Hope | Advent: Week 1

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Welcome to Crossroads Anywhere.

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We're so glad to have you joining us from anywhere you are right now.

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I'm here right now with my longtime friend Alli Patterson.

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- Great to be with you.

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I always like it when we get to work together.

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- Yes, it's so good to be with you.

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- How long have we known each other?

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It's been a long time.

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- I know. I was just adding that up, actually, right before this.

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I think it's 15.

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- 15? That's what I was going to guess, 15 years.

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- So we're starting a brand new series today called Advent and this is your baby.

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What is Advent and what is this series?

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Fill us in.

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- It's really funny you said it's my baby.

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You're right in that I have wanted our community

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to go through Advent for a couple of years.

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Because my family and I,

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we actually have done this at home for a number of years.

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All advent means is arrival.

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That's really all the actual word means.

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And it's a season right before Christmas

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where we just anticipate the arrival of Jesus into the world

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and we just focus on the Christmas story.

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And I think increasingly in our culture,

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there's all kinds of craziness that goes on in December.

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And I just think it's hard to root ourselves

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in the story of Christmas, of Jesus's arrival.

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And to me, Advent is such an obvious way to do that.

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So for four weeks, we're going to talk about the things

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that Jesus brought with Him when He came: Hope, peace.

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- Love and joy.

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I was trying to remember them in the right order: Hope, peace, love, joy.

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Hope, peace, joy, love.

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- Those four things.

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And so this week, I'm actually going to be teaching about hope.

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And I am actually really excited to get to start the series off

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just because I think it's gonna be great for our community.

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And I know I need Advent.

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I need Advent.

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I think we need it collectively

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so that December doesn't go by in a blur.

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And we come January 1st and go, what just happened here?

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- Yeah. Yeah.

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- And so for me, it's just a great way to root myself in the season.

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And I'm excited to maybe have a new family tradition

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to start in the Schuler household around advent.

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- Yeah, we have a wreath similar to this.

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Ours is actually ceramic.

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It's not all the evergreen, but we -- exactly like this.

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And we have dinner on Sunday night in our dining room

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and we light the Advent wreath

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and we tell a piece of the Christmas story that goes with that candle.

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And it's just been a really cool tradition for our family.

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- That's great.

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- So I'm excited for our community to experience it, too.

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- So you're going to get something good in this series.

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And at the end of each message,

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there's going to be a moment for you to write something down.

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And so if you're watching from a watch party or in a group right now,

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your group leader got in the mail cards for you to have for this series.

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And if you are watching at home or in your car or anywhere else right now,

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you'll want a piece of paper and a pen for the end of this service

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to be able to participate in what we're all doing together.

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Now, aside from Advent being your baby.

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- Yeah.

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- Another thing that is near and dear to your heart is the Crossroads app.

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- Exactly. Yeah.

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I actually choose the scripture readings that go in the app on a regular basis.

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And I am in there, I would say,

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I don't know, three to five days a week.

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That's how I do my Bible reading is inside the app.

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And I love looking through the journals of other people in the community.

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And since I follow you, did you know that

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when you post a journal, it will tell me.

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- I didn't know that.

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- It will say, "You follow Lena.

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Lena just posted a journal."

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Then I can, "Oh, my friend Lena,

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she has something to say about the scripture today.

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And I can click and specifically read your journal.

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That way I know what's in your mind and heart as my friend.

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- It's amazing. I love the app.

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I'm in there a few days a week as well.

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Great ways to pray for other people,

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have your prayer requests prayed for.

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I would personally love to pray for your prayer requests.

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If you follow me and send me your requests,

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me myself and the Anywhere team will pray for you.

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It's just a great, great tool, a great app to use during the week.

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So download the Crossroads Anywhere app.

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I don't think that you'll be disappointed.

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I don't think that you'll be disappointed.

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Well, I don't know why that came out, so funny.

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- You will not --

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- You will not be disappointed.

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The other thing that's coming up this Christmas,

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if you're in the greater Cincinnati area, is Awaited.

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And Awaited is no longer a Crossroads production,

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which has been traditionally the last 10 plus years

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of the creative telling of the Christmas story

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in dance and music and all kinds of beautiful ways.

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But it's actually going to be airing at

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the Aronoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati

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this year in a theater downtown.

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And so if you're interested in experiencing that,

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you can get tickets for Awaited now by heading online

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and purchasing those tickets.

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And it would be a great way for you to celebrate Jesus

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and His arrival this Christmas.

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But without any further ado,

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we're going to head right into this Advent series.

