Michael Krumbine

Today in church, I heard a sermon that really made me think, so I thought I would share it.  It was titled "Our Finest Gifts we Bring."  and no there was no "pa rum pum pum pum" after it.   It was the last in the series, and I unfortunately was not there for the first two.    Pastor Ron of The Rock Church of WIlmington started off this morning by talking about Christmas lists.  Everyone makes a christmas list, from child to adult, we all do it.  We all have lots of things that we want.  Whether or not we write them down, we have stored away somewhere in those crazy brains of ours.    He posed the question: "if you could give a gift to God, what would it be?"  Clearly everyone would want to give their 'finest', but what does that mean?  Basic human instinct would be to say I would give him the most expensive thing I can find!  Or we would find somethign that was really important to us and give that. Pastor Ron used the example of his wedding band.  It was a ring that his wife gave to him many years ago, but it was not the original band.  This wedding ring symbolizes so much in their marriage, and it is something that he would not give up for all the money in the world, but his instinct would be to give that to God.  But he pointed out that God doesn't want any of that. Everything is already his.  He doesn't need gold rings, or an island in the caribbean.  God's Christmas list is nothing like yours or mine.  God's Christmas list contains a three simple things. Praise/worship, Obedience, and Love.  We should praise Him, not only when we get the big check in the mail that we weren't expecting, but when we are living from pay check to pay check too.  God wants us to be obedient in living our life for him.  Lastly, He wants us to love.  In the book of Matthew, A Pharisees tests Jesus with a question: