¿Cuál es tu estrategia para la temporada navideña? | Cómo Aprovechar Al Máximo La Temporada Navideña

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- Well Merry Christmas, Crossroads.

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It's great to be gathered here with you this weekend.

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My name is Alli Patterson.

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If you're joining us because you're visiting

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from out of town or you're new here,

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I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Crossroads.

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And I'm going to call it it's official,

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today the Christmas season has officially begun.

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Can we agree on that? Yes, I agree, thank you.

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I actually put my tree up the day before Thanksgiving

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this year for the very first time ever.

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And I'm not going to lie, I kind of liked it.

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So, we are going to do Christmas at the Movies

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again this year and I want to say a quick word

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about why have we repeated this series

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for the last couple of years.

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Yes. Eventually we will get to

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the end of great Christmas movies.

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I feel like we're approaching that this year,

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but we've been repeating it for a very specific reason,

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and it's really pretty simple.

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It's what we're doing at this time of year.

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It's literally what we are looking at.

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And who's already watched a movie?

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I watched The Grinch last night.

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I've watched the Family Stone, little known movie.

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If you have a messed up family,

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you may want to watch The Family Stone, I'm just saying.

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We're watching movies at this time of year

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and believe it or not,

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this is a play right out of Jesus's playbook.

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He often took things in everyday life

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and explained truths of the Kingdom of God

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straight through those things.

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And so yeah, they had sheep and we have Netflix,

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but we're doing the same thing.

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We're actually looking for what's the story of

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God that we might be able to catch a glimpse of

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in the things that we're already looking at?

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And I picked the movie this weekend because

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it's this weekend,

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because it's the beginning of the season,

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and we're going to look at, like, the attitudes

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and approaches that we tend to take to the Christmas season.

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But let me pray before we start.

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Lord, be with us here and search us and know us

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and adjust how we approach this season

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so that we can see you in it and find you in it

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and experience Christmas this year.

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In Jesus's name, Amen.

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Well, whatever attitude you take toward the Christmas season,

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you're probably got it on.

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You know, some of you drove in here with wreaths on your car.

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Some of you are listening with fully decorated houses already.

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And others of us are already scheming

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how can we get out of our extended family gatherings.

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Some of us are stressed about making lists,

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literally checking it twice,

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we're the stressed out list making holiday type.

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We all have these sort of attitudes that we put on

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about the entire Christmas season,

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and whether you know it or not,

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you have a Christmas season strategy.

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And that's why I picked Christmas with the Kranks

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as our movie today, because I think you'll be able

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to see your own strategy, or maybe some glimpses

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of ones that you've used in the past through this movie

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that offers us the three most common, I think,

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Christmas strategies, and also just a little glimpse

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at a better one.

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Now this movie, if you've never seen it,

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it stars Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd.

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If you're anywhere near my age,

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you actually know who those people are.

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And I'm going to go out on a limb and say

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it's a great cast and a very mid movie.

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It really is, but it's okay.

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We have permission to watch bad Christmas movies

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at this time of year, but this movie actually

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is helpful in seeing what I want us to look at

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at the outset of the season.

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So let me set the scene for you.

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In the movie, there's a couple, Luther and Nora Krank.

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That's why it's called Christmas with the Kranks.

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It's a family named the Kranks,

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and they have a big change to their holiday season

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that kind of gets forced on them.

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And this couple goes about trying to deal with

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this big change to their season,

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and they keep running into their own feelings about it

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and how everyone else is reacting to this big change.

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And it shows us the attitudes that we have.

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And there's no doubt, as the movie begins,

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that you can see their historic Christmas season strategy,

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the one they've always used in the past.

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This is the one that I fall into myself sometimes

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because it can be lovely and I call this strategy

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make it magical, make it magical.

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We're after the magic of the season.

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You know, we want to sip hot chocolate

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and walk through Christmas markets

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and ice skate with twinkling lights.

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And don't forget, you got to take pictures, of course,

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of all the seasonal magic.

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Because we want the shivers.

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We want the like, "Don't you?

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I just want to remember this for the next ten years

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just this moment right here."

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We push our family into holiday attire.

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Tell everybody to smile.

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You know, we just are after the magic

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that seems to be in the season.

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We want to capture something

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that goes beyond the daily grind.

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We really do.

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And Christmas season tends to, you know,

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tempt us to believe that we can just reach in here

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and get it ourselves.

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And we want something good and beautiful and pure.

