As I mentioned in the beginning of service, we continue our sermon series,
Kingly Gifts, where we're looking at three key gifts that the Magi, the wise men,
came to bring baby Jesus when he was born. Last week we talked about which gift?
Gold. And today we're going to talk about it. And then in two weeks we're going to
hit on this again, the understanding of the gift of frankincense. One that we
still have somewhat today. We see it in certain things, perfumes and candles,
because it has everything to do with an aroma. Right? Frankincense is more of an
aroma gift, one that people can smell sometimes from far away. It can be a very
strong gift. But we're looking at these things because of, as we talked about
last week, the recognition of one major narrative around Jesus' life. And that is
that this baby Jesus is the king. Gold brought to him, a kingly gift of gold
brought when he was born. We see that picture of the shepherds worshipping. We
see the Magi coming a little later and bringing these gifts. And I know that
gifts are something that are brought when babies are born. We do our best to
recognize those families with our baby boards in the back. We try to shower them
with gifts that they need. Things I see are beautiful hand-woven or sewed
blankets. We see a lot of baby supplies. But I have yet to see any gold. I have
yet to see any frankincense. And I don't think you can find myrrh anymore. And so
under, so it's interesting these three gifts were very specific. They actually
have prophetic tracking back in the Old Testament. So what we're going to look at
today is frankincense, a gift of worship that invites us to consider the value of
our soul. Nef-hish is the Hebrew word for soul that we're going to look at this
understanding that our soul, our life should be a gift of frankincense to the
king. So we're going to be in the book of James this morning talking about this
fleeting gift that we call time. We're going to wrap that together so we're
going to get going. The first we're going to look at is James 4. James 4, 13 through
17. Life is a vapor, James says, where he writes this. Come now, you who say,
excuse me, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a
year there and trade and make profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then
vanishes. Instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or
that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So
whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. So one
of the things that we learn about frankincense, frankincense was used in the
tabernacle or in the temple. We see this great writing about that in Exodus
chapter 30. It was a part of the offerings given to God in the tabernacle.
So we knew that the temple, the tabernacle had the holiest of holies where God's
presence was. Only the priests were allowed to go there during certain times
of the festival year and frankincense symbolizes the prayer of God's people,
the worship of God's people, and the presence of God. So like last week, the
gold represent and recognize Jesus as King, though a baby, the King of Kings,
Lord of Lords. We see this gift of frankincense acknowledging Jesus in
another role, another attribute that he carries with to fulfill prophetic and
messianic prophecy is the recognition of him as high priest. Now that calling of
high priest is an important one because that is the one, he is the one, much like
in the Old Testament, the priest, the Levites did that. Jesus now does that for
us as he is the intercessor between us and the Lord. So not only is this
acknowledgement as baby of King but also high priest is a great honor but this is
no surprise to Jesus because of the prophetic word given over his life. We've
talked about this, the who, what, when, where, why, and how of Jesus' birth, over
500 prophecies fulfilled to see this through. So the Magi's gift of frankincense
not only acknowledges Jesus as high priest but is acknowledging the fact
that he will be the one to intercede for us. As Protestants, that means something
very different than the Catholic Church. There is a tension there, there is a
difference there, we're not going to dive too much into that but one belief system
says you need to go through a human person of the papacy, the pope to
intercede and that is why the reformers and the Protestant Reformation broke away
from that because they said it's through Christ alone. And you read Calvin or
Luther or Zwickley and they mention and talk about the recognition of the baby
Jesus in all of this, that Jesus came to be our king and came to be our priest.
Also many other things, we'll get to that this sermon series and the next sermon
series, that Jesus holds many hats in our life. But as James says, life is a
mere vapor. It comes and goes. None of us know the time span that we will have here
on this earth. So really it is an acknowledgement that we all have time.
How do we know we're here? And we need to make best use of the time. And notice the
flip here, that it isn't we are dictating our calendar but if the Lord wills it,
then we will be, we will go, we will do these things. But I wonder how we really
feel about that term or the kind of half sentence of if the Lord wills it because
that inherently comes with a word we don't like, submission. If the Lord wills
it. Now some of you may have said in your marriages, if my wife wills it.
Rarely do I hear if my husband wills it. I don't know why but it always gets, the
wife usually gets that place. Another rhyme for another time. But understand
that there is a life of submission built into that saying because the life of a
believer is ultimately a life of submission. James calls for submission to
God's providence. In Calvin's Institutes he actually emphasizes that recognizing
God's will in all things is central to true faith. Lord's Day 7. That this true
faith is an acknowledgement of Lord's Day 1 that I am not my own. So if I am not my
own, my time is not my own. As we learned last week, my stuff is not my own. And
how I utilize the time tells the world who I am. Now if we're really going to
engage that, that's convicting. If people see how you use your time, that tells a
lot of people about who you are, maybe even what you believe. So James goes on
in chapter 5 to warn us about misuse of time in chapter 5, the first 6 verses.
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your
riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are
corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your
flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the
wages of your laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are
crying out against you. And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of
the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence.
You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and
murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. So James 5 now warns us
of not only last week the misuse of stuff, but our misuse of time. Hoarding wealth,
oppressing others, reflects a misuse of God-given resources and time. Let me say
that again. Hoarding wealth and oppressing others reflect a misuse of a
God-given time and resources. This aligns with our understanding and principle of
stewardship. Understand that stewardship, all that we have, including our time,
belongs to God. So there's the tie-in to frankincense this morning. That
frankincense, symbolizing our worship, is the best use of our time. Do that again.
