WEBVTT

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Good to see you. Merry Christmas
to all of you here at Lake Forest

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and all of our saddleback campuses that
are meeting right now, watching right now,

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literally all around the world. Mary
Christmas to all of you. I

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love you guys so much. I
want you to know that this past year

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I have prayed for you more this
past year than I have in all the

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other forty two years, any of
those years. It was a pretty difficult

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year, but I agree with that. But you made it. And so

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what I want you to do is
I want you to turn to a stranger

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next to you say congratulations, you
made it. Okay, congratulations, you

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made it. You made it through
twenty twenty one, all right, on

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our forty second Christmas together as a
church family, I want to do something

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I've never done before. I want
to begin Christmas by playing a video clip

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of an NBA basketball game. Now, I'm gonna explain after I show it

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to you why I'm showed it to
you. But last week, in a

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final four seconds of a game that
really meant nothing between two losing teams,

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one team hit a thirty foot basket
to tie the game, but with one

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second left, the other team shot
a sixty foot sixty one foot basket to

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win the game. Watch this,
and then I'll explain to you why I

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had to play taken to get there, got a foul and they do.

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Okay, that ties the game.
There's one second left. Garret Temple reads

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for him, didn't get them,
and give Shay Gilcher's Alexander credit as the

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bunk. Okay, all right?
Now? Why did I show you that

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clip because the ESPN news title caught
my attention because it used the word nobody

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ever uses anymore. Here was the
headline from that clip, Behold the craziest

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finish to an NBA game ever.
A sixty one foot shot at the buzzer

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for a win beats a thirty footer, and it says this game really didn't

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mean anything to anybody, and yet
the game produced the most magical four point

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five seconds you'll ever see on a
basketball court. Behold it all right now.

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Behold is the word nobody uses anymore. It's an old English word.

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I doubt you've ever used the word
behold in your entire life. I doubt

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you've ever come out of a taco
bell and said, behold, I ate

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a burrito, and behold I burped, But behold is an important word in

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the Bible. That word behold is
used one thousand, two hundred and seventy

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five times in the King James translation
of the Bible. Inside your program there

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is a outline. I want you
to pull it out. These are teaching

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notes for tonight. I want you
to pull us out. Every verse we're

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going to look at is on this
little piece of paper. So pull it

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out and notice at the top,
I give a definition behold. What does

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the word behold mean. Well.
To behold something means to hold in focus

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for an extended period of time.
You don't just glance at it. You

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really look at something for an extended
period of time. To behold means to

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gaze at something with ahe and appreciation. When I was in college and I

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saw this cute chick walking down who
would be my future wife toward me?

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I beheld kay lewis okay, I
didn't just gaze or glance at her.

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I gazed at her. I be
held with awe and appreciation. To behold

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means pay attention. It means don't
miss this. It means think about it,

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seriously, give it your utmost attention. Now, would you agree that

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today, in our add world,
our attention deficit disordered culture, we all

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have a shorter attention span than we
used to have. Everybody agree with that.

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We things catch our attention, but
we lose attention very fast. Commercials

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used to be thirty seconds long.
Now you can get three, four,

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five or ten commercials in a thirty
second slot because it's hard to stay focused.

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The truth is we don't take the
time to behold anything. We glimpse

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at things, We glance at things, but we don't gaze at things because

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beholding takes too much time. We
can't sit still long on us. We

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have add We can't sit still long
enough. When was the last time you

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went out in nature sat down for
thirty minutes to behold the beauty of nature?

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I doubt you've ever done that,
just be quiet and never said a

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word for thirty minutes. When was
the last time you sat down in silence

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for twenty thirty minutes to behold the
meaning of your life? Maybe never,

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you see, we don't behold how
things are changing all around us, and

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how you were changing. You're not
the same you were a year ago or

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two years ago. Now, there's
a difference between glimpsing at something and glancing

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at something and gazing at something,
or beholding you see, at Christmas time,

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most people will give God a glimpse. They'll tip the hat to Jesus,

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They'll glance, They'll get a glance, they'll take a little short look

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at Jesus. And so you're in
the mall and you're doing your Christmas shopping

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and you start humming, oh,
come let us a dorm because it's playing

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on the mall speakers, or or
you look at the manger scene, the

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nativity scene of Jesus in the baby
Jesus and the Manger, and you give

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a glimpse, you give a glance
to Jesus. But most people don't take

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time to really behold the real gift
of Christmas because we're too busy with the

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Christmas rush. What I want you
to do, and I'm asking you to

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do, what I'm begging you to
do, is for the next few minutes,

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I want you to sit still,
just for a few minutes, sit

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still long enough to behold the best
news you're ever gonna hear. I guarantee

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it. So what is this best
news ever? What is the good news

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that God wants you to behold this
Christmas. If you have never ever been

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to church service, you picked a
good one. The come dou friend,

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because tonight I'm going to summarize the
entire Bible in four sentences, in four

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statements. Okay, pull out your
teaching notes inside your program. I'm going

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to summarize. I'm going to give
you cliff notes on the Bible. This

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is sixty six books together in the
Bible, written over thousands of years,

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and I'm going to give you a
God's great plan for history and for you.

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This is cliff notes on the Bible. This is Bible one oh one

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two point five billion Christians follow Jesus
and why the whole world celebrates Christmas.

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The world shuts down at Christmas time. Even people don't don't believe in Christ

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celebrate Christmas. Now. It starts
like this, You're not an accident.

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Your parents may not have planned you, but God plans you. You're not

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an accident. God made you to
love you. God wanted a family,

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the whole reason in the universe exists. The Bible tells us God wanted a

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family. So if God had not
wanted to love you, he wouldn't have

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created you. You wouldn't be taking
your next breath. Every breath you take

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is a gift from God. Every
good thing in your life is a gift

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from God because of God's love.
Now, your life on this earth,

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the sixty seventy eighty maybe ninety at
the most one hundred years is really quite

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short compared to eternity. This life
is preparation for the next. This life

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is preparation for eternity. God has
long range plans for you, far longer

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than your life on this planet.
This is the press preparation stage. And

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He wants you to live with him
forever in heaven. But you got to

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have a relationship with him. So
he say, how how do I get

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one of those? How do I
have a relationship with God? I'm not

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talking about religion. You may be
Baptist or Buddhist, or Methodist, or

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Mormon or Muslim, or you know, or no religion at all. How

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can I have a friendship with God? We're talking about a relationship. Well,

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that's the first part of the good
news, the best news ever and

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the reason for Christmas is that God
took the initiative so you could get to

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know him, because he wants you
to know him Now, almost every Bible

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verse we're going to look at tonight
on your outline has the word behold in

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it. And so every time we
read it, if you see that whorred

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circle the word behold. Because at
the end of tonight, I'm gonna give

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you a little Christmas homework to do. After you've done that. All right,

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Now, here's the first thing God
wants you to think about at Christmas.

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Number one, Behold, God came
to Earth. That's a big deal.

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God came to earth. He became
a human why so we could see

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write this down what he's really like. God came to earth at Christmas in

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the form of a human being,
so we could see what he's really like.

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If God wanted to communicate the birds, he would have become a bird.

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If he wanted to communicate to horses, he would have become a horse.

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He wanted to communicate the human beings, so he became one of us.

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Now, in the Bible, Jesus
is called many different things. One

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of the things Jesus is called is
the Word of God. And he's called

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the Word of God because God sent
him to communicate with us. Look at

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this verse there on your outline.
John Chapter one in the beginning was the

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Word. That's all about Jesus.
Jesus has existed from the beginning of time,

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before even the universe. The Word
was with God, and the Word

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was God. This is what's called
the Trinity. Everything was created by him.

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Nothing has been made without him.
He is the source of all life,

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and his life gives light to everyone, everyone, every one of us.

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The Word became a human and lived
among us, and we beheld there's

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that word. Behold, we beheld
his glory, the glory of the Father's

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only son, and we saw his
full grace and truth. Now there's several

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things. That's verse packed with a
lot of truth in it, but I

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want you to note several things.
First, Jesus, because he is God,

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has existed from the beginning of time. He has never not existed because

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he is God. A lot of
people think Jesus was created at Christmas.

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No, he's always existing. He
didn't start at Christmas. He existed before

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anything else was made. In fact, the Bible tells us Christ Jesus made

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the universe. Jesus made you,
he made me, He made everything that

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exists. He is the source of
all life. Now, notice in there

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it says in Jesus, we see
the full grace and truth of God.

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Circle that word full. What does
that mean? Well, you can see

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a lot about God without ever going
to the Bible. You can know a

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lot about God without ever going to
church. All you have to do is

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go out and look at nature.
Creation teaches us a lot about our creator.

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By looking at the creation. We
know God likes beauty. It's real.

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Lobyists ever seen a sunset, sunrise? God likes beauty. We know

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God likes variety. Look at the
world. Look at you Earth, Look

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at all the people in the world. God likes variety. Diversity is his

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idea to make us all different.
God is powerful. Look at thunder lightning,

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look at ocean waves, the currents. God is powerful. God is

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organized. Everything in the universe is
on a system. There's a plant king,

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the animal kingdom. Ecology says we're
all interrelated. God is an organizer.

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There are a lot of things we
know about God without even going to

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the Bible. But there's some things
you'd never know about God if it weren't

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for Jesus. If Jesus hadn't come
to Earth, you wouldn't know God loves

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you. Nothing would tell you that
you wouldn't know that God forgives you.

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You wouldn't know that God has a
purpose and plan for your life. You

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wouldn't know anything about heaven. You
wouldn't know anything about the afterlife without Jesus

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because he can't without him, None
of you wouldn't know any of that.

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Now, we can learn a lot
from other teachers, even in other religions,

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there are glimpses of God, glimpses
that we go, Yeah, that's

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true, that's what that guy said
is true. But that's true. But

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to fully understand God, if you
want to know what God is like,

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take a long look at Jesus.
Other teachers can give you a glimpse,

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but he gives the full thing about
God's grace. What else teaches God's grace

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the way Jesus does God's forgiveness.
Now, for thousands of years, God

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told us that he was going to
be coming to earth one day. He

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predicted over and over through a lot
of different wives and holy men. Let

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me just show you one example up
here on the screen in Isaiah chapter seven.

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This was like six hundred years before
Jesus. He said, God will

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give you this sign. Behold,
there's that word. Pay attention. A

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version shall conceive and bear a son, and we'll call his name Emmanuel.

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What does Manuel mean? Emmanuel means
God is with us. God put on

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a human body in Jesus. This
is called, in fancy terms, the

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incarnation. God became flesh. Now
here's how it was announced at the very

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first Christmas. Look there in your
outline, Luke. Chapter two that first

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Christmas night says that night there were
shepherds watching over their flocks in the fields

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outside of Bethlham. Suddenly, by
the way, Bethlehem is the word for

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house of bread. Beth in Hebrew
means house. Him is the word for

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bread in Hebrew, Bethlehem house of
bread is where the bread of life was

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born. Suddenly, it says,
an angel appeared with the radiance of God's

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glory surrounding them, saying, surrounding
them they were terrified. I mean,

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the guys are sitting by a probably
campfire, a bunch of shepherds, smelly

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shepherds, watching their sheep, taking
easy, telling jokes. All of a

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sudden, an angel shows up and
they're terrified. But the angel reassured them,

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saying, don't be afraid. Behold, I bring you good news of

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great joy, which is for a
very few people. Is that what it

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says? Which is for what?
You know what? I looked up that

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word in the Bible and the original
Greek. You know what everyone means.

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Everybody doesn't matter what your religious his
background is. It doesn't matter what your

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race is, doesn't matter you're rich
or poor, young or old, what

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country you come from. Christmas is
for everybody. I bring you good news

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of great joy, which is for
everybody today in the town of David.

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That's Bethlehem, where King David had
been born. Your Savior has been born.

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Now circle that word savior. Your
Savior has been born. He is

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Christ the Lord, and you'll find
him. Find the babe lying in a

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manger. Now, a couple things
first, what's a manger? Look up

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here on screen. This is a
manger. A manger is just a feed

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trough for cattle, for horses,
for donkeys. You put the hay uphie

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so they could eat it. It
was filled with animal slobber. It's not

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exactly a sanitary place to put a
baby. It's the most humble. None

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of you were born in the humble
circumstances. Jesus was born in you can't

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get more humble than being laid in
the feed trough of an animal. Now,

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this would be a sign to the
shepherds because when they go into Bethlehem,

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there might have been several babies born
that night, but there was only

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one laying in a manger, lying
in a manger, and that was Jesus.

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But it says a savior has been
born. You need a savior.

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You may not realize it, but
you need a savior. Believe me,

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if you didn't need a savior,
God wouldn't have wasted the time to send

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one. Now, I'm not talking
about saving you simply from sin. I'm

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not talking just about saving you out
of hell. I'm talking about saving you

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from yourself. I'm talking about saving
you from your bad habits that you can't

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seem to stop, and those persistent
thoughts of depression that you can't get rid

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of, and those worries that kend
of get a grip on you. There

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are thousands of things that you need
to be saved from. You're not God.

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You can't even solve your own problems. By those problems, that's the

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problems of the world. So you
need a savior. I need a savior.

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If we didn't need one, he
wouldn't have wasted time to come at

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Christmas. But he came to be
a savior, and we'll talk a little

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bit more about what that means.
Now, look up here on the screen.

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Here was the response. Suddenly there, well, there's one angel talking

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to shepherds. Suddenly the angel was
joined by a huge choir of angels lighting

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up the sky. I mean,
what a light show that was. Praising

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God and singing glory to God in
the highest and let there be peace in

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God's favor on earth. Now,
let me ask you an opinion. When

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that happened, you're let's say you're
a shepherd out there. Do you think

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the shepherds when all that lit up
the sky? Do you think they glanced

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or glimpsed or gazed at it?
Do you think they went huh? Angels

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when they're looking back at the more
they're making over the campfire. No,

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believe me, it lit up the
sky. They beheld it. It was

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a wonder to behold. They didn't
dare look away. They were focused because

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this was unusual, and they had
to ask themselves what does all this mean?

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All right, Now we come to
the second part of God's plan for

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history and God's plan for you.
First part, God came to earth.

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He became a human being called Jesus
Christ. Here's the second thing God wants

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you to think about it, Christmas. Behold, God lived a perfect life,

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a sin free life on earth.
This is really important. We'll come

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back to the minute. He lived
a sin free life on earth. Then

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he paid for your sins and my
sins, so Louis would not have to

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That's really good news. You're not
gonna get any better news than that.

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Everything you've ever done wrong in life
has already been paid for. Even the

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sins you have haven't committed yet,
they were all paid for on the cross.

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Now follow me on this. Most
people understand the logic that we are

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responsible for our own actions. I
can't blame you for the dumb decisions I

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make. Uh. And we also
know that there has to be penalties when

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you break a law or when you
hurt people. There's a penalty to be

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paid for that. We have to
pay for the wrongs that we do.

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There's a concept that's called justice.
We all know that we all want justice.

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That's not fair. He got away
scot free. Now, in Buddhist

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thought, the idea that you can
that whatever happens to you in life is

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because you deserve it. That's that's
called karma in Buddhism, and it means

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if bad things happen to you because
you're a bad person. That's what Buddhism

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teaches. There's no innocent suffering.
Anything that happens wrong you you deserve it.

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It's not a very encouraging thought.
But God in Jesus Christ came up

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and introduced a new concept greater than
justice and greater than karma. It's called

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redemption and grace. You're gonna like
this one. And the idea of redemption

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and grace is that somebody else could
pay for your sins so that you could

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be forgiven and go scott free.
They do your time, they pay your

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penalty, they pay your ticket.
That the things that you need to be

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paid back for all things you've done
wrong, somebody else could pay for him

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instead. And that's what Jesus Christ
did. This is really good news.

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Now here's what happened at the baptism
of Jesus. This idea was first announced.

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Jesus was thirty years old when he's
baptized. Look at this John chapter

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one one day, John the Baptist
saw Jesus coming toward him. He's going

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to be baptized. So John announced, behold, there's that word circle.

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It old the lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world.

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Now we may not understand what's he
talking about here, the lamb of God.

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We don't understand this, but every
Jewish person in the world knows the

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symbolism of this verse because once a
year in the Jewish faith, a perfect,

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spotless lamb was sacrificed at Passover to
represent the salvation and the redemption of

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everybody that we're all forgiven. Now, after Jesus Christ dies on the cross

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for my sin and your sin,
there was no longer any need for any

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symbolic sacrificing of animals. But when
they were doing that, the lamb that

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was going to be sacrificed for the
sin of other people had to be spotless.

