You Can't Win Your Battles Alone

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- Andy, I don't know if you've been celebrating

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for a month like I have, but Thanksgiving is over.

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It's December. - Yes.

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- It's officially time. Merry Christmas.

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- Merry Christmas! Yes. Hey. That's right.

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And today we're actually starting

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our series Christmas at the Movies,

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where we're going to take a look at

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some classic Christmas films and discover

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that there really is some profound spiritual truth

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hidden just below the surface.

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I have to take this off though.

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Hey, welcome to Crossroads. My name is Andy.

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- And I'm Deborah, and we're so glad

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that you're joining us for church online today.

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- Yeah, Crossroads is a church of real people

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that meet all over the globe in buildings

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and in homes, bars, dorms, cafes all over the place.

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But before we hear from our teaching pastor

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Alli Patterson, we're actually going to

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spend some time worshiping together.

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And, D-bow, you're on the worship team.

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You sing all the time, tell us what we're doing and why.

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- Yeah, I mean, worship is just singing songs

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about God to God, and a lot of the songs

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we already sing at Christmas time

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are actually songs about God.

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We've sung these songs for hundreds

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and hundreds of years to worship Jesus.

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As we sing, think about the words

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and what they mean for your life this Christmas.

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- Let's sing this together.

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- That's how you kick off some Christmas music, right?

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You're waking up a little bit to it.?

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How many of you love Christmas music? [cheers]

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All right. How many of you

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love Christmas music after Thanksgiving? [cheers]

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Okay. Be honest. How many of you love it before Thanksgiving?

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[cheers] We love all people here. Okay.

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So you're welcome. I love Christmas music.

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And one of my least favorite things is that

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it gets shelved to, like, December.

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I don't listen to it until after Thanksgiving

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because I'm not a fan of the Steelers.

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I'm not out of my mind and things like --

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I'm just kidding.

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I love it, but I hate that we put it

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on a December shelf and just say, "Well,

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one time of year we'll hear these songs

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that tell the story of our King Jesus

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coming in a humble manner with humility and meekness."

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You know? It reminds me every year

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these songs were written as worship songs

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from the get go.

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They were not written for a season.

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They were written to tell the story of this King

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leaving all that He had to come

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create a relationship with me and you.

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Like, listen to this.

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This is from one of the earliest followers of Jesus,

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written in the first century.

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And here's his reflection on who Jesus is.

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He says: Have this mind among yourselves,

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which is yours in Christ Jesus,

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who though he was in the form of God,

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did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

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but He made himself nothing,

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taking the form of a servant,

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and being born in the likeness of men.

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See, I wonder what your assumption is about Jesus

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and how he would approach you today.

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Because I don't think these songs tell the story

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of a God who just comes to earth

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in humility one time, but I think

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it's how He comes each and every day to you and me.

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I can imagine if Jesus walked in this room

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right now, how would he approach you?

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What's your assumption about that?

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Imagine if Jesus walked all the way up

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to the stairs, to the balcony, and grabbed a seat next to you.

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Would He power up on you?

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Would He point a finger at you?

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I think the Christmas story reminds us

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and teaches us that this King comes in power

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and meekness always. He comes in humility.

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He finds you right where you are, right here today

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with gentleness and all power and all meekness.

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So there's a song that I heard a few weeks ago

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that tells this story better than many that I've heard.

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And I thought as soon as I heard it,

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I'm not kidding, as soon as I heard it, I thought,

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"I want our whole church to sing this in December."

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So maybe you've heard it, maybe you haven't.

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But I'm going to teach it to you for a minute.

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It goes like this.

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- Pray with me.

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Lord, there is something so, so special

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about singing a song that has been sung

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since before the 1800s.

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Thousands of generations --

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Not thousands of generations.

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Thousands of people singing this song

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for hundreds of years. That's special.

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And hearing, hearing, hearing these words

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being echoed to you, God, we adore You.

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We truly adore You, and we love worshiping You.

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It's in Your Son's name that we pray. Amen.

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- Every box has a story.

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Because of ongoing food insecurity,

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1 in 7 people in our region must pick

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between daily necessities and buying food

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for a Thanksgiving meal.

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Our generosity changed

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13,120 families' stories this Thanksgiving.

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That's 13,120 families.

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That's 13,120 meals,

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6,560,000 kernels of corn,

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and a whole lot of love.

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- Man, Thanksgiving Food Drive was amazing this year.

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We, all of us, our community, was able to feed

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over 131,000 people amazing meals this Thanksgiving.

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- Yeah, the holidays can be challenging

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for people suffering financially, but as a church,

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we have the opportunity to make a difference

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in our local communities.

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Many of you have already done this

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through Thanksgiving Food Drive,

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not just in Ohio and Kentucky,

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where our physical locations are,

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but we have stories from all over the nation of the impact.

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- Yeah, one of my favorites, actually,

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I saw on Instagram of a little girl in her family

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who were served by the part of Crossroads

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that actually cares for people after natural disasters.

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And man, the way that this family benefited

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from a Thanksgiving Food Drive I just love.

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- And it's so cool.

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And we have another opportunity to serve

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this holiday season through Christmas Gift Drive.

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This is an opportunity to buy Christmas gifts

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for kids whose parents have been affected

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by incarceration, and allows incarcerated parents

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to spend time with their kids during the holiday season.

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- Yeah, I actually got to be a part of it

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last year as these gifts were being distributed

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inside the walls of a prison, and it was beautiful.

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The hope, the joy, like, the dignity that

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this brought to that experience was just incredible.

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And we have an opportunity to do this for families

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all over in every prison in the State of Ohio.

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And all this looks like is that

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you can purchase gifts for these kids

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and families no matter where you live.

