Benito Carbone - Why are Gifts an Important Part of Christmas? | 07:12:25

How's everyone doing?

You alive out there? You awake?

Wasn't the um worship team great this

morning leading us in worship to God.

Wasn't that fantastic? That was uh that

was very powerful.

Very powerful. We're very blessed. Um,

we're going to do something a little bit

different to start the message today.

Who's up for a game?

>> Yes. It's very sacrilegious, isn't it? I

thought in the um in honor of Christmas

starting with this is our first message

of our Christmas series uh for the next

few weeks leading into Christmas. And so

I just uh thought let's do something

fun.

Ah, thanks. That's it. Yeah. Come on.

Yeah. And there's prizes involved.

That got you awake. Just uh what's that?

Pavlovs.

Like everyone's salivating. All right.

This game is called Let's see if I've

got it here. The number one Christmas

gift of which year? That's very catchy

phrase, isn't it? Came up with that

myself. The number one Christmas gift of

which year? All right. Very, very hard.

So, what I'm going to flash up a uh a

picture of a Christmas gift, and you got

to tell me what year that was the number

one gift.

Is that Yeah. Yeah. No, I want hands.

So, first one with their hand up gets to

go first. You ready? On your marks, get

set, go. Oh, Jack. Jack. Jack was first

up. Wait, what is it, Jack?

>> Yeah. Yeah. Bears. Yeah. Care Bears.

Very good. What year?

>> Is he close?

>> No. He's He's close. He's close. He's

close. 89.

>> All right, Tracy. Yeah.

85.

Does that look good? I I can't actually

see what it is. So 86.

Oh, I'll give you that one. I'll give

you that trace. That's pretty good.

There you go. There you go. And Jack,

just for trying. No, give it to Sonia

then. That's all right. All right. Next

one. All right. I'm going to look now.

>> All right, Sam. You'll give you one.

Give you one. What's it called?

>> Yeah. Well done. Good job. What year?

Oh, I'll give you I'll give you a

chocolate for

He guessed what it was. Okay.

All right. All right. Tanya up the back.

Oh, that's close. Not quite.

>> You're closest. You're closest because

it is

Hey, I forgot what it was. I thought it

was 89. All right, here you go. There

you go. Oh, nearly. All right, next one.

What is it, Nathan?

>> No, not quite. 1980. What is it, though?

>> Can you believe they actually market

this pet rock?

This is a little I'll give you a hint.

It's a little bit older than you would

think.

Little bit older, David.

>> Very good. It's actually 75.

So, but I'll give you a chocolate still.

You can have a Turkish.

1975. Next one,

>> Carrie. What year?

>> No, it's Baby Yoda.

>> Talking Baby Yoda. All right, Ela. What?

>> No. No. Keep keep going. No, not you.

You've been You've had a ch Andrew.

Very good. Almost

2020. So, you get a chocolate.

Hopefully, I have enough chocolates.

All right. Next one. Oh,

who's guessing? You've guessed already.

You've guessed already. Damian,

what is it? That's pretty good, but it's

not quite Chris Morgan.

No, that's way off. That's terrible

guess. I said 1964 was close. Think of

your birthday. When's your birthday?

Yes. Very good. 1960 is the answer.

That's a

Hey, one for Damian.

Sorry, it's the worst one. But

and it's not much better here. Turkish

delight.

All right, next one. Bonito.

Who's Who's up? Who's up? You guys can

see the screen. You're not getting any.

Helen.

>> Whoa. How's that?

Spot on. That is fantastic. There you

go. Well done.

Best toy ever. My birth year.

All right, there's one. All right, this

should be easy. Come on. Who's guessing?

Who's guessing? Steven.

>> Not quite. Not quite.

Jake.

Getting close.

No.

Yep. Close. Oh, 80. 1980, actually. So,

you were closest, Jake. 1980. All right.

Who remembers these? The uh Yeah. Oh,

Matthew Gzo's in there. Right in there.

