Dealing with Your Inner Grinch

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Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads, I'm Andy.

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Now, Crossroads is a church that you can be

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a part of no matter where you live

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or what you believe about God.

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And today we're starting a new series

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called Christmas at the Movies.

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You see, we got red carpet vibe,

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and hey, no pictures, no pictures.

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Now, nothing takes the stress out of

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the holiday craziness just like curling up

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with a great Christmas movie, right?

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So this month we'll look at 3 classic Christmas films

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and discover the profound spiritual truths

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hidden just below the surface.

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But before we get into that,

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we're going to sing some songs.

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And did you know that a lot of the songs

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we already sing at Christmas are actually songs about God?

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Now, not all of them, of course, but these songs

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have been sung for hundreds of years

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to worship the coming baby King at Christmas.

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So as we sing these songs today, think about the words

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and what they mean for your life this Christmas.

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Let's sing it together.

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[honking horns] - Christmas doesn't have to be like this.

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Discover the real story of Christmas

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and what it means for your life today.

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Start a new tradition this Christmas

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with Crossroads Church.

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- Hey, Christmas is coming

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and whether you love Christmas

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or whether you're already over the holidays,

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there's something that God wants to say

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to you this Christmas.

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So mark your calendars, you'll be able to watch

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the Christmas service on demand

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starting Friday, December 22nd.

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And there's going to be a really cool,

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interactive digital experience where

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you'll be able to join in the story

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and discover what it means for your life.

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Now, we think that every child deserves Christmas joy.

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That's why this Christmas, we're bringing joy

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to children whose families can't afford presents

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or are incarcerated.

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Your gifts, along with thousands of others,

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will give nearly 6000 children gifts this year

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who otherwise wouldn't have any.

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Today is the last day to donate, and it's so easy

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and it goes directly to a kid who needs it

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so much this Christmas.

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Head to crossroads.net/CGD to buy a gift.

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Now we do things like the Christmas Gift Drive

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that don't benefit Crossroads at all,

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because that's what God wants us to do.

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That's what the church does, we're generous.

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And even the money that comes in

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through regular giving at Crossroads

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goes right back out to helping people

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locally and globally.

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We're not storing it up for a rainy day

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because we think that it's already raining

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and people already need help.

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When we give our money, it goes to work

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just in all kinds of big ways.

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To learn more about where money goes,

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why we give, or to make a year end gift,

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just head to Crossroads.net/give.

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Now let's get started in our Christmas at

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the Movies series with Alli Patterson.

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- Christmas at the movies

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is perfect with some coffee.

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Don't need that ring-a-ling,

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ding-a-dong, ding-a-ding, talking.

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So if we see the glow

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of cellular telephone

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will take 'em and we'll break 'em,

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and we won't say we were mistaken.

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You've been warned.

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Merry Christmas.

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- What up, Grinches? It's Christmas time.

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Come on, come on. Today --

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My name is Alli. If we don't -- If we don't know each other,

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I'm one of the teaching pastors here

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and I am so excited about the Christmas season.

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Really thrilled to be here with you this weekend,

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kicking off our Christmas with Crossroads

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whole season, and yes, we are looking

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at Christmas movies because I believe that

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the story of Jesus is embedded

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so many places in our culture,

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and we're going to peel back some of

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our favorite movies and find what's in it for us.

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And yep, today is The Grinch.

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And I know there's multiple versions of the Grinch,

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and you probably have a favorite one,

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but you're going to have to wait and see

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for just a minute what I pick.

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And I'm just going to tell you right now,

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I think the Jim Carrey version is a little creepy,

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so I wouldn't be on the edge of your seat for that one.

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I do love The Grinch, because he is going to

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take us straight into the heart of Christmas.

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That's where we're going today,

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straight into the heart of Christmas.

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And not just Christmas, but our own hearts.

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Our hearts that can be complicated, right?

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Like, a little colder than we want.

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Maybe a little cynical at times.

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Definitely complex things in our chest.

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And we want to know today from the Grinch,

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how do we exchange this heart we have

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for one that is soft and warm and real

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and filled with all the good things

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that this season represents?

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Let me pray for us.

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Lord, today my prayer is really simple actually.

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I pray that You would do work

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on the hearts in our community.

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I want You to move hearts and change hearts

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and save hearts in our time together this weekend.

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In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.

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I don't know if this ever happened to you,

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but it sure has to me when you're somewhere

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that is sparkly and it's supposed to be fun

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and you are just not feeling it.

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You'd rather go home. You're a little annoyed.

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Maybe you don't even know why.

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But maybe you're somebody who puts up the tree

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and even in your own house, you look at it

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and it makes you cry a little bit more,

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or it makes you drink a little bit more.

