Episode 11 - Trent and Tammy Smith

Hello, this is David, and I am here with Trent

and Tammy Smith today, and they're going to read

you a couple of scriptures. But before that,

I've asked them to share an element that points

to Christ during this season. Hello, Oak Ridge.

Hey, everyone. I hope you are having a great

holiday. I hope this month is a really blessed

time for you. I know it always is for us. I was

very busy, but it always ends up being very blessed.

And one of the things that we do as a big tradition

in our family during Christmas is we do a scavenger

hunt for our main gift with the family. And so

we have a group that, I mean, we get together

every year. There's 16 of us. But what's interesting

about this, this scavenger hunt started with

my grandmother. So now we're on the fourth generation

of people hunting for gifts. on my side of the

family. And so it's a real tradition where you

come to Nana's house and there's a clue on the

tree and that leads you to five other clues and

eventually you find your gift. And the first

person to find their gift is the one who gets

to open their gift first. And so there's this

hustle and there's this excitement about it and

there's this very childlike exuberance that happens

and that just fills the house during this time.

In a strange way, I was starting to think about

how does that point you to Christ? Well, that

for me, if you think about the process, you start

this process of the scavenger hunt, you're really

seeking that gift. And Christ is our greatest

gift. If we spend our time seeking Him and going

from, you're gonna hit a clue here and a clue

there, and it's going to lead you to something

even greater all along the way. And if you continue

to seek Him, then the gifts that you receive

are just incredible and they just continue to

come on. It's not a once a year thing, it's a

constant thing that happens. And that's what

he's asking us to do, seek and find. And so that's

one thing that kind of crossed my mind. That's

a huge tradition in our family that we love to

enjoy every year. Awesome. It sounds like his

presence is your present. So I looked at the

acronym that you sent David and I saw you know

the Christ acronym and I saw the first one Carol

and I'm not a big Christmas Carol kind of person,

but I do love songs and there has been one funny

Holiday song that I've been listening to a lot

lately that you know, it's not your traditional

Carol But it definitely has brought me great

joy. And so and it's a song by Carrie Underwood

and it's called stretchy pants And so it's just

very appropriate for this time of year, but it's

all about making room for more holiday food.

So I'm just going to share a few lines, like

if you haven't heard the song, but she says,

you know, my tummy is growling and I've been

saving up space. I've got my place at the table.

I can't fit no more on my plate. I've got my

fork in my hand. I'm ready to stuff my face.

So bring on those turkey, the potatoes, the casserole

dishes, because I'm not messing around with them

buttoned up britches because I got my stretchy

pants on. The song is just so much about making

room for more food, more celebration, more joy.

And I was just thinking about what that, how

that relates to Christ for me. And, you know,

because it's about making room, you know, for

Christ to come into our messy lives, to this

busy time in our lives. It's about making that

space for Him. So the Stretchy Pants song is,

you know, joyful and it's silly. And but honestly,

you know, for me, I needed that reminder because

many times we put pressure on ourselves for everything

to be perfect during this Christmas, to have

the perfect meal, to have the perfect gift, you

know, to just, everything to just be perfect.

And so, and Christmas really shouldn't be about

perfection, you know, it's about God choosing

to come to earth for us and perfect people. You

know, we all crave something deeper than food,

you know, we can put the stretchy pants on, but

we'll eventually get hungry, but Christ satisfies,

you know, every hunger. Wow. I love how you heard

that. And then it just ran with it in your mind,

and it made room for Christ, which is, I mean,

what we all hope for. Yes. It's definitely a

fun time of the year, and I'll take it all the

way around. All right. So do you all have some

scriptures to share? We do. So I'll lead us off

with Genesis 15, verses 1 through 18. Do not

Genesis 15:1–18

be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and

your reward will be great.' But Abraham replied,

O sovereign Lord, what good are all of your blessings

if I don't even have a son? Since you've given

me no children, Leaser of Damascus, a servant

of my household, will inherit all of my wealth.

You have given me no descendants of my own, so

one of my servants will be my heir.' And then

the Lord said to him, No, your servant will not

be your heir, for you will have a son of your

own, and he will be your heir." Then the Lord

took Abram outside and said to him, look up at

the sky and count the stars if you can. That's

how many descendants you will have. And Abram

believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as

righteous because of his faith. The Lord told

him, I am the Lord who brought you out of the

Ur of Chaldeans to give you this land as your

possession. But Abram replied, O sovereign Lord,

how can I be sure that I will actually possess

it? The Lord told him, bring me a three -year

-old heifer, a three -year -old female goat,

a three -year -old ram, a turtle dove, and a

young pigeon. So Abram presented all of these

things to him and he killed them. Then he cut

each animal down the middle and laid their halves

side by side. He did not, however, cut the birds

in half. Some vultures swooped down to eat from

the carcasses, but Abram chased them away. As

the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep

sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over

him. The Lord said to Abram, You can be sure

that your descendants will be strangers in a

foreign land, where they will be oppressed as

slaves for four hundred years, but I will punish

the nation that enslaves them, and in the end

they will come away with great wealth. As for

you, you will die in peace and be buried at a

ripe old age. After four generations your descendants

will return to this land and for the sins of

the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.

After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram

saw a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch pass

through the halves of the carcass. So the Lord

made a covenant with Abram that day and said,

I have given this land to your descendants all

the way from the border of Egypt to the great

Euphrates River. So what's significant to me

about that verse really is the original covenant

was always for the weaker party to walk through

that. But yet in this instance, and even now,

God chose to walk through there to Abram instead

of the opposite way. And so God is making that

covenant saying, I know you will never be able

to keep this covenant, but I will make sure that

you keep it. I'll take all the heat basically.

It'll take the repercussions when it's broken

and it keeps showing up over and over. So I have

Matthew 12, 33 through 37. And it says, a tree

is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good,

its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its

fruit will be bad. You brood of snakes, how could

evil men like you speak what is good and right?

For whatever is in your heart determines what

you say. A good person produces good things from

the treasury of a good heart. And an evil person

produces evil things from the treasury of an

evil heart. And I tell you this, you must give

an account on judgment day for every idle word

you speak. The words you say will either acquit

you or condemn you. To me, this is an invitation

to just look in our hearts and ask ourselves,

you know, what is there? Is God occupying the

space there? You know, what is the fruit of our

life producing? You know, have we made space

for Him? If we have, then others will see Him.

You know, and then going back to the stretchy

pants song. It makes me think about like putting

on my spiritual stretchy pants, you know, and

letting Christ stretch me. Well that's awesome.

Who would have known that stretchy pants could

have had such meaning? She didn't know she was

writing a theological song.