Sermon Tone Analysis

Whose Gifts are they?

Video - https://skitguys.com/videos/the-fourth-wise-man

matthew 2

We live in a world where actions get results

Where if you want something you have to give something.

The bigger the thing you want the more you have to give.

Jesus

We think we need to bring gifts.

We come with preconceptions of how we are to meet Jesus.

How to live with him - what he will want from us.

We live in a world where actions get rewards.

I go to work they pay me.

Where if you want something you have to give something.

Christmas is a great example where we are thinking what gifts we give people so that we don’t appear stingy or there is a disparity between what we give and what we receive either because we don’t want to cause embarrassment or we are stuck in the playing the bigger the thing you receive the more you have to give arms race .

We sometime transfer this thinking to our relationship with God.

The bigger the thing you want the more you have to give.

We feel that it is out actions that earn us ‘brownie points’ with God

We get caught in the lies of the enemy that it is our works that give us salvation - that we earn it.

When the beautiful truth is that we have this because of what God has done not what we have done, are doing or will do in the future.

We are saved by Grace not by what we give or what we do.

Thank God for Grace because I don’t think I can do enough to cover over the things that I get wrong.

I know I can’t give enough to save me.

I am very aware thatJenny and I stand here trying to encourage you to get involved in things

Encouraging you to give both finically and of your time and skills; to take part in the work of Christ.

Asking you to serve in the advancement of His Kingdom and I do that un-apologetically.

We are All called to:

Worship - including with our giving

Evangelise - to those around us

Minister to people

To bring healing to the people

But I want to make it clear we do not ask these things because this is the route to salvation.

Matthew tells us

-

Minister

It is the last sentence that is important - Jesus flips the transaction based relationship.

We are not Saved because we do things - we are called to do things because we are Saved.

Our Worship is not a gift to God it is the overflow of Gods gift to us.

Jesus challenges this transaction based relationship.

Spreading the good news is not a task we undertake for reward it is us bragging about the amazing gift our daddy in heaven has given us.

The Magi were not forced to go searching for the Messiah, they desired too.

The shepherds on the hill that night did not have some Angelic Host commanding them to worship, the longed to.

The video sums it up so succinctly - Jesus does not need our Gifts, He is our Saviour, a Gift to us - Bigger than all our mistakes, bigger than all our offerings, bigger than any thing we can do.

The gifts teach use about how God sees us.

As we hear in the Christmas stories gifts pay a big part .

We hear of how a this group of Magi came bringing gifts.

We don’t know how many, all we know is that there were three gifts - Gold, Frankincense and hummus, I mean myrrh.

I mean myrrh

Each of the Gifts has a significance, they foretold (you could say prophesied) of who this little baby was and what he would ultimately achieve.

But the also tell something of us and how God sees us, his children.

The first is Gold.

Gold - Royalty

Gold speaks of Royalty and incorruptibility

Gold is the metal of Kings and Queens it is everlasting (practically) it does not tarnish or decay.

Jesus was given Gold as a recognition that he would be King of Kings, Lord of everything and that his Kingdom would last for ever.

The moment each of us accepted Christ into our lives we became part of that Royal Family.

1:peter 2:9

When someone joins a Royal Family they are treated differently - they are given the recognition that comes with the family name, not what they were in the past.

Megan Markle went from being Ms Markle to Her Royal Highness.

Each of us is the same we go from being defined by our history to being defined by the promises of a Future.

We need to live as we are seen by God.

How many of us forget out new found Royal heritage.

On a Sunday we sing “I am who you say I am” or I”I am a child of God” and on a Monday, when the first trial hit us we forget our identity and start to act to match the lies of the colleague, the teacher, the family member who calls us useless for a little mistake

You are a Royal priesthood a Child of the Most Hight God. - your assurance need to be in Him.

If ever there was something to have tattooed on the inside of your eyelids so you can keep being remind that is it (that is not a practical suggestion) but being constantly reminded that you are HIS that you are a new person part of this Royal household is something we need to have in mind at all times

This is where the second gift come in Frankincense.

The second gift was Frankincense.

Frankincense Aura of God at all time

Frankincense speaks of the presence of God,

In the Old Testament, frankincense was used primarily for worship.

It was one of the ingredients for the incense in the tent of meeting (Exod 30:34).

This incense was holy and treated similarly to the anointing oil

The cloud of incense that filled the holy of Holy’s in the temple represented the presence of God.

We don’t have a temple, we are the temple and the presence of God is always with us.

The Frankincense is a reminder that God wants to dwell with us, wants to have that sort of relationship the pervades out lives.

Father God

it is a reminder at this time of year that when we don’t feel close to God, it is not He that has stepped away.

Holy spirit

Frankincense is also associated with Priesthood.

This is important that when we consider God presence it is not just this warm fuzzy thing, but the Holy spirit is there to minister to us in our troubles.

One who gets us, understands us.

Hebrews tells us.

A priest like us

4:14-16

Frankincense reminds us that God is present as healer, a comforter, a restorer and that nothing we have done compares to the sacrifice that Jesus made to allow us to stand in that presence.

God knows who we are, how we are and what we need.

Frankincense reminds us that His prensence is there as healer

Because of this we can stand in the presence of God blameless and pure.

We can stand as part of his Royal family a child of God at all times.

healing - Frankincense

Sacrifice - r

When we don’t alway feel this way.

We need to (close our eyes and read the words we have just had tattooed and) recognise the truth we are made perfect in Christ -sometimes it is worth saying it out loud .

No matter what I feel God tells me different.

He declares ‘you are his Child.

A member of royal priesthood.

Accepted and loved’.

and He is with you, ever present to support you. -

We need to start living in that stance.

And that is what Myrrh is about.

Myrrh - anointing as a king

Myrrh speaks of anointing

Myrrh was spice used for anointing.