Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Come to Worship, Part 2: Bring Your Gifts

Episode Date: December 13, 2014

Everything changed in a moment. When Jesus was born, He gave us the chance to be known, accepted, and forgiven. When we experience His love, we can’t help but Come to Worship. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and murder. Welcome everybody to all of our life churches and our network churches, our family, all over the world at church online. We're in part two of a four-part message series called Come to Worship. Last week, if you were with us, we talked about lifting up holy hands to God. Next week we're actually going to talk about pouring out our hearts.

And then on Christmas Eve, we're going to learn about bowing our knees or kneeling before God. Today, I want to talk to you about something that is a very powerful way to worship God. And that is bringing our gifts before God is an act of worship. In fact, we're going to start in Matthew chapter 2 and read several verses there and then look at other portions of Scripture today as well. our title for the series comes from Matthew chapter two, and here's what verse one and two says. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi, or this means wise men, they came from the east to Jerusalem, and they asked, where is the one who has been born

king of the Jews? Where is the one we've been anticipating for all these years? We saw his star when it rose, and we have what? say it aloud. We have come to worship him. The reason they came was to worship Jesus. Now, King Herod was actually an evil king. And so he got his panic on. He was suddenly afraid that his kingdom would be threatened. And so he kind of lied to them and said, hey, whenever you find out where he is, tell me so I can go and worship him as well. Verse nine says this. After they had heard the king, they went on their way and the star that they had seen when it rose ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. So they saw the star and they followed it. Now, we read that one little

verse and we don't really grasp the full magnitude of what these wise men did. They actually traveled from what would have been known as Persia or modern day Iran all the way to where Jesus was a distance of believe it or not, about 900 miles. Okay? I live in Oklahoma. If I travel west about 900 miles, I'll go to Phoenix. Okay? If you take Europe, the breadth of Europe, it's about two times as wide as Europe, 900 miles.

And they did not get there on Southwest Airlines or anything like it. Okay? This was a long, painful journey that they made to worship the world. one that they believed might be the Savior. And verse 10 shows us this, when they saw the star, what were they? Let's all say it aloud, all of our churches. When they saw the star, they were what? They were overjoyed.

They were overjoyed. In fact, I want to pause on this word, and we're going to kind of camp out and come back to this word quite a bit. They were overjoyed. The English translation, it really has a hard time with what the original language said. There are actually four Greek words that are translated. into they were overjoyed. Another version of the Bible translates it this way. It says, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. The Greek

words, they literally mean they rejoiced with a big, humongous, overarching joy. That's what it means. It's kind of like compounding joy. It's like, we're happy about being happy, that we're happy, that we're happy, that he's there. It's like, it's almost impossible to describe how full of life they were because for centuries they had hoped that one day there might be one who was born that would save them from their sins. And so from the depths of their soul, they are overjoyed with a humongous, big, gigantic joy. Here's the problem of some Christian today. They are underjoyed. They're underjoyed. We should be the most overjoyed people around and some are underjoyed. It makes no sense to me to think about the fact that a God who loved us and did something

for us that we couldn't earn and didn't deserve, the fact that anybody would ever be sitting around with sour-puss Christian look on their face, right? I mean, they're coming to worship looking like they're mad, upset about different kind of things, critical heart, angry about everything, nitpicking everything apart. Listen to me, if you're overjoyed, tell your face, let it smile, Show it. Let other people around you know being a follower of Jesus, you should be full of more joy than anybody else in the world. It doesn't matter how bad life gets. You've got the promise of eternity.

You've got a God with you, a God who's working in all things to bring about good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. A God who is greater, is ever present, all-knowing, and all-powerful. Don't you dare ever live under joy. you smile, you clap, you worship, you praise. You'd be fun to be around. You'd be known for what you're for, not for what you're against. You'd be full of love and be full of grace. When people see you, they should say, that's one of the happiest people that I've ever met.

