All I Want For Christmas Is III, The Gift Only You Can Give

I invite you to take your outline out of your North Way Notes and let's look at the message for today. This is our third message on this series, All I Really Want for Christmas. I want to remind you that we've been talking about getting along in this holiday season, about the importance of relationships personally and interpersonally with our families and extended families. Pastor Dave talked a couple of weeks ago about community and discovering how God works out his will in us through community. And then I talked last week about faith, about not denying reality, but in faith defying reality that we might see change take place in our lives. And I want to talk to you this morning about the primary wrapping of Christmas. Now how many of you have finished your Christmas gift wrapping time? How many of you have done your job and you've got all your gifts wrapped? Let me see your hands. How many of you have some work to do yet on that? Let me recommend these babies. These are great. You look like a hero with these. You just open them up and stick them in a little tissue paper and it looks like you're working. Anyhow, whoever invented these, gold mine, right? How many of you have yet to start your Christmas shopping? You think, hey, all the crowds will be gone, I'll show up Monday. I think you might be in some deep weeds. But I want to talk about the primary wrapping of Christmas. That's the focus of where I want to go today. The greatest gift of Christmas, the gift of God's Son presented to us, a dying needy world came wrapped to us, the Bible says in Luke 2.12, in swaddling clothes. God could have chosen to wrap His Son in majesty and royal splendor, making things like these beautiful banners just seem like child's play. But instead, He chose to wrap His Son in what was probably a simple, stable blanket. Swaddling clothes is a very common Greek term. They just probably were something they could find that was clean. That's how Jesus came. That's how the creator of the universe, the one who controls all things, the Bible says in Hebrews 11.1, by the word of His power, that's how He chose to present His Son to us. And that message was for this generation and all the generations that have preceded us, a message of one thing, a message that God treasures humility. Now this is going to be a difficult message because we as human beings, particularly in the new millennium, we don't particularly quicken to the idea of humility. We'd rather have things just be a little bit more on the, sort of the expressive side of things, the powerful side. You know, we prefer demonstrations and displays of the exercise of success and status, but God chose humility. Everything about the Christmas story has humility wrapped in it, doesn't it? From the shepherds, to the stable, to the swaddling clothes, to the peasant parents of Mary and Joseph, to the little town of Bethlehem. And I want you to know, I've been to Bethlehem. It's just this little tiny village, kind of out of the way. All of them are saying one thing, God values humility. And this is so counterintuitive to us, I wonder if we just don't miss it. And if we do miss it, I fear that we'll miss the one way that God has designed for us to encounter him. Because he said, those who come to me in simple child-likeness and humility, those are the ones that are going to find me. God says, I value humility. Even though I could have displayed gold and treasures unimaginable. And by the way, the Bible says that Jesus left all of that splendor. I mean, he had it. It's not that he doesn't have it. And by the way, it's not that he doesn't and isn't going to have it in the future. But he said, for the present, I want you to know, this is how I have come, that you might know me. Let me tell you what humility is not. Humility is not shyness or timidity. It's not bashfulness or passivity. It's certainly not weakness. It's not lack of confidence or low self-esteem. It's not putting yourself down. And the reason I know that is that Jesus Christ lived his life and demonstrated none of those qualities. Rather, humility has to do with personal strength. The word praos in the Greek, meekness, is the word strength under control. Humility has to do with courage and personal security in who you are. Listen, you'll never be humble until you're secure. Did you hear that? You'll never be able to be truly humble until you know whose you are and who you are and why you came to this earth. That's why Jesus was so humble. Look at the verse on the top of your outline. Jesus says this as a model. He says, come to me, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart. Circle the word humble and you will find rest for your souls. The opposite of being wrapped in humility is pride. It's those who say, I don't see any need for God or anyone else. It's self-exaltation. It's lifting up yourself over another. It's making judgments about who's best and who deserves the most. It's about control and dominance for your benefit. It's about being quick-tempered, envious, and distant. And what's fascinating about pride is it's usually invisible to the possessor. And most of us are going to watch a football game or two over the holidays. And you'll see somebody who will grab a touchdown pass and do some kind of weird dance. And I usually think to myself, for $2 million, you ought to be able to eat that football. And we say, oh, that's pride. And yet, we don't see that same pride in ourselves. Pride is our natural bent. It's how we come into the world. And it's how we're going to continue to go through this life until one day we make a decision. Now listen, this is very important. We make a decision to change it. I had a friend once who was telling me about his spiritual journey. He said, you know, I prayed that God would take away my pride. And the Lord said, no. You have to give it away. You have to give it up. You see, your independence, your self-will, your judgmentalism, you recognize it, and then you say, I need to change it. I want you to turn, if you have a Bible, to Philippians 2. This is the text for this morning. There's so many wonderful Christmas texts. I chose one that's a little bit obscure. I didn't come from the Gospels, but from the Epistles. It'll be up here in the side screens. You can read along with me. This is what Paul wrote about Jesus in his incarnation. Read it with me out loud. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, then he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Jesus emptied himself. Verse 7, made himself nothing. I took an entire semester's course on that one word. He made himself nothing. It's called the kenosis, the emptying of God, because it's so difficult for man to grasp the meaning of that. But what a wonderful goal it would be for this Christmas season to do what Paul says, to make this attitude in you that was in Christ Jesus, to take it on, to make the choice. And here's what's important. You're going to make a choice today after this message. Will you live the rest of this year and hopefully into the new year making a choice to humble yourself? Or will you just allow this to be so much information that passes through? It takes the discipline of practice to grow in humility. Now how many of you have taken music lessons in your life? How many play an instrument and they start there? What do you have to learn, what do you have to do to get really proficient at your instrument? How many of you gave it up because you realized you'd never get there? How many athletes are here? And you realize in order to make the team or to excel, what do you have to do as an athlete? How many of you joined a gym for more than two weeks and tried to get in shape? What did you have to do? You had to practice working out. It's the same with humility. I'm going to take humility out of the realm. And by the way, a lot of books I referenced had a hard time defining it. I'm going to put it into a couple of practical visual images for you. So even if the words don't compute, perhaps the images will. And this will make the challenge of the practice of humility real to you. First, of the three habits of humility, I want to represent by this, a violin or a fiddle. And by the way, be comforted, I'm not even going to put you through the misery of me trying to get a sound out of this. But if you've been to a professional orchestra, a symphony or a presentation, there's all kinds of protocol there, a lot of which I don't understand. But normally, of course, the conductor has a big applause and some of the soloists are introduced and so on. But then there's a person that comes out that doesn't stand up in front of the public, but everybody applauds him, including the conductor. It's the concertmaster or the first chair violin. And he or she is a very important person in keeping that orchestra together and following the exact cues of the conductor. And they get a lot of credit because of the importance of their role. The great composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein was once asked, what is the most difficult instrument to play in the orchestra? Some thought the oboe and some thought the French horn. He quickly responded back, no, that's easy. The most difficult instrument by far is second fiddle. It's the person who has to play just as passionately, just as enthusiastically, with just as much passion, and yet without the recognition. Humility, number one, is the practice of giving preference to others. It's the practice of playing second fiddle, Romans 12, 10 says in the message version. And God is very, very faithful to give you many opportunities, is he not, to practice playing second fiddle to others. You ever notice that? Ever notice how many times God will put you in a position where you have to make a choice, will I humble myself and prefer somebody else? It can be as ordinary and common a practice as, you know, like one I had not that long ago. Carol's been gone for a couple weeks, I had to go to the grocery store, I needed two things to keep the house from falling down. So I went into my mission to get these two things, I found them, and I was on my way back, and I was making good time toward the express checkout line, you know, the one that says 12 items or less. And I see a guy coming, this was late at night, because that's the best time to shop, right? And this guy's coming from the other side, and he's got a basket, but I can tell from here he's got at least like 18 items in that thing. He's way over them. And he's trucking going toward the same thing. And, you know, we both pick up our speed, you know, because I'm going to get there first with my two items. And I'm maybe 10 feet from him, and I hear this voice, give preference, look out for the interests of others, not just the interests of yourself. And I got there, and something made me just say, oh, go ahead, I'm on the two little things, get this basket. He turns, he says, thanks, Pastor Jay. Now, I kind of hope he's here today, because he kind of needs to hear this message. You're going to have lots of decisions at the Christmas buffet at your home, taking the last parking space for the presentation this afternoon. Maybe the best seat in the house might be available, but that's not the seat you should take. And this whole matter of giving preference goes much deeper than just standing in lines and giving parking spaces, doesn't it? It goes into the root of relationships with one another, in your home, in your family, sometimes