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There's all kinds of things about this season

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where we have cause to notice that

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whatever's going on inside here

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doesn't match what's going on around us,

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no matter how beautiful that is.

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We all have a little green man

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inside of our heart running around.

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We're a little grinchy in there,

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and I think it's one of the reasons

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that we love this movie.

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It's a classic, for sure, and we kind of love

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the fact that this nasty green guy does not care, right?

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His grinchy-ness is all up in your face

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and he is just all Grinch all the time.

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And I think we kind of love him for it.

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One of the things that I'm pretty sure is

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that you know the basics of this movie,

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but just for like the 1 or 2 of you that might not,

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Grinch is a nasty little green guy,

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and he lives up way outside of

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this beautiful little town called Whoville.

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And Whoville loves Christmas,

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and the Grinch really hates it.

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I mean, really hates it.

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So every year when Christmas comes around

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and Whoville gets all decorated and sparkly,

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the Grinch gets even meaner and even nastier.

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And the reason that I picked the version

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of the Grinch that we're going to be

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diving into together today is because

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for the first time, we're going to start to understand

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what is actually going on in the heart of the Grinch.

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We get a little glimpse of the Grinch's story.

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- And as the Grinch looked around,

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he felt downright scared as he remembered

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that Christmas where nobody cared,

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where nobody showed, not even a flea.

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And there were no cards, no gifts and no tree.

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And as he watched other kids,

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one thing became clear:

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that this was the single worst day of the year.

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And then they do something he liked least of all,

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every who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,

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would stand close together

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with Christmas bells ringing.

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They'd stand hand in hand

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and the Whos would start singing.

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- Fah-who foris, dah-who doris,

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Welcome, Christmas, come this way.

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Fah-who foris, dah-who doris,

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Welcome Christmas, Christmas day.

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Welcome, welcome, fah-who foris.

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And they'll sing.

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And they'll sing, sing, sing, sing.

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Yes, he couldn't recall without feeling the sting,

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so the Grinch finally declared, "I must stop this whole thing."

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- The Grinch is in pain.

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The Grinch's pain is what's under the surface

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of his nastiness, his anger, his cold heartedness.

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That's so like us, isn't it?

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And he makes this vow.

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He makes this vow he's going to ruin Christmas.

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And this year he's really going to do it.

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He's had it once and for all.

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And it's not really a quest to stop Christmas, is it?

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His quest is to stop the pain.

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His hate is connected to his hurt.

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It is for all of us, because Grinches the world over

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have hurt hearts. Grinches have hurt hearts.

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Wherever you're most angry, most cold,

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most isolated, if you pull that string

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down into your heart is pain and hurt.

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Our grinchy-ness is always connected to our pain.

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I like Christmas, I'll admit, but right up

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until the actual day of Christmas at about 5 p.m.

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and then my Grinch comes out.

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Not only is it a little bit, you know,

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it's a little bit of a let down

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when any, like, big fun occasion is over.

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But I mean, my Grinch comes out

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about 5 or 6:00 on Christmas

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and it stays out for the next week because

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I have had a story for a long time

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that I hate the week after Christmas.

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And some of you think that's crazy

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because you're like, "It's amazing.

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Nobody knows if I'm at work or not

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because they're not there. It's great."

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I hate the week after Christmas,

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at least that's been my grinchy story for a lot of years.

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And do you know why?

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Because I imagine what you all are doing.

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I text my friends and they're busy because

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they have brothers and sisters that they love,

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nieces and nephews that come sleep over.

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They have an extended family that they want to go

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and really connect with and stay up late playing cards

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and buy matching PJs, and they all want to visit.

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And I just imagine in my mind

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that's what you're all doing.

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And so I try to text you and you're busy.

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And it makes me feel alone,

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because that's not the story of my extended family.

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My one niece on my side of the family lives in Brazil.

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I hardly ever visit with my brothers.

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And the truth is, the week after Christmas,

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it brings that up and out.

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Wherever our hurt comes up, our Grinch comes out,

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like, your Grinch is showing. You know?

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It should be a clue to the rest of us

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that there's actually some pain and hurt going on there.

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And that is so connected to my Grinchy story

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of the Christmas season.

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I wonder if you have one of those,

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because it always leads to the same place.

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It leads to where the Grinch lived.

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It's just really symbolic in the movie.

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He lives in this high, cold, dark,

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isolated place where he gets to go

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just wrap himself up in his Grinchy-ness.

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This is not a new phenomenon.

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It's not a new thing for humanity to feel this way,

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to actually be removed

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and isolated when we're in pain.

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And there was a time in the Bible

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where the nation of Israel, the people of God,

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they were in that exact state.

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They were exiled out of their land.

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They'd been conquered by foreign kings.

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Many of the people who went into exile

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would have had massive parts of their family

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that got wiped out.

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They'd watched their city be demolished,

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their temple get burned.

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There was all kinds of things on the surface

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that were very obviously wrong.

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And they found themselves hard and sad

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and bitter and distant from God.

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And God sent a prophet to speak to them

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in that place, in that state.

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And He proposed a solution to their problem.

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And I want you to hear this because

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it's kind of crazy, like, what God says to them

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when there's just such obvious external stuff

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is a little bit odd.

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Here's what He says through the prophet Ezekiel:

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And that's what He has to say to them

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when everything in their life is in shambles,

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and they're cold and dark and distant from Him,

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He sends them a message and He says,

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"The problem is actually in here.

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The problem is on the inside,

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the problem is not on the outside."

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And He calls it a heart of stone.

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It's really important to understand

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when you hear that language of heart,

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we think of heart in our culture

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and it conjures up some ideas.

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Maybe you think of the organ itself

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or the emotional state that you're in,

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but in Jewish thought and therefore in the Bible,

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the heart is actually the center of all of life itself.

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The heart, whenever it's spoken of in this culture,

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was seen as what entire lives flowed out of.

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That means your words, your motives,

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your character, your actions, your deeds

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all were centered from the heart.

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So when God says, "I want to give you a new heart,

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I want to replace your heart of stone."

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What He's saying is the the center of your life is dead,

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and that's why the rest of this looks like it does.

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That's why this all happened,

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because you have a heart that isn't alive.

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You actually have a heart of stone.

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And your way out of the grinchy heart

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and the consequences you're suffering

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is not an outside plan.

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See, that's what the Grinch forms.

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Grinch forms an outside plan.

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He's like, "That's it.

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I'm going to stop this whole thing."

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And he hatches a scheme to do just that.

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And God shows up to His people

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when they're in that same place.

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And He says, "This isn't an outside job.

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This is an inside job.

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I'm going to take out one heart

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and I'm going to put in another one."

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But the problem is, how in the world do you do that?

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What does that even mean?

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When I read something like that in Scripture,

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I'm like, I'm going to need a little more information.

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And so Ezekiel actually goes on,

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this is the very next verse.

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And it gives us a very specific word

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about what God is actually going to do.

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And here's what he says:

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So here we have it, your new heart,

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your heart of flesh, the one that's going to be alive,

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is going to be there because

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I'm going to put Myself in the center of your life,

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in the center of your being.

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And so everything that flows out of that place

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will be alive, and you'll be motivated to love Me

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and be with Me, and and we'll be together,

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and all the things of your life

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will begin to come alive as well.

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That's what God is saying.

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And He's going to do that by

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somehow placing His Spirit inside of people.

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So this is what He says to His people.

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And what we know is that we cannot do that alone.

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Whatever that means, whatever miraculous way

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God is going to do that, what we know is

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Grinches need God.

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Grinches need God because that sounds like

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a great plan, except we have no idea

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how that's going to go down

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and they wouldn't have either.

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Grinches need God to come in from the outside

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and do something, because otherwise I got bad news,

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we are stuck in a doom loop.

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We're born with these hearts of stone,

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and so we don't want God and we don't love God,

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and we're not really interested in God's ways.

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And we don't really want to be like Him,

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because frankly, it just doesn't seem like that much fun.

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And so we go ahead and live that way,

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and then our lives start to show exactly that,

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the same outcome that you would expect

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from a life where the center of that life

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is actually dead.

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We need God to come in from the outside

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and replace what's at the center of our very being.

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And that is the story of Christmas.

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The story of Christmas is that here He comes

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to fulfill that word that He gave through Ezekiel.

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And He comes in from the outside

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and He's born into our mess because He knows that

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we don't have any hope unless He shows up,

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because we can't fix our own heart.

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Listen to what is written in Romans 5:8

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about exactly this. It says:

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While we were still Grinches, Christ died for us.

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While your heart was still dead, stony, cold, complicated,

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and all the stuff that flows out of that place,

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while that was still true,

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meaning you don't want God,

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you don't think you need God,

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you have no interest in obeying God

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and loving God and being with God,

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that's when He came in.

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Because Grinches need God.

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And Jesus talked about this, our hopelessness

00:31:22

without this plan to replace our hearts.

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Jesus says this in John 6:44:

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No one will come

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unless there's a Father that's drawing us in.

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Wow. That is incredible.

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And so the first Christmas was Him

00:31:47

coming in from the outside to make it possible.

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He sent His Son. His son dies,

00:31:53

gets raised back to life,

00:31:54

and it's through that Spirit

00:31:57

that God offers us a new heart.

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It's through the Spirit of Christ

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that we actually come back alive.

00:32:05

And the best part is He's drawing you.

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Do you know that God is pursuing you right now?

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Right now.

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He has an active personal specific plan

00:32:23

to come after your grinchy heart.

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He is literally drawing you to Him

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and He's been throwing out breadcrumbs

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maybe for some of us for years and years and years.

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It's the most wonderful part of God.

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He's so patient and He woos you

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and He throws these things into your life.

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And actually, you can see it through the Grinch movie.

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You can see that God comes after Grinches.

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This is my favorite part of this new movie,

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because it's not in any of the other ones,

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and I absolutely love it.

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Now, don't get me wrong, I know that

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when the writers of this version of The Grinch

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put this together, they weren't thinking,

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"I know we'll depict the work

00:33:04

of the Holy Spirit in your life."

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I get that's not what they were thinking.

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But nonetheless, there's this truth embedded

00:33:13

in the story where something starts to break in

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and the Grinch begins to have these little moments,

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these little breakthroughs where he notices something,

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"There's a life out there that maybe --

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It's piquing my interest."

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And he's out one night and he is scoping out

00:33:32

the town for his big Christmas Eve plan.

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He's going to steal Christmas,

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and it's going to go down on Christmas Eve.

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But he has to go scout some locations.

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He's got to like hatch a scheme.

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So he's out scouting one night

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and this is what goes down.

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What's this? [Whos singing Silent Night]

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- He's like, "Never mind whatever that was,

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I'll just blow it off."

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I have so done that before.

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Something penetrates my heart or my mind

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for a minute and I'm like, "I'm sure it was nothing."

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And you watch Grinch through the movie

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he starts to be inquisitive, like, almost drawn in.

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What did it say? That the Father draws us in.

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It's like something is literally calling him.

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And do you remember the singing from the first clip?

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The singing, the singing,

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the singing drives him crazy.

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Except it isn't always driving him crazy, right?

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It's like the very thing that that gets through

00:35:02

the armor around his heart,

00:35:05

and it starts to make him curious.

00:35:06

And it's almost like God is drawing him

00:35:09

as he throws out these little breadcrumbs

00:35:11

all the way through the movie.

00:35:13

I remember when I first

00:35:14

came into a relationship with Jesus.

00:35:17

Now I look back and I can see that God was drawing me.

00:35:21

Of course, that's not how I thought about it at the time.

00:35:23

No one had ever -- I didn't even understand

00:35:26

who the Holy Spirit was.

00:35:27

I had never really understood the gospel,

00:35:30

even though I had sat in church.

00:35:32

And you know what I did understand?

00:35:34

I did understand that I was a 16 year old girl

00:35:37

who thought there was this really cool

00:35:38

group of kids at my high school, and boy,

00:35:41

every time I was near them,

00:35:43

something about them was a little bit different.

00:35:46

What better way to start drawing a 16 year old girl

00:35:49

than put a couple of cute boys

00:35:50

in the middle of a group that looks

00:35:52

like they're having a lot more fun than she is?

00:35:55

And suddenly I'm very interested in

00:35:57

"What is going on with those people?

00:35:59

How come every time I'm near one of them,

00:36:02

I just, I don't know, I feel like

00:36:05

they're just -- they're joyful.

00:36:07

There's something light about them.

00:36:08

I wonder what's going on there."

00:36:10

One of them was friends with my older brother,

00:36:12

and he and I kind of had some context for each other,

00:36:16

and we had a class together.

00:36:17

And he said he had been going to

00:36:18

this new church in the area,

00:36:20

and it probably was very much

00:36:23

like the beginning of Crossroads.

00:36:24

They met in a middle school

00:36:26

that was near my high school,

00:36:27

and he just kind of casually said,

00:36:28

"You should come sometime." Another breadcrumb.

00:36:32

And so I show up. I do.

00:36:34

Not right away because I did what the Grinch did.

00:36:36

I was like, "No, obviously not."

00:36:39

And a few weeks later, there I was.

00:36:41

And so then I'm in the church and I realized,

00:36:44

"Oh, look, these are the kids at school

00:36:46

that I really like. This is interesting.

00:36:49

Oh, they're the youth group at this one church."

00:36:52

And so what do they do? They say you should come.

00:36:54

And so on the living room floor of the couple

00:36:57

that hosted this tiny youth group of, like, ten kids,

00:37:01

I hear the gospel and I received Christ,

00:37:06

16 years old, as a junior in high school.

00:37:10

And my entire life changed

00:37:12

because the Father was drawing me.

00:37:15

He was drawing me through the light and the joy

00:37:18

and the attraction to this group of people.

00:37:20

I want to give you permission right now

00:37:24

to see God's work in your life.

00:37:26

So many of us spend way too many years

00:37:29

doing what the Grinch just did,

00:37:31

going like, "I'm sure that was nothing."

00:37:32

No, it's not nothing.