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Just head to Crossroads.net/CGD.

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You can purchase as many gifts as you want

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by December 8th and we will handle

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all of the shipping,

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all of the delivering and distribution.

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- I love that. As a church community,

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we lean into generosity,

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like Thanksgiving Food Drive

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and Christmas Gift Drive and so much more

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because we believe that God can use

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ordinary lives to do something extraordinary.

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God created everything, and with so much gratitude,

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we give back what He's given to us,

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aligning our lives with His purpose.

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- Yeah. A couple of weeks ago, our church

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actually fully launched what we call the 10X Push.

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And many of us made financial commitments

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in hopes of being a part of this

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and bringing heaven to earth in really, really tangible ways.

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If you haven't yet, you can head to

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Crossroads.net/give to get started

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on giving towards your 10X commitment,

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or you can just simply learn more about

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what we believe and how we approach

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spending and giving money.

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All right, Debo, is it time to watch a movie yet?

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- Yes, I think it's time. - What are we watching?

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- Okay, I have a hint for you. - Okay. Ready.

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- Where's Kevin? - Thanks for joining us.

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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, ding-a-dong,

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ding-a-ding, talkin.

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So if we see the glow

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of a cellular telephone

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we'll 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. [glass breaks]

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- Merry Christmas, you filthy animals.

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How are you? I mean that to the bottom of my heart

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to the point where I brought you a shirt.

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Today we are jumping into Christmas with both feet.

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My name is Alli, I'm one of the teaching pastors

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around here at Crossroads.

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And I love teaching in the Christmas season

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because it just seems like everything is

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that much lighter and that much brighter.

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And I know a lot of us around Crossroads

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are coming into this season

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with an even bigger smile on our face,

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because we've just been through, like,

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a pretty intense 6 or 7 weeks together, haven't we?

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I don't know about you, but I'm ready

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to exhale a little bit and I'll share

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since I haven't seen you in a few weeks

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just one cool thing that you may not know

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behind the scenes from the last few weeks.

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I had this good personal moment

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where I was sitting with my family

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and we were filling out our commitment card,

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like so many of us did.

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And I watched my older kids take their own.

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And I didn't expect that.

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You know, we were thinking of it

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like a family commitment.

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And when we asked them about it, they were like,

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"Well, this is -- this is our mission too.

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This is our community too." And I love that.

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And it turns out, I know every parent thinks

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their kids are amazing, but my kids

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were so not the only ones.

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Listen to this, 100 -- Nearly $150,000

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were committed by students grades 1-12.

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That's crazy right? [applause]

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I was blown away by that, you guys.

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We're talking piggy banks and, like,

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summer babysitting jobs here.

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That is incredible.

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It just reminded me how much I love

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being a part of a community that

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kind of welcomes anybody and everybody

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into the life that we can find

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on mission in the kingdom of God.

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So just a little snippet from my last few weeks

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being on the Journey with you.

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But today [exhales] we get to exhale a little bit,

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sing some Christmas carols,

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and start our Christmas at the Movies series,

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back by popular demand.

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Crazy enough, we're actually taking a page

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out of the playbook of Jesus doing this series.

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Now, stay with me here.

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I know He didn't have Netflix.

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I know He didn't watch Christmas movies,

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but what Jesus did do is He did take

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the cultural artifacts around Him,

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the things that were in people's everyday lives

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that were right in front of their face

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and He taught spiritual truths about

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the Kingdom of God through those things.

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Because they were that much easier to see

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and grasp through the things

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that were around us every single day.

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So that's what we're going to do today.

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And I hope after today, I know Home Alone

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is on your list for the holiday season,

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and I hope you never see it the same way again.

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Let me pray for us.

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Lord, I just ask that you would meet each of us

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here exactly where we are.

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You would fill us with Your presence

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and speak to us individually.

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Help my words to be clear, and most and above all,

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truthful to who You are. In Jesus's name, Amen.

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Well, I rewatched, of course, rewatched Home Alone

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in preparation for this message.

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And I was really struck by

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the very first scene of the movie.

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Now I've seen this movie, I don't know,

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scores of times, and for some reason

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I had forgotten that the literal opening scene

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of the movie is when the bad guy

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is dressed like a good guy

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and he's standing in the family's home.

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So if you're the one person in here who

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doesn't know the basics of the Home Alone movie,

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what happens is that Harry, one of these bad guys

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that we're going to meet in the movie,

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you think he's a good guy in the first scene of the movie.

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He's dressed like a cop, and he's actually

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inside the McCallister's family home,

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and he's scoping it out.

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There's an enemy on the inside of the house.

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Now, our goal here today is to see

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spiritual truths through this movie.

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And so we have to start where the movie starts.

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And so you take a deep breath.

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We're going to jump in with both feet.

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It's a little bit intense.

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I wish it was like 15 minutes from now.

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But the truth is, Home Alone starts

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in a pretty intense place for us spiritually.

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If we're going to see anything through this movie,

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we have to begin where the movie begins,

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and that is, there's an enemy in the house.

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Now, what does that remind us of?

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I go all the way back to Genesis.

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In the very first book of Genesis in the Bible,

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in Genesis one and two, God creates everything that is.

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And the crowning jewel of His creation is humanity.

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And then in Genesis three, in the very first verse,

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the very opening scene of humanity,

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while the credits are still rolling,

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we meet the enemy and he's already in the house.

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Genesis 3:1 says this:

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Now there's a story that goes along from there,

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but what's happening here?

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There's a beautiful family.

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There's a beautiful home that's been made for them.

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And here they are

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and nearly the first thing we see is the enemy

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and we hear his voice.