even your place of business. You know, Carol and I are quite different. We've been married 30 years, and we certainly know one another's quirks and uniquenesses and differences. She tends to be very, very flexible about things, and I'd rather have things kind of, like, clear, and this is the way it's supposed to be, and go on. I've had to learn how to give preference there. We're so different. I mean, she goes on the road and says something like miles an hour, and I said, that's just a suggestion there. We're different. We'll go to a movie theater. Sometimes we'll go out on a date in a movie theater, and there won't be anything there that kind of really appeals to her, and I'll have, like, three or four choices, and I'll end up going to see Stuart Little for the fourth time, or whatever it might be. But there has come in my life over the years an increasing desire to learn how to do that, because I realize how oppressive it is when you want it your way all the time. You know, I mentioned Carol was gone for a couple of weeks, and I knew that an important thing for her would be to have something ready for Christmas, because the kids are home, and her mom's in the hospital, and just an emotional time. And I knew I couldn't possibly do it, folks. I just, I mean, if I can buy a poinsettia, I'm in good shape. And a couple of dear friends here in the church, and a lot of you have expressed your concern, and I so appreciate that. But a couple of dear friends came and said, can we do something special for you? I said, the one thing I'd love to have is a Christmas tree. I mean, it was up. And they came in one day, and I'll tell you what, when Carol came home Friday night and walked in, and I'd kind of told her, I said, well, you know, the house, honey, the animals and stuff, it's like we've got a little town of Bethlehem going here. And she walked in, saw that tree, and we just had a moment together, because someone else had preferred us. And I'm sure that person had lots of other things in their basket to do, and I just so thanked them. You see, that's how the Christian life is to be lived. And it so makes a difference when we take the time to do it. The second way we can practice humility is by learning to learn, or giving ourselves to learning from others. All of us love to talk. It's amazing. You'll get into a conversation, and you'll notice people just love to talk about themselves so often. But look what the Bible says. Conceited people do not like to be corrected, and they never ask for advice. Teachability, being open to input, and growing in the capacity to listen carefully, even to, listen, welcome constructive criticism, is a mark of true humility. It begins with listening, really listening to others. There's a reason why God gave you one mouth and two ears, but many people miss that. Humble people learn to ask questions and even to probe a little bit deeper when someone's conversing with them. They tune out distractions, and they say, basically, teach me. And so I chose for that this symbol, the symbol of some earphones, some headphones, because you see, this symbolizes to me, you put these on, and basically, you block out the outside distractions, and you tune in carefully to what's being pumped through the system. And a lot of us need to kind of put these on, symbolically speaking, in our relationship. We need to learn to focus and listen carefully. We need to become teachable in our spirit. Now the flip side of this is, when we're not listening well, we get a little bit defensive sometimes, and we start to argue. And the third verse in that part of your outline is very, very instructive. Pride only leads to arguments. Have you discovered that? I mean, every time you get into an argument about something, listen, it won't be long, if you're listening to the Spirit, you'll hear the Spirit of God in you saying, wait, pride's starting to show up here. I know when Caroline and I start, we might get into a little bit of a battle about, you know, what's, something's going on here, and it won't be long along the way, and I'll just hear that voice saying, it's pride. And I'll say, I know, she's full of pride, and you've got to deal with it. No, it's pride, it's pride. And pretty soon, God's more intent on convicting me about my pride than he is about settling what I thought was the issue. Have you discovered that? And we get defensive, and we try to make it like, oh, it's, you know, people, you say things like, well, it's not, it's not what you said, it's how you said it. You know, and then we start down that defensive road. It's kind of like the guy, his wife went away for a while, and she called home, and she says, well, how is everything? And he said, well, it's pretty much okay, except your cat died. She was stunned and quieted the other line, and she said, well, that's terrible. I mean, he didn't tell me anything. He said, well, what happened? He said, well, he climbed up on the roof, and he fell off, and, you know, he was out of lives, I guess, and by the time we got him to the vet, he just didn't make it, and, well, he just died. She said, well, you could have helped me just bear this a little bit. I mean, it's how you did it. You could have called me a couple days ago and said, hey, my cat's stuck in the roof, you know, and then you could have called me the next day and said, you know, we got him, he fell off the roof, and we took him to the vet, and he's trying to make it, but he's not doing well. And then you could have told me tonight that he died. And he said, honey, you're right. You know, I should have been more sensitive. I guess I just have to learn. She said, well, all right, let's just change this up. You know, my mom's finally come to visit, and I know you all don't get along all that well, but she said, how's my mom doing? He said, well, she's on the roof. And, you know, so often it's about how we communicate. We need to learn to practice learning from others. Look at the next verse. Make this your common practice. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together, live whole and healed. There may be times, humble people learn to ask forgiveness as the little skit demonstrated. And that's the third and final point, really. The only way we're going to learn to live humbly with each other is to practice surrendering your plans to God. When it comes to true humility, loved ones, it begins with your relationship with Almighty God. It is not possible, in my view, to live humbly with others until you've come to terms with what it means to live humbly with God. And let me ask you a question. How do you gauge whether or not you're living humbly with God? How do you know if someone's living humbly with God? Is it by the size of their Bible or their Jesus jewelry? Is it by the way they say praise the Lord or hallelujah or something like that? I don't think so. I think it has very little to do with the externals. I think humility is measured by one simple decision that happens on a day-by-day, listen, even moment-by-moment basis. It's when we learn the practice, again, the practice of submitting our daily plans and decisions to God. And that is not something that most of us do very easily. Look at the next verse. The Bible says that God opposes everyone who is proud. Remember, I said I define pride. Pride is saying to God, I don't really need this. I don't need you to be involved in this. Pride is basically telling God, Hey, look, I've got these great plans. How about you blessing them? Listen, I would not want to be in a one-on-one basketball game against Shaquille O'Neal. I would not want to go up in an auction against Bill Gates. I wouldn't want to have a match play golf game with Tiger Woods. Why? Because I get my clock cleaned all three times. I'm way out of my league. Likewise, I don't want to find myself opposing God or God opposing me. And when I let pride creep into my relationship with God, when I just begin to edge Him out, it's rarely, hardly anyone in the room would say, God, I don't want you to be involved. But we say it subtly by not inviting Him in. We say it by just getting cranky in our day, getting cranky in our schedule, getting cranky in our plans for the new year without really taking the time to submit ourselves to God. And that's why I chose as my image for this particular point, these knee pads. You see, because at the end of the day, it's people who are willing to come and just get down before God on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment basis and just surrender themselves and say, Lord, I come to you today and I want to give you my plans. They're my plans, but would you give me your plans? Would you let me know your purposes for me? And I want to be as bold enough as to say, not just figuratively get on your knees, but some of the most humble people I know literally begin their day by bowing down before God. It is a hard thing for the human heart to humble itself. There's only one being in the world that I would bow before, and that's God Almighty. But I pray that you will join me in learning the practice of humility and bowing before Him day-by-day, moment-by-moment. It's interesting, humility is not about holiness in the sense of some kind of spirituality. In fact, humility comes from the same word that we get, humanity and humor. It has to do with being simple. Humility is best discovered by your desire to be with Jesus and to be before Him. Realizing that God's strength is sufficient for all that you need, realizing that His plans for you, look at the next verse in your outline, give yourselves to God and surrender your whole being to Him to be used for His righteous purpose. Pray this way, turn away from wanting any other plans than yours. And so this Christmas season, what gift do you most need? You see, it's really the gift that only you can give. It's the gift of humility. Is it the fiddle? Do you need to learn to give preference to others and somehow lift them up and prefer them in love? Or perhaps you need to just be a little bit more careful a listener, a little more teachable, a little more approachable and open to some constructive criticism. And I suspect it's fair to say that most of us need to be willing to bow down before the Lord and surrender ourselves to Him. It's a decision that only you can make. It's a gift that only you can give. In 1980, the day before Christmas, Richard Ballinger's mother in Anderson, South Carolina was busy wrapping packages and she asked her young son to shine her shoes. Soon, with a proud smile that only a seven-year-old can muster, he presented the shoes for inspection. His mother was so pleased that she gave him a quarter. Christmas morning, as she put on the shoes to go to church, she noticed the lump in one shoe. She took it off and found a quarter wrapped in paper. Written on the paper in a child's scrawl were the words, I've done it for love. You know, when the final curtain falls, each of us will be the sum of our choices, the practices, the habits that we've made. And the glory of the humble will be that they habitually fail to turn up for their duties. In their defense, they'll claim that they were detained by a baby in swaddling clothes. And when interrogated as to why they hung out at a stable before Him, they're simply going to answer, we've done it for love. Love is what drives humility, and humility pleases the heart of God. Let's stand together. Lord, we come and present ourselves to You. We fall down before You and we lay our crowns at Your glorious feet. Meet us, I pray.