00:37:34

It is the Spirit of God at work in your life drawing you.

00:37:38

And I really wish I could tell you how.

00:37:40

I look back on my own story and I can see

00:37:42

lots of times that God was coming after

00:37:44

the next part of my cold, grinchy heart,

00:37:46

and the next part and the next part.

00:37:49

And he keeps drawing us until

00:37:51

our entire heart is back to life.

00:37:53

And I really want to be able to say,

00:37:56

"Well, obviously this is how He's doing it for you."

00:37:58

And I can't do that because He has an personal plan.

00:38:03

He knows you better than you know yourself,

00:38:06

and He is drawing you.

00:38:10

And He's drawing you for one reason

00:38:11

and one reason alone and it's what He's going

00:38:14

to be doing for the rest of your life.

00:38:16

He wants to put His Spirit in you

00:38:18

so that you come back to life.

00:38:21

And that you live with Him for all of eternity.

00:38:24

That's His big plan: take your heart of stone out

00:38:28

and put His Spirit in you,

00:38:29

so that you actually have a heart that's alive

00:38:31

and a life that starts to trend toward Him, and it's a process.

00:38:36

And do you know how crazy it is

00:38:37

that God comes after us like that?

00:38:39

Like, what's in it for Him? Nothing, except you.

00:38:45

You are what He is after

00:38:47

and He will never, never, never give up.

00:38:50

And so the Grinch, he hits this point

00:38:53

right when he's at his worst, he's in --

00:38:56

He's in the middle of his scheme to ruin Christmas.

00:38:58

It's Christmas Eve and he has done it.

00:39:02

He has taken every light bulb,

00:39:04

he's stolen every ham, he's gotten every stocking,

00:39:07

and he's in the last house and it's the final straw.

00:39:12

He meets a little girl,

00:39:15

and his interaction with this little girl

00:39:17

eventually leads to something that changes him forever.

00:39:23

- You want me to help your mom?

00:39:26

- You're Santa. You make people happy,

00:39:30

and everyone should be happy, right?

00:39:34

- Yeah. I guess they should.

00:39:39

- Santa, are you okay? - What?

00:39:45

Yeah. I'm fine.

00:39:48

Now, why don't you go back up to bed?

00:39:50

- Okay. I wish you could celebrate with us tomorrow.

00:39:55

We all get together and sing.

00:39:57

It's so beautiful that if you close your eyes

00:40:02

and listen, all of your sadness just goes away.

00:40:10

That sounds nice.

00:40:14

What?

00:40:20

Thank you, Santa. Good night.

00:40:27

- Good night.

00:40:31

- Cindy Lou Who. Cindy Lou Who, she meets the Grinch,

00:40:37

and she melts his heart.

00:40:38

Her little hug melts his heart.

00:40:40

Even the fact that we have an expression

00:40:42

called melt your heart should tell us something, right?

00:40:45

But she paints a vision of a life

00:40:49

that he knows he's on the outside of.

00:40:52

You could almost close your eyes as she's saying,

00:40:55

like, "And the singing."

00:40:56

The singing is part of this life,

00:40:59

these little breadcrumbs that have been thrown out

00:41:02

for the Grinch, this theme in his life is the singing.

00:41:06

And Cindy Lou finally puts it all together for him.

00:41:08

And she says, "It's so wonderful.

00:41:12

All your sadness goes away."

00:41:14

And and he's going, "Wait, that sounds good."

00:41:17

And you can almost see the light bulbs

00:41:20

coming on as Cindy Lou, who paints this picture

00:41:23

of a life that the Grinch actually wants

00:41:27

but just doesn't know how to get.

00:41:30

Guys, there's some kind of theme in your life,

00:41:32

there's some kind of person that keeps turning up.

00:41:35

There's some kind of work

00:41:36

that God has been trying to plant, and maybe

00:41:39

you just have never been able to see it as Him,

00:41:43

but I promise you He's doing it.

00:41:47

I promise you His Spirit has already

00:41:49

been at work in your life.

00:41:50

Maybe it's a theme. Maybe it's a --

00:41:53

I had a consistent dream forever and ever and ever

00:41:56

until something broke through

00:41:58

and I finally understood what it was.

00:42:00

There could be anything from some annoying person

00:42:03

at work that keeps coming to ask you how you are.

00:42:05

You have no idea all the ways that God

00:42:08

is trying to surround you and draw you to Him,

00:42:11

but that's what He's doing.

00:42:13

And not long after this interaction with Cindy Lou Who,

00:42:17

this final straw kind of interaction,

00:42:20

the Grinch has a breakthrough.

00:42:22

Only, unfortunately, he's at his worst.