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The enemy is luring them into a conversation,

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that if you read the rest of this story

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you would know, severs their relationship with God

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in a way that it never should have been.

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They end up out of their home.

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They end up alone in a way, spiritually,

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that none of us were ever made to be.

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And it was because there was an enemy

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in the house from the very beginning.

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And all of us are actually born into

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the downline of that family

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in the same state spiritually.

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We are alone in ways we were never meant to be.

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Alone is the same reality Kevin McCallister,

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the eight year old son of this family,

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wakes up to the very next morning.

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So the whole extended family is there,

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and they're flying off to Paris.

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And in the chaos of the morning

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and a power outage that sent their clocks back,

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they actually forget Kevin at home.

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And he literally is home alone.

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I think he is, is it 8 years old or 7 years old?

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Eight years old? He's eight years old.

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He's home alone.

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He's completely vulnerable, completely unprotected.

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And it's just days before Christmas.

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And Kevin goes through three stages

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to get to Christmas morning.

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And his Christmas morning, he does arrive there,

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but not until he goes through three stages.

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And I think they're the same stages

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that you and I go through spiritually

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for Christmas morning to sound like

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the good news that it is really supposed to be.

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Listen to what the angel says in Luke two,

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that's how the first Christmas was announced

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as good news.

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Our goal today is to put our hearts in the state

00:31:07

where Christmas sounds like good news,

00:31:09

where it really sounds like what it was supposed to be,

00:31:12

which is good news that causes great joy.

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And I believe that we have to make it

00:31:18

all the way to the third stage

00:31:20

that Kevin goes through in order to experience

00:31:22

the kind of Christmas morning he had.

00:31:24

I promise you, he thought it was pretty much

00:31:27

the best day ever.

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And I would love for your Christmas

00:31:30

to feel different this year,

00:31:32

to feel like you could look at Christmas morning

00:31:34

and actually feel deeply in your soul that

00:31:39

it was the good news that it should be.

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So the first Kevin we meet, the very first stage

00:31:47

that he goes into is actually

00:31:50

a little bit surprising.

00:31:52

I call this carefree Kevin,

00:31:54

where Kevin is alone and kind of loving it.

00:32:00

- I made my family disappear.

00:32:05

- Kevin, you're completely helpless.

00:32:07

- You know, Kevin,

00:32:08

you're what the French call les incompetents.

00:32:12

- Kevin, I'm going to feed you to my tarantula.

00:32:15

- Kevin, you are such a disease.

00:32:18

- There are 15 people in this house,

00:32:21

and you're the only one who has to make trouble.

00:32:23

- Look what you did, you little jerk.

00:32:31

- I made my family disappear.

00:32:33

[upbeat music]

00:32:51

- I'm free!

00:33:02

- Wow.

00:33:04

- Don't lie, you feel Kevin here a little bit, don't you?

00:33:07

He's like, maybe this isn't so bad after all.

00:33:11

It's like no holds barred. All the limits are off.

00:33:15

He can cross all the boundaries.

00:33:16

He can go in Buzz's room.

00:33:18

He can eat ice cream for dinner.

00:33:20

He even, like, sleds down the stairs

00:33:22

and out the front door.

00:33:24

You know, just awesome stuff like that.

00:33:26

This is the first stage of Kevin,

00:33:28

and he is absolutely loving the fact

00:33:31

that he's living by no rules, no boundaries,

00:33:34

and without that family, that, frankly,

00:33:36

was sometimes a bit of a pain in his behind,

00:33:39

you know what I mean? So he's loving it.

00:33:41

He's pretty much living like what

00:33:43

the book of Ephesians describes as

00:33:45

the state that we are all first in.

00:33:48

Ephesians chapter two says:

00:33:50

All of us also lived among them at one time,

00:33:52

gratifying the cravings of our flesh

00:33:57

Kevin did not have a thought of something he didn't do.

00:34:00

He wanted a pizza. He ordered it.

00:34:02

He watched trashy movies. He watched them.

00:34:04

He did exactly what he wanted, when he wanted,

00:34:07

with who he wanted, with very little regard

00:34:11

for really the long term state that he was actually in.

00:34:16

In this particular part of the movie,

00:34:19

Kevin is also blissfully unaware

00:34:23

that there is an enemy at all. Right?

00:34:27

He doesn't know that the enemy has been in his house.

00:34:30

If you came in here or you're joining us online

00:34:33

today and you're thinking, "Enemy? What?

00:34:37

No. I'm good. I'm good."

00:34:40

Then this might be you.

00:34:42

You might be in this space right now

00:34:44

because the work that we need to do in this space

00:34:48

is actually a work that God needs to do.

00:34:50

He needs to begin to make us aware of the enemy

00:34:54

that's actually been in our life all along.

00:34:57

A reality that he wants us to live in

00:34:59

is much closer to 1 Peter 5:8 that says:

00:35:12

Kevin has no idea. He has no idea.

00:35:15

He doesn't know if what he's doing

00:35:17

is playing right into the enemy's hands

00:35:20

that have already scoped out his house.

00:35:23

And the enemy has a goal during this stage as well.

00:35:26

It's exactly the same goal

00:35:28

that Harry and Marv would have had.

00:35:30

Those are the two burglars that are coming

00:35:33

to steal from the Mccallister's home.

00:35:35

And what is their goal when Kevin is living like this?

00:35:38

Just forget I'm even here. Just don't even notice.

00:35:43

It's much better for them

00:35:45

if Kevin never has any level of awareness.

00:35:48

We need God to do the work in our life

00:35:51

of waking us up to the presence of an enemy.

00:35:55

For some of us, that's really easy.

00:35:57

Like, you're like, "Yeah, duh.

