Monday 12/23/13 Gifts

Dear Father in Heaven, what a great day.  Thanks for walking with us all day and everyday.  Lord, please forgive me of my sins, and please now plant a message on my heart and mind and then help me to dispatch it.  I love you very, very much, Jesus, and I pray in Your name.  Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, where does the time go?  It is just two days until Christmas.  I want to get right to the message today.  I am going to talk about Gifts today and tomorrow.

December 23, 2013, Gifts.  (A Bribe?) Day One.

Proverbs 18:16 - A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.  (NIV)

Proverbs 21:14 - A gift given in secret soothes anger and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great wrath.  (NIV)

Ecclesiastes 3:13 - That everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in his toil, this is the gift of God.  (NIV)

Matthew 5:23 - "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to your brother and then come back and come and offer your gift."  (NIV)

John 4:10 - Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water."  (NIV)

As you all know, we role play Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Over the years I have had many children sit on my lap and tell me what they want for Christmas, and old Santa asks them, have you been good?  Of course the answer most often is YES!  Once in awhile Santa gets a confession, but not often.  Then after they tell me what they want for Christmas, I tell them I will see what we can do.  In Santa's House we even hand out gifts to the children after they hear the story of Jesus.  But they must be good!

Brothers and sisters, the gift is a bribe, yes, a bribe to make the children be good.  So today God has pointed me to Gifts in a different way.  Are gifts a bribe?  Is it all gifts?  What about Jesus, the one whose birth  we are celebrating in two days?

Proverbs 18:16 - A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.  (NIV)

This Proverb tells us right up front that a gift is a bribe.  Think about it, a gift opens the way to get to the great.  Let's start with the lobbyists who walk the halls of our state houses and our halls of congress in Washington, DC.  Even the office of the president, and all do this.  They get these big gifts of money and you know what it is for?  You really do.  It is a bribe to those people to give something back to them.  While I do not think all of them take bribes, most do.  A gift opens the door to the White House, maybe the gift is a free round of golf with our current president, or maybe it is a gift so money comes back to build bridges.  Oil companies hand out money so they get drilling rights.  Some offer gifts to get things stopped.  When I worked at the school  district and did the purchasing of things for buses, we were not permitted to take any gifts.  Once in awhile a box of cleaning products from a company would show up at our home.  Back to the school they went so we could test them there, and I would have a talk with the salesman who sent them.  One day a salesman came in and showed me a beautiful watch, and asked me, how would you like to have it?  I said it was pretty and I would love it.  I took it and put it in my pocket.  Then he said, all I had to do was buy a 55 gallon drum of his cleaning product and I could have it.  I said that is a bribe and told him to leave the building.  He wanted his watch back, and I said, sorry, you gave it to me.  I gave it to my dad for Christmas that year.  The salesman never returned to sell anything at our transportation office.

What about the gifts we give at Christmas, are they given out of love?  I think for the most part they are.  I know that I give gifts to our children and friends out of love,not a bribe to do something for me.

Proverbs 21:14 - A gift given in secret soothes anger and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great wrath. (NIV)

Here we find that a gift can be given to smooth out a problem, maybe someone is upset with another, and they go to them with a gift and say they are sorry.  Here you can also see that a gift and a bribe are used together.

Ecclesiastes 3:13 - That everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in his toil, this is the gift of God. (NIV)

Now let's look here in Ecclesiastes where we see the term gift of God being used.  Everyone may eat and drink and it is for our toil, which means our work.  You see here our food and drink is a gift and we should be thankful for it.  It is a gift for our labor, however, today many people want that gift of God without toiling for it, or without working for it.

Matthew 5:23 - "Therefore,if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to your brother and then come back and come and offer your gift."  (NIV)

In Matthew 5:23/24 we find that if we are offering a gift at the altar, meaning we re giving a gift unto the Lord, and we have a problem with someone in our life, we are to leave the gift in front of the altar and go make up with the person.  In other words, God really does not want your gift if it is not clean.  Now on that, if you have tried to patch something up and the other will not forgive you, that is on them.  (Pastors, if your offering plates are empty this week, maybe you can blame me, because they went to patch things up first.)  In short, go and clean yourself and then come back to God.  Amen.

John 4:10 - Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water."  (NIV)

So now what about our Savior, Jesus, is the gift a bribe?  Is it always a bribe?  Look at this scripture out of John.  If you knew the gift of God and would have asked Him, He would give you living water.  It is God's grace through Jesus who gives life and gives it freely, it is the living water.  It is ETERNAL LIFE!  But is it a bribe?  Looks like it to me!

Well, time to stop for today, more on this tomorrow, on Christmas Eve day.  So what do you think, is God's gift of Jesus a bribe?  Sometimes?  Or all the time?  Remember, His gift keeps giving today as back then!

Go forth now and share your blessings, do it in faith, not as a BRIBE to get more blessings back.  It only works if done in faith and love that you get a higher return on your gifts.  You cannot bribe God,  but does He try and bribe you?  Giving also makes you feel good.

Love ya, and please pass that love on.  Pastor Dan

P.S.  Today's message is some food for thought!