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We're so glad you're here.

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- Long ago a nation, Israel, waited in the darkness for the Promised One.

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The prophets told of His coming, said He would appear as a baby.

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He would be the Savior they'd been longing for,

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and the prophesy was fulfilled.

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He came in the form of a baby born in Bethlehem,

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the Savior, the Messiah, Jesus came into the world.

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With Him real hope entered the world.

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God in the flesh, reconnecting His people back to Him.

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A God whose light overcomes all darkness.

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And now, 2000 years later, in the midst of what feels like uncertain times,

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Jesus still offers us this life of hope.

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Would you stand and sing with us?

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Well, merry Christmas.

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I think going to say that now, right?

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We're past Thanksgiving.

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You can turn to the person next year and say, "That was intense.

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Right, that was kind of a lot, right?"

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But it should be because we're stepping into the season of Christmas.

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Like I get so tired of everything in my life

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sort of existed at this (sound effect) sort of range, right?

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I need sometimes to hit reset and something to break in.

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It's like Christmas just walked in the room and punched you in the mouth.

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I don't know.

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But it should break there.

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And that's what we're doing this whole month with Advent,

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this thing that means arrival as we set our sights on this King Jesus

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who came to this earth and changed the world forever.

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And so each week we're going to come in and we're gonna hit reset

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and pause in the chaos

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and set our minds on this Baby Jesus that changed the whole world.

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And one of the ways we're going to remind ourselves of that

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is by singing these old Christmas songs that we grew up singing

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and we know the words to,

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we hear in the stores or hear on the radio right now.

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These songs weren't just seasonal things just written about this month.

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They were written about the Savior.

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And they were written as old hymns for the church.

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So they have this old ancient language that we don't use a ton of.

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They have these old words, but they have these deep truths to them.

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They're also super educational.

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Like the other day when my family was listening to Silent Night,

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my daughter said, "Hey, mama, what's a virgin?"

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I thought, "Yeah, I'd love to have that conversation right now.

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That's great. Thank you Christmas songs."

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They do lots of things and we're going to use them to connect to God.

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And so wherever you are, if you're online with us,

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if you're here in the room,

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we're going to sing together and join in together.

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- God, we thank you for sending Jesus,

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a very wonderful, beautiful reason to celebrate this season.

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We hear words like mighty and majestic and beautiful and wonderful.

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And all of those words pale in comparison

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to who He is and how great He is.

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But we will do the best that we can to honor and lift Your name.

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We thank You for being who You are and for sending Jesus.

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In Your name we pray, Amen.

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All right. Crossroads, thank you for joining in,

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singing, getting the Christmas season started off right.

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Let's make this place a little bit smaller.

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Introduce yourself to someone sitting near you

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and then you can have a seat.

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We're so glad you're here.

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- Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit like Christmas songs

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and specifically songs that I've known what feels like my whole life

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that are actually worship songs to God.

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It's pretty awesome.

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You know, we have lots of people in our church who are tithing,

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which means they're giving the first 10%

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of all of the money that comes in directly back to God,

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specifically to the church.

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And if you are a tither,

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specifically if you have begun tithing in the last few weeks,

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I want you to know that you have personally

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been prayed for by a staff member.

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Your name, you as a person have been prayed over.

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And I got really choked up a couple weeks ago

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praying for one guy in particular.

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He's a young man, a teenager who I met

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earlier this year in California,

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who has signed up to tithe for the very first time.

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And this got me emotional for a few reasons.

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One is I can picture what -- I can feel what it might feel like

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for my now one and a half year old son 15 years down the road

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to choose to tithe for the first time.

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Oh, my goodness, what that would mean to me as a parent.

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I'm sure what it means to this young man in California's parents,

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who've been faithful givers for a long time

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and who've been choosing to raise their kids in the way of Jesus.

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What is happening there is that God has his heart.

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And I one day want God to have my own son's heart.

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I want God to have your heart.

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And so if you want to give,

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you could do that by heading to Crossroads.net/give

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and maybe try giving for the first time.

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Or you could sign up to tithe for the very first time

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and tell God that He has your heart.

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And let's get started with our new series Advent,

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where today we're talking about hope.

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- Advent. We've heard about it, seen it, posted about it,

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maybe even tasted it year after year.

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So what is Advent?

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A countdown to presents?

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A celebration of pets, beauty products, cheese?

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Well, no.

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Advent is the season of anticipation and celebration.

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But the gift we're waiting for is Jesus, not cats.

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Because with Jesus comes all sorts of life changing goodness.