00:35:59

I've been seeing it forever."

00:36:02

You understand there's more to your life

00:36:04

than what's actually just happening

00:36:05

right in front of your eyes.

00:36:06

But for others of us, me included,

00:36:08

I had to go through a process of

00:36:10

kind of accepting this,

00:36:12

even after I became a follower of Jesus.

00:36:14

Because I guess I grew up more in the, like,

00:36:17

be nice and chew with your mouth closed kind of household.

00:36:20

Like, if you're just decent and hardworking

00:36:23

and pretty nice, life's going to go okay.

00:36:26

You know? Just kind of tackle it like that.

00:36:28

And I really needed God to do a work in my life

00:36:31

where He woke me up to this.

00:36:33

And you know how He did it?

00:36:35

After I became a follower of Jesus,

00:36:38

I started to read the Bible

00:36:39

a little bit more carefully.

00:36:40

And literally from Genesis three

00:36:43

until the last book in Revelation,

00:36:45

the very last chapter, the enemy of God is present.

00:36:51

And it really confused me.

00:36:52

I could take you back to scriptures in Isaiah,

00:36:55

in the Psalms where I would go like, "Wait,

00:36:57

I have an enemy? How? Where?"

00:37:01

And it's because I needed God to wake me up

00:37:04

to this reality in my life, otherwise

00:37:06

His story was never going to make any sense.

00:37:08

The the rescue that Jesus did in my life

00:37:11

was never going to go very deep, because

00:37:14

I really didn't understand

00:37:16

the reality that I was living in.

00:37:19

Kevin actually went through this process

00:37:21

in the movie as well.

00:37:23

If you watched the movie, there is about 5 minutes

00:37:26

where Kevin starts to clue in.

00:37:28

He goes out to the store,

00:37:29

he's walking along the street, he sees these guys

00:37:32

and he's like, "Something's not quite right here."

00:37:35

The gold tooth "ding" it like glimmers

00:37:37

and it jogs his memory of the guy

00:37:40

that was maybe in his front hallway.

00:37:42

He just knows something's a little off.

00:37:46

That's how it feels when we start to

00:37:48

get ahold of this truth in our life.

00:37:51

And Kevin eventually wakes up to it.

00:37:53

And the first thing that happens is he gets really afraid.

00:37:57

He hides under the covers for a little while.

00:37:59

He does exactly what you would expect

00:38:01

an eight year old boy to do.

00:38:02

He goes and locks all the doors and hides under the covers,

00:38:05

but then he comes through that into

00:38:07

the second stage of the movie.

00:38:10

And this is where we could get lost

00:38:12

for decades in our life. Decades.

00:38:15

Even if we believe in God in a general way,

00:38:19

we could get lost in this second stage forever.

00:38:22

And I call it contender Kevin.

00:38:25

Kevin decides, "I'm actually going to fight back.

00:38:29

You know what? This is my house, my life, my stuff.

00:38:34

I'm not going to let these guys just walk in here

00:38:37

and take whatever they want."

00:38:38

Kevin becomes a contender

00:38:40

and he makes a plan to protect himself.

00:38:45

- This is my house. I have to defend it.

00:38:47

[inspirational music]

00:40:05

- He's going to fight back,

00:40:06

and we love a fighter, don't we?

00:40:08

Kevin, he lays out the battle plans.

00:40:10

He gets his stuff ready.

00:40:12

He's smart, he's creative, and his goal is

00:40:15

to use everything at his fingertips to make sure

00:40:18

that the enemy can't come into his house.

00:40:20

You know, he closes the door and he's like,

00:40:22

"Yeah, you know, I'm going to do this.

00:40:25

I'm going to do this by myself."

00:40:28

Kevin wages a war against the enemy and he does it alone.

00:40:35

And this movie, this is our favorite part, right?

00:40:39

Because it lures us into thinking that

00:40:41

this eight year old kid

00:40:43

might just beat these guys by himself.

00:40:46

I mean, Harry and Marv are kind of goofballs, right?

00:40:49

And so they come in and Kevin starts landing

00:40:52

some punches in a pretty big way.

00:40:55

And we think maybe this kid is going to pull it off.

00:41:14

[glass breaking, screaming]

00:41:20

I'm gonna kill that kid!

00:41:26

Ah ah ah ah!

00:41:37

- Marv! - Harry?

00:41:40

- Why the hell did you take your shoes off?

00:41:42

- Why the hell are you dressed like a chicken?

00:41:46

- I'm up here, you morons! Come and get me!

00:41:52

You guys give up or you're thirsty for more?

00:42:00

[grunts]

00:42:06

- Heads up! - Huh? [grunts and screams]

00:42:10

- Don't worry, Marv, I'll get him for you.

00:42:12

- Harry! [grunts]

00:42:15

- Yes.

00:42:19

- Oh, we love this kid, don't we?

00:42:20

I mean, he is like everything that we Americans love.

00:42:24

He's a fighter. He's an underdog.

00:42:27

It's just so very American of us.

00:42:29

This is our favorite part of the movie.

00:42:32

Harry, he takes a blowtorch to the head. You know?

00:42:35

Kevin really gets him with that one.

00:42:37

That's why his hat's all burned off.

00:42:38

And Marv takes an iron to the face.

00:42:41

You know, these guys, they just aren't smart enough

00:42:44

to stay out of trouble, are they?

00:42:46

I mean, so Kevin starts landing some punches,

00:42:50

and we think that maybe he's actually

00:42:53

going to pull off a victory alone.

00:42:55

This is so like us, right?

00:42:57

Some of us are born with certain kinds of gifts.

00:43:00

Some of us are born into awesome families,

00:43:01

or we get great jobs.

