The Lord that Restores | Christmas Time Week 3

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(cuckoo clock)

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- Is Christmas cancelled 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:

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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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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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

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and the pastor for Crossroads Church online.

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It is almost Christmas time, we're so close

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which we're so happy about.

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I've been waiting for Christmas for so long this year.

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We put up our tree on November 1st,

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and I know we're not alone.

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So why is it that you and I want Christmas more than ever?

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It's because we're looking for something powerful.

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And I have good news for you today.

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There is amazing power inside the Christmas story

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that I hope to be able to unlock for you

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that you may have never, ever heard before.

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It's power to transform your life,

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to take you as the old Christmas Carol says,

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from feeling weary to rejoicing.

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Let's start off by singing some Christmas carols

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that can unlock some powerful truth for us today.

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- A lot of the songs we sing

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are like statement songs.

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They say statements of truth,

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statements about God and who He is.

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A few of the songs that we sing are narrative songs,

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but that's what this next one is.

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It's a song that tells a story from start to finish.

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And it's a song that

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you probably grew up listening to, like I did.

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And it paints this

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little pretty perfect soft picture of Christmas.

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But that's not what the story of Christmas was.

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Jesus was born as a baby into chaos,

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chaos like you're experiencing right now,

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like we've walked through,

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pain like we've walked through this year.

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And so I want you to --

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I want you to see this song differently

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in this moment as you sing it.

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Lean in differently and hear the story

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of a Savior who comes to you and me into chaos

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and brings rescue and freedom.

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- Hi, I'm Kyle and this is Hannah, welcome.

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Welcome to the Crossroads Christmas Workshop.

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I got started on the gift wrapping.

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I know we were going to do it together,

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but I just went ahead and started going for it.

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I need a little bit more taping.

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To be honest, we're running out,

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but I think it's going pretty good so far.

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- Oh, you've got one right there. You can use that one.

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- This can reinforce the corners.

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- Kyle, A for effort, man.

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I mean, wow, you're really getting into the elf spirit.

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- At first I was bummed out.

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I was like, "Oh, they're making us do this,"

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you know, I was mad about it.

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But now like, I don't know, I'm in.

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- I see, all in.

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- I'm just so happy about Christmas right now.

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- Kyle wrapped up all the gifts

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from the Christmas Gift Drive.

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And well done to everyone who participated

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in helping kids who wouldn't have otherwise gotten a gift.

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If you still want to make a difference this Christmas

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it's not too late.

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You can head to Crossroads.net to give a year end gift.

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- And you are giving has so many amazing things this year.

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Actual amazing things, way better than this.

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We've done things like we baptized hundreds of people.

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We've sewn thousands of masks and given them away.

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We've take care of child care needs

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for front line workers.

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Oh, and by the way,

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we paid off $40 million of medical debt

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earlier this year as a community.

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- Amazing. - Unbelievable.

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- Yeah. And that's just evidence

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that we're not holding on to this money.

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The money that you give, that we give

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goes directly to the church to help people.

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To see where the money goes,

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set up a reoccurring gift, or make a year end gift,

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you can head to Crossroads.net/give.

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- This week we have got the best thing

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since sliced gingerbread. - Oh, yeah.

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It's the Crossroads Christmas special.

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It's going to be amazing.

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- It's going to be great.

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It's going to be an incredible Christmas experience

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that you can do right from home.

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You can watch any time at Crossroads.net/Christmas

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or download the Crossroads TV app

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for the best viewing experience.

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You know, Kyle's actually about to run off set

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and get changed because we're going to pick up

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with him when he talks about

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how Jesus is more than just a baby in a manger,

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He is Lord.

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- Today is the third part of our Christmas series,

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Christmas Time 2020.

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The tagline for this series I love.

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It's a weary world rejoices, taken from the old hymn,

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Oh, Holy Night, one of my favorite hymns.

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I won't sing it for you because I suck at singing.

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But it just describes me perfectly

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because right now I feel weary in my life.

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I'm just weary of in the last year.

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I've been stuck at home, stressed

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and tired from the weight of trying to serve

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and help lead our church and my family

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through this incredibly difficult and confusing times.

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In fact, for the first time in my life,

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I've woken up some days

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and I've just wanted to stay in bed.

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If I'm honest, weary sums up how I feel perfectly.

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I know some of you might hear that

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and you think like, "Dude, you should stop complaining.

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Honestly, if that's the worst you have

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to complain about you should just stop right now."

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I get it. I do.

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I know that some of us have lost jobs this year.

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Some have lost houses,

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others have lost loved ones.

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I don't know what you've lost this year.

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I don't know what's making you feel weary,

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but I know that you probably do feel that way.

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We're, weary.

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But the good news of this series is that

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there are three aspects of Jesus

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that He gives us as a gift

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that can transform our weariness into rejoicing.

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Week one, we looked at this idea that

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Jesus is the gift of light,

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that He gives us to Himself as light.

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Now it's pretty obvious

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how light can transform weariness, right?

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If you're in the dark, now you can see.

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Amazing, rejoice, no more weariness.

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Week two we talked about how Jesus is the Lamb,

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the sacrificial lamb that takes away our sins.

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Again, kind of obvious.

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I'm weary from the weight of my sin,

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He takes it away. Awesome, rejoice.

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This week, though, is a little less obvious

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because this week we're going to dig into this gift.

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The gift that he is Lord.

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No, it's not -- No, it's not obvious

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why that transforms weariness

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That's what we're going to dig into it today.