Why? We're overjoyed. We have a Savior. We're overjoyed. We have a Savior. They traveled 900 or so miles, and they couldn't wait to worship him. So what do they do? Verse 11 says this.

on coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and what did they do? They what? They bowed down. We're going to come back to this one, that portion in week four, and talk about kneeling our knees. They bowed down, and what did they do? Everybody, they, they worshipped him. Now, how did they worship? I want you to watch very carefully. Scripture says they did what? They worshipped him, and they did it how? They opened their treasures, and they presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrr. They were overjoyed to bow down, to worship,

and to bring gifts to the one who would save them. They were overjoyed to give. They did not give underjoyed. They were not upset that they got to give. My birthday was recently this month, and my 10-year-old joy made something for me, and when she presented it to me, she worked hard on it. She spent hours.

She said, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Dad. Look what? And she gave it to me with a joyful heart. There wasn't a bit of it. And they're going, well, I don't really like you, Dad. They told me at Sunday school, I got to give you. I said I had to make you something. There was none of that.

It was an overjoyed sense of, I get to give. And that's what they did. They gave gold, incense, and myrr. It's been debated for centuries as to what these gifts actually meant or symbolized. The general thinking is that the gold represented his kingship, that the king of kings and the Lord of Lords was born. The frankincense, many people believe, represented his priestly role in the ministry. The incense actually was used to help prepare people for burial. And a lot of scholars believe that that was given to him foreshadowing that Jesus was actually born to die.

They worshipped him and they were overjoyed to bring their gifts. as an act of worship to kneel down, and with tremendous joy in their heart, they opened up the best of what they had, and they gave it to Jesus. Now, you can tell where I'm going, what I want to do is encourage you to bring your gifts as an act of worship to God. Last week we talked about lifting up holy hands. Next week, we're going to talk about pouring out our hearts. Week four, we're going to talk about kneeling our knees and bowing. Today, I want you, maybe like never before, to give to God as an act of worship to bring your gifts. And some of you going, well, we're here on the giving week. Every year church talks about giving. And you're kind of like, I brought a friend and I

brought them on that week. Ah, if I just brought them next week and all this kind of stuff. And let me tell you what, I totally understand that because I used to feel that exact same way. Oh, no, it's a giving message and I got to buy Christmas gifts and there's bills and all this kind of stuff. and I honestly used to resent that when I went to church because the reality is I wasn't a giver. That's it. I was not a giver. And over time, God changed my heart. And now, honestly, I devour giving messages.

I love them. I buy books on generosity. I listen to messages on generosity. I love being around generous people. Why? Because generous people love giving. In fact, I can always tell when I'm talking about generosity, there's people who are smart. I like this.

And other people are going, oh, get me out of here. Rapsar come now. I don't want to deal with this kind of stuff. And what I want to do is I honestly hope that over the next 20 minutes or so, that the Spirit of God will start doing a work in you, and that if you don't love giving now, you'll start to love to give. Love to give. Love to give.

Look forward to it. Think about it. Plan to give. Be strategic. Be overjoyed to give to God who gave every. everything to you. Why should it be this way? Because love gives, doesn't it? When you love someone, you give to them. Love gifts. Amy's here. We, at Christmas time, most years, we do what we just call no gift giving to each other. We just, we have everything we want and need, and so we just say,

we're not going to exchange gifts. And then every year, I break the rule and go and buy or something. Every year. She knows this coming. Why? I'm crazy about her. I can't stop. I just have to do it. You broke the rule like, I know, but love gives. And I'm in charge, so take this gift and love it because I love you so much, which is really different than when I used to date other girls.

Oh, when Valentine's was coming, I would break up on February the 12th and suddenly work things out on February the 15th. Why? Because I was a cheapo. I didn't like to give. Love gives. Don't look at me and judge me. I know others if you did that as well. If you didn't, you should have, because you didn't marry that person anyway, okay? Can I be that honest? I was that bad. I was that guy.

