A Word For The Holidays

good morning everybody happy sunday good morning good to see you guys um so let's uh read along together um psalm 95. i'll read some and then on the screen there's going to be underlined portions that we all can read together so some 95 1-7 says oh come let us sing to the lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods in his hands are the depths of the earth

the heights of the mountains are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands formed the dry land oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god and we are the people of his pasture the lord is great and this morning we get to worship him as our good and righteous king so let's stand and sing praise him this morning [Music] i count on one thing the same god that never fails will not fail me now you [Music] is working all things out you're working all things yes i will

lift you high in the lowest valley yes i will bless your name [Music] yes i will sing for joy when my heart is heavy all my days yes i will [Music] i count on one thing [Music] the same god is working all things out you're working all things out yes i will lift you high [Music] when my heart is [Music] [Applause] to glorify glorify the name of all places [Music] nothing can stand against i choose [Music] to glorify glorify the name of all days now they can stand against i choose your praise [Music] yes i will [Music] when my heart is [Music] for all my

days [Applause] [Music] my hope is built on nothing less than jesus blood and righteousness i dare not trust the sweetest [Music] is [Music] when darkness fails his lovely face i rest on his unchanging grace [Music] is [Music] is [Music] he that is [Music] is [Music] dressed in his righteousness [Music] [Applause] is is [Music] [Music] anxious there is perfect love and comfort for your [Music] oh tears goodness the goodness of jesus satisfied he is all that i need of jesus i'll find what this world cannot [Music] never thirsty [Music] is the goodness of jesus [Music] in the goodness of jesus [Music] come and find your hope

now in jesus [Music] is [Music] oh the goodness the goodness of jesus [Music] of oh jesus goodness the goodness of jesus [Music] of jesus [Music] in the goodness [Music] you guys want to go into heaven have a seat we'll just have a time of confession in our time of confession this morning it comes from psalm 32 and here's what david writes blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man against whom the lord counts no iniquity and in his spirit there is no deceit for when i kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long

for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer i acknowledged my sin to you and i did not cover my iniquity i said i will confess my transgressions to the lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin and this psalm david is acknowledging and confessing his sin before the lord knowing that if he keeps it into himself it's going to cause his bones to waste away but if he has this rhythm and his life of confession then he is able to give his sins over to the lord and the lord is going

to forgive this morning let us follow the example of his confession and repentance before the lord knowing the promise that we receive that we are blessed because our sin has been covered by the blood of jesus read aloud with me the underlying portion and then take some time to confess your sin before the lord almighty and most merciful father we have aired and strayed from your ways like lost sheep we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts we have offended against your holy laws we have left undone what we ought to have done and we have done what we ought

not to have done and there is no health in us yet good lord have mercy on us restore those who are penitent according to your promises declare to us in jesus christ our lord and grant merciful father for his sake that we may live a godly righteous and obedient life to the glory of your holy name amen let's take just a moment to personally confess our sins up to the lord knowing that he is faithful to forgive heavenly father we confess this morning that we are broken that our flesh is weak and that we in our own body will constantly fail we acknowledge that we

do not have the strength on our own but that it all comes from you and god we ask that where we fall short that you would come and meet us and forgive us of our sins and help us to become righteous that we may exemplify you in your name in our works in our love in our thoughts and god will we just be humbled by your goodness and by your greatness and your authority over our lives let me give our day to you do you pray amen not have a voice this morning sorry uh let's go ahead and dismiss our kids three and five and

uh six and seven and here's what we're gonna do i'm gonna run to the restroom real quick see if i can get this going so let's just have a time of greeting real quick so y'all just say hi to each other and i'll be give me like five minutes uh all right all right we're going to try this again all right good morning everyone good to see you this morning we are we we finished up our james series last week and so if you missed that you can see it in the archives just go back and uh listen to the whole thing because i thought

it was a great series as we just kind of listened to the wisdom of god coming down and speaking to us just in daily uh rhythms of life it was it was really good and so that now leads us into as we'll be starting next week our advent series advent is what we follow which kind of goes right after thanksgiving and it leads right up to christmas and it's a time of of awaiting if you will where we're expecting jesus to come and and that's what we look at with advent is this this jesus who was prophesied this jesus who was promised is coming in

the form of a baby and a manger and it's god really putting on flesh and coming to to begin the work that he has been talking about throughout the entire old testament and so we'll be looking at that with the idea of come thou long expected messiah and each week we'll fill in king priest prophet and then finishing with the eve service come thou long expected jesus so it's going to be a good time and what i want to do today was it's kind of a standalone sermon and as you can hear i'm i'm a little congested and so i won't go probably 55 minutes

like i did last week but uh what i did want to do today was just kind of look at this this holiday season and so the holidays are among us thanksgiving is this week christmas is going to be right after that and i know many of you have already probably started the christmas celebration before thanksgiving i'm i'm personally okay with that unlike josh who who thinks it shouldn't happen until afterwards i know there could be some division among that um but i think this is a good season uh that we're coming into and i think the seasons can be different for different people for different

reasons some people know that this is a season where you're getting together with family and friends and it's harmonious and it's a good time and for others the holidays are a time where you don't get with family and friends because usually uh you maybe maybe you're you know just not connected anymore or whatever it might look like some people do get together with family and friends and then the grenade drops and then it's just arguing all the time whatever it might be but one thing that i wanted to look at as we walk into this season is how to write rightfully place and categorize these

types of festivals these types of celebrating thanksgiving and christmas these types of events how do we look at them so that we don't get what peop some people call the christmas blues some people call the holiday hangover and that's not just from drinking too much eggnog it's a different kind of feel that we have where there's so much and you can see this in tv you can see this in music you can see this in movies there's so much that's built up around this season especially with the marketing that's going on every commercial that you see is kind of highlighting just the blissful of like

the of this time but then it all ends the presents are open the meals are over the family leave and there's this kind of holiday hangover like that that's it like that's all we we experienced like there was so much built up there's so much angst leading up to this time and what i want us to do today is just kind of look at a few verses in scripture that can help us focus on the substance rather than the shadows that come within this season because again there there is a time for everything in the season and you've heard me talk about that when we've

walked through ecclesiastes 3 1 for everything there's a season there's a time for every matter under heaven and i do believe that there is a time for thanksgiving the the actual holiday and a time for christmas and again those aren't necessarily found specifically in in scripture as holidays or festivals that we celebrate some people think that they've been hijacked from secularism and whatever you know i'm not worried about the origins of these events that we're celebrating what i care more about is the substance that these festivals and events and celebrations can point to as they are just shadows themselves and this is that i get

that kind of idea from colossians 2 16-17 when paul says this therefore let no one pass judgment on you in question of food and drink or with with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath these are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to christ so what paul is saying to these churches in colossi is that feasts and festivals are good but they're just a shadow of the greater truth of christ they're good to partake of and worship but they are not good to be the object of worship and so if you're putting a lot of of

weight in how thanksgiving goes or how the meal is cooked um or how the conversations end up having if you're putting all your weight in those things then then you might actually end thanksgiving and and head into black friday um with a sense of let down or a sense of like that wasn't what it all was all cracked up to be because you're putting the festival if you will as the substance as the object of worship and so whether if that turkey gets burnt on thursday and you're really longing for just a beautifully cooked turkey then again you're going to be let down in that

and you're not going to actually be filled with any type of thanksgiving same with christmas if you're walking into christmas and it's all about what you get it's all about the present it's all about the gift it's all about the perfectly decorated house with tinsel and lights the lights are still up from last year at our house the kids have just demolished them on the trees outside so i've just kind of left them up but it's not all about just those things if it was then again christmas is going to come the presents are going to be open they're going to be empty and then

you're going to left be left feeling empty if it's just about those things they're they're not the substance jesus is you can't get your arms around a shadow you can't be comforted by a shadow only some substance can do that i mean if you take the turkey for example if if the turkey is the substance and like that's what's going to make thanksgiving the the real deal then you wouldn't have to bust that turkey back out four hours later for some sandwiches because it would have been enough at the meal but what do we do we have it for leftovers again and again and again

because it's not enough it's not enough it's never satisfying and so we need to change as we walk into this holiday season we need to change our focus and so i ask you to set your heart and mind on the substance and not the shadow by turning your attention onto the word of god made flesh you'll be able to handle the weight of this season you won't you won't get bogged down by this season you won't maybe feel the anxiety that this season brings i mean again we're just go go go from here on out right and hopefully eventually you'll get to some type of

rest maybe post christmas but right now it is a busy season and so we're ridden with anxiety we're ridden with angst we're ridden with just constantly figuring out what the kids are going to need what the what we need to do schedule wise calendar wise there's so many events going on like he can just be so anxious and i want to pull our focus away from that when we focus our hearts on the fulfilled expectation of christ's first coming and the glorious expectation of a second coming when the christmas blues and the holiday hangover begin to lose their power over us so this holiday season

we're just asking that the holy spirit will just help you learn to keep your eyes fixed on christ that'll that'll help you as i'll show you here in a moment be thankful and it'll also help you celebrate christmas as we're not concerned about the gifts we give or the gifts we receive but we're concerned more about the ultimate gift that god gave us as we see in james 1 17 every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there's no variation or shadow due to change and so we are to know that we serve a god that

