Light in Impossible Dark | Christmas Time Week 1

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[Cuckoo clock]

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- Is Christmas canceled this year?

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- Does Santa have to wear a mask?

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- Does Santa have COVID?

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- Am I still going to get presents?

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- Yeah, this year's a little cuckoo.

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The good news, Christmas is coming!

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A season of hope and light.

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It might just be exactly what this weary world needs most.

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Christmas time 2020, a new weekly series from Crossroads.

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- Are we still having Christmas?

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- Heck, yeah, we are, kid.

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Check out the Crossroads App on your smart TV

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or go to Crossroads.net/Christmas.

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[Cuckoo clock]

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- Welcome to Crossroads Church.

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I'm Ali and today it is officially Christmas Time.

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As far as I'm concerned,

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Christmas cannot come soon enough this year.

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We need Christmas, don't we, now more than ever.

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I know I am looking forward

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to watching some Christmas movies this week.

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For sure on my short list are Home Alone,

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Christmas Vacation, obviously, and this random one

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my husband always watches with me every year

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called The Family Stone.

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That might be what I'm doing the next few weeks,

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but the next couple weeks here at Crossroads

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we are going to do something even better

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than Christmas movies.

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We're going to find out why we feel like this.

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Why do we need Christmas so much, especially this year?

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It just doesn't seem like there's

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a lot of light around us in the world right now.

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As a matter of fact, I see quite a lot of darkness.

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And today we're going to be talking about

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how Jesus is the light we need,

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how His light has been around from the beginning.

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And he is still lighting up our paths today in 2020.

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No better way to get started in our time together

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today than with some good old Christmas songs.

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- I love this season because

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music is playing literally everywhere.

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Stations that normally play like the warm, soft rock,

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they're playing Christmas music as of Halloween.

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And what I love about these songs is that

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they're songs that talk about

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the mystery of a coming King.

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They talk about the hope that comes in Jesus.

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So as we incorporate these songs into our worship time,

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my hope is that you sing them through a new lens,

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you sing them through the lens of joy

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and through the lens of hope this year.

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- Oh, hey, I'm Hannah.

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- And I'm Kyle.

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- And we're the Crossroads Christmas elves.

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- And they made us wear jumpsuits again, so.

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- Oh, that's just terrible. Are you kidding me?

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I'm not -- I'm not going through with that.

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I'm not going to be the elf. No, no, no. Not today.

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[SFX tone]

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- Hi, I'm Hannah. - And I'm Kyle.

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It turns out this is in our contract.

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- Yep, we work here, but we're here to spread

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a little joy to all the girls and boys this Christmas.

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- We've been working tirelessly around the clock

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to make all of these toys, working really hard.

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They forgot the tape in this one,

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so I had to do it myself.

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- I know. And you know what?

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You won't believe it, but our elf staff

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was cut in half this year due to budget cuts.

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But we do have this giant mug

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that everyone with the name Jane is going to get.

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So, hey, to Jane.

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And it does have hot chocolate in it,

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but the hot chocolate is not included,

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because COVID, you know.

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- That's fine. It's not that great anyway.

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So we're making all these gifts so that

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the kids who otherwise may not get a gift

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can know how much Jesus loves them this Christmas.

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You know, you can actually do something to help

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and have as much of an impact as us.

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- Just like us? - Yeah, just like us. Yeah.

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- And it's called the Christmas Gift Drive,

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where we give gifts to kids

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who wouldn't otherwise get them on Christmas.

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And you can participate wherever you live

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through the miracle of online shopping. Hey, yo.

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So head to Crossroads.net/CGD to learn more

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and see the shopping list

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and make a difference this Christmas.

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- Christmas is coming.

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A time to give and receive.

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Unfortunately for a lot of parents,

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2020 has made it harder than ever

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to give good gifts to their kids.

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But you can help.

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Just search Christmas Gift Drive on Crossroads.net

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and sign up to help a family in need.

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You'll get a list of items that you can buy online

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or in store, then bring or ship your items

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to your nearest Crossroads site.

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From there, we'll work with our partners

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to deliver the goods. That's it.

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Just a few clicks from you

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and families get to experience the joy

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of presents underneath the tree on Christmas.

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Serve some love this Christmas,

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it might just be the best thing you do all season.

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- You can do that so the kids

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don't have to get our terribly made toys.

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- These are really bad.

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- They're bad, I'm going to be honest about it.

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- We are not gifted, this is not our spiritual gifting.

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- You know, another way that those of us

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who want to make a difference this year

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can do that is by giving.

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If you're part of Crossroads, you know,

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this is a way to make a difference

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in people's lives all year long,

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not just at Christmas.

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And it goes to amazingly good things

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like helping people in poverty

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and spreading this message

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and making a difference in our world.

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To give or learn more about what it goes to

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or to make a year end gift, go to Crossroads.net/give.

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- Let's pick back up with Ali, who is talking about

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how Jesus is the light of the world.

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And He was around way before Christmas,

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before this whole workshop, before elves, before us.

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- All of it. Yeah.

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- Let's see what Ali's talking about.

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- Darkness makes us uncomfortable.

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I mean, I would never be out here by myself at night,

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I mean, ever.

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I don't even need to say that we tend to correlate

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darkness with the things that we fear.

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When I would put my kids to bed when they were little,

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they would say things like,

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"Mom, could you just check under the bed?

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Just -- just let me know that nothing's under there."

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And now that they're teenagers,

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I find myself saying things like, "Listen,

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you need to be back here by midnight

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because I know nothing good happens after midnight."

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Why? Why do we think this?

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Why do we say these things?

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We just seem to kind of innately understand

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something that the Bible explains over and over again,

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that good, good things,

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they don't tend to thrive in the dark,

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because it's light that's associated

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with the presence of God himself.

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Today, we begin three weeks leading up into Christmas

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where we will be getting to know God

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through three names given to Jesus that go way beyond

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who we know him to be at Christmas time.

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And one of those is light.

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Christmas is a celebration of the birth of this baby

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who would later call Himself the Light of the World.

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Wherever Jesus went,

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the qualities of light showed up on the scene:

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warmth, clarity, invitation, accountability, truth.

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This holiday, Christmas, it's filled

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with celebrations of light everywhere light, right?

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And it's really about when the Son of God

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showed up for us in a dark world.

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But the Bible says this actually wasn't

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the beginning of His light.

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It wasn't even the first appearance of His light.

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Way back when the earth was formed,

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the Son of God was there.

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He has always existed together with the Father.

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He was the Word of God

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as the very first act of creation took place

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when God spoke a word and light came into the darkness.

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John 1 tells us exactly this:

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The earth was dark

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until the light of the Son of God showed up.

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And that light comes through the life that He has.

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And at Christmas, the very first Christmas,

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that life was born as a baby named Jesus.

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And only He can push back the kind of darkness

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that you and I face all the time.

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I know you know what kind of darkness I mean.

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It's not the kind we can deal with

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with the flick of a switch.

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It's the kind we can't see,

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the kind that hangs over us.

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Maybe you're facing just crippling anxiety.

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Maybe this year has you in a funk

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that you really have come to the conclusion

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is actually a depression.

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Maybe it's brought out in you a tendency

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that you see all the way through your family tree

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some kind of darkness that just holds on

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to people in your very own family

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over and over and over again.

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For me, when I think of that kind of darkness,

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I remember the time in my life

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that was right before the birth of my first son.

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I struggled through a year of infertility

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The path I thought our life was taking,

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it just sort of-- it was like curtain,

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darkness right in front of my face.

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Everything I thought I was seeing just vanished.

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I'm sure I used the language that we were in the dark.

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We couldn't see. We felt a little lost.

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We didn't have a path forward.

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And, you know what?

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When we're in that place, we will take

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whoever and whatever can show up

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and put an end to that kind of darkness.

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Who can actually say somehow to the darkness,

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"Enough, you can't come any further."

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The birth of Jesus was like that.

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It was like a lantern that got lit for you

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and for me right in the middle of that kind of dark.

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And again, just like in the beginning,

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the light of the Son of God came through the dark

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and it gave it a boundary.

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He turned the light on and the darkness has to go.

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That's how it works.

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The prophet Isaiah said this

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about the Savior who would be born.

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Isaiah 9:2 says:

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The story of Christmas

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is the dawning of that light for you.

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It's the story of God pushing through the dark

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to light up a path out of your darkness.

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And yes, Jesus was born in a cosmic sense

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of providing a light of salvation for all people.

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Absolutely.

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But Christmas doesn't just mean that.

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Christmas also means there's a light

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right now available to you that can push back

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whatever the unique darkness is that you're facing today.

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Wouldn't you give anything just to have

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one little flicker of light

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in whatever darkness you're in right now?

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When I had my first job out of college,

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I actually worked downtown Cincinnati.

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And I would come out to go to my car

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in the winter every night and I would look

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like half a mile away at my car

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parked out by the Greyhound bus station.

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And I would have to plot my path to get to the car.