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And I think that's why we go after this strategy

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with kids a lot.

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Kids seem to have like a glint in their eye. You know?

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They're engaged in the season in a way that

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maybe our cold hearts, you know, aren't quite

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as we get to be grownups,

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but we go after Christmas magic a lot of times through our kids.

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Maybe you don't have kids.

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You don't have to have a five year old for this.

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You might have a mom and dad that are still trying

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to execute this strategy on you at 35.

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You know, our kids, we tend to put this

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make it magic strategy on them.

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And I'm just going to tell you from first hand experience,

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four of my own kids,

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very unreliable source of Christmas magic,

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very, very unreliable.

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And so I fell prey to the make it magic strategy

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a couple of years ago myself and I got suckered in

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to buying matching PJs. That's right, matching PJs.

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We're going to decorate the tree in our matching PJs.

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It's just going to be magical.

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And of course I needed a picture.

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And I'm not going to lie, this is the best one I could get.

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A couple of people went rogue on the tops.

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I don't know what my one son is doing there,

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but if you're a make it magic person,

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this picture bothers you.

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It's not well spaced.

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Everybody's not in the same thing.

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It's just it's almost right, but it's not quite,

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you know, make it magic people really don't like that.

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And foolish me, really,

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I actually wanted the cat in that picture.

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She was nowhere to be found.

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And then just to, like, poke at me,

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I walk in the living room the very next day

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and I find the cat like this.

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Same fireplace. There's the cat picture worthy, ready to go.

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Now would she have done that, you know,

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when I was trying to capture the picture?

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Of course not. That really is my real cat.

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Her name is Sugar. She's usually not that cooperative.

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And, you know, it's great when it works.

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Make it magic is great when it works.

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And you do, you remember those moments

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and they're beautiful and magical and all the things.

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But there's a lot of disappointment.

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There's a lot of annoyance with this strategy

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and even some real sadness

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when the source of your magic is gone.

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And that is where we find the Kranks as the movie begins.

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They have one daughter and she's going off to the Peace Corps,

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and they are really struggling

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because the source of their magic is gone.

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- Love you. - I love you.

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- Think she'll be okay?

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- She'll be better than okay.

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- I meant in Peru, in the jungle.

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- Please stop worrying about this, okay?

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The Peace Corps is not going to send her

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someplace that's dangerous.

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- It just won't be the same.

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- What won't? - Christmas.

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- It's so different this Christmas, won't it, Luther?

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- Yes it will. It's so different.

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Nothing will be the same.

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- The first time in 23 years Blair won't be here.

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- Might even get depressing. - Mm.

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- A lot of depression at Christmas, you know?

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- Yeah, well. I would just love to forget about it.

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- That's where they are. This is where the movie starts.

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They just want to forget about it.

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It's weird. It's quiet.

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Did you catch a bunch of the decorations

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were still piled up in bins, and she's, you know,

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looking at Frosty the salt shaker very upset?

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It's just not going to be the same.

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We're looking for a glimpse of something.

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We're looking for something I think in this strategy

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where almost a chance

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for something eternal to break through,

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something heavenly to break through,

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and we call it Christmas magic.

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But I think if we were to be honest

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and we were to look back at the actual Christmas story,

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you can see that the first Christmas

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really was about this.

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I think this desire is actually something good.

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It's just that we try to manufacture it.

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The Christmas story is a story of God breaking through

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over and over again.

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Angels show up to Mary and Joseph.

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There's promises that are made about the future,

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the goodness that they're going to experience,

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and they get glimpses of the glory of God

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in a way that breaks through.

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The shepherds on the night of Jesus's birth,

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they get to see quite a breakthrough of heaven.

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And I think this is the thing that we're yearning for

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with this strategy and so we just try to, you know,

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we try to put it together ourselves.

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And I think it makes some kind of sense.

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It's really, really tempting to do this,

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but it doesn't always work.

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So the second strategy, the Kranks decide

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that's the one they're going to go with this year.

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Magic is gone, you know Blair's in the Peace Corps.

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They don't have access to that one

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so they're going to try another one.

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I call this strategy block it out.

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They're actually just going to fade the whole season.

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They're going to just look at it in the rear view mirror.

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They're going to do something else this year.

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They're going to hold their breath until it's over,

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just minimize or cut out the parts of the season

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that they really don't want to do.

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A lot of us do this, right?

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We have pieces of the season.