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But I want you to know from the beginning,

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I think it's the most relevant truth

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with the most power to help transform how you think,

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how you act, how you feel right now.

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In fact, I don't think it's a stretch to say that

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while it may be one of the most quoted lines

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in all of faith is "Jesus is Lord,"

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it may be the most misunderstood concept

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in the entire Bible.

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And I believe that misunderstanding is a big reason

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for your weariness and my weariness.

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Today we're going to try to fill in that gap,

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and if we can, I think

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it can dramatically impact your life for the better.

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It's the balm you need right now,

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maybe more than any other time in your life.

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To help you get it, we're going to take

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a journey together through the Bible.

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A journey that you may have never taken before.

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As we do that, let's invite God

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to be on that journey with us.

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Pray with me.

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God, I pray for the next bit of time

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that we get to spend together You'll be with us,

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that you'd unlock truth.

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That you'd help us see the gift that it is

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that You are Lord,

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that You'd transform our weariness into rejoicing. Amen.

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Now, I don't want to brag, but I do know

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a lot about Lords, because I actually married one.

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Literally, Sarah's maiden name is Lord, Sarah Lord.

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She did not get an upgrade when she married me.

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I never actually publicly apologized for this.

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So, Babe, I'm so sorry.

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You had the best last name and now your last name

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is one that everyone thinks is Ransom

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or Rancid, even worse. Perfect.

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Anyway, sorry about that.

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How is it possible that a Lord coming is a gift, you know?

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Hey, congratulations.

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I have a gift for you, someone to tell you what to do."

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What?

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"Somebody to impress,

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someone to pay tribute to, someone to rule."

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You know, that doesn't sound like a gift.

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"Congratulations. You have a new boss.

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His name is Lord Voldemort.

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He's got some pretty strong opinions

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and some big changes he wants to make around here."

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You know, how could that be a gift?

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Here's the thing you have to get from the very beginning,

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because literally everything else hinges on it.

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And it's this: Jesus is not like other lords.

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Not at all.

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Jeremiah 10:6 says this:

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Now that verse applies directly to Jesus, directly to Him.

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Why?

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Because Jesus isn't like any other human who's ever lived.

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Because he's not just human, see He is God.

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Isaiah 9:6 is a classic scripture

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used in conjunction with the Christmas story.

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This is actually a prophecy of the birth of Jesus.

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It says this:

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It's crazy, this little baby is God.

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The little baby is not normal.

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They are artists for centuries

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have been trying to capture this idea,

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I think, quite poorly, by the way.

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This idea that this baby is not normal, not usual.

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They got a lot of things wrong, a whole lot of things.

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Look at this one right here.

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This is called Benjamin Button Jesus.

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Like, why? Was he born at 85 years old?

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I don't understand this at all.

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It's very strange.

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This one is called Mary is afraid to hold me Jesus.

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He's like green.

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I don't know, He looks very sick.

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Oh, they're all white too.

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I'm not sure whether that's the thing.

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It's just ridiculous.

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This is -- this is one of my favorites.

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This is called male pattern baldness Jesus.

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I'm born at 45

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and my widow's peaks are already going back.

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My forehead is becoming a five head. Pretty awful.

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This is my favorite though.

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This one - this is called Mary did you know

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that your baby boy would never skip a leg day.

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Seriously. Look at that, it's impressive.

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Never skipped a leg day.

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I could He could squat like 1,000 pounds,

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He's got veins popping out places. It's ridiculous.

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Still, for some reason,

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Mary is obviously very, very disappointed

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that this is her baby.

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She's like, "I did not know.

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I just want to be clear, I did not know."

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It's crazy.

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He is different.

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Jesus is very different.

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He's not a Lord like the others.

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But before we can tackle the differences

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between Jesus and the other lords,

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let's nail down one thing that all Lords,

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Jesus included, have in common.

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It's pretty simple: Every lord rules a house.

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And not just any house, usually a really, really big one.

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See, it turns out that all of our issues,

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all of our misunderstandings,

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all the reason why we hear that Jesus is Lord

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and we don't think, "Yay, a gift."

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They all come from assuming that Jesus

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is like all other lords when it comes to rules and houses.

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Let's start with houses.

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You know that lords have houses.

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You know, usually it's a big, fancy, impressive house.

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If you've ever watched Downton Abbey,

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you saw Lord Grantham and his big, amazing house.

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I've heard you can stay in that on vacation.

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That sounds amazing.

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I don't know anyone who's actually done that,

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but looks it amazing. Big, fancy, impressive house.

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By the way, I want you to know

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I would love to recommend Downton Abbey

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to you as a TV show.

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I can't actually do that responsibly.

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What I can say is that Downton Abbey

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is like a Jolly Rancher.

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Is it good for you? No. It's awful, it'll rot your teeth.

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Is it tasty? Absolutely.

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You can do with that whatever you want to.

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They also see a picture of lords in the Crown,

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another binge worthy show. Right?

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Season four just came out.

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Sarah won't let us watch it yet.

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We are rationing it just like our ancestors

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rationed meat and beans in the Great War.

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We're rationing binge worthy TV.

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They'd probably not be very proud of us,

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but this is what we're doing right now.

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Anyway, in the Crown, I know that

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the queen's house is Buckingham Palace.

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It's big, it's fancy, it's impressive.

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In Star Wars, Lord Vader has a house.

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It's the Death Star. Big, fancy, impressive.