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And I only did it based on one thing:

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I wanted a path of light.

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That's exactly who Jesus is.

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He is the light on our path.

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He is the One who lights up the darkness.

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The Word actually says that:

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Jesus doesn't just say that

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He points the way to the light.

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He doesn't say that He inspires us

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to find our own inner light.

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He says He is the light.

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Jesus said in John 8:12 the words,

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"I am the light of the world."

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Here's what it says when Jesus

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spoke again to the people, he said:

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I am the light of the world.

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To us, this sounds like a nice,

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maybe kind of obtuse statement about who Jesus is.

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It just sounds kind of nice, doesn't it?

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But that's not how it sounded to the people

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that heard it when He said it.

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To the people that heard it when He said it,

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it sounded like a very specific claim

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to be their way out of darkness.

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Jesus actually said these words in the context

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of a feast called the Feast of Tabernacles.

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And this feast is actually celebrated

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when God Himself came into the darkness of slavery

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that His people had been in

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and He literally led them out as a light.

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God Himself showed up to lead them

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out of the darkness and into the light.

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He didn't yell down from heaven.

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He didn't leave them road signs

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or He didn't leave them tea leaves to try to read.

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Every single night as they walked

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through the literal dark wilderness,

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God showed up as a light.

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Specifically, He showed up as a pillar of fire

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that would burn through the night

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showing them exactly which steps to take

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and which way to go.

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Just imagine that for a minute you've left a life

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that you have no idea where to go next

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and God shows up and He does it as a pillar of fire.

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That's what Jesus was saying

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when He said He was the light of the world.

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He might as well have been saying,

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"Remember the deliverer?

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Remember the God that made a way out in the darkness?

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Remember the God that led you through the wilderness?

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Me again, and this time I've come for everybody."

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Jesus was saying that He was the Messiah

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to do what the words of Isaiah

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said the Messiah was going to do for all people.

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Isaiah 42 says:

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Friends, God says that to you today.

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He is not going to leave you in the dark.

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Jesus is the way out.

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He's our lantern, He's our lit path,

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He's our pillar of fire.

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And if you are the one today looking for a way out,

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you're looking for a way out of your darkness,

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I know something.

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I know you're not going to make it very far

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without a light.

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I'm going to guess you've probably tried some ways out.

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Maybe you've tripped over some things.

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Maybe you tried to get out on your own.

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Maybe you've been smacked in the face

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and laid out on the ground in the middle of the dark.

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That was me actually about a couple of months ago.

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I was walking down a sidewalk.

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I had just come out of a house,

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a street I wasn't familiar with, no street lights.

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And I walked straight into a bike rack

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that was hanging out on a dark sidewalk.

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And I hit it so hard, right on my eye,

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right on this bone under my eye that it knocked me over.

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This is exactly what happens to us

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when we try to walk through the dark

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with no real spiritual light.

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When we look to our mom, our bestie,

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inspirational quotes on Instagram to help us get out,

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we end up with a bike rack in our eye on the ground.

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Where is that place where you're on the ground today?

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Where is the place that you are in the dark

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where you've tried to get out

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and there's no light on your path?

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Maybe you thought you'd forgiven someone

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and you're still obsessing over it.

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Maybe you keep getting fired.

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Maybe you're thinking,

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"Here I am in the holidays alone again."

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For me, one of those places is

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with somebody I love more than anyone else in the world,

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it's with my husband.

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And sometimes I need a way out

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of the dark place that we go to.

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I don't know, maybe you have this place.

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We usually do with the people

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that were in the most relationship with.

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We have a dark place.

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A place where we kind of

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get lazy communicating with each other,

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we're not very gentle,

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maybe we're not very tender for a while.

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And we look up and it feels a little distant,

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it feels a little cold.

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And I finally realize, "Oh, crap,

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we're standing in the dark again."

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I could keep going without a light.

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I know how that goes.

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Or, or I could ask Jesus to be who He promises to be.

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I can hold Him to His Word and so can you.

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He says, "I am the light. I am the way out.

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I'm the lantern on the dark path."

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And when I do this,

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it usually starts with a little prayer,

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something like, "Well, Jesus, here I am again.

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How do I get out this time?"

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And I can also tell you where I tend to go next,

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and I don't know if you're going to like it,

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because I know probably 80, 90% of us don't do this.

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I have a question for you today.

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If you are somebody that would desperately like

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the light of Jesus to come into

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whatever dark you're facing,

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if you would raise your hand and say,

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"Yep, I'm up for that," I have a question for you.