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Maybe you don't do this with the whole season,

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but you just do this with family,

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or you just do this with work stuff,

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or you just do this with, you know,

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holiday decorating or whatever.

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We have these little holdouts,

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these little pockets of the season where we're like,

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"I'm not doing that one."

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You know, we have these weirdly strong convictions

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about what we're not going to do.

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And, you know, there's a whole spectrum of just people

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who like to keep a low profile during the season

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to full out, full on Scrooge.

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So Kranks decide this is the way they're going to go.

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If they can't do the one they've always done,

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they're going to do this one.

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They're just going to skip Christmas.

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And this is how they let everybody know.

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- Dear colleagues,

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I will not be celebrating Christmas this year.

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As many of you know, Blair has joined the Peace Corps,

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so Nora and I have decided to avoid the rituals

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of Christmas, save our money and take a cruise.

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Therefore, I will not be participating

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in the usual holiday rituals.

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I will buy no gifts and accept none. Thank you anyway.

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I will not attend the firm's black tie Christmas dinner

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nor will I be here for the office party.

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I am not angry, and I will not yell humbug

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at anyone who offers me a holiday greeting.

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I am simply skipping Christmas.

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- I've never done it with the whole season,

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but I have tried to minimize part of it.

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I was, this was probably 5 or 6 years ago

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I found myself sitting alone at the kitchen table,

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putting the final icing on the final cut out cookie.

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And I'd been sitting there for a couple of hours

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by myself finishing like six dozen cookies

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when everybody else started with me

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and I had what my kids affectionately referred to

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as like the cookie crash out of like 2018 or whatever, you know?

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And I just went, "I'm not doing this anymore.

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I thought this was supposed to be fun.

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We started this whole thing together.

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What happened to everybody?

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You just licked some stuff and you ran away.

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And I'm sitting here like a chump,

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finishing the whole thing alone. I'm not doing it."

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So I have this, like, you know, mini meltdown

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over the sugar cookie process.

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And I tell 'em, no, we're we're finished.

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I'm buying them at Kroger like everybody else next year.

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We are not doing it.

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Have you ever had a moment like this?

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Yeah. Because why?

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There's dissonance, there's a gap,

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and we feel the gap in moments like this.

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Like this was supposed to be something,

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and it didn't turn out to be that.

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And so we try to solve this gap

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by just blocking out those parts.

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I think in part this is self-preservation.

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We know, um, you know,

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I'm made for a life where what I do matters.

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And if this thing isn't going to matter

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the way that it's supposed to, I am done.

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And some of us are really prone to

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this kind of strategy about the holidays,

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because we have a lot of gaps between

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what it should be and what the reality actually is.

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I think we choose this when the season feels empty in some ways.

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And we sense, even if we don't know exactly these words,

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we sense that it should be something else.

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We actually have a God that says things in His Word

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like this: I knit you together in your mother's womb.

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You've been called according to My purpose.

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I created you in Christ Jesus for good works

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that I have prepared in advance for you to walk in.

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We have a sense that the way we spend our time,

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the activities we choose to do in our life,

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we want the conviction that they matter.

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And when they don't, some of us are just out.

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By the way, the the cookie meltdown I had,

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the next year rolled around and they discovered

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I was absolutely serious, did not buy

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a thing to do the sugar cookies.

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And so they're like, "Whoa, whoa, wait a second."

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So they promised me, promised me they were in

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from beginning to end.

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And we actually had a new tradition that was born

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called the Paterson Annual Cookie Day.

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That's right, Paterson annual Cookie Day

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now happens every year.

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And if you're in, you're all the way in, two feet in.

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No one's leaving this fun, old fashioned family Christmas.

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You know, we're in this together.

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So every year we decorate cookies.

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And if you want to follow me on Instagram,

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you can vote on our cookies because we post.

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Everybody picks the best one they decorated.

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And you can pick the winner.

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Top left, which one of those do you think won last year?

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How did you know? It was the pizza.

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I'm not even kidding.

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We were pressed about this because this was like

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the blob at the end of the cookie dough.

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You know, the one that didn't even really get cut out.

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And one of my sons grabbed it, decorated it,

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and posted this as his cookie.

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You liked it. It's a pizza.

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It's not even a Christmas cookie.

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The rest of us were very annoyed that this won last year.

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Super annoyed. Anyway, we'll see.

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Now I get it, I get it.

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If you all are voting, it doesn't even

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have to be a Christmas cookie, apparently.

