The Dark Side of Christmas | Kingdom

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Welcome to the Kingdom Podcast. What does it mean to seek first the Kingdom of God? Well, we're going to talk about that today and all kinds of things related to it.

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I'm your host, John Moffitt. I'm the pastor of Grace Reform Church in Springhill, Tennessee. I'm also one of the hosts of Theocast, which this podcast is a part of that network, and you can learn more about that and the community that we're building and the app all at theocast .org.

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And let's go ahead and jump into it. I'm sure you've seen the title of this, The Dark Side of Christmas, and some might think that I'm a

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Grinch, and that's probably true, but that's not what this is about. In our culture and really around the world,

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Christmas has become a time of joy. It's the greatest time of the year. It's the happiest time of the year, but that's not necessarily true for everyone.

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We project that to be true. We kind of want to reprieve in a vacation from suffering and reality and be able to have a moment of rest from all of that.

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But for some, that's just not the case. For those of you who have lost a loved one, or are about to lose a loved one, or news of cancer, or for those of you that don't fit the social norms of celebration, right?

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You're not married, you don't have children. These are all really complicated situations when it comes around to holidays, specifically when it comes down to Christmas.

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And the holiday that's supposed to produce joy really feels like it just exacerbates depression and anger and sadness.

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And so I just wanted to speak to those people and encourage you and really let you know that you're not alone, that you don't have to fake being happy this

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Christmas. There's also nothing wrong with being happy and understanding that there is a temporalness to our world, and that at times

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God does provide for us a sense of relief, a taste of Eden, really, a taste of the new heavens and the new earth, where the church can gather around each other and celebrate their

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King. And even though Jesus wasn't born in December, it's fine. But celebrate the work of Christ on our behalf.

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But it's those traditions that come up and bite us where we feel alone, we feel less than.

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And it seems like on TV, on the Hallmark Channel, because everything is always perfect and the fantasy always works out and it's a fairy tale, or on social media, everybody seems to be having the perfect Christmas and the perfect Christmas cards, and everybody has a smile on.

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But deep down inside of us, we know there's something wrong. We know that it's not necessarily true, and we always project everybody else is perfect and everything else is good, and we're the ones that are wrong.

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And so we either pretend, or we medicate, or we hide, or we become angry, we become bitter.

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That's why it's the dark side of Christmas. I think many times there is a confusion between celebrating and tasting

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Eden, and then wanting Eden to be a reality now, wanting the new heavens and the earth now, or expecting that that is the norm.

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Expecting that there's supposed to be equality amongst everyone, and that God is promising that if you do your part, then

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God will do His, and your life will turn out to be this wonderful, whatever

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Disneyland fantasy that you have in your mind about what your life is supposed to be.

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Well, it's not. And so what do we do about this? How do we handle this? What do we do with our frustration?

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Part of this podcast, the reason why I started it, is to have conversations that are biblical, and one of those is the reality that when

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God created the original world, it was designed to be in fellowship with Him, and to glorify Him, and enjoy

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Him, and enjoy His creation. Everything we see, taste, hear, experience, emotions, physically, everything was supposed to be an enjoyment of the

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Father, and glorifying Him, and obviously that whole thing got turned upside down because of sin, and continues to just pummel down into darkness.

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And that's not without hope, though, because the hope is restoration. So that makes us exiles, right?

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As Peter says in 1 Peter, that we become elect exiles, those who are chosen by God's love, but yet we live in a world that we don't fit in.

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And it's not only we don't fit in physically, we don't fit in it spiritually, meaning that we don't have the same values, and we don't hold that this is all there is, like basically enjoy life now and then die.

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That's the exact opposite. We suffer now and then live, but the world has put it into our heads that we live now and suffer later,

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I guess, somehow, or there is no suffering. You live now and then you die. But Peter and Paul make it very clear that we're supposed to set our hope fully on that which is to come, therefore, we have a different perspective.