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It had to be a perfect lamb. Only a perfect life could die

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for all our imperfections. I can't
die for your sins because I'm a sinner.

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I'm in pervity. You can't die
for my sins because you're in perfect

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Only a perfect, spotless lamb could
die for everybody else's imperfections. Now,

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it's interesting to me that when the
people who wanted to crucify Jesus brought Jesus

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to their Roman governor in Jerusalem,
his name was Pilot. You heard of

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this guy, and they bring Jesus
to Pilot for a trial. It's one

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of six trials Jesus went through.
And Pilot takes Jesus side and interviews him.

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Now he is no Christian, he's
a pagan. He's a Roman dude.

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And he interviews Jesus. And after
he interviews him, he acknowledges that

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Jesus had done nothing wrong. He
was totally innocent. Look at this next

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verse, Luke, chapter twenty three. Then Pilot says to these leaders,

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you brought this man Jesus to me. But behold, there's that word.

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Behold. I didn't find him guilty
of any of your charges against him.

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And by the way, neither did
King Herod. That was another trial he

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went through. Neither did King Herod, for he sent him back to me.

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Behold, he's done nothing deserving death. So alls having flogged and released,

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but they all cried out, no
crucify him. Pilot says, I

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find no fault in Jesus. I
don't see any sin. I don't see

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any mistake, I don't see any
error. I don't see any crime that

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he's worthy of being punished for.
So let me ask you tonight in twenty

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twenty one, at Christmas, a
logical question. If you have not acknowledged

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Jesus Christ that he has a right
to your life, let me ask you,

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what do you find wrong with him? What do you find wrong with

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him? On what basis would you
reject what he did for you? On

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what basis would you reject him as
your savior? You see, Pilot gave

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everybody an opportunity to decide what they're
going to do with Jesus. And after

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the Roman soldiers had tortured Jesus and
put thorns in his crown, in his

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head and put a robe, the
Bible says this, look up here on

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the screen. This is after they
had tortured him. So Jesus came out

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wearing a crown of thorns and a
purple robe that the soldiers had mocked him

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with. Then Pilot said to everyone, here's the word. Behold the man.

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What's he doing here? What's Pilot
doing? He said, I'm giving

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you a choice. I'm giving our
right choice. What are you going to

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do with Jesus? Behold the man? You can't ignore him. You could

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either accept Jesus as Lord and savior
or you could reject him. They could

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accept him, or they could crucify
him. What are you gonna do this

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Christmas with Jesus Christ? Accept him
as your savior or reject him. You're

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gonna behold Jesus or are you're going
to betray Jesus? Okay, Now we

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come to the third and the fourth
part of God's plan, his eternal plan

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for all of history and for you. Par one. God comes to earth.

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He comes in a human form,
Jesus Christ, so we can know

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what God's like. Number two.
He lives a perfect life, so he

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could die for all of our imperfections. He lives a sinless life, so

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he could die for all of our
sins. It's called redemption and grace.

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It's a new concept, so you
don't have to pay for all the bad

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stuff you've done or I have done. Here's the third part of the plan.

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Behold, Jesus defeated death. He
defeated death by raising himself back to

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life. So we can live forever
with him. We don't have to be

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afraid of death anymore. Jesus changed
our understanding of death by defeating it.

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Now, listen, you guys.
If Jesus had not come back to life

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on Easter Sunday, nobody in the
world would be celebrating Christmas tonight. Why

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because Jesus would have been a liar, a fake, a phony, and

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a con man, and he would
have conned out two point five billion people

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on the planet. Because he said, here's how I'm going to prove that

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I am who I say am.
I am God. Now, a lot

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of people in history have claimed to
be God. I could claim to be

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God, you could claim to be
God. But only Jesus proved it.

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He said, I'm going to let
them kill me. They'll put me in

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the grave for three days, and
three days later, are raised myself back

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to life. That's called the resurrection. That's not a resuscitation. We have

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resuscitations all the time. People die
for ten minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty

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minutes or whatever, and then they
come back to life. That's not a

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resurrection. That's a resuscitation. Resurrection
means you've been buried for three days nobody

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does that. Only Jesus proved it. And it was such a significant event.

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It's the most important event in history. It's split our entire calendar in

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the AD and BC. Every other
event in history is dated in relationship to

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the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Your
own birthday, your day, month,

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00:28:40.839 --> 00:28:44.400
year, What is that all about. It's your day, month year in

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relationship to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every other event in history before BC

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or AD in the year of our
Lord is related because of the resurrection.

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It's split history. That's why it's
the most important event in history, even

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more important than Christmas, because Christmas
wouldn't matter if that didn't happen. Now,

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notice how it happened. On that
first Easter morning there on your outline,

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Matthew, chapter twenty eight says this, and behold, there's that word.

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There was a great earthquake, and
an angel came and rolled back the

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large stone in front of the tomb
door and sat on it. This is

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kind of a little sarcasm here.
It just sits on it. Now,

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00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:32.160
what's this idea? In those days, they didn't bury people all the time

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in the ground, but they would
offer bury them in caves or in caverns,

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and they would there was a lot
of limestone in the Middle East.