The best use of our time always, hands down, is worshiping the Lord. Well,
Pastor, how am I supposed to use my time to work, to make money, to do all of these
things? And that's all well and good. Being good stewards of that time, when
that becomes the only thing, when work or whatever is consuming your time starts to
consume past your time for worship, the question then is, Beg, what are you
worshiping? Because if you're not taking time to worship the Lord, you are
worshiping whatever your time represents. Half of us just got convicted. Because I
could ask all of you to pull out your phones and look at your calendar and go,
Have you scheduled your worship? Have you scheduled your time with the Lord? Now,
you could easily come back to me and say, Okay, Pastor, have you? Show us your
phone. I don't put that in there. Maybe that's a conviction to me that we should
start. I don't necessarily put in Sunday worship on the calendar, because almost
20 years into this is where I'm going to be. But understand that where our time is
being spent can easily be seen as what we covet most, what we worship the
greatest. So, Frankincense symbolizing worship reminds us that our time and our
resources should not be used for ourselves. Now, that doesn't mean you
can't buy clothes or gifts or take vacations or do any of those things. But
being good stewards of our finances and our time can be worship and glory to God.
What about when the lean times come? What about that time where I go,
Look at the bank account. Maybe we can't tithe this month. There needs to be
patience, right? There needs to be grace. Starting with verse 7 of chapter 5,
patience in God's timing. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of
the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being
patient about it until it receives the early and late rains. You also be patient.
Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble
against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is
standing at the door. As the example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the
prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed
who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have
seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. James
uses the farmer as the symbol and example of patience and the metaphor for
trusting God. Because as much as farmers, I'm sure, would love to be able to snap
their finger and have their crops grow, it doesn't work that way. As best as I
understand, that there is patience, that God has that time for us to learn about
ourselves. So in those lean times, in those times where we feel we're not
being effective for anything, lean into the Lord. Be patient in that season.
Advent points us to Christ's first and second coming, teaching us to live
faithfully in the already but not yet of the kingdom of God. That the kingdom of
God is clearly here at work. How do I know? We're all here today. That we
represent as the body of Christ, the kingdom of God here at 214 Ridge Road
this morning, just like many churches, both this way and that way on Ridge Road
in the Chicagoland area in northwest Indiana. But understand that there is
still something to come. That even us, the most impatient, need to be patient
for the coming of Christ's second coming. That we need to be looking towards that.
And for us that went through and waited through the 13 weeks of Revelation,
we know why. We know what is coming. It says it in the book. If you don't know,
take this afternoon and read the book of Revelation, that last book of the Bible.
Because understand how we put in our time, what we are stewards of today plays
into that tomorrow. Though we don't know what tomorrow will bring, we know who
knows. And for those times when it's hard, as we round third on this today,
understand time can best be redeemed through prayer. How is your prayer life
this morning? When is the last time you just spent time in prayer? Specific prayer,
just you and God. I get a lot of people say, well I pray on my entire commute,
on my commute to work and from work, however long it is. And that's awesome.
And that's great if you do that. But that can't be the only time we connect with
the Lord. Because how does that look when you are in the midst of prayer and
someone cuts you off? Does that prayer change? Does the prayer of grace and
mercy watch over to my kid to, oh smite or smite him? How our prayer life can
change like that given our circumstances. I want to challenge all of us, myself
included, to find this week, every day, 20 minutes, where we have just time with
the Lord. One of the best ways in my mind to do that is to go for a walk.
Because I know that if I try to do that in my home, our home is a very busy place.
And I know that that prayer with God will be interrupted most likely by our dogs.
And that prayer may change and those dogs' life might be in peril. But
understand that we need to be intentional about using that time wisely.
Because our time through prayer is time well spent with God as verse 13 tells us.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing
praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let
them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the
prayer of the faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up.
And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to
one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a
righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with the
nature like ours and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three
years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and heaven
gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. James emphasizes prayer as a central way
to redeem time and seek God's will. It's an interesting verse, isn't it? The prayer
of a righteous person has great power as it is working. So does the gift of
frankincense. Frankincense was burned as a fragrant offering in worship,
symbolizing the prayers of the priests, prayers of the saints. We see that at
work in our lives, not that we ever pray to saints, but we understand that those
that have gone before us with relationship with God prayed. Therefore, we
pray, we see in scripture when we pray and cry out to God, things happen. So our
takeaways for today. Last week we talked about offering of our treasures. Today we
talk about offering of our time. Our practical application, our understanding
of where time is going and what time means. We need to recognize the brevity
of life. Take this week and evaluate your time. Are your priorities aligned
with God's kingdom? Psalm 90 says, teach us to number our days that we may gain a
heart of wisdom. Two, that we should live reliant on God's will. Practice submitting
your plans to God in prayer, reminding us always of God's sovereignty and that
shapes every decision we make. Third, use time for worship and service. Dedicate
daily moments to prayer and scripture. Volunteer your time in ministries or
community outreach. And fourth, cultivate patience in prayer. Embrace patience in
trials, knowing that God's timing is perfect. Make prayer central to our daily
rhythm of life, offering it as a fragrant offering to God. So where's the gospel
focus for us today? That Christ, our eternal priest, redeemed us to live for
his glory. And through his life, his death, and his resurrection, Jesus
redeemed not just our souls but our time, calling us to worship in spirit and in
truth. So my final challenge is I land the plane this morning. This Advent, how
can you offer your time as a gift to God? And like frankincense, offer to Jesus.
Let your time and prayers rise as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Let's pray.