never changes we serve a god who gives the perfect gift and he gives us the gift of his son jesus and and we know the gospel message we know the story that that we are sinners in need of a desperate savior savior and we know that god wraps jesus up the perfect gift as he sends him as we celebrate and as we will celebrate in the christmas season as a baby wrapped in swaddling claws and lying in a manger and it's not just this sweet little nativity scene i mean it's it's ugly and it's dirty and it's in a barn it's not you know what

we kind of picture in our minds of this little beautiful light turned on you know it's it's it's dirty and it's because ultimately yes he did come in the form of a baby but ultimately he came from his throne to enter into one of the most humiliating scenarios in order for a king to be born in and it's a humbling thing for us when we focus on that when we think on what the incarnation of god is really about it's about him seeing us in our sinful and desperate need of a savior and that as as we've tried to work it out in our own

lives and as we try to have been good people and as we've tried to do all the right things for thousands of years and we just can't ever quite make it work and god looks at us and he says you know what my plan was never for you to make it work my plan was never for you to fully abide by the law that was never my plan my plan was actually to just send the law so that you could see how sinful you are so that you could see that yeah you continue to hate people in your heart you continue to look at people

in lush you continue to lie even if it's white lies you continue to to not do the things that you should do all right let's let's put that category out what about the things that we should do helping the poor feeding the you know helping the sick whatever it looks like and we still don't do those things again the law was put in place to just show us that we need a savior because we can't be righteous ourselves and he sends that savior to us he sends that perfect gift to us and that allows us as we start focusing more on what god has done

despite us it allows us to truly be thankful because gratitude is the only response we can have when we come to this place of understanding that we could not fix our situation we could not help ourselves and god did everything for us and because he did everything for us there's nothing left for us to say look how awesome i am or or look what i did or how good i was over here look at these gifts that i gave this person over here look at how i served over here no even those things don't matter what matters ultimately is what he's done for us the

perfect gift jesus coming that's why we're able to say in things like romans 1 8 i thank my god through jesus christ because your faith is proclaimed in all the world so i got i think i think there's five things here on thanksgiving that i want to share with us as we lead into this week of thanksgiving one is thanksgiving is trinitarian thanksgiving is trinitarian what i mean by that is is the god that we believe in exists as a trinity exists as three people in one all right so it's god that we serve but this god is father son and holy spirit they've existed

equally for all eternity and so when we give thanks for what god has done for us we're giving thanks to god that represents all of the trinity so that we see scriptures like this i thank my god through jesus christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the world we also see in colossians 3 16-17 let the word of christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom seeking singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to god and whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name of the lord

jesus giving thanks to god the father through jesus so it's this idea that we are always giving thanks to god for his perfect will his perfect plan that he has established from the very beginning from the very beginning god's been in control sovereign and has never been shocked or surprised by anything that's happened he's in control and that should provide for us some some rest and actually should help our anxiety a little bit because he's in control nothing's going to derail his plans for your life his plans for your holiday season nothing's going to derail what god has for you we could trust that and

we can be thankful to god for that through jesus the very presence of thanksgiving according to romans 8 5-8 is because of the power of the holy spirit in our lives and so we give thanks to the father through the son by means of the holy spirit that's what we do when we give thanks number two thanksgiving replaces sin when paul commands believers to stop sinning he also commands believers to put thanksgiving in its place listen to this in ephesians 5 4 let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place but instead let there be thanksgiving so he

kind of puts these two things in contrary to one another this idea of sinning which is serving self does not allow us to be thankful outside of ourselves but rather it's just again serving ourselves and it never never measures up never meets what it's supposed to meet but when we give outside of ourselves when we get to this place that he's done something that we're not able to do we're thankful for that we're able to actually begin replacing sin with worship sin with worship because we're thankful for what god is doing and we now begin to walk in step with god's good plan and good

will for our lives we get to we begin to please god with our speech of thankfulness instead of foolish talk john piper explains it this way the key to unlocking a heart of gratitude and overcoming bitterness and ugliness and disrespect and violence is a strong belief in god the creator and sustainer and provider and hope giver like the more we see god for who he is and what he's done the more thankful we are and the more it begins to kill the bitterness and the disrespect and the violence that we see in our lives number three thanksgiving sanctifies creation you're like i have no idea

what that means i'm going to tell you how should christians think about god's good creation this might be a way for you to think about that turkey on thursday when we partake of it he says this in first timothy 4 4 everything created by god is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving for it is made holy by the word of god and prayer what he's saying there is is what he has created in creation was created for us to enjoy but to enjoy it rightly and what i mean by that is if you were to come to to

