Ghosts Of Christmas Part 3 | Inviting The Future with Chris Schlotterbeck

Good morning everyone.

You know, I started the first Carolina, so it's getting harder and harder to share and

to open up after announcements like that.

So welcome to HCV.

If this is your first time here, thanks for hanging out with us.

And spending your Sunday morning with us, we're thankful you're here.

If you're joining us online, thanks for welcoming us into your space.

A shout out to our friends at HHC.

We're looking forward to the Christmas party this Wednesday with all of you.

And we're excited to come and join you.

Also, to all of our online friends, last Sunday we had over one, excuse me, 430 unique views

on our live stream.

So that means there's a lot of people watching from home or all around the world, whatever

it may be.

Do me a favor this week.

If you're watching from home, shoot me an email, chris at hcv.church with one prayer

request that you have for you or your family.

I want to know who you are and who is watching from all around the world.

So be sure to send that email to me this week.

Now last week I challenged all of you, right, to commit and I received this testimony and

I wanted to share it with all of you because I don't believe we receive or share enough

testimonies of what God is doing within our community of faith.

I got a message, said I got some good news for you, Chris.

My boss informed me that I'll be getting a raise and offered a promotion.

Good news, right?

This came at the same time that we as a family upped our giving to HCV just a few weeks ago.

Coincidence?

I think not.

Thanks for helping my family get closer to Jesus.

So if you have a testimony about what God's doing in your life, be sure to let us know,

share it, email it, whatever it may be, because we want to share all the things that God is

doing today.

Of course we continue our series Ghosts of Christmas and for the last few weeks we've

been discussing how unique the Christmas season is, how it just invades and permeates every

single part of our life.

Like last night, Nolan and I are out in the freezing cold along with Jess and Lily, putting

outside Christmas decorations up to make our house ready for the Christmas holiday season.

Right?

We're all doing things differently than we normally do.

The Christmas season is unique and that causes all of us to contemplate and reflect on where

we are in life.

We have said that the Christmas season functions as a magnifying glass into our lives, a time

we reflect on our relationships, right, the people that are a part of our lives, how we

feel about our finances or our careers, how we feel about our emotional health, our physical

health and ultimately how we receive and apply Jesus to our lives.

After all, he is the reason for the season.

And if that is true, what's that mean for me?

We said our lives are broken down into three categories, the past, the present and the

future.

The past, where we've been, what we did and what happened to us, the present, where we

are right now and what is happening in our life.

And then of course, the future, what is going to it do for us, bring into our lives and

what direction are we headed?

Now depending on how we are wired and where we currently are in our lives, we have different

feelings associated with those three different categories.

It's almost we have said that those three aspects of our lives act like ghosts, right?

Ghosts that can haunt us and paralyze us.

Fear that we hear whispered into our ears, maybe about who we once were.

And it keeps us stuck there.

Last week we looked at how we get overwhelmed with this season and it almost feels like

we won't make it through.

Or there could be thoughts about what's happening next in life and how everything could change.

So we said, if you're in a relationship with Jesus, we have to deal with these ghosts.

Self-reflection is a good thing.

So in honor of Charles Dickens and the ghosts that he wrote about in the Christmas Carol,

this season we've been challenging our community of faith to reflect on and change the different

aspects of our lives that God highlights through the past, present and future, just like Ebenezer

Scrooge.

And this is so important because life is too short and our calling is too great to allow

ghosts to paralyze us with fear.

Because if you're in a relationship with Jesus, it steals our joy, our hope and our purpose.

Now like I said before, over the last two weeks we've discussed the ghosts of Christmas past

and present.

We've dealt with the pain of our mistakes and the busyness of life.

If you missed those talks, go to our YouTube channel and be sure to listen.

So obviously this week we'll be discussing the ghosts of Christmas future.

Because reality is it doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are, male or female,

we all have future thoughts in our minds.

For example, just this week, Jess, me and Phoenix, we went to Lakeland, Florida to celebrate

my daughter's graduation from Southeastern University.

Now of course, we flew to Florida.

We didn't want to drive that far.

We didn't know we were going to take the cold with us, but we did.