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Advent gives us the chance to share in

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the ancient longing for the coming King, a Savior.

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And every year for thousands of years,

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Christ followers have been lighting candles

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for 4 Sunday's leading up to Christmas.

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These candles represent four themes in the Bible:

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Hope, peace, joy, love,

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that came forth with the long awaited arrival of Jesus.

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This week we celebrate the advent of hope.

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- Hey, everyone.

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How are you?

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My name is Alli Patterson.

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It's great to be with you this weekend, this very full weekend.

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May I say I can't decide how to greet you.

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It's like Happy Thanksgiving.

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Welcome to Advent.

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Merry Christmas.

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Happy Ohio State Michigan game weekend.

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I know, all of them so good for us.

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So good for our spiritual growth.

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So anyway, this can be just a crazy and full time of year.

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I know Thanksgiving was late this year.

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Who has their tree up already?

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Who had it up before Thanksgiving?

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Oh, so many of you.

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Look at all you jolly people.

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I'd probably be doing that if I wasn't here this weekend.

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But I love this season, I really do, alongside many of you.

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And I am thrilled that we're doing Advent as a community.

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I have been doing it for years with my family.

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And I am really excited that we are all going to walk through Advent together.

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Because it is just one of the things that has brought

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a lot of depth and meaning for me, for my home,

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for my family, for my relationships with my husband

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and my kids, right in the middle of a season

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that can sometimes be kind of crazy.

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Last year I had three Christmas parties,

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three consecutive Friday nights in January.

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In January.

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I appreciate the gesture, I guess,

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of shoving it out of the busy season.

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But when we have to celebrate Christmas in January,

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something has gotten a little bit lost.

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And that's why I love Advent.

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I really do, because it is something that roots us in the season.

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And not just in the season in any way,

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but to the story that we want to be connected to.

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That we want to capture all the meaning and depth of Christmas

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and what it means by really diving into

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the story of the arrival of Jesus.

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That's what Advent means, arrival.

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And we get to anticipate that for 4 weeks together as a community.

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And the reason I say the real story is because

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I have noticed over the last couple of years that

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there's actually sort of two Christmas stories

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taking place alongside each other in our culture.

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Once I started to see this, I couldn't not see it.

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It's like there's a story and there's characters

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and there's goodness

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and there's all kinds of things that are similar.

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But two stories kind of happening at once.

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Let me tell you what I mean.

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We would all say that we --

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Christmas is a time where we want to be with family.

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But do we talk a lot about this family?

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Or do we rather spend time with this family?

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And we all like to take trips to see those family,

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but how often do we really dive into the trip this family took?

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Or are we busy planning trips that feel more like this?

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And of course, the gift buying, oh, the gift buying.

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I don't know about you other women in the room,

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but I find that I buy 99.9%

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of the gifts that come through my household.

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And my husband buys presence for me and that's it.

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Oh, the presents, so many presents that we have to think about.

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And are those presents --

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How often do we think about the ones that these guys brought?

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Or are we busy focusing on the ones that this guy brings?

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May I just say, is that the creepiest Santa you've ever seen?

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Do yourself a favor later tonight or sometime this weekend,

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have a beer and Google creepy Santa and just see what comes up.

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I'm just saying, just see what comes up.

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So there's two Christmas stories and Advent

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is really our chance to really connect ourselves

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and root ourselves in The Christmas Story.

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And that is why I love it.

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The four weeks of Advent, as the video kind of reminded us,

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the four weeks of Advent celebrate Jesus's arrival

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and the things that He brought with Him when He came.

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There are four weeks to Advent and those weeks are

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hope, peace, joy, and love.

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And we're going to look at how was Jesus,

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the arrival of these things, where did that take place?

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When is it and how can we receive the things

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that He brings to us today?

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If you have any Advent in your past,

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you might have seen an Advent wreath before.

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This is kind of the traditional way

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that people mark out the weeks of Advent.

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And this is sort of how a traditional one looks.

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I have a ceramic one in the middle of my own dining room table

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where the candles are falling over

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because I bought ones that are too small.

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Really annoying, anyway.

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So this is the traditional Advent wreath.

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And a lot of people find a lot of symbolism in all kinds of things.

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But the main thing about Advent is light.

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That is why we light candles for every week of Advent.

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And some people see the wreath that is circular

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and they think about the eternal life of God

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that came into the world.

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Other people like to make their wreaths out of evergreen like this

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because it reminds us that life comes

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right in the middle of a season of death

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and that's what Jesus brings.

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The candles of this wreath are the traditional colors

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of purple, which is the sign of royalty,

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and pink, which is the week of joy.