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So we do Patterson Annual Cookie Day

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because of my little meltdown,

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and we have a lot of fun with it.

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But the Kranks try the block it out strategy,

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but they keep running into the third strategy

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of the people all around them.

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Things get really messy because a lot of people

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in their life do the third strategy that a lot of us do.

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I call this one Lock It In.

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It's Christmas tradition above everything else.

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This is it.

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Christmas isn't Christmas unless we fill in the blank.

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You know, whatever the tradition is that you have to do,

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and it's yours, and you're going to do it

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the same way every single year.

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And it really doesn't matter what's happening.

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I have someone in my life like this.

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Same gifts to the neighbors,

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wears the same earrings on Christmas Eve,

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goes to the same Christmas service,

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has the same menu for Christmas dinner.

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Takes the same picture of her kids in the same place

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on the stairs every single year.

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Nora has a vest that appears in the movie

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that cracks me up. She has her Christmas vest.

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That's one of her traditions.

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And they start to upset people all over town

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because they start skipping Christmas.

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And as they do it, they run into people's traditions

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and they're really bothering them.

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Let's see. I made a list.

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There were no annual Christmas Eve party,

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no Christmas cards, no Boy Scout Christmas tree,

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no police department calendar they always buy.

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No. None of their regular stuff that they always do.

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And the people around them are really annoyed

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and they get -- Things get really real

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when they refuse to put up Frosty

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for the annual neighborhood decorating tradition.

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- Nora Krank, we're here for Frosty.

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- Hello. - Luther.

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- Hey, babe. - They're here.

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Who?

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Vic Frohmeyer, Wes Trogdon, Ned Becker

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and a gang of their kids.

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- We're here for Frosty. - They want frosty.

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- Well, they can't have him.

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- Nora, please give us Frosty.

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- Oh, um. Honey, where is Frosty?

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- He's down behind the furnace. Why?

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- They won't go away.

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- Well, don't give them Frosty.

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- You and Luther do not have to do anything.

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Just leave Frosty on the front porch.

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We'll put him up for you.

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- They said they'll put him up for us?

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- Absolutely not.

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- Oh, please. Luther. - No.

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- Luther. - We'll come back later.

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- And Frosty better be here.

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- Oh, they're gonna come back.

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- Okay, this is the part of the movie that loses me.

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These neighbors are totally out of control.

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I got a lot of don't control me energy,

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and I get real upset when this goes down

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because they are acting crazy.

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But some of us who are like super tradition people,

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we don't understand that maybe something close to that

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is how people in your life think of you.

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A little bit rigid, a little bit crazy

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when the traditions that you really want to happen

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can't happen exactly the way that you want it to happen

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we go a little nuts like Nora did when she wanted the ham.

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Now her daughter calls from the Peace Corps

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and she says, "I'm coming home after all. Surprise!"

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And Nora tries to put all the traditions

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back together real fast.

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And most of all, she wants the all important honey hickory ham.

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- Hello? Excuse me, I am looking for a ham.

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A hickory honey ham.

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- If there are any left, they'll be back there.

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Thank you very much.

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Merry Christmas. - Merry Christmas.

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- Happy holidays.

00:20:29

- There's really nothing like ham in a can, is there?

00:20:32

I mean, if you got to have it, you got to have it.

00:20:36

That's all I'm saying. She wanted that ham.

00:20:38

It was what they always had.

00:20:40

That's what her daughter would expect.

00:20:41

And that's what she wanted to give her.

00:20:43

I think we're looking for something, though.

00:20:46

When we go after these traditions, we're not crazy.

00:20:49

I mean, that's a little crazy, but we are not crazy.

00:20:51

We're looking for something.

00:20:53

And I think what we're looking for.

00:20:54

I thought a lot about this, and I think

00:20:56

it comes down to one word.

00:20:57

I think what we're looking for is comfort.

00:21:01

I think the traditions that we hold and keep

00:21:03

that are really dear to us,

00:21:04

that we don't want other people to mess with,

00:21:07

is because they comfort us.

00:21:08

They reassure us that, yes, another year has passed

00:21:12

and I'm still okay.

00:21:13

I think we're reaching for something that actually

00:21:17

the nature and the character of God provide for us.

00:21:21

And God Himself is called the Comforter

00:21:24

and His Spirit is called the comforter,

00:21:26

and He is called the God of all comfort.