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See, the thing is, in each of these

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the idea is that you go to the lord' house to serve them.

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If you want to talk to them, you go to them.

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As most other world religions,

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the lords or gods are just like human lords.

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Like the same.

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They love big, fancy, impressive looking houses.

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And the idea is you're supposed to go there

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to worship and serve them.

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Once this pandemic is finally over, please,

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and you can travel again,

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you can go to pretty much anywhere in the entire world

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and you'll find big fancy houses

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for all kinds of various gods, called temples.

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You'll find them in Indonesia, England, Myanmar,

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Egypt and Africa, China, India, Cambodia,

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Central America, South America, Greece, Turkey.

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This is a picture I personally took

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of the Temple of Artemis.

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Back in the day, it was one of

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the seven wonders of the ancient world.

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But now, as you can see, it's kind of crappy.

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Sorry about your house, Artemis.

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It didn't go well. I don't happened.

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Anyway, most Lords love big fancy houses,

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but not Jesus.

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Because remember, He's not like the other lords.

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Can we all agree, as the Lord of the universe,

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He could have been born anywhere.

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Could have made that happen. Right?

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He could've been born in the fanciest house

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in the most impressive room that He wanted.

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He could have, but He didn't.

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Instead, He chose to be born in a barn.

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Why?

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Let's check out the Christmas story

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and see if I can find the answer.

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You probably know the basics about the Christmas story.

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You know, Joseph and Mary were engaged,

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then Mary turns up pregnant.

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Joseph is not super pumped about that,

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assumes that she cheated on him, so decides

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he's just going to kind of mercifully end the relationship.

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He could have had her stoned, by the way.

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He's a nice guy, decided not to do that.

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But then an angel shows up and tells Joseph

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that Mary didn't actually cheat on him.

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Instead, God chose Mary to give birth

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to the divine messiah, the Lord Himself, God's own son.

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It's crazy.

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The Bachelor has nothing on the Bible.

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Anyway, Mary and Joseph have to travel to Bethlehem,

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which is Joseph's ancestral home,

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to be counted in a census.

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The story reads this way in Luke 2:

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They show up.

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They get to the Bethlehem where he's from

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and there's just no room.

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You probably heard there was no room in the inn.

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If you've ever watched

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the Charlie Brown Christmas Special,

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amazing Vince Guaraldi, incredible music. Amazing.

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The picture is from that show. Right?

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He's like the kind innkeeper.

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The idea is that they kind of went to Bethlehem

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and they didn't make reservations,

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kind of irresponsible.

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And they're knocking on all the inn doors,

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looking for a Holiday Inn or wherever.

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And there's no rooms, obviously.

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But there's this kind innkeeper

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who lets them sleep out in the barn.

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Really nice story.

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I mean, it makes for a great cartoon Christmas special,

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but it's not true, like at all.

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You've got to understand our houses

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and how we use them are very, very different

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than first century Jewish houses and how they used them.

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Now, the goal is you grow up, you get a job,

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and you move out of your parents' house.

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I know some parent just elbowed

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their twenty something on the couch next to them,

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like, "Did you hear that? That's what George said."

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Look, mom and dad, I was a kid

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who spent a year living with my parents

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in my early 20's while I kind of got my feet under me

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and got my crap together.

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Let me just say,

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on behalf of your 20 something next to you,

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they're not living the dream right now either.

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Let me say to both of you, it'll be fine.

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Just relax, enjoy the time together,

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try not to kill each other.

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Anyway, in the 1st century,

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Jewish families don't live like we do. They didn't.

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Instead, the entire extended family

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lived in one house under one roof.

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There's no idea of moving out, going away.

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You stayed together.

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So when Mary and Joseph show up in Bethlehem,

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they would have showed up to Joseph's family house,

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not the Holiday Inn.

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See the reason we think it was an inn

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is because of a misinterpretation that happened

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when the English King James commissioned

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the King James Bible back in the 1600s.

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The word they translated as inn we now know

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much more accurately means guest room,

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a feature that would have been in every single

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1st century Jewish family house.

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When Mary and Joseph show up

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and knock on their front door,

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they're told they can't stay in the house.

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Well, why?

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My guess is because the family didn't like the fact

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that Mary was pregnant before the wedding.

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And so someone, Joseph's father in all likelihood,

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says, "You guys can't sleep in here with the rest of us.

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Your life's kind of a mess. It's messy.

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It's kind -- I don't like it.

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You're smelly,

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and so you should go out in the barn with the animals

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because that's basically what you like to me right now."

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You know, not real nice, go out in the barn.

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No big fancy house for you, Jesus.

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Now, while that may have been a surprise

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to Mary and Joseph,

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probably not what they were hoping for,

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it wasn't to Jesus.

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Why do I think that?

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Because the house the Lord wants

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has never been a big, fancy, impressive one.

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Which can be kind of confusing,

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given all the big, fancy, impressive houses of God,

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like this one, right?

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This is one of our Crossroads sites.

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It was once a cathedral called Old St George.

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Now it's been renovated

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and it's one of our church buildings.

00:24:54

And you may have heard places like this

00:24:56

called the House of God before.

00:24:59

It's big, it's impressive, high ceilings,

00:25:03

great architecture, stained glass windows,

00:25:05

the whole nine yards, all that stuff.

00:25:07

Here's the thing, this isn't the house of God.

00:25:11

In fact, no building, no cathedral,

00:25:14

no nothing that has walls and a roof

00:25:17

is the house of God.

