Kerry Shook - King of Christmas
I know a lot of you guys are just like me, you're not yet ready for Christmas are you? You're a member of the last minute crowd, and now you're having to fight the crowded malls, just totally stressed out, looking for those last minute gifts, or you're desperately searching internet sites, trying to find a gift that can still get in before Christmas. Well, I'm so glad you came to church today, because I've got great news for you. I'm gonna set you free from all the Christmas stress. Here it is, any gift you get this last minute is probably a gift that's going to be returned anyway, that's the encouragement I have for you today.
So just relax, it's okay, you didn't make it for Christmas, and it's all right. Hey, speaking of returns, Costco has the most generous return policy of any store, and I like Costco, it's kind of the Disneyland of going to the grocery store, or any store, and they do have this generous return policy. And I think that's a good thing, it's good business, but you know, there's always someone who'll misuse a good thing. And a while back, Costco employees who work at the returns counter posted some of the most ridiculous returns they've received. And one of the most ridiculous happened in January of 2018, when a lady returned a dead whole Christmas tree and asked for a refund because the tree had died.
Isn't that what Christmas trees do, die after Christmas? I mean, come on, just have a funeral for the tree and throw it out on the curb like everyone else. Well, the guy in the Costco returns line behind the lady took a picture of her and she wound up on the news, but she wasn't that embarrassed because she still got the refund. Another Costco employee said they saw someone return a Christmas tree during the summer that had been purchased two years earlier. I mean, who does that? How would you even think of that? You know, you need some cash, you're laying around the couch, you go, oh yeah, that dead Christmas tree that's been laying on the side of the house for two years, let's bring that back to Costco. And someone returned a used cat litter box, still full of used cat litter.
I'm glad they didn't get it from Amazon, have to mail it back, but. One woman bought one of the six pound bags of gummy bears, she ate a few, left the bag in her car during the summer, it melted into one huge gummy log, the bears had completely disappeared, and she brought that back and they gave her her money back. The most important return you can make this Christmas is not returning something to Costco, it's returning to what Christmas is all about. We need to return to the King of Christmas. If we return to the King, we'll be ready for the return of the King.
So let's look at the King in the manger. Open your Bibles to Luke chapter 2. And would you stand in honor of God's Word, just follow along with me. "At that time the Roman Emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child. And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first born Son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid Him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them".
You can be seated. The emperor decreed that a census would be taken of the whole Roman Empire, and everyone had to return to their hometown to be counted. So Joseph had to return to Bethlehem because he was a descendant of King David, and King David was from Bethlehem. And if we're going to return to the King of Christmas, like Joseph and Mary, we need to return to Bethlehem. Otherwise we'll miss the simplicity of Christmas. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 3, "But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ". Focus on that phrase, "simplicity that is in Christ".
We let the enemy deceive us and we complicate Christmas. We get so busy doing things we think are important, that we let the enemy steal away the simplicity of what Christmas is all about, and we miss the power of Christmas in our lives. Well, Luke 2:7 tells us what Christmas is all about, "And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn". The Son of God was born to a peasant woman, in a filthy animal stable, and laid in an animal feeding trough. Nothing could be more simple and humble as that. But that's what Christmas is all about.
Jesus, God himself, coming to this earth, and humbling himself to become one of us, being wrapped in frail human flesh as a weak and helpless baby. And he did all of this so we could know that he understands us and that he loves us, and maybe you've been so busy this Christmas doing things that seem really important, but you're missing the simplicity of Christmas. Some of you are trying so hard to make this Christmas perfect for everyone else, and you've got good intentions, but you're missing Christmas. You're so concerned about getting the perfect present for everyone, that you're not present for your family.
And that's what they need most, stop trying to have a perfect Christmas and instead have a present Christmas, where it's all about relationships. And maybe you just need to simplify this Christmas, so that you don't let the simplicity of Christmas be stolen from your life and miss out on God's blessings. The greatest Christmas present is Christ's presence. The simplicity of, "I'm a sinner and there is a Savior". I'm a sinner and I needed a Savior, and the Savior came for me at Christmas. We miss the simplicity of Christmas, and when we do, we miss the generosity of Christmas.
