Last
Saturday as I was driving back from Mississippi, I was listening to the radio
and had on the pregame show prior to Mississippi State’s annual game against
Ole Miss (which I am still trying to repress from my memory). During the pregame show, they would play
little commercials of local sponsors for MSU’s football team. One of the sponsor commercials was from a big
car dealership out of Brandon, MS, Gray-Daniels. Their ad started off by saying, “At
Gray-Daniel Ford we know that it’s better to give than to receive, and that’s
why we’re giving away a $100 dollar gas card for every new Ford truck bought
during the month of December.” Now, I
remember thinking to myself, “How does that equation make sense? So someone comes and gives you a whole lot of
money for a new truck and you give them a $100 in return. Well, that doesn’t really sound like complete
giving does it? It sounds like
Gray-Daniels is receiving a pretty good bit in this equation to me.”
We’ve
all been taught that little saying of it’s better to give than to receive. We didn’t believe it as children, but as
we’ve grown older we’ve seen that there’s a lot of truth to those words. Like anyone else, I enjoy getting
things. I love it when my wife or kids
surprise me with some little gift or experience. However, I get an even greater sense of joy
being able to do the same for them. I
don’t know why it is, but I get much more concerned about not giving them
enough than I do about me not getting enough.
You see, there’s something in us that longs to give to others. Now, some of us keep it well hidden. It’s buried amongst the earthly, selfish
desires. Some of us have a tough time
remembering the needs of others because the world teaches us that we are to be
so focused on ourselves that many times we start to hear only that message. However, after those moments when we do give
to someone there’s a certain feeling that we get that’s hard to explain. It’s a good feeling, but it’s hard to put
into words why it’s a good feeling. You
know that sense of euphoria of sorts that you get after serving at a soup
kitchen, making a donation, or helping someone in need. There is something in our DNA, I believe,
that longs to give to others, and especially those in need.
This text that
we’re looking at today is about being good stewards of what God has given to
us. Now, this text is more commonly
interpreted and applied in a different manner.
Most often, it’s used when teaching on the concept of Christian
giving. I know that several years ago
when I preached a series on being faithful Christian stewards, this was one of
the texts that I used. I talked about
investing the things that God has blessed us with in service of His
kingdom. However, I want to take a
little bit different approach this morning as we look at this text as part of
our True Gift of Christmas series. I
want us to not focus so much upon the monetary side of things, but on the being
faithful stewards of that gift that we talked about last Sunday, the gift of
Jesus Christ.
“As
each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of
God’s varied grace.” This is
where typically I would go into talking about the gifts that God has given to
us and how we are to use them in service of His kingdom. Now, all that is completely true and I don’t
want to give the impression that it isn’t.
If you have certain gifts, it’s because God has given them to you and
the right response is to use those gifts for the building up of His kingdom and
the spread of the gospel. However, last
Sunday we said that the good and perfect gift that God has given to all of us
is the gift of the Son, Jesus Christ.
So, the question that I’m going to ask and then hopefully answer today is,
“How can we use the gift of Jesus to serve one another and be faithful stewards
of God’s grace?”
Now,
I’m going to admit here at the onset that this approach to this verse and this
questioning of this text is a bit odd and I’ve gone back and forth on whether
or not I’m reaching a little too far here, but I think I’m in the clear. I don’t think that I’m reading something into
the text or pulling something out of it that isn’t there; so let me make that
clear. First off, how can we serve
others using the gift of Jesus? Have you
ever stopped to think about when it is that we live? Think about all the wonderful technologies,
medicines, and inventions that we enjoy; why is it that we get to enjoy them?
Well, the short answer is because we’re living during a time of their
discovery. Many of the things that we
enjoy (and in some cases rely upon) weren’t in use in the past simply because
they hadn’t been invented yet. We could
even say that their existence hadn’t been revealed yet (see where I’m going?). I know that my father who grew up working for
his dad in the construction business sees some of the tools of today and just
marvels at the amount of time that it would have saved him years ago. Things that once took hours of precise work
now take only minutes and the finished product is just as good if not better.
Several
years ago I was walking around our old church in Madison, MS when one of the
kids in Amy’s children’s program stopped me and asked if I would answer a
question that they didn’t want to ask in front of everyone else. Well, since I was kind of seen as
second-in-command when it came to theological matters, this was nothing
new. However, this was the first time a
little child had wanted to ask me a question so I was a little nervous because
you never know what kids will say or ask.
He asked me, “Did Moses know about Jesus?” In an effort to stall for time so that I
could craft an answer that he could understand, I responded with, “Why do you
ask that?” The little boy said, “Well,
if Jesus came after Moses then wouldn’t it be impossible for Moses to know who
Jesus was?” Now, to fully answer that
question takes much more time than I have today, but I want you to think about
it for a second. Obviously, something of
the Son was known by Moses; how much we can’t be sure. We can look to texts like Deuteronomy 18:15,
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from
your brothers—it is to him you shall listen” for evidence that Moses knew of
the coming Messiah. But the reason that
I tell you about this little boy’s question is that it is very likely that you
and I know more about Jesus than Moses did.
