What’s Your Christmas Strategy? | How to Get The Most Out of Your Christmas Season (Christmas with the Kranks)

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads Anywhere.

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My name is Jen. So glad that you're here.

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We just had Thanksgiving week.

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I don't know how yours went, but I have a feeling

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we have something for you today called Christmas Spirit.

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I'm not talking about

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the rush to get up your Christmas decorations.

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I'm talking about what it looks like to actually

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have a God and a Savior who wants to encourage you

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and be close to you this Christmas season.

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So we're glad you're joining us,

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whether you're here for the first time

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or you're here with us on a regular basis.

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We are going to worship together now.

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- Come on, sing with me.

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- Jesus, you are everything.

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You are everything, King Jesus.

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Worthy of all of our attention.

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And we just freely admit

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our attention gets distracted constantly.

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Our attention gets fractured constantly.

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But home for my heart and my soul is You.

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And so I came in this place today

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to reset my attention fully on Yo,

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put myself back to where I belong

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and that's with eyes focused on You.

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Thank you Jesus that those words we just sang

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are only true about You and no one else.

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You have my heart.

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You have my attention now, God.

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I praise You and bless You. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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So good to sing together.

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We kind of got our feet wet with Christmas songs.

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I'm not fully there yet because it's not December.

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So you know you can judge me.

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But next week will be all Christmas songs.

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We'll get into this whole season fully swinging together.

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So, hey, right now, why don't you turn to somebody,

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you can still say Happy Thanksgiving.

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Say, glad you're here and then you have a seat.

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- Hey, I am Jen. Welcome to Crossroads Anywhere.

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If this is your first time joining us

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or you are a regular,

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we want you to get connected around here.

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And one thing that we are doing this week

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is our monthly nights of prophetic prayer

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this Thursday night.

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When is the last time that someone has prayed for you,

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like out loud, prayed for you and encouraged you?

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That is what Thursday night is all about.

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What it looks like is you join a zoom link

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and you basically get in line virtually,

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and then when it is your turn,

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you will jump into a zoom room with two other peopl

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e who will ask God, what do you specifically

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need to hear from Him and pray over you.

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It is a beautiful experience,

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and while you're waiting in that line,

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we've got teaching for you and worship. It is awesome.

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So we would love to encourage you this season

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and join us this Thursday.

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Go to Crossroads.net/Anywhere to RSVP

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so then we can send you the Zoom link.

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Also, if you are new around here,

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something about our community is we love helping people.

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We just packed 14,000 Thanksgiving boxes

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for families in need, and now we're already

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showing up for families for their Christmas Gift Drive.

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So thank you for being a part of that.

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If you want to be a part of what we do around here,

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you can go to crossroads.net/give.

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We are not about taking your money for ourselves.

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We're about giving it out to other people.

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In the past couple years, we have had

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Christmas at the Movies, a series we do in December

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because we like to take the things that we already do

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traditionally, like watching Christmas movies,

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and we have found that a lot of those actually have

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some spiritual lessons that we can pull from them.

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So we are excited for our teaching pastor Alli Patterson

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today to share with us one of her favorite movies.

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Thanks for joining us.

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[music] Christmas at the Movies is perfect with some coffee.

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Don't need that ring-a-ling,

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ding-a-dong, ding-a-ding talking.

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So if we see the glow of a cellular telephone,

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we'll take 'em and we'll break 'em

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and we won't say we were mistaken. You've been warned.

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Merry Christmas.

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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,

00:31:45

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,

00:31:50

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.

00:32:22

- 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

00:32:42

of Christmas, save our money and take a cruise.

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Therefore, I will not be participating

00:32:49

in the usual holiday rituals.

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

00:32:56

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

00:32:59

nor will I be here for the office party.

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I am not angry, and I will not yell humbug

00:33:09

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,

00:33:31

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

00:33:37

by myself finishing like six dozen cookies

00:33:41

when everybody else started with me

00:33:43

and I had what my kids affectionately referred to

00:33:45

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

00:33:49

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

00:33:52

I thought this was supposed to be fun.

00:33:54

We started this whole thing together.

00:33:56

What happened to everybody?

00:33:57

You just licked some stuff and you ran away.

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And I'm sitting here like a chump,

00:34:01

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

00:34:04

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

00:34:06

over the sugar cookie process.

00:34:09

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

00:34:11

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

00:34:14

We are not doing it.