00:42:26

He's gone up the mountain with all this stuff

00:42:28

that he's stolen from everybody in Whoville

00:42:30

with his plan to shut down Christmas,

00:42:34

and he hears this singing one more time.

00:42:39

[singing] - I don't understand, Max.

00:42:42

- Christmas Day is in our grasp.

00:42:47

Don't they know what I've done?

00:42:49

[singing] Hands to grasp. Fahoo fores dahoo dores

00:42:55

Welcome home, welcome home, welcome home.

00:43:06

- As he watched the small girl,

00:43:08

he thought he might melt.

00:43:10

If he did what she did, would he feel what she felt?

00:43:31

And the luscious sound swelled reaching up to the sky

00:43:35

and the Grinch heard with his heart and it tripled in size.

00:43:53

And having heard the Who's goodness,

00:43:55

having felt the Who's song,

00:43:58

he tried to make right what he had made wrong.

00:44:01

[singing] Welcome home.

00:44:05

[trumpet sounding]

00:44:33

- Uh. Hello, everybody. Uh.

00:44:44

Uh, it was me. I stole your Christmas.

00:44:53

I stole it because -- because I thought

00:44:57

it would fix something that happened a long time ago.

00:45:02

But it didn't and I'm sorry.

00:45:13

I'm so very sorry of everything.

00:45:32

- The Grinch gets a new heart up on the mountaintop, right?

00:45:35

It's amazing, but then it gets a little awkward.

00:45:39

And you kind of wish for just a second that

00:45:41

you stay with him in that lovely moment

00:45:44

where he gets this new heart and he hears the singing

00:45:48

and it all comes together and he's like,

00:45:50

"Oh, that's the life," and his heart.

00:45:54

And then he turns around

00:45:56

and he doesn't just have a new heart.

00:45:57

You know what else he has?

00:45:59

He has a sleigh full of crap that he stole.

00:46:05

So it gets a little awkward,

00:46:07

but he does something incredibly biblical.

00:46:10

The first time I watched this movie with my kids,

00:46:13

I hit pause and they were like, "What?"

00:46:15

And I was like, "He -- He repented."

00:46:19

And my kids are like, "Oh, my gosh, stop.

00:46:25

Just let us watch the movie."

00:46:26

And I'm like, "No, no, no, that was crazy.

00:46:28

Did you see that?

00:46:29

He got a new heart and his new heart led him back.

00:46:36

His new heart made him turn around

00:46:39

and take that stuff back."

00:46:41

And he said two words that maybe some of you

00:46:44

in here need to say this very day.

00:46:46

Maybe it'll change your life.

00:46:47

Maybe it'll change your relationship.

00:46:49

Maybe it'll change your family

00:46:51

for generations upon generations.

00:46:54

He went back and he said, "I'm sorry."

00:46:59

He said, "I did it. I stole your stuff. It was me."

00:47:05

And your heart is breaking for him, right?

00:47:08

But his heart was fine because his new heart

00:47:11

was doing exactly what new hearts do.

00:47:14

New hearts produce new actions.

00:47:18

Every single time in Scripture that we see,

00:47:20

every single time that the Spirit of God

00:47:23

begins to live inside someone,

00:47:24

the number one thing that happens is they repent.

00:47:28

They stop, they turn around, they go back

00:47:32

and confess and turn their life over to God.

00:47:35

That's exactly what Grinch's new heart leads him to do.

00:47:39

But how does a new heart know to do that?

00:47:44

Jeremiah, another prophet that came to speak

00:47:48

to the people of Israel when they were in that place,

00:47:51

he actually explains.

00:47:53

Listen to his words. Jeremiah 31:33:

00:48:11

When the Spirit of God, the New covenant,

00:48:14

that's what He's talking about.

00:48:15

When the spirit comes to live inside the people of God

00:48:21

and gives them new hearts, hearts of flesh,

00:48:23

hearts that can feel, the Spirit starts

00:48:25

to act like a magnet, like, pulling you

00:48:30

toward the ways of God, the character of God,

00:48:34

the repentance that the Grinch

00:48:37

just showed in his life.

00:48:38

That's what a new heart does,

00:48:40

because new hearts have new actions.

00:48:42

And the Grinch, when he walks away at the sleigh

00:48:46

and your heart is breaking for him, isn't it?

00:48:48

You're like, that was good.

00:48:49

He did good, but he's walking away.

00:48:51

This is pulling at all my heartstrings.

00:48:53

And he walks away thinking, "It's over.

00:48:55

I've done wrong to these people.

00:48:57

I kind of get it now.

00:48:58

I see where it was all coming from,"

00:49:00

and he thinks it's over, but oh, no, no, no, no.

00:49:03

This movie just keeps getting better, my friends,

00:49:06

because Grinches get grace.

00:49:13

- Hi. Remember me?