Okay, so maybe you can't judge me. Love gives. What's one of the most well-known verses in the Bible? John 316? If you're not a church person, you probably know this one. It's at football games. For God so love the world. What did he do? He what? He gait. He gait. Why did he give? Because he so loved the world. For God so loved the world that he gave, not gold, frankincense, or mirv, but his only son, his son. That's how much he loved us. Because love gives.

Because God looked at creation and he realized they were separated by sin. And the only way they could be made right with them is if someone innocent would die in their place, someone without sin. So he became flesh among us in the person of judgment. Jesus, lived the perfect life, died, rose again, so that anyone who puts their faith in him would be saved. Love gives. That's what God does. We love God because God first loved us.

Love gives. When you love, you can see it in the lives of people because love gives. In fact, Romans 5-8 says this. But God does what? Everybody say it loud. God demonstrates. He shows his own love. He demonstrates.

His own love for us that while we were still sinners, when we did not deserve it, Christ died for us. God didn't shout his love from heaven. He showed his love on earth. He sent Jesus to die for us because love gives. My parents, both my mom and dad, are tremendous givers. My dad, more than most people I know, like he's crazy strategic in his giving. I've told you before, my dad, we can't have a conversation in love. us is peppered in baseball talk. Even the word pepper. You play pepper. That's a little, for those

of you baseball players, you know what I'm talking about, Steve, pepper, okay? And everything. Like, like he doesn't say, are you preaching this week? And he says, are you on the mound? That means, are you preaching? And when I say, yes, he doesn't say preach good. He says, preach it down the middle, keep it low on the inside or whatever. That's what he says. That's how we relate. And so when I grew up, going to baseball games, you can imagine, you know, a little seven-year-old boy and his dad, it was the best of the best. We lived in Houston, and I grew up when Nolan Ryan was pitching for the Astros. And if you don't know baseball, Nolan Ryan is arguably the greatest pitcher of all time, certainly one of the top. No one would dispute that. He pitched seven no hitters.

The guy was unbelievable. He could throw the ball over 100 miles an hour. Not only that, but he was a tough son of a gun. Some of you may remember when Robin Ventura charged the mound to beat him up in the middle of the game. This doesn't apply to the sermon, but it's really, really cool. Nolan took him in a headlock and just, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I know, deep in my soul. As a pastor, I shouldn't love it, but I have to confess, I love that with all my heart. I love that with all my heart. And so, as a kid, when my dad gave me a rookie Nolan Ryan baseball card, 1968. Okay, today, one in mint conditions like worth $1,500. When you're seven years old, it's worth $50 million when your dad gives it to you. I never will forget the

joy that he had presenting this card to me. And I looked at like, oh, I couldn't believe it. And I wanted to give back to my dad, but what do you give when you're a kid? Nothing you can do. Well, 30-some-odd years went by. I was in a store, and I found an autographed picture of Nolan Ryan pitching. In fact, I've got, this isn't the actual picture, but I've got a picture to show you. This is after Robin Ventura bled all over Nolan's shirt for being stupid enough to charge the express. And so anyway, I found an autographed picture, and I bought it for my dad, and I couldn't wait to give it for him. I was like, Dad, don't have a heart attack. Stay alive to your birthday. I mean, like, you know, I was counting down the days, you know, to give it. This thing was out of my budget, okay?

we have a giving budget that we stick within. This thing was so far out of the budget that, like, Amy's like, you spent what? I'm like, I don't care. It's an autograph. Money didn't matter. I mean, it was like, and when I gave it to him, oh, my gosh. It's like, dad, look, and he opened it up. He's like, ooh, son, that's a grand slam home run out of the park.