00:34:16

Have you ever had a moment like this?

00:34:18

Yeah. Because why?

00:34:21

There's dissonance, there's a gap,

00:34:23

and we feel the gap in moments like this.

00:34:25

Like this was supposed to be something,

00:34:27

and it didn't turn out to be that.

00:34:30

And so we try to solve this gap

00:34:32

by just blocking out those parts.

00:34:35

I think in part this is self-preservation.

00:34:37

We know, um, you know,

00:34:39

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

00:34:44

And if this thing isn't going to matter

00:34:45

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

00:34:48

And some of us are really prone to

00:34:50

this kind of strategy about the holidays,

00:34:53

because we have a lot of gaps between

00:34:55

what it should be and what the reality actually is.

00:35:00

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

00:35:05

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

00:35:10

we sense that it should be something else.

00:35:12

We actually have a God that says things in His Word

00:35:16

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

00:35:24

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,

00:35:31

the activities we choose to do in our life,

00:35:33

we want the conviction that they matter.

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

00:35:39

By the way, the the cookie meltdown I had,

00:35:43

the next year rolled around and they discovered

00:35:45

I was absolutely serious, did not buy

00:35:47

a thing to do the sugar cookies.

00:35:49

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

00:35:52

So they promised me, promised me they were in

00:35:55

from beginning to end.

00:35:56

And we actually had a new tradition that was born

00:35:58

called the Paterson Annual Cookie Day.

00:36:02

That's right, Paterson annual Cookie Day

00:36:04

now happens every year.

00:36:05

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

00:36:08

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

00:36:11

You know, we're in this together.

00:36:13

So every year we decorate cookies.

00:36:14

And if you want to follow me on Instagram,

00:36:16

you can vote on our cookies because we post.

00:36:19

Everybody picks the best one they decorated.

00:36:21

And you can pick the winner.

00:36:23

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

00:36:28

How did you know? It was the pizza.

00:36:30

I'm not even kidding.

00:36:31

We were pressed about this because this was like

00:36:33

the blob at the end of the cookie dough.

00:36:36

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

00:36:38

And one of my sons grabbed it, decorated it,

00:36:40

and posted this as his cookie.

00:36:43

You liked it. It's a pizza.

00:36:45

It's not even a Christmas cookie.

00:36:46

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

00:36:49

Super annoyed. Anyway, we'll see.

00:36:52

Now I get it, I get it.

00:36:53

If you all are voting, it doesn't even

00:36:56

have to be a Christmas cookie, apparently.

00:36:57

So we do Patterson Annual Cookie Day

00:37:01

because of my little meltdown,

00:37:02

and we have a lot of fun with it.

00:37:04

But the Kranks try the block it out strategy,

00:37:08

but they keep running into the third strategy

00:37:12

of the people all around them.

00:37:13

Things get really messy because a lot of people

00:37:16

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

00:37:19

I call this one Lock It In.

00:37:22

It's Christmas tradition above everything else.

00:37:25

This is it.

00:37:26

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

00:37:30

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

00:37:34

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

00:37:35

the same way every single year.

00:37:38

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

00:37:40

I have someone in my life like this.

00:37:42

Same gifts to the neighbors,

00:37:44

wears the same earrings on Christmas Eve,

00:37:46

goes to the same Christmas service,

00:37:48

has the same menu for Christmas dinner.

00:37:50

Takes the same picture of her kids in the same place

00:37:53

on the stairs every single year.

00:37:57

Nora has a vest that appears in the movie

00:37:59

that cracks me up. She has her Christmas vest.

00:38:02

That's one of her traditions.

00:38:04

And they start to upset people all over town

00:38:07

because they start skipping Christmas.

00:38:10

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

00:38:13

and they're really bothering them.

00:38:15

Let's see. I made a list.

00:38:16

There were no annual Christmas Eve party,

00:38:18

no Christmas cards, no Boy Scout Christmas tree,

00:38:22

no police department calendar they always buy.

00:38:25

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

00:38:28

And the people around them are really annoyed

00:38:31

and they get -- Things get really real

00:38:33

when they refuse to put up Frosty

00:38:36

for the annual neighborhood decorating tradition.

00:38:41

- Nora Krank, we're here for Frosty.

00:38:54

- Hello. - Luther.

00:38:55

- Hey, babe. - They're here.