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Are you exposing yourself to His light?

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Are you reading His Word?

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Are you opening your Bible?

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There's light in there for you.

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And I'm not going to apologize for asking you that,

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because I know it's the challenge you need to hear.

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Even though I know the answer is probably no,

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but just like the Israelites were led

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through night by a pillar of fire,

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there is light in the Word of God for you.

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There is light when you encounter a spirit there.

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There is light when you follow His teachings there.

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And the Psalm that says His Word is a lamp and a light

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and that is what we need.

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We need a lamp on our feet so we can

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literally know the next step to take.

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And we need a light on our path

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so we can pick up our head

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and have some clue where we're going next.

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The Good News of Christmas is that no matter

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how many times we find ourselves in the dark,

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Jesus is the one who can make good on God's promise

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to turn the darkness in front of us into the light.

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Jesus is not just a lantern

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that we carry along with us,

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He's actually the lighted path that we walk on.

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It would be amazing if today you said

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something to God like this,

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"I believe that you are the light of the world.

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I think you're my way out and I need your light

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to get out of the darkness that I'm in right now.

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I've tried to do it on my own

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and I want to follow you instead."

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If you said a prayer like that,

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Jesus becomes this amazing light in your life.

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Ephesians 5:8 actually describes it by saying:

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It doesn't say that we were in darkness without Jesus,

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it actually says we were the darkness,

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that you were the darkness.

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But as we invite Him into those dark places in us

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and in our life, we begin to change.

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We become alive in a brand new way.

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We exist in a realm of light

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that we can't even see without Him.

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And as soon as we invite Him in,

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the path in front of us gets lighter and lighter

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and we begin to see Him in ourselves

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and the world around us in a way that

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we are just blind to in the dark.

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Have you ever been in the dark

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and had someone come in and flip on the light?

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I have to admit, I kind of like doing that

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to my kids at 6:45 when I wake them up for school.

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My boys are like, "Oh, Mom, the light stop."

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It's one of those little things as a parent I enjoy.

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But it's kind of how we are spiritually.

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We get orientated to the dark,

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especially when we've been asleep a long time

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and sometimes it just feels better to stay there.

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When we decide to invite the light of the world in

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I'm here to tell you

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it doesn't always feel warm and Christmas-y.

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When the first light hits our eyes,

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we might flash away.

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We might feel a little exposed because light exposes.

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It actually forces us to see things

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that we didn't even know were there.

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Now, listen, I had something big happen in my life

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about a month ago, I got a new vacuum cleaner.

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That's right, big day at the Patersons.

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And this baby is not just any old vacuum cleaner.

00:30:51

It has a headlight.

00:30:53

And after the first time I used it, I decided,

00:30:56

"I think kind of like my old one better,"

00:30:58

because I was seeing a lot of stuff

00:31:01

I just wasn't seeing before,

00:31:03

like in the dark corner of my pantry

00:31:05

where I never really like to clean.

00:31:07

Sometimes we don't want to see what's in the dark.

00:31:10

We feel uncomfortable when we have to see it.

00:31:13

We feel exposed when we are looking

00:31:16

at things we don't want to see.

00:31:17

As a matter of fact, that's the word

00:31:19

that I've used for 2020, "exposed."

00:31:23

It really laid some things bare for me.

00:31:26

God wasn't, all for me,

00:31:28

He wasn't all, "Let's put a little light on it."

00:31:30

He was like Clark Griswold about it

00:31:32

and lit the whole thing up at once.

00:31:34

He showed me some things in myself that, frankly,

00:31:37

I would just rather not see.

00:31:39

Just to name a few, I'll just name a few.

00:31:41

I could go all day on this.

00:31:43

I'll just start with my anger

00:31:46

and the selfishness that came out of me

00:31:48

as my travel plans went up in smoke one after the next.

00:31:55

And how about maybe some of the thoughts

00:31:57

I had in my head

00:31:58

and they may have slipped out of my mouth,

00:32:00

but we need to beat them out here.

00:32:03

The things that I was thinking about my leaders,

00:32:06

maybe my governor or the school officials

00:32:08

during our little experiment with virtual learning

00:32:11

when I had four kids at three different schools.

00:32:15

Listen, I could justify all of these things

00:32:17

with a wink and a #2020,

00:32:20

or I can remember that this is what light does.

00:32:25

Light exposes.

00:32:27

And light, unlike the dark,

00:32:28

is actually where things can begin to grow and thrive.

00:32:31

And if you ask Jesus to begin to light up

00:32:35

the way out of your darkness,

00:32:36

it may not always feel Christmas cozy.