thursday and you've got that plate of every shade of yellow and tan right in front of you and you're just about to partake of it and you're going to enjoy it and at the end of that meal if you were to just sit there and say man that was the best meal i've ever had in my life and that's it again four hours later you're like it wasn't enough i need more i need more but in that moment when you partake of that meal and you're experiencing that that sweet potato pie or casserole and those you know green bean casseroles i don't know how you

all do i know how we do it in the south but we have it's a lot of casserole ridden stuff in there but when you eat it you in that moment the way it rolls past the food is saying god created that flavor that i just tasted like like he thought that up like we we didn't just whip that up in the kitchen and all of a sudden we brought into existence a new flavor no like god thought that up like every good and perfect gift comes from the father creation that he created with all the ingredients that we have you know scientifically been putting

together to create food for the past thousands of years again those things he's not shocked he's not surprised he's going hey why don't you put a little salt on that and then experience it like god thought this stuff up and so when we partake and enjoy and then thank god for it there and only there do we actually experience the fullness of what creation was created to do and be as we also experience our creator our creator so it's a good thing like like this this thursday man eat and drink your fill as he says in song and solomon in ecclesiastes and eat and drink

your fill all right now don't be gluttons and drunkards you know out there but eat and drink your fill be satisfied as you are thanking god for what he's provided for you in that moment that's how thanksgiving sanctifies creation number four thanksgiving is something that we can offer because of the gospel because of the gospel we should aim to have our thanksgiving rise in proportion to the value of the object for which we give thanks so it's not just this kind of half-hearted like thank you god for what you've done but it's like looking to the depth of god's entire plan that we see throughout

the bible and that's why when we talk about the good news we're talking about the bible being divided into four categories all right you got you've got creation which is the first two chapters of genesis you've got the fall which is genesis 3 all the way to the gospels you've got the fall which is just us literally just swimming around in our sinfulness trying to clean ourselves up trying to do our own way trying to figure things out but we just can't quite figure it out we can't quite get good enough we can't quite earn god's favor from genesis 3 all the way to the

gospels and then god sends his son jesus because we can't and that's when the gospel comes into it that's when jesus steps into the scene as we'll celebrate in the advent come thou long expected jesus jesus comes and guess what he does everything that we couldn't do from genesis 3 all the way to the gospels every single literally every single law both here's what you should do and here's what you should not do jesus did perfectly perfectly for 33 years of life on this earth he did it perfectly because you couldn't you couldn't and so we needed someone to do that for us we needed

someone to step into our place and always have thoughts that were pure and to always have actions that were honorable and to always have motives that were aligned with the will of god i mean that's jesus and so he lives this perfect life because you could not live it and because of our imperfect lives we know that romans 3 says the wages of sin is death it's death but the free gift is god in jesus christ going to the cross and paying our death penalty for us this is this is the like thanksgiving should all flow from the gospel because it allows us to rightfully

and clearly see how the world functions how the world exists how we exist how we work within god's plan all of those things the gospel paints the picture for us clearly to be able to have thanksgiving and what i'll say number five here all circumstances to have thanksgiving in all circumstances one surprising aspect of thanksgiving is that again it doesn't depend on your circumstances it doesn't listen to first thessalonians 5 16-18 rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of god in christ jesus for you how many of you have ever asked the question what is god's will

for my life anyone ever asked that question what is god's will for my life now i know from being a youth pastor for a few years and and just being in ministry for a little while now um that's like the question for everyone between the ages of like 15 to 25 is what is god's will for my life and and the way that we interpret god's will for our life is what college am i going to go to who am i going to marry what career path am i going to take how many kids am i going to have like that's how we view god's

will for my life is the chapters of my life but god's will for your life is not based on what you get or what you don't get what you experience or what you don't experience that's not god's will for you for your life god's will for your life is simply this rejoice always rejoice always and as we finish james last week james 5 13 there's two ways in which you rejoice if anyone among you is suffering let them pray that's a that's a type of rejoicing you're suffering and you're going to the lord in prayer to position a need from him to grant you comfort

and peace and sufficiency in life strength whatever it is so that you then get to this place of is anyone cheerful among you let them sing praise let them rejoice that's really the two categories we have for people in churches according to james they're either suffering or they're cheerful if they're suffering let them pray which will help get them to being cheerful get them to being rejoiceful that's what he's looking at rejoice always how pray without ceasing always see your dependence upon the lord and there you'll be able to give thanks in all circumstances in all circumstances you'll be able to give thanks you might