00:25:19

Does that mean this place has no value?

00:25:20

No, of course not.

00:25:22

We love buildings.

00:25:23

They're incredibly useful, but they're just a tool,

00:25:27

a tool for people like you and me

00:25:29

to know and understand God. Just a tool.

00:25:32

You know, whenever we've opened a building at Crossroads,

00:25:35

we have a ceremony.

00:25:37

It happened in this building

00:25:38

when it was opened just down front.

00:25:40

If you go up to the front, you'll find

00:25:42

a coffee stain on the rug,

00:25:45

which is every time we have a ceremony,

00:25:46

we'll have big worship music, inspiring message,

00:25:49

you know, pray and thank God for giving us the building

00:25:53

and ask that He uses it and all that stuff.

00:25:55

And then we do something that makes people

00:25:58

honestly like just gasp every time.

00:26:01

We take a coffee cup, we take off the lid,

00:26:04

and then we do this,

00:26:06

we just pour it on the floor.

00:26:09

And everyone's like, "Stop.

00:26:10

What are you doing?

00:26:12

You're ruining God's house."

00:26:13

No, we're not. This is a tool.

00:26:16

You know what tools are for? To be used.

00:26:18

The best compliment you could possibly give a tool

00:26:22

is it's all scratched and dented because you've used it.

00:26:25

This is just a tool.

00:26:27

It's not the House of God, not at all.

00:26:31

Well, so if this isn't God's house, what is?

00:26:35

Well, here's a history of God and houses,

00:26:38

because God does have a house.

00:26:41

It's not what you think.

00:26:42

Now, the warning I have to give here is that

00:26:44

some of the things I'm about to share are just my ideas.

00:26:47

You don't have to share them at all

00:26:48

to be part of Crossroads.

00:26:50

Here one of the things I love about us is that

00:26:52

we say we major on the majors and we minor on the minors.

00:26:55

It's okay if we disagree.

00:26:57

I'm just telling you what I've seen

00:27:00

as I've been studying this idea through scripture.

00:27:02

Now the first house God ever has in scripture

00:27:05

is actually a tent. It's called the Tabernacle.

00:27:08

It was pretty cool.

00:27:09

He designed it himself, and it actually

00:27:12

moved with the people wherever they went.

00:27:15

It's really clear that God wanted it.

00:27:17

There are actually six and a half chapters

00:27:20

of God telling Moses precisely how to build it.

00:27:22

Six and a half. Not recommended reading, by the way.

00:27:25

I mean, the Bible, everything in it is good.

00:27:27

I'm just saying, not like a page turner,

00:27:29

but it's in there are six and a half chapters,

00:27:31

because God cares so much about it.

00:27:33

The thing is, it's not just a tent. It's a humble tent.

00:27:38

It's made of like wood and animal skins

00:27:40

and not super nice.

00:27:42

God's priority wasn't big and impressive.

00:27:46

God's priority was to have a house

00:27:48

that could go with the people wherever they went.

00:27:52

And so it was designed to be packed up

00:27:54

and moved really quickly.

00:27:55

It's interesting. Right?

00:27:57

From the beginning, God's house was different

00:27:59

from all the other Lords, all of them.

00:28:04

Now, that humbled traveling tent was God's house

00:28:08

for hundreds and hundreds of years

00:28:11

until a guy you may have heard about named King David

00:28:15

conquers Jerusalem and builds a big old fancy house

00:28:18

for himself right in the middle of a city.

00:28:20

Right? Just kind of like all the other lords

00:28:22

around him had big, impressive, fancy, you know, amazing.

00:28:25

Then one day, David's sitting

00:28:26

in his big, fancy, impressive house

00:28:28

and he feels guilty about how nice it is

00:28:30

in comparison to God's old humble traveling tent.

00:28:33

You know, it's like he looks out the window like,

00:28:35

"Oh, jeez, oh, man.

00:28:36

I can't have a nicer house than God.

00:28:37

This does not look good at all, you know?'

00:28:40

So he decides he's going to fix his guilt

00:28:42

by building God a bigger, fancier house than his.

00:28:45

Boom, did it, right?

00:28:47

Problem is, God says, "Um, hey, David,

00:28:51

I don't want a big, fancy, impressive house.

00:28:54

Please don't build it for me."

00:28:56

These are literally God's words in 1 Chronicles 17:

00:29:30

God says, 'Did I ever say I wanted

00:29:33

a big, fancy, impressive house? No.'

00:29:37

The message He's trying to send is this:

00:29:39

I'm not like the other Lords.

00:29:42

I don't want to live in a big, fancy,

00:29:45

impressive mess free house.

00:29:47

And that, my friends, is incredibly good news.

00:29:58

That's really good news because that's what I'm like.

00:30:03

I'm not big, I'm not fancy, I'm not impressive.

00:30:06

My life is messy and has problems.

00:30:09

I've got habits I can't beat.

00:30:11

I've got hang ups I have.

00:30:13

I have things I'm trying to get right in my life,

00:30:16

but I still screw up again and again and again.

00:30:18

When I hear that story, I would be Mary and Joseph.

00:30:21

You know?

00:30:22

The people who show up, like, "You're too messy.

00:30:24

You need to go out in the barn."

00:30:26

So when I hear that Jesus was born out there,

00:30:30

it makes me wonder, maybe, just maybe He would be for me.

00:30:37

It's good news that He does not want

00:30:40

big and fancy and impressive.

00:30:42

Friends, He doesn't.