00:49:16

- Yes, yes I do. I remember you.

00:49:20

- My name is Cindy Lou. Cindy Lou Who.

00:49:23

- It's nice to meet you, Cindy Lou.

00:49:26

Oh, my name is Grinch, and this is Max.

00:49:31

- Whoa. Nice to meet you, Max.

00:49:35

I just came to invite you to our house

00:49:36

for Christmas dinner.

00:49:38

- What? Me? But I took your gifts.

00:49:43

- Yeah, I know. - And your trees? - Yep.

00:49:47

- I stole your whole Christmas.

00:49:49

- I know you did, but we're inviting you anyway.

00:49:54

- But why?

00:49:56

- Because you've been alone long enough.

00:50:01

Dinner's at six. Don't be late.

00:50:04

And make sure you bring your sweet doggy too.

00:50:27

Ready? Okay. Hmm.

00:50:35

Um, this is a bad idea. I can't.

00:50:37

I can't do this. I can't do this.

00:50:39

They're all going to hate me.

00:50:44

All right. [doorbell rings] I did it.

00:50:50

- Oh, Mr. Grinch, I'm so happy you decided to come. Welcome.

00:50:55

- Thank you for inviting me. I wore a tie.

00:50:59

- And it's a very nice tie.

00:51:01

Cindy Lou, look who came. - Mr. Grinch, you're here.

00:51:06

- Hello.

00:51:07

- Come on in. I'll show you around.

00:51:10

- Oh. Okay.

00:51:14

- Hello, Mr. Grinch. Merry Christmas.

00:51:20

- Bar none my favorite line in the movie

00:51:23

is when Cindy Lou Who, or may I just say

00:51:27

the embodiment of grace itself,

00:51:30

knocks on the Grinch's door and she says,

00:51:33

"Yeah, I know you did, but we're inviting you anyway."

00:51:37

And I'm like that is what Grace says.

00:51:41

That is the life that is waiting for us

00:51:44

on the other side of this new heart

00:51:46

that God wants to actually give us,

00:51:48

that He has to work hard to woo us toward

00:51:52

just so that we'll open the door.

00:51:54

For the love of goodness, just ring the doorbell

00:51:57

and open the door to your new life

00:51:59

that is filled with grace.

00:52:02

Grace gives us a radical invitation.

00:52:06

Grinches get a radical invitation

00:52:09

that they know they don't deserve, right?

00:52:11

He's standing at the door and he's like,

00:52:13

"Do you -- do you know who you're talking to?

00:52:15

Did you not remember that I said,

00:52:17

'I'm the guy that stole all your things?'"

00:52:22

And who among us wouldn't say that about ourselves?

00:52:27

I mean, you're talking to a lady

00:52:28

with a real messy story, a real ugly parts of my past.

00:52:33

And there have definitely been times

00:52:35

where I've looked at God and said, "You mean me?

00:52:38

Are You sure you've got this right?"

00:52:42

Grace is confusing because

00:52:45

we don't really want to believe it.

00:52:48

We don't really understand that that actually is

00:52:52

the life that God is offering to us.

00:52:55

And she stands at the door and she answers him

00:52:58

when he says, "What do you mean, me?"

00:53:00

And what does she say? "You've been alone long enough."

00:53:05

You've been alone long enough.

00:53:07

Christmas is the invitation of Jesus

00:53:11

who's standing at the door saying,

00:53:14

"You've been alone long enough.

00:53:17

He comes in from the outside and He offers you

00:53:20

this radical invitation to a life of grace,

00:53:23

this new heart. And we hesitate.

00:53:28

We're the Grinch at the doorbell.

00:53:30

"I'm not sure. Is this real? Are you serious?"

00:53:32

I can tell you there is only one way to find out.

00:53:35

There is one way to find out is He serious?

00:53:38

Is He good? Will He be there for me?

00:53:40

Is this Jesus thing real?

00:53:41

Is this life of grace for me?

00:53:43

Am I really the right person?"

00:53:45

The only way to find out is to say yes to Jesus,

00:53:48

and actually risk moving His direction

00:53:50

to find out what is this life that He has waiting for me?

00:53:55

What is that call that I keep hearing?

00:53:57

What is that life that I feel like I'm on the outside of?

00:54:00

And friends, the Grinch moves.

00:54:07

He rings the doorbell.

00:54:09

He walks in and he finds out

00:54:11

everybody's awfully glad he took him up on the invite.

00:54:16

And if you kept watching the movie,

00:54:18

what you would see is he doesn't just get welcomed,

00:54:20

he gets a place of honor at the table

00:54:22

and he gets to carve the roast beast.

00:54:25

It's awesome.

00:54:27

And he looks around and he kind of knows

00:54:30

both he's undeserving of this grace

00:54:32

and also it's the life he was made for.