00:43:03

We start to build bank accounts,

00:43:04

and we think maybe, just maybe, I can land some punches.

00:43:08

I can silence the voice of the enemy that I keep hearing.

00:43:12

Once you're aware he's there, you have to decide

00:43:17

how are you going to push back in your life?

00:43:20

And most of us go at this alone in all kinds of

00:43:23

ways that we never even really think about.

00:43:25

We use our humor or our beauty or our money

00:43:28

or our power or our friends

00:43:29

or our family connections, and we build ourselves

00:43:32

a fortress full of traps, hoping that one day

00:43:36

we could get him far enough away

00:43:37

where we might just win against him alone.

00:43:41

And the enemy has a goal during this phase.

00:43:44

His goal is what Marv and Harry's goal was,

00:43:51

they want him to keep fighting them alone.

00:43:56

They know ultimately they're bigger and stronger,

00:43:59

and their odds of getting him are probably pretty good.

00:44:02

And he's getting more and more prideful.

00:44:04

He's landing punches, he's going after them,

00:44:07

and we think he might make it.

00:44:09

And they would love to keep this little kid fighting.

00:44:12

They follow him up the stairs,

00:44:14

they go out and I don't know what --

00:44:17

I don't know what you hear

00:44:20

when the enemy is coming closer in your life,

00:44:23

but I know what Harry said when he showed up

00:44:26

on the outside of the front door.

00:44:28

He knocks on the door and he goes, "Hey, little buddy.

00:44:32

We know that you're in there

00:44:34

and that you're all alone."

00:44:39

The enemy is extremely aware that

00:44:42

Kevin has very low odds of success here,

00:44:46

so the longer they can stay in the fight, the better.

00:44:48

And they would love to keep him fighting by themselves.

00:44:51

And there's that plan in your life as well.

00:44:54

You want to hear one of mine?

00:44:56

We all have these ways that we encounter

00:44:59

the enemy in our life.

00:45:00

We hear his voice just like way back in Genesis 3

00:45:05

when the enemy starts to speak

00:45:07

and confuses the voice of God,

00:45:09

or says things that sound half way right,

00:45:12

or implies that maybe the people you trust

00:45:14

cannot be trusted

00:45:15

and the God you trust cannot be trusted.

00:45:17

There's all these ways the enemy

00:45:19

tries to get us off our game.

00:45:22

One of mine sounds like this.

00:45:26

"Oh, Alli, You're just a plain, boring Midwestern girl.

00:45:35

You're not interesting or unique or special.

00:45:40

You're just so very average."

00:45:48

From the time I was a kid.

00:45:51

I didn't know it because the enemy was in my house

00:45:53

before I even learned how to recognize him.

00:45:55

And so you know what is the -- what is the point?

00:45:59

The point is to push my buttons

00:46:02

so I roll out my plan, and I start this battle

00:46:05

all by myself to try to push back against that,

00:46:08

to try to push him out of my life,

00:46:09

to try to silence the voice that I'm hearing.

00:46:12

In high school, I left high school

00:46:15

and I was voted in my class Most Likely to Succeed.

00:46:19

In College I graduated with a 4.0.

00:46:21

I tried to get in the best company

00:46:23

and the best job, and once I got that,

00:46:25

I went in thinking if I could just get in

00:46:27

the right position to get the best promotion,

00:46:29

because all along I'm hearing, "You're not --

00:46:32

You're not interesting or special or unique."

00:46:38

And every time I would hear that,

00:46:42

I would enact my plan.

00:46:47

What do you hear?

00:46:50

Because the enemy wants to keep you in that fight.

00:46:53

The enemy wants you to lay out your plans

00:46:55

and spend all your time and energy

00:46:57

doing exactly what I did.

00:46:59

And he never wants you to figure out

00:47:01

you don't have to be in this battle alone.

00:47:03

The last thing that my enemy ever wanted me

00:47:07

to figure out is that God created me uniquely,

00:47:11

and that he calls me to something uniquely for my life,

00:47:15

that I was created for it, and I was gifted for it,

00:47:18

and I was pushed to it, and that he is with me in it.

00:47:21

And that at the end of the day,

00:47:23

I can rest in my value simply because I am His.

00:47:28

That is the very last thing

00:47:31

that he ever wants me to figure out.

00:47:35

The enemy's goal is to twist you up

00:47:37

and keep you fighting against him

00:47:38

and pushing back on him alone,

00:47:40

and he knows how to hook you.

00:47:42

He knows what you were born into.

00:47:43

He knows what will get you.

00:47:44

He knows what you respond to because

00:47:46

he's been in your house watching you

00:47:48

since before you even knew he was there.

00:47:53

This might be the best part of the movie.

00:47:55

It definitely is the best part of the movie.

00:47:58

But this is the worst place to live spiritually.

00:48:04

To live spiritually speaking,

00:48:06

without the help of God,

00:48:08

where we use the resources we have

00:48:10

to push back on the enemy in our own life,

00:48:12

it just prevents us admitting

00:48:14

the one thing we need to win the fight.

00:48:17

And it's the same thing that we need to understand

00:48:20

before Christmas is ever going to sound like good news.

00:48:23

We need to get deeply in the reality of our life

00:48:29

that there are some fights

00:48:31

we will never be able to win alone.

00:48:35

That you walked into something in your life

00:48:38

that was going on before you were even there

00:48:40

and there are battles you won't win alone.

00:48:43

Now there is a moment in the movie

00:48:46

where we don't believe that.

00:48:47

We think Kevin has won.

00:48:48

We think he's sailing off to victory.

00:48:50

He runs up the stairs. He goes out.

00:48:52

It's my favorite moment of the movie.