What is it, Matt?

>> Close enough. 2004. We'll give you 2004.

All right. Where's Where's Linda Garin?

Where's Linda Garin?

Come on. Where's Twister? When was

Twister?

We don't want to talk about your version

of TW. If anyone wants to talk about

Twister, please see Linda afterwards.

She'll let you know

what year, Linda.

That's pretty good. That's pretty good.

66. There you go.

All right. What do we got left? All

right. Last one. Last one.

>> Firstly, what is it called?

>> What is it called?

>> Yes, it's a robo sapion. Well done. What

year? What year?

>> 2002, you reckon?

>> Anyone want to go against 2002?

>> 2003.

>> 2003 it is.

So, here you go. You can have the rest.

Oh,

there's another one.

Sorry, Michelle. Sorry. Um, I didn't I

didn't do a risk analysis for that. No.

Whoa. We could be in trouble.

All right, that's enough of that. Enough

frivvality in church.

All right. Should we pray now?

All right. We are entering the Christmas

season. Uh, as I said, this is our first

message in a series for Christmas. And I

want to start with this question. It's

pretty straightforward. And I know you

all know the answer, but thinking of all

those gifts, why are gifts such a an

important part of the Christmas

tradition?

Why, Carrie? For the kids. Yeah, kids

love gifts. What else?

Yeah, actual question. Yes, please.

Three wise men bought gifts. Yeah,

sorry.

It stimulates the economy. Yes. Well,

that's definitely possible.

>> Exactly.

Helen got it right. For God so loved the

world that he gave his one and only son

that whoever believes in him shall not

perish but have everlasting life. And

then in Ephesians 2:8-10 it says, "For

Ephesians 2:8–10

it is by grace you have been saved

through faith. And this is not from

yourselves. It is the gift of God, not

by works so that no one can boast. For

we are God's handiwork created in Christ

Jesus to do good works which God

prepared in advance for us to do. Now as

we just heard Christmas has so many

themes these days so many different

values that go through it and and has

meaning so many different meanings for

different people and often the true

message of Christmas does get distorted

and confused

uh with everything else. But if I was to

sum up the Christmas message in one

statement and what our series is about

this Christmas is simply this. Grace has

appeared.

And the scripture I'll use is Titus 2

11. For the grace of God has appeared

for the salvation of all men.

This is the Christmas story. This is the

Christmas message that grace has

appeared. Jesus being born

was the beginning of what theologians

tell us is the dispensation of grace or

the age of grace has begun. What does

that mean? It means that up until this

point,

mankind had to work for salvation. God

gave us something called the law to show

us what we needed to do to be right with

him. But as all of us know,

as hard as humankind would try,

we couldn't do what was required to

reconnect with God.

But with the dispensation of grace,

God himself

comes to set things right.

comes to fix things between humankind

and him.

And as this passage explains, for our

salvation, all we have to do is by faith

accept this gift,

this generous gift that God gave

that we didn't really deserve. So, we're

going to have a look at what grace

actually is.

The simple thing

uh in the Greek the word for grace is

carus. Everyone say with me

which very simply is translated in our

modern language as we get the word

charity from.

Now the reality is caris or carus in um

in

the time when it was

uh invented

it was just after Christianity was

established and it was invented for the

express purpose of explaining what was

going on

in the world at that time because

Christianity was exploding and there's

this new religion that was different to

anything they had ever experienced

before. So there's two words they had to

use to explain it or they developed to

to use to explain it. One was agape that

we all know about the word love. God's

unc unconquerable benevolence

uh to show us our true value and worth.

But then this alongside of that was this

word carus which meant grace. This

kindness that God shows us.