And on the flight down, Phoenix has now determined that in his future, he's going to become a

pilot.

He's going to fly for Southwest Airlines and he's specifically going to fly the Southwest

Maryland flagship plane that has our flag all over it.

Also on the trip, I began to contemplate and think about, wow, I now have three grown children.

And that simply means that for me and Jess, we're moving into a different area of our

life.

And if you're here this morning, whether you're saving up to purchase a first time home, you're

changing or starting a new career, you're planning for another baby or the purchase

of a new fishing boat.

Maybe it's the barrage of your son or daughter.

We all have thoughts about the future and what that means to us, which leads us to our

first thought this morning.

See, much of humanity has a preferred future, right?

We have a preferred future.

We look at what's down the road, the days, the months, the years to come.

And we all say that in the future, this is what I want to be true for my life.

And whatever this is, it is helpful because it gives us a target and inspires us to make

goals so we can achieve whatever this is and it becomes real in our lives.

This is supported by the Bible.

Look at Proverbs 21, five, good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts

lead to poverty.

See, much of humanity has a preferred future.

They think about their future, their hopes, their dreams, their calling, and they want

to make them a reality.

But I want to go in a little bit different direction for us this morning and I want to

look at who we are as far as to Jesus.

I want to move beyond how many kids we want to have or where we might want to retire in

the future or what a different job will look like.

And I want to speak to those of you in a relationship with Jesus.

And I want you to think and reflect on the preferred future that God has for us.

Because as we think about our future when in a relationship with Jesus, we must take

into account that much of our future calling is determined already.

No matter the different context of our future, right?

Much of our preferred future is actually determined by God for us to walk out in this life.

And we must realize it doesn't matter if it was a person living in the first century,

if they were following Jesus and they were looking at their next 30 years of life.

It doesn't matter if it was someone living in the 1500s, someone living right now or

someone living 100 years from now.

Truth is, if you are a follower of Jesus, there are aspects of our life and future that

we would say, I want this to be true about me.

And I want them to be true because God says they should be true about me.

It doesn't matter if you live in China, it doesn't matter if you live in the United

States, the city, the suburbs or the jungle, whether you have a big house or a small house,

it doesn't matter who the president is or isn't.

It has nothing to do with the context of our lives.

There are certain realities that God determines for us, regardless of what is going on in

the world around us.

And this morning, I want to focus on those realities.

And I want to challenge you, our community of faith, to walk them out because they are

important to God and they are a part of our calling.

This is so important and we need to apply Proverbs chapter six, verses six through 11.

Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy bones.

Learn from their ways and become wise.

Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all

summer gathering food for the winter.

For you, lazy bones, how long will you sleep?

When will you wake up?

A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, then

poverty will pounce on you like a bandit.

Scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

And I don't want that for us.

Jesus calls us into abundance.

And if we get distracted or lazy, we can quickly go into a slumber.

And especially when it comes to our future.

Because here's the reality, not all of us that focus on the future have a positive outlook.

For many, in fact, there is uneasiness and some may call it fear about the future.

What's going to happen in the next two, five or 10 years within the world and within our

culture, which leads to our second thought.

However, for many, there's a fear over the direction or the future of the world.

I mean, let's be honest.

We look at all this technology and how the world is rapidly advancing.

All this screen time.

We see what it's doing to our children and people in general.

We look out now at all the emotional problems in our society, the anxiety, the depression.

And it's just a natural part now that people are constantly on medication.

There's so much gender confusion.

What is marriage?

What isn't marriage?

And for many of us, we throw our hands up in the air and say, I don't even know what

to do with it.

We look at the state of our country.

We think about how it's changed so much since I personally grew up.

How the economics, the politics and societal policies, they've changed focus and they're

headed in a completely different direction.

We look out at our world.

We see the wars, the gun violence, the mass shootings, the death.

And now we're talking about nuclear war.

And if you're in a relationship with Jesus, you may have heard people say, it's getting

harder to follow Jesus in today's world.

The freedoms we once experienced are being taken away from us.

Oh, what's next?

I mean, for many people, there's a fear over the direction of our country, our culture,

the world, the pace of the world.