00:21:29

And I think when we execute our traditions,

00:21:32

we're looking for comfort in a world

00:21:34

that can be kind of out of control, a little chaotic,

00:21:38

a little offbeat, and for some reason,

00:21:40

during the Christmas season, we go for our traditions

00:21:43

because we want to know that all really is going to be okay.

00:21:47

All is calm, all is bright, and I can be at peace

00:21:52

at least for this one little slice of time.

00:21:56

I had a really personal interaction with God.

00:21:59

It was not about a Christmas tradition,

00:22:01

but it was about something very, very similar.

00:22:03

So I started thinking about it.

00:22:04

It was about when my oldest son was getting ready

00:22:07

to leave for college a couple of years ago,

00:22:09

and I was worrying.

00:22:11

I found myself getting anxious and kind of thinking

00:22:13

a lot about and kind of worrying about,

00:22:15

how are we going to do family with one of us missing?

00:22:21

Um, that's weird, you know?

00:22:22

And I was kind of wrestling through the thoughts

00:22:24

of all the things that we do together.

00:22:26

I always say that we travel as a herd,

00:22:28

like we like to be together.

00:22:29

We have things that we do together.

00:22:31

We have rhythms we keep and disciplines we have together

00:22:33

and just places we like to go together.

00:22:35

And I kept turning over this idea, like,

00:22:38

what happens when one of us is missing?

00:22:40

It just feels like that's not what I want.

00:22:43

I don't want it to change like that.

00:22:46

And I, as a regular part of my, just my reading plan

00:22:49

that I was in in the Bible around that time

00:22:52

I happened into a part of Scripture

00:22:54

that at first I didn't connect to this at all.

00:22:57

But it was the time where Israel, the people of God

00:23:00

in the Old Testament, they had been enslaved

00:23:03

in the nation of Egypt, and God frees them from that,

00:23:06

and He promises them a new life.

00:23:08

But they spend a generation in the wilderness.

00:23:10

So they're in the wilderness in the middle of the desert.

00:23:13

And the way that God was providing food for them

00:23:16

was every day there would be a substance

00:23:19

that would be rained down on the camp

00:23:22

that they could make bread out of,

00:23:23

and it was called manna.

00:23:25

And so God would provide this every single day.

00:23:27

And as I was reading about this, I read the part

00:23:32

where He says only take enough for today.

00:23:36

He specifically gives that instruction, and he says

00:23:38

if you collect more than what you need for today,

00:23:41

it's going to rot in your hands.

00:23:44

You can't clutch more than what you actually need for today.

00:23:48

And I thought about how that's an act of trust, right?

00:23:51

They were to trust that God was going to bring more tomorrow.

00:23:57

They were to trust in who He was, in His power,

00:24:00

in His nature, and not try to collect this for themselves.

00:24:04

And through that story, I kind of realized

00:24:06

at that point in my life I needed that encouragement.

00:24:10

I needed that challenge, like desperately,

00:24:13

because I was worried that the things that we had done,

00:24:16

the stuff that we were about,

00:24:19

was what I should be holding on to.

00:24:21

And instead, I realized as I was reading that story

00:24:24

that God was pushing them to hold on to Him,

00:24:28

to the provider, to the comforter,

00:24:30

to the one that was giving the stuff.

00:24:33

Not the external act of collecting it,

00:24:35

not even the stuff itself.

00:24:37

They were to be confident in God.

00:24:41

And this was really hard because so much

00:24:44

of how we experience life is like the things that we do,

00:24:48

and we want to hold on to those.

00:24:50

And I think the more you're a tradition kind of person,

00:24:53

the more, the harder you hold on to those,

00:24:56

the more likely they are to actually rot in your hands.

00:25:01

Instead, we're to push into the nature of God

00:25:04

as comforter, as provider,

00:25:06

as the one who always has more good to give.

00:25:10

So the Kranks, they try to do what the Israelites did.

00:25:14

They try to force these traditions.

00:25:16

They try to clutch what they've always done.

00:25:18

So they do this in the movie.

00:25:20

And the daughter, she says,

00:25:21

"I'm coming home from the Peace Corps.

00:25:23

I'm bringing my new fiance."

00:25:25

That all happened really fast, by the way.

00:25:27

And, you know, she's coming back

00:25:29

and they try to put all these traditions back together.

00:25:32

And I think it's really weird that they lie to her.

00:25:35

They don't even tell her they were going to go on the cruise,

00:25:37

because they don't want any of the traditions in her mind

00:25:40

to be, you know, touched.

