Sermon

The Wise Gift

Theme

Bringing Gifts to Jesus - Matthew 2:1-12

Object

Picture of wise men and/or gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Scripture

Isaiah 60:6b "They will bring gold and frankincense, And will bear good news of the praises of the Lord."

How many of you are getting ready for Christmas? Are you helping shop for gifts? Or maybe wrapping presents? I know I spend a lot of time looking for just the right gift for someone I love. Do you know why we give gifts to each other at Christmas? Well, it may have started with the Wise Men also knows as Magi or Kings from afar. Let's read about them in Matthew 2. (Read Matt 2: 1-12 in an easy to understand translation.)

Wow! That is amazing. God sent a star to tell of Jesus' birth, the Magi traveled a very long way, Herod had it out for Jesus, the Magi delivered gifts to him and then the God told them in a dream not to tell Herod where they found Jesus. That is a lot in one story so today, I just want to talk about the gifts. What 3 gifts did the wise men bring? Gold - worth a lot - a gift given to a king Frankincense - an incense which was had a pleasant smell and burned during worship - a gift given to a priest Myrrh - something they used to prepare a body for the grave - a gift for someone going to die

We don't have gold, frankincense and myrrh. What can we give? We can give Him our love, our worship and our life to tell others what Jesus birth, death and rising again means for them.

Let's pray and thank God for the gift he gave us of His Son.