00:30:44

If your life feels messy,

00:30:46

if your life feels like it has problems

00:30:47

you have things you can't kick.

00:30:49

You'd love to be big and fancy, but it's not.

00:30:52

Good news, He doesn't need it to be.

00:30:55

He doesn't want that.

00:30:57

He doesn't want big, fancy, impressive. He doesn't.

00:30:59

Parents, have you ever had your kids

00:31:01

make you something you didn't want, you know?

00:31:02

Of course.

00:31:03

Are they with you right now?

00:31:05

Hey, kids, let me just clear something up.

00:31:07

Mom and dad, we love all the stuff you've ever made us,

00:31:11

especially that macaroni necklace, it was so cool.

00:31:14

How did you know that we needed that?

00:31:15

It matches our shoes, amazing. Okay, cool.

00:31:18

Here's the thing, this house thing is like that.

00:31:20

God actually told his people a few different times

00:31:23

not to build Him a big fancy house.

00:31:25

In Isaiah 66:1 it says this:

00:31:41

He goes, "You're going to build me a house?

00:31:43

It doesn't make any sense.

00:31:45

I'm the God of the universe.

00:31:46

I made the whole thing.

00:31:47

Don't build me a house, David, please."

00:31:50

What does David do?

00:31:52

He built it anyway. He does.

00:31:54

It's what's known as the very first temple

00:31:56

or Solomon's Temple.

00:31:57

But make no mistake, the Bible's really clear,

00:31:59

David did most of the work for it.

00:32:01

Scripture says that he made extensive preparations.

00:32:04

That means he used his own money to buy every log,

00:32:07

every brick, every rock, all the gold,

00:32:09

all the silver, all the everything.

00:32:11

Weighed it out, each individual bowl and lamp stand

00:32:13

and all the stuff that would go in there,

00:32:15

made every single preparation.

00:32:16

And then with his last dying breath,

00:32:18

commanded his son Solomon to build it.

00:32:21

So Solomon does, so it's Solomon's temple.

00:32:24

It takes a while to build.

00:32:25

It's finished around 957 B.C.

00:32:27

What Solomon does, he holds a big ceremony,

00:32:29

makes lots of sacrifices.

00:32:30

He puts God's law inside of God's house.

00:32:35

But while the tent that God wanted

00:32:37

lasted hundreds and hundreds of years,

00:32:40

do you know that big fancy house He didn't ask for

00:32:44

only lasted 30 years before it was destroyed

00:32:47

by an attacking enemy.

00:32:49

Hundreds of years, humble tent.

00:32:52

Big, fancy house, 30 years,

00:32:53

lets it be completely destroyed.

00:32:55

After that it spends almost 300 years mostly in ruins.

00:32:59

The fact that it falls into such disorder

00:33:01

that they actually lost the book of God's law

00:33:04

inside the house.

00:33:05

It gets lost in the rubble and the crap inside the temple

00:33:07

to the point where this guy finds it one day,

00:33:10

one of the priests, and he's like, "What is this thing?"

00:33:13

So he takes it to the king, a guy named Josiah.

00:33:16

And Josiah is blown away when he reads it.

00:33:18

I mean, utterly just blown away.

00:33:20

He does something really interesting.

00:33:22

You see, Josiah is a man after God's own heart.

00:33:24

So rather than be concerned about the placement

00:33:26

of God's law inside the building, of the temple,

00:33:29

Josiah commits to its placement inside of him

00:33:34

and inside of the people.

00:33:35

He gets all of Israel together

00:33:37

and he reads the entire Book of the Law to them.

00:33:40

It's recorded in 2 Chronicles 34, it says:

00:34:06

Josiah goes, "God, in me, Your law will rule.

00:34:11

You'll be the Lord of me."

00:34:14

Josiah is great, Israel flourishes while he's king,

00:34:17

but it doesn't last.

00:34:19

The next three kings are complete turds,

00:34:22

like completely, so much that they let

00:34:24

God's law and covenant fall back under all the dust.

00:34:27

And God begs them, "Please follow Me.

00:34:30

Please listen to Me.

00:34:31

Please make Me Lord of you, not this building."

00:34:34

But they don't listen and so He does something crazy.

00:34:38

He mobilizes one of their enemies

00:34:40

to completely destroy their capital city, Jerusalem,

00:34:44

and every single thing in it,

00:34:46

including His big fancy house.

00:34:49

It's written in 2 Chronicles 36, it says:

00:35:05

This is crazy, we've got to get this.

00:35:07

God actually causes the complete destruction

00:35:11

of the house they built Him, completely,

00:35:13

just lets it be blown up.

00:35:15

For 70 years there's no temple at all,

00:35:18

nothing, just a pile of rubble.

00:35:19

And then a new generation comes along

00:35:21

who is more interested in God,

00:35:22

and they start to rebuild a new one in the year 516 B.C.

00:35:25

And that version, the important thing to know about it,

00:35:27

it was really humble, wasn't nearly as big,

00:35:30

not nearly as fancy, didn't have all the money

00:35:33

that David had to sink into it, all the gold,

00:35:35

all the silver, all the stuff. Kind of humble.

00:35:38

Interestingly, do you know that God

00:35:40

let the humble one survive the longest?

00:35:43

It actually stayed intact for 500 years,

00:35:48

to the point of King Herod comes on the scene

00:35:51

just about 10, 15 years before Jesus is born,

00:35:54

and he decides he's going to renovate the temple,

00:35:56

like a massive remodel.