00:25:42

And so they put this together in kind of a hollow way.

00:25:46

And they're in their annual Christmas Eve party,

00:25:49

which is one of the traditions they try to hurry up

00:25:51

and throw back together.

00:25:53

And Luther Krank is sitting there in a really low moment.

00:25:57

None of the strategies have worked.

00:25:59

The season wasn't magical.

00:26:02

Now the traditions feel pretty empty.

00:26:05

And he couldn't even go on his cruise.

00:26:07

The skipping Christmas didn't really work,

00:26:09

and he's kind of at a low point in the movie.

00:26:12

And he looks out his window and he sees a guy named Walt

00:26:15

that lives across the street.

00:26:16

Now Walt is his nemesis.

00:26:19

It's like the foil in the movie.

00:26:20

Walt is kind of a jerk.

00:26:22

Every time he sees Luther, he calls him names.

00:26:25

They have this, like, banter back and forth.

00:26:27

And, you know, he just -- he always gives him a hard time.

00:26:30

He's not anyone in his life that's any kind of joy for him.

00:26:34

He's not even at the party.

00:26:35

All the other neighbors have come.

00:26:37

He's across the street.

00:26:38

Luther catches a glimpse of him through his kitchen window.

00:26:43

And this is the redeeming moment in the entire movie for me.

00:26:50

[party background noise]

00:27:06

- Um, could I come in for a minute?

00:27:12

Thanks. Blair's going to be staying with us for ten days,

00:27:20

so we're not taking the cruise.

00:27:22

And, uh, Nora and I would like you guys to have it.

00:27:29

Flight leaves at 12 noon tomorrow.

00:27:31

You got to be there two hours ahead of time.

00:27:34

It's ten days in the Caribbean islands and beaches.

00:27:37

The works. It's a dream vacation.

00:27:44

- We can't take it, Luther. It's not right.

00:27:48

- I didn't purchase the travel insurance,

00:27:51

so if you don't take it, the whole package is wasted.

00:27:54

- I'm not sure my doctor would allow it.

00:27:58

- I've got that Lexon deal on the front burner.

00:28:02

- Bennie said he might stop by tomorrow.

00:28:04

- And we couldn't leave the cat.

00:28:08

- This is from us to you.

00:28:09

This is a sincere, heartfelt, no strings attached

00:28:14

Christmas offering to two very selfless people

00:28:19

who are, at this moment,

00:28:21

having a very difficult time looking for an excuse.

00:28:27

- Bennie did say he might stop by.

00:28:32

- Face it, Bev, Bennie hasn't been home in years.

00:28:39

- Look, I've got everything right here.

00:28:41

I've got airline tickets. I've got cruise passes.

00:28:43

I've got a brochure.

00:28:45

- Uh, what's the cost?

00:28:47

If we decide to go, we'd want to reimburse you.

00:28:50

- This is a simple gift, Walt.

00:28:53

No costs, no payback. Don't make it complicated.

00:29:02

- Our names aren't on the tickets.

00:29:05

- I know. I'll take care of that.

00:29:09

- This moment is the first time

00:29:12

the real spirit of Christmas appears in the entire movie.

00:29:17

I don't love this movie, but I love this scene.

00:29:20

This scene is worth watching the movie for because

00:29:23

this is where the Christmas story actually appears.

00:29:27

Luther gives this incredible gift.

00:29:30

He gives this incredible gift to a guy

00:29:33

who not only cannot repay it.

00:29:36

It's a guy who has done nothing,

00:29:40

absolutely nothing to deserve it.

00:29:42

If anything, he's only ever made his life harder.

00:29:45

Guys, this is the Christmas story.

00:29:48

This is the story of God.

00:29:50

This is the story that God did on the very first Christmas.

00:29:54

He offered a gift, free of cost, no strings attached.

00:29:58

And we do our best to try to shove it off.

00:30:01

We try to find every which way.

00:30:04

I need to repay you.

00:30:05

My name's not on the ticket.

00:30:06

I can't accept this.

00:30:08

You know all these reasons we try to push off this gift

00:30:13

that God has been trying to give.

00:30:15

And He says this is a simple offering for you,

00:30:17

just receive it.

00:30:20

The Apostle Paul summarizes the Christmas story

00:30:23

in one sentence in the Book of Titus, chapter two.

00:30:27

And he talks about what gift is actually being offered.

00:30:30

Titus 2:11 says:

00:30:32

For the grace of God has appeared

00:30:35

that offers salvation to all people.

