Ask Pastor Mike Fabarez

Speaker 1

Do you struggle with the increasing commercialization of Christmas? I sure do, especially when store decorations went up in October.

But take a moment now for a special Christmas edition of Ask Pastor Mike and gain a whole new perspective from Pastor Mike Febarez.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Focal Point. I'm Dave Drouy.

Well, traffic, crowds, and the excesses of holiday spending can put a damper on celebrating Jesus' birth. It's caused many to trim down and spend less. Maybe you're feeling the pinch, too.

But wait! Before you throw out the nativity scene with the bathwater, there are some good reasons to partake in the festivities, and they come straight from the Bible.

So let's join Pastor Mike Fabarez and Executive Director Jay Worton for an unexpected look in this holiday edition of Ask Pastor Mike.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Dave. Pastor Mike, I don't know about you, but I haven't done my Christmas shopping yet. But one of our listeners is asking, is Christmas gift giving wrong?

Speaker 3

Well, it can be if we miss the point of why we should be interested in giving any gifts in a season that celebrates the greatest gift of all. So I'm not into meeting some cultural expectation, but obviously, like a birthday gift for my kid, there's nothing wrong with giving gifts. As a matter of fact, it can be a great expression of my love for my child on their birthday and at Christmas.

The whole point of giving gifts, at least historically and traditionally, is to reflect the great gift that was given to us in Christ. I'm thinking of Second Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 15. After this discussion of giving, he says, "But thanks be to God for his inexpressible or indescribable gift." I mean, he's given us the ultimate gift at the highest price.

We celebrate that in the traditions of Christmas. Most of us do, and we should in our hearts and from our hearts, by giving gifts to each other. It makes sense, but it can be wrong if our focus is just on the crass materialism of the cultural practice of giving gifts. It doesn't really become an expression or a reflection of what the incarnation is all about.

Speaker 2

So what should our mindset be, not only as the giver of the gift, but as the receiver of the gift?

Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a lot like some of the other things we do at the holidays or any festival of any kind or any celebration. I think of the food, right? You're going to feast, you're going to have a great meal. That's certainly something you see in celebrations throughout the Bible. We have a celebration of the Incarnation that we traditionally celebrate in December. And so we want to make food with a thought of the joy of what this is all about. Christ sent his Son to save us, and we should eat food and receive that with a sense of joy and thanksgiving for what God has done for us.

It's the same with gifts. I think you give a gift to bring joy, to express the greatness of how celebratory and excited we should be about the giving of Christ for our sins. We should receive those gifts that way. But you're going to sit around and eat a meal and go, that was a really good meal. Thanks for making it. You're going to get a gift, you're going to say, oh, that's really great. Thanks for giving that. The focus is going to be in part on those things. But those are the nice things we do in the holiday to celebrate and create those feelings.

And that experience of the fact that isn't it great that Christ came to die for our sins? This is the greatest thing that's ever, ever happened in history that God would send his Son, because He loves us, to forgive us of our sins. We're going to celebrate that. We're going to celebrate that with decorations in our home, with a great meal, with gifts. I mean, it just all should be a part of the celebration.

It's like in the Old Testament when they would celebrate something like the Passover or they'd celebrate the in-gathering in the fall. They would do these things by taking time off, by doing no regular work, by doing these big feasts. These were things that made everyone joyful and glad. And that's the reason we're doing all this, because something so important in the Bible that we're going to celebrate and there should be joy in baking and cooking and eating, and there should be joy in giving and receiving. All of it should be something that should lift us to a place of celebrating the greatness of Christ's incarnation.

Speaker 2

Then why do you think there is so much uptightness going on during the Christmas holiday seasons?

Speaker 3

Yeah, well, because there's so much of a cultural concern, right? I mean, the advertisers are there trying to get us to buy the latest electronics, and you got to get someone an Apple Watch or an Xbox or all this stuff, when in reality they're trying to sell their products and make their money.