Look at Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given". A Son is given. Christmas is all about giving and the first gift that was given was given by God himself, the gift of his Son. Did you know generosity is the most mentioned virtue in the Bible? The word "give" or "giving" is mentioned 2,285 times. That's twice as many times as the word "love" is mentioned in the Bible. It's because generosity is the only thing that breaks the grip of materialism and selfishness that pervades our culture. It's countercultural, it goes against the grain, it goes completely against what society tells us is important, and it's the only antidote to selfishness, because our culture is all about getting, it's all about accumulating.
There's nothing wrong with that, it'll never make you happy, but there's nothing wrong with it unless you're not giving or you're giving very little. When do you get your focus off your problems, your stresses, your needs, and you focus on God and others, and start giving generously, you begin to experience the power and the blessings of Christmas, because if you miss the simplicity of Christmas and the generosity of Christmas, you'll miss the blessings of Christmas. That's what happened so many times to the people of Israel in scripture. They would stop being generous and they would stop following God's command to tithe, to give back the first 10% of all they made to show that God was first place in their lives.
They stopped focusing on the poor, they stopped focusing on the needs of others because they said, we have enough problems and expenses of our own, we can't afford to be generous, and God allowed their blessings to be stolen away. In Deuteronomy 28:38 God said, "You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it". Locusts will devour it. When generosity goes out the window, the locust of life fly in the window and start eating away at the blessings God has for you, eating away at your peace, eating away at your joy, eating away at God's blessings, financially and relationally. Because they weren't giving their tithe, God allowed locusts to sweep in and destroy their crops.
No matter how hard they worked, it was worthless, the locust's would come in and steal their blessing. And without generosity, you can work really hard, but not be effective or productive. You can wear yourself out to achieve a lot, but have no overarching purpose, feel empty on the inside, and wonder what's it all worth anyway? So how do we return to the King of Christmas, so we can reclaim the blessings of Christmas in our lives? Well, I wanna take us back to the Old Testament, to an obscure prophet named Joel. Maybe you've never really studied the book of Joel, I want you to go back here to the book of Joel because you're gonna see how God wants to bring you back this Christmas, and how you can return to the Christ of Christmas, and experience the power of Christmas.
So look at it with me, Joel chapter 2, beginning with verse 12, "'Even now,' declares the Lord, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.' Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. And who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing, grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord, your God".
It's a really powerful passage in the book of Joel. And it really speaks to three things that we need to do to receive the blessings of God and return and get back to the simplicity of what Christmas is all about. First, return humbly to the King of Christmas. I've gotta return humbly to the King of Christmas. I've gotta return to surrendering to God's control because most of us, you know, we start trying to control things around this time of year, any time of year, we start to try to control things and we start playing God. Most of us just need to stop and say, God, forgive me for complicating Christmas.
Look at Joel 2:12, it says, "'Even now,' declares the Lord, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.'" There's that word "return," return with all your heart with weeping, fasting, and mourning. Before we can experience the joy of Christmas, we have to mourn for what we've lost. We have to come with broken hearts to God, and admit, God, I'm missing it. We have to mourn for what we've lost. God told the people of Israel, not only have you lost your livelihood, not only have you lost your crops, but you've also lost your way, because you've disobeyed my Word, you haven't trusted me. You've also lost your peace of mind, you've lost your purpose, and that's why you feel empty. You've lost your joy, you've lost your passion for life.
We have to mourn for what we've lost before we can regain all the blessings God wants to give us. We have to admit our brokenness, and bring it before God so he can bless us, because brokenness always comes before blessedness. Many times, we want the blessings of God, but we don't want God to break us, so that we can come to him and be filled out. When we're broken and we're poured out, we're empty on the inside, we can be filled with God's power and God's blessings. But when we're full of ourselves or full of pride, not even realizing it because we're trying to play God and control everything, control what we were never meant to control, God can't fill us up with his blessings because we're too full of ourselves.
