Surviving Christmas

Introduction

Christmas fail! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFd3e3m4Eao Can you imagine? I want to help you avoid having a Christmas fail this Christmas. I want to help you survive Christmas.

You’re already feeling the stress! Tree has to go up. Parties to attend. School musicals. Travel. Season of joy or season of madness? (Stress balls to help)

Stress = full calendar OR family. Crazy expectations of family OR tension between a sibling or other family member. Or, someone’s going to missing from your Christmas celebration because a few months ago, you got in an argument and you haven’t talked since.

Stress = grief. It’s your first Christmas without a spouse or a child or someone you loved who has died. Or, you went through a divorce this year. How are you going to survive this Christmas?

How do you survive Christmas?

Regardless of your circumstances choose to rejoice.

Philippians - Paul’s letter of joy to a church that supported him. Church had struggles - even though they had supported Paul - struggling with unity. (Relational stress)

Over and over Paul talks about joy - which doesn’t really make sense. He’d been shipwrecked, beaten, gone without, and now he’s imprisoned in the city of Rome. For all Paul knows, this imprisonment might end in his death. (Ph. 1:21) In spite of all that, he writes perhaps his most encouraging, joy-filled letter to the Philippians while he is suffering. Paul chose joy.

Two ladies called out by Paul - Not a good day when you are called out in the Bible for not getting along. BUT, some of us may need to be called out for not getting along with each other as well.

Influential ladies in church - people choosing sides. Conflict and disunity starting to take place. Imagine the stress - every time the church gathered, what was going to be said? What was going to happen?

Agree in the Lord - Ladies, you have to figure this out. Put aside your differences and preferences and know there’s something bigger at stake than your personal agenda - the mission of God.

How do we agree in the Lord? (Is that even good advice?) How do we put aside our differences? Pertinent question for us this Christmas - because for some of us - to relieve the stress of Christmas, that’s exactly what you’re going to have to do. Find common ground and put aside your differences. Maybe it’s not relational conflict that’s causing your stress - something else. Whatever is causing your Christmas stress, one solution: Rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice = celebrate - to express joy. A fruit of the Spirit, a state of being in spite of circumstances. Heart of satisfaction and contentment regardless of circumstances. ()

We equate joy with desire. We think joy comes when we get what we want or desire. (Getting the wrong gift for Christmas in kindergarten) Temporary happiness might come when you get what you want. But those feelings of euphoria that we experience when we get what we desire fade quickly.

Real joy comes when we realize what we deserve. You deserve nothing - everything in life is a gift. Really, what have you and I done besides selfishly pursue what we want out of life? We deserve nothing, yet in Christ, we get everything!

Knowing we get everything in Christ, it creates joy - It’s all good! Joy expresses itself in rejoicing - You’ve been around joyful Christians - they’re thankful, humble, encouraging, etc.

We rejoice always because no matter our circumstances - the loss of a loved one, the stress of change, or conflicted relationships - we always get what we do not deserve - a relationship with God Himself!

Context of relationships - If I get what I don’t deserve and rejoice in that - changes my day to day interactions with people who drive me crazy. Because I have joy:

I can live reasonably - odd word in Greek language translated different ways in different translations. One writer, “a gentle forbearance.” In other words, when you choose joy, it makes it a whole lot easier to put up with people. When you choose joy you can:

Speak kindly instead of harshly. (Your tone gives away that you’re agitated.)

Speak words of encouragement instead of complaining and criticizing.

I can overlook the way people annoy me. (Why give the annoying habits of people that much influence over you life? Something you might not know: you annoy people too!)

I can forgive when I am hurt. (Life is too short to hold grudges, and holding grudges makes you miserable. You’ve been forgiven - Heed the words of the most famous Christmas song of the 21st century - “Let it Go.”)

I can seek to understand. (Ph. 2 - Count others as more significant than yourself. Why wouldn’t you? When you realize you have nothing but Jesus gave you everything it has a way of humbling you. You’re not the most important person in the world. Jesus is! Joyful, humble people show compassion and grace.)

I can live free of worry - all kinds of worry in this room. Worried sick over the broken relationship. Worried sick over seeing that family member at Christmas dinner at grandma’s house. Worried sick over that conversation you’re going to have to have. Or, worried over how you’re going to afford, how you’re going to make it through your grief, etc.

Worry weighs you down. , “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.”

Worry weighs you down. , “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.”

Worry kills your joy. Worry will cause you to despair instead of rejoice.

Some anxiety is positive - concern that causes you to act. (Black Friday - a man leaving his girlfriend’s child in parking lot and going home with new TV. https://gawker.com/5962911/man-brings-kid-to-kmart-leaves-with-just-51-inch-tv-the-black-friday-2012-arrest--violence-report)

However, most anxiety is negative - you become overwhelmed and debilitated by your troubles . In those moments of anxiety your mind always goes to worst case scenario.

However, most anxiety is negative - you become overwhelmed and debilitated by what’s out of your control. In those moments of anxiety your mind always goes to worst case scenario.

To consistently let worry overwhelm you is to live as a functional atheist - to live as if God doesn’t exist. If God does exist, and if He loves you, and if He is all powerful, you have every reason to trust Him and no reason to be overwhelmed.

- Worried about provisions - look at the birds, the flowers. If I care about them, what about you?

When you know you’ve been given what you do not deserve, why worry? If God can save you from eternal hell He can give you wisdom to work through broken relationships, wisdom to walk through your grief, wisdom to manage your time, etc. When you live in joy, no reason to worry. (Make your requests known to God! What do you need to take to the Lord?)

I can live at peace. Peace that passes all understanding - Anthony Thompson - wife murdered by Dylan Roof but forgave him. Unexplainable peace! That’s a peace that passes all understanding that comes from rejoicing in the reality that you have received what you do not deserve.

Peace of God guards your heart - Paul chained to Roman guards - He knew what it was to be guarded. Peace of God guards your heart - cannot be penetrated by anxiety, fear, unhealthy stress, etc.

Joy in Christ really does change everything and only joy in Christ will help you survive Christmas or anything else life throws at you for that matter. For you:

Find joy - For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. In the darkest hours of human history, Jesus found joy in fulfilling God’s mission of redemption so you could have life everlasting. This Christmas, you can know that joy.

Choose joy - What are you going to dwell on this Christmas? Your stress or truth? () Your worry or your hope? What if you really made Christ the center of your Christmas this year instead of everything else you’ve made Christmas about? Choosing joy may mean you need to eliminate some things that cause you to miss joy - do you have to attend every Christmas party?

Spread joy - What if simply praying as a family together each night was more important than where to hide the Elf on the Shelf? What if spending time with someone who has no family close by was more important to you than sitting in the 2 hour line to get into the James Island Christmas lights? What if you went ahead and made that phone call to that family member that you’ve been feuding with and seek forgiveness? What if What if you chose real joy this Christmas? What if you chose to celebrate Jesus this Christmas and what if you worked to spread peace on earth, or at least peace in the sphere of influence that God has given you?

This morning: Pray that God will reignite your joy in Him. In David’s darkest moments: “Restore to me the joy of my salvation.” () Perhaps that needs to be your prayer this morning.