Really, our mindset should be, I want to give some gifts. If you choose to do that. I want to make some food, I want to have some time off. I want to get my family together. I want to sing some songs. I want to have a good time, mindful of the fact that this is in honor of God sending his son to forgive my sins.

I mean, we need a disconnect from the pressure from Madison Avenue, from the advertisers. We need to stop even thinking that means my life has to be perfect and my skin has to be perfect, perfect, and my hair has to be perfect and my finances have to be. All of that is not the point.

And the Norman Rockwell picture of Christmas, we need to kind of get that out of our minds and say it's not about measuring up to a cultural standard. It's about celebrating. And it's about celebrating the greatness of what God has done in sending his son.

And so let's take time off from work, if we can possibly do that. Let's give some gifts, if we can possibly do that. Let's make some food, let's have a good time, let's enjoy our families, and let's do it all in honor of Christ.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you, Pastor Mike. I'm sure that will be a helpful reminder and a trust and encouragement to our listeners.

This Christmas, we're going to keep our conversation going here with a message you preached called "Christmas Gifts: Learning to Give like God."

Speaker 4

Sometimes Christmas reminds me of that game on Sesame Street. You remember when they take the screen and divide it into four quadrants and ask the kids, "Which object doesn't belong?" They'd throw a bike in one quadrant, a tricycle in the next, and a unicycle in another. Then, in the last quadrant, they'd put something way outside, like a sprinkler head or a Chihuahua. They would then sing the song, "Which one of these doesn't belong?"

Well, I know that when it comes to great Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter, there are plenty of things that the world throws in the mix that just don't belong. But I'm here to say, don't get discouraged about that. I know there are several things that seem to cloud the true meaning of Christmas. I don't want you to hit bottom and, perhaps in your zeal to be religiously pure, take the whole thing and just throw it away—like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. This happens all the time when it comes to Christianity.

People with a Scrooge-like mentality and a cloak of religion say, "Well, we don't like any of these worldly traditions." Don't hit the low point that one Colorado pastor hit when he wrote these words in a periodical that I subscribe to—although now I'm thinking of perhaps not subscribing to it anymore. He said, "I suspect, if the truth be known,"—this is a magazine for pastors—"that a lot of pastors would just as soon skip Christmas this year, so why not cancel Christmas?" He argues that its very absence would draw more meaningful attention to the central idea than all the Christmas programs or pageants you could ever put on.

So why not say no to the "Advent terrorists"? I'm not making this up. The Advent terrorists who are holding you hostage at your church this year. Away with the poinsettias on the stage! Away with the Christmas tree in the lobby, he says. Away with the towel and bathrobe pageants and the sappy services on Christmas Eve. Away with the carols that we dust off to sing only once a year. Away with the planning. Away with the pre-planning, he says. Give it a rest.

I thought to myself when I read that, "Now here is a pastor that needs a vacation." You know what I'm saying? It's like, you need a rest. You need to go away to, like, Hawaii or something. Just chill out for a while. Maybe you'll get all this back in perspective. I don't want to go there, and I find so many people in our day and age going there.

Speaker 3

They just.

Speaker 4

They're tired of all the Christmas stuff. I want to tell you this year, despite all the bad press it gets, there's one aspect of Christmas that I think we ought to keep. And it is the tradition that we get into every year of giving gifts to one another.

Now, I know all the kids are going, right on, Pastor. Preach it right. I like this sermon. It's really good. If he's gonna hit the gift thing hard, that's good. Now, listen, I agree that there's a lot of commercialism in Christmas that's bad and a lot of crass materialism that probably we should ignore. But when it comes to Christmas, there are few things that hit at the core of what Christmas and the incarnation are all about than us giving. When we give, we hit on the heart of what Christmas is really all about.

Let me prove it to you. What was the first Bible verse you ever learned? What was it? John 3:16. And it says this: For God so loved the world that he next word gave. There, the essence of what that Bethlehem event was all about. That God, in His love, motivated by his great love for his people, would sacrificially relinquish what was his and give up his own rights, his own privileges, and at great expense to him, give us a great gift. In his case, an indescribable, incomparable gift; he would give his son for our sins.