00:35:57

So massive it might have been easier

00:35:59

to just completely rebuild a new one,

00:36:00

but he does a remodel.

00:36:02

Kind of like Chris loves Julia, follow them on Instagram,

00:36:04

like they should have just ripped down

00:36:05

their entire house and started from ground floor.

00:36:07

Anyway, the remodel took until 64 A.D.,

00:36:09

it's an 80 year long remodel.

00:36:13

The end result of that is it's the biggest,

00:36:15

fanciest house of God ever, ever.

00:36:18

It's amazing. Better than the first one.

00:36:21

How pumped is God about it?

00:36:23

How long does he protected and let it stand

00:36:25

so people can come to His house and serve Him?

00:36:27

A thousand years?

00:36:29

No.

00:36:30

A hundred years?

00:36:32

Nope.

00:36:33

Ten years?

00:36:34

Nope.

00:36:35

Six years. Six years. That's it.

00:36:38

Now, I find this fascinating.

00:36:41

The fanciest house ever built for God

00:36:45

only lasted, I can't do it, six years. That's it.

00:36:49

I was going to do seven, no, six years.

00:36:51

It was completely burned to the ground by Rome.

00:36:53

And here's the thing, it hasn't been rebuilt since.

00:36:56

I've been to temple area in Jerusalem.

00:36:59

There's a Muslim mosque there now, Al-Aqsa

00:37:01

and the Muslim monument, the dome of the Rock.

00:37:04

The crazy thing there, God's literally given that area

00:37:07

to a completely different religion, completely.

00:37:11

Now, the building that I'm in,

00:37:12

if you think about this in comparison,

00:37:14

this was built in 1873.

00:37:17

It survived a fire, has been renovated.

00:37:19

It's lasted for 147 years,

00:37:23

24.5 times longer than the big fancy house.

00:37:28

That's crazy. What does it all mean?

00:37:30

I think it's clear,

00:37:32

Jesus isn't a Lord like the other Lords.

00:37:36

Friends, He doesn't want a big, fancy, impressive house.

00:37:38

It's not where He wants to rule.

00:37:39

It's not where He wants to put His law.

00:37:41

It's not -- That's not it at all.

00:37:43

Do you know where He wants to rule?

00:37:45

In a humble tent.

00:37:48

Which one? You and me.

00:37:51

That's the language that Paul, the writer

00:37:53

of most of the New Testament, uses for us.

00:37:56

He actually harkens back to the imagery

00:37:58

of this tabernacle that God treasured,

00:38:00

that God planned out, that God loves so much.

00:38:03

He says our bodies are like it,

00:38:04

we're the temporary tents,

00:38:06

and that while we're in them,

00:38:07

God wants to dwell with us

00:38:10

and travel with us wherever we go.

00:38:13

He doesn't need us to build a house for Him.

00:38:16

He's actually building an eternal house for us.

00:38:19

Paul writes these words in 2 Corinthians 5:

00:38:32

God says, "I don't want your house built by your hands."

00:38:36

That's a misinterpretation that tragically misleads

00:38:39

that Jesus is comfortable

00:38:41

in perfect, breathtaking splendor.

00:38:44

No, no, He's comfortable at home

00:38:47

in unsophisticated, humble messes,

00:38:51

like you and like me.

00:38:53

That's where He wants to be, with you.

00:38:54

I don't know what problem you have in your life.

00:38:56

I don't know what habit you can't kick.

00:38:58

I know what you did last night that you're not proud of.

00:39:00

I don't know what you're doing right now,

00:39:01

you're planning for tomorrow.

00:39:02

I don't know what it is.

00:39:03

I don't know what kind of debt you have.

00:39:05

I don't know what hang up you have.

00:39:06

I don't know what addiction you're struggling with.

00:39:07

I'm telling you though, it doesn't matter.

00:39:09

If you're messy, God wants to be with you.

00:39:12

He wants to be the Lord of your house.

00:39:16

You know, scripture actually says that

00:39:18

you and I have a door on our heart.

00:39:21

That's the imagery used.

00:39:22

He says Jesus is on the outside

00:39:24

and He's just knocking and He's wanting to get in.

00:39:27

Hey, hey. Anybody hear me? Here I am.

00:39:30

These are his words and Revelation 3, it says:

00:39:44

It sounds like a nice invitation, doesn't it?

00:39:46

"Hey, I'm outside. If you just let me in,

00:39:47

I'd love to like hang out, have a good meal together."

00:39:51

It's a nice one, right?

00:39:52

So why don't we let Him in? Why not?

00:39:56

But because I think that we --

00:39:58

Just as we incorrectly assume He's like

00:39:59

the other lords when it comes to houses,

00:40:01

I think we also incorrectly assume

00:40:03

He's like other lords when it comes to

00:40:05

what His rule is like.

00:40:07

He'd be about, you know, telling us what to do

00:40:09

and knocking us down and putting us in it's place.

00:40:11

And it's not true either.

00:40:12

See, all other lords want to rule over you.

00:40:16

They use their power to take from you.

00:40:19

That's actually what God said,

00:40:20

it's how He describe human lords.

00:40:22

He actually promised it to Israel.

00:40:24

There's a moment where they didn't have a human king

00:40:27

and they wanted one like, "Oh, man,

00:40:29

we really want a human king.

00:40:30

Can we have one, God?"

00:40:32

And God's like, "No, you don't. You don't want that.

00:40:36

I promise you, it's not going to go well."

