Love You In The Lord Ministries
Collection Of Sermons :
Preach by Dr. Rickey Honea, Th. D.

GIVING OUR GETTING  or  the greatest tragedy of all - (Dec. 24th, 2000) Sunday Night
By Rev. Rickey Honea, Th. M.
College Heights Baptist Church
Lubbock, Texas 79414-2811

2 Corinthians 9:15

I. Christmas is a time of getting.
A. Most children emphasize this aspect.
Question for little children - "What is Christmas?"  "Christmas is lots of presents.
How long till we get to open them?"  (I began hearing this months ago.)

B. Gift-giving (and receiving) puts people in a good mood.
1) (comment by Rabbi Soffin on noticeable holiday spirit)

C. Our giving is often driven by ulterior motives.
1) Usually related to who gave to us the previous year.
2) We spend as much on them as they did on us.
a) Are we excited when an acquaintance gets us something nice?
b) No - we feel like a jerk.

D. Gifts can even get us into trouble.

Adlai Stevenson was a much-respected politician who ran against Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for the presidency. When Stevenson was working in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, he wrote a marketing agreement for the walnut industry. That Christmas the industry thanked him by sending him an enormous gunnysack full of packages of walnuts.

This generous gift came at just the right time because Stevenson had not done his Christmas shopping.
Happily he took these packages of walnuts and sent them to all his Washington friends.
Then he made the awful discovery. In each of the individual packages was a little card saying,
"Merry Christmas from the walnut industry to Adlai Stevenson."

II. At the first Christmas, only Jesus received gifts.
A. The wise men didn't pass around the frankincense and myrrh.
1) Mary and Joseph didn't get anything.
2) Only the baby Jesus did. After all, it's HIS birthday!

B. Jesus was the focus of all attention.
1) God was visiting them.
2) We give honor and praise to those we acknowledge as greater.

Today, men truly think greater of themselves than they do of God.

C. Things are the opposite today.
1) Jesus could be erased from Christmas celebrations and they would be just as fun.
Give Illustrations
2) He has been replaced by Santa and Rudolph.
3) More of an ethnic holiday.

III. What will you bring to Jesus?
A. What can you bring to him?
1) Jesus doesn't need cologne, cheese rolls or ties.
2) What can you give someone who literally has EVERYTHING?
a) He doesn't need our sacrifices.
1] Psalm 50:10 - (Psa 50:10 KJV) For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
b) Yet he accepts our sacrifices and gifts.
1] They portray a grateful heart.
2] Ironic the offering from you tonight may be only gift he gets from us this Christmas.
3) Example of gifts that please Jesus.

Illustration:
The Campolo family decided to teach their kids about the Kingdom ethics of Jesus.
Instead of spending a fortune on Christmas gifts, they would buy only one gift for each, and give rest to charity. They chose a school in Haiti.

The kids resented it at first, but as the years went by they got used to it.
When they were teenagers, they visited Haiti.
As they approached the school, dozens of children rushed out to greet them.
His son turned to him and said, "Dad, this is the best Christmas gift anyone could ever have."

B. Jesus wants more - he wants our lives.
1) Not lip-service, but a committed life.
a) Gifts must be given freely and cheerfully.
b) Commitment to obediently following God's will.
2) Discipleship shown by acts of love more than tithing.

IV. What Jesus offers you.
A. In a sense, Christmas has always been two-way.
1) The wise men brought gifts, but Jesus brought salvation.
2) Jesus is the "indescribable gift." 2 Cor 9:15
(2 Cor 9:15 KJV) Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
John 14:1-6

Illustration: Pastor Clifford Stewart of Louisville, Kentucky, sent his parents a microwave oven one Christmas. Here's how he recalls the experience:

They were excited that now they, too, could be a part of the instant generation.
When Dad unpacked the microwave and plugged it in, literally within seconds, the microwave transformed two smiles into frowns! Even after reading the directions, they couldn't make it work.
Two day later, my mother was playing bridge with a friend and confessed her inability to get that microwave oven even to boil water.

'To get this dumb thing to work,' she exclaimed, 'I really don't need better directions;
I just needed my son to come along with the gift!'"
POINT: When God gave the gift of salvation, he didn't send a booklet of complicated instructions for us to figure out; he sent his Son.
John 3:16

B. Have you received the best gift of all?

The greatest tragedy of Christmas is to go through Christmas celebrating with out ever knowing the Christ of Christmas - Jesus Christ.

Glenn West was a decent man. Brought a drunk home one night so he wouldn't have to go to jail. The day before Christmas he bought a friend a large-print Bible. Unusual - Glenn wasn't a Christian. His wife wasn't allowed to date him for a while because of it. He looked forward to getting home with his family and began to close up his gas station. His wife Janice was going to pick him up in a few minutes.

It was then that he noticed the yellow van circling the station. A teenager got out and came to the office. He had a gun. "Give me your money and open the safe." Glenn gave him $45 and said, "I can't open the safe." "Do it or I'll shoot you." "Don't shoot. Believe me - I don't know how to open it."

The boy paused a moment and fired the gun. Another in the van yelled, "Let's get out of here!" and they left. The police pulled into the station just before his wife Janice. She saw her husband on the floor with paramedics working on him. Glenn was still conscious.

At the hospital Glenn asked for a minister and within five minutes David Rowland, a friend of the family, was by his bedside. "At a time like this I get right to the point. Glenn, are you saved?" "No, but I want to be." Rowland told Glenn how Jesus Christ had died for his sins. Glenn nodded that he believed and prayed to receive Christ as his Savior, something for which his wife Janice had prayed for 10 years. He turned to his wife and said, "I love you so much."

They took him into surgery and he got out five hours later. It was Christmas day. Ten minutes after the doctors gave an encouraging report, "code blue" was announced on the P.A. system. Glenn never regained consciousness.

Five men were found guilty and sentenced for the murder of Glenn West. They did not receive the death penalty, but they stand under God's judgment. Glenn West, a decent guy, would have been under that same judgment. But he had Jesus on his side.
To die and go out into eternity without Jesus is the greatest tragedy of all.

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