00:38:57

Who?

00:38:58

Vic Frohmeyer, Wes Trogdon, Ned Becker

00:39:01

and a gang of their kids.

00:39:02

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

00:39:06

- Well, they can't have him.

00:39:07

- Nora, please give us Frosty.

00:39:10

- Oh, um. Honey, where is Frosty?

00:39:16

- He's down behind the furnace. Why?

00:39:18

- They won't go away.

00:39:19

- Well, don't give them Frosty.

00:39:20

- You and Luther do not have to do anything.

00:39:24

Just leave Frosty on the front porch.

00:39:27

We'll put him up for you.

00:39:29

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

00:39:30

- Absolutely not.

00:39:32

- Oh, please. Luther. - No.

00:39:34

- Luther. - We'll come back later.

00:39:37

- And Frosty better be here.

00:39:39

- Oh, they're gonna come back.

00:39:44

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

00:39:46

These neighbors are totally out of control.

00:39:49

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

00:39:51

and I get real upset when this goes down

00:39:54

because they are acting crazy.

00:39:56

But some of us who are like super tradition people,

00:39:59

we don't understand that maybe something close to that

00:40:03

is how people in your life think of you.

00:40:07

A little bit rigid, a little bit crazy

00:40:09

when the traditions that you really want to happen

00:40:13

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

00:40:16

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

00:40:21

Now her daughter calls from the Peace Corps

00:40:24

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

00:40:28

And Nora tries to put all the traditions

00:40:30

back together real fast.

00:40:31

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

00:40:39

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

00:40:42

A hickory honey ham.

00:40:44

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

00:40:46

Thank you very much.

00:40:47

Merry Christmas. - Merry Christmas.

00:41:23

- Happy holidays.

00:41:27

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

00:41:30

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

00:41:34

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

00:41:36

It was what they always had.

00:41:37

That's what her daughter would expect.

00:41:39

And that's what she wanted to give her.

00:41:41

I think we're looking for something, though.

00:41:44

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

00:41:47

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

00:41:49

We're looking for something.

00:41:51

And I think what we're looking for.

00:41:52

I thought a lot about this, and I think

00:41:54

it comes down to one word.

00:41:55

I think what we're looking for is comfort.

00:41:59

I think the traditions that we hold and keep

00:42:01

that are really dear to us,

00:42:02

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

00:42:05

is because they comfort us.

00:42:06

They reassure us that, yes, another year has passed

00:42:10

and I'm still okay.

00:42:11

I think we're reaching for something that actually

00:42:15

the nature and the character of God provide for us.

00:42:19

And God Himself is called the Comforter

00:42:22

and His Spirit is called the comforter,

00:42:24

and He is called the God of all comfort.

00:42:27

And I think when we execute our traditions,

00:42:30

we're looking for comfort in a world

00:42:32

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

00:42:35

a little offbeat, and for some reason,

00:42:38

during the Christmas season, we go for our traditions

00:42:41

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

00:42:45

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

00:42:50

at least for this one little slice of time.

00:42:53

I had a really personal interaction with God.

00:42:57

It was not about a Christmas tradition,

00:42:59

but it was about something very, very similar.

00:43:01

So I started thinking about it.

00:43:02

It was about when my oldest son was getting ready

00:43:05

to leave for college a couple of years ago,

00:43:07

and I was worrying.

00:43:09

I found myself getting anxious and kind of thinking

00:43:11

a lot about and kind of worrying about,

00:43:13

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

00:43:19

Um, that's weird, you know?

00:43:20

And I was kind of wrestling through the thoughts

00:43:22

of all the things that we do together.

00:43:24

I always say that we travel as a herd,

00:43:26

like we like to be together.

00:43:27

We have things that we do together.

00:43:29

We have rhythms we keep and disciplines we have together

00:43:31

and just places we like to go together.

00:43:33

And I kept turning over this idea, like,

00:43:36

what happens when one of us is missing?

00:43:38

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

00:43:41

I don't want it to change like that.

00:43:43

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

00:43:47

that I was in in the Bible around that time

00:43:49

I happened into a part of Scripture

00:43:52

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

00:43:55

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

00:43:58

in the Old Testament, they had been enslaved

00:44:01

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

00:44:04

and He promises them a new life.

00:44:06

But they spend a generation in the wilderness.