And for honest, it can cause us anxiety, worry and stress.

I've heard people say to me time and time again, I wouldn't want to raise kids today.

I can't imagine the world my grandchildren are going to grow up in.

Listen, I get it.

There's a lot of negativity out there, but let me first address this fear and stress

over the future direction of the world by saying this.

Jesus has already won.

You have already won if you're in a relationship with Jesus and we will get the most important

prize we could ever want.

Jesus has won.

And that's why we read in Proverbs 12, 25, worry weighs a person down and encouraging

word cheers a person up.

And I want to give you an encouraging word this morning.

And listen, I am in no way saying these thoughts about the future aren't real.

That my head every single day is not worried or even full of anxiety as I read the news.

I read the news every single day and I don't read all the article, but I can read it so

I know what's happening.

So I get it.

We can feel overwhelmed, but I also need to remind myself.

This isn't the worst our world has ever seen or it's ever been.

And it's certainly not the worst that Jesus followers have ever lived in.

I mean, we can open our Bibles and read about Jesus followers being thrown into arenas and

eaten by lions.

Church, we're not there yet.

So as we navigate the future of our world, yes, it can cause stress.

It can cause worry.

It can feel overwhelmed, but we have to deal with it.

When fear comes into our lives, it makes us a lesser version of ourselves.

We don't think clearly.

We don't act as effectively.

And we can get lost in terms of direction and begin to focus on issues we shouldn't.

Fear hinders our focus.

Getting us to look in a direction that we shouldn't even be looking at, focus on stuff

that isn't important.

And that's why Jesus said in John 14, 27, I'm leaving you with a gift, peace of mind

and heart.

And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.

So don't be troubled or afraid.

Don't be troubled or afraid because fear hinders our focus.

And how do I know that?

Well, I've coached a lot of baseball in my life.

And when kids are particularly younger, there's always a few players that are afraid of being

hit by the baseball.

Whether it's the baseball that is thrown that they're trying to catch or the baseball they're

trying to hit.

These players struggle.

And it's not even that they don't have the ability to do it.

I believe they all have the ability to do it.

It's just that their focus is wrong.

They're not focused on catching the ball.

They're not focused on hitting the ball.

In their minds, they're only focused on the ball hitting them.

And when they're focused on the ball hitting them and the pain that they're going to feel

when the ball hits them and the hurt and the tears that's going to happen when they're

embarrassed, it drives them to failure.

It drives them to give up and to quit maybe even during the season.

And for some of us, our fear of the future because of what is happening in the world

today has shifted our focus away from the people that we should be becoming.

Away from the God that we serve.

It causes us to lose focus on what we should be doing, who we should be serving each and

every day.

That is why we read in 2 Timothy 1, 7, for God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity,

but of power, love, and self-discipline.

See, the world may be changing, but God isn't.

And God is calling his people closer to him.

He wants us to be more like him, which leads us to our next thought.

Jesus followers need to filter their fear through faith.

Paul writing to his protege, Timothy, a man that he was discipling and speaking life into,

tells him how to live his life in a city where people are walking away from God.

It was full of paganism.

People who are not open to the kingdom of God.

And we read this in 2 Timothy 4, 3 through 4.

For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching.

Now many scholars believe that Paul was saying to Timothy in this letter, hey Timothy, the

time is right now.

The time that you're living in right now, this is going to happen.

And for many of us, we've experienced this personally.

We get judged for our beliefs.

We get made fun of.

We get our fingers pointed at us saying, oh, the Bible's not relevant for today.

And notice what these people will do.

They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers.

Now you fast forward today, we might say podcasts or sitcoms or Netflix series or documentaries

or news agencies who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.

I mean, we see this each and every day in our society.

What do they do?

They reject the truth and they chase after myths.

Dare I say conspiracy theories?

Paul is writing this to Timothy.

And think about this.

This is a long time ago.

And as we read it today, it's more true than ever.

This is how our people are living in our society.

And notice what Paul then writes to Timothy, which he writes to us.

Second Timothy 4, 5.

But you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances.

Keep control of yourself, church.

God doesn't want us to cower in fear.