Pekka tells us that grace expresses a

notion of spontaneous self-determined

kindness which was previously quite

unknown to to Greco Roman ethics and

theology. What does that mean? basically

that the world had seen nothing like

this before because up until this time

when it we talked about when people

thought about a god or gods

they they thought about what must we do

to please our god or on the other hand

they would think my my life's a mess

what have I done to upset the gods so

this Christian notion of a god who loves

his creation a god who wants to show

kindness to his creation was totally

unknown. And so this um spontaneous

self-determined kindness from God was

just crazy to them.

It was totally inconceivable.

But then grace appeared

and it was no longer about what they

could do or not do. It was simply about

the fact that God wants to show his

creation kindness. In this one action of

Jesus being born in a manger in

Bethlehem,

God totally changed the goalposts.

Everything changed from that day on.

It's no longer about what I need to do

or what we need to do or what we don't

need to do.

It's all about what he has done and what

he has given to us.

In Sunday school, they taught us an

acronym for grace. Anyone remember this?

God's riches at Christ's expense.

Exciting.

But the actual definition for Carus

is simply this.

It's God's unmmerited favor where his

love is shown towards guilty sinners

contrary to their merit and in defiance

of their de demerit.

So what does that mean? It means doesn't

matter what we do right,

God will still love us. But it also

means that it doesn't matter how much

wrong we do, God will still love us and

want to show us kindness.

This is the incredible thing in that

that definition. It says where his love

is shown towards us. You see the idea of

love and grace uh they're inextricably

connected. They can't be separated.

God's love for us is that he shows us

value and unsurpassable worth no matter

what. But his grace is, if I could put

it in any simple term, is his love in

action.

It's his love so that we can see it in

reality.

And I believe the essence and meaning of

the Christmas story is simply grace.

Because with the birth of Jesus, God's

grace, his love in action has arrived.

It has appeared.

It has been given to us to show us

exactly how God feels about us.

So, we're going to have a quick look at

how the Christmas story shows us grace.

Number one, it shows us grace because

God came to us.

Think about this for a moment.

When sin came into the world in the

story in Genesis,

God was the offended party.

It was humankind in the form of Adam and

Eve that turned their back on God and

chose to disobey the one thing that he

had asked them not to do. But you think

about that story.

Even at that point in time,

God was the one who made the first move

to restore relationship.

He looked he walked in the garden

looking for Adam and Eve when they were

hiding from him. He didn't change his

daily plan of spending time with them.

He went looking for them even though he

knew what had happened.

And then the next thing he does when he

finds them naked and ashamed,

he does the first sacrifice of an animal

so that he can clothe them and cover

their shame.

as a sign of what is to come.

But God

searched for them. He provided for them.

And nothing has changed some thousands

of years later when he sends his one and

only son as a baby to save the world.

But this time it's to settle the issue

once and for all. To make sure sin is

dealt with and no longer an issue

anymore. You see, the truth of God

coming to us tells us the truth that God

always makes the first move. In other

words, grace

always makes the first move.

The second thing

we discover is that God came in every

respect like us. Hebrews 2 verse 17

Hebrews 2:17

says, "We also know that the son did not

come to help angels. He came to help the

descendants of Abraham." Therefore, it

was necessary for him to be made in

every respect like us, his brothers and

sisters, so that we could so that he

could be our merciful and faithful high

priest before God.

See, God did come to us, but it goes

even more than that because it's not

just about him coming to us or showing

up.

See, God showed up lots of times in the

Old Testament, didn't he? We just talked

about the time in the garden. You think

about the time when

um Jacob wrestled with the angel. You

think about the time when he opened the

Red Sea for the children of Israel to

walk through. The time where he appeared

to Moses on the Mount Si. God

continually showed up for the children

of Israel.

So it's not just about him showing up.

The Christmas story tells us that grace,

remember God's love in action

is fully revealed

in his choice to become human in every

respect like us.

And even Matt mentioned it when he was

speaking. The very fact that he would

become a baby.

If I was God,

I would have just shown up at the ripe

old age of 30 odd

and started healing people and doing

everything that was required.