00:30:38

That's the Christmas story in one sentence,

00:30:41

the grace of God appears and offers salvation.

00:30:45

It saves something.

00:30:47

Christmas is an offering. It's a gift.

00:30:50

It's a gift of salvation for you and for me.

00:30:53

God offers His Son to a people

00:30:55

who have only ever made Hs life harder,

00:30:58

who cannot repay it, who are trying to find

00:31:01

every excuse not to receive it.

00:31:03

And He stands in front of us today and says,

00:31:07

"Don't make it complicated.

00:31:10

No strings attached. It's a gift.

00:31:13

If you don't use it, it will just go to waste."

00:31:18

And Christmas, this is a - what is the --

00:31:22

The verse in Titus says it's an appearance of the grace of God.

00:31:27

That's grace. Grace is His favor to the undeserving.

00:31:30

Christmas is a story about when grace becomes visible.

00:31:34

The word in the original language there is Epifanio.

00:31:37

It means to shine a light on.

00:31:39

It means literally to light up,

00:31:41

which is what makes something visible.

00:31:43

That's the story of the first Christmas.

00:31:45

That's the story of what Luther did.

00:31:47

He made the grace of God alive and visible.

00:31:52

It showed up on the scene.

00:31:53

If you want to find the things that you're looking for

00:31:56

in the Christmas season this year, that's your strategy.

00:32:00

Your strategy is grace.

00:32:02

Your strategy is to give grace as much as you can

00:32:06

to as many people as you can everywhere that you can,

00:32:10

because this is the December strategy

00:32:12

that delivers all those other things,

00:32:14

the comfort that you want,

00:32:16

the meaning that you want, the magic that you want.

00:32:19

It's all buried in giving grace, the way that God

00:32:24

gave grace on that very first Christmas.

00:32:26

You are invited to partner with God in making his grace visible,

00:32:32

in shining a light on who and what

00:32:34

grace really looks like and acts like.

00:32:37

And that's what we're invited into.

00:32:38

We're invited to offer favor to people who don't deserve it,

00:32:42

to give gifts to people who can't repay them.

00:32:46

If you went through your December

00:32:48

and that's what you did,

00:32:50

it would be the best December you've ever had.

00:32:53

That strategy would take you through this season

00:32:56

and you would have more memories, more comfort,

00:32:58

more magic, more meaning

00:33:00

than any December you have ever lived.

00:33:02

God appeared visibly and tangibly to offer

00:33:06

His grace to us on the first Christmas.

00:33:08

Listen to this classic passage from the Christmas story

00:33:11

out of Luke 2 and all the ways that God shows up

00:33:15

in visible, tangible ways.

00:33:17

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby,

00:33:20

keeping watch over their flocks at night.

00:33:22

An angel of the Lord appeared to them,

00:33:25

and the glory of the Lord shone around them,

00:33:27

and they were terrified.

00:33:29

But the angel said, "Do not be afraid.

00:33:31

I bring you good news that

00:33:32

will cause great joy for all the people.

00:33:34

Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.

00:33:38

He is the Messiah, the Lord.

00:33:39

This will be a sign to you.

00:33:40

You'll find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

00:33:44

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host

00:33:47

appeared with the angel praising God and saying,

00:33:51

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,

00:33:53

and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests."

00:33:59

When grace appears, God's peace, His favor,

00:34:04

His salvation appears.

00:34:05

You hear all the ways in the story

00:34:07

that His grace showed up on the scene.

00:34:09

Angels out of nowhere,

00:34:10

light, glory, intense glory from heaven,

00:34:13

a chorus of praise, a baby in a manger.

00:34:15

These are real things.

00:34:17

These are tangible, visible aspects of grace.

00:34:21

What if you decided that that's what you're going to do

00:34:24

everywhere you go this December.

00:34:26

To the office party, to the neighborhood gathering,

00:34:29

to the extended family get togethers,

00:34:30

that you're going to give grace in real,

00:34:33

visible, tangible ways.

00:34:37

What if you said to yourself,

00:34:39

"I know exactly what I'm here to do.

00:34:41

I'm not here to execute a tradition.

00:34:43

I'm not here to skirt the edges

00:34:45

and try to avoid all the people I don't want to talk to.

00:34:47

I'm actually an agent of the grace of God.

00:34:50

I've showed up on the scene to offer gifts

00:34:53

to people who don't deserve it,

00:34:56

and to give favor to bring

00:34:57

the peace of God into this situation."