00:40:38

It happens in 1 Samuel 8.

00:40:40

If it were a text exchange,

00:40:42

it would kind of look like this:

00:41:06

Seriously, that's what it'd be like.

00:41:07

If you don't believe me, here's God's

00:41:09

actual description of human lords from 1 Samuel 8:

00:41:51

What do humans lords do?

00:41:53

How do they operate?

00:41:54

They take and they take and they take and they take.

00:41:57

That's what God says, all they do is take.

00:41:59

That's exactly what happens.

00:42:01

The first King, Saul, is mostly terrible.

00:42:03

He takes everything he can to build himself up.

00:42:05

That's what he does.

00:42:06

He lords over the people just like God said he would.

00:42:09

The second king is David.

00:42:10

He does a little bit better job,

00:42:12

but he is the one who decides to build

00:42:13

the big fancy house for God.

00:42:15

But here's the thing,

00:42:17

Jesus is not like the other lords. He's not.

00:42:20

Rather than take from you, He wants to give to you.

00:42:26

That's the message of Christmas.

00:42:27

He's doesn't want to take things from you.

00:42:29

That's not --

00:42:30

He wants to give to you.

00:42:32

I wonder, have you been assuming He's like other Lords,

00:42:35

that if He were to rule your life,

00:42:36

it would be just like that thing

00:42:38

we just read: take, take, take, take.

00:42:39

That's not it at all. It's not it at all.

00:42:42

You know, Jesus is at the door knocking.

00:42:44

Do you know what He would do

00:42:45

if He walked into your house?

00:42:47

I'll read it to you, John 13:3-5:

00:43:15

See, Jesus, when He shows up, you let Him in,

00:43:18

comes to get that meal that He's been asking you for,

00:43:21

He doesn't show up and Lord over you.

00:43:23

When He walks into your house,

00:43:24

He goes to one spot and one spot alone.

00:43:27

He goes to your pantry, your cabinets,

00:43:32

and He pulls out your cleaning stuff

00:43:34

and He starts cleaning up.

00:43:37

He says, "What's messy here? How can I serve you?

00:43:40

How can I make things better?"

00:43:42

See, He doesn't come to Lord over,

00:43:45

He wants to Lord under you.

00:43:48

When He walks in your house, He doesn't condemn it.

00:43:50

He doesn't rip it to shreds.

00:43:52

He doesn't say, "This place isn't nice enough for me."

00:43:54

He doesn't hold his nose,

00:43:55

doesn't demand you clean up first.

00:43:56

There's no judgment, no long speeches

00:43:58

about you should know better.

00:44:00

There's no disapproving eye rolls.

00:44:02

Not, "I can't believe that's in your house.

00:44:03

What's that, ugh?"

00:44:04

None of that, the passive aggressiveness.

00:44:07

He gets under you and He lords under you.

00:44:11

Did you catch what that scripture said?

00:44:13

He has all the power in the universe

00:44:15

and He walks in and then gets down and serves.

00:44:20

That's the kind of lord He is.

00:44:22

The biggest misconception is that when you

00:44:25

make Him Lord and you allow Him to rule your life,

00:44:27

you're going to end up with less. It's not true.

00:44:29

His rule in your life will always lead to more. More.

00:44:36

He'll give you the very best stuff.

00:44:39

You know, when Sarah and I got engaged,

00:44:41

we made a hard decision.

00:44:43

It was a really unpopular decision then

00:44:44

and I think even more so now.

00:44:46

Before I say it, please, seriously,

00:44:48

if this isn't a decision you've made in your life,

00:44:50

if you made a different one,

00:44:52

please don't hear condemnation from me or judgment.

00:44:54

That's not the point of this story.

00:44:56

The point is this.

00:44:57

We saw in the Bible a clear directive

00:44:59

when we got engaged that we weren't supposed

00:45:01

to have sex until we were married.

00:45:03

This is not the best news.

00:45:04

And it was like, "Huh? Well, crap."

00:45:08

The problem is when we got engaged

00:45:10

we decided to buy a house, same exact month.

00:45:12

And at that point I was living with my parents.

00:45:15

That's what I mentioned earlier, not that fun.

00:45:17

I was ready to move ou.

00:45:18

Couldn't wait to get out, actually.

00:45:21

And so we just thought, "We'll just move in together."

00:45:24

We tried out all the arguments, you know.

00:45:26

We tried this one out, the classic, "I mean,

00:45:29

we've already committed to each other.

00:45:30

I mean, we're probably married in the eyes of God,

00:45:33

like we're probably basically already married."

00:45:36

The problem with that logic was that

00:45:37

if you asked anyone like our family, our friends,

00:45:41

the government, like, "Are we married yet?"

00:45:43

They'd go, "No, you got engaged.

00:45:46

You made a promise to get married in the future.

00:45:49

You haven't committed to each other yet."

00:45:53

It's frustrating. We couldn't shake it.

00:45:55

And so we saw this line,

00:45:56

this decision that we had to make:

00:45:58

who would be lord of our house?

00:46:01

Would it be us? Would be our ways, our rules?

00:46:06

Would we be our own Lord, or would it be Jesus?

00:46:11

Would it be His ways, His rules?

00:46:13

Would we allow Him to be Lord of our life?

00:46:16

It really came down to this:

00:46:18

Do we think Jesus wants to lord over us

00:46:21

to take something from us or does He want

00:46:25

to lord under us to give to us?

00:46:28

And for us, we decided to bet on the latter.

