The reason I will never become an excellent sales person is that I don’t get excited enough. I watched a video of a sales person teaching others to sell. He said, “excitement sells!” He said it over and over again.

He told people to say, “I’m so excited about this product!” When he said it he not only had a lot of excitement in his voice, but he jumped around and he waved his arms quite a bit as he spoke. He had being excited down to an art form.

That’s probably not actually true. I said, “he had being excited down to an art form.” I should have said that he had acting excited down to an art form. I doubt that he was as excited as he acted. Frankly, the products were all that exciting. He couldn’t have actually been as excited as he acted.

If I were in sales I would want to tell my customers about the quality of the products, and about the reasonableness of the prices. I would want to understand what made my products better than those of my competitors. According to the sales instructor I watched in the video, none of that stuff is as important as acting excited. He said it over and over again. Excitement sells!

I get excited some times. It isn’t always easy to tell when I am excited, but it happens. It used to be easier to tell when I was younger. I was more likely to jump up and down, wave my arms and raise my voice in those days. I’m sure my parents could tell you stories about when I got my first bicycle.

As a matter of fact, I could tell you about being excited when I bought my most recent bicycle. It’s the Vision Recumbent that I bought through ebay almost two years ago now. Even though I’ve put well over one thousand miles on that bicycle, I’m still excited about having it. I still have a picture of a Vision Recumbent on my desktop and I print it out for people who want to know what it looks like. I am still excited about it, but when I talk about it I don’t raise my voice, wave my arms, or jump up and down.

Does honesty sell? Does sincerity sell? Does having quality products sell? Does competitive pricing sell? According to the man on the video, excitement sells! It is the most important thing.

I don’t really sell things as a pastor. I have sold some Habitat for Humanity cookbooks and some St. Mark’s cookbooks. I sold a couple of concrete things I made for world hunger and for the women’s group, but I don’t spend a lot of my time selling things.

I do encourage people to do things. I encourage people to read their Bibles. I encourage people to pray, and I encourage people to gather with us to worship God. Maybe if I raised my voice, waved my arms and jumped up and down, more people would do these things. After all, we all know by now that excitement sells!

That is not how I do things. I encourage people to read their Bibles because I know it is good for their spiritual health. It makes their faith stronger, and I believe that is important. I encourage people to pray because God wants us to pray, and because I believe prayer changes lives for the better. I encourage people to worship God because God deserves our worship, our praise, our thanks and our love.

Singing a rousing hymn during worship sometimes gives me goose bumps. That is either God’s Holy Spirit joining in the worship, or that is me becoming excited. That isn’t me acting excited. I don’t wave my arms or jump up and down when that happens. That is me being excited. I would much rather be excited than act excited.

I want you to have a strong faith. I want you to know the joy of worshipping God on a regular basis. I want your prayers and your scripture reading to change your life for the better.

I am not going to raise my voice, wave my arms or jump up and down when I tell you this. I simply want to encourage you in a way that is both honest and sincere. I want your faith to be strong. I want your prayers to change your life for the better, and I want you to feel God’s presence when you gather to give God you worship, praise, thanks and love.

If you haven’t been here for a while, please come during Christmas. Hear about shepherds, wise men, and the chorus of angels. Bring your voice and join us in praising God. Come and watch our children in the Sunday School Christmas Program. If they act excited, it will be because they are excited.

I hope your Christmas is a merry one. I hope God showers you with blessings in the New Year. I hope that at least one of your presents is down right exciting to you.

One of our presents is that God sent Jesus Christ into the world. Jesus paid for our sins and gave us the promise of eternal life. I’ve heard the story since I was a child. I’m sure the excitement of the story has worn off in all the years that I’ve heard it. Still I know that there is no better gift than this particular gift from God. No other gift cost as much. No other gift will last as long. I am actually excited about this gift and I hope you are too!

May the God of peace keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus during the holiday season and all through the upcoming year. Amen.

Sincerely and even excitedly,

Pastor Birk