You know, it's all baseball talk. And it's like this tearful, amazing moment between a father and son. And I was overjoyed. Overjoyed to give something back to him and my mom to give back, as they've given so much. Overjoyed to give. On a side note, we have a campus in Fort Worth, Texas. I had a couple in Texas,

and one of the owners of Texas Rangers actually goes to our church. And so I got to take my boys, and we actually met Nolan Ryan, believe it or not. Here's a picture of my son, Stephen, with Nolan. once in a lifetime picture, and then there's my son, Sam, photo bombing in the background. So there you have it, the perfect picture with the photo bomb helping out. Love gives. Love gives. God demonstrated his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Now, as I talk about this, some of you would probably say, I love God, but giving's hard for me. I like to give, but I feel financial pressure and all this, and I understand that. I love, but I'm afraid, or I'm hesitant, or I'm reluctant to give. I want to read to you from the Old Testament, Proverbs 3, some very, very popular portion of Scripture, and there's a portion after it that many people don't really understand falls within the context of this worldwide known verse. Proverbs 3, verse 5 says, trust in the Lord with all your hearts. You've probably heard this before. And lean not on your own understanding. And all your ways submit to him or acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. Trust in God. Don't lean on your own ability to understand,

but trust in him. Trust in him. Trust in him. Do not be wise in your own eyes. In other words, don't try to figure it out. There's higher ways than our ways. There's higher thoughts than our thoughts. Don't be wise in your own eyes, but fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Now, in the context of which this is written, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Solomon said this, honor the Lord. This word honor, it means to worship. It means to adore. It means to praise. It means to honor, honor, worship the Lord with your what? It says, worship. the Lord with your wealth. Worship God with what you have. This is only one of the ways we worship

God, but it is a very important way to worship God. They were overjoyed and they opened up their treasures and they worshipped him. Honor the Lord. Worship the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of your crops. Everybody say first fruits with the first fruits of your crops. Then your barns will be filled overflowing and your vats will brim over. with new wine. Honor the Lord with your wealth. Worship God with your wealth. And then you will be blessed beyond measure. Honor him with the first fruits of your wealth. Now, some people may say, what are first fruits? This parallels with what is taught in the Old Testament in the book of Malachi. Jesus affirms this in the New Testament, Matthew 23, 23. It's talked about in Hebrews. This is what's known as

the tithe. The tithe is a Hebrew word, the word maasur, and it simply means attempt. Malachi says that we worship God with a tenth of what he trust us with. We bring him the first portion of what he gives to us as an act of worship. And Malachi says when we do this, God opens up the windows of heaven. And God pours out so many blessings on us that we do not even have room to contain it. We worship the Lord with the first tenth of what he gives us. Now, in my mind, that sounds crazy. And for years, I thought the very same thing that many of you were thinking,

there ain't no way I'm getting hit by that pitch to quote my dad. Okay? 10%, no way. That's absolutely crazy. And I go back to what Solomon said, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge him.

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of what he blesses you with. So I love to say it this way. We bring our first and our best and trust God to bless the rest. We bring God our first and our best, the first 10%, not the last 10%, not what's left over.

The moment we're blessed with increase, we bring God our first and our best. And we trust God to bless the rest. And I can spot the tithers, even now, because they're all nodding just like this. I can see them all over the room because they have done this, and they recognize that 90% with God's blessings is actually greater than 100% without. That when we actually worship God and trust him in this way,

it does something in us that is supernatural. And I'll be real honest with you, the first time I tithed, I didn't actually tithe. I heard a message on giving 10% and I went to a Christian bookstore and gave 10% of my money there in exchange for a Carmen cassette tape, some bad Christian t-shirts, and some little cross things.

I didn't understand it. I didn't recognize that we actually bring 10% and we return it to the storehouse, which is a picture of the local church. The very place where we're nourished, where we're fed, where we eat spiritual bread and gain spiritual life,

that we make a difference in the world all over the world as the church that we returned 10% to the storehouse. And so the first time I tithed, I was about 20 years old, and I'd worked all summer teaching tennis lessons and made what was a lot of money for me back then. I heard a message and I thought, okay, I'm doing this, and I'm doing it with the right attitude. This is going to be an act of worship. And I wrote out what seemed like the biggest check in the world. And I remember putting in the offering bucket and with this sense of just this thrill, like, almost like I'm putting my money where my mouth is, like, literally.