00:48:54

He flies out on these handlebars over this line

00:48:57

he has set to his tree house.

00:48:59

And he's actually out of the house now,

00:49:01

so you think he's won.

00:49:02

And then here come Harry and Marv.

00:49:04

Here they come again.

00:49:05

And they're shimmying across the line.

00:49:08

And he holds up the big clippers.

00:49:10

And he clips the line and they fall to the ground.

00:49:13

And we think that's it.

00:49:15

He's beat them. Once and for all Kevin has won.

00:49:20

And about a minute later, we find out

00:49:22

Kevin's not quite as good as he thought he was.

00:49:35

- There he is.

00:49:36

- Hey, I'm calling the cops.

00:49:39

- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

00:49:41

He wants us to follow him. I got a better idea. Come on.

00:50:02

- Hiya, pal.

00:50:03

We outsmarted you this time. Get over here.

00:50:09

- That moment is coming. It is coming.

00:50:13

You can't read the Bible and not understand

00:50:15

that this moment is coming for you.

00:50:18

Maybe it's already here.

00:50:20

You walked in here, and you know

00:50:22

the door at the top of the stairs has been opened.

00:50:24

But it is coming.

00:50:28

And the best advice you could ever get

00:50:31

is not to be standing there alone.

00:50:33

Kevin, an eight year old, totally unprotected,

00:50:37

totally vulnerable, was standing at the top of the stairs,

00:50:40

outsmarted, completely defeated and alone.

00:50:46

We never talk about this part of the movie, right?

00:50:49

This isn't. This isn't what we expected.

00:50:52

This isn't the cool Kevin we just watched

00:50:54

kick these guys in their behinds

00:50:56

and score some victories.

00:50:58

This Kevin is not the Kevin that you really want to be.

00:51:02

You certainly don't love this part of the movie.

00:51:04

You kind of wonder, like, what's going to happen now?

00:51:07

These guys have backed him into a corner.

00:51:09

What if the nicest thing that God could do

00:51:11

for you spiritually is to back you into a corner,

00:51:15

to take away your reinforcements,

00:51:17

to let you suffer some kind of loss

00:51:20

so that finally, maybe finally, you will see

00:51:23

the door at the top of the stairs is going to open,

00:51:25

and you don't have to be standing there alone.

00:51:31

This moment in the movie, it kind of, like,

00:51:34

you know, when I think back on it, I'm like,

00:51:36

no one talks about this moment.

00:51:38

This is the third, Kevin.

00:51:41

Kevin's defeated and he knows it.

00:51:44

I call him crushed Kevin.

00:51:46

Maybe you could call him cooked Kevin

00:51:48

or conquered Kevin. You pick your C word.

00:51:50

He's done. It's over. He's been beat.

00:51:54

And he is very, very well aware of it.

00:51:56

They hang him up by the sweater.

00:51:59

They start threatening him.

00:52:00

And he knows at that moment there's no way out.

00:52:03

I can't get away.

00:52:04

Spiritually for us, this is the moment where

00:52:06

we get that we have to reckon with the truth

00:52:09

that Scripture tells us over and over and over again.

00:52:13

Put simply in Romans chapter three, it says this:

00:52:23

That we we have a gap

00:52:26

because there's been an enemy all along,

00:52:28

and we've walked in and we're separated from God,

00:52:31

and we can't close it on our own.

00:52:33

The book of Ephesians, which also discusses

00:52:36

these stages in our spiritual life,

00:52:38

puts it like this: that we were born dead,

00:52:42

physically alive, but spiritually dead.

00:52:45

Dead isn't a place you can fight your way out of.

00:52:47

Dead is a really big problem,

00:52:50

like an impossible problem.

00:52:52

And the crazy truth of Home Alone

00:52:55

is that after all he did, Kevin absolutely failed.

00:53:02

Kevin couldn't get out of this by himself.

00:53:04

Kevin gets hung up by his sweater

00:53:08

after all his own attempts,

00:53:09

after all his own battle plans,

00:53:10

after all his genius, after all his money,

00:53:13

after all his door locks,

00:53:14

after all his resources were used,

00:53:17

Kevin gets beat and he needs rescued.

00:53:25

- Kid.

00:53:27

What are you going to do to him, Harry?

00:53:29

- I'll do exactly what he did to us.

00:53:31

I'll burn his head with a blowtorch.

00:53:33

- I'll smash his face with an iron.

00:53:35

- I could slap him right in the face

00:53:37

with a paint can, maybe.

00:53:38

- Or shove a nail through his foot.

00:53:40

- First thing I'm going to do is

00:53:41

bite off every one of these little fingers,

00:53:43

one at a time.

00:53:46

- [gasps] - [laughs, then yells]

00:53:54

- Come on. Let's get you home.

00:54:00

- You know, Christmas will sound like

00:54:03

the level of good news to the level that we understand

00:54:07

this is where we are.

00:54:09

We're in an impossible situation

00:54:12

and it's time to lift up our eyes

00:54:14

and actually look for a rescuer.

00:54:16

That guy, who's that guy?

00:54:18

The old man with the shovel

00:54:21

shows up at just the right time.

00:54:22

Are you kidding me? Who even is this guy?

00:54:25

Well, if you've seen the movie,

00:54:27

you know he was right next door all along.

00:54:32

That old guy, the one that they thought

00:54:34

was mean and weak and scary,

00:54:36

he becomes Kevin's unlikely rescuer.

00:54:40

Kevin would never have thought to call on him,

00:54:43

because listen to the narratives

00:54:45

that he actually grew up hearing about this guy.

00:54:51

- Check it out, old man Marley.

00:54:58

- Who is he?

00:54:59

- You ever heard of the South Bend Shovel Slayer?