You and I know more about Jesus than really any of the Old Testament
figures (at least during their earthly lives).
Isn’t that astounding? Now, why
is it that we are able to know so much about Jesus? Quite simply, it’s because of the time in
which we are living. We know so much
about him because we live in a time after his earthly ministry was
completed. We live in a time after the
Apostle Paul and others explained his work so thoroughly. We live in a time in which God’s Word has
been translated to nearly every common vernacular. We live in a time in which the Bible is so
readily available due to the invention of the printing press and digital media
that many of us can’t even begin to guess how many copies of Scripture we own
or have access to.
Getting
back to my original question, “how can we serve others and be good stewards of
God’s grace using the gift of Jesus?”
Well, the answer is really simple when we think about it. It is better to give than to receive. In other words, we share the gift of
Jesus. Friends, make no mistake, we have
been given the ultimate gift in Jesus Christ.
We talked last Sunday about how we have been given the gift of the only
thing in this world that is worthy of our lives being built upon it. However, we are not to simply take that gift
and root ourselves in it and build our lives upon it, but to help others to
root their lives in him and built their lives upon him. You see, everyone is out there looking for
the meaning of life and it’s as if we have the answer already. What’s the meaning of life? Jesus is the meaning of life.
A
couple of weeks I shared a story with the worship team about my freshman
semester at Mississippi State. It was the
week before the final exams, and somehow copies of the final exam for the
freshmen algebra class got leaked out across campus. The longer they were floating around, the
more people ended up with a copy of the exam in their hands. Someone would get a copy and want to share it
with a friend and then they would share it and so on and so on. Now, I will confess that I too (mainly in an
effort of self-preservation) got my hands on a copy of the exam and fell into
the temptation of going ahead and working the entire thing ahead of time so
that I knew that I could solve all the equations. I’ve long since owned up to that little
episode and I don’t want the main thing that you take away from this sermon to
be that your pastor cheated on a college math exam when he was a freshman. What I want you to see is that when we have
something that can be of life-saving news to us (and when you’re in college a
copy of an exam is life-saving), then we would never just want to keep it for
ourselves. So, why in the world are we
so reluctant to share the gift of Jesus with those around us?
“As
each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of
God’s varied grace.” The Apostle
Peter went on to write, “whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of
God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in
order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” This is where that notion of using whatever
gift you have in Christian service comes from.
If you can speak, then speak about God.
If you can serve, then serve for God.
If you can play an instrument, then play for God. If you have a platform, use it for God. One of the Tight Ends for the Saints, Ben
Watson, made national news recently for his comments in the wake of the chaos
in Ferguson, MO. He took to social media
and started talking about how it isn’t a race issue or society issue or a class
issue, at least not at its core. Watson
said that at its heart, it’s a sin issue.
Watson’s statement made national news and he was invited to appear on
CNN and talk about his statement. And I
want to read just a portion of what Watson had to say. He said, “It’s not the skin, the issue is
sin, and I firmly believe that the issue is that internally, we are flawed. Internally, we need salvation from our sin. Internally, our sin makes us prideful. It makes us judgmental. It makes us prejudiced, which leads to racism.
It makes us lash out at people that
don’t look like us. It makes us look
past evidence to protect people that look like us. It makes us do all those things. It makes us lash out in anger. It makes us point fingers.” The anchor tried to interrupt him, but to no
avail. He continued on, “Our sin that’s
in us makes us do those things and the only salvation for this sin is the
gospel. The only way to really cure
what’s on the inside is understanding that Jesus Christ died for our sins. And so for me, on a micro-level, it’s under –”
and the feed went dead.
Friends,
that is using the gift of Jesus Christ.
That is using the power of the gospel to try and shine a light on sin in
the midst of such a horrific tragedy. We
all may have our thoughts about what happened, but are we looking at it through
the lens of the gospel or the eyes of the world. The true gift of Christmas is Jesus, we’ve
well established that. The question at
hand now is: are we using that
gift? Hardly any of you would fathom the
thought of taking one of those presents that you’re going to get for Christmas
and leaving it in the packaging and just letting it sit there unused. No, you want to use it and enjoy it and share
it with others. So, why in the world
don’t we do that with the gift of Jesus?
Why? Sure, maybe you use it and
enjoy it yourself (whatever that means), but why don’t you share it with
others? Being a faithful steward of the
Father’s gift of the Son is all about sharing the gospel.
Folks,
I can promise you that you’re going to be presented with more opportunities to
share the gift of Jesus this Christmas than you can imagine. Maybe it’s just asking someone if they know
the true meaning of Christmas. Maybe
it’s comforting the brokenhearted and suffering. Maybe it’s reminding someone who has become
so overwhelmed with the concept of giving presents that it’s really about the
gift that we received. That gift, born
2000+ years ago in a manger to a family that was traveling and no room to sleep
in; that’s the gift that we are called to share this Christmas, and every other
day that we have upon this earth. Glory
be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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