00:54:35

It's the life we were made for.

00:54:37

And you, me and every other Grinch in this place,

00:54:41

we have an invitation on the table today

00:54:43

that we get to say yes to a life of grace.

00:54:46

We get to say yes to a God who is offering us a new heart,

00:54:50

His very own Spirit at the center of our being,

00:54:54

so that real life can flow out of us

00:54:59

for maybe the first time.

00:55:01

I think some of you walked in here

00:55:05

and you have never thought about the idea

00:55:10

of God drawing you in before.

00:55:12

You're going to have to give that some thought.

00:55:14

And for you, I am going to pray.

00:55:16

I have prayed, and I will continue to pray,

00:55:18

that the work of God just explodes around you,

00:55:21

that you can't go around the corner

00:55:24

without tripping over something that you know now

00:55:28

is from Him, that you know you're being drawn.

00:55:31

And there's some people who are joining us

00:55:34

this weekend who have a new heart,

00:55:37

except that one part that's still dead.

00:55:42

And to you I would say God is coming after that part.

00:55:46

You can try to keep it from Him.

00:55:48

But why in the world would you?

00:55:49

Because that stony, dead, cold, lifeless, awful,

00:55:53

complicated part of you can be brought back to life.

00:55:59

And then I think -- I know there are people

00:56:06

in this community right now and this is the moment

00:56:10

since I started talking about God drawing you in

00:56:13

you were like, "I knew it, I knew it.

00:56:14

I just needed somebody to say it because

00:56:17

I've been noticing this and this and this

00:56:19

and this and this and this."

00:56:22

And He's been after you and after you,

00:56:25

and this is the time and this is the day.

00:56:28

And if not now, why? Why would you wait?

00:56:33

And so if that's you, I just want to offer you

00:56:35

the chance to pray with me right now.

00:56:37

I'm going to I'm going to pray with you.

00:56:39

I'm going to offer you some words.

00:56:41

I would encourage you to say these words

00:56:43

under your breath, in your mind, in your heart.

00:56:46

So if that's you, and the rest of you,

00:56:48

you could just bow your heads right now

00:56:50

and pray for anybody that's hearing these words

00:56:53

that is ready to say yes.

00:56:57

Jesus, I want a new heart.

00:57:03

I receive you as my Lord and Savior.

00:57:05

Help me to repent.

00:57:07

Help me to turn around from my old life

00:57:09

and receive grace for my new one.

00:57:13

I will follow You the best way that I can.

00:57:20

Will You lead me entirely back to life? Amen.

00:57:31

I think as we go through moments like this

00:57:35

together as a community, I just think, man,

00:57:37

I hope so much that you walk into

00:57:40

this Christmas season and instead of

00:57:42

wherever your Grinch was going to show,

00:57:44

you think, "Oh, this is the place

00:57:46

that God wants to bring me back to life this year."

00:57:48

That's what I hope for you.

00:57:49

I hope grace rings your doorbell this week.

00:57:52

I hope that you get an invitation that's irresistible,

00:57:55

that you see God everywhere.

00:57:58

And I can't wait for you to come back next week,

00:58:00

because Brian and I actually got in

00:58:01

a little fight about his message for next week.

00:58:04

And one of us thought Die Hard was a good idea,

00:58:08

and the other one was kind of leaning toward Rudolph.

00:58:11

So you'll just have to come back

00:58:12

and find out which one is it. I'll see you next week.

00:58:18

- All right. Now, I know Christmas

00:58:20

can be a stressful time of year,

00:58:21

but it doesn't have to be.

00:58:22

Spend this Christmas season focused on God

00:58:25

by downloading the Crossroads Anywhere app.

00:58:27

I bet it is one of the only apps on your phone

00:58:29

that will help you to connect with God

00:58:31

more this holiday season, and not just buy more stuff.

00:58:33

You can ask for prayer, you can journal, you can slow down.

00:58:36

You can even get practical tips for dealing with

00:58:38

your family at the holidays and so much more.

00:58:41

Download the app in the App Store

00:58:42

or the Google Play Store.

00:58:44

And when you download the app, make sure

00:58:45

to go to your profile and select Anywhere

00:58:47

or your home site as your location.

00:58:49

Then you'll see location based opportunities

00:58:52

just for you to connect, like the online

00:58:55

Night of Prayer happening this Thursday,

00:58:57

which is an amazing opportunity for you

00:58:59

to have somebody who's trusted and vetted

00:59:02

on our prayer team pray with and for you.

00:59:05

And we've just seen time and time again

00:59:06

people encounter God and hear from God

00:59:09

in really, really wonderful ways.

00:59:11

All right. We will see you next week

00:59:12

right back here for week two of Christmas at the Movies.

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