#The Gift

I love that his name shall be Jesus.

Isn't that so cool? Like, I think it's amazing that

somebody has interpreted the Christmas story kind of as it

would perhaps look like today. I don't know.

I found that really moving when I saw it.

I think. I imagine most of us, if not all

of us here are familiar with the with the story of the birth of

Christ. And I love that.

Like, I love that our kids still get to do nativities in their

schools in most of them still get to dress up as sheep and

shepherds and all the other characters from a young age.

This story, this Christmas story, it's ingrained in US,

isn't it? You know, we all know the

characters. I'm sure a lot of us can recall

the exact words from the Bible. However, I also think it's

really important that sometimes because of that we can become

overly familiar with the story. And I think sometimes we can

think, oh, we know all there is to know about the Christmas

story. What else is there that you can

that we can learn from it? But, you know, God still speaks

through this story today, And I believe this morning that as we

stop and as we consider this first Christmas again together,

that God is going to speak. He's going to reveal more of his

character to us. And he's going to remind us

again that he is relevant and present in our lives today just

as much as he was relevant and present in their lives that we

read about in the Bible. You know, if we were to

summarize what Christmas is really about, I think it is.

It's about celebrating the gift of Jesus, isn't it?

As Christians, that's what we believe.

You know, the greatest gift the world has ever seen arrived at

Christmas or the first Christmas, and we celebrate that

fact. We celebrate that God Almighty,

the God Most High, chose to come as a baby called Jesus, who

would grow and become the perfect man without sin.

Fully man, fully God, who would then become the perfect

sacrifice in our place. Jesus Christ.

Light in the darkness, He came as light into a dark, Dark

World. God with us and Christmas is

when we celebrate his entrance into the world.

But as we celebrate this today with all the all the things that

we come to love and associate Christmas with the sparkles and

the food and the presents and everything else, let's remember

that the first Christmas wasn't quite like that.

It didn't look like it does today.

You know, the first Christmas as we've just seen portrayed in

that video wasn't quite as beautiful.

I'm not sure Mary and Joseph experienced all the warm, fuzzy

feelings of Christmas that we do at this time of year.

Sure, maybe they did at the end. Course they did at the end when

this beautiful baby was born. But what about in the lead up to

it? You would.

You would have thought that they would have had joy in that, too.

But more often than not, with the gifts that God gives us, we

have joy in retrospect, don't we?

Like hindsight is a wonderful thing.

How many times do we look back over our life and consider the

things that have happened? And we can be joyful and we can

celebrate, because we can see now how God was working and how

much better his plans were than our plans.

But in the moment, we don't always see it as good.

When God gives us a gift, at times it doesn't initially fill

us with joy or fill us with excitement.

Instead, it can fill us with a whole range of emotions.

Fear, dread, disbelief, anxiety, confusion.

And we can actually question God on whether actually this is a

gift from Him. And so this morning, as we

consider this gift that was given to us on that first

Christmas, I want to look at what can we learn from it about

the gifts that God has placed in our lives today.

And so bearing that in mind, I want us to look at 4 specific

things. And the first thing is this.

Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid.

We're going to turn to our first passage.

So if you have a Bible with you, or if you've got it on your

phone, and if you could get that out and we're going to turn to

Luke, 128 to 38. If you haven't got one, don't

worry. If you need one and you haven't

got a Bible, let us know because we'd love to give you one.

But if you don't, then don't worry because the the scripture

is going to come up on the screen.

So Luke 128 to 38. So we've read just a little bit

before this that God has sent an Angel to Mary who is engaged to

Joseph, and it says this we pick it up at 28.

The Angel went to her and said greetings.

You who are highly favoured, the Lord is with you.

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of

greeting this might be. But the Angel said to her, Do

not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God.

You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call

him Jesus. He will be great and he will be

called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the

throne of his Father David and he will reign over Jacob's

descendants forever. His Kingdom will never end.

How will this be? Mary asked the Angel.

Since I'm a virgin and the Angel answered, the Holy Spirit will

come on you and the power of the Most High will over shadow you.

So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.

And then just skip to 38 it says I am the Lord's servant.

Mary answered, May your words to me be fulfilled.

And then the Angel left her. So here we have Mary.

She is engaged to to be married to Joseph and she's about 14 to

16 years of age, which it's young, but in in those days it's

kind of the typical, the usual age to get married.

And here she is being visited by an Angel being told that she's

going to have a baby. And if that's not enough of a

surprise, then, then she's told that it's going to be God.