Because that's makes sense, doesn't it?

Why come as a baby?

come.

Because to be the sacrifice that saved

us from our sins, the perfect and right

and holy sacrifice, he had to be in

every respect like us and experience

everything we experience. So think about

this incredible gift of grace,

a baby so vulnerable

that God put himself in our hands.

In our hands.

He had to trust humans to look after

him.

I don't know about you, but that just

blows my mind.

He put himself at the mercy of us

because he had to become in every

respect like us to be able to save us.

Which meant also laying aside his very

nature, divine nature, his divinity,

his deity so that we could be saved.

That tells me the truth that grace does

whatever it takes.

Grace always makes the first move, but

also grace does whatever it takes. The

third thing we discover about grace in

the Christmas story is that grace came

or God came to show us what we

or show us our value.

Jesus told lots of parables as we know

and there's a whole series of parables

about the lost things. You remember it?

The lost coin. The woman who lost the

coin turned the house upside down to

find it. The lost sheep. The shepherd

left the 99 to find the one.

The pearl of great price that was lost

in a field that a merchant found it.

Sold everything that he had to have that

pearl. And then the final story, the

lost son where the father was always

waiting and always there waiting for the

son to come home.

All these stories

show us the picture of a God who was

willing to give up all he had.

Why? Because he knows how valuable we

are.

Because he created us. And he knows the

potential within us. He knows what he

created us to be. And he knows how far

we've fallen from that. And so he does

everything in his power to bring us back

to him.

This is where the Christmas story gets

really exciting because I know we don't

like to say this, but the cost of the

gift

does show how much God really loves us.

It's not about a financial cost. Now,

sometimes we think, "Oh, we got to spend

the most." No, it's the thought and the

effort put into the gift that shows the

other person

how valuable they really are.

And this is true in life because we

discover value when we understand how

much someone is willing to give for us.

And I'll give you one very simple

example of this.

That when two people stand at the front

of a a group and confess or profess

their love for one another till death do

us part and in sickness and in health.

And all those those vows that are spoken

at a wedding are so powerful because

one is saying to the other, I'm willing

to give you all of my life.

And that and the other person feels the

value

feels their value because that person

loves me that much. They they're

committing a sacred vow to me. And this

is what we discover in the Christmas

story that grace Oops, wrong one. That's

the wrong one. Oops, sorry. The truth is

there. I missed that. That grace grace

shows us our true worth.

Get that grace shows us our true worth.

The last one that I want to share today

as we finish up

is that God came to show us what we are

missing.

The reality is that in Jesus we have

received the full picture of God.

As Colossians tells us that the

invisible God is now visible because of

Jesus.

Up until Jesus, we didn't have the full

picture of who and what God was like.

But John explains in John 1 that this

revelation is one of grace and truth.

Says there, the word became a human and

lived among us. We saw his glory, the

glory of the glory that belongs to the

only son of the father. And he was full

of grace and truth. Because he was full

of grace and truth. From him we received

one gift after another.

The law, as I've said earlier, was given

through Moses,

but grace and truth came through Jesus

Christ. And then it says these powerful

words. No one has ever seen God,

but God the only son is very close to

the father and he has shown us

what grace what God is like.

The word became a human and lived among

us.

And then he says, "And he has shown us

what God is like.

And what is God like? God is full of

grace and truth.

Our passage tells us

that Jesus was full of grace and truth.

And this idea is the idea of two sides

of a coin.

On one side of the coin, God's grace

makes a way for us to know God, for us

to be saved. And on the other side of

the coin, his truth reveals the truth of

who God is. Or in other words, the

reality. The original language talks

about truth being

how things truly are.