And what a small aspect of the divine nature that we reflect every time at Christmas. We, in response to the greatest gift of all, exchange gifts with one another. I think it's a good thing. Something, though, we need to keep in proper biblical perspective.

So before you get too far into your Christmas traditions this year and your exchanging of gifts, let me give you just three quick reminders. Remember this: that all of us need training in being generous. We need training in being generous. We've got to work at being just. No one comes into this world wired to give. You recognize that? All the moms are going, I know that. I recognize that.

Speaker 3

Right?

Speaker 4

No, you don't have to teach. Johnny. Hey, Johnny, say mine. Right. Slap your brother and pull your toy close to you. You need to learn to protect yourself. No one has to do that because the kids come out. I mean, out of the womb. That's what they're into themselves. They're into my stuff and me. They're not wired to give. As a matter of fact, they're takers. And all of us come into this world wired to take.

And God would have us grow and mature and perhaps even use Christmas as a platform to train ourselves in generosity. And so I'd encourage you to work this Christmas saying, what I'm going to do is exercise this divine aspect, this divine attribute and characteristic, and reflect the divinity of God in my home, in my office, in my neighborhood, by being generous, by giving.

I know it's hard for us. It takes some learning because, as I said, we are all prone to really believe that it's better to get than it is to give. Much like the mom who is fixing some pancakes for her two kids, Kevin, 5 years old, Ryan, 3 years old. And there they were, arguing about who would get the first pancake off the griddle.

And mom thought, this is an opportune moment for me to teach my kids a little bit about what the biblical principles and truths of Christianity are all about. So she thought to herself and said, kids, now listen, if Jesus were here, he would say, brother, you can have the first pancake. I'd like you to have it. I can wait.

Kevin, 5 years old, thought to himself for a moment, looked to his three-year-old brother Ryan and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus."

Speaker 4

I know that's how it works. We're all wired to get. God wants you this Christmas to reflect a little bit of the maturity that would warm up to the concept that it is really truly better to give than it is to receive. That it's a value that's at the heart of God to give sacrificially of himself to other people and for the good of other people. Practice it this Christmas; learn to find joy in it. Find some satisfaction in giving away what is rightly yours so that someone else might be benefited.

And you know what? It's going to take a little work because we're not born that way. Anything good in our lives that we develop, it's going to take some work, it's going to take some training. There's not one good thing in your life that's been developed that hasn't taken some work and some pain. It's much like going to the gym. And I suppose that's a bad topic to bring up in this season—make your body hurt just a little bit.

So here's a little advice for you this Christmas, all right? And a platform for you for the rest of the year: give until it hurts. Because when it hurts, in the sacrificial act of giving away what is rightly yours, you will begin to exercise this muscle that reflects the divine attribute of generosity. And God is a God who gives. He is by nature a giving God, and He wants his people to be giving people. And as you do, I know God's going to bless your endeavors.

That I'm not just talking about the material things that money can buy. As a matter of fact, the second reminder I'd like to give you this Christmas is that the best things that you can give, you can't buy at the department store. It's hard for us to recognize that because we live in such a materialistic society, and everything that we see as valuable often is packaged with a price tag. But I need to remind you that the things that you really respond to and the things that have really been a blessing to your own heart are things that probably didn't cost the giver anything.

As a matter of fact, the Bible, page after page, would exhort us to be giving things like our forgiveness. And perhaps Christmas is a good time for you to think about giving that gift. Or perhaps, on the other end of it, you might be led by God to think about giving an apology this Christmas. So many relationships are strained this time of year because people aren't humble enough just to say, "I'm going to give away something that's costly. I'm going to give my apology."

Perhaps just giving some time to your family in such a fast-paced society—man, just putting a day aside, saying, "I'm going to give a little bit more of my attention and my time to my family." A little bit of concern for those around you. Those things are the things that really touch the heart of God because they're the valuable things. As a matter of fact, all the token materialistic things that we give are just representative of a heart of love and giving of ourselves.