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We become ambassadors, we become light, we become the temple of God, the way in which it's described that Paul and Peter both use this image that we house the very power of God within us, the spirit within us, and from us, we bring comfort and joy and a healing to the world around us.

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And so when you meet someone this year, or if it's even you, but if you meet someone this year that's on the dark side of Christmas, you get to be that light to them.

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Not that you're going to fix their circumstances or bring back to life that which they have lost, but you get to bring to them the presence of Christ through your love, through your generosity, through your patience, through you carrying their burden.

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And hopefully this podcast will be that for you as well. As you hear this, it will motivate you and encourage you to look past your own pain, about your own circumstances, and realize that we can't keep listening to the fairytale lie of this world that if we have it our way, or if it was the right way, or if it was fair, or if God was doing

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His part, then our life would look better and different. We're in a war. The world is corrupt, and it's falling apart, and it's under the power of the evil one.

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Paul literally calls him the God of this world. There are powers that be that want to destroy the image bearers of God.

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And so every year when we come to celebrate the new birth of Christ, do you remember when Jesus was born?

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What did Pharaoh want to do? He wanted to kill all of the little children. Why? Because he didn't want there to be one that was more powerful than him.

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Murder and the destruction centered around Jesus' birth has been going on for 2 ,000 years.

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And what gives us hope is that Jesus Christ made it to the cross, and not only made it to the cross, but rose from the grave and is now seated at the right hand of the

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Father. That story isn't for coloring books that we might have some moral value to teach our children.

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It is the hope of our season. For those of us that live in the dark side of Christmas, the light side is looking unto

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Jesus who loved us and cares for us, and no matter what happens will never let us go.

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And the world that we live in, the sinking ship, is but a vapor. It's but a shadow of what is to come.

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And yes, there is much to enjoy about this world. It's beautiful in its resemblance of God.

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It resembles God's glory. But our experience in this world is far from what it's supposed to be.

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And so if you go through this holiday and you feel the weight and the destruction and you feel the sadness of it,

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Paul says there's one thing we can have joy in, and that joy cannot be taken away, and it can be a full joy.

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And that is the joy of our salvation, the joy of knowing who Jesus Christ is, the joy of our adoption, of knowing that God loves us and that we can celebrate that no matter if we have cancer or someone's died or if we're suffering persecution, we can look to the hope of the love of Christ and know that the world around us that has the smiles on and that wears the sweaters and gives the presents, behind all of that they too understand that this is a dark world and this is a dark season.

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And even though we all sing happy songs and we pretend as if nothing is wrong, no matter how much frosting you put on this world, the inside of it is putrid and it cannot be covered.

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The only solution resides inside of you, that is the hope of Christ and the gospel.

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And as it comes out of you by the way that we love and we care and share this good news, then this season really can be a season of joy.

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It can really be a season of hope, not because we've seen the world change or that you got everything that you ever had wished for, but you already have everything that you need.

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You have Christ and the inheritance of Christ waiting for you and all that you think that your heart needs now,

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God has for you there. And so we find the joy of taking the hope of Christ not only for ourselves, but for each other.

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If you're too exhausted and it's too much, my encouragement to you is find a church that will preach to you the hope of Christ this year, and that you can be reminded once again that in the garden everything fell apart, but in the cross everything was made right.

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But the fullness of the restoration does not happen until it returns again. And while we wait, we take the light of this truth into a very dark world, and a very dark world that smiles and pretends, and when the reality sets in, we'll be there to give them the only hope that matters, which is

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Jesus Christ. So for those of us that are about to go through the dark side of Christmas, we actually have the light.

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We have that which cannot fade, and no one can take it away.

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And that is a gift that is far more significant than anything else that you might receive this year.

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My encouragement to you is look to Christ, make your heart merry in what He has done for you.

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Don't let the culture dictate where your joy comes from, and don't let them steal it, for it is safe in the arms of Christ.

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May you have the joy of Christ this season, and we'll have a new episode and all new information.