Summary: <br> My favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night. It’s one of those songs I sing every year during a candlelight service that gets me all choked up. It says:<br> “A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.<br> Fall on your knees. Oh hear the angel voices. O night, divine. O night, when Christ was born.<br> The night when Christ was born. The manger scene, yes the scene that changed our lives. A thrill of hope. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.<br> Does Christmas still thrill you? Are you truly excited about Christmas? If I were to remind you today that Christmas is 2 days away, would you say “I’m THRILLED” or would your mind immediately stress over all you still have to do? Has your long list of chores and duties robbed you from the wonder of Christmas? Plan the party, trim the tree, max out the Visa, stuff it, wrap it, pack it, ship it (oh wait, it’s too late to ship it), make it, take it, fake it. Over eat, feel disgusting, and be angry at yourself for falling completely off the wagon again. Dang it … why do we do that?<br> Where’s the thrill of hope in that?<br> Jesus came to this world on that holy night to offer you and I hope. A hopeless world received hope. You and I, hopeless in our overwhelm, hopeless in our bad habits, hopeless in our stress and mess, we received hope. This is our gift. It is hope. Hope that there’s a purpose in all of this. Hope that we’re not alone. Hope that there’s good plan and we haven’t missed it. Romans 15:13 says “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”<br> Understand our God is the God of hope. You are not hopeless. There is not a single situation in your life that is hopeless. God reigns over all. He is sovereign. He is powerful. He is true and he is just. He is here today to fill you with joy and peace so that you may ABOUND IN HOPE. Hope in the time of year when hope is supposed to be our default emotion, yet truthfully this has become the time of year we hurt most. We ache for those who won’t be around the table this year. We yearn for things to be more perfect than our reality presents. We wish for things to be different, but they’re not. Add on the pressure of “it’s the most wonderful time of the year” and we’re pretty darn convinced everyone else’s life must be a lot better than ours.<br> It is an undeniable work of the enemy to rob you of your hope. How does he do that? He causes you to focus on all that is wrong. Why? Because as you’re zeroed in on the problem, you are zapped of the power to do a darn thing about it. You are awake all night worrying, so of course you wake up too exhausted to show up as your best self the next morning. It’s a snowball effect of the yuck in your life, blocking your view from all that is still undeniably beautiful. And when the yuck builds up and that’s all you see, you become weary.<br> We are weary. Weary from the fight. Yes, the fight to at least LOOK like we have it all together. What do the weary need? Hope.<br> “A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.” ~ O Holy Night<br> Jesus offers hope and hope should provide a thrill. This whole thing should be thrilling, exciting, and full of anticipation. That manger scene, those songs we sing, the gifts we give in remembrance of his birthday, this should be a THRILL. But is it really a thrill for you? Have we gotten so wrapped up in the “be here’s” and “do this’s” that we’ve lost the thrill of Christmas? If you didn’t wake up excited today, perhaps you’re doing it wrong. I mean seriously, those of us who woke up to life in the absence of a true crisis,
