceiling's different. That's okay.
Well, there's such freedom and power in that. Here's what's interesting that happened: I found myself a month later going, "Suze, why don't we make some changes that you'd like to see us make? Why don't you just go ahead and figure it out." There are probably a thousand different messages in that, but it's the idea of contentment. I don't need the newest. I don't need the latest. I don't need the most because—and here's the secret, by the way—it's not just because I like driving an old car, but it's that my identity is not tied up in the car. My identity is in Christ.
Some of you have to have a new, bigger car because that's who you are, because the people that you hang out with are going to evaluate you on what you drive and you've fallen into that trap and your identity is there. You can't begin to say, "You know what? I'm going to save some money because I want to do something else with it" because your identity is there. But see, if my identity is in Christ, then all of a sudden I know how to live.
Living from Our True Identity
Now, how do you respond to that? Here you go very quickly. This is real simple. I was at the mall—Fashion Square. I mean that's where I love to go. They got the best Santa Claus around there and he's been there for a long time. So I always hang out, get a little latte or something, and I like to watch Santa because most of these kids are just so out of control, so I like to watch how he copes with it.
So I pull up and I got my latte and I'm there watching. He looks over and I'm sure he doesn't recognize me, but maybe he does. He looks over and he kind of winks and laughs. All of a sudden I look and the next two kids up—the parents are from our church. I thought this will be good. So they haven't seen me. They don't know I'm there. So I'm watching and they're going through the whole drill, and I thought, "Well I'm gonna let them go. If I call them now that's too much pressure right now. They're under enough pressure. They don't need this."
The kids were so great. They got up there and they smiled and they took their pictures, so I could see it was going all right. I said, "Hey hurry up, there's people waiting!" They laughed and they came over. The little girl came over and I said, "Oh man, that's a beautiful dress. It looks like you're all ready for Christmas. Are you ready for Christmas?" She said, "Yes I am." "Oh your hair looks so nice." Her mom said, "That's a compliment." She said, "Oh thank you very much, sir."
The Mark of Gratitude
Now what do you do when somebody gives you a gift? It's the same thing you tell your kids. You say thank you. That's why if there's a characteristic that marks the Christian life, it should be thanksgiving. When you read through the New Testament, here's a great exercise. Some of you'll start this in a couple of weeks—read through the Bible in a year. That's too aggressive for some of you. That's no problem with that. So read through the New Testament. As you do, here's what you're gonna see over and over again: give thanks, give thanks, give thanks, give thanks, give thanks. It'll start to jump off the page at you.
Why are we such a thankful people? Because we supremely above all else understand how much we've been given. If you're thankful for a gift that somebody gives you—some of you, I was talking to a guy the other day. He said, "I am so thankful for my paycheck." I thought that's an interesting comment because my deal was I'll work X, you give me Y. I'm not thankful for it. That was the deal. I'm no more thankful for it than you were thankful I worked X.
But if I'm thankful for something I've earned, how about something that not only I didn't earn, I don't deserve, and there was nothing I could do to generate that, and that was the gift of eternal life in Christ? How much more thankful can I be? The other thing I do is I respond with gratitude and at the same time with generosity. I'm grateful and I'm generous. If I've been given and I've received, then I give freely as well.
Living Differently This Christmas
My whole point is as you head to this time of the year and you get swept away with gifts, I am not one of these hard—"Well there's materialism at Christmas, whatever. All these gifts, they're a hassle." Then don't give them. Honestly, don't give them. But here's the thing I want you to understand: how much you've been given.
Let me take thirty seconds here and try to reinforce this. I know for many of you this is a tough time of the year, especially those of you that have to deal with family that are non-believers. They don't share your value system. They don't share Christ as Lord and Savior. Let me encourage you to go and to live a life differently and uniquely in front of them and let them see what Christ has done in your life and then share it with them.
This time of year, I don't care if you get swept away and all this is going on and all the activity. What I'm saying is stop and make sure you understand that you've received—if you're a Christian you've received the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. If you haven't, if you haven't come to Christ in repentance and faith, then you need to understand your life is now and always will be, as long as you stay in that condition, empty and hollow. Always will be.
The Simple Gift of Salvation
So how do you come? You say to Him, to God, "I've sinned. My sin has separated me from You, and I accept Your Son Jesus Christ for who He is and what He did on the cross for me, and in that I find eternal life." You mean it's as easy as that? It's as easy as that. That's all there is to it? Well, that's all there is to it. But let me tell you, with that—
This brings us to the ultimate point: when we truly receive and embrace God's gift of salvation, what comes next is a life that's transformed. A life that's changed.
The gift of God isn't just something we possess—it becomes something that possesses us. It changes everything about how we live, how we love, and how we give. When Christ becomes our Savior, we don't just get eternal life; we get a completely new way of living this life.
This is the miracle of Christmas. Not just that God gave His Son, but that His Son continues to give Himself to us every single day. And as we receive that gift over and over again, we become more like Him. We become people who give generously, love sacrificially, and live with eternal purpose.
So as we think about our Christmas lists this year, let's remember that the greatest gift has already been given. The question isn't whether we're on God's list—we are. The question is whether we've truly received His gift and allowed it to transform our lives.