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So there's all kinds of different symbolism in the wreath.

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But the main thing, the big idea,

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if you remember nothing else, and your candles are red

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and you just light four in a row.

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That's all good because Advent is the celebration

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of the light of God crashing into the world

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in a little baby named Jesus.

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Who as He grew, eventually said this about Himself

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in the book of John 8 these words are recorded, Jesus said:

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That is what I hope for all of us as we travel through

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this sort of Advent journey over the next four weeks.

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I want us to have a more thriving life.

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I want us to receive the things that Jesus brought with Him,

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which we can continue on in for new life.

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And the church has been celebrating this forever,

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since Christmas became a fixed date.

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Even though this is our first year at Crossroads,

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pieces of the church have been celebrating Advent

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together since somewhere around the year 200-300 A.D.

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Whenever we fixed a date to celebrate the arrival of Jesus,

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Advent is an ancient tradition that we are joining into as a community.

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And this week we are talking all about hope.

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I was thinking about what hope really is

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and later we will light the candle of hope together.

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But I was thinking hope really simply put, is just:

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That, to me, is just a really simple way to understand hope.

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And the Bible uses hope in two kind of different ways.

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One is just a period of waiting.

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When you hope for something that you just have to wait for.

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In this last week my husband was out of town,

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actually, kind of bummer all week on Thanksgiving week.

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But he was with one of my sons and they were in Nicaragua.

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And so I was -- I might have said something like,

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"I hope for the time that they return."

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It's not -- it's just a waiting period where an end.

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So some of the time when the Bible uses hope,

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it is just the word hope as in waiting for an end.

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But the kind of hope that we're talking about

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with the Christmas story has a little bit more of a charge to it.

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It's the other word for hope.

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It's what I might say when I think about one of my friends

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whose marriage is in a delicate place

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or another friend who's getting ready to have

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a particular operation for some cancer that was found.

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I might say, "I hope her operation gets all of the cancer

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and she never has to deal with this again."

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That's a hope where you're traveling through some kind of pain,

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some kind of difficulty that requires endurance

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and hardship and darkness.

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And that's the kind of hope the Bible talks about

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that Jesus arrived with.

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Not just waiting for an end, but waiting for an end

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through things that were not yet good.

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Jesus was born into a story exactly like this.

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He was born into a people, the Jewish people,

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who were the former nation of Israel.

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And Israel had lived a story that was not only not done,

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it was definitely not good.

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For hundreds and hundreds of years in their previous history,

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Israel had drifted away from God.

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And they had had king after king after king.

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And God had kind of given them chance after chance

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to come back to Him, and they didn't.

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And pretty soon it became obvious that the nation

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was going to end, that it was going to be destroyed.

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And that some of their enemies are going to take over control

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of their land and they were going to be pushed out of it.

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And that happened.

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And right in the middle of that era is

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when the Christmas story actually begins.

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Because God sent the very first people on to the scene

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to announce the arrival of hope.

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They were called the prophets.

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And sometimes when people light the candle of hope,

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they actually call it the prophets' candle.

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Because the prophets are the very first people

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that began to announce that a good ending was going to be possible.

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That there was hope for the Jewish people, for the nation of Israel.

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And not just any old hope,

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a very specific hope for a future restoration,

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a great King, for a period of peace and prosperity.

00:34:11

And all their hopes were pinned on this person coming.

00:34:17

I want you to hear the words of Isaiah

00:34:20

and maybe think just for a moment as you listen to these words,

00:34:23

what is the thing that you might be wanting a good ending for?

00:34:28

Isaiah 9 says this:

00:35:11

Not just Isaiah, but many prophets had words

00:35:15

that were very similar to this, where they started to say,

00:35:19

"There is a better ending for you.

00:35:22

A good ending is coming and it's going to come through a Good King."

00:35:26

And this good king was very specific.

00:35:29

Did you catch that?

00:35:30

It was going to be a king that came through the line of David,

00:35:34

the once great king of Israel.

00:35:36

So this was not like, "Oh, I hope God helps us."

00:35:40

This was like specific hope, clear

00:35:47

Absolutely they were waiting for a better ending.

00:35:50

And they were doing it through all kinds of difficulty,

00:35:53

all kinds of pain, all kinds of hardship.

00:35:56

And they were waiting for one king that they called the Messiah.

00:36:00

The Anointed One is what that means, the special one

00:36:04

with the special connection to God,

00:36:06

that even some of the prophets called the Son of God.

00:36:11

But by the time of Jesus, this hope was looking real far away.

