Our Gifts to Jesus
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2018 · 23 December 2018
I remember some time ago having a conversation with a young married girl who said she was really having trouble living the Christian life. She said, “I’m trying to get all I can get from God.” And I answered, “That is exactly the opposite what you should be doing. Your Christian life does not depend on what you get from Him. It depends on what you give to Him on a daily basis.”
Look what the wise men were doing in Matthew 2:11, “And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Christmas is not about what you get from Christ. It’s all about what you give to Christ every day.
Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
1 Peter 2:5 says, “We are priests bringing sacrifices to God.” And then it explains that we are to give “a living and holy sacrifice.” What does that mean? It does not mean to offer Him gifts. In the New Testament the sacrifice is called a living sacrifice. We are to place ourselves on the altar before God as an offering to Him. Romans 12 teaches us to act as if we are priests placing ourselves on the altar.
God does not want our gifts, He wants our heart. And the bible explains that that consists of our soul, body, mind and will. Giving your soul to God is what the bible calls to be “born again spiritually” and that means believing Christ. I believe that many of you have done that. You cannot please God in any way if you don’t surrender your soul first, the essence of who you are, to Him. That is salvation.
Salvation in the book of Romans is called “the mercies of God” and this incorporates every part of salvation. Let me just mention them: the Holy Spirit, divine love, grace, peace, faith, comfort, power, hope, patience, kindness, glory, righteousness, forgiveness, reconciliation, justification, becoming His child, eternal life and ongoing intercession by the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ for you in front of God the Father.
Secondly, your body must be presented to God, how you reason and all that you are as a human being. Presenting means to surrender, to offer up, without holding anything back. Romans 6:12 says, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts.” This is talking about your fleshly desires and what you want based on what you see in this world that is controlled by the devil.
This is an action as you present your body up to God. That is your duty, and that is necessary for your sanctification. This is very difficult. In 1 Corinthians 9:24 Paul says, “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely.” That describes your soul and your body.
God is satisfied only when the soul is followed by the body offered to Him, and He says, “This is your spiritual service of worship.” It’s worship in the Old Testament. It’s used in Hebrews 9:6 of priests who were performing worship in the service of God, but it’s used here of the believer. This is your duty as a believer, as a priest before God, to offer your body.
Thirdly, the mind must be given to God. Now, these are all interconnected. If you don't give your mind to God, you're not going to be able to sustain giving your body to God. “As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” So the mind is critical. So how do we deal with the mind? Don't be conformed to this age. What does that mean? John used “this age” where He means the evil world system.
All the ideas that society believes in, that dominate social media that you see people believe in, that you see demonstrated on TV and in the movies, which is taught in the universities, that is what John means with the world system. The world is the instrument that Satan uses to promote his goals and his ambitions, and he always is doing that. And yet all that stuff is only temporary and very dangerous.
The average high school student spends nine hours privately in front of a computer screen while they’re being programmed and drawn in by the spirit of this age. Undiscerning young people are easily victimized by what their peers believe in. That’s why so much of what pop culture is belongs to kids from 10 to 25. Every world system is on the internet trying to influence your thinking, your behavior and your desires.
God calls us to be transformed by the renewal of your mind, the metamorphosis of your mind. How do you renew your mind? You renew your mind through the Word of God. You're only going to do that when your mind is saturated with divine truth, and there’s no shortcut to this. The mind, then, becomes the battleground where the spirit of the age fights with your new nature.
In Deuteronomy 6: 5, 7 it says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” The body given to God can only be sustained as an offering to God when the mind is constantly being renewed by the Word of God.
Finally, the will must be given to God. We know things, but we don't necessarily do what we should. Paul says, “I don't do what I should do. I do what I don’t want to do.” You need to put the will of God on display. Show the world the will of God by doing it. The Christian life is a strong desire generated by the will based upon what the mind knows of the Word of God.
Be thankful that you have the resources provided for you so that your mind can be the mind of Christ. Win the battle of the will. Yield to the things that are right, noble and good. And all of this we do because we’re so grateful and overwhelmed at the mercies of God, and that’s why we’re here – because all those mercies basically come to us through the cross of Christ in His resurrection.
So remember, start with giving your soul to God where you believe that Jesus Christ is your Savior. Then watch what you do in your body, realizing that with your body you show love to your neighbor and keep it holy. And since your mind controls what you do, fill that with the words of God and reject what the world offers. And then do the will of God and make that your will, Amen? Let us pray.