And especially when it comes to our

relationship with him. I'll give you an

example of this. Uh, as you know, I'm

Italian. And um all my life I grew up

and I would hear stories from my mom and

my uncles and aunties about Italy and

they'd tell me stories about Italy and

it would uh they'd be amazing and then

watch things on TV and I'd see um

there'd be shows where or movies where

people traveled to Italy or you know

three coins in a fountain or things like

that and you'd watch and you see the uh

fountain of Trevy and you'd see the

Colosseum and the there'd be Venice and

all that sort of stuff and I go that's

amazing And I'd read him books about

Italy and and discover about its

history,

Stanley Tucci documentaries

about Italy. And it's amazing and it

give me so much information. But the

reality is

it wasn't until I got in a plane and

flew to Europe

and and we didn't actually fly into

Italy. We caught a train off over the

border from Switzerland to Milan. And

let me tell you, up until that point, I

hadn't taste any real coffee until I had

an espresso on the train to Milan from

from Switzerland. And it was in a paper

cup. But when I drank it, I went, "Oh,

I'm home.

This is this is it. Italy. I'm here. The

flavor is there." But and as as I got

off the train in Milan and there was

chaos everywhere and Julie was freaking

out because she didn't know what was

going on. And I thought, "This feels

like home."

And when I actually experienced those

things face to face and I saw Venice and

I saw the Colosseum and I saw the people

of of Italy that I really knew what

Italy was. I'd known a lot about it, but

when I saw it and experienced it face to

face, then

I experienced the fullness, the truth of

what it is.

And so if grace shows us the heart of

God, then truth leads us to what is real

and accurate about God. When we know the

truth, the Bible tells us that it will

set us free. What does that mean? It

means that we will only know who we

truly are when we know who God truly is.

And our passage tells us that Jesus is

God in action. Jesus is God's grace and

truth.

And he expresses it in everything that

he does. But here's the problem for us

church. Because often in the church and

in the way this has been taught, grace

and truth, it's been lopsided. And if we

treat if we teach grace without truth,

we preach license. I can do whatever I

want. God doesn't care. It's not

important. I can just do anything. And

and that's what it is. But at the same

time, if we preach truth without grace,

then we teach legalism and judgment and

everyone's too scared to do anything

because what if I upset God? But that's

not what this is about.

Because what Jesus what God is saying in

this passage is Jesus shows us exactly

what God is like. And if that is the

truth, then in the way he lived his life

while he was on earth,

we should discover

the reality and the truth of what grace

and truth looks like. Isn't that right?

So I want to share with you a story and

there's many stories. I encourage you

when you read the gospels

and even over Advent and you read about

Jesus,

put in your mind, I'm I'm looking for

grace and truth. Because if you have

that mindset, it is amazing what you

discover

the different stories. Do you think of

the story of the the woman who washed

Jesus' feet with her hair and with the

expensive perfume and Jesus in that

space because she was a woman of

disrepute? He show allows her grace to

do that to him. But then he also brings

great truth into the situation where he

says those who are forgiven much love

much. And there's a story of the woman

caught in the act of adultery. We know

the truth. He shows her great truth

because if there was anyone in that

crowd that was qualified to stone, there

was Jesus because he had no sin, but he

chose not to. But he gives us this

amazing truth. You without sin cast the

first stone. And today I want to share

with you the story of Zakius because

it's just a powerful example of how

Jesus' actions here on earth show us

what grace and truth look like. In Luke

19, the story goes like this. He entered

Jericho, Jesus, and was passing through.

And behold, there was a man named

Zakius. He was a chief tax collector and

was rich. And he was seeking to see

Jesus, who Jesus was. But on account of

the crowd, he could not. Why? Because he

was a man of small stature. Maybe like

Judy, not very tall or Chris. Just

so so what did he do? So he ran ahead

and climbed up a sycamore tree to see

him, for he was about to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he

looked up and said to him, "Zakius,

hurry and come down, for I must stay at

your house today."

So he hurried and came down and receas

and received him, Jesus joyfully.

And when they saw it, those around, they

all grumbled, "He has gone into be with

the guest of a man who is a sinner.