00:36:17

Not only were most of them not in the land,

00:36:20

they weren't even a nation anymore.

00:36:21

They hadn't had a king for goodness knows how long.

00:36:24

And God had been practically silent for 400 years,

00:36:29

there had been no voice from any prophet.

00:36:32

And right in the middle of all that waiting there

00:36:38

was a special announcement from God.

00:36:41

In Luke 1 it says this:

00:37:06

Wait, did you hear that?

00:37:09

No, seriously.

00:37:10

I really want the weight of these words.

00:37:13

If you can imagine just for a moment what would this feel like

00:37:18

to hear this announcement of hope?

00:37:22

And it says:

00:38:15

If you were Mary, would you have heard the echoes of the prophets?

00:38:22

Would you have understood the language from Psalm 2,

00:38:25

Son of God, or the language from Isaiah about the King of David,

00:38:30

about the Anointed One that would reign

00:38:33

on David's throne forever in a kingdom that would have no end?

00:38:38

And when the angel said to her, "Name Him Jesus,"

00:38:42

Mary would have instantly understood that that name itself

00:38:48

meant the Salvation of Yahweh.

00:38:51

The rescue of the Lord.

00:38:55

Make no mistake, this announcement that God,

00:38:59

that came out of 400 years of silence

00:39:02

and 700 years of pain and waiting and difficulty,

00:39:06

it came very clearly.

00:39:10

And nine months later, again,

00:39:13

with the birth announcement in Luke 2, it says:

00:39:41

Make no mistake, this was God's announcement that hope was arriving,

00:39:47

and He was arriving in a little tiny package named Jesus.

00:39:52

When Mary was told to name her baby Jesus,

00:39:56

she would have instantly understood the name

00:40:00

that this baby was given actually means

00:40:03

the rescue of the Lord, the salvation of Yahweh.

00:40:08

This was the Messiah.

00:40:10

And with this king was coming the good ending that they wanted to be possible.

00:40:18

This is exactly what we need.

00:40:22

This truth that God would send Jesus down to earth

00:40:27

to come into a place of darkness,

00:40:29

to come into a place of difficulty right in the middle of waiting.

00:40:35

Maybe even when we stop believing a good ending

00:40:38

is even possible anymore,

00:40:41

this is the kind of God that we need.

00:40:42

I was thinking about where this need

00:40:45

has shown up in my life in the last year.

00:40:48

I can think of lots of times over lots of years

00:40:51

that I have needed God to show up in this way.

00:40:53

Like times where I go, "Where is my good ending?

00:40:56

Or is there any hope left in this for me?

00:40:59

Where is the God of Hope in this?"

00:41:04

And I was thinking the place that I've kind of struggled

00:41:07

and seen this over the last year or two

00:41:09

has most often been within my marriage.

00:41:11

We've been married this year for 20 years.

00:41:14

And I'm sure that I'm the only person in the room

00:41:17

that has any long standing relationship dynamics

00:41:21

with loved ones that are not always great.

00:41:26

We have one and it has not --

00:41:30

It has repeated itself in many different times,

00:41:33

in many different seasons.

00:41:35

And here's kind of how it goes.

00:41:36

We come into a time where our capacity is tested.

00:41:40

Like it's a time of busyness, maybe even some stress.

00:41:43

But definitely it's going to take kind of all we have

00:41:46

to do to pull it together and to get through this time.

00:41:49

Whether it's three days, three weeks or three months.

00:41:53

We've all kind of faced times like this.

00:41:55

The time we most need to be together

00:41:59

we have this tendency to kind of pull apart.

00:42:02

We have four kids, and it's kind of like when

00:42:07

all four of your kids come home and announce

00:42:09

they have a school project due for the 100th day of school.

00:42:12

And someone needs special macaroni for it.

00:42:15

So some things get added to my list.

00:42:17

And I was already in the middle of something for work.

00:42:20

And then my other kid walks in and says,

00:42:24

"Mom, look at this weird rash."

00:42:26

And then I arrange a doctor's appointment,

00:42:29

which pushes back 14 meetings the next day

00:42:31

when I'm supposed to be here working on heartfelt sermons

00:42:34

and writing articles and podcasts.

00:42:36

And I call my husband in the middle of the day

00:42:38

and I say, "I'm going to run late because I'm at the doctor."

00:42:40

And he says, OK, and we rearrange

00:42:43

around a basketball practice whose time got changed

00:42:46

in the middle of him trying to serve clients

00:42:48

and run a law firm.

00:42:49

And you get the idea.