00:55:03

- No. - That's him.

00:55:05

Back in '58 he murdered his whole family

00:55:08

and half the people on his block

00:55:11

with the snow shovel.

00:55:14

Been hiding out in this neighborhood ever since.

00:55:17

- Well, if he's the shovel slayer,

00:55:18

how come the cops don't arrest him?

00:55:20

- Not enough evidence to convict.

00:55:23

They never found the bodies.

00:55:25

But everyone around here knows he did it.

00:55:28

And I'll just be a matter of time before he does it again.

00:55:32

- What's he doing now?

00:55:34

- He walks up and down the streets every night,

00:55:37

salting the sidewalks.

00:55:40

- Maybe he's just trying to be nice.

00:55:44

- No way.

00:55:46

See that garbage can full of salt?

00:55:49

That's where he keeps his victims.

00:55:52

The salt turns the bodies into mummies.

00:55:58

- Wow. - [whispers] Mummies.

00:56:05

- [screams] - Look out.

00:56:12

- Do you really think Kevin expected that guy

00:56:15

to become the only one in the position to rescue him?

00:56:19

That's how a lot of us, no, exactly.

00:56:24

That's how so many of us are with Jesus,

00:56:28

until we meet Him face to face,

00:56:31

until we see His presence in our life.

00:56:33

Kevin had heard all kinds of stories about this guy.

00:56:36

He's mean. He's scary.

00:56:38

He's here to take your life, not save it.

00:56:42

And the truth is, when push came to shove,

00:56:44

that old guy, that unexpected rescuer,

00:56:48

he was the only one home on the street,

00:56:50

the only one even in the position to rescue Kevin,

00:56:55

whether Kevin liked him or not.

00:56:59

And the best part was,

00:57:00

he knew what they thought of him

00:57:01

and it didn't put him off wanting to help Kevin.

00:57:04

Jesus knows what you've thought of Him.

00:57:06

He knows the misconceptions that we've had about Him.

00:57:09

He knows the ugly stories that you've heard about Him.

00:57:12

And I've got to tell you, the good news for us

00:57:14

is that that hasn't put Him off at all.

00:57:17

He understands He's the only one

00:57:19

that ever understood you were coming

00:57:22

to this point all along.

00:57:24

You need rescued.

00:57:27

And the story of Christmas

00:57:29

is that rescue mission coming to Earth.

00:57:34

It was a rescue mission from your impossible situation,

00:57:37

whether you ever knew it or not, whether you think

00:57:39

it's fair you were born into it or not,

00:57:41

Jesus came knowing,

00:57:43

"You might not recognize Me at first,

00:57:46

but I'm the only one who can do this."

00:57:50

Where are you in an impossible situation?

00:57:53

Have you ever recognized that this is your eternal reality?

00:57:57

Or maybe you have, but you slip back in all the time

00:58:00

to fighting these battles alone in your life.

00:58:05

If you invite Him in, I promise you

00:58:08

He'll show up with His shovel.

00:58:10

Now, I've learned a little bit

00:58:13

about impossible rescues from a Hulu show

00:58:17

that I've been watching.

00:58:18

I'm done now. Watched them all.

00:58:21

It's called I Survived a Serial Killer.

00:58:24

Anybody else?

00:58:26

So they have this whole, like, documentary like series,

00:58:31

and it's absolutely, utterly terrifying.

00:58:35

I can't handle a lot of the crime situations.

00:58:39

Like, contrast this with Unsolved Mysteries.

00:58:41

The worst thing you could possibly say to me is,

00:58:44

"And nobody knows where this guy went."

00:58:48

What I want to hear is I survived a Serial Killer.

00:58:51

I want the story of the one that got away,

00:58:54

and that's why I chose this series.

00:58:55

Like, I'm intrigued.

00:58:56

I want to know, how did you get away?

00:58:59

Some of them are from, like, the most famous serial killers.

00:59:03

I guess you miss one every now and then, you know?

00:59:06

And these, the more impossible the situation,

00:59:09

the greater the story of rescue.

00:59:13

But the only reason that I can watch them at all

00:59:17

is because I know what the end is,

00:59:20

it's baked right into the title.

00:59:21

The good news is already baked in:

00:59:24

I Survived a Serial Killer.

00:59:26

So I know no matter where the story starts,

00:59:29

and they're really not pretty,

00:59:32

I know that there's good news at the end of the show.

00:59:36

That's my kind of show.

00:59:38

That's what I want to know.

00:59:39

And this is your story.

00:59:43

And the good news is the good news is baked in.

00:59:45

We even call it that.

00:59:47

We even say the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

00:59:51

That means the good news.

00:59:53

So when even when you crack the Bible

00:59:55

and you read that you're the one

00:59:57

that's naked in the trunk of the car,

00:59:59

or you're the one that wakes up drugged

01:00:01

in a room full of torture devices.

01:00:02

I mean, they're terrible, you guys.

01:00:04

You know, there's a rescue coming.

01:00:08

There's a good news at the end of this story.

01:00:13

Survival isn't just likely, it's guaranteed with Jesus.

01:00:20

And understanding this place of defeat

01:00:24

that you start in, it's essential

01:00:28

for the hope of Christmas.

01:00:30

It's the best possible setup for Christmas morning.

01:00:34

And I think we've lost our grasp on it. You know?

01:00:37

Like, because we we get good at building houses

01:00:40

with all our resources and using all our gifts

01:00:42

to convince ourselves that maybe, just maybe,

01:00:45

we don't need rescued quite as much as the next guy.

01:00:50

Jesus told a parable about a rescue mission,

01:00:54

and it's an unlikely connection to Christmas.