Much like the magi, they set the pace. I recognize that for materialistic gifts, they showed up there at that house and they gave Jesus, just a young toddler, probably 15 months old at that point in the historical narrative, and they came and brought gifts to that family. And I recognized the intention of those kingmakers was to give away representative tokens of their love for that child and for that family.

So I recognize that materialistic things are important, and I've made my fair share of trips to the mall this Christmas season. But I need you to recognize that it's the things that should be represented by those gifts that are going to make the big difference this Christmas.

It was one December 25th. My wife and I had gotten up in the morning. We recognized that all of our Christmas cards had been sent out, all of our Christmas presents had been wrapped and delivered. We'd given our gifts to each other. We'd had breakfast on Christmas morning. We sat around thinking about the fact that, you know, we had one thing left to give, and it was ourselves and it was our time. We packed up the car, we drove down to the local nursing home here in town, and we just went to go visit some folks.

Perhaps you can think about leading your family in a quest to give away more than just things that money can buy, but giving away things like your time and your efforts. Funny how fast people forget about the fruit basket you gave them. But when you give them your time and your attention and a listening ear and some compassion, it's funny how far that goes in this world that's so thirsty for that. Always make sure you recognize that the most valued gifts are the gifts that don't cost anything.

It's hard to be a preacher. Some of you know, you're in teaching positions; whenever you get up, try and teach a moral principle like this, you know, the pangs of guilt and conscience, you know, stabbing in your heart because you recognize you've got to live up to that. So it was this Christmas, I thought to myself, you know, I gotta live this out. I gotta practice it.

So this week I had to think, what is it in the lives of the people around me that I love, that I need to give, that maybe I can't buy at Macy's? What is it that I need to be expressing to those around me? So perhaps I thought about writing a personal note of encouragement to everybody on staff, my kids, perhaps setting aside a day and saying, "My kids are going to get my full attention for the whole day from their dad." And even the crème de la crème—I'm sorry for mentioning this every time I do from time to time, but the love note to my wife. I wrote my wife a couple of pages of my heart.

And I thought to myself, these are the things that my family and my staff and my friends and the people around me really long for. They want me. They want part of my love, my attention. And so gift-giving is important, but it's a token, and it's a representative of what should lie behind it. And what lies behind it are gifts of ourselves.

And so I challenge you to give of yourself the intangible things that you can't buy up at the mall. Maybe some attention to those around you that, you know, need your attention, your time, your compassion. Maybe a note of forgiveness, maybe a note of apology. Those are the kinds of things that God would want us to give.

So remember, we don't come out trained to give. We come out trained to take. So we got to work at it. We can use Christmas as a platform to do that. Secondly, we've got to recognize the best gifts ought to be the gifts that you can't buy in the store.

Thirdly, if I can remind you of this, we all need to be people that are motivated by love. Because God so loved the world that he gave. But it was rooted; it was predicated upon love. The giving of God is birthed in a heart that loves the object to which it gives.

Let me give you a Christmas memory verse. Perhaps you can memorize this, think it through, maybe recite it to the family before you eat dinner. It comes from Second Corinthians, chapter 8, verse number 9. And it says, "Though he was rich, yet he became poor for your sakes, so that in his poverty you might become rich." That's the essence of the Incarnation. Christ was rich in the glory of heaven, gave up all his divine rights and his attributes and set them aside, the free, independent exercise of his attributes, so that he might give to us the exchange of his life for our life, becoming poor, that we might become rich.

And that's the essence of what it is to give, whether it's a material gift or an immaterial gift. This Christmas, make sure that you adjust your attitude and your heart and that you say before God, "I want to give these things because I love these people." And sometimes that's a hard connection to make.

We give for a lot of reasons, don't we? I mean, the reason you went out to the mall and you bought those presents or you filled out that card was perhaps because you felt like, well, you know, they always give us a gift. Or maybe you felt obligated, and you didn't want to appear rude, or you're afraid of losing a client, or you wanted to just, you know, appear to be a nice person. Whatever your motive, you got to recognize that that may be good, but it's never godly until your motive is love.