It's going to be the Holy Spirit who's going to make her

pregnant. I mean, we've read this a lot,

right? But let's just pause for a

moment and think of the reality of this situation.

There Mary was one day just minding her own business, doing

some wedding prep wedding admin, and suddenly this Angel appears.

And first he tells her she's highly favoured, guessing she

was delighted at that bit. Then God was like, I'm with you,

amazing. God is with me.

But then you're going to have a baby.

Mary, can you just picture Mary having to go to her mum and dad

having to go to her parents and say hey Mum, hey Dad.

Like I've got something to tell you.

I'm pregnant, but it's OK. It's by God.

I haven't slept with anyone else.

I haven't slept with Joseph. God made me pregnant.

I mean, that's a new one, isn't it?

Imagine that. Poor Mary.

Like I I mean, I think poor Mary, although God certainly

doesn't see it that way. He says that she's highly fated.

Sometimes we get a gift from God.

That doesn't look like a gift. In fact, it can look anything

but inconvenient, embarrassing. It's going to make you

unpopular. People are going to doubt what

you say. They're going to make you doubt

whether you heard God. You might even be looked down on

or shunned. People are going to judge you,

and people are going to make up their own mind.

But Mary knew she had heard from God, and she knew she was

gifted. After the Angel went, You can

just imagine, can't you? That fear that would have come

over her, The worry that she was going to have to to go to

Joseph, the man that she's going to marry, the man that she

utterly adores, and tell him that she was pregnant but she

hadn't done anything wrong. Joseph, you've got to believe

me. I mean, what a conversation she

would have been desperate for him to understand.

And so how did Joseph react? Let's have a look at our second

scripture, which is in Matthew 119 to 29 we read about Joseph's

reaction. So from 19 it says and her

husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to

shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

Now when I read this, I was like, how could he divorce her?

Because they were only engaged, they weren't actually married

yet. But the Jewish wedding ceremony

has two parts. So the first bit was the

engagement bit, which was the legally binding bit.

And then a little while later, a few months in fact, Then the

bride would move in with the husband.

So they had done the legally binding bit.

So to break off the engagement, he was going to have to divorce

her, and then we pick it up from verse 20, it says.

But as he considered these things, behold, an Angel of the

Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do

not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is

conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, but

he shall save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the

Prophet. Behold, the Virgin shall

conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name

Emmanuel, which means God with us.

Before God told Joseph otherwise, he had come up with

the only logical explanation, which was that Mary must have

cheated on him, she must have had an affair, and he could have

easily walked away. In fact, his friends probably

were encouraging him to do so. He would have felt humiliated.

He would have felt embarrassed, angry, heartbroken.

And then an Angel came to him and God spoke.

Do not fear, don't be afraid, Joseph.

When God gives us a gift, so often, instead of feeling

excited, we feel scared. Here we have Mary and Joseph who

would have been terrified, but they heard the voice of the

Lord. Do not be afraid.

I am with you. God is saying that you don't

understand. Though it doesn't make sense.

Take me at my word and do not fear.

Maybe you're here this morning and you know that you have been

given a gift by God, that he has put a gift inside you.

But you're scared. You're scared of people's

reactions. You're scared of people's

opinion of you. In fact, you're scared so much

that you want to keep it hidden. You want to keep it a secret out

of fear of what others might think or say.

But the Lord is saying this morning, Do not be afraid.

I am with you. What is it that you're fearful

of for 2024? What is it that is paralyzing

you with fear this morning? What is God asking you to do?

But you are so full of anxiety that you don't even know which

way to turn. God is saying do not be afraid.

Joseph had a choice, didn't he? He could have chosen to say no

and he could have walked away from the gift.

And that is what fear can do. Fear can make you turn away from

what it is that God is giving you, just like Joseph nearly

did. You know we have a choice to

walk towards the gift that God is laying before us, despite

what others may think, despite the seed of doubt that you have

in your head, despite not being able to understand everything,

but knowing that God has spoken and knowing that God is true to

His word and He is with us, be careful you don't allow the fear

to rob you of the gift that God is giving.

The message of God to Mary and Joseph remains true for you

today. Do not be afraid.

Perfect love casts out all fear. So #1 do not be afraid.

What else can we learn from this story about God's gifts to us?

Secondly, God's timing is perfect.

God's timing is perfect. You know, after Joseph heard

from God that Mary was telling the truth after all, they later

found out that they had to travel to Bethlehem.

So they were in Nazareth and they had to travel to Bethlehem.

Now let's remember that this wasn't planned for Mary and

Joseph. They didn't plan this.

