Get REAL for Christmas

Get REAL for Christmas

Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Matthew 26:26-29

The testimony of Joan Hollingsworth:

“I’m Great!”

“How are you on this blessed day?”

Greeting her challenged me to reset and recalibrate how I was approaching each day. First, if she was always on top of the world, what was preventing me? Secondly, if she concluded that the day, we both were living in was so blessed, what was that I was missing?

Christmas comes every year with the message of the prophet Isaiah,

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”

Holy Communion helps us tune into the Joy of Christmas with Thankfulness.

How? By maintaining an Attitude of Gratitude. That’s the difference between thanksgiving and being thankful.

Joan Hollingsworth practiced thankfulness.

Thankfulness is the key to understanding the joy of Christmas. Thankfulness is the focus of Holy Communion, aka The Lord’s Supper, aka Mass, aka The Eucharist. Eucharist comes from the Greek word which means thanksgiving.

Joan Hollingsworth challenged me to get REAL.

Get REAL

· Recognize

· Enumerate

· Anticipate (Hope)

· Light Up the Glorious Lights

Recognize

· The Hebrew term for gratitude literally means "recognizing the good."

Its astonishing that ungrateful people are blind to the good.

You can do 99 good deeds for an ingrate, and they will only remember the 1 thing that you failed to do for them.

The Prayer of Serenity

Oh, Lord! Grant me the serenity to accept selfish ungrateful people for who they are, the courage to not become bitter, and the wisdom not to let it ever happen again!

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Phil. 4:8

You determine what you put in your basket—fruit or Fruit Loops.

“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

—Melody Beattie

Don’t Forget

Don’t Be an Ingrate

Learn to Appreciate what you have,

before time makes you appreciate what you had.

You never miss your water…

You never miss your WiFi until the signal drops.

· Remembering God's goodness moves us to respond to our world in hope rather than fear.

· Remembering God's love for us fuels our love for others.

· Remembering inspires us to act.

· Throughout the Bible, God's people are exhorted to place their trust in him and join him as he restores and redeems our world.

Get REAL

Enumerate

Enumerate means mentioning a number of things one by one.

It is important to enumerate, to give a detailed account, in which each thing is especially noticed.

Communion Reminds Us of our Greatest Reasons to be Thankful.

Practice being thankful for the small stuff:

· Indoor plumbing

· Deodorant

· Google

· Toilet Paper

· The five-second rule

· GPS

· Autosave

· Spellcheck

· Bubble Wrap

Remember to be Thankful for the Big Things:

1. Your Family and Friends

2. Good health

3. Your home

4. Your job and income

5. Healthy food

6. Your pets

7. Clean Water

8. People who care about and for you

But there’s another list and it’s HUGE:

Recognize the Goodness of God

· Creation

· Salvation

· The Passover = Deliverance from Egypt

· Grace and Mercy

· The Removal of the Sting of Death / the Power of Sin

· The Devil has been defeated

· Community of Believers

But there is more.

Remember

Gratitude not only makes sense of our past,

And puts our present in the right perspective.

Gratitude also creates a vision for tomorrow.”

So Let’s Continue to Get REAL

· Anticipate (Hope)

There is Tension in the air that cannot be ignored.

Can you feel it?

There is a tension between the “already” and the “not yet”.

The key to Christmas Joy is living with this tension—the tension between celebrating the Babe of Bethlehem and the anticipation of His Second Coming.

Getting REAL has this tension in it.

I’m grateful for the Sweet Baby Jesus Boy.

But I’m also grateful for the anticipation of His Coming as the King of Kings, the Righteous Judge,

Anticipation:

· Jesus tells His disciples of a heavenly feast.

o “I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

· Isaiah’s vision of peace—a coming time when predator and prey will play together and rest together.

· Reward

Advent is a time of memory and hopeful anticipation

Eternity that's free

Every day will be Sunday and Sabbath will have no end.

A thousand songs to sing,

Streets of pure gold,

Mansions above,

A Robe and A Crown,

A Body Glorified,

God wiping away every tear of sadness

Everlasting life

Get REAL

· Light It Up

· Christmas is about the Celebration of Lights

· Light Up the Glorious Lights

Holy Communion encourages us to give thanks with a grateful heart—a heart full of thanks overflows with thanksgiving.

A heart full of thanks overflows with thanksgiving.

Express your gratitude out loud. Tell your story.

Live longer, healthier, sleep better, improve the quality of life.

Nehemiah… ‘The joy of the Lord is our strength”.

Thankfulness is a lovely attitude.

Thankfulness is an Attitude of Gratitude that impacts your Altitude.

Your Altitude is determined by your Altitude.

When you have an attitude deflated by negative thoughts and experiences you will languish in the lowlands of unhappiness.

When you have an attitude inflated by gratitude your altitude will be quite high and uplift others around you.

Have you ever noticed that hot air balloons need a continuing burning fire to maintain altitudes?

Without hope, joy, thanksgiving, and peace, your altitude will nosedive.

· You will find yourself down; beneath; on the bottom and not on top; at the tail and not at the head

· You will define yourself as a victim and not as a victor

· You will find yourself crying over your trials and not celebrating your triumphs.

Keep the Fire of Thanksgiving burning—Remember the Goodness of God and all he has done for you.

Keep the Fire of Thanksgiving burning—Declare “this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. I willrejoice—It’s my choice to make—That’s the Power of Thanksgiving. Say it out loud! “I will rejoice and be glad in it”

Light the Fire of Thanksgiving—I will, I decide, I make the determination, my words have power, my “Thank you, Jesus” has power. My “Hallelujahs” have power.

Light the Fire of Thanksgiving—We rise above the troubles of this world by faith and not by sight. Faith is the substance of things hoped for…Keep the Light of hope on

Say it out Loud, “I Will Rejoice in this day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and Be Glad in it.”

Rejoice—Because the Lord woke you this morning to behold a day never seen before.

Give Thanks—Because you can hear the Kiskadee birds by day and the Tree Frogs by night.

Something is wrong if you can’t be thankful in this “Sweet Spot” called Bermuda

“…that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.”

John 17:13b

Will you keep the Light on

Will you be the keeper of the Light

Will you be the Light of the Party

The Celebration of the Lord’s Supper is the greatest reminder to the church to be the Church:

To Be Light in Dark places

The Power of Thanksgiving on the Battlefield

There are Seven Words for Praise.

Todah is the third word and means Thanks.

Follow Jehoshaphat’s Playbook

Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.” 21 After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:

“Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”

22 As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.

Gratitude sustains us on the battlefield—-Thankfulness is the frontline of our defensive (along side faith, hope and love)

—Thanksgiving is chief amongst the arsenal of praise

—Thanksgiving is the preamble of prayer

—Thanksgiving is Powerful

Our Misery is Satan’s Greatest Joy

Satan’s Misery is our Greatest Joy

Your Practice of the Presence, Praise, and Prayer are sources for our Highest Joy and Satan’s Agony in Defeat

Three Hebrews facing the fiery furnace testified to the Power of Thankfulness

Powerful

Thank you for the deliverance that is to come.

Thank you for the hope and consolation of your people.

Thank you for the Joy that will take away our sorrows.

Thank you for the Healing that is at work in our bodies.