Ugly Christmas Sweater
Week 1: Ugly Thoughts
PASTOR TIMOTHY PORTER
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 // Philippians 4:4-8 // Luke 2:8-11
INTRODUCTION:
Today we begin a mini series for the Christmas season called Ugly Christmas Sweater.
Maybe you have a tradition like many people of having a festive party with friends and everyone choosing the ugliest, most obnoxious, or gaudy sweater they can find.
This party usually involves jingle bells, candy canes, lights, puff paint, ribbons, and bows.
It’s fun to drink cider and eat cookies while looking as goofy / silly as possible. It’s now become a bit of a cultural phenomenon.
Though there are people who love to wear ugly Christmas sweaters each year at parties, what I have found is that some people choose to embrace ugly attitudes along with them.
Christmas is meant to be a time of joy and happiness based upon the birth of our Savior, Jesus.
Too often, this fact gets lost in ugly thoughts, words, motives, and actions.
This Christmas, things can change and you can celebrate Jesus in the way you think, speak, and live toward the people around you and the ones you love.
? The war of life is fought in the battlefield of the mind. The things we do are first thoughts we think.
?We are wired for negativity, but God can rewire us for thoughts of joy.
When we allow God to work within us, and when we choose to focus on good things, Christmas will be Merry and Bright.
?A good question to ask about that stuff in your life is, "Where did it come from?
How did I take that out on somebody who didn't even do anything to me"?
Usually, where it comes out is not where it comes from.
We don't usually get angry and lose our temper with people we're actually mad at. We lose our temper with people who we know will forgive us.
Now you're taking out something on the people you love the most, but where it's coming out is different than where it's coming from.
If we don't get honest about what we need from God, we will spend nothing but wasted time mopping up the floor without finding the busted pipe that was causing the leak to begin with.
Our ugly thoughts are where our ugly words, motives, and actions originate.
The biggest question is this: What caused this uglyness?
1.) EVENT
Matthew 1:18 (NKJV) 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
This event left Joseph ticked off, hurt, confused, felling of being betrayed! Most of all he was afraid.
Something always causes you to think bad thoughts, your bad thoughts cause you to do and say ugly things and its always an event.
Come on. You know this is the truth. A lot of times when you are angry it's not really even that you are angry; it's thatyou are afraid.
Afarid from the event that startes itn all.
Rather than be vulnerable in your fear, you would rather express your fear through ugly thoughts that turn to anger as a protective mechanism. So you are trying to work on your temper, but really what you need to work on is your trust, because if you trusted God more you wouldn't be afraid, and if you wasn't afraid you wouldn't find an expression of anger.
"Where's this coming from"? Events that take place in your day to day.
It's great to make a list of the things you'd like to do differently, but it's better to find out where it's coming from so you don't just recreate a different issue that was caused by the same disease because you only learned to take ibuprofen for the symptoms, but you never underwent the surgery to understand some of the beliefs beneath the behavior.
The bible says : Ephesians 4:26 (NKJV) 26 "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath,
Is it a sin to be angry? Getting angry is a natural human emotion that need not lead us into sin—if we remember that God is a God of justice and we use our anger in a way that honors him
Not if perfect, sinless anger is the requirement, since sin infects everything we think, say, and do.
But I don’t think Paul had perfect, sinless anger in mind when he quoted King David from Psalm 4:4 to the Ephesians. Paul’s point seems to be that not all anger Christians experience is rooted in the prideful, selfish soil of our sin nature.
There is a kind of anger that comes from our regenerate, Spirit-directed nature, even if it is unavoidably tainted by our indwelling sin as it passes through the defective filters of our minds and mouths. And because the Holy Spirit through David and Paul instructs us to “be angry,” it means some things must make us righteously angry.
If we could discover that one thing where it is coming from, perhaps our thoughts could be transformed from ugly to beautiful before they ever result in actions. In order to do this, we have to think differently than before. We have to have a one-track mind.
2.) EXPECTATIONS
What I mean by this is your thoughts Let's look at Joseph again.
Matthew 1:19-20 (NKJV) 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
Joseph's thoughts were to put away Mary!
You see, b/c of the event in his life it caused ugly thoughts.
