Jesus... The Greatest Gift | Hope Carpenter

Welcome everybody. Listen, we are three sleeps, as my grandkids would say. We are three sleeps away from Christmas Day. They say the most wonderful time of the year. And to me, it is the most wonderful time of the year. You know, I am not so naive to think that there are people listening to me right now, people all over the world where this is not the most wonderful time of the year. We're going to talk about it. So call your friends, text your friends, share this. We are going to talk about how to keep our mind in perfect peace. How to focus on the right things and not let all of the negativity and not let all of our feelings and our depression and our anxiety and our stress get in the way of celebrating the most wonderful gift that has ever come to our life. And that is Jesus Christ. Maybe you don't know this gift, maybe you don't know Jesus. You just were scrolling through and you found me sitting here in my candy cane shirt drinking my coffee. I am Hope Carpenter. Nothing special about me. I'm just here to encourage you, tell you about the most, most amazing gift that has ever come to our life and that is Jesus Christ. Maybe you don't know him. I'm going to tell you about him today and what he can do for your life, how he can set you free, how he can give you hope for the future, how he can hold your hand and help you through some of the most traumatic times in your life. How he can come and minister health to your body, to your mind, to your family, to your children, to your marriage, to your bank account. Listen, God's been so good to us. Yeah, there's been some tough times. 20, 20, 20, 21. We're all in recovery mode. But God is so good. We, we're going to talk about it. So here we are. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. It's going to be a great one. So let me pray for you. Jesus. I thank you so much, so much that you came. Oh, I thank you that you are the greatest gift that we could ever receive. You're the greatest gift that we could ever give and share this Christmas season. So be with us right here today as we celebrate your birth in Jesus name. Amen. So let's first talk about some fun stuff. I've got five grandkids, three kids which are still kids and five grands and that just makes Christmas all the more better to see them so excited to tell you what they want. Listen, you could go to the Dollar Tree, the Dollar Store and buy them 10 gifts, 10 bucks and they're happy. And so how many could say amen? I'm thankful for that, right? But just to be with them and see the excitement and watch them as they're anticipating Christmas coming around the corner, it's just so precious to see. We've got some amazing Christmas traditions and memories. I remember when I was a little girl that my grandparents on both sides and my uncles and aunts would come over to our house. I don't know how we got to host everything, but. But they would come to our house and spend the night on Christmas Eve and wake up, Santa Claus had come, and just what an amazing family time. We would sit around the piano. My grandma played the piano by ear, so we would sit around the piano and we would sing Christmas carols and enjoy each other and eat all the bad stuff, right? We would eat all the unhealthy food, all the sweets, and those are just precious, precious, precious memories to me. The times when my brother would come into our room, my bedroom, and he would have a flashlight, and he'd say, come on, Hope, let's crawl down the hall to see if Santa has come yet. And he'd take the flashlight and we'd be like, oh, my gosh. There's my bicycle. There's my Barbie doll. We would see what Santa had brought us, and then we'd go back and try to go to sleep. Let me ask you a question. How many of you have ever unwrapped your Christmas presents and then wrapped them back? Yeah, I did that. I was that kid. So, you know, they just made a huge mistake when they taught me how to wrap presents, because I would just unwrap them, look at my presents, wrap them back up, stick them under the tree. I know it's terrible, but I was just so curious, and I hate surprises. Even to this day, I want to know what I'm getting. I like to pick it out because I want to make sure that I like it right. But Christmas traditions are so much fun. Even last night at home, I made these amazing Christmas cookies and set them out, and I had to write on the parchment paper, do not touch these. Have to sit overnight. Do not get a cookie, because I'm giving them for gifts, you know, to my neighbors and people at work. So let me know what some of your Christmas traditions are. Write them in the chat. Tell me what you do. Share some recipes with us all. All right. So I put some Christmas traditions in there so that everybody on the chat can see. Are you excited about Christmas? I just want you to know I Got to put my coffee down. There's a lot of people who are not excited this Christmas season. I personally have a lot of friends who have lost a spouse this past year due to Covid, due to sickness, cancer, heart attacks. I personally have three women in my life who have lost their husbands in the last year. Well, two this year and then one in 2020. And, you know, it just makes me wonder, you know, what they're feeling this Christmas. As excited as I am, or maybe as excited as you are. There are other people who are experiencing depression, anxiety who are probably gonna cry a lot this Christmas season because they miss their spouse. And, you know, I just ask the Lord, Lord, just make me tender. Help me to be compassionate and don't be so self absorbed. Help me to think about others, you know, not just the celebrations that's going on in my life, but think about other people who have experienced loss. You know, they say that depression is up extremely high during the holidays. Why? Because people are thinking holidays bring thoughts and memories. And, you know, every one of us don't have great memories. Growing up, I shared a few of my Christmas memories. But, you know, everybody doesn't have great Christmas memories. Everybody doesn't have a great upbringing that they can look back. Maybe they didn't have food at Christmas, maybe they didn't have presents at Christmas. Maybe right now people are struggling and can't even buy things for the people that they love. So it makes us anxious, it makes us depressed. And you know what? There's been a time or two in my life that I've had those feelings, that I've had anxiety, that I've had depression. Years ago, when I was going through one of the darkest times in my life, this was 2013, I was separated from my family at Christmas. And I remember, man, I had so much pain and I had so much trauma going on in my life, so much regret. And, you know, I wondered if my life would ever look the same. I wondered if I would ever have those great Christmas traditions again in my life. But look now, God is faithful. He restored my family, and we are better today in 2021 than we have ever been. Do we still have problems? Absolutely. Yeah. Because we're human, right? We all have issues. But, man, if you don't have Jesus, and that's what Christmas is all about. It's. It's when Jesus came to earth. It's God in heaven coming to earth to live among us. It is God with us, Emmanuel. The reason he came was to help us out of our sin problem. To get us out of our depression, to get us out of our anxiety. He came to live among us, to show us how to live. I'm not naive enough to think that everybody is doing great tonight. Wherever you are, all over the world, I want to let you know that I got good news for you. Listen. Let me read you this promise. Let me read you this promise. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Philippians 4. 8. You know, I was talking to a friend yesterday, actually, and I went in and gave them a big hug, and they had tears in their eyes. And I was like, what's going on? And they said, it's just not good. It's just not a good time of year for me. So I sat down and talked to them. I said, talk to me. Tell me what's going on in your head. What are you thinking about? And they started telling me all the negative in their life. And I said, let me tell you something. They were talking about their emotions. I said, it's here first. It's in your head. Your thoughts dictate what you feel. Did you hear me? Your thoughts dictate your feelings. And so I took them to this scripture. Philippians 4. 8. You probably know it. Whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, right? Pure, lovely, admirable, and excellent and worthy of praise. Think on these things. These things. There's a lot of choices out there, a lot of things we can think about. Because, yeah, our bank account may not be where it needs to be. We may be miserable in our job. Our marriage may be on the rocks. Our children could be causing us heartache and grief. There's people in your life that you love, maybe that you haven't seen or talked to, you don't have a relationship with. Nobody's life is perfect. So, yes, there are things that we could focus on that are not right. But the Bible tells us this. It says you've got to search for the good. You gotta search. Whatever things are true, honorable, right? Pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Think on those things. Our middle son, when he was 6 years old, was diagnosed with anxiety and OCD. Just a little bitty thing. Little bitty thing. The first year of his life. Not the first year, the first year of kindergarten. At five years old, he would cry the first half of the day and sleep the second half of the day, just worn out from crying. And we had no idea what was wrong. I wondered, well, maybe is he just a mama's boy or, you know, kind of immature? And we put him in school too soon. He wasn't ready, but things just started going downhill. And so we took him to the doctor and they diagnosed him with anxiety and OCD and had to put him on medicine. So he did kindergarten again the next year, started doing better. But Manny had several years that were very traumatic for him. And I did this. I went to this scripture for him and I took those white writing boards, you know, the dry erase boards, and I put it in his room. I took the scripture and I said, chaz, I said, let's talk about what's true in your life, you know, because anxiety and ocd. Ocd, they say, is when you focus on unrealistic fear. Always the what ifs. I said, but let's don't worry about the what ifs. Let's talk about what's true in your life. You're healthy, you got two legs that work, you can see, your eyes work, your ears work. You can run and play. You have a family that loves you. So we listed things that are true. What are things that are honorable? What are things, Chaz, that are right in your life? What are things that are pure and lovely and admirable and excellent and worthy of praise? And I made him think of all the positive things. And every day when he would wake up, we would start the day with all of these things that the Lord tells us to focus on, to think on these things. And, you know, as we did this, his life got better and better and better. It didn't happen right off, it didn't happen the first week, but the more he did it, the stronger he got. And eventually he was able to come off medicine. And today he's a fully functioning, strappling 25 year old who is enjoying his life. We all are faced with trouble, with pain, with things that we don't like. But the word of God has an answer for everything that will touch your life. My heart breaks this Christmas season for my three friends who lost their husbands. Man, I can't even imagine what they're going through right now. But do you know I've been texting them every single day, every time. The Lord just brings them to my remembrance. I text them and encourage them and tell them how much I love them and how good God is and they just got a good plan for their life. Who in your life do you need to reach out to to encourage today? Who do you need to minister to this Christmas season? Who do you need to offer? Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. It's the greatest gift. It's better than anything you can buy at Walmart Anything you can buy at Target or Nordstrom or Belk or Macy's or a gift card. Those things we're going to tuck away, we'll forget about. They'll wear out. We'll eat up the gift card. But Jesus is the greatest thing you can give to somebody that you love today. I want to encourage you this Christmas season, give the greatest gift, the most wonderful gift. It's a gift that money cannot buy. It's a gift of freedom. It's a gift of joy. It's a gift of hope. It's a gift of prosperity. It's a gift of redemption. Thank you, Jesus, that you came. My life will never be the same because of the baby Jesus. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Is it going to be perfect? You know it's not going to be perfect. We live in a fallen world, but we serve a God who will hold our hand through every trial, every trauma, every up, every down. Good days, bad days. Money in the bank. No money in the bank. Days when you feel strong and healthy. Days when. Days when you are so sick that you can't get out of bed. That's why Jesus came, to fix our sin problem and to do life with us. He wants to walk through life with you. He does not want you doing life alone. That's the merriest Christmas. That's the greatest year. That's the happiest new Year. It's when Jesus is doing life with you. Let me pray for you. Lord, I thank you for the people under the sound of my voice. And Jesus, I thank you that you came. You really are the greatest gift that we could ever, ever receive and the greatest gift that we could ever, ever give. Lord, I pray for people under the sound of my voice right now who might be depressed or anxious or feeling the loss and grieving a loss of a loved one or people in their life. Lord, be with them today. Be with them today. Wrap your arms around them. Be a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Really manifest yourself as Emmanuel. God with us. Be with them today. Shine a bright light on their dark situation. And then help them, God, to focus on the right things, just like you told us. God, help us to take our thoughts captive and to focus on the good things in our life and not on the bad things. Lord, we give you praise. Thank you. In Jesus name, Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. We love you so much. From my husband, Ron Carpenter, from me, Hope Carpenter, and from this entire ministry, Redemption Church, God bless you.