They didn't plan to travel to Bethlehem to have their baby.

They had to go. Joseph had to go back to his

hometown, which was Bethlehem to register for the census.

That's what everyone had to do at the time.

And so to put this in perspective, Mary was in her

third trimester. She was heavily pregnant, and

Bethlehem was a long way away. In fact, Bible scholars think

that it would have taken them about a week to get from

Nazareth to Bethlehem. I mean, I've been pregnant a few

times and let me tell you in my third trimester, I did not want

to travel anywhere unless it was to my bed.

You are exhausted. Don't know if any other women

can relate. Grateful, but exhausted.

And there was Mary, having to travel for a whole week in the

hot sun on a donkey about to give birth.

Imagine not only how worried she would have been leaving her

friends and family, and the comfort of everything that she

knew at home, knowing that the baby could potentially come at

any point, like her waters could go while she's riding, sitting

on that donkey riding to Bethlehem.

How uncomfortable and how exhausting.

Sometimes we know that God has spoken and we know we are

carrying a gift. But things don't seem to make

sense. The journey is uncomfortable.

The journey is exhausted. If we had our way, we would have

birthed this gift a while ago when things made sense.

But we walk by faith and not by sight.

And we know that God is never early, is he?

He's never late. He is always on time.

His timing is perfect, even when it doesn't make sense.

Back in the summer of this year, I applied for a job that it was

a part time job in a secondary school that I really wanted.

And I prayed a lot about it and I felt, God, say yes, apply for

it, go for it. And I really prayed that I'd be

successful when I'd get the job because I really wanted it.

But I was also like, God, do you know what?

I trust you, whatever your way is, you know, that's fine.

But I really would have a Tom. And Long story short, I didn't

get the job and I was praying on my way home.

I remember praying and I was like, that's OK, God, because I

did pray. And I did say that your ways are

better than my ways. And you know, I trust your plan

and and everything, but wow, like, I actually did really want

that job. God, like, what is going on?

I'm a little bit annoyed. Can I say that?

I was a little bit cross and I was confused.

Maybe they made a mistake. Maybe they were going to call me

and say, actually we've changed our minds.

You have got the job. I kind of gave up and let it be,

you know, trusted God. And that evening or it might

have been the next. The next day I got an e-mail and

it said that they would like me to come back for an informal

interview for another role that they had because they felt that

would be more suited to me. And I did end up getting the job

and I and I work there now and I'm so grateful.

But my the point is, sometimes doors are shut and it can feel

like a slap in the face. But what we see as rejection,

God sees us something better. When Mary and Joseph finally

arrived after that long exhausting journey in Bethlehem,

they were like surely God's going to provide a like 5 star

hotel for us after that journey. But what happened?

Every single door was shut. Every door they tried was shut

in their face, and they must have been questioning God.

Where are you in this? But God has something better.

And maybe some of you are here this morning and you know God

has placed a gift inside you, and you're frustrated because

you think that now is the time for that idea that he gave you

to be birthed. Or maybe it's the opposite.

Maybe God's asking you to birth something now and you're

feeling, no, this is not the right timing.

If you'd have asked me a week or a year ago, that's fine.

If you'd ask me next year, that would be OK.

Things don't make sense. Doors seem to be closing, and

God is reminding you again this morning that his plan might not

look the same as your plan. In fact, my experience is it

often doesn't look anything like our plan.

But his timing is perfect. We have to trust in him #3.

God specializes in the small, you know, I think if I was God

and I was going to come to Earth, you know, just saying

that if I was going to come and save the world, I would want to

make a bold statement. I'd want it to be big.

I'd want everyone to take notice.

And yet what does God choose to do?

He chooses to come as a small baby, helpless, vulnerable baby.

So many of us, and I include myself in this.

We don't always appreciate or value the small things, do we?

Sometimes you want to jump straight to the big things.

But what does God say in Zechariah 4 verse 10?

Zechariah 4:10

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord

rejoices to see the work begin. Do not despise these small

beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.

God specializes in the small, as I mentioned earlier, in April

this year we started meeting as a Hatfield site.

There was about a team of 12 of us at the beginning and quite a

few kids and so probably about 20 of us that decided to sort of

set this up over in in Hatfield. And can I just say these guys

who serve with us are amazing. They're incredible.

We see week after week after week, our team turn up, putting

chairs out, setting up banners, setting up flags, laying the

refreshments out, preparing to lead us in worship, sacrificing

their time for only sometimes one person to turn up or a

handful of people to turn up. I'm the same.