00:44:08

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

00:44:11

And the way that God was providing food for them

00:44:14

was every day there would be a substance

00:44:17

that would be rained down on the camp

00:44:20

that they could make bread out of,

00:44:21

and it was called manna.

00:44:23

And so God would provide this every single day.

00:44:25

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

00:44:30

where He says only take enough for today.

00:44:34

He specifically gives that instruction, and he says

00:44:36

if you collect more than what you need for today,

00:44:39

it's going to rot in your hands.

00:44:42

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

00:44:46

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

00:44:49

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

00:44:55

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

00:44:58

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

00:45:02

And through that story, I kind of realized

00:45:04

at that point in my life I needed that encouragement.

00:45:08

I needed that challenge, like desperately,

00:45:10

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

00:45:14

the stuff that we were about,

00:45:17

was what I should be holding on to.

00:45:19

And instead, I realized as I was reading that story

00:45:22

that God was pushing them to hold on to Him,

00:45:26

to the provider, to the comforter,

00:45:28

to the one that was giving the stuff.

00:45:31

Not the external act of collecting it,

00:45:33

not even the stuff itself.

00:45:35

They were to be confident in God.

00:45:39

And this was really hard because so much

00:45:42

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

00:45:46

and we want to hold on to those.

00:45:48

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

00:45:51

the more, the harder you hold on to those,

00:45:54

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

00:45:59

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

00:46:02

as comforter, as provider,

00:46:03

as the one who always has more good to give.

00:46:08

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

00:46:12

They try to force these traditions.

00:46:14

They try to clutch what they've always done.

00:46:16

So they do this in the movie.

00:46:18

And the daughter, she says,

00:46:19

"I'm coming home from the Peace Corps.

00:46:21

I'm bringing my new fiance."

00:46:23

That all happened really fast, by the way.

00:46:25

And, you know, she's coming back

00:46:27

and they try to put all these traditions back together.

00:46:30

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

00:46:33

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

00:46:35

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

00:46:38

to be, you know, touched.

00:46:40

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

00:46:44

And they're in their annual Christmas Eve party,

00:46:47

which is one of the traditions they try to hurry up

00:46:49

and throw back together.

00:46:51

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

00:46:55

None of the strategies have worked.

00:46:57

The season wasn't magical.

00:47:00

Now the traditions feel pretty empty.

00:47:03

And he couldn't even go on his cruise.

00:47:05

The skipping Christmas didn't really work,

00:47:07

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

00:47:10

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

00:47:13

that lives across the street.

00:47:14

Now Walt is his nemesis.

00:47:17

It's like the foil in the movie.

00:47:18

Walt is kind of a jerk.

00:47:20

Every time he sees Luther, he calls him names.

00:47:23

They have this, like, banter back and forth.

00:47:25

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

00:47:28

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

00:47:32

He's not even at the party.

00:47:33

All the other neighbors have come.

00:47:35

He's across the street.

00:47:36

Luther catches a glimpse of him through his kitchen window.

00:47:40

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

00:47:48

[party background noise]

00:48:04

- Um, could I come in for a minute?

00:48:10

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

00:48:18

so we're not taking the cruise.

00:48:20

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

00:48:27

Flight leaves at 12 noon tomorrow.

00:48:29

You got to be there two hours ahead of time.

00:48:32

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

00:48:35

The works. It's a dream vacation.

00:48:42

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

00:48:46

- I didn't purchase the travel insurance,

00:48:49

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

00:48:52

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

00:48:56

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

00:48:59

- Bennie said he might stop by tomorrow.

00:49:02

- And we couldn't leave the cat.

00:49:05

- This is from us to you.

00:49:07

This is a sincere, heartfelt, no strings attached

00:49:12

Christmas offering to two very selfless people

00:49:17

who are, at this moment,

00:49:19

having a very difficult time looking for an excuse.

00:49:25

- Bennie did say he might stop by.

00:49:30

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

00:49:37

- Look, I've got everything right here.

00:49:39

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

00:49:41

I've got a brochure.

00:49:43

- Uh, what's the cost?

00:49:45

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

00:49:48

- This is a simple gift, Walt.

00:49:51

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

00:50:00

- Our names aren't on the tickets.

00:50:02

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

00:50:07

- This moment is the first time

00:50:10

the real spirit of Christmas appears in the entire movie.

00:50:15

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

00:50:18

This scene is worth watching the movie for because

00:50:21

this is where the Christmas story actually appears.