01:00:58

But listen: When a strong man, fully armed,

01:01:02

guards his own palace, his possessions are safe.

01:01:05

But when a stronger man attacks and conquers him,

01:01:08

he takes away the first man's armor

01:01:11

on which the man relied and divides up his plunder.

01:01:15

Now, I've literally never heard

01:01:17

this associated with Christmas,

01:01:19

but it is a rather accurate retelling

01:01:21

of the Christmas story.

01:01:23

It is a crazy good understanding of this rescue mission.

01:01:28

Sometimes the parables are kind of like a head tilt,

01:01:30

like, "I'm going to have to give that one some thought."

01:01:32

So let me just cut to the end.

01:01:33

There's a strong man,

01:01:37

and you were born into His territory,

01:01:39

and He's been jealously guarding you

01:01:42

your entire life long.

01:01:44

And your situation, it doesn't look good

01:01:45

until the stronger man comes,

01:01:50

until the stronger man shows up

01:01:52

and attacks and conquers and dismantles

01:01:54

all the tools that he's been using to keep you guarded.

01:01:57

He dismantles the fear and the shame

01:01:59

and the sin and the death with His victory on the Cross.

01:02:06

And you and me, we were the plunder all along.

01:02:10

We were the whole object of the rescue mission.

01:02:13

When the stronger man named Jesus showed up,

01:02:15

He absolutely accomplished His rescue mission.

01:02:19

And that, my friends, is the Christmas story,

01:02:23

that there was a strong man,

01:02:25

but there's a stronger one named Jesus.

01:02:27

And He doesn't just save you out of danger,

01:02:29

He saves you into something.

01:02:31

Listen to how Colossians 1 puts this:

01:02:43

He's pulled you out of the enemy grip

01:02:47

and He's brought you back to your family.

01:02:51

The great news of Christmas is not

01:02:53

just that you're out of danger,

01:02:54

it's that just like Kevin, you get your family back.

01:03:26

- Where's everybody else?

01:03:29

- Oh, baby, they couldn't come.

01:03:31

They wanted to so much.

01:03:32

- No, I didn't fall asleep in the back

01:03:34

to happen to drool all over you, did I?

01:03:36

- You do drool. - [all talking at once]

01:03:41

- Kevin, Kevin my boy, how are you?

01:03:45

Oh, it's good to see you.

01:03:46

Oh, you're all right. I love you. You okay?

01:03:50

- Yeah.

01:03:51

- Hey, Kev, it's pretty cool

01:03:55

that you didn't burn the place down.

01:03:58

- Even buzz, even buzz. We love it, right?

01:04:01

Because we love the real Christmas story,

01:04:05

that we are born into this impossible situation

01:04:08

and this unlikely person shows up

01:04:11

in an unlikely package and pulls off

01:04:15

the craziest, most amazing rescue of all time.

01:04:19

The strongest man named Jesus.

01:04:22

And the good news inside the good news

01:04:24

actually began with a birth announcement

01:04:27

of a baby into the family that you get

01:04:30

to come back into the family that was lost

01:04:32

all the way back in the book of Genesis,

01:04:35

and the angel announced it as exactly what it is:

01:04:38

Good News. Do not be afraid.

01:04:41

I bring you good news that

01:04:43

will cause great joy for all the people.

01:04:46

Today in the town of David

01:04:48

a Savior has been born to you.

01:04:50

A Savior. Let me pray for us.

01:04:54

Lord, thank You. Thank You for coming to get us.

01:04:59

Thank You for understanding that

01:05:01

we were always going to need it.

01:05:03

Thank You for being our unexpected rescuer.

01:05:09

We receive You and we thank You for it.

01:05:12

Help us to feel the joy of Christmas

01:05:15

in a new way this year. In Jesus's name, Amen.

01:05:22

- Hey, thanks so much for joining us today.

01:05:24

Crossroads is so much more than just content to watch.

01:05:27

We would love for you to grow closer to God,

01:05:30

especially in this busy holiday season.

01:05:32

- Yeah, that's right.

01:05:33

One of my favorite ways to dive deeper

01:05:35

and get connected to more people around here

01:05:36

is actually something we call our monthly Night of Prayer.

01:05:39

If you need encouragement or even a miracle,

01:05:41

guess what? We do believe that miracles

01:05:43

still happen and we see them happen.

01:05:44

Every month God shows up and brings encouragement,

01:05:47

wisdom, freedom, and even healing

01:05:49

as we meet together online on Zoom.

01:05:51

So be bold.

01:05:52

Our next one is actually coming up

01:05:54

Thursday, December 5th at 7 p.m. eastern.

01:05:56

You can just head to crossroads.net/Anywhere

01:05:58

for more info and to RSVP.

01:06:00

- Yeah, now for my high school

01:06:02

and middle school students out there.

01:06:03

I know it's Christmas time, but the sign up

01:06:06

for Summer Camp is now open and live.

01:06:08

And this is, I have to say,

01:06:10

this is my favorite time of the year, Summer Camp.

01:06:12

We see thousands of middle school

01:06:13

and high school students all in one place,

01:06:16

and this is our first time

01:06:18

bringing Anywhere students,

01:06:20

that's our middle school and high school students

01:06:22

from all across the nation into Summer Camp.

01:06:24

So if you're interested, just head to

01:06:26

Crossroads.net/summercamp

01:06:28

to register and find out more.

01:06:30

- Yeah, this is the cheapest price

01:06:31

on camps all year long.

01:06:33

And by the way, we actually do lose money

01:06:35

on every camp that we do because it's not for us,

01:06:38

it's an investment in you.

01:06:40

Hey, thanks again for joining us online.

01:06:41

We'll see you back here next week.

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