What Christmas is All About

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Lord God, we thank you for this time of the year. We pray, Lord, that we are able to hear the people who are here today, the people who are associated in one form or another with Thrive, that we would be able to be a little light in the darkness of this time where there is so much anxiety, so much stress, so much frustration on the roads, at the malls, in so many areas of life. And we're asking, Lord, that we would show your joy, your love, your peace this Advent and Christmas season. And that we would be able to help be a little more like what you intended from the beginning in the original Christmas, in your first coming, Lord, in your humble birth. And that you would give us a heartfelt, deep, abiding sense of what that is this year. Now, I pray that you do this not just here, but across all of Southwest Florida, through your church both here and around the world today, that we are able to have and conspire together, work together towards the world that you have so loved, towards the kind of world you wanted to be, and to draw more people to you through the whole process. All this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So, the Advent Conspiracy. And we are going to look at these four things over the next four weeks. This is just the introduction. We're going to talk about worshipping fully next week. What does that look like? How we can, during this season, instead of being so caught up in everything else, to worship fully. And then, yeah, I know, this might not be a popular series, because I'm going to talk about spending less. The kids are not here, so... I know, but it's like, we've got to look at that as well. Giving more. Now, how do you do that with spending less? We'll talk about that. And then, finally, loving all. So, those are kind of the themes in the next four weeks. Today, we're going to look at just the overall theme of this, and we're going to be starting to look at how Christmas can be revolutionary with an introduction to kind of our relationship with money and possessions. I know. I know. So, this may be one of the least popular messages I give in all of 2018 today. It is the day, and you happen to be here. Let's look at what Jesus says in what was called his Sermon on the Mount, when he sat down and taught his disciples and this crowd. This is what Jesus said. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is a lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Now, from this passage, we're gonna learn three things. How money can blind us, how money also reveals what really controls us. And finally, how we can break that power of money in our lives and live much more freely and much more joyfully. How money blinds us. Now, that comes out in that middle section of this passage and where Jesus says, the eye is a lamp of the body, right? Now, this is kind of the metaphor he's using. You know how it is. If the lights are on in whatever room you're in, you can kind of navigate through the furniture, through whatever, right? You turn off. If we would turn off all the lights in this room right now and you had to walk outside of the exit signs, it is very dark and you'd probably stumble over a few chairs. Now, Jesus is saying, but what happens if your eye is dark? That is your eye is blind. No matter how much the lights are on around you, you're going to stumble around and not be able to see where you're going. And you're going like, what has this to do with money? You said it had to do with money. It's because right beforehand, he talks about don't store for yourselves treasures on earth. And right after he's saying, you can't serve two masters. It's like two slices of money with blindness in the middle. Money can blind you. Now, how? Have you ever noticed it kind of blinds you to its own power? Have you ever noticed nobody thinks they're greedy? You know, this time of the year, the person that we think is greedy is called Ebenezer Scrooge. And we look at him and we go like, yeah, of course he was so greedy in the Christmas carol, but I would have given that raise to Bob Cratchit a long time ago and save tiny Tim. That's how we think. No one ever thinks if I would do a sermon series on the seven deadly sins, you know, people would say, yeah, anger. Got to be there for that one. Lus...