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They'd dig out a family crypt and
not one person was buried in it,

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but lots of people. And every
time somebody in a family died, they'd

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roll back the stone and put the
new person in the roll it back,

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and generations of family members would be
buried in the same tomb. Now,

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this particular tomb is owned by a
rich man named Joseph Verimathea, brand new

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to me. He'd bought it.
Nobody had been buried in it yet,

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and it had this big stone.
Now, the opponents of Jesus said,

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we've heard that he claims he's going
to come back to life. We don't

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want anybody stealing the body. So
they said, here's what we want you

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to do. We want you to
seal it with the Roman seal and put

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guards around jesus tomb. Jesus is
the only tomb that's ever had to be

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guarded to keep the guy from coming
back out. Okay, but they did

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that. Now on Easter morning,
an angel comes breaks the seal and here's

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what it says. Says he sat
in front of the tomb on the stone,

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and his appearance was as bright as
lightning, and the tomb guards were

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so frightened that they shook with paralyzing
fear. But the angel said to the

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women there were some followers of Jesus
who had come back on Sunday, addressed

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and anoint his body with spices like
the burial preparation. And the angel says

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to the women, don't be afraid. I know you're looking for Jesus who

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was crucified, but he's not here, for he has risen, just as

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he promised. And then he said, come on in look at this.

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Come on into the end of the
grave tomb. Behold the place where they

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had laid his body. Now go
tell his disciples that Jesus has risen from

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the dead, and behold, he'll
meet you in Galilee. Lo I have

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told you. Now if you want
to circle, low and behold, that's

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the first mention of Lo and behold
in the Bible. Lo, and behold

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there it is all right. Lo, I've told you. So the women

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hurried away afraid. Okay, they're
afraid, yet filled with joy, and

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they ran to tell his disciples what
the angel had told them. But here's

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the clincher. On the way.
Behold, Jesus met the women. Look,

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yeah, he's out wacked around and
he says, greetings, I guess

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that's the typical reaction for a risen
savior. Greetings, how's it going?

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Amazed? They ran to him,
embraced his feet and worshiped him. Okay,

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worshiped him. Then Jesus said to
them, don't be afraid. Second

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time in the Easter story. Don't
be afraid. Don't be afraid. Go

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tell my brothers. I'm going to
meet them in Galilee. Now you probably

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00:32:30.839 --> 00:32:34.759
know this, but Jesus didn't immediately
return to heaven after he came back to

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life. Instead, he spent the
next forty days forty more days walking around

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the streets of Jerusalem, meeting with
people, eating with people, having dinner

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with people, talking with people.
One time, he preached a sermon to

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five hundred people. This is why
the faith spread so fast, why it

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went from twelve people to the dominant
faith of the Roman Empire in a couple

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hundred years, because there were tons
of eyewitnesses which watched Jesus publicly be crucified

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to death and then later meet with
him after the resurrection. For the next

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forty days. Can you imagine being
one of the soldiers who put Christ to

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death and you're walking down the street
one day Jerusalem, all a sudden he's

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00:33:20.599 --> 00:33:24.720
there. He's back. That would
be weird to see the guy that you

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00:33:24.839 --> 00:33:30.519
know you just killed. So Jesus
didn't just meet me to go back to

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00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:35.519
heaven. Lots of people saw him
and talk to him, And one time

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00:33:35.519 --> 00:33:38.440
he did a cookout for breakfast out
of Fia Galilee for a bunch of people.

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After forty days of giving people proof
and everybody, then hundreds of thousand

408
00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:52.400
people came to Christ almost instantly.
Jesus gave these last instructions before he goes

409
00:33:52.440 --> 00:33:55.519
back to heaven. Next verse,
then Jesus told him, Okay, now

410
00:33:57.039 --> 00:34:02.920
go to all people everywhere and make
them my disciples. Teach them to do

411
00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:07.880
everything I've shown you. Jesus never
asked us to do something he hadn't already

412
00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:13.719
modeled. And behold there's another Behold, I am with you always to the

413
00:34:13.880 --> 00:34:17.159
end of the age. That's a
good behold. This is a comforting fact

414
00:34:17.599 --> 00:34:22.719
to behold and think about, and
no matter what happens. In twenty twenty

415
00:34:22.719 --> 00:34:27.480
two, he says, behold,
I am with you always, did you

416
00:34:27.559 --> 00:34:30.519
know that God is always with you, That Jesus is always with you,

417
00:34:31.519 --> 00:34:37.400
so I don't always feel them.
Jesus is not a feeling. Feelings come

418
00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:42.159
and go, whether you feel them
or not, so irrelevant. He's always

419
00:34:42.239 --> 00:34:46.000
with you. You are never lonely
by yourself when you realize God says,

420
00:34:46.079 --> 00:34:51.800
I am with you all the time. Jesus is always watching you, He's

421
00:34:51.880 --> 00:34:57.840
always waiting with you. He's always
with you. And that's a comforting thing

422
00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:00.360
to know that. I don't know
what the future holds, but I know

423
00:35:00.400 --> 00:35:06.440
who holds the future. And I
know that no matter what I go through

424
00:35:06.440 --> 00:35:08.760
this next year, I'm not going
through it alone. And I can turn

425
00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:15.840
to God in any moment. Now. In Acts chapter one, it says

426
00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:21.679
this, when Jesus had finished speaking
these things, they beheld him being taken

427
00:35:21.800 --> 00:35:27.760
up into the sky until they could
no longer see him past the clouds.

428
00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:32.440
This is called the ascension. He's
going back up to heaven, it says.

429
00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:37.480
As they continued to gaze at the
sky, two men dressed in white

430
00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:45.800
appeared, likely angels. The one
said, why are you Why are you

431
00:35:46.199 --> 00:35:52.840
still staring at the sky. This
same Jesus that you just saw taken from

432
00:35:52.880 --> 00:36:00.760
you up into the heaven will return
one day in the same way that you

433
00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:06.280
saw him leave, in the same
way that you saw him leave. Now,

434
00:36:06.320 --> 00:36:10.800
this leads us to the fourth part
of God's story. Okay, and

435
00:36:10.840 --> 00:36:15.440
here's number four. Here's the fourth
thing you need to think about this Christmas.