Some of you know your Bible well enough to know that 1 Corinthians 13 puts it real succinctly for us. It says, "You can give away all your possessions, but if you don't have love, that amounted to zero." Giving gifts that aren't motivated by love, giving our time that's not motivated by love, giving any monetary thing as a token of ourselves to someone else—if it's not motivated by love, the Bible says you've fallen short of a truly godly act.

You want to reflect the divine nature? Be sure you check your motives. Be sure you say to yourself, even if you have to verbalize it, "I want to give to you this Christmas because I love you." And I know that's something we've got to remind ourselves of, especially when we follow suit on the first point. And that is we stretch ourselves and give till it hurts.

I know it's so important for us to be givers because God said he gave to us and sacrificed at such great cost so that we might be rich. The act of love in that stable in Bethlehem was the model for us for all time. And I hope that gift-giving never ceases to be a tradition. I hope you never poo-poo the idea that we shouldn't be giving gifts; it's so materialistic or it's so worldly. Remember that we give because Christ gave to us.

Let's pray. God, we commit to you our Christmas this year. We know that a lot of us have purchased a lot of presents for the kids or for our friends or our coworkers. But God, we don't want to miss out on the divine connection that we give at Christmas as a reflection of the wonderful grace and gift of God in giving his son for us. Thank you so much for giving to us and not holding back. We want to now become great givers so that we might, as Luke 6 says, become sons of the Most High, reflecting our Father's attributes, being a wonderfully generous person, just like our wonderful, generous God. We pray all this in the authority of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 3

Amen.

Speaker 1

You're listening to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez with a call to give generously as God himself gave. For the complete version of today's message, go to focalpointradio.org. The message is titled "Learning to Give Like God" from our Christmas giving series.

Pastor Mike, you've said your priority has always been to get solid Bible teaching out to more and more people as God enables. But folks might be surprised to hear Focal Point wasn't a Mike Fabarez driven project at all. It was jump-started by one regular guy who wanted to get your teaching out to the world. As a result of his single action, listeners like us all across the country can now jump in and partner with you to get your messages and resources out over the airwaves.

Now, if there's one thing that a single listener can do today to say great job, keep it coming, what is it?

Speaker 3

We'd love to have you join us and have you be a part of what's going on here. Telling you it's a blessing for us, about 30% of our budget and what we can choose to do next year comes from what happens in these few weeks right now. So this month is critical for us.

It was the vision of a mentor of mine back in the day to say just a prayer warrior, a layman in our church. How about we put this out on the radio, and God has blessed that. It's amazing the stories we hear. And we just again would love for you to partner with us this year.

So if God doesn't bless this, we're not moving forward. And if you join us together in this new year, I hope we can do this 12 months from now and look and say, hey, we're on 900, 1,000 stations. God's blessing. People are getting saved. People are getting built up in the faith.

And so that is what this question was all about, Dave. And Dave, I know you're going to give the contact information and let people know how they can get involved. I'm going to get back to studying God's word and digging into it so we can continue to preach it into the New Year.

Speaker 1

Yes sir. Back to work for you and for the rest. The response you give right now is actually what determines how far and how fast we expand. So here's the number to call in to do your part: Triple 832-05-8885. Whatever God leads you to give, your donation will make a big difference as we attempt to reach a greater audience in 2019. Thanks so much.

And when you give generously today, we'll send you the complete book of "Who's Who in the Bible." This 600-page biographical encyclopedia provides rich historical background for every person you'll meet in the Bible. Ask for your copy of this gift-ready ultimate reference tool when you give your special year-end donation to Focal Point.

Call 888-320-5885 or go online to focalpointradio.org. Well, I'm Dave Drouehe, trusting you'll be blessed for your heart of generosity as you prepare to give as God first gave to you.

And come back on Monday for more Bible teaching from Pastor Mike Fabarez here on Focal Point.

Speaker 1

Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.

Speaker 1

Sam.