00:46:30

So when we signed the mortgage on the house,

00:46:32

Sarah moved in and I stayed at home with my parents.

00:46:36

It was not fun then, but years later,

00:46:38

I can honestly say that decision to say,

00:46:41

"As our family is being established

00:46:43

right now in this moment, we're going

00:46:44

to make Jesus the lord of our house,"

00:46:46

has paid infinite dividends.

00:46:49

There may be no bigger decision

00:46:51

we've ever made in our life.

00:46:52

And it's just because at that moment

00:46:54

we decided from the very beginning,

00:46:56

"Jesus will be the lord of our house."

00:46:59

It set our family on a path

00:47:01

to be blessed beyond measure, experience thing.

00:47:04

He's given us so much more.

00:47:06

There's not a thing He's taken,

00:47:08

except things that were hurting us to begin with.

00:47:11

That's it.

00:47:13

Now, here's the thing,

00:47:15

when you make Him lord over your house,

00:47:18

He becomes your landlord.

00:47:20

Think about this in the best way possible.

00:47:22

See, when you're the lord of your house

00:47:24

and something breaks, it's up to you to fix it.

00:47:26

There's no one to call.

00:47:28

But when you have a landlord, something breaks,

00:47:30

something's messed up,

00:47:31

something's not working the way it's supposed to,

00:47:33

what do you do?

00:47:34

Just call him up, he comes and takes care of it.

00:47:38

That's what you have.

00:47:41

That's the gift of Jesus being your Lord.

00:47:45

He's not asking you to work for yourself weary

00:47:47

trying to build a satisfying life,

00:47:49

trying to fix all of your problems.

00:47:52

He wants to do that for you.

00:47:56

Are you tired?

00:47:57

Why not make Him Lord?

00:47:59

Why not let him build you and take care of you?

00:48:02

Psalm 127 says:

00:48:23

Are you weary?

00:48:24

Invite the Lord, who's not like any other,

00:48:28

to come in and build your house for you.

00:48:31

Experience rest, experience sleep.

00:48:34

To a weary world He'll give what we need the most.

00:48:39

Turn that weariness into rejoicing.

00:48:42

If you want to invite Him to be your Lord

00:48:44

maybe in a way He hasn't been before in your life,

00:48:46

I want you to pray these words with me.

00:48:49

Jesus, I invite You to come into my life.

00:48:55

I want to open the door of my heart to You

00:48:57

and invite You in. You're welcome here.

00:49:00

Would You be my Lord?

00:49:02

Would you fix up my house?

00:49:04

I will follow you and I'll submit to Your rule

00:49:07

because I know You're not a Lord who wants to take.

00:49:10

I know You're a Lord comfortable in the mass

00:49:12

who wants to give to me. Thank you so much, Amen.

00:49:17

If you've prayed that prayer,

00:49:19

that's amazing, we would love to know.

00:49:20

You can chat in with u.

00:49:21

Go to Crossroads.net, click the chat button, let us know.

00:49:24

We'd love to pray with you and encourage you.

00:49:27

What we're going to do right now is sing a song,

00:49:29

a Christmas Carol called Away in a Manger.

00:49:33

We're going to worship the Lord who's comfortable,

00:49:36

not in the big fancy houses,

00:49:38

but in the mess in the manger of our lives.

00:49:40

Let's sing together.

00:50:32

- Thanks for joining us today.

00:50:33

I hope that today helped unlock

00:50:35

some new things for you and helped you

00:50:37

experience Christmas more personally

00:50:39

and powerfully maybe than ever before.

00:50:41

Hey, don't miss the Crossroads Christmas Special.

00:50:44

We've been working really hard on this,

00:50:45

and it's available right now at Crossroads.net/Christmas.

00:50:50

If you go there, you can also find out

00:50:51

service times for local Christmas Eve services near you.

00:50:55

In January to start a brand new series called:

00:50:57

#GOALS; Blazing A New Trail.

00:51:00

We'll see you then.

00:51:02

(singing) Can I come in from the cold?

00:51:05

- This holiday season, come in from the cold

00:51:07

with Crossroads Christmas Special

00:51:09

featuring Grammy Award winners Lecrae and Amy Grant,

00:51:14

Brian Tome giving fresh perspective on Jesus's birth,

00:51:18

original arrangements of beloved Christmas songs

00:51:21

by Crossroads music

00:51:22

and the shepherds' story brought to life.

00:51:25

Ignite the spirit of Christmas for your family this year.

00:51:28

Get air dates and times at

00:51:29

Crossroads.net/christmasspecial.

00:51:34

- The best way to watch Crossroads Church

00:51:36

is on your smart TV, because

00:51:37

that's where your family hangs out

00:51:39

and plus taking a break from your phone

00:51:41

and tablet feels good.

00:51:43

Download the Crossroads TV app on your smart TV

00:51:46

and your TV becomes a place to hear from God,

00:51:50

a window into life change,

00:51:52

a spiritual rhythm,

00:51:53

your "I finally went to church this week."

00:51:57

Set a time to experience church on your TV.

00:52:00

See, you've already made your TV smarter.

00:52:03

Download the Crossroads TV app.

00:52:05

It'll give you the boost

00:52:06

you and your family need for your week.

	Going From Weary To Rejoicing	0:31
	Silent Night	1:25
	Away In A Manger	6:10
	Back at Santa's Workshop	9:23
	A Weary World Rejoices	11:33
	Reprise: Away In A Manger	49:40

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