On the three occasions that I preach at Alder Road before Christmas I am planning a short Christmas linked series: Christmas Clothes, Christmas Food, and today Christmas Presents. (Thanks to my dad who gave me the bones of this sermon.)
The financial news doesn’t get any better. This past week brought announcements of thousands of job losses; Germany is now officially in recession, and the UK soon will be. How should this affect how we do Christmas?
v6: Be happy
Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment
The Greek word used here for ‘contentment’ only appears here and in Philippians 4:11 and 2 Corinthians 9:8. In all three cases the context is contentment regardless of material circumstances. The focus is on contentment in Christ, and the sufficiency of his grace.
Being in a recession will sharpen our focus: is Jesus the source and centre of our joy? Or is it money and possessions? At Christmas, is our happiness in what we buy and receive, or in Christ?
v7: Be realistic
For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
Life is spent accumulating stuff. We enter it with nothing, and leave with nothing. I have looked at quite a large number of houses since moving to Poole, trying to work out what I should buy, and a number of those houses have been dead peoples houses. Some of those houses still had the dead persons stuff there. It is sobering. This is what happens – we are born, we accumulate stuff, we die.
Our stuff can be fun, pleasurable and life-enhancing, but we need a wider perspective – the perspective of eternity. Be realistic – your stuff is temporary; eternity is for ever.
v8: Be content
But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
Poverty is not a virtue. There is a basic minimum we need. You cannot be content if you are destitute. We all need food, clothing, and shelter. But we often lose our contentment because we want the ‘extras’.
Trouble is, extras are bottomless.
For example, King Solomon had everything he needed, but always wanted extra – extra wives, extra horses, extra gold. In the end it ruined him.
In a recession there may not be extras. This is actually a great excuse to cut back. This year you can be released from the social pressure of having to buy lavish presents, because in a recession you can be excused spending less!
Be thankful for what you have. Be content.
vv9-10: Be aware
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Wrong desire is a fertile field for Satan’s activity. Wrong desire fuels all kinds of destructive behaviour (both criminal & legal).
What is your desire – what do you love?
Recession will tend to expose where our true love is – and so it will make us more aware.
vv11-16: Be Christian!
But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
If you understand God – what Jesus has done, and will do; the awesome majesty of the Father – then you are not going to worry so much about money!
Christmas often minimizes Jesus. We see images of the crib and the cattle. We sing away in a manger. But Paul wants us to lift our gaze. He wants us to see the indescribable greatness of God, and live like a Christian.
v17: Be hopeful
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
Where is your hope? In your house? In the bank? In the stock market?
Gordon Brown once famously (and foolishly) declared “No more boom & bust.” This was always a silly thing to say, not only because his pigeons were always going to come home to roost, but because this can only be said of God! Every human institution booms and busts. Only God is permanently reliable.
Christmas is about hope. We hope to get certain presents. We hope for snow. We hope that Uncle Jim won’t get drunk and start a fight. But Christmas is ultimately hopeful because it is about Jesus, the hope of the world.
Hope in Him.
v18: Be generous
They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.
Our mission as a church is funded by generous giving, but our mission is also limited by our financial resources. Supposing we could double our income? We could double our mission.
If you have ability to make money, make it, and give it away. Don’t be idle rich, be rich in good works. Don’t sit on your assets – use them!
v19: Be invested
Thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
Giving money to the church is not giving it away; it is investing it. Jesus said,
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)
It is hard to make good investments in the current economic climate, but if we invest into the kingdom of God there will be a rich return in heaven. This is how the gospel advances and the poor are helped.
In Luke 16:9 Jesus gives an outrageous instruction,
I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
Jesus is telling us to buy our friends! The point is, we can spend our money (which we cannot keep beyond the grave) in spreading the gospel and helping the poor and in so doing gain for ourselves an eternal reward. Sounds like sound economics to me!
So there is a challenge in this: Do something radical this Christmas. At Alder Road we are having a Christmas offering which is going towards a church plant in Portugal, a crisis pregnancy centre, and work with prostitutes. How about giving more to the Christmas offering than you spend on presents? How about busting the normal expectations of a recession and being increasingly generous? How about making Christ central to your Christmas?
Application Questions
• Are there attitudes you have towards money and possessions of which you need to repent?
• How can you keep Christ central to your Christmas?
• How much are you going to spend on Christmas? How much will you give away?
• How can you find greater contentment?
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