00:42:53

A few days like that,

00:42:55

and we tend to take our lists and go at them separately.

00:42:59

And we kind of forget to take care of each other very well

00:43:03

in the middle of that sometimes.

00:43:06

And so sooner or later we do, one of these,

00:43:09

we're like, "Good night." "Good night."

00:43:13

And we sit about this far apart on the couch,

00:43:16

sort of even mentally checked out

00:43:18

during maybe the one 25 minute window we would have

00:43:21

to actually talk to each other after we said, "See at 10 p.m.".

00:43:26

And we do it all again the next day.

00:43:28

And earlier this year, we weren't far from this place in our relationship.

00:43:33

And I was even looking down the road to our anniversary trip,

00:43:37

which we actually just had, and thinking,

00:43:40

"Goodness, if this wall is up between us,

00:43:42

how fun is that really going to be?"

00:43:47

And we know that we struggle with that.

00:43:50

And yet it continues to occur.

00:43:54

It is not only not yet done, it is not good.

00:44:00

We want a better ending than that.

00:44:02

We want a God who will come in to that.

00:44:05

And I think sometimes in the past,

00:44:08

instead of inviting God into that place,

00:44:11

instead, we would go to some other places

00:44:13

for what I think kind of feels like hope, but it's not real hope.

00:44:18

We might go to someplace, I might do this first one,

00:44:21

maybe more than my husband.

00:44:22

And we might say something like, "It's all good.

00:44:25

It's all good.

00:44:26

Just go to a positive thinking.

00:44:28

I'm going to positive think my way out of this.

00:44:30

It's all good. It's going to end fine.

00:44:33

You know, it's all going to pass."

00:44:34

And kind of cheerful my way out of what actually

00:44:39

are not very good circumstances.

00:44:41

It doesn't really help to post a positive meme

00:44:45

on a day when you just kind of go,

00:44:48

"I don't think we've hugged each other in like six days."

00:44:52

No amount of positive thinking

00:44:54

is ever going to change the reality of that.

00:44:57

I love positive thinking.

00:44:58

I think I'm a positive person.

00:45:00

But also it kind of amounts to nothing.

00:45:07

There's no real object of that.

00:45:09

It's just trying to wish your way out

00:45:12

of something with positivity.

00:45:15

I'd rather be positive than negative,

00:45:17

but better than that, I'd rather have real hope.

00:45:22

Maybe that's not you.

00:45:23

Maybe you do what -- I can do this next one too.

00:45:27

Maybe you do this.

00:45:28

Maybe you don't say, "It's all good."

00:45:30

Maybe you say, "I got this.

00:45:32

I got this.

00:45:34

I'm gonna make a list.

00:45:35

I'm gonna do the bullet points.

00:45:37

I'm gonna make it happen.

00:45:38

If I'm not headed for a good ending, I'll just make it myself.

00:45:41

I have got this."

00:45:45

Again, maybe this would give us a few steps,

00:45:49

but is it going to produce the good ending that we're looking for?

00:45:53

Taking control, saying, "I got this.

00:45:56

I'm on it.

00:45:58

I know exactly what to do and where to go to get my good ending."

00:46:01

It actually is incredibly limited to me.

00:46:08

Whatever I can provide, whatever resources I have,

00:46:11

whatever wisdom I can muster, whatever positive thinking I have,

00:46:16

these are all things that only make a good ending from ourselves.

00:46:21

And the Christmas story says something else entirely.

00:46:27

The Christmas kind of hope,

00:46:29

the hope that arrived with Jesus actually says, "No, you can't.

00:46:34

You actually don't have any way to get there on your own.

00:46:39

But guess what? I am coming for you.

00:46:43

I'm going to come into the darkness, into the struggle,

00:46:46

into the difficulty with my kind of hope."

00:46:50

The only time that we've ever found traction

00:46:53

in our marriage out of these places

00:46:55

is when we started inviting God right into the middle of it.

00:46:59

Instead of saying it's all good or I got this or,

00:47:03

you know, trying to go at it any number of ways.

00:47:05

What if we just admitted where we were and invited God in?

00:47:13

When we started doing this, inexplicably, things started to change.

00:47:19

I don't know if this pattern will recur.

00:47:22

I pray and hope not.

00:47:23

But also what we've seen is

00:47:25

the more we invite God into these places of darkness

00:47:29

and silence and difficulty and struggle,

00:47:32

the more quickly we tend to come out of them.

00:47:35

The God of Hope seems to have resources we don't have

00:47:38

and wisdom we don't possess.