He doesn't want us to call people names.

He doesn't want us to be a jerk or a keyboard warrior that has the hashtag God is good.

God wants us to be different, to be set apart.

And Paul begins to paint a picture of the preferred future that God wants for those

in a relationship with him each and every day.

See, we have to filter our fear through faith so that we can walk this out every single

day.

And what does it look like to walk out our faith?

Well, when fear of the future comes into our lives, we have to filter that fear through

Jesus.

We shouldn't filter our fear through a news agency, through a podcast, or through a book

that tells us what to do.

We have to focus on Jesus.

We have to read the Bible.

We have to listen to the Holy Spirit speak to us in prayer.

And if we live out these simple truths that God wants us to live, then the future will

be bright.

Because faith will focus us on God, not on our circumstances or the direction of the

world.

We have to stop focusing on our circumstances and our surroundings, rather focusing on the

power of God in our lives.

And when we do this, church will live in abundance.

So Paul gives us three steps to walking out our faith now and in the future.

And first, we have to stay on mission.

We are called as a church to stay on mission.

Second Timothy chapter four verse two, preach the word of God.

Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not, patiently correct rebuke and encourage

your people with good teaching.

We are called to tell people our Jesus story and to connect others to the hope that is

the person of Jesus.

And when we get off mission, when we lose our focus, guess what happens?

We get distracted and we start looking at other things to fill us and make us feel better.

I have a daughter that is doing her graduate work at Florida Atlantic University.

And I actually have another daughter that will attend the same school and play softball

there in 2026.

Now there's not a day that goes by that I don't pray for Trinity to finish her master's

degree.

And please understand, I don't pray for her in so much as she can't do the work.

She's doing great.

She's getting A's, but I pray that she doesn't get distracted.

And this is why.

When we talk to Trinity, when she calls Jess and I, she always communicates to us that

every morning she wakes up early before going to her internship at the athletic department

and she will go to the beach for sunrise.

She will take walks and look at the waves every morning because Boca Raton is a little

different than Hagerstown, Maryland, right?

It's always warm.

It's always inviting.

And in Boca Raton, there's lots of distractions like sunbathing, walks on the beach, sunrise,

sunset and surfing.

Therefore Trinity has to remain focused on her schooling.

She has to remain focused on the education that she wants to earn so she can take the

next step in her life journey.

Paul is challenging Timothy and us church.

Stay on mission.

Share your story.

Talk about the good news of God, 2 Timothy 4-5.

Work at telling others the good news and fully carry out the ministry God has on you.

And there's too many Jesus followers that are getting caught up in arguments that simply

don't matter.

We are finding ourselves fighting about things in the church pointing fingers at one another.

No wonder people outside the church don't want to go to church.

We are bad examples.

We have allowed our culture to tell us how to think and what to focus on instead of the

Bible.

Our calling, our mission as followers of Jesus is to connect people to the hope of Jesus.

It's not to win elections.

It's not to make America great again.

It's not to fix businesses or the economy.

Our mission as the church is to connect people to Jesus.

That is what we should be doing all the time.

How do I know that?

Well Jesus left us with a mandate.

Jesus drew near and said to them, as he says to you and I, I have been given all authority

in heaven and earth.

Go, go then to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples.

Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Here's the reality.

Two years, five years, ten years from now we should be pointing people to Jesus.

Twenty-five years, fifty years from now if you're still alive you should be pointing

people to Jesus.

That is how we walk out our faith.

In our culture that is continually moving away from God, and guess what?

It's only going to get worse.

It shouldn't get harder to share our faith.

We should have more opportunities because people are hurting and hungry to hear about

God and what he can do in their lives.

People need to hear the good news.

They need to hear the hope.

And we filter our fear, our stress, our anxiety through faith.

And when we filter it through faith, church, we do the work of the evangelist.

So when I ask you this morning, who are you praying for?

Who have you invited to join us at our Community Faith at HCV?

Who have you shared your story with just this year?

How about the last six months?

Don't get distracted.

Stay on mission.

We have these invite cards to our Christmas Eve gatherings.

Grab them today.

Invite someone to be a part of the life changing experience with God which leads us to our

next step of faith.