You have to remember that even the way others are treating you it might not be a reflection of how they feel about you; it might be a reflection of how they feel about themselves.
It might be a reflection of what they're dealing with in their own time alone in the way that they push you away.
TOUCH YOUR NEIGHBOR AND SAY MY EXPECTATIONS ARE OFF
That's why you really have to be careful not to let rejection and what others think of you take root in your heart, because sometimes people are pushing you away not because of anything that is undesirable about you; it's actually that the person finds themselves so undesirable they don't know how to let anyone get close, because to let anybody close carries a risk with it that they will be seen and found out to be less than, which they already believe they are.
You are spending all of your time trying to like, love or have a relationship with someone who is unable to receive your love.
One of the most difficult parts of Christmas each year is when we pull out the old Christmas lights in order to prepare them to light up our house or tree. It never fails: there will always be a bulb out. A single bulb of all the bulbs that cause the entire strand to go dark. You have to untangle and trace until you find the source of the problem, and then you can finally rewire and replace the bulb to make everything work again.
Rewiring our minds can be just as tedious and daunting. Often, we take years to formulate our thought processes and the default places to where our mind goes. The scriptures often speak to our thoughts as a way of rewiring our lives. The two are forever connected. In fact, Paul writes to the church in Philippi in his closing thoughts in the book of Philippians. Often in the closing of a letter, the author says the things he or she sees as most important.
READ Philippians 4:4-7
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Paul gives them a command in the very first verse: Rejoice! Paul was familiar with all the reasons his listeners would have to grumble, complain, and be frustrated or dismayed. The truth is, we often have these same kinds of feelings. These feelings affect our thinking. They make us anxious; they make us jaded; they make us question God, and they make us want to give up. This all begins in our minds. However, Paul offers us a method of rewiring: Rejoice! Even in the midst of all the reasons we have for negativity, choose to rejoice because of the Lord. Rather than be anxious, bring these reasons for anxiety to the Lord in prayer. He is near after all. It is all a reason to rejoice.
Paul even offers a promise with this. If we do this, if we rejoice in the Lord always, the peace of God will guard our hearts and our MINDS in Christ Jesus. How different might our lives be if we began with all the reasons to rejoice rather than focusing on all our reasons for frustration? This one little tip from Paul, to rejoice, can be like a single lightbulb that causes everything to work in proper order.
Paul elaborates:
READ Philippians 4:8
"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."
In this passage, we are given clear direction as to where our thinking and mindset should go. Paul says whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy; let your mind focus on these things.
Of all things during Christmas, what is the most true, most noble, most right, most pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy?
You got to get your mind right.
3.) EMOTIONS
Matthew 1:21-22 (NKJV) 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins." 22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:
It's a hard thing to sort through your heart, to know what thoughts came from God and what thoughts came from ego and what thoughts came from Grandpa and what thoughts came from Fox News and what thoughts came from Bloomberg and what thoughts came from Twitter and what thoughts came from CNN and Facebook and Uncle Ray and Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Lucy and Aunt Martha. It's hard to know. It's hard to know what's in your heart.
That's why we need the Holy Spirit this year. That's why we need Jesus. I know it sounds simple. but I need help with my heart this year. I need help, because some stuff in there is from God and some stuff is not. I need help sorting it out.
The words we use are a window into our hearts. They reveal our need for God to transform us from the inside out.
READ Luke 6:45
"A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."
Maybe the place we need to begin in changing our ugly words acxtions thoughts is actually a healing inside of us. Sometimes we speak out of a broken heart, and it causes us to lash out at others. Sometimes we speak out of a hurt heart, and it causes us to be cruel to others. It means that we have to take an honest look inside ourselves to use our words to speak life into others.
I hear the Spirit of God saying, "You've been wearing some stuff on you that I did not put in your box.
It's time for you to go through the box.
Everything that does not look like joy and the garment of praise, take it off.
Everything that does not look like the armor of God, take it off.
Everything that doesn't look like victory, take it off".
I'm coming into a new season like its no bodys business'. I'm not coming into a season mad, upset, angary.
His righteousness is my garment and his victory is my guarantee!
