Operation Christmas Child 2008

“You Silly Kids”

Operation Christmas Child Devotion

November 16^th, 2008

Director of Youth Ministry Adam Quine

I want you all to think of your favorite gift that you ever gotten. Now I want you to think when was the last time you played, seen or even thought about that gift. What about your most favorite toy? What have been some of your most favorite toys?

I remember when I was your age I enjoyed this time of year. I always was excited for Sunday’s and when the latest JC Penny magazine arrived in the mail. You see, I would get excited because I would sit down with my pencil and notebook and I would go through each of the pages carefully, looking for what I wanted for Christmas. I would arrange them ads in order of how importance. For instance, how many of you have ever gone into the store Kohl’s with your parents or for you older adults, have shopped there? What sort of things does Kohl’s sell? Clothes, that is right. Now how many of you have ever been in the store, Toys-R-Us? What do they sell? Obviously toys are sold there.

What I would do is I would arrange the store ads by stores like Kohl’s first because I was not interested in clothes, then it would lead into a Wal-Mart, then Target, then a video-game store add, and finally, Toys-R-Us. I would search every page, up and down looking for the toys that I NEEDED! The ones that I must have or I would DIE or at least not be excited come Christmas morning. I would compile this list and I even remember one year, sitting at a type writer and typing it out so that when my mom and dad when shopping, they would have no question as to what I wanted. What I NEEDED!

How many of you here make a Christmas list? How many of you get EVERYTHING you ask for? How many of you get ½ of what you ask for? How many of you get nothing of what you asked for?

One time a young man came to Jesus with a list. You see, his parents were going to give his brother everything that they owned and he did not think it was very fair. So he went us to Jesus and he says, “Tell my big brother to give me some of that stuff that is on this list my parents made.” Jesus says, I’m not the one that can do that but what I can do is tell you a story about a rich farmer who was a fool. This farmer had a lots and lots of farm land and it would produce lots and lots of crops right. (Like Reid’s but much, much bigger.) He had so many crops he decided to tear down the barns that he had and replace them with bigger barns. So he tears them down and fills them with all of these extra food/crops. After he did this he looked at his barn that looks like it could explode at any moment and says, “This is cool. I don’t have to do anything else. I have what I wanted and now I can worry about me and my things.”

Well God shows up right, and God took this greedy farmer by the ear and said, “FOOL! Tonight you are going to exist no more. And your barn full of goods—who gets it?

Finally Jesus says, “That is what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.”

Greed had consumed this farmer. He was so focused on his stuff, all of his corn, beans, carrots, etc. he had missed the big picture of what God wants us to be concerned of. What could the farmer have done with all that food/crops/goods? What about us? Think about all the cool toys you got? Think about all your video games, talking robot toys and what not. Now, how many of them collect a good amount of dust? Often times we can allow our desires for lots of things, toys, basketballs, movies, video games, get in the way of what God is calling us to do. We feel as if we need to stay up to date with the latest fashions, have all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys and if we don’t then it is not fair. How many of you have asked for something and not gotten it? Are you still here today?

Radical acts of unselfishness are perhaps what we are called to do for God and that is exactly what we will be doing tonight. We are participating in a ministry that puts the needs of others before our own. We will be impacting children across the worlds that have no toys. All they have potentially are the toys that we gave them last year. We do this to help us remember that we are called to love the poor, to serve them and to love them the way that God loves us. We are to be concerned for the poor, loving them and caring for them.

When we consume our lives with getting all the stuff we WANT (not needing) and bigger and better things (like the farmer’s barns), we could miss the opportunity to love others. When it was all said and done, the farmer had nothing left when he died and it went no where. Tonight, I want us to take a deliberate action to allowing our heart to be where the treasure is, the Kingdom of God.

Everybody grab a piece of paper and share from this crayon box. Quietly while this video is playing I want everyone to draw their favorite toy. It does not have to be perfect or something extravagant, it simply needs to be your favorite toy.

After drawing it, I want you to take it and lay it on this ____________, to symbolize the choice that tonight we are going to become more intentional about the way we think about material goods. We are going to lay down these toys, realizing that if we did not have them, that it would be ok. We will then become mindful of how many around the world do not have the same opportunities as we do and that some have nothing like the brother who asked Jesus to have his older brother share with all the things he had. These people who have nothing often times have no one to share with them until this night.

We will put together boxes and send them to lands over seas where God’s love will be spread through our actions. By laying this picture down, you are making a promise to yourself and God that you will share with others all that you can, that you will not ask for more than what you need and what you have is enough of all you need, and that you will strive to bring the Kingdom of God to earth by loving one another.

That is what tonight is all about friends. Our actions tonight will indeed see people as us being fools, not because we have greedy thoughts, but because we are becoming fools for Jesus, giving things to the poor and loving them when no one else will!