We have to commit to character.

Don't get distracted and stay on mission.

And while on mission, commit to character.

Listen to what Paul writes.

But you should keep a clear mind in every situation.

Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord.

As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God.

The time of my death is near.

I have fought a good fight.

I have finished a race.

And I have remained faithful.

Yes, we tell people about Jesus.

That is what we do.

But not only with our words, but in our lives.

Our lives, what we do should be an example of Jesus to the world around us.

We need to keep growing into His image.

We need to allow God to mold us, to shape us like a lump of clay into the people we

should be.

I was thinking as I was writing this this week that one of the coolest high school classes

that I ever took was pottery.

Like you take this lump of clay, you throw it onto a potter's wheel and you use your

hands of water to mold it and form it into a bowl or a cup.

It was one of the most unique things I've ever done.

And the Bible says, listen to this, in the book of Isaiah, that God is our Father.

We are the clay.

You are the potter God.

We are all formed by your hand.

Here's the reality.

If we're not being shaped by God, we're being shaped by our culture.

We're being shaped by what we listen to.

We're being shaped by what we read.

And Paul is challenging, Timothy is challenging us to let God shape our hearts.

You heard, we're called to endure hardship.

We're called to be more patient.

We're called to be a people of honesty and integrity.

We're called to be generous and kind and to meet others' needs.

Our culture, what does our culture promote?

Our culture says, wear your binoculars, judge others, point fingers.

But God tells us to look in the mirror, become a better person, allow Him to change you.

Romans 5, 3 through 4, we can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for

we know that they help us develop endurance.

And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope

of salvation.

We are called to look more and more like Jesus every single day so that people see God in

us.

Remember, this is the Christmas season, and Jesus is known as Emmanuel, God with us.

And since Jesus has come and has now risen and is back in heaven, He now fills us with

the Holy Spirit, and we have God inside of us.

What if we took the time?

What if we took the time that we waste on social media, scrolling through other people's

drama, and we applied that time to our character development?

See, I believe we'd be different people, which leads us to our final step.

We have to focus on the kingdom.

Now some of you are sitting there thinking, well, Chris, you said that last week.

I sure did, and I'm saying it again this week, because that's the key to life change, 2 Timothy

4, 8.

And now the prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous

judge will give me on the day of His return.

And the prize is not just for me, notice, but for all who eagerly look forward to His

appearing.

Paul, he's focused on the kingdom of God.

He is prepared for home.

And think about it, as people, we get all excited about a vacation or a journey that

we're going to take.

True or false?

Are you guys with me, or are we vibing here today?

I don't know about you, but if we're going to take a vacation, if we're going to take

time off, if we're going to get away from Hagerstown, and even if it's only for four

days, I know what you guys are like.

You Google wherever you're going.

Like when we were going to Lakeland, we Googled Lakeland, what could we do?

Where are we going to go?

We plan every detail.

We pack too much.

We had to check three bags for three people because we were taking Phoenix, and my wife

tends to pack a lot.

And if you're going to pack, you know what we do when we go on a four day journey, not

only do we pack too much, but we're all excited.

We talk to people that have been to the destination we're going to.

We buy some new clothes.

We plan out every single day, and it's for four days.

It's for four days because we want it to be the best four days we could possibly have,

friends.

We're going to be in heaven forever.

We're going to spend our time with God and Jesus for all of eternity.

We're going to experience a new earth forever, but there's no one excited about it.

We get all excited about a four day journey, but here we have a future that is going to

be incredible and people just allow it to just be boring.

That's why God desires that we think about and focus on the kingdom.

There's nothing more exciting that's going to happen to us.

Every tribe, tongue, and nation is going to be worshiping God with us, and my challenge

to you is who are you bringing along with you?

Because there's people in your sphere of influence that don't know Jesus and are distant from

God and they won't spend time in eternity with you.

This is a place where we'll walk on streets of gold.

We'll have new bodies that will never break down.

There'll be no more pain or sorrow or crying.

Those things are passed away.

No matter how good of life we are living here on this earth, nothing compares to the kingdom

of God.

The best is yet to come.