Sometimes I spend time preparing what we're going to talk about

as AJ, and there's like one person there, like, God, what's

going on? Like I'm being honest here.

I can be honest, right? Sometimes I get home and I'm

like, what's the point? God, when are we going to see

you bring these people in that we know are there and needing to

hear the good news of Jesus? Like, when are we going to see

this? But God says time and time again

to us, Do not despise the small things God is working.

Even if we don't see it in the way that we would expect.

There's a beautiful gift that he has entrusted us with.

And it's small right now. But we are learning in this

season to nurture what he's given us To lay solid

foundations, to build relationships, to trust him, to

keep giving him our yes. To keep sacrificing what He's

asking us to, even when it feels like nothing is happening.

Because when God builds it, and He will in His timing, we will

know where we have come from and we will remember it, and we will

then say that God has built this Church, not us.

Do not do not despise the small beginnings, for the Lord

rejoices to see the work begin. Typically when God gives us a

gift, He gives us something which we can hold in our hand so

we can handle the gift as it grows.

It takes He takes the small things that we offer Him and

turns it into something big. And I know Mark spoke on this

last week as one of the hallmarks.

If you missed that, you can look back at it.

It was I loved it, the way that he posed that question.

What is it in your hands? Like each of us has been placed

in His Kingdom with gifts in our hands.

And it might not seem like much, it might not seem enough, but

that's the point. God specializes in the small He

takes the small seed, the seemingly insufficient things,

and He turns them into something greater than we could have ever

dreamed of or ever imagined. We see it all the way through

the Bible, don't we? What seed has God placed in your

hand as you enter 2024? What gift has he given you?

God specialises in the small things, and finally, appearance

isn't everything anyone else's. Kids, like, start judging their

presence when they see them, though it might be just mine,

but like, some of them are like, whoa, look at that present.

It's so shiny and it's massive and Oh my goodness, I'm going to

open that one first. Or that one's clearly a book.

I'll open that one at the end or they start opening presents and

like we've got a one year old and he doesn't really have a

clue what's going on when he sees his siblings opening

presents for birthdays or Christmas or whatever.

Well, he hasn't. Last year was very little, but

you know, he is more interested in the wrapping paper and more

interested in the packaging than actually the gift that is

inside. But some of these presents today

as well, I mean, I don't know if it's just me, but really hard to

get into. Does anyone else have that

difficulty? Like some of the presents that

you get, like the kids come to me and they're like, can you

open this even once they've unwrapped it?

And the twisty things are fine because you can just twist and

the toy comes out. But sometimes I feel like you

need a whole toolbox like pliers to open these gifts.

And I have to be honest, sometimes I'm like, let's just

leave that one, let's just put it on to side, let's open

another one. Sometimes God gives us a gift

that doesn't look much on the outside.

We have an expectation of what it's going to be based on what

it looks like, and we start to unwrap it.

And sometimes we have to wrestle with it and we have to persevere

and we have to not give up if we're not sure what to do with

it. We have to keep persevering.

We have to look past the wrapping and the packaging to

the gift that's inside. When Jesus came, he was wrapped,

wasn't he? But not how we would have

expected. Not in a gold blanket or a gold

robe. He was in stable sheets.

He wasn't in a shiny palace, but in a smelly Manger.

And he wasn't clothed with robes and riches.

But he was naked in a makeshift crib, with the animals around

him amongst the poo and the feed.

Some of us have gifts in our hands which don't look or feel

or smell how we expected they would.

They haven't come wrapped as we thought, or dare we say it as we

would have liked. Maybe you've just lost your job.

Maybe you're struggling in your marriage and it's not thriving

how you would have hoped. Maybe you're frustrated that you

didn't get that promotion or that you're still single despite

years of praying for the for the partner that you really want.

And I want to encourage you this morning to look past the

exterior and the struggles and to persevere, to see the gift

that God has blessed you with. Because appearance isn't

everything. And so this morning we have

hopefully looked at the Christmas story, and we have

taken from it some things to consider when we look at the

gifts that God has given us today.

So just to recap #1 do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid of the gift that God has given you. #2 God's

timing is perfect, even if it doesn't make sense. #3 God

specializes in the small do not despise these small beginnings.

And #4 appearance isn't everything.

Let's trust God with what He's given us, even though it might

not look how we would have thought it would.

And so as the band come up, please, if they if you guys

could make your way up. I just want us to We're going to

finish and I think that we need to respond in some way.

I believe that God has spoken this morning and I feel like I

want to give an opportunity for a response.

So if you guys could stand.