436
00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:22.960
Behold, God's plan for the universe
and for you isn't finished yet.

437
00:36:22.920 --> 00:36:32.400
It's not done. Jesus will return
to complete God's plan and take us to

438
00:36:32.440 --> 00:36:37.599
heaven. Now, if he comes
in our lifetime, that'll happen that way.

439
00:36:37.639 --> 00:36:39.440
If he comes in after we've already
dead and we're already in heabit,

440
00:36:39.599 --> 00:36:45.079
it'll be forever those who are there. But Jesus said, I am going

441
00:36:45.159 --> 00:36:50.800
to come back in the same way. Well, the night before Jesus was

442
00:36:50.840 --> 00:36:54.079
crucified, he got all of his
followers together, and he wanted to say

443
00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:58.519
some words comfort, knowing that they
were going to watch him be tortured and

444
00:36:58.559 --> 00:37:06.280
crucified. He said this in John
fourteen. Do not let your heart be

445
00:37:06.440 --> 00:37:14.960
troubled. You believe in God.
Believe also in me. In my Father's

446
00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:20.360
house in Heaven are many man shoulds. If it were not so, I

447
00:37:20.400 --> 00:37:27.519
would have told you and I'm going
to prepare a place for you. And

448
00:37:27.679 --> 00:37:30.920
if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and

449
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:36.719
receive you unto myself, that where
I am you may be. Also,

450
00:37:37.599 --> 00:37:43.599
Thomas said to Jesus, Lord,
we don't know where you're going, and

451
00:37:43.639 --> 00:37:50.199
we don't know the way. And
Jesus said, I am the way.

452
00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:55.159
I am the way, I am
the Truth, and I am the life.

453
00:37:55.639 --> 00:38:04.320
No one comes to the Father except
through me. I'm betting my life

454
00:38:04.360 --> 00:38:07.719
that Jesus Christ is not a liar. What are you betting your life on?

455
00:38:09.320 --> 00:38:15.639
Well, I just feel. Feelings
are highly irrational. Feelings are highly

456
00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:22.639
unreliable. You better have more than
just a feeling for the rejection of your

457
00:38:22.679 --> 00:38:27.920
savior. Jesus said, I am
the way. No one comes to the

458
00:38:27.960 --> 00:38:30.840
Father except through me. And he
said, if I go, I'll come

459
00:38:30.880 --> 00:38:35.440
back. Did he go? Yeah, he went, He's coming back one

460
00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:42.639
day. How's that going to happen? Well? John Revelation, chapter one,

461
00:38:42.719 --> 00:38:45.480
verse seven. So of this behold, he is coming with the clouds,

462
00:38:46.159 --> 00:38:51.039
and every eye will see him,
and all the tribes of the earth

463
00:38:51.480 --> 00:38:53.239
should gaze upon him. If you
will, how's the world going to end?

464
00:38:53.239 --> 00:38:55.639
I'll tell you it's gonna end just
like that. That's the end of

465
00:38:55.679 --> 00:39:00.679
history right there. We already know. I've read the last after the book.

466
00:39:00.679 --> 00:39:08.840
I know how it's going to end
now. John was one of the

467
00:39:08.920 --> 00:39:15.079
last of the original twelve disciples who
followed Jesus Christ. He was the last

468
00:39:15.079 --> 00:39:19.199
one to die. He died in
old age. He was put on a

469
00:39:19.400 --> 00:39:23.960
prison island, imprisoned on an island
called the Island of Patmas in the Mediterranean

470
00:39:23.960 --> 00:39:28.519
Ocean by the Roman Empire. And
he died as an old man. But

471
00:39:28.639 --> 00:39:35.280
before he died, before he died, he got a glimpse of heaven.

472
00:39:35.320 --> 00:39:40.239
And in Revelation chapter twenty one,
God gave John a glimpse of what heaven

473
00:39:40.960 --> 00:39:46.400
is going to be like Revelation twenty
one, see that verse. Behold,

474
00:39:49.599 --> 00:39:54.280
God's home is now with his people. We're going to be with God forever

475
00:39:54.400 --> 00:39:59.480
in heaven. Behold, God's home
is now with his people. He'll live

476
00:39:59.559 --> 00:40:05.119
with them forever, and they will
be his family. And they will wipe

477
00:40:05.159 --> 00:40:09.559
away every tear. He will wipe
away every tear from their eyes. See,

478
00:40:09.599 --> 00:40:13.960
there's no sorrow, no sadness,
no suffering, no sickness, no

479
00:40:14.119 --> 00:40:19.199
sin. In heaven. There will
be no more death. There will be

480
00:40:19.239 --> 00:40:25.840
no more grief or crying, there
will be no more pain, for the

481
00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:31.679
old order of things will pass away, and God will say, behold,

482
00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:38.639
I'm making everything new, and all
the things that have broken this planet broken,

483
00:40:38.679 --> 00:40:43.840
the economy broken, the weather broken, relationships broken, marriages, broken,

484
00:40:43.920 --> 00:40:46.239
your bodies. Everything on this earth
is broken because of sin. But

485
00:40:46.320 --> 00:40:52.079
he says, I'm gonna make it
all new in heaven. No more sadness,

486
00:40:52.159 --> 00:40:55.679
sorrow, suffering, sin, sickness, no more grief, no more

487
00:40:55.719 --> 00:41:01.639
trials, no more troubles, no
more health problems. You won't be in

488
00:41:01.719 --> 00:41:09.400
heaven five seconds when you're going to
realize, you know what, I gave