00:50:25

Luther gives this incredible gift.

00:50:28

He gives this incredible gift to a guy

00:50:31

who not only cannot repay it.

00:50:34

It's a guy who has done nothing,

00:50:38

absolutely nothing to deserve it.

00:50:39

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

00:50:43

Guys, this is the Christmas story.

00:50:46

This is the story of God.

00:50:48

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

00:50:52

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

00:50:56

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

00:50:59

We try to find every which way.

00:51:02

I need to repay you.

00:51:03

My name's not on the ticket.

00:51:04

I can't accept this.

00:51:06

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

00:51:11

that God has been trying to give.

00:51:12

And He says this is a simple offering for you,

00:51:15

just receive it.

00:51:18

The Apostle Paul summarizes the Christmas story

00:51:21

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

00:51:25

And he talks about what gift is actually being offered.

00:51:28

Titus 2:11 says:

00:51:30

For the grace of God has appeared

00:51:32

that offers salvation to all people.

00:51:36

That's the Christmas story in one sentence,

00:51:39

the grace of God appears and offers salvation.

00:51:43

It saves something.

00:51:45

Christmas is an offering. It's a gift.

00:51:48

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

00:51:51

God offers His Son to a people

00:51:53

who have only ever made Hs life harder,

00:51:56

who cannot repay it, who are trying to find

00:51:59

every excuse not to receive it.

00:52:01

And He stands in front of us today and says,

00:52:05

"Don't make it complicated.

00:52:07

No strings attached. It's a gift.

00:52:11

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

00:52:16

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

00:52:20

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

00:52:25

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

00:52:28

Christmas is a story about when grace becomes visible.

00:52:32

The word in the original language there is Epifanio.

00:52:35

It means to shine a light on.

00:52:37

It means literally to light up,

00:52:39

which is what makes something visible.

00:52:41

That's the story of the first Christmas.

00:52:43

That's the story of what Luther did.

00:52:45

He made the grace of God alive and visible.

00:52:49

It showed up on the scene.

00:52:51

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

00:52:54

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

00:52:58

Your strategy is grace.

00:53:00

Your strategy is to give grace as much as you can

00:53:04

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

00:53:08

because this is the December strategy

00:53:10

that delivers all those other things,

00:53:12

the comfort that you want,

00:53:14

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

00:53:17

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

00:53:22

gave grace on that very first Christmas.

00:53:24

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

00:53:30

in shining a light on who and what

00:53:32

grace really looks like and acts like.

00:53:34

And that's what we're invited into.

00:53:36

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

00:53:39

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

00:53:44

If you went through your December

00:53:46

and that's what you did,

00:53:48

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

00:53:51

That strategy would take you through this season

00:53:54

and you would have more memories, more comfort,

00:53:56

more magic, more meaning

00:53:58

than any December you have ever lived.

00:54:00

God appeared visibly and tangibly to offer

00:54:03

His grace to us on the first Christmas.

00:54:06

Listen to this classic passage from the Christmas story

00:54:09

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

00:54:13

in visible, tangible ways.

00:54:15

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby,

00:54:18

keeping watch over their flocks at night.

00:54:20

An angel of the Lord appeared to them,

00:54:23

and the glory of the Lord shone around them,

00:54:25

and they were terrified.

00:54:27

But the angel said, "Do not be afraid.

00:54:29

I bring you good news that

00:54:30

will cause great joy for all the people.

00:54:32

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

00:54:36

He is the Messiah, the Lord.

00:54:37

This will be a sign to you.

00:54:38

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

00:54:41

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host

00:54:45

appeared with the angel praising God and saying,

00:54:49

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,

00:54:51

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

00:54:57

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

00:55:01

His salvation appears.

00:55:03

You hear all the ways in the story

00:55:05

that His grace showed up on the scene.

00:55:07

Angels out of nowhere,

00:55:08

light, glory, intense glory from heaven,

00:55:11

a chorus of praise, a baby in a manger.

00:55:13

These are real things.

00:55:15

These are tangible, visible aspects of grace.

00:55:19

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

00:55:22

everywhere you go this December.

00:55:24

To the office party, to the neighborhood gathering,

00:55:27

to the extended family get togethers,

00:55:28

that you're going to give grace in real,

00:55:31

visible, tangible ways.