Like, God, I am trusting you. I'm believing, this is bigger, this takes faith, and I'm trusting you. And God is my witness. It was the craziest thing. My grandmother, who we didn't think had any money, she was raising the depression and, like, you know, lived on air and put money under her mattress. She called me that very day of my first time. I had never done anything like this.

and she said, Craig, God put this on my heart. I can't explain it, but I'm so excited. You're now a follower of Jesus, and I want to buy you a car. Oh, my goodness, okay? Grandma bought me a car, not just any car, but a biblical car, a Honda accord, because all the disciples gathered in one accord, check that out, okay, a biblical car. And I drove that car for like 11 years. Here's the crazy thing is I had $6,000 save for a car because I paid cash for everything.

I was saving up for it. I went in with another buddy, and we bought. a house for, believe it or not, it was in the hood, for $11,900. I paid half, he paid half, and I bought my very first rent house as a result of what was a blessing from the tithe. And then I bought another house before I was 21, and when we started the church and had no money, we were living off the blessings of the rent houses that we had. And I can trace every financial blessing that we have back today to our very first tithe, to our very first tithe. Give God our first and our best and trust him to

to bless the rest. Now I'm not saying if you tithes are going to get a new car. What I am saying is that God proves himself faithful. It's the only place in all of the scripture he says, test me. If you don't believe me, test me, test me, worship me in this way and see what I will do for you. I'm overjoyed to be a tither. Overjoyed. Overjoyed. I'm overjoyed to give offerings. Amy is overjoyed. She loves to give offerings to relief and restoration because this all goes to help people who are in need all over the world. I love to give to spaces and places, offerings, because this actually helps build new campuses

all over the world. I'm an evangelist at heart. I like to see people reach. I love to give the digital missions. Why? Because we give away the U-Version Bible app. And I am thrilled beyond measure to give away the greatest app in the history of the world, free to people all over the world, absolutely free.

I've overjoyed that our church does this. People say all the time, I can't believe. A church created the app. Listen, We've got about 30 full-time staff members, full-time, paid for by the church, that build and create and maintain and expand this unbelievable, amazing app. I never sit around and say, well, some people don't know we gave it to them. Some people don't even use it. They don't even pay.

I love to give. Why? Because years ago, someone from the Gideon organization smiled broader than you can imagine and handed me a free Bible. And my life was transformed by the living word of God. and I am overjoyed. We just celebrated a few months ago, giving away $100 million. Guess how many we've given away today?

Over 160 million free to the entire world. And I'm overjoyed with everything in me to do this because we will lead the way with irrational generosity. We truly believe it's more blessed to give than to receive. People say all the time, want you sell it for 99 cents? Think about all the money you can make. Listen to me.

Our Bible is not for sale. The Word of God is living and it is active and it is free to the world, and we are honored and overjoyed and blessed to do that. We make resources free to churches all over the world. Sermons, transcripts, outlines, videos, kids' curriculum, student curriculum, more than you can imagine, 160,000 churches last year downloaded free, no strings attached, no money exchange, gift to them.

Every single week, there are 150 other churches. 150. They're not life churches. They're network churches. They receive this message for free. All of our kids. They're basically like, kind of like life church. They're just not life church. It's free. It's a gift. We love to do it. Why? Because God gave first. We're overjoyed to give because love loves to give. I never once say, I don't want to tie. I wish I loved to return to God because God blessed me. I love to give beyond that because God is. so good. Love loves to give. But it's more than just giving wealth, and that is very important. You look at what you do with your money, and it's an indicator of what's in your heart, period, and there is no argument to that whatsoever, none whatsoever. We honor God with our wealth. But the ultimate thing that we give is way beyond that. We're to give our lives.

This is what Paul said, and don't forget who Paul was. Some of you, if you're not Christians, You may hate Christians, you would like Paul because Paul hated Christians. He hated them more than you did. He killed them. That's how much he hated them. But he was transformed. The guy who imprisoned, beat, tortured, and killed Christians was so transformed by God. This is what he wrote.

He said, therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, listen to that, in view of what God did for him, in view of who God is and what God did for us, He said, I urge you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Not just our wealth, that's easy. That's a starting place. But our whole lives. Holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and what?