And we have to filter our faith through that truth and we have to stop worrying about the

world that we're living in.

That's why Jesus said in Matthew 6.33, Seek the kingdom of God above all else, live righteously.

He will give you everything you need.

God will meet all our needs.

Let me ask you a question.

You know that four day journey you're going to go on and you're so excited about?

Have you ever met anyone that remodeled their hotel room for those four days?

Have you?

See, it seems ludicrous.

Like, why would, no, Chris, why would they model their hotel room?

And yet so many of us, we spend so much time and energy on this life that we're building

for ourselves and not for the kingdom of God.

And Jesus is challenging us to change.

Paul says, I've been poured out for the kingdom of God.

Church, we have to be more focused on God's kingdom.

We have to be more focused on what we are becoming more than what the world is becoming.

It's not enough just to get it right in this world.

Right?

It's not enough.

We have to be focused on allowing and bringing others into this kingdom with us.

God is challenging us.

Stay on mission.

Commit to character.

Focus on the kingdom and live passionately.

And if enough of us get it right, that's right.

The trust area is going to be turned upside down.

It's going to be turned upside down.

But yes, we have to endure hardship.

We have to pour ourselves out, putting others first.

We have to share the good news.

We have to fight the good fight.

And when we get to the end, we have to allow God to use us and shape us, which leads us

to our simple action step.

Invite.

I want to challenge all of you.

Invite someone to our community of faith for next Sunday or for our Christmas Eve gatherings

or for our Christmas morning gathering.

Forget telling others the good news and fully carry out the ministry God has for you.

And you say, well, why would you want me to do that, Chris?

I'm not an evangelist.

Good.

You don't have to be an evangelist.

Take an invite card and invite them personally to one of these gatherings.

Right?

That's all you have to do.

A simple invite could change someone's life because I guarantee you there's someone in

your sphere of influence that you know that's lonely.

Right?

They have no one to celebrate Christmas with.

And yet we'll be here on Christmas morning at 10 a.m. in our pajamas to celebrate Jesus's

birth.

And you say, Chris, why your pajamas?

Why not?

It's more comfortable.

Why not go to church in your PJs?

See, when we're forced to share the good news, when we're, when we focus on the kingdom,

when we invite others, guess what?

Our character is going to change because we want to be a good example.

It changes us.

And listen, can I tell you what doesn't count?

Don't just blanket invite all your Facebook friends.

That don't count.

It doesn't count.

I want you to personally invite 10 of your friends because an invitation to everybody

is an invitation to nobody.

Now is it a bad thing to do that?

No.

Do that and then personally invite 10 of your friends that you know that they will read

it.

Make a list of people, pray for them, and then go to them and invite them to join you

next Sunday or at a Christmas Eve gatherings.

We have to be invitors and cluters into God's kingdom.

Now before we worship, we're going to close with worship this morning.

I want to show you a short clip from the movie Apollo 13.

If you don't know this movie, it's a story about, a true story actually, about three

astronauts that are stuck in a spaceship because the said spaceship that they were flying had

several catastrophic errors on board.

Back in mission control, everyone is just losing their mind and listen to the conversations

that are being said.

Let's watch.

Hey church, what if this is our finest hour?

What if our outlook as Jesus followers became the exact same as that statement?

It doesn't matter what's happening around us, this is our time.

This is our time to shine.

This is our time to be our best.

This is our time to share Jesus with others.

What if, what if instead of warning our kids of all the negativity and the bad in the world,

we gave them vision to be world changers?

What if instead of simply just watching live streams from home, we go out and make a difference

in the world?

What if instead of spending time with close family this holiday season, we actually connect

with those that are forgotten in our society?

See there's so many people that believe this is the worst time to be alive.

The world is spinning out of control, but I believe this is the best time to be alive.

I believe this is the best time to share our hope and our faith and all that Jesus has

for us.

We are sons and daughters of God living on mission to see others set free and changed

by the power of God.

Amen.

Will you stand with me?

I've invited Elijah and Lauren to share us.

I wanted to close in worship and declare that we will have no fear, that we will overcome

our fear with faith.

Let's sing together.