00:55:35

What if you said to yourself,

00:55:37

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

00:55:39

I'm not here to execute a tradition.

00:55:41

I'm not here to skirt the edges

00:55:43

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

00:55:45

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

00:55:48

I've showed up on the scene to offer gifts

00:55:51

to people who don't deserve it,

00:55:53

and to give favor to bring

00:55:55

the peace of God into this situation."

00:55:58

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

00:56:00

That God has already gifted you?

00:56:01

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

00:56:05

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

00:56:08

whatever gift you have received to serve others

00:56:12

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

00:56:16

God's grace takes on all kinds of different forms

00:56:21

and the word for stewards there,

00:56:22

it's almost like a manager.

00:56:24

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

00:56:26

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

00:56:29

you get to pass it out.

00:56:30

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

00:56:33

that you want through the season too.

00:56:35

I was thinking about this because I mentioned, um,

00:56:38

I mentioned in the first service that

00:56:41

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

00:56:44

So I'll sometimes write note cards to people

00:56:46

or encouraging, you know, notes to them.

00:56:48

And I got this little picture of the sudden appearance

00:56:52

of the grace of God because

00:56:53

nobody ever mails anything anymore.

00:56:55

Right? And every now and then

00:56:57

when you go to your mailbox and somebody has sent you

00:57:00

like an actual handwritten note, boom,

00:57:04

the grace of God could appear right in your hands.

00:57:07

I got that little picture of, like,

00:57:09

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

00:57:12

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

00:57:16

And I can imagine in mailboxes all over the place

00:57:20

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

00:57:24

What if you're financially blessed

00:57:26

and you can pass out the grace of God somehow?

00:57:28

I have parents who are getting much older,

00:57:32

and they sure could use somebody nearby that had muscles

00:57:35

to help them get things out of their garage

00:57:37

or drag things into their house on occasion.

00:57:39

What if that's you?

00:57:40

What if you live near someone like that

00:57:42

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

00:57:46

I have a friend with a gift of hospitality,

00:57:48

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

00:57:52

she gets to pass out the grace of God

00:57:56

if she wants to, if she chooses to.

00:58:01

And if you do this through your December this year,

00:58:03

if you adopt this as your Christmas strategy,

00:58:06

as your December strategy, God will deliver

00:58:10

all the things that we go looking for

00:58:12

in all those other places.

00:58:14

Did you see when Luther gave the cruise

00:58:17

that five minutes before that

00:58:20

he was sitting in disappointment

00:58:21

and all of a sudden he felt comforted.

00:58:23

He felt better. Better after giving a costly gift.

00:58:28

All of a sudden, a night that was completely hollow

00:58:30

was filled with meaning.

00:58:34

His season began to take on a purpose

00:58:37

and even relationally, a friendship,

00:58:40

you could see the glimmer of it.

00:58:43

It started to appear out of nowhere.

00:58:45

And he got all of that because he gave

00:58:48

somebody a gift they didn't deserve.

00:58:50

He favored somebody that couldn't pay him back.

00:58:53

He actually passed out the grace of God,

00:58:56

and that's what we're invited into.

00:58:59

That is what your December could hold.

00:59:01

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

00:59:06

So first I want you to just receive the gift.

00:59:10

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

00:59:13

Don't make it complicated.

00:59:15

No strings attached. Just take it.

00:59:18

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

00:59:22

That's what Paul wrote.

00:59:24

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

00:59:29

to pass it out to everyone around you.

00:59:32

I promise you, the best moments of your season

00:59:35

will be when grace comes onto the scene.

00:59:37

So if you want to agree with me,

00:59:40

we are going to stand together

00:59:42

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

00:59:44

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

00:59:47

And when you hear these words at other times

00:59:50

on your Spotify playlist, in your car,

00:59:52

at a party, whatever, I want this to trigger

00:59:56

your agreement to make giving grace

01:00:00

your December strategy this year.

01:00:03

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

01:00:06

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

01:00:43

- We sing it as a prayer.

01:01:50

- Amen. Y'all have a great week.

01:01:54

- Amen. That was such a good reminder for me.

01:01:56

I tend to be a little on the prideful side,

01:01:59

and it's such a good reminder to give grace this season.

01:02:03

So we're glad that you joined us today,

01:02:05

and we hope to see you the rest of the month

01:02:08

for our series on Christmas at the Movies.

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