00:47:40

And He's able to shift hearts that we can't seem to move on our own.

00:47:44

And we just went on that 20th anniversary trip and it was awesome.

00:47:49

And all I know is I don't know how God will meet you

00:47:53

in the middle of your thing, of your struggle,

00:47:57

of your ongoing difficulty, of your pain or your darkness.

00:48:02

But I do know the beginning.

00:48:04

And the beginning is the same as ours.

00:48:06

It's saying, "God, this is my thing

00:48:11

and I want you in the middle of it."

00:48:14

It's as easy as starting to invite

00:48:17

the God of real hope into those places.

00:48:21

I actually wish I could give you a formula.

00:48:23

I really do.

00:48:24

Sometimes I think back on the ways that He has moved

00:48:27

and worked in my struggles

00:48:29

and I can't even quite put my finger on it.

00:48:31

Because He has an X factor of how He deals with us each in our own lives.

00:48:36

But I know the beginning is the same.

00:48:39

I know the beginning is us saying, "This is the thing.

00:48:43

And I'm gonna get honest about it

00:48:45

and I'm going to invite You right into the middle of it.

00:48:47

I want real hope."

00:48:51

As I've done this, I've learned three things about real hope.

00:48:54

And these are amazing pieces that we get

00:48:59

when we begin to understand the hope that arrived

00:49:03

with Jesus is real hope.

00:49:05

And the first of those is that:

00:49:19

We could make up our own.

00:49:21

We could give it a shot.

00:49:23

We could deny we even need it.

00:49:25

But Hebrews 10 says there's something else we could do.

00:49:28

It says:

00:49:38

God has promises.

00:49:40

He has promises for you, for your life, for me,

00:49:43

for my life, for all of us who want to be His people.

00:49:46

And better than empty optimism, we could know His promises

00:49:53

and wait for the Good King to bring the good ending.

00:49:57

More than counting on my own resources, next time,

00:50:00

instead of my bullet points, I could ask Him,

00:50:03

"Would You bring Your resources into this darkness, God?

00:50:06

Would you bring Your wisdom into my pain?"

00:50:14

He is the good ending and all the good endings come with Him.

00:50:20

The second thing about real hope is that:

00:50:28

Real hope feeds our ability to stay in the struggle.

00:50:32

I said I don't know whether my marriage will dip into that place.

00:50:36

I hope not. I pray not.

00:50:38

I believe it's possible it won't ever go back into that spot.

00:50:42

But if it does, I know that my hope will keep me in the struggle.

00:50:50

Because I know something about God.

00:50:53

I know that if it isn't good, then He isn't done.

00:50:59

If it isn't good yet, then God isn't done yet.

00:51:03

Good endings are all He knows how to bring about.

00:51:06

He came into our world to bring real hope.

00:51:10

And real hope is the possibility of a good ending.

00:51:15

All our God knows how to do is bring about a good ending.

00:51:19

And if it isn't good, then God isn't done.

00:51:22

Real hope always feeds, fuels us to stay in the struggle with Him.

00:51:30

And the last thing is that:.

00:51:36

I don't know if you know this or not, but Advent

00:51:38

was not originally only a celebration of the birth of Jesus.

00:51:44

It was a celebration of the birth of Jesus

00:51:47

and His coming again, His return.

00:51:52

If you listen to the Christmas carol called Joy to the World,

00:51:55

which we will, I'm sure, sing repeatedly through the Advent season.

00:51:59

You can even hear that and you can apply it to His second coming.

00:52:03

It was actually a carol that got written for the Second Coming,

00:52:07

the return of Jesus, the good ending that is promised.

00:52:13

Real hope always keeps its eyes on the end of the story,

00:52:18

because that is where our good endings are headed.

00:52:22

There wasn't just a baby born in a manger.

00:52:24

That baby grew up and lived a miraculous and perfect life.

00:52:28

And He was crucified on a Cross and put in a grave.

00:52:32

And He didn't stay there.

00:52:35

He rose back to life.

00:52:38

Listen to what Peter says our hope actually is.

00:52:43

1 Peter 1 says this:.

00:52:58

How am I so sure that a good ending is possible for you?

00:53:02

How am I so sure that God has one for you and He has one for me

00:53:06

and all the things that we invite him into,

00:53:08

His intention is to bring a good ending into our life for that thing?

00:53:14

It's kind of a scary thing to stand up here

00:53:17

and say that to many, many people

00:53:21

who have all kinds of different things that they would love hope for.

00:53:27

And the reason I can and the reason I know

00:53:30

is exactly what Peter says: Our hope is alive.