489
00:41:09.480 --> 00:41:15.199
too much of my focus on earth, the things that didn't matter, the

490
00:41:15.320 --> 00:41:21.599
things that didn't last, the things
that weren't gonna matter for ten years,

491
00:41:21.679 --> 00:41:29.920
much less for eternity. What was
I thinking this Christmas? In my challenge

492
00:41:29.960 --> 00:41:34.280
to you, behold the true message
this Christmas. I want you to get

493
00:41:34.320 --> 00:41:40.840
your focus off yourself, get yourself, focus off your problems, get your

494
00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:51.239
focus off your worries, and behold
how much God loves you that he wants

495
00:41:51.280 --> 00:42:00.480
you to trust him, his son
Jesus Christ. It is genuinely generally acknowledged

496
00:42:01.280 --> 00:42:07.039
that one of the greatest minds of
the twentieth century was doctor C. S.

497
00:42:07.159 --> 00:42:10.840
Lewis, professor at Oxford, wrote
dozens of books and intellectual giant,

498
00:42:12.400 --> 00:42:16.320
brilliant intellect. C. S.
Lewis once said, the only thing Jesus

499
00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:24.000
cannot be is moderately important. Now
I want you to think about that for

500
00:42:24.039 --> 00:42:31.039
a minute. The only thing Jesus
cannot be is moderately important. Because if

501
00:42:31.079 --> 00:42:37.800
he wasn't telling the truth, if
he said I'm God, if he's not

502
00:42:37.079 --> 00:42:43.800
God come in human form, if
he didn't live a perfect life, if

503
00:42:43.800 --> 00:42:46.079
he didn't die for your sins,
you're gonna have to die for him.

504
00:42:47.280 --> 00:42:52.960
If he didn't rise from the dead. You know nothing about heaven and the

505
00:42:52.239 --> 00:42:57.920
afterlife, and it's all it's in
fact, your life doesn't matter. There's

506
00:42:57.920 --> 00:43:01.559
no point to your life, there's
no purpose to your life. That's all

507
00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:07.840
false. If that isn't true,
he's a fake, a phony, a

508
00:43:07.960 --> 00:43:13.280
con man, a fraud. And
Christmas is the biggest hoax in history,

509
00:43:15.199 --> 00:43:20.920
and the world is celebrating with all
of our Christmas traditions, a giant hoax.

510
00:43:21.239 --> 00:43:25.400
It's all a lie. People said, Well, you know, I

511
00:43:25.400 --> 00:43:30.639
think maybe Jesus was a good man, he couldn't be. He either has

512
00:43:30.679 --> 00:43:37.119
to be God or he's a fraud, one or the other. No good

513
00:43:37.199 --> 00:43:39.360
man will go around saying I'm God, I'm the only way to heaven.

514
00:43:39.519 --> 00:43:45.639
I'm the way to have all your
sins forgiven. I could say I'm a

515
00:43:45.679 --> 00:43:47.960
good teacher, and some of you
go, yeah, I've heard rick for

516
00:43:49.000 --> 00:43:52.320
decades, he's a good teacher.
But if I stood up here and said,

517
00:43:52.400 --> 00:43:53.920
by the way, I'm the only
way your sins will be forgiven,

518
00:43:54.159 --> 00:43:58.079
I'm the only way you're getting to
heaven, and I am God in human

519
00:43:58.119 --> 00:44:02.119
form, now you got to make
a decision. I'm either a nutcase or

520
00:44:02.119 --> 00:44:07.639
a total fraud. I'm no longer
a good teacher. A good teacher would

521
00:44:07.719 --> 00:44:14.159
never claim that Jesus could not possibly
be just a good teacher. He's either

522
00:44:14.159 --> 00:44:17.280
a total fraud or he's who he
claimed to be. There's no logical,

523
00:44:17.639 --> 00:44:23.880
rational option beside that. And I
told you earlier, I'm betting my life

524
00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:28.039
that Jesus was telling the truth.
What are you betting your life on?

525
00:44:30.719 --> 00:44:37.480
And I told you feelings are highly
unreliable. Now I want to end with

526
00:44:37.599 --> 00:44:40.679
one more. Behold, I told
you there's and seventy five of them.

527
00:44:40.679 --> 00:44:45.280
We just looked at a dozen.
But in the last book of the Bible,

528
00:44:45.320 --> 00:44:49.760
Revelation, chapter three, Jesus says
this, it's here on the screen.

529
00:44:50.800 --> 00:44:54.039
Behold, I'm standing at the door, at your door, the door

530
00:44:54.079 --> 00:45:01.280
of your life, and I'm knocking. I'm knocking. And if you hear

531
00:45:01.400 --> 00:45:07.280
my voice and you open the door, I'll come in and will fellowship.

532
00:45:09.079 --> 00:45:15.599
You can begin a friendship with God
tonight. I'm not talking about religion,

533
00:45:15.639 --> 00:45:22.079
folks. I'm talking about a relationship
to God. You were not made for

534
00:45:22.159 --> 00:45:27.599
a religion. Jesus didn't die for
a religion. Jesus died because he made

535
00:45:27.639 --> 00:45:30.960
you. He loves you, He
wants you in heaven with him. He

536
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.280
came to be your savior. And
there's no other way. You're getting saved.

537
00:45:34.719 --> 00:45:38.280
And if you didn't need a savior, Christmas wouldn't have happened, for

538
00:45:38.440 --> 00:45:42.760
unto you is born as a savior. He is Christ the Lord. Either,

539
00:45:43.079 --> 00:45:45.719
like Pilot said, behold a man, either accept them or reject him.