Say it with me. And proper worship. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. It doesn't make sense in my mind. But in all my ways, I will acknowledge him. And he will make my path strength. I will honor him with my first and my best,

and I will trust him to bless the rest because they were overjoyed at a Savior. God loved first. He demonstrated his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And so they traveled far and hard to open up their treasures, to kneel before him, to worship him. We love because he first loved us.

All of our churches, let's take a moment and let's pray. Father, we ask that in your presence, that you would do a work in our hearts. God, that giving wouldn't be just something that we do, but it would be a reflection of what you have done in our hearts. God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak to your church today, to individuals, that you would move us, God, to be generous in all that we do, recognizing it truly is more blessed to give than it is to receive. As you take a moment and you reflect all around, I'm going to ask every single one of you today to

give something. Many of you, listen to me, you're going to give your first type, first time ever, first time. You're going to give God your first and your best and trust him to give the rest. Others of you, it may be $5, it may be a dollar, it may be a quarter. I don't care what it is, but I'm going to ask you today to give. You may say, well, I'm not even a Christian. Listen to me. Hey, it's still great to give. It's still great to give anywhere all the time to give. I'm going to ask you, when you give, we're going to play a worship song today, and I'm going to ask you to make it an act of worship, not something that's an act of obedience or a duty or an obligation, but to say, God, you've given me life. You've given me the opportunity of grace through Jesus. And take a moment, and when you do today, connect your heart with the heart of God. Imagine even what it would have been like to be one of those wise men kneeling before Jesus,

the one who was born to give his life that we could live eternally with God, and give today as an act of worship. But it come from your heart as an act of worship. But all of our churches, those who say, I want to be a worshipper when I give. Would you lift up your hands right now? Just lift up your hands. I want to be a worshiper when I give. Lift up your hands.

Put them down right now. Others of you say, you know what? I understand the tithe. I haven't done it. I'm not putting God first in this area. and by faith I want to do it. I am now a tither. I believe I will give God my first and my best

and trust him to bless the rest. I just made that decision right now. Lift up your hand. Right now, lift it up. There are those of you here lift it up right now and say, yes, that's me. Father, I thank you today that you're changing our hearts, that your Holy Spirit is speaking to us.

God, I pray that as we give, it would be out of a heart of worship. For those today who will be overjoyed to be blessed God giving the tithe, I thank you that they will see your faith in ways that we cannot even imagine. I pray you'd reveal your goodness to them. God, thank you.

You've given us a chance to give back as you've given us everything through your son, Jesus. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, some of you, you're going to recognize you're distant from God. When you look at your life, you know he is not first. And suddenly there's something that's drawing you toward him,

and you're not sure what that is. Let me tell you what it is. It is God's love. It's His Holy Spirit. pulling you toward him, and you are not here by accident. I never will forget the moment when I cried out to Jesus in the weight of my sin, all the horrible things that I'd done I sense God lift them from me. He forgave me, and my only reasonable response is to give him my whole life. In view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices. This is your true.

and proper worship. And all of our churches today, there are those of you here. Guess what? You're here for a purpose. It's time for you to give your lives to the God who sent his son to give his life for you. You say right now, I'm not putting you first. I recognize I'm a sinner and I need a Savior. Today by faith, I turn toward Jesus.

When you call on him, he will hear your prayer. He will forgive your sin and he will make you brand new. And that's why many of you are here today and you know it. Today you're going to worship like you never have before. you're going to worship by giving God your life through Jesus. All of our churches, those who say, yes, that's me. I surrender to him. It's happening now.

I trust him and give him my life. Lift your hands high right now and say, yes, I surrender to him. Church online, you click right below me, and we're going to pray together with people around us. Everybody pray aloud. Pray Heavenly Father. Forgive me of my sins. Make me brand new.

I believe Jesus died for me. so I could live for him. Holy Spirit, fill me that I could follow you. My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name, I pray.

Would you all worship really big, really loud? Welcome this morning to God's family.