And Zakius stood and said to the Lord,

"Behold, Lord,

the half of my goods I give to the poor.

And if I have defrauded anyone of

anything, I restore it four-fold." And

Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has

come to this house

since he Zakius also is a son of

Abraham.

For the son of man came to seek and save

the lost.

This this encounter gives us a powerful

picture of what it means to know grace

and truth

in Jesus.

Jesus offered Zakius grace in the form

of acceptance before change.

He called his name. He saw him, called

his name, and then said, "Tonight, I'm

coming to eat at your house." Don't you

think Jesus knew what sort of man Zakius

was?

But he said, "No, I'm coming to eat at

your house."

But at the same time Jesus

revealed this amazing truth that today

salvation

today Jesus salvation has come to this

house

since he Zakius is also a son of

Abraham. So all of a sudden he brings

this truth that he is just like you

so-called holy people or righteous

people. He is also a son of Abraham.

And then he says those words for the son

of man came to seek and save the lost.

The very fact that we're all lost

without Jesus.

It it hearkens back to our passage we

read earlier. For it is by grace that

you have been saved through faith. And

this is not from yourselves. It is the

gift of God. Jesus inviting himself to

Zakius's house was a gift to Zakius.

Because in the culture of the time, if

you ate with someone, you were a part of

that someone. You were declaring that we

are connected. We are family. We are

here for one another. That's and so when

Jesus made that invitation or asked to

have dinner with him, he was

acknowledging and honoring Zakius. It

was a gift of God, not by works so that

no one can boast. For we are God's

handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do

good works, which God prepared in

advance

for us to do.

Understand this. Zakius wasn't saved

because of his good works. I'm going to

give half of what I have to the poor and

if I've done the wrong thing by anyone,

I'm going to give fourfold back. He

wasn't saved because of that.

Zakius was saved when he received Jesus

joyfully.

When he accepted Jesus' invitation, he

was saved when he accepted this

incredible gift

of Jesus saying, "I want to eat with

you."

And Zakius didn't go, "I'm unworthy. I

don't deserve this."

Zakius said, "This is the best thing

that's ever happened to me. That Jesus

would want to be my friend. That Jesus

would want to would accept me a sinner."

And as so

the acts or the works that Zakius then

did were the fruits of his salvation.

They didn't give him salvation.

They were a result

of him saying, "Now that I have received

grace,

I want to live a life that honors that

grace,

that shows I'm worthy of that grace.

I can't keep living as I did because I

have experienced Jesus."

See, Jesus' grace redeems us back into

relationship with him. But his truth

sets us free to live as children of God.

To live in a way that honors the grace

we have received.

Which brings us to our last truth.

Grace gives us what we truly need,

a relationship with God.

I'd ask you to just bow your heads in

prayer

this Christmas. Can I encourage us

all of us in this room

to remember this truth about our God?

In him is everything we need.

This grace we've been talking about

means God did everything, absolutely

everything,

including giving up heaven and becoming

a baby and putting his life in the hands

of humans

because he knew there was nothing we

could do to fix our problem.

So he did everything required.

He made the first move.

He did whatever it takes.

And he showed us our worth.

And he gives us what we're missing.

He gives us a relationship with him.

Can I invite you today

to accept the true gift of Christmas?

The gift that Jesus is standing here and

offering to all of us in this room.

Many of us have accepted it before in a

time of our life. But sometimes life

gets busy. Life gets crazy, especially

at Christmas time.

And I believe God wants to remind us of

the gift he has given us.

This gift of grace,

this gift of value,

this gift of a relationship with him.

Will we open it today by believing in

what he has done for us? By accepting

what he has done for us.

I invite you

to let Jesus know that you accept his

gift this morning. right now where you

are,

make a commitment in your heart this

Christmas to say, "I accept your gift.

I acknowledge it that it is everything I

need."

Take a moment

to pray and make a commitment to say,

"God, help me live a life that honors

the incredible gift you have given me.