540
00:45:45.880 --> 00:45:50.880
You behold him or you betray him. You trust him, or you

541
00:45:50.880 --> 00:46:00.800
a crucify him. Those are the
options this Christmas. What are you giving

542
00:46:00.960 --> 00:46:07.440
Jesus for Christmas. It's his birthday. You're buying gifts for everybody else.

543
00:46:07.440 --> 00:46:10.039
What are you getting for the birthday? Boy? Can you imagine having a

544
00:46:10.039 --> 00:46:14.320
birthday buying gifts for everybody else,
but not the birthday boy, our child,

545
00:46:15.519 --> 00:46:17.760
it's his birthday. What do you
give? You say, well,

546
00:46:17.760 --> 00:46:22.920
he's God, yep, What do
you give God? What do you give

547
00:46:22.960 --> 00:46:25.360
the God who has everything? He
doesn't have your life unless you give it

548
00:46:25.400 --> 00:46:30.320
to him. He doesn't have your
trust unless you give it to him.

549
00:46:30.880 --> 00:46:35.119
He doesn't have your love, allegiance, and loyalty unless you give He doesn't

550
00:46:35.199 --> 00:46:38.519
have the honor he deserves. He
gives you that option. What are you

551
00:46:38.559 --> 00:46:45.559
going to give Jesus for his birthday? Stop celebrating Christmas if you're not going

552
00:46:45.639 --> 00:46:51.079
to give him your gift, the
gift that he wants from you. He

553
00:46:51.119 --> 00:46:55.280
wants you to trust you. He
wants you to love him. He has

554
00:46:55.400 --> 00:47:00.880
never not loved you, And years
before you were born, he knew that

555
00:47:00.960 --> 00:47:07.159
on Christmas Eve twenty twenty one you'd
sit in a cold, saddle backed church

556
00:47:08.440 --> 00:47:14.119
and we'd have the coldest day of
our year with the most rain, so

557
00:47:14.159 --> 00:47:19.480
he could say this to you,
You matter to me. I love you.

558
00:47:19.760 --> 00:47:23.559
I've known every moment of your life. I made you and I want

559
00:47:23.599 --> 00:47:28.599
a relationship with you, and that's
why I went through all this that we

560
00:47:28.760 --> 00:47:32.360
just talked about so you could be
mine and being part of my family.

561
00:47:35.159 --> 00:47:43.719
That's buy our heads for prayer.
I'm going to pray simple prayer of trust.

562
00:47:44.480 --> 00:47:51.360
Maybe you've never opened your life to
God to Christ. Just follow me

563
00:47:51.480 --> 00:47:53.440
in this simple prayer. It doesn't
matter. Words don't really matter. What

564
00:47:53.480 --> 00:47:59.960
matters as a humble attitude, but
you might just say, Dear God.

565
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:01.480
God, and God knows what you're
thinking. You do not have to say

566
00:48:01.480 --> 00:48:08.239
it aloud. Dear God, thank
you that you came to earth and became

567
00:48:08.280 --> 00:48:14.400
a human being so we could know
what you're like, so we could see

568
00:48:14.440 --> 00:48:19.440
your full grace and your full truth, not just get a glimpse of you,

569
00:48:19.760 --> 00:48:23.880
but know what you're really like.
And thank you Jesus Christ, that

570
00:48:23.960 --> 00:48:31.519
you lived a perfect life so you
could die for my imperfections. You live

571
00:48:31.599 --> 00:48:36.159
the sinless life so you could die
for all the stuff I've done wrong,

572
00:48:36.239 --> 00:48:45.840
all my sins. I find no
fault in you. And thank you Jesus

573
00:48:45.239 --> 00:48:52.400
that you rose back from life,
you raised yourself from death, to defeat

574
00:48:52.519 --> 00:48:58.880
death, to show us that there's
life after death, to give us the

575
00:48:58.960 --> 00:49:06.280
promise that we can live forever with
you. Thank you for that. God.

576
00:49:06.320 --> 00:49:09.760
I know your plan is not finished
yet, Jesus. Just as you

577
00:49:09.800 --> 00:49:13.880
said you'd come one day, and
you did. You said you're coming back

578
00:49:13.960 --> 00:49:20.079
one day, and you will,
whether it's in my Lifeti'm her I die,

579
00:49:20.159 --> 00:49:22.079
and I've trusted you and have gone
to heaven, and you come in

580
00:49:22.079 --> 00:49:29.800
the future. Sometime You're going to
keep your word. But today I believe

581
00:49:29.840 --> 00:49:34.039
that you're standing at the door of
my life and you're knocking, and I'm

582
00:49:34.039 --> 00:49:37.199
saying, okay, God is best. And how as I know how I

583
00:49:37.239 --> 00:49:40.920
want to know you. I want
to know you. I open my life

584
00:49:40.960 --> 00:49:46.360
to you now as much as I
know. I ask you to come in

585
00:49:46.360 --> 00:49:51.880
inside of me. Fill me with
your love, fill me with your peace,

586
00:49:51.960 --> 00:49:58.199
fill me with your presence. I
don't want you to be moderately important

587
00:49:58.239 --> 00:50:01.920
in my life anymore. God,
I want you to be the most important

588
00:50:01.920 --> 00:50:07.800
thing in my life because you made
me and you have a purpose and plan

589
00:50:07.920 --> 00:50:14.719
for my life. So as humbly
as I can say this, Jesus Christ,

590
00:50:15.199 --> 00:50:19.960
I ask you to be my savior. I'm saying, yes, I

591
00:50:20.199 --> 00:50:27.920
behold, and I believe, and
I pray this in your name. Amen,