And so it's all about returning humbly to the King of Christmas. And I don't know if you're like me, but I need to just stop. I think we all need to just stop, and right here, right now, ask God to forgive us, for really trying to control things this Christmas. And missing Christmas, making it about the presents rather than his presence, rather than being really present for our family. You just need to simplify this Christmas. If you're missing Christmas, don't complicate it, simplify, so you can experience the joy of Christmas. So let's just stop and ask God to forgive us so that we can receive all that he wants us to have.
God, we just come before you as a church. I come before you, and I know so many times, Lord, I try to control things and I try to fix everything. I try to control my problems and I want everything to work out perfectly, and I try to make everything perfect, Lord, and I fail miserably because I can't fix and control things that are uncontrollable. Things that only you can control. Lord, I can't change anyone else because I can't fix myself without your power. So I ask you to forgive me and forgive us, Lord, for complicating Christmas, making it about something else other than you, making it about something else other than our relationship with you, and our relationships with others. Help us to be present this Christmas, really present and at peace. Lord, to really feel secure in you. We return to you humbly, King of Christmas, and we admit that we're not God but you are, and we surrender to your power and to your control. We empty ourselves, Lord, and admit our brokenness, but we come to you to make us whole this Christmas, for it's in Jesus name we pray, amen.
So we return humbly to the King of Christmas, then we restore the generosity of Christmas. Look again at Joel chapter 2, "And leave behind a blessing, grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God". God tells the people that he's going to bless them to be a blessing, as they return to being generous. And when God blesses you, he blesses you not to raise your standard of living, but to raise your standard of giving. God blesses you to become a blessing, and the more you bless the kingdom of God and others, the more you reclaim the blessings that he has for you, the more you feel the joy and the peace and the purpose of God in your life.
See, the people of Israel had stopped tithing, giving back that first 10% to God. That first 10% of all they made to show that God was first place in their life. It was because they didn't trust God. When he said, if you obey my command and tithe, then I'll bless you financially, I'll give you back more. They didn't trust God in this. They thought they knew best, so they stopped tithing because they thought we've got all these expenses so we can't tithe. It really came down to the unbelief, that they just didn't trust that God's Word was true. So they didn't obey God's command, they put themselves over God and they said, you know what? I'm not sure about that one. I mean, expenses really going up, you know, the crop wasn't as good this last year and, you know, it's really expensive in our family right now, and so, we can't really do that one that God commands us to do.
So they decided they were smarter than God said, we can't tithe, and it was really because of unbelief. They made a lot of excuses, but it was unbelief. It's the same today, it's unbelief. You know, I used to get mad at Christians who didn't tithe and it's like, come on follow God's Word, but I don't do that anymore. I'm more mature now, I just feel sad for Christians who don't tithe. I think, how can you trust God with your eternal salvation, and yet you can't trust him with your finances. You see God loves you so much that he wants you to learn to trust him with the most important areas of your life, and if Christianity doesn't work in your finances, your relationships, in your schedule, then Christianity doesn't work.
I mean, how can we sing, God's first place in my life, but we don't make him first in our finances. How can God be first place in your life if he's not first in the important areas of your life? And it really though just comes down to unbelief. We're not quite sure God's gonna come through, I mean, yeah, this is a really important area of my life and God's Word commands us to do this, but God, that's scary. I don't know, it's just unbelief. Because they stopped tithing, God allowed the locusts to devour their crops, their livelihood. And in Malachi, God tells the people, when you don't give me the tithe, you're stealing from me what is mine. That's why your blessings are being stolen from you. And he goes on to say, if you start tithing, I'm ready to bless you beyond measure.
