Don't You Like My Present?

As you do your Christmas shopping, there are many things to consider. Here’s two: How well do you know the person you’re shopping for? And how do you present the gift? It’s fairly easy to find the right gift if you know a person’s interests and hobbies. And the way you present your present matters a lot too; If you leave the price tag on or you say, “Here’s something I made, but I didn’t quite get it finished,” that’s not going to be very impressive.

There’s a lot of preparing going on this time of year in order to present things in just the right way. The question for you this morning is, are you preparing to present your heart to God? Is that even on your list?

The words disciple and discipline go hand in hand; a disciple of Jesus is going to use discipline to counteract the busyness of December with quiet moments. A disciple of Jesus will use discipline to carve out time for our eyes to see the Savior; our ears to hear of his love; our lips to sing his praises; our hands to serve those around us so that with our minds and hearts we might truly, truly celebrate the greatest birth the world has ever known. Are you preparing to present yourself to Jesus?

In this morning’s Old Testament Lesson, we meet Malachi, whose name actually means “my messenger.” And Malachi’s message is that the Lord is going a send a Messenger before Him. Did you get that? This is a prophetic reference to John the Baptist, whose ministry was all about preparation. But John the Baptist did not show up to say “Prepare the Christmas Goose” or “Prepare to shop for an iPad mini.” John showed up to say “Prepare your heart for the Lord to come in. Make a straight path for Him to come into your life and renovate.” How does your life line up with that message? Is there a straight path for Jesus to take to get into your heart? Or is it more like an obstacle course? What do you have to shove aside in order to clear the path?

Malachi continues: “The suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come.” I want you to realize that about 450 years after Malachi spoke these words, they came true in a most unlikely way. The Lord came to his Temple as an eight-day-old baby, brought by Mary and Joseph. The Lord came to his temple as 12-year-old boy and taught the teachers about God’s Word. And throughout his thirty-three years the Lord Jesus would return to His temple to participate and teach and finally to warn and to cleanse.

When the Lord shows up, things have to change. That’s where Malachi goes when he says “Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?” When Jesus appears in your life, one thing you have to let go of is the idea that your good deeds and performance are going to get you anywhere with him. The Lord is holy. You’re not. Something’s got to give. Furthermore, Malachi says “He will be like a refiner’s fire and a launderer’s soap.” The Lord comes to get rid of our impurities. He comes to clean us up. Going from impure to pure and dirty to clean is not an easy process. That’s why the Lord comes to do it to us. We could never do it ourselves. We’re working at a pretty deep level here, a long way from sentimental Silver Bells. But this is what it takes. It’s very easy for our Christmas preparation to slip into ritual and routine. What Malachi’s talking about is very different. It’s almost like the prophet is saying that the day is coming, faster than you can imagine, when it won’t matter that you found the right Lego set; it won’t matter that you left the pie in the oven too long. The only thing that will matter is: are you ready to meet the Lord Jesus? Did you prepare for that moment by living a life of faith?

What you present to God says a lot about how prepared you are to see Him. Again, the prophet Malachi says, “[The Lord] will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who bring offerings in righteousness.” That life of faith that I’m talking about is built on this foundation: we trust that Jesus purified and cleansed us with his blood at Calvary. This is God’s gift to you. He does not owe it to you. He does not have to give it. But He gives it because he loves. God’s present to you is a new life. What’s your present to him?

Might I suggest something He’d like? How about a change of mind? A change in attitude? A changed life? As much as the word “repentance” might seem foreign or strange to us, that’s what it means: a change for the better. A new emphasis on going God’s way. A new effort to really be a disciple of Jesus; a follower of Jesus Christ; making that straight path for Him to come in and take over. Then the Refiner can come in and purify you; then Jesus can come in with the strange soap of His blood and thoroughly clean your soul. All of God’s spokesmen, all the prophets, including Malachi and right up to John the Baptist and Jesus himself have said the very same thing: Repent and believe the good news! Change direction! Return to the Lord and receive the blessing that He can only give to those who admit their sins. Don’t stop him from the remodeling project he wants to do in you.

Have you ever given someone a Christmas present, and you can just tell they don’t really like it? It reminds of a story about a classroom of second graders that did a Christmas gift exchange. It was the old draw a name out of a hat type thing. Well, one little girl got the name of another girl in the class that she really did like and wanted to be better friends with. So the eight-year-old went through a lot of thought and piggy-bank expense (although Mom did chip in) to select just the right present for the occasion. She had high hopes that her classmate would take one look at the gift and a great new friendship would be born.

But on the day of the Christmas Party, with the second grade class decked out in red and green sweaters and Santa hats, and the time came for each child to open their presents, well, it happened something like this. The girl who had been so carefully shopped for calmly tore open the wrapping paper, looked at the gift with a blank expression, and tossed it to the side, where it fell off the side of the desk. Not even a fake “thank you.”

“But I picked it out just for you!” the little girl said, crushed by the rejection. As the teacher tried to salvage the situation, the girl stood in front of her classmate’s desk and asked, in disbelief, “Don’t you like my present?”

Sometimes I think that God’s heart breaks the same way. He looks at all the things we chase after and says, “Don’t you like my present?” Don’t you like the gift of my Son? Don’t you like having a new, clean, pure life?” What would you say to him?

One thing I know is He will never reject you. He will never toss you aside. This Christmas, He wants to give you the riches of heaven itself. Let Him. Amen.