How many of you got up super early this morning? Maybe even before the sun came out? Did you drag your parents out of bed or did you just run to the tree and look…maybe tear into a package or two? Any of you tired now? Maybe wish you were napping! HA!

I remember when I was just a little guy, (Wood, you’re thinking “what yesterday?”), but when I was just a small child, falling asleep on Christmas Eve was like Mission Impossible! All of the excitement! All of the possibilities! I’ve hinted so much, almost everyday, just how much I want the Skeletor Castle! Will I get it!? Oh man, actually back then it was, “oh boy!”

And I used to go to bed early! I mean EARLY. Like the sun would just threaten to go down and I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth talking about, “goodnight!” Know what I’m saying!? Man, Christmas morning could NOT come fast enough. So much excitement. So much fun. So much joy.

Do you think, now that I’m an old guy, that Christmas Morning is any less merry? Not at all! In fact I would say that as an old guy I look forward even more to going to sleep on Christmas Eve. I look forward even more to getting up early and dashing to see the gifts…not mine…but theirs. Why? What? Because listen as a father and as a husband, the most filling and joyful thing for me is to watch the wonder of my family. See them filled with joy and laughter. To see them receive wonderful gifts…what I have provided for them just light them up as bright as my front yard! (April by the way spends about $5,000 each year on yard lights and such. But hey, this year we won the neighborhood contest…$50 gift card woot woot!)

You see, when I was a child, young, small…the happiness was in the receiving. I couldn’t provide. I couldn’t give. I didn’t have a job. No funds. I would get some money at my birthday in June but that was gone by…well, June! But now, I have a job (thank you, Jesus!). I am grown and I am able to give and what I’ve found is that the joy of giving and providing and watching my family receive…absolutely, unequivocally, incomparably is extraordinarily more wonderful!

And so it dawns on me. Light buuuuuuulb as Gru would say in Dislpicable Me. The One with the most joy on Christmas Morning is indeed my Father. You mean you still live at home Matt and your dad gives you presents still? Did you get the Skeletor Castle this year? No no no…not my father on earth, man my Father in heaven.

Why do we give gifts on Christmas? Because that is what Christmas is all about man…gift giving! What? I thought my mom and dad said that Christmas was all about Jesus being born. Exactly! The greatest Gift of all! And who gave that gift? God the Father!

John 3:16 says that, “God’s heart was so very filled with love for the world, for you and for me, that He gave!” And the gift? “His only Son…that if anyone would choose Him, place their life in His hands, then they would not perish, they would not be lost eternally to sin, but they, you, I would have everlasting life!”

You see something went wrong. We were created in the image of God. Perfect and sinless. Yet we were given choice. The Bible calls it free-will. The ability to choose to live for God, or live for us. We had to have that choice you see. Because without it, without actually having the ability to choose God, we would also not have the ability to love Him. We’d be forced into a relationship with Him and forced relationship…is slavery. Not God’s heart. God’s heart for His children is that they may have life, freedom, joy, liberty, wonder and love…and have it abundantly. John 10:10.

So created perfect, we walked with Him. We talked with Him. We teamed up and named all of the animals one by one and when all was created, God looked at His child Adam and said, “My gift to you. But one thing. One thing you must know Adam…because I love you so very much I’ve also given you the gift of choice.” Adam and Eve, as you know…chose self and the pure gift of God was broken…discarded.

So what did God do? He did it again. Another pure Gift. One that would and could never be broken because this gift check this out…came with the same condition upon mans’ performance but God Himself…became a man! To accomplish what we could not…to give Himself, and so man…who messed it all up…now had a way to set all that had gone wrong….right again. Jesus, the only Son of God, kissed His Father goodbye and stepped down into this war, on a rescue mission. And some 2,000 years ago, came to us, was given to us, you and me, as a baby.

He lived for you. He thought of you. He planned for you. He prepared for you. And then He gave to you…the greatest gift of all…freedom…when He gave His life in my place. Taking my sin upon Himself…and dragging it kicking and screaming to the tomb…and then three days later, just as He said He would, He rose again…and the sin was gone.

A wonderful gift indeed. Now, are there any gifts under your tree this morning that are yet unwrapped? There are a couple each year under mine….why? Well they are for people that have not yet come. They have not yet come to the tree and so their gifts remain…given by us, yet not received by them. You see a gift is not just about the giving of it is it? It’s also about the receiving…

A gift remains a pretty colored box…alone and unused lest the one who it was purposed for takes it, unwraps it and receives it. You see just like in the beginning, with the first gift, just like that…with the second Gift, the Gift of salvation…again, we have choice. And the choice is the same. Make your life about you…or about God. Receive Him as your Lord and your Savior or leave the gift unwrapped…same choice, second gift.

The One with the most joy indeed on Christmas morning…is the Father. As He looks upon you and sees the gift that He has given you, that cost Him so very dearly, as He sees the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ received…and with that life, freedom, joy, liberty, wonder and love…and the gifts don’t stop there!

Once life enters as the gift of Jesus Christ is received then the flood gates of eternal presence opens man…sounded like I said presents didn’t it…so cool… love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, power, purpose, direction, clarity, stillness, wisdom, capacity…the list goes on and on…reality…man reality enters…what is this all about? This life, this day, this job, this marriage, this situation…what am I here for? How did I get here? What’s next…when this life is through, then what? The answers arrive man…and with them, the very voice of God. Walking with Him, talking with Him…teamed up with Him to name it all…all restored, with the gift received.

And joy floods the heart of the Father, just as it floods mine on Christmas Morning as I watch my gifts to my children and my wife received. Will you receive His gift today?