be able to go to a family gathering this week where you know with one comment about covid or with one comment about mask or one comment about a political realm or one comment about written house or one comment about fill in the blank and the grenades gonna drop and if you have this type of perspective when you walk into that you might actually be able to come out the other side rejoicing and being thankful in all circumstances because you might like james taught us you might be quick to hear slow to speak and slow to become angry because your perspective is not about you it's

about jesus it's about jesus and honestly that's the one thing just preach it to yourself this entire season and i promise you i promise you i can't control your circumstances but when i can promise you because i'm putting the scriptures on this i'm putting god's word at stake here is if you keep reminding yourself that it's all about jesus it's all about jesus it's all about jesus the anxiety of this season will begin to subside peace comfort encouragement will begin to come in and and as it says you'll be able to rejoice you'll be able to rejoice and that's what we're after and we want

people rejoicing this season now eat the meals open the presents do do it up right but just remember it's all about jesus as we come to i told you i was going to be short today as we come to this time of communion now if you go ahead and stand and as you stand if you do not have the elements i'm going to have you go ahead and go back to the table and grab the elements for communion and as i shared uh this this past thursday night if you missed the worship night uh bummer you missed it um but as i did share with

those who were here for the worship night we partook of communion together and we celebrated this idea of jesus being at this supper with his disciples and him explaining to him to them that this meal is so much more than just the substance that you're getting because it's actually pointing to the greater substance jesus himself and as we talk about shadows and substance this is this is a shadow this is a shadow of the greater substance this is this is not gonna satisfy you you're gonna get lunch after this it's not that kind of meal but this is a meal for your soul this is

a meal for you to be able to get to this place where where you're picturing in your mo in your mind jesus gathered with his disciples and he's sharing with them i'm about to break my body for you i'm about to shed my blood so that you don't have to shed your blood and that this was god's plan all along and and the disciples there kind of like i have no idea what you're talking about jesus you're jesus you're not gonna die you've been with us for three years leading us you're king we've seen you heal people we've seen you bring people back to life

you're gonna die i mean he's sharing this meal with them and then they leave and still don't believe it because when they come to arrest jesus peter does what peter does and he pulls a sword and chops guy's ear off like he didn't have enough energy to stay awake when jesus asked him to stay awake when he's praying but he had enough energy to cut a guy's ear off peter's got to get his priorities right but he still in that moment just wasn't he was seeing the shadows but he wasn't seeing the substance he wasn't seeing what jesus was really doing and i'll be honest

guys it is so easy for us to only focus on the shadows and never get to the substance never get to the substance so let these be markers in your mind this is a meal so that as you get to that next meal on thursday it's another reminder this is a shadow of the greater substance jesus he is our great bread provider of our life we worship him and so as we partake together this morning let us remember ultimately that it's about jesus not just what we're doing right now for i received from the lord but i also deliver to you that the lord jesus

on the night when he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and you drink the cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes let's proclaim the lord's death together now and then continue on in worship uh [Music] [Music] there is a song

there is a song i know a melody that's never fed [Music] my soul will rest my confidence in you [Music] hope has a name his name is jesus my savior's cross [Music] has set this in a free hope has a name his name is jesus oh christ be praised i have victory [Music] there's a light there is a light salvation flame christ undefeated trampled the grave see now the cross be lifted high the light has come the light is one behold the christ [Music] dope the name his name is jesus my savior's cross has said the sin free hope has a name his name is

jesus oh christ be praised i have victory [Music] there'll be a day there'll be a day my hope is your face i'll see my pain no more my fear will cease i bow my life [Music] it's hope has a name his name is jesus my savior's cross has set this in a has a name his name is jesus oh christ be praised i have victory hope has a name has a name his name is jesus my savior's cross [Music] has set the sinner free opposite his name is jesus oh christ be praise evictory oh christ be praised i have victory [Music] lord we praise you

this morning thank you for all you've done god and we just um asked this week lord as we head into thursday lord that we would just remember god we'd remember your faithfulness lord we remember all the things you've done lord the little things god the the obvious things lord the big things even things that we don't really see or understand god i pray that we would be thankful because we have a trust trust in a god who we can completely trust and a sovereign god who is never late who doesn't delay lord who is there for us god and who has your glory and mind

and our good in mind lord and so i pray that we would just be thankful god thank you for this group lord jesus i pray that lord people would see our gratitude as we go from here and that it would cause them to glorify you father in heaven so thank you for to for today god for this morning we just we give you all praise lord in jesus name you guys can go and have a seat real quick just to give some couple announcements that are coming up uh tonight if you have not signed up and want more information about who we are