00:32:38

But this is the wrong time to turn back to the dark.

00:32:43

When the light first hits us, we have to reorient

00:32:46

and sometimes we just want to go back

00:32:48

to what we were before because

00:32:50

that's what our eyes are used to.

00:32:52

Don't do it, because with the light

00:32:55

comes all the good stuff.

00:32:56

Remember, the light is the presence of God Himself.

00:33:00

And with light comes the clarity that you need

00:33:03

for the situation you're in.

00:33:04

With light comes the goodness of God.

00:33:06

With light comes the truth.

00:33:09

And with light always comes

00:33:12

the invitation to something better,

00:33:14

the something that you are probably

00:33:17

searching for right now in your darkness.

00:33:22

When the light of the world starts to come in,

00:33:25

I just want to say, "Don't go back."

00:33:27

Don't go back, keep moving toward the light,

00:33:30

even if it feels uncomfortable,

00:33:32

even if it feels exposing,

00:33:34

even if you want to turn away,

00:33:36

because people who walk with Jesus

00:33:38

over a long period of time,

00:33:40

they end up walking on this path of light

00:33:42

that gets brighter and brighter

00:33:44

and brighter all the time.

00:33:46

Proverbs 4:18 says:

00:33:54

I love that and I don't think

00:33:56

it's some pattycake verse where we just

00:33:58

pretend we're happy, happy, and we deny

00:34:01

that there's clouds or shadows or valleys.

00:34:03

Rather, it's just this growing confidence

00:34:06

that when I walk on this path

00:34:08

and in this realm of light with God,

00:34:11

that I just have a confidence that

00:34:14

when that stuff comes, the light has not disappeared.

00:34:18

As a matter of fact, over time, our reality

00:34:21

gets orientated to the bigger and better reality

00:34:25

of the light of God.

00:34:27

And one day the great news is that

00:34:31

that light will be our only reality.

00:34:33

Jesus didn't just come that first Christmas,

00:34:35

He is coming again.

00:34:38

And when He returns,

00:34:40

He's going to gather up His people

00:34:42

and an eternity of light sustained by His life

00:34:49

is going to begin.

00:34:50

Revelation 22:5 says:

00:35:06

One day light wins.

00:35:09

One day our path never dark again.

00:35:12

One day we will walk freely with God

00:35:14

with nothing in our way, nothing to trip over,

00:35:17

and no darkness that calls us and pulls us back

00:35:21

to the place where we came from before.

00:35:23

This Christmas I want you to celebrate

00:35:26

the birth of the light of the world

00:35:28

by following the flicker of His light,

00:35:30

by inviting Him to be the path of light

00:35:33

that you walk every single day of your life on.

00:35:36

Because one day I know that where you're going

00:35:39

is you are going to find yourself

00:35:41

completely surrounded by His glory and His light

00:35:45

and His beauty, and it will never, ever end.

00:35:50

Lord, I thank You for Your light.

00:35:52

I thank You for Christmas.

00:35:55

I thank You for this time of year

00:35:57

when we're focused on You.

00:35:58

And when we are, I pray that You would

00:36:00

come into those dark places and invite us

00:36:03

into your light. In Jesus's name. Amen.

00:36:07

Because of Jesus we have light,

00:36:11

we also have hope and joy.

00:36:13

Let's sing this together.

00:37:22

Hey, thanks for joining us today.

00:37:24

And don't let your experience stop here,

00:37:26

we'd love to pray for you or help you

00:37:27

find the next step on your spiritual adventure.

00:37:30

Just chat with us at Crossroads.net

00:37:32

in the lower right hand corner.

00:37:34

Next week here at Crossroads,

00:37:35

Brian is heading to a Christmas tree farm

00:37:38

and he's going to cut down a tree,

00:37:39

even though there's plenty already chopped down.

00:37:42

That guy's never going to pass up a chance to use an ax.

00:37:46

He's going to talk about how Jesus

00:37:48

is not just the light, but he's also the lamb.

00:37:51

Don't miss it. We'll see you then.

	This Christmas 🎄	0:04
	Alli Patterson: We Need Christmas	3:40
	Joy To The World 🌟	5:22
	🧝‍♂️Meet Santa's Elves🧝‍♀️	11:18
	Alli Patterson: Jesus Is The Light In Darkness	14:30
	Alli Patterson: Jesus Is A Lamp For Our Path 🕯️	20:20
	Alli Patterson: Jesus Lights Up The Whole Path	28:21
	You Keep Hope Alive	36:16

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