And that's the great God we serve, he loves you so much, and he wants you to experience the blessings he has for you. He wants you to learn to trust him in this really important area of your life, so that you can see him come through and give you more and you can know that God is real, that he loves you, and he always keeps his Word. It's not that God wants to punish you, it wasn't that God wanted to punish the Israelites, he wanted them to learn that they could trust him, that he's a good God, that he always comes through, that he's always faithful. He wanted them to experience blessings, he wanted to bless them, and he knew that if they could just get this and step out in faith, even if they were a little anxious about it, even if they had some doubts, that if they could just trust him and step out, that God would come through.
And so, he tells them this in Malachi 3:10, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse," which is the church house, "'That there may be food in my house. Test Me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.'" God says, hey, I know that the locusts are devouring your crops because, you know, the year before you said, you know what, we didn't really get enough money from those crops, it's gonna be tough, we can't tithe. And so the locust came in and took it all, all your blessings have been stolen, but I want you to know, I wanna bless you.
If you get back to generosity, I'm ready, if you give the first 10% of all you make, to show that I'm first place in your life, then I'm gonna open up the windows of heaven and pour a blessing on you so great you can't contain it. I'm gonna give you things that money can't buy: peace, joy, fulfillment, knowing that I'm real, and then I'm gonna bless you financially, and give you more than you could ever give, because I win at that game. You can't out-give God, you'll never be able to out-give God.
Now, why did God say 10%? I don't know, he could have said 5% or 20%. Why did God say 10%? I don't know why, but he did, but I do know the purpose of it, is to teach us to put God first. That's what it's all about. I'm so fortunate that I learned this as a child, my parents taught me how to tithe, and that makes it easier when you learn that if you get a dollar for allowance, you give the first ten cents to God, or if you get 50 bucks mowing the lawn, you give the first five bucks back to God, and you start learning that, it's made all the difference in our marriage because over half of divorces are over finances, 65% of arguments in marriage are over finances. And when you begin to put God first in your marriage, through giving the first 10%, and you see God work, then you began to realize that God is gonna get you through, and it's really a glue in your marriage relationship.
And so, God said, you do it to show that I'm first place in your life, and then you get to see the blessings that come from it, but some of you never learned that as a kid. It's a little harder, but you just step out in faith and you do it, and join the thousands here at Woodlands Church that started tithing, here at Woodlands Church, and they've seen the blessing, because God always comes through. You can't out-give God. God says today, if you feel a little anxious about it, if you got a few doubts about it, God says you could trust my Word, just step out in faith, and start doing it today, and you'll see God come through and provide for you more than you could ever give. You'll see God meet your every need. It's an amazing thing to know that God is real and he cares about your life.
If you're not tithing, probably the most life-changing thing you can do this Christmas is just start tithing, and you just watch what God does, just step out in faith, start doing it. Then, there are even greater blessings, when you give over and above your tithe, because it's really about a heart that's excited about giving, because you know you can trust God's blessing. When you start realizing it's all God's, and he wants you to enjoy what you have, enjoy it. I'll never make you happy, but enjoy the blessings that God gives you, but you're blessed to be a blessing.
And so when you realize that, it's all God's, and you realize you can't out-give God, then you're excited to give more and see what God does. And it's not about what can I afford to give, it's how much do I want God to bless me? And it's not, how much do I have to give to obey God, it becomes how much I get to give because I love him so much, comes from the heart. So many of you have learned that and you get it.
In Joel 2:13, God says, "'Don't tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.'" You see they would tear their clothes to show that they've changed, to show that they were remorseful for disobeying God, and so you would see someone whose clothes were all torn up and look filthy, and you go, man, that person's really spiritual.
I mean, look at them, they love God so much, and they just torn their clothes and their clothes are just all ripped up, and it's not because those jeans they're wearing are in style, it's because they're all ripped up because they're repenting and they're so spiritual, and people look at folks like that and go, wow, they've really turned to God. But maybe they haven't, because God says, I don't care if you tear your clothes, what I want you is tear your hearts. I want your heart to break over the fact that you're breaking my commands. I want your heart to break knowing that you're missing out.