00:35:00

Do you know that you're uniquely equipped for that?

00:35:02

That God has already gifted you?

00:35:03

He's already equipped you for some aspect of that.

00:35:07

1 Peter 4:10 says this: Each of you should use

00:35:10

whatever gift you have received to serve others

00:35:14

as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.

00:35:18

God's grace takes on all kinds of different forms

00:35:23

and the word for stewards there,

00:35:24

it's almost like a manager.

00:35:26

So you've got access to the grace of God,

00:35:28

and you get to decide, you're the manager of it,

00:35:31

you get to pass it out.

00:35:33

And if you do, you're going to find the things

00:35:35

that you want through the season too.

00:35:37

I was thinking about this because I mentioned, um,

00:35:40

I mentioned in the first service that

00:35:43

I have a gift of words, like, I like to write words.

00:35:46

So I'll sometimes write note cards to people

00:35:48

or encouraging, you know, notes to them.

00:35:50

And I got this little picture of the sudden appearance

00:35:54

of the grace of God because

00:35:55

nobody ever mails anything anymore.

00:35:57

Right? And every now and then

00:35:59

when you go to your mailbox and somebody has sent you

00:36:02

like an actual handwritten note, boom,

00:36:06

the grace of God could appear right in your hands.

00:36:09

I got that little picture of, like,

00:36:11

what if I took the time to do that this season?

00:36:14

What if I wrote one card every other day or whatever?

00:36:18

And I can imagine in mailboxes all over the place

00:36:22

all of a sudden, the grace of God appears for that person.

00:36:26

What if you're financially blessed

00:36:28

and you can pass out the grace of God somehow?

00:36:30

I have parents who are getting much older,

00:36:34

and they sure could use somebody nearby that had muscles

00:36:37

to help them get things out of their garage

00:36:39

or drag things into their house on occasion.

00:36:41

What if that's you?

00:36:42

What if you live near someone like that

00:36:44

and you could pass out the grace of God like that?

00:36:48

I have a friend with a gift of hospitality,

00:36:50

and something just happens when she brings people into her home,

00:36:54

she gets to pass out the grace of God

00:36:58

if she wants to, if she chooses to.

00:37:03

And if you do this through your December this year,

00:37:06

if you adopt this as your Christmas strategy,

00:37:08

as your December strategy, God will deliver

00:37:12

all the things that we go looking for

00:37:14

in all those other places.

00:37:16

Did you see when Luther gave the cruise

00:37:20

that five minutes before that

00:37:22

he was sitting in disappointment

00:37:23

and all of a sudden he felt comforted.

00:37:25

He felt better. Better after giving a costly gift.

00:37:30

All of a sudden, a night that was completely hollow

00:37:32

was filled with meaning.

00:37:36

His season began to take on a purpose

00:37:39

and even relationally, a friendship,

00:37:42

you could see the glimmer of it.

00:37:45

It started to appear out of nowhere.

00:37:48

And he got all of that because he gave

00:37:50

somebody a gift they didn't deserve.

00:37:52

He favored somebody that couldn't pay him back.

00:37:55

He actually passed out the grace of God,

00:37:58

and that's what we're invited into.

00:38:01

That is what your December could hold.

00:38:03

So this Christmas, you cannot give what you haven't received.

00:38:08

So first I want you to just receive the gift.

00:38:13

What did Luther say in the movie, I love it.

00:38:15

Don't make it complicated.

00:38:17

No strings attached. Just take it.

00:38:21

The grace of God has appeared to offer salvation to all people.

00:38:24

That's what Paul wrote.

00:38:26

And as you receive that, He equips you to give that out,

00:38:31

to pass it out to everyone around you.

00:38:34

I promise you, the best moments of your season

00:38:37

will be when grace comes onto the scene.

00:38:40

So if you want to agree with me,

00:38:42

we are going to stand together

00:38:44

and we're going to just commit this to God, if you will.

00:38:46

We're going to take a moment and sing some familiar words.

00:38:49

And when you hear these words at other times

00:38:52

on your Spotify playlist, in your car,

00:38:54

at a party, whatever, I want this to trigger

00:38:59

your agreement to make giving grace

00:39:02

your December strategy this year.

00:39:05

Remember, you're an agent of God's grace

00:39:08

and you're invited to pass it out all season long.

00:39:45

- We sing it as a prayer.

00:40:52

- Amen. Y'all have a great week.

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