00:53:34

Our hope has been resurrected, literally, from the grave.

00:53:38

Our hope's name is Jesus and Jesus is alive and resurrected today.

00:53:43

That means anything is possible for you as well.

00:53:46

That means any resurrection is possible for me as well.

00:53:49

Do you need God to resurrect your relationship yet again?

00:53:53

Do you need Him to resurrect some body part that isn't working right?

00:53:57

What about some ongoing struggles that you have?

00:54:00

Whatever resurrection you need,

00:54:03

it is possible because our hope is alive, literally alive.

00:54:11

And one thing I know is if it's not good,

00:54:14

the thing that you're thinking, then God is not done.

00:54:20

There's an end to the story

00:54:21

and your good ending is with the Good King.

00:54:26

I want you to listen to this piece of an interview by a guy named --

00:54:30

It was a Vietnam prisoner of war.

00:54:33

His name is Admiral Jim Stockdale.

00:54:36

And he was kept prisoner of war for eight years.

00:54:40

He was tortured 28 times.

00:54:42

No rights, no release date, no guaranteed survival.

00:54:45

And when he was released, part of an interview

00:54:48

was captured with him in a book called Good to Great.

00:54:53

The interviewer said:

00:55:00

And he said this:

00:55:11

And the interviewer said:

00:55:43

Whatever your brutal facts are, whatever mine are,

00:55:50

real hope doesn't ask us to deny those.

00:55:54

It just asked us not to lose faith in the end of the story.

00:55:57

It asks us to believe that the Good King still brings good endings.

00:56:01

That your hope through that Good King is alive.

00:56:04

And that if it isn't good,

00:56:06

then your story isn't over and God isn't done.

00:56:11

I want you to take out that little piece of paper

00:56:14

that you were given when you walked in.

00:56:16

It looks like this.

00:56:18

If you are joining us online, any --

00:56:21

really any piece of paper will do.

00:56:23

This one you can collect four weeks of advent

00:56:27

and you will actually end up with an advent wreath of your own

00:56:30

if you join us every week.

00:56:32

And this week's says Hope.

00:56:34

And as we celebrate hope, what I want you to do

00:56:36

is I want you to turn that card over.

00:56:40

Because I want you to write something on the back.

00:56:45

I want you to write on the back just a word or two,

00:56:49

a word or a phrase that represents for you

00:56:52

that place where maybe you've stopped believing

00:56:55

that a good ending is possible.

00:57:00

Maybe you've run out of hope.

00:57:05

And that's the place I want you to bring to the Good King.

00:57:11

I want you underneath that to write the words of Psalm 39:7.

00:57:18

Psalm 39:7 says:.

00:57:31

You could even write just the words, "My hope is set on you."

00:57:40

When Jesus came into this world, God announced,

00:57:46

"This is the Good King who makes good endings possible."

00:57:52

Let me pray for yours.

00:57:55

Father, we trust You as the bringer of hope.

00:58:00

And I know that every single thing that was written

00:58:02

or thought in the last minute or so,

00:58:05

you already know how You're going to bring a good ending.

00:58:10

We ask that You would hear that

00:58:12

and that You would do that in our own lives.

00:58:15

And it's in the name of Jesus I ask for this.

00:58:18

Amen.

00:58:21

We're going to light the candle of hope together now.

00:58:27

And as we do this, I really want you to just have in your heart

00:58:32

and in your mind the thing that you wrote down.

00:58:36

Because my prayer for us through the Advent season is that somehow,

00:58:41

some way God would kind of relight that flame.

00:58:44

That something would burn in you that believes

00:58:47

a good ending is possible where there just wasn't an hour ago.

00:58:52

Let's light the candle of hope.

00:59:11

I want to invite you right now

00:59:13

just to stand up with us one last time.

00:59:15

We're just going to sing a few words together

00:59:18

to help that kind of sink in as deep as it can go right now.

00:59:26

Father, make us the people of hope.

00:59:30

Light the flame of hope in our heart

00:59:32

this Advent season like it never has before.

00:59:36

Help us to trust Your Son, the Good King,

00:59:41

for our good ending.

00:59:43

Amen.

00:59:46

- I hope that you're enjoying this series so far.

00:59:49

Share it with a friend

00:59:50

and download the Crossroads app if you don't have it already.

00:59:53

All kinds of good stuff in there for you

00:59:55

to experience Christmas and experience God all week long.

00:59:58

We'll see you next week.

	